From: "William Z. Schenck" <wsch_at_loc.gov> at Internet
Date: 2/7/97 4:10 PM
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS REPORT
Report to the Chief Collection Development Officers of Large Research
Libraries Discussion Group.. February, 1997.
Budget: As I have reported for the past two years, our
acquisitions budget remains flat--$7,319,600 (excluding the Law
Library)--the same amount we had in 1995. We are requesting in our FY98
budget funds to compensate for the past two years and to cover inflation
for the 1998 budget. We will not know the results of our requests until
later in the fiscal year.
The flat budget continues to provide a challenge to permit
continued acquisitions of materials at existing levels while at the same
time providing limited funds for major retrospective materials, new
serials not available through copyright, and materials in electronic
formats. We continue to review books received on approval plans from the
largest publishing countries--including books selected for LC by our Field
Offices. The purpose of these on-going reviews is to ensure that receipts
are in conformity to the collections policy statements. Areas of special
review are belles lettres and local history, where we are trying to
balance collection needs with publishing trends and research use.
Last fiscal year we allocated $50,000 for the purchase of
high-priority new serials; this year $125,000 is available, although
access to new on-line services must also come from this allocation. These
funds have permitted us to continue to purchase high-priority serials. As
I stated in my July report, we have not had to engage in any major serial
cancellations and we are committed to work with other research libraries
if such a project becomes necessary.
I reported in July that LC is working with Congress and GPO, as
well as with ALA and other interested groups, relating to GPO's decision
to no longer supply multiple copies of Congressional publications to the
Library at no cost. The outcome of these discussions, as well as similar
concerns relating to the distribution of Executive branch publications,
may have a major financial impact on the materials budget if additional
funds are not appropriated.
Policies: Four new collection policies relating to science were
approved: a general statement for science and technology; mathematics,
physical sciences, and life sciences. The remainder of the policies for
science and technology are under development. The policy for U.S.
newspapers was revised. Under the new policy the Library builds an
intellectual framework to determine which papers will be permanently
retained for the collection. The only major change under this policy is
that the Library will normally acquire only those papers it plans to
retain permanently (in microfilm) for its collections.
Other policies in draft form include Children's Literature,
Business and Economics, Anthropology, Genealogy, History, Numismatics and
Philately, and Local History.
Acquisitions Travel: Acquisitions survey trips taken since the
previous report include a tip to Georgia and Armenia, Haiti, the Balkans
(including Slovenia, Bosnia and Hercegovenia, Yugoslavia [Serbia and
Montenegro], Macedonia, Croatia, and Bulgaria, and India. The Balkan trip
resulted in reopening of exchanges as well as surveying the changed
publishing situation. Trips planned for the rest of this fiscal year
include a trip to Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam (the final itinerary will depend
on the political situation in Southeast Asia), Hong Kong, Indonesia, Chile,
South Africa, Venezuela, and St. Petersburg (Russia).
Electronic Resources: We find ourselves grappling with many of the
same issues relating to electronic resources being discussed on the
various listserves. Some of the money allocated for new serial
subscriptions was reserved for purchasing electronic journals. We
initiated a six-month pilot program to make Project MUSE and other
electronic journals available within the Library. We conducted a pilot of
RLG's EUREKA to determine its value for staff and patrons and evaluated
use of existing and new databases available on OCLC's FirstSearch.
Because of the proliferation of on-line resources, we conducted a study of
business databases which resulted in recommendations to make changes that
will increase access at a lower cost (but which also have implications for
additional equipment). We continue to review subscriptions to materials
that are available electronically. Although we keep one copy for archival
purposes, we have canceled most second and third copies of both print and
CD-ROM versions.
Area Studies: The Symposium on Area Studies that I reported on in
July has been postponed, due in large part to a need for the area study
divisions to focus their attention on their moves to new reading rooms in
the Jefferson Building later this spring. (For additional information on
area studies programs at LC, all are invited to a program on February 15,
"Area Studies Collections and Programs for Scholars," from 2-4 in the
Hispanic Reading Room of the Library, LJ205. Advance registration for this
is required; to attend just send an EMail to lcala_at_loc.gov stating you wish
to attend this session.)
Mellon Research Awards, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,
will provide stipends of up to $3,000 per month for scholars who are
proposing or working on a second major research project with a focus on
foreign-language materials.
Miscellaneous: The Collections Policy Committee took several
actions to improve the quality of the collections. It allocated $25,000
for the purchase of commercially-available microform collections,
establishing a subcommittee to review and recommend collections for
acquisitions. A similar amount was set aside to acquire parts or all of
one hundred core philosophy journals identified as needed in a study by
the Library's Philosophy Recommending Officer.
To document current events in Hong Kong in preparation for the
turnover to the PRC, the Library has hired a bibliographical Services
agent in Hong Kong to collect ephemeral materials not acquired through
existing acquisitions channels for the Library's collections.
The Overseas Operations briefing will be held on Sunday evening,
Feb. 16, from 7:00-9:00 in the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, Room 11. We
are recruiting a replacement for Gene Smith, the Director of the Cairo
office, who is retiring after many years of service to LC and participants
in acquisitions from South and Southeast Asia, as well as more recently
from the Middle East.
Among the important collections acquired this past year was the
Marion S. Carson Collection of Americana, the finest collection of
early-American material still in private hands. This collection includes
over 10,000 manuscripts, broadsides, pamphlets, photographs, prints and
drawings.
William Z. Schenck
Collections Program Officer
Library of Congress
Received on Tue Feb 11 1997 - 08:41:24 EST