An Analysis of United Nations Serial Publishing Patterns and Practices

The following paper examines current United Nations (UN) serial publishing practices. Using the series listed in the "Current Serials' list in the 1985 cumulated UNDOC: Current Index as the sample population, this study discusses UN serials in terns of their: (a) physical and intellectual formats, @) place of publication, c) frequency of publication, (d) survivability, indexing, and availability. The study concludes that UN serials follow a definite pattern of publication, despite apparent variability found in the UNDOC "Current Serials" list. The need for better bibliographic control for UN serials is also discussed.     

A comparison of interlibrary loan requests received by the National Library of Medicine: 1959 and 1984

In 1962, an analysis of interlibrary loan requests for serials filled by NLM in 1959 was published. In the twenty-five years following 1959, important changes occurred in the biomedical library community, which had a significant impact on interlibrary loan activities, including the development of MEDLARS and online searching, the Regional Medical Library (RML) network, and union listing for serials. To describe NLM's current interlibrary loan request traffic for serials and to identify any significant changes in traffic between 1959 and 1984, a comparative analysis of 1984 serial loan requests was performed, primarily by manipulation of automated request records. The changes in request traffic strongly suggest that the efforts to strengthen regional document delivery through the RML program have been successful and that NLM's collection is now used primarily as a last resort.     

Out of the Shoebox and Into the Computer

Over the last ten years, serials indexing has greatly changed in terms of production, formats and products, coverage, and producers and users. Computers and the growth of science have led to these changes. Serials librarians will have much influence on the evolution of serials indexing because they are part of the user environments in which serials indexes must survive.     

Journals for Academic Veterinary Medical Libraries:

This is the ninth annual price study based on the "Basic List of Veterinary Medical Serials, 2nd edition." The basic list consists of three parts: core veterinary titles; an adjunct list of serials in biomedical and life sciences; and a list of relevant abstract and index titles. Prices are supplied by The Faxon Company. The indexing base is 1983. In the twelve year period from 1983-1994 the average price of titles in the core + adjunct lists rose from $100.37 to $305.69. The price index rose 204.55 percentage points, an average increase per year of 18.60%. The average price of litles in the core list rose from $69.07 to $205.82. The price index in his category rose 197.97 percentage points, an average of 18% per year. The average price of the 85 titles on the adjunct core list was $131.30 in 1983 and $404.39 in 1994. The price index in this category rose 207.98 percentage points, an average of 18.91 % per year. The 22 selected abstract and index titles in his same twelve year period increased in average price from $618.74 to $1,465.50. The index in this category rose 136.85% for an average annual increase of only 12.44%, considerably less than the other lists.     

The NLM current catalog

When the National Library of Medicine acquired a computer to augment its publication program, the intent was to present in one medium an index to journal articles and a catalog of books and new serial titles. The computer programs designed for indexing were unsatisfactory for cataloging, however; so two publications were issued, the Index Medicus and the NLM Current Catalog.The Current Catalog features separate name and subject sections, added volumes, and technical reports.The Express Cataloging Service was one of the first attempts to increase the speed and coverage of the Catalog. Shared cataloging with the Library of Congress, the Countway Library at Harvard, and the Upstate Medical Library in Syracuse, New York, have also contributed to the efforts toward improving this library service. An additional shared cataloging program, this time with the National Medical Audiovisual Center, is expected to be implemented shortly.     

THE THREE CAREERS OF ANDREW OSBORN

Andrew D. Osborn has had three separate, successful careers. From 1920 to 1962 he practiced as a librarian in Australia and the United States earning an international reputation in cataloguing and serials work. From 1962 to 1971 he taught full-time in library schools in the United States and Canada. From 1971 to 1977 he operated as an antiquarian bookseller in Sydney, Australia. This article comments especially on the high significance for Australian librarianship of the four short years he spent at the University of Sydney 1958-62, at the end of his first career.     

The Pennsylvania Union List of Serials

The Pennsylvania Union List of Serials (PaULS) is presently in the process of transition from development to maintenance. Since October 1, 1979, its development has been supported by the State Library of Pennsylvania with LSCA funds. The current article describes accomplishments of PaULS from early 1981 through April 1983 including the production of its "core titles" in COM fiche and the conversion of its records by OCLC to the format required for the union listing capability. Current and future problems for PaULS are discussed as are long-term maintenance issues. In addition, PaULS' role as one part of the national serials database is examined.     

