Mount Holyoke College :: Serials and Acquisitions Services

The following report encompasses the work performed by all members of the SAS staff. It has been an interesting and busy year. Not only did we maintain our usual duties in serials and acquisitions, we also took on new kinds of work, participated in special projects, and looked carefully at our work flow. Below are some highlights of the past year followed by statistical data that addresses our day to day operations.

TDNet implementation
Beginning last July through September, significant time was spent on the TDNet electronic journal locator project. Along with Cataloging, time was spent attending meetings of the Five College TDNet implementation group, consulting and working with 5C colleagues and with TDNet staff, producing lists of our electronic journal holdings as well as their print counter-parts, and transferring data to Excel spreadsheets. We gathered and loaded over 20,000 Mount Holyoke titles into the database. The work was detailed and time-consuming but resulted in a very nice service for our patrons. Overall, the experience was well worth the time and allowed us to gain better Excel spreadsheet skills.

Five College Depository
The Five College Depository opened in the fall of 2002. Mount Holyoke College was poised and ready to begin sending materials. Working in coordination with Cataloging, we took on a new role as the area responsible for pulling titles, changing online catalog records, and packing materials destined for the depository. From January-June, we sent the following numbers of titles and volumes to the depository in bi-weekly shipments:

(Not reflected in the above chart are the microforms sent by the Cataloging group: 21 titles, 2,880 vols.)

Leisure Book Collection
The Mount Holyoke College library expanded its offerings to the community with the addition of a leisure book and audio-book collection. SAS participated in making this new collection accessible to all. We created brief bibliographic records for each title not already in our catalog and brief item records with barcodes. The following numbers of leisure materials were processed:

Faxon Bankruptcy
The bankruptcy of our major periodical vendor, Faxon, was the most time-consuming and devastating event of the year for SAS. We subscribed to over 1,200 titles through Faxon and paid them over $340,000 in August of 2002. By the end of December we learned that divine, inc. (Faxon’s parent company) intended to declare bankruptcy. From January through March the serials staff spent countless hours phoning and e-mailing publishers, attempting to determine the status of our subscriptions. We had no idea how much of our money actually made it to publishers. We also spent considerable amounts of time compiling lists for liaisons to use in their discussions with faculty and departments.

At the same time, publishers were well aware of the impact this bankruptcy might have on their future revenues. They realized it was in their best interest to “grace” 2003 subscriptions for those libraries that paid Faxon. This decision benefited libraries enormously. For us it meant that approx. two-thirds of our titles were either “graced” or paid for outright. After careful consultation with the faculty, our liaison group identified 38 titles which had to be paid for again so that no gap in coverage would ensue.

The fall-out from this debacle continues. However, we are hopeful that by the end of 2004 most of our problems will be resolved. Our attention will now focus on establishing a good working relationship with our new vendor, EBSCO.

EZ Proxy
SAS participated in the LITS effort to improve off-campus access to electronic resources. As part of the EZ Proxy implementation, we focused our attention on the electronic resources represented in our library catalog. We added a specific prefix to over 1,000 urls. Off-campus access through the catalog is now enabled for collections such as JSTOR, Project Muse, BioOne, Ingenta, etc.

Space Reconfigurations
The SAS group participated in many activities related to space reconfiguration within LITS. SAS staff participated in the following ways:

All in all, it has been a moving experience.

Work Flow Changes
SAS and Cataloging worked together to make changes in our work flow. We determined that many of the books which were being cataloged by the Director of SAS could be done by SAS staff. We implemented this change in the fall of 2002. At the same time, we also eliminated all revision of materials leaving the department. In the spring, we worked with R2 Consultants. We gathered data, met with them individually, and responded to their report. We are in the process of gathering more information and determining which of their recommendations might be feasible. Others will be implemented in the coming year.

Committees/Regular Meetings/Demos/

Members of SAS attended the following committees, regular meetings, and demos this year:

Summary Statistics
Below are some summary statistics reflecting the work accomplished in SAS:

Materials Cataloged/Work Performed

MONOGRAPHS & PERIODICALS
Print titles cataloged	11,314
Non-print (electronic, mf, videos, etc.)	343
Titles Reclassed	53
Titles Withdrawn	641
Titles Retroconned	1,062
Work done for CDC	62
Honors Papers Keyed	52
Authority headings checked	5,600 (approx.)

Monographs

Firm Orders	Titles
Book Orders Placed	10,145
Rush Requests	127
Book Orders Received	10,616

Continuations	Titles
New Orders Placed	25
Standing Orders Completed	12
Total Standing Orders	615

Most Frequently Used Vendors

YBP	34%
Coutts	22%
Eastern	12%
Harrassowitz	6.7%
Everett	4%
Various Online Vendors	2.6%
Aux Amateurs	2.2%
Oldhand (o.p.)	2.2%

86% of our monographic budget was expended using the 8 vendors listed above.

Serials and Periodicals

89% of our serials and periodicals budget was expended using the 5 vendors/consortia listed above.

Binding	Volumes
Monographs bound	4,724
Monographs recased	1,461
Periodicals bound	2,387
Music scores bound	320
Theses bound	56
Conserphase boxes	334