Microforms obsolete?

Despite the fact that the death knell of microforms has been repeatedly sounded in the library press for the past 10 years, I do not see the format going away anytime soon. A lot of libraries have invested too much money in the format for it to just disappear overnight.

I keep hearing that all of the microforms should be digitized: both from patrons and from the library world. However, there are issues blocking that from happening anytime soon: copyright, time (it will take a lot of time to digitize all of the microforms in existence), money to finance it, server issues, then who can get access and for what cost and et cetera.

We did a weeding project this summer in which we recycled the fiche and film that we now have electronic access to. I imagine that other libraries are working on similar projects.


I do not mind microforms -- they are a good way to compress a lot of information into a small area. But electronic access has added indexing and searching that is so much more accessible than microforms ever could be. The end of microforms may not have come but the time is drawing near.

At some point the ability to access the microform format might become so burdensome that a tipping point will be reached and digitization will be forced to occur. It is becoming increasingly difficult to get parts for microform readers and increasingly expensive to maintain them as the switch to electronic access continues to accelerate.

Yeah for D.H. Lawrence Review!

Kudos to D.H. Lawrence Review. I just received volume 34-35 2010. (No issues were published from 2005-2009.) Here is the exciting part: the editors put a note in the current volume that says "The Executive Committee has recommended that we date issues by the year in which they are published, rather than trying, largely in vain, to catch up with the earlier series..."

I can think of a dozen more publications that need to have this Executive Committee in charge of them!

The hidden dangers of working in serials

One of the many hidden dangers of working too long in serials...is learning Roman Numerals...

Does anyone else think in fluent Roman Numerals? Am I an oddity? After 10+ years in the field, I can glance at a journal, a book, or the end movie credits and go "that says "1976" or "2010" or whatever. I am not sure that this is a skill that really translates to the real world...and I might be one of the few people that got the joke about the "M&Ms being the official candy of the new millenium..." ((I even had to explain it to my husband and he has a mathematics degree!)) And now I seek out Roman Numerals in the real world and revel in my superiority of being able to read them...

Who knew what dangers lurked in the heart of serials...? ((with apologies to "The Shadow" radio show"))

A math journal

"Journal of _______ __________" used to be fairly on track with publishing and it even used some creative chronology to get caught up. It appears that they have given up, though, and just are going to publish at their leisure. I just received v. 35 no. 3 2006. No note from the publisher inside or any sort of explanation saying something along the lines of "we are going to do ___X___ and hope to be back on track in the next __x___ months" or anything like that.

I feel badly for any professor awaiting publication of this one....! Can you imagine the CVs and resumes that say "forthcoming publication(s)" and having this journal on your list? A professor might have to wait *years* before being able to change it to the "published article(s)" category.

So, what happens to the next 4 years of chronology? I just sent a query email to the publisher. Stay tuned for further developments...!

Name changes and irrational decision making

A journal is changing its name -- again -- for the fourth time. Thankfully, we only keep current print holdings and it doesn't effect us much, but pulling down records and updating them, creating MARC records in the ILS does take time and money to do. I realize that as a theological teacher's journal, it probably does not take such mammon-like things [like money] into consideration....

And I will not deign to address the issue of the Educational journal that renames itself every year to fit the political correct term of the moment for special needs students...This one is fun for students doing research to track down -- since we archive it on microform....and they have to hunt about for the current title record and then find it in the microform area.

It seems that some fields of study are more prone to change titles, like the infamous journal Teacher that changed to Teacher, Teacher and Instructor, Instructor and etc. over a short period to "better reflect the outlook of the magazine" according to the editorial in said magazine.

One of the few fields I would think it would make sense to change titles would be science, specifically in chemistry and physics. These journals actually change their scope when they change titles, and that is supposed to be one of the considerations on wheteher something 'counts' as a title change or not. However, at the point that one has 17 journals with the same name and different subtitles, like a physics journal I know of, I think it would be prudent to spin off titles altogether!

Does anyone work for a publisher and know how they decide these things?

Kindles and magazines

I'm not sure how I feel about "subscriptions" to weekly magazines on kindles or other e-reader devices. We have kindles in our library, but each one only has a preloaded set of books on it.

And how can you make magazine content more accessible to the visually impaired if it is on a Kindle?

