Section on Acquisition and Collection Development

Annual Report
1 September 1999 to 31 August 2000

1. Scope of the Section

Also of concern to the Section are the impact and application of technological developments which underlie many of the changes observed in departmental workflow, and partnering arrangements when acquiring materials (such as electronic data interchange, materials licensing agreements, and co-operative collection development).

2. Membership and Officers

2.1
As of 1 August 2000 there were 152 members of the Section. The Standing Committee in 1999/2000 consisted of 20 members and 5 corresponding members or observers.

2.2
The Chairman and Financial Officer during the year was Ms Sara Yontan, (Conservateur, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Quai François Mauriac, 75706 PARIS Cedex 13 France. Tel *(33)(1)53795278; Fax *(33)(1)53795180; email sara.yontan@bnf.fr)

The Secretary, Information Co-ordinator and Newsletter Editor was Jim Vickery (Head of English Language Selection & Serials, The British Library, Boston Spa LS23 7BQ UK. Tel *(44) (1937) 546071; Fax *(44) (1937) 546572; email jim.vickery@bl.uk)

3. Meetings and Events

3.1 Jerusalem, 2000

3.1.1 Standing Committee

The Standing Committee met twice at the Jerusalem Conference in August 2000 to undertake routine business and prepare for the Section's activities.

The main points discussed at Jerusalem were:

• the future of the Acquisition and Collection Development Bibliography
• the Collection Development Policy Guidelines
• the ubiquity of electronic and digital themes
• the reconstitution of the Publisher Liaison Committee as the Publishers Relations Advisory Committee
• the new Discussion Group on Repository Libraries.

3.1.2 A&CD Section Open Programme

The Section's Open Programme on Models for Acquiring Electronic Resources took place on 15 August 2000, with simultaneous interpretation.

Standing Committee member Nancy Davenport acted as moderator. There were two excellent presentations:

Libraries without resources: towards personal collections, by J.S.M. Savenije and Natalia Grygierczyk (Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands)

Some consortial models for acquiring electronic resources in Germany, by Diann Rusch-Feja (Library and Research Information, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany)

The third paper (Toward worldwide resource sharing: collection development in China's higher education institutions, by Yafan Song (Cataloguing Department, Library of Renmin University, Renmin, China)) was not given as the author was not present at the conference. The moderator's decision not to read the paper was endorsed by the Standing Committee. Technical support in the main auditorium was good, and there were 125 people in the audience.

3.1.3 Report on the A&CD Section Workshop

The Workshop on Collection Development in the Digital Age: Organisational Challenges took place on 17 August 2000. It was introduced and moderated by Standing Committee member Joe Hewitt. All three papers were well received and sparked a number of questions from the 90-strong audience:

The impact of digital resources on organization and management of collection development and acquisitions, by Larry Alford (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA)

Reorganisation in the British Library to acquire electronic resources, by Jim Vickery (English Language Selection and Serials, British Library)

Co-operative collection development of electronic information resources in Turkish university libraries, by Yasar Tonta (Department of Library Science, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey)

3.1.4 Divisional Programme

A Divisional Programme on Israel: Documenting a Culture was jointly organised by A&CD Section, and chaired by Sara Yontan. The event went well, although one speaker did not present a formal paper. Around 60 people were present.

3.1.5 Discussion Group on Licensing

The Discussion Group on Licensing met again at Jerusalem, convened by Standing Committee member Ann Okerson, to focus on national site licence agreements. The meeting generated considerable interest; much useful information was conveyed and there were several good contributions from the 80 participants.

The A&CD Standing Committee Chair wrote to IFLA HQ formally requesting continuation of the Discussion Group on Licensing for another year.

3.1.6 Repository Libraries Discussion Group

This new Discussion Group was set up primarily under the Document Delivery and Interlending Section, but A&CD had been closely involved in the process. Pentti Vattulainen, convenor, reported that the room had been too small to accommodate all those interested, and that there had been insufficient time to present all the papers and country reports. Nevertheless, there was a real interest in this theme, and the papers were subsequently posted on IFLANET.

It was agreed that the Discussion Group should continue next year under DDIL Section, but should eventually be sponsored by the Acquisition and Collection Development Section.

3.1.7 Publishers Relations Advisory Committee (PRAC)

A&CD Section has a close interest in the interface between publishers and libraries. Ann Okerson represented the Section at the first meeting of PRAC, a revival of the Publishers Liaison Committee. The role of PRAC was to advise a high-level working group of senior IFLA officials and publishers. Only non-contentious issues were to be discussed, so metadata and archiving were on the agenda, but not licensing or legal deposit. The A&CD Standing Committee considered this a rather cautious and restrictive approach.

3.2 Plans for Boston Conference, 2001

The Committee agreed to convene both an Open Forum and a Workshop at Jerusalem.

The Open Forum, to be organised by Ann Okerson, would be on the theme of Measuring and evaluating the use of electronic collections. The Programme could be a joint event with the Education & Training, Statistics, or Information Technology Sections.

