I’m struggling with the same concerns. Prior to my taking on my acting position, my Library stopped binding print journals so at least that’s already done. I have read articles about stopping check-in (such as Anderson & Zink, Library Collections, Acquisitions & TS, 27, 2003) and I find the thought process they went through logical and appealing. I’d be interested in hearing from other Libraries that may have instituted any such changes.

I find a lot of the time-consuming practices common in Library TS depts continue because there is a perception that some bad thing might happen if they stopped that activity. But if you consider the cost of the “bad thing” vs. the time consuming work to prevent it, the “bad thing” is often less expensive. If you stopped checking in what’s the bad thing that would happen? (There are certainly other bad things, but here is one.) You wouldn’t know for sure if you ever received a particular journal issue. How would that impact our community? A student looking for that print issue wouldn’t find it. What’s an alternative solution? Your library might have to fill an interlibrary loan for the article. I’d like to do some additional analysis of the costs, but I would be surprised if the cost of the occasional ILL request was more than the combined costs of checking in every print journal subscription and claiming every missing journal issue. Then I consider other information such as the average students’ reluctance to use print and the shrinking number of print periodicals. These 2 trends make it less likely that an ILL would be requested.

That’s how I’m thinking about these decisions. I ask what is the bad thing we’re afraid of and how do we minimize it while making significant changes in workflow that still save us time and money.

Heather Tunender

Collection and Processing Services Unit Head (acting)

California State University, Fullerton

657.278.8467

AIM: tunderbliss

From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Julie Moore
Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 12:59 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Cease claiming, checking in, binding

Dear Serial Friends,

I initiated this discussion and am interested in all points of view.

To further explain my situation ... when I came to Fresno State 5 years ago, we had a good-sized technical services with around 23 members. (It includes cataloging and acquisitions.) We have lost a significant number of people mainly due to retirements. Even one year ago, we had one cataloger (me) and four full-time staff members dedicated to serials and continuations. Now we are down to 1 of those 4 staff members remaining. We have also lost a stable of catalogers, so I am now the only full-time cataloger at Fresno State. In the past 5 years, none of the technical services job vacancies has been replaced. We are down to 10 full time members (and a few part time folks) now remaining in technical services. Every time someone leaves, we have to revisit that person's duties and divvy up the absolutely necessary activities, spreading them over the remaining staff members -- who are already completely overworked. We are to the point where we simply must stop doing some activities, whether it is claiming, binding, checking in serials ... or looking at no longer providing access to some of our collections such as maps or teacher's curriculum materials or one of our special collections or our media collection. We are really down to needing to look at pretty desperate measures. Something has to give! I am just exploring to see if this might be a possibility -- and perhaps a less harmful possibility, compared to some of the other activities we do.

This is our reality in California, thanks to our current economic crisis. The timing could not be worse for us. We have an aging technical services staff and a solid hiring freeze. I wish it were not so, but it is.

Thanks very kindly for your responses ... and I hope to hear more!

Best wishes,
Julie Moore

On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 9:43 AM, Cynthia Hsieh <chsieh@pacific.edu> wrote:

While Rick brought up a valid point, I wanted to add that cost
justification often depends on your local situation, service model, and
user pattern. What may be justified for one library may not be
justified for the other.

Cynthia Hsieh
Head of Technical Services
University Libraries
University of the Pacific
Stockton, CA 95211

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum

[mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Rick Anderson
Sent: Monday, January 18, 2010 1:22 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU

Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Cease claiming, checking in, binding

> I think if you are indifferent as to whether the paper subscriptions
you order
> arrive and indifferent to the condition of the issues over time, by
all means
> cease these activities.

The question isn't whether one cares about the receipt of paper
subscriptions. The question is whether traditional check-in and
claiming
processes make enough difference to justify their cost -- and remember
that
we're not just talking about the relatively modest direct labor cost,
but
also the much more important opportunity cost. When staff members
invest
time in the creation of records that don't matter (such as those that
catch
changes in frequency, or show that the April issue arrived on April 7)
or
when they spend time submitting claims for issues that are going to come
whether you claim them or not (or that won't come no matter how many
times
you claim), then you've got a problem. How big the problem is, and
whether
the right solution is to stop those activities, are questions that each
individual institution should investigate and answer locally. But no
one
should shy away from the question based on the suggestion that to
question
those practices constitutes indifference to one's responsibilities.
Actually, I'd argue that just the opposite is true: failure to review
the
costs and benefits of traditional practices reflects indifference to
patrons.

--
Rick Anderson
Assoc. Dir. for Scholarly Resources & Collections
Marriott Library
Univ. of Utah
rick.anderson@utah.edu
(801) 721-1687

--
Julie Renee Moore
Catalog Librarian
California State University, Fresno
julie.renee.moore@gmail.com
559-278-5813

"Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves." -- J.M. Barrie