- Email: [email protected]
Serials information in the OPAC: A model for shared responsibility
SERIALS INFORMATION IN THE OPAC:
A MODEL FOR SHARED RESPONSIBILITY Tyler Goldberg and Erie Neagle INTRODUCTION
Goldberg is Head, Serials Department, Ekstrom Library, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, e-mail:, and Neagle is Library Assistant, Ekstrom Library, Current Periodicals Department, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, e-mail: .
-SICRIXI,SINFORMATION
11\; THE
OPAC-
Researchers in libraries rely on periodical collections. However, researchers are often challenged not only by identifying relevant periodical citations, but also by locating the issues that are needed in the library’s stacks. When serials records are available in the online public access catalog (OPAC), “[ulsers will want to have up-to-the minute, item-by-item access to serials, including information about current and retrospective volumes, missing or mutilated issues, claim reports, binding schedules, new and not-yet-cataloged titles, and unprocessed title changes.“’ Libraries need to provide users with enough information so that they can determine whether a title and, more often, a particular issue, is owned by the library, and if so, where the issue is located. Often the desire to make sure the user finds a periodical issue focuses on the public services desk. As Barbara Pinzelik noted over a decade ago, “[slerials are costly to purchase, complicated to process, difficult to find, and underused. It is essential that the additional step of providing adequate public service to the collection be taken.“2 Some libraries do provide public service desks dedicated solely to providing serials information. These desks can be staffed by serials personnel and may even be administratively part of an integrated serials department.3 Automated systems have provided an impetus for more cooperative working relationships between technical and public services
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in order to provide inf~~rmatio1~on serials. “The compLlrerizatio~1 of libraries has enabled technical services librarians to produce serials information for reference librarians which have not been available previously in public services.“4 Serials tnodules in automated systems should allow library staff to provide a wealth of serials information in the OPAC, which is immediately available to all users. In addition, rather than technical services just providing information for public services iibrarians, pubhc services and technical services personnel can jointly share the responsibiiity for this information in an online system. This paper proposes that staff in both technical services and public services share responsibility for creating and nlaintaining serials information in an automated system. The result is the creation of integrated serials records by technical and public services personnel, available in the OPAC. that give volume- and issue-specific inforn3ation. This allows the patron to successfully conduct a search, choose a citation. and determine the location of needed issues based on the inforI~ation provided in the OPAC.
The University of Louisville is a state supported urban uni~~ersity with a 199511996 ~~~~oll~~~entof Z 1,2 18. The University Libraries system consists of six libraries. including the University Archives and has a totai coftection of 1.3 million volumes. The Ekstrom Library is the largest library. with ~~7,000 volumes. The Ekstrom Library, the Engineering Library and the Art Library share a $2 million serials budget, which accounts for 6,000 of the approxij~~ately 12.800 current serial subscriptions. Departments of the Ekstrom Library are organizationally part of either the Division of Technical Services or the Division of Public Services. Serials processing has always been done in the Division of Technical Services, though the Division has been organized in various configurations over the years. The Division of Technical Services has its own head, who reports directly to the University Librarian. At the time the University of Louisville began using NOTIS in 1986, the Division of Technical Services was organized into three departments, Cataloging, Acquisitions, and Serials. Serials Department personnel did check-in and binding, Acquisitions personnel took care of ordering and paying, and serials personnel in the Cataloging Department were responsible for cataloging and main-
tenance of bound holdings. After several years ot working with serials records in NOTIS, serials personnel in the three departments felt that the integrated nature of KOTIS, and particuiarly the i~~terrelatedI3ess of the serials records, necessitated a reorganization and merging of all serials functions within Technical Services. With the departure of the Head of Acq~lisitions, Technical Services was reorganized in 1991 into the Monographs Department and the Serials Department. The Seriafs Department now consists of three sections: Cataloging. Acquisitions and Binding. Serials Department personnel are I-espo~lsibie for acquiring, cataloging. and preparing bindery shipments for all serials in the Ekstrom and Art Libraries. as well as all processing of serials for the Engineering Library. except binding. Selection is the responsibility of the Office of Collection Mnnagement, The Circulation Department maintains all bound volumes in the stacks. The current Serials staff consists of two librarians. xix full-time staff. and two students. The Current Periodicals Department is organizationally part of the Division of Public Services and reports to the Director. Di\,isiott of Public Services. This department has also reorganized during its history, including a short stint as part of the Reference Department. In 1990. Current Periodicals incorporated the Media and Microforms Department. The departments were combined largely because they were physic~~lly located near one another, The current multifunctional department allows staff to be used more effectively without c~~I~lpron3isingthe level of public service. This department now has one librarian. two full-time staff. and a dozen student assistants. The two full-time staff members are responsible for daily supervision of student assistants. In addition. all personnel answer reference questions, explain the use of microform machines and refile microforms. All periodicals are classified. Current Periodicals personnel are responsible for affixing call number tags to current issues of periodicals and shelving them in their appropriate location. as well as reshelving issues that have been used by patrons. With the exception of a few scattered periodical titles in other public services departn3ents. current periodicals are housed in this department. Current Periodicals staff pull volumes for binding when the first issue of the following volume is received. After volumes are pulled, processing is begun by Current Periodicals staff. At this time. statistics on the use of each volume are obtained and recorded for later collection development use. Volumes are then sent to the Serials Department. where processing is completed and the bindery
shipment is packed. Volumes are available to patrons until this time. The bindery picks up shipments every three weeks, so it takes a given volume one month to be bound, returned and shelved. Due to the separation of the two departments, and the physical layout of the Ekstrom Library, periodical issues travel extensively within the library until they are bound. Issues are checked-in in the basement by the Serials Department, shelved as indi~~~dualissues on the second floor in Current Periodicals, sent back down to the basement for binding, and eventually returned to the bound periodical stacks on the third and fourth floors. NOTK
When the University of Louisville began to use NOTIS in 1986, the acquisitions and cataloging modules were the first modules to be brought up. The OPAC was christened “Minerva.” SOLINET provided records for only 7,000 of all titles currently received by the University of Louisville Libraries. Serials personnel undertook an in-house project to clean up these records and then subsequently converted all titles owned by Ekstrom, Engineering and Art Libraries into the system by 199 1. Order/pay/receipt (OPR) records have been actively used for all current titles since early 1988. During the first few years of using OPRs, Serials Cataloging personnel manipulated records so that the order record was always on the current title5 This procedure has since been abandoned. The primary reason for this was that Serials and Collection Management personnel felt that as long as NOTIS records were linked with adequate notes to show title changes, order information could be easily pieced together to provide an order history. In addition, it was far easier to close an OPR on the preceding title and create a new OPR on the successive title than to recreate copy holdings and MARC holdings records and move item records. OPR records in NOTIS are used to create purchase orders, check-in materials, produce claims and post payments. Over the years the OPR records in Minerva have become a useful reference for a variety of information on any given serial title, including payment history, current receipts, and any number of notes that explain the quirks of a particular title. By 1991, the Serials Department had eliminated all paper files pertaining to information found in Minerva. In 1991, one of the major goals of the Current Periodicals Department was the automation of the card file used to process periodicals for the bindery. The file
-SER~AL~INFOR~~ATIONINTHE
