choosing between suppliers: a british perspective

Librar), Acquisitions: Practice and Theory, Vol. 6, pp. 313-328, 1982 0364-6408 / 82 / 030313-16503.00,' 0 Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. Copyright © 1982 Pergamon Press l.td

A C Q U I S I T I O N A N D S U P P L Y O F M O N O G R A P H I C A N D S E R I A L M A T E R I A L S I N T H E U N I T E D K I N G D O M - - P A R T 1

CHOOSING BETWEEN SUPPLIERS: A BRITISH PERSPECTIVE

TONY K I D D

Acquisitions Librarian Aston University Library

Birmingham, England

I N T R O D U C T I O N

It may be thought that the question of deciding who should supply books to your library is largely a matter of tradition and iner t ia- -of continuing with the supplier or suppliers that have always been used. No doubt this system still works well in many libraries, but their number is becoming smaller year by year, and the next few pages should show that the choice of suppliers is more complicated, and yet susceptible to rational analysis.

Before going on to look at this analysis, some areas that this brief survey will not cover in great detail should be mentioned. First, the special problems of periodical supply which agent to use, what titles to order direct f rom the publisher, chasing or replacing missing parts, invoicing--are not considered here. Second, not much will be said about obtaining books from countries, outside the UK or United States, or about buying out-of-print books from second-hand dealers. Third, since what follows is written from the standpoint of someone working in a university library, there will inevitably be matters of special interest to other libraries which will not be covered, al though the general approach should be useful particularly for the libraries of polytechnics and other higher education libraries.

Very little has been written, in Britain at least, on the problem of how a library should decide where to obtain the books. In America, on the other hand, al though such questions are still discussed very briefly, if at all, in books on acquisitions theory and practice, there have been several articles published giving details of "vendor studies," as they are called, where suppliers, sometimes named, more usually not, are compared according to various criteria e.g., discount offered, speed of delivery, reporting facilities, etc.

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D I R E C T O R D E R S

Some general questions will be discussed before moving on to these more specific evaluative exercises. No library will, or should, place every one of its monograph orders with either specialist library suppliers or large stockholding bookshops. There will be many requests from users and library staff where the acquisitions librarian decides that the best course is to order the item "direct." This will be considered when the publisher is a professional institution, university or polytechnic department, commercial firm, pressure group, trade union, political party, or a very small or obscure publisher of one sort or another. Most audio-visual material is also still only easily available in Britain through direct contact with the issuing body, al though some library suppliers are now moving into this field.

Looking at price first, it may, for example, be the case that special members ' rates apply to institution publications, of which the library can take advantage through the membership of the university, etc., or of some named individual, or through subscribing to its periodicals; or, there may be a reduced price for academic institutions; or, a special pre-publication offer may only be available to those who order direct. Further, booksellers may well add a surcharge to the cover price when supplying this sort of publication, to make up for the fact that they will get very little, if any, discount from the producer of the document. On the other hand, when ordering these publications direct, postage and packing costs are often added to the price charged, and this has to be taken into account when deciding whether to order direct or through a bookseller.

Secondly, delivery is usually far quicker when the book or pamphlet is ordered direct (al though not always: some institutions seem inordinately slow at replying to order letters). If the item is wanted urgently, it should almost invariably be ordered direct (assuming that it falls into one of the categories where direct ordering is a possibility), thus cutting out the inevitable delays when a third party becomes involved.

The main disadvantage of ordering direct is of course the extra work engendered when dealing with many different organisations the main reason why jobbers still do a great deal of work in America, although libraries there can order direct from many mainstream publishers at generous discounts. This extra work comes at all stages: preparing and posting the orders, chasing them up if not supplied, and perhaps especially when paying for them there are far more opportunities for invoices, statements, etc. to go astray (especially with orders from abroad), quite apart from the extra purchase orders and cheques that have to be typed out, and accounted for, in the first place. Many of these latter costs do not fall directly on the library, but rather on the institution's finance section, but that is no reason for them not to be considered.

Special problems occur where this sort of publication has to be paid for in advance, as is increasingly the case to cut down administrative costs and improve cash flow in these often impecunious organisations. For one thing, there will always be a certain amount of money from the bookfund that will have to be written off, because a few items paid for in advance are never supplied, nor is a refund obtained. Where prepayment is likely to arise, items can be ordered through a bookseller who, in addition to the usual lengthy delay in supply, is then even more likely to add a servicing charge. If ordered direct by the library, but passed through the institution's finance office for payment, equally long delays can result. The process would be speeded up if libraries were allowed to have their own cheque books and pay for small orders themselves, but this is not common, and would in any case lead to the library having to deal with a greater proport ion of the problems mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Even in Britain, a growing though still very small percentage of orders is acquired directly by libraries from mainstream publishers, causing much concern to the bookselling profession

Choosing Between Suppliers: A British Perspective 315

here. One involuntary example of this is when pressure is put on the library by teaching staff to accept and pay for books that they have ordered straight from the publisher. Other examples are the increasing number of publishers' sales being held to enable these firms to cut their stockholding costs: although the large general academic booksale held in February and March each year through the Times supplements gives a list of participating booksellers with whom orders should be placed, and individual publishers usually at least mention the possibility of obtaining sale books through the local bookseller, there is a likelihood that direct links with publishers will become more common as a result of these activities. The most recent example of this potential bypassing booksellers is Macmillan's setting up of a subsidiary, Globe Book Services Ltd, to sell various expensive non-net reference works directly to libraries at bigger discounts than would ever be offered by booksellers (Hopes for peace, 1982; Blackwell, 1982).*

