GEN: BenchMARC

[Toni Koontz <akoontz@CDEDUCATION.ORG>]

Since I will be gone for a couple of days, I decided to post the only answer
I got from otheres I queried on using BenchMARC;


 Toni,
I have been experimenting with Benchmark since I am a first year media
specialist and I think it is a great tool. Liberty High School has about
650 students. I am using it for my GBE goal of building the collection.
Its usefulness is only as good as your cataloging consistency.  For
example, when I ran the first comparison we had over 2000 items in an
"other" category.  It measures fiction, nonfiction by dewey decimal,
biography and easy books.  Our biography is catalogued "92" not "B" and
so it doesn't work for that section very well.  If you pay for it and
your catalog is in good shape, you can learn from it where the holes are
and where the oldest books are.  It does tell you what is out of place
in your library.  Part of the 2000 items in "other" were fiction books
catalogued "FIC" rather than "F."  Once I fixed that by using
MarcMagician, the results on our fiction section were more accurate.
The other items in that "other" category are equipment and videos.  All
overheads, many cards, tape recorders, etc. are catalogued here.
Benchmark doesn't compare these items, so it puts them in that catagory,
which doesn't hurt a thing.  Without being here a whole year, the
Benchmark program has given me the information I need to buy books where
the library needs them the most.  I think that you have to weigh which
is more important to you with your funds for this year.  Some librarians
buy where the teachers need books disregarding other sections of the
library which may be in poor shape.  They argue, "Why spend money on
books that no one is going to use?"  On the other hand if having a
well-rounded library is more important, say because a SACS review is in
the near future, you may consider the cost more worthwhile.  I think the
cost is reasonable for one year, but I probably won't renew it every
year.  We had some technical support money which was a "new pot of
money" which may not be there next year.  If it's not, I'll just use my
reports from this year to continue to update the collection.  Teacher
requests come first to me and then the rest of my money I'll spend
updating a few sections at a time.  I hope this is helpful for you and
your comrade.

Dawn Sheriff
Library Media Specialist
Liberty High School
319 Summit Drive
Liberty, SC 29657
(864) 850-3530 ext.119
sherifda@pickens.k12.sc.us



Toni Koontz, Library Media Specialist
St. Charles Preparatory School
Columbus, OH
akoontz@cdeducation.org
Carpe Diem

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