The Deactivation of OCLC's Serials Control System

This paper uses the literature to trace the history of OCLC's online Serials Control System (SCS), and it describes OCLC's plan to replace SCS with a stand-alone control system, SC350. Fifteen years of reports about SCS portray a system that never met all the needs of serials lbrarians. Reactions to replacement of SCS by SC350 emphasize the problems a library encounters when it changes from one serials control system to another. When considering such a change, a library should take the opportunity to re-examine its serials control needs and plan accordingly.