Units
Acquisitions Department Units
The Serials Unit orders new serials, manages the day to day receipt of our standing orders and subscriptions and places claims for issues of serials which have not been received. They are the primary contacts with our periodical and standing order vendors and publishers from whom we order directly. They also claim issues and determine the publication status of our gift and exchange subscriptions. They work regularly with the Library’s selectors to determine if replacement issues should be ordered and to confirm that we want to continue orders when titles have split, merged, etc. or if the price increase is significant. They check invoices prior to payment to make sure that we are receiving our issues and that it is time to renew. This unit generally is first to be aware that a title change has occurred and forwards the information to serials cataloging so the records can be updated. They also often notice first that an issue needs to be claimed and they either place the claim electronically or forward the information to the Serials orders and claims unit. They are responsible for making sure that items are routed, marked and labeled correctly for shelving.
The Accounts Payable Unit pays our invoices after they have been checked by the serials unit and the monographs unit. Each week invoices are paid in Merlin and the information is forwarded to University Accounting for actual payment using PeopleSoft programs. This unit also provides weekly updates to the selectors, the library director, the department head and head of technical services on our spending of the acquisitions budget. Most of the department statistics and some library statistics are also collected in this unit.
The Electronic Resources Unit manages our licensing of electronic resources, manages FindIt@MU for the library and responds to problems with our access to electronic resources. This unit works closely with the serials order and claims unit to make sure that new resources we have ordered are licensed, turned on and renewed. Additionally this unit adds 856 fields to existing catalog records when a title becomes available electronically.