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Re: Serials Workflow David James 20 Jun 1991 13:08 UTC

The Milton S. Eisenhower Library of the Johns Hopkins University serves the Sch
ools of Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Continuing Studies.  Johns Hopkins
has always emphasized graduate education and the library strongly emphasizes it
s role as a research facility.  A separate, 24-hour undergraduate library is op
erated by Eisenhower is a different building.

Serials operations are divided among
 three departments - Acquisitions, Cataloging, and Preservation.  The Acqui
sitions Department consists of four units - Monographs, Serials, Financial, and
 Preparations (end-processing).  The Serials Unit is responsible for ordering a
nd receiving all serials.  This includes ordering, but not receiving, monograph
ic standing orders.  In addition, the Serials Unit is responsible for maintaini
ng two periodicals reading rooms - one for general, humanities, and social scie
nces and one for science and technology.

The Cataloging Department has a Senior Cataloger for Serials, who is regularly
assisted by one Cataloger II and by others as needed.  All media are cataloged
by another Senior Cataloger, including serial titles.  Once a serial is catalog
ed, the Serials Unit of Acquisitions is responsible for adding volumes, etc.

Binding of completed volumes is the responsibility of the Commercial Binding Of
fice of the Preservation Department.

Since the serials operations are so wide-spread, we have a lot of informal inte
raction among departments.  We have found that this generally works pretty well
, although there can sometimes be misunderstandings or failure to communicate c
learly.  The only changes we have considered are moving the binding operation t
o Acquisitions and the consolidation of the periodicals reading rooms.  Neither
 is likely to happen in the near future.

David Willis James
Head, Acquisitions Department
The Milton S. Eisenhower Library
The Johns Hopkins University