Hello?  Stop the presses.  If a journal if not available in electronic form
is it considered "inferior"?  I swore that I would not get into this debate
but I could not let that go by.  I am sure there are disciplines where that
might be true but it hardly applies to the entire universe of serial
publications.

It is also the case that certain publishers have placed cost of electronic
versions out of the budget of many institutions.  I think we are all trying
to make sensible decisions based on the instruction and research needs of
our communities.

There are multiple approaches and you will have to find the appropriate
balance for your community.  At my institution we are heavily committed to
electronic access to journal literature.  Yet we continue to maintain a
print subscription -- drastically reduced in number from years past.  Basic
guide:

1) If we can afford electronic and we are guaranteed archival rights to
years purchased --  we no longer get print.
2) The print we continue to receive is for archival access for and/or
for  titles not yet available electronically from a stable source.  Most of
this --  we check in and claim because we bind and/or pay for it.
3) We drop check in selectively -- limited retention material for the most
part.

My basic belief is that serial subscription should be continually reviewed
for possible reallocation of funds.. For print.  If it is not important
enough to complete and maintain holdings (check in and claiming), money is
probably better spent elsewhere.

Diane

At 10:02 AM 11/9/2007, you wrote:
>At 04:10 PM 11/8/2007, you wrote:
>>My question is - if you didn't check it in, how do you know if you are
>>missing it because it was never received?
>
>You don't.  But if it has an electronic version, it doesn't matter.
>And if it doesn't have an electronic version, it's obviously an
>inferior journal which nobody reads, so it still doesn't matter.
>The check-in people you cut from the staff were the ones
>who also did claiming, so nobody's claiming anything anyway.
>If you're wasting some money on paper copies you're not
>getting, well, you're saving money on staff, so it all evens out.
>
>If that's not enough, you can charge your patrons for ILLs. If
>they don't like it, enlist them to write letters to those dinosaur
>paper journals urging them to get with the times, already.
>
>How's that?  SW
>
>
>>Just a thought,
>>
>>Susan Andrews
>>
>>Head, Serials Librarian
>>Texas A&M University-Commerce
>>P.O. Box 3011 - Library
>>Commerce, TX 75429-3011
>>Susan_Andrews@tamu-commerce.edu
>>(903)886-5733
>>"Your Success Is Our Business"
>
>Susan Wishnetsky
>Electronic Resources Librarian
>Galter Health Sciences Library
>Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University
>303 East Chicago Avenue
>Chicago, Illinois 60611-3008
>
>(312) 503-9351
>FAX (312) 503-1204
>pasiphae@northwestern.edu

Diane Paldan
Serials/Preservation Librarian
Materials Processing & Preservation
Technical Services

159 Science and Engineering Library
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI  48202

(313) 577-0222