Sarah M. Barnard wrote:
>I really feel that printing them is retrogressive, space consuming,
>and not very helpful, although we have been known to do it,
>especially for some missing back issues, or issues from an
>organization that is now defunct when we doubt that the website will
>remain viable. The e-mail newsletters are a particular problem
>because they are sent to one address. In that case, the temptation
>to just print them is strong.

We have done the same thing here in some cases. We have strong
collections of newsletters from NGOs and specialized organizations
from developing countries, particularly in Africa, and we want to
continue to provide that content to our scholars and researchers. In
some cases, the bibliographer has printed out e-mailed newsletters or
issues that were posted on a website (and frequently, the websites
for these organizations disappear) and we have treated them as print
reproductions of born digital content. It does seem like a step
backward, but if the bibliographer is willing to make the print-outs
on archival quality paper, and the electronic version is no longer
available, then it more or less works for us.

When the newsletter is online and freely accessible without
passwords, etc., then we catalog the online version as we would any
electronic resource. For the ones that require passwords, we don't
catalog the online version, but we note in the record for the print
version that the print ceased and it's now online, and give the URL
if the online version is free. We don't want to manage passwords, and
if the content is free, individual scholars may be able to sign up
for the newsletter themselves. This isn't a great system, but with
tens of thousands of titles to manage, I don't see how we could
easily deal with passwords.

Some newsletters cease in print and don't have a one-to-one
equivalent online. The same kind of content will be on the
organization's website, but not formally presented as a "newsletter".
In those cases, we will catalog the organization's website if the
bibliographer wants this.

Not specific to newsletters, but another thing I'm seeing more often:
the print version will only be provided to developing countries. For
developed nations, it is only available online. Does this count as
"ceased in print"?

Kay Teel
Serials Catalog Librarian and Cataloger for the Arts
Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources
Phone: (650) 724-7346
kteel@stanford.edu