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The United Kingdom serials group: Its seventh annual conference
Library Acquisitions: Practice and Theory, Vol. 8, pp. 203-206, 1984 Printed in the USA. All rights reserved.
03fs6408j84 so3.oO+.OO Copyright 0 1484 PergaznonPress Ltd
THE UNITED KINGDOM SERIALS GROUP: ITS SEVENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE JENNIFER CARGILL Associate Director of Libraries for Technical Processing Texas Tech University Libraries Lubbock, Texas 79409
Most librarians in the United States are familiar with the framework of library conferences put on regionally and nationally in the U.S. Those were the library meetings with which 1 was familiar when 1 decided to attend the seventh annual conference of the United Kingdom Serials Group. For several years 1 had heard about the meetings of the group, which was formed in 1978 “to bridge the gap between the producer and the end user of serials, and to provide a forum for the interchange of information, ideas, suggestions and the solution of problems.” The Group publishes the proceedings of each conference, as well as providing other publications to the information industry. I was particularly interested in whether the meetings would be similar to the ones I regularly attended. The conference was scheduled for March 2&-29, 1984, at the University of Surrey in Guildford. The town, situated on the River Wey, has been in existence in some form since the twelfth century. The streets are a confusing mare to any motorist unfamiliar with the town, and make the town a difficult one in which to drive. The town itself has several interesting buildings and ruins to visit, and the local museum houses some C. L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) memorabilia. (Dodgson died in Guildford in 1898.) The University of Surrey is largely composed of yellow brick teaching blocks that look rather like an indust~al park. The weather during the conference was cool and rainy so it was pleasant to have the major meetings in one building with the exhibits, or stands as the British call them, in a nearby building. Many registrants were housed on campus in dormitories with meals provided in the cafeteria. The conference began with the opening of the exhibition area, followed by dinner, on the 26th. The meetings on the 27th were begun with opening remarks by John Merriman, Chairman of the United Kingdom Serials Group. The first speaker was Maurice Line, Director General of the British Library Lending Division. Dr. Line, speaking on “Provision of Serials in Times of Stringency,” presented a speech that he shortened as he went along While it was annoying to have a speaker skip over entire pages from what appeared to be a “canned” speech, pulled from 203
204
J. CARGILL
the files for the occasion, Dr. Line also provoked comment from his remarks. In the United Kingdom, money spent on periodicals has now surpassed book purchasing, with books requiring 49 percent of the monies and periodicals 51 percent. Among the advice Line offered: l When a library discontinues a current subscription, the back runs should be disposed of too. lDo not bind some continuing current subscriptions, but rather discard the unbound issues after a few years. @Do not use microforms as an alternative to retaining bound copies or disposing of unbound issues.
In a discussion of national supply systems for periodicals, different collection arrangements were identified: centralization; decentralization; and subject specialization concentrated in specific libraries. When it is time for cancellations to take place, cancellations can be done very easily in a centralized comprehensive collection (such as the British Library Lending Division), fairly easily in a specialized collection (such as are common in Germany), and with more difficulty in decentralized collections such as are common in the United States. On two other topics, Line suggested that local libraries should gather more hard data in order to make retention, cancellation, and disposal decisions. Planning should occur at the national or regional level. On the topic of electronic publishing, Line hypothesized that libraries might someday find themselves collecting articles rather than maintaining subscriptions. In a dual presentation on serials databases, Patrick Wynne-Jones [R.R. Bowker] spoke on “Ulrich’s Serials Database” and David Wood [British Library Lending Division], substituting for the announced speaker Jenny Gascoigne, read a paper by still another person on “British Library Serials Databases.” Wynne-Jones detailed the compilation of Uhich’s, which has been on-line since 198 1, as well as describing access to the database. Wood discussed three publications of the British Library: Serials in the British Library, from the Bibliographic Services Division; Keyword Index to Serial Titles and Current Serials Received, from the Lending Division. While Ulrich’s is a commercial database, the databases of the British Library were designed to control and service the British Library collections. The next topic, “Writing for Publication in Professional Journals,” by Brian Alley [Sangamon State University] was presented as an informal seminar and was designed to encourage and inspire the participants to write for publication. The use of word processors, the forums to explore for writing, and the importance of networking and visibility were covered. During the question and answer period, it was clear that British librarians, especially the established ones, seem to be less interested than their U.S. counterparts in encouraging others to write, while some of the younger British librarians are unsure how to begin. There does not seem to be the emphasis on writing that exists in libraries in the United States, specially in academic libraries. Stella Keenan [International Federation for Documentation] spoke on “The Impact of OnLine Services on Traditional Abstracting and Indexing Publications.” It has been traditional for abstracting and indexing publications to be discipline based with a mission orientation. Problem oriented publications are now emerging. The concept of the end user is also changing with the advent of microcomputers which allow the patron to do his or her own searching, and to retain articles and abstracts of interest on disks. Minna Saxe, [CUNY], had the unenviable task of reading a paper on the Serials Industry Systems Advisory Committee that had been prepared by Patricia Sabosik of SISAC. The rather dry paper was read in a pleasant manner but the topic was not familiar to the audience and Ms. Saxe was at a disadvantage in answering the ensuing questions. Indeed there seemed to be some resentment from a few members of the audience toward the concept that SISAC is developing of
