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Excelling with Excel: Advanced Excel Functions for

Collection Analysis
Denise Pan
University of Colorado Denver, [email protected]

Gabrielle Wiersma
University of Colorado Boulder

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Denise Pan and Gabrielle Wiersma, "Excelling with Excel: Advanced Excel Functions for Collection Analysis" (2013). Proceedings of
the Charleston Library Conference.
htp://dx.doi.org/10.5703/1288284315327

his document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for
additional information.
Excelling with Excel: Advanced Excel Functions for Collection Analysis
Denise Pan, Associate Director, Technical Services, University of Colorado Denver
Gabrielle Wiersma, Head of Collection Development and Assessment, University of Colorado Boulder

Abstract
Microsoft Excel offers useful features and formulas that potentially allow acquisitions and collection
development librarians to work smarter, not harder. Using journal cancellations as a workplace scenario,
the presenters will provide attendees with ideas on how to organize data and complete basic calculations
with Excel. The presenters provide examples on how to use several advanced Excel functions including
PivotTables, VLOOKUP, and select formulas. They describe the steps for importing and exporting data,
combing and comparing data from different sources, and formatting data to communicate more
effectively.

Introduction Assessment Goals

At the University of Colorado (CU), librarians The most important first step in any assessment
from CU Denver and CU Boulder campuses project is defining goals and objectives in order to
collaborate to purchase shared collections. measure progress. To demonstrate Excel, the
Through their joint acquisitions initiatives, they project goal is to identify which journal titles are
have found many opportunities to save time and candidates for cancellation from one publisher
improve efficiencies by applying Excel package. The objective is to cancel approximately
functionality to their work. The Charleston $7,000, or 8%, of the journals. This will be
Conference preconference and proceedings are accomplished by showing readers how to create a
an opportunity to share their knowledge and spreadsheet with information from various data
experiences with a wider audience. Their goal is sources, calculate cost per use, and analyze a set
to highlight Excel features and functionality with of journals based on usage. With this knowledge,
a hypothetical scenario of a serials cancellation readers could apply the same techniques to other
project with ordering and usage data. This data, such as impact factor or faculty input.
scenario was selected because it is an activity
that most libraries have completed or may need Gathering and Importing Data
to do so in the future. The step for analyzing
journal titles could be applied to other projects The next step is considering what types of data to
such as assessing patron-driven purchases, year- collect. For a serials review project, data sources
end expenditures, or serials renewals. may include payment information from the
Specifically, these proceedings describe the Integrated Library System (ILS) and Journal Citation
usefulness of the following Excel features and reports for impact factor in text format (.txt) and
functions: usage data or price lists from publishers that can be
downloaded in Excel format (.xls). If the data are
• Importing Text File Data only available as a text file, it will need to be
imported into Excel using the Text Import Wizard.
• Inserting Tables
1. To get it into Excel, click on the Data tab
• Highlighting and Removing Duplicates
• VLOOKUP and IFERROR 2. Get External Data  From Text

• Conditional Formatting 3. Select the file you want to import

• PivotTables and PivotCharts 4. The Text Import Wizard will open after
you select a file

Copyright of this contribution remains in the name of the author(s).

576 Charleston Conference Proceedings 2013 http://dx.doi.org/10.5703/1288284315327
 Figure 1. Importing Data

Figure 2. Inserting a Table

Inserting Tables Highlight and Remove Duplicates

An easy way to format your data is to convert it to Data sources may have duplicate values that need
a table. Even though it seems like data entered in to be identified and removed. In the ILS data, the
an Excel spreadsheet is already a table, converting journal title, order record numbers, and ISSNs
data into a table is actually a separate process. should be unique values versus the subject area,
assigned collection development librarian, fund,
By converting data into a table, Excel and even cost may be repeated. Use Conditional
automatically creates a relationship between the Formatting to highlight duplicate values within a
data and automatically adds several features that column.
will make it easier to format and analyze the
worksheet. Tables eliminate the need to manually 1. Highlight the title and order record
change the look and feel of spreadsheets, or columns.

