Toward a new world order: A survey of outsourcing capabilities of vendors for acquisitions,cataloging and collection development services

A survey of selected library materials jobbers, cataloging agents, and library consortia shows that communication standards, vendor and library automation, and new partnerships among vendors and libraries are leading to greater opportunities for outsourcing acquisitions, cataloging, and collection development. Currently libraries can depend on vendors for preorder searching, verification, and claiming functions as well as copy and original cataloging. Libraries can receive shelf-ready materials from jobbers or cataloging agents; those that collect mainstream materials have the most options; others must shop among vendors. Collection development is the function least changed by automation, but materials jobbers are orienting more electronic services towards this area. Librarians should become full partners in the development of contract services. To do this, librarians must understand the evolving roles of the traditional partners and the costs and risks involved.     

Collection Development Resources and Procedures in Nigerian Public Libraries

By means of a mailed questionnaire, a study was undertaken to assess the collection development resources and procedures of public libraries in a developing country, Nigeria. Usable responses were received from nine of the nineteen public (state) library services in the country. The results show that Nigerian public libraries receive grossly inadequate funds, especially for acquisition of library materials. Consequently the libraries' collections are small. There is no uniform pattern of allocating staff to the acquisitions departments, which are over-staffed in relation to their workloads. It was found also that slightly differing acquisitions procedures are adopted by the various public libraries.     

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.     

Acquisitions in the nineties: Surviving the fragmenting future

Articles forecasting the effects of automation on libraries have only recently begun to recognize the impact technologies external to the library will have on the acquisition function and librarians in all parts of academic libraries. Although the technologies appear to be fragmenting the acquisitions process within and external to the library, these technologies offer options that will dramatically change how libraries serve their clientele. At this time, these options may preclude traditional organizational design. Acquisitions librarians and their peers in all library departments must explore and learn about these technologies and the information they can provide, and actively participate in the design of new services.     

网络图书馆的新模式——基于Linux操作系统的中心/成员图书馆方案

由于Internet 的迅速发展, 传统图书馆正在向网络化图书馆方向转变。一般传统的图书馆自动化系统的软硬件设备包括Unix 小型机和工作站, 大型商业化的RDBMS (关系型数据库管理系统)。这样的一套软硬件设备的价格比较昂贵(比如一套IBM DB2 v7. 1 数据库系统2000 年报价是2 万多美元) , 对于缺乏资金的中小型的图书馆来说, 这样的系统是可望不可及的。但是, 随着Internet 的发展, 许多免费软件的兴起为中小型图书馆购置图书馆自动化系统提供了机会。根据这种情况, 我们提出了一个低成本的基于Linux 等免费软件的网络图书馆自动化方案: 中心馆/成员馆整体解决方案。     

Law Libraries,Hospitals, Museums,Colleges, and Government Offices All Sharing One Automation Project

Summary

In 1994, the Chicago Library System (CLS), a state-funded inputting agent for 918 multitype libraries within the city of Chicago, contracted with Ameritech Library Services to automate its member libraries. The server is contracted from Ameritech while the libraries lease the integrated system from CLS. During the automation process, CLS worked closely with member libraries to set automation goals, plan for retrospective cataloging, and train library personnel. The unique plan and support provided by CLS and Ameritech made automation a reality for many of the small collections within the partnership.     

Acquisitions and collection development in Italy

This paper examines professional education for librarians in Italy, indicating which institutions attend to professional education. In Italy there is no specific training for acquisitions work. After a brief excursus on the common characteristics of acquisitions procedures in Italian libraries, the paper outlines acquisitions procedures in three kinds of libraries: university, national and public.     

Narrowing the Gap:

The traditional library organization for over forty years has been divided into technical services and public services. The age of automation, however, is bringing these two areas much closer together, and in some large academic libraries, the technical services librarian and the public services librarian are the same person. The work done in serials acquisitions and collection development is now available online in many libraries. Several libraries also have automated serials control and cataloging capabilities. With the advent of online access to serials, reference, interlibrary loan and library instruction services have simplified the work demands for the reference librarian. This conclusion suggests that cooperation between technical services and public services is the logical solution to provide the best possible service to the library patron.     

Fiction in Nigerian Public Libraries

This article reports the results of a survey of the provision and use of fiction in Nigerian public libraries. Evidence shows that, despite carefully framed acquisitions policy statements regarding fiction, in actual fact the public libraries allocate only a small percentage of their meagre book funds to fiction. Consequently, the fiction collections of these libraries are very small, and library clients borrow much less fiction than nonfiction. Nevertheless, Nigerian public libraries have a special interest in acquiring and promoting the reading of indigenous fiction.     