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contained information on the over 3,000 current subscriptions that were maintained in the Current Periodicals Department. For each title in the file, info~ation such as binding procedures, a list of bound volumes, and also noncurrent unbound volumes being held in the department could be obtained. This card file and information found in the OPAC were used by staff and students in the department to assist the public and to process completed volumes. While the file was critical. it was also cumbersome and often inaccurate. In 1991, the Serials Department and the Current Periodicals Department began to explore the idea of sharing responsibility for maintaining serials information in a more coordinated and efficient way in an integrated online system. The original impetus of this concept was based on the desire of Current Periodicals to eliminate paper files, and the desire of both departments to eliminate duplicate files with often conflicting and inaccurate information. For instance, Current Periodicals personnel, as well as patrons, relied heavily on the Kentucky Union List of Serials, a list that contained call numbers and locations for all serials in the Libraries. Personnel in the Kentucky Union List of Serials Depa~ment maintained this list. At this time they were no longer updating the print copy, but were adding holdings of Kentucky libraries directly to OCLC. Current Periodicals personnel penciled in changes to their list, but errors occurred. Staff in both Current Periodicals and Serials assumed that it would be more efficient to create and maintain information in NOTIS, particularly for public services staff who were assisting patrons. Both department heads met informally and agreed to share responsibility for creating and maintaining serials information. Initially the Head of the Serials Dep~ment trained the Head of Current Periodicals and one staff member from Current Periodicals in the mechanics of adding the information to the records. By the end of 1992, Current Periodicals had moved all card file information to NOTIS and by the middle of 1993, Current Periodicals personnel had written a procedures manual for training. As these procedures evolved, personnel from both departments began to see this cooperative effort as a means to provide a complete serials record in the OPAC. All of this has been accomplished by using the NOTIS OPR record.6 Sharing the NOTUS OPR Following the decision to share the OPR record, personnel from both departments determined the key information that was needed to make the best use of
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these records. The Serials Department had only allowed departmental personnel to create and maintain information in the OPR, but felt that the information that would be input by Current Periodicals would make a complete picture of the serials process, and would therefore be useful to all staff and patrons. It had long been a goal of Technical Services personnel to make the staff mode of NOTIS familiar to all Public Services staff, since staff there often referred to it as the “technical services mode” and were reluctant to use it. Public Services personnel preferred the OPAC. or in some cases, lists like the Kentucky Union List of Serials. Current Periodicals personnel concentrated on deveioping procedures to input information from the department’s card file. while Serials personnel continued to use the OPR record as they had been doing. but they began to add bindery information. In all honesty it should be noted that Serials personnel were initially hesitant to allow staffo~Itside ofTechnical Services to add notes to OPR records. NOTIS does have the capability of controlling the access to various modules through individual accounts. Access to the OPR could be controlled in such a way so that parts of the OPR could not be altered by unauthorized staff. For example. the note to vendor field is used for a variety of information by Serials AcqL~isitions staff after the purchase order has been sent to the vendor, and this field is restricted to Serials staff.
“A note statement in an order/pay/receipt statement may contain information referring to any stage of the acquisitions process.“’ For the purposes of sharing the OPR record, both departments decided that the acquisitions process included everything from receipt through binding. Statements created in note. or N, statements do not display to the public. In order to show currently received issues in NOTIS a receipt line, or R statement. is created. These lines display to the patron in the OPAC. Both types of notes can have an AD. or action date. Action dates appear on a printed report that is generated daily so that staff can see what. if any. action needs to be taken on a particular title, such as claiming. Given the necessity of tracking periodicals. both Serials and Current Periodicals felt that N and R statements should be used to the best advantage. The Serials Department was already utilizing both N and R statements extensively for claimin g information. frequency ~ldjusttllents, and Llnpr~~cessedtitle change infot-t~l~~tiotl. as well as current receipts. Figures 1 through 6 illustrate the shared use of the NOTIS OPR and show the progression of a \~olume from receipt through binding. Figure 1 shows an OPR for the title &WY. Statements i-19, which are not included in this figure, contain payment inforlll~~tiotl for this title dating back to 1989. Statement 30 shows the most recent payment posted to this record. Statement 21 is an example of a
AEQ6691 NOTIS ACQUISITIONS 77643986 ISSN 0378-1119 S/STAT c FREQ e S/T p BC SERL LC 1 (1976)- -- Amsterdam : ElsevieriNorth-Holland, 1976Gene. Vol. 06/23,'88 ORDUNIT: 02 RECUNIT: 02 SCOPE: 2 PO : OOlAEQ6691 ACTINT: 0030 POP: x Ll: L2: VENDOR: VENDOR VA: LTBC
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vo17
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REF: 001 NOTE:
001 BN
*
FC 020 P FC 021 N 022 N 023 N 024 N 025 R 026 R 027 R 028 R
***057839***
E
0.00 EN 00
PCs: MED: MD 10/19/89 AD none
1.00 CN 01 XPM a BI02234S 88,'89 CUR usd AMT 1996 rate adj. INV 60111G938 18874Pll-15 BIO2234S 95/96 XC'4311 AMT 1145.00 usd PT 0 CN (13 vols/yr, 2 i.ss/vol.) MD MD BINDING NOTE: bind 2 volumes together IN PROCESS: v.166:no.l-2 (1995:Dec.) MD to bd/w v-167 MD AT BINDERY: v.164-165 (1995) MD v.166: Ask at Current Periodicals Desk. MD v.167rno.l-2(1995:Dec.29) MD v.168:no.1(1996:Feb.2) MD
Figure 1.
NOTIS Order/Pay/Receipt
L3/4 MD 01 PD 11/18/91 03/03/92 02/11/96 02/11/96 01/24/96 02111/96 01123196 02/12/96
Record (OPR) for the Title Gene
AD AD AD AD AD AD AD AD
01/16/96 1145.00 none none none 03/17,'96 02128/96 none none 01/13/'96
note input by Serials Acquisitions for staff information. It explains the way in which the volumes of this title are issued, in this case, thirteen volumes consisting of two issues each wiil be published each year In statement 22, Current Periodicals staff entered a BINDING NOTE, which contains specific information needed to process a volume before it is sent to the Binding Section of the Serials Department. Statements 23 and 24, IN PROCESS notes, show that Current Periodicals is holding this volume at their service desk. This volume will be ready for binding by the action date given. (In this example, two volumes of this title are bound together.) Current Periodicals personnel enter IN PROCESS notes, which are used to describe any number of situations in which volumes that are not current are being housed in an area of the Current Periodicals Department that is not accessible without staff assistance. Missing issues are also indicated in EN PROCESS notes since the library seeks replacement issues before binding. When IN PROCESS lines are entered, receipt statements which correspond to those issues are purged. Because N statements do not display to the public, it is important to create R statements to display impo~ant info~ation to the public. Therefore, the Current Periodicals Department inputs statement 26. It reads “v.166: Ask at Current Periodicals Desk” and repeats the information in the IN PROCESS note, but is put in an R statement so that it displays to the public, telling patrons where they can obtain these issues. The
Search SERIAL
Requestt - Record
T=GENE 1 of 1784
Entries
Binding Section inputs stat~n~ent 25. which shows that v. 164- 165 ( 1995) have been sent to the bindery. These volumes should return from the bindery, be processed and shelved by the action date shown. Statements 27 and 28 show the currently received issues of this periodical title. The action date on statement 28 indicates that v.168:no. 2 is expected by 3/13/96. Figure 2 is the OPAC display for the titfe Gene. Information for location and call number comes from the NOTIS copy holdings record. The note that displays to the public as OTHER INFO: “Current issues in periodicals,” comes from a NOTIS notation code, “ci:pr,” input in the copy holdings record. (The copy holdings record is shown in Figure 3.) CURRENT ISSUES information displays from statements 27 and 28, as discussed above. The note, “v.166: Ask at Current Periodicals Desk,” comes from statement 26 in the OPR. The information explaining what volumes are at the bindery comes from statement 25 in the OPR. The information following LIBRARY HAS and SUPPLEMENTS in the OPAC display comes from the NOTIS MARC holdings record. Holdings records at the University of Louisville conform to ANSI Standard Z39.44, level 4 and the MARC Holdings Format. Only bound voIumes are added to the MARC holdings records. Volumes which are bound incomplete are also added and holdings statements are created to show only the issues the library owns,
_____---__ll__-___l______-I-___ &ocation 1 LOCATION EKSTROM bound periodicals 3d/4th x QH 442 .G43 CALL NUMBER STATUS: Check Shelf OTHER INFO: Current issues in periodicals. :
CURRENT
ISSUES:
LfBRARY HAS: SUPPLEMENTS:
v.168:no.lf1996:Feb.2) v.167:no.l-2(1995:Dec.29) v.166: Ask at Current Periodicals AT BINDERY: v.164-165 (1995) v.25 (1983)-v-163 (1995) v. 40 (1986)
____-_----_l___-__ll_________c___LI_____~~~~---_ VIEW record STArt over HELP LONg view OTHer options INDex NEXT
MINERVA (5.1.2) Holdings Detail
Found
-------1--------____----_-__-__
(Non-Circulating)
Desk.
