Automated Serial Control

The authors outline the procedure for changing from a manual to a specific (F. W. Faxon Co. LINX system) on-line check-in system. Automatic claiming functions are described and other serials control benefits analyzed. An explanation of financial transactions is included as well as a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of an on-line control system.     

How to evaluate serials suppliers

Price and service are two considerations in evaluating serials suppliers. Pricing aspects include establishing a business relationship with your supplier, knowing their pricing policy for your library, negotiating your service charge and dealing with exchange rates and invoicing currencies. A checklist of service criteria is offered. The experience of the CSIRO Library Network in evaluating serials suppliers is explained. Multiple vendor policies are examined, and advice on changing suppliers is provided.     

Realizing critical business information literacy: Opportunities,definitions, and best practices

What does it mean to be an ethical businessperson, and how does an ethical businessperson create, locate, organize, and evaluate business information? Critical business information literacy (CBIL) is the application of social justice to business information literacy. This article seeks to define, discuss, and realize CBIL by tracing the literatures of critical librarianship, critical management, and corporate social responsibility. To establish best practices, the authors drew upon applications of CBIL at four institutions of different size, geography, and scale. The intent is to provide spaces and foundations for further CBIL application and discussion.     

Decision Making in the Recataloging of Serials

Catalogers make decisions constantly, especially when recataloging serials. This article explores the decisions that need to be made when recataloging serials, within the framework of a decision-making model used in business. For catalogers, this model consists of becoming aware that a recataloging problem exists, defining what the problem is, analyzing the alternatives for handling it, selecting the best solution based on the library's goals and resources, implementing it, and obtaining feedback. Then the cycle begins again wilh new problems.     

A SERLINE-based union list of serials for basic health sciences libraries: a detailed protocol

In March 1981 the Consortium for Information Resources (CIR) was chosen by the Massachusetts Health Sciences Library Network to develop and automate a statewide biomedical union list of serials. Employing a commercial processor, ANSI standard Z39.42-1980, and SERLINE, CIR consolidated the journal holdings of six Massachusetts health-related library consortia. SERLINE, with its unique identifier as the single control element, governed the form of entry and bibliographic data for each journal. Additionally, SERLINE enhanced the union list by providing "see references" and general notations to map users to main titles or special information. An original feature of this union list is the "rolled" holdings and location statements intended to encourage even distribution of interlibrary loan transactions. The resulting union list of serials includes the holdings of 116 Massachusetts libraries, 94 of which are hospital libraries. The list includes nearly 3,000 unique titles and 15,000 holdings statements; production costs averaged $1.35 per unique title and 27 per holdings statement.     

ANDREW OSBORN

An examination is made of the components of the serials librarian's job, and an attempt is made to show how serials librarianship has developed over the past decade according to precepts laid down by Osborn in his famous book on serials. Warning is given against the tendency to relegate serials responsibility to the larger umbrella technical services unit that has gained recent favor.     

The evolving approval plan: how academic librarians evaluate services for vendor selection and performance

A survey of 291 academic librarians addressed the question of how libraries choose approval plan vendors, specifically how much emphasis is placed on various approval plan services and product features in choosing between competing approval plan vendors and how vendor performance is rated in those areas. Traditional services, including expertise in managing approval plans, e.g., profiling, and acquisitions services, customer service, and discount rate, along with corporate reputation and business practices, retained their core status. Electronic financial transactions was found to be very important to the libraries already using these services. Outsourcing services, e.g., cataloging or physical processing, with approval plan vendors, although newer, appear established and of considerable interest to some segments. Vendor performance was rated highest in corporate reputation, approval plan management, and in electronic financial transactions. Libraries with approval budgets under $100,000 expressed a degree of satisfaction with approval plan vendors on a level similar to larger libraries.     

Protection or Participation?

Children’s status as a particularly vulnerable group in society implies a journalistic obligation to shed light on children’s stories and listen to their perspectives, but their vulnerable position also means they deserve protection from potentially harmful news coverage. Based on a close-reading of two extensively covered news serials concerning irregular migrant children facing deportation, and on in-depth interviews with journalists, editors, and key actors working on behalf of irregular migrant children, the present article sheds light on how journalists balance competing, ethical, professional, and organizational concerns when reporting on issues concerning children. The article shows that while journalists say they are aware of the ethical aspects concerning extensive media exposure of young children, they justify the reporting by foregrounding children as innocent victims of the immigration system and by highlighting the journalistic obligation of shedding light on the wrongdoings of this system. The potential burden of media exposure is relativized as less harmful than the alternative—deportation. Theoretically, the article contributes to the literature on children in the news media, human-interest stories and journalism, and the role of journalism reporting vulnerable groups.     

