Good points toward not classifying. I remember my student days when I
would do my research to get my citations and then spend a bunch of time
getting the call numbers for the journals since my library classified
things. It would have been easier if I could simply find them by title.
Integration also spreads things out (all of our separate periodicals are
on one floor but if we integrated them into the classified monographs
they would be on three floors). That means more time wandering around
for users and serials staff.
We all have our opinions on this. I was just wondering if anyone has
surveyed users on the organization of a library's physical periodicals
to get a sense of whether they prefer them to be classified or shelved
by title. It seems to me that libraries don't do enough to understand
what users want and prefer. Too often we think we know what's best for
them. If you're going to spend the time and effort on a project like
that you should be sure it is something the users want to see changed.
Buddy Pennington
Serial Acquisitions Librarian
University of Missouri - Kansas City
University Libraries
www.umkc.edu/lib
-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Ian Woodward
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 8:37 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Your comments appreciated, or to class or not to
class periodical collection
I suspect that the bulk your customers are referred to articles via
databases and other reference sources, and do not discover them by
browsing. In my years as a student, I was occasionally told to browse
particular titles, never particular classifications. Also, over the
run of their publication, serials often wander far from their original
classification. We have in our collection a magazine called
"Environment" that covers matters of interest primarily to our geography
students. In the CONSER-level cataloguing, it is classified in Military
Science, because in its initial years it was concerned with the impacts
of nuclear energy in its various uses. The University of Rochester once
(and I imagine still) organized their current (unbound and browsable)
collection by title and them filed the remainder of their collection
(all bound) by call number in the general stacks. If the array of space
you have available no longer permits of a separate periodicals
department containing the sum of your periodical holdings, their's is a
solution.
No one has ever explained to me how collocation is all that utile in the
realm of periodicals, it will require a goodly number of man-hours to
shuffle things around toward that end, and the labels you put on these
items are likely to look shabby. IW
I. Woodward
Serials Office
Colgate University Libraries
201L McGregory Hall
13 Oak Drive
Hamilton, N.Y. 13346
Ph.: 315-228-7306
Fax: 315-228-7029
-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Pennington, Buddy D.
Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2006 12:01 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Your comments appreciated, or to class or not to
class periodical collection
Has anyone out there bothered to ask users what their preference would
be? It might be useful to poll faculty and students as to whether they
prefer the current system or a different way of shelving the journals.
Buddy Pennington
Serial Acquisitions Librarian
University of Missouri - Kansas City
University Libraries
www.umkc.edu/lib
-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Mitch Turitz
Sent: Friday, June 30, 2006 12:57 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Your comments appreciated, or to class or not to
class periodical collection
Robin:
Our library is a medium sized academic library. From the first day
I started here, 19 years ago, I made arguments for using call numbers
for the periodicals, which are still shelved by title and in a
separate department for periodicals. All to no avail, I was given
arguments like, "who is going to label, and move all the periodicals?
We don't have the staff to take on that big a project!" (A good
argument in my opinion), and, "the patrons like it this way, it's how
they search for the titles." However there was no study done to
confirm that. It was more the preference of the person in charge of
the dept. rather than doing any kind of survey. The dept. head also
insisted on a regular printout of all the journals located in the
dept. by alphabetical order, even though they were all included into
the OPAC. We discontinued that list, which required a lot of work to
fit her specifications, after she retired.
So we continue to shelve by title, but we leave the 050/090 blank,
and add a 246 with a 2nd indicator of "9". Our vendor converted the
display of any 246 09 to display in the OPAC as: "SHELVED AS: _____"
this allows us to indicate that the binder may have continued to
print the old or other title on the new successive entry title, so
we may still find the title. This helps with titles which fluctuate
like "Atlantic" and "Atlantic Monthly" - only one place to look for
the title. There are better examples than this, but it is the first
one that jumped to mind.
We also use a location code of "Periodicals Dept." instead of
"Main" (which is where the monographs are shelved.) Shelved by title
does not allow for browsing by subject in the stacks, the way the
monographs are arranged. Another argument for classifying together.
I still would like to see our collection shelved by LC call number
and integrated into the collection so that all like materials are
shelved together, but I have been outvoted by people in higher
positions.
-- Mitch Turitz, Serials Librarian
>>> rglaser@TROY.EDU 6/20/2006 2:20 PM >>>
Hello!
I work at a small academic library, and I'm adding periodicals to
our library's catalog. Because we have only unbound issues kept in
alphabetical order, I assigned the word "PERIODICAL" to the 090 field
instead of an LC class number. However, some of the staff question
that; they think an LC class number should be used. Our director told us
to get documentation on why we should continue to use "Periodical" or
use LC class.
It would be helpful to know what other libraries do and why. I
would greatly appreciate hearing from you!
Robbin Glaser
Technical Services Librarian
Troy University, Dothan
rglaser@troy.edu
--
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| | Mitch Turitz, Serials Librarian | |
| | San Francisco State University Library | |
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