We are a smallish undergraduate library. Our student population is under
2,500 and our physical monographs are also under 200,000.
>From an acquisitions perspective, we consider the ILS to be a cradle to
grave history of library materials purchases, including order tracking and
receipt. We generate reports about acquisitions activities from the ILS. Of
course, when something is withdrawn, the history is also removed. The funds
management aspect is crucial for reconciling library accounts with the
university accounting office.
For collection development purposes, it's also used for usage statistics and
generates information about things such as trends in which classification
area is most used. These trends in turn help inform the funding structure
for acquisitions. Information from the ILS is used to identify which
classifications may be underrepresented, what is the average age of the
collection within a particular classification, etc.
>From a cataloging perspective, the ILS is where we can also include
information about ebooks and ejournals that might not be discovered
elsewhere. We currently have about 100,000 e-resource bibliographic records
in the catalog, with many more waiting in the wings.
>From a serials perspective, the ILS is diminishing as a method of serials
control. We are steadily moving toward more online periodicals, which means
less checking in and/or claiming of physical items. Our ILS is not useful
for online periodicals beyond the ability to insert a URL in the bib record
and keeping track of funds in the acq record.
We do enter records for selected equipment inventory control-only those that
the media services department allows students to check out over the counter.
The records for these are not visible to the public; they serve as something
to hang a circulation record on as various pieces of equipment are checked
out to students. The media services department, which has an enormous
equipment inventory and delivers hardware and software to classrooms,
maintains their own equipment inventory. We tried to have it in the ILS
initially, but organizational restructuring broke the close tie between the
library and media services and the information quickly became out of sync.
They didn't want to mess with marc inputting of records and we didn't have
time to keep up; plus, they frequently neglected to tell us about changes.
We in Technical Services would be appalled to lose the ILS. I'm sure the
Circulation department feels the same. The million dollar question is, do
our patrons find the OPAC to be of any use?
Best wishes with your study.
Marynelle
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Marynelle Chew
Head, Technical Services
Joseph F. Smith Library
Brigham Young University-Hawaii
55-220 Kulanui St. #1966
Laie, HI 96762
Ph: (808) 675-3863
Fax: (808) 675-3877
chewm_at_byuh.edu
_____
From: acqnet-l-bounces_at_lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:acqnet-l-bounces_at_lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of
acqnet-l_at_lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 5:51 AM
To: acqnet-l_at_lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [ACQNET-L] The ILS
We are looking at the purpose and content of our ILS and I wish to pose the
following questions.
>From the perspective of Acquisitions and collection development people, what
is the primary purpose of your ILS? What do you use it for? Inventory
control? Order tracking? Or do you see it primarily as a finding tool?
What does your institution put into the ILS? The usual library stuff only?
Or do you use this as an inventory control for art, equipment, etc.?
My colleagues on our task force are hitting the other appropriate listservs,
but I wanted a tech services perspective on this, if there is such a thing.
Thanks.
Michael
W. Michael Bell
Assistant Dean and Head, Materials Processing
Lupton Library
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
423-425-2670
mike-bell_at_utc.edu
This correspondence should be considered a public record and subject to
public inspection pursuant to the Tennessee Public Records Act.
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Received on Tue Oct 21 2008 - 13:04:31 EDT