And then there is the lack of archivability with an e-reader with content that may "expire" on a certain date...

The one reason I *might* enjoy magazine or even newspaper content on an e-reader would be that the soy ink would not rub off on my hands as I am reading an article!

Now that they are getting "programmable" paper that can be reused, I am sure some of the magazine providers will want to go into that format as well. I can hardly wait. No more worries for the stores about "please display until...." because on that date, the paper can change itself!

Creative chronology and bibliographies?

Ok. Just got one in the mail that has 2005 on the cover. However, the copyright on the inside says "2010"....If I was still teaching and I put a limit on the last several years of research, how would I know if the student was being diligent or not with that journal? Technically, the 2005 issue would be the last published and it came out in 2010, but...

I also enjoy prepub articles online....since with a lot of them there is no numbering if it is just full text, how do you cite that thing? Especially with the internal citation which requires author name and page number? I have seen quite a few that have the entire page span put at the beginning of the article, but then no pagination is given.

I think I prefer JSTOR, MUSE or other sites that faithly reprint or create pdf images of the articles. And JSTOR used to provide citation help on how to list a JSTOR article in a bibliography.

Technology takes a step backwards...!

So, why would someone want to use a microfilm emulator on a computer accessed database rather than a full-text database? Doesn't make sense to me. Nor does it make sense that you would risk sea-sickness of the pages flying by on a computer screen -- just as you would experience on a microfilm viewer....

The upside is that if you need an ad or a stock ticker page, it is contained on the emulator/database...the downside is the image is still as grainy as it appears on the film... Just wondering why someone would write software to make something so odd work...?

Publishers and creative publishing

Just received some issues today in the mail and they had very entertaining notes with them.


One of them says, in part..."Enclosed you will find five issues of Journal...." and "It is our goal to get the journal on schedule....anticipating [this] in 2011." This journal, in contrast to some others I could name, is only 2 years behind schedule. That is not bad, comparatively speaking.


However, the other package and its contents was a bit of a shock..."...Journal of .... Studies is beginning anew with the publication of vol. 1, nos. 1 and 2 (2010)...new series...Our last issue was dated 2005...."! Now this one did not change numbering or issues per volume or anything else...the publisher decided to just start a new series instead of changing the cover chronology. Gee. This is going to make checking this one in a lot of fun!


And then there is the wonderful journal that changed its name and numbering altogether, again, for the 3rd time in 2 years! Thanks guys for thinking of us! This journal will be such a breeze for the patrons to find...they just have to go through 3 different records to find the most current one....!

Only in the world of serials

Anyone notice that real life rules don't apply in the world of serials?

For instance, I received a serial in late December with the cover chronology of 1999...but a publication and copyright date of 2009. Time travel anyone?


Or did you know that there are apparently 53 weeks in a year? According to one of the European weekly magazines we receive, there now are...


Or that checking galleys of the covers is not mandatory...We received an issue of a music magazine that is now number 178, when the 180s have already been published...


But my favorite has to be a pseudo-science magazine that publishes thematic volumes on topics...and sent me volume 16 and volume 5 in the same envelope yesterday...


And then you have the offenders who like to change chronology, enumeration and number of issues, all at once and without telling anyone....I had a stack of those to go through yesterday...and it wouldn't be so bad of a task if I didn't have to play scavenger hunt for the publication information....!

Happy New Year!

Tis the season

Tis the season
to be folly
fa la la la la, la la la la

....
Well, a popular magazine that prints "News" each "week" has decided that it will accept orders for institutional subscriptions through vendors -- beginning again in January. The question is, though, is it too late?

I don't think it would be worth the hassle to order or reorder one title at this date. If most orders aren't in to subscription agents by November 1, serialsters face all sorts of fun problems come January 1st and the new arrival or non-arrival of issues...! And those are for continuing subscriptions. I know it is a wonder to a publishing house, that even though our instition has subscribed to a journal for 25 years that it is going to subscribe for *gasp* year 26...and that explains why I have to claim the first two issues...in January of each year!

***
And a year end note to the genuises in charge of two math journals: Journal of Recreational Mathematics and to Fibonacci Quarterly: enough with the creative numbering and chronology already! 45 pages does not equal two issues, nor does putting each year you're behind on a journal's frontspiece make up for the 2 years you didn't publish anything!

