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(Response #1)
Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 09:40:40 -0400
From: Rosanna B Masley (Case Western)<rbm3_at_po.cwru.edu>
Subject: Re: ACQNET: RE- Where have all the Acquisitions Librarians
Gone?
I think you should look for a mentor to help you develop as a
Acquisitions Librarian. Our library just replaced it's Head of Technical
Services Librarian with a non-library person, Manager of Budget
& Acquisitions. Currently the movement is rename or eliminate Technical
Services.To me the problem appears to stem from a lack of appreciation of the
detail work. I wonder when the administration will turn to outsourcing these
services?
Rosanna B. Masley
Acquisitions Assistant
Case Western Reserve University
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( Response #2)
Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 12:05:25 -0500
From: Kathie Henderson (Univ. of Ill, Urbana) <henderso_at_alexia.lis.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Re: ACQNET: RE- Where have all the Acquisitions Librarians
Gone?
Dear Vera:
In answer to your statement that you don't think library
schools care about including acquisitions in their curriculum, I want to
tell you that I do care and do include sessions on acquisitions and
serials in the Technical Services Functions class that I team teach at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Graduate School of Library
and Information Science. I developed this course some 21 years ago and it
has been taught regularly once a year since then. Included are the
fundamentals of acquisitions and serials control. Relationships between
these areas and collection development, preservation and technical
services as well as public services are stressed. Vendors from both the
monograph and serials world come to the class on different occasions so
that the student has an opportunity to meet them and discuss their
services. Usually a librarian who works in the acquisition, etc. of
electronic resources also comes to class to discuss this developing
aspect of acquisitions. There are opportunities to discuss licensing,
copyright and other important issues. In addition each student has two
email mentors, practicing technical services librarians with whom the
student can dialogue throughtout the semester. If a student is interested
in acquisitions or serials, he/she is matched up with librarians who
specialize in those areas. The student is free to ask questions, discuss
issues and trends, and find out about the day-to-day activities from
those persons actively engaged in these endeavors.
The emphasis in this course is that all services are public services and
contribute to the needs of users. Not all those who enroll in this
course are interested in working in the technical services but those who are
choosing reference, interlibrary loan, and circulation services often
tell us later on that they could not do their reference, interlibrary
loan, etc. services as well if they had not enrolled in this
course. This is not a "how-to-do-it" course but the fundamentals of
acquisitions and serials work are certainly apparent as 2/3rds of the
course work is devoted to those areas of technical services. Cataloging
per se is not covered because most students enroll in at least one
cataloging course but the relationships are implicit in the total
consideration of technical services.
>From time to time the ALCTS section of ALA offers an online Fundamentals
of Acquisitions course. You might check into that if you wish to have
an alternative to a course in library school. Also, I would be happy to
respond to your questions if you wish to address me personally. Best
wishes.
Kathryn Luther Henderson, Professor,
GSLIS, UIUC
henderso_at_alexia.lis.uiuc.edu
Received on Fri Sep 27 2002 - 17:34:36 EDT