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acquisitions interface at the Western Australia institute of technology library
Library Acquisitions: Practice and Theory, Vol. 4, pp. 49-54 (1980) Printed in the U.S.A. All rights reserved.
DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
IN L~TERFACING
0364-6408/010049-06502.00/0 Copyright © 1980 Pergamon Press Ltd
A UTOMA TED SYSTEMS
POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE CIRCULATION/ACQUISITIONS INTERFACE AT THE WESTERN AUSTRALIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY LIBRARY ELIZABETH SPOOR Circulation Librarian Western Australian Institute of Technology Library South Bentley, Western Australia 6102 Australia
ABSTRACT
The automated systems at the Western Australian Institute o f Technology Library have developed as separate entities in spite o f ambitions to the contrary. The WAIT Library is working toward integrating these systems, but initial information relevant to circulation and acquisitions activities will be provided in the form o f reports issued by each system. Potential'uses o f reports from the circulation and acquisitions systems are discussed.
One major objective of an academic library must be to develop a collection which satisfies the needs of its users, and to which these users have ready access. Traditionally, the responsibility for building the collection has rested with the Acquisitions section of the library while the Circulation section has had responsibility for ensuring good access. (The responsibility for interpretation of the user's real needs has not been so clearly defined.) If the library operates as a whole, rather than as a collection of discrete parts, communication between the acquisitions and circulation sections can make the provision o f an ideal collection come nearer to reality. This article will attempt to show how the automated acquisitions and circulation systems at WAIT Library will produce timely, factual and objective information to improve this communication process. The Western Australian Institute of Technology in Perth, Western Australia, was established in 1967, and is a multidisciphnary College of Advanced Education, with a predominantly undergraduate student body o f approximately 11,000. A high proportion of these are part-time students and some are external students (i.e., studying at a distance from WAIT, through specially designed 49
50
ELIZABETH SPOOR
correspondence courses). Most students are enrolled in first degree courses, as Colleges of Advanced Education are not empowered to grant Doctoral Degrees, though they may and do offer Post-Graduate Diplomas and Masters Degrees; 11% of WAIT students are enrolled in such programmes. Library services are centralised in a multi-storey building on the main campus; there are three branch libraries which serve off-campus departments. At the time of writing the collection consists of 166,000 monograph titles, and 8,400 serial titles. The WAIT Library attempts to provide an adequate and appropriate service to all Institute students and staff, but the nature of the courses and the composition of the student body means that this service is slanted in particular directions; for example, the Library has created a special collection for the use of external students, and provides a postal loans service for them. In collection development, the absence of doctoral courses has meant that a greater emphasis could be placed on the needs of the undergraduate, and while attempts are being made to achieve a degree of excellence in coverage of certain key subjects, there has been no need for compre.hensive and costly research collections to be developed. Emphasis has been on the acquisition of a wide range of up-to-date, worthwhile material, and a vital, changing, relevant collection. In the event, of course, some of these ideals have not been achieved! From its earliest days WAIT Library was computer-orientated. At that time the computer equipment available was an ICE 1901A, used for every system on campus, so that the possibilities open to the Library were limited. Early attempts at automation concentrated on clerical activities in order to achieve greater efficiency and minimise staff costs. Achievement of a MARCcompatible computerized catalogue was identified as a major objective of the Library, but at the time that WAIT systems development commenced (in 1968) cataloguing data bases were still in the experimental stages and it was recognised that the WAIT catalogue system would take years to reach completion. The Library Management decided that other systems development should not have to wait until the catalogue objectives were fully realised. Convincing arguments were advanced for the development of an automated acquisitions system; work commenced on the system in 1969, and by the end of 1971 it was fully operational. The system is basically a financial control and a stock on-order and receipt system, keeping close control over committal and expenditure of funds. It operates off-line using the Institute's central computing facility, and relies on a once-weekly production run for printed orders (on multiple-part stationery) and for a series of reports. The clerical staff in the acquisitions section still maintain order files, so that the system supplements, rather than replaces, traditional acquisitions practices from the clerical point of view. From the beginning the system was designed to produce a large number of reports on acquisitions activity and analyses of the acquisitions data on file. The reports were for the use of three groups: first, the lnstitute's accountants were provided with up-to-date figures of Library Acquisitions committals and expenditure; second, the Acquisitions Librarian (and other concerned senior library staff) to whom the budget data was essential, but who also used the information relevant to collection development; and third, Acquisitions clerical staff. Emphasis will be placed on the information relevant to collection development, where the reports enable the Acquisitions Librarian to fred the answers to questions such as: How much of the acquisitions budget is being committed (1) each week, (2) each month, and (13) by which departments? How many orders have been placed in a specific subject area'?
