The commit tee ' s views on all three items were to be communica t ed to CC:DA through the Serials Section liaison. Interest ingly, at a later meet ing of CC:DA, it was revealed that some of these changes had already made their way into A A C R 2 Revised. Since it was not clear how this could have happened , we will have to await the publicat ion of A A C R 2 Revised to see how these rules now appear.

The f inal segment of the meet ing was a dis- cussion of the rules of entry as appl ied to serials. The discussion centered around whether more ser- ials should be entered under corporate body or whether all serials should be entered under title. Surprisingly, there was widespread suppor t for the concept of enter ing all serials under title. Two of the reasons given were that it would be simpler and would lead to more consistent appl icat ion than the current rule, and that the impor tance of the choice of main entry is d iminished in an online envi ronment . One drawback cited was that this approach would result in a greater reliance on ser- ial un i fo rm titles with which there is already con- siderable dissatisfaction. By far , though, the most pervasive sent iment was that, despite the flaws in the current practice, serials catalogers have become weary of the constant changes in the code and do not want another major rule change.

As the meet ing closed, the outgoing chair appealed to the audience to apprise the commit tee of the issues that concern them. These concerns could take the f o r m of specif ic questions, proposals for rule changes, or suggested topics for discus- sion.

Callahan is assistant dean for L ib ra ry Techn i - cal Services at Ball State Univers i ty Librar ies in Muncie, Indiana.

Canadian Library Association Serials Interest Group

Annual Report 1987/1988

Susan Collins

The ma jo r focus of act ivi ty for the Canadian Library Association (CLA) Serials Interest Group in the past year was the deve lopment of the p ro- gram that was presented at the CLA Conference in Hal i fax in June 1988. A pre l iminary proposal for the conference was discussed at the business meet ing in Vancouver in June 1987, and the p ro- gram was developed as suggested. The workshop, "The Serials Marke tp lace at the End of the Dec- ade," was included in the core p rogram at the con-

ference and was very well at tended. Anne Pi ternick, a professor in the School

of Library , Archival , and In format ion Studies at the Univers i ty of British Columbia , led the workshop with her presentat ion, "Serials and New Technology at the End of the Decade." In her look at the impact of new technology on access to serials, she discussed the electronic journal as well as other electronic fo rms of access and storage.

A joint presenta t ion by Elena Roman iuk and Hana Komorous , serials l ibrarians at the Univers i ty of Victoria, p rov ided delegates with the results of a survey on fu l l - t ex t electronic periodicals. This survey of Canadian and Amer ican libraries was conducted to de te rmine the actual use of elec- tronic journals in l ibraries today. Komorous , who is also a past convertor of the interest group, coor- dinated the session, in addit ion to her role as a part icipant .

In the final segment of the program, Ann Okerson, of Je r ry Alper , Inc., addressed the question, "What Are Your Journals Costing?" This very t imely issue was discussed in several other sessions, as well, and has genera ted considerable interest in serials and their impor tance in libraries.

Following the workshops, the Serials Interest Group held its annual business meeting. Since the s tructure of the group had been revised in 1987 to include three co-convenors as well as a convenor , and since the convenors (who had been elected in Vancouver ) had agreed to serve for two terms, no election was held at the Hal i fax business meeting.

One i tem of business that was discussed was the question of the interest group under taking a survey to de te rmine the availabil i ty of serials lists in Canadian libraries. This proposal had been sug- gested at the previous year 's meet ing, had been considered by the co-convenors during the year, and was presented to the members at this meeting. Enough interest was expressed for the mat ter to be given fur ther considerat ion for the coming year.

Topics for the 1989 conference were discussed and it was agreed that the group should sponsor a workshop on the cataloging of serial publications. The for thcoming revisions to AACR2 will present enough challenges to the serials communi ty to make this a t imely and useful workshop. Bob Brundin, of the Univers i ty of Alberta , who is a co -convenor of the interest group, has agreed to coordinate the program for Edmonton .

