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General Information

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Survey Questions - specific information

Expenses (Q. 01-31)

  • Staffing Types, FTEs, and Expenses (Q. 01-09)
    • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  NO
      • Use campus accounting and HR systems as normal
  • Expenses (Exclude Staff) (Q. 20-31)
    • Materials / Services Expenses (Q. 20-23)
      • One-time purchases of books, serial back-files, and other materials (Q. 20)
        • E-books (if available) (Q. 20a)
      • Ongoing commitments to subscriptions (Q. 21)
        • Include subscriptions, standing orders, journal packages, and databases
        • Include annual electronic platform or access fees
        • Specific expense break-outs:
          • E-books (if available) (Q. 21a)
          • E-journals (if available) (Q. 21b)
      • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  Next year:  Basic level for 20 & 21; 20a, 21a, and 21b also possible if use specific POL types
      • Don't forget to manually add in CO spend on behalf of campuses (ECC)
    • All other materials/service cost (Q. 22)
      • ILL costs for materials
      • Pay-per-view article transactions (e.g. Get It Now)
      • Short-term loans as part of a Patron-Driven Acquisition (PDA) or Demand-Driven Acquisition (DDA) program
      • RefWorks, EndNote and similar services
      • Do not include postage or courier fees or the costs of bibliographic utilities associated with ILL (count as other expenses in line 25)
      • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  NO
    • Operations and Maintenance Expenses (Q. 24-27)
      • Preservation services (Q. 24)
        • Include binding, rebinding, and other conservation services
        • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  NO
      • All other operations and maintenance services (Q. 25)
        • All other expenses (exclude only expenses for new buildings and building renovations)
        • Don't forget to add in the CO spend on behalf of campuses (services other than information resources)
        • Answerable using Alma Analytics?  NO

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Library Trends and Alma Migration:  Potential Imact on Reported Data

Q:  Media counts appear to be increasing and Physical Serials counts decreasing over last year.  Is this expected?  Where else might we expect to see significant changes?

A:  Increases and decreases in particular formats are likely because of the following widespread trends:

  • Libraries are increasingly expected to support media needs--some physical (e.g. DVD movies) but mostly streaming (e.g. Kanopy, Docuseek2, Films on Demand, Naxos Music Library)
    • Therefore I would expect to see media counts increase year over year
  • Libraries are increasingly expected to reduce their physical collections to make room for other services, and a major way to accomplish this is by withdrawing print journal runs
    • Therefore I would expect to see physical journal counts decrease year over year
    • I would also expect to see a general decline in the number of physical volumes reported
  • Libraries are increasingly (though not entirely) preferring electronic formats over print
    • Therefore I would expect to see a decrease in physical titles and an increase in electronic titles year over year

Q:  What changes in reported data might result from the Alma migration?

A:  It is difficult to estimate the impact of the Alma migration on collection counts, but the following factors may be involved:

  • Libraries may have re-calibrated their collection counts for items like physical journal volumes due to the barcoding projects many campuses undertook as part of the migration process
  • Libraries may have conducted physical inventory and/or major database cleanup projects that resulted in purging a significant number of bibliographic records
  • Libraries may have added holdings and/or items to collections that did not require them in the legacy system (e.g. special collections, government documents, or microforms)
  • The counting method for e-books and e-journals differs slightly from the old methods used to derive the data from SFX, Serials Solutions, or ILS records

Q:  What wording would be useful if we need a standard/generic explanation for this for every library?

A:  If the reported data has changed significantly, individual campuses should supply a clarifying comment.  However, the following generic comment will cover most situations:

  • “Due to the ILS migration to the new Unified Library Management System - Alma this year, methods for calculating this data have changed."

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