Further database downsizing

Earlier this year more than 300,000 bibliographic records were removed from the NHU-PAC in a weeding of records that were in the database at least 5 years and had no library holdings.  Another reduction of similar size will take place over the summer as holdings from UNH Durham are removed.  This is being done at the request of the folks at UNH, who set up a mechanism for New Hampshire libraries to request materials directly from their catalog years ago but continue to be bothered by e-mail requests from libraries who found something in the NHU-PAC held by UNH.  (See our college ILL page for information about how to set up an account with UNH and other colleges and universities in New Hampshire.)

The UNH Durham holdings in the NHU-PAC haven't been maintained for a dozen years.  No holdings have been added or removed for UNH since 2005 so what's in the NHU-PAC is far from an accurate representation of what the library has.  It's also been many years since UNH Durham participated in the NHAIS ILL program--that's why you've never seen a check box next to the location when selecting a lender string.

There are 541,728 UNH Durham holdings currently in the NHU-PAC.  More than 300,000 of them are unique, leaving many "orphaned" bibliographic records once the holdings are removed.  The holdings and any records without holdings (provided they've been in the NHU-PAC at least 5 years) will be removed from the database this summer.

As with the weeding done earlier this year, this change should help streamline search results and make the NHU-PAC easier to maintain.  Having a smaller database should also save time and money when the NHU-PAC is moved to a new system.

Titles from academic libraries make up a small portion of the ILL materials carried by the State Library vans--about 3 percent during last fall's survey.  Still, we're grateful New Hampshire's institutions of higher learning are willing to make their materials available to other New Hampshire libraries through ILL.  If you have patrons doing scholarly research or just can't find what you're looking for in the NHU-PAC, check OCLC's WorldCat database.  You'll find holdings of UNH Durham and other Granite State colleges and universities listed there; you can then consult our college ILL page to see how to request materials from a particular site.