Dear SERIALSTs,

I am curious as to how some of you will handle the recent journal cover
changes made by the Royal Chemical Society.

We are still under the old shelving (and binding) rules, so that the
following title, for example, is currently shelved in the "C"s and bound
as:

        "Chemical Society. London. Journal. Dalton Transactions."

I believe that the current filing rules would find this in the "J"s and it
would be bound as:

        "Journal of the Chemical Society. Dalton Transactions"

Some day I suppose we need to change these (see note below).  A few of you
may also argue that this title should be under:

        "Royal Society of Chemistry. Dalton Transactions"
                        or
        "Royal Society of Chemistry. Journal. Dalton Transactions"
                        etc.

Well now that we have them under "C" or "J" or even "R" above, guess what!
- -- The new cover now displays this title with a very prominent:

        "DALTON Transactions"

Now I fear that it will be perfectly logical for our customers (and staff),
to want to put them in the "D"s.  What to do, what to do....

The publisher has also redone the covers on Perkins 1 and 2 (think "P" now),
and although we haven't received it yet, probably the Faraday Transactions
will now look like an "F" shelving item.

They have also officially decided to call the:

        "Journal of the Chemical Society. Chemical Communications"

                        simply

        "Chemical Communications"

This is accompanied by an ISSN change, so all our old database records will
need to be closed out as of 1995, and a new (1996) record, shelf space,
etc. created in the "C"s.

Note - I hesitate to change all of our "shelved as" titles, as this would
involve hundreds of titles and volumes.  It would mean relabeling or
rebinding all the old volumes, updating all our databases, shifting our
entire collection, and training our customers on where we now 'hide' them.
A huge job.

Okay, I am done now.  Venting is so good for the soul!  Actually, don't get
me wrong, I think the new look of the covers is great - I just wish that
they had always been the way they are now--with easily understood titles,
and that the changes were all "official," so I wouldn't have to wonder,
what to do, what to do....

Your helpful comments will be appreciated.

p.s. The old method of double underlining the letter under which these
should be shelved won't work anymore, as 1) "C"hemical Society no longer is
used and 2) they are the new, difficult to write on, slick-type covers.

Sincerely,

Bill Benson, Serials Librarian
E-mail:  bensonwo@b045mail.wpafb.af.mil

Wright Laboratory Technical Library, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio