SERIALST (Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum)

SERIALST (Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum) was established in October 1990, by Birdie MacLennan, with technical support from the Office of Academic Computing at the University of Vermont (UVM), in order to serve as an informal electronic forum for most aspects of serials processing in libraries. In 2014, SERIALST moved to NASIG and is now under the management of the Communications Committee (CC). SERIALST's subscriber base is currently at 3,200+ subscribers in 42 countries.

To Subscribe:

To subscribe to SERIALST, visit https://archives.simplelists.com/subscribe/serialst and enter your name and email address in the Subscribe form.

To Post:

To post to the list, email your message to: serialst@simplelists.com

To Unsubscribe:

To unsubscribe from SERIALST, visit https://archives.simplelists.com/subscribe/serialst and enter your email address in the My account and unsubscriptions form.

If you have any trouble subscribing/posting/unsubscribing, contact the Communication Committee.

This list is moderated, which means that any message sent to SERIALST will automatically be forwarded to the Communications Committee listmanagers for verification before being distributed to the rest of the SERIALST subscribers. Only subscribers of SERIALST with current email addresses can transmit messages to the list, however the message archives (since Oct. 1990) are publicly accessible.

SERIALST Posting Guidelines

Appropriate topics and activities for posting include, but are not limited to:

• Serials in relation to libraries (e.g., cataloging, acquisitions, collection management, public services, etc.)
• Problem-solving for resolving questions that evolve with quirky titles, irregular publications or publication patterns, etc.
• Serials budgets and pricing concerns.
• Binding, preservation, microfilm, digital (or electronic) and other non print serials media.
• Union list activities
• Announcements, news, and job postings that are of interest to the serials community. 

Inappropriate topics and activities for posting include, but are not limited to:

• Purely commercial or partisan political purposes such as posting advertising for products or for political candidates
• Spam or any kind of mass mailing that lacks connection to the focus of SERIALST
• Using SERIALST as a forum for the trade or exchange of duplicate, unwanted or wanted serials. There are several existing forums for back issues and exchange services on the Internet.
• Announcements of new journals, newsletters and/or tables of contents for existing journals. There is an existing forum for such announcements. See the NewJour website (http://www.library.georgetown.edu/newjour/) for additional information.

It is SERIALST's policy not to delete messages that were appropriately posted  to the list from archives.

Replying to SERIALST

Please read messages carefully for appropriate addresses before automatically sending your reply. Note that when you "reply" directly to a SERIALST message, you are usually (but not always) replying back to the list, and not necessarily to the individual who sent the message. While we make every attempt to screen messages carefully, we cannot take responsibility for forwarding replies intended for individuals to the appropriate person. Please take care in your responses. Make sure that replies not intended for the list are directed to the appropriate address.

Cross-Posting

SERIALST's policy toward cross-posting of messages from other lists is generally fine as long as the cross-posted message is from the original author of the message. However, we will forward other people's messages only if we have the permission of the original author of the message -- unless the message is obviously very public and intended for cross-posting (as in general library or networking news messages that are important, timely, and relevant to the subscribership). If you want to post someone else's message to SERIALST, please get their permission before you send it to the list.

Managing Your SERIALST Subscription

You can enable daily summary digests, pause delivery and unsubscribe by going to https://archives.simplelists.com/subscribe/serialst and entering your email address in the My account and unsubscriptions form. This is will send a one-time access link to your email address. When you click on that link, it will take you to your accounr on the Simplelists site where you can make changes to your subscription. 

NASIG offers SERIALST as a public service. It does not verify the accuracy of submitted messages, nor does it endorse opinions expressed by contributors to the SERIALST forum. Authors of messages to SERIALST are solely responsible for their content. The moderators reserve the right to reject postings that do not fall within the scope and purpose of the list. 

NASIG offers SERIALST as a public service. It does not verify the accuracy of submitted messages, nor does it endorse opinions expressed by contributors to the SERIALST forum. Authors of messages to SERIALST are solely responsible for their content. The moderators reserve the right to reject postings that do not fall within the scope and purpose of the list. 

