LlblatL 4~qm~tttons Pra~tueantt 7heorl,Vol 6 pp 221-232 1982 0364-6408 82 02022[-1250300.0 Printed in the USA All rights reserved Copyright ~ 1982 Pergamon Press IAd

C O O P E R A T I O N I N A C Q U I S I T I O N S

COOPERATIVE ACQUISITION OF AFRICANA

Past Performance and Future Directions

M A I D E L C A S O N * , D A V I D L E A S T E R B R O O K * * a n d Y V E T T E S C H E V E N t

A B S T R A C T

Thzs artwle gtve,s a revtew o/prevtous cooperative acqutsltton eJ/orts by A/rtcan Studws hbrartans" followed b: a detazled report o! a ~urvey o /ma/or U S A/rwan collectton~. Tht, survey reports on the scope of collections; methods o f collecting; amount and sources o/ [unds and current cooperattve mvolvement,s or plans Fmalh', suggesttons are made [or specl/tc prolect~ that can be relattvely qmckh' mTplemented

C o o p e r a t i v e acqu i s i t i ons are a top ic of inc reas ing c o n c e r n for a r ea s tudies h b r a r l a n s in

research and a c a d e m i c l ibrar ies Af r i c an S tud ies l ib ra r ians are especial ly c o n c e r n e d as the

per iod o f grea tes t g r o w t h in Af r i can S tud ies research pub l ica t ions , especial ly those publ i shed

in Af r i ca Itself, Is at the same t ime the pe r iod o f g rea tes t in f l a t ion in the cost of these

mater ia l s Budgets a l loca ted for co l l ec t ion d e v e l o p m e n t have no t increased sufficiently' to

deal successful ly wi th this p r o b l e m . Unless s o m e f o r m of c o o p e r a t i v e acqu i s i t i ons is

ins t i tu ted , Af r i c an S t u d i e s research co l l ec t ions in the Uni ted Sta tes face the p rospec t o f

u n c o o r d i n a t e d d e t e r i o r a t i o n T h e first par t of this ar t ic le will briefly review c o o p e r a t i v e

acqu i s i t i ons in Af r i can studies In the h is tor ica l perspec t ive The second par t repor t s the

results of a survey of the cu r ren t s i tua t ion In the final sect ion sugges t ions are m a d e for specific c o o p e r a t i v e act ivi t ies

T h e mos t s igni f icant a t t e m p t at c o o p e r a n o n In the past was the F a r m l n g t o n Plan and its

successor , the F o r e i g n Acqu i s i t i ons Plan [ I ] . W h a t the F a r m l n g t o n Plan did a c c o m p l i s h

deserves far m o r e a t t en t ion than this a c c o u n t ts ab le to give As it re la ted to Afr ica , the

*Alncan Documents L~brarlan, North~e,,tern Unl,,erslty

**Atncan Studies Area Speclahst, Indiana Umvelslty

tAfncana Bibliographer, Um;erslty of Ilhnms

This arncle is based on a panel presented at the annual meeting ot the African Studies Assoclanon m Bloomington, Indiana, October 22, 198[

221

222 MAIDELCASON. DAVID L EASTERBROOKand YVETTESCHEVEN

F a r m l n g t o n Plan was unsuccessful in its a t tempt to geographically divide Africa among cooperat ing Inst i tut ions A recent perusal of a file of Africa-related Fa rmlng ton Plan correspondence from the early to m~d-1970s showed documenta t ion of an at tempt to determine the extent to whtch cooperat ing Insti tutions were main ta in ing their commitments Al though the Fa rming ton Plan itself ceased to exist m the early 1970s, a 1971 agreement had been reached concerning its con t inua t ion for Africa. The responses found in the file referred to were not encouraging While several major mstltUtlOnS d~d report some level of comphance, most reported varying degrees of lack of compliance. Some d,d not respond at all while others reported no record of any agreement to collect under the Plan.

Numerous reasons have been offered for the failure of the Fa rmlng ton and Foreign Acquisi t ions Plans Two ~mportant factors are especmlly relevant to the present considera- tion. First of all, many inst i tut ions in the 1960s had a great deal of money for collection development in African Studies, much of which went for comprehensive collection de- velopment in the broadest sense of the term The frequent overlap of assignments in the F a r m m g t o n Plan seemed to have been a m~tlgatmg factor on the degree of inst i tut ional commi tmen t A number of institutions, for example, reported their lnablhty to acquire a certain type of document but expected that since at least one other lnst l tutmn had a similar commi tmen t ~t was probable that that other lns t l tu tmn had done the job better Second, and related to this, is the nature of collection development in African studies at that time, especially retrospective collection development. Many cooperat ing lnst , tutlons were bmldmg African studies collections from scratch to support the teaching and research needs of inst i tut ional African studies programs. The Fa rmmgton Plan assignments were often not relevant to the major collecting interests of the individual inst i tut ions as reflected in their facultle2 teaching interests and research needs A careful look at th~s entue experience will most certainly provide impor tant guldehnes for African Studies hbrarmns endeavoring to reestablish some form of cooperatwe acqmsmons

