Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 16:11:39 -0500
From: Jeff Siddons (Tulsa Community College) <jsiddons_at_tulsa.cc.ok.us>
Subject: Decentralizing Acquisitions
My background: Reference /BI librarian now serving as a Coordinator of
a small LRC which is one of 4 campus LRCs of a multi-campus college.
My question: A major change to our small acquisitions department has
been proposed. From my cursory research thus far I have gathered this
is nothing new and has been discussed off and on during the past. It has
been suggested that we decentralize and disband our small three person
department and distribute the acquisitions process out to the reference
librarians at each campus LRC. We would make use of collaborative web
software and contract with a jobber such as B&T or YBP to assist with
approval plans, cataloging and processing.
Our circulation records, over the past few years, have dropped
dramatically with the introduction of the Internet and we are preparing to
reduce monograph ordering as a result. There is a lot of info on approval
plans, but how about info on decentralized, web collaborated, and
hopefully multi-campus acquisitions? (Wow that was mouthful!) Our dean
has been influenced by something called supply chain management wherein
the suppliers collaborate with buyers to schedule manufacturing and
delivery of items directly to the user rather than to a warehouse. I
believe
he is thinking of the tech services and acquisitions area as sort of an
unnecessary centralized warehouse and as such the middlemen positions
can possibly be eliminated. As you can see from my background this is
not an area of expertise for me.
>From what I gather, by asking opinions, no company out there currently
provides a service that is equal in quality to most in-house
acquisitions/cataloging teams. We have good, conscientious,
professional catalogers and acquisitions staff. The catalogers are knee
deep in a recon of our records and will be so for the next few years. We
would still keep the anchoring acquisitions position to assist with direct
orders, claiming and other snags. Each campus reference team (2-3
librarians) would deal directly with the distributor and possibly send
orders
on a quarterly basis or maybe ASAP for special situations. The librarians
would actually receive the book shipments on their own campus and
process. The bibliographic records (produced by the jobbers) only - not
the books themselves - would be forwarded on to the catalogers, who,
of course, are not crazy about this. Of course part of the discussion has
been what level of cataloging does a community college library really
require. I believe the end goal here is to free up several acquisitions
personnel to use elsewhere in the system. We have been in a hiring freeze
for some time now and have easier access to funds than to the creation of
new staffing positions.
Has anyone had experience with a decentralized approach of this sort?
Any literature that can be cited? Anything related to any of the above
points would be helpful. I'm not looking for incidental moral support
either
pro or con, just experiences or knowledge that you can relate. Please keep
in mind we are not a big operation. Thanks in advance.
Sincerely,
Jeff Siddons
Received on Tue Apr 09 2002 - 16:31:31 EDT