Selection Notes

SELECTION AND ACQUISITION OF MULTI-MEDIA SOURCES OF INFORMATION REVIEW NOTES Definition of terms 1. Accession number – number assigned to a book or item as its received by the library, through continuous numbering or a coded system 2. Analog – representations of information or data by some physically measurable quantity. Analog cannot be processed by computers unless they are first translated into digital format. (Johnson, 2004) 3. Antiquarian dealer – a dealer who handles older, frequently out-of-print books, which probably have had one or more owners; also called second hand-dealer. 4. Appropriated funds – these are funds that have been allocated to specific subject areas for the current fiscal year as part of the library budget. 5. Approval plan – an agreement between a library and a supplier that allows the supplier to automatically send the library one copy of each item on a specified subject or in a particular format. 6. Audiovisual Materials – non-book materials such as filmstrips, recordings, films, records, video and audiocassettes, CDs, etc. Sometimes these are just called AV. 7. Authentication – a process that verifies the identity of a person or process, usually through a user name and password. In security systems, authentication is distinct from authorization. Authentication confirms that the individual is who he or she claims to be but does not authorization. (Johnson, 2004) 8. Author – creator of an idea; one who is intellectually responsible for a written work. 9. Authorization – a process that gives or denies an individual access rights to a network resource based on his or her identity, which often is matched against a directory with various profiles granting various types of access. Most computer security systems are based on a two-step process: authentication followed by authorization. (Johnson, 2004) 10. Back file or back run – issues of a periodical that precede the current issue. (Johnson, 2004) 11. Best books – a selection of recently published books considered by reviewers to be superior in the field or the type of publication they represent. Most library review publications publish annual lists of highly recommended titles in the various categories reviewed (reference, fiction, nonfiction, young adult, children’s books, etc.) Recommended lists are published in book form. (ODLIS, 2002) 12. Bibliographic information – details needed for ordering or requesting library materials; also termed as trade information. 13. Bibliographic utility – an online service that provides a shared database of cataloging records created by member libraries. The database may be used for copy cataloging, interlibrary loan, selection and bibliographic verification. (Johnson, 2004) 14. Bibliometrics – the use of mathematical and statistical methods to study and identify patterns in the usage of materials and services within a library, or to analyze the historical development of a specific body of literature, especially its authorship, publication and use. Prior to the mid-20th century, the quantitative study of bibliographic data and usage was known as statistical bibliography (ODLIS, 2002) 15. Bibliopegy – the fine art of binding books by hand, performed by a bibliopegist (book binder). (ODLIS, 2002) 16. Biennial – issued every two years. Also refers to a serial publication issued every two years. 17. Bill – see Invoice. 18. Blanket order – an agreement between a library and a dealer/vendor for the automatic supply of one of more copies of all titles issued by publisher or of all titles within certain subject areas. 19. Book lease plan – an acquisitions plan offered by some book jobbers which allows a library or library system to lease an agreed upon number of popular fiction and nonfiction titles, usually a fixed monthly fee. After a prescribed period of time, or a decline in demand, titles are returned for credit toward new books usually selected from a monthly list provided by the jobber (ex. McNaughton Plan). Because leased books arrive fully catalogued and processed for circulation, some public libraries rely on leasing plans for high-demand items. Leasing is also used in academic libraries with limited space for a permanent collection of popular fiction and nonfiction (ODLIS, 2002)

1

20. Bookplate – a label pasted in a book to mark its ownership and sometimes to indicate its location in a library. 21. Bound – a term referring to pages, sheets or issues of periodicals which have been covered by a binding, usually hardback, to create a single volume. This process is used in libraries to preserve items for long-term use. 22. Caldecott Medal – a literary award given annually since 1938 under the auspices of the American Library Association (ALA) to the illustrator of the most distinguished children’s picture book published in the United States during the preceding year. 23. Carry forward – the amount of encumbered funds, which have not been disbursed at the end and are carried forward into the following fiscal year’s allocation. 24. Circulation analysis – examination of statistics compiled on the circulation of library materials, usually broken down by classification, material type, category of borrower, time of year, and so on to determine patterns of usage. (Johnson, 2004) 25. Claim – any communication directed to an agent or source to hasten delivery of overdue material. 26. Clearinghouse – an organization or unit within an organization that functions as a central agency for collecting, organizing, storing, and disseminating documents, usually within a specific academic discipline or field. It assists the research process by maintaining records of information resources for referral. Examples include ERIC and LOEX (ODLIS, 2002) 27. Collate – to physically examine the material to determine whether it is a good and complete copy. 28. Collection development – the process of identifying the strengths and weaknesses of a library’s information resources with respect to patron needs and community resources, and of attempting to correct the weaknesses. It requires a continual examination and evaluation of the library’s resources. Further, it requires a constant study of patron needs and changes in the community the library serves. 29. Commercial publisher – a publisher in the business of producing and selling books and/or other publications for profit, as opposed to a university press or the publishing arm of a scholarly society, professional association, or other nonprofit organization that operates on a cost-recovery basis. The term includes trade publishers and popular presses. In commercial publishing, the decision to publish is influenced by sales potential, sometimes at the expense of originality and quality (ODLIS, 2002) 30. Conservation – noninvasive physical or chemical methods employed to ensure the survival of manuscripts, books and other documents (Johnson, 2004) 31. Conspectus – in libraries, a method of uniform collection assessment developed in North America in 1979 to facilitate resource sharing. The system uses codes to survey strengths, level of difficulty, linguistic and geographical coverage, etc. recorded on worksheets in subject areas based on Library of Congress Classification. In 1982, the Research Libraries Group initiated the RLG Conspectus Online to provide electronic access to data on the collections of research libraries in the United States. The system was subsequently adopted by the Association of Research Libraries for its North American Collection Inventory Project (NCIP). It has also been adapted by the National Library of Canada and is used in the UK, Australia, and some European countries. In the 1990s, after the Western Library Network (WLN) developed PC software that enables libraries to develop and maintain local collection assessment databases, use of RLG Conspectus Online dwindled and the files were removed from RLIN in 1997 (ODLIS, 2002) 32. Contingency planning – the process of preparing a plan of action to be put into effect when prior arrangements become impossible or certain pre-established conditions arise. (Johnson, 2004) 33. Cooperative acquisition – “ a system whereby two or more libraries coordinate their collection and purchase of new materials so as to avoid unneeded duplication.” (ALA Glossary, p.59) 34. Cooperative collection development – sharing responsibilities among two or more libraries for the process of acquiring materials, developing collections, and managing the growth and maintenance of collections in a user and cost-beneficial way (Johnson, 2004) 35. Copyright – the exclusive right granted by a government to publish a work for a specified number of years. The copyright protects the author and publisher by preventing others from copying the work or a significant part of it without permission.