The UK Serials Group: 7th Annual Conference
205
assigning codes not only to periodical titles but also to indi~d~ articles within the issues. These article identifiers would become the basis of a database to assist in serials ~~e~nt. On the second day of the conference, Gary Facente fAmerican Library Association] spoke on “Publishers’ Distribution Methods and Problems” from the U.S. viewpoint while Keith Courtney [Taylor and Francis Ltd.] discussed the topic from the U.K. point of view. Facente described scholarly journals which in the U.S. are editor-driven and are often addressed to association members’ interests or the interests of a narrow discipline. Short print runs would be common for such periodicals. On the other hand, about half of the popular magazines that are printed in the United States are not sold and must be destroyed so that inde~ndent dis~buto~ can get credit for the unsold copies from the pub&hers. In the U.K., Courtney said, the largest market for publishers of periodicals is North America (30949,with the U.K. and Europe following with 22% each. Robert Millson [Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers] spoke on “Learned Society Journal Publishing” and the gist of his remarks was that learned society publishing is in danger. On the third day, John Dean [Johns Hopkins University], discussed “Advances in the Binding of Serials: Options and Consequences.” It is a paradox, Dean said, that binding is designed to preserve and protect materials, yet at the period of greatest use for a periodical, the materials are unbound. Dean advised librarians to visit any bindery with whom they will be doing business. Much of Dean’s educational presentation included slides which illustrated methods he mentioned and terms he used. A final formal session on recent research in serials featured “Subscription Agents’ Services” [Paul Green, Leeds University]; “The Use of Microforms” [Dorothy Walker, India office]; and “Modelling of Journal vs. Article Acquisition by Libraries* (Alan McDougall, Loughborough University of Technology]. Green focused his presentation on an evaluation of five subscription agents and the services they provided. Walker discussed aassioning, storing, and recording serials in microform in the India office Library which was established about 1801. McDougall described a project that is just underway concerning libraries* collecting articles for the use of patrons rather than subscribing to some serials. The topics presented by the speakers varied greatly in style of presentation. In the question and answer periods that followed each speaker, it was clear that some questioners were touting their own viewpoint and really had little interest in questioning the speaker. There was more than a bit of envy expressed by the British members of the audience of the supposedly affluent state of U.S. libraries and the publishing world, ironic at a time when US. libraries and publishers are feeling hard pressed. Some questioners also seemed concerned with quoting statistics and nit-picking. Two of the best parts of the program involved an “International Serials Forum” on the first day and four discussion groups on the second day. The serials forum included Maurice Line [British Library Lending Division], Gillian Page [Pageant Publishing], and Marcia Tuttle [University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill]. They fielded questions on mergers and “divorces” in the world of journals, deselection; electronic publishing; format, sire and title page concerns; user resistance to microforms; and copyright. Some of the pickier points raised were rightly evaluated by Line as “I couldn’t care less” or “I can’t say anything that isn’t blasphemous or obscene about cataloging.” The discussion groups were each held twice so that participants could attend two. The topics and the discussion leaders: Serials Staffing {Margaret Graham, Newcastle Polytechnic]; Finance [John Urquhart, University of Newcastle upon Tyne]; Deselection [Jennifer CargiIl, then at Miami University]; and Copyright [Peter Lea, Manchester Polytechnic].
206
J. CARGlLL
Participants also had the oppo~unity to select among five tours: PIRA [Research Association for the Paper and Board, Printing and Packaging Industries]; Butterworth Scientific Journals Division; the Surrey University Library; Historical Guildford Guided Walk; and the Jane Austen Museum. Charlotta Hensley [University of Colorado] was among the final people on the program and presented greetings from the United States librarians attending. The UKSG conference was interesting for a U.S. librarian to attend and observe. Just as with U.S. library meetings, the quality of the presentations was uneven. The conference was less intensive than those in the U.S., and there was no air of business being done nor the frantic activity and networking that takes place at U.S. conferences. The conference was well organized and registrants had advance copies of the abstracts of the papers to be presented. Of the more than 200 registrants, about ten percent were from North America.