Developments in the Circulation/Acquisitions Interface
51
What proportion of the budget is placed with each supplier? What books have been ordered, by specific departments or persons? What percentage of the orders are books, or films, or any other media? What is the average cost of a book to WAIT Library, (1) overall, (2) by department, and (3) by subject area? Over the years the Acquisitions System has been somewhat modified and improved. The installation of a DEC system 10 Computer at the beginning of 1978 necessitated a complete re-write of all programs and shortly after that the system was re-specified to run more efficiently. It remains a batch-mode system, as regular on-line access has proved impossible to achieve in the face of competition from teaching and administration users. Production of the reports has been simplified, and some of them have been abandoned, e.g., "reminders to suppliers" which seemed to annoy major suppliers, and to create more clerical work than was justifiable, and "analysis of delivery times" which produced inconclusive data, not very useful in assessing supplier performance. The reports and their interpretation are now so much part of the activity of the acquisitions area that work and decision-making would be impossible without them. However, the Principal Librarian and senior library staff still saw a need for more information for controlled collection development, and this need was emphasised after 1975 when funding for tertiary education in Australia was adversely affected by Government economies. The Library looked again at the feasibility of automating its loans system. System development plans at WAIT Library had from the beginning included an automated loans system, but it was not at first considered justifiable, 1 systems being thought of at that time more in relation to the automation of staff-intensive clerical operations, rather than in terms of information provision for management. It was also considered that major development activities should continue to concentrate on the complex cataloguing system. The combination of the need for more management information for the acquisition of library materials, and a greatly increased use of the library with consequent increase in loans gave the development of a computerised circulation system a different priority. In 1977 it was decided to go ahead with the development, and a further decision was made to opt for the equipment made by Automated Library Systems (ALS), a British firm. This choice was partly made with future cooperative loan schemes in mind as the two other major libraries in Perth operating automated loans systems were using ALS equipment. The ALS equipment consists of a series of Charge/Discharge terminals at which the basic loan transactions take place. These terminals operate by reading special borrower badges and book labels, produced by the manufacturer. Each label and badge contains a unique number (e.g., EC 00 70193 X) and a set of metallic spots in a particular configuration. The terminals "read" the spots and pass the number to the computer. A prerequisite for the system is the labelling of all loanable items in the Library, and the issuing of badges to all users. The equipment is so designed that it may be user-operated. In addition to the ALS equipment the Library bought a Digital Equipment Corporation PDP 11/34 minicomputer and supplied this with RSTS/E, R_MS 11 and BASIC PLUS as systems software. The PDP 11 has 96K of memory. There is on-line access to the data held on the PDP 11, but this consists only of the ALS numbers relating to borrowers and books. For bibliographic data and for personal
52
ELIZABETH SPOOR
data relating to borrowers, the system relies on overnight processing on the Institute's mainframe DEC System 10 computer. The DEC 10 holds the Library's catalogue master-file in addition to the personnel and student record files to which access is granted for the production of listings, and of overdue and recall notices. The system allows for all conventional loan activities-loans (charges). returns (discharges), reservations, recall notices and listings, overdue notices and listings, and has provision to include all special collections in the Library. At present the only special collection in the operation is the Reserve Collection. A limitation from the point of view of collection development information is that monographs only are lent through the automated system. The reports at present available from the system