We've actually designed a barcode driven system that tracks usage with
in-house circulation statistics. Our method is slightly cumbersome, but it
does work. Each of our bound titles has a barcode, and we recycled our
lovely Kardex cards and placed barcodes on the back of them for our current
issues, microfiche, microfilm, and newspapers. Some of these extra barcodes
are shadowed so patrons do not see the tracking item when searching the
catalog. When the items are used, our student assistants scan the barcodes
to enter the item as used in-house before returning the volume to the shelf.

We run a report each month and enter the tallies in an Excel spreadsheet,
compiling numbers every three months. As Carol said, we also have signs up
for patrons not to reshelve, but it happens. What's important to us is the
general idea of how things are used, supplemented by external factors (i.e.
layers of dust on volumes) ;)

Rienne Johnson
Library Associate - Serials/Processing
Reinert/Alumni Memorial Library
2500 California Plaza
Omaha, NE 68178

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Carol Morse
Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2004 11:55 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] How do you measure Serials Usage at your Library?

We use the low-tech way of putting slashes in a 3-ring binder notebook
printout of our titles, and count them at the end of the quarter. It's less
complicated than using a barcode solution. We are a medium-sized institution
with less than 2000 fte. I doubt if that would work for a large university.
The info is invaluable. We put signs up for patrons not to reshelve, but of
course some do. I t give an idea anyway.
Carol Morse

********************************************

Address:
Walla Walla College Library
Periodicals Dept.
104 S. College Ave.
College Place, WA  99324-1159

Carol Morse
Serials Librarian morsca@wwc.edu
509) 527-2684; fax 509) 527-2001
*********************************************

>>> ipsilion@MAC.COM 12/6/2004 12:18:02 PM >>>
Hello All,

I'm the Evening/Serials Assistant at Bennington College, and a student at
Simmons College (where I'm getting my MLIS).  As part of my coursework at
Simmons, and because it's of interest considering my position at Bennington,
I've been studying Serials Usage studies.
Currently I'm working on a Research Proposal on this topic - which I'm
hoping to implement at Bennington if possible, as we currently do not have a
method of measuring Serials Use.  As you can imagine, I've done quite a lot
of research on the topic - but I'd be interested to hear if/how other
libraries address the issue of measuring Serials Use - particularly in
libraries that have a non-circulating collection.

Thanks for your input!

Best Regards,

Christina J. Jedziniak
Evening Serials Assistant
Bennington College