03fs6408j84 so3.oO+.OO Copyright 0 1484 PergaznonPress Ltd
THE UNITED KINGDOM SERIALS GROUP: ITS SEVENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE JENNIFER CARGILL Associate Director of Libraries for Technical Processing Texas Tech University Libraries Lubbock, Texas 79409
Most librarians in the United States are familiar with the framework of library conferences put on regionally and nationally in the U.S. Those were the library meetings with which 1 was familiar when 1 decided to attend the seventh annual conference of the United Kingdom Serials Group. For several years 1 had heard about the meetings of the group, which was formed in 1978 “to bridge the gap between the producer and the end user of serials, and to provide a forum for the interchange of information, ideas, suggestions and the solution of problems.” The Group publishes the proceedings of each conference, as well as providing other publications to the information industry. I was particularly interested in whether the meetings would be similar to the ones I regularly attended. The conference was scheduled for March 2&-29, 1984, at the University of Surrey in Guildford. The town, situated on the River Wey, has been in existence in some form since the twelfth century. The streets are a confusing mare to any motorist unfamiliar with the town, and make the town a difficult one in which to drive. The town itself has several interesting buildings and ruins to visit, and the local museum houses some C. L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) memorabilia. (Dodgson died in Guildford in 1898.) The University of Surrey is largely composed of yellow brick teaching blocks that look rather like an indust~al park. The weather during the conference was cool and rainy so it was pleasant to have the major meetings in one building with the exhibits, or stands as the British call them, in a nearby building. Many registrants were housed on campus in dormitories with meals provided in the cafeteria. The conference began with the opening of the exhibition area, followed by dinner, on the 26th. The meetings on the 27th were begun with opening remarks by John Merriman, Chairman of the United Kingdom Serials Group. The first speaker was Maurice Line, Director General of the British Library Lending Division. Dr. Line, speaking on “Provision of Serials in Times of Stringency,” presented a speech that he shortened as he went along While it was annoying to have a speaker skip over entire pages from what appeared to be a “canned” speech, pulled from 203
204
J. CARGILL
the files for the occasion, Dr. Line also provoked comment from his remarks. In the United Kingdom, money spent on periodicals has now surpassed book purchasing, with books requiring 49 percent of the monies and periodicals 51 percent. Among the advice Line offered: l When a library discontinues a current subscription, the back runs should be disposed of too. lDo not bind some continuing current subscriptions, but rather discard the unbound issues after a few years. @Do not use microforms as an alternative to retaining bound copies or disposing of unbound issues.
In a discussion of national supply systems for periodicals, different collection arrangements were identified: centralization; decentralization; and subject specialization concentrated in specific libraries. When it is time for cancellations to take place, cancellations can be done very easily in a centralized comprehensive collection (such as the British Library Lending Division), fairly easily in a specialized collection (such as are common in Germany), and with more difficulty in decentralized collections such as are common in the United States. On two other topics, Line suggested that local libraries should gather more hard data in order to make retention, cancellation, and disposal decisions. Planning should occur at the national or regional level. On the topic of electronic publishing, Line hypothesized that libraries might someday find themselves collecting articles rather than maintaining subscriptions. In a dual presentation on serials databases, Patrick Wynne-Jones [R.R. Bowker] spoke on “Ulrich’s Serials Database” and David Wood [British Library Lending Division], substituting for the announced speaker Jenny Gascoigne, read a paper by still another person on “British Library Serials Databases.” Wynne-Jones detailed the compilation of Uhich’s, which has been on-line since 198 1, as well as describing access to the database. Wood discussed three publications of the British Library: Serials in the British Library, from the Bibliographic Services Division; Keyword Index to Serial Titles and Current Serials Received, from the Lending Division. While Ulrich’s is a commercial database, the databases of the British Library were designed to control and service the British Library collections. The next topic, “Writing for Publication in Professional Journals,” by Brian Alley [Sangamon State University] was presented as an informal seminar and was designed to encourage and inspire the participants to write for publication. The use of word processors, the forums to explore for writing, and the importance of networking and visibility were covered. During the question and answer period, it was clear that British librarians, especially the established ones, seem to be less interested than their U.S. counterparts in encouraging others to write, while some of the younger British librarians are unsure how to begin. There does not seem to be the emphasis on writing that exists in libraries in the United States, specially in academic libraries. Stella Keenan [International Federation for Documentation] spoke on “The Impact of OnLine Services on Traditional Abstracting and Indexing Publications.” It has been traditional for abstracting and indexing publications to be discipline based with a mission orientation. Problem oriented publications are now emerging. The concept of the end user is also changing with the advent of microcomputers which allow the patron to do his or her own searching, and to retain articles and abstracts of interest on disks. Minna Saxe, [CUNY], had the unenviable task of reading a paper on the Serials Industry Systems Advisory Committee that had been prepared by Patricia Sabosik of SISAC. The rather dry paper was read in a pleasant manner but the topic was not familiar to the audience and Ms. Saxe was at a disadvantage in answering the ensuing questions. Indeed there seemed to be some resentment from a few members of the audience toward the concept that SISAC is developing of
