Hi,
Many thanks to everyone who replied to my questions about ejournal
cataloguing. Please find my summary below.
16 institutions responded: 11 UK HE institutions; 1 each from Sweden and the
US; 3 non-academic institutions.
1. Does your institution manually catalogue both its individual ejournal
subscriptions and ejournals which come as a part of large packages?
11 institutions do no manual cataloguing of ejournals at all; one does “very
little”; 1 catalogues individual e-subs; 2 non-academic institutions do a basic
cataloguing of their ejournals; 1 institution catalogues individual ejournals on
request.
2. Do you use MARCit or a similar product?
4 institutions use MARCit; 3 use Serial Solutions; 1 uses the EBSCO A-Z list; 3
have devised inhouse solutions.
3. Have there been any downsides from using MARCit, for example, in terms of
reduced searchability of your catalogue?
MARCit: e- & print journals not always displayed together; choosing field to
match on to ensure that catalogue ISSN matches SFX ISSN; time to sort out
compatibility problems with Talis (2); Expensive, variable record quality.
Serial Solutions: Records not always perfect; not cheap.
Inhouse solutions: Very basic ejournal records (2); no subject headings/
linking fields(1)
4. If you answered yes to either of questions 1 or 2, what is your rationale for
continuing to include ejournals in your library catalogue, rather than rely on
the A-Z list of a product such as SFX?
3 institutions cited the central importance of the catalogue; 3 institutions saw
the catalogue as a means of enhancing usage and/or access; 5 institutions
cited the importance of having a single place to search for ejournal titles; one
institution’s staff use it to check/manage print/ejournals; one institution
exported their ejournal holdings to the library catalogue “to try to keep the 2
systems in sync”.
The two libraries which had decided to abandon the cataloguing of ejournals
cited as their rationale time, and not seeing “the catalogue as the central
focus or the given starting point of search and discovery.”
5. Has anyone decided to abandon the cataloguing of ejournals (with perhaps
the exception of individual subscriptions) in favour of the A-Z list in SFX (or
similar product)?
2 institutions have abandoned the cataloguing of ejournals in favour of an A-Z
list (SFX, Swetswise) and 1 institution currently uses SFX as their main
access point to ejournals.
Regards,
Sharon
Sharon Robinson
Electronic Resources Advisor
Edinburgh Napier University
Craiglockhart Campus
Edinburgh EH14 1DJ
e: [log in to unmask]
t: 0131 455 4266
lis-e-resources is a UKSG list - http://www.uksg.org/serials
UKSG groups also available on Facebook and LinkedIn
|