ACQNET v2n103 (November 18, 1992) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/serials/stacks/acqnet/acq-v2n103 ISSN: 1057-5308 *************** ACQNET, Vol. 2, No. 103, November 18, 1992 ========================================== (1) FROM: Christian SUBJECT: Who's new on ACQNET today (13 lines) (2) FROM: Christian Boissonnas SUBJECT: _Cellular and Molecular Biology_ (continued) (23 lines) (3) FROM: Martin Cohen SUBJECT: Gordon & Breach (16 lines) (4) FROM: Eric Childress SUBJECT: Videodiscs vendors (23 lines) (5) FROM: Thelma Diercks SUBJECT: Indonesian vendors (13 lines) (6) FROM: Peter Stevens SUBJECT: Bob Mastejulia (11 lines) (7) FROM: Christian Boissonnas SUBJECT: "Adding value" and acquisitions (42 lines) (1)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: November 18, 1992 From: Christian Subject: Who's new on ACQNET today Alice Allen Lee. A. Krieger AUL for Technical Services Technical Services Librarian University of Oregon Library Gettysburg College Library E-mail: AALLEN@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU E-mail: LKRIEGER@CC.GETTYSBURG.EDU Dianne Leong Man Assistant University Librarian (Technical Services) University of the Witwatersrand Library E-mail: 056PERIO@WITSVMA.WITS.AC.ZA (2)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 08:05:18 EST From: Christian Boissonnas (Cornell University) Subject: _Cellular and Molecular Biology_ (continued) You may remember that in ACQNET 2:98(2) I issued a warning to the effect that a dispute existed between Pergamon, publisher of _Cellular and Molecular Biology_ and Prof. Raymond Wegman, its editor. The issue is: Who owns the journal? The following is reprinted, with permission, from a letter to me by Susan Henley, Senior Managing Editor, Pergamon Press, Inc., dated 26 October 1992: "As of today, Pergamon considers themselves the owners of _Cellular and Molecular Biology_, and subscribers who paid Pergamon for issues in 1992 are entitled to receive these issues. Regardless of the final outcome of this matter, Pergamon feels obligated to supply the final two issues of this volume to subscribers and is prepared to do so under the editorship of the associate editor, Dr. Siddiqui." Therefore it looks like the situation I was warning you against is very likely to happen: There will be competing vol. 38 fasc. 5 and 6, issued under the same title and ISSN by two different parties. (3)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Monday, 16 November 1992, 13:51:41 EST From: Martin Cohen (McGill University) Subject: Gordon and Breach We have just learned that this publisher has adopted a differential pricing policy for monographs analogous to that used by many publishers of serials - viz. that there are now two prices, individual and institutional, the institutional one being considerably higher. Has anyone else discovered this? Are you doing anything to combat or get round it? If so, what? P.S. I'd also suggest that anyone to who has thought of the dodge of professors buying the books as individuals and then selling them to the library think again. This can lead to a number of hassles - duplication being the most common but far from the worst. (4)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 10:00:57 EST From: Eric Childress (Elon College) Subject: Videodiscs for French, German, and Japanese. In response to Elisabeth Dolby's query about sources for videodiscs in ACQNET 2:101, here are two possible sources: 1. Ztek Co. P.O. Box 1055 / Louisville, KY 40201-1055 (800)247-1603 or (502)584-8505 [fax: (502)584-9090] Ztek specializes in videodiscs and interactive media. The 1992/93 catalog lists videodiscs for Spanish and French. 2. PICS (Project for International Communication Studies) 262 International Center / the University of Iowa Iowa City, IA 52242 (800)373-PICS or (319)335-2335 the latest catalog (1990) I have lists videodiscs for Spanish, French, German. Other possibilities: The Video Source Book (Gale) which now includes a list of titles available in videodisc & Bowker's Complete Video Directory (R.R. Bowker) [available in print and CD-ROM formats] Maybe someone can also recommend a library catalog on the Internet of an institution that has a strong collection? (5)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 16:11:51 HST From: Thelma Diercks (University of Hawaii) Subject: Indonesian Vendors The primary source of books from Indonesia for the University of Hawaii Library is the Cooperative Acquisition Program of the Library of Congress. Our Southeast Asian bibliographer Lan Hiang Char had these suggestions for Indonesian vendors for Elisabeth Dolby. GUNUNG AGUNG GRAMEDIA TOKO BUKU NASIONAL J1. Kwitang 6 Gedung Perintis Lantai 4 J1. Pintu Air 58-64 Jakarta Pusat J1. Kebahagiaan No.4-14 Jakarta Jakarta Barat (6)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 4 Nov 1992 11:40:34 -0700 (PDT) From: Peter Stevens (University of Washington) Subject: Bob Mastejulia Steve Bozich of Baker and Taylor Books passed along to me information about well-known former Baker and Taylor bookman/executive/raconteur Bob Mastejulia's new line of work. He's operating a bed-and-breakfast near Woodstock, Vermont-- very handy for fall foliage tours, skiing, etc. Brochures are available for acquisitions librarians who know Bob and might be touring in Vermont. The address is Robert J. Mastejulia, P.O. Box 72, Taftsville, VT 05073 (phone 802-457-5112). (7)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 08:33:55 EST From: Christian Boissonnas (Cornell University) Subject: "Adding value" and acquisitions At the Charleston Conference I heard Miriam Drake (Georgia Institute of Technology) say that we (librarians) need to convince university presidents that we add value to the information we buy otherwise we're in big trouble. In principle this sounds fine. It comes under the heading of justifying what we do and I subscribe to the notion that it is one of our responsibilities. My question is, what does "adding value" actually mean for acquisitions librarians? The easy answer is that, since we purchase the material to make it available for users, the fact of purchasing adds value. OK. If I were a university president, would I be convinced by this argument? I don't know for sure, not having much presidential experience, but I doubt it. There is a sophistic, almost casuistic, flavor to this statement which makes it suspect. At the very least it doesn't really explain anything. It doesn't explain to the president why it has to be librarians and not purchasing agents who should buy books. At most that statement is misleading because it assumes that purchasing adds value in the same way that cataloging or reference work adds value. I don't believe that this is true. Purchasing merely brings a book in the library. That book really has no value to users until catalogers are finished with it. Since users don't know it's around, it has the same value to them as if it hadn't been purchased: none. I recognize that acquisitions staff, to the extent that they, and not catalogers, enter records in the local on-line catalog before cataloging takes place, add some value. This is not persuasive, however, since the people who do this are rarely acquisitions librarians and it is acquisitions librarians that we want to stay focussed on here. Let us now turn to a world in which we purchase access rather than materials. What value are acquisitions librarians adding to the information for which we are purchasing access? Again the easy answer refers to the tasks of identifying suppliers, negotiating contracts, dealing with computer people. If I were wearing my presidential hat I would wonder why I had to pay high-priced librarians to do that. In both cases people will reply that we must educate our administration and leave it at that. I believe that this is another way of saying what Miriam Drake said. Can we try to cross the next frontier, which is to come up with specifics about how we, acquisitions librarians, will educate our presidents about how we add value to what we buy? Can we do that without sounding like we are trying to feather our nests or, worse, sounding sanctimonious and whiny? ******* END OF FILE ****** ACQNET, Vol. 2, No. 103 ****** END OF FILE *******