Acquiring Online Management Reports

by William E. Jarvis

Overview

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Acquiring Online Management Reports offers state-of-the-art information for acquisitions librarians involved in selecting management reports of all types, from fund accounting to decision support systems to usage tracking. Compiling management reports has always been a responsibility of acquisitions librarians. These days, computerized reporting systems have become powerful tools in managing libraries, but they are useful only when the results are accurate, significant, and relevant.

Acquiring Online Management Reports discusses techniques for creating and interpreting reports that will give librarians the information they need in an accessible form. This fact-filled guide explores working with vendors, developing cost-effective collection development methods to suit your library, assessing collection growth, and choosing the best electronic resources to help meet your goals.

In Acquiring Online Management Reports, librarians will find practical, instantly usable information on pertinent topics, including:

• the problems created by inaccurate data
• vendor discussions of how new report systems are designed and implemented
• the surprising differences between journals’online and print editions
• expanding usage of decision support systems
• interpreting the fluctuations of fund accounting information
• using computer technology to form library consortia
• computerizing serials control
  
  Acquiring Online Management Reports offers you an array of proven ideas, options, and examples that will enable your library to keep up with changing technologies and client demands.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781000723908
Publisher:	CRC Press
Publication date:	09/30/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	164
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

William E. Jarvis is a faculty librarian (associate professor level) at Washington State University, Pullman, WA, where he served as Acquisitions Librarian from 1990 to 1999, and is now Collection Services Librarian there. He has been in library service for over 20 years, including over 15 years in collection management and acquisitions work. Mr. Jarvis has long been involved in a wide variety of ALA activities, including ALCTS work. He researches and publishes on a wide variety of information studies topics ranging from online library processing operations to interdisciplinary time capsule studies.

Table of Contents

Acquiring Online Management Reports: An Editorial Introduction, Serials Management Information for the 21st Century, Electronic Resources: Exactly, What Is Online?, Watch Out and Listen: Faculty Assess Electronic Resources, Library Management Statistics from an Integrated Library System (ILS), Decision Support Systems and Collection Management, Evaluating Approval Plans and Other Methods of Book Selection Through System Management Reports, Integrating Vendor Supplied Management Reports for Serials Evaluation: The Medical College of Wisconsin Experience, Instant Access to Fund Accounting Information: Advice for Selectors and Acquisitions Librarians, Cooperative Collection Development in PORTALS, Online Management Reports: A Book Vendor’s Perspective, Claiming in the Automated Environment, Evolution of the INNOPAC: Managing Resources with Statistics and Reports, Coordinating Report Functions from Online Systems: A Philosophic Essay, Index

Editorial Reviews

2 Stars from Doody

Provides acquisitions librarians with current information about selecting management reports of all types. Contributions address working with vendors, establishing cost-effective collections development methods, assessing collection growth, and nearly a dozen other topics. Simultaneously co-published as , Number 24, 2000. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Reviewer: Robert A. Pisciotta, MA (University of Kansas Medical )
Description: The editor collects articles from practicing librarians and vendors on various data collection issues, all from an acquisitions point of view.
Purpose: The editor ventures a broad overview of management information reports that support acquisitions activities. This is a current topic because automated local systems have expanded the power of data collection and reporting. Also, vendors have become much more sophisticated in the data they collect and supply to their customers. Finally, the current parlous state of materials budgets puts a premium on informed decision-making. The editor's objectives are modest and are met by this book. The variety of topics is both a strength and weakness: something for everyone, but many of these discussions would work better at users' group meetings instead of in this volume intended for more general audiences.
Audience: This will appeal to practicing librarians, especially in acquisitions. It may also interest library systems managers and vendors in the library acquisitions trade. The editor appears to be an expert in the field of acquisitions automation. His summary chapter is substantive.
Features: Vendors from the serials and monographs sector summarize the reports they can provide customers. Librarians describe the use of specific automated library systems (specifically DRA and Innovative Interfaces) for creating management reports. Specialists summarize specific projects using data support including approval plan evaluations, fund accounting, weeding, serials retention, claiming cooperative purchasing, and acquisitions of electronic resources. Finally, there are general discussions of decision support systems and a "philosophical primer" on deriving data from online systems.
Assessment: This book works well in describing practical uses of management information reports applied to specific problems, such as weeding. Also, acquisitions specialists may find the vendor presentations valuable. I enjoyed the more general discussions, such as those on decision support systems. What degrades the value of books like this is the broad sweep of submissions tied together by a narrow content thread. Discussions by specific vendors or on specific systems may not appeal across the board. One chapter drills down to actual coding and querying in a specific library system, something that may not interest general readers. On the other hand, with this variety of topics, specialists will surely find something of interest. I recommend this book to acquisitions practitioners with a strong interest in management reports and to those looking for a very brief summary of the uses of acquisitions data. Those looking for a more general and organic discussion of automated management reports are advised to look elsewhere.

Doody's Review Service