I often reply off-list, but here's my reply to that question ...
Rich Crank
Serial Records Team Leader, Acquisitions/Serials Dept.
University of Kansas Libraries
(785) 864-8944
rcrank@ku.edu
-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Dawn Stephen
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 8:29 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Barcoding periodicals
Yes, please post all responses to the list. I am also very interested
in this.
-----Original Message-----
From: Crank, Richard L
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 3:52 PM
To: 'connie.foster@wku.edu'
Subject: RE: [SERIALST] Barcoding periodicals
Hello, Connie -
I just looked at WKU's opac and see that you appear to be a Voyager
library. In 1999, KU Libraries went from a hodge-podge of unintegrated
systems to Voyager. Previously, we didn't create "item records" for
serials [sic - should be "journals" instead of "serials"] until they
were bound, unless someone wanted to circulate an unbound issue. When I
heard that we would switch from that approach to barcoding (and creating
an item record for) nearly every item that was rec'd in Voyager, I
thought that was nuts. But that was in 1999 ... now that we have years
of experience with this, I'm glad we did for several reasons that relate
specifically to how Voyager works (or rather how we work with Voyager)
...
1. If an item is charged or otherwise unavailable to a customer, they
can see its status in the opac.
2. We've found that it's very common for students working at our
service/circulation desks to link a new item to the wrong holdings if
one or more title changes exist in the publication's history. Having
Voyager do the item creation at check-in solves that problem fore new
receipts.
3. We're transferring a large no. of items to our new storage facility
over the next year or two (or three). To do this efficiently, we're
creating item records for each vol. being transferred if one doesn't
already exist.
Now, that said ...
We didn't systematically barcode vols. that lacked item records at the
time we switched to Voyager, so there are many thousands of vols. in our
collections lacking item records. We do barcode vols. that circulate if
they lack existing item records, but as I said it's easy to mislink
those.
Let me know if you have additional questions.
Rich Crank
Serial Records Team Leader, Acquisitions/Serials Dept.
University of Kansas Libraries
(785) 864-8944
rcrank@ku.edu
-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Connie Foster
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 9:21 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] Barcoding periodicals
With some trepidation I ask about advantages or disadvantages of
embarking on a project to barcode and give item ids and possibly spine
labels to our periodical collection, which currently is simply shelved
in alpha order with no tracking capabilities. My sense is that
statistics would be useful but I'm not sure the impact of such a project
is worth that one asset?
Appreciate experiences or advice for those who have considered or moved
in that direction. Unless others are interested, you can reply directly
to me.
Many thanks.
Connie Foster
--
************************************************************************
******************
Connie Foster, Professor and Head, Dept. of Library Technical Services
Western Kentucky University Libraries Editor, Serials Review
1906 College Heights Blvd. #11067
Bowling Green KY 42101-1067
connie.foster@wku.edu tel:270-745-6151 fax:270-745-3958
"Creating Information Possibilities"
TopSCHOLAR(tm) http://digitalcommons.wku.edu
Electronic submission for authors at http://ees.elsevier.com/serrev
http://sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00987913
