Standing Orders / Continuation Service

Each academic department should review their standing orders, and the librarians should review general standing orders annually.

Standing orders take several forms. They can be:

• Monographic series, published regularly and indefinitely
• Monographic series, published irregularly and indefinitely
• Monographic series of a fixed number of volumes
• Continuations
• Congress/Conference/Symposium proceedings
• All the books published by a specific publisher

1. Monographic Series

   A monographic series is a group of monographs, usually related to one another in subject, issued in succession, normally by the same publisher and in uniform style with a collective title. When the series lacks a consistent numbering system, its parts should be considered monographs.

2. Continuations

   A continuation is a serial publication issued regularly in a frequency of less than twice a year, including annuals, biennials, etc. The library selectively acquires continuations that fill an ongoing need for information. Purchasing continuations periodically saves resources but remembering when to order a new edition may be difficult. Certain vendors allow orders of every other or every third edition when establishing standing orders.

3. Congress/Conference/Symposium Proceedings

   Published proceedings of domestic or international congresses, conferences, and symposia will be collected when appropriate by subject matter. Publications containing programs with abstracts will be collected only if the published proceedings are not available. Publications containing only a list of participants will not be collected.

4. All books published by a specific publisher:

   We occasionally subscribe to plans through which we recieve all of a publisher’s titles. These items are subject to the usual standards for retention and withdrawal.

(Last revised October 2007.)