Formal Education in Work with Continuing Resources: Do Barriers Really Exist?(Report‪)‬

The advent of electronic resources, particularly e-journals and electronic indexes, has turned a spotlight on serials and broadened its definition. For example, the 2003 edition of the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science contains a single entry devoted to work with serials. In early 2008, the Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science contained thirty-six entries with the word serials as part of the title, six with the word periodicals, and one with the words continuing resource. The 2002 revision to the Anglo American Cataloging Rules, second edition, officially introduced the term "continuing resource" as the broadest term with which to describe resources that are "issued over time with no predetermined conclusion. Continuing resources include serials and ongoing integrating resources" (Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR, 2002, Appendix D, p. 2). The adoption of a broader term and the increased attention to the topic in discipline-focused publications is evidence of its increased importance. Clearly, librarians recognize the impact of these changes on their work and the effects they have on library patrons' ability to access information. It is incumbent upon library and information science (LIS) educators to prepare future generations of librarians, no matter what their specialty, for work with continuing resources. This is nothing new. In 1975, Weber noted that "to expect a person to cope with the convoluted reality in the serials world without ever having even heard the word 'serials' mentioned in library school courses is cruel, unprofessional, wasteful, and foolish" (p.79). In 1987 Soper noted that "since serials make up a major part of many libraries' collections [and budgets], to treat them as something unusual and out of the ordinary run of library activities is completely wrong" (p. 177).