Re: Standard Reference and ILL Source Falling into the Cracks Janie Jones 09 Mar 2007 17:03 UTC
I am adding my voice to the collective; a wiki certainly would be better than nothing! Janie Jones -----Original Message----- From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Jesse Holden Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 3:16 PM To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Standard Reference and ILL Source Falling into the Cracks Depending on how much collective interest there is for this resource, it could be set it up online as a wiki. Then it could be updated and edited in real-time. Perhaps the number of responses to this idea could be used to gauge whether or not there is a critical mass of interested practitioners? Jesse Holden Ordering Librarian Stanford University Libraries Leland Alkire wrote: > We just received word from Thomson Gale that the monograph Periodical > Title Abbreviations, just issued in its 17th edition and containing > over 240,000 cryptic short forms and their full titles, will be > discontinued once this latest press run (January '07) is exhausted. > Dispite urgings to do so, Thomson Gale does not plan to issue the > work in digital form. The issue at Thomson Gale appears to be one > of "no big bucks involved so why should we bother?" A common story > in publishing these days. > > PTA has been of value to reference and ILL librarians for over 30 > years in larger research institutions and other libraries. It would > be a shame if it were to die without an effort to find another way to > continue the service that it has provided. > > I have been the editor of this work since the 1970's and hold the > copyright. Any ideas out there about where I should take this > reference source next? We could simply put it on the net as a free > source or maybe Google or Yahoo would take it in, but unless someone > keeps updating it with the thousands of new short forms that continue > to be created by the information world it will lose its currency. I > am turning 70 and am in retirement as an former librarian, so there > is some future limit to my role in this. My wife, still working as a > librarian (schools) has been the other editor. We have given a great > deal to this effort over the years and cannot bear to just let it > drop. We have thought of contacting a larger university press to see > what interest might exist. Any ideas would be appreciated. > > Beyond this, our thanks go out to all the librarians who offered > those wise and sound suggestions toward the improvement of PTA over > the years. You made a difference to many a perplexed researcher > - all over the world. > > Lee Alkire > > Reference Librarian, Eastern Washington University, Retired > > LeeAlkire@mail.com >