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What to Keep and What to Cut?Using Internet as an Objective Toolto Identify "Core" Periodical Titlesin a Specialized Subject CollectionLinda Lawrence Stein BA, MA aa Senior Assistant Librarian, Reference Department,University of Delaware Library, Newark, DE, 10013Published online: 11 Dec 2008.

To cite this article: Linda Lawrence Stein BA, MA (1993) What to Keep and What to Cut?Using Internet as an Objective Tool to Identify "Core" Periodical Titles in a Specialized SubjectCollection, Technical Services Quarterly, 10:1, 3-14

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What to Keep and What to Cut? Using Internet as an Objective Tool to Identify "Core" Periodical Titles in a Specialized Subject Collection

Linda Lawrence Stein

ABSTRACT. Reductions in library funds and rising prices have caused many librarians to be faced with the difficult task of identify- ing serial titles for cancellation. Bibliometric studies, use surveys, and published "core" lists, used to bolster the subjective opinions of faculty and librarians, are not always useful or up-to-date for s ecialized subject areas. To r i d another objective tool to identify U!e "core'* titles in a collection of fashion. textiles. and apparel merchandising/manufacturing periodicals at the University of Dela- ware Library, a comparison study was made of the periodical hold- ings of eight university libraries supporting similar subject programs. The study produced a useful "core" periodicals list, identified re- sources for interlibrary loan, and pinpolnted collection strengths and weaknesses.

Reductions in library budgets and rising prices have caused many academic librarians to be faced with the difficult task of identifying

Lida Stein is Senior Assistant Librarian in the Reference Department of the University of Delaware Library, Newark, DE. She received a Bachelor's degree in Consumer Services from the University of Delaware. and a Master's degree and Certificate of Advanced Studies in Library Science from Drexel University.

This paper was presented on June 30th.-1991, to the American Library ~ssoc i - ation Home Economics/Human Resources Discussion Group and was the subicct of a poster session at the 1991 ALA Annual Conlerence.

Acknowledgement is given to Tara Voso, Library Analyst, University of Dcla- ware Library. for her assistance in producing the tables provided in this paper.

Technical Services Quarterly, Vol, lO(1) 1992 O 1992 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. 3

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serial titles for cancellation. Numerous articles in the literature re- port on the problems involved in this process: the complicated de- termination of appropriate criteria for retention and cancellation, the lengthy process-of allocating specific monetary cuts, and the strained faculty-librarian relations due to disagreements about can- cellation choices. Librarians have tried to solve at least some of these problems by endeavoring to make the cancellation process as logical and consistent as possible. Attempts have been made to bolster the subjective opinions of faculty and librarians with addi- tional, more objective information gathered from use surveys and bibliomehic studies.' Published "core" collection lists have been consulted to obtain outside opinions on the "value" of individual serial titles in collections.

Unfortunately, the Journal Citation Reports, bibliometric analyses published by the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) in conjunc- tion with the Science Citation Index and the Social Sciences Cita- tion Index, do not cover all published journals and available "core" lists may prove to be out-of-date or too general for applicability to a specialized subject collection. A lengthy use survey of periodical titles may not be practical if the cancellation process is being sub- jected to time limitations. These various constraints were encoun- tered at the University of Delaware Library when a cancellation of fashion, textile, and apparel merchandising/manufacturing periodi- cals became necessary as part of a major serials cancellation project in the 1990/1991 academic year. A number of these periodicals were cut from the Textiles, Design, and Consumer Economics seri- als fund in the 1990 Fall Term, and it became evident that an addi- tional list of titles would have to be identified for cancellation in the 1991 Spring Term. University faculty assistance was solicited for this second round of cancellations. Information was gathered in January, 1991, from available bibliometric studies and published "core" journal lists, but the data proved to be insufficient or too outdated for the needs of the upcoming cancellation project.

Since objective information was desired for the Spring Term faculty-librarian cancellation discussions. it was decided that a quick survey of the fashion, textile, and apparel merchandisinglmanufac- turing periodical holdings of other university libraries supporting similar academic programs might provide an alternative method of

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pinpointing "core" titles in the collection. A title-by-title compari- son of the University of Delaware Library's holdings with the hold- ings of other research libraries could identify some of the lesser- known titles and holding strengths in the collection. It was also predicted that this survey would provide a cognizance of the fash- ion, textile, and apparel merchandisinglmanufacturing titles that, if cancelled by the University of Delaware Library, could be obtained through interlibrarv loan.

