Viewing Age of Collection Reports

To view these reports, you must be authorized for function 14 (Web Collection Development reports). See Permissions Used by Sierra for more information.

The Age of Collection report provides a decade-by-decade count of publication dates for bibliographic records in the collection, grouped by call number range. The system checks for call numbers in attached item records. Items coded as withdrawn or suppressed are checked. Deleted items are not checked. If there are no item record call numbers, the call number in the bibliographic record is used. (See "How the System Counts Call Numbers" below for more detail.) Call Number ranges are defined by entries in your library's SCAT (Statistical CATegories) table.

The publication date is taken from the Innovative 'p' tagged field. If the field contains multiple dates, the system uses the first date. Date ranges are grouped into decades with a separate count for each of the ten most recent decades. All records with publication dates before the ten most recent decades are reported together.

To view the Age of Collection reports:

  1. Choose Age of Coll from the reports menu.
  2. Choose Age of Collection from the reports menu and choose Submit.
  3. You can calculate and save reports on the system, and retrieve them at any time. To view an existing report, choose the report from the drop-down list of Available Reports and choose View.
    • To view the report in order of location by descending order, choose Reverse.
    • To view the report in order of location by ascending order, choose Sort by locations.
  4. To create a new report, choose a location from the Locations Served drop-down list. Choose a Scat table to use, and then choose Recalculate.
    • To create the report in order of location by descending order, choose Reverse.
    • To create the report in order of location by ascending order, choose Sort by locations.
Creating Collection Reports

To create a new report, the system examines every bibliographic record in the database, which can take several hours. You can create only one Collection Development or Age of Collection report at a time. You cannot create a Collection Development report and an Age of Collection report simultaneously. Completed reports are saved to the system. To view a completed report, select it from the list of Available Reports.

How the System Counts Call Numbers

The system counts call numbers differently depending on the existence of the AGENCY field. The AGENCY field is set up only on sites with the Consortium Management Extensions.

For sites without the AGENCY field:

  • If no Locations Served is specified, the report checks all item records attached to the bibliographic record for a call number before looking to the bibliographic record for a call number.
  • If a Locations Served is specified, the report looks for the first item record with a call number. If the first item record with a call number does not match the specified Locations Served, or if there is no item record that both matches the Locations Served and has a call number, the report uses the bibliographic record call number.

For sites with the AGENCY field:

  • If there is no item record matching the AGENCY field, the report uses the call number (if present) from the bibliographic record.
  • The AGENCY field overrides the Locations Served setting.
  • The report uses the call number found in the first item record that matches the selected AGENCY field. If the first matching item record found does not have a call number, the report uses the bibliographic record call number.
  • Order records are not analyzed by any report incorporating the AGENCY field.
  1. To delete a report, choose the report from the dropdown list of Available Reports and choose Remove.