Shelley,

If all you do is current cataloging of new titles that are serials, then I
could see parting with them. I'm a little out of the loop these days, but 20
years ago, titles in NST 1950-1970 (and also a couple of more years?)  were not
necessarily represented in either OCLC or RLIN.  Same with  ULS.  If however,
you are a special library or large research library  with uncataloged
periodicals that are not widely held, that span a  large range of publication dates,
then, I would say: yes, definitely keep.

Why keep?  Because a lot of thorny bibliographic problems can be  quickly
solved by consulting ULS and NST.  You just need to do a conversion  of pre-AACR2
style info and couch it in up-to-date style. Also, for preservation  mavens,
you can pool your issues with other holding libraries that have  complementary
runs, so you can partner.in filming (I'm dating myself:) and  creating a
value-added product, a full run where none existed before, with links  to other
periodicals that might not be apparent from issues in hand.

Back in the mid-80's at NYU we did a retrospective serials cataloging and
preservation project for one of our special collections, and the work would have
 gotten seriously bogged down had it not been for NST and ULS.

But then again, I like holding on to NUC pre-56 imprints too.  ULS  does not
take up much room on the shelf and neither do the old cumulations of  NST, but
the newer volumes are all created from CONSER records, so you might  want to
toss those.

Hope this helps, Shelley.

Enrique Gildemeister
Serials Cataloger

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