---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 13:42:18 -0800
From: Mitch Turitz <turitz@SFSU.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list SEREDIT <SEREDIT@uvmvm.uvm.edu>
Subject: Journal of precision teaching and celeration (fwd)

TO: SERIALST
Attached is the email I sent, and the response I received from a
publisher about their recent title change.  I would like to share a
positive experience with you all.
-- Mitch
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 14:38:04 -0600
From: Claudia McDade <cmcdade@jsucc.jsu.edu>
To: Mitch Turitz <turitz@sfsu.edu>
Subject: Re: Journal of precision teaching and celeration

Mitch--

Thank you! Thank you!  You are the first to call to our attention the
consequences of our name change that we did not consider.  We will
take your comments under advisement immediately.

Love your postscript!

Sincerely,

Claudia E. McDade, Ph.D.
Editor, Journal of Precision Teaching and Celeration

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 10:24:46 -0800 (PST)
From: Mitch Turitz <turitz@sfsu.edu>
To: cmcdade@jsucc.jsu.edu
Cc: Mitch Turitz <turitz@sfsu.edu>
Subject: Journal of precision teaching and celeration

TO: Claudia McDade, Standard Celeration Society
FROM: Mitch Turitz, Serials Librarian
re:  Journal of precision teaching and celeration

Ms. McDade:
  Please forward this to the editor of the journal if you are not s/he.

I am writing to inform you that as a serials cataloger, I have
encountered a couple of problems with the recent title change of your
periodical, from:

Journal of precision teaching,
to:
Journal of precision teaching and celeration.

First of all, I was not able to find the word "celeration" in either the
standard "Webster's Third" dictionary, or in the Oxford English
dictionary (2nd ed, 1989).  My first inclination was to think that this
word was a typo and that you meant to have "celebration", not
"celeration" as part of your title.  However, upon further reading I
discovered that you apparently have created a new word which you define
later in your periodical.  People who are not familiar with your society
will be unfamilar with this term and will not find your journal title
any more descriptive than its former title.

Second, although you have every right, as a publisher, to call your
periodical whatever you wish, in changing the title you create problems
for serials catalogers, such as myself, who must create new cataloging
records for this new title, and must "close" off the old title, linking it
to this new title.  Now this might not sound like much work to you, but
multiply it by every library that has a subscription to your periodical.
It costs libraries money to recatalog and reshelve the title.  Also, by
calling attention to your title, a title change may trigger a library to
reevaluate its need for your periodical.  In collections which are shelved
by title (such as ours), your publication may be split up among its
various titles (this is not the case in our library for your title, but
that may vary at other libraries).

Third, you use the same ISSN (International Standard Serials Number) as
was used for the Journal of precision teaching.  Unfortunately, this is
not permitted by the National Serials Data Program (NSDP) of the Library
of Congress, which assigns the ISSNs to journals/serials.  Once a title
has changed, as yours has, you MUST get a new ISSN.  Please contact the:

National Serials Data Program
Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20540-4160
(202) 707-6452
(and send them an issue to verify the title change - they must have it in
hand) tell them with which volume/issue the title changed and if the
subject coverage has at all changed (this may affect the Library of
Congress Call number if it has)

Please, in the future, I would urge you not to consider changing a title
unless it is ABSOLUTELY necessary.

-- Mitch Turitz
  Serials Librarian

  _^_                                                 _^_
( ___ )-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-( ___ )
 |   |                                               |   |
 |   |     Mitch Turitz, Serials Librarian           |   |
 |   |     San Francisco State University Library    |   |
 |   |     Internet: turitz@sfsu.edu                 |   |
 |   |                                               |   |
( ___ )-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-==-( ___ )
   V                                                   V
       Rule #1: Don't sweat the small stuff.
       Rule #2: It's ALL small stuff.