Page GUIde Mzmk
1 of 1 NEXt
_--______-___ record
COMMAND:
Figure 2.
WAC Disphy for the Title Gene
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LTBC
DONE
AEQ5691 NOTIS COPY HOLDINGS 77643986 BC SERL LC ISSN 0378-1119 S/STAT c FREQ e S/T p Gene. Vol. 1 (1976)- -- Amsterdam : Elsevier/North-Holland, 1976STATUS h DT 06/12/84 AD none NOTES 001 2L CN la ekst,perl Ik x lb QH Ic 442 Ic .G43 NOTES la ci:pr MHLD ITEM RECORDS 78 BN-001-001
Figure 3.
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NOTIS Copy Holdings Record for the Title Gene
DONE
AEQ6691 NOTIS ACQUISITIONS 77643986 ISSN 0378-1119 S/STAT c FREQ e S/T p BC SERL LC : Elsevier/North-Holland, 1976Gene. Vol. 1 (1976)- -- Amsterdam 06/23/88 ORDUNIT: 02 RECUNIT: 02 SCOPE: 2 PO : OOlAEQ6691 VENDOR: VENDOR ACTINT: 0030 POP: x Ll: L2: VA:
vo17
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SOURCE: DIV 001 CCN
* *
001 BN FC 020 P FC 021 N 022 N 023 N 024 N 025 R 026 R
***057839***
PCs: MED: 0.00 EN 00 MD 10/19/89 AD none 1.00 CN 01 XPM a L3/4 88/89 CUR usd AMT BI02234S INV 60111G938 18874Pll-15 1996 rate adj. MD 01/16/96 1145.00 1145.00 usd PT 0 CN 01 PD 95/96 XC 4311 AMT BI02234S MD 11/18/91 AD none (13 vols/yr, 2 iss/vol.) MD BINDING NOTE: bind 2 volumes together 03/03/92 AD none MD TO BINDING: v.166:no.l-2 (1995:Dec.) 02/15/96 AD 02/25/96 MD TO BINDING: v.167:no.1/2 (1995:Dec.) 02/15/96 AD 02/25/96 MD 01/24/96 AD 02/28/96 AT BINDERY: v.1644165 (1995) PlP 02/12/96 AD O-
Figure 4.
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REF: 001 NOTE:
NOTIS OPR for the Title Gene, Volumes 166 and 167 Entered on TO BINDING Lines
DONE
AEQ6691 NOTIS ACQUISITIONS 77643986 ISSN 0378-1119 S/STAT c FREQ e S/T p BC SERL LC 1 (1976)- -- Amsterdam : Elsevier/North-Holland, Gene. Vol. 1976PO : OOlAEQ6691 06/23/88 ORDUNIT: 02 RECUNIT: 02 SCOPE: 2 ACTINT: 0030 POP: x Ll: VENDOR: VENDOR L2: VA:
vo17
NV: NO:
SOURCE: DIV 001 CCN
*
001 BN FC 020 P FC 021 N 022 N 023 R 024 R
REF: 001 NOTE:
***057839***
PCs: MED: 0.00 EN 00 MD 10/19/89 AD none BI02234S 88/89 CUR usd AMT 1.00 CN 01 XPM a L3/4 1996 rate adj. INV 60111G938 18874Pll-15 MD 01/16/96 BI02234S 95/96 XC 4311 AMT 1145.00 usd PT 0 CN 01 PD 1145.00 (13 vols/yr, 2 iss/vol.) MD 11/18/91 AD none BINDING NOTE: bind 2 volumes together MD 03/Q3/92 AD none AT BINDERY: v.166-167 (1995) MD 02/28/96 AD 03/24/96 v.168:no.1(1996:Feb.2)-no.2(1996:Feb.l2) MD 02/27/96 AD 03/28/96 E
Figure 5.
NOTIS OPR for the Title Gene, Volumes 166 and 167 Now Entered on an AT BINDERY Line
In Figure 4, v. 166 is no longer in process. Current Periodicals is preparing it, along with v. 167, for binding. The volumes that are being sent to the bindery are put in TO BINDING notes, and the volumes are sent to the Serials Department from Current Periodicals. When TO BINDING lines are entered, receipt statements that correspond to the issues sent are purged. The Binding Section changes the TO BINDING notes to AT BINDERY notes, which display to the public. The action date associated with the AT BINDERY note in the OPR shows that the volume is out of the building and will not be available for several weeks. Since “AT BINDERY” is not understood by patrons, personnel from both departments are considering providing additional information, similar to what is used at the Medical Center Library at Vanderbilt University.* Volumes 164- 165 have returned from the bindery and are no longer shown in Figure 5. Serials staff have added this information to the NOTIS MARC holdings record shown in Figure 6. Likewise, when v. 166-167 are returned, they will be added to the NOTIS MARC holdings record, and will be visible in the LIBRARY HAS portion of the OPAC display. Over the last two years, staff from both departments have assisted in determining standard notes which needed to be added, altered or eliminated. For instance, when the two departments began to input notes, staff had not completed MARC holdings records for all periodical titles. Therefore LATEST BOUND notes were input when bound volumes were returned to the library, so that staff would know what volume had been the last to go to the stacks. However, in 1994 the University of Louisville installed and tested NOTIS/InfoShare software so that citation indexes would expand the OPAC to a new enhanced catalog which was renamed “Minerva Plus.” In January 1995 Minerva Plus offered patrons two citation index databases, Expanded Academic Index and ABIAnform. Through the “hook to
LTBC
holdings” feature, patrons could tell whether the library held the title and issue of the citation in which they were interested. The accessibility of these two indexes through Minerva Plus and the holdings information that is immediately available has led to an assumed increase in the use of the system. When Expanded Academic Index and ABVInform were installed, CD-Rom versions of Readers Guide to Periodical ~.iter~t~re, Social Science Index, and Humanities Index, as well as others, were canceled. While actual statistics are not available at this time, the assumption can be made that those individuals who had searched on the individual CD-Rom databases are now using the equivalent available through the OPAC. From 1994 until early 1995, six staff members from both departments created 18,823 MARC holdings records so that holdings records would exist for all titles. One of the results of having holdings records for all current titles was that there was no longer a need for the LATEST BOUND notes. Another example is the note that has been added which displays in Minerva as “Ask at Current Periodicals Desk,” preceded by a specific volume number. Personnel in both departments realized that patrons didn’t need to know why something was being held in Current Periodicals, but they did need to know that the issues in question were available in that department.
There have been several benefits for both staff and patrons of having two depa~ments create OPR information. One of the greatest benefits for staff has been centered around the closer connection of all personnel who deal with serials in the library. Communication and cooperation have allowed this system of tracking periodicals to evolve and improve to the benefit of the patrons.
