How to use Innopac Web OPAC to facilitate selection, ordering and collection assessment functions : the HKBU Library experience LI Yiu On Assistant Librarian (Systems) Hong Kong Baptist University Library Second Annual Hong Kong INNOPAC User Group Meeting 10 December, 2001 Chinese University of Hong Kong Revised: 15 Dec., 2001

2 Outlines I. Introduction II. Traditional Acquisitions Work Flow III. A New Automatic and Systematic Approach for New Book Selection and Ordering IV. Automatic Collection Assessing Function

I. Introduction

4 Our Project Aim ä Routine Acquisitions Works -- reviewing/selecting new items, checking duplicates against OPAC, keying in new records to library system ä Existing Traditional Approach – manual, unorganized, repetitive data inputting ä Our Aim -- to advocate a new automatic and systematic approach to replace the existing traditional manual approach

II. Traditional Acquisitions Work Flow

6 3 main acquisitions process Reviewing / Selecting Checking duplicates Keying in new records Selectors Acquisitions staff

7 Reviewing & selecting (1) 1. Selectors  in HKBU, selectors comprised a team of 40 faculty members from various departments/programs  they are responsible to review and select items from the new title lists supplied by book vendors

8 Reviewing & selecting (2) 2. New titles lists in printed fromat  two major book vendors:  English books --> YBP: approval slips  Chinese books --> Man Sing ( 文星 ): Excel file  YBP approval slips are arranged by department/program fund codes  Man Sing title lists are arranged by broad subject areas  supplied monthly

9 Reviewing & selecting (3) ä Problems of routing approval slips and title lists ä a long routing time before returning Acquisition for ordering ä some lists are missing in the process of routing ä department/program based routing process is problematic and unsatisfactory when interdisciplinary titles are involved

10 Reviewing & selecting (4) ä Some common questions asked in the selection process ä How many books are written by the author under review? ä How many books in this series have already been acquired by the library ? ä How many books of the same subject area are acquired? ä Where can find an answer to the above questions ä Check OPAC

11 Checking Duplicates ä Selected lists return to Acquisitions section ä Before placing order, Acquisitions staff are responsible for removing duplicate items from selected list by checking against OPAC

12 Keying in New Order Records ä After all duplicate items are removed, Acquisitions staff are responsible for keying in new bibliographic and order records to Innopac system (OPAC) ä Input data include: ä bibliographic data in vendor supplied new list and; ä Selector’s name, and dept fund code

13 Center of 3 main acquisitions process ä If we study the 3 main acquisitions process carefully: ä Selecting and review ä Check duplicates ä Keying in new bib and order records ä we will discover that OPAC is the center of these activities ä However, these 3 activities in the traditional approach are isolated and cannot establish an organic relationship among them and OPAC

OPAC Reviewing & Selecting Checking duplicates Keying new bib & order records

15 Basic characteristics of traditional acquisitions workflow (1) ä Manual ä routing new title list ä data inputting

16 Basic characteristics of traditional acquisitions workflow (2) ä Inorganic and redundant data ä each process is individual and discontinued ä data entered in one process cannot be used by the following process ä selectors have to key in OPAC author/title searching for collection assessment ä acquisition staff have to key in bibliographic data for duplicate checking ä acquisition staff have to key in selector’s name and fund in the order record

17 Disadvantages of traditional acquisitions workflow ä Slow ä new title list routing ä manual data inputting ä Repetitive data input ä data inconsistencies --> inaccurate ä waste manpower and time

III. A New Automatic and Systematic Approach to New Book Selection and Ordering

19 New acquisitions process in new approach Reviewing / Selecting Checking duplicates Keying in new records Online Selection From Automatic duplicate checking program Automatic MARC conversion program

20 System Requirements ä Software ä Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP) ä Microsoft Visual FoxPro ä Hardware ä Windows NT Server

21 Online Selection Form (1) ä Book lists at this stage include YBP approval slips and Man Sing title list ä Contains two rounds ä first round by dept/program fund codes posted for two weeks ä unselected items go to second round for multi-disciplinary or inter-disciplinary selection

