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Iso 11620 Library Standard
Iso 11620 Library Standard
comparisons, and finally, how to solve the Where applicable, the three library automated
problem of terminology and definitions. systems will be investigated to determine if
they can generate the datasets necessary to
The Structure of ISO 11620 form the indicators.
The standard is divided into two parts, the Number of active borrowers / number of
first being the standard itself and the second members in target population
being three annexes. The second annex con- The datasets for this indicator comprise the
tains the 29 performance indicators forming number of members of the population served
the overall standard and these indicators are related to either the number of active users or
grouped into three sections: the number of active borrowers.
(1) User perception;
The number of active borrowers is
(2) Public services;
obtained from the Dynix Classic system by
(3) Technical services.
interrogating the database using a RECALL
The description of each indicator contains the statement as follows:
following sections: COUNT PATRONS WITH LASTUSE
• objective; GE “O1 JAN 1998”
• scope;
• definition of the indicator; The result of this query is expressed as a
• method (of collection); percentage of the total population. This figure
• interpretation and factors affecting the has to be obtained from the university’s
indicator. records if the LAS does not contain all users
in the university.
At the time of writing (June 1998) the stan- This indicator can, if required, also be
dard is still in draft form but according to applied to a target group within the popula-
Jakob Harnesk of the Royal Library in Stock-
tion by the following RECALL command
holm it may be officially published in Autumn
from the Dynix Library system which counts
1998 (Harnesk, 1997).
active borrowers since January 1998 who are
classed as Information Technology students:
ISO 11620 and library automated COUNT PATRON WITH PSTAT = “IT”
systems AND LASTUSE GE “01 JAN 1998”
One of the main reasons why university librar- The Innopac system creates LISTS of records
ians are unwilling to commit to regular perfor- which are pre-set and new lists cannot be
mance measurement exercises is the amount customised according to a library’s specific
of staff time and resources that is involved in requirements. The total members of popula-
collecting the necessary datasets (Goodall, tion served is automatically generated by the
1988). In general, the perceived benefits of system, as is the number of active borrowers.
performance measurement do not justify the
With the Innopac system it is possible to
required inputs of staff time and energy, and
extract the data and manipulate it in another
therefore librarians will not dedicate staff to
software program.
management information gathering.
The Talis system runs on a Sybase data-
Consequently, if performance measurement
base which means that if the required data is
is going to develop in libraries, a greater
stored in the database, it can be extracted into
reliance will have to be put on the library auto-
mated systems within libraries. The ISO draft another piece of software, even if the Talis
standard includes the method of data collec- system cannot itself manipulate the data.
tion for each indicator and some of the indica-
tors include a method using the library auto- Number of documents in stock
mated system to collect data. The databases All three LASs can generate this dataset. The
forming these indicators have been extracted Dynix Classic does not automatically generate
from the standard and are discussed below in the figure but it can be obtained with the
light of the following three automated systems: following RECALL statement: COUNT
(1) Dynix classic; HOLDINGS. The Innopac system generates
(2) Innopac; the dataset automatically as part of its report-
(3) Talis. ing as does the BLCMP Talis system.
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Jack O’Farrell Volume 99 · Number 1144 · 1998 · 254–259
Staff time spent on cataloguing/staff time manual count of these is maintained as part of
spent on amending records that university library’s regular statistics. This
None of the three systems provide any man- count is added to the result of the RECALL
agement information on the activities of staff statement which provided the total number of
or in what areas the workload is heaviest. titles in the library:
COUNT BIB
Number of titles catalogued
There are similar issues in the other libraries
All three systems can generate this data. The
whereby the whole collection is not main-
three systems use similar bibliographic record
tained in the electronic catalogue. These
constructions where one field relates to the
limitations must be kept in mind when the
date the item was catalogued. In the Innopac
dataset is calculated because it is not com-
the field is O4 and a specific time period can
pletely accurate.
be specified to count the number of titles
catalogued during that period. There are
Publication date of document
problems with the indicator that this dataset
This dataset is not necessary to form an ISO
goes to form because the other necessary
indicator but is recommended for properly
datasets are not available from the library
monitoring stock to check the age of the
automated systems. Consequently, although
stock. All three systems can generate this
this dataset is available, the indicator would
dataset as it is part of the bibliographic record
have to be calculated by sampling and manual
of each document.
data collection.
Date of ordering document/date of
Number of titles in stock
receiving document
The three systems can calculate this dataset.
