Inventory (2 messages) SERIALST Moderator 24 May 2005 22:26 UTC
2 messages: (1)------------------- Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 15:29:48 -0400 From: Linda Grooms <lgrooms@stetson.edu> Subject: RE: [SERIALST] Inventory We have an Access table that shows all of our physical holdings. One of the many ways we use it is to create shelf-reading reports for our student assistants. Our assistants are each responsible for a section of our collection and are issued reports that tell them exactly what they should see on the shelf. One of their responsibilities is to make a dated note on their shelf-reading report of any discrepancy. Many times something missing today returns tomorrow, so the note can be removed. At the end of each semester, I collect all of the reports and check any notes still active to see if our holdings need to be updated. This serves as a continuing inventory. It also give me a way to check of the assistant's work :} Linda Grooms Periodicals Supervisor duPont-Ball Library Stetson University -----Original Message----- From: Jean Shankle [mailto:jshankle@PCCI.EDU] Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 1:30 PM To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: [SERIALST] Inventory Do many of you do inventory of your periodical collection? How do you do it? I am specifically interested in knowing how those of you whose issues are not bar coded, do it. Do you have a special program that helps you with it? Or have an of you set up something yourselves on Access? We have done inventory in the past, but it is comparable to climbing Mount Everest. Thank you for any advice you can offer. Jean ############################ Miss Jean Shankle Periodical Librarian jshankle@pcci.edu Pensacola Christian College Library Box 18000 Pensacola, FL 32523 (2)------------------ Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 15:10:20 -0500 From: "Lafferty, Cindy" <CLafferty@sf.edu> Subject: RE: [SERIALST] Inventory Our periodicals are not barcoded and we do inventory every few years. Mount Everest is a good comparison! It is not my idea of a fun time. Information gathered from the inventory was previously entered into a spreadsheet but next time I will try to set up something with Access. I have only done one inventory since I began working with the serials. The previous person had warned me about using work study students to actually do the physical inventory (go to the stacks, write down what is there) but it was such a daunting task that I didn't see how I could do it without lots of students helping. She was right though. There were too many mistakes, things were not recorded in a consistent format (despite explaining several times), half the time I could barely read their handwriting and then the work study who entered the information made numerous mistakes and typos. It was a mess, to say the least. I would be interested in what others have to say, so if someone emails you directly would you please summarize for the list? If someone out there has a magic method for dealing with this I would love to know what it is! Cindy Lafferty Librarian Assistant University of Saint Francis