ACQNET v1n081 (May 30, 1991) URL = http://www.infomotions.com/serials/acqnet/acq-v1n081 ACQNET, Vol 1, No. 81, May 30, 1991 =================================== (1) FROM: Christian SUBJECT: Who's new on ACQNET today (8 lines) (2) FROM: David James SUBJECT: Paraprofessionals, professional associations, training (28 lines) (3) FROM: Carole Bell SUBJECT: Gifts (16 lines) (4) FROM: Judy Johnson SUBJECT: CD-ROM products, licensing agreements (16 lines) (5) FROM: Mary McLaren SUBJECT: Retention of electronic publications, ACQNET, _Newsletter on Serial Pricing Issues_ (31 lines) (6) FROM: Richard Jasper SUBJECT: Retention of electronic publications, ACQNET, _Newsletter on Serial Pricing Issues_ (29 lines) (7) FROM: Rosann Bazirjian SUBJECT: Acquisition by document delivery (9 lines) (1) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: May 30, 1991 From: Christian Subject: Who's new on ACQNET today Dona Lively Mary M. Case Serials Acquisitions Librarian Head, Serials and Acquisitions Services University of Texas - Arlington Northwestern University Library E-mail: B366DPL@UTARLVM1.BITNET E-mail: MCASE.NUACVM.BITNET (2) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 23 May 91 10:37:08 EST From: David James Subject: Paraprofessionals, professional associations, training To add to Joyce Ogburn's advice to Marylou Hale, there are a number of groups who are dealing with the role of paraprofessionals in libraries. There are several meetings scheduled at the ALA Conference in Atlanta. There is a burgeoning support staff issues group in the Ohio Library Association and I'm sure there are similar groups in other states. There's a lot of interest here in Maryland. As far as practical advice, Marylou, I recommend going to whatever conferences you can. There is, no doubt, a Nevada Library Association. I realize, as a former long-time paraprofessional, that travel money is usually harder to get if you're not a professional, but less-expense conferences might be possible. It's good to start networking. Another possible organization is an ALCTS regional group, if there is one. These are especially beneficial because you're meeting with other "tech types" and the opportunity to gain useful information is greater. With regard to the lack of training for paraprofessionals, I think it depends on individual libraries. I've been involved with training staff (professional as well as support staff) for years. While there are some academic programs to train library technicians, I have my doubts about them. Training for support staff has traditionally been an internal issue for libraries. The problem is how thorough is it and how much time can a library devote to it. In times where human resources are scarce, especially professional resources with the ability to train/educate others, libraries are forced to make hard decisions regarding training. Reading helps, but contact with knowledgeable colleagues is invaluable. Good luck! (3) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 26 May 91 13:52:02 EDT From: "Carole R. Bell" Subject: Gifts Brown has an extremely extensive gifts program. In theory we accept all gifts on the hope that either something in it will be wonderful or that the donor will remember us either in their will or, hopefully, before. In FY 89/90 we received 73,722 material gifts and $634,296 in money. We added 3,609 vols. and searched an additional 2,460 which were not added. As you can imagine we have a huge storage area with approx. 75,000 vols awaiting decisions. Over the years Brown has refined its searching, selection and record keeping. We hold several different types of booksales, and send unwanted vols. to other institu- tions. We DO NOT DO LISTS. As you can imagine with the volume of material we receive and a very limited staff, it is impossible. I would be glad to talk to anyone interested in our program. (4) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: May 28, 1991 From: Judy Johnson Subject: CD-ROM product licensing agreements In answer to Carol Hawks' question concerning boiler-plate contracts for CD-ROM products, one possibility which could be considered are the new guidelines released by ARL in March 1991 entitled "Guidelines for Licensing Local Databas- es." I just received a copy about a week ago, and I have not tried to give it to a publisher in lieu of the publisher's contract, yet. Nor have I shown the contract to our university counsel. The guidelines were produced by the ARL Working Group on Licensing of Commer- cial Databases, chaired by Sandra K. Millard from the University of Delaware Library. (5) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 28 May 91 11:17:22 EST From: Mary McLaren Subject: Retention of electronic publications, ACQNET, NSPI In reply to Joe Pukl's query about retention of electronic publications, I will say that I routinely print out one copy each of ACQNET and the _Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues_. I have found the ACQNETs particularly helpful for my own reference (when coupled with the use of Christian's Index!). These were helpful most recently when I was asked to participate in a panel discussion in a Technical Processing library science class. In preparation for it, I referred back to some of the articles discussing the current acquisitions job market and then took the issues along to class. In addition to routing the paper copy of NSPI to staff who choose to receive paper over electronic format, I have found that paper copies of these are useful to demonstrate to those not familiar with them what an "electronic newsletter" actually looks like. Yet another use recently made of NSPI paper back issues was to lend them to a library science student who was writing a paper on serials prices. She was delighted when I "handed her" this additional source! I think that printing the issues on paper is in some way defeating the purpose of the electronic format, but I have found that in some instances (such as those cited above) the paper in-hand copy is much more "portable" than the electronic format. Also, my regular access to BITNET is via a dumb terminal (so I can't easily download to a floppy) and my disk storage at the computer center is limited, so for the present at least, I will continue to print out and delete the files. (6) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 26 May 91 10:43 EDT From: Richard Jasper Subject: Retention of electronic publications, ACQNET, NSPI Regarding Joe Pukl's query on retaining electronic publications: (1) I download the _Newsletter on Serials Pricing Issues_ to hard-disk, then print off a copy to circulate among (most of) the other librarians in our Division of Collections & Technical Services. E-mail around here comes in two varieties; NSPI arrives through the one that's hard to do forwarding with, so a printed copy is easier to handle. Thus far, each issue (they run 10-12 pages on average) has wound up in a file folder in my office. I haven't raised the issue of whether these ought to be cataloged--yet! (2) ACQNET arrives through the local e-mail system that is most accommodating to forwarding stuff, so I have been less anxious to get it downloaded and printed. Most of the stuff we talk about, naturally enough, is primarily of interest to acquisitions folks, so it doesn't get forwarded that often. However, I do save every issue (plus directories) to hard-disk, so they could be printed out. Again, at some point in the future (but not right away) I plan to raise the cataloging issue. I think we'd be under more of an obligation to do so if Emory still had a library school, but we don't so... P.S. I recall an early on comment from Joe Barker to the effect that he was printing each issue on acid-free paper to give to the Lib Sci Lib at Berkeley. How's that working, J.B.? (7) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 28 May 1991 16:11:10 EDT From: Rosann Bazirjian Subject: Acquisitions by document delivery I would like to ask if any acquisitions departments have gotten involved with the securing of items via document delivery? A significant portion of our book budget will be devoted to this area next fiscal year, and I would like to know if any technical service units have managed to retain some control on procure- ment of articles via document delivery. ***** END OF FILE ***** END OF FILE ***** END OF FILE ***** END OF FILE *****