Acquisitions

ALIA National Acquisitions Seminar

Keynote address-Challenges and Issues in Acquisitions

The field of Library acquisitions has turned itself inside out in the last quarter century. Practitioners have always required skills in communication and negotiation, customer service, money management and knowledge of the publishing industry, but in the last several years, related areas have received an increasing amount of attention, such as accountability, bibliographic utilities, consortia management, contracts and licenses, information and communication technology and library systems, enlarging the acquisitions skill set.

As well, our relationship with the information life cycle has expanded. Often today, instead of simply 'acquiring' material, our roles may include, 'capturing', 'creating' and 'linking' information.

What has changed?

What has changed in our environment? The information output is increasing rapidly. The book publishing world has gone from strength to strength with an increasing percentage of new titles published in English every year. Journal publishing has stabilised with a slow decrease following the initial move of many titles to online formats. More new printed newspaper titles are published each year, and while the number of printed copies is up and down, digital use increases. There is not much new here, only more.

A critical change, however, is the rapidly developing and dynamic online publishing industry aligned with the Internet. Online publishing and especially the digitisation of printed material into online versions is flourishing, providing efficient access to selected information and transforming the way that libraries may provide services to clients.

As a result of the success of online publishing, those working in acquisitions and the related area of collection development have been placed in the box seat at the beginning of the information life cycle. Our knowledge of information in new formats, and particularly our working relationships with representatives of information producers enable us to facilitate change in our organisations.

Another key change is the evolving commercial environment. A significant amount of agglomeration has occurred in the information industry within and across format producers. The larger vendors are increasingly becoming more corporate and results driven. Small vendors with low overheads and low overdrafts may be innovative and flexible or have a particular industry niche, but may not have the capital to develop new services and buy in new technology to make themselves competitive outside a narrow area, and becoming investment targets.

A further critical change for library acquisitions is the direction of accounting standards. These have driven public institutions, including most libraries to use accrual accounting, to value collections as assets, to formulate depreciation policies, and to have a process for writing off, and this illustrates the huge influence of changing accounting standards in the library and public environment.

Challenges and issues

Following is a list of challenges and issues with questions in the context of the changing acquisitions environment:

Client Service issues

• Changes in information seeking behaviour - This is a most profound issue for libraries. Children going through school post 1995 and the advent of the internet have very different experiences in information seeking than those of previous generations who were nurtured on print. This affects what they are prepared or able to do to find the information they need and how they use it.

  Library systems have an element of unfriendliness and an increasing number of people, if confronted with a card catalogue or a printed serials index, or even a quality online dataset do not know what to do. So it is a challenge for those in the acquisitions area to work with other library staff to identify good products, to create efficient electronic access to both real and virtual information, to provide quality online datasets with intuitive interfaces and to ensure, as part of negotiations with suppliers, that training will be available to support the emerging paradigm of information seeking behaviour.

  In this context there is still significant evidence in libraries and bookshops internationally, of a continuing demand for books and journals. In fact, the increasing output of monograph titles concurrently with the dynamic online publishing output creates a challenge for library acquisitions: Will libraries ever be able to fully reflect the range of publishing and the increase in new titles in printed and online formats? What is the relationship of this paradox to the service delivery imperative that makes libraries relevant to their clients? This leads me to a philosophical question:

• What is the expectation of our clients about the kind of 'collection' libraries need? In many libraries today hybrid collections of printed, audiovisual and online resources are being developed. Balancing client demand for and availability of different types of resources, particularly across the real and the virtual product strands is a continuing challenge for acquisitions and other library staff.

Supply issues

• Approval plans and blanket orders - We know that profiled approval plans and blanket orders are a cost effective way of acquiring books. In this context, an issue is the potential effect of a number of major libraries in Australia all using the same approval plan vendor. Will their different profiles be enough to vary the intake of books selected from the limited 'approval plan' universe of publications? Will the peripheral, the tangential, the subjects no one teaches be collected? Will there be a series of closely matching 'core' collections across the land?
• The diabolical serial supply issue - Libraries collecting printed serials are in serious danger as major international serial suppliers continue to be folded into an ever decreasing number of companies. Certainly the number and variety of services has increased the attractiveness of using the remaining suppliers. A serious issue is, with the changes to the market for serials, is there sufficient margin in the serial supply business to maintain a competitive stable of suppliers? Another serial acquisition issue is the need for a single open systems platform for acquiring and managing individual online serial titles.
• Disappearing government publications - which are not really disappearing at all, but instead are masquerading as commercial and private publications in paper, CD Rom and online formats. Is it realistic for governments to assume that everyone who wants to access government information has a PC and broadband connection? Is it the Library's role to support democracy if the government doesn't want to fund this any more? Can we achieve a better result through working together with government? Is there any other way to resolve this issue?