produce statistical data, and a variety of listings, e.g., statistics (for each day, week or month): charges, discharges, recalls, reservations, new borrowers and re-registration; these are subdivided by category of borrower (e.g., full-time academic, short course students); and listings: recalls (daily listing), overdues, special class books (e.g., listing of reserve collection, listing of books sent to bindery, alphabetical borrower listing). Earlier in this article the fact that collection development in this library has concentrated on the needs of the undergraduate, and the provision of up-to-date relevant material was emphasized. For this Library, then, the need for feedback information from the circulation system to the Acquisitions section is particularly acute. In an undergraduate collection only items which are used can be considered to justify their original purchase, or their place on the Library's shelves. It is acknowledged that assessment of use may be a subject for debate; "in library use" of material is difficult to measure though certainly valid. However circulation systems can provide some solid information on use patterns and demands which can be acted on. At this library we have been aware, in a general way, of an inability to meet the needs of some areas of the student body; this is manifest in heavy use by our students of other collections in Perth, and has been mentioned in complaints to the Library. At the same time we are aware that multiple copies have been provided on the recommendation of faculty or of Library Staff of titles which are never used. In times of shrinking budgets such apparent waste of funds is difficult to support. In the second phase of development of the circulation system the library will aim to achieve more information useful to those engaged in the selection of library materials, as well as for information relevant for formulation of circulation policies. At present a most important link to establish is that between use of books in any particular subject area, and ordering patterns of books in that area. The acquisitions budget has been moving from division by teaching department to division by subject area for some years, and although firm budgets are not established for each subject, notional ones based on past figures, cost of books in the subject area, and student numbers, are made. What is required by the Acquisitions Librarian is some confirmation (or the contrary!) that these budgets are reasonable. The Acquisitions Librarian needs to be able to link the information from: orders analysis by subject and price trend analysis by subject (derived from the acquisitions system) with use analysis by subject (derived from the Circulation System). Over the years such information will give the Library the ability to build up areas in need of expansion, and re-allocate or limit funds to those catering more than adequately for student needs. Disproportions in the ordering rate and the use rate are seen as potentially very important by library management. If the ordering rate is far higher than the use rate, faculty will need to be advised of this. There may be a variety of reasons for the low use-the books could be of the wrong level for the courses offered, the students may be neglecting their reading, or may find the
Developments in the Circulation/Acquisitions Interface
53
library too hard to use effectively. Or it may simply be that the particular subject no longer attracts student numbers, so that the provision of library materials can be at a low rate, until the subject once more becomes popular. Where use is far higher than the ordering rate, the Library can move positively to correct the balance, advising faculty of the situation and helping in book selection. Multiple-copy provision is a source of concern in this library as in many others. A formula approach adopted in the early 1970s proved to be a failure, and since then experience, intuition, and academic pressure have governed the number of copies bought. The circulation system will be able to produce listings for the Acquisitions Librarian of particular titles subjected to greater than normal use. This should be extremely useful in providing for less subjective judgements in multiple copy provision, and analysis of the data over some years may lead to a further attempt at devising a formula for use at the ordering stage. This seems important to attempt since the ordering of multiples after heavy use is established is fairly