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Re: presentations to non-serialists Susan Davis 06 Dec 1990 16:08 UTC

Regarding your interest in doing serials presentations for non-serials
people, we did something like this for our bibliographers a few years ago.
all areas of technical services were covered. generally for the acquisitions
side the path of an order request was followed through until receipt.
some handouts of our manual kardex, rlin records, etc. were distributed.
some bibliographers were more interested than others (mostly the newer
people), quite a few did not go through the "orientation". it has not
been repeated, although newly hired bibliographers may be oriented. in
general they are far more interested in the monograph side, approval
plan, firm orders. rarely do they ask for information on serials. now
that we have just come up with notis, there is a lot more interest in
how to search, retrieve and interpret serial records in the public
catalog. one staff member is a general trainer, who conducts sessions
on various aspects of notis eg. staff mode. there has been some interest
from staff on updates of what is going on in each area since so much has
changed with the new system.  Technical service also conducts a session
twice a year for all other areas (we serve a number of libraries and their
branches). this year the department heads gave a brief presentation and
there is always a question and answer period. i did not attend, but again,
i know from past experience that interest in this kind of session varies.
we have done it for two years now, so we presume its worthwhile. i should
clarify my remark about our trainer, they train the entire staff (about
200), they are not a technical services person.
Susan Davis
Head, Periodicals
State University of New York at Buffalo