Acquisitions, Budgets, and Material Costs Issues and Approaches

In times of tight materials budgets, steeply rising prices, and rapidly expanding information formats, library professionals will appreciate the valuable insights into acquisitions processes and management of material costs that are offered in this practical new book. Respected librarians and vendor representatives contributed to this volume--the published proceedings of a recent conference held at the University of Oklahoma. These experts examine approval plans, including a new approach for the publisher-based plan; the impact of inflation, including the increasing costs of titles in selected subject disciplines, causes for the costs, and ramifications for libraries and suppliers; and the process of materials budgeting from the collection of data to the justification of the budget. With increasing demands on librarians to find better budget management strategies and to develop more effective material acquisition processes, an environment has evolved in which librarians and book vendors are forced to examine their methods of acquiring and supplying materials to libraries. Acquisitions, Budgets, and Material Costs: Issues and Approaches provides librarians with readily applicable solutions to today’s acquisition problems.

Contents Introduction The Importance of Approval Plans When Budgets Are Lean Firstest With the Mostest: Publisher-Based Approval Plans in Academic Libraries Analysis of Approval Plans in ARL Libraries Up the Elevator: An Examination of Approval Plan Inflation and Its Impact on Libraries Projecting Materials Costs: Basis for Effective Decision Making Managing Rising Materials Costs CD-ROM, Databases, and Other New Information Formats: Their Acquisition Acquisitions, Budgets, and Materials Costs: A Selected Bibliography

Sul H. Lee