Technological developments and the continuing economic constraints are exerting pressure on the abstracting and indexing service publishers. The convergence of increasingly sophisticated computer systems, improved communication facilities and a growing governmental and public awareness of information technology is having a substantial impact on secondary services. Changes in the use pattern of abstracting and indexing services is causing a migration of income from the printed product to the machine readable data base.

Services are available in a variety of formats, can be distributed in a number of physical forms and are being repackaged for reuse. This has led to the emphasis moving away from the traditional discipline/mission orientation. Services are becoming increasingly problem oriented. This changing role of secondary services will be discussed, using as a focal point, a recent U.S. report by Arthur D. Little. This discusses the development of secondary services in terms of three overlapping eras. These are discipline based services; project and mission based services and problem oriented services.

The appreciation of serials varies considerably in practice from librarian to librarian and, more importantly, from library school to library school. Acknowledging this fact the Department of Library and Information Studies at Loughborough University of Technology introduced a serials option into its degree programme some years ago, and which has attracted a consistent amount of interest. This paper will outline the syllabus involved.

Because of the variation in serials appreciation as mentioned above, a point of view backed by the United Kingdom Serials Group and by other parties - publishers, agents and librarians - the British Library awarded the author a research grant to investigate the demands of practising librarians and the methodologies of teaching the subject at library schools. Whilst concentrating on UK practice a cross sectional view was obtained from countries overseas. It is hoped that preliminary findings will be available at the time of the conference which will reveal the dichotomy of views of the needs of the practising librarian and the way the subject is taught by the professional teaching institutions.

Journals in the sense of "Grey literature" are:

1. (Scientific) journals published by universities, academies and research institutes, as well as periodic publications about the results of research issued by firms engaged in such work.
2. Journals and newspapers published by parties, organisations, associations, cooperatives, companies, libraries and museums.
3. Journals which do not contain original scientific contributions, as well as those issued by book clubs and other organisations which publish technical literature and also belles-lettres.

The range of these journals is considerable and they represent a very significant source of information. They come into existence

1. as a result of the increasing differentiation in science due to contemporary information
2. as a result of the more rapid growth in the number of scientific contributions as compared to the number and range of journals
3. due to crises in development of journals in capitalist countries.

The conclusions which librarians can draw from this development are:

1. Due to the large amount of scientific information journals will still have an important role to play in the future, whatever changes in their production and distribution take place.
2. Librarians should not differentiate in any way between journals produced and distributed by conventional or non-conventional methods. Only the content and utility for society alone are decisive. Because of this librarians require ingenuity, meticulousness, a conviction as to the necessity of acquiring a journal, a good knowldege of the subject matter and good relations to non-conventional establishments.
3. Librarians must be acquainted with the modern technology for the storage and distribution of journals (e.g. Media-Mix, Publishing-on-demand, Synopsis journals) and must demand standardised minimal specifications from the publishers.
4. The ever increasing production of "grey" journals necessitates skilful management of financial resources. Cooperation and coordination are playing a continually increasing role in the librarians work.

The problems associated with such cuts nearly always leave the Librarian in the position of the Sheriff of Nottingham rather than Robin Hood who stole from the rich to feed the poor, since those who complain the loudest are already probably getting the biggest share of the cake anyway. The interdisciplinary nature of many journals, particularly in an essentially technological environment, creates an additional hazard in any discussions concerned with a subject approach to the overall budget. From many points of view a strict subject approach is an undesirable method of assessment.

So what are we left with other than a blunt-edged knife?

In the Central Library of the Veszprém University of Chemical Engineering, the computerized chemical bibliographic system provides a complete overwiew of the world literature of chemistry. The libraries have to provide the required documents for their users. Therefore, the objective of our acquisition policy is to secure the most important and the most frequently used periodicals of chemistry and chemical engineering, and to cover as much of the users' requests from our own collection as possible.

Which are the main aids of acquisition policy? These are:

• the various journal evaluation systems
• the statistical reports of the library which deal with its own work.

From among the international journal evaluation systems, the most valuable one for our library is the Chemical Abstract's list of the 1000 most important periodicals.

The most important aid in the formulation of periodical acquisition policy is the users' requests statistics which is compiled by the library itself.

How can one measure the success or the efficacy of acquisition policy? The ratio of the number of xerox copies supplied from the collection of the library and the number of xerox copies obtained by interlibrary loan indicates the efficiency of the acquisition policy of the library. In 1982, the Central Library of the Veszprém University of Chenucal Engineering supplied 13337 xerox copies. 9130 of these came from its own periodicals collection, while 4207 came from other libraries. The number of xerox copies obtained by the interlibrary service increased significantly over the past 10 years /89%/, more rapidly than the number of copies supplied from the library's own stock /53%/. Nevertheless, the major portion of our users' requests could by supplied from the collection of our library.

Acquisition has three possible forms: the purchase, the exchange and the purchasement from the surplus lists of other libraries. In 1982 the Central Library of Veszprém University of Chemical Engineering purchased 745 periodicals and received 143 as exchange copies from among the total 888. Moreover 84 volumes were obtained from the collections of other libraries.

Nowadays Hungarian libraries have financial difficulties so we can only hope that interlibrary cooperation and good acquisition policy preserves the information-level of the Hungarian periodical stock.

Can an agent actively contribute to library automation? Our answer is: yes.

Similarities and differences between books (monographs) and serials from the automation point of view: acquisition, cataloguing, inquiry, circulation, administration and management.

What can be automated and what is worthwhile economically?

Can the break-even point be clearly defined?

Should serials be part of an integrated library system or are they better off in an independent system?

E A S Y 'Essen Automated System' - journal module is not a simple type of serials automated system, i.e., is not only a straight listing of information regarding each periodical .title, neither has the amption to automate clerical procedures involved with the receiving or check-in procedures and claiming.

The aims of serials automation in Essen University Library within the frame of our automated system E A S Y is that it should has a complete bibliographic file with an access to records for all titles held in the library and include detailed description of holdings. It is the basis for the periodical holdingslist and a joint for a cooperation on nationwide scale for the publication of the union list of serials.

In addition to subscription renewals, the binding of actively received serials, i.e. to automate the binding procedures is part of the system.

We have a complete machine readable file for all our periodicals on subscription, gift, exchange, arid seized publication as well as on continuation. The file includes all pertinent bibliographic as well as holdings information. All needed data are entered into the applicable fields, corrections, additons, alterations, or deletion of information included in a record can be done at any time. We have different search keys which can be entered and the desired record is displayed on the terminal screen.

The system produces - when needed - lists of all titles in an particular fund, arranged by entry, call number, or costs, displaying the subscription amounts paid for those titles year by year, etc.

Bibliographic lists produced include main entry, call number, location etc. as long as the information is stored in the serials file.

The Essen tagging scheme generally covers the following information: title, serial number, branch library, location, cost per copy, no. of copies, account no., call number, etc. For management purposes regular reports for each serial fund according to subject include all expenditures made from that fund.