Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Popular magazines going digital advice
From: Beth Johns (bmjohns@vmail.svsu.edu)
Date: 7/22/09 8:59 AM

Hi Cynthia--

I handle electronic access of our e-journals at Saginaw Valley State
University--I guess the e-journal world is starting to creep into public
libraries too!

I can't speak as a public librarian and I don't know the organizational
structure of your library, but I can tell you that if it is a very large
number of titles you are talking about, you want to see if IP
authentication is available rather than U/P authentication.  How large
is large is pretty much up to your library.  From a staff point of view,
keeping track of usernames & passwords can be a really big pain and
generally, publishers do not want that information to be available
publicly (i.e., posting it somewhere publicly, like on the computer
workstations).  Unfortunately, it has been my experience that many
magazine publishers only allow U/P authentication, unlike most academic
journal publishers, so you might be stuck with U/P authentication, at
least for awhile.

As to whether you drop a title, I would think you'd need to take a good
look at your usage statistics for the print format, even if it's not a
terribly formal analysis.  Maybe check circulation if you allow
magazines to be checked out?

Beth

----- Original Message -----
From: "Cynthia Dieden" <cdieden@MPPL.ORG>
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 5:49:43 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: [SERIALST] Popular magazines going digital advice

Hello-
I work at a public library and with the economic downturn, we've been
noticing a lot of magazines (general interest, parenting, crafts etc -
the kind public libraries often have) are starting to offer their
magazine in digital format only.  At one time, the digital only titles
tended to be scholarly or highly niche oriented, but now PC Magazine,
Disney's Family Fun and others are going that route so we are facing
this issue   Usually, the publishers will offer one log in per
subscription so we are left with some concerns.  Do we keep receiving
it, do we offer access and, if so, how do we offer access?

I'm wondering how other libraries are handling this or have handled it.
 No longer offering the magazine? Setting up accounts for popular
magazines and having staff interation for passwords and user names?
Setting up a special station?  Any thoughts, advice, ideas or
innovations are welcome.  Thanks!

Cynthia Dieden
Collection Specialist Librarian/Periodicals Supervisor
Mount Prospect Public Library
cdieden@mppl.org <mailto:cdieden@mppl.org>

Opinions expressed are those of the sender and not of Mount Prospect
Public Library

--
Beth M. Johns, MLIS
Electronic Resources & Reference Librarian
Zahnow Library
Saginaw Valley State University
1-989-964-2158
bmjohns@svsu.edu