Section on Acquisition and Collection Development

Annual Report
1 September 1998 to 31 August 1999

1. Scope

2. Membership and Officers

2.1
As of 1 August 1999 there were 150 members of the Section. The Standing Committee in 1998/99 consisted of 19 members and 5 corresponding members or observers.

The Chairman and Financial Officer during the year was Marjorie Bloss (Vice President for Library Operations, Center for Research Libraries, 6050 South Kenwood Avenue Chicago, IL 60637 USA. Tel *(1) (773) 9554545 ext 316; Fax *(1) (773) 9554339; E-mail bloss@crlmail.uchicago.edu) 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; E-mail jim.vickery@bl.uk)

2.2
Marjorie Bloss welcomed new Committee members at Bangkok: Trix Bakker (Netherlands), Doina Farkas (USA), Nancy Davenport (USA), Sook-hyeun Lee (Korea) and Montserrat Oliván (Spain).

2.3
Nominations were sought for Chair and Secretary for 1999-2001. Sara Yontan was elected Chair, and Jim Vickery was re-elected Secretary. Sara Yontan agreed to become Financial Officer, and Jim Vickery agreed to continue as Information Co-ordinator and Newsletter Editor.

2.4
Marjorie Bloss was thanked for her effective work as Chair over the last four years. Her major contribution to the success of the Section was recognised by all members of the Committee.

3. Meetings and events

3.1 Bangkok, 1999

3.1.1 Standing Committee

The Standing Committee met twice at the Bangkok Conference in August 1999 to undertake routine business and prepare for the Section's activities.

The main points discussed at Bangkok were:

• the Acquisition and Collection Development Bibliography, which would continue to be posted on IFLANET
• plans to produce translations of the section's new brochure into the official IFLA languages
• broad changes to IFLA's Rules and Statutes
• the length of time required to effect much-needed procedural changes, such as that only one institutional member should be required to nominate someone to a Standing Committee
• the overlapping interests of other sections, eg the Serial Publications Section was considering a survey of costs of licensing versus subscription
• reconstitution of the Publisher Liaison Committee, which had been suspended in 1998
• a proposal to set up a Discussion Group on Repository Libraries.

3.1.2 Report on the A&CD Section Open Programme

The Section's Open Forum The role of partnership arrangements and exchanges in libraries, took place on Tuesday 24 August 1999. There were four presentations, the first in two parts:

Current publishing and information trends in Southeast Asia: Indonesia - freedom of the press - Oliver Mann / Recent influences on publishing in Southeast Asia - William Tuchrello

Exchange of publications in acquisition of foreign literature in the National Library of Estonia - acquisition and promotion - René Tendermann

Dinosaur or dynamic: exchange of art publications in the digital age - Margaret Shaw

Promotion et rôle du partenariat et des échanges entre bibliothèques de France et d'Afrique - Francisco d'Almeida

At its second meeting the Standing Committee noted the success of the full session, with over 100 people in the audience. The geographic diversity of the papers was particularly appreciated.

3.1.3 Report on the A&CD Section Workshop

There was no A&CD workshop at Bangkok.

3.1.4 Report on the Discussion Group on Licensing

The Discussion Group on Licensing met at Bangkok. This was a worthwhile session, although inadequate lack of announcements meant that the number of participants was lower than expected.

3.2 Plans for Jerusalem Conference, 2000

The Committee agreed to convene both an Open Forum and a Workshop at Jerusalem. The Open Forum would be on the theme of Models for acquiring electronic resources. The Workshop would deal with Changing organisational structures in an electronic environment, covering selection, access and new competencies.

Observer Sara Japhet (Director of the Israel National Library) offered A&CD a complete workshop on Documenting a culture: the case of Israel. The Committee considered this worthwhile but too broad a topic for A&CD, and referred it to Division V Coordinating Board, where it was subsequently accepted as a Divisional Programme.

There would be another meeting of the Discussion Group on Licensing at Jerusalem 2000, where the Group would probably be extended for another two years.

3.3 Plans for Boston Conference, 2001

Potential topics identified for pre- or post-conference seminars in 2001 were: French collections outside France and repository libraries. Collection development policies for electronic material was an early suggestion for the Boston Open Programme. Other topics identified as worthwhile were: 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.

4. Projects and publications

4.1 Projects

4.1.1

Collection development policy guidelines
Specific proposals were being developed for a project to produce a basic, non-prescriptive guide for libraries wishing to embark upon writing a collection policy statement. An indication of required funds was to be sent to the Co-ordinating Board in October 1999.

4.1.2

Other
Other potential projects identified included a survey on serials pricing. There was an initial contact at Bangkok with Serial Publications' Chair Hartmut Walravens who intended to inform his Section members of the proposal for a joint project. A survey on licensing models was also identified as a suitable topic for a survey.

4.2 Publications

4.2.1

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

4.2.2

Acquisition and Collection Development Bibliography The most recent issues of the Acquisitions Bibliography were posted on IFLANET.

4.2.3

Section Brochure. A new edition of the Section brochure was issued in August 1998. Translations into the official IFLA languages were commissioned.

