Jean Bradford Serials and Inter-library Document Supply, University of Bristol

1. Jean BradfordSerials and Inter-library Document Supply, University of Bristol UKSG Serials Resource Management Seminar 12th October 2005.

2. Outline of this presentation • Information about the University of Bristol • Information about Information Services • Why are serials so important • Budgeting and financial management • Collection management • Management of our e-resources • Any questions

3. The University of Bristol • International community dedicated to learning, discovery and enterprise • A world leader in research and a member of the World Universities Network and of the Russell Group of Universities

4. Some facts and figures • 45 Academic departments, 15 research centres • Over 11,000 undergraduates • Over 3,500 taught postgraduates • Over 2,000 research postgraduates • More than 5,500 staff of whom 3,000 are academic staff or academic related staff

5. Information Services • Library services are delivered through 13 Branch Libraries • Arts and Social Sciences Library (ASSL) is the largest and also includes central administration functions • Serials Section is based in ASSL

6. Serials at the University of Bristol • Over 8800 e-journals are listed in our e-journal database • The list of print subscriptions contains 3,648 titles • We receive many serials as gifts • Use Aleph 500 as the library management system and use the Aleph Serials Module to control our print subscriptions

7. People Involved in Serials • 1 senior library assistant (FTE) plus Checkin assistants • Librarian in charge • Director of Library Services controls the budget • Content group advises on how the book and serials budget should be spent

8. Why Are Serials Important? • We spend a lot of money on them – the easy answer • They are very important to the staff and students of the university

9. Budgeting and Financial Management • Approx £2.5 million comes to the Library for purchases of all kinds • Serials are paid for before everything else • The rest is divided between buying books, binding and Inter-Library Loans

10. Share Between Headings, 2004-2005 Not Yet Available

11. Budgets • When we are drawing up our budgets we do not know what the prices for our serial subscriptions will be • We have to make a guess! • You cannot easily reduce spending on serials

12. Collection management • The serials you subscribe to need to be kept under review – applies to both print and electronic subscriptions • You need a process for this. Sometimes it is done on a small scale, e.g by one department ,or, as we have done this year, all the titles to which we subscribe have been reviewed

13. Some criteria for selecting our serials • Relevance to current teaching • Relevance to current research • Existing strengths and special collections • Academic significance • Known or likely demand from users • Intellectual level • Price • Language

14. Some additional criteria for electronic subscriptions • File formats • Operating systems • Technical requirements • User support

15. Serials review • Process is lengthy. Time is needed to consult users • Must time the decisions so that it is possible to cancel something if you want to

16. Moving from print+online to online only • Users like e-journals – they can access them from anywhere they are and at any time • Users don’t have to spend time finding things in the Library • We are short of space and print take up a lot of room • Print can be away at binders, misshelved, left lying in the Library…

17. However in the electronic world… • More than one user can access the title (usually) • You need to check the contract you have with the supplier • To check if you can cancel or change • To check what arrangements are to access the archives Print+online has been seen as a “safe” option

18. Promotion of e-journals • Branding is very important to us • We currently have a separate database for e-journals and our Library Catalogue only includes our printed resources • We are implementing Metalib and SFX to improve the way in which our users can access all our resources

19. Metalib and SFX • More information about Metalib at Bristol is at http://www.bris.ac.uk/is/library/metalib • And about SFX at http://www.bris.ac.uk/is/library/metalib/get-it.html

20. Managing e-journals • Bibiliographical information must be recorded • What does the subscription cover – the years available to us, is it all full text or just abstracts or tables of content?

21. Managing e-journals • Contractual obligations – for an example of what a licence may look like see the NESLi2 Model Licence at http://www.nesli2.ac.uk/model.htm • Verde details at http://www.exlibris.co.il/verde.htm

22. Authentication • IP Address • Athens • Shibboleth – see http://shibboleth.internet2.edu/ • Article in Ariadne - http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue43/mcleish/

23. Developments in publishing • Institutional repositories – Bristol’s is called Project Rose http://www.bris.ac.uk/is/projects/rose/ • Others are being developed – see Project SHERPA http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/ • Open access publishing

24. And finally… • Print+electronic will go hand in hand for some time, however electronic will be the dominant format • Serials are a team operation • Sources of help are available especially the e-mail list owned by UKSG - lis-ejournals. Another useful one is lis-serials. See Jiscmail home page http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/