Another focal point of cooperative act~wty has been the various area acqms~tmns committees of the Assoclatmn for Research Libraries and the Associatmn for Research Libraries' Task Force on Collection Development Despite the demise of the Farming ton Plan, these groups within the Assocmtlon of Research Libraries have cont inued to speak out on the need for cooperatwe acqms~tmns Such concern, however, has not translated into action. Whxle African studies hbrar ians have access to Assocmtmn of Research Libraries' committees and task forces and therefore some oppor tuni ty to influence d~rectlons wtth Assocmtion of Research Libraries sponsored acuwties m cooperauve acqmsltlons, they are m the posit ion of wmting for others to negotmte for the prowslon of a framework m which they might establish a cooperative acqmsltmns program

An impor tant recent expressmn of the need for cooperatmn comes from the report of the President 's Commlssmn on Foreign Language and In te rna tmna l Studies published m late 1979 Shortly after this Commission 's founding was announced , African studies hbranans , m the context of a meeting of the Archives-Libraries Commit tee of the African Studies Associat ion m November 1978, began a process of contactmg hbrar lans ' committees m the other area studies assoclatmns m order to make a jo in t s tatement of concern to the President 's Commlssmn The pubhshed report of the Commlssmn and its compamon volume of background papers address hbrary needs directly [2] The following is a brief excerpt from the report itself.

The Commission recommends mamtammg and ~mprovmg our mternatlonal studtes hbrary collections b2, buddmg upon our existing major research hbranes, by adding at the national level an apparatus of blbhographlc control,

Cooperatwe Acqms~tlon of Afncana 223

reg~onal,zed acqu~slt~ons pohcLes and ~mproved access for external users, and by more efftc~ent mter-hbrary loan mechamsms The Commission recommends that the L~brary of Congress expand m the near future its National Program for Acquisitions and Cataloguing (NPAC) to mclude the principal world areas now excluded The Library of Congress should also estabhsh a National Center for Foreign Areas Bibliography, charged with the comptlatton. analysis, and c~rculatton of reformation about the production and avadabdlty of print, audio and visual matermls of scholarly importance throughout the world The Commlsston also recommends annual federal grants of $30,000 to $150,000 a year to each of the nattonal international studtes centers to help maintain a hbrary collection m their fields of specmhzatmn of the high quahty requtred for advanced research and training The Commission beheves that the specmhzed hbrary collections held by the proposed national centers should be made as avadable as posstble to quahfied users from other mstltuUons We therefore recommend the estabhshment of a program of 500 annual mini-grants of $100 to $500 (averaging $300) to allow qualified facult 3 members or graduatc ~tudents from other restitutions to visit and use center collections [3]

There is little doubt that the implementa t ion of the Commission 's recommendat ions

regarding area studies library collections would have met the present needs recognized by

many African studxes librarians.

Nearly 2 years have passed since the publicat ion of this report and none of the library-

related r ecommenda t ions have yet been adopted. What has resulted is the establ ishment of

the Nat ional Counci l of Foreign Language and Internat ional Studies under the sponsorship

of the Social Science Research Counci l and the expressed interest of the Library of Congress

in host ing a meet ing of area studies l ibrarians to consider several of the recommendat tons of

the President 's Commiss ion namely:

1 The deve lopment of a b~bhographic center and program at the Library of Congress

focusing on internat ional studies 2 The development of improved and coordinated foreign acqmslt lons programs

3 The expansion of N P A C with addi t ional field offices, notably one m West Africa

Afr ican studies l ibrarians have not seen meaningful results fol lowing the President 's

Commiss ion . Fur thermore , they cannot sigmficantly alter the official direction of activities

fol lowing up the report of the President 's Commiss ion . Nevertheless, they can use the report

of the President 's Commxss~on as a source of reference for their own actwltles

It is well documented that hbrar lans active m concerns of area studies have sensed the

need for action. Hans Panofsky, Cura to r of the Melville J Herskovlts Library of African

Studies, Nor thwestern University, spoke to this concern in Ltbrao' Resources for Inter- national Education, a 1975 report pubhshed by the American Council on Educat ion [4]

James C Armstrong, Field Director, Library of Congress Office, Nairobi, ment ioned it as

well in his paper, "Current Amer ican Acquis i t ion Policies for African Materials," presented

to the Standing Conference on Library Materials on Africa ( S C O L M A ) Conference on

African bibl iography in 1977 [5]. Finally Wilham E Carter, Chief, Hxspanlc Division,

Library of Congress, prepared a most comprehens ive background paper, " In te rna t iona l Studtes and Research Library Needs," for the President 's Commiss ion [6]

Perhaps African studies librarians themselves need to be more inward looking in their

coopera t ive at tempts. They must look to themselves as the pr imary developers of a first-step

coopera t ive acquisi t ions plan The need is so urgent that it is impossible to walt longer for

other established commit tees or organizat ions to act and to provide an overall f ramework

African Studies librarians must begin to establish that f ramework themselves. To gain insight

into current cooperat ive programs and perceptions concerning viable future coopera t ion a survey was dis tr ibuted in June 1981 to libraries collect ing materml f rom and about Africa.