The Workshop at Boston would deal with the theme Exchange agreements: do they have a future in the digital age? It would be organised by Sara Yontan, with assistance from Tatiana Afanasieva or other Russian members, Masaki Nasu and Pentti Vattulainen.

There would also be another meeting of the Discussion Group on Licensing at Boston.

3.3 Plans for Glasgow Conference, 2002

No definite plans were made for Glasgow 2002, but potential topics previously identified included: French collections outside France; collection development policies for electronic material; pricing issues for electronic material; serials pricing; access to electronic dissertations; international resource sharing; issues in consortial acquisition; legal deposit of electronic material; and library/publisher relations.

3.4 Medium Term Programme, 2002-2004

3.4.1

There was insufficient time at the Jerusalem conference to examine and update the existing MTP. The Standing Committee agreed to produce a good draft of the new MTP by mid-2001, for final discussion and ratification at the Boston Conference.

3.4.2

It was noted at Jerusalem that all tasks from the Action List at Bangkok had been completed, except MTP 1.5 'Formulate a survey on pricing packages for print and electronic material' and MTP 1.6 'Prepare a checklist for acquiring digital resources'.

4. Projects and Publications

4.1 Projects

4.1.1

Guidelines for Creating a Collection Development Policy
Matters were well in hand for a project to produce a basic, non-prescriptive guide for libraries wishing to embark upon writing a collection policy statement. Standing Committee member Dora Biblarz had produced a text, which was to be expanded, plus a model template. The booklet would include the text in all IFLA languages, but still ideally be under 16 pages. Dora Biblarz would liaise with Trix Bakker and Marie-Joëlle Tarin on the final version of the text, which should be ready by the end of 2000.

4.1.2

Acquisition and Collection Development Bibliography
The most recent issues of the Acquisition and Collection Development Bibliography, compiled by staff at the Russian State Library, were posted on IFLANET. There were now 1,200 entries, but the project would have to end in December 2000 for personnel reasons at the Library. No other volunteers were forthcoming to continue the bibliography, although the idea of a technical model in which all members could contribute entries to a central database would be explored further.

The Committee considered that author and subject indexes were needed, to make the bibliography more usable. Jim Vickery would combine the six lists into a single alphabetical sequence, for posting on IFLANET. Christina Friström offered to devise a subject scheme of 10-20 headings, subdivide the entries by language, and allocate them to appropriate Committee members for analysis.

4.1.3

Survey on serials pricing
The Committee agreed that this was still a possible project, although no definite action was planned.

4.2 Publications

4.2.1

Handbook for the International Exchange of Publications
The Committee agreed that there was a need for an new version of the handbook on exchange, taking electronic developments into account. Sara Yontan produced an outline based on work at the Bibliothèque nationale de France: the publication would comprise a discursive introduction and a directory of exchange centres - the directory could be updated on IFLANET. A group of interested parties was convened to take the work forward.
During the Jerusalem conference Sara spoke with IFLA and Saur, who were keen for the work to go ahead; Sara Yontan and Jim Vickery also discussed the next steps with Sjoerd Koopman, IFLA's Professional Co-ordinator, and the publication date was provisionally set for 2002. The Saur book would be published in English and French editions; a shorter Russian version could also be produced as an IFLA publication.

4.2.2

Section brochures
During the year the Standing Committee produced a new brochure in all the official IFLA languages. Brochures would be sent out with appropriate Newsletters, with most of the remainder deposited at IFLA HQ.
It was proposed to produce a new version of the English-language brochure in 2001/2002, reflecting the new MTP Goals.

4.2.3

Newsletter
During the year two issues of the Section's Newsletter were produced and mailed to members of the Section and posted on IFLANET.

5. Financial Report

5.1

Sara Yontan as Financial Officer presented the following report, which was approved by the Standing Committee as submitted. All figures are in French Francs.

REVENUES
Balance: 31 December 1999
Administrative funds	760.66
Project funds	2,233.44
Total	2,994.10
Revenues: 1 January 2000 to date
Transfers from IFLA HQ (Admin)	3,379.82
TOTAL REVENUES (Balance plus revenue)
Administrative funds	4,140.51
Project funds	2,233.44
EXPENSES
1 January 2000 - 8 August 2000
Administrative funds	841.50
Project funds	0
BALANCE
Administrative funds	3,299.10
Project funds	2,233.44
Total	5,532.54

5.2

The 2,233.44FF (previously $360) project money for the Collection Development Guidelines had remained unspent, and there was no administrative expenditure up to August 2000, other than 841.5FF for photocopying of brochures.

6. Relationship with other bodies

As access to materials becomes an increasingly viable alternative to ownership, the Section finds itself working more closely with the IFLA Core Programme on Universal Availability of Publications, the Sections on Serial Publications and Document Delivery and Interlibrary Loan, and the Publishers Relations Advisory Committee.