Experimentation and Collaboration: : Creating Serials for a New Millennium

Citation

Morgan, S. (1999), "Experimentation and Collaboration: : Creating Serials for a New Millennium", Library Review, Vol. 48 No. 4, pp. 339-340. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.1999.48.4.339.9

Simultaneously published as The Serials Librarian, Vol. 34 Nos 1‐4, this wide‐ranging collection of conference papers on all things serials‐related is a reviewer′s nightmare. How can one attempt to convey the breadth, depth and richness of such a volume? With some difficulty, came the reply. First, some background detail. This 12th annual conference of the North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG) was a grand affair with over 600 publishers, vendors and librarians in attendance. These proceedings contain 52 papers including workshops. Taken as a whole, the papers reflect the current direction of serials collection, development, creation and production as the century closes. It is helpful to have one reliable source which manages to summarise details of developments normally only garnered ‐‐ perhaps, more laboriously ‐‐ by searching through a range of different titles from the professional literature. Here it is neatly packaged in one mammoth volume.

Its structure is rather unusual. We have a preconference programme (five papers), three plenary sessions, five project sessions, six issues sessions (11 papers) and 22 workshop reports. The preconference programme papers cover topics such as serials acquisitions practice, use of the Web for serials‐related reference work and Web authoring resources. From there we move to three plenary sessions ‐‐ “provocative”, according to the publisher′s promotion sheet. The first explores the integration of digital collections and services by means of a case study. This is followed by two papers on scholarship and scholarly communication respectively. The former examines the impact of technology and the changing roles of library, publisher and vendor in the information cycle while the latter offers some modest proposals for collaboration in the scholarly community. I would prefer to describe them as thought provoking since they ask interesting and relevant questions, but answers are less forthcoming. Sometimes it is enough just to ask the question.

”Innovations” is probably the theme of the project sessions. Coverage includes cataloguing Internet resources, provision of full‐text imaged articles from 600 journals (involving UMI and H.W. Wilson), the National Library of Canada′s establishment of a long‐term national electronic collection and collaborative responses to the “serials crisis”, namely OhioLINK and other schemes. Four of the issues papers are concerned with the cataloguing of electronic resources, and electronic journals, in particular. Representatives from CONSER (the Cooperative Online Serials program) discuss their national interim guidelines for online versions of printed serials. Other sessions include electronic publishing (views from both libraries and publishers), document delivery (consortial arrangements), creating an electronic archive (this asks some thorny questions about preservation issues) and license agreements for electronic products (step‐by‐step approach through the minefield).

The final 143 pages contain summary reports of the workshops. The highlights for me were these: “The accidental trainer” which offers sound bullet‐pointed advice to those who have to train others but have little experience; “The serials librarian and accreditation” which, in these times of inspection and review, provides an interesting perspective on his/her role in the process; “Creativity in serials cataloguing: heresy or necessity?” which convinced me that these two C words can be used in the same sentence!

As I stated at the outset, the essence of such an eclectic set of papers is difficult to convey. Any library and information professional working in the journals/serials field will gain many ideas and insights from this volume. Each paper is commendably succinct and the editors are to be congratulated for rooting out any repetitions, which are the perennial danger for such collections. An excellent state‐of‐the‐art volume.