The survey was distributed to 33 hbrarles in the United States. These included the members of the Archwes Libraries Commi t t ee of the Afr ican Studies Associat ion and other hbrarles

224 MAIDELCASON, DAVIDL EASTERBROOKand YVETTESCHEVEN

suggested by members of the Commi t tee or whose staff expressed an interest in par t ic ipa t ing in the survey. A p p e n d i x 1 gives a list of hbrar les responding (25 of the 33) The survey a t t empted to collect da t a abou t the current state of coopera t ion and to explore the possibil i t ies presented by our varying structures and funding for jo int actlvttles Such a survey does not p roduce the kind of quantif ied results that fit into charts, tables and c o m p u t e r analysis Hopefu l ly for our relat ively small and widely diverse group it p roduces r e fo rma t ion and ideas that lead to future activit ies of benefit to ourselves and our resti tutions. A copy of the quest ions on the survey is included in Append ix 2

The first sect ion of the survey deal t with the subject and geographica l limits of the col lect ions Omi t t ing the specialized collecttons (2 rehglous, 1 agr icul tura l , 1 popu la t ion and 1 language and l i terature) , the remain ing 20 l ibraries all emphasized the social sciences and humamties . Except for the L ibra ry of Congress, none of the repor t ing l ibraries collect extensively m natural , physical or appl ied sciences other than agriculture. Three rest i tut ions (Michigan State, Kansas State, and West Virginia University) do emphasize agricul ture Two l ibraries exclude law material . While there were no law hbrar les represented a m o n g those surveyed others indicated that Co lumbia Law School , Yale Law School, S tanford Law School , and the Universi ty of Cal i fornia at Berkeley Law School do collect African mater ia l The arts are emphas ized by three collections, collected but not stressed by most of the rest, and specifically ment ioned has hawng a low pr ior i ty at one Literature ~s emphasized by two, exc luded by none. Afr ican languages and linguistics are emphas ized by four, excluded by none. Where rehglon is specifically excluded (Umvers l ty of Cal i forn ia at Berkeley), a l ibrary m the region (Gradua te Theological Union) does collect

Geograph ica l const ra in ts over lay the subject emphases Eleven hbrar les collect f rom the entire cont inent and the sur rounding islands Ano the r 12 collect from Subsaharan Afr ica wtth East Afr ica the pr imary focus of two of these. Subsaharan Africa except for South Afr ica is the focus of one hbra ry and Is lamic Afr ica the p r imary focus of ano ther Current ly Kansas State ~s concent ra t ing on Botswana because of a grant.

The next section of the survey dealt with types of mater ia l collected. All hbrar les (except the Texas Popu la t ion Center) collect t rade publ ica t ions from Africa Virtually all collect government pubhca t lons on the na t iona l level. On the state or provincia l level 9 l ibraries collect selectively with two hmlt lng sub-nat ional collecting to Nigeria and a third to Nigeria and the South Afr ican homelands Six l ibraries collect local pubhca t lons selectively or very selectively Types of government publ icat ions collected include economic and statist ical reports ( including deve lopment plans) depa r tmen ta l reports , legislative and commiss ion reports , debates and gazettes Eleven l ibraries collect gazettes but most of these collect f rom only one or two countr ies

While 18 of the repor t ing hbrar les collect Afr ican language publ ica t ions , 4 hmlt their col lect ion to languages taught , 3 collect only Swahlh, and 2 more collect p r l m a r d y Swahdx and Hausa

Fif teen repor t ing l ibraries collect ephemera but all of them are selective from either the content or geographic wewpoln t

Tex tbooks are collected by most l ibraries only if they are the only source of re fo rmat ion or if they conta in subs tant ia l scholar ly mater ia l Thus Yale collects p r imary and secondary t ex tbooks in h~story, civics and geography. The Library of Congress expressed their policy as emphastz lng content more than level. Co lumbia University Teacher 's College has collected t ex tbooks per se though the comprehensiveness of their current collection ts not known

All of the hbrar~es responding to the survey collect European imprints In Enghsh and the major collections try to purchase western European scholar ly mater ia l comprehensively .

Cooperatwe Acquisition of Afncana 225

Thir teen l ibrar ies collect mater ia l in English, French, German , Por tuguese and Ital ian. Only three l ibraries listed all European mater ia l of academic value ( including Eastern) as within their scope. Seven make some effort to collect ma jo r research works f rom Eastern Europe. Language competence obviously influences decisions relat ing to Eastern European collecting.

Wi thou t specifying countries, three l ibraries repor t collecting all Asian mater ia l of research value. Two more collect f rom all of Asia but only publ icat ions in major European languages. Six l ibraries specifically ment ion Japan which is p robab ly a reflection of the qual i ty of J apanese work on Afr ica in English being publ ished. Five l ibraries listed South Asian imprints and one Southeas t Asian.

Sixteen l ibrar ies collect at least some mater ia l f rom Latin America . The University of Texas at Aust in collects extensively f rom Lat in Amer ica including mater ia l on the re la t ionship between Lat in Amer ica and Afr ica and some Latin Amer ican imprints on Afr ica in history, government , economics, sociology and an th ropo logy Three l ibraries have an emphas is on Brazil and four on the Ca r ibbean reflecting in at least two instances an Interest in the Black d iaspora .

Mos t of the means used to collect mater ia l seem to be c o m m o n to all hbrar les direct to publ ishers or authors , dealers, approva l plans, b lanket orders, and s tanding orders. Four ins t i tu t ions ment ion the use of agents. The Library of Congress, of course, collects th rough its overseas offices and several inst i tut ions listed exchange p rograms as a source of publ ica t ions Five listed gifts as a source Fou r inst i tut ions listed travell ing faculty and students, and two listed acquis i t ion trips. Of course, the emphasis placed on different types of collecting varies a great deal, f rom inst i tut ions that rely for Afr ican imprints a lmos t to ta l ly on Afr ican Impr in t Library Service to Nor thwestern where the main emphasis is on letter requests to the publ isher

While not everyone gave a figure for funding level, figures given ranged f rom $1,000 to over $100,000. M a j o r col lect ions funding varied f rom $25,000 to over $100,000 The p r imary funding source in v i r tua l ly all res t i tu t ions is the l ibrary budget a l though eleven ins t i tu t ions receive some funding f rom the p r o g r a m of Afr ican studies or its equivalent . Two rest i tut ions listed suppor t f rom a universi ty depa r tmen t and three listed special grants. One hsted gifts to the l ibrary. The Library of Congress , of course, depends on legislative app rop r i a t i ons The New York Publ ic receives funding f rom both city and state governments .

