Statistics (was: Re: Subscriptions added/cancelled) Daniel Jones 03 Nov 1998 19:01 UTC
---------- Forwarded message ---------- I am not sure what statistics you are trying to report, but I suggest you consider distinguishing between ACQUISITIONS statistics and COLLECTION statistics. Subscriptions are an ACQUISITIONS function, and I assume you want to report these. In my experience I had to report ACTIVE titles and INACTIVE titles as COLLECTION STATISTICS, and CURRENT SUBSCRIPTIONS as ACQUISITIONS STATISTICS. As you know, serials change every day, so you probably want to select a date to prepare your statistics and do this at the same time each year. When I did this for a medical library in Texas, we compiled our report on the last day of the fiscal year and reported it as of that date each year. The totals do not always agree. I have also included some comments in your text at *** below: TITLES [not subscriptions, because you could have multiple subscriptions to the same title] This provides a sense of the strength of the collection. Active titles - basically these are open bibliographic records, eg. 1975-, vol. 1- . Inactive Titles - These are closed bibliographic records, eg., 1975-1998, vol. 1-25. This would include title changes and ceased publications. In the medical library where I worked we typically reported 1800 ACTIVE titles and 3500 INACTIVE titles. SUBSCRIPTIONS Current - the total number of subscriptions, counting each copy subscribed to. In the medical library where I worked, we typically reported 2100 current subscriptions, because we had some duplicate subscriptions. I never actually reported cancellations as a category, and when I tried to figure this out it sometimes was complicated. The year-to-year change in the number of SUBSCRIPTIONS will reflect the cancellations and other changes in number of subscriptions that are caused by ceased publications, splits and mergers. You could do a separate report on CANCELLATIONS giving both TITLES and SUBSCRIPTIONS, but it would probably be more balanced to prepare an ACQUISITIONS report on ORDER/CANCELLATION activity showing SERIALS ACQUISITIONS activity: ORDERS Titles - include new orders, not title changes Subscriptions CANCELLATIONS Titles - do not include cessations or title changes Subscriptions Danny Jones Director of Research and Development for North America HARRASSOWITZ 820 University Blvd. South, Suite 4B Mobile, AL 36609 800/348-6886 (voice) 334/342-5732 (fax) <djones@ottosvc.com> ------------------ Original message ------------------ I am trying to finalise the criteria to use in order to generate accurate statistical reports on subscriptions added or cancelled, but had some problems with regards to bibliographic changes. If it is a new title and new subscription, then no problem, I would count it as one new subscription. If a titled ceased publication, then no problem, I can count it as one subscription cancelled. ***"Cancellation" is an acquistion decision the library makes, "ceased publication" is a decision the publisher makes and is not an acquisition decision. I would not consider a ceased publication as a cancellation. However, a) if Title A for which you had been subscribing to now becomes Title B, how do you count this? Do you count iit as one cancellation and one new subscription? b) what about titles which merged, split etc? I would love to hear from those who have been involved in the preparation of reports in this area. Many thanks in advance. Ean Mrs Lee Cheng Ean Head, Serials ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Technical Services Division, Central Library, National University of Singapore, 89 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119275 Email: clbleece@nus.sg Tel: (65) 8742035 Fax: (65) 7747180 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~