***

Tis the season
to be folly
fa la la la la, la la la la...

Can't wait to read some of the editor's comments in the "new year's" editions of journals in January...Not that they would even take on the unpredictability of resolutions, mind you...

The weather outside is frightful

Oh the cancellations are frightful,
And the process is not delightful,
But since we've no money to show,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

It doesn't show signs of stopping,
And I've brought some corn for popping,
The lights are turned way down low,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!


with apologies to Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne....

Enumeration....and publication statement

Ok. There is a journal I've had problems with for the past couple of years. It often combines issues in the middle of a volume (a problem for me because I bind the title and the issues are usually combined across the months that I bind -- messing up my pattern!). Now, though, is has this to say in its publication statement:"_____ Libraries is published 10 times yearly by the ALA"! and then -- it does not say what months it omits. No problem, right? So, why do I have issue 11 in hand? and it looks like their might be an issue number 12 this year too (next month). Any ideas why a LIBRARY magazine can't redo its publication statement to match the issues it publishes? I thought serials *issues* were supposed to be caused by disconnected bureaucratic publishers, not organizations in our own field. Is it January yet? January is the month I expect things to crop up. This has been a banner year for odd things in serials, though, I might have to do a "year in strange serials" review...!

Playing catch-up

One of the journals we receive is behind by 3 years in publishing. This is not a novelty. However, they have a solution! They are going to publish the next three volumes as combined single issues! So I will be receiving v. 31 nos. 1/4 2007 and et cetera. My problem is that each "volume" is merely a 100 pages and that is the same size as a regular "issue number." So, that means that we're getting a 1/4 of the product for the whole price... The ironic chord in all of this,however, is that the journal is one about "ethics"!

Suspended animation?

Science Fiction now has become fact. This is made obvious by the print journal titles that we subscribe to that have appeared to be in deep "suspended animation." I don't know *why* they have been put into this state or at *what point in time* they plan to be readmitted to the land of the living, er, publishing.


At what point is it reasonable for a publisher to give up on a title and be honest with the subscribers that "yes, it *has* actually ceased publication" and stop taking fees each year? I have a list of publications that the vendor lists as "will order when current."


Some of these have been on this list since I started nigh on 10 years ago. Most of these publications are at least 6 years or more behind on their cover chronology. Several have been taken over by new publishers, which promptly raise the price while promising the moon and then...deliver nothing. One of the publications that is on my list of "suspended" titles kept promising to blossom into an online only publication. Three years in, said publication just notified the vendor that they were ceasing publication altogether.


I am not sure that these publishers realize what a mess these "suspended" titles can create or how much time they can consume. Each time I run a claiming report, these pop up. I promptly go to the vendor site and claim them, again, and wait for a response. Then I go into our ILS and do clean up or change them to an inactive control. Oftentimes, we are only aware a title has totally and completely ceased when we wind up with a large credit invoice from our vendor. Fortunately, our vendor lists what title the credit was for and this helps the process along. Then I have to clean up the MARC record...you can see how this snowballs.


Personally, I think there should be some sort of unwritten serials rule -- that if a title is "suspended" more than 2 years, the publication should cease altogether... and never be "reawakened" from "deep suspended animation"!

A new twist to merged titles

I love serials. Really. They provide a constant supply of surprises. Not only did I learn that a bunch of the (once) consistent and predictable journals are now choosing to go to X number of odd regulars, but there was yet another title merger. There used to be 2 editions of an education journal, but they merged into one. They then dropped the subtitles they used to have that showed which section each belonged to. However, they kept the issn one of the old titles. One would think, that being educators, would motivate them to keep things as accurate and logical as possible.

Then there is the ever present Fibonacci Quarterly that now spans volumes, months, years and numbers all in one mighty leap! I just checked in v. 46/47 Mar/Apr 2008/2009 no. 2....and may I remind the editors of that journal that the ILS systems cannot put those sorts of combinations together? It makes a mess and throws the entire issue into a note instead of a MARC holdings format that is collapsible.

Surprise Issues!

Publishers are entertaining entities. While a lot of them are folding up their tents or going online only...there are several publishers who continue to send surprise issues! Often these issues are called "special" or "supplement" or "bibliography" and such...and then there is the one I just received today. It is not only a "special" issue -- it is also a change of publishing frequency! I haven't looked yet to see if this "extra" issue also adds onto the price for next year or if it a mere "bonus" by the publisher. *Sigh*

twitter and Youtube meet the publishing world...!

