Serial Records: A Mechanism for Control

Abstract

Consideration of serials has, to some extent, been pushed aside, allegedly temporarily, as we have struggled for solutions to many other complex library problems. The sheer volume of serial holdings in large research libraries and the enormous resources required to gain control over them have caused administrators to face what sometimes must seem like an intolerable dilemma. They see the need for relieving a deteriorating situation, but they are understandably reluctant to pour funds into what many of them view as a bottomless pit. At the same time the astronomic rise in the quantity of serial literature in recent years cannot be ignored. Today the reputation of a research library depends on its total holdings, and serials represent a very sizable portion of a research collection. Some major libraries estimate that as much as three-fourths of their holdings are serials, and it has been indicated that in science and technology alone more than 50,000 serials are published currently. 1 It has always seemed something of a paradox to me that concentrated attention to problems of serials controls has been so long delayed at a time in our history when the scientists who are so dependent on them are more and more active. Librarians have been quick to institute acquisitions arrangements that would insure collection of the scientific and technical publications for which the scientists have clamored. Yet one of the greatest disenchantments of the scientific researcher for a very long time has been the lack of adequate control over serial publications. He has not been timid either about expressing his unhappiness as he has repeatedly asked why librarians have not been more concerned about providing easier access to journals and their contents. Serials, therefore, are very much with us and the problems of their control are not going to vanish.published or submitted for publicatio