HISTORY OF SERIALST & RELATIONSHIP TO THE NEWSLETTER ON SERIALS PRICING ISSUES

For more information about the legacy of SERIALST founder, Birdie MacLennan, visit the University of Vermont's Bailey/Howe Library Website and the ALA  Memorial Resolution Honoring Birdie MacLennan.

For more information about the history of SERIALST, see the article: SERIALST and the Global Serials Community: The Five Year Evolution of an Electronic Discussion Forum. Originally published in Serials Review 22, no. 3 (fall 1996), this article chronicles the first five years of the SERIALST discussion forum.The Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues, was edited and published by Marcia Tuttle at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, from February 27, 1989 to August 12, 2001. For a ten year period, from 1991 to 2001, SERIALST benefited from a collaborative and complementary relationship with the Newsletter whereby selected postings from SERIALST, related to serials pricing, also appeared in the Newsletter and/or issues raised in the Newsletter were discussed on SERIALST. The Newsletter ceased publication with issue no. 257 (Aug. 12, 2001), however its archives remain available for consultation at http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/edoc/aw/nspi/.

Back Issues & Exchange Services (by region)

Australia

• ALIAdupstm - a list devoted the exchange of journal duplicate and back issues between Australian libraries in the areas of Science, Technology and Medicine. Both available and desired issues may be posted to the list. The list address is: aliadupstm@alianet.alia.org.au. To subscribe, visit the web site: http://lists.alia.org.au/mailman/listinfo/aliaDUPSTM/. For general information about ALIAdupstm and other electronic mailing lists from ALIA, see ALIA E-lists (listing of public e-lists).  

Canada

• Canadian Book Exchange Centre (CBEC) / Centre canadien d'échange du livre (CCEL) - A resource-sharing service provided by Library and Archives Canada, CBEC is a redistribution centre, a clearing house that arranges for the exchange of publications deemed surplus by one library but needed by another. However, as of March 6, 2008, the Canadian Book Exchange Centre announced that it will no longer accept publications from the private sector or from government and international organizations for redistribution among libraries. In effect, the Centre will shut its doors permanently on June 30, 2008. See announcementinenglish or en français.

Europe

• backmed-exchange- The backmed-exchange email list is hosted by the Medical Library Association to allow medical libraries to post and exchange back issues of medical journals. This is a replacement list for the former backmed list hosted by Swets Information Services in the US.
• EUROBACK- archives and list devoted to the informal exchange of serials back issues and books among European libraries / archives et liste réservées exclusivement à l'échange volontaire de fascicules de périodiques et de livres entre bibliothèques européennes. (The list address is: euroback@lists.ulg.ac.be. To subscribe, visit the web site: http://www.lists.ulg.ac.be/mailman/listinfo/euroback.

 United Kingdom

• LIS-MEDJOURNAL-DUPLICATES- a list for duplicate Medical/Health sciences journal exchanges to facilitate journal exchange primarily between U.K. medical libraries (although it is open to overseas subscribers also), by allowing periodicals librarians to post lists of journal duplicates and wants. Sign on, manage subscriptions, send posts, search the archives from a central web page address: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/lis-medjournal-duplicates.html.

United States

• International Donation Programs - listing of donation resources from the University Libraries at the University of Buffalo.
• Duplicates Exchange Union (DEU) - Operating under the auspices of Core, a division of the American Library Association, the Duplicates Exchange Union (DEU) is an association of libraries who cooperate in the exchange of usable library material. Although composed primarily of small college and public libraries, the DEU aims to serve all libraries in finding a place for their duplicate or unwanted materials. DEU is a free service open to all libraries.
• National Library of Medicine (NLM) Journal Donation Program - to ensure that its holdings of journals, indexes, and other serials are as complete as possible, NLM instituted this program so that DOCLINE libraries can donate print volumes that they no longer wish to retain.