unsatisfactory in Western Australia, where books frequently take more than six months from ordering to arrival. The Acquisitions Librarian, partly because of this delay in arrival of material, is often pressured by faculty to order books "urgently." This can be done, but at double the normal cost of a book. A minor, but useful facility sought of the circulation system will be the provision of data on the use of specific "urgent" books as soon as they arrive in the library, to ascertain if the expenditure was justified. Weeding the collection takes place at present without need of the automated circulation system. It is hoped, though, that the circulation system may facilitate the process by focusing library attention on areas in need of weeding. A comparison of the catalogue master-file with the loan data will reveal subject areas where large numbers of items have not been borrowed for some time. Reasons for this lack of use can be investigated, following which weeding may take place if appropriate. Other facilities the library will seek to have the circulation system provide will include : 1. Analysis of use by floor level. This will be useful in the deployment of staff for shelving duties. 2. Analysis of use in special collections. This will be especially useful in relation to the External Collection, as books in that collection are not available to campus students, and if not used should be transferred back to the main collection. It will also be useful in monitoring the success or otherwise of newly created collections and services, for example our newly created Government publications area for which we cannot yet assess demand, and thus the appropriate staffing, or correct level of acquisitions funding. 3. Timely provision of listings of heavily used books: These books may then be considered for inclusion in the Reserve collection. Although the automated Acquisitions system has been operating at WAIT for several years, little thought has been given to the potential benefits from that system to the Circulation Librarian. On reflection some possible benefits are apparent, for example: 1. A report from the acquisitions systems on numbers of books ordered in particular subject areas would be useful to study before new shelving was ordered. 2.. Titles ordered by more than one academic department could be listed. This could be a pointer to heavy demand and possible inclusion in the Reserve Collection. It may be possible to include provision for such reports in later enhancements to the system.
54
ELIZABETH SPOOR
The systems at WAIT Library have developed as separate entities, in spite of the contrary ambitions expressed in 1970. 2 It is the intention of the Library and its computing staff to work towards integrating these systems in the next two or three years. In 1979 the achievement of a MARC-compatible catalogue master-file on the computer, and output of a COM fiche catalogue was seen; this bibliographical data base can now form a link between systems. During the next years, then, the interface may be more "system to system," but for the present it is envisaged that information will flow from Circulation to Acquisitions in the form of regular reports. It will be important for developments in the future that the Library acts in unity to make the best use o f the vast array of information now available to it.
REFERENCES 1. Cayless, C.F. "Note on the mechanization of library operations at WAIT," LASIE, 1 (January-February 1971), 2. 2. Eichinski, G. et al. "Automated acquisitions system-general description," LASIE, 3 (May-June 1973), 1.
DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
IN L~TERFACING
0364-6408/010049-06502.00/0 Copyright © 1980 Pergamon Press Ltd
A UTOMA TED SYSTEMS
POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE CIRCULATION/ACQUISITIONS INTERFACE AT THE WESTERN AUSTRALIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY LIBRARY ELIZABETH SPOOR Circulation Librarian Western Australian Institute of Technology Library South Bentley, Western Australia 6102 Australia
ABSTRACT
The automated systems at the Western Australian Institute o f Technology Library have developed as separate entities in spite o f ambitions to the contrary. The WAIT Library is working toward integrating these systems, but initial information relevant to circulation and acquisitions activities will be provided in the form o f reports issued by each system. Potential'uses o f reports from the circulation and acquisitions systems are discussed.
