Serials check‐in at the BLDSC

Abstract

In the last issue of VINE we had a look at the serials control package — ISIS from Blackwell's. As a contrast we now take a look at a bespoke serials check‐in system developed at The British Library Document Supply Centre (BLDSC) at Boston Spa. The BLDSC has somewhat unique requirements from a serials check‐in system. The library currently subscribes to 56,000 journal titles and receives approximately 350,000 issues each year arriving at a rate of 1,500 issues per day. These are handled in the Accessions Department by a team of 8 who aim to have the issues checked in fast enough to be available on the shelves by 4.30pm each day. To help to achieve this aim SACHET (Serials Accessions CHEck‐in of Titles) was devised and developed in‐house by the BLDSC Computing Department.