A knowledge-based expert systems application in library acquisitions: Monographs

The decision-making process in any environment, including the library, is potentially subjective and arbitrary. The impetus for this research has been to eliminate the discretionary component in vendor selection by designing a quantitative decision-making model. Technically, the model is based on the artificial intelligence concept known as an expert system. The model uses rules provided by the expert, policies of the individual institution, and quantitative decision techniques to assign orders to vendors. Advantages to this knowledge-based model are the following: (1) assurance of quantitative objectivity; (2) efficient allocation of limited resources; (3) improved use of personnel time; (4) creation of a database of vendor price structuring; and (5) usefulness as a training resource.     

Authorship in library acquisitions: Practice & theory

Authorship in Library Acquisitions: Practice & Theory, volume 1, number 1 (January 1977) through volume 19, number 4 (Winter 1995) is analyzed. A literature review identifies numerous other studies of authorship patterns in library and information science (LIS) journals. This study's major findings are: 80.6% of LAPT authors contributed a single article, while 3.9% wrote four or more; 15.6% of the articles were collaboratively written by two or more authors; 65.4% of LAPT authors were academic librarians and 10.6% were vendors; a majority (53.9%) were male, but longitudinal analysis shows an increasing portion of female authors; and 15.3% of LAPT authors were from outside the U.S. Comparisons are made with other LIS journals and explanations for the findings are briefly speculated upon.     

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.     

The future of library acquisitions as the electronic information realm evolves

The community of scholars and the scholarship industry coexist in a symbiosis. It is sometimes claimed that computers could take over the role of libraries as information migrates from print to electronic transmission, but computing should properly be seen as a new element in the publishing industry while libraries are the property of the community of scholars. There is a wide range of intellectual material, from data through information to works of understanding and imagination, and no single medium is best for every purpose. Computers have much to offer at the data end of the range, but print remains the choice of users for works requiring extended exposition, as well as current awareness publishing.     

The hospital library as provider of consumer health information

The health care environment of the 1990s demands that hospital libraries develop creative strategies for providing consumer health information (CHI). Librarians at the Reuben L. Sharp Health Sciences Library at Cooper Hospital/University Medical Center have developed a multifaceted approach to the problem. Using a combination of institutional resources, private funding, and cooperative arrangements with public libraries, the Sharp Library helps to serve the consumer health information needs of the southern New Jersey community.     

The Q formula: The flexible formula for library acquisitions in relation to the FTE driven formula

The purpose of this article is to identify the variables involved in the construction or selection of a formula to allocate library acquisitions funds to colleges and departments in a university; to summarize some of the key administrative issues relating to formula allocation, such as who should do the allocating, how the allocations should be determined, and the amount of the total acquisitions budget that should be allocated; and to present examples of both a working and a theoretical formula. A case study of a medium-sized university (Youngstown State University) where a committee of faculty and students have allocated the acquisitions budget using an FTE (full-time equivalent) driven formula successfully for several years is examined. A Q formula, incorporating most known variables plus productivity in disciplines and average cost per title in each discipline, is also suggested as an alternative formula. This approach would be most applicable in four-year colleges or medium-sized universities. Comments on the problems of the realities of applying formula-generated budgets and their relationship to collection development are given by Susan Jacobson, Acquisitions Librarian, and Carol Wall, Public Services Librarian.