The following is being forwarded from my readerlist file, at the request
of Tjalda Belastock, Associate Director, Baker Library, Bentley College,
Waltham, Mass. 02154.  BITNET Address:  TBELASTO@BENTLEY
                                                  --  Birdie
------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------------

              SERIALS USE STUDY AT BENTLEY COLLEGE
                       BY Tjalda Belastock
                   Associate Library Director
                     Bentley College Library

This is a brief outline of how we do it:

We have closed periodical stacks (1300+ active periodical subscriptions), and ba
rcode each individual issue of a periodical as it comes in. We then check out th
e individual issues through a periodicals service desk. Issues are checked out f
or in-library use only (except for faculty, who can take them out), for a 2-hour
 period, just like for our Reserves. Our Dynix online system counts each circula
tion, and it is then a simple matter to run reports counting usage, by semester,
 by title, by subject/department, or whatever fields you decided initially (when
 you set up the format for the Bib and Holdings records for each title) you need
ed to be able to search by. In our case, I gave each periodical title bib record
 several subject headings to allow for future reports by subject. I also have a
field for local information as to routing, etc., and a field for frequency. Plea
se note that we do NOT have a Serials check-in module on our system (Dynix offer
s one, but we manage quite well without).

Note that this system is only for periodicals, not newspapers, and not for refer
ence serials. If anyone has come up with a way to count reference serials use, I
 would love to hear it!