The UK Serials Group: 7th Annual Conference
205
assigning codes not only to periodical titles but also to indi~d~ articles within the issues. These article identifiers would become the basis of a database to assist in serials ~~e~nt. On the second day of the conference, Gary Facente fAmerican Library Association] spoke on “Publishers’ Distribution Methods and Problems” from the U.S. viewpoint while Keith Courtney [Taylor and Francis Ltd.] discussed the topic from the U.K. point of view. Facente described scholarly journals which in the U.S. are editor-driven and are often addressed to association members’ interests or the interests of a narrow discipline. Short print runs would be common for such periodicals. On the other hand, about half of the popular magazines that are printed in the United States are not sold and must be destroyed so that inde~ndent dis~buto~ can get credit for the unsold copies from the pub&hers. In the U.K., Courtney said, the largest market for publishers of periodicals is North America (30949,with the U.K. and Europe following with 22% each. Robert Millson [Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers] spoke on “Learned Society Journal Publishing” and the gist of his remarks was that learned society publishing is in danger. On the third day, John Dean [Johns Hopkins University], discussed “Advances in the Binding of Serials: Options and Consequences.” It is a paradox, Dean said, that binding is designed to preserve and protect materials, yet at the period of greatest use for a periodical, the materials are unbound. Dean advised librarians to visit any bindery with whom they will be doing business. Much of Dean’s educational presentation included slides which illustrated methods he mentioned and terms he used. A final formal session on recent research in serials featured “Subscription Agents’ Services” [Paul Green, Leeds University]; “The Use of Microforms” [Dorothy Walker, India office]; and “Modelling of Journal vs. Article Acquisition by Libraries* (Alan McDougall, Loughborough University of Technology]. Green focused his presentation on an evaluation of five subscription agents and the services they provided. Walker discussed aassioning, storing, and recording serials in microform in the India office Library which was established about 1801. McDougall described a project that is just underway concerning libraries* collecting articles for the use of patrons rather than subscribing to some serials. The topics presented by the speakers varied greatly in style of presentation. In the question and answer periods that followed each speaker, it was clear that some questioners were touting their own viewpoint and really had little interest in questioning the speaker. There was more than a bit of envy expressed by the British members of the audience of the supposedly affluent state of U.S. libraries and the publishing world, ironic at a time when US. libraries and publishers are feeling hard pressed. Some questioners also seemed concerned with quoting statistics and nit-picking. Two of the best parts of the program involved an “International Serials Forum” on the first day and four discussion groups on the second day. The serials forum included Maurice Line [British Library Lending Division], Gillian Page [Pageant Publishing], and Marcia Tuttle [University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill]. They fielded questions on mergers and “divorces” in the world of journals, deselection; electronic publishing; format, sire and title page concerns; user resistance to microforms; and copyright. Some of the pickier points raised were rightly evaluated by Line as “I couldn’t care less” or “I can’t say anything that isn’t blasphemous or obscene about cataloging.” The discussion groups were each held twice so that participants could attend two. The topics and the discussion leaders: Serials Staffing {Margaret Graham, Newcastle Polytechnic]; Finance [John Urquhart, University of Newcastle upon Tyne]; Deselection [Jennifer CargiIl, then at Miami University]; and Copyright [Peter Lea, Manchester Polytechnic].
206
J. CARGlLL
Participants also had the oppo~unity to select among five tours: PIRA [Research Association for the Paper and Board, Printing and Packaging Industries]; Butterworth Scientific Journals Division; the Surrey University Library; Historical Guildford Guided Walk; and the Jane Austen Museum. Charlotta Hensley [University of Colorado] was among the final people on the program and presented greetings from the United States librarians attending. The UKSG conference was interesting for a U.S. librarian to attend and observe. Just as with U.S. library meetings, the quality of the presentations was uneven. The conference was less intensive than those in the U.S., and there was no air of business being done nor the frantic activity and networking that takes place at U.S. conferences. The conference was well organized and registrants had advance copies of the abstracts of the papers to be presented. Of the more than 200 registrants, about ten percent were from North America.