Technology challenges

• Keeping up to date with technology - Can libraries keep up to date with technology offerings from suppliers? What is the relationship between acquisitions and ICT functions in the library? Is up to date, robust ICT infrastructure on the order necessary to support technological advances in product development available in your library? When has an information product been fully developed?
• Streamlining and simplifying - Can you manage to squeeze something out of the evolving emergence of digital technologies to streamline and simplify acquisition or collection management workflows? For example, has the interface between acquisitions and finance improved in your organisation? How do acquisitions staff members communicate with suppliers now? Is electronic invoicing and ordering available and working? Can reasonable and useful reports be obtained from our Library Management System? What about helpful figures about the use of electronic resources?
• Old technology / new technology - Technology has changed rapidly and as collections of 5.25 and 3.5 discs, super 8 film, vinyl records, audio and video cassettes and CD Roms are reviewed and considered for disposal, how can significant content be identified and replaced? How much longer will CDs, CD Roms and DVDs be useful formats? When decisions to purchase new content are made, what criteria are used to decide which format is best? How can libraries or the profession influence information producers in their choice of format?
• Serials printed and / or online - Considering disposal of paper copies of online journal titles is a serious business. Will your organisation always keep these online subscriptions in the future? If you have to cancel the online version, will your license allow you to keep the digital copy? What about the back runs not yet captured digitally? What if a publisher removes his titles from a particular aggregation and the library can not afford to acquire the aggregation he chooses instead? With such an abundance of new information, do old titles need to be retained? How does this affect the capacity of clients to carry out research into the past? What is the best way to manage the risk?
• Archiving and 'born digital' material - In thinking about archiving 'born digital' material, we have a best practice model in PANDORA, Australia's online archive, but is this enough? Should each state archive its own government publications, for example? Is the technology now in use going to be adequate to archive this material into the future and refresh it as will certainly be necessary? This is not a rehearsal. There are no paper copies to fall back on. Are we doing enough?

Online products

• Books online - like all new formats, differences in the acquisition and management of ebooks need to be identified and then plans made to integrate them into the library's acquisitions workflow as they are implemented for the provision of information services. When will all the titles a library requires be available from a single vendor on a single platform, or when will a single open systems platform for acquiring and managing ebooks be available?
• Complexity and electronic products - Online products throw up a number of challenges. There is an increased level of complexity in purchasing electronic products. For example, the high level of consultation required throughout the organisation, the need to resolve licensing issues, ensuring appropriate ICT infrastructure, identifying the level of use that will be required by clients and the funding available. As well, it is critical that licenses are negotiated to result in outcomes that reflect the needs of the organisation to provide services to clients.
• Consortia membership - What is a good citizen in the consortial environment? How do consortia add value to the acquisitions process? Can consortia provide a basis for the development of standards, for example, relating to licenses for electronic resources and usage figures? Do consortia drive down the price of resources? How do administrative costs add up?

Education and training

• Education and training for acquisitions - Acquisitions is the business side of librarianship. This side has not featured large in the librarianship curriculum and is an area where many skills are derived 'on the job'. The ALIA Acquisitions section has been active over the years in providing seminars, like today's, that provide an update, introduction or continuing education. However, it is interesting to note that many successful acquisitions librarians have done at least one stint 'in the trade'. In the context of the current state of education for librarianship, is this an area that could be improved through collaborative action?

Issues related to suppliers

• Higher expectations of suppliers - For many years as staffing numbers have decreased in publicly funded organisations, parts of acquisitions and related work have been outsourced or contracted out: serial consolidation, collection development through profiled selection services, bibliographic access through book or serial with record, language and genre labels, shelf ready books are examples, and we expect suppliers to offer these services on top of the basic services like supplying material, providing searchable databases, building good, dedicated customer service relationships, giving prompt follow up, resolving enquiries and, at the fundamental level, working with integrity.
• The supply chain - This has become more complex with the addition of accountants, aggregators and software providers to 'content providers', formerly known as 'publishers'. Business models in the industry are changing and this affects relationships in the supply chain. How does the acquisitions librarian obtain the best value for their organisation in this context?
• Truly wonderful customer service - A final issue is how to get ongoing truly wonderful customer service from suppliers. This is still the holy grail of the acquisitions librarian's life or the bane of their existence, if missing. Suppliers must be aware of how important professional and solid experience is in a customer service officer, and how much this means to library staff in terms of smooth workflows, fast payment of invoices, less time tied up with enquiries, and why the library will choose suppliers with it over those without.

