Serials Automation: Fact or Phobia - A Progress Report

Even with the myriad of technological achievements in the computer industry and the advancements in software development, the library profession has not widely accepted the automation of the serials processing activities. Only a small number of organizations have successfully or fully automated serials. The Univeristy of California, Los Angeles, has one of the largest and most successful online serials processing systems in operation in North America. With their nineteen libraries containing some 70,000 serial titles, the computerization of serials processing is technologically sound and cost effective. A discussion of the system features, the technological issues that were addressed, and the design philosophy will be discussed. In addition, subscription agents are beginning to provide serials processing services such as check-in, and claiming. A comparison of features and design philosophies between the UCLA ORlON system and the LlNX system at Faxon will be presented. A brief look at some microcomputer options will be provided along with some new trends in electronic publishing/subscribing to the electronic form of the serials