ACQNET v1n064 (April 28, 1991) URL = http://www.infomotions.com/serials/acqnet/acq-v1n064 ACQNET, Vol 1, No. 64, April 28, 1991 ===================================== (1) FROM: Christian SUBJECT: Who's new on ACQNET today (32 lines) (2) FROM: Susan George SUBJECT: NATO ASI series (21 lines) (3) FROM: Wanda Dole SUBJECT: Latin American approval plans (7 lines) (4) FROM: Melissa Surber SUBJECT: Commerce Clearing House renewals (15 lines) (5) FROM: Joyce Ogburn SUBJECT: Acquisitions profession (11 lines) (6) FROM: Christian Boissonnas SUBJECT: Acquisitions and collection development (48 lines) (1) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: April 28, 1991 From: Christian Subject: Who's new on ACQNET today Gene Cseh John Piety Head, Acquisition Department Library Director University of Connecticut Library John Carroll University Library E-mail: HBAADM02@UCONNVM.BITNET E-mail: PIETY@JCVAXA.BITNET Melissa Surber Susan Davis Acquisitions Librarian Head, Periodicals U. of South Carolina Law Library SUNY - Buffalo Library E-mail: N380009@UNIVSCVM.BITNET E-mail: UNLSDB@UBVM.BITNET Susan C. George Michael Markwith Physical Sciences Librarian Region Manager Darthmouth College Library Faxon Company E-mail: SUSAN.C.GEORGE@MAC. E-mail: MARKWITH@FAXON.FAXON.COM DARTMOUTH.EDU Dick Vaughan Christine J. Christiansen Acq. & Ser. Control Librarian Serials Acquisitions Librarian Indiana U. School of Law Lib. University of Miami Library E-mail: RVAUGHAN@IUBACS.BITNET E-mail: CCHRISTI@UMIAMI.BITNET Margaret J. Sylvia Daniel Jones Acq. & Col. Dev. Dept. Head Asst. Lib. Dir. for Coll. Development St. Mary's Univ. Academic Lib. Briscoe Library - UTHSCSA E-mail: ACADMARG@STMARYTX.BITNET E-mail: JONES@UTHSCSA.BITNET Carol R. Bell Bruce Gilbert Gifts & Collection Maint. Libr. Assistant Director -- Tech. Services Brown University Library Univ. of Missouri - Rolla Library E-mail: AP201055@BROWNVM.BITNET E-mail: C0655@UMRVMB.BITNET (2) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 24 Apr 91 10:52:57 From: Susan C. George Subject: NATO ASI series Kresge Physical Sciences Library has had a standing order for NATO ASI Series B and C for quite a few years now. In the past year, a number of faculty have commented that we really do not need to purchase every title, since we don't need every title. So, I am prompted to ask this group what they are doing or not doing about these two series. Here are my questions: * Do you have a standing order? *If yes, why? *If no, why not? *Did you have a standing order which you cancelled? Why? I have begun to think about purchasing these one-by-one (what with tight budgets and all), but I would like to hear the pros and cons from a collection standpoint. Would you share you opinions with me? (3) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 25 Apr 1991 15:56 EDT From: "Wanda V. Dole" Subject: Latin American approval plans We are considering an approval plan for Latin American history. Does anyone use an approval plan for Latin American materials? If so, with what vendor? Has anyone used the Latin American Book Store (Ithaca, NY) for such a plan? (4) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 26 Apr 91 13:45:59 EDT From: Melissa Surber Subject: Commerce Clearing House renewals This question might be more appropriately directed only to Law Libraries, but, perhaps others have this concern. This concerns the renewal practices of COMMERCE CLEARING HOUSE [legal publisher]. Each year we are given a list of current subscriptions and the amount due when the subscription is renewed. These requests for renewal are offered approximately one year before the due date. We can cancel anytime before the actual renewal. We are told that by signing the renewals we are "locking in" current prices. Has anyone actually resisted signing renewals or determined if the "locked in" price is actually the best price? Our concern is that we are being asked to "lock in" prices which may be excessive one year from now. (5) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 26 Apr 91 16:50:44 U From: "Joyce Ogburn" Subject: The Acquisitions Profession I have heard directly from 2 of you regarding sharing ideas for an article on the Acquisitions Professional. I know more of you have thoughts on this issue, so please let them come forth. We have talked about the need to articulate our theory - now's your chance. [Joyce, there has been a lot of stuff on this on LIBADMIN over the past two weeks. You should ask on that list if anyone has archived the material. C.] (6) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: April 28, 1991 From: Christian Boissonnas Subject: Acquisitions and collection development It's election time again in ALA. I received my ballot this week and, except for the easy decision of voting for Carol Chamberlain, I found the process of voting daunting. But the complexity of ALA elections is not what I want to discuss. The ballot brought from the back of my mind the discussion which we were having earlier this year about the split of collection development and acquisitions in separate sections within ALCTS. Some of us were arguing that it is precisely the reverse that should be happening, since there can be no successfully collection development without acquisitions or vice versa. I don't want to rehash what was said (see the file ALCTSSTR.POS, available from me on request, if you want the background). Rather, I would like to try and move this debate in a different direction and concentrate on the nature of the CD/acquisitions split, and try to understand why, in some libraries, there is such tension between acquisitions librarians and collection development specialists. Maybe if it's out on the table so we can all look at it, we can understand it and learn to deal with it, so let me state a few hypotheses for us to chew on: 1. I suspect that this is a problem only in large libraries, libraries that are large enough so that the functions can be separated in the first place. In most small libraries, the majority of all libraries, I expect, the same department handles acquisitions of serials and monographs, and collection development functions. As the library increases in size, collection develop- ment and management tend to become the responsibility of others, including the director, and specialized bibliographers. While the library is small enough to force daily contacts among the various parties involved in the procurement process, there is little problem about who does what, and little tension. As the size of libraries increases, the problems increase and so does the tension. 2. If this is true, does it not mean that the split within ALCTS reflects only the split within large academic libraries? Does this structure also address satisfactorily the needs of smaller libraries? If it did work for large and small libraries, would it not be highly unusual? I would assume that, usually, the technical services structures which work best for large libraries are not the best for small libraries. 3. Let's turn to the nature of the tension between collection development and processing. I suspect that this tension is most pronounced in libraries in which the communications channels between the parties are least developed and institutionalized. It should be fairly easy to prove this by comparing a few large libraries and examining the communication patterns and tension levels in them between collection development and processing departments. I realize that I have talked only about academic libraries. Frankly, I don't know enough about other libraries to know whether any of this is relevant. Who knows if any of this is true, and where does it take us? ***** END OF FILE ***** END OF FILE ***** END OF FILE ***** END OF FILE *****