Serials Surgeon

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Serials Surgeon

• Cutting Deep to Save the Patient

Philenese Slaughter Serials Librarian Austin Peay
State University
Aaron W. Dobbs Network Services Librarian Austin
Peay State University
Slaughter, P., Dobbs, A. (2002, October
18).Serials Surgeon Cutting deep to save the
patient. Presented at the 2002 TLA CULS
Conference, Austin Peay State University,
Clarksville, TN. Retrieved ltdate you accessed
thisgt, from http//aaron.thelibrarian.org/presenta
tions/SerialsSurgeon.ppt
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Drs notes

• Slashers review
• Librarians explained situation and options
• Departments recommended cuts
• Librarians reviewed cuts
• Serials personnel made cuts
• Budget situation made departmental acceptance
  less grudging
• Departments mostly accepted done deal

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Will they survive, Doctor?

• Why yes, my Dear. And against all odds they
  appear to be improving
• Some departments have used this project to clear
  out what they consider to be deadwood
• These same departments have subsequently
  refocused their serial selections
• Anecdotally, students seem to be heading straight
  for electronically available sources, bypassing
  legitimate paper sources held locally
• Currently printing is no charge while photocopies
  are 0.10
• Electronic sources are seen as less effort
• The ubiquitous copy paste

4
Pain Management

• Modify Serials management tools for long term
  observation
• Redesign Use Study database for clarity
• Continue collecting reshelving data
• Acknowledge that reshelving data is imperfect
• Determine or develop a way to track usage of
  electronic serials
• Not nearly as easy as it sounds
• Monitor Serials Budget
• Only make new purchases where old title
  deselections are equal
• Attempt to utilize electronic access to fill
  out the collection(JSTOR, Project Muse, etc)
• Make sure there is a budgetary cushion for
  upcoming years through advocacy to university
  administration

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X-ray to Scar

• Web based reports for faculty
• Periodical Titles by Department
• Deselected Titles List
• Deselected titles by Department
• Retained Titles by Department

Blank Copy of Database (Right-Click, Save Target
As)