Pergamon Library Acquisitions: Practice & Theory, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 111-127, 1995

Copyright © 1995 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in the USA. All rights reserved

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ALA ANNUAL 1994 CONFERENCE REPORTS

Closing the Loop: Reconceptualizing Acquisitions in the Electronic Age: An ALCTS Preconference Report

Helen Reed, Director of Access Services and Budgets at the University of Northern Colorado, opened the half-day preconference by restating the objectives, which were to explore (1) the techno- logical applications impacting the relationships between librarians, publishers and vendors; (2) how the technology is impacting roles within library organizations as well as the library's relationship with its parent institution; and (3) how to integrate the diverse technologies while maintaining effi- cient/effective library operations.

As keynote speaker, Marion Reid, Dean of Library Services at California State University - - San Marcos, began by posing the question: "How did we get here and where are we going?" This led to an interesting exploration of the changing roles and relationships between librarians, mate- rials vendors, system vendors and publishers spanning the years 1969 to 1994. Reid stated that acquisitions librarians were manually searching bibliographic tools in paper format twenty-five years ago. Main entry in order files was of prime importance. Postal mail was the mode of com- munication, and form letters were considered a radical development. The work place was ill- equipped for any new development in automation, with most work areas typically limited to three outlets of connectivity - - one for a telephone, one for a typewriter, and one for a calculator. Information about industry trends and the scholarly publishing process was derived from vendor visits, literature, meetings, and contact with colleagues through the mail or by telephone. Vendors were sales-oriented and very few employed librarians. When OCLC arrived, acquisitions depart- ments had to negotiate time to utilize it because it was primarily considered a cataloging tool and not for preorder verification. The ISBN was not widely used and often proved inaccurate. Reid further stated that the 1970s were characterized by an explosion of scientific, technical and med- ical materials, the automatic price increases of publishers, unfavorable currency rates, and the beginning of the proliferation of automated library systems.

Reid pointed out that acquisitions librarians now communicate through listservs, news- groups, and e-mail. In the 1990s, their emphasis is to do more with less by downsizing and using technology effectively. She praised librarians for their collective efforts to use technology to reduce tedious tasks. She emphasized that, because of integrated systems, librarians can no longer make independent decisions. She advised that, as academic librarians face outsourcing trends, they must have a broader view of the library to be effective. This view includes library- wide knowledge of interlibrary loan, collection development, and cataloging. She further stated that librarians must be decision-makers and must use business methodologies to analyze costs. Vendors are selling service now more that ever, and switching approval plans or other ordering

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is becoming more difficult due to the value-added services that are provided. The challenge, from the vendor's perspective, is to get the customer to pay for their services over a sustained period of time.

Reid said that the very nature of information is changing because of technology. Hypertext and interactive media have provided other avenues for the expression of ideas, as have interactive files, e-mail, and FrP. She emphasized that, because customers have higher expectations, infor- mation professionals must communicate at a standardized level. Stronger partnerships to adhere to standards need to be developed between all the parties in the spectrum so that technology can truly be used to move information effectively. Reid chose to depict information relationships and partnerships with a cloud diagram displaying a series of loops. She said that the clouds represent connections without actual direct line-to-line connections, and illustrate that change takes place far too rapidly for boundaries to remain the same.

Lynne Branche Brown, Co-Chair of Acquisitions at Pennsylvania State University, moderated the panel discussion, which was entitled "Practical Realities." Brown stated that the presentations were to be relevant to the current ways in which technology is transforming roles and relation- ships including methodologies for integrating the diverse types of technologies into day-to-day realities of acquisitions departments. The panelists were chosen to represent the full array of play- ers in the acquisitions process.

Leslie Straus, Vice-President of Innovative Interfaces, Inc. and the first panelist, opened by saying that there are now a number of blurred boundaries in libraries. The blending of cataloging and acquisitions functions is just one example. The full cataloging record is downloaded at the point of receipt of order information, which means that the patron now has information at the moment of selection and the reference librarian has more information more quickly than ever before. She reported that another blurred line is the one between acquisitions and circulation, due mainly to the barcoding that takes place at the point of receipt and which has become an integral part of delivery. Acquisition, business services, and collection development are all experiencing the same blurring of lines now that reports which affect all three groups originate in the acquisi- tions department. Straus even went so far as to state that "the acquisitions librarian can now run the library."

