In my experience, the greatest challenge with these efforts is getting
people to respond. If you already have a good sense of which titles
should be cancelled, you're best off sending a memo stating that unless
faculty object, the library will cancel the following list of titles.
Include in the memo your reasoning for putting the list of titles on the
chopping block.

If your main purpose is to recruit help in deciding, your wording is
fine. Alternatives might be "essential," "desired," "optional," but I
don't think it really matters.

Steve Black
Reference, Serials, and Instruction Librarian
Neil Hellman Library
The College of Saint Rose
392 Western Ave.
Albany, NY 12203
(518) 458-5494
blacks@strose.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Howlett, Lee Ann
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 4:10 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: [SERIALST] Wording for journal cancellation survey

We're getting ready to send out
an online survey to our faculty
members asking for their assistance
in determining which titles we
should keep/cancel from a specific
publisher.

We want to keep this simple and not
give responders too many options
for their answers.  We're thinking
about giving them the choices
(for each title) of:

_ Critical
_ Neutral
_ Cancel

Has anyone else surveyed their users
recently or have any suggestions for
wording?

Thank you,
Lee Ann Howlett

____________________________________
Lee Ann Howlett, MA, AHIP
Head, Serials Dept.
Shimberg Health Sciences Library
University of South Florida
12901 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., MDC 31
Tampa, FL  33612
(813) 974-9080
Fax (813) 974-7032
LHOWLETT@HEALTHLIB.USF.EDU