Title

Alternatives to the Shelflist Measure for Determining the Size of a Subject Collection

Date of this Version

January 1981

Document Type

Article

Published in:

Library Research; an International Journal 3(Winter 1981): 383-91.

Abstract

The adequacy of the shelflist count for estimating the size of a library’s holdings in a discipline was tested by determining the percentage of titles in five disciplines which were classified in Dewey or LC classes reflecting those disciplines. For some disciplines, the percentage of titles which were not classified in the relevant class letters or numbers ran as high as 70 and 80 percent. Two methods for correcting inaccurate shelflist counts are presented.