LIBRARY SUPPLIERS

When it comes to choosing a supplier or suppliers of mainstream, currently available, commercially published English language books, one of the first things to do is to get on the telephone to other acquisitions librarians in the area, and find out if they use the company in question and what their opinion is of the services offered. This advice is repeated elsewhere in this article and is an important method of comparing and contrasting suppliers, particularly if you know and trust the judgment of your colleagues. Contact with other librarians at conferences or courses is also a useful time to compare notes. Any suppliers' representatives who call should be asked for a list of their library customers, to facilitate this consultation process.

The general principles of how many booksellers to patronise are fairly obvious, it is unwise to put all one's faith in one bookseller, who may or may not be doing a good job. On the other hand, if too many booksellers are used, some of the problems associated with direct ordering begin to appear, and no one bookseller will be making enough money from the library to encourage it to maintain or improve its service in the hope of increased orders. The ideal depends on the size of the library's bookfund, and the proportion of foreign books ordered, but will usually be something like three to five suppliers. With this sort of number, each bookshop will have a worthwhile amount of business, and will also have the competition necessary to keep it giving a good service. No one bookseller should be sent all the "difficult" orders and very few "easy" ones: an efficient bibliographic tracing service is expensive to maintain, and needs the support of profits obtained from supplying the books of major publishers. For various reasons, a library may have to concentrate its orders on one supplier--e.g., there may be a university-owned bookshop on the campus from which, for university financial reasons, a library is strongly encouraged to buy its books--but even then, the library should retain the option of obtaining part of its stock elsewhere, if only to act as a quality check on its principal supplier.

If a large library-supplying bookshop exists in the same city as the library, and provides a satisfactory service, it may be most convenient to use that shop as the library's main supplier. Polytechnic and public libraries may have some formal instructions to use local suppliers whenever possible, to encourage employment within the local authority area, and universities may wish to follow the same practices more informally for good neighbourly, public relations

*See Selected Bibliography, appended.

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reasons (and more specifically, in this particular field, to help to establish and maintain a profitable bookshop with a larger and more varied stock than might otherwise be the case). Apart f rom these quasiphilanthropic considerations, it is most convenient for the acquisitions librarian to be in close daily contact with the staff in a bookshop in the same city, and to have the possibility, for example, of going over to the bookshop and picking an urgently required book off the shelf. Some out-of-town suppliers may also charge carriage, which is not the case with a local bookshop.

There is a distinction, when looking at library suppliers, between those who do nothing but sell books to libraries, with no shop open to the public and a limited stock available in a warehouse; and those who are substantial s tockholding booksellers as well as library suppliers. It appears to be the case, not surprisingly, that the latter can supply a higher proport ion of orders from stock within, say, the first four weeks from the date of order, whereas the former usually catch up before long, and then take the lead. Evidence from both America (Landesman, 1980) and Britain (for example, information from Norman Ashfield of Birmingham Polytechnic Library) confirms this pattern. The process of checking their stock will delay to some extent orders f rom ordinary booksellers for publications not immediately available, whereas pure library suppliers are geared to ordering everything at once. It may be best, then, if a book is wanted fairly quickly, to order it from a stockholding bookshop. Its availability in a particular shop can be checked by telephone, though this is not usually practicable in terms of staff time for more than a few titles. However, suppliers are now beginning to develop systems which allow libraries to discover through a computer link which particular items are in stock.

Some booksellers have built up a reputation for supplying closely or loosely defined "specialist" areas of publications. These will be either in subject areas such as, for example, comput ing or economics or the broader fields of science, medicine or social science; or for particular types of publications such as maps, or "radical" literature, or H MSO bookshops for HMSO-published government publications. Other government publications have to be ordered from the department concerned, or on microfiche via Chadwyck-Healey 's Catalogue of British q[]i'cial publications not published by HMSO. This is a very useful new bibliographic tool the first volume covers 1980--which also gives detailed addresses for those who wish to acquire hard copies of the publications. It is good practice to order from some of those more "specialist" outlets that have proved useful (contact with other librarians is again essential here) but not too many, otherwise administrative arrangements within the acquisitions section become too great. In any case it will still be necessary to patronise some more general booksellers, to obtain the spread of material required by any large library.

D I S C O U N T S

More specific ways of differentiating between suppliers will now be considered, with price being the first variable to be examined. In the United Kingdom the price of a book, at least those issued by mainstream publishers, does not usually vary according to source of supply, al though when discount is available some booksellers may insist that they receive a discount of at least 35% from the publisher before offering the library a full discount. To obtain this discount a library can apply to the Publishers' Association for a Library Licence to cover the booksellers most frequently used by the library. This licence allows the bookseller to offer a discount of up to 10% on books supplied (this would otherwise be in breach of the Net Book


Agreement); in practice, library suppliers would not normally offer a lower discount than the usual 10%.

