Overview
Everything you need to know about adding e-resources to your library's services
Handbook of Electronic and Digital Acquisitions steers librarians through the process of evaluating, choosing, and managing electronic resources as they expand their collection development policies to include electronic databases. This handy, how-to guide takes a practical approach to acquisitions, providing commonsense information on basic copyright laws, fair use guidelines and policies, offsite and in-house databases, virtual reference software, EDI, and vendors. The book's contributors draw on their own experiences, providing case studies and helpful evaluation checklists, worksheets, and templates.
Electronic journals, full-text databases, and electronic books are altering the traditional purpose of the library as an “archive” for publications. Handbook of Electronic and Digital Acquisitions provides usable tips on the practical aspects of implementing electronic resources, helping librarians develop the potential of digital media as they work to provide their patrons with top quality access and services in a rapidly changing environment.
Handbook of Electronic and Digital Acquisitions examines:
* evaluating databases for acquisition, retention, and withdrawal
* budgeting for electronic resources
* measuring user satisfaction
* online aggregated databases
* licensing agreements
* the TEACH (Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization) Act
* the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
* e-mail tools
* and much more!
Synopsis
Everything you need to know about adding e-resources to your library's services
Handbook of Electronic and Digital Acquisitions steers librarians through the process of evaluating, choosing, and managing electronic resources as they expand their collection development policies to include electronic databases. This handy, how-to guide takes a practical approach to acquisitions, providing commonsense information on basic copyright laws, fair use guidelines and policies, offsite and in-house databases, virtual reference software, EDI, and vendors. The book's contributors draw on their own experiences, providing case studies and helpful evaluation checklists, worksheets, and templates.
Electronic journals, full-text databases, and electronic books are altering the traditional purpose of the library as an “archive” for publications. Handbook of Electronic and Digital Acquisitions provides usable tips on the practical aspects of implementing electronic resources, helping librarians develop the potential of digital media as they work to provide their patrons with top quality access and services in a rapidly changing environment.
Handbook of Electronic and Digital Acquisitions examines:
* evaluating databases for acquisition, retention, and withdrawal
* budgeting for electronic resources
* measuring user satisfaction
* online aggregated databases
* licensing agreements
* the TEACH (Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization) Act
* the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
* e-mail tools
* and much more!
Doody Review Services
Reviewer:Kitsa Lipecky, BA, MLS(Duquesne University)
Description:This practical book attempts to guide librarians involved in the decision-making process for purchasing electronic resources.
Purpose:The purpose is to help librarians find workable approaches to electronic and digital acquisitions, an increasingly complex area of acquisitions. The objective is to provide needed information in acquisitions, an area of librarianship that is often overlooked. Electronic resources now consume a great deal of material budgets in libraries, thus making this a good guidebook to evaluating and purchasing these expensive resources.
Audience:The book was written for librarians, specifically academic librarians, but it can be adapted to librarians in any setting. The contributors are all librarians and educators active in their fields.
Features:This is a broad and practical overview of most of the topics that concern librarians in acquisitions and collection development. The chapters on copyright and fair use explain in plain terms these rather complex, academic, and sometimes puzzling topics and how they impact decisions. For libraries looking to formalize their guidelines for purchasing, maintaining, and evaluating their collections, this is an excellent book. The detailed evaluation forms would be useful to any committee or department in charge of acquiring electronic materials. The forms for faculty use and financial statistics would be useful to librarians attempting to gain financial support from their universities. Collection development strategies are discussed with an emphasis on differences in the process of evaluation and comparing content and features of aggregator databases. Decision points are listed for the collection development librarians and electronic resource committees to consider. The true acquisitions issues discussed are the shift in budget expenditures and how the growth of the electronic resources products is eating away at the materials budget. A few case studies and consortium advantages are cited. EDI issues and financial data transfers are briefly discussed and actual workflow is described. This is a useful section since most of the discussions on EDI are generated by vendors. The challenges facing librarians today in collection development and acquisitions are many and how these decisions impact the users and the budget are thoroughly discussed in this book. It would also be useful for library school students who may have a course in collection development but rarely any classes on acquisitions, budget management, and projections. This book would be useful to reference librarians as well, since they often recommend the products for purchase.
Assessment:This is a useful guide, especially for teams dealing with evaluating and acquiring electronic resources. Electronic resources budgets are increasing by double digit percentages and consuming large portions of materials budgets, so this is a timely and appropriate book.
Editorials
Reviewer: Kitsa Lipecky, BA, MLS(Duquesne University)
Description: This practical book attempts to guide librarians involved in the decision-making process for purchasing electronic resources.
Purpose: The purpose is to help librarians find workable approaches to electronic and digital acquisitions, an increasingly complex area of acquisitions. The objective is to provide needed information in acquisitions, an area of librarianship that is often overlooked. Electronic resources now consume a great deal of material budgets in libraries, thus making this a good guidebook to evaluating and purchasing these expensive resources.
Audience: The book was written for librarians, specifically academic librarians, but it can be adapted to librarians in any setting. The contributors are all librarians and educators active in their fields.
Features: This is a broad and practical overview of most of the topics that concern librarians in acquisitions and collection development. The chapters on copyright and fair use explain in plain terms these rather complex, academic, and sometimes puzzling topics and how they impact decisions. For libraries looking to formalize their guidelines for purchasing, maintaining, and evaluating their collections, this is an excellent book. The detailed evaluation forms would be useful to any committee or department in charge of acquiring electronic materials. The forms for faculty use and financial statistics would be useful to librarians attempting to gain financial support from their universities. Collection development strategies are discussed with an emphasis on differences in the process of evaluation and comparing content and features of aggregator databases. Decision points are listed for the collection development librarians and electronic resource committees to consider. The true acquisitions issues discussed are the shift in budget expenditures and how the growth of the electronic resources products is eating away at the materials budget. A few case studies and consortium advantages are cited. EDI issues and financial data transfers are briefly discussed and actual workflow is described. This is a useful section since most of the discussions on EDI are generated by vendors. The challenges facing librarians today in collection development and acquisitions are many and how these decisions impact the users and the budget are thoroughly discussed in this book. It would also be useful for library school students who may have a course in collection development but rarely any classes on acquisitions, budget management, and projections. This book would be useful to reference librarians as well, since they often recommend the products for purchase.
Assessment: This is a useful guide, especially for teams dealing with evaluating and acquiring electronic resources. Electronic resources budgets are increasing by double digit percentages and consuming large portions of materials budgets, so this is a timely and appropriate book.