Re: Print Journal Usage Lanell Rabner 01 May 2004 13:06 UTC

All of our non-circulating periodicals are located in our Periodicals
reading room, with unbound sitting beside bound issues.  We've assigned
dummy barcodes to each individual title and posted that barcode, along
with the call number and title on the shelf, under each run.  Every day
student employees use palm pilot scanners to scan the barcodes as they
reshelf.  This data is uploaded into an SQL database on a monthly basis.
Our SQL database contains basic information about each title - title,
call number, fund code, subscription status, price and any relevant
notes.  That database is tied to our ILS with the match point being the
journal title control number.  That way we can pull renewal prices
directly from the ILS every year.

We've been using this system since 1999 and have over 25,000 titles
listed.  We're able to track cost-per-use for each title on a monthly,
yearly and cumulative basis.  It has provided us with some excellent
hard data that has made cancellations, although always painful, much
easier.

This year we added almost 5,000 electronic titles to our database and
will now begin to track the impact of the electronic on the print and
thus make even better decisions regarding these resources.

Lanell Rabner

Electronic Licensing and Resources Coordinator

Brigham Young University

2129 HBLL

Provo, Utah 84602

801-422-8655

lanell_rabner@byu.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Rachel Ellis
Sent: Friday, April 30, 2004 2:44 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] Print Journal Usage

Dear all,

at the moment we are considering how to measure the usage of our print

journal collection. We have a journal reading room here for the current

issues - one part of the room is presented subject focussed and is

freely accessible by our patrons. The remaining journals are in the back

of the room and the issues wanted have to be fetched by the enquiry

staff located in the reading room. Now I was wondering if anyone of you

has experiences with print journal usage analysis and is willing to

share this with us?

Thanks for your help in advance and best wishes from sunny Bremen
(Germany)!

Rachel

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Rachel Ellis

Electronic Resources Librarian

Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Bremen

Postfach 33 01 60

28331 Bremen

Germany

Tel: (0049)421-218-4902

Fax: (0049)421-218-2665

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