Kathryn (and anyone else interested) -

Since claiming and binding incomplete are somewhat related, I've copied
our library' policies for both below.  As for additional details, we
have support staff assigned to process claims, I believe weekly (the
claims assistant reports to a different supervisor than myself).  We
claim to the subscription agent unless the subscription is direct (we're
trying to get as close as possible to zero direct subscriptions,
though).  Our major subscription agents for periodicals are EBSCO,
Swets, Majors, and Harrassowitz.  We only claim exchange titles if
specifically requested by library staff or users.  Once we stop
claiming, we "receive" (our library has Voyager) the issue record
annotated as "not pursuing" and suppress the issue record from display
(creating holings gaps at the time of binding).  If you'd like
additional information, feel free to contact me off-list.

Rich Crank
Serial Records Team Leader, Acquisitions/Serials Dept.
University of Kansas Libraries
(785) 864-8944
rcrank@ku.edu

Policies for Claims

The effectiveness of claims is being questioned by libraries everywhere,
as they experience shorter claims deadlines, smaller print runs, and
diminishing publisher responsiveness to claims. Moreover, journal
articles are generally more available now via interlibrary loan and
document delivery, so it is no longer essential that we assemble
complete runs of all our print periodicals in our local collection if
they are widely held by other libraries. ILL can provide rapid delivery
of articles that may be absent from the local collection.

    * Highest priority will be given to claiming skipped issues for
titles on paid subscription and to investigating situations where
failure of issues to arrive may indicate a problem with the order.
    * Lower priority will be given to claiming issues for exchange/gift
titles.
    * Issues from titles that have been cancelled will not be claimed.
    * Each issue will only be claimed twice.
    * Issues that have not been claimed within 9 months of publication
will not be claimed.
    * We will no longer routinely try to fill gaps in our journal runs
by acquiring the missing issues as part of the claiming process. For
titles that have significant scholarly value, that are not widely held
by other libraries, and that fall into subject areas for which KU has
collecting responsibility, bibliographers shall be responsible for
ordering issues to complete broken runs (following the guidelines
outlined in "Added Serial Issues".)

Policies for Binding Incomplete

To bind a journal volume incomplete helps to protect the issues we have,
since unbound issues are more susceptible to loss, theft or damage. If
the title is very important for KU's collections and the missing issues
are acquired later, they can be bound separately or the volume can be
re-bound.

    * Bind incomplete when faced with missing issues at the point of
assembling a binding unit.
    * A journal volume should be held unbound only if it very likely
that that the missing issues will be supplied soon. In determining
whether to hold unbound, staff should review the title's Receipt History
and Claims History (in the Acq/Serials module) and make a decision based
on their best judgment, knowledge of the title, and the following
guidelines:
          o Vendor/publisher response to a claim specifically says that
the missing issue will be supplied (e.g., "Replacement issue sent, allow
4-6 weeks," or "Publisher is sending").
          o The missing issue was claimed for the first time very
recently (within the past 3 months) and no vendor response has yet been
received.
          o The missing issue dates from within the past 6-9 months and
has not yet been claimed -- older issues than that are usually too old
to claim and it is better to bind incomplete.
          o Vendor/publisher response states that the missing issue will
be published out of sequence and is not yet due.

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Kathryn Dalius
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 10:54 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] Claims

I would be very interested in knowing how your library handles CLAIMS
for missed issues.  Do you claim missed issues?  How often?  Who
processes the claims?  Do you use a subscription agent?  Which one(s)?
Do you ever claim DIRECT from the publisher?  If you do NOT claim missed
issues, what procedures are in place in your library for this matter.

Thanks!!!

Kathryn A. Dalius
Library Technical Assistant Serials
Information Services and Resources

Bertrand Library / Bucknell University
Lewisburg, PA  17837
(570) 577-1663
FAX (570) 577-3313
 <mailto:kdalius@bucknell.edu> kdalius@bucknell.edu

http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/kdalius/