PERIODICAL ORDERING

Periodical subscriptions, which require long-term and escalating financial commitments, have become a severe burden on limited library budgets everywhere. The price of periodicals has been increasing approximately ten percent per year.

Whenever a faculty member requests a new periodical subscription, a written rationale should be provided on the Library's Continuing Resource Request form (.pdf). The library liaison for the discipline will be happy to answer any questions you may have about the process.

Librarians meet during the month of October to make the year's subscription decisions. You should submit your request forms to your library liaison no later than the end of September for your request to be addressed at the meeting.

SELECTION CONSIDERATIONS

The following considerations may help you decide if a particular title would, in fact, be an appropriate addition to the library.

Relevance to the Curriculum

The vast majority of periodicals in this library should directly relate to the curriculum, with just a few taken to support specific, ongoing faculty research or the University's administrative activities.

Keep in mind that students tend not to use academic journals unless they are given a research assignment requiring their use. Also, consider the level of expertise you expect of your students when evaluating a journal for purchase. Many are inappropriate for undergraduates.

Accessibility through Indexes

Periodical articles are identified primarily through indexes -- not by browsing the shelves. Academic Search Premier, available from the library’s website is by far the library's most popular indexing and abstracting service. It indexes several thousand periodicals and provides online access to articles in full-text for over half of them. This online resource substantially improves students’ access to undergraduate-level journals. Preference is generally given to the periodicals indexed in Academic Periodical Search but not provided in full text.

The Library website links to a number of databases offering electronic journal articles in full text. Use the search box on our home page to find out if we subscribe to a particular title in print or online. As the University adds programs and as funding permits, the Library will explore the possibility of purchasing additional access to electronic journals. Contact your discipline’s liaison librarian if you want to discuss Library purchases of e-journal databases.

Availability Elsewhere

The Library's intrasystem loan service can obtain most journal articles held by UH Manoa. Faculty are not charged for this service, and students pay only $1.00 per article. We also obtain articles from mainland libraries and purchase them via Web sources.

Other Selection Criteria

• Centrality to the discipline. We collect journals essential for instruction and basic research in broad areas of disciplines offered permanently at UH Hilo and Hawai‘i Community College
• Number of years in existence
• Reputation of the editorial board, editors, and publisher
• Uniqueness of information found in the journal
• Price

It is difficult to evaluate a newly published journal on the basis of the publisher's advertisement alone. Your discipline’s librarian can sometimes find a review of the journal and can usually obtain a sample copy. It’s also possible that the journal will have its own website, which you can use to evaluate sample articles and review tables of contents.

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