From: Mitch Turitz <turitz_at_sfsu.edu>
Many years ago (over 10 years, I think) we used to have an approval
program where the books were shipped to us, then the selectors would either
approve or disapprove the books, then the rejects were shipped back. The
cost of shipping the books back was enormous. Our return rate was way too
high (over 8% I seem to remember) so we went to "approval slips" instead
from Blackwells.
About 5 years ago we started ordering "shelf-ready" books from
Blackwells and Yankee Book Peddler. The library selectors would use the
slips to decide which books to order, making it easier to process which
slips to use. These books would come with our call numbers, library stamp,
and all of the pre-processing done. MARC records were also FTP'd to
us. However, although the administrators who decided on this process
thought we could just open up the boxes as they were received and place the
books on the shelves, we found that we had to check EVERY bib MARC record
to see that it matched the physical book, the call number, and was not a
dup, etc.
We occasionally have problems with duplicates (which is not supposed to
happen), especially monographic series which sometimes end up being ordered
both as an individual title as well as part of a ongoing series; bib
records with severe errors in them (e.g. call number appearing in a subject
field!); and even completely wrong headings in the bib record. People need
to understand that every book and bib record need to be check for accuracy
just as when you receive a book, you need to check the titles in the box
against an invoice to make sure you received what you ordered.
We also use Blackwell's online "Collection Manager" which allows the
selectors to go online and browse by call number, profile, subject, title,
keyword, etc.
We do a partial "approval plan" for some literature which comes as
"shelf-ready" but the disadvantage with that is since the books are already
marked, they are non-returnable, so we still have to pay for books that are
not appropriate for our collection. Those books end up being donated to
our "Friends of the Library" who sell them for very low prices just to get
rid of them.
Our librarians are also faculty, so we are the liaisons to the
individual departments as to what they need, which periodicals to cut, etc.
Our funding is divided up by a complicated formula based on the
full-time equivalent student enrollment (FTES) of each department. So
individual selectors use and keep track of their own departmental funds for
ordering for departments, while "approval plan" books come out of a special
fund (off the top before allocation to the "book" departmental
funds?). I'm not sure about the details here.
Our tracking is done through Innovative Interfaces' acquisitions module.
-- Mitch Turitz
| | | |
| | Mitch Turitz, Serials Librarian | |
| | San Francisco State University Library | |
| | President, | |
| | SFSU California Faculty Association | |
| | voice: (415) 338-7883 | |
| | CFA: (415) 338-6232 | |
| | FAX: (415) 405-0394 | |
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Received on Tue May 27 2003 - 11:41:14 EDT