Als Faq

1

NCES/ALS 2010 Q&A

Q1. Why do you ask for a count of staff in Fall 2010 at the start of FY 09-10, and ask for expenditures on staff in the previous fiscal year, 09-10?

A1. This is done to facilitate reporting. It is not new in 2010, but has been done for many years on the ALS form.

The rationale for using two different time frames is that the respondent can easily obtain an accurate count of existing staff at the time of the reporting (Fall 10), whereas it might be difficult to come up with an accurate number of staff employed during an entire fiscal year. Expenditures, however, need to be reported for the fiscal year 2010. NCES recognizes that the two figures are from different years and takes that fact into account in any use of the data.

Q2. Where do we report expenditures for electronic journals and electronic indexing/abstracting services available on the Internet?

A2. Report them in item 303, with all other expenditures that are ongoing commitments. Report them also in item 304 (electronic serials).

Q3. Why do you no longer request a title count in Library Collections? This has been done for many years.

A3. The 2010 form requests a volume count only to simplify reporting. This change seemed logical in view of the recent focus on access rather than on ownership. Also, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has requested only a volume count from its members for many years.

Q4. How do we report circulation of electronic reserves?

A4. Report whatever figure you use locally to monitor use of these items.