1st Edition

Collection Assessment and Acquisitions Budgets

By Sul H Lee Copyright 1993

    This invaluable new book contains timely information about the assessment of academic library collections and the relationship of collection assessment to acquisition budgets. The rising cost of information significantly influences academic libraries’abilities to acquire the necessary materials for students and faculty, and public libraries’abilities to acquire material for their clientele. Collection Assessment and Acquisitions Budgets examines different aspects of the relationship between the assessment of academic library collections and the management of library acquisition budgets. Librarians, researchers, and representatives from major library vendors present studies and opinions on collection assessment and acquisition budgets.

    Collection Assessment and Acquisitions Budgets explores the issues and tools related to collection assessment and also presents insight into the relationships between libraries and vendors. Some of the topics covered by this volume include:

    • current factors influencing libraries’abilities to acquire information
    • an examination of trends affecting libraries and information vendors
    • use studies and collection development
    • management of acquisition funds
    • criteria to evaluate information vendors
    • relationships between libraries and vendors

      These informative chapters discuss current issues and present the latest research findings relating to collection assessment and acquisition budgets. Practicing librarians, students in the field, and librarians involved in administration and especially acquisitions and collection development will gain a better understanding of the complexities of collection and the factors affecting acquisitions budgets. Librarians will find practical information, including product reviews and opportunities to use automated tools in the assessment process, the benefits and problems of serial review projects, types of assistance vendors can provide libraries in the collection assessment process, the importance of collection assessment in the competition for funding, and ideas for the use of circulation data in the collection assessment process.

    Contents Introduction
    • Collection Evaluation and Acquisitions Budgets: A Kaleidoscope in the Making
    • In Support of Collection Assessment: The Role of Automation in the Acquisitions and Serial Department
    • Serials Cancellation Projects: Necessary Evil or Collection Assessment Opportunity?
    • Me and My Shadow: Vendors as the Third Hand in Collection Evaluation
    • Collection Assessment and Acquisitions Budgets
    • Management Data for Selection Decisions in Building Library Collections
    • Locked in Conversation: The College Library Collection and the Pluralist Society
    • Annual Survey of Serials Collection Assessment Programs, Practices, and Policies in Academic Libraries--1991–1992
    • Reference Notes Included

    Biography

    Sul H. Lee