Analyzing special collections

I spent the morning learning how to work with Voyager reports in MS Access. [Thanks to Sara Greenleaf!] My goal is to analyze what we currently have in our special collections in order to determine what areas/authors to collect.

I have worked with Access quite a lot in the past, but always with databases I had built myself.  It is a bit different to tackle finding the fields you need from so many different tables.  If not for Sara I would still be lost in that swamp.  Once that hurdle was jumped it was relatively easy.  I’ve set up queries to count the number of titles in each  LC class and dominant authors.  I can then drill down by limiting to a class.

I now have all this information at my fingertips.  Figuring out how best to use it is the next problem. Here is some data for those who are interested.

Dominant classes

• D-History
• PR-English literature
• B-Philosophy, psychology, religion (Hobart was founded as an Episcopalian college.)
• PS-American literature
• E-American history

Dominant authors

• Herbert, George, 1593-1633.
• Muratori, Lodovico Antonio, 1672-1750.
• Hubbard, Elbert, 1856-1915.
• Sismondi, J.-C.-L. Simonde de, 1773-1842.
• Scott, Walter, Sir, 1771-1832.
• Thiers, Adolphe, 1797-1877.
• Pliny, the Elder.
• MacLeish, Archibald, 1892-
• Ruskin, John, 1819-1900.

I’m going to have to contemplate this a bit to see where it takes me.