Librar ies are involved in a number of different coopera t ive efforts. Three inst i tut ions ment ioned remnan t s of the F a r m l n g t o n Plan though th~s is no longer a wtal par t of any l ibrary 's planning.

Most ins t i tu t ions listed the Coopera t ive Afr lcana Microform Project ( C A M P ) as the most useful coopera t ive scheme now in opera t ion . Five of the major collections are R L G members and one is an affil iate Whde Co lumbia and Yale ment ion previous RLG coopera t ion as useful, o ther R L G ins t i tu t ions look fo rward to future coope ra t ion but cannot yet predict what effect th~s will have. Boston Universi ty IS revolved in the Boston Library Conso r t i um and in a less fo rmal manner coopera tes with Harvard . lndxana is par t of the Ind iana Umvers i ty L ib ra ry system, C o l u m b i a is par t of the New York M e t ropo l i t a n Reference and Research Library Agency and S t a n f o r d / H o o v e r and the University of Cal i forn ia at Berkeley repor ted on a coope ra twe acqmsxtions p rog ram current ly opera t ing there

Language competence for ca ta loging at all Insti tutions includes the major western European languages Eight ins t i tu t ions ca ta log Arab ic and nine have competence m Swahih, four in Hausa, two in Shona, one in Klkuyu, one in Fu la and two in Afr ikaans .

The level of dec i s ion-mak ing for coopera t ive p rog rams varies somewha t but formal coope ra t ion requires for most l ibraries the approva l of the head of Col lect ion Manage- ment / Deve lopment and in some instances the Universi ty Librar ian.

226 MAIDELCASON, DAVIDL EASTERBROOKand YVETTESCHEVEN

A number of suggestions for viable cooperative projects were listed by more than one insti tution. These include cooperative purchase of expensive items such as microfilms of newspapers, archives, journals and ephemera and possibly an expansion of C A M P activities. Greater financial part icipat ion in CRL was one possibility mentioned so that CRL could buy marginal material a n d / o r expensive material such as newspapers Cooperative or at least non-dupl icat ive buying of newspapers and periodicals, marginal interest monographs and occasionally needed items in lesser known languages were suggested. Cooperat ive disser- ta t ion purchases were suggested both for U S. and foreign dissertations. The division of responsibil i ty for African language material by language both for collecting and cataloging was suggested

Several resti tutions indicated that regional cooperat ion (west coast, midwest, east) would be the most useful form possible at th~s time At the same time, computer connect ions through RLIN or OCLC beyond regional lines seem to make regional factors less impor tant A geographical division of responsibil i ty was suggested by several, possibly followed by a subject division

The importance of ln terhbrary loan policies in any cooperative scheme was pointed out In addit ion, increased awareness of the collection development policies of other insti tutions aids in the ut lhzat lon of material and in informal cooperative networks Both Hoover and Berkeley pointed out the work involved in implementing any cooperative scheme.

Several suggestions for moni tor ing cooperative plans were made It was suggested that Joint Acquisi t ions List of Afrlcana ( JALA) entries be analyzed, that specialized acquisi t ions be reported In Africana Libraries Newsletter (ALN), that copies of order slips a n d / o r African Imprint Libraries Service (AILS) invoices be shared to provide informat ion about titles not cataloged. Annua l detailed reporting on any cooperative commi tment was also suggested. Coopera t ion online in REIN and OCLC may have more potential as a means of moni tor ing than currently realized by most of us

In addi t ional comments , two of the speclahzed collections suggested that they might be helpful m filhng some areas not well covered m major collections The University of Texas at Aust in might assume some responsibil i ty regarding Latin Amemcan imprints on Africa since they collect comprehensively in Latin America. The Graham Center m Whea ton emphasizes ephemeral and semi-popular literature relating to African Chrls t lamty and might grow to be the major resource for that type of material

From the survey, certain commonali t les emerge and two almost opposite ways of viewing cooperat ion appear. Cooperat ion can be approached from the perspective of our c o m m o n strengths. All major hbrarles collect heavily in the social sciences and the humanit ies. All collect about and from Subsaharan Africa, about half from North Africa as well All collect scholarly trade pubhcat ions, umverslty pubhcat~ons, and government publicat ions on the nat ional level. All are competent m the major Western European languages for cataloging All are members of C A M P and view it as successful. Almost all contmbute to JALA. Viewed from the perspective of commonal i ty , cooperat ion could be designed to allow us to cont inue in these strengths but avoid unnecessary dupl icat ion Obviously not all duphca t ion is unnecessary or, even if unnecessary, is avoidable Inst i tut ional imperatives require that certain materials be available in the library even if they are duphcated by every other research library in the country. Obvious categomes such as trade books from North America have not even been considered m this report. In addit ion, duphca t lon of major research material from England and France and material from some areas of Africa such as Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya cannot be avoided At the same time, even from these areas, there are types of material that are valuable to researchers but do not need to be consulted frequently and therefore might well be kept in only one or two collections.

