Section on Acquisition and Collection Development

Annual Report 1996-1997

Membership

Report of the Financial Officer

Balance:    31 December 1996
      Administrative funds                382.41
      Project funds                       360.00

Revenues:  1997 transfers from IFLA HQ
      Administrative funds       (=NLG668)340.30
      Project funds                         0.00

TOTALS:     (Balance + Revenues)
      Administrative funds                722.71
      Project funds                       360.00

Expenses:  1 January-28 July 1997
      Administrative funds                  0.00
      Project funds                         0.00

CURRENT BALANCE: (Revenues less Expenses)
      Administrative funds                 722.71
      Project funds                        360.00

Publications of the Section

1. Newsletter. During the year two issues of the Section’s Newsletter were produced and mailed to members of the Section.

2. Bibliographical Index on Acquisition and International Book Exchange. The compilation of the next issue of the Exchange Bibliography by staff of the Foreign Acquisitions Department of the Russian State Library has been completed and the text is in draft form. The subject matter has been expanded to include all acquisitions, not just exchanges, as well as collection development. Both monographs and individual articles are included, transliterated where necessary using ISO. Unfortunately because of shortage of funding the compilers cannot complete their work at the moment and bring the issue to a publishable form. About 2000 guilders are needed to finish the work. The Section feels that the publication of the Exchange Bibliography fits well into the scope of a Project as defined by IFLA rules, for which separate funding might be available. It will be bidding through the Co-ordinating Board for money to complete the Project. The Section also feels that there is scope in future for the Exchange Bibliography to become a regular ongoing publication, in which case IFLA Headquarters could be asked to take it on as part of its continuing publications role. Marjorie Bloss will take the matter up with IFLA HQ. In view of the changing scope of the bibliography, the Section feels it appropriate to change its title. In future it will be known as the Acquisition and Collection Development Bibliography. The possibility of amalgamating it with the National Acquisitions Group acquisitions bibliography, compiled by Jim Vickery, which covers English language items only, will be investigated for later editions, but the current edition has enough material to go ahead as it stands.

3. Section Brochure. A new edition of the Section Brochure is under way. It has been delayed in order to include the newly adopted Medium Term Programme, but will be available by the time of the Amsterdam Conference.

Medium Term Programme

IFLA Section on Acquisition and Collection Development

1998-2001 Medium Term Programme

Scope

Goals

1. Monitor the impact of the electronic environment on acquisitions functions (such as the ordering and paying of materials electronically, the creation and maintenance of machine-readable acquisition files), collection evaluation and assessment, and exchange.

2. Provide information on collection development activities, such as the formulation of policies, deacquisitions and weeding of collections, and co-operative acquisitions programmes.

3. Assume a partnership role in promoting libraries' perspectives in the publisher and vendor communities in the areas of copyright, licensing, and the pricing of materials, with an emphasis on electronic documents.

4. Monitor and provide information on the changing organisational structures in acquisitions and collection development departments, especially in the light of the changing electronic environment.

5. Provide information about the work of the section and standing committee in a variety of mediums (printed Newsletters, brochures, publication of papers given during IFLA conferences, and in electronic formats such as IFLANet) to those interested in acquisitions and collection development work.

6. Provide information on the processes and procedures governing legal deposits.

7. Promote the section in order to increase membership.

ACTION PLAN 1998-1999

Goal 1: Monitor the impact of the electronic environment on acquisitions functions (such as the ordering and paying of materials electronically, the creation and maintenance of machine-readable acquisition files), collection evaluation and assessment, and exchange.

1. Present an Open Programme at the 1998 IFLA Conference in Amsterdam on the changes from manual to electronic acquisitions functions (e.g., ordering, EDI, on-line order and vendor files, claiming, etc.) and the impact on acquisitions and collection development in general resulting from greater interaction with the external electronic world. (IFLA 1998 Conference)

2. Evaluate the possibility of conducting a survey on the impact of the electronic environment on acquisitions functions of libraries in Developing Countries. (Initial discussion at the 1997 IFLA conference.)

Goal 2: Provide information on collection development activities, such as the formulation of policies, deacquisitions and weeding of collections, and co-operative acquisitions programmes.

1. Request written collection development policies from libraries to form the basis for a new document that could be used for libraries wishing to create collection development policies. (Early 1998, for publication in time for the summer 1999 IFLA Conference.)

2. Develop a conference programme on collection development policies for the 1999 IFLA Conference in Bangkok, based on 1. (Summer 1999.)

Goal 3: Assume a partnership role in promoting libraries' perspectives in the publisher and vendor communities in the areas of copyright, licensing, and the pricing of materials, with an emphasis on electronic documents.

1. With the Core Programme on UAP and the Publishers' Liaison Committee, co-sponsor a workshop on copyright with a focus on electronic documents for the 1998 IFLA Conference. (1998 Conference in Amsterdam.)

2. Conduct a survey on the costs of licensing agreements versus traditional subscription costs, analyse and distribute the results. (Late 1999, early 2000. Co-ordinate with Serial Publications.)

3. Actively participate in meetings of the Publishers' Liaison Committee during IFLA Conferences. Provide summaries of the meetings in the Section's Newsletter. (Ongoing.)

Goal 4: Monitor and provide information on the changing organisational structures in acquisitions and collection development departments, especially in the light of the changing electronic environment.

1. Work with the IFLA Publications Committee to publish the papers from the 1997 Open Programme on The Changing Organisation Structures in Acquisitions in a monograph. (Discussion with the Publications Committee will occur prior to the 1998 IFLA Conference.)

Goal 5: Provide information about the work of the section and standing committee in a variety of mediums (printed Newsletters, brochures, publication of papers given during IFLA conferences, and in electronic formats such as IFLANet) to those interested in acquisitions and collection development work.