However, there are conditions attached to the granting of the licence. One of these is that the library must allow entry to any members of the public. In a celebrated case in the early 1970s, Hull University library surrendered the Library Licence rather than comply with the conditions as interpreted by the Publishers' Association, namely, that students at the neighbouring college of education should have access to books on the shelves already in demand by the university's own readers. It may seem that Hull was unlucky--af ter all, although most university and polytechnic libraries admit with the minimum of formalities all who wish to use the library for reference purposes, there are usually more restrictions, including charges, for those outside the institution who wish to make more use of the facilities available. It is interesting, however, that the library staff at Hull did not consider the removal of the licence to be a total disaster, as it allowed them to arrange that suppliers outside Hull should not charge carriage, and they were also able to be much more demanding over, for example, delivery times or on approval services, when approached by booksellers eager to do business with a library offering an extra profit margin. It is unlikely however that many libraries would consider that such advantages compensated for effectively foregoing several thousand pounds worth of books a year.

in the United States, where there are no such restrictions on the discounts that booksellers or publishers can offer to libraries, the calculation of average discounts is always an important part of evaluating the performance of different vendors. It turns out that discounts offered do not tend to be substantially greater than 10%, at least after sales tax, postage, etc., have been taken into account (Stokley, 1978)--something which should be remembered when discussing the claim frequently put forward in Britain that the loosening of the Library Licence/Net Book Agreement system would allow at least large libraries to negotiate substantially increased discounts with their major suppliers,

Not all books are supplied to libraries with a 10% discount. Non-net books, those not subject to the Net Book Agreement, can be supplied at a greater discount, and this is often the case with school textbooks. But the type of non-net material of interest to higher education institutions is usually supplied at the retail price (this covers books where the bookseller has received a low or non-existent discount from the publisher). It is important to check with a supplier regarding policy towards such material. Do they add a percentage service charge to such orders'? Do they include the postage and packing costs? Or do they supply at the cover price and absorb the inevitable loss'?

D E L I V E R Y TIMES

Probably the most common method of comparing suppliers is to measure the time taken to fulfil orders. However, this is not a simple matter, and an acquisitions librarian should think carefully before deciding how to monitor deliveries.

There are two main methods of carrying out such an exercise. The first is to take a sample, or a whole batch, of orders supplied within a certain time period, and work out the average (however the "average" is calculated) time taken by a particular bookseller to supply orders. The second is again to take a sample or complete batch of orders sent out over a given period, and work out the cumulative percentage supplied by the time three weeks, four weeks, two months, etc. have passed. The two different methods can give quite different results, especially, perhaps, when comparing a stockholding bookseller and a library supplier, and both methods should be used if at all possible. The latter method gives a more accurate

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picture of a supplier's overall performance, but the former has the superficial attraction of providing just one or two figures with which to compare delivery times, and can be carried out much more quickly and therefore cheaply.

Various points have to be borne in mind when designing these tests. It is necessary to have a sample of at least three hundred, and preferably four hundred, orders for each supplier to give statistically valid results (David, 1979). Orders for similar types of books should be sent to each supplier, but not all the orders for one publisher's books should be sent to one supplier: publishers vary a great deal in the speed with which they fulfil orders (Godfray, 1981). The ideal situation is to send out orders for the same book on the same day to different supliers, but this is rarely possible. Certain times should be avoided, for example, Christmas, when there are postal strikes abroad, and when the library has recently started using a new supplier (when freak results can be obtained). A new supplier should be closely monitored, but not necessarily used in a general comparat ive study until a few months have passed. Make sure that the results are not systematically biased by the routines of the acquisitions section. Are orders always sent out on the date given on the order form'? Are invoices and deliveries from some suppliers usually dealt with more quickly than others'? This latter problem can be partly overcome by using the invoice date in the calculations instead of, or in addition to, the date of receipt. Different ways of calculating the average speed of delivery can affect results markedly. The straightforward arithmetic mean delivery time can give a very misleading impression because of the long tail of orders that come dribbling in a year or more after the order date. A more satisfactory measure is the median, the length of time by which 50% of the orders have been received. The mode- - the week or month in which the greatest proport ion of orders is received--is also a useful indication.

So far, it has been assumed that libraries are carrying out only occasional exercises in monitoring supplies (most of the American studies written up in the literature are investigations of this sort). In fact, it is far more useful to be able to undertake regular testing of delivery times. In practice, different types of orders are sent to different suppliers, and speed of delivery is only one aspect of the service they provide. In any case any acquisitions librarian will have a fairly good idea of average supply times. Although he or she will also have hunches about changes in these supply times, it is very helpful to have figures to back up these impressions. This information will put the librarian in a much stronger position when the supplier is asked about the reasons for a deteriorating service, and threatened, if necessary, with loss of business. Incidentally, it is important that librarians heed the constant requests of suppliers to be contacted in such circumstances: there may be special reasons for a temporary fall in efficiency, and there may be relatively simple ways for the library and/or the supplier to improve the situation.

Such a constant attention to delivery times is very difficult in most manual acquisitions systems, al though information can sometimes be obtained as a by-product of the accounting routines. The relevant details should, however, be easily available from automated systems. The mean delivery time per supplier is probably the easiest statistic to get out of the computer, but the more important figures of the median, and the cumulative percentages of orders received within certain times, should also be relatively simple to extract. The need for, or desirability of, these statistics should be remembered when the automated system is being designed.

