ACQNET v3n024 (March 15, 1993) URL = http://www.infomotions.com/serials/acqnet/acq-v3n024 ISSN: 1057-5308 *************** ACQNET, Vol. 3, No. 24, March 15, 1993 ====================================== (1) FROM: Christian SUBJECT: Who's new on ACQNET today (24 lines) (2) FROM: Mary Wesche SUBJECT: Employee recognition (30 lines) (3) FROM: Judith Wann SUBJECT: Acquisitions profession (35 lines) (4) FROM: Beverley Forsyth SUBJECT: Vendor performance studies (48 lines) (1)------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: March 15, 1993 From: Christian Subject: Who's new on ACQNET today Mary Ellen Kenreich Serials Librarian Portland State University Library E-mail: KENREICH@LIB.PDX.EDU Alexander Grant Wright Serials Supervisor Harvard University Cabot Science Library E-mail: AWRIGHT@HUSC.HARVARD.EDU Susan P. Baksh Acquisitions Assistant California State University - San Marcos Library E-mail: SUSAN_BAKSH@CSUSM.EDU Pauline Ozio Fulda Coordinator, Acquisitions and Collection Development Louisiana State University Medical Center Library E-mail: PFULDA@NOMVS.LSUMC.EDU (2)------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 93 17:05:37 EST From: Mary Wesche (Cornell University) Subject: Rewarding employees As head of the Receiving Section in the Acquisitions Department of a large library in which a huge amount of detailed work is EXPECTED from each person who works for me, I am faced with a dilemma which many of you must contend with. I read with interest about how much work there is to do and the fact that there is never enough time to complete it all. About how the compensation is self-satisfaction, professional acknowledgement etc. We were shown what the "salary improvement pool" for annual staff raises is this year. I cannot remember when I have left a meeting so depressed. I realize that "money isn't everything", however, what do you all do to keep morale up when (for budgetary reasons) the best raise this year is the same as the worst raise in years past? This year our library will be going through a reorganization, many jobs will be changed and a department that we are familiar with and like will be changed. You have all shown reactions as to how you feel as librarians with all the changes, what have you done to help staff adjust and to show appreciation? Do any of you have an "employee of the week/month" program? If so, how is was implemented and how does it work? In general, how do recognize employee contributions? (3)------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: 11 Mar 1993 17:32:51 U From: Judith Wann (Oregon State Library) Subject: Acquisitions profession I've read with interest all the discussion of how acquisitions people spend their days. So far, my impression is that all the responses have been from people in large, academic libraries. I'm the non-librarian Acquisitions Coordinator at a not-so-large government library. (Acquisitions, which includes Periodicals has 3 full-time people.) But I find myself in somewhat the same situation, though to a lesser extent. Because we're small, and because our materials budget and staff are constantly (and dramatically) shrinking, few people here have just one function. My title is Acquisitions Coordinator, but I also do original cataloging. This can lead to conflicting priorities; you can't catalog things you don't have, but occasionally cataloging has to come first. On a typical day, I rarely spend more than half my time on directly acquisitions-related duties. Like my colleague in large universities, I also have committee responsibilities and professional activities that eat up my time. And there are always special, high-priority projects going on. I also have the added complication of being, at least on paper, a member of the union, so that I'm not supposed to work more than 40 hours a week. As Christian mentioned, how do I tell when I'm working? Am I working now? Was I working Sunday morning as I sat in a sunny window, alternately reading the current issue of _LIBRARY ACQUISITIONS: PRACTICE & THEORY_ and watching my cat wash his ears? But these things (the cat excepted) are important to my job, and I can't get them done in 40 hours a week. Besides, I enjoy them. I'm sure there are other acquisitions folks in smaller institutions with similar duties and schedules. And, if my experience here is any indication, acquisitions work (perhaps unfortunately) makes one very adept and adaptable at other types of library work. If you've done enough difficult pre-order verifications, you can handle anything! (4)------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: 14 Mar 93 15:36:08 GMT+1100 From: Beverley Forsyth (La Trobe Univ.) Subject: Vendor performance studies I've only recently subscribed to ACQNET and am discovering the wealth of useful, practical information that is available through this medium. I would appreciate some feedback from other Acquisition Librarians, especially Australian colleagues about their experiences with cost studies of monographs. Last year I analysed the actual prices La Trobe University Library paid in all cases where we purchased the same book from different vendors. This analysis took into account list price, handling or discounts applied, and freight charges. Care was taken to ensure that identical formats were being compared, i.e. all cases where one copy was a paperback and the other hardback were excluded from the study, as were copublications (I have followed the ACQNET discussion of copublishing with interest). The study also excluded books purchased from Academic Remainders and non-trade books bought direct from the publishers. Eleven vendors were represented in the sample: 6 Australian, 2 British and 3 American. The results showed that in 1991, it was to our advantage to purchase from U.S. sources with overall average cost savings of $A 9.04 per item. The sample was also used to analyse supply times and the best sources of supply for different publishers. A major limitation was that only filled 'successful' orders were included. As vendor-initiated cancellations were not captured in the sample only limited conclusions about vendor performance could be drawn. Before tackling the study I did a literature search and found several helpful articles especially in _LAPT_, but I was unable to find any relating to the Australian situation other than a study of the relative performance of Indian suppliers conducted by Pam Trier in the 70's. Have I missed something or have Australian acquisitions librarians not been concerned with formal evaluations in recent times? Another possibility is that studies have been done but the results are being kept in-house. I am aware of the sensitive nature of vendor performance studies but would appreciate any hard data relating to the costs and availability of books in Australia, particularly since the changes to the Copyright Act were to reduce the price of books on the Australian market. ****** END OF FILE ****** ACQNET, Vol. 3, No. 24 ****** END OF FILE ******