5. Financial Report

There had been no expenditure under administrative funds. The Section had been allocated project funds previously to begin work on the Collection Development Project which, to date, had not been spent; a decision on the future of this project was needed. The Committee agreed to earmark administrative funds of $500 to enable the new Chair and Secretary to meet, should this prove necessary.

REVENUES:

Balance:  31 December 1998
      Administrative funds                410.00
          Project funds                   360.00

Revenues:  1 January 1999 to date
     Transfers from IFLA HQ               187.11
     Project funds                          5.50
     Bank interest (applied to Admin funds) 0.00

TOTAL REVENUES  (Balance plus revenues)

      Administrative funds                602.56
      Project funds                       360.00
        (1) Collection Development (360.00)
        (2) Bibliography (482.03)

EXPENSES:

1 January-6 August 1999
      Administrative funds                 0.00
      Project funds                        0.00

Anticipated expenses: September - December 1999
      Administrative                     500.00
      Project                                 ?

ANTICIPATED YEAR-END BALANCE:

      Administrative funds               102.56
      Project funds                           ?

6. Relationship with other bodies

7. Medium Term Programme 1998-2001 and 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.

Actions


1.1 Conduct a program during the 1998 IFLA conference on the impact of building digital libraries on collection development activities.
Open Programme on digital libraries held

1.2 In cooperation with GreyNet TransAtlantic, present a half-day workshop on Grey Literature during the 1998 IFLA Conference in Amsterdam that will focus on the availability and accessibility of this information particularly in an electronic environment. (IFLA 1998 Conference)
Workshop on licensing held instead. The possibility of organising an event covering grey literature or, more specifically, electronic dissertations was to be considered further

1.3 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 with follow-up afterwards. If the decision is to proceed, coordinate activities with ALP.)
Open Forum on acquiring electronic material scheduled for Jerusalem Conference

1.4 Update the Acquisition and Collection Development Bibliography (previously entitled the Exchange Bibliography) and issue it either in the Section's Newsletter or as a separate publication. At the same time, explore with the Professional Board and IFLA HQ the possibility of issuing this publication on an ongoing basis outside of the Standing Committee. (1998)
In hand. Bibliography to be published on IFLANET

1.5 Formulate a survey of pricing 'packages' for print and electronic serials, in preparation for a funded project in 2000/20001 (in conjunction with Serial Publications Section).
In hand. See also 3.1

1.6 Prepare a checklist for acquiring and accessing digital resources, in all official IFLA languages, for posting on IFLANET.
In hand

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

Actions


2.1 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.)
Survey completed

2.2 Produce a document in all IFLA official languages setting out guidelines for writing a collection development policy
In hand

2.3 Provide bibliographic information on the activities listed above through the Acquisition and Collection Development Bibliography (see 1.4 above).
Retrospective Bibliography Completed

2.4 Develop a conference programme on collection development policies for the 1999 IFLA Conference in Bangkok, based on 1.1 and 2.1.
Deferred. To be discussed further at the Jerusalem conference

2.5 Explore the possibility of conducting a workshop in Bangkok on profiles for sending gift materials to libraries in developing countries and their criteria for accepting such materials. (1998 IFLA Conference, coordinated with ALP)
Partially covered by the Bangkok Open Forum. Broad topic of donations to be reconsidered later

2.6 Pursue the setting up a Discussion Group on Repository Libraries under the auspices of the A&CD Section.
Aim to be established in time for the Jerusalem conference

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.

Actions


3.1 Conduct a survey on the costs of licensing agreements versus traditional subscription costs, analyse and distribute the results. (Late 1999, early 2000. Coordinate with the Standing Committee on Serial Publications and the Publishers Liaison Committee.)
Incorporated in Discussion Group on Licensing, set up in 1998

3.2 Actively participate in meetings of the Publishers Liaison Committee during IFLA Conferences. Provide summaries of the meetings in the Section's Newsletter. (Ongoing)
PLC suspended in 1998. PLC meeting at Amsterdam attended and reported. News of the latest status of PLC awaited from Executive Board [September 1999]

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.

Actions


4.1 Explore holding a workshop during the 1998 conference in Amsterdam on the changing organisational structures in acquisitions and collection development departments in light of the changing electronic environment.
Workshop scheduled for Jerusalem

4.2 Explore the possibility of issuing a record of the workshop on IFLANET
To be considered further

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.

Actions


5.1 1 Publish two issues of the Section's Newsletter each year. Forward machine-readable versions to IFLANET for inclusion. (Ongoing)
Completed

5.2 Translate copies of the Section's brochure into at least four of the official IFLA languages, and issue. (1998)
Spanish, French and Russian texts prepared. German to be provided.

5.3 Provide translations of conference papers in more of the five official IFLA languages. (Ongoing)
Continuing

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

Actions


6.1. . There was no activity planned for this two-year period, but the topic will be reconsidered for future years.
Possibility of a survey to be discussed at Jerusalem

Goal 7
Promote the section in order to increase membership.

Actions


7.1 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)
Completed