ACQNET v4n063 (December 15, 1994) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/serials/stacks/acqnet/acqnet-v4n063 ISSN: 1057-5308 *************** ACQNET, Vol. 4, No. 63, December 15, 1994 ======================================== (1) FROM: Patricia Fairfield SUBJECT: Is There a Community of Acquisitions Librarians? (26 lines) (2) FROM: Christian Boissonnas SUBJECT: Charleston Rump Session Report: A Reply (113 lines) (3) FROM: Gail Julian SUBJECT: NASIG Student Grant Award (46 lines) (1)---------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 08 Dec 1994 21:34:48 -0500 (EST) From: Patricia Fairfield (Essex County College) Subject: Is there a Community of Acquisitions Librarians? In reply to Caleb Hanson's recent posting asking if there was a community of acquisitions librarians, may I, as a very new person in the field, reply? I am the acquisitions librarian at a community college; this is my first professional job. I took this job not because I wanted to be an acquisitions librarian but because this was the job that was open. I don't remember there being any courses in library school on acquisitions, and local technical service groups seem to be dominated by catalogers. It is rare that I run into another acquisitions librarian at meetings or workshops. I've subscribed to ACQNET for 2-3 years and find it useful but much of the discussion is not relevant to small libraries nor for the novice. How did others out there learn to be Acquisitions Librarians? .............................................................. Pat Fairfield 201-877-3242 Essex County College Library patfair@sol.essex.edu Newark, NJ 07102 pdf@pilot.njin.net ............................................................... (2)---------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 12 Dec 1994 16:07:32 -0500 From: Christian M. Boissonnas (Cornell U.) Subject: Charleston Rump Session Report: A Reply In ACQNET 4:60(2) Caleb Hanson reported on the Charleston Conference rump session. The theme of that session, you will recall, was the editorial I had written last Spring in which I asked why acquisitions librarians were so quiet about the important issues of the day. Katina Strauch and Judy Webster decided that quiet was fine for others, but they wanted action, and organized the rump session as a call to action. Caleb's report correctly identified the two important questions raised in that meeting. The first is not why acquisitions librarians are so quiet, but who are they? The second question is whether that group of librarians who attend the Charleston Conference, however it is defined, constitute a community outside Charleston during the 51 weeks that the conference is not in session? I believe that the answers to these questions will highlight very fundamental changes in acquisitions librarianship that have already happened, which is why my question of last Spring elicited so little response. Last Spring I asked acquisitions librarians why they were so quiet. Participants at the rump session didn't have much interest in that question and instead asked themselves who they, the participants, were. The fact that they did not define themselves as acquisitions librarians was a revelation to me. It was also, I believe, an important change. They defined themselves as "getters" or "Charlestonians" with interests and jobs having far greater scope than is implied in the words "acquisitions librarians." This suggests to me that I may very well have been wrong last Spring in asking my question of acquisitions librarians. I am now wondering if people did not respond simply because they did not think that the question applied to them. Indeed, whatever they are, however they view themselves, it may not be as acquisitions librarians. In other words, the term "acquisitions librarianship" requires a new definition because what they embody is no longer what we have assumed in recent years. The old definition has become much too narrow and what happened at the Charleston rump session was a first effort at redefining the discipline. If this is correct it helps me understand several other things that have been troubling me in recent years. One of these is our inability to articulate a clear philosophy of acquisitions librarianship. It may be that we are unable to do so merely because we are trying to build a definition on a foundation of sands which are shifting very rapidly. Another troubling development is that membership in ALCTS's Acquisitions Section is decreasing. It could be of course that many find ALA and/or ALCTS and/or AS so frustrating and unrewarding (people do say that) that they are simply disaffected. It could just as well be that the Acquisition Section is no longer oriented to support what, for lack of better words, I will refer to as the New Acquisitions Librarianship. It also helps me understand my own dissatisfaction, in the days when I was still in acquisitions, with a narrow definition of the field. Two years ago I was arguing with my friends about my being a librarian, not an acquisitions librarian. The fact is that it may very well have been the intellectual foundation of my job, and not me, that had shifted. It is a little humbling. I thought I was being very smart, but I wasn't smart enough to really understand what was happening. Be that as it may, I am now