Greetings-

This topic for sure has been discussed here before.  However, I would like to collect some responses in order to highlight this particular problem and bring it to the attention of important persons at my library.  If you would like to share your response with the list, please reply to this query.  If you would care to email me off-list, please do so at gig002@shsu.edu.  Thank you.

 

Problem:

We have an electronic journal title called American Journal of Evaluation.  The dates on the catalog record for that title are 1998 to present.  We do not link our electronic journals directly to the database, but instead send our users to the entry in our A-Z Journal Finder.  This catalog record for American Journal of Evaluation links correctly to its entry in the A-Z Journal Finder.  The problem arose when we bought a backfile from the same vendor which included coverage back beyond 1998.  Back beyond 1998 the journal had a different title – Evaluation practice.  However, the vendor did not create separate entries for each journal title.  Instead, all coverage is listed under the later version of the title.  A user with a citation for the previous title Evaluation practice will find an entry in the A-Z alright, but that entry lists other vendors with later coverage dates.  The one and only entry with the most coverage for Evaluation Practice is hidden under the later version of the title.  How do I deal with this?  And by the way, this only one example – there are more titles in this backfile with this problem than there are those without this problem. Almost 500 titles – double or triple that number when you include the title changes.  Having to deal with these one at a time because of this issue.  Very, very tedious and time-consuming.  And this is only one vendor – many information providers practice this method of content delivery. 

 

Creating two links in the catalog record – one to Evaluation Practice and one to American Journal of Evaluation simply leads to confusion.  Our ILS grabs the first url and displays it in the hit list.  A user must search to find the other link.  And that still does not solve the problem of content under the incorrect title heading.  Help.

 

 

 

 

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.  (T.S. Eliot)

Glenda Griffin

Serials Cataloger

Newton Gresham Library

Sam Houston State University

Box 2281

Huntsville, Texas 77341-2281

936-294-3589

gig002@shsu.edu