Linking approval plans and automated library acquisitions systems

This paper will describe the process whereby an approval vendor provides machine-readable records corresponding to books sent to a library automatically and on approval, for loading into the library's automated acquisitions system.     

Institutional ties: developing an interface between a library acquisitions system and a parent institution accounting system

Automating the financial interface between a library acquisitions system and a parent institution accounting system is beneficial for both the library and the institution. This article highlights how automated interfaces have evolved in the past decade and discusses the many issues related to planning and implementing such an interface. Those issues include: securing institutional approval, programming, library system setup, file management, and other local decisions. The need for standards and the impact of Internet commerce are evolving issues for a paperless interface.     

Flipped Interlibrary Loan (F.I.L.L.): Putting Interlibrary Loan in the Driver's Seat of Acquisitions

Interlibrary loan (ILL) is an important service point in the academic library, a channel through which patrons can ask for specific books and expect that those books will be made available to them. Examining the methods in which libraries handle those requests may reveal new workflows wherein ILL can influence the direction of the library's permanent acquisitions. ILL data is able to drive immediate purchases of user-requested titles but also more complex models of acquisition. By comparing circulation rates and expenditures against traditional book-approval plans, acquisitions departments may also measure the financial effectiveness of purchase-on-demand programs and use them to both supplement and supplant those approval plans. At the core of Lehigh University's efforts is an internal library philosophy called “Flipped Interlibrary Loan” (F.I.L.L.), by which ILL can and should inform permanent acquisitions for the library collection.     

Vendor studies redux: Evaluating the approval plan option from within

Exploring the question, “Once approval plans are established, how does one know whether they are preferable to firm ordering?”, this paper questions traditional assumptions about discounts and staff savings in a library with numerous approval plan agreements. Analyzing the acquisitions patterns of four different groups of selectors at a large research library, it concludes that approval plans profiled to obtain core essentials are preferred by many selectors over firm ordering these materials. Profiles implementing this approach appear to be more difficult to establish for European than for domestic materials. Levels and types of services expected from vendors in a budgetarily constrained environment are enumerated.     

The case for acquisitions standards in the integrated library system

Acquisitions metadata within current library integrated systems is not based on any standard; rather, systems vendors generally define structure and content according to proprietary approaches. The authors argue that this cripples library acquisitions practitioners and managers in numerous ways. It renders routine tasks more difficult, jeopardizes the integrity of data during system migration, forces adoption of costly external tracking solutions, and hinders efforts to manage collections and budgets. The authors define acquisitions standards and relate them to existing bibliographic and e-commerce protocols. They discuss reasons for the lack of acquisitions standards and outline first steps in a project to develop them. This paper is based on a presentation given at the Acquisitions Institute at Timberline Lodge, Fourth Annual Conference, held 17-20 May 2003.     

Improving approval plan performance: A case study

An efficient approval plan should enable libraries to save on acquisitions costs while achieving higher use satisfaction by making new materials available sooner. Two internal systems for handling approval plans are compared to show that approval plan performance can be improved significantly by taking full advantage of automation capabilities.     

Reference Expert Systems:

The delivery of library reference service can be practically supplemented through the appropriate incorporation and use of software tools commonly referred to as expert systems. The level of support such systems can afford the reference service organization is dependent on the degree of complexity characteristic of the rule-based programming techniques used to develop a particular system and the size of its knowledge database. Since most expert systems are designed to simulate the process of problem-solving practiced by an expert in a given field, an expert system designed to fully emulate library reference work must have the potential to respond to a wide subject range of questions with varying degrees of response adequacy. The widespread development of expert systems with this type of potential is limited due to the tremendous personnel and hardware costs currently associated in the design and application of systems of this size. Most locations utilizing some form of reference expert system have applied a compromised, more cost-efficient approach in this area. The following describes a micro-computer-based reference expert-type system that has emerged due to this needed compromise.     

Education and training for library collection development in Hungary

Library realities and library science education are closely related. This article examines the historical development of Hungarian librarianship and relates it to the late start and present situation of library science education at both university and college levels in Hungary. Initially both types of training focused on developing technical acquisitions skills. However, there have recently been basic changes in acquisitions education for librarians, with an emphasis on a service orientation rather than the collection of documents. University education is now characterized by a systems approach, cooperation and a user orientation. It is emphasized—both at university and college levels—that knowledge of acquisitions is provided not by a single subject but by many. Hungarian education is founded on practice and the future is evaluated in terms of foreign experiences and changes in the practical reality of the library scene. The role of well-accomplished acquisitions has increased. In addition to a sound knowledge of publications the librarian has to know the needs of library users. Thus acquisitions education has to be characterized by systematic change.     

Defining functional requirements for acquisitions records: Vendor metadata

Vendor records are one of the key components underpinning the acquisitions record in the integrated library system. Acquisitions and collection development practitioners increasingly need to record, access, and manipulate acquisitions vendor metadata for purposes not foreseen by the architects of current generation ILSs. The authors posit that vendor records can serve as an appropriate metaphor for the entire acquisitions record in the development of standards. The analysis of data elements and proposed grouping into fields, records, and metarecords suggests a direction for further development and enhanced functionality. The authors call on librarians, systems vendors, and materials vendors to engage in a dialog aimed at creating an accepted standard for vendor records that will meet the needs of all parties.     