~ h ; e e methods bf obtaining library serial holdings information were investigated and evaluated for their potential speed of results, accuracy, informational content, and currency of data: (1) title searches on the OCLC database, (2) mailed surveys to libraries, and (3) title searches on individual online library catalogs via the Internet. Searching the OCLC database held the advantage of being an efficient method of viewing the ordering and cataloging records for the periodicals of many U.S. libraries. The database was not seen, however, as a source of current or detailed serial holdings information. Although libraries continually input order records for serials into OCLC, these records are not updated to indicate volume holdings or subscription cancellations.

Mailed surveys were investigated as another means of acquiring accurate, detailed, and current information about library serial hold- ings, but were rejected due to their predicted lag-time for results. The process of constructing, testing, mailing, retrieving, and tabulat- ing the surveys was seen as too lengthy to be completed before the Spring Term. The retrieval time for results would be dependent on the postal system and the responses of the librarians assigned to answering the surveys.

The third survey method, the direct searching of library catalogs via the Intemet system, was singled out as a potentially efficient means of acquiring information on library periodical holdings in a short period of time. The Internet system, a telecommunications network linking academic, research, and governmental organiza- tions, would provide an immediate connection to the online catalogs of individual libraries. Although it was known that a number of university library catalogs would not be accessible through the Internet, and that some of the accessible catalogs would not contain serial holdings records, it was thought that the catalogs of the major

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research libraries of interest to the project would be available and contain the necessary information.

There were no foreseeable obstacles to using the Internet system in the Library. The University of Delaware Library computer termi- nals were equipped to access the Internet via the campus backbone network. The Library staff had been trained to use the Internet sys- tem to send E-mail messages and access the online library catalogs. Internet-Accessible Library Caralogs and Databases was employed as a source to specific directions required for logging on and off each individual online catalog.'

Before the accessibility of serials holdings in the online catalogs of interest could be established, a group of applicable university libraries needed to be identified. First, a list of universities support- ing undergraduate degrees in both Fashion Merchandising and Tex- tiles and Clothing was compiled from the information available in Peterson's Guide to Four Year Colleges (Princeton: Peterson's Guides, 1990) and the Index of Majors: 1991 (New York: College Entrance Examination Board, 1990). A number of universities were listed as offering only one of the two subject programs. Although their library catalogs were of interest for future investigations, they were eliminated from consideration.

The list of universities, as shown in Figure 1, with similar subject programs was then cross-checked with the libraries noted in the directory of Internet-Accessible Library Catalogs and Databases, producing a group of eight academic libraries.

Trial tests were run on the Internet system to establish the avail- ability of serials holdings information in the online catalogs of the

F i m e 1. Libraries Selected for the Survey

Florida State University--Tallahassee, Florida Indiana University--Bloomington, Indiana Ohio State University--Columbus, Ohio Purdue University--west Lafayette, Indiana university of Maryland--College Park, Maryland University of Nebraska--Omaha, Nebraska University of Tennessee--Knoxville, Tennessee University of Wisconsin--Madison, Wisconsin

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Linda Lmvrence Stein 7

eight libraries. Searches for two periodical titles, Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, were completed in each of the library catalogs. It was determined that all eight of the library catalogs would provide serials information in varying degrees of detail. The trial searches were useful in predetermining online catalog "personality quirks" and persistent problems, such as online noise during daytime hours, that would need attention in the upcoming searches for the project. Some online catalogs required very little orientation time, because they used NOTIS software and were similar in appearance to the University of Delaware Library's catalog. Other catalogs needed a number of successive trial searches before efficient search strategies could be designed.

The Internet system, being accepted as the desired survey meth- od, was used to access the eight university library catalogs of inter- est to the project. Each of the fifty-three fashion, apparel merchan- dising/manufactu~g, and textile periodical titles assigned to the University of Delaware Library Textiles, Design, and Consumer Economics serials fund was searched on the catalogs and the hold- ings for each library were noted. A search for the fifty-three titles on a library catalog usually required approximately two hours, depending on the difficulties encountered with online noise, system "drops," and catalog "quirks." The library catalogs that provided multiple screens of detailed serial holdings.information necessitated additional search and tabulation time. Other libraries supplied less detailed volume holdings, or just a starting date with a dash to indicate a current subscription.

Two titles had to be eliminated from consideration due to prob- lems with the results received. Savvy Woman was noted as being discontinued in a number of catalogs, but not in others. Holdings of the Textile Institute Conference Proceedings were difficult to label as serial or firm orders, as they tended to be incomplete.

