Mapping Our Way: New Formations in Technical Services: Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians Annual Conference

The annual meeting of the Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians (OVGTSL) was held May 16–18, 2007, at the Holiday Inn-University Plaza in Bowling Green, Kentucky. One hundred twenty technical services librarians from Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and points beyond gathered for programming centered around the theme of “Mapping Our Way: New Formations in Technical Services.”     

“Serials at Warp Speed: Navigating Transitions,” the 2007 North Carolina Serials Conference

Reports on four major serials conferences, the 2007 North Carolina Serials Conference, the 2007 meeting of the Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians, the Canadian Library Association’s 2007 Pre-Conference, and the 2007 North American Serials Interest Group Conference.     

Celebrating Twenty Years of a Serials Column

A co-editor of “The Balance Point” column looks back at its twenty-year history, its current function and its future in serving the serials professional and scholarly community. The author examines how the column emerged as an idea by then Serials Review editor Cindy Hepfer in 1988 to be a forum on important serials issues for practitioners who might not otherwise write formally on these topics. The column has continued though the 1990s and 2000s to provide that function, as well as serve as an important place where authors are invited to explore serial issues much in need of a balanced approach. The author shares comments from past “Balance Point” column editors, John Riddick, Mary Beth Clack, Ellen Finnie Duranceau, Karen Cargille, Markel Tumlin, and Kay Johnson on how they regarded the column, the rewards and challenges they faced, and how they see the future of this format in an evolving electronic communication milieu.     

“Shelf-Ready” Print Serials Acquisitions

The focus of this installment of “The Balance Point” is “shelf-ready” print serials acquisitions, including functions associated with traditional consolidation services (ordering, receiving, check-in, labeling, claiming and batch shipments), and the newer capabilities of uploading check-in data automatically into library systems. Featured authors discuss traditional vendor consolidation services, pilot projects and experiments in the pursuit of what they define as genuinely “shelf-ready” periodicals. The authors view obtaining “shelf-ready” print journal issues as an effective and efficient means of managing print serials operations while coping with the demands of managing digital resource acquisitions with limited financial resources.     

Life in the Trenches of Print and Web Publishing: An Interview with Jenna Freedman, Curator of the Barnard Zine Collection

For this issue of “From Picas to Pixels,” incoming co-editor Jessamyn West talks to fellow rogue librarian Jenna Freedman, curator of the Barnard Zine Collection. Are zines serials or monographs? Should they circulate or not? Jenna and Jessamyn discuss the difficulties of getting a zine collection started, the difficulties of keeping them alive, and much more.     

Serial conversations: a man for all reasons: an interview with clifford lynch

In July 2004, Cindy Hepfer asked friends and colleagues: “What question would you like to ask Clifford Lynch if you had the chance?” As a result, Clifford Lynch discusses a wide variety of topics and issues impacting the serials community from Open Access, institutional repositories, what we can learn from Google and Amazon, and Shibboleth to where his favorite places are to travel and how he prepares for presentations.     

The Shifting Sands of Open Access Publishing, a Publisher's View

This paper sets Open Access (OA) publishing in the context of today's scientific, technical, and medical (STM) publishing trends. Four areas are covered: (a) a brief overview of STM publishing and its value today; (b) OA's place in the industry; (c) the underlying economics of OA, particularly its author-pays model; and (d) directions in moving towards “universal access” to STM information, where both researchers and the public have access to the scientific information they need.     

Building Bridges: Advocacy as a Tool for the Technical Services Professional

ABSTRACT

“The Sharpest Tool in the Shed” column seeks to introduce new systems and tools relating to scholarly publishing, serials, electronic resources, and more. This issue's column will focus on an important but often overlooked tool for anyone engaged in the work traditionally housed in technical services (TS)—advocacy for the work of technical services. This would include both advocacy regarding how technical services work supports the library's mission and the work in other divisions. How to make that work accessible for the novice to facilitate collaboration with other library departments is also discussed. As a serials catalog librarian at Michigan State University Libraries, I have worked to make advocacy a part of what I do and how I think about my work and the work of my colleagues. Locally, this has meant the development of a series of talks around TS expertise and projects to reach out to our colleagues about our work.     

Me and My Shadow: Observation,Documentation, and Analysis of Serials and Electronic Resources Workflow

Librarians in the Metadata & Cataloging Department at the North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries embarked on a comprehensive project to document and review the Libraries' serials and electronic resources workflow with the goals of introducing greater efficiency, clarity, and simplicity into processes across the serials unit and of increasing training opportunities for department-wide understanding of the serials lifecycle. This paper examines the method used to observe and collect information about serials and electronic resources work, the process of synthesizing that information into a graphical representation of the serials lifecycle, and the workflow analysis undertaken to introduce improved serials processes. The value of the project is demonstrated through a discussion of efforts for workflow education, analysis, and improvement at the NCSU Libraries directly instigated by review of the process documentation by technical services staff members.     