Cooperatwe Acqmsmon of Afncana 227

A different type of c o o p e r a t i o n would be an effort to cover our weak points . F r o m this viewpoint , comprehens ive coverage of Afr lcana is desirable and possible; therefore, an e x a m m a t m n should be made not of our s trengths but of our weaknesses. Gaps in coverage such as expensive newspapers f rom a number of countrms, t ex tbooks of all levels and u n c o m m o n Afr ican language materml should be our focus. C o o p e r a n o n would then be as ~t was in tended in the F a r m i n g t o n Plan, an a t t empt to collect comprehens ive ly in a way imposs ib le for any one l ibrary. Cer ta inly these are not mutual ly exclusive viewpoints. It is poss ible to do some of each and hopeful ly to succeed at the first (avoiding our dupl ica te actlwties) so that money will stretch to the second

Character is t ics of work ing coopera t ive projects should be considered when s t ructur ing future coope ra t i on The most successful coope ra t ion current ly ,n ope ra t ion appears to be C A M P [7] This cer ta in ly represents both an a t tempt to fill gaps not covered by other l ibraries and a b m l d m g on the strength of individual collections. Perhaps one reason for its success has been the obvious economm advan tage to hbrarles , but not all of C A M P ' s virtues are economic. The abdRy to assemble runs of per iodicals or sets of speeches and ephemeral col lect ions for mic rof i lming has cer ta inly been enhanced by the s t ructure of C A M P opera t ions . The dec is ion-making process functions relatively smoothly . In addi t ion C A M P fulfills the crl term of accesslblhty Even for non-members , bor rowing from C A M P ,s easier, quicker and cheaper than bor rowing f rom many major universi ty hbrartes

Ano the r coopera t ive project now funct ioning is the New York Pubhc L i b r a r y / L i b r a r y of Congress gazette microf i lming project . One of the major p roblems with this project has been a lack of accessibil i ty. The last avai lable hs tmg of gazettes was pubhshed in the Augus t 1978 Newspaper and Gazetle Report. A June 1981 upda te for East Afr ica was done. It is the in tent ion of the Na tmna l Preserva tmn Program Office of the Library of Congress to p roduce a revised list in 1982 accord ing to Mr J a r m y of that office It is possible to call his office for in fo rmat ion on specific gazettes Accord ing to Mr J a r m y all gazettes on mmrofi lm are avadab le on mte rhb ra ry loan In reality, since the Library of Congress ~s considered a l ibrary of last resort ff anyone else has purchased a copy of the mlcrofdm, the ln ter l ibrary loan request must go first to that l ibrary. New York Public Library 's policy is to loan to R L G members , the Umted Natmns Library and members of the New York Sta te System. Both Mr J a r m y and Ms Helga Barck of New York Pubhc said that hard copy which has not been microf i lmed is avai lable for on-site use. To find holdings at either lns t i tu tmn it would be necessary to te lephone, p robab ly several times. One possxblhty for improving access to the gazettes would be for C A M P to purchase all microfi lms of the Afr ,can gazettes This might also be useful for newspapers .

The S t a n f o r d / H o o v e r - B e r k e l e y coopera t ion seems to be work ing fairly well but a number of p rob lems have been pointed out that will p robab ly recur in any coopera twe endeavor The level of col lect ing by the ins t l tu tmns xs different with more money and more staff t~me avai lable at H o o v e r / S t a n f o r d This means that d i sappo in tmen t s are mevxtable if the s t ronger l ib ra ry expects the o ther l ib ra ry to collect m the same dep th for the areas it has agreed to cover A Union List of sermls is ava i lab le in each m s n t u t m n and is a necessary par t of the coopera t ion . Even wxth this and fairly de taded agreements , a great deal of cor respondence is reqmred between the hbrarms Both b lbhographers repor ted that certain areas such as c o r p o r a t l o n / p a r a s t a t a l reports , chi ldren 's books , poet ry volumes and less substant ia l j ou r - nals are collected by neither. The Gradua t e TheoloDcal Umon Library is also mvolved m their coope ra twe efforts and il lustrates the doveta i l ing of a smaller specmhzed l ibrary into a coope ranve scheme.

The Research Librar ies G r o u p has had an Afr ica Special Interest G r o u p whmh has

228 MAIDELCASON, DAVIDL EASTERBROOKand YVETTESCHEVEN

at tempted to cooperate along geographic lines The Columbia bibl iographer reports that this has affected serials' purchases more than monographlc acquisi t ions and has not, for Columbia , led to a reduction in monographic purchasing but rather an increased com- mi tment to serials from certain countr ies The new form of cooperat ion within RLG will apparent ly not include this geographic approach A procedure is now underway for analyzing the collections of member resti tutions roughly following the Library of Congress classification scheme. In this "conspectus analysis" libraries are asked to rate from 1 to 5 the strength of their collection in each subject area If a part icular subject does not have more than two libraries collecting on a research level one library will be asked to assume "primary collecting responsibility" for this subject. With the assumption of responsibility the institu- t ion also agrees to notify RLG if they will no longer be collecting in this subject or if the level of collection changes There are a number of unanswered quest ions in this system such as the relat ion of RLG to libraries outside the Group that are particularly strong in certain areas

