We also ask patrons not to re-shelve materials and have just this year begun collecting in-house use stats by scanning barcodes on items. We don't barcode periodicals/journals individually either, and since we no longer bind them, a project was recently undertaken to place loose journals into periodical boxes, and give those boxes item records and barcodes. Each box is labeled according to which volume(s) of the title it contains. For in-house use purposes, when staff re-shelve an individual journal, they use a mobile barcode reader to scan the barcode of the box the issue belongs in.

Admittedly, our journal collection is probably significantly smaller than an academic library would have and has a much lower rate of use, but so far, the system seems to be working for us.

Amanda K. Quist
Acquisitions Librarian
San Diego County Public Law Library
1105 Front Street
San Diego, CA 92101
619-685-6577
aquist at sdcpll dot org

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Rochelle Van Erem
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 11:29 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] Tracking usage of non-circulating periodicals

        At my institution, we do not circulate our journals and they are not
        barcoded. Could someone provide some ways to track usage?
        We are considering the idea of wrapping them in paper and then
        counting
        broken seals at a later date; has anyone tried that method?

        It sounds messy. Could someone suggest something better?

        Thanks,

        Rochelle Van Erem
        Serials
        St. Norbert College Library
        100 Grant Street
        De Pere, WI 54115 USA
        phone (920) 403-3270
        fax (920) 403-4079

--

Thanks,

Rochelle Van Erem
Serials Specialist
St. Norbert College Library
100 Grant Street
De Pere, WI  54115 USA
phone (920) 403-3270
fax (920) 403-4079