Donna asked:

> I have two questions related to acquisitions and vendors.
>
> How do librarians traditionally separate acquisitions of serials from
> their receipt? .

To respond to Donna's enquiry, these functions could theoretically be done
by the same person or unit.  However, constraints of time--none of these
machine processes is any less tedious than the non-automated procedures--
and levels of training and pay can make this problematic.

At our site, we handle about 8,000 serial titles annually.  4,500 or so of
these are now in our ILS after 2 years of profiling.  3/4 of the 8,000
serials come to us on an exchange, gift or depository basis.

Our exchange assistant and the order assistants request/order serial
titles and follow up on receipt problems. The serials assistants record
and process items for the shelf.  They also claim missing issues, manage
the binding, handle all of our library's mailroom chores, and compile all
acquisitions statistics.  Not much time left there for anything else, much
less the complicated work of acquisitions in a Federal library.

Diane M. Lewis
Serial Records & Exchange Librarian
USGS Library, Reston, VA
dilewis@usgs.gov