R E P O R T I N G

A third major area where comparisons can be made is the whole question of how booksellers and publishers handle reporting. Accurate and speedy reporting on books not


quickly obtainable is one of the most useful services a supplier can offer, and can be a most important factor in deciding where to place orders. It is very difficult to tell in advance, other than by the usual method of telephoning other acquisitions librarians, how comprehensive a particular supplier is in this respect, but he should" be closely questioned on his reporting practice, as this can vary a great deal (what the librarian is trying to discover here is what actually happens, rather than what the supplier would like to think was the policy). Some points to discover are whether the supplier follows the Library Association Industrial Group guidelines (Hall, 1979) on definitions and abbreviations of various possible reports; whether the supplier immediately passes on all reports received from publishers; whether substantial price increases are reported to the library before supply; whether "doubtful" reports from publishers are queried (e.g., an "out of print" report on a very recently issued book from a major publisher); whether lists of books on order for, say, twelve months can be sent to the library for possible cancellation; whether the first reminder sent out to the publishers is neither too soon nor too late and, most important, what follow-up system exists for second, third, reminders and so on (in the case of "not yet published" reports, for example, the publisher is very likely to throw away the original order from the bookseller); and finally, whether the library is informed of reminders sent to publishers.

There is also the question of the chasing or claiming policy of the library, and how the supplier adapts and responds to it. One of the major advantages of automated acquisitions systems is to allow the easy production of chasing notices, whereas before, chasing was sometimes an annual or even a non-existent procedure (ideally, books ordered from booksellers in the United Kingdom should be claimed after about two months). It has often been said, however, that suppliers receive these printout chasers in such profusion that they go straight into the wastepaper basket. It is important to have assurances from your suppliers that this will not happen, but .in return the library must be cautious about chasing pre- publication orders, must not chase immediately after a report, and should try to tie in its chasing schedule with the bookseller's schedule. This is why it is such a useful service if the supplier can give the library a list, with dates, of books recently chased, provided of course that the library has sufficient staff to input these details into the automated system.

It is difficult to evaluate a supplier's reports in any systematic way, but an acquisitions librarian soon learns, for example, which suppliers' "out of print" reports can be trusted, and which it is worth trying elsewhere for. Even worse is the supplier who sends an "out of print: ,cancelled" report and then triumphantly delivers the book a few months later unless an automatic return option is available. If the provisions of the previous paragraph are adhered to, one possible indication is to measure the proportion of orders that have to be chased with the supplier, as these will be the orders for which the supplier has neither passed on a recent publisher's report, nor chased the publisher.

CUSTOMER SERVICES

The general helpfulness and availability of a supplier's staff is another very relevant consideration. Again, it is difficult to learn about this in advance. It is possible to ask questions about, for example, the supplier's policy with respect to urgent orders (although theory and practice may not coincide in this as in other matters). Are they despatched immediately when they are received by the supplier? Are they sent through the post or delivered in another way? Can urgent orders be telephoned through, with the expectation that they will then be dealt with, and not disappear without trace through lack of an actual order

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form? Can they be supplied direct f rom the publisher and invoiced by the supplier? Is there an extra charge for any of this? What is the attitude to a library returning books which are unwanted on receipt in the library? (Of course, damaged or unordered books should always be accepted back by the supplier.) Can such books be returned immediately, or does permission have to obtained first f rom the publisher, as can happen sometimes with library suppliers as opposed to stockholding booksellers? And, are credit notes issued promptly?

It is very important to have a named person in each firm to contact when problems and enquiries arise. There is nothing more frustrating than being passed round from one telephone extension to the next when trying to find the answer to some question. This is when the occasional lunch to get to know someone, and to discuss matters of mutual interest, becomes important. Still on the question of personal contacts, tours round a supplier's premises, both for an acquisitions librarian and for the acquisitions assistants, can be useful for all parties. A further point to note is that regular visits f rom suppliers' representatives are important. Not all general problems can be dealt with easily over the telephone, and face-to-face contact encourages trust between a supplier and a library, provided that the reps themselves inspire confidence. Visits f rom publishers' representatives are also valuable when trying to keep up-to- date with the climate of the book trade. Together with regular reading of the Bookseller, they can give you a good idea of some of the general developments that are likely to be on a supplier's mind, and can sometimes give specific information about individual suppliers.

Invoicing customs vary between suppliers and can make processing in an acquisitions section easier or more difficult accordingly. Can separate types of orders, e.g., urgent orders or standing orders, be invoiced separately? Does the invoice give the date of order and the order number? Is the discount given separately for each item or shown as one sum at the foot of the invoice'? Are titles on invoices listed in alphabetical order, in order number order, or in a random way? ls the supplier willing either to push invoices through quickly, or to delay them, at delicate times of the financial year?

Finally, delivery arrangements can cause friction between library and supplier. Is the delivery on a a specified day each week? Are deliveries in returnable boxes, or in parcels that are likely to permit the supply of wet or damaged books?