The Texas Popula t ion Center represents an extremely valuable type of cooperative effort where the responslbihty falls primarily on one inst i tut ion but the working success depends on the cooperat ion of other Insti tutions An at tempt is being made to mainta in a un ion list of holdings of censuses which is constantly updated, updates being published in a newsletter

The thesis bibl iography prepared by Dan Brltz (Foreign Doctoral Dtssertanons Purchased on Demand by the Center for Research Libraries) which lists the African dissertations on microfilm at CRL is an example of individual effort resulting m more access to a cooperative project. This could also be said of his publicat ion in the BU Working Paper Series, Air,can Newspapers Currently Received by American Libraries

The Joint Acquisitions List of Afrlcana certainly contr ibutes both to acquisi t ion decisions and to access~bd~ty

A large amoun t of informal cooperat ion goes on among the major collections such as sharing of sources, exchange of lists of materml received, and duplicates shared

Possibilities for future cooperat ion are of a number of different types. "Going off m all directions" is not necessarily a bad thing Certainly many of the informal cooperative efforts are to be encouraged but not necessarily insti tutionalized Other activities need publicity to a wider group of libraries but no specific addi t ional expense of money or time (such as the Texas P o p u l a u o n Center activities) There are probably similar centers which are not widely known which include African publicat ions In addmon , if the Latin American collection at Texas can collect Afrlcana from Latin America, perhaps a similar ar rangement could be made with collections such as the Slavic collection at the University of Illinois Special l ibrary groups such as the law l ibrarians might be able to help us discover what law libraries are collecting Afrlcana already or m~ght be encouraged to do so

The main direction of cooperat ion at this time in history seems to be different from earlier at tempts such as the Farmlng ton Plan This is due in part to the present economic climate No insti tutions are th inking in terms of expansion Cooperative plans need to accept the realities of our time and look for ways of main ta in ing our current level of collection while not expanding our budgets. Schemes which initially build on our c o m m o n interests and allow us to reduce our most expensive purchases are probably the most viable There ~s general agreement that serials are the most logical candidates for shared acquisit ions plans. In some cases they absorb more than half of the acquisit ions budgets (and a high percentage of the binding budgets) Many schemes a t tempt ing to deal with serials falter on several accounts: they at tempt to deal with too wide a universe (the entire serials collection of an academic library sometimes); they mandate extensive research and paperwork, they involve a

Cooperattve Acquisition of Afrtcana 229

level of bureaucracy not in t imately acqua in ted with the collection; and they spr ing f rom the concerns of only one or two pa r t i cu la r l ibraries . An add i t i ona l cause of fai lure is the fear of failure, which admi t t ed ly is based on all too many actual cases.

A me thod for shar ing must , then, coun te r the above object ions. A readi ly def inable number of speoa l collections, such as the Afrmana collections in the United States, seem well stated to under take this challenge The universe of serial titles in Afncana , while it could be as high as the thousands , will more hkely be in the hundreds for purposes of shared acqmslt ions. A long-s tanding network, comple te with newsletter, has been funct ioning regularly and effectively for over twenty years [8] Because the 40-odd l ibrar ians are spec i a l i s t s - - and in most cases are the only Africamsts m their h b r a n e s - - t h e l r famil iar i ty with the dep th and use of their col lect ions precludes the degree of research needed for much b roade r p rog rams encompass ing several, if not all, dlsclphnes and geographical areas. Again, the persons work ing daily with the collect ions would be the ones involved in the p lanning and implementa t ion , even though obviously they would need the coopera t ion and assent of the hbra ry admin i s t r a t ion to proceed.

Final ly , the method must answer the first c o n c e r n - - e c o n o m y . Economy means cancell ing subscr ipt ions , or ob ta in ing more subscr ip t ions for the same money. It also means low cost of maintenance , with little recordkeepmg. All of this t ranslates into further savings of time, pape rwork , and travel. It also means ex tend ing and s t re tching b inding budgets and freeing shelf space. Each par t ic ipant hbrary must view the scheme as economica l for itself.

A possible method p roposed here is s imilar to one which has worked in six Veterans A d m i n i s t r a t i o n hospi ta l l ibraries in Cal i forn ia and Nevada [9]. It is based on the idea of a "des ignated holder" (or "pr incipal holding l ibrary," "official holder" or "archival l ibrary"). Its essence is that the des ignated l ibrary is responsible for main ta in ing a comple te run of a specific title, mak ing it avadab le on mte r l ib ra ry loan, and p r o w d m g an archival copy for preservat ion. It ensures that burdens in collecting and provis ion of ln ter l ibrary loans fall equal ly a m o n g large and smal l hbrar les , it can s t rengthen local collections, preserve research mater ia ls , and conserve space. It guarantees the integri ty of ind iwdua l collections: p a r t i o - pa t ing hbrar ies are free to cont inue selection according to their own collect ion deve lopment plans. It also encourages l ibraries with thinly scat tered runs to exchange such runs for needed i tems of their own des ignated titles. F inal ly it provides a f irm basis for cancel la t ion decisions as well as for purchases of new titles and for binding decisions.

This plan requires.

l Some per iodical list which serves as a c o m m o n checkhst 2 Regular commun ica t i on a m o n g members . This should be kept to a min imum, yet a

s imple mechanism should be m place and readi ly avai lable . C o m p u t e r messages, TELEX, or some simple paper form are possibili t ies.

