Periodicals Collection Management: Organizing, Creating and Maintaining a System

1. Periodicals Collection Management:Organizing, Creating and Maintaining a System Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians Louisville, Kentucky May 12-14, 2004 Paul Bazin Janice Schuster Providence College

2. Overview • Environment • Providence College • Phillips Memorial Library • Database • Planning • Creating • Maintaining • Using • Security • Future Plans

3. Environment: Providence College • Primarily undergraduate, liberal arts, Catholic institution • Variety of opportunities for intellectual, social, moral and spiritual growth in a supportive environment • Medium sized - Over 4,200 FTE students • Ranked 2nd overall in North Region for the eighth consecutive year • Ranked 2nd nationally in average graduation rate

4. Environment:Phillips Memorial Library • Provides the resources and services needed to foster academic excellence in the Providence College community without compromising freedom of access or intellectual inquiry • 350,000 books and bound periodical volumes • 1,650 current print periodical subscriptions • Innovative Interfaces, Inc. system • Wireless Internet access

5. Database: Planning • Background • Purpose • Strategy • Chose Microsoft Access • Microsoft Access Capabilities • Data

6. Database: Planning Background • The planning process for library renovations created the need for a comprehensive inventory of the periodicals collection

7. Database: Planning Purpose • Compile data about the periodicals collection in one place • Incorporate existing data and data derived from physically checking the shelves • Use in making managerial decisions about the collection

8. Database: Planning • Incorporated feedback of periodicals staff and reference librarians • Drafted list of required data, based on anticipated uses of the database Strategy

9. Database: Planning Chose Microsoft Access • Reasons • Ability to organize large quantities of information in one database • Flexibility in setting up data fields • Quick, easy data sorting • Simplified data input and output • Safety features • Ease of generating statistics and other reports

10. Database: Planning Microsoft Access Capabilities • Data • Creating Forms • Sorting • Querying • Organizing: Easy to organize and create relationships among data • Information • Reporting • Generating Statistics • Organizing

11. Database: Planning Data • Chose all data fields at the beginning - difficult to add or remove fields later • Example: Elimination of storage designation • Chose data to include based on input from periodicals staff and reference librarians

12. Database: Creating Collection • Checked existing data against what was physically on the shelf • Time-consuming • Vital for accuracy • Data Collection sheets • Grouped by type of information • Existing information compared to actual holdings

13. Database: Security • Security • Password Protected – individual user accounts • Only certain library staff members need to be able to use it • Users belong to a “class” • Log of last user and last modification to a record

14. Database: Creating • Basic Structure – one main table • Merged data from EBSCO subscription information and Innovative serials module into Access • Modified the data based on the physical inventory for high degree of accuracy • Input new information collected during inventory

15. Database: Maintaining • Reasons for Updating • Procedure for Updating

16. Database: Maintaining Reasons for Updating • Reasons: • Additions, deletions and changes in subscriptions • Discrepancies

17. Database: Maintaining Procedure for Updating • Create printed forms to use for updating • Fill out forms with data to update • Assign one person to do the updating • Forms in the database only accessible to admin users

18. Database: Using • Standardized reports • Complex reports • Customized Reporting • Statistics: Easy generation

19. Database: Using • Standardized reports • Statistics • Memberships • Newspapers • Usage • Category • Online Availability

20. Database: Using • Complex reports: Quick generation • Example: Current titles in Hegis 9, 10 or 25 included in JSTOR Data Query Report

21. Database: Using • Customized reporting • Examples • Periodicals integration • Division of periodicals into 3 locations • Department recommendations regarding which current titles to display

22. Database: Using • Statistics: Easy generation

23. Database: Future Plans • Compatible with other systems, ability to integrate • Possibility of publishing to the Web

24. Acknowledgement • We would like to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Dayna Mancini, Providence College Class of 2004. Because of her understanding, creativity, enthusiasm, and energy, the project has a depth and clarity that otherwise would not have been possible.

25. Contact Information Janice SchusterCoordinator of Reference Services and Reference LibrarianPhillips Memorial LibraryProvidence CollegeProvidence, RI 02918-0001401-865-2631401-865-1630 faxjschustr@providence.edu Paul BazinPeriodicals LibrarianPhillips Memorial LibraryProvidence CollegeProvidence, RI 02918-0001401-865-2592401-865-2823 faxpbazin@providence.edu