The point about all these rather miscellaneous questions and topics in the previous paragraphs is not that there are right and wrong ways of dealing with all of them, but that a good supplier should be as flexible and accurate as possible in falling in with what will inevitably be the varied requirements of different customers. Constant telephone calls to sort out invoices that have not been presented in the agreed way, to return a paperback when the hardback is required, to chase up credit notes that have not been received, or to ask about the whereabouts of the urgently required book promised several weeks ago, are signs that something has gone badly wrong with the supplier's service, and form a strong argument, unless good reasons can be given, for ordering fewer books from that source.

It is difficult to compare suppliers formally here. It is possible to keep counts of, for example, how many wrong books are delivered, but it is probably not productive to try to measure any of this very scientifically, al though any figures that can be obtained will reinforce complaints that may have to be made about poor service. Usually, though, it soon becomes obvious how well a particular supplier is doing when considering these general matters.

S E R V I C I N G

A more specific requirement that may well influence some libraries' choices of suppliers is


the need for the processing or servicing of books supplied. This applies particularly to public libraries, less so to polytechnics and less so still to universities. Higher education libraries may, however, need this particular service more as the result of staffing cuts caused by the present financial crisis. Library suppliers have traditionally stamped, tagged, and jacketed books at very cheap rates, al though the terms of both the Library Licence and the Net Book Agreement do not officially allow these services to be supplied at below cost price. Although the basic rates for these processes are broadly similar among the different suppliers, there are many distinguishing features, and, in the absence of price competition, suppliers have tried to attract customers by this means. Certainly, if your library's processing needs are complicated, you will want to use suppliers that can cope with instruction books of many pages, and do not cause you to send back many improperly prepared volumes.

B I B L I O G R A P H I C SERVICES

Libraries, especially those in higher education institutions, need to use suppliers that have considerable bibliographic resources available to them, and equally important, staff who know how to and are given time to use these resources. This is particularly necessary if a reasonable number of "obscure" orders are to be channelled through a supplier, or if a library does not do a complete bibliographic check on every item asked for. Some evidence can be had on a tour round the supplier's premises, but the number of difficult orders successfully completed is a better guide.

Some suppliers provide additional services and issue lists, or more elaborate contents summaries, of books soon to be published, or newly available. These lists can be general, or divided by subject or by classification number. The existence of these selection tools, some of which are naturally more comprehensive than others, can be a factor in choosing where to place orders, al though it is by no means necessary to obtain a book from the bookseller whose list has alerted the selector to its existence.

A P P R O V A L S

Most suppliers allow libraries to have some books on approval. To compare approval services, the acquisitions librarian should find out which publishers' books a supplier is not prepared to offer in this way (some overseas publishers' books should be available on approval).

In some cases, however, a more comprehensive and potentially very useful service is available. A regular weekly display of new books received by the bookshop can be shown in the library, and recommendations for purchases made by both teaching and library staff. Such a service can be a good public relations exercise by the library towards its users, as well as being a very useful selection tool. The best arrangement with these displays is for the library to be allowed to keep, and be invoiced for, what it wants, so that the books can be pushed through to the shelves and to the readers as quickly as possible. The only disadvantages are that the library may be expected to take a minimum percentage of such books and that some books in the approval displays may already be on order from another supplier. Another method is for the display to circulate around several libraries, though this is less satisfactory: there is a certain delay in obtaining any of the books for the library, and there can be long delays if the book has to be reordered because the only copy has been snapped up by another

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library. In the meantime, those who have asked for the books are growing restive, having the not unreasonable expectation that a book they have actually seen and handled in the library should not take too long to be available for them to use. These caveats notwithstanding, this service is still worth having, and comparisons can be made between different suppliers who offer it, particularly on the number and names of the publishers covered by the scheme and the proport ion of the named publishers' output that is included. The delay between publication date and display date can also be compared.

The subjects can be covered, and the level of publications, should be arranged between the supplier and the library, and the supplier should be willing to consider changes suggested by the librarian. This implies, especially for academic lists, a bookshop staff with subject knowledge. While the library's interest is in as wide a coverage of publishers as possible, the supplier will want to restrict this to the major publishing houses, in order to keep costs down.

Finally, stockholding bookshops will probably be more likely to offer this service, as they have some hope of selling unwanted books in the shop, rather than returning them to the publisher, al though booksellers may have been given easier credit or return facilities by the publishers involved in exchange for the publishers' books being promoted in libraries through the approval displays.

A U T O M A T I O N

Automated systems are having an effect on the methods of suppliers as well as of libraries. This is especially true of North America, but is becoming more common in Britain, and may in the future be one of the most important factors in choosing a supplier.

More than one supplier now has the facilities to allow libraries to interrogate, via a video- display terminal, a file containing data on books that the supplier has in stock, usually supplemented with records from British Books in Print. In some cases, a l ibrary can then place online orders for any publications on this database.

The ideal situation from the acquisitions librarian's point of view would be for one database to contain a sort of union catalogue of stock available from all major library suppliers: choice of supplier would then obviously be heavily influenced by who had the book in stock already. This desirable increase in information will not soon happen, however, both because of commercial rivalry and because incompatible systems are already installed or planned in different companies ( M A R C Users' Group/Library Supply Group Working Party, 1981).

