At research universities, I think that any approach that depends directly on the faculty is unwise and inappropriate. On the other hand, the faculty are the ultimate sources of all the selection decisions, but only indirectly. The role of the faculty in a university is to determine the research and educational program. They do this by teaching, directing student work, engaging in research, and directing research. In the course of this program, journal articles and other documents will be needed by the students, researchers, and faculty, and it is the role of the library to provide them. The users determine what they need. We measure what they ask for and what they use, and determine how to provide it. We are obligated not merely to provide everything they want, but to provide it as rapidly as they desire it. There will always be resource limitations here, and we must determine priorities in the way we meet their needs. These priorities are based in part by the status of the user and the expressed urgency, but even more critically upon the practicalities of obtaining the material. In the case of journal articles, especially in science, the clear expectation of the users is that the articles be available immediately , in electronic form, and at the user's workstation-- whether it be office, lab, residence, or even the library. There are now a number of ways of doing: consortial arrangements, blanket orders, individual electronic subscriptions, individual purchases of articles, and conventional interlibrary loan. The librarian sees the needs of the entire community, and should be aware of the alternatives available and their costs --and is certainly aware of the budget available. The individual user sees his individual needs, is not aware of the alternatives and their costs, and hasn't much sense of the total funding. There, the librarian must select which of the materials the user needs should be obtained through subscription. This requires that he know what the user needs, and the user generally is very much of the opinion that no librarian possibly can. Any librarian can measure the extent to which the users actually use different sources. Don't do a survey of what they say they need--measure what the use. Once the user is assured that the library will provide the materials, they shouldn't need to involve themselves about how, but can go about their proper work. But this requires that we do serve them as they require, not just pretend to. Conventional ILL for journal articles is not adequate service, at least for most users in the sciences. When I started selecting, at first I made my decisions, and then asked the faculty if it was ok. I soon realized that I could decide whether they would say yes or no by choosing whom I asked: some people would always say yes, and some always say no. If left up to themselves in a questionnaire, most never answered, but just complained afterwards. I also recognized a pattern of people saying yes, you can drop this, and then objecting a year later that we had done so. At that point, I started making my own decisions based on what I measured, and then informed them. After they trusted me a little more, now I make my decisions, and if it turns out that I'm wrong, they'll tell me, and I'll add it back. (However, any really dissatisfied users don't bother to complain; they get their articles from a friend at another university--the ones who do complain are not representative. Judge by what you can see for yourself and measure, not by what you are told.) Carol Morse wrote: > > I have not done this on a big scale, but occasionally with certain > departments. Some faculty members understand the need to cancel unused > print subscriptions, but many are unwilling. Some don't like to use the > computer, etc., or resist any kind of change. They don't come over and > use the journals themselves, and don't require the students to do so, > either, but they don't want any titles taken from their lists! Good > luck. > Carol Morse > > ******************************************************************************** > Carol Morse Tel. 509) > 527-2684 > Serials Librarian Fax 509) > 527-2001 > Walla Walla College Library Email morsca@wwc.edu > 104 S.W. Adams St. > College Place, WA 99324-1586 > > Give us strength for the journey and wisdom to know the way. > ******************************************************************************** > > >>> spschleper@STCLOUDSTATE.EDU 08/27/02 09:40AM >>> > To Serialst: > > As budgets shrink and journal prices rise - St. Cloud State University > = > is trying to reconfigure how we access the journals we need to support > = > the curriculum here. One of the things that I am hoping to do is > survey = > or contact in some way each of the colleges at our university to get = > some kind of feedback about what is useful to our faculty and what kind > = > of compromises or adjustments they are willing to make so that our = > dollars will stretch further. > > Has anyone on the list done this type of survey or serials evaluation? > = > We hope to make it an annual thing - taking one college (we have 5 = > academic colleges) each year and evaluating how we are doing with = > getting the journals they need. > > As of now, I plan to develop a survey to get some idea of how faculty > = > perceive the services in the serials dept. and accompany that with an > = > "information packet" that would actually be an analysis of journals we > = > get in print with information on their electronic counterpart. One of > = > the motivations for this is that our electronic holdings are used many > = > time more than our print journals. In addition, we spend about 3 times > = > as much on print journals (about 1500 titles) as we do on electronic = > titles (about 15,000 titles). =20 > > I appreciate any feedback I can get from the list. =20 > > Susan Schleper > Serials Librarian > St. Cloud State University, MN > spschleper@stcloudstate.edu -- David Goodman Research Librarian and Biological Science Bibliographer Princeton University Library Princeton, NJ 08544-0001 phone: 609-258-7785 fax: 609-258-2627 e-mail: dgoodman@princeton.edu
