"Publication date" for periodicals and monographic serials in the catalog

Since I've been asked about this a few times now, I thought I'd write something up real quick about how "Publication date" is displayed in the library's catalog for periodicals and monographic serials.

(Monographic serials are book sets where new volumes are continuously published, a lot like periodicals.)

Sometimes you'll see discrepancies between the publication date listed in the results list and the publication date when you click into the record. For example, here are John Tarleton Quarterly and AWI Quarterly as they currently display in our results list. You'll notice that both say they were published in 2018.

When you click the titles for the Full Display, you'll get this:

As you can see, this information is different. During our Enterprise setup, there was a choice between having our Brief Display either display the very first year a periodical or monographic serial started being published (1903 for John Tarleton Quarterly or 1992 for AWI Quarterly) or display the last possible year the periodical or monographic serial might have been published. We went with the second option. Since there's no ending date for either of these publications, the current year is displayed as the publication year. Next year, both of these titles will have 2019 in their brief displays rather than 2018.

If you want to know when something was really published, you have to click title for the full display and possibly even look at the particular volume/issue you're interested in. The "Publication Info" part (first red box in the Full Display images) will give you the general publication info for the entire work, whether we own all of those volumes/issues or not. The Holdings section (second red box in the Full Display images) will give you information specific to what the library actually owns.

In the John Tarleton Quarterly example, since the only volume we own is volume 1, number 1, we can assume that the library's copy is published in 1903. If we owned other volumes, you'd have to look at the physical copies to figure out when each issue was published since in this instance our call numbers don't include the publication year. In the AWI Quarterly example, you'd have to find the particular issue you're interested in to know when it was published.

I hope this clears things up a little!

Periodicals Printer Jamming

Hi All,

The Periodicals printer has jammed several times this morning.

Chris came by to look at it and recommended that we keep an eye on it but if it continues to jam up, we probably need to go ahead and change the toner.

If the printer continues to have issues and you decide to change the toner, please make sure you log it on the form located at the Reference Desk.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks,

Christy

Dr. Hickman's History 4340 Library Scavenger Hunt Assignment

Hi Reference Team!

Dr. Hickman contacted me letting me know that he revised his yearly Library Scavenger Hunt Assignment. 

This assignment will be due October 12th so we will probably get questions about it over the next month. 

I will print the updated version of his assignment and keep a copy at the Reference Desk. 

He specifically wants his students to use microfilm from offsite so we will need to show students the offsite request form and most likely how to use the microfilm readers. 

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks!

Christy 

Biology First Year Seminar Library Assignment

Hi Reference Team!

I wanted to give everyone a heads up about a Biology FYS assignment that Dr. Nelson assigned his students due September 12-17th :

The assignment is asking students to write in a call # for journal titles. Amy provided a list of all current periodicals in the library with the call number for the reference desk but we need to show the students how to use the Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory database to look up the first portion of the Library of Congress call number. It’s right below the title info. Amy also provided a brochure which highlights some of the Biology perodicals that we have access to. Please take some time to review the items so that you are familar with them.

Also, he wants students to find hard copy journals and scan an article from the journal. The students can use the photo copiers or the scanner to do this. The students can perform an Advanced Search in our catalog and limit type to Journals and Location to Periodicals to get a list of our print in-house journals (note: some of the results may actually be located offsite so if you cannot find a journal, it's most likely offsite; Amy is working to update this). Students may also browse the periodicals shelves on their own.

The original assignment will be revised based on Cathy's converation with Dr. Neslon about our resources but I will print the current version of the assignment and keep a copy at the desk for you to review.

Please see me if you have any questions about this assignment.

Thanks!

Christy

Update to the assignment (added today, September 1st):

Modification of Biology 1100 Library Assignment:

1.      Our periodicals in the library are organized in alphabetical order by title and do not use call numbers.  If you needed those numbers to order something from another library, they can be found in World Cat or Ulrich’s databases.  Since you do not need them for the Tarleton library to find materials, do not provide call numbers for your three biology-related journals.

2.       The library has older journal articles stored and it takes them 0.5-1 day to provide you access to those articles.  On number 4 of the assignment, use 2005 for the year, you were born.

Pocket-sized U.S. Constitutions

Today, a student stopped by the Periodicals Desk and asked Sandy if she could see a small copy of the U.S. Constitution because she needed to look at it for class and her teacher said the library had copies.  Don't know who the teacher is, what class it's for, or what the student was supposed to find out.

Sandy called me to ask if we still had copies.  I checked the Marketing & Outreach supply cupboard and got two of the promotional copies we received from a company that sells them.  I put copies at the Periodicals and Reference service desks and labeled them so maybe they won't "walk away."

We don't have copies to give to students in the class, but we did have a couple of copies they can look at in the library.  Students can also find it online.

-- Cathy W.

KIC Scanner in Periodicals Area

Hi Reference Team!

I wanted to give everyone a heads up that the KIC scanner located in the Periodicals area will be out of order until we receive a new replacement scanner.

Chris estimated that the new scanner should be in place on Monday.

Please direct students to the KIC scanner on the upper level and let me or the Systems Department know if you have any questions.

Thanks!

Christy