Serials Management in Academic Libraries: A Guide to Issues and Practices

In the decade ahead, libraries will have to do more with less. Fewer journal titles owned by each institution, less detailed cataloging, and fewer staff will become realities as libraries are forced to cope with budget restrictions. Serials management, in particular, will require a greater degree of adaptability and flexibility. This professional reference overviews the most significant emerging issues concerning serials management in academic libraries and provides practical advice to aid librarians in responding to a changing environment. Among the issues discussed are the debate of access versus ownership, the electronic dissemination of text and document delivery, standards for electronic data transfer, and approaches to cataloging. The volume offers practical solutions to the problems facing librarians, and it stresses the increasing role of automation in effective serials management.

This professional reference is a guide to the many evolving issues in serials management, as well as a source of practical information designed to assist academic librarians in successfully managing their serials in a rapidly changing environment. Some of the key issues discussed include access versus ownership, the electronic dissemination of texts, document delivery systems, standards for the electronic transfer of data, and the debate over the outsourcing of cataloging. Fortunately, many of the issues concerning serials management readily lend themselves to automation. Thus, this volume gives considerable attention to automation as a solution to many of the problems confronting librarians. Each chapter includes references to current literature, and the volume concludes with a selected bibliography of works for further reading.