Michael,
Our fund structure is relatively simple. We have funds noted for books,
serials, and standing orders. They are by subject. A simple example would
be:
Literature - books / one-time = litrm
Literature - serials /continuing = litrs
Literature - standing orders / continuing = litrc
Literature - approvals/autoship = litry
The reasoning:
We transmit to campus a chart string for each fund; books are one
chartstring, serials are another. Hence the split between firm and
continuing. For budgeting purposes we budget serials based on prior year
cost plus an inflation estimate. For standing order budgeting we use a
three year average spend per title, so we need to distinguish between
subscriptions and standing orders. The approval fund codes are new and are
used because we choose to assign location by fund and the autoshipped
materials arrive shelf ready.
To capture the other elements that libraries want to capture, like online
or print, DDA, etc. we use other elements of the order record. This gives
us greater reporting flexibility and simpler fund structure. So online
versus print is distinguished by the order location code. DDA by the
acquisition type or method. Ditto for hosting fees. We use the order type
to distinguish between continuing and one-time because it's an easier way
to pull that concept together rather than a complicated query by fund. (We
have 700 endowment and departmental fund codes which add complexity to
reporting one-time vs. continuing spending if we used fund codes.)
Here's are our acq types:
*AcqType*
AcqTypeName
Prepaid
Antiquarian
Out of Print
LC for Acq
Barter
Depository
DDA
Gift
Hosting Fee
Included
E-Package
List Purchase
Membership
Standing Order
Firm
Subscription
Deposit Account
Blanket
Exchange
Approval
These aren't as mutually exclusive as I'd like, hosting fees are
essentially like subscriptions, however, if I want to know our hosting fee
spend, I can just sum expenses by acq type. If I want all continuing costs,
I can sum by order type = continuing. So I've got a sort of faceted
hierarchy within my order records: Order type, acq type, and format
(meaning book, video, periodical)
Formats:
*FormatName*
Form Format Type
- Book Book
x Multivolume Monograph Book
n Newspaper Serial
b Book Book
v Video Video
k Map Map
m Monographic Serial Serial
p Periodical Serial
i Integrating Resource Database
c Computer File Data Set
a Audio Audio
The above table allows me to aggregate to the type or by the more
specific format. So I can calculate spending for online video hosting fees
across all subjects. Or online DDA spending for videos. Without having to
create DDA funds, hosting funds, online journal funds, print journal funds
etc.
The negative to my approach is that these other views into our spending are
not visible in the fund structure. I have to run a report. A number of my
staff are capable of running these reports, so we have redundancy. We
export fiscal year payment data and order data in one file and then map
everything in a MS Access database.
I don't know yet, what a migration to Alma is going to do to my methods.
Mark
Mark Hemhauser
Head of Acquisitions, The Library
250 Moffitt Library, MC 6000
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
510-664-4310
On Fri, Apr 3, 2020 at 8:41 AM Rodriguez, Michael <
michael.a.rodriguez_at_uconn.edu> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Is anyone able to share, here or off-list, your collections budget
> documents and structures? I am beginning work a project to revamp our
> reporting codes (also known as object codes) and our fund codes - not the
> allocations, but the actual coding, aiming to improve workflows and
> analytics. I am curious how folks are coding costs - for example, how are
> you capturing the purchase of a book that is print vs electronic and that
> is DDA vs firm order. Are you using secondary reporting codes? Any
> information you can share would be helpful.
>
> Thanks so much,
>
> Michael
>
> *UConn Library facilities are currently closed but we are here to help you
> with your library needs during the COVID-19 crisis. You can stay updated
> through our website <https://lib.uconn.edu/about/covid-19/> and continue to
> contact staff directly.*
>
> Michael Rodriguez
> Collections Strategist
> UConn Library
>
Received on Tue Apr 07 2020 - 15:44:52 EDT