In 1985 the libraries at Vanderbilt University, including the M~dical Center Library, installed the NOTIS integrated online system. NOTIS at Vanderbilt is called Acorn, so when you hear or see references to Acorn, please remember that is our online system. At that time, our Serials Section, which manages the ordering, cataloging, check-in, claiming, and binding of the library's journals and unclassified serials, was an almost completely manual operation (slide 1). We were especially eager to '

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... utomate as many of our serial functions as ' possible. Creating our database took longer than expected, but by mid-1986 most functions performed by the section were done online, and the way we did our work was transformed (slide 2). We now had many access points to a title, patrons could see which issues were received, and printed claims could be generated. However, as much as we appreciated the positive aspects of the system, we soon discovered that there were some things it could not do.