DONE
AEQ5691-001 NOTIS MARC HOLDINGS 77643986 ISSN 0378-1119 S/STAT c FREQ e S/T p BC SERL LC : ElsevierfNorth-Holland, Gene. Vol. 1 (1976)- -- Amsterdam 1976=>OOl STATUS: 2L LOCN: EKSTROM bound periodicals 3d/4th COPY: CALL: Ik x lb QH Ic 442 lc .G43 ITEMS: BC- AEQ6691 FMT H DT 05/31/94 R/DT 06/27/96 STAT c RT y E/L 4 R/STAT 4 MTHD ? DT/'CAN G/RTN 8 S/RTN CMPLT 2 LEND b REPOL a LAN 853/1:21: 866,'1:41: 867/1:41:
18 1 la v. lb no. Ii (year) lj (month) 18 1 la v-25 (1983)-v.165 (1995) 18 1 la v.40 (1986)
Figure 6.
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INFORIIIATION IN THE
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78 eng
Iw e
NOTIS MARC Holdings Record for the Title Gene
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In addition to the one staff person who works fulltime with OPRs in the Current Periodicals Department, one student specializes in processing materials for the bindery. This student enters information into Minerva for volumes going to the bindery. Volumes that are pr~~blenlati~ are dealt with by the full-time staffp~rsoll. When the card file was still in use, all twelve student assistants in Current Periodicals prepared volumes for the bindery. One student dedicated to processing binding has decreased the number of mistakes without a loss in the speed with which volumes are processed. This also makes it easier to keep accurate manuat statistics since fewer people are processing volumes for the bindery. There have also been several challenges of having such detailed serials information available in the OPAC. The service point in Current Periodicals has had a shift in focus due to both seriats information and the periodical citation databases being avaitable through Minerva Plus. While in the past the staff answered primarily dire~tioi~al and tocation related questions, they are now also explaining how the databases work and how to conduct a search, functions traditionally associated with the Reference Department. Often. more explanation is required for a patron to be able to locate the info~-elation they need in the OPAC. Now all public services points share the burden of providiI~g this explanation, rather than just the Reference Department. A significant benefit for patrons is that they can get definitive answers at several locations instead of being handed off from depa~l~lent to d~partlnent. In addition, the availability of il?fortl~ation about periodicals has presented new challenges to those answering questions for patrons. Student assistants are used by Current Periodicals for the bulk of desk duty. The largest obstacle for them is NOTIS itself. Since at least sixty to seventy percent of the questions answered at the Current Periodicals service point require consulting Minerva, a good understanding of the system is crucial. Some students adapt to NOTIS quite well and are excited about having access to “real knowfrdge” in terms of periodicals, while others have serious problems working with OPRs. Nevertheless, one effect of transforming this process has been an increased expectation of student assistants. As with other aspects of this system of tracking periodicals. traiIling those who need to interpret the notes has also changed through time. Now. there is less of a need for student assistants to use the staff mode. Almost all questions can be answered by using the OPAC. In the future, the focus will be to make even
more infori~~ation available in the OPAC and eliminate the use of NOTIS OPRs by student assistants at the Current Periodicals service point, except for the person who inputs bindery inf&mation. The patron has also had to make some sizeable adjustments through this process. As discussed earlier, most holdings were added by late 1994, so that the “hook-to-holdings” feature would work with the InfoShare databases that were brought up in early 1995. As noted previously, patrons and staff had been ;~.~ustomed to using printouts of the Kentucky Union List of Serials to find call numbers and location inforrl~~~~ion. Over the Spring 1995 semester, Current Periodicals staff installed signs which announced the availability of holdings and location information in the OPAC. These signs were placed in every location where copies of the union lists were available. Staff in both Current Periodicals and Reference began suggesting the use of the OPAC to find cot!lplete serials informatio~~. The av~~iIabiliry of the InfoShare databases has helped with this, since by typing “hoi.*’ patrons can find the call number and location information they need. At the end of the Sprin, * 1995 semester, the union lists were removed from most public areas. However. since some patrons do not have an easy time using the OPAC and interpl.eting holdings inform~~ti~~n,lists are available in some areas of the building. It is gratifying when patrons appear at the public service desk with citations in hand and know that the issues they seek are housed in the Current Periodicals Department.
Personnel from both Departments have learned a great deal about the overall processing of serials. Public Services and Technical Services staff have worked together to create records that make sense and are helpful to patrons and staff. By sharing questions and problems. which always arise when dealing with serials. ~o~~l~~uni~atior~ between the departments has improved. The records that have been created are “clean” records. For instance. the process of purging receipt lines and claim lines at the time of binding results in records which are not cluttered with outdated notes, Procedures continue to be revised and inforlil~lti~~n examined, so that these records are clear and provide al1 the inforI~lation necessary. In fact, whiie Technical Services was initially hesitant to allow too many people to input information into these records, it has instead been helpful in keeping these records accurate and up-
to-date. Personnel in the Engineering Library have begun to use the same notes for binding. Due largely to sharing the records, both departments recently began to share a half-time staff member, who pulls materials in Current Periodicals for the bindery and processes added volumes in the Serials Department. The University of Louisville is currently involved in a reorganization process in which the work of all units is being examined in detail. New user-centered units will be designed based on key work activities. Both Serials Department and Current Periodicals Department personnel think that it would be logical to combine the two departments in the new organization, but it is too soon to tell what the new organizational structure will be.
Conclusion Librarians have been challenged to create and maintain irlformation on serials. Since different steps in serials processesing often do not take place in the same room. or sometimes not even in the same unit of a large library system, it is not surprising that providing information on serial titles and their individual volumes and issues is time-consuming, costly, and may still not provide adequate details for the patron. Patrons expect to find up-to-the minute information on serials, and seriais modules of automated systems should be equipped to handle it. Providing serials information should not be seen as the realm of one department or another, but rather as a shared responsibility. This allows the creation of records that reflect a balance of the needs of patrons and staff and the requirements of bibliographic control. All personnel who are responsible for serials processing in the Ekstrom Library share responsibility for creating serial records which contain information about current receipts, bound volumes, binding, and other information pertinent to patrons and staff. The information input into these records continues to evolve in order to make a detailed record of each title in the OPAC. The validity of this process is underscored when a patron conducts a search, chooses a citation,
-SERIALSINFORIllATION
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OPAC-
and determines the location of the issue based solely on the information in the OPAC.
NOTES I. Wilma Reid Cipolla, “Finding a Way Out of the Serials Maze,” Librav Resowces and Technical Services 32, no.2 (April 1988): 151-158. 2. Barbara P. Pinzelik, “The Serials Maze: Providing Public Service for a Large Serials Collection,” Jounral of Aut/en& Libr~r~u~7~~h~p8, no.2 (1982): 89-94. 3. Ruth Christ, Mary Monson, and Marjorie Wilhite, als in Transition: The University of Iowa Experience,” nls Librarian 19, no. l/2 (I 990): 57-67. Sue Harrington, “Serials Control: Meeting the Challenge University of Oklahoma,” Serials Librarian 19, (1990): 43-56.
“SeriSeviAnne at the no. l/2
4. Elaine K. Rast, “Narrowing the Gap: Serials Service Improved by Cooperation Between Technical and Public Services,” Reference Librarian no.27128 ( 1989): 105-I 22. 5. Tyler Goldberg and Pamela Burton, “Building a Serials Database on NOTIS at the University of Louisville,” Serials Librcrrim 18, no.3/4 (1990): 115-128. 6. The University of Louisville Libraries examined LSER (a NOTIS module for serials check-in) when it was first made available and found that it was not suitable to the needs of the Libraries, largely because it is not very flexible. Many titles would never be predictable, and it was impossible to contemplate using both LSER and OPRs.” The OPR already provided a concise means to maintain and display a variety of information that covered more than just check-in and was much easier to create and use than LSER. 7. Ameritech Library Services. User? Guide: Acquisitions and Serials, Release 6.0 (Ameritech, 1995) p. I7 1. 8. Sylvia Martin and Judith Rieke, “Implementation on Online Serials Control: Two Approaches Within the Same Library System,” Serials Review 15, no.3 (Fall 1989): 7- 17. 9. Marjorie Wilhite, “Templates: Providing Structure for Implementing NOTIS LSER Module Receiving Records,” Serials Review 2 1, no.4 (Winter 1995): 35-42.