3 A means of p rov id ing and upda t ing holdings informat ion . OCLC ' s union hs tmg sub- system ~s one possibi l i ty, especial ly since it is avai lable to non-members The present cost ~s 25 cents to build a record and 5 cents to change one.

4. A fo rmal s igned agreement by the pr inc ipa l execut ive officers of the member l ibraries. This agreement would include a guarantee that designated titles take precedence in ca ta loging and other techmcal processes, and that in te rhbrary loans of such titles also take precedence.

5 Provis ion of direct access to des ignated titles by qualified users of member libraries.

Equal ly impor t an t as the method is the type of serial chosen for coopera t ive acquisi t ion. Some possible categories are

230 MAIDELCASON, DAVIDL EASTERBROOKandYVETTESCHEVEN

1. Geographica l . Libraries would guarantee complete coverage of selected journa l s emana t - Ing and concerning, one par t icu la r country. Not only is it relat ively simple to identify such a body of l i terature , but several l ibrar ies a l ready have biases towards cer ta in countr ies in their collections.

2. By Disclphne. Mos t res t i tu t ions are noted for par t icu la r disclphnes or fields of s tudy, and have s t rong l ibrary col lect ions of Af r lcana in these fields. However , many interdisc ipl inary journa l s would be ignored in such an ar rangement .

3. By Impor tance . The l ibraries could agree on a list of journa l s which they consider the most essential for research l ibrar ies (e.g., by usage and bread th of indexing). This list could be s h o r t - - s a y , 20-25 titles; or much l o n g e r - - 7 5 or so It is qmte l ikely that all the l ibrar ies would want to keep all these titles, a l though it would still be useful to designate hold ing hbranes . Conversely , marg ina l titles N O T chosen for this hst could be candidates .

4. By Form. While specific ca tegor ies of serials can be included or exc luded m the above three choices (such as government documents) , there is some merit m consider ing one par t icu la r type. Newspapers are the most promising, par t icular ly because they take a d i s p r o p o r t i o n a t e load of serials budgets. In a d d m o n , we a l ready have a union list of our newspaper holdings, which ts re la twely easy to upda te [10]. A d i sadvantage is that newspapers are subject to the heawest of (pohtical) pressures by users, and therefore are the most sensitive to coopera twe decisions.

Even with the small number of Afr icana collections, one holding l ibrary would not be sufficient for the entire country. Regional responsibil i t ies would be a possibil i ty, even a necessity. Fo r Afr lcana , we can readi ly identify at least four regions, unequal though they may be: The Nor theas t , the South , the Midwest and the West Coast Pe rmuta t ions and combina t ions of these are p o s s i b l e - - a n d p robab ly imperat ive. Once regions are defined for Afr lcana serials sharing, each would work independent ly but commonly : a m o n g the regions, the same basis for shar ing would exist (geographical) and the same titles would be assigned holding libraries.

Par t i c ipa t ion will no doub t be de termined on other pract ical cons idera t ions as well: the parent ins t i tu t ion 's exist ing commi tmen t s (networks, consort ia , etc ), the inst i tut ion 's ca- pab lh ty of s tmphfylng procedures , and the requirements of the l ibrary 's col lect ion de- ve lopment policy.

Such a plan of coopera t ion should init ial ly be tr ied by a small number of l ibraries (at most three) with a l imited number of titles (p robab ly no more than ten). The test l ibraries ideally would be within the same state or region and belong to the same network. But one d ic tum is certain: the smaller the number of l ibraries and titles, the surer the chances for speedy imp lemen ta t i on and evalua t ion . The next step might be the enl i s tment of still more l ibraries within a region, with evaluat ion and ref inement going on at all times.

In all proposa ls , one of the major issues will be access to the mater ia ls by all coopera t ing l ibraries. Several means of deal ing with the p rob lem of access have been suggested. Research Library G r o u p members could limit their coopera t ion to other R L G libraries though that would be an unfor tuna te development . Within any coopera t ive agreement , in te rhbrary loan agreements could be worked out for these specific items. It has been suggested at one l ibrary that , if l ibraries are to coopera te extensively on acqmslt lons, they will have to consider ln te rhbrary loan charges as par t of their book budget and not charge them to the user

Ult imately we are faced with a choice between coopera t ing and deter iorat ing. Al ready we see signs of cu t t ing back in all our inst i tut ions. We can all cut back the same items and

Cooperanve Acqmsmon of Afncana 231

w e a k e n t h e t o t a l r e s o u r c e s w ~ t h m t h e U m t e d S t a t e s c o n c e r n i n g A f r i c a o r we c a n w o r k

t o g e t h e r t o m a m t a l n a s h~gh a l e v e l o f r e s o u r c e s m o u r c o l l e c t i o n s a s w e n o w h a v e

N O T E S A N D R E F E R E N C E S

1 I nformauon about these plans can be easd3 studted through the use ot their journals, now ceased I at mntgton Plan ,%eu sleller, nos I-31. 1949-1970. and Foretgn ~l~qtttstlton~ ,\"el~ s]eller, nos 32-50. 1970-1979

