I've been following the recent discussion that revisits the question of
dropping check-in for periodical and serials subscriptions.  I have a
question that is an off-shoot (at least I think it is) of this
discussion.  Is anyone out there applying this same logic to the way you
approach the receipt of U.S. documents serials?  Documents receipts is
in our Acquisitions Department and we are becoming increasingly
concerned about the amount of time and effort being spent maintaining
bibliographic records for quite mundane serial titles that are now
easily available to all citizens with a Google search.  We formerly
received these titles in microform and considered ourselves the holder
of vital and hard-to-find resources.  The internet has changed that,
especially for annual reports of government agencies and publications
which are being broken down into multiple parts to have PURLs assigned
for each part.

So, to my way of thinking, it's a reversal of Rick's theory.  The paper
and microfilm need our attention but a lot of the electronic does not
need to be in our OPAC.

Anyone else considering this?   Have you established guidelines for what
you will and will not add to your OPAC?

Josie Williamson
Head, Acquisitions Dept.
University of Delaware Library