Online ordering is in itself of little use to libraries unless there is provision for the simultaneous creation of a master order file for the library, and unless the data input can be used as the basis for a catalogue record, i.e. be M A R C compatible, which BBIP and suppliers' files generally are not. If, on the other hand, in order to overcome these problems, a supplier or a group of suppliers could establish links with the cooperative groups (BLCMP, etc.) that are now developing automated acquisitions and ordering systems, then libraries that are members of the cooperatives would have a strong incentive to use these suppliers for at least some of their orders. This is in effect making the choice of supplier dependent on lectors outside the control of an individual library or librarian, with obvious attendant dangers, but it may be a development of the coming decade nevertheless.

On a more mundane level, teleordering is having its effects on publishers, booksellers and libraries. Teleordering does get orders to the publisher more quickly (Godfray, 1981), and the difference is likely to become more marked, as more publishers join the scheme. It is suggested that even when publishers are not members, they process teleorders more quickly, presumably


because orders received in this way look clear and unambiguous. If teleordering survives, refinements such as automatic reminders will follow, further increasing its usefulness to libraries and booksellers (Knowles, 1980). There is an advantage then to a library ordering from booksellers who use teleordering (it may be in the future that a library may be able to have its own teleordering terminal, connected via the bookshop), and suppliers who do not have this facility should be closely questioned on their commitment to improving customer service levels.

STANDING ORDERS

The supply of standing orders (for example monograph series, annual reports, statistical publications, etc., as distinct to what are usually understood as periodicals) is a perennial bone of contention between libraries and booksellers.

Choices between suppliers in this field depend upon all the factors already considered for monograph orders, with special emphasis on arrangements made by a supplier for reporting developments to the library and for chasing up non-delivery of volumes. Standing orders are usually thought to require a great deal of staff time and expertise, and not to be susceptible to automated procedures, although this may well change over the next few years: it is useful to ask the supplier about the staff commitment given to this area of operations. It may be that, because of all these extra problems, there will be a tendency to place standing orders with dealers specialising in a particular subject area rather than with general booksellers.

AMERICAN BOOKS

The supply of American publications has caused much controversy over the last few years, recently flaring up once more in the Bookseller (A case for more modest mark-ups, 1981; Dawson, 1982; Karnac, 1982). Most higher education institution libraries use a North American agent for the supply of some of the many American-published books that will be needed for their stock. One reason is the possibility that when American books are ordered from British suppliers they will report "no British rights." The choice of this type of agent should be governed by the usual criteria, remembering that discount and service/delivery charges will have to be looked at more closely.

The controversial question, however, concerns the supply of books published both in America and in this country, as is common with many large American-based academic publishers. Whenever the exchange rate falls, acquisitions librarians feel under great pressure to buy direct from America, assuming that the sterling price of the book does not decrease sufficiently, or at all. Even in times of stable exchange rates, a straight comparison between the two prices often shows that the British edition is overpriced, Should, then, such books always be bought direct from America? Not necessarily, for several reasons. The most obvious is the expectation of a much longer delivery time for books ordered from across the Atlantic (air shipments are expensive). Against this, however, is the fact that even although a book appears in BNB or BBIP, there may be no or very limited stocks in this country, and an equally long or longer delay would result from ordering the book from a bookseller in this country, Another factor is the 10% discount available on the British edition, while there may well be a surcharge on the dollar price for servicing or delivery costs: if the published exchange rate is $1.80-1.90 to the pound, for example, it is probably not profitable to buy from America unless the notional exchange rate is less than $1.50.

324 TONY KIDD

Notional exchange rates vary between publishers, and often between different works issued by the same publisher. For example, publishers react at different speeds to changes in the exchange rate. Also, it is quite common for books by British authors to be published by American-based companies primarily in the United Kingdom, and in these cases the pricing is usually more favourable to purchase from a British bookseller. Although it is not practicable to check every book on order which is published by Wiley, Academic Press, McGraw-Hill, etc. in both British and American books-in-print catalogues, it is worth doing spot checks every so often to discover whether a publisher is marking up the sterling price to an unacceptable extent, and there should be no hesitation about ordering from America if this is the case as well as sending a letter to the publisher in this country explaining your actions.

American professional bodies, universities, etc. issue a great many publications which are likely to be of interest to libraries in Britain. Despite the heavy fees charged, American government publications may be best ordered from specialist agents in Britain (although libraries with large requirements here may prefer to have a deposit account with the U S G P O in Washington); and some American institutions have arrangements with their British counterparts. For example, the Royal Society of Chemistry acts for the American Chemical Society, and the Welding Institute supplies some items produced by the American Welding Society. This is not common, however, and the question arises again as to whether these documents should be ordered direct or through an agent. In this case, provided the society is one which the agent says it can deal with (a list is usually issued by the agent), the recommendat ion must be to prefer ordering through the agent, unless the item is really urgently required. The main reason for this is the many problems that can result, even in the most efficient finance offices and especially when prepayment is necessary, when transferring sums of foreign currency to small organisations.

E U R O P E A N BOOKS

A brief word will be said about choosing suppliers when ordering from abroad (other than North America), al though for any comprehensive survey of this complex and interesting subject, other references must be consulted (e.g. Bloomfield, 1972). In particular, what follows is only really relevant to Western Europe.

