LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
January, 1999
Report on collection development activities at the Library of Congress
prepared for theCollection Development Officers of Large Research Libraries
Discussion Group. ALA Midwinter.
Budget: The Library received an increase of 5.2% ($454,000 in its
materials budget forFY99. This increase permits additional spending for
subscriptions for electronic materials,increased support to acquire current
publications from the People's Republic of China andTaiwan, replace missing
and lost books, and increased support for Special Collections. We liftedthe
moratorium on all but high-priority subscriptions at the beginning of FY98
but continue to exercise restraint in initiating new subscriptions.
Acquisitions Travel: Acquisitions trips taken since my report in July
include trips to Bolivia, Jamaica, Portugal, Taiwan, Turkey, Korea, Japan,
and Guatemala, plus a trip to fourwestern European nations (Austria,
Germany, France, Netherlands) to acquire publications of Jewish emigree
groups. Trips planned for the first part of 1999 include a trip to the
Balkans (if
the political and military situation permits), Austria, and Israel. A
significant amount of the budget allocated for acquisitions travel has been
held in reserve and will be allocated, as needed, by the Collections Policy
Committee in the spring.
Policies: Collections policies on children's literature and for all
the areas of science and technology were approved. A policy on collecting
electronic resources was drafted and submitted for approval. It is our
plan to make all collections policies, plus other collection development
related documents, available through the Library's homepage this spring.
Evaluation: We undertook a major evaluation of the Library's
collections of current social science, scientific and technological
materials from the People's Republic of China and Taiwan. The evaluation
used standard evaluative techniques, including an examination of the
collection by a faculty member from George Washington University. As a
result of our findings, we have placed subscriptions for all
Chinese-language sci/tech journals for which, according to
Ulrich's, indexing and/or abstracting information is available. We will
evaluate the quality of other Chinese sci/tech journals and subscribe to
those deemed important. As a result of this evaluation we also increased
the amount of money available for the approval plans for materials from
both the PRC and Taiwan and we have placed orders for a large number of
local histories and
yearbooks. Knowing the growing strategic importance of the PRC, the China
Working Group, a Library-wide committee chaired by the Director for Area
Studies, continues to monitor the growth of these collections. To assist
with other evaluations by outside scholars, we prepared a set of guidelines
to aid scholars in such evaluations. Dr. George Hintlian, a scholar from
Israel,
has begun an evaluation of the Library's Arabic and Armenian collections.
We are also evaluating our collection of currently-received materials
from what I term "second-tier" international organizations -publications of
important international and/or regional stature but below the United
Nations and its related organizations..
Other projects currently underway concern the Baltic Republics, the
Millennium, what we have termed "crossover" publications, and ethnic
publications. On the first project, the Collections Policy Committee
approved a proposal from the Library's three Baltic recommending officers
(for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) to identify and acquire, where
possible, materials
published outside of, but relating to, these three countries during the
period of Soviet occupation. The Millennium Task Force is cooperating with
the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University to insure that the
Library is collecting materials related to the millennium and groups
associated with or affected by it. By "crossover" publications we mean
those publications published in one part of the world but focused on
another area -for example, a publication from a
university-affiliated institute in Sweden on China or, as is more likely
the case now, publications about a country by emigree groups in another
country. The latter category are often the most difficult to acquire as
they are often outside the normal channels of publishing and distribution.
During the year the Acquisitions Directorate established an approval plan
with a specialized
British vendor for Arabic-language books published in Britain.
We took several steps to improve our collection of ethnic materials
(defined as non- English language materials published in the U.S.) With
the help of OCLC we compared LC's holdings of both serials and monographs
with other OCLC libraries. The Copyright Acquisitions Division initiated a
project to acquire more Arabic-language publications from the U.S. and the
Library acquired an important microform collection of U.S. Chicano serials
and newspapers.
Informational Programs: The Collections Policy Committee continued its
series of forums to bring speakers to the Library to discuss current issues
relating to collection development. Richard Landes, the director of Boston
University's Center for Millennial Studies, spoke on documenting the
millennium. Karin Trainer (Princeton University Librarian) discussed
the effect of technological change on library organization.
Gifts to the Nation: The Library is engaged in an extensive
fund-raising campaign, as part of our Bicentennial, to acquire major
collections (or individual items) to strengthen our collections. One aspect
of this initiative is the restoration of the Thomas Jefferson Library
materials, many of which were lost in the 1851 fire.
Integrated Library System: The Library is on schedule to have the Endeavor
Information System (the ILS) operational by October 1. Staff throughout the
Library continue to be involved in the planning. Once operational, the ILS
will provide invaluable management information relating to collection
building activities.
Miscellaneous: Additional information about activities at the Library
an be found on the ALA Briefing Update, accessible through the Library's
homepage (www.loc.gov).
William Schenck
Library Services
wsch_at_loc.gov
Received on Fri Jan 22 1999 - 08:52:45 EST