1. Is It Shelf Reading or Inventory?
Linda Musser and Lee Ann Nolan
Pennsylvania State University
June 2009

2. Overview and background
The Earth and Mineral Sciences Library is a branch library of the Pennsylvania State University. In 2008, an inventory of the collection was undertaken . (It had been over a quarter century since the last inventory.) There were ~74,000 items housed on shelves in the general collection. Many errors were corrected. Missing rate was .12%.

3. Why inventory? Locate mis-shelved materials Correct errors
Identify missing items
Provide accurate insurance data
Improve collection development decision making
Save time in the future

4. The process… We chose not to use the inventory wizard in Unicorn.
Lack of handheld scanner
Requires lots of handling of items
Process doesn’t identify certain errors (e.g., mis-shelved items and some call number problems)
Not familiar with the process to run the various reports
Rather, we generated shelflists of items not currently checked out.

5. Pros and cons … Pros: Cons: Easily done in-house
Required no special hardware
We could control the list sizes
Minimal physical, repetitive activity
Mirrored shelf reading process  accomplished same goal
Familiarized staff with Directors Station
Paper and ink consumption
No increase in inventory counter in record
Staff time consumed to prepare lists

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16. Checking the shelf against the list
Problem items are identified and brought to staff to determine and resolve problems.
Missing items on the list are searched for three additional times before being marked as missing since they often turn up later in the inventory process.

17. Problems encountered with process
There is no option to view or download data from Director’s Station in call number order.

18. Inability to sort volumes, issue numbers, or sheet numbers.
Problems encountered with process
Inability to sort volumes, issue numbers, or sheet numbers.

19. Problems encountered with process
Pulling items by the predetermined call number ranges can lead to a large number of items being pulled. Be careful of the gaps and overlaps in the predetermined call number ranges.

20. Types of problems identified
Un-barcoded items
Mis-shelved items
Mislabeled items
Catalog errors
“Phantom” copies of items
Items not listed in the catalog
Items belonging to other libraries
Items that are missing

21. Example of catalog error
Home Location / Shelf Location mismatches
External mismatches :
Found books belonging to Annex Storage because the location label had fallen off.
Internal mismatches:
Items had correct Home Location but wrong Shelf Location (e.g., showed STACKS-EM but were actually housed in MAPS-EM).

22. Other types of catalog errors
Call number incorrect in the catalog (Title errors were occasionally obvious as well) Sorting parameters incorrect in the catalog (e.g., problems with how the call numbers sorted for sets and periodicals due to errors in subfielding) Class scheme incorrect (e.g., Dewey instead of LC) Auto-barcodes (i.e., hyphenated barcodes) – “phantom items”

23. Lessons Learned
Print out only the amount of items for 1-2 days of work.
Be alert for time delay of Directors Station data.
Doesn’t fix everything (i.e., human error remains).
Faster than standard shelf reading.
Does not add to inventory counter in Workflows.
An inventory is eminently do-able!

24. Questions to consider Do the benefits outweigh the costs?
Should the inventory process replace traditional shelf reading?

25. Acknowledgements
Sherry Roth, of the Earth and Mineral Sciences Library, managed much of the inventory process and contributed greatly to this project. Jamison Conley for assisting with the sorting formula. The many employees of the EMS Library who diligently looked at every item on our shelves.