Acquisitions librarians must show leadership in managing the multitude of issues and challenges, but at the same time they are often managing and responding to operational matters. The subtitle for this section of the paper is,

The more things change the more they stay the same

• Funding is a perennial issue. There is never enough, and just when you think there might be, it is required for something else or the exchange rate drops. Currency fluctuations can be enabling and crippling when most Australian libraries procure 80% of their collections from overseas. Budgets, funding models, and submissions are stock in trade in acquisitions work. Budgeting to meet expectations for new formats, courses or initiatives is always a challenge.
• Accountability is increasing as an issue and an activity. The audit trail is a given, but it needs to be redefined each time there is a system or procedural change. Accounting for the commitment / expenditure relationship and managing the differences between the Library Management System and the finance system, if only exchange rate and GST variations, is an ongoing activity. Auditors, security, auditable library systems, the need for policies and conforming procedures, files, dotting is and crossing ts.
• Payment is a related area. Today most payments are made through EFT and thus are often on time. Better for the supplier and easier to track for the Library, EFT has had a huge influence on the potential for improving relationships with suppliers!
• Shipping remains an ongoing operational responsibility due to the physicality of much of the material acquired by a library. The continuing availability currently of airfreight supports good client service, but this could be subject to increasing oil prices and terrorism. On a more mundane level manual handling of physical shipments in the context of older members of staff and the OH & S environment is business as usual for most libraries today.
• Creating balance is a continuing thread through acquisitions work. Collecting priorities may be set by the organisation's collection development policy but there is the need to balance funding with the range of formats and subjects and providing online access in the context of other collecting priorities, often without earmarked additional funding. Apart from the online/print relationship, there may be local/overseas, serials/monograph and current/retrospective relationships to manage.
• Suppliers are an ongoing part of the business of acquisitions: choosing, monitoring performance, evaluating, providing feedback, being a responsive client, sound familiar? One trend is less direct purchasing and more reliance on library suppliers. Another is the collaborative nature of relationships with suppliers, and a third is the requirement to maintain a distance because of the emphasis in government today on identifying corrupt practices. This has encouraged transparent processes like tendering and contracts for supply, which have costs and benefits of their own.
• The collection development / acquisitions interface is always open to review. A recent issue of Against the grain deals with the way that library acquisitions and collection development interact around a range of challenges and issues. This interface is different from organisation to organisation and depends on the size of institution, the size of the budget, the organisational structure, the accountability aspects and, the success often depends on the interpersonal relationships, professional behaviour and good will of those involved.
• The bibliographic access / acquisitions interface is similar. Who can remember the days of separate acquisitions and cataloguing departments? Today integrated processes are business as usual from the initial searching and order placement through the cataloguing and addition of holdings on the NBD. This is the way we make our collections searchable and accessible today and it is a joint effort.
  
  The last two points, the Collection development / acquisitions interface and the bibliographic access / acquisitions interface relate to the changing roles of staff as libraries work to reinvent themselves. Where does the acquisitions function fit in best? How does it relate to Information and communication technology planning and infrastructure, financial functions and systems, the organisational business model and direct service provision to clients? For example, does your library include document delivery staff with acquisitions because of the functionality of what they do? In this context it may be useful to briefly outline nine points of what it takes to do library acquisitions:

Acquisitions knowledge, skills and experience

• Experience in negotiation and communication; knowledge and understanding of the negotiation process
• Knowledge and experience in building relationships with suppliers, accounts departments, colleagues, IT, reader services ...
• Knowledge and understanding of the complex Library supply milieu and how to use suppliers for what they do best; monitoring, evaluating suppliers; providing feedback to suppliers
• The capacity to prepare budgets and track expenditure; to read and understand system outputs; to read a balance sheet; to prepare reports
• Knowledge and understanding of the bibliographic utility environment and how this can be used to support acquisitions workflows
• Experience, knowledge and understanding of library management systems
• Understanding of the licensing and copyright environment
• Understanding of selection / collection development issues and options
• Being an effective manager of time, money, staffing resources

If a person has the knowledge, skills and experience to do acquisitions work, they could run the country!

The future

Here are predictions for trends affecting acquisitions over the next ten years:

• Clients' needs will continue to change and be the major influence on libraries
• The next generation of Library systems will be more integrated, less reliant on modules for individual functions and more intuitive for the acquisitions staff member. Content management systems will become the norm. Open systems will become the norm.
• The roles of collection development, acquisitions and bibliographic access provision will merge even closer, and the emerging staff model will not stop at the walls of the technical services area, but go straight on out to reader services.
• Rapid product development will result in electronic products with better thought out front end help, training and learning support to facilitate information literacy and use of online resources.
• More products will be acquired through consortia to simplify business processes and to attempt to drive the cost of information down. As part of this, the National licensing initiative will get some legs and make some progress. Additionally, consortia may developed their roles in areas such as publishing learning material and working more closely with their provider partners.
• Unfortunately government publishing will not benefit from developments commercially, and it will continue to be a high effort / low return part of acquisitions work.
• Quality online resources will continue to be produced in increasing numbers and libraries will try to acquire as many of these as they can.

In conclusion

These are predictions but it is certain that many challenges lie ahead for the acquisitions librarian in today's dynamic information and library environments. As a group, acquisitions staff members have the skills, flexibility and business sense to meet challenges and turn them in to opportunities. As well, the continuing development of collaborative supplier relationships results in a pipeline of products to interest, delight and enthral our clients.

Jerelynn Brown
Manager, Collection Services
State Library of New South Wales
5 September 2005