[Wactclc-alma] Analytics R & D for a Friday afternoon - AVG and MEDIAN publication date by LC / Dewey Classification

Guidry, Wade WadeG at bigbend.edu
Fri Dec 15 16:12:01 PST 2017


Thanks for that feedback, Paula. I knew someone out there would know more than me about the quality and use of the various date fields :)

Any chance that using 'start date' would skew results down in any way? For example, don't journals often have a start date associated with an original issue date, which might go back quite a ways?

Though, that might only be applicable where bound journals have been cataloged with an LC or dewey call number. I don't know if people catalog their current issue collections with categorized call numbers.

I do know that lots of titles fall into the 'unknown' call number classification, presumably because lots of things don't get call numbers (or are from electronic collections)

I think I could just roll all the avg / median columns for all dates into a single report, so you could see them side by side.

And it would be easy enough to add filters for resource type, so that you could look just at books, for example (which is probably where this report would be most useful).





Wade Guidry
Library Consortium Services Manager, WACTCLC
wadeg at bigbend.edu<mailto:wadeg at bigbend.edu>
(509) 760-4474


From: Wactclc-alma [mailto:wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu] On Behalf Of Paula Laine
Sent: Friday, December 15, 2017 3:47 PM
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>
Subject: Re: [Wactclc-alma] Analytics R & D for a Friday afternoon - AVG and MEDIAN publication date by LC / Dewey Classification

I compared the 3 pub dates the bib data and I would suggest looking at the start date (Date 1). For the majority of the records it should work.
I did a query for all 3 dates for books in the stacks. Begin Pub date, end pub date, publication date.
Compare the data from all three. Many of my records do not have a date 2 and as you mentioned the publication date has lots of extra stuff in it.

[cid:image004.png at 01D375BF.6FB4A770]

I checked a couple of bib records when the "end date" date 2 is newer than the "begin date" date 1. My data looks like the begin date would be the best. Looking at the OCLC cataloging guidelines date 2 was sometimes used for copyright date or other things.

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From: Wactclc-alma [mailto:wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu] On Behalf Of Guidry, Wade
Sent: Friday, December 15, 2017 3:15 PM
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>>
Subject: [Wactclc-alma] Analytics R & D for a Friday afternoon - AVG and MEDIAN publication date by LC / Dewey Classification

BBCC has been after an analytics report to show average publication date by call number classification.

Between John, Shellie and myself, we've come up with a few reports that get at that information.

There are currently 4 reports in Shared Folders / Community / Consortia / WACTCLC related to this goal.

2 of the reports (one each for LC and Dewey) use "End Publication Date"

2 of the reports (again, one each for LC and Dewey) use "Publication Date"

All reports calculate both an AVG and a MEDIAN publication date for each call number category.

Because the MARC data in both "End Publication Date" and "Publication Date" are inconsistently cataloged, and often include text, the formulas for those columns attempt to do some cleanup on the data, in addition to calculating the AVGs and MEDIANs. Because of the cleanup done by the formulas, not all titles will be included in the calculation.

The formulas are a bit too complex to try to explain in an email. But if you open the reports in your environment, you'll see the results for your collection.

The reports aren't going to be 100% accurate, simply due to the limitations of the MARC data. But the results should provide some information.


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[Title: Big Bend Community College Logo]

Wade Guidry
Library Consortium Services Manager
Big Bend Community College
wadeg at bigbend.edu<mailto:wadeg at bigbend.edu>

509.760.4474
www.bigbend.edu<http://www.bigbend.edu>

Big Bend Community College * 7662 Chanute Street NE * Moses Lake, WA 98837-3299



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