Title Normalization & Quality Control: Making Excel Work for You and Not the Other Way Around
Abstract
Every year, the Continuing Resources & Database Management Division systematically renews the journal and serial subscriptions for the Library.There are many moving parts resulting in a multi-step, multi-month workflow. This past 2018 renewal season, I streamlined the process in two innovative ways: title normalization and using the IF function in Excel as a quality control step. I began by cleaning the data to normalize the titles. After completing a rigorous vLookUp function, I added a quality control step with an IF function to ensure that the matches were accurate. Because I took the time to standardize and normalize my data at the beginning of this process, I could create a better, more inclusive formula. Ultimately, I did not have to manually check hundreds of titles because I engineered Excel to do it for me. This saved time and money in meeting the needs of the users and researchers here at McKeldin Library.
Notes
Every year, the Continuing Resources & Database Management Division systematically renews the journal and serial subscriptions for the Library.There are many moving parts resulting in a multi-step, multi-month workflow. This past 2018 renewal season, I streamlined the process in two innovative ways: title normalization and using the IF function in Excel as a quality control step. I began by cleaning the data to normalize the titles. After completing a rigorous vLookUp function, I added a quality control step with an IF function to ensure that the matches were accurate. Because I took the time to standardize and normalize my data at the beginning of this process, I could create a better, more inclusive formula. Ultimately, I did not have to manually check hundreds of titles because I engineered Excel to do it for me. This saved time and money in meeting the needs of the users and researchers here at McKeldin Library.