Serials in Libraries: Issues and Practices

Citation

Lee Eden, B. (2008), "Serials in Libraries: Issues and Practices", Collection Building, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 127-127. https://doi.org/10.1108/01604950810886086

The genesis of this book originated with the author's library science course on the topic at the University of Albany, New York. He indicates that, because the serials environment is changing so rapidly, previous books on this topic are well out‐of‐date. Two audiences for this content are identified: library science students, and librarians moving into serials management from other library units and needing a primer.

Chapter 1 is a broad overview of the current serials environment, written for the general novice in this area. Chapter 2 examines the online delivery of remote access serials and the challenges associated with them. Dealing with a serials budget, collection development, statistics collection, and report writing are dealt with in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 discusses the management of serials print collections, while Chapter 5 looks at bibliographic standards and control of serials. Broader issues are dealt with in Chapters 6 and 7, where economic principles and the current serials crisis in libraries are examined, as well as the issues related to scholarly communication such as peer review, open access and information dissemination. Measuring and analyzing use of serials is the topic of Chapter 8, and finally Chapter 9 examines a fairly unexplored topic in serials management: strategies for teaching users to search effectively for and find serials.

This book is a wellspring of information related to current serials challenges and issues. Another audience not mentioned is that group of well‐established serials librarians and serials managers. While they are knowledgeable about all of these issues, this book certainly could serve as a resource and reference book for them as well.