From: YEHLB_at_holly.hsu.edu
We are a small academic library of 250,000 volumes with a materials budget
of under $300,000. We have ten cd-rom subscriptions with a few "ready
reference" cd-roms, e.g., encyclopedias, waiting to be installed. Our
money for new equipment is extremely limited. Our materials budget from
which cd-rom purchases are taken is also very tight.
We have had requests from several departments for cd-roms (of the non-
subscription, non-index type) for which we do not currently have room for
on our stations. Given their specific subject nature, these cd- roms are
not likely to be ones that we would purchase at the present time for public
use on our stations or for the campus network. However, currently these
departments do not have funds for cd-rom purchases although they are
getting money for the hardware.
How are other libraries handling these cd-rom requests? Do you decline to
purchase these cd-roms that would be of very limited use in the library or
on the campus network? Is this a case where each department should be able
to spend its portion of the materials budget as it sees fit? Are cd-rom
titles purchased with library funds and then loaned "permanently" to the
department? On how many campuses do departments have funds for cd-rom
purchases for their own departmental use?
Thanks for your responses.
Robert Yehl
Director of Learning Resources
Henderson State University
Arkadelphia, AR 71999
PH: 501-230-5014
email: yehlb_at_holly.hsu.edu
Received on Tue Oct 01 1996 - 10:11:14 EDT