22 Online Selection Form (2) ä Dynamic relationship with OPAC (see Selection Questions)Selection Questions ä A selector has the capability of checking a particular title, through HTML links, against the OPAC in the following fields: author, title, series, DDC, ISBN, and subject headings ä The interface thus assists the selectors in developing a heuristic awareness of the Library’s collection

24 Automatic Duplicate Checking Program (1) ä Preliminary selected list is saved on a file ä This file is automatically checked against OPAC by the ASP program on two fields ä ISBN ä author-title keyword searching

25 Automatic Duplicate Checking Program (2) ä For example: a book entitled Art Across Time by Laurie Schneider Adams with ISBN ä Through the ASP program, the following two links are generated: ä ä aurie+Schneider+and+ti%3AArt+Across+Time+&searchsc ope=5&SORT=D&l=&m=&p=&b=&Da=&Db=

26 Automatic Duplicate Checking Program (3) ä The ASP program will check the returned Web OPAC HTML page ä Identify as non-duplicate item if the returned HTML page contains ä “NO ENTRY FOUND” for author-title keyword searching ä “NO MATCHES FOUND” for ISBN searching

29 Automatic MARC Conversion Program ä Duplicate records are deleted from the preliminary list ä Selected titles are automatically converted to create MARC format bibliographic and order records and uploaded to Innopac system directly ä Note: all the bib and order record data are either supplied by book vendors or keying in by the selectors. Acquisition staff are exempted from heavy burden of creating new bib and order records

31 Basic characteristics of new acquisitions workflow ä Multi-processing ä printed book list can be read by one person while online selection form can be used by many people simultaneously ä Organic process ä each process activity is inter-related and has a built-in and dynamic relationship with OPAC ä Value-added data entered in one process can be used by the following process ä Automatic ä save manpower and time from keying in redundant data

OPAC Reviewing & Selecting Checking duplicates Keying new bib & order records

IV. Automatic Collection Assessing Function

34 Reasons for Collection Assessment (1) Sun Tzu, the most famous ancient Chinese military philosopher: “So it said that if you know both the enemy and yourself, you will fight a hundred battles without danger of defeat; if you are ignorant of the enemy but only know yourselves, your chances of winning and losing are equal; if you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will certainly be defeated in every battle.” -- Art of War: Offensive Strategy, 21

35 Reasons for Collection Assessment (2) [Sun Tzu’s words in Chinese] 孫子 >: “ 知 彼 知 己者﹐ 百 戰 不 殆 ﹔ 不 知 彼 而 知 己﹐ 一 胜 一 負﹔ 不 知 彼﹐ 不 知 己﹐ 每 戰 必 殆﹒ “

36 Reasons for Collection Assessment (3) ä Sun Tzu’s principle can be used as one of the basic rules for collection development. The question is how to put forward his principle in operation ä An effective and balanced collection development policy must be build on a strategy that we can compare our library collection with other libraries on a comprehensive and periodically basis ä The operation of this principle in computer age is that we can design a computer program to evaluate the strength and weakness of library collection automatically and efficiently

37 Check against HKBU Library Web OPAC 1. Compare the books on logic in CUHK Library with the HKBU Library 2. Searching and downloading of titles in specific subject areas from another Innopac library Web OPAC ä LC call number = bc and published between 1989 and 1999 and language = “English” ä 199 records found stored in end note format 3. Use the Automatic Assessing Function to check against the titles in the HKBU Web OPAC to determine which are included or missing from the HKBU holdings

38 Checking Another Library Web OPAC ä By the same token, it allows the HKBU Library to assess its own collection strength in a particular area by outputting a file for checking against the collection of another library using Innopac Web OPAC

39 Conclusion ä Our working principles for new book selection, ordering, and collection assessing functions: ä automatic --> reduce manual input error ä systematic --> data input in one process can be used by the followed process ä organic --> OPAC always serves as the center of all activities ä Advantages ä efficient, reduce cost, accurate