Hi Jason,

Your input reinforced the need for improved signage, probably the biggest take-away from this exercise. We decided to adopt two low-tech suggestions from respondents, revising our signs and applying paper seals to the open side of our journals. Hopefully we will see an impact on our statistics.

May I ask if you barcode all of your journals and do your journals circulate?

Thanks also for your information about WorldShare Management System. Maybe we will explore that in the future.

Cordially,

Brenda Keane

Library Serials Clerk

Johnson & Wales University

8 Abbott Park Place

Yena Center

Providence, RI 02903

401-598-1459

From: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@LISTSERV.NASIG.ORG] On Behalf Of Jason Skoog
Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2015 8:07 PM
To: SERIALST@LISTSERV.NASIG.ORG
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Tracking print journal usage

Perhaps you could look into improving signs asking patrons to re-shelve materials. We've done. We actually made table tend like shelves and put them directly in the stacks. We also have a lot of small tables throughout that have laminated signs on them saying "Leave Items Here."

We use WorldShare Management System from OCLC to do count-use.

On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 8:59 AM, Brenda L. Keane <Brenda.Keane@jwu.edu> wrote:

Like many libraries, we spend a lot of money on print subscriptions. Has anyone developed a method of effectively tracking print journal usage?

We currently use Sierra check-in records to add or remove issues to our journal holdings. None of these journals are barcoded, nor do they circulate. We have tried to track usage by asking patrons not to re-shelve journals themselves, but rather to leave used journals in bins, to be shelved by staff. This rarely happens.

An idea that I read about a few years ago was to install a scanner in the journals area and ask patrons to scan a journal each time it was used. Has anyone tried this? I look forward to hearing how other libraries assess print journal usage.