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A MODEL FOR SHARED RESPONSIBILITY Tyler Goldberg and Erie Neagle INTRODUCTION
Goldberg is Head, Serials Department, Ekstrom Library, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, e-mail:
-SICRIXI,SINFORMATION
11\; THE
OPAC-
Researchers in libraries rely on periodical collections. However, researchers are often challenged not only by identifying relevant periodical citations, but also by locating the issues that are needed in the library’s stacks. When serials records are available in the online public access catalog (OPAC), “[ulsers will want to have up-to-the minute, item-by-item access to serials, including information about current and retrospective volumes, missing or mutilated issues, claim reports, binding schedules, new and not-yet-cataloged titles, and unprocessed title changes.“’ Libraries need to provide users with enough information so that they can determine whether a title and, more often, a particular issue, is owned by the library, and if so, where the issue is located. Often the desire to make sure the user finds a periodical issue focuses on the public services desk. As Barbara Pinzelik noted over a decade ago, “[slerials are costly to purchase, complicated to process, difficult to find, and underused. It is essential that the additional step of providing adequate public service to the collection be taken.“2 Some libraries do provide public service desks dedicated solely to providing serials information. These desks can be staffed by serials personnel and may even be administratively part of an integrated serials department.3 Automated systems have provided an impetus for more cooperative working relationships between technical and public services
WINTER
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in order to provide inf~~rmatio1~on serials. “The compLlrerizatio~1 of libraries has enabled technical services librarians to produce serials information for reference librarians which have not been available previously in public services.“4 Serials tnodules in automated systems should allow library staff to provide a wealth of serials information in the OPAC, which is immediately available to all users. In addition, rather than technical services just providing information for public services iibrarians, pubhc services and technical services personnel can jointly share the responsibiiity for this information in an online system. This paper proposes that staff in both technical services and public services share responsibility for creating and nlaintaining serials information in an automated system. The result is the creation of integrated serials records by technical and public services personnel, available in the OPAC. that give volume- and issue-specific inforn3ation. This allows the patron to successfully conduct a search, choose a citation. and determine the location of needed issues based on the inforI~ation provided in the OPAC.
The University of Louisville is a state supported urban uni~~ersity with a 199511996 ~~~~oll~~~entof Z 1,2 18. The University Libraries system consists of six libraries. including the University Archives and has a totai coftection of 1.3 million volumes. The Ekstrom Library is the largest library. with ~~7,000 volumes. The Ekstrom Library, the Engineering Library and the Art Library share a $2 million serials budget, which accounts for 6,000 of the approxij~~ately 12.800 current serial subscriptions. Departments of the Ekstrom Library are organizationally part of either the Division of Technical Services or the Division of Public Services. Serials processing has always been done in the Division of Technical Services, though the Division has been organized in various configurations over the years. The Division of Technical Services has its own head, who reports directly to the University Librarian. At the time the University of Louisville began using NOTIS in 1986, the Division of Technical Services was organized into three departments, Cataloging, Acquisitions, and Serials. Serials Department personnel did check-in and binding, Acquisitions personnel took care of ordering and paying, and serials personnel in the Cataloging Department were responsible for cataloging and main-
tenance of bound holdings. After several years ot working with serials records in NOTIS, serials personnel in the three departments felt that the integrated nature of KOTIS, and particuiarly the i~~terrelatedI3ess of the serials records, necessitated a reorganization and merging of all serials functions within Technical Services. With the departure of the Head of Acq~lisitions, Technical Services was reorganized in 1991 into the Monographs Department and the Serials Department. The Seriafs Department now consists of three sections: Cataloging. Acquisitions and Binding. Serials Department personnel are I-espo~lsibie for acquiring, cataloging. and preparing bindery shipments for all serials in the Ekstrom and Art Libraries. as well as all processing of serials for the Engineering Library. except binding. Selection is the responsibility of the Office of Collection Mnnagement, The Circulation Department maintains all bound volumes in the stacks. The current Serials staff consists of two librarians. xix full-time staff. and two students. The Current Periodicals Department is organizationally part of the Division of Public Services and reports to the Director. Di\,isiott of Public Services. This department has also reorganized during its history, including a short stint as part of the Reference Department. In 1990. Current Periodicals incorporated the Media and Microforms Department. The departments were combined largely because they were physic~~lly located near one another, The current multifunctional department allows staff to be used more effectively without c~~I~lpron3isingthe level of public service. This department now has one librarian. two full-time staff. and a dozen student assistants. The two full-time staff members are responsible for daily supervision of student assistants. In addition. all personnel answer reference questions, explain the use of microform machines and refile microforms. All periodicals are classified. Current Periodicals personnel are responsible for affixing call number tags to current issues of periodicals and shelving them in their appropriate location. as well as reshelving issues that have been used by patrons. With the exception of a few scattered periodical titles in other public services departn3ents. current periodicals are housed in this department. Current Periodicals staff pull volumes for binding when the first issue of the following volume is received. After volumes are pulled, processing is begun by Current Periodicals staff. At this time. statistics on the use of each volume are obtained and recorded for later collection development use. Volumes are then sent to the Serials Department. where processing is completed and the bindery
shipment is packed. Volumes are available to patrons until this time. The bindery picks up shipments every three weeks, so it takes a given volume one month to be bound, returned and shelved. Due to the separation of the two departments, and the physical layout of the Ekstrom Library, periodical issues travel extensively within the library until they are bound. Issues are checked-in in the basement by the Serials Department, shelved as indi~~~dualissues on the second floor in Current Periodicals, sent back down to the basement for binding, and eventually returned to the bound periodical stacks on the third and fourth floors. NOTK
When the University of Louisville began to use NOTIS in 1986, the acquisitions and cataloging modules were the first modules to be brought up. The OPAC was christened “Minerva.” SOLINET provided records for only 7,000 of all titles currently received by the University of Louisville Libraries. Serials personnel undertook an in-house project to clean up these records and then subsequently converted all titles owned by Ekstrom, Engineering and Art Libraries into the system by 199 1. Order/pay/receipt (OPR) records have been actively used for all current titles since early 1988. During the first few years of using OPRs, Serials Cataloging personnel manipulated records so that the order record was always on the current title5 This procedure has since been abandoned. The primary reason for this was that Serials and Collection Management personnel felt that as long as NOTIS records were linked with adequate notes to show title changes, order information could be easily pieced together to provide an order history. In addition, it was far easier to close an OPR on the preceding title and create a new OPR on the successive title than to recreate copy holdings and MARC holdings records and move item records. OPR records in NOTIS are used to create purchase orders, check-in materials, produce claims and post payments. Over the years the OPR records in Minerva have become a useful reference for a variety of information on any given serial title, including payment history, current receipts, and any number of notes that explain the quirks of a particular title. By 1991, the Serials Department had eliminated all paper files pertaining to information found in Minerva. In 1991, one of the major goals of the Current Periodicals Department was the automation of the card file used to process periodicals for the bindery. The file
-SER~AL~INFOR~~ATIONINTHE
~PAc-
