CDL: Disposal options for old serial volumes.

From: John Abbott <abbottjp_at_conrad.appstate.edu>
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 07:07:03 -0400
To: colldv-l_at_usc.edu
From: John Barnett <JBarnett_at_utsa.edu>

I am new to the serials game, and the deeper I get into the matter, 
the more questions I have (and, frankly, the more fun I have,too). 
Our library, an academic library serving a university of approximately 
18,000 students, has a number of subscriptions to digital journal 
collections (e.g., IEEE Xplore, JSTOR, Project Muse, Wiley 
InterScience, etc.). In addition, for some of the titles held, we 
receive print issues. For example, IEEE sends "free" print issues 
of their journals as part of our electronic subscription. In other
cases, we have discontinued our print subscriptions, if our licensing
agreements allow us to do so.

In another related situation, we have serials for which we need to 
make retention decisions. In some cases, we will want to weed the 
print issue in favor of microfilm/fiche. 

In these circumstances, I would welcome hearing how other university
libraries are dealing with their print issues. We do not have space 
in the stacks or in storage to keep all of our print issues, nor do
we feel the need to, as we consider the electronic journal 
collections and microforms as "permanent" holdings--well, at least,
as permanent as any library holdings, electronic or otherwise, 
can be.

We have considered participating in the duplicates and exchanges 
union as a way to share the embarrassment of riches that we have. 
We have also considered selling off our print issues to Jaeger or 
USBE or other sources. However, does the cost and time it takes to 
send these issues on to their new home justify the benefits we may 
receive?

I haven't found much to go on so far in Library Literature. If 
any of you have testimonials you'd like to make, I would welcome 
hearing from you.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

John

John Barnett
Collection Development, UTSA Library
_________________________________________

University of Texas at San Antonio
JPL 2.01.16
6900 North Loop 1604 West
San Antonio, Texas 78249-0671

(210) 458-5979 (voicemail)
(210) 458-4577 (fax)
jbarnett_at_utsa.edu
http://www.lib.utsa.edu
Received on Tue Sep 18 2001 - 04:02:12 EDT