Defining functional requirements for acquisitions records: Vendor metadata

Vendor records are one of the key components underpinning the acquisitions record in the integrated library system. Acquisitions and collection development practitioners increasingly need to record, access, and manipulate acquisitions vendor metadata for purposes not foreseen by the architects of current generation ILSs. The authors posit that vendor records can serve as an appropriate metaphor for the entire acquisitions record in the development of standards. The analysis of data elements and proposed grouping into fields, records, and metarecords suggests a direction for further development and enhanced functionality. The authors call on librarians, systems vendors, and materials vendors to engage in a dialog aimed at creating an accepted standard for vendor records that will meet the needs of all parties.     

Simulation of the Reference Process,Part II:

This paper is a continuation of a previous one in The Reference Librarian, exploring the advantages of a simulation (rather than expert system) approach to designing a system to relieve reference desk overload. Another paper examined the correlation between four expert systems and various reference models; it made several recommendations for future research. The ideas presented in those two earlier papers have now been implemented in a prototype system named REFSIM, which can be used by either client or librarian. REFSIM can simulate a reference librarian, a teacher of reference librarians and a client, singly or in combination. It has an expert-system consultation mode and several Intelligent Computer-Assisted Instruction (ICAI) modes. The components and architecture of REFSIM are described in this paper. Details, including a sample transaction, are given for the expert system mode, which is to be used for consultation by library clients. An overview is supplied for two ICAI modes, which can be used to instruct clients or train reference librarians.     

Approval vendor selection—what’s best practice?

With the wide variety of vendor services available, discount or other traditional factors may no longer play a predominant role in determining an academic library’s vendor selection. A questionnaire was sent to 291 academic librarians to survey their vendor selection criteria and methods. Using preliminary results from the survey, this paper examines the mix of vendors’ traditional services vs. new services that now enter into the selection decision. Further, it considers differences in practice based upon library budget size. These initial results indicate that the traditional areas of corporate reputation, approval plan management, and acquisitions services consistently receive the highest ratings of importance. The areas covering outsourcing and electronic data transmission are rated higher by those libraries using these services. As more libraries seek these services from their approval vendors, the services will likely increase in importance in librarians’ decision-making processes.     

Outsourcing,quality control,and the acquisitions professional

Outsourcing, long a presence in the library world, is increasingly seen as a way to cut technical service costs. This development has caused great insecurity among technical service librarians and frequent discussions about whether cataloging and acquisitions are threatened specializations. We argue, based on outsourcing experiences at Stanford University Libraries, that the need for experienced technical services librarians increases rather than decreases in a library that outsources some of its technical service operations. Quality control, once built into routines carried out at the clerical level, becomes a major factor for the success of the outsourced operation. This quality control component logically devolves to librarians who know how the finished product should look. We describe the quality control programs developed for monitoring a no-return approval plan and vendor-supplied cataloging.     

Evaluating the success of acquisitions departments: A literature review

The acquisitions department provides a vital service for the entire library process. However, methods of evaluation for the productivity of the department are rare. A review of the literature was conducted to find studies that provide objective measures for the evaluation of the acquisitions department. Several studies were found, but few have been replicated outside of the originating library. Further application of these models is needed to develop criteria for evaluation and new areas for further research in acquisitions.     

Vendor evaluation: A selected annotated bibliography, 1955–1987

This annotated bibliography, aimed at acquisitions and collection development librarians, gathers and organizes the scattered materials on performance evaluation of library material vendors (i.e., jobbers, wholesalers, serial agents, and publishers). The authors, the Vendor Study Group of the Association for Higher Education of North Texas, cite the most significant items found on vendor performance written between 1955 and the first half of 1987. Excluded are citations concerned with approval plans and those with marginal relevancy to the subject. The bibliography is organized into two categories: (1) Methodologies and Studies and (2) Supporting Materials.     

Using expert evaluations to complete centralized library systems

An interactive system of expert evaluations of offers made by the Russian and foreign information market of scientific literature issued in both printed and electronic form is described. The system supports the database of experts and the periodically updated database of offers of the information market. An expert evaluation is carried out over the internet from a special division of the LNS RAS site, access to which is available only to authorized users, i.e., experts. Expert selectors make decisions about ordering various editions for funding from the centralized library system by analyzing tables formed based on processed results from expert evaluations with the help of specially created software tools.     

Standing orders: considerations for acquisitions method

Even though a substantial amount of the library materials budget may be allocated for standing orders, this method of acquisition is frequently not given the same attention as those used for traditional monographs and serials. This article describes some of the differences in standing order material, including their shared characteristics with both monographs and serials. It also reviews factors that make some standing orders a good candidate for an approval plan. The article also enumerates some considerations in vendor selection decisions, regardless of which acquisitions method is used. The author concludes that it is definitely time to assess how these materials are acquired and which type of vendor is used and to make decisions that extend our purchasing power.