Electronic checkin is different from print checkin because with
electronics, you really are only paying for
access. You don't really have a claim on the issues. The issues aren't
yours to keep, they are only there
for the allotted time that you have a valid subscription and for as long
as the publisher or database wants to
archive them. So the only thing that you need to ensure for checkin is
that your access is working according
to the terms of the signed license agreement.

Should you ensure that your access is working according to terms? Of
course!

Electronic checkin has been an up and coming issue at all the
professional conferences that I have attended last year.
As everyone is well aware, the costs for electronic subscriptions
(whether single subs, or as part of a
database) are skyrocketing, and thus there is justifiable concern that
you are getting the access that you pay for.
This is especially heightened for libraries that assume that all their
electronic subs are fine, and then
they are horrified to accidentally find out that their $5,000 sub. or
that $20,000 database has not been accessible
for weeks, or even months, depending on the problem: license not filled
out correctly; IP address not entered
correctly; password not valid anymore & needs to be changed on an annual
basis; publisher changed from
multiple user to single user, or to onsite user only; etc. Or perhaps
you assumed that the online sub that you
renewed was still full-text, and its actually now only available as
full-text for select articles, with the rest being abstract only.
Or perhaps you paid for the package that offered unlimited archival
access, and they are only providing the current
year. These are all problems that we have encountered, and I'm sure that
others could name more.

Access to electronic subs does need to be checked for all of these
reasons. The real question is, how do you
make it manageable? Do you only check the databases that your
institution directly pays for, and ignore ones that
are part of consortial arrangements? Do you check only the individual
electronic subs that you pay for, or only the
ones that are supposed to come with your print sub? Where do you draw
the line? I don't know. How often should
you do it, annually? monthly? I don't know. These are all issues that we
are just starting to discuss.

But I do know that just because the issue is new, and seems a bit
overwhelming, it doesn't mean that it
shouldn't be done. If your public catalog states that you have the
electronic access to a title, and you are
paying for it, then by rights, the access to it should checked an
ensured that its working as paid for so that
it's there when your patrons need it.

more two cents......

Renee Hijleh
Periodicals Department
William D. McIntyre Library
PO Box 5010
University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire
Eau Claire, WI  54702-5010
715-836-3306
fax: 715-836-2949

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Chisman, Janet
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 11:12 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Looking for other libraries that have eliminated
check-in

So what are people doing about checkin for electronic resources?  We
don't check those in.