contained information on the over 3,000 current subscriptions that were maintained in the Current Periodicals Department. For each title in the file, info~ation such as binding procedures, a list of bound volumes, and also noncurrent unbound volumes being held in the department could be obtained. This card file and information found in the OPAC were used by staff and students in the department to assist the public and to process completed volumes. While the file was critical. it was also cumbersome and often inaccurate. In 1991, the Serials Department and the Current Periodicals Department began to explore the idea of sharing responsibility for maintaining serials information in a more coordinated and efficient way in an integrated online system. The original impetus of this concept was based on the desire of Current Periodicals to eliminate paper files, and the desire of both departments to eliminate duplicate files with often conflicting and inaccurate information. For instance, Current Periodicals personnel, as well as patrons, relied heavily on the Kentucky Union List of Serials, a list that contained call numbers and locations for all serials in the Libraries. Personnel in the Kentucky Union List of Serials Depa~ment maintained this list. At this time they were no longer updating the print copy, but were adding holdings of Kentucky libraries directly to OCLC. Current Periodicals personnel penciled in changes to their list, but errors occurred. Staff in both Current Periodicals and Serials assumed that it would be more efficient to create and maintain information in NOTIS, particularly for public services staff who were assisting patrons. Both department heads met informally and agreed to share responsibility for creating and maintaining serials information. Initially the Head of the Serials Dep~ment trained the Head of Current Periodicals and one staff member from Current Periodicals in the mechanics of adding the information to the records. By the end of 1992, Current Periodicals had moved all card file information to NOTIS and by the middle of 1993, Current Periodicals personnel had written a procedures manual for training. As these procedures evolved, personnel from both departments began to see this cooperative effort as a means to provide a complete serials record in the OPAC. All of this has been accomplished by using the NOTIS OPR record.6 Sharing the NOTUS OPR Following the decision to share the OPR record, personnel from both departments determined the key information that was needed to make the best use of
WINTER 1996
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these records. The Serials Department had only allowed departmental personnel to create and maintain information in the OPR, but felt that the information that would be input by Current Periodicals would make a complete picture of the serials process, and would therefore be useful to all staff and patrons. It had long been a goal of Technical Services personnel to make the staff mode of NOTIS familiar to all Public Services staff, since staff there often referred to it as the “technical services mode” and were reluctant to use it. Public Services personnel preferred the OPAC. or in some cases, lists like the Kentucky Union List of Serials. Current Periodicals personnel concentrated on deveioping procedures to input information from the department’s card file. while Serials personnel continued to use the OPR record as they had been doing. but they began to add bindery information. In all honesty it should be noted that Serials personnel were initially hesitant to allow staffo~Itside ofTechnical Services to add notes to OPR records. NOTIS does have the capability of controlling the access to various modules through individual accounts. Access to the OPR could be controlled in such a way so that parts of the OPR could not be altered by unauthorized staff. For example. the note to vendor field is used for a variety of information by Serials AcqL~isitions staff after the purchase order has been sent to the vendor, and this field is restricted to Serials staff.
“A note statement in an order/pay/receipt statement may contain information referring to any stage of the acquisitions process.“’ For the purposes of sharing the OPR record, both departments decided that the acquisitions process included everything from receipt through binding. Statements created in note. or N, statements do not display to the public. In order to show currently received issues in NOTIS a receipt line, or R statement. is created. These lines display to the patron in the OPAC. Both types of notes can have an AD. or action date. Action dates appear on a printed report that is generated daily so that staff can see what. if any. action needs to be taken on a particular title, such as claiming. Given the necessity of tracking periodicals. both Serials and Current Periodicals felt that N and R statements should be used to the best advantage. The Serials Department was already utilizing both N and R statements extensively for claimin g information. frequency ~ldjusttllents, and Llnpr~~cessedtitle change infot-t~l~~tiotl. as well as current receipts. Figures 1 through 6 illustrate the shared use of the NOTIS OPR and show the progression of a \~olume from receipt through binding. Figure 1 shows an OPR for the title &WY. Statements i-19, which are not included in this figure, contain payment inforlll~~tiotl for this title dating back to 1989. Statement 30 shows the most recent payment posted to this record. Statement 21 is an example of a
AEQ6691 NOTIS ACQUISITIONS 77643986 ISSN 0378-1119 S/STAT c FREQ e S/T p BC SERL LC 1 (1976)- -- Amsterdam : ElsevieriNorth-Holland, 1976Gene. Vol. 06/23,'88 ORDUNIT: 02 RECUNIT: 02 SCOPE: 2 PO : OOlAEQ6691 ACTINT: 0030 POP: x Ll: L2: VENDOR: VENDOR VA: LTBC
DONE
vo17
NV:
NO: SOURCE: DIV 001 CCN
REF: 001 NOTE:
001 BN
*
FC 020 P FC 021 N 022 N 023 N 024 N 025 R 026 R 027 R 028 R
***057839***
E
0.00 EN 00
PCs: MED: MD 10/19/89 AD none
1.00 CN 01 XPM a BI02234S 88,'89 CUR usd AMT 1996 rate adj. INV 60111G938 18874Pll-15 BIO2234S 95/96 XC'4311 AMT 1145.00 usd PT 0 CN (13 vols/yr, 2 i.ss/vol.) MD MD BINDING NOTE: bind 2 volumes together IN PROCESS: v.166:no.l-2 (1995:Dec.) MD to bd/w v-167 MD AT BINDERY: v.164-165 (1995) MD v.166: Ask at Current Periodicals Desk. MD v.167rno.l-2(1995:Dec.29) MD v.168:no.1(1996:Feb.2) MD
Figure 1.
NOTIS Order/Pay/Receipt
L3/4 MD 01 PD 11/18/91 03/03/92 02/11/96 02/11/96 01/24/96 02111/96 01123196 02/12/96
Record (OPR) for the Title Gene
AD AD AD AD AD AD AD AD
01/16/96 1145.00 none none none 03/17,'96 02128/96 none none 01/13/'96
note input by Serials Acquisitions for staff information. It explains the way in which the volumes of this title are issued, in this case, thirteen volumes consisting of two issues each wiil be published each year In statement 22, Current Periodicals staff entered a BINDING NOTE, which contains specific information needed to process a volume before it is sent to the Binding Section of the Serials Department. Statements 23 and 24, IN PROCESS notes, show that Current Periodicals is holding this volume at their service desk. This volume will be ready for binding by the action date given. (In this example, two volumes of this title are bound together.) Current Periodicals personnel enter IN PROCESS notes, which are used to describe any number of situations in which volumes that are not current are being housed in an area of the Current Periodicals Department that is not accessible without staff assistance. Missing issues are also indicated in EN PROCESS notes since the library seeks replacement issues before binding. When IN PROCESS lines are entered, receipt statements which correspond to those issues are purged. Because N statements do not display to the public, it is important to create R statements to display impo~ant info~ation to the public. Therefore, the Current Periodicals Department inputs statement 26. It reads “v.166: Ask at Current Periodicals Desk” and repeats the information in the IN PROCESS note, but is put in an R statement so that it displays to the public, telling patrons where they can obtain these issues. The
Search SERIAL
Requestt - Record
T=GENE 1 of 1784
Entries
Binding Section inputs stat~n~ent 25. which shows that v. 164- 165 ( 1995) have been sent to the bindery. These volumes should return from the bindery, be processed and shelved by the action date shown. Statements 27 and 28 show the currently received issues of this periodical title. The action date on statement 28 indicates that v.168:no. 2 is expected by 3/13/96. Figure 2 is the OPAC display for the titfe Gene. Information for location and call number comes from the NOTIS copy holdings record. The note that displays to the public as OTHER INFO: “Current issues in periodicals,” comes from a NOTIS notation code, “ci:pr,” input in the copy holdings record. (The copy holdings record is shown in Figure 3.) CURRENT ISSUES information displays from statements 27 and 28, as discussed above. The note, “v.166: Ask at Current Periodicals Desk,” comes from statement 26 in the OPR. The information explaining what volumes are at the bindery comes from statement 25 in the OPR. The information following LIBRARY HAS and SUPPLEMENTS in the OPAC display comes from the NOTIS MARC holdings record. Holdings records at the University of Louisville conform to ANSI Standard Z39.44, level 4 and the MARC Holdings Format. Only bound voIumes are added to the MARC holdings records. Volumes which are bound incomplete are also added and holdings statements are created to show only the issues the library owns,
_____---__ll__-___l______-I-___ &ocation 1 LOCATION EKSTROM bound periodicals 3d/4th x QH 442 .G43 CALL NUMBER STATUS: Check Shelf OTHER INFO: Current issues in periodicals. :
CURRENT
ISSUES:
LfBRARY HAS: SUPPLEMENTS:
v.168:no.lf1996:Feb.2) v.167:no.l-2(1995:Dec.29) v.166: Ask at Current Periodicals AT BINDERY: v.164-165 (1995) v.25 (1983)-v-163 (1995) v. 40 (1986)
____-_----_l___-__ll_________c___LI_____~~~~---_ VIEW record STArt over HELP LONg view OTHer options INDex NEXT
MINERVA (5.1.2) Holdings Detail
Found
-------1--------____----_-__-__
(Non-Circulating)
Desk.
