Since I received several responses on my past question asking how you all
handled claiming problems like irregulars, extended subs, etc. suggesting
that automation was a solution if not a cure, I decided to post additional
observations and comments.

A number of years before I accepted a position here, the library started
using MicroLynx (Faxon) to process claims.  When the system was first
implemented, most felt that the automatic nature of claims generation
(wasn't checked in, then generate a claim) made direct supervision of our
serials assistant unnecessary.  Well, then came title number changes, title
changes, software bugs, shortened claim periods, no claim period ranges for
irregulars, human error in check-ins.  Hmmm -- you see the problem.  In the
meantime, the ordering, payment, and cancellation of titles was separated from
the check-in, claiming, and binding of journals.  The former is up to me
in Collection Development; the latter is up to my collegue in Technical Services
Then came the awareness that some titles had never been claimed until
the end of the year, that gift titles had ceased and no one knew until
someone asked for the title, that some title changes had been handled as if
they were sample issues, and the realization that extending a subscription
never really replaced a missing issue.  Unless a title is cancelled you still
need to pay up front for a whole year so extensions seem pretty meaningless
to me.  Then came the problem of out-of-print current year subs even when
properly claimed.

In sum, claiming can be done automatically only if the data in your serials
module is accurate, the claims ranges set make sense and are within publisher
deadlines, there is a way to process claims that are for titles not supplied
by the vendor of the system you are using, and your serial assistant is
checking-in titles correctly.  I am concerned that much of what we
automatically claim may be incorrectly claimed, claimed too soon or too
late, or missed because there is no way for our assistant to ascertain
whether it has actually published.  For example, at least 10 titles I
paid for last year did not publish their expected number of issues and are
not formally describing themselves as irrregularly purlished.

Automating serials control, I maintain, is impossible because there are too
many management decisions and too many anomalous situations involved.
That's why I was wondering how the rest of you were addresing these issues.

Hannah King
SUNY HSC Library at Syracuse
kingh@vax.cs.hscsyr.edu
766 Irving avenue
Syracuse,  NY  13210
315-464-7109
315-464-7199 (fax)

PS We subscribe to about 1550 titles.  About 1400 of these are with Readmore
and the rest are through Ballen, Majors (standing order types), direct,
NTIS or GPO, and by direct gifts from patrons.  All are on our REMO database
but only Readmore titles are regularly claimed because of the above
problems that need to be addressed.