2. Select Conditional formatting  Highlight

adding filters to the top row. Tables also create

Cell Rules  Duplicate Values and select

Total Rows in the last row of a table which are
useful for inserting many simple formulas such as
subtotals (sum), average, counts, minimum(min), a color scheme.
and maximum (max).
3. Manually delete the duplicate values.
1. To create a table in Excel, click on the Once deleted, the unique value will no
Insert tab Table longer be highlighted. Alternatively, if
there are many duplicates, use the
2. Select the cells that have data Remove Duplicates function in Excel.

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 Figure 3. Highlight Duplicates with Conditional Formatting and Remove
Duplicates with Table Tools

Figure 4. VLOOKUP

VLOOKUP 2. Table_Array tells Excel where to look for

the data (drag to select the cells to
For a journal cancellation project you often want search)
to connect data from different sources. For
example, a title list with pricing information from 3. Col_Index_Number is the number of the
a publisher or ILS data with COUNTER usage stats. column you want to pull data from and
VLOOKUP is a formula that you can use to look up display in your spreadsheet (count the
values in a list or table. It searches for a value in a columns from the ISSN [1] to the YTD
table and returns a corresponding value in total [14])
another column in the same row. VLOOKUP works
best if there is a unique identifier to match data 4. Range lookup
from different spreadsheets. Fortunately, most ILS
a. TRUE= approximate match (this
data, title lists from publishers, and COUNTER
is useful for titles or other fields
usage reports include ISSNs which can be used as
that might have slight variation)
a match point to connect the data. Using the ISSN
as the unique lookup value, VLOOKUP can find b. FALSE= exact match (this is useful
and enter the YTD usage statistics from a if you only want an exact match
COUNTER JR1 report into a spreadsheet with your
ILS data. In Excel, click on the Formulas tab 
and works well if you are using a

Lookup & Reference  VLOOKUP

numerical match point like ISSN)

VLOOKUP could also be used to connect

1. lookup_value is the unique identifier that additional data like impact factor or a numerical
is in both spreadsheets (ISSN) ranking from faculty (e.g., 1 = Essential/core, do
not cut; 2 = Important, only cut if absolutely

578 Charleston Conference Proceedings 2013

 Figure 5. Cost-Per-Use Using IFERROR

Figure 6. IFERROR formula

necessary; 3 = Less important, used infrequently b. Value_if_error include any value

and could be cut). (–, n/a) or select the subscription
cost
Calculating Cost Per Use with IFERROR
Conditional Formatting
Cost-per-use is one metric that can be useful for
evaluating journal packages. Excel can calculate Conditional formatting can also be used to
cost per use by dividing the subscription costs by highlight and graphically present data. For
the YTD usage statistics. However, if a journal had example, Excel can create data bars that
0 use, Excel will display an error message, #DIV/0! represent how much each journal title costs
because it cannot divide the subscription costs by compared to the total subscription costs.
0. This error message can be interpreted as a title Conditional formatting also contains various icons
with zero use, but it is also possible to use another that can be used to visually represent data
Excel formula called IFERROR to calculate cost per intervals. For example, red, yellow, and green
use and change the display of the error message. icons can be added to cost per use to indicate high
For example, IFERROR can display another value (>$30+), medium ($11–29), and low values (<$10)
like n/a, –, or the subscription cost instead of compared to average interlibrary loan or pay-per-
displaying #DIV/0!. view article costs. It can also highlight the

1. In Excel, click on the Formulas tab 

top/bottom which is useful for identifying the

Logical  IFERROR
most expensive journals and the journals with the
highest cost-per-use, which would be likely
candidates for cancellation. Adding graphs and
a. Value include the formula
icons to data helps quickly identify patterns and
=subscription costs/use
interpret the data without having to create
separate graphs or charts.

