Jean Bradford Serials and Inter-library Document Supply, University of Bristol UKSG Serials Resource Management Seminar 12 th 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, 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 And about SFX at

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 Verde details at

22 Authentication IP Address Athens Shibboleth – see Article in Ariadne -

23 Developments in publishing Institutional repositories – Bristol’s is called Project Rose Others are being developed – see Project SHERPA 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 list owned by UKSG - lis-ejournals. Another useful one is lis-serials. See Jiscmail home page