Hi, Jason.

I have been having the same debate about print serials for a couple of years. We are a small to medium college library depending on your definition (e.g. FTE, number of library staff, collection size, size of budget, etc.). Our print serials collection is getting smaller every year as well. We have moved as many titles to online format as we can. We also have made some cancelations especially this year. As of 2021 if all of our cancelations are approved, we will have about 300 print subscriptions (down from about 800+ three years ago when I started). This includes gifts and print titles that come with the online. We do check in all titles (now on a weekly basis but usually on a daily basis) via our ILS, Sierra. Some titles are kept for a short amount of time and some are bound. We do claim but only scholarly or important titles for the collection. I also like having an ILS to help with tracking and maintaining the holdings (even though I manage our OCLC local holdings records myself). 

To answer your other question: based on the volume and your staffing, is it worth the time to check in? I think that depends on the priorities of your library. One of our library's technicians checks in print serials. Everything else is done by me. I have been moving as much content to online as possible both by the demand of our students and faculty and for me to manage only one format (since I am working with online serials and databases as well). Unfortunately, some things are either too expensive online, have no permanent access contract or are only available in print. I weigh (with the input of the liaison librarians) the pros/cons of managing the print collection against the management of the online collections. 

I am happy to give you our checkin /shelving / bindery procedures if that would help you. Feel free to contact me off list. 

Best,

Judith

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