From the issue dated September 19, 2003
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The Librarian's World and Welcome to ItBy DENNIS DILLON9 a.m. Professor Jones of the engineering department called. He wanted the library to subscribe to the Journal of Abnormal Train Locomotion. It was, he said, "a critical journal in the field," and it was "a crime that the library doesn't subscribe." He had already talked to the library bibliographer for engineering, and she had said that the library couldn't afford a subscription unless the department could agree to cancel another journal that cost the same $1,800 annually. He was now appealing to a higher authority -- me. 9:15 I called the bibliographer, who confirmed the story. She added that Professor Jones is a heavy library user and generally a reasonable person. She also said that his wife had recently taken a teaching job at another university 2,000 miles away, that he looked like he was under a bit of stress lately, and that she believed that he occasionally covered abnormal train locomotion in a course he taught every couple of years. 9:30 I thanked the bibliographer and looked up the Journal of Abnormal Train Locomotion in a few databases. It was held by 47 libraries, three of which were at major research universities. It was published by Megabucks Press, and one of the holding libraries was Coastal University. I sent an e-mail message to Lorraine, my counterpart at Coastal, asking what she knew about the publication. Further research on the title suggested that it was a run-of-the-mill, second- or third-tier academic journal. 9:50 The biology librarian called to report that we'd lost access to the electronic publication Journal of Underwater Sleeping-Cell Mutations. Unfortunately, we didn't subscribe to the journal; we had access to it through our membership in the Southwestern Academic Library Consortium. Mountain University was the institution that paid for the journal. I sent a message to Brian at Mountain, asking him what was up. 10:30 A message arrived from Lorraine at Coastal. She said the Journal of Abnormal Train Locomotion was a dog. According to her, Coastal subscribed because the editor was an assistant provost at Coastal, and as long as he was on the campus they would have to subscribe, because if they didn't, he might not approve the library's equipment requests. She also said that the journal had started as the publication of a small academic society that wanted to get its members' research into print, but that it had been purchased by Middling Press several years ago and had expanded its focus. The journal had recently moved to Megabucks. She couldn't imagine why Megabucks would have bought it. I thanked her and said I'd give Sylvia Horowitz at Megabucks a call. 11:00 Brian called and said Mountain University had had a major financial crisis and was in the middle of layoffs. The person in charge of renewing the Journal of Underwater Sleeping-Cell Mutations had lost her job, and Mountain had accidentally let the subscription lapse. Now Mountain was out of money and couldn't start the subscription again even with enough staff time to do the work. Brian asked if we'd like to subscribe on behalf of the consortium. I declined. 2:30 p.m. Sylvia returned my call. "What can you tell me about the Journal of Abnormal Train Locomotion?" I asked. "I've got a faculty member who is interested." "We acquired it last year as a throw-in when we purchased the Journal of Mathematical Cellular Modeling," said Sylvia. "Middling Press wanted to unload it, and we're probably going to combine it with the Journal of Twisted Aerodynamics and bring in a new editor from Belgium. Are you interested in subscribing?" "Could be. I'm not sure whether the faculty member wants it to keep up with current research, or if he wants a run of several years for student use." "Well, let me know. And don't forget about the Journal of Mathematical Cellular Modeling. That really is a title you should be subscribing to." 2:45 I put the phone down and logged into the accounting system to check our budget. It looked as if we could find the money for a one-year subscription to the Journal of Abnormal Train Locomotion if we canceled an order for The Encyclopedia of Railroad Systems Engineering that the reference department wanted. That would at least be a start. 2:50 I called the bibliographer and told her to look into our monographic holdings and circulation records having to do with abnormal train locomotion, and to see if we had had any interlibrary-loan requests for the journal over the past five years. I asked if she could find out why Professor Jones was interested in the journal, and whether he was making a serious request or just having a bad day. She said that Jones had been grumbling a lot over the past couple of months, and that he had caused a reserves clerk at the library to quit in tears earlier in the semester; she'd talk to some of his colleagues and try to find out more. 3:00 Turning back to my computer, I saw a message from the library director with the subject line "Jones?" It was a copy of a message that Professor Jones had sent to his dean. The dean had forwarded the message without comment to the library director, who in turn had forwarded it without comment to me. The gist of the message was that the library did not have an extremely critical journal that was vital for Jones's research, a journal that every self-respecting library in the world had, and that something needed to be done. "Uh-oh," I thought. The standard response to that type of tactic is form letter C -- in which the library promises to put the journal on its want list and to consult with the department to reprioritize the journal subscriptions in the field. The letter then goes into details of the particular case, listing the journal's cost, which universities subscribe to it, the use of related books and journals at our institution, and so on. Librarians can collect facts like those faster than freshmen can find the pizza place closest to their dorms. But although a heavy dose of facts will quell most cases of journal turmoil, it does not remove any lingering faculty perception that the library is not up to snuff. 3:10 A student worker in the library filed a report that the online version of the Journal of Mathematical Theories in Dirigible Science is not working; I automatically get copies of such reports. 3:20 The serials librarian followed up with a message saying that the Journal of Mathematical Theories in Dirigible Science has ceased publication, although the publisher did not notify subscribers. That is why our online access is not working. 4:30 Jones's bibliographer reported that we have 12 books on abnormal train locomotion. The newest title, bought a year ago, has never been checked out. The interlibrary-loan office told her that we have borrowed 17 articles from the Journal of Abnormal Train Locomotion over the past two years, paying $330 in fees to the Copyright Clearance Center in the process, and that we reimbursed the lending libraries $350 in photocopying charges. The bibliographer added that Jones's departmental secretary reported that he had been short-tempered with everyone all semester, but that he still seemed to be generally reasonable. Also, an even-tempered colleague noted that Jones had talked about needing the journal several times over the past couple of years. 4:45 Professor Smith of the art department called, saying we needed to subscribe to the Journal of Early Islamic Pottery, which was critical for next semester's art-history program. He believed the cost to be around $5,000 a year. All of the information on the subscription contract and accompanying license is in Arabic, so he wasn't certain. He wondered if we had a staff member who could negotiate a contract in Arabic. Next day, 8:15 a.m. The engineering bibliographer reported that she would be able to free up $1,500 in subscription costs from the cessation of the Journal of Mathematical Theories in Dirigible Science. She said she was willing to permanently transfer $300 of her yearly allocation for book purchases to come up with the $1,800 needed to subscribe to the Journal of Abnormal Train Locomotion. 8:30 I sent an e-mail message to the library director and Jones's dean, saying that we had found the money to subscribe to the journal Jones wanted, and that the bibliographer would be getting in touch with him later in the day. 9:00 Professor Franklin of the art department called to say that the library needed to subscribe to the Journal of Russian Icons and American Cowboy Art. It was much more important than the Journal of Early Islamic Pottery, which he had heard the library was considering. 9:15 In a letter posted on the university's Web site, the president said that because of budget problems, all departments must submit a plan to reduce expenditures by 10 percent. 11:00 Professor Jones called. He wanted to say thanks for taking care of the Journal of Abnormal Train Locomotion, and to let me know that he had thought of another journal the library should subscribe to. Dennis Dillon is assistant director for collections and information resources at the General Libraries of the University of Texas at Austin. http://chronicle.com Section: The Chronicle Review Volume 50, Issue 4, Page B5
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Copyright © 2003 by The Chronicle of Higher Education