Page GUIde Mzmk
1 of 1
_--______-___ record
COMMAND:
Figure 2.
WAC Disphy for the Title Gene
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59
LTBC
DONE
AEQ5691 NOTIS COPY HOLDINGS 77643986 BC SERL LC ISSN 0378-1119 S/STAT c FREQ e S/T p Gene. Vol. 1 (1976)- -- Amsterdam : Elsevier/North-Holland, 1976STATUS h DT 06/12/84 AD none NOTES 001 2L CN la ekst,perl Ik x lb QH Ic 442 Ic .G43 NOTES la ci:pr MHLD ITEM RECORDS 78 BN-001-001
Figure 3.
LTBC
vo17
Id 03/16/88
NOTIS Copy Holdings Record for the Title Gene
DONE
AEQ6691 NOTIS ACQUISITIONS 77643986 ISSN 0378-1119 S/STAT c FREQ e S/T p BC SERL LC : Elsevier/North-Holland, 1976Gene. Vol. 1 (1976)- -- Amsterdam 06/23/88 ORDUNIT: 02 RECUNIT: 02 SCOPE: 2 PO : OOlAEQ6691 VENDOR: VENDOR ACTINT: 0030 POP: x Ll: L2: VA:
vo17
NV:
NO:
SOURCE: DIV 001 CCN
* *
001 BN FC 020 P FC 021 N 022 N 023 N 024 N 025 R 026 R
***057839***
PCs: MED: 0.00 EN 00 MD 10/19/89 AD none 1.00 CN 01 XPM a L3/4 88/89 CUR usd AMT BI02234S INV 60111G938 18874Pll-15 1996 rate adj. MD 01/16/96 1145.00 1145.00 usd PT 0 CN 01 PD 95/96 XC 4311 AMT BI02234S MD 11/18/91 AD none (13 vols/yr, 2 iss/vol.) MD BINDING NOTE: bind 2 volumes together 03/03/92 AD none MD TO BINDING: v.166:no.l-2 (1995:Dec.) 02/15/96 AD 02/25/96 MD TO BINDING: v.167:no.1/2 (1995:Dec.) 02/15/96 AD 02/25/96 MD 01/24/96 AD 02/28/96 AT BINDERY: v.1644165 (1995) PlP 02/12/96 AD O-
Figure 4.
LTBC
REF: 001 NOTE:
NOTIS OPR for the Title Gene, Volumes 166 and 167 Entered on TO BINDING Lines
DONE
AEQ6691 NOTIS ACQUISITIONS 77643986 ISSN 0378-1119 S/STAT c FREQ e S/T p BC SERL LC 1 (1976)- -- Amsterdam : Elsevier/North-Holland, Gene. Vol. 1976PO : OOlAEQ6691 06/23/88 ORDUNIT: 02 RECUNIT: 02 SCOPE: 2 ACTINT: 0030 POP: x Ll: VENDOR: VENDOR L2: VA:
vo17
NV: NO:
SOURCE: DIV 001 CCN
*
001 BN FC 020 P FC 021 N 022 N 023 R 024 R
REF: 001 NOTE:
***057839***
PCs: MED: 0.00 EN 00 MD 10/19/89 AD none BI02234S 88/89 CUR usd AMT 1.00 CN 01 XPM a L3/4 1996 rate adj. INV 60111G938 18874Pll-15 MD 01/16/96 BI02234S 95/96 XC 4311 AMT 1145.00 usd PT 0 CN 01 PD 1145.00 (13 vols/yr, 2 iss/vol.) MD 11/18/91 AD none BINDING NOTE: bind 2 volumes together MD 03/Q3/92 AD none AT BINDERY: v.166-167 (1995) MD 02/28/96 AD 03/24/96 v.168:no.1(1996:Feb.2)-no.2(1996:Feb.l2) MD 02/27/96 AD 03/28/96 E
Figure 5.
NOTIS OPR for the Title Gene, Volumes 166 and 167 Now Entered on an AT BINDERY Line
In Figure 4, v. 166 is no longer in process. Current Periodicals is preparing it, along with v. 167, for binding. The volumes that are being sent to the bindery are put in TO BINDING notes, and the volumes are sent to the Serials Department from Current Periodicals. When TO BINDING lines are entered, receipt statements that correspond to the issues sent are purged. The Binding Section changes the TO BINDING notes to AT BINDERY notes, which display to the public. The action date associated with the AT BINDERY note in the OPR shows that the volume is out of the building and will not be available for several weeks. Since “AT BINDERY” is not understood by patrons, personnel from both departments are considering providing additional information, similar to what is used at the Medical Center Library at Vanderbilt University.* Volumes 164- 165 have returned from the bindery and are no longer shown in Figure 5. Serials staff have added this information to the NOTIS MARC holdings record shown in Figure 6. Likewise, when v. 166-167 are returned, they will be added to the NOTIS MARC holdings record, and will be visible in the LIBRARY HAS portion of the OPAC display. Over the last two years, staff from both departments have assisted in determining standard notes which needed to be added, altered or eliminated. For instance, when the two departments began to input notes, staff had not completed MARC holdings records for all periodical titles. Therefore LATEST BOUND notes were input when bound volumes were returned to the library, so that staff would know what volume had been the last to go to the stacks. However, in 1994 the University of Louisville installed and tested NOTIS/InfoShare software so that citation indexes would expand the OPAC to a new enhanced catalog which was renamed “Minerva Plus.” In January 1995 Minerva Plus offered patrons two citation index databases, Expanded Academic Index and ABIAnform. Through the “hook to
LTBC
holdings” feature, patrons could tell whether the library held the title and issue of the citation in which they were interested. The accessibility of these two indexes through Minerva Plus and the holdings information that is immediately available has led to an assumed increase in the use of the system. When Expanded Academic Index and ABVInform were installed, CD-Rom versions of Readers Guide to Periodical ~.iter~t~re, Social Science Index, and Humanities Index, as well as others, were canceled. While actual statistics are not available at this time, the assumption can be made that those individuals who had searched on the individual CD-Rom databases are now using the equivalent available through the OPAC. From 1994 until early 1995, six staff members from both departments created 18,823 MARC holdings records so that holdings records would exist for all titles. One of the results of having holdings records for all current titles was that there was no longer a need for the LATEST BOUND notes. Another example is the note that has been added which displays in Minerva as “Ask at Current Periodicals Desk,” preceded by a specific volume number. Personnel in both departments realized that patrons didn’t need to know why something was being held in Current Periodicals, but they did need to know that the issues in question were available in that department.
There have been several benefits for both staff and patrons of having two depa~ments create OPR information. One of the greatest benefits for staff has been centered around the closer connection of all personnel who deal with serials in the library. Communication and cooperation have allowed this system of tracking periodicals to evolve and improve to the benefit of the patrons.
