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EDITORIATBOARD Editor,andChairpersonoJtheEditoriatBoard. .. Er-rzesl.rlrL'Tare AssistantEditors Psvllrs A RrcnrroNo .for Cataloging and Classification Section Eow,A,noSwaNsoN Cenorvr C. Monnow for Presewation of Library Materials Section FneNcrsF. SpnErrznr for Reproduction of Library Materials Section Section J. Mrcueel Bnuen for Resources LrNor Sepp for Serials Section Editorial Adoisu: Donts H Cr-acx (for Regional Groups) Liaisonuith RTSD Newsletter: Atrqor-o HrnsnoN, RTSD NewsletterEditor Library ResourcesI TechnicalSerares (ISSN 0024-252?), the quarterly official publication ofthe Resourcesand Technical ServicesDivision of the American Library Association,is publishedat 50 E.HuronSt.,Chicago, IL60611. BusinessOffice:AmericanLibraryAssociation,50E.HuronSt., Chicago, IL 60611. Aduntising Tralfic Coordinator;Leona Swiech, Central Production Unit, ALA Headquarters,50E. HuronSt., Chicago, IL60611. CirculationandProduction:Central Production Unit{turnals, ALA Headquarters,50 E. Huron St., Chicago,IL 60611 . SubscriptionPrice. to mem- bersof the ALA Resourcesand Technical ServicesDivision, $10 per year, included in the member- ship dues; to nonmembers, $20 per year; singlecopies $5. Second-classpostage paid at Chicago, Illinois, and at additional mailing offices.POSTMAS- TER: Send addiess changes to Librarl ResourcesI TechnicalSeruices, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 6061I Librar2 ResourcesI TechnicalSeraices is indexed in Library Literature,Librarl I InformationScience Index- Con- Absmai, CurrentIndex toJournals in Education, ScienceCitation Index, and Hospital Literature tentsarelistedin CALL(CurrmtAuareness-Librar\Literature).ItsreviewsareincludedinBookRetieu Digest,Book Reouw Infux, and Retieu of Reuieus Copies of books for review should be addressedto Arnold Hirshon, Editor, R ZSD Newsletter,Ca- bell Library, virginia commonwealth ljniversity, 901 Park Ave., Richmond, VA 23284. Do not send journal issuesor journal articles for review. The contents of this journal, unless otheruise indicated, are copyrighted by the Association. All material in thisjournJ copyrighted by the American Library Associationmay be photocopiedfor the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement @American Library Association 1983 Publication in Z ibrarytResources I TechnicalSeroices does not imply official endorsement by the Re- sourcesand Technical SeruicesDivision nor by ALA, and the assumption of editorial responsibility is not to be construednecessarily as endorsementofthe opinions expressedby individua.lcontribu- tors. /243 The Yeor'sWork in Seriolsz 1982 Benito M. Weber "Incredible things are happening in the world," he said to ljrsula. "Right there acrossthe river there are all kinds of magical instruments while we keep"on living like donkeys." Gabriel Garcia M6rquez * OneHundred Yearsof Solitude The literature and events covered in this review will be divided into the following areas: journal publishing, economic considerations and document delivery; automated systems and bibliographic control; eval- uation and use of collections; resource sharing and pieservation activi- ties; organization and administration of seriali acti;ities. JounNeL punLrsHrNc ANDEcoNoMrcs Serialslibrarians constituteone group of professionalswho are pain- fully aware of the proliferation of journal publishing. winkler (11i82b, *An.asterisk followinga , title or a surname in the text indicates the entry element un- der which that citation will be found in the "References. " Entry elements ?or other cita- tions are given-in parentheses or indicated in the customary author-date style; however, in these annual reviews, date is included in the text reference only ifit is ottrer ihan I 982. Benita M. weber is Head of the serials Department, General Library, university of New Mexico, Albuquerque. 2441 Library ResourcesI TechnicalSeraices ' Jul2/September 1983 offersa very detailedlook at someof the variablesinvolved in this phe- nomenon. Kronick, * in a review of this work, points out severaldiscrep- ancieswith regardto the lack of clarity or logic in statisticspresented, but he feels that ihe book as a whole is provocative and raises important process^ for 1983. Sincemost U.S. libraries' serialscollections comprise predominantly The Year'sWork in Serials /245 ports, not surprisingly, that librarians have shifted funds from the monographic budget to pay for serials. While that trend has slowed down, it has not stopped altogether. Libraries are also canceling sole subscriptions as opposed to duplicate or branch copies as before. The cal for libraries to order from and pay directly to publishers, especially when some publishers give discounts to libraries for direct ordeis? Paul (1982a,34) is somewhat convincing until he muddies