Acquisitions from the Middle East: The view from Harrassowitz

At Otto Harrassowitz, the acquisition of materials from the Middle East is handled by the Asian Department, which purchases relevant publications in the Humanities and Social Sciences from Morocco. Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan. Otto Harrassowitz encourages the use of their catalogs as a selection source in order to avoid problems with bibliographic verification, to identify rare and out-of-print items, and to insure a higher fill-rate and faster delivery time. The lack of any organized book distribution system, the volatile political climate, and the high cost of the necessary air-freight shipment of materials, all contribute to the costs involved in acquiring and stocking publications from the Middle East. These costs also must be considered when establishing the bookseller's price to the libraries.     

The republic of federal scientific publication: The not-so-public domain

This article examines the forces that have made federal scientific publication an essentially private enterprise. Particular attention is paid to the rise of the scientific community in the American political system. The period under review begins roughly with 1941 and American involvement in World War II, which coincides with the establishment of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (ORSD). The article examines OSRD’s method of conducting federal scientific research, its contractual system, and the new publishing paradigm that it engendered. The article concludes in the 1960s with congressional efforts to revise provisions in Title 17, the     

Communicating the Open Access Message: A Case Study from Ireland

Since 2009, Open Access (OA) Week has been celebrated worldwide in October each year. It is an opportunity for librarians to engage with the research community and demonstrate the value that they bring to their organisations in the area of disseminating scholarly output. Although thousands of events have been held since the inception of OA Week, a minimal amount of research has been carried out regarding the impact of these events. This article presents a review of the literature on OA Week and evaluates the effectiveness of three events held during OA Week 2015 in Ireland through the use of statistics and a survey. The three events held during OA Week 2015 in Ireland that were evaluated include: a seminar run by Repository Network Ireland (RNI), a D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything And Read) campaign using OA materials organized by Dr. Steevens' Library, and a collaborative OA seminar between Dr. Steevens' Library and Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) libraries. The author concludes that a collaborative approach to planning and managing OA week between librarians from academic and other sectors can have tangible benefits both in terms of promoting OA and also promoting the role of the Librarian in the OA movement.     

A view from within: the student in student worker

Clare Harris is a Master’s student in the Department of Library and Information Science at St. John’s University. This essay offers a first-person account of life as a student and a library employee. From her personal experience, Harris offers suggestions for how best to engage student workers in academic library settings.     

Africana acquisitions problems: The view from both sides

This article discusses the book publishing industry in Africa in the early 1980s, the problems faced by North American librarians attempting to acquire African-published materials, and reviews the major bibliographic reference tools. The difficulties involved in producing books in Africa are examined at length and suggestions are made for easing the acquisitions problems of North American librarians.     

The library from the nursing educator's point of view

Libraries are accessible to faculties of schools of nursing but tend not to be fully utilized by them. The author describes the results of her surveys of nursing literature concerning libraries and one faculty's opinions and knowledge about its school library. Suggestions are made for assisting nurse educators and students to use the library to its fullest extent.