----------(1)
Date:         Tue, 25 Feb 1997 09:17:00 -0600
From: Dena Lahue <dlahue@FAULKNER.EDU>
Subject:      JOURNAL USAGE (Linden Sweeney)

======== Original Message ========
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 1997 14:43:05 UT
From: jonathan sweeney <JONATHANSWEENEY@MSN.COM>
Subject: JOURNAL USAGE

Hi, I am currently studying for a Masters degree in Librarianship, in the
UK. I am interested to hear from anyone who has come up with a reliable
method of measuring the in-house use of journals in academic libraries.
Even if your methods are not that reliable I would still like to hear
about the various methods that are used in the US and the flaws there may
be or may not be in your methods.

Thanks Linden Sweeney , Liverpool John Moores University.
======== Fwd by: Dena Lahue ========
Linden, that is a hard one to measure.  I currently have one statistics form
to record all bound serials that are used in-house which my work-study
students shelve.  Then there's a seperate form to record microfiche,
newspapers, and other items which are used in our serials office.  It's
difficult to get an accurate picture of what is used in-house since patrons
more often than not will reshelve materials rather than placing them on the
book trucks as asked.  Good luck with your research.

Dena Lahue
Public Services Librarian
Faulkner University
Gus Nichols Library
Montgomery, AL

----------(2)
Date:         Tue, 25 Feb 1997 11:13:35 -0500
From: Steve Black <blacks@ROSNET.STROSE.EDU>
Subject:      Re: JOURNAL USAGE (Linden Sweeney)

Linden,

We just completed a one-year use study of our collection of approximately
1040 journals.  The method we used was to mark dots on shelf labels to
record each time a journal was reshelved.  We did one dot to the left for
pre-1990, a dot to the right of the title for 1990- .  The pre- and
post-1990 data were collected primarily for decisions related to remote
storage (remote for us being a basement room that was designed by the
makers of the movie "Brazil" ;-) ).

Given the limitation that we had to do our study within our regular budget
and regular working hours, I feel confident that our study is valid for
*relative* use of journals.  Of course our study had all the drawbacks of
any study that relies on reshelving.  The reports I sent to department
heads emphasized that the cost-per-use data were not absolute.  But taken
as a whole, I think the numbers we got were pretty good, and are one
important tool in our collection development efforts.

The big advantage of labels on the shelf vs. labels on the volumes is
speed of marking and recording, and the fact that the volumes don't have
to be stickered or marked up.  The downside was less detailed data.  But
it gave me enough data to calculate an estimated cost per use for each
title. Perhaps more importantly, it identified journals with zero measured
uses in a full calendar year.

************************************************************************
Steve Black
Reference, Serials and Instruction Librarian
Neil Hellman Library
The College of Saint Rose
Albany, NY  12203                                  "Cogito eggo sum"
blacks@rosnet.strose.edu                     (I think, therefore I waffle)

----------(3)
Date:         Tue, 25 Feb 1997 12:59:20 EST
From: Marjorie Freeman <mmf@LEO.LION.EDU>
Subject:      Re: JOURNAL USAGE (Linden Sweeney)

In response to Linden Sweeny's request for journal use statistics, here
is what we are currently doing.

1. we barcode all issues of all serials, both individual issues and bound vols.

2. we assign different collection codes to the current and the bound journals

3. we posted signs asking people to not reshelve journals and we placed
book trucks at convient locations so that journals that have been used
can be placed on the trucks (trolleys in the terminalogy of some of our
international firends)

4. once an hour a student assistant gathers up all of the unshelved
journals and takes them to our circulation desk and "checks them in" using
an option in our software that produces an in-house use count. The student
then shelves the jouornals.

5. we can produce reports from our system as to the use over a specific
period and can divide that by whether it was the current version or the
bound vols. that had been used and how frequently.  If we want we can
even tell how many times an individual issue was used.

6. I reset the counts once a year so we can tell if there is a change in
a title's use after 12 months have passed.

This has resulted in the discontinuation of some subscriptions when the
use was very low.  We did find that some titles were not used very much
when they were first published but after they had been indexed their use
went up - this was verified by the fact that in some cases it was the bound
version that showed use and not the current issues.

Barcoding all of the back issues and bound vols. was a bit of a chore
but we are happy with the results.

Oh, I forgot about microformats.  I have produced an alphabetical list
of the titles available in micro format and the student just puts a mark
on the list before reshelving the fiche or film.  There is just no way
to barcode fiche effectively.

Marge Freeman
System Administrator
LION Consortium of Virginia
mmf@leo.lion.edu