The choice here is between ordering from one of the large library suppliers, which is not very satisfactory if a significant number of foreign language texts is being purchased, but may be acceptable if only the occasional item is bought; ordering from a supplier in this country who specialises in this material; or ordering from a bookshop, in the relevant country. (Lecturers from the language departments who are going to Europe are also a useful source of supply of material for the library, provided that strict guidelines are laid down on the total amount a lecturer can spend on behalf of the library, and that duplication of books already in stock is paid for by the member of staff.)

Ordering from a specialist outlet in this country has the advantage that there are no language problems when dealing with the supplier; the supplier can easily be contacted by telephone if necessary: returns and on-approval arrangements should not cause so much difficulty; invoicing will be in sterling; and a competent specialist in this area should know the countries' publishing and bookselling trades. Russian and East European books are almost always bought in this way, from specialist suppliers in Britain, France, or Germany. The other main method of acquiring such material is via exchange agreements with Soviet or East European libraries (Hotimsky, 1974).


Ordering from a dealer within the country of origin has the advantage that books may be supplied more cheaply. Although continental booksellers seldom give regular discounts, they often send books carriage-free, at the publisher's local currency list price, and some discount may be available on the books of the largest publishers, or if a library is a large and consistent customer. Also, supply should often be quicker, at least from the German book trade; and no matter how good the knowledge of a specialist supplier in Britain, a good local bookshop is bound to have more information at its disposal, especially on obscure publishers and publications.

A final special case to consider is the supply of English-language books issued by continental publishers. The large Dutch publishers are the obvious examples, but others, such as Springer, Karger and Dekker, are also important. These books are typically very expensive, and although available in this country if ordered through library suppliers, it may be worth using suppliers in the Netherlands and/or Germany to try to obtain both a quicker and a cheaper service.

SECOND HAND/OUT OF PRINT BOOKS

Out of print books are often required by libraries, for the general stock, for some special collection that the library maintains, or as replacements. Although acquisition of such books is not primarily a matter of choosing a supplier (the dealer either has the book in question, or does not), a few matters should be briefly discussed.

First, the book may be available on microfilm or microfiche from the original publisher. For example, Pergamon Press sells all their out of print titles in this way, although supply may take some time. Or, it may be available through University Microfilms International's Books on Demand service. Or, some other microform publisher may have reissued it (see Guide to Microforms in Print). Or, it may have been reprinted (check the annual Guide to Reprints).

If none of these approaches proves successful or if a copy of the original publication is needed, then the choice is between circulating lists or individual items of desiderata to bookdealers, or scanning the many catalogues that come the way of the library--acquisitions librarians may adopt either of these alternatives, depending on the circumstances.

The first approach, using bookdealers that have been useful in the past or names culled, according to subject specialisation, from the current edition of A Directory o f Dealers in Secondhand and Antiquarian Books in the British Isles, is more likely to bring results, but will probably be more expensive, as the dealer has been alerted to the particular titles that are required. If possible, quotations should be obtained from more than one dealer, as prices can vary enormously even for books in the same condition. For difficult titles, it is sometimes worth using Bookdealers in North America or European Bookdealers to find names to write to: they can often produce what is wanted, but will usually be even more expensive, especially if carriage across the Atlantic is necessary.

The second approach provides second hand books more cheaply but is very expensive in staff time. A catalogue has to be scanned very quickly to make this approach worthwhile. The best that can be done is probably to check a few sample catalogues from promising sources, but to pass most on to the relevant teaching staff, allowing them to do the initial scanning, and encouraging their speedy return to the acquisitions section.

326 TONY KII)I)

CONCLUSION

One American article (Davis, 1979) gives a complicated series of formulae covering different aspects of a supplier's service, arriving in the end at a "relative efficiency factor" for each supplier. For example, out of the 100 points available under the "miscellaneous" heading, 25 are for reporting, 25 for lack of errors, 20 for invoicing, 10 for handling orders without sending them back for questions or prepayment, l0 for ease of returns, and l0 for settling problems promptly: and there are detailed instructions on how to calculate a suitable number of points in each case. The main conclusion to be drawn from this article, however, is that choosing a supplier, like deciding which books to buy, is an art rather than a science. Some suppliers will be better at some things than others. A great many factors will help to determine the source of supply. It is possible to use figures to analyse performance in some areas, and this will become increasingly true with the spread of automated acquisitions systems, but the final decisions, while taking these figures into account, will always depend on an objective, but unquantifiable, look at the general service oflered by the supplier.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RELEVANT BOOKS AND ARTICLES

Alley, B. Whatever became of vendor B? a report on the joint session of the ALA-RTSD/RS Acquisition of Library Materials/Booksellers Discussion Groups. Library Acquisitions: Practice and Theoo' 4(1980): 185-186.

Bacon, B.L. Buying around: the economics of library purchasing. Canadian Library Journal 36 (October 1979): 247-249.

Baumfield, B.H. ed. Book sut)ply: the present and future pattern: the Libtrad Holborn Conference 1974. London: The Working Party on Library & Book Trade Relations, 1974.

Berkner, D.S. Communication between vendors and librarians: the booksellers point of view. Library Acquisitions: Practice and Theoo' 3( 1979): 85-90.