The holdings of the remaining fifty-one titles were tabulated. The titles were assigned to one of four groups, depending on the preva- lence of their holdings: (1) periodicals held currently by over half of the libraries, (2) periodicals held currently by three to four libraries, (3) periodicals held currently by one to two libraries, and (4) periodicals not held by the eight libraries. These categories are displayed in Figures 2 through 5. There were a total of twenty-

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Figure 2. Periodicals Held Currently by W e r Half of the Libraries -- -

American Dyestuff Reporter America's Textiles ~nternational Clothing and Textiles Research Journal color Research and Application Costume Daily News Record (DNR) Dress Glamour Harper's Bazaar Journal of the Societv of Dyers and Colourists Mademoiselle McCallls Melliand Textilberichte: International Textile Reports Officiel de la Couture et de la Mode de Paris Review of Progress in Coloration and Related Topics Stores Textile Chemist and colorist Textile Horizons Textile Institute Journal Textile Month Textile Museum Journal Textile Progress Textile Research Journal ~~~~~ -

Textile World Visual Merchandising and Store Design Vosue IU.S.) woienl.i wear Daily (WWD)

Figure 3. Periodicals Held Currently by 3-4 Libraries -- - Apparel International Apparel Merchandising Association of College Professors of Textiles and

Clothing. AcrTC Proceedings Canadian Textile Journal DNR, the Magazine Elle (U.S.) Fiber Organon Textile Asia Textile History Textiles Vogue (France)

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Linda Lawrence Stein 9

-- - -

Piaure 4. Periodicals Held Currentlv bv 1-2 Libraries

Apparel Industry Magazine Black Elegance Elle (France) Fur Age Weekly Journal of Coated Fabrics Knitting Times Mirabella Sew News Textilveredlung vogue (Italy)

Figure 5. Periodicals Not Held by the Eight Libraries

Burda (Germany) Manufacturing Clothier Retailing Today

seven titles in Group One, the most widely held periodicals. Out of those twenty-seven "core" periodicals, fifteen were textile titles, eight were fashion titles, and four were apparel merchandising titles.

The lists indicated that approximately 53 percent of the fifty-one University of Delaware Library titles surveyed were "core" titles, consistently held by the other eight university libraries. Group Two, the periodicals that were held by three to four of the libraries com- posed approximately 21 percent of the Library's subject collection. while Groups Three and Four formed 20 percent and 6 percent of the collection respectively. The fifty-one titles wene then regrouped into the three broad categories of fashion, textile, and apparel mer- chandisinglmanufacturing periodicals and subdivided by the number of library holdings, as displayed in Figures 6, 7, and 8.

The resulting lists indicated that the textile periodicals were the titles most consistently held by the libraries surveyed. More than half, or approximately 65 percent, of the twenty-three titles sub- scribed to by the University of Delaware Library were assigned to

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Figure 6. Fashion T i t l e s Grouped by Number of Holdings - FASHION PERIODICAL TITLES

HELD BY

OVER 5

LIBRARIES

Costume Dress Glamour Harper's Bazaar Mademoiselle M c C a l l l s O f f i c i e l de l a Couture vogue (u.s.)

E l l e (U.S.) Vogue (France)

HELD BY Black Elegance 1-2 LIBRARIES E l l e ( F r a n c e )

Mirabella Sew N e w s Vogue ( I t a l y )

Burda (Germany) EIGHT LIBRARIES

the "core" group of holdings. Half of the sixteen University of Delaware Library fashion periodicals were consistently held by the eight libraries, but only four out of the twelve, or 33 113 percent, of the apparel merchandising/manufacturing titles were considered to be "core" periodicals.

The "ranked" lists of periodical titles obtained from the survey results identified the titles that were consistently subscribed to by libraries supporting similar fashion merchandising and textiles and clothing programs. These lists were then used to bolster the faculty- librarian judgements on the "standard" quality of the individual periodical titles in the University of Delaware Library, adding ob- jective data to purely subjective opinions. They served to provide an "outside opinion" when faculty-librarian judgements diverged.

The survey results also produced a better picture of the holding strengths and weaknesses of the fifty-one periodical titles in the

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Figure 7. Textile Periodicals Grouped by Number of Holdings --

TEXTILE PERIODICAL TITLES

HELD BY American Dyestuff Reporter America's Textiles International

OVER 5 Clothing & Textiles Research Jrnl. Color Research and Application

LIBRARIES Jrnl. Sac. of Dyers and Colourists Melliand Textilberichte Review of Progress in Coloration &

Related ~ o p i c s Textile Chemist and Colorist Textile Horizons Textile Institute Journal

' Textile Month Textile Museum Journal Textile Progress Textile Research Journal Textile World

HELD BY ~ssoc. of' college Profs. of Textiles ti Clothing. ACPTC Proceedings.

