ACQNET v2n043 (March 25, 1992) URL = http://www.infomotions.com/serials/acqnet/acq-v2n043 ISSN: 1057-5308 *************** ACQNET, Vol. 2, No. 43, March 25, 1992 ====================================== (1) FROM: Christian SUBJECT: Who's new on ACQNET today (8 lines) (2) FROM: Chuck Hamaker SUBJECT: _New American Encyclopedia_, _Dialogue_ (Yankee Book Peddler) (25 lines) (3) FROM: Carmen Socknat SUBJECT: Electronic ordering (17 lines) (4) FROM: Martin Cohen SUBJECT: Pre-publication orders (25 lines) (5) FROM: Ann O'Neill SUBJECT: Library education (39 lines) (6) FROM: Richard Jasper SUBJECT: ALCTS Scholarly Communication Committee (15 lines) (7) FROM: Gene P. Branham SUBJECT: VTLS Acquisitions System, accounting (13 lines) (1) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: March 25, 1992 From: Christian Subject: Who's new on ACQNET today Jeremy Blatchley Head, Serials Division Bryn Mawr College Library E-mail: J_BLATCHLEY@CC.BRYNMAWR.EDU (2) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 12:07:32 CST From: Chuck Hamaker Subject: YBP's _Dialogue_ The new issue of _Dialogue_, Yankee Book Peddler's occasional magazine, is out, dated February, 1992. Its a great roundup of publisher title/cost output statistics for 1991, earlier than most and includes some pretty striking information. Recommended reading includes the David Henige article excerpt "When Bad is Good Enough: The Lowest Common Denominator in Reference Publishing and Reviewing." One news item from the "Digest of Publishing/Trade News is so important, I think we all need to know about it: "By arrangement with Grolier, Inc., Barnes & Noble is selling what it rechristened the _New American Encyclopedia_, through its stores and catalogs. The 20 volume set is almost identical to Grolier's _Academic America Encyclopedia_, except for some modifications to indexes and format to make it more appealing to the consumer market. No similarity at all is to be found in the two prices: B&N offers its version for $299; Grolier sells the _Academic America_ to institutions for $720. Don't let them, librarians...!" The original source for the item is _BP Report_, 12/9/91. Thanks to Helmut Schwarzer, editor of _Dialogue_ for alerting us. (3) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1992 10:11:19 -0500 From: Carmen Socknat Subject: Electronic Ordering Further to David Marshall's question on electronic ordering, we use this service from one vendor, and hope to incorporate at least two more when we have more hardware. Right now we have only one PC that has a data line, and that PC also holds our acquisitions software, BIB-BASE. Because we are such a small operation, all three of us are fully able to use the electronic ordering. Since there is no interface between BIB-BASE and the vendor, right now we must enter our own acquisitions records after the orders have been processed. However, we should be operational with DRA shortly and hope that this will change significantly. The main advantages we are receiving from the on-line ordering are speed of ordering and timeliness of information on prices and availability. There has been no time savings in terms of order record entry in our own system. Nevertheless, we feel that the service has improved our turnaround time and reduced our search time. (4) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wednesday, 25 March 1992, 07:51:28 EST From: Martin Cohen Subject: Handling Requests for Not-Yet-Published Books I think you'll get a good picture of our attitude toward not-yet-published books if I simply answer Thelma Diercks' questions one by one: (1) Yes, we order the books and encumber the funds indefinitely. (2) Other than trying to download copy from LaserQuest or CATSS, no check on in-print status is performed; if we find no copy, we simply order on a NOTIS provisional record, using what information the bibliographer has given us. (If there isn't enough information, we return the requisition to the bibliographer.) (3) We keep the order in the data base and claim according to our normal pre-established cycle (90 days for North American books, 120 days - unless logic decrees a longer period - for books from abroad). If we get "Still NYP" as response to the claim, we simply enter that on the NOTIS pay-order record. (4) We don't usually return long-standing NYPs to the bibliographer unless a particular bibliographer asks us to. When we purge our outstanding pay-order records, as we do occasionally, ALL long-standing open orders - not just the NYPs - are questioned. (5) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 25 Mar 92 08:53 From: Ann O'Neill Subject: Library education I think Jian Liu is selling himself short. He does have something to contribute to the discussion. Personally, as a future library educator, I'm very please to see a student recognize the gaps between education and practice in library science without complaining about it. He is taking positive steps to learn about the problems he will face in practice. His comments were very thoughtful. Jian and students, don't remained awed, we're just people too. Peter Stevens' comments brought to mind comments I received from some of my students. Last summer I taught a course - Introduction to Technical Services - at the University of Arizona. It was a general survey course, giving the students a brief introduction, and I hoped an appreciation, for the work that goes on there. I covered Acquisitions, Serials, Cataloging, Preservation/Binding, Automation and Organization. A few of the students said that because they took this course, they now realized they had the option to be something besides a reference librarian or a cataloger. Others said they saw that there is more to Technical Services than "simple" clerical work. I just hope I get the same results in South Carolina this summer. Where is all of this leading? The comments on ACQNET about library education show me that there is a need for Technical Service education at library schools. I think that this need should be made known to Deans/Directors of library schools. Talking among ourselves is not enough. However, as Jian Liu pointed out, there are gaps between education and practice. These gaps are necessary because one of the purposes of library education is to teach student about the profession and librarIES, not A library. One of my goals is to help my students to learn to THINK, because if they can think, they can solve problems, educate themselves and learn to follow the procedures at the library where they are employed. If I had not decided to go into library education, I would work in Acquisitions. It is so much challenge and fun, there are so many nice people, and where else do you get to spend so much of other people's money? (6) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 25 Mar 92 13:21:05 EST From: Richard Jasper Subject: Take a look The first report of the ALCTS Scholarly Communication Committee, now available on the ALCTS Listserv (TELL listserv@uicvm SEND Scholar Report), is quite thought provoking. People have talked for more than a year now on possible strategies the profession in general and ALCTS in particular might employ to address the current environment of limited library resources. The report shows that the Committee has discussed many of these ideas in addition to coming up with its own; I don't know about you all but I always find a glimpse of "brainstorming in action" rather invigorating. This committee is going to have an extremely important role to play in the coming years, both near-term and long-term, so take an extra couple of minutes and order it up from the ALCTS list server. (7) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 23 Mar 92 11:11:02 CST From: Gene P. Branham Sr. Subject: Acquisitions/Mainframe Interface We are currently doing analysis work to determine how to interface the VTLS Acquisitions subsystem with our mainframe accounting system (Information Associates' FRS). I would be very interested to hear from anyone that has done this, or anyone that has any acquisitions system interfaced with a mainframe accounting system. I would like information describing the point(s) of interface, and details on how your interface provides auditing controls from the acquisitions subsys- tem to your mainframe accounting. ******* END OF FILE ****** ACQNET, Vol. 2, No. 43 ****** END OF FILE *******