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Re: E-journal holdings on a web listing Mary Williams 13 Mar 2001 00:15 UTC

Kay,

> * Who decided on which data elements to display in your
> e-journal web listing? I did, in consultation with our systems and
        reference librarians;  mostly, they don't care as long as it's
        consistent;
> * If you decided *not* to include holdings as part of this
> display, what were your reasons?  I didn't put them in, as I would have
        to maintain them, and I really don't have time (I think you'll hear
        this a lot.)
> * If you decided to include holdings as part of this
> display, how are you creating and maintaining this
> information? Is it automatically generated from your OPAC
> (please specify which ILS)? Is it vendor-supplied (please
> list specific vendors if so)? Did you write in-house
> scripts to cull this information from the OPAC, vendor
> data, in-house files (e.g., Access databases)? Did you type
> it in by hand??

We're looking at cataloging the ejournals we have access to, many of
which we don't have records for.  (But I really hate to tackle this for
the journals in commercial databases because the content can change.)
We're hoping to buy software that will generate the HTML pages from the
catalog and thus cut down on maintenance issues.  I believe that the
software my systems librarian mentioned would show the holdings from the
MARC record.

> We are reevaluating our e-journal list display, so I would
> love to hear what other libraries' experiences have been in
> this process, particularly other large academic libraries.

And I think that you have to re-evaluate it periodically as the
technology changes.  One problem with holdings for the journals is that
your access really depends on your keeping a current subscription.
Should you decide to end it, your rights to any archives usually
disappear.

We participate in Project Muse and JSTOR, and I'm really excited about
both.  JSTOR's archives are wonderful, but since they have a moving wall
on the upper end of their holdings, I put in a note that holdings "since
v#, (year) are available.  For Muse, which also has a moving wall (but
on the lower end of their holdings), I put in a note that current issues
are available.  We can buy MARC records from JSTOR with the URL already
in place.  We haven't done it yet because I think we already have
records for a good many of them.  It's on my to do list to find out
exactly how many.

I hope this helps.  There is no right or wrong way, you have to do what
serves your patrons best and doesn't commit you to endless maintenance.

> I searched the SERIALST archive and found some useful
> related information, but nothing that was as specific as I
> need.
>
> Thank you in advance.
> ----------------------
> Kay Teel
> Serials Catalog Librarian
> Stanford University Libraries
> kteel@stanford.edu

--

Mary W. Williams
Periodicals Librarian
Dick Smith Library
Box T-0450
Tarleton State University
Stephenville, TX  76402

(254) 968-9868
(254) 968-9467  FAX

email: mwilliams@vms.tarleton.edu