1. Publish two issues of the Section's Newsletter each year. Forward machine-readable versions to IFLANet for inclusion. (Ongoing.)

2. Continue to update the Exchange Bibliography and issue it either in the Section's Newsletter or as a separate publication. (Ongoing.)

3. Translate the Section's brochure into at least three of the official IFLA languages. (1998.)

Goal 6:Provide information on the processes and procedures governing legal deposits.

1. No activity in this two-year period.

Goal 7: Promote the section in order to increase membership.

1. Using the IFLA Directory, identify and target libraries that might have special interest in acquisition and collection development. Mail them a letter of introduction about the Section and a copy of the Section's brochure. (Fall 1998.)

Status Report on the Collection Development Project

Future Conferences

1. Amsterdam Conference 1998. For this Conference the Standing Committee has accepted an offer from Dominic Farace, Director of TransAtlantic/GreyNet, who organises bi-annual conferences on Grey Literature, to mount a Workshop on behalf of the Section. It will be entitled Infrastructures in support of the collection, storage and dissemination of electronic grey literature and will last half a day. The aim of the Workshop will be to learn, through the use of case-studies, how government document repositories deal with their electronic grey literature compared with a national library or clearing house, etc. For the Open Programme at Amsterdam, the Standing Committee decided not to proceed with a topic arising from the Collection Development project, since it was unlikely to be sufficiently advanced by then. In its place, it has been decided to proceed with an Open Programme entitled Collection development issues in building the digital library. The Programme will be co-ordinated by Sara Yontan Musnik (France), Joe Hewitt (USA) and Christina Fristrom (Sweden).

2. Bangkok Conference 1999. For this conference, the Section is considering an Open Programme on the theme of Book Aid Programmes under the possible title Assuring the quality of exchange programmes, taking in the views of both the donating and recipient libraries, how to produce a positive programme and the role of ISO9000. As an alternative, the Project on Collection Development may be advanced enough by then to feed into an Open Programme. For the Workshop a topic will be developed relating to conservation, possibly in conjunction with the Preservation and Conservation Section as co-sp onsor.

Reports from the 1997 Copenhagen Conference

1. Open Programme. The Section's Open Programme at Copenhagen was on the theme Working together to build library collections: the economic framework. There were three papers. Liz Chapman of the University of Oxford, in a paper entitled Buying shares in libraries: the economics of co-operative collection development, started from the point of view that co-operation between libraries was something that library staff took for granted and pointed out that many co-operative schemes had already been started. These underlined the concept of working together, which was an essential part of the librarian's professional ethos. The paper considered the economics of co-operative collection development, both in theory and in practice, in European and particularly UK academic libraries. The conclusions drawn were that, while co-operative collection development could spring from various roots - economic incentives to co-operate as budgetary resources dwindle; a feeling that co-operation would improve the status of the library service; pressure from publishers to co-operate via licensing; - collection managers should approach co-operation professionally as a way to enhance service. Co-operation is not cost free and it is not easy. Time/money has to be given to planning and communication; time/money must be allocated to staff training. This work has to be accomplished on top of normal tasks and effective negotiation skills are needed to get partners to compromise. Collection managers must be motivated to get involved. Co-operative collection development is worth pursuing only if it actively benefits those people who are the first responsibility - the library users.

   Donald B. Simpson of the Center for Research Libraries in Chicago, in his paper Economics of co-operative collection development and management - the United States' experience with rarely-held research materials, described the mission and programmes of North America's most successful and enduring effort in co-operative collection development and management. The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) provides an ongoing opportunity for inter-institutional collaboration among significant academic and research libraries in the United States and Canada. Member libraries make local collecting decisions based on the collecting policies of CRL, especially in relation to peripheral materials, including newspapers, serials, dissertations, retrospective collections and area studies materials. Through shared ownership and pooled resources, participants in CRL programmes reduce the individual costs of collecting a large body of materials to levels which cannot be matched locally. Lastly, the impact of electronic resources on CRL's co-operative collection programme is considered.

   Margaret A. Bywater of the Asia Foundation, Phnom Penh, in her paper Libraries in Cambodia: rebuilding a past and a future, looked at collection development and library development from the point of view of an expatriate adviser working long term in a developing country of South-East Asia. Cambodia has suffered from the effects of wars and political upheavals for most of the past thirty years. Library development has been slow for a variety of reasons. There is a danger of library collection development becoming donor driven. The history of the National Library of Cambodia is a microcosm of this. The author saw development as a long term process (both in library terms and in community development terms). The paper draws upon eleven years experience in working in libraries, library development and community development in Cambodia. Following on from a point made in the paper on Cambodia, the Section Committee is considering a proposal that a future Open Programme of the SC should look at Book Aid programmes to the third world and issues of their suitability.

   There was a good attendance at the Open Programme - between 60 and 70 people.

2. Workshop. This was organised by Ann Okerson (USA) and had been jointly sponsored with the Management and Marketing Section and the Publishers Liaison Committee under the title Licensing electronic content for libraries: the new regime. There were four speakers - Ann Okerson, Leslie Ellen Harris, Vincent Cassidy and Martha Whitaker covering respectively the positions of the librarians, the lawyers, the publishers and the vendors. Ann Okerson felt that the Workshop had improved as the afternoon progressed, although there had been problems with the microphones and the audience had had real difficulty in hearing the speakers. There were 70 attendees, the maximum allowed, plus some unregistered extras. The topic clearly had had relevance for the audience, and there was a need to take forward the issues raised. She wondered whether abstracts of papers could be provided in future. She noted that the Workshop had reflected the view of the commercial world rather than that of librarians.

Publisher Liaison Committee