2 messages, 66 lines:

(1)--------------------------
Date:         Thu, 17 Apr 1997 10:03:29 +1000
From:         Heather Ashworth <h.ashworth@NEPEAN.UWS.EDU.AU>
Subject:      Re: journal claiming

At 01:09 PM 4/16/97 EST, Isabel Brackbill wrote:
>I would like to know how much manpower is generally devoted to claiming
>journals. We are a library with about 1700 active journal subscriptions and
>we are trying to cope with budget cutbacks and to streamline procedures.

Dear Isabel,

We are a University library consisting of 3 campuses, Technical Services is
located at the main campus library. We have an automated system (DRA - Data
Research Associates) which controls approximately 4500 'live' serial titles.
In the serials section there are 4 staff total - Serials Librarian, 2
Library Technicians and 1 Assistant Library Technician. Claims reports are
run once per week from the system (standard report) - it takes approximately
half a day to check each claim on the report and send the notices to the
suppliers concerned.

We have been automated since March 1995, prior to automation when
checking-in issues on manual card system if you found an issue was missing,
a claim notice was written straight away and then at the end of 1 or 2 weeks
(depending on how many claims there were to send out), they would be mailed
to the suppliers.

I feel that the system generated claim report is probably more efficient -
half a day per week is a reasonable amount of time to spend on claims
considering the number of titles we hold.

Hope this information helps.

Best wishes,

Heather Ashworth.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heather Ashworth - Library Technician Serials
Ward Library
Uni. of Western Sydney,Nepean.
PO Box 10, KINGSWOOD  NSW  2747  AUSTRALIA
Ph. 02 9852-5894, Fax. 02 9852-5940
International country code : 61, Area code 2
email: h.ashworth@nepean.uws.edu.au

(2)-------------------------
Date:         Thu, 17 Apr 1997 09:14:14 +1200
From:         David Foreman <DFOREMAN@WAIKATO.AC.NZ>
Subject:      Re: journal claiming

We take about 4000 paid subscriptions and another 2000 serial items by gift
or exchange (including all sorts of annual reports). We have one claims
assistant, who must also find time to serve on the public desk and supervise
the entire receipt operation (she has one half time assistant who tries to
get through the bulk of the actual recording) and deal with the more
"difficult" material left over.

We are half way through implementing the DRA serial checkin and claiming
system, which has sped up these processes, but frankly we are not coping
and I would be intrigued to see what human resources other comparable
libraries have at their disposal for these operations.

               David Foreman, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
                             <DFOREMAN@WAIKATO.AC.NZ>