The three systems can generate these datasets
The Dynix RECALL statement is simply
which form the ISO indicator “Speed of
COUNT BIB but the resulting dataset should
acquiring documents”. A possible dataset for
be examined to verify the limitations of this
this indicator is the Actual Date of Document
calculation. The Innopac and Talis systems
Publication. This dataset is not necessary to
automatically include this figure in generated
form the indicator. As part of the research
reports.
methodology and the interview process
library staff consulted believed that if any
Number of available titles
sizeable sample was to be used for this indica-
The three LASs examined can generate this
tor it would prohibit the collection of this
figure but, as with so many libraries, not all of
dataset since the information would probably
the collection is recorded on the automated
have to be collected by contacting document
system. The following statements detail the
suppliers.
way this apparently simple dataset can be
For the Dynix system the datasets which
acquired using the Dynix system:
are necessary were obtained from the library’s
The first statement provides how many
automated system by the following RECALL
titles were checked out on the circulation
statement:
system:
SORT ACQ WITH
COUNT BIB WITH T-STATUS = “O”
DATE.ADDED.CONV = “[OCT 1997”
The number of documents missing also have AND WITH DATE.RECD DATE.
to be counted, this could be either a separate ADDED.CONV DATE.RECD.CONV
RECALL statement or could be included in FILL.TIME BY FILL.TIME
the one above:
When the result of this query was printed it
COUNT BIB WITH T-STATUS =
produced a list of every document ordered
“MISSING”
during October 1997. The median fill time
The total number of titles cannot be obtained (difference between the date the document
by a simple RECALL statement. The vast was ordered and the date the document was
majority of titles are maintained on this received) had to be obtained manually by
library’s automated system, but students’ going through the list. If this could be auto-
theses and companies’ annual reports are not. mated, a median fill time could be obtained
These, however, are kept in the Reference for all documents ordered in one year rather
collection and are not available for loan. A than just one month. The process of obtaining
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Jack O’Farrell Volume 99 · Number 1144 · 1998 · 254–259
a median manually can be tedious and going to be tracked individually. This loses the
through a whole year’s orders would be pro- benefit of being able to carry out the search
hibitive. The Innopac and Talis systems pre- over a long period of items and also loses the
sent the same problem. The individual benefit of carrying out the search retrospec-
datasets are available but the calculation tively.
needed to determine the median time needs Two datasets (for each document) needed
to be done manually or the data needs to be to be retrieved from the system, the date the
extracted to another software system. The document was ordered and the date the docu-
Innopac system can provide information on ment was received. The former is the closest
vendors which will provide the average num- that can be obtained to the date the user made
ber of days / weeks each vendor has taken to the request.
deliver material.
The following are the commands used to
Date of cataloguing document/date of retrieve the records from the automated ILL
bindery preparation of document/date of system:
binding of document/date document is (1) SELECT REQUESTS WITH
dispatched DATE.APPL GE “13 NOV 1997” AND
These four datasets are those specified in the LE “17 NOV 1997”
ISO standard but other datasets could be This selects all records in the
added between the first and last datasets, REQUESTS file ordered in the sample
depending on the processes in each library. period.
The three library systems could generate the (2) SAVE-LIST REQ.APPL
first and last datasets but could not generate This saves the records selected in step 1
those in between. Unfortunately, it was this into a file called REQ.APPL
level of detail that the librarians believed (3) SELECT ARCHIV WITH DATE.APPL
would be most useful in order to determine GE “13 NOV 1997” AND LE “17 NOV
where exactly any delays or problems were 1997”
occurring. The only method of collecting data This selects all records in the ARCHIV
for this indicator in the three libraries (unless file ordered in the sample period.
the automated systems were customised) (4) SAVE-LIST ARC.APPL
would be by a manual method; that is to This saves the records selected in step 3
design a form containing date fields for each into a file called ARC.APPL
step in the process and then to trace the (5) CLEAR-FILE DATA ARCREQ
progress of each document in the sample This clears the ARCREQ (a temporary
week. This method would lose the advantage file) of any previous records stored there.
of collecting the data retrospectively.
The following set of commands obtains the
Date document is requested for ILL / date two files created in steps (2) and (4) and
document is ordered for ILL / date copies them to the ARCREQ file where these
document is received for ILL / date user combined records can then be manipulated
is notified for ILL and searched simultaneously:
All three libraries included in this research use (6) GET-LIST REQ.APPL
the Lancaster automated system for Inter (7) COPY REQUESTS (to) (ARCREQ
Library Loans. All the datasets necessary for (8) GET-LIST ARC.APPL
this indicator can be retrieved from the Lan- (9) COPY ARCHIV (to) (ARCREQ
caster system. The indicator lists four
All the documents ordered in the sample week
datasets:
are stored in the ARCREQ file which could be
(1) Date of receiving request from a user.
interrogated using the standard ACCESS
(2) Date of receiving document from an
commands. The Lancaster system provides a
external source.
standard function called TIME.SUPPL
(3) Date of ordering document from an
which is the difference in days between the
external source (optional).
days of ordering and the days or receiving the
(4) Date of notifying the user (optional),
documents. Commands such as the following
If the results of this indicator were to be one counted the number of documents received
hundred per cent accurate, items would have within certain periods:
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Jack O’Farrell Volume 99 · Number 1144 · 1998 · 254–259
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