Me and My Shadow: Observation,Documentation, and Analysis of Serials and Electronic Resources Workflow

Abstract

Librarians in the Metadata & Cataloging Department at the North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries embarked on a comprehensive project to document and review the Libraries' serials and electronic resources workflow with the goals of introducing greater efficiency, clarity, and simplicity into processes across the serials unit and of increasing training opportunities for department-wide understanding of the serials lifecycle. This paper examines the method used to observe and collect information about serials and electronic resources work, the process of synthesizing that information into a graphical representation of the serials lifecycle, and the workflow analysis undertaken to introduce improved serials processes. The value of the project is demonstrated through a discussion of efforts for workflow education, analysis, and improvement at the NCSU Libraries directly instigated by review of the process documentation by technical services staff members.     

An Interview with Ben Brown, Co-founder of So New Media and Publisher of Words! Words! Words!

With this installment of “They Might Be Giants,” Michael Brown talks with Ben Brown (no relation) about publishing books (ten so far!) and magazines (issue 3 of Words! Words! Words! is about to be released), while at the same time working nine-to-five at a really boring tech job. It's a do-it-yourselfer's dream come true. Serials Review 2002; 28:344–348.     

Reports of Conferences, Institutes, and Seminars: ASIS&T 2008 Annual Meeting

This installment of “Serials Spoken Here” features reports on the ASIS&T (American Society for Information Science & Technology) 2008 Annual Meeting, the EDUCAUSE 2008 Annual Conference, and the 2008 Charleston Conference.     

Management of Electronic Serials in Academic Libraries: The Results of an Online Survey

Abstract

This article presents the results of an online survey of academic librarians conducted in 2011 on the topic of electronic serials management. Since online journals had by 2011 become a major part of academic library serials collections, a central objective of this survey was to explore whether this had led to any degree of standardization in online serials management procedures across academic libraries. The focus of the survey was generally on issues affecting technical services, specifically exploring the impact of electronic serials on collection development, library staffing, and serials management tools. The responses to the survey did not reflect any significant level of uniformity among these libraries in any of these areas, suggesting that libraries primarily take into account the needs of their own institutions when formulating procedures for managing online serials.     

The Access/Impact Problem and the Green and Gold Roads to Open Access

The research access/impact problem arises because journal articles are not accessible to all of their would-be users; hence, they are losing potential research impact. The solution is to make all articles Open Access (OA; i.e., accessible online, free for all). OA articles have significantly higher citation impact than non-OA articles. There are two roads to OA: the “golden” road (publish your article in an OA journal) and the “green” road (publish your article in a non-OA journal but also self-archive it in an OA archive). Only 5% of journals are gold, but over 90% are already green (i.e., they have given their authors the green light to self-archive); yet only about 10–20% of articles have been self-archived. To reach 100% OA, self-archiving needs to be mandated by researchers' employers and funders, as the United Kingdom and the United States have recently recommended, and universities need to implement that mandate.     

Management of Electronic Serials in Academic Libraries: The Results of an Online Survey

This article presents the results of an online survey of academic librarians conducted in 2011 on the topic of electronic serials management. Since online journals had by 2011 become a major part of academic library serials collections, a central objective of this survey was to explore whether this had led to any degree of standardization in online serials management procedures across academic libraries. The focus of the survey was generally on issues affecting technical services, specifically exploring the impact of electronic serials on collection development, library staffing, and serials management tools. The responses to the survey did not reflect any significant level of uniformity among these libraries in any of these areas, suggesting that libraries primarily take into account the needs of their own institutions when formulating procedures for managing online serials.     

The “Green” and “Gold” Roads to Open Access: The Case for Mixing and Matching

Recent discussions on Open Access (OA) have tended to treat OA journals and self-archiving as two distinct routes. Some supporters of self-archiving even suggest that it alone can bring about full Open Access to the world's scientific literature. In this paper, it is argued that each route actually corresponds to a phase in the movement toward Open Access; that the mere fact of self-archiving is not enough; that providing some branding ability to the repositories is needed. However, doing so will eventually bring about the creation of overlay (or database) journals. The two roads, therefore, will merge to create a mature OA landscape.     

ONIX for Serials—The NISO/EDItEUR Joint Working Party

This article describes Online Information Exchange (ONIX) for Serials, a set of XML-based messages parallel to the ONIX for Books format described in an earlier “Standards Update.” These messages are being developed by a joint working party of National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and EDItEUR, the European EDI organization that oversees ONIX development and maintenance. The article describes the messages, their development, and some of the applications in which it is envisioned the messages will be used.     

Serials Staffing for the Twenty-First Century and Beyond

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the technical services issues relating to the future of serials staffing, particularly for serials catalogers. Trends in cataloging procedures, technical services reorganizations, and the changing roles of professional and paraprofessional employees affect present and future responsibilities of serials work. The author also examines major technological innovations that have affected staffing needs, including journals in electronic format, vendor-supplied holdings data, automatic generation of bibliographic records, and the potential implications of proposed serials cataloging rule changes on the way in which serials will be managed in libraries. Serials Review 2002; 28:195–200.     

Life in the Trenches of Print and Web Publishing

With this installment of “From Picas to Pixels,” I look at the differences (and similarities) between print publishing and Web publishing from the zine perspective and the cost differences between the two. I even speculate about why e-journals are still so expensive even though Web publishing is so much cheaper than print publishing (at least from the zine perspective). But then I remind myself that academic journals are a whole lot different than zines and so I carefully excuse myself from the discussion!