DONE
AEQ5691-001 NOTIS MARC HOLDINGS 77643986 ISSN 0378-1119 S/STAT c FREQ e S/T p BC SERL LC : ElsevierfNorth-Holland, Gene. Vol. 1 (1976)- -- Amsterdam 1976=>OOl STATUS: 2L LOCN: EKSTROM bound periodicals 3d/4th COPY: CALL: Ik x lb QH Ic 442 lc .G43 ITEMS: BC- AEQ6691 FMT H DT 05/31/94 R/DT 06/27/96 STAT c RT y E/L 4 R/STAT 4 MTHD ? DT/'CAN G/RTN 8 S/RTN CMPLT 2 LEND b REPOL a LAN 853/1:21: 866,'1:41: 867/1:41:
18 1 la v. lb no. Ii (year) lj (month) 18 1 la v-25 (1983)-v.165 (1995) 18 1 la v.40 (1986)
Figure 6.
-SERIALS
INFORIIIATION IN THE
OPAC -
vo17
78 eng
Iw e
NOTIS MARC Holdings Record for the Title Gene
WINTER 1996
61
In addition to the one staff person who works fulltime with OPRs in the Current Periodicals Department, one student specializes in processing materials for the bindery. This student enters information into Minerva for volumes going to the bindery. Volumes that are pr~~blenlati~ are dealt with by the full-time staffp~rsoll. When the card file was still in use, all twelve student assistants in Current Periodicals prepared volumes for the bindery. One student dedicated to processing binding has decreased the number of mistakes without a loss in the speed with which volumes are processed. This also makes it easier to keep accurate manuat statistics since fewer people are processing volumes for the bindery. There have also been several challenges of having such detailed serials information available in the OPAC. The service point in Current Periodicals has had a shift in focus due to both seriats information and the periodical citation databases being avaitable through Minerva Plus. While in the past the staff answered primarily dire~tioi~al and tocation related questions, they are now also explaining how the databases work and how to conduct a search, functions traditionally associated with the Reference Department. Often. more explanation is required for a patron to be able to locate the info~-elation they need in the OPAC. Now all public services points share the burden of providiI~g this explanation, rather than just the Reference Department. A significant benefit for patrons is that they can get definitive answers at several locations instead of being handed off from depa~l~lent to d~partlnent. In addition, the availability of il?fortl~ation about periodicals has presented new challenges to those answering questions for patrons. Student assistants are used by Current Periodicals for the bulk of desk duty. The largest obstacle for them is NOTIS itself. Since at least sixty to seventy percent of the questions answered at the Current Periodicals service point require consulting Minerva, a good understanding of the system is crucial. Some students adapt to NOTIS quite well and are excited about having access to “real knowfrdge” in terms of periodicals, while others have serious problems working with OPRs. Nevertheless, one effect of transforming this process has been an increased expectation of student assistants. As with other aspects of this system of tracking periodicals. traiIling those who need to interpret the notes has also changed through time. Now. there is less of a need for student assistants to use the staff mode. Almost all questions can be answered by using the OPAC. In the future, the focus will be to make even
more infori~~ation available in the OPAC and eliminate the use of NOTIS OPRs by student assistants at the Current Periodicals service point, except for the person who inputs bindery inf&mation. The patron has also had to make some sizeable adjustments through this process. As discussed earlier, most holdings were added by late 1994, so that the “hook-to-holdings” feature would work with the InfoShare databases that were brought up in early 1995. As noted previously, patrons and staff had been ;~.~ustomed to using printouts of the Kentucky Union List of Serials to find call numbers and location inforrl~~~~ion. Over the Spring 1995 semester, Current Periodicals staff installed signs which announced the availability of holdings and location information in the OPAC. These signs were placed in every location where copies of the union lists were available. Staff in both Current Periodicals and Reference began suggesting the use of the OPAC to find cot!lplete serials informatio~~. The av~~iIabiliry of the InfoShare databases has helped with this, since by typing “hoi
Personnel from both Departments have learned a great deal about the overall processing of serials. Public Services and Technical Services staff have worked together to create records that make sense and are helpful to patrons and staff. By sharing questions and problems. which always arise when dealing with serials. ~o~~l~~uni~atior~ between the departments has improved. The records that have been created are “clean” records. For instance. the process of purging receipt lines and claim lines at the time of binding results in records which are not cluttered with outdated notes, Procedures continue to be revised and inforlil~lti~~n examined, so that these records are clear and provide al1 the inforI~lation necessary. In fact, whiie Technical Services was initially hesitant to allow too many people to input information into these records, it has instead been helpful in keeping these records accurate and up-
to-date. Personnel in the Engineering Library have begun to use the same notes for binding. Due largely to sharing the records, both departments recently began to share a half-time staff member, who pulls materials in Current Periodicals for the bindery and processes added volumes in the Serials Department. The University of Louisville is currently involved in a reorganization process in which the work of all units is being examined in detail. New user-centered units will be designed based on key work activities. Both Serials Department and Current Periodicals Department personnel think that it would be logical to combine the two departments in the new organization, but it is too soon to tell what the new organizational structure will be.
Conclusion Librarians have been challenged to create and maintain irlformation on serials. Since different steps in serials processesing often do not take place in the same room. or sometimes not even in the same unit of a large library system, it is not surprising that providing information on serial titles and their individual volumes and issues is time-consuming, costly, and may still not provide adequate details for the patron. Patrons expect to find up-to-the minute information on serials, and seriais modules of automated systems should be equipped to handle it. Providing serials information should not be seen as the realm of one department or another, but rather as a shared responsibility. This allows the creation of records that reflect a balance of the needs of patrons and staff and the requirements of bibliographic control. All personnel who are responsible for serials processing in the Ekstrom Library share responsibility for creating serial records which contain information about current receipts, bound volumes, binding, and other information pertinent to patrons and staff. The information input into these records continues to evolve in order to make a detailed record of each title in the OPAC. The validity of this process is underscored when a patron conducts a search, chooses a citation,
-SERIALSINFORIllATION
INTHE
OPAC-
and determines the location of the issue based solely on the information in the OPAC.
NOTES I. Wilma Reid Cipolla, “Finding a Way Out of the Serials Maze,” Librav Resowces and Technical Services 32, no.2 (April 1988): 151-158. 2. Barbara P. Pinzelik, “The Serials Maze: Providing Public Service for a Large Serials Collection,” Jounral of Aut/en& Libr~r~u~7~~h~p8, no.2 (1982): 89-94. 3. Ruth Christ, Mary Monson, and Marjorie Wilhite, als in Transition: The University of Iowa Experience,” nls Librarian 19, no. l/2 (I 990): 57-67. Sue Harrington, “Serials Control: Meeting the Challenge University of Oklahoma,” Serials Librarian 19, (1990): 43-56.
“SeriSeviAnne at the no. l/2
4. Elaine K. Rast, “Narrowing the Gap: Serials Service Improved by Cooperation Between Technical and Public Services,” Reference Librarian no.27128 ( 1989): 105-I 22. 5. Tyler Goldberg and Pamela Burton, “Building a Serials Database on NOTIS at the University of Louisville,” Serials Librcrrim 18, no.3/4 (1990): 115-128. 6. The University of Louisville Libraries examined LSER (a NOTIS module for serials check-in) when it was first made available and found that it was not suitable to the needs of the Libraries, largely because it is not very flexible. Many titles would never be predictable, and it was impossible to contemplate using both LSER and OPRs.” The OPR already provided a concise means to maintain and display a variety of information that covered more than just check-in and was much easier to create and use than LSER. 7. Ameritech Library Services. User? Guide: Acquisitions and Serials, Release 6.0 (Ameritech, 1995) p. I7 1. 8. Sylvia Martin and Judith Rieke, “Implementation on Online Serials Control: Two Approaches Within the Same Library System,” Serials Review 15, no.3 (Fall 1989): 7- 17. 9. Marjorie Wilhite, “Templates: Providing Structure for Implementing NOTIS LSER Module Receiving Records,” Serials Review 2 1, no.4 (Winter 1995): 35-42.
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