I just joined twitter. I think it would be most amusing for publishers to figure out how to serialize a journal into tweets....and then link to YouTube:
"Found new species in Central America."
"Might be prehistoric."
"Might be a mutation due to global warming."
"Scientists unsure, but captured photos."
"Please see YouTube video for details."
"Click here for "live" tweets....!"

Just kidding. I do not want to encourage the publishers to create any MORE formats!

Can you imaging trying to read a National Geographic or Reader's Digest article in 140 character blurbs?!? And trying to archive or keep track of such a thing? How would library staff even try to keep track of such a thing....?

Just an update

I can't believe it's been a month since my last blog post! I am not buried under a stack of serials. Although, with the amount we received in the mail today, it was a good possibility.

It has been a fun month in serials. :)

I have not only received journals that were published before they should exist (one sent me an Oct/Dec 2009 issue!), I received some "new" journals that are a mere seven or eight years behind their cover chronology (philosophy journals, mostly). I am still not quite sure why a 45 page academic journal takes 7 or 8 years to publish. The only thing I can figure out is that these are not very "active" topics and it takes that long to gather enough submissions to publish...?That then begs the question, though, about whether or not they should continue publishing with a 7 to 8 year lag?


My students got to process some government publications this month and the government apparently does not care about cover chronology matching actual publishing dates either. It looks like I am a "type A" person in a "type B" industry. Sigh.

Serials sisters/brothers in arms...

Last week I took a cataloging sound recordings class. I never knew that there would be another group in the library world like serialists...who are thrown into just as many odd situations and subjected to the quirks of publishers as we are.


Apparently, most of the cataloging for sound recordings is done from the piece in hand and not just copy cataloged. The information that is mandatory for each piece is sometimes not available since the cataloger is supposed to rely on the item itself (i.e. the cassette, CD, etc) and then go to the container and lastly resort to any printed material that accompanies it. We did examples of several different types of sound recordings and you would think that the industry would display the "standard" items like title, series and such on each piece or container. But, like serials, we had a merry chase determing these things on some of the items in question.


As if that was not enough to drive any sane person to distraction, the sound cataloger has to decide if it is a collection of works, if the sound recording is dominated by a principal peformer or the work of one person or a corporate body. There is a decision tree for this, but 2 catalogers looking at the same piece might, justifiably, arrive at different conclusions.


It would seem that the largest print might be the title, right? Wrong. Apparently the largest or most prominent typeface may just be a performer or narrator and not actually the title itself.


Then we come to dates. Now, here is where things parallel serials quite well. In serials there is publication date and cover chronology. Publishers do not feel compelled to make sure these match. In sound recordings they have something similar -- there might be an original recording date and a release date. And to throw one more twist in, if the item is a spoken version of a book or play, there is also the date of the publication for the print item. And it is often left up to the mercy of the cataloger to figure out which is what. Again, there is the emphasis on using the piece in hand as your primary source of information. If there are dates with no notes next to them it can be tricky to figure out which date goes to the recording, the book/play and the release date.


As for mediums, the sound cataloger has more types to be potentially tortured by than serialists do. There is something called a playaway, which is a self-contained sound recording. They also have to deal with items on the internet, as well as 8 tracks, cassettes, something called dual discs, mini cds, dvd audios, cd-roms, midi files, mp3 files and shaped discs. Unlike serials, though, they might have to catalog each piece separately, even if it is in a series. The poor cataloger working with each of these items also has to describe the physical item as well, sometimes in a note when measurements do not make things clearer.


Oh, and did I mention that if it is a musical sound recording there are different rules for if the piece is an artist's interpretation of the work, like popular music, rock and jazz or if the performer is merely executing the work, like classical music? Or that if it is a book with a readalong sound component...it is up to the cataloger which is primary -- the book or the audio....And on it goes...!


I think there should be a retreat for befuddled serialists or sound catalogers. Those who strive valiantly in the cause of making items accessible to patrons, but who are inevitably driven to distraction or even insanity due to the publishers and distributors who endeavor to make themselves and their works as clear as mud as often as possible...!