One major objective of an academic library must be to develop a collection which satisfies the needs of its users, and to which these users have ready access. Traditionally, the responsibility for building the collection has rested with the Acquisitions section of the library while the Circulation section has had responsibility for ensuring good access. (The responsibility for interpretation of the user's real needs has not been so clearly defined.) If the library operates as a whole, rather than as a collection of discrete parts, communication between the acquisitions and circulation sections can make the provision o f an ideal collection come nearer to reality. This article will attempt to show how the automated acquisitions and circulation systems at WAIT Library will produce timely, factual and objective information to improve this communication process. The Western Australian Institute of Technology in Perth, Western Australia, was established in 1967, and is a multidisciphnary College of Advanced Education, with a predominantly undergraduate student body o f approximately 11,000. A high proportion of these are part-time students and some are external students (i.e., studying at a distance from WAIT, through specially designed 49
50
ELIZABETH SPOOR
correspondence courses). Most students are enrolled in first degree courses, as Colleges of Advanced Education are not empowered to grant Doctoral Degrees, though they may and do offer Post-Graduate Diplomas and Masters Degrees; 11% of WAIT students are enrolled in such programmes. Library services are centralised in a multi-storey building on the main campus; there are three branch libraries which serve off-campus departments. At the time of writing the collection consists of 166,000 monograph titles, and 8,400 serial titles. The WAIT Library attempts to provide an adequate and appropriate service to all Institute students and staff, but the nature of the courses and the composition of the student body means that this service is slanted in particular directions; for example, the Library has created a special collection for the use of external students, and provides a postal loans service for them. In collection development, the absence of doctoral courses has meant that a greater emphasis could be placed on the needs of the undergraduate, and while attempts are being made to achieve a degree of excellence in coverage of certain key subjects, there has been no need for compre.hensive and costly research collections to be developed. Emphasis has been on the acquisition of a wide range of up-to-date, worthwhile material, and a vital, changing, relevant collection. In the event, of course, some of these ideals have not been achieved! From its earliest days WAIT Library was computer-orientated. At that time the computer equipment available was an ICE 1901A, used for every system on campus, so that the possibilities open to the Library were limited. Early attempts at automation concentrated on clerical activities in order to achieve greater efficiency and minimise staff costs. Achievement of a MARCcompatible computerized catalogue was identified as a major objective of the Library, but at the time that WAIT systems development commenced (in 1968) cataloguing data bases were still in the experimental stages and it was recognised that the WAIT catalogue system would take years to reach completion. The Library Management decided that other systems development should not have to wait until the catalogue objectives were fully realised. Convincing arguments were advanced for the development of an automated acquisitions system; work commenced on the system in 1969, and by the end of 1971 it was fully operational. The system is basically a financial control and a stock on-order and receipt system, keeping close control over committal and expenditure of funds. It operates off-line using the Institute's central computing facility, and relies on a once-weekly production run for printed orders (on multiple-part stationery) and for a series of reports. The clerical staff in the acquisitions section still maintain order files, so that the system supplements, rather than replaces, traditional acquisitions practices from the clerical point of view. From the beginning the system was designed to produce a large number of reports on acquisitions activity and analyses of the acquisitions data on file. The reports were for the use of three groups: first, the lnstitute's accountants were provided with up-to-date figures of Library Acquisitions committals and expenditure; second, the Acquisitions Librarian (and other concerned senior library staff) to whom the budget data was essential, but who also used the information relevant to collection development; and third, Acquisitions clerical staff. Emphasis will be placed on the information relevant to collection development, where the reports enable the Acquisitions Librarian to fred the answers to questions such as: How much of the acquisitions budget is being committed (1) each week, (2) each month, and (13) by which departments? How many orders have been placed in a specific subject area'?
Developments in the Circulation/Acquisitions Interface
51
