Acquisitions
Developing hybrid collections: new ways of working for acquisitions staff
Jill Wilson , director, information resources, Monash University Library
What's changing?
- Increasing range of formats
- Multiple formats for the same content - DVD, print, internet
- Changing user expectations - more demand for online delivery from outside the library
- New business models for publishers and information aggregators
- Continuing demand for printed books and periodicals
Buying printed books
- Select title - client services staff
- Download or create acquisitions record
- Add order data
- Send to supplier
- Receive and approve payment
- Catalogue
Acquiring electronic resources
- New sources of information for selection
- Selection of format as well as content
- More people need to be consulted
- Ordering procedure doesn't fit the routine workflow
- Business models may involve licensing
- Shift of costs from one-off to subscription
- Catalogue data ordering
The 'acquisitions' web
- Selector
- Acquisitions officer
- Serials librarian
- Solicitor
- Electronic resources co-coordinator
- Cataloguers
New titles information
- Resource discovery lists
- Printed and e-mailed publisher blurbs and professional reading
- Packaged offers from vendors - increasingly including journals, books, conference papers
- Standard print selection tools now including some e-books
'Acquiring' free books and journals
- Major sites are offering free resources on the web
- Catalogue records are often available from the site and can be loaded to local systems
- Individual titles can be selected and catalogued or added to e-resource lists bypassing the acquisitions process
Selecting the most suitable format
- Library guidelines may indicate preferred format eg. internet/CD or electronic for certain materials such as journals
- If electronic is preferred, but print selected, who decides?
Collaborative decision-making
- Electronic resource co-ordinator
- Licence manager or corporate solicitor
- Selector
- Budget co-ordinator
- Serials librarian
- Cataloguer
Access and use
- Who will use this - how and where? Will we need concurrent use, remote access, multiple sites?
- Is the electronic copy available as an individual title to my library? Or is it only available if the library licenses access to the aggregated set?
- Is it in a format that is easily supported in our technical environment?
Electronic resources co-ordinator
Licence negotiation
- Do I have to sign a license agreement?
- Who checks licences?
- Who negotiates changes?
- Who signs off?
- Where does this fit in the order process?
Licensing manager / solicitor
Pricing
- Shift from one-off to subscription models
- Multiple business models
- Impact on recurrent commitments
Budget co-ordinator
Serials librarian
Bibliographic access
Are catalogue records available and do we want to buy them?
Cataloguers
Ordering
- Outside the routine procedures for print
- Is there information about what is on order on the library system?
- Online ordering directly on the vendor website - Amazon, second-hand books
- Ordering catalogue records
Receiving and payment
- Payment of invoices - credit cards, online accounts
- Turning on access
- Advising cataloguers that title is available and access details
- Ensuring delivery of bibliographic records
- Advising web page creators
Some things to think about
- How can we streamline our workflows for ordering electronic resources?
- Are there more efficient ways of doing business with web only vendors?
- Do we have guidelines in place for selection of preferred format?
- Should acquisitions staff always check for the availability of an electronic version before placing an order?
More things to think about
- How can libraries work together to encourage the development of standards and simpler business models?
- How can libraries work to improve the availability of new title information? Will we ever have the equivalent of E-books in print?
- Can we sustain publishing models that tie up more of our budgets with recurrent commitments?
Skills for acquisitions staff
- Familiarity with range of electronic resources in our libraries
- Ability to search the web
- Learn how to work with a range of e-publishers
- Be flexible about ways titles are handled
- Build positive working relationships with other players in the library
- Stay focused on the end user
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