2 messages, 46 lines:
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Date:         Wed, 12 Aug 1992 09:35:00 -0500
From:         Jane.Thompson@UC.EDU
Subject:      RE: Standing Order /or/ Periodical

I have experience with the dilemma of  what to do with those
publications that keep on coming, but not all that frequently. We
called them continuations, and then split them arbitrarily into
continuations handled by the Serials people and continuations handled
by Acquisitions. It was not a good situation, because Acq is used to
dealing with something that is ordered, paid for, received, and then
is out of their hands. Checking in pieces is a foreign idea.
It works much better in my view to separate on the basis of publishing pattern:
does this title reappear every two years like clockwork? Or 4 years?
Or 10? I think it belongs then in Serials. Serials staff understand
the idea of checking in pieces, payment for a sub, claiming for
non-receipt, etc. I could expand in a personal message if you are not
overwhelmed with responses.

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Date:         Wed, 12 Aug 1992 14:28:38 EDT
From:         Susan Davis <UNLSDB@UBVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Standing Order /or/ Periodical

We basically have the same setup.  The Periodicals section handles all
periodicals--material appearing more frequently than annual (excluding
mono series), but it usually includes the annual cum/index issued with
a periodical.  The Receipts section has one person who generally handles
all the serials (CO-continuing orders in our lingo).  Both sections are
part of the Acquisitions Dept.  The Periodicals section is supervised by
a librarian, the Receipts section consists solely of classified staff.
Periodicals performs a number of other functions (bindery for one), which
is one of the reasons the files were split.  We underwent a big reorganization
about 5-6 years ago when the Serials Department disappeared, and serials
functions went either to Acquisitions or Cataloging.

There are always instances where one is not sure whether the material
qualifies as a periodical or a CO.  We are easily able to switch between
the two, if after receipt we discover it's not what we orginally thought.
There is a great deal of cooperation and "fudging" between the sections,
maybe because we're all the same Dept., maybe because we have a true
service excellence philosophy of getting the material out to our patrons
as best we can, regardless of who has to do what.

Susan Davis
Head, Periodicals/State University of NY at Buffalo