Teresa Howard

Chapter 5 Review Questions

9/25/13

1. Some of the major purposes of library collections are to serve the information needs of
the end-users, select materials to serve the information, educational, and/or recreational
needs of a community, and gain and understanding of the community or institution they
serve.
2. Some of the basic purposes of book selection policies are helps decide which needs and
items are the highest priority and if the financial resources are available. Some of the
basic elements of book selection policies are who has the authority and responsibility of
selecting items, goal and objectives, criteria for selecting materials, sources, handling
problems, and allocating funds.
3. Public librarys selection deals more with recreational needs (what the community wants
and the library can afford), where as an educational institutions selection deals more with
educational materials, curriculum needs, and technology needs.
4. One factor that requires close cooperation between selectors and acquisitions department
is acquiring electronic resources, because most e-resources are leased not purchased, and
many are paid for through a consortia that may have different handling requirements.
Also, they acquisitions department disseminates materials from the various information
producers and vendors, which aids in the selection process.
5. The typical kinds of materials a library acquires are: printed materials, non-book
materials, and electronic resources.
6. Three broad categories of acquisitions work are:
Handling the business of ordering and receiving the materials selected for

inclusion in the collection

Handling all the financial aspects associated with the library being able to legally

make the information (print or electronic) available to the public

Processes requests to secure materials

7. The steps in preorder work are:

Organize the incoming requests this can range from oral requests to scrawled
not on a napkin, to a completed request form: organize to the standard format

Verifying establishing the existence of a particular item and determining

whether the library needs to order the item,, this involves checking several files

like the OPAC

8. Three special numbers special numbers associated with the book trade are ISBN
(international standard book number), ISSN (international standard serial number), and
SAN (standard address number).
9. Some of the various vendor reports that libraries receive regarding the orders they place
are temporarily out of stock, out of stock, ordering, claiming, canceled, not yet
published, out of stock, publisher, out of print, and publication canceled. There are
several more.
10. Three important decisions that the acquisitions department makes about acquiring an item
are:
Which acquisition method to use
What vendor to use
What funding source to use
11. The methods of acquisition are:
Firm order orders in which desired items are individually named, usual method
for titles the library knows it wants. Advantage: best method for first volume in a

series. Disadvantage: time it takes to prepare the individual order.

Standing orders an open order for all titles fitting a particular category, best for
items that are serial in character and library wants all the publications as they
appear. Advantage: save staff time and effort due to automatic shipping.

Disadvantage: unpredictable nature in terms of numbers and cost.

Approval plans variation of the standing order, involve automatic shipment of
items to the library from vendor along with automatic invoicing, after the library
accepts the item; library has the right to return items it does not want. Advantage:
save staff time and effort when properly implemented, right to return unwanted
items. Disadvantage: costly when not thoughtfully establishes and carefully
monitored; evidence that these plans can result in substantially higher number of

very low or no-use items being added to the collection.

Blanket order a combination of a firm order and an approval plan, commitment
to purchase all of something, usually the output of a publisher, or items in a
limited subject area or from a particular country. Advantage: shipments arrive
automatically along w/ invoice, ensures library acquires a copy of a limited print.

Disadvantage: predicting how much money the library will need to reserve to

cover the invoices.

Subscriptions for journals, newspapers, etc, are a combination of standing and
blanket orders. Advantage: can enter into an automatically renewal agreement
with vendor, saves library and vendor staff time and paperwork and is cost-

effective. Disadvantage: Must request a cancellation

Leases commonplace for handling e-resources, especially Web based.
Advantage: pays for access to information by paying an annual fee.
Disadvantage: decision to lease is in hands of the supplier; generally lose all

access to material at end of lease.

Gifts Solicited and unsolicited books, serials and other materials well-meaning
people give to the library. Advantage: source of important out of print materials,
foster goodwill with the community, can be put in book sales or given to
underfunded libraries. Disadvantage: can be moldy or bug infested, requires staff
time and are costly to process, aggravation to staff, takes up precious space,
creates disposal problems, less used by library patrons because they are older

editions, legal aspects; like IRS reporting.

Exchange method exchange of unwanted duplicate or gift materials or of new
materials between libraries. Advantage: can acquire materials from countries
with a commercial trade restriction, acquire and organizations publications,
develop comprehensive subject collections. Disadvantage: complex, difficult to

manage, usually only done by large research libraries

12. Some of the legal issues associated with gifts to U.S. libraries are
Any gifts with an appraised value of $5,000 or more must be reported to the IRS
Receiving party cannot provide an estimate value, must be done by disinterested

party or organization
Gifts worth less than $4,999 can have a letter of acknowledgement containing the

librarys name date of contribution, location/place of gift, and description of gift.

Gifts less than $250 do not require a letter, donor can set a value on the gift for tax

purposes
13. The steps in the receiving process are:
Careful unpacking
Finding the packing slip for each item
Checking shipment against whats listed on the packing slip

14. Some challenges to receiving e-serials include: they come in various forms (CD, tapes,
Web), some have special features, and special legal issues.