So, let me get this straight.  Your staff actually searches the database
for each issue in hand before sending it to the shelves, but does not
actually "checkin" the issue.  I'm glad to hear this, because at the very
least, you will catch title changes this way.  But how much time is
actually saved by not "checking in" the issue once the record is on the
screen?

Virginia

Virginia Taffurelli
Head of Technical Processing
Science, Industry and Business Library
The New York Public Library
188 Madison Avenue
New York NY  10016-4314
Phone: (212) 592-7234
FAX: (212) 592-7233
email: vtaffurelli@nypl.org

Rick Anderson <rickand@UNR.EDU> wrote:

> How do you distinguish between titles you check in and those
> you don't when
> you are sorting the incoming mail?

Good question -- and our practice has actually changed a bit since the
article was published.  Our students do a quick title search in the
system for each issue that comes in; this allows them to detect those
(few) titles that get special treatment and those that are what we call
Mystery Guests.  Those that turn up in the system are shelved; if they
turn up in the system but have no place in the shelves, then our serials
clerk does some follow-up research.  But we do not maintain updated
checkin records, and the clerk does not spend hours and hours trying to
determine the ultimate truth about the status of any mysterious print
title.

----
Rick Anderson
Dir. of Resource Acquisition
University of Nevada, Reno Libraries
(775) 784-6500 x273
rickand@unr.edu