What proportion of the budget is placed with each supplier? What books have been ordered, by specific departments or persons? What percentage of the orders are books, or films, or any other media? What is the average cost of a book to WAIT Library, (1) overall, (2) by department, and (3) by subject area? Over the years the Acquisitions System has been somewhat modified and improved. The installation of a DEC system 10 Computer at the beginning of 1978 necessitated a complete re-write of all programs and shortly after that the system was re-specified to run more efficiently. It remains a batch-mode system, as regular on-line access has proved impossible to achieve in the face of competition from teaching and administration users. Production of the reports has been simplified, and some of them have been abandoned, e.g., "reminders to suppliers" which seemed to annoy major suppliers, and to create more clerical work than was justifiable, and "analysis of delivery times" which produced inconclusive data, not very useful in assessing supplier performance. The reports and their interpretation are now so much part of the activity of the acquisitions area that work and decision-making would be impossible without them. However, the Principal Librarian and senior library staff still saw a need for more information for controlled collection development, and this need was emphasised after 1975 when funding for tertiary education in Australia was adversely affected by Government economies. The Library looked again at the feasibility of automating its loans system. System development plans at WAIT Library had from the beginning included an automated loans system, but it was not at first considered justifiable, 1 systems being thought of at that time more in relation to the automation of staff-intensive clerical operations, rather than in terms of information provision for management. It was also considered that major development activities should continue to concentrate on the complex cataloguing system. The combination of the need for more management information for the acquisition of library materials, and a greatly increased use of the library with consequent increase in loans gave the development of a computerised circulation system a different priority. In 1977 it was decided to go ahead with the development, and a further decision was made to opt for the equipment made by Automated Library Systems (ALS), a British firm. This choice was partly made with future cooperative loan schemes in mind as the two other major libraries in Perth operating automated loans systems were using ALS equipment. The ALS equipment consists of a series of Charge/Discharge terminals at which the basic loan transactions take place. These terminals operate by reading special borrower badges and book labels, produced by the manufacturer. Each label and badge contains a unique number (e.g., EC 00 70193 X) and a set of metallic spots in a particular configuration. The terminals "read" the spots and pass the number to the computer. A prerequisite for the system is the labelling of all loanable items in the Library, and the issuing of badges to all users. The equipment is so designed that it may be user-operated. In addition to the ALS equipment the Library bought a Digital Equipment Corporation PDP 11/34 minicomputer and supplied this with RSTS/E, R_MS 11 and BASIC PLUS as systems software. The PDP 11 has 96K of memory. There is on-line access to the data held on the PDP 11, but this consists only of the ALS numbers relating to borrowers and books. For bibliographic data and for personal
52
ELIZABETH SPOOR
data relating to borrowers, the system relies on overnight processing on the Institute's mainframe DEC System 10 computer. The DEC 10 holds the Library's catalogue master-file in addition to the personnel and student record files to which access is granted for the production of listings, and of overdue and recall notices. The system allows for all conventional loan activities-loans (charges). returns (discharges), reservations, recall notices and listings, overdue notices and listings, and has provision to include all special collections in the Library. At present the only special collection in the operation is the Reserve Collection. A limitation from the point of view of collection development information is that monographs only are lent through the automated system. The reports at present available from the system produce statistical data, and a variety of listings, e.g., statistics (for each day, week or month): charges, discharges, recalls, reservations, new borrowers and re-registration; these are subdivided by category of borrower (e.g., full-time academic, short course students); and listings: recalls (daily listing), overdues, special class books (e.g., listing of reserve collection, listing of books sent to bindery, alphabetical borrower listing). Earlier in this article the fact that collection development in this library has concentrated on the needs of the undergraduate, and the provision of up-to-date relevant material was emphasized. For this Library, then, the need for feedback information from the circulation system to the Acquisitions section is particularly acute. In an undergraduate collection only items which are used can be considered to justify their original purchase, or their place on the Library's shelves. It is acknowledged that assessment of use may be a subject for debate; "in library use" of material is difficult to measure though certainly valid. However circulation systems can provide some solid information on use patterns and demands which can be acted on. At this library we have been aware, in a general way, of an inability to meet the needs of some areas of the student body; this is manifest in heavy use by our students of other collections in Perth, and has been mentioned in complaints to the Library. At the same time we are aware that multiple copies have been provided on the recommendation of faculty or of Library Staff of titles which are never used. In times of shrinking budgets such apparent waste of funds is difficult to support. In the second phase of development of the circulation system the library will aim to achieve more information useful to those engaged in the selection of library materials, as well as for information relevant for formulation of circulation policies. At present a most important link to establish is that between use of books in any particular subject area, and ordering patterns of books in that area. The acquisitions budget has been moving from division by teaching department to division by