1. Blessings in Disguise Rebuilding Efficiencies and Communication Between Collections and Acquisitions
Kevin Garewal, Head, Research & Learning Services
Frank J. Bove, Coord. Acquisitions Services
Sean Kennedy, Collection Management Librarian

2. Rebuilding our staff Timeline
Jun-Dec 2013 – Acquisitions Dept. Chair & Coord. of Acquisitions retire
Fall 2014 – Move subscriptions from SWETS to EBSCO
Nov 2014 – Kevin G., Collection Management Librarian
Jan 2015 – Frank B., Coord. of Acquisition Services
Aug 2015 – Staff layoffs, lost 2 of 3 FTE staff members
Oct 2015 – Hire .5 FTE staff member (shared with Systems)
Dec 2015 – Staff member retires
Feb 2016 – Hire 1 FTE staff member
Mar 2016 – Sean K., Collection Management Librarian

3. Background – current climate
Collaboration and communication
All of the projects we will discuss are not possible without the current level of “interdepartmental” communication and collaboration.
Daily contact and discussions.
list/group for communication and record keeping.
Friendly, open, and honest working group.
However, we still disagree from time to time and hold each other accountable as needed.
Respect is key ingredient for making collaboration happen.
Especially between various types of individuals on the team (staff, tenured faculty, NTT faculty, administration).

4. Understanding existing procedures
Legacy documentation and processes

5. Adjusting existing procedures
Moving forward…we note everything!

6. Procedures & Processes
Review towards shared understanding
Workflow analysis meetings (2 significant rounds)
Feb-Apr 2016 – Understanding Acquisitions workflows and processes.
Talked through and evaluated how various materials are selected, ordered, received, and processed.
Jul-Aug 2016 – Acquisitions Data Dictionary Working Group meetings.
The previous discussion underscored the need to standardize the acquisition records, to share the same understanding of how to use the system elements, and to create documentation for training.

7. Data Dictionary & Procedures Manual
Building two vital documents
Data Dictionary
Procedures Manual

8. Some initial efficiencies implemented
Amazon Prime & the Material Request Form

9. Project: Ebsco journal renewal
The goal of the project was to systematically review all journal subscriptions.
Started using the Ebsco Usage Consolidation product in 2016.
This was UA’s first attempt for a comprehensive review of our journals both print and online.
Mixed results with the product. Export functionality is very limited.
Decided to create a master worksheet manually populated by 5 people.
Gathered 2 years of use and cost data. (number of downloads from aggregator and publisher site, pubfinder/full-text finder data, and cost per download)
44 Columns to be filled in. (Too many!)
When the sheet was populated it was distributed to the subject librarians for comment and recommendations.

10. University of Akron – Renewal Sheet
First attempt

11. Lessons learned
Process was laborious and time-consuming. 4 weeks of preparation time until the sheet was distributed to the subject librarians. (Time was lost with Ebsco trying to create a similar sheet.)
Format types were mixed on the sheet. (Online, print, and print and online)
Found that the pubfinder and full-text finder stats were not all that helpful. (We hoped this would give us some data when no publisher data was available.)
Had a postmortem meeting and decided to reduce columns from 44 to 31. Still too many but it is a start.
The process worked! Cut 80k and added 40k in e-journals and increased use!

12. Ebsco spending 2016 – pre-project

13. Ebsco spending 2017 – after Project

14. Invoice Tracking Sheet
Created an invoice tracking sheet to better control spending and have a firm understanding of our budget.
Tracking sheet is used as an approval mechanism between Collections and Acquisitions.
This has essentially allowed us close our budget with zero dollars remaining for three fiscal years in a row.

15. Invoice Tracking Sheet
Summary of accounts

16. Invoice Tracking Sheet
Tracking Sheet example

17. Additional collaborative projects
Claims
Donation / gift procedures
Streaming video workflows
Excel programming
Cleaning up exported order record / payment data
VBA to make tracking invoices and spending automated

18. Questions? Kevin Garewal – kgarewal@uakron.edu
Frank Bove –
Sean Kennedy –