the waters with mention of several labor-intensive tasks that he claims could be avoided "free lunch, " exchange programs do offer an alternative method of ac- increased availability of Soviet serials from vendors, exchanges were not necessarily cost-effective, even though their "hidden costs" were mini- mal (Stevens). One footnote to the whole economics of serials business deserves spe- cial mention and as many brickbats as we can toss. In an advertisement for Journal of Nutrition for the Elderlt, Haworth Press, publisher of many library-related journals, announced the following pricing structure: Individuals-$2g; Institutions-$5O; Libraries-$82! To call this outrageous and library-way robbery is a gross understatement. 246/ Library ResourcesU TechnicalSeraices oJullt/September 1983 ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING AND DOCUMENT DELIVERY rapidly and steadily forward. At l'eastone 'nerjio.r of the electronic journal is right around the cor- The ADONIS project, reported in this review article last year, con- tinues to be of inieresr for itt tackling of the electronic problems from both ends: storage and delivery. The six publishers-Academic Press, Blackwell Scientihc Publications, Elsevier Science Publishers, Perga- sadly, still must rely on the archaic postal systems. That seems some- what akin to bringing the Columbia space shuttle back from California to Florida in covere-cltitgons. One ofthe primary aims of the ADONIS TheYear's Work in Seriak/247 9{g" p"_tacc€ss to them out of the realm of the possibrefor many users. flth-oug-l full text retrieval is a very significantd'evelopment, it is doubt- ful that libraries en massewill rush to canceltheir hird-copy subscrip- tions to thosetitles availableonline. BrnlrocnePHlc CoNTRoL AND AUToMATEo Sysrrus That b€tenoire of 1981,AACR2, provedto be lessferocious in 1982 than expected.Serials catalogers, tholgh still facedwith someunsettled 248/ LibrarytResources I TechnicalSerui6s5 cJuly/September 1983 The Year'sWork in Seriak /249 year's end the other two CONSER members in the Research Libraries will be shared or contributed to a nationwide database (Library Issues, 273). ANSI (American National Standards Institute) 239 Subcommittee E continued tryingto hammer out a standard for detailed serials holdings statements. In what has become a trial by fire, the subcommittee was attempting to resolve criticisms of its third draft at the end of 1982. The relationship of this standard to existing standards (principally the one for su.Tm,ary holdings statements, 239.+2) and to future developments is critical. work also continued on development of a method for-exchang- ing holdings/location data in machine-readable form. While 239.{2 2501 Librar2 ResourcesI TechnicalSeruices . JuQ/September 1983 point rather than the primary accesspoint to the material on which it appears"- (Matson, 342). The automation of serials activities' and especially the chronicling ing day. " The Year'sWork in Seriah /257 tron. Ever,uarroN ANDUsn or Cor,tncrroNs Collection evaluation for serials seems to be one area where the pro- verbial wheel is being reinvented by a variety of people. According to Downes, no matter how we do it, we are not doing a very good job oTit: 'Journal use surveys as conducted thus far can be undersiood best as a desperate compromise between the two themes of pragmatism and 252/ Library ResourcesI TechnicalSeTu;6s5 . Juu/September 1983 hope. Regardless of the techniques used by librarians and others to rank journal titles according to their level of use, the results have been imper- fect and unsatisfactory when they have been applied to collection man- agement" (Downes 1981, 2-3). In this discussion one group ofarticles deserves special attention be- cause they are concerned with a genre of little-understood, and probably little-used, publications, namely those of intergovernmental organiza- tions. It is indeed curious that in one year at least four articles on the subject have appeared; for too many years those "fugitives" from bib- liographic control have confounded serials and reference librarians alike. Two of the articles (Morehead and Harvey) present selected re- views of serial publications of, for example, the lJnited Nations, its semi- offrcially related organizations, and the Organization of American States. A third article covers one of the most infuriating of the category, the European Community. Kearley*give s a history of the organization, and describes its infrastructure, its publications, and its distribution of documents. There is also an annotated bibliography of the more impor- tant serials titles. The last article of note is a list of about 140 periodicals, including pub- lisher name and address, beginning date of publication, frequency and price, but most important, indexing and abstracting