Another topic discussed was the Nor th Amer ican Serials Interest G r o u p ' s (NASIG) desire to forge closer links with the CLA Serials Interest Group. As the first step in this direction, it was decided that the convenor of the Canadian interest group would serve as the liaison between the CLA and NASIG. The objec t ive is to share in format ion about

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serials concerns and to provide a communication link between the organizations. Kamala Narayanan, of Queens' University, attended the Third Annual NASIG Conference in June and represented the CLA Serials Interest Group at the Liaison Relations Committee meeting. The relationship between the Canadian group and NASIG is a topic that needs wider discussion among the members of the Cana- dian serials community. Strengthening the com- munication links with colleagues in other areas should provide benefits in information gathering to all those involved in serials work. Ultimately, the Serials Interest Group will have to determine its role in that process.

Collins is serials/acquisitions librarian at Ward Chipman Library, University of New Brunswick, Saint John, N.B., Canada.

NASIG's Third Annual Conference

Cindy and Will Hepfer

Oglethorpe University in Atlanta was the site of the Third Annual Conference of the North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG), 4-7 June 1988. Nestled in a woodsy area northeast of the city, the campus provided a pleasant retreat from the "real world" for four days.

Registration for the conference was limited to 350 persons in an effort to keep the group small enough to facilitate effective communication. Unfortunately, the popularity of NASIG conferences has transcended their self-imposed size-restriction, and over 100 persons had to be turned away. (One lesson here is that anyone planning to attend the 1989 conference at Scripps College in Claremont, California, 3-6 June 1989, should register early.)

Of course, the conference's growing popu- larity is well-deserved. Each conference has been well-organized, highly informative, and moderately priced. In addition, the topics of discussion have been both diverse and pertinent to major issues that should matter to persons whose livelihood is tied to serials publications, including publishers, librarians, subscription agents, binders, consultants, and so on.

The contributed papers for 1988 continued the tradition of enlightening presentations es- tablished at NASIG I and II. The question-and- answer periods that followed each paper were even better than at last year's conference, however, because more time was allowed for these exchan- ges.

Graham Marshall, president of Butterworth's

Legal Publishing (and formerly Marketing Director for Butterworth Scientific) opened with a few jokes guaranteed to ease some of the tension that seems to be inevitable when librarians and publishers get together these days. His suggestion that NASIG could stand for "Non-American Serials' Illicit Gains" and that GAINS could stand for "Gouge Americans by Inventing New Serials" actually set the stage nicely for the civilized and good-natured interplay that prevailed throughout the conference. Marshall went on to discuss the economics of publishing a new journal, focusing on a case study involving Polymer and Polymer Communications. His descrip- tions of scientists' needs and publishers' responses were very thought provoking.

Monday's first session was a panel discussion on contemporary copyright issues. Brian Scanlon, senior editor at Pergamon Press, moderated a panel featuring brief presentations by Donald King, presi- dent of King Research; Ben Weil, retired information center manager at EXXON Research and a noted copyright expert; Virginia Riodan, manager of Market- ing Support at the Copyright Clearance Center; Patricia Penick, manager of Publishing Administration- /Operations at IEEE; and Dr. John Marshall, university counsel at Georgia State University. While a lot of information was packed into each time slot, some aspects of the implementation and enforcement of copyright laws were left unresolved.

Electronic publishing, ADONIS, and SISAC were the subjects of a second panel. Ann Okerson, manager of Library Services for Jerry Alper, Inc., began by presenting the results of a survey exploring the use of new technologies in accessing periodical literature in U.S. and Canadian university libraries. She challenged the audience to consider how libraries actually want materials published and packaged, and then to make their wishes known. She stressed that librarians should be proactive in such matters, rather than simply reacting to the commercial sector's decisions.

Anna Wang, serials cataloger at Ohio State University, discussed cataloging problems and policies relevant to new technologies such as CD-ROM.

Constance Orchard, director of marketing for Information on Demand, related the background of the ADONIS Project, a trial document delivery service that supplies--from CD-ROM--full- text , laser-printed copies of articles appearing in 219 biomedical journals published by eight major publish- ing houses.

Minna Saxe concluded the session by reading a paper prepared by Sandra Paul, managing agent of the Book Industry Study Group, concerning serial article identifiers. Paul's article, "A Confusion of Alphabet Soup," describes the purpose, function, and uses of SISAC, BIBLID, ISO, ANSI, and ADONIS.

Ed Jones, senior Harvard University cataloger

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