Thesaural problems in an on-line system

This paper describes the construction of a synonym thesaurus or entry vocabulary for the SUNY Biomedical Communication Network, which will permit the user greater ease of access to the MeSH-indexed material without previously consulting a printed list of indexing terms. In order to discover the actual terminology used by a researcher, words were extracted from titles of articles appearing in Index Medicus, and compared with the subject heading under which they appeared. As well as strict synonyms, grammatical variants were also included. Work is continuing on relating other indexing vocabularies, such as Excerpta Medica and Current Medical Terminology, used in the biomedical world to MeSH terms.     

Bibliography:

Before the information explosion caused the rise of serials as a phenomenon in libraries, serials were often seen from a reference point of view, causing there to be little dynamic interchange between the concepts of "serials" and "reference." More recently, because of the rise in serials consciousness due to the number and bibliographic complexity of serials, reference work has been often seen from a serials viewpoint, causing a polarization and active interaction between the concepts "reference" and "serials." Several articles and book selections concerning the relationship between serials and reference and covering the 10 year period between 1976 and 1987 are here annotated. Each annotation summarizes the argument of the article covered and relates it to the arguments of other articles covered, and to the arguments of the main essay.     

Indexing consistency in MEDLINE

The quality of indexing of periodicals in a bibliographic data base cannot be measured directly, as there is no one "correct" way to index an item. However, consistency can be used to measure the reliability of indexing. To measure consistency in MEDLINE, 760 twice-indexed articles from 42 periodical issues were identified in the data base, and their indexing compared. Consistency, expressed as a percentage, was measured using Hooper's equation. Overall, checktags had the highest consistency. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and subheadings were applied more consistently to central concepts than to peripheral points. When subheadings were added to a main heading, consistency was lowered. "Floating" subheadings were more consistent than were attached subheadings. Indexing consistency was not affected by journal indexing priority, language, or length of the article. Terms from MeSH Tree Structure categories A, B, and D appeared more often than expected in the high-consistency articles; whereas terms from categories E, F, H, and N appeared more often than expected in the low-consistency articles. MEDLINE, with its excellent controlled vocabulary, exemplary quality control, and highly trained indexers, probably represents the state of the art in manually indexed data bases.     

Cataloging Computer Files as Serials

Due to the nature of serials, cataloging machine-readable records that address the "serial" aspect of any material can be challenging as well as frustrating. The cataloging of computer files also presents unique difficulties. A serials cataloger discusses the advantages of treating computer files as serials for cataloging and processing purposes, and outlines methodologies for doing so. She examines general concerns and addresses issues pertaining to both direct and remote access to the materials. Giving hints from her own experience, she suggests tools and resources available that can assist both catalogers and non-catalogers in the interpretation of serial computer file records.     

Drilling deeper into the core: an analysis of journal evaluation methodologies used to create the “Basic List of Veterinary Medical Serials,” third edition

Objective:

The paper analyzes the journal evaluation criteria used to create the third edition of a core list of veterinary serials to determine the impact of each criterion on the final composition of the list in order to assess the value of using multiple criteria in creating a core list.

Methods:

Three additional lists were generated from criteria that were previously combined to prepare the third edition of the “Basic List of Veterinary Medical Serials”: a list based on journal recommendations from veterinary specialty organizations, another list based on journals selected by veterinary librarians, and a list based on both indexing coverage and scholarly rank. The top fifteen journals in each of the three lists were then compared to reveal potential biases. Subject representation on the full lists generated by each of these methods was also compared.

Results:

The list based on journal recommendations from veterinary specialty organizations exhibited a focus on clinically relevant titles. The list based on veterinary librarian recommendations resulted in the broadest subject coverage. The list based on indexing and scholarly rank, while emphasizing research titles, produced the largest number of unique titles.

Conclusion:

A combination approach that includes objective evaluation measures and practical input, whether from librarians or discipline experts, can improve coverage and can result in a list that balances research-based with clinical practice journals.

Highlights

• Analysis of criteria used to create the “Basic List of Veterinary Medical Serials” reveals biases inherent in different quality measures that result in different journal emphases.
• Use of indexing or scholarly rank is often thought of as a limiting factor, but in this study, the journals that were scored solely on these two criteria resulted in the inclusion of the greatest number of unique titles.
• Librarian input produced the broadest subject coverage of any list.

Implications

• An analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of various methodologies reveals clear evidence for using both objective and subjective criteria in developing a core list. Collection development decisions would equally benefit from this approach.
• Comparison of the top titles on core lists underscores the value of input from practitioners or discipline experts in collection decisions.
• Bias toward clinical content revealed in the input from the veterinary specialty organizations indicates the importance of understanding the purpose and compilation methods used in creating recommended lists before using them in collection development.

