Ahhh, I have often (and loudly) had these same exact thoughts!!

 

EBSCO does have a Local Check-In feature that I have played around with, but have found it lacking.  It should predict when issues are published, and then you check a box when you have it at your library.  But I do not like the reports (or lack of when I was testing it) and find the system a little clunky.  I should revisit it and see if it is any better.

 

Our circ system, SirsiDynix, does have a Serial Check-In feature, but if you don’t have the predictions of when issues come in, or they are just late arriving from the publisher, then it’s all messed up anyway.  So I have to check the shelves to see if this issue is really not here, or if my predictions predicted an issue that does not exist.  Then I still have to manually claim issues, etc.

 

As a new serials librarian, I find all the ambiguity and guess work of serials to be confusing and chaotic.  I can’t find a great way to manage the serials, just a “OK for now” way to do it.

 

 

 

 

Here's why.

 

We're a Voyager library, and the last upgrade spurred me to abandon MFHD 853/863. We put our holdings info back into MFHD 866 and set "recent issues" to not display in the OPAC. Now that holdings are in the textual 866 field, in theory our check-in and claims could be separate from the ILS, since no info from the acquisitions module is displayed to patrons.

 

We have toyed with going to an open source ILS like Koha. My understanding is that Koha doesn't have an acquisitions module (yet). Perhaps subscription agents could build on what they already do and develop a workable acquisitions program for their customers.

 

EBSCO happens to be our subscription agent. The idea I've shared with my sales rep is they should develop an extension of EBSCOnet for check-in that "talks" with orders, claiming, and especially their data on when publishers have dispatched issues (kept within "volume/issue information"). Such a system would be able to distinguish delays in publication from missed issues, so a claim would not be generated until it is known the issue has been published. Eliminating system-generated claims for issues not yet published would save both libraries and EBSCO work processing claims. A separate report could alert libraries to delays in publication.

 

The main idea is to integrate check-in with the agents’ order and claim data, rather than having that process reside separately in the ILS.

 

Steve Black

Serials & Reference Librarian

Neil Hellman Library

The College of Saint Rose

432 Western Ave.

Albany, NY 12203

(518) 458-5494

blacks@strose.edu