Buddy, Would like to say I've always appreciated your comments on the list, and thank you for your excellent questions here! I would ask you why should there have to be a justification for the labor involved in electronic resource management when we do not question the labor dedicated toward print? I know there have been proponents of eliminating claiming altogether for both print and electronic, and to some degree I would agree with them. But I think it depends on the library. In my library's case, as in yours, we continue to carry print. And if we are to continue to devote labor toward claiming print serials, with an assumption of "need" for those issues on the part of the end user, then I cannot justify not claiming electronic serials. Yes, in a perfect world we would have more staff to do this, rather than simply add those new duties on to existing duties, no matter what level or position in the organization. But in a practical world, I think that "adding on" is consistently done because of the misconception that electronic serials are "easier" to manage than print, a misconception that I agree, might change with the statistics needed to "justify" new labor needs to the powers that be. By my rough calculations, since July 06, when we started verifying the access of titles already registered and in our catalog as well as those new titles for which we should have access, we have encountered an average of 26 percent per month which have required some additional registration, re-registration, or direct claim of either partial or total access lost. I would love to hear from any other librarians who are keeping such statistics. Please email me off list if you wish. Thanks! Angie Lila (Angie) Ohler Acquisitions Librarian University of Oklahoma Libraries Serials Dept, LL211 401 West Brooks St. Norman, OK 73019 Phone: (405) 325-2142 Fax: (405) 325-1893 Email: lohler@ou.edu -----Original Message----- From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Pennington, Buddy D. Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 1:19 PM To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Constantly losing E-access in the beginning of the year There was a NASIG presentation last year on this where a library converted their print journals to online and then retrained serials staff to "check in" the online issues. It sounded very interesting but we were not able to do that here since we have not yet made that conversion. We've simply added a ton of e-journals on top of our print stuff (without adding any new staff, of course). I agree with both points made, but I was wondering if anyone who is doing this sort of systematic checking had any data available to indicate it was worth doing. Are you getting enough "claims" to justify the labor involved? Would folks be willing to share that info on the list? To be honest, this level of checking is not on my wish list for new staff but perhaps it should be if there are enough lapses to warrant it. 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 Ohler, Lila A. Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 11:35 AM To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Constantly losing E-access in the beginning of the year Similarly, we have started a project to modify the use of our traditional print serial controls to allow us to routinely check the online access for each electronic subscription title we carry at least twice a year. Yes, it is a lot of work to set this up, and to redirect staff toward new workflows. But in the end, it is worth it for two reasons. First, given the amount of time it can often take to regain access once lost, it would pay libraries to be proactive in resolving these before it comes to the "crisis" point, meaning when the patron discovers a lack of access at their point of need. I believe routinely waiting for the patron to discover the problem can seriously damage the library's reputation for providing effective, timely, and consistent service. And second, to my mind, given the amount of money spent on electronic titles these days, it is simply financially irresponsible not to ensure that these materials are "on the shelf." Past that, I look forward to the day that librarians, serial vendors, content/system providers, and publishers all agree to use a uniform set of standards for this process! Thanks! Lila (Angie) Ohler Acquisitions Librarian University of Oklahoma Libraries Serials Dept, LL211 401 West Brooks St. Norman, OK 73019 Phone: (405) 325-2142 Fax: (405) 325-1893 Email: lohler@ou.edu -----Original Message----- From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Hutchens, Chad Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 4:21 PM To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Constantly losing E-access in the beginning of the year I've been toying with the idea of doing a random access check every day. Just drop a list of titles or packages (with access url's) to which you subscribe into an array and have a php or perl script randomly select one every day of the week and print it to a webpage where you could just click on the link and go. That way you'd be proactively checking access year-round rather than reactively during problem periods. In most cases I imagine all would be well and you could go on with your day and other times, but less often, you'd discover a problem before it became a problem. Opinions? Chad E. Hutchens Electronic Resources Librarian Montana State University Libraries P.O. Box 173320 Bozeman, MT 59717-3320 (406) 994-4313 phone (406) 994-2851 fax chutchens@montana.edu -----Original Message----- From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Andrea Serra Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 2:52 PM To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Constantly losing E-access in the beginning of the year Patty, I would be interested to hear how others are handling this problem. I tend to check access as the confirmations come in as well as checking the "worst offenders" at this time of the year but would love to hear if someone's discovered a more efficient way. Of course, our reference librarians and patrons will tell us if something is not working but it would be nice to have a jump on it. Andrea Library Assistant, Electronic Serials Vassar College Libraries anserra@vassar.edu At 04:16 PM 2/20/2007, you wrote: >Hello Colleagues, > >Every beginning of the year (about January-March) our library loses access to >several online journals of which we actively subscribe. We work through a >serials vendor, and they contact the publisher whenever we lose access. The >reason for lost access may be a payment discrepancy, license signing need, >IP address question or some kind of incorrect information in the publisher's >record for our subscription. > >I know this problem of early-year lost access occurs with many libraries. I >would like to hear your ideas or best practices on how to avoid losing online >access. > >Some ideas that I have considered: >--Requesting a letter from each publisher in December verifying that we have >paid for the subscription and that we will have access (we would have our >agent do this, but it is still time-consuming) --Requesting a refund >for each day that we do not have access > >Please share your ideas. I will summarize for the list. > >Patty Wood >Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
