Serials Acquisitions Workflow

East Central UniversityDana Belcher, Asst Library Director

Ashley Romans, Cataloging/Government Documents LibrarianSIGALO - May 9, 2008

Ordering Periodicals

• Begins in June with annual EBSCO & Proquest renewals– Prices entered in Access w/10% increase– Use statistics entered in Access

• Three year price/use spreadsheet given to liaison librarians in August– Have to wait for all budget numbers to be released– Review of retentions– Prepare suggestions for faculty review

Ordering Periodicals, Cont’d

• Faculty review begins when they return in late August, about a 1.5 week window before renewal is due

• We require all periodical additions and/or deletions be submitted at this time – exceptions are made

• Standard forms are used for all additions, deletions, and changes

Ordering Serials

• Proformas for existing serials and Eserials are requested mid-spring (i.e., Gale reference materials, etc.)

• Review of print serials migrating to electronic mid-spring

• Electronic resource bids are gathered in January– try to have all renewals start in July– Budget requests due early February

Encumbering Funds

• Once the budget is released, and• Once the renewals are gone over with a fine

tooth comb, and• Once the Eresources, serials, and Eserials have

been decided on, then– Funds are encumbered for all titles expected

throughout the FY– Invoices received are paid

Receipt/Invoices

• All titles are coded by fund and vendor– For larger invoices, lists are run with order record

numbers, fund, title, price, and notes– Makes it easy for me to quickly run through a 112

page invoice, enter prices, and see any notes or other information listed

– Acquisitions assistant enters the invoice into the system and posts

• Smaller invoices are entered by acquisitions librarian

Processing of Periodicals• Items checked in by periodicals assistant and

processed by student help• Claims done by periodicals assistant• New titles are sent to periodicals librarian– Sent to cataloging (new title form comes into play) for

transfer of records into ILS– All other processing done by periodicals librarian

• Data added to Access• Checkin record/card created in ILS• Shelf labels and rolodex card created• Send to periodicals staff for checkin and filing

Processing Serials

• Serials - received by acquisitions assistant/ processed by cataloging

• Eserials – invoices received by acquisitions assistant– Acquisitions librarian requests new records loaded

by cataloging– URLs and other processing done by acquisitions

librarian

Processing Databases

• Invoices processed by acquisitions librarian• New records loaded by cataloging• URLs and other processing done by

acquisitions librarian• Webpages updated by acquisitions librarian

Bindery

• Prepared by periodicals assistant– Pulling– Updating ILS– Shipping

• Return– Added volumes processed by cataloging– ILS holdings updated by periodicals assistant• Checkin card• Holdings statements

Local Holdings Maintenance

• Presently done by periodicals librarian• In the process of training periodicals assistant• All current subscriptions are up-to-date• Retrospective records should be up-to-date by

end of FY09• All need to make this a part of their weekly

schedule!!!

Statistics

• We’ve started something new this year– All stats are kept in the ILS– Use suppressed bib records– One for each format (never knew there were so

many!!!)– Attached 12 monthly order records to each bib– Volume field is updated monthly

• Certain records owned by acquisitions, periodicals, and cataloging

• Cataloging librarian can run statistics spreadsheet at his/her convenience

Overview

• Takes a village to provide access to anything• All departments need to have clear, concise

standards, formats, etc.• Communication is the key• If it was easy, anyone could do it – that’s why

we’re librarians!