[Original posting appears felow; responses follow it.]
From: "Tomaiuolo, Nicholas (Library)" <TomaiuoloN_at_mail.ccsu.edu>
>> Dear Colleagues,
>>
>>
>>
>> I am hoping that you will consider sharing your formal or informal
>> policy on acquiring self-published books. By self-published I mean
>> subsidy/vanity press books, books that were self published through
>> print on demand services, and books for which that the author has
>> assumed all production tasks.
>>
>>
>>
>> If you have added any self-published books to your collection, would
>> you please indicate the total number of books that you have added in
>> the number of years? For example, “I have added one self-published
>> book in the 4 years that I have had collection development
>> responsibilities.”
>>
>>
>>
>> Any thoughts are appreciated. Thank you for your assistance.
>>
>> Nicholas G. Tomaiuolo, M.L.S.
>> Librarian
>>
>> Elihu Burritt Library
>> Reference Department
>> Central Connecticut State University
>> 1615 Stanley Street
>> New Britain, CT 06050
>> office 860.832.2068
>> fax 860.832.3409
>
> From:
> dallen_at_cuyahogafallslibrary.org
>
>
>If the author couldn't persuade a traditional publisher to publish the
>book, that is Not A Good Sign. However, there are times when the topic is
>too local or too narrow for those publishers, or when the author has read
>a book on how to get rich through self-publishing, or simply when
>lightning strikes. So we do buy a few. Local authors particularly; we're
>very accommodating to them although that's more public relations than
>collection development, and less relevant to an academic library. We also
>buy things from area genealogical and historical societies; beyond that
>it's usually a matter of a staff member or regular patron being
>sufficiently sold on the book to outweigh the lack of reviews and
>traditional publishing.
>
>I can't give numbers with much confidence, partly because it's never been
>a specific issue and partly because our main supplier (Baker and Taylor)
>works with a lot of places like Author House and Amazon, one of our
>secondaries, works with more, so the request often slides right into
>normal ordering channels. At a guess, four to eight a year.
>
>David Allen
>Cataloging and Acquisitions
>Cuyahoga Falls Library
>Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> From:
> "Webster, Jean" <jwebster_at_waterfordcoco.ie>
>
> We acquire copies of self-published material every year, mainly in
> Local History, Memoir and Creative Writing as they can be an
> invaluable source of social history and add value to our collection.
> As a percentage of our overall acquisitions the number would be small
> ( 40 of 16, 000 new items) but we have noticed a huge increase in the
> volume of self/vanity publications being printed. From a CDP point of
> view it does raise the questions where do you draw the line? and do we
> need a set of criteria against which the value of a self/vanity
> published works can be assessed?
>
> If anyone developed guidelines in this area?
>
> Best regards
>
> Jean Webster
>
> Acting County Librarian
>
> Waterford County Library Service
>
> Ireland
>
> Tel: 00353 (0)51 381479
>
> email: jwebster_at_waterfordcoco.ie
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
From: Sarah Brown <sbrown_at_tcpl.lib.in.us>
I am from a medium sized public library and I select in adult
nonfiction. Our general "guidelines" are that we don't purchase
self-published items, however it is becoming increasingly difficult
because patrons are requesting them more and more. They are showing up
in Amazon searches - which most patrons go to first. So, over the last 3
years, we have purchased about a handful of self-published titles in
non-fiction.
Self-published / print on demand imprints that I've identified (so far)
include: Dog Ear Publishing, Lulu, Book Surge, Create Space, Trafford,
Xlibris, Iuniverse, outskirts Press, and Author House.
Sarah
Received on Fri Jul 30 2010 - 03:09:30 EDT