     

UNIQUE IDENTIFIERS FOR SERIALS

A "shorthand" code system which would uniquely identify serials could speed library operations of ordering and checking in serials, and could facilitate retrieval of information on a worldwide basis, through computerized methods. Each serial would be represented by a brief but unique combination of letters and/or numbers. Four different code systems have been developed. Two of these systems are in growing use today: the CODEN, which are composed of six capital letters having mnemonic significance, and the ISSN (International Standard Serial Numbers), which consist of two groups of four digits each. This annotated bibliography encompasses both the criteria for an ideal code and the development of the existing codes.     

Anatomy of a serials collection and its usage: case study of an Australian academic library

This paper reports the results of a serial usage study conducted at an Australian academic library. The study indicates what can happen to holdings if collection development staff do not have access to usage data. In this instance, 55.42% of serial holdings were closed, and 59.14% of serial holdings were unused. The study found that removing unused serials to closed access would significantly reduce the high level of congestion in the collection. It also found that the density of use of serials expressed as average uses per meter in some high-cost disciplines (e.g., mathematics, physics, and chemistry) was significantly lower than the density of use of serials in other disciplines. Possible explanations for this are examined and a number of weeding/relegation strategies are proposed.     

由Web of Science数据库分析高影响力中华医学会系列期刊引发的思考

通过Web of Science数据库的“被引参考文献检索”途径,将中华医学会123种非SCI期刊作为国内大量的非SCI科技期刊的代表,统计其刊载文献被SCI期刊引用的情况;以被引文献数量大于50篇作为高影响力期刊的筛选条件,分析其中高影响力期刊的被引文献数量、单篇被引文献最高引用频次、施引文献数量、施引文献最高被引频次以及施引文献的国家地区分布、出版年份分布,从而了解这些非SCI科技期刊的国际影响力.基于这一分析,认为SCI期刊并非是获得同行认可的唯一途径,国内大量的非SCI科技期刊应走“立足国内,面向世界”的发展道路,以踏实做专业领域内有影响力的期刊为目标;同时呼吁国家有关部门能对现行科研评价指标进行调整,鼓励质量上乘的稿件能选择具有影响力的国内期刊发表.     

Pre-1950 Serials in OCLC

To investigate the use by OCLC member institutions of database records for pre-1950 serial publications and to compare the value of those records with the ones in the long standard Union List of Serials and the newly completed National Union Catalog, Pre-1956 Imprints, a residue of 50 titles found in a random sample of 200 serials drawn from OCLC in 1978 were examined in the database again in 1981 and searched in the printed tools. The 2 OCLC records were compared to find bibliographical modifications, last time of use, and additional libraries reported. The 1981 record was compared against records from ULS and NUC Pre-1956 for the number of libraries with ownership reported and the inclusion of selected bibliographical data. OCLC participants had made some use of more than half the records and appeared to be updating the bibliographical content as necessary. Almost all the titles were in one of the printed tools, but a substantial number were not in both. NUC Pre-1956 carried more of the titles than ULS, but ULS appeared to be the most comprehensive of the 3 tools for those serials it listed. OCLC followed ULS as a bibliographical resource while NUC Pre-1956 came second for identifying holding libraries. OCLC was concluded to have strength and potential as a pre-1956 serial information tool by its capacity to correct and add data while ULS and NUC Pre-1956 were concluded to be valuable backup sources for the older serial publications also having an online record available.     

Citations and Citation Metrics in a Serial Assessment Using Master's Theses

We analyzed serial citations in 72 marine biology master's theses as well as the ranking data of aquatic science serials from six global serial citation metrics, to assess serial use by marine biology graduate students from two perspectives. From 1,035 unique serials, a core of 123 titles was identified and evaluated for access. Citation ages averaged 13.5 years, with 27% of serial citations dated prior to 1996. Students cited serials from disciplines beyond marine biology, demonstrating broad title dispersion compared to several other studies. Recommendations are offered for future investigation to develop a stronger understanding of graduate students’ use of the library's serial collection.     

The Serials Catalog:

The serials catalog is a key link in the search process for current information in a library. Decades of evolution in the ways of entering serials in the catalog have compromised the usability of this important research tool. This article examines (1) the results of studies on serials catalog use; (2) the reasons for serial search failures; (3 the cataloging rules and practices researchers need to understand in order to effectively use a serials catalog; and (4) the local in-house modifications which often complicate the search process. It also offers searching hints which will help reference personnel improve their ability to successfully locate serial entries for library patrons.