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 Figure 7. Conditional Formatting

PivotTables • Mind your column headings (carefully

copy and paste)
A PivotTable report is an interactive way to
summarize large amounts of data very quickly. • No blank rows or column—must provide
Some notable examples include: column names
With PivotTables, researchers are able to see
• Subtotal and summarize data by comparisons, patterns, and trends to answer
categories and subcategories unanticipated questions about their data. Using
• Expand and collapse levels of data to the scenario of a journal cancellation project, the
focus results presenters demonstrated how to use PivotTables
to summarize multiple years of usage data and
• Drill down to details from the summary analyze usage trends. Specifically, PivotTables can
data be created to answer these questions:
Before building a PivotTable report, however, data
should be in an Excel worksheet in a list or table • What is the total usage for all journals by
format. It is essential that the data are set up year?
correctly. Otherwise, the PivotTables will not • What is the use for each journal title by
work. The presenters suggested creating an “All year?
Data” worksheet that combined multiple years of
COUNTER JR1 usage data that shows the number • Which titles had zero uses?
of successful full-text article requests for journals • Which titles were used the most?
into one Excel spreadsheet. Please keep the
following tips in mind before creating an “All Summary by Year PivotTable
Data” worksheet with multiple years of JR1 usage
The first example, Summary by Year PivotTable,
data.
can be used to answer the question “What is the
• Keep a copy of original source data in total usage for all journals by year.” This
workbook PivotTable summarizes usage data for each year.
The years can be expanded to see the individual
• Differentiate data by adding “Year” journal titles and their usage for that year. For
column example, in the sample data there was no use for
• Do not copy “Total for all journals” row— Aerospace Engineering in 2010. In that same year,
inflates usage the title Art Review had 96 total uses, 16 were
HTML and 80 were for PDF.
• Name each column in row 1 (create
header)

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 Figure 8. Summary by Year

Figure 9. Use by Title

Use by Title PivotTable journal title Chemical Reaction had 0 uses in 2

years, 2010 and 2013.
The Use by Title PivotTable can answer the
question “What is the use for each journal title by Top 10 Titles PivotTable
year?” Start by making a copy of the Summary by
Year worksheet and renaming it as Use by Title. By The fourth PivotTable, Top 10 Titles PivotTable,
pivoting or flipping the year and title, to title and answers the question “Which journal titles were
year, 4 years of usage can be displayed for Art used the most?” Value filters can be used to
Review. identify the Top 10 journal titles by total number
of successful full-text article requests by YTD total.
Zero Use Titles PivotTable Create a copy of the Zero Use Title report and
rename as Top 10 Titles. Use the report filter to
To answer the question, “Which journal titles select all except 0 and blank. Click on the filter
were not used?” try creating a Zero Use Titles icon on the row labels, which displays a drop
PivotTable. Make a copy of the report you just down for Value filters. Top 10 is at the bottom of
made and rename it as Zero Use Titles. Use a the list. In the Top 10 filter window, change the
report filter to select journal titles with 0 uses by drop down from Count of Title to Sum of YTD
clicking on the report filter icon. Deselect all, Total.
check 0, and click OK. In the sample data, the

Techie Issues 581

 Figure 10. Zero Use Titles

Figure 11. Top 10 Titles

Figure 12. Insert PivotChart

PivotCharts When we create a PivotTable, Excel automatically

creates a PivotChart.
As the saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand
words.” Charts provide a visual representation of 1. Click the PivotTable to display the
data. They show big-picture trends and PivotTable Tools, and the Options tab.
relationships between different series of data in a
graphical format. Similarly, PivotChart can help 2. Click PivotChart.
you see comparisons and patterns from
3. In the Insert Chart dialog box, click the
PivotTable report summary data. To demonstrate
Column chart type and click OK. The
PivotTables, we analyzed the usage data from a
Column chart is useful for showing data
fictitious journal package.
changes over a period of time or for
illustrating comparisons.

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 Figure 13. PivotChart

The source data for a PivotChart is the PivotTable. “Excelling with Excel: Advanced Excel Functions
Any changes to the field layout and data in the for Collection Analysis” proceedings are intended
associated PivotTable report is immediately to highlight the application of Excel in acquisitions
reflected in the PivotChart report. In addition, a and collection development activities. For more
PivotChart can be created manually from scratch details on procedures, see the slides posted on
the same way you create PivotTable. the online program page for this presentation at
http://sched.co/15Azgp.
Conclusion
Far from a comprehensive description or
instructions on Excel features and functions, the

Techie Issues 583