Facilitating resource allocation decision through bibliomining: the case of UTM's library

Library has vastly developed and demand from the users, institutions, international organization needs and technology advancement has changed the library planning and decision making approach in many ways including library budgeting, human resource and infrastructure allocations. This research described (a) the investigation undertaken to examine the characteristics of data from data reservoirs regarding user/patron information and circulation information. (b) The information seeking to explore the patterns and trends among these data reservoirs using data mining analysis with about 957,224 borrowing history and overall 31,052 registered readers and 139,195 title author of books from the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia library since 2008 to 2010. (c) To study how constructed patterns and trends generate informed decisions on resource allocation for circulation function by using cluster analysis, frequency statistics, averages and aggregates and market basket analysis algorithm. This thesis highlights the finding of a research using data mining technique (CRISP-DM) to explore the potentials of the bibliographic data of an academic library. With nearly 1 million records of collection in various formats, the Library of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia has been chosen as the case study for the research. The data mining technique was adopted to explore the relationship among statistically patterned and clustered bibliographic data. Bibliomining are tools that can visualize how libraries manage their costs, staff activity, customer service, user needs, marketing, popular books, circulation, reference transaction, quality of collection, educational programs etc. Similar data mining techniques are suggested to be employed in different library settings and even enterprises as to make more effective use of organizational resources

Knowledge Discovery in a Review of Monograph Acquisitions at an Academic Health Sciences Library

This study evaluates monograph acquisition decisions at an academic health sciences library using circulation and acquisitions data. The goal was to provide insight regarding how to allocate library funds to support research and education in disciplines of interest to the library user base. Data analysis revealed that allocations in 13 subject areas should be reviewed as the cost of circulation was greater than the average cost of circulation of the sample and the average cost of monographs was higher in these subject areas than the average cost of monographs in the sample. In contrast, 13 subjects returned cost of circulation rates lower than the average cost of circulation of the sample. These subjects merit stable budget allocation or increased allocation depending upon collection needs. Overall, this study found that this library is allocating a majority of resources to subjects with above average rates of use

Determining the Data Needs for Decision Making in Public Libraries

Library decision makers evaluate community needs and library capabilities in order to select the appropriate services offered by their particular institution. Evaluations of the programs and services may indicate that some are ineffective or inefficient, or that formerly popular services are no longer needed. The internal and external conditions used for decision making change. Monitoring these conditions and evaluations allows the library to make new decisions that maintain its relevance to the community. Administrators must have ready access to appropriate data that will give them the information they need for library decision making. Today’s computer-based libraries accumulate electronic data in their integrated library systems (ILS) and other operational databases; however, these systems do not provide tools for examining the data to reveal trends and patterns, nor do they have any means of integrating important information from other programs and files where the data are stored in incompatible formats. These restrictions are overcome by use of a data warehouse and a set of analytical software tools, forming a decision support system. The data warehouse must be tailored to specific needs and users to succeed. Libraries that wish to pursue decision support can begin by performing a needs analysis to determine the most important use of the proposed warehouse and to identify the data elements needed to support this use. The purpose of this study is to complete the needs analysis phase for a data warehouse for a certain public library that is interested in using its electronic data for data mining and other analytical processes. This study is applied research. Data on users’ needs were collected through two rounds of face-to-face interviews. Participants were selected purposively. The phase one interviews were semi-structured, designed to discover the uses of the data warehouse, and then what data were required for those uses. The phase two interviews were structured, and presented selected data elements from the ILS to interviewees who were asked to evaluate how they would use each element in decision making. Analysis of these interviews showed that the library needs data from sources that vary in physical format, in summary levels, and in data definitions. The library should construct data marts, carefully designed for future integration into a data warehouse. The only data source that is ready for a data mart is the bibliographic database of the integrated library system. Entities and relationships from the ILS are identified for a circulation data mart. The entities and their attributes are described. A second data mart is suggested for integrating vendor reports for the online databases. Vendor reports vary widely in how they define their variables and in the summary levels of their statistics. Unified data definitions need to be created for the variables of importance so that online database usage may be compared with other data on use of library resources, reflected in the circulation data mart. Administrators need data to address a number of other decision situations. These decisions require data from other library sources that are not optimized for data warehousing, or that are external to the library. Suggestions are made for future development of data marts using these sources. The study concludes by recommending that libraries wishing to undertake similar studies begin with a pre-assessment of the entire institution, its data sources, and its management structure, conducted by a consultant. The needs assessment itself should include a focus group session in addition to the interviews

Annual Report 1998-1999

An administrative report of statistics and information pertaining to the University of North Florida Thomas G. Carpenter Library for the years 1998-1999.The report includes summaries and charts on library budgets, library collection, serials and cataloging workloads, circulation, interlibrary loan, and public services

Health Sciences Collection Development: An Overview of Fundamental Knowledge and Practices (2nd Edition)

This Open Access work from the Medical Library Association Collection Development Caucus provides an overview of the responsibilities and tasks involved in the development and management of health sciences collections. Readers can explore topics in greater detail through references at the end of each chapter. You can access the most up-to-date version of this work at https://doi.org/10.21974/1tsq-na6

Exploring the value of reading lists to academic communities: an analysis of potential and perceived value to partners in reading list provision

This research investigated the evolving value of recommended reading lists to academic libraries and the communities that they serve. It examined the possibility of extending Library use of reading lists through new information extracted from associating online reading list data with Library circulation data in a Reading List Collection Use database. Potential information that can be generated on the utility of Library provision for targeted sectors of the Library’s taught-course market was identified. Possible collection management and academic support uses were suggested for such information generated from data already held on university computer systems. Factors that influence the use of materials on reading lists were further explored. Recognising that availability of recommended reading system data is wholly dependent on lecturer participation in online reading list provision, research was conducted on the perceived value of the Library/lecturer partnership for this purpose. Focus groups were conducted exploring the use and barriers to use of reading lists in the community. Analysis of focus group data indicated some lecturer perception that the Library/lecturer partnership for online reading list provision was imbalanced to favour Library objectives at lecturer expense. Problems of information and communication shortfalls were identified, and suggestions made for possible Library approaches in overcoming barriers to cooperative reading list provision and use

The collection development manual of the Boston University Medical Center Alumni Medical Library

This publication represents the first Collection Development Manual (CDM) for the Alumni Medical Library. At the Alumni Medical Library, the Manual is used as a working reference for librarians; but the Library also uses this policy document to evaluate the effectiveness of its collection activities, and for the development of cooperative programs and services within Boston University, Boston Library Consortium, Massachusetts Health Sciences Network (MaHSLIN), NorthEast Regional Libraries (NERL). Librarians use the CDM as a model for their own collection development policymaking and planning. In collaboration with Alumni Medical Library, the Charles River Campus Libraries (Mugar, Law, Theology) review the policies in this document to determine collection boundaries