We are talking about a different scale of operation. We have around 9000
titles and target what resources we have at key deals such as Blackwell
and ScienceDirect.
We have come in for some stick for suggesting we have access to material
and then it not being there. Under this pressure, we have put some staff
time in Bib Services and from our lending team (it's a good job for
evening assistants at quiet times) into checking online content matches
the catalogue holdings data. These efforts have been appreciated and
have made a difference, but it is a Forth Bridge type job and one I'd
hope isn't necessary in the longer term.
Colin.
-------------------------------------------------
Colin Sinclair
Head of Bibliographic Services
University of Stirling
STIRLING
FK9 4LA
Tel: 01786 467218
Fax: 01786 466866
email: [log in to unmask]
-------------------------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: An informal open list set up by the UK Serials Group
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of J.W.T.Smith
Sent: 04 October 2006 16:05
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: E-jnls check in
Colin,
I remain to be convinced that this work is cost-effective. We have over
28,000 titles (over 24,000 unique) and it would be full-time job to
check
all of these often enough to find missing titles before the users do.
In fact I don't think it would possible - 10,000 users, even if they
only
averaged 1 minute a day in the e-journal service, equals 6.5 staff
working 24 hours a day. We have around 1200 users a day using the
e-journals service and I suspect they spend more than 10 minutes per
visit.
Regards,
John Smith.
On Wed, 4 Oct 2006, Colin Sinclair wrote:
> There seems to me no way of escaping the headaches of ejournal
> provision. We have invested in better catalogue provision through data
> from third-party sources, this has improved coverage on the catalogue
> and enhanced the accuracy of e-holdings description. It has not been a
> panacea, and mistakes occur with the data and with inadequate
provision
> from publishers. There is more to be done here in using the
> functionality of our LMS (Millennium) and we have plans to update
> catalogue records and the coverage information in our link resolver
> simultaneously from a single data source. Ask me again at Christmas
how
> this is going.
>
> I'm reluctant to rely on user complaints as a way of checking for
> "missing issues", it is our job to ensure that the catalogue gives
> accurate information. To that end, we check lists of journals to
ensure
> that the what the catalogue says we have access to is, in fact, what
can
> be accessed. Yes, it is an enormous task, but we find errors often
> enough to make it one worth doing.
>
> Colin.
> -------------------------------------------------
> Colin Sinclair
> Head of Bibliographic Services
> University of Stirling
> STIRLING
> FK9 4LA
> Tel: 01786 467218
> Fax: 01786 466866
> email: [log in to unmask]
> -------------------------------------------------
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: An informal open list set up by the UK Serials Group
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of J.W.T.Smith
> Sent: 04 October 2006 14:43
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: E-jnls check in
>
> The idea of 'checking in' makes no sense in an e-world. In a p-world
> individual copies could go missing and had to be chased but there is
no
> individual copy in the e-world. If an article or issue is not
available
> to
> you it is likely it is not available to everyone else too. It only
needs
>
> one subscriber to notice it is missing and complain to the publisher
for
>
> it to be made available to every subscriber.
>
> Also your users become your checkers. In a p-world a user can't tell
if
> a
> copy is missing or just being used by someone else but in an e-world
> they
> can see if an issue or article is missing and complain to you. With
the
> millions of users out there it would have to ve a very specialist
title
> if
> no-one missed it for a week.
>
> One could speculate (no flames please) that if no-one missed a title
> would
> it matter that it was missing? :-).
>
> Regards,
>
> John Smith,
> The Templeman Library,
> University of Kent, UK.
>
>
> On Wed, 4 Oct 2006, Sally Elizabeth Rimmer wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> We are increasingly switching over to e-only versions of journals
and
>> I wondered how other institutions managed virtual "checking in" of
>> issues if they did it at all. It is a costly business to pay for
>> e-access and not receive it. However, it would be an enormous task
> to
>> check every journal individually.
>>
>> Thanks in advance
>>
>> Sally Rimmer
>> E-Resources Co-ordinator
>> Library and Learning Resources
>> University of Derby
>> Kedleston Road
>>
>
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The University of Stirling is a university established in Scotland by
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