3-4 LIBRARIES Canadian Textile Journal Fiber Organon Textile Asia Textile History Textiles

HELD BY Journal of Coated Fabrics 1-2 LIBRARIES Textilveredlung

University of Delaware Library. Collection strengths, such as a longer than usual run of volume holdings for a particular title, were identified easily, because the volume holdings among the eight libraries could be compared. New titles that had proved less useful than predicted, or titles with scattered volume holdings, could be considered for cancellation, if many of the libraries surveyed ap- peared to hold substantial runs of these titles.

The survey provided a rough estimate of the potential availability of a periodical title in other libraries that could be used during cancellation discussions. While a more thorough check of library

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Figure 8. Apparel nerchandising/nanufactwing Periodicals Grouped by Number of Holdings

APPAREL PERIODICAL TITLES

HELD BY Daily News Record (DNR) OVER 5 stores LIBRARIES Visual Merch. & Store Design

women's Wear Daily (WWD)

HELD BY Apparel International 3-4 Apparel Merchandising LIBRARIES DNR, The Magazine

HELD BY Apparel Industry Magazine 1-2 Fur Age Weekly LIBRARIES Knitting Times

NOT HELD BY Manufacturing Clothier EIGHT LIBRARIES Retailing Today

holdings needed to be completed at a later time, the tabulations of holdings information from the libraries surveyed were readily avail- able for quick use. Lack of holdings in the eight libraries signaled a possible problem in obtaining issues through interlibrary loan.

The Internet was a useful tool for the cancellation project. The survey quickly provided the desired information on the "standard" quality and availability of the periodicals, which was added to the other available data considered in the deselection process, such as title cost, publication type (newsletter, magazine, or journal), lan- guage, indexing, and format (paper, newsprint, or microform). The survey method is recommended for the study of a limited number of titles in a specialized collection. A detailed study of the titles in a less specialized subject collection, such as business administration, might not be practical due to the large number of titles and libraries that would need to be examined. The benefits of speed of access in using the Internet system would decrease as the search time re- quired for the project substantially increased.

The list of "core" periodical titles obtained from the survey was,

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Linda Lawrence Stein 13

of course, limited to the fashion, textile, and apparel merchandis- inglmanufacturing periodical titles assigned to the University of Dela- ware Library Textiles, Design, and Consumer Economics serials fund. The titles studied in the survey provided only a sampling of all of the periodicals published in these subject areas and should not be considered as all-inclusive. A number of fashion, textile, and apparel merchandisinglmanufacturing titles held by the Library were, in fact, not surveyed as part of the project, as they were being paid for by other funds, such as Art. Business Administration, and Chemistry.

The survey was not, however, designed to produce a comprehen- sive "buying list" for all academic libraries-just a quickly-drawn list of the "core" titles in the collection of periodicals funded by the University of Delaware Library. A larger, more time-consuming study attempting to survey all of the periodicals published in the subject areas would be necessary before a truly comprehensive list of recommended titles could be achieved. While a title survey for the additional fashion, textile, and apparel merchandis- inglmanufacturing periodicals covered by other serial 'funds in the Library was seen as potentially advantageous for further studies of the collection, the lengthy search necessary for an all-inclusive list of periodical titles was not.

The results of the survey were presented to the members of the Home EconomicsMuman Ecology Discussion aroup at the JuneIJuly 1991 American Library Association Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. A discussion of the Internet system as a tool in the serials cancella- tion process produced the added suggestion that it be used to circulate proposed cancellation lists among the university librarians responsi- ble for collecting in specialized subject areas. Internet's E-mail sys- tem could supply a quick means of sharing this information, encour- aging a more efficient coordination of resource sharing.

REFERENCES

1. Some representative articles on these topics are: Robert N. Broadus, "A Proposed Method for Eliminating Titles from Periodical Subscription Lists," College and Research Libraries 46, no. 1 (January 1985): 30-35; Robert N. Broadus, "The Measurement of Periodicals Use," Serials Review 11 (Summer 1985): 57-61; Robin N. Downes, "Journal Use Studies and the Management of

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Journal Collections in Research Libraries," in Serials Colleclioa Developmettl: Choices and Strategies, ed. by Sul H. Lee, Library Management Series, no. 5 (AM Arbor: Pierian Press, 1981). 1-59; Maurice B. Line, "Rank Lists Based on Citations and Library Uses as Indicators of Journal Usage in Individual Librar- ies," CoNection Management 2 (Winter 1978): 313-316.

2. Two directories o f Internet-accessible library catalogs are available: Dr. Art St. George and Dr. Ron Larsen, Internet-Accessible Library Catalogs & Databas- es, ed. by Karen McKelvey, CERPnet. January 28, 1991; Bi l ly Barron (billy@vaxb. acs.unt.edu), UNT's Accessing On-Line Bibliograplric Databases (University of North Texas, 1991).

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