NASIG Newsletter

PLACE YOUR BET IN KENTUCKY:  THE SERIALS GAMBLE
Chandra Jackson, 2007 NASIG Horizon Award Winner
Serials Librarian, University of Georgia Libraries, Athens, Georgia
 
As we gather in Louisville, birthplace of the Kentucky Derby, we will be discussing with our colleagues the unpredictable nature of current initiatives populating the serials field.  Some seem to have started strong out of the gate, leading the pack, only to falter in mid-stride, as other practices have overtaken through sheer staying power and the ongoing progress of technology.  The “horses” in our serials race are backed by an array of stakeholders, including commercial publishers, learned societies, researchers, faculty members, librarians, and institutional governing bodies.  Unlike a traditional horse race, however, the finish line will never arrive; there will be no blanket of roses draped ceremoniously over the winner.  When we as librarians survey the field, we must make decisions every day as to which horses we’d like to chance our budgets and our staff hours on in order to provide the best service.  Like seasoned gamblers, we weigh the odds of success or failure given past performance and current competition.  We try to ensure that we’re placing our bets on the “sure things,” all the while knowing that the “sure thing” more often than not will change with any new technological development.  After all, it wasn’t too long ago that electronic data in the form of CD-ROMs was an exciting new technology to assist our users!  We have since seen this technology eclipsed by developments in Web-based systems that allow information to be disseminated electronically to our users in ways that we could only dream of twenty years ago.

Horse racing has often been referred to as the “Sport of Kings” because of the costs involved.  No matter how large or small our materials budgets are, chances are good that the percentage spent on serials is larger than for any other format, and that that percentage is likely to grow. While none of us have riches untold at our disposal like the kings of old, (would that we did!) what we do have is precious and we are beholden to use these resources to our greatest advantage.  What are some of the gambles we have been taking, and will continue to take, with our betting stakes?

OPEN ACCESS JOURNALS
In the last fifteen years, we have seen the implementation of various open access initiatives, proposed by a variety of stakeholders, including traditional commercial publishers, learned societies, government bodies, and academic institutions.  There are many questions still awaiting answers concerning the staying power of these initiatives; currently, most of us seem to be steering a middle path, unwilling to commit wholly to a philosophical ideal while still attempting to reap budgetary benefits from available open access options. What will be our best bets that ultimately benefit our researchers, our users, and our institutional shareholders?

It seems likely (although by no means certain) that a modified open access model based on institutional subscriptions to entities such as the Public Library of Science, will continue to be the option that serves our institutions well.  As with all gambles, however, the outcome is uncertain. The commercial publishers’ forays into limited open access should be seen as a welcome new addition to the field.

CONSORTIAL AGREEMENTS
As the cost of journals continues to rise, we’re sure to see more, and larger, consortial agreements being negotiated, particularly with regard to the large STM publishers. However, there is a legitimate fear, particularly among smaller institutions involved in consortial deals with very large institutions, that the loss of local control over serials collections will prove to be a mistake. This loss of local control, of course, is offset by the fact that smaller consortial  partners will usually gain access to hundreds of titles, through Big Deal packages, than they could ever hope to be able to acquire on their own. It is a gamble for those institutions, but one in which the outcome seems, so far, to be a positive.

Of course, the consortial agreement gamble is but a small part of the largest bet of all; that is, that our customers will continue to prefer, in the main, electronic journals to traditional print journals. At my institution, the faculty, researchers, and students have made it clear that having access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, on- or off-campus, to the research tools they need is of primary importance.  Our role as serials librarians and electronic resource professionals is to ensure that the bets that our stakeholders have placed on us will continue to pay off. They rely on the knowledge and experience that we gain by networking with our peers and colleagues through organizations such as NASIG to provide them with the services they desire.

SERIALS: A PERSONAL GAMBLE
I have been fortunate in my career to have worked with serials as a classified staff person long before I decided to go to library school. That certainly made my gamble to specialize in serials and electronic resources in library school much less of a long shot than it could have been, given that I had already been initiated into the fascinating and ever-changing serials world. I believe exciting things are happening, and will continue to happen, in the field of serials librarianship, and I’m excited to see what new “horses” will enter the field. Learning how and when to place my bets on future trends in serials and serials librarianship is experience that I will continue to gain from those that came before; in the same fashion, I hope I will provide that same counsel to those that follow me in the profession. With the evolving nature of technology and its impact on serials librarianship, I’d say it’s a safe bet that serials librarians and their partners in NASIG will stand at the forefront, betting tickets in hand, ready to back their winners.

2007 AWARD WINNERS
Clint Chamberlain and Sarah Sutton, Co-chairs, Awards & Recognition Committee

After a long process of reviewing many qualified applicants, the 2007 Awards & Recognition Committee would like to announce the 2007 NASIG grant and award winners.  Please extend a warm NASIG welcome to these award winners when you see them in Louisville!

NASIG CONFERENCE STUDENT GRANT AWARD WINNERS
• Toni Fortini, Southern Connecticut State University
• Jessica Ireland, University of South Florida
• Joann Palermo, Louisiana State University
• Erin Sharwell, University of Washington
• Barbara Shipman, Wayne State University
• Sanjeet-Singh Mann, UCLA

MEXICO STUDENT GRANT AWARD WINNER
Jorge Alberto Mendoza-Torres, Escuela Nacional Biblioteconomia y Archivonomia (National School of Library and Archive Sciences in Mexico City)

FRITZ SCHWARTZ SERIALS EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP WINNER
Angela Slaughter, Indiana University

HORIZON AWARD WINNER
Chandra Jackson, University of Georgia Libraries

SERIALS SPECIALIST AWARD WINNER
Rita Johnson, Wright State University