Growth of the computing literature as reflected in theComputing Information Directory, 1981–1995

TheComputing Information Directory has been a road map to the computing literature since 1981. The increase in the number of serials since the first edition reflects the evolution of the computer from a research tool used by a few to a broad-based personal business and entertainment product used by the general public.     

The impact of new technology on the distribution of books and journals

Sandra Paul discusses the impact of new technologies on book distribution. Standards such as the ISBN and ISSN have simplified computer-based communication and will facilitate the use of machine-readable codes for books and serials, which can speed up and make more accurate not only publisher-customer transactions but also warehousing and shipping. Sandra K. Paul is president of SKP Associates, past chairperson of the National Information Standards Organization, past chairperson, secretary, and subcommittee chair of BISAC, and treasurer of SISAC.     

Expanded Roles: Qualities That Serialists Can Bring to Other Aspects of Information Work

Summary

Increasingly today, serials librarians have to accept additional responsibilities outside their primary areas of expertise. The skills serialists have gained in handling the complexities of serials cataloging make a solid foundation upon which to build proficiency in other areas of work within as well as outside the traditional library. Two professionals show how such skills are needed in the changing world of information services.     

Eeee!-Serials

Summary

Two serials catalogers, Jennifer Edwards of MIT and Amanda Xu, formerly of MIT, presented their experiences working with electronic serials. Edwards discussed concrete experiences and issues such as MIT's pilot project for cataloging e-serials, current policies and work-flow, and problems of catalog maintenance. Xu presented a broader perspective on what is happening beyond MIT and how e-serials may develop in the near future. Her topics included definitions of electronic serials, access features provided by publishers, aggregators and libraries, and challenges presented by e-serials.     

The Virtual Library: Changing Roles and Ethical Challenges for Librarians

Since the 1930s, the Library Bill of Rights has acknowledged the ethical responsibility of librarians to provide access to information in all formats to all people. Librarians are charged with selecting, organizing, and instructing patrons on how to locate and use the resources, and preserving information regardless of format or technology. The information revolution and the pervasive thinking that everything is available on the Web have created new challenges to these traditional professional ethics. Acquiring and providing dependable access to electronic resources require librarians to learn and apply new skills such as negotiating license agreements and understanding evolving technologies. Print publications provide a degree of permanence, but e-information, if it is not properly managed, can be highly transient. Internet services provide large, uncontrolled, unregulated collection of resources. If the very nature of the Internet makes it nearly if not completely impossible to evaluate the content of web-sites, how does the librarian protect the integrity of the information the library provides? Along with traditional ethical conflicts, librarians in the virtual library are faced with new challenges to provide equitable access to usefully organized resources, to address petitions to deselect or filter, to negotiate less-restrictive licensing policies, and to maintain the anonymity of individual users within electronic transactions.     

The Virtual Library: Changing Roles and Ethical Challenges for Librarians

Since the 1930s, the Library Bill of Rights has acknowledged the ethical responsibility of librarians to provide access to information in all formats to all people. Librarians are charged with selecting, organizing, and instructing patrons on how to locate and use the resources, and preserving information regardless of format or technology. The information revolution and the pervasive thinking that everything is available on the Web have created new challenges to these traditional professional ethics. Acquiring and providing dependable access to electronic resources require librarians to learn and apply new skills such as negotiating license agreements and understanding evolving technologies. Print publications provide a degree of permanence, but e-information, if it is not properly managed, can be highly transient. Internet services provide large, uncontrolled, unregulated collection of resources. If the very nature of the Internet makes it nearly if not completely impossible to evaluate the content of web-sites, how does the librarian protect the integrity of the information the library provides? Along with traditional ethical conflicts, librarians in the virtual library are faced with new challenges to provide equitable access to usefully organized resources, to address petitions to deselect or filter, to negotiate less-restrictive licensing policies, and to maintain the anonymity of individual users within electronic transactions.     

图书馆自办读者报刊的宗旨定位和栏目设置探索

探讨了在新时期如何办好高校图书馆的读者报刊，结合办刊实践和实例，重点强调了图书馆自办读者报刊宗旨的正确定位和栏目的精心设置。结论是宗旨——板块——栏目——文稿的报刊结构模式有利于图书馆自办读者报刊坚持宗旨，发扬特色。