Susan,

I think that this is a good idea and I'd be interested in your findings.

Also, one thing that I think librarians need to address in careful
selection of electronic titles.  It doesn't do us any good to have
access to a million dollars worth of titles if only 3% of them are
used.  We spend staff time on maintaining them when it might be more
prudent to pay for document delivery.  It seems rather like buying a
load of lumber when all you want is a toothpick.

Good luck to you!!

Mary

"Schleper, Susan P." wrote:
>
> 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

--

Mary W. Williams
Periodicals Librarian
Dick Smith Library
Box T-0450
Tarleton State University
Stephenville, TX  76402

(254) 968-9868
(254) 968-9467  FAX

email: mwilliams@vms.tarleton.edu