2 Strength Through Wtsdom A (rt t tque o/ (. 'S (apahtlttl ' 4 Report to the Prest~h,nt /~om the Ptestdent'~ Commt~lon on k))retgn l.anguage and Internatu)nal Studtes Washington U S Go~ernment Printing Othce 1979 (S N 017-080-02065-3). and Prestdetll'~ Comnu~to/t on l))retgn I anguage and lnternattonal S'tudws Ba~LgroundPapetsa t tdS tudws Washington U S Government PnntmgOff lcc 1979(S N017-080-02070-0) An excellent brief account of the report of the PrcsldentN Commlss,on is Scull3, Malcolm G "Rcqu,re Foreign- Language Studtes. PresMcntml Panel Urgcs Colleges.'" The (77tont~h, o/ tttgher Edu~atton Vol 19 No II (November 13 1979).pp 1.10-12 1979 a l s o s a ~ t h e p u b h c a t m n o t a n u m b e r o l r e l a t e d s t u d l e s a n d r e p o l t s -lbe follo~,ng are among the most rele',ant f'o~etgn Language and lntetnattonal S'tudtes .Spe~taltsts lhe ~lar~et Pla~e and .~'atu)nal PrtoHtw~ Santa Momca Rand. 1979, and Ven Dtre~tton~ tn Language and 4tea 3tudtes

Prtorttws/ot the 1980~ Gameswlle Consor t lumol l a t m A m e n c a n S t u d t e s P r o g r a m s . 1979 3 Strength Through Wtsdom , pp 89-90 4 Task Force on Llbrar} and Informanon Sources 12bratl Resottr~es Jot Internattonal k.dtt(alton 4 Report

Washington Ihe Project. 1975 (Occasmnal Paper-lnternat,onal Educatmn P~oject. Amettcan Council on Educatmn. no l ) .pp 6-16

5 Standing Conlerence on Lbrars Materials on Attica Progress tn .4/H~an Btbhogtal)h~ Plo~eedtngs o[ the S C O L M A Con[ereme, ('omnlonwealth lnslttule London, 17-18 ¢lar~]t 1977 l o n d o n SC()I MA. 1977

6 Carter. Wdham 12, "lnternaUonal Studies and Research Lbra r 3 Needs "" In PresMent '~ ( 'ommt~ton on D.e tgn Language and h~te~nattonal Studws Ba~ Lground Papers and Stud~e~. pp 174-186

7 A bne| dcscnpnon of CAMP can be found ,n ttandhoo~ lhe Center/or Research Lt&aru.s [98] Chicago The Center |or Research l.~branes, 1981. p 5

8 The Arch,ves-Ltbranes Commmee ot the Aft,can Studies Assoc~atmn 9 "'Holder of record a eooperan;e health science journal s 3stem m a hospttal hbrar 3 netuork.'" lledt~al Lth~at

4~so~tatton Bulletin, 68(3) lul 3 1980 171-73 10 l)amel A Brlt7, A/rt~an ,~'eu wapet ~ Cmrenth Re<erred hi Antert~an Lthrarte~ Brookhne, Mass Boston Ij

A lncanS tud tesCen te r 1979 (Workmgpapexs, no 8)

A P P E N D I X 1

L i b r a r i e s R e p l y i n g to t h e S u r v e y

Boston U nlvers~ty Umxerslt} ol Cah|orma, Berkele_~ Umverslt} of Cahlorma. Los Angeles Columbia tJ m\ erslt> Dartmouth

Candler School of l'heolog~. Emor} Unl~erslty Graham Center Library, Wheaton. llhnms Harvard Umvers,ty Howard U mverslt~ Hoover lnstltutmn Stanford

Unl~erstty of llhnols Indiana U nl~ erstt~

Kansas State Umverslt 3 Llbrar 3 ot Congress Michigan State Un,verslty Nev. York Pubhc Schomburg

\ orth\~ ester n tJ mvers~t 3 Prtneeton U m,,erslt?r Syracuse tlnlx erslt 3 Um~erstt~ ol lexas, Austm Population Center Library, Austin l exas Umverstt~ of Vlrgm,a West V,rgmta tlm~erstt,, Umvetstty ot WISCOUMn Yale b m',erstt 5

232 M A I D E L C A S O N , D A V I D L E A S T E R B R O O K a n d Y V E T T E S C H E V E N

A P P E N D I X 2

S u r v e y q u e s t t o n s

1 Wha t are the subject l imitat ions on your collect ion '~ Please be as speclhc as possible 2 What are the geographic limits on your collect ion ') 3 Which of the fol lowing types of mater ia l do you collect '~

A African Imprints Trade Books Government publ ica t ions

What levels of government '~ Wha t types, 1 e economic, statistical, ' demographic , depa r tmen ta l reports, legislative reports, debates gazettes')

Afrman language pubhca tmns Ephemera l publ icat ions Fextbooks, what level '~

B European Imprints Be specific as to countr~ ot origin and level

C Asian and Latin Amer ican Imprints 4 How do you collect each of the above types"

5 Funding Level 6 Funding Source Library, Depar tment ol the Um,,erslty, P rogram of African Studies. P a m c l p a t m n m Pl 480 7 Coopera t ive efforts a l ready involved m ')

Remnan t s of the F a r m m g t o n Plan '~ RLG Coopera t ive Acquis i t ions

Other ̀ ) Any ~ lslble effects ')

8 Language competence lor processing of materials .) 9 Le,,el of decision necessary for any cooperatp~e effort ')

10 T j p e s of cooperatxon you consider most viable Please be as specific as possible in relat ion to coopera t ion b 3

area, subject, form of material , source of material , etc 11 What type of momtor lng would be necessary to develop trusU

12 An~ a d d m o n a l comments