Re: keeping track of standing orders (3 responses)

1) ----- 

From: Sarah D Tusa <sarah.tusa_at_lamar.edu> 
Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:02:08 -0500 (EST) 

We used to use DBase III and finally converted to MS Access a few years ago. If you set up the fields you need to sort by, you can put everything in one database. If there's too much data for one database, you can set up relational databases. Then you can execute queries by location, fund, date received, etc, depending on how you set up the fields. I can't honestly say that I have personally mastered all the finer points of MS Access, but one can do a lot with that program to manage a lot of inter-related data. 

It takes a little training. I used Video Professor online (instead of the CD-Roms they advertise) because my library director would not spring for a $198 training session that was available. 

Excel is good for some things, and I use it a lot, but MS Access can handle more a more sophisticated level of data management and sorting. 

I hope this helps. 


-- 
Sarah Tusa, Associate Professor 
Coordinator of Collection Development 
& Acquisitions 
Mary & John Gray Library 
Lamar University 
Ext. 8125 


2) ----- 

From: Peter Sheehan <petes1974_at_yahoo.com> 
Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:11:25 -0800 (PST) 

Sounds like you could use autofilter or pivot tables to meet your needs. Or you could import the excel spreadsheets into MS Access and generate reports that way. If you have a spreadsheet with all of your fields and dummy information I could take a look at it. 

Thanks, 
Peter 


3) ----- 

From: Forrest Link <linkf_at_tcnj.edu> 
Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:12:23 -0500 (EST) 


Todd, 

You might begin by asking your vendor (or vendors) for a list of your SOs and a history for each in an excel spreadsheet. Then merge the spreadsheets. Be consistent. If you assign each of your subjects its own fund code you should be able to sort the records out. 

Good luck! 

--Forrest 



----Original Message---- 

Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2012 11:15:10 AM 
Subject: [ACQNET-L] keeping track of standing orders 

I was curious if anyone would be willing to share their process for keeping track of standing orders (or continuations). I have around 1000 titles on an excel sheet that get distributed to 11 locations. It lists the title, the fund to charge, location receiving item, note field, bib number. On another tab we keep the history of costs, invoice numbers, date received, etc. This is fine until I need to crunch the numbers. For example: give me a list of titles purchased for Business Reference and the costs for each this past year. When I arrived the system was on sheets of paper so compiling date was basically impossible. I have put it on excel, but there has to be a better system or format that I am missing. I have been able to use some advanced (at least to me) excel functions to get some numbers, but I would like it to be more user friendly. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. 



Thanks, 

Todd Barrett 
Acquisitions Manager 
Richland County Public Library 
tbarrett_at_myrcpl.com 



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