Blackwell, J. Macmillan and Globe [Letter]. The Bookseller, 30 January 1982, p. 377. Bloomfield, B.C. ed. Acquisition and provision o fforei,g,n books by national and university

libraries in the United Kinff, dom: papers o[ the Morecambe Cot![erence 16 April 1972. London: Mansell, 1972.

Book buyers and book sellers: the business of acquisitions, l,ibrary Acquisitions: Practice and Theory 3 (1979): 3-17.

Carroll, J., Thompson, J.C. eds. Workshop on acquisitions from the Third World: proceedings. Library Acquisitions: Practice and Theory 1(1977): 117-133.

A case for more modest mark-ups. The Bookseller, 12 December 1981, p. 2011. Curwen, P.J, The UKpuhlishing industry. Oxford: Pergamon, 198 I. Davis, M.B. Model for a vendor study in a manual or semi-automated acquisitions system.

Library Acquisitions: Practice and Theory 3 (1979): 53-60. Dawson, J. University purchases of US books [Letter]. The Bookseller, 9 January 1982, p.

105. Evans, G.E. Developing library collections. Littleton, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 1979. Ford, S. 7he acquisition o[librarv materials. Chicago: American Library Association, 1973. Godfray, T. Publishers' delivery times: 1980 figures show an improvement in overall

performance. The Bookseller, 31 January 1981, pp. 328-337. Grant, J., Perelmuter, S. Vendor performance evaluation. Journal ~?[Academic Librarianship

4(November 1978): 366-367.


Hall, T. Mauri, J., Sturgess, T. The L.A.L G. guidelines: report o f the Librarians, Booksellers and Publishers Working Party. London: Library Association Industrial Group, 1979.

Hanson, J.A. An evaluation o/" book suppliers used by the University o f Denver Library (ED-156 132). ERIC: 1977.

Henshaw, F.H., Kurth, W.H. Dealer rating system at LC. Library Resources & Technical Services I (1957): 131-136.

Higham, N. The library in the university: observations on a service. London: A. Deutsch, 1980.

Hopes for peace in dispute over Globe. The Bookseller, 23 January 1982, p. 254. Hotimsky, C.M. The acquisition o[" Russian books. London: Bingley, 1974. Johnson, M.F. Foreign book dealers and collection development. Library Acquisitions: Prac-

tice and Theory 1 (1977): 181-185. Karnac, H. Marking up American editions [Letter]. The Bookseller, 23 January 1982, p. 281. Kim, U.C. Purchasing books from publishers and wholesalers. Library Resources & Technical

Services 19 (1975): 133-147. Knowles, R. Teleordering-a luxury? An Leabharlann. The Irish Library 9 (1980): 75-83. Landesman, M., Gates, C. Performance of American in-print vendors: a comparison at the

University of Utah. Library Acquisitions: Practice and Theory 4 (1980): 187-192. Law, D.G. Acquisitions and their processing in Edinburgh University Library: results of a

survey. Aslib Proceedings 32 (November/December 1980): 459-467. Lawson, C.D. Where in hell are the books we ordered: a study of speed of service from

Canadian publishers. Ontario Library Review 55 (December 1971): 237-241. Libraries: supply or cancel'? The Bookseller, 23 February 1980, p. 78[. Lincoln, R. Vendors and delivery: an analysis of selected publishers, publisher/agents,

distributors and wholesalers. Canadian Library Journal 35 (February 1978): 51-57. MARC Users' Group/Library Supply Group Working Party. Dra[~ report. 1981. Marriott, P.R.G. Edinburgh City Libraries: online order experiment. Vine, February 1981,

pp. 19-24. Morbey, J. Libraries and suppliers: 33 steps towards peace. The Bookseller, 19 January 1980,

pp. 239-24 I. Pickett, A.J. An experiment in book buying. Library Journal 84 (February 1959): 371-372. Recent developments at teleordering. Vine, October 1978, pp. 12-13. Roth, H.L. The book wholesaler: his forms and services. Library Trends 24 (April 1976):

673-682. Rouse, W.B. Optimal selection of acquisition sources. Journal o[ the American Society.[or

In[ormation Science 25(July/August 1974): 227-231. Schenck, W.Z. Acquiring library materials as efficiently, inexpensively, and quickly as

possible: exploring possibilities within ~the impossible dream'. Library Acquisitions: Practice and Theory I(1977): 193-199.

Seabrook, D. And yet another tale from G r i m . . . library supply services today. Assistant Librarian 69(March 1976): 38-40.

Steele, C., Walker, G. European acquisitions and their bibliographical control. Lancaster: Lancaster University Library, 1975.

Stokley, S.L., Reid, M.T. A study of performance of five book dealers used by Louisiana State University Library. Library Resources & Technical Services 22 (1978): I 17-125.

Sumler, C., Barone, K., Goetz, A. Getting books faster and cheaper: a jobber acquisitions study. Pubfc Libraries 19 (1980): 103-105.

Teleordering--steady expansion. The Bookseller, 12 December 1981, pp. 2011-2012.

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Thompson , J.C. Booksellers and the acquisitions librarian: a two-way relationship. Library Acquisitions: Practiee and Theory, I (1977): 187-191.

Veenstra, J., Mai, L. When do you use a jobber'? College & Research Libraries 23(November 1962): 522-524.

choosing between suppliers: a british perspective

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