CUL materials counts as contained in this dashboard and related SQL queries consist of:
- Physical item counts (excluding microforms)
- Unique title (instance) counts of physical materials (excluding microforms)
- Unique title (instance) counts of microforms
- Unique title (instance) counts of ematerials
All efforts have been made to ensure as accurate a count as possible, but it is important to note that in a collection as large as this, there will be a certain number of discrepancies. For example, over time, material formats have been further refined or changed; ematerials acquired during the nascent period of electronic materials creation did not contain format records and these had to be assigned retrospectively; items move in and out of collections and locations so that counts are often fluid. As well, the adoption of FOLIO in 2021 led to several changes in record-keeping.
Keeping in mind these and other caveats, the materials count numbers present a broad overview of CUL collections, and are reviewed at the end of each fiscal year. As well, starting FY23/24, intermediate numbers will be computed each quarter, and if any major errors come to light, these will be rectified.
Details about physical materials identification and their classification can be found here.
As noted at the bottom of this documentation page, we use a CUL-Specific method to identify microforms. Basically, due to changing cataloging standards as well as historic conventions, three approaches need to be used to identify microforms in a way that is unique to CUL. Along with including materials that are classified as ‘h’ in the 007/00 fixed field, we also include all items that contain any of the following terms in the call number - ‘micro’, ‘film’, ‘fiche’, ‘Micro’, ‘Film’, ‘Fiche’ – or that contain the term ‘microform’ in the title.
In the case of electronic materials, we also use a CUL-specific method for identification and classification. E-materials are identified via their permanent holdings location. A location code of 'serv,remo' indicates that the material is an electronic material. To identify material format, CUL subject matter experts concluded that the best way is to first search the MARC 948 field for format, followed by the statistical code field. The former (948 field) is a pre-Folio way of classification. After the adoption of FOLIO, the statistical field has been used for this purpose. There is a group of e-materials acquired early on that did not contain a format code in the 948 field, and these have been given a MARC format code from the leader field, like other physical materials.
Further details about all material counts can be found here.