Is Inventory Management Worth It? The first case presented by Sherri Michaels Charleston Conference, November 5, 2015 Two Case Studies

Why do an Inventory? Insurance/Auditing Requirements Evaluate Loss Evaluate the Condition of the Materials Ensure Catalog Accuracy Collection Analysis (Data Confidence)

Downsides of an Inventory Time (both prep and doing it) Staffing Costs Equipment Costs Workload Issues

By the numbers Shared Catalog, eight campuses 16 M Item records on 8.5 M bib records 3.1 M items at ALF 2.4 M items at Wells Library (?)

TitleLibraryTotal ChargesDate Last used POLITICAL ANATOMY OF THE BODY… B-WELLS3207/08/2010 POLITICAL ANATOMY OF THE BODY … B-WELLS01/1/1900

Pilot Test Results 22 % of all items had a problem - 9% out of order - 7% were cataloging problems - 6% were missing Also found several books with no barcodes (equal to 3% of our sample size)

Error Report 3 Sections Good barcodes, but errors Out of Order Missing items (barcodes not scanned)

Results So Far 43,231 Items Scanned o 623 (1.44%) Out of Order o 93 (.2 %) Wrong Location o 229 (.5%) XXMissing Resolved o 287 (.6 %) Label/Call # Error o 244 (.5%) Misc.Cataloging Errors (Shadowed records/barcode not found)

Results,Continued 795 Items with No Barcode 959 Not Scanned (Missing) o 318 Found o 479 Not Found o 154 Leprechauns

Lessons Learned So glad the Pilot sample was skewed! Scale causes some issues Competing priorities are an issue regardless of scale Still collecting cost data (Scanning alone costs about 1c. per item)

Contact Sherri Michaels, Head of Collection Management Indiana University Libraries