美国图书馆自动化系统现状及趋势

简要地回顾美国图书馆自动化系统(LAS)的发展历史,介绍美国LAS市场现状,包括市场收入、高校图书馆、公共图书馆和中小学校图书馆LAS市场。以几个较有名的大型系统为例,分析美国LAS中一些值得我们借鉴的特点,并从三个方面具体阐述美国LAS的发展趋势--正向适应数字图书馆的系统转变。     

高校图书馆读者网上荐书的调研与思考

随着网络技术的发展和读者信息需求的日益增长,读者网上荐书成为图书馆采访选书工作的辅助方式之一。文章通过调研20所高校图书馆读者网上荐书的现状,分析了现有荐书模式的特色和不足,提出了完善图书荐购系统的措施。最后介绍了PDA读者决策采购模式的新理念。     

中小型图书馆自动化建设的实践与思考

文章通过对本馆自动化工作的回顾与展望, 阐述了图书馆自动化建设从无到有、从封闭到开放、从重管理到重服务的发展道路, 介绍了发展中小型图书馆自动化工作的宝贵经验。     

美国图书馆自动化系统市场管窥

美国是世界上图书馆自动化的领先者，文章对美国图书馆自动化系统(LAS)市场现状进行了介绍，包括以下几个方面的情况：LAS厂商的竞争与合作、系统更换、市场收入、非集成系统产品，及公共图书馆、高校图书馆、中小学图书馆和企业图书馆市场等。     

The Administration of Branch Libraries in a Developing Country:

Branch libraries are considered important for effective public library service to large communities. This study was aimed at investigating the administration of branch libraries in a developing country, Nigeria. A pretested mail questionnaire was used for data collection. Usable responses were received from twelve state public library services which had 66 branch libraries. The branch libraries were inadequate for the populations they were meant to serve. They were poorly funded and staffed, and had small collections. Though efforts were made to reflect the interests and needs of the branch libraries in book selection and other aspects, heads of branch libraries had inadequate administrative powers for efficient management of their units.     

Starting almost from scratch: Developing special collections as a teaching tool in the small academic library

This article presents strategies on how small academic libraries—where instructional efforts are often limited to information literacy initiatives—can expand their pedagogical efforts by way of book history instruction by developing a small but capable rare books collection used solely as a teaching tool. Discussed are methods for locating hidden collections and the removal of materials from general stacks to rare book shelving, the advantages and limitations of the one-shot instructional session, methods of earning administrative buy-in that can lead to small rare book acquisitions budgets, and promotional and collaborative strategies to build university-wide support. The article concludes with strategies on how to develop a three-credit undergraduate course on book history taught by a librarian using a rare books teaching collection acquired by modest expenditure and careful selection.     

Acquiring Software for the Academic Library

As academic institutions commit to supporting research and teaching through electronic resources, libraries become involved in the collection and delivery of these resources, and national initiatives are being developed which will encourage the dissemination of electronic information in the academic setting. Some libraries already are acquiring software, and in the process, encountering new problems and challenges. This paper describes the impact the change is having on the acquisitions process and suggests how these changes might be addressed. Some new possibilities for acquisitions departments are also outlined.     

我国高校图书馆开放获取学术资源集成与揭示现状分析

对75所教育部所属院校图书馆进行调查分析,发现虽然有高达89.33%的图书馆对开放获取资源进行了不同程度的集成和揭示,但存在集成和揭示力度不足、缺乏统一与协作等诸多问题。最后对开放获取资源集成与揭示工作提出具体建议。     

Promptcat issues for acquisitions: Quality review,cost analysis and workflow implications

PromptCat is a new service offered by OCLC, in conjunction with monograph materials vendors, that provides libraries with a full bibliographic record from the OCLC Online Union Catalog (OLUC) simultaneous to the supply of materials from a vendor. The library's holdings are set automatically on the OLUC record. Because PromptCat eliminates the need for libraries to do individual title-by-title searching and record selection when materials are received, it will streamline local cataloging activities. It may also provide an impetus for libraries to reevaluate local editing practices and determine whether materials can be processed quickly upon receipt in acquisitions rather than in copy cataloging.This article addresses issues relating to PromptCat, including tests of the service conducted at The Ohio State University (OSU) and Michigan State University (MSU), an estimated cost/benefit analysis based on OSU's approval plan, and issues including coordination between OCLC, materials vendors, system vendors, and the library as well as workflow, organizational implications and staffing issues.     

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.