Thoughts on serials/ERM

I am not a Serials librarian, Serials cataloger, nor do I have any paraprofessional background as a Serials Specialist, but I did have to indirectly manage serials in my last job as the resident Tech Services Librarian, doing what I could to help out my Serials Specialist and make her job a little easier. My former director used to joke that when everything started going electronic, our Serials Specialist was worried she would be out of a job. If anything, the opposite occurred and now the job has really grown beyond what only one person could reasonably be expected to handle. Endeavor put on a snazzy marketing webcast advertising their latest ERM (Electronic Resources Management) software, Meridian, which both I and my Serials Specialist watched. But when I went to EndUser, a library consortium put on a presentation that revealed that maybe Meridian is not all it's cracked up to be, and that if you don't set it up right the first time, you could have to scrap what you did and start over (which is what this library consortium ended up doing); also, even if you do the proper planning prior to implimentation, you may find that some processes automate better than others, and you may still be faced with a surprising number of manual processes. Despite my untimely dismissal from TAMUG upon my return from EndUser 2006, I did press this point to my boss, telling her that the product is still in development, and maybe needs more testing by others first before the TAMU Consortium jumps on board. Part of our problem was also a human problem at the main campus, of a certain person who shall remain nameless but who was very notorious for not responding to other people's communications in a timely manner, and when a response did come, it was often cryptic. No amount of technology automation would've fixed that.
My point in discussing all of this is to note that the crisis in serials management (an exploding number of increasingly virtual resources--online only, print + online, etc.) seems to be widespread (i.e. not just impacting smaller libraries like the one I worked in, though they are probably the worst impacted), and it puts additional budgetary strains on libraries in ways that go beyond the mere cost of inital acquisition (i.e. subscription price). The hidden costs are also the staff time required, including adding additional staff if needed. My former Library is very seriously considering hiring an Electronic Resources Librarian to help manage e-journals (and, I suspect, do double-duty as the unofficial Systems Librarian), letting the Serials Specialist go back to handling print-only publications. Luckily, my former boss had kept part of the library budget in reserve to be able to hire just such a person. Now, of course, I was willing to learn, willing to step in and help do more to manage the e-journals; I even joined NASIG, paying out of pocket, and pondered asking my director to let me go to the annual NASIG conference in 2007 (they met in Denver in 2006, just a few days ago, but with everything this year...EndUser, TLA, Amigos, so close together, back-to-back-to-back, I didn't feel right in asking to go to NASIG this year). Well, of course, since I was dismissed, none of that matters now per se. Though it did seem my predecessor had a near allergic reaction to serials work, which for a small library so focused on science and technology as ours was makes no sense. I thought joining NASIG made perfectly logical sense; Wish I'd done it sooner, like back in 2005 shortly after being hired.
One very specific effect I observed regarding the crisis in serials management as it was impacting our library: our director was VERY resistant in adding ANY new titles (especially print-only titles) that were not absolutely directly related to the Maritime/Marine Sciences mission of the campus. Even tangental fields like Naval Science were out. Whereas my director was generally accepting of my books suggestions, in serials she was resolute in shooting down every single serials suggestion I came up with. Dollars and Sense, the alternative Left economics journal? Denied. Navy Times? Denied. Any number of Coast Guard/Navy professional periodicals? Denied.
My concern is that, even in larger libraries, because of the ballooning management nightmare that is ever-expanding e-resources management, the management of these kinds of resources is going to strain and crowd out smaller, independently produced, print-only alternative info resources outside the mainstream. This adds a further wrinkle and complication for the dissemination of dissident information, as if there was not already enough ideological resistance from skittish directors unwilling to deal with "controversial" materials (unless they are a "slick" publication coming from a well-funded Right-wing source, of course). Now directors can also deny serials requests on the basis that it would be too much of a burden to manage those kinds of obscure print publications, they have their hands full with all the new e-resources, etc. There is some truth in that, and also, this problem of serials management (i.e. the hidden costs beyond mere subscription price) isn't exactly new, it's just been exacerbated by the explosion of scholarly journal prices in general, science and technology journals in particular. And since shelf space is no longer a limiting factor in the case of e-resources, smaller libraries can, in theory, manage many more e-titles that they could if all of the publications were print-only or print+online. None of which bodes well for independently produced, print-only (or even print+online) "alternative" publications. I'm just happy my former library did have a subscription to The Texas Observer, which is based out of Austin and includes such power hitters as Molly Ivins, Ronnie Dugger, and Jim Hightower. I think Dollars and Sense would've made an excellent contribution to the collection. Not all of my alternative economics book requests were approved by my director, but other alternative books, critiquing US foreign policy, for example, were approved and purchased. I am glad to say on my watch we added books by William Blum, Robert Fisk, Ryszard Kapucinski, and also I helped to "internationalize" the perspective of our collection, even in while restricting myself to Maritime Industry/Marine Sciences topics. I added more books on the WTO, the World Bank, GATT, GATS, etc. I requested material on topics pertaining to more obscure bodies of water (the Irish Sea, the Gulf of Oman, the Great Lakes of Africa), and added more general books on important countries now in the news headlines. I was shocked to see that we had no books on Pakistan, or the UAE, and quickly rectified that situation. I also requested updated books on other countries in the Muslim world, including guides to doing business in those countries.
I feel I was able to enhance the monograph collection quite a bit during my time on the professional staff at the TAMUG campus library. But I was blocked by my director on serials suggestions at every turn so eventually I just gave up. I mostly focused on getting the correct OCLC records loaded into Voyager for my serials specialist to attach her P.O.'s to, update holdings, etc, and learned a little bit about serials cataloging along the way. Not much, but enough to be interesting. To be truthful, I find serials a little scary, but it does no good to just run away from them like my predecessor did. If your new job requires you to deal with serials, take a deep breath, be brave, and just dive in...or at least get in at the kiddie pool end, like I did.
I just hope the next library I work in (if I ever do work in one), is more receptive to adding new serials titles, within reason.