“Neither formulas nor use statistics alone, nor intuition, experience, or pseudo-scholarship alone will suffice in building good collections.” — Paul Metz*
These are the touchstone articles that are informing our methodology for developing a core journal list at our library:
Corby, Katherine. 2003. Constructing core journal lists: mixing science and alchemy. portal: Libraries and the Academy 3(2):207-217. [“The core list must not be a total list of serials in a library collection or research discipline, but only the central, most heavily used part” (p. 208). Summary: outlines possible methodologies for list making: citation analysis, Impact Factor, faculty surveys, cost per use]
Joswick, Kathleen E., and Jeanne Koekkoek Stierman. 1997. The core list mirage: a comparison of the journals frequently consulted by faculty and students. College & Research Libraries 58(1):48-55. [“Local use differs substantially from use in general and, therefore, must continue to be studied if individual institutions are to make informed decisions about their own specialized needs.” (p.54). Summary: the authors conclude that it is “folly” to make local collection dev decisions based on national/international data b/c their study suggests that their undergrads and faculty do not cite or publish in the top JCR cited journals in their respective fields.]
Lewis, Janice Steed, and John D. McDonald. 2002. Defining an undergraduate core journal collection. The Serials Librarian 43(1):45-59. [Summary: multi-criteria methodology: 1) the “expert” list: they used the Basic Periodicals titles from Magazines for Libraries and created a master list encompassing all departments in their university, then looked to see to which they already subscribed; 2) examined the title overlap in 4 popular full-text aggregators, then looked to see to which titles they already subscribed; 3) compared their Basic Periodicals list with the Journal Access Core Collection for the Cal State Univ system.]
Nisonger, Thomas E. 2007. Journals in the core collection: definition, identification, and applications. The Serials Librarian 51(3/4):51-73. [Summary: describes methodologies and practical applications for building and using core journal lists.]
* Paul Metz. 1992. Thirteen steps to avoiding bad luck in a serials cancellation project. Journal of Academic Librarianship 18(May):76-82.
If you’ve been through the process of developing a core journals list at your institution and have can’t-miss articles to suggest, please leave a citation in the comments. Thanks!
