Have you exceeded—or are you close to exceeding—your patron and item record limits? Do your reports look cluttered? Is it sometimes hard to find things in your catalog? If so, it's probably time to clean up your data! Doing so will free up space and make your collection easier to manage and search.

Library Cleanup 

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• Weed out items in your library. See what needs to go by running a Weeding List report. Then you can choose the appropriate utility to get rid of the items you want to remove.
• Genrefy. Have you considered organizing your library by genre to make it easier for your patrons to find books? Read about it on our blog.
  • Dewey or Don’t We? Dewey Decimal vs. Genrefication
  • Library Genrefication: The Do’s and Don’ts
• Also see our blog post on Tidying Up Your Library!

Record Cleanup 

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• Remove lost, discarded, or archived items. Check out the Remove Copies tab of our End of Year Procedures for easy instructions on how to do this. But if you want to save these items, be sure to do an export first!Weed out items in your library. See what needs to go by running a Weeding List report. Then you can choose the appropriate utility to get rid of the items you want to remove.
• Weed out your Transferred and Inactive patrons. Run an Inactive Patrons report to make sure you want to remove everyone who shows up on that list. Then you can run the Remove Patrons utility and select for those with the status you wish to remove.
• Consolidate multiple copies under one title using the Move Copies To This Title function in Items Management.
• Use Temporary Items for things like periodicals, so they don't clutter your long-term catalog.

Catalog (Data) Cleanup 

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• Use autofill to keep your data clean.
  • Set the terms—Autofill and Authority Control
• Clean up your terms and fields using the using Authority Control tool. . 
  • Spring Cleaning—Authority Control (Mediums and Genres)
  • Cleaning up Your Subject Tags
• Pay special attention to your Series terms and make sure they are standardized.
  Set the terms—Autofill and Authority Control
  • Spring Cleaning—Authority Control
  • Cleaning up Your Subject Tags
  • Cataloging Series and Serials (Best Practices and Series tabs)
  • Run the Fix Series utility to add series to the correct tag.
  • Run the Change Series Volume utility to make volume numbers consistent, so they sort properly.
• You don't have to do it all yourself. Consider data cleanup services such as the Mitinet MARC Update.

System Cleanup 

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• Policies. The statistics you can obtain in Alexandria are largely based on Policies. Review your policies to ensure you are collecting relevant data.
• Security. Can your patrons place holds? Can your library staff run utilities to mass remove data? Take a look at your Security groups and the permissions given to each group. Run the Operator Summary Report to see what users have access to your system!
• Sites. Did your library information change? Go to Sites Management to double check the library contact information, as well as the Researcher Notice, which displays in patron modules. (And don't forget to update your Bulletin Boards!)
• Reports. It's easy to forget what is running in the background. Review your Saved Reports so you can turn off or remove any unnecessary operations, and use your Letters preferences to update your messaging.
• Documentation. Do you keep notes on your library management and data operations? (Hidden Bulletin Boards are a great place for this!) Take the time to update your policies and procedures... for your own sake as well as for your coworkers and successors!
• More. Take a look at Beginning-of-Year Procedures and End-of-Year Procedures for other cleanup and preparation in your system!

• Consolidate multiple copies under one title using the Move Copies To This Title function in Items Management.