Re: dropping serial check-in? Max Shenk 10 Aug 2004 18:39 UTC
I think what amazes me, Rick, is that this hasn't risen up and bitten you hard once or more. It often seems like the issue of a journal that a student wants most NOW is the one that is somehow missing and has fallen through all the cracks. I think what you're hearing from a lot of people on the list is that they would feel uncomfortable working without the safety net of check-in, claims, etc. I just keep coming back to the same thing: how do students-faculty-etc react when they need an item IMMEDIATELY and you tell them you not only have no way of knowing if it's being used or was stolen (par for the course in serials) but in fact have no way of knowing if you ever even received it? To me, part of the check-in process is about the CYA factor. As overstated, just because an issue has been checked in, that doesn't mean it's available. Even bound volumes suffer from the occasional ignorant patron who has to surgically remove the article they want instead of just sticking a few dimes in the copier. Check in is no indicator of availability... still, I feel that there IS a certain comfort level in being able to say "Well, we own it; I checked it in" or "It was received; here's proof." At least then the student gets a more concrete answer than "I don't know, and that's just the way it is." Fascinating. Max Shenk Periodicals Assistant Montgomery County Community College Library Blue Bell, PA 215-641-6597 >>> rickand@UNR.EDU 08/10/04 10:48 AM >>> Susan poses perfectly some reasonable questions here: >(i.e. you are apparently > not concerned > about archiving your print subscriptions). Actually, that's not exactly true. We do care about about keeping (which I assume is what you mean by "archiving") our print subscriptions. But we also care about maintaining our online content, which is much more expensive and far more heavily used by our patrons. We can't do both equally well, so we're trying to focus our efforts where they'll do the most good. > 1. What do your auditors think about this? Maybe a better question would be, what would auditors think to see my staff spending hours tracking down changes in publication patterns or generating third claims while online access goes unregistered and online access problems unresolved? Scary as they may be, auditors are not God, and cannot produce blood from a stone. I have 2.5 people managing the purchases from a $1.8 million serials budget. If they want the Serials Department to closely manage every item it purchases, they'll have to dramatically increase my staffing levels. If they don't want to do that, then the most responsible thing I can do is have my existing staff focus their efforts where they'll do our patrons the most good: on the most high-use and expensive materials, most of which are online. Frankly, I can't imagine an auditor wanting me to do things any other way. > 2. If the print titles that you are buying are not worth > archiving, why > are you bothering to buy them? Good question. In most cases, we're buying them because it's worth the money to have them in the collection, even if it isn't worth the money to manage them carefully. (In some cases we're buying them because campus politics requires it.) Remember that most journal issues arrive on time and without problems; abandoning check-in doesn't lead to a cessation in receipts. There's also a very basic management principle at work here: not everything worth doing is worth doing well. Some things need to be done, but should be done in a quick-and-dirty way so as to free up one's time for more important and consequential tasks. Management of most of our print titles falls under that category. ---- Rick Anderson Dir. of Resource Acquisition University of Nevada, Reno Libraries (775) 784-6500 x273 rickand@unr.edu