Kathe Obrig

Changing Titles, Changing Duties: Restructuring the Role of the Serials Librarian for an Electronic Future

Abstract An anticipated change in the proportion of print and electronic serial titles held at the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library, coinciding with a vacancy in the Serials Librarian position, prompted Himmelfarb staff to re-examine the positions responsibilities and duties. In an effort to relieve the burden of managing an exploding number of electronic resources on the existing Electronic Resources and Instructional Librarian, electronic serials management was redistributed to the Serials Librarian. This paper discusses the environment leading to the change, the process of restructuring the position description, and the outcomes after the hire of a Print and Electronic Serials Librarian.

Conducting a Journal Assessment Using an Enhanced MS Access Database

An existing Microsoft Access journals-specific database providing aggregated subject and other department-specific title information was enhanced to support the ease and efficacy of conducting a survey of School of Medicine faculty to ensure the journal collection reflected their educational and professional needs. Additional evaluative data points were recorded in the database. MS Access then facilitated the creation of the surveys, recording results from returned surveys and creation of results summaries for departments. The surveys expanded the knowledge of full-time faculty about departmental holdings at the title level, while enabling the serials team to obtain better information to support collection development.