Collection Management@Emory  

You may or may not have heard, but Taylor and Francis (and its associated publishers, Routledge, Bentham Science Publishers, Karger AG) have removed content from EBSCO databases. There are a wide variety of titles here across most disciplines.

This is a spreadsheet (list) of these journal titles removed from EBSCO.  I have annotated it to show where we have lost e-content.  Note that in not insignificant number of cases, we already have licensed content to the journal directly with Taylor and Francis, but we did lose e-content in a good number of cases (albeit embargoed).  Note that I did not check on print coverage for these journals, so it may be the case that there are some current print subscriptions.

Woodruff Library is a participant in ASERL’s Cooperative Journal Retention Program.

ASERL (Association of Southeastern Research Libraries) has recently approved the ASERL Collaborative Journal Retention Program Agreement as a means of optimizing collection management across the consortium.  The  retention program agreement is in effect through December 31, 2035. A group of 24 ASERL libraries (and counting) are retaining titles under this agreement.  A read-only copy of the current working title list for those libraries (Excel spreadsheet) is named ASERL-Working-list_updated_2013_01_14) and is available for download here.

Woodruff Library’s current working title list (Google spreadsheet) is named Woodruff ASERL Journal Retention, and is available for viewing here.

 If you would like to suggest corrections and/or additions to Woodruff Library’s working title list, please e-mail Steve Johnson (sjohns9@emory.edu).

Building library collections that are tailored to the needs of particular departments or programs can be enhanced by knowing how frequently existing resources are used. As one method of assessing the use of our library’s book collection, we examined number of loans for print and e-books across all subject areas during a three-year period to identify the subject areas of books that were loaned most or least frequently. Analyses were performed for both approval plan purchases and firm orders from Yankee Book Peddler. By matching up circulation data with publisher and series information for each book title, we were able to progressively narrow our analyses and ultimately reveal specific subject areas and publishers for which purchasing decisions could potentially be modified. We will present the results of our analysis, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this approach, and consider how variations in the patterns of use across different subject areas might impact collection development decisions. Our data-driven approach may inform collection development strategies and increase the likelihood that library budgets are spent on resources that most closely align with demand by students and faculty. 

Caveats:

• Some ISBNs can not be matched due to missing data in the catalog records
• ISBNs are not included for added volumes in standing orders.
• There are still a few glitches in terms of the script matching the ISBN correctly.
• There are missing records in the enhanced record file from YBP so there may be some discrepancies in terms of percentages of items loaned, publishers with no circulations or use.
• The data below focuses specifically on 2010 firm orders and approval titles received.
• The next phase will be to study 2009 activity (Summer 2013).