satisfied that the "who" question raised at the Charleston rump session is at least as, and probably more, pertinent than the "why" question I raised last Spring. This makes it possible for me to consider Caleb's second question, namely, whether the "getters" or "Charlestonians" constitute a community outside of Charleston? I suspect that the answer is no, and that is why Charleston has become so important. I say this having heard several people, at the Lively Lunch which I was hosting, talk about the Conference itself and why they came to it. One answer which I heard from several people is that the Charleston Conference is the only one at which all parties in the electronic publication and dissemination game are present in sufficient numbers and variety to make discussion profitable. There are people with much experience who attend, but also people who are brand new at it. I counted no fewer than 50 commercial publishers in attendance, many of them small and wondering where this was all going. Ten years ago one of Katina's refrains was about how to get more publishers involved. Well, whatever was needed, either she did it or the information delivery landscape changed enough so that the publishers discovered that it was in their interest to get involved with Charleston. So, publishers, vendors, and librarians of various stripes, many of whom do not call themselves acquisitions librarians, are involved with Charleston. But if I suggested above that the "getters" do not constitute a community outside of Charleston, it was a very tentative suggestion. I do not know enough about what happens at other meetings such as NASIG or CNI to say that these do not in some way form communities like Charleston's. What I do believe however is that, if there are no such communities beyond Charleston, it will not be for very long. There is much talk within at least my peer group at ALA about the difficulties caused by organizational boundaries within ALA. Such boundaries hinder communications and force people to make affiliation choices that are too restrictive, given their interests. If what "getters" now do is no longer acquisitions librarianship as the ALCTS Acquisitions Section views it, then one of two things will happen: either AS will change, forming new alliances with other ALA groups across divisional lines, or it will disappear because its members will go elsewhere for their professional identity and support. The decrease in AS membership could be a sign that this is already happening. Caleb's posting triggered this response, as he knew that it would. Now, I would like to throw these issues back to him and ask him to give us his opinions on the questions he asked at the end of his posting. He purposefully withheld those but, now that I have taken a position, he has to tell us what he had in mind. (3)---------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 11 Dec 1994 16:16:09 -0400 (EDT) From: Gail Julian (Univ. of SC) Subject: NASIG Conference Student Grant Awards ANNOUNCEMENT ** NASIG CONFERENCE ** STUDENT GRANT AWARDS The North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG) is an independent organization bringing together many segments of the serials information chain to study and explore common interests, problems, and ideas. NASIG is currently seeking candidates for grants to attend the Tenth Annual Conference to be held at Duke University, Durham, NC, June 1-4, 1995. Through the granting of these awards, NASIG desires to encourage participation in this information chain by students who are interested in some aspect of serials work upon completion of their professional degree. SCOPE OF AWARD: Recipients are expected to attend the entire conference and submit a brief written report to NASIG. Expenses for travel, registration, meals and lodging will be paid by NASIG. Each recipient will also receive a year's membership in NASIG. ELIGIBILITY: Students who are currently enrolled at the graduate level in any ALA accredited library school, who do not already have an ALA accredited degree, and who have expressed an interest in some aspect of serials work, are eligible. Applicants must be full or part-time students at the time of application. In order to accept an award, a recipient must not be employed in a position requiring an ALA accredited degree, nor on leave from such a position, at the time of acceptance of the grant. Equal consideration will be given to all qualified applicants, with preference given to those graduating the year of the conference. Students do not have to be NASIG members to apply. APPLICATION PROCEDURE: Application forms will be available after December 1, 1994, in ALA accredited library schools, through the NASIG gopher, and from Gail Julian, Chair, Student Grant Committee. Completed applications should be sent to: Gail Julian, Serial Acquisitions Librarian, University of South Carolina, Thomas Cooper Library, Columbia, SC 29208. Telephone 803-777-3850. Fax 803-777-4661. Internet: gail@tcl.scarolina.edu APPLICATION DEADLINE: February 15, 1995. Applications received after this date will not be considered. Fax submissions are acceptable. AWARD NOTIFICATION: Award recipients will be notified by April 1, 1995. A maximum of six grants may be awarded for 1995. ****** END OF FILE ****** ACQNET, Vol. 4, No. 63 ****** END OF FILE ******