Using data to fill an “ARC” Cora Gleeson University of Limerick Due to historical reasons the Glucksman Library has been fortunate to have a significant bookfund. To put this in context we place 20,000+ orders on an annual basis. All orders have until recently been copy-catalogued and had class numbers and suffixes assigned in-house

ARC Automated Reserve Collection: automated storage retrieval system 1 crane, 3789 bins – c. 500,000 items Increase storage Downsize shelving Enhance student spaces Return offsite material A number of major library projects required the use of library collection data

Background Print Book Collection Review Project ARC Implementation Project Library Re-sequencing Project A number of major library projects required the use of library collection data

Print Book Collection Review Project Objective Ensure that the Glucksman Library print book collection is vital, useful and relevant to current teaching and curricular needs Outcomes Listing of material in stock in each of the subject areas to aid ongoing retention and de-selection decisions Collection management processes established across library departments Data-driven future collection management decisions Establish standards for retention and deselection Print Book Collection Review initiated in 2015 with the following objectives and outcome. Other, more far reaching outcomes included the establishment of formal collection management processes across library departments. Provision of datasets of library material in each subject area. The inclusion of data in future collection management decision and the establishments of standards – which we’d never done.

Print Book Collection Review Project Creating a Dataset Data Extraction Parameters All Monographs Out of Scope for the Project: Periodicals E-books Recent Acquisitions Material in special sequences: HSM, Tourism, Law Reference Special Collections The sheer volume of titles we were hoping to cover meant that we couldn’t use the existing management information tool. Instead we had to work with the LMS supplier to write a script to extract the data we wanted. We had to establish project parameters: all monographs with particular emphasis on multiple copies, previous editions of titles already in stock. Not included; periodicals, e-books and comparisions with ebooks, newly purchased titles and titles in specially designated sequences.

What Data? Data extraction from LMS – SQL and Spreadsheets 310,000 items in stock Bibliographic details – title, author, publisher Usage: no of loans, renewals Newer editions, other copies Review and verify the data At the time we were working with Capita as our LMS suppliers. I was lucky in one sense as I had a knowledge of our database architecture and in particular SQL. Formulate the SQL query with Capita programmers. Even with this our initial Capita file has over 330.000 lines. Limited in what we could do

Data Verification and Quality Shelf read of main library and store in stock items Verify data on system vs actual physical item Correct data – call numbers, volumes Understand the data: last transaction date was not last loan date number of loans included renewals Second extraction of data Multiple copies of textbooks deselected in addition to some copies of previous editions of books Missing items list updated and analysed To ensure the quality of the data we did a shelf read of the library stock in main shelves and in the store There were some problems with the data which was corrected –display of volumes and shelf numbers Noted that the last transaction date was not the last loan date but were unable to change this

ARC Implementation Project Objective To plan and implement the Automated Storage Retrieval System in the new Library building. Re-purpose data from the Print Book Collection Project Lesser-used items New LSP – Alma – merge new data with old Initial load 0 loans “in the library” more than 15 years: 10,000 items Second load – 10 or less loans, in the library more than 10 years: 30,000+

Library Re-Sequencing Project Objective To enable a straight Dewey sequence for material shelved in the existing library Law and Medicine moved to the new library building Shelf count to determine number of books on the shelves in the existing building – 30 books per shelf! Scenario planning using repurposed datasets to determine how many items to remove to enable a straight sequence Create a new dataset of Alma and Alto usage data to inform future decisions on sequences

For the Future THANK YOU Continued use of datasets to inform collection development policies Identify gaps in the collection using approval plans to purchase updated and newly published material in specific areas Update Medical Collection The ARC in action: https://vimeo.com/294407841/06398072a9 THANK YOU Commitment to improving and developing services.