Circulating Periodical Issues to Faculty -- Summary (Kathi Jakubowski) Ann Ercelawn 07 May 1997 20:09 UTC
Date: Wed, 07 May 1997 14:15:32 -0600 (CST) From: "Kathi L. Jakubowski" <klr@GML.LIB.UWM.EDU> Subject: Circulating periodical issues to faculty - Summary of responses Thank you to everyone who responded to my message of April 25. I received 32 responses, which I will attempt to summarize: 1. Library does circulate periodicals: 11 Most of the libraries that do circulate periodicals are either smaller institutions or more specialized (law libraries, for example). Routing lists are commonly used, and usually only certain journals are routed (newspapers and popular weeklies such as Time or Newsweek are not circulated). Time limits for circulation range from 24 hours to 6 months to no specified time limit. One library routes current issues only to those faculty who have asked for the service (only 6 or 7 out of a faculty of over 300). They do not advertise this service. Another larger library has a list of over 100 titles that they send to faculty after check-in and before shelving in current periodicals. The process is called "two-week loan" and check-in records are flagged so the issues can be set aside. They have a special borrowing period for the item records and each dept. is assigned a pseudo-patron, so that everyone can see where the issue is while it is out of the library. They also don't honor requests for more popular, heavily used titles. They have had a few problems, but it hasn't been too bad. 2. Library used to circulate periodicals, but doesn't anymore, or plans to stop soon: 4 One library did away with routing several years ago. They recommend that faculty use CARL REVEAL Uncover for Table of Contents information and to request copies of articles they need. Another library has circulated periodicals to both students and faculty for several years, but plans to stop all circulation in the near future. They posed 2 questions: A. If your stated purpose is to support student research/student need, why are you giving faculty special privileges by allowing them to "see" journals first? B. What assurances do you have that faculty will return periodicals within a stated period? If there are no policies in place to block faculty privileges, and there is no punishment involved, how can you know you will get your materials back? A third library stated that they have learned - the hard way - that circulating, even to faculty, is a sure-fire way to: 1) antagonize users: who want to see the latest issues 2) aggravate faculty: who frequently "forget" they took out an issue and so now keep getting dunning notices (which many ignore) 3) waste staff time: who must track down, then cajole a faculty member to return the issue when needed for binding. A fouth library recently ended the practice stating: The few departments we had sent them to were very bad about getting them back in a timely matter and in some cases not at all. 3. Library doesn't circulate periodicals, but does route Table of Contents pages: 5 One library sends professors the contents page of up to 5 journals. They can circle any article they want to read, send the page back to periodicals, where the article is copied and sent to the professors. 4. Library has never circulated periodicals to faculty: 8 Many of the respondents felt very strongly that this was a bad idea. There was concern about ever seeing the periodical issue again, what condition it might be in, how much staff time would be involved, loss of access for other users, etc. 5. Library doesn't circulate periodicals, and offers suggestions: 4 Get faculty on some type of online abstracting service (CARL Uncover Reveal). Route Table of Contents to faculty I don't know yet what the outcome will be at our Library, but I will notify the list when the information is available. Thank you again for all your ideas and input!