Gary Shirk, Chief Information Officer of Yankee Book Peddler, was the second panelist. Following up on Straus' comments, he joked that "bifocals help eliminate blurring lines." Returning to seriousness, he stressed that there are many socio-political changes taking place in today's world that have just as much impact as new developments in technology. Societal resources have been gradually moving away from education, and the resulting lack of resources creates an enormous need for information. Shirk outlined several manifestations of the "new ven- dor realities," pointing out that customers have soaring expectations. These expectations include: free services; a library-experienced sales force; additional points of contact; a significant vendor role in the development of standards; and the ability to act in a consultative role in order to fill in knowledge gaps for library budget crunchers. Shirk predicted that, as library roles blur even fur- ther, acquisitions librarians will cease to exist. He added that they will probably evolve into a more general "technical services administrator" category, and that the acquisitions process will be thought of more as contract management.

Amira Aaron, Academic Automation Specialist of Readmore, Inc., stated that the relationship between serials vendors and librarians is more of a partnership negotiation on behalf of the library, with systems vendors and university accounting thrown into the mix. She said that the serials vendor, in an effort to keep up with technology, is caught in a vise of service expense ver- sus profitability. She further stated that the serials vendor cannot continue to absorb costs, espe- cially in transitional levels. Aaron pointed out that the top priorities are to provide core services,

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timely and comprehensive service, good personal service from account executives, and fast and efficient information delivery. She provided handouts detailing the types of technology involved in serials management today. Aaron predicted that serials vendors will be involved in several types of future activity. These include: licensing; negotiation; electronic document delivery; repackaging of electronic information; central storage and archiving of digital information; out- sourcing; and acting as intermediaries between libraries and information creators and providers. Her final advice was to learn as much as possible about the technologies and the players in the acquisitions field.

Albert Simmonds, Managing Director of R.R. Bowker, spoke about the need for standards, cit- ing a University of Pittsburgh cooperative project between the campus bookstore, the university library, and a publisher. This project exemplifies what can be done to address the disparity in stan- dards between the publishing and library worlds. The principal difficulty, he explained, is that publishers' standards do not work well with MARC, whereas libraries are entrenched in MARC. He stated that PUBNET started out as a textbook source and is now getting into trade publica- tions, and, in the process, is changing the database to make it more "library-friendly." Simmonds said that standards are being developed simultaneously in the U.S. and the UK, which is a step in the right direction, provided that they are all compatible. He spoke about the X12 standard and the newer EDIFACT standard, which libraries will have to utilize in order to communicate with European companies. He said that the whole point of EDI is that it is a "neutral activity" - - peo- ple are not involved. He closed by emphasizing the importance of continuing education for acqui- sitions librarians, explaining that they need to know enough to demand quality service.

Ron Ray, Technical Services Librarian at University of the Pacific, was the final panelist. He opened his presentation by saying that practicality is not his idiom and that "new concepts require new shapes." He further stated that change is endemic to librarian's work, and that things will never "get back to normal" and fit into "neat borders." As a result, he advised librari- ans to stop looking for closure and stated his opposition to closed loops. He contended that the "loop" was MARC-based, and that MARC no longer fits the acquisitions process. Throughout his presentation, Ray encouraged being daring and moving away from orderly methods. He also contended that, if librarians are using technological applications, they are, with few exceptions, not publishing their experiences to help the rest of the profession move forward. He sai d that he sees very little evidence that the new technological developments and Internet applications are being used by acquisitions librarians. He closed by saying that in "post-modern acquisitions" there will be long-term chaos and transitions, and that a closed loop does not fit the reality everyone must face.

During the question period it appeared that many comments and questions were simply a rebuttal of what Ron Ray had previously offered. Several people pointed out that acquisitions librarians do value "orderly" ways, and that MARC, X12 and other standards allow the highly structured electronic transmission of their work. There was some discussion about the costs of value-added service from vendors, and how much more dependent libraries are becoming on a single vendor. The point was made that all involved parties need to work together to insure that the vendor partners do not go "belly up" in the end, because that development will be even more costly to libraries.

0364-6408(94)00058-1 Pam Zager Rebarcak Head, Monographic Acquisitions Department

Iowa State University Ames, IA 50011-2140

Internet: zager@ iastate.edu