subject area for some years, and although firm budgets are not established for each subject, notional ones based on past figures, cost of books in the subject area, and student numbers, are made. What is required by the Acquisitions Librarian is some confirmation (or the contrary!) that these budgets are reasonable. The Acquisitions Librarian needs to be able to link the information from: orders analysis by subject and price trend analysis by subject (derived from the acquisitions system) with use analysis by subject (derived from the Circulation System). Over the years such information will give the Library the ability to build up areas in need of expansion, and re-allocate or limit funds to those catering more than adequately for student needs. Disproportions in the ordering rate and the use rate are seen as potentially very important by library management. If the ordering rate is far higher than the use rate, faculty will need to be advised of this. There may be a variety of reasons for the low use-the books could be of the wrong level for the courses offered, the students may be neglecting their reading, or may find the
Developments in the Circulation/Acquisitions Interface
53
library too hard to use effectively. Or it may simply be that the particular subject no longer attracts student numbers, so that the provision of library materials can be at a low rate, until the subject once more becomes popular. Where use is far higher than the ordering rate, the Library can move positively to correct the balance, advising faculty of the situation and helping in book selection. Multiple-copy provision is a source of concern in this library as in many others. A formula approach adopted in the early 1970s proved to be a failure, and since then experience, intuition, and academic pressure have governed the number of copies bought. The circulation system will be able to produce listings for the Acquisitions Librarian of particular titles subjected to greater than normal use. This should be extremely useful in providing for less subjective judgements in multiple copy provision, and analysis of the data over some years may lead to a further attempt at devising a formula for use at the ordering stage. This seems important to attempt since the ordering of multiples after heavy use is established is fairly unsatisfactory in Western Australia, where books frequently take more than six months from ordering to arrival. The Acquisitions Librarian, partly because of this delay in arrival of material, is often pressured by faculty to order books "urgently." This can be done, but at double the normal cost of a book. A minor, but useful facility sought of the circulation system will be the provision of data on the use of specific "urgent" books as soon as they arrive in the library, to ascertain if the expenditure was justified. Weeding the collection takes place at present without need of the automated circulation system. It is hoped, though, that the circulation system may facilitate the process by focusing library attention on areas in need of weeding. A comparison of the catalogue master-file with the loan data will reveal subject areas where large numbers of items have not been borrowed for some time. Reasons for this lack of use can be investigated, following which weeding may take place if appropriate. Other facilities the library will seek to have the circulation system provide will include : 1. Analysis of use by floor level. This will be useful in the deployment of staff for shelving duties. 2. Analysis of use in special collections. This will be especially useful in relation to the External Collection, as books in that collection are not available to campus students, and if not used should be transferred back to the main collection. It will also be useful in monitoring the success or otherwise of newly created collections and services, for example our newly created Government publications area for which we cannot yet assess demand, and thus the appropriate staffing, or correct level of acquisitions funding. 3. Timely provision of listings of heavily used books: These books may then be considered for inclusion in the Reserve collection. Although the automated Acquisitions system has been operating at WAIT for several years, little thought has been given to the potential benefits from that system to the Circulation Librarian. On reflection some possible benefits are apparent, for example: 1. A report from the acquisitions systems on numbers of books ordered in particular subject areas would be useful to study before new shelving was ordered. 2.. Titles ordered by more than one academic department could be listed. This could be a pointer to heavy demand and possible inclusion in the Reserve Collection. It may be possible to include provision for such reports in later enhancements to the system.
54
ELIZABETH SPOOR
The systems at WAIT Library have developed as separate entities, in spite of the contrary ambitions expressed in 1970. 2 It is the intention of the Library and its computing staff to work towards integrating these systems in the next two or three years. In 1979 the achievement of a MARC-compatible catalogue master-file on the computer, and output of a COM fiche catalogue was seen; this bibliographical data base can now form a link between systems. During the next years, then, the interface may be more "system to system," but for the present it is envisaged that information will flow from Circulation to Acquisitions in the form of regular reports. It will be important for developments in the future that the Library acts in unity to make the best use o f the vast array of information now available to it.
REFERENCES 1. Cayless, C.F. "Note on the mechanization of library operations at WAIT," LASIE, 1 (January-February 1971), 2. 2. Eichinski, G. et al. "Automated acquisitions system-general description," LASIE, 3 (May-June 1973), 1.