2

36. Core collection – a collection representative of the basic information needs of a library’s primary user group. In public libraries, core collections are selected in anticipation of popular demand and maintained on the basis of usage. In academic libraries, selection is based on curriculum need and collections are maintained to meet the research interests of students and faculty. Also refers to an initial collection developed for a new library, usually with the aid of standard lists and other selection aids, one example is the Books for College Libraries: A Core Collection… published by the American Library Association (ODLIS, 2002) 37. Credit memo – a note issued by a vendor in place of cash refund on orders unfilled or returned, to be deducted for the total charge on the invoice. 38. Cumulation – the progressive inter-filing of items arranged in a predetermined order and usually published in periodical form, the same order of arrangement being maintained. 39. Desiderata – a list of wanted items, which should be added to the collection upon availability. 40. Differential pricing – the controversial practice of charging libraries a substantially higher price for periodical subscriptions than the amount an individual subscriber is required to pay, which some journal publishers claim is justified because a library subscription makes the publication available to more readers, an effect known in the publishing trade as pass-along. Also refers to the practice in Europe of charging North American subscribers a rate substantially higher than normal, presumably because they can afford to pay more. (ODLIS, 2002) 41. Digital – of, pertaining to, or using digits, that is, numbers. Computers are digital machines because, at their most basic level, they distinguish between two values 0 and 1, or off and on. (Johnson, 2004) 42. Digital materials – both digital surrogates created by converting analog materials to digital format and “born digital” materials for which there is no analog equivalent. (Johnson, 2004) 43. Digitization – the process of converting analog materials to digital format (Johnson, 2004) 44. Disbursing – a bookkeeping procedure that pays for an item from encumbered funds. 45. Document delivery – the provision of documents upon request. Commercial document delivery services charge a fee to provide libraries or individuals with the requested item. The commercial service usually manages payments to publisher for copying rights. (Johnson, 2004) 46. E-book – a literary work in the form of a digital object consisting of one or more unique identifiers, metadata and a monographic body of content, intended to be published and accessed electronically (Johnson, 2004) 47. E-Journal – a periodical that is available in an electronic or computerized form such as on the Web or on CD-ROM; an abbreviated term for electronic journal. 48. Encumbering – a bookkeeping procedure that commits a given amount of money to the payment of an order. Each time an order is placed an amount of money (encumbrance) equal to the total price of all items in that order is deducted from the free balance. 49. Endowment – a permanent fund accumulated by an institution over an extended period of time, consisting of gifts and bequests invested to provide an ongoing return, all or a portion of which is expended, sometimes for purposes specified by the donor(s), leaving the principal intact to generate further income. (ODLIS, 2002) 50. Escapist literature – fiction written as light entertainment, intended mainly to divert the mind of the reader into a world of imagination and fantasy. Popular genres include romance, science fiction, thrillers, etc. 51. Facsimile edition – an exact copy of a book made photographically, by photocopy or by an offset press 52. Fair use – conditions under which copying a work, or a portion of it, does not constitute infringement of copyright, including copying for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research (ODLIS, 2002) 53. Farmington Plan – a plan drawn up at Farmington, Connecticut by K. D. Metcalf, J. P. Boyd and Achibald McLeish. Its object, since it operation began in January 1948, has been to ensure the presence and availability in some library of the United States of one copy of each book of research value published in foreign countries.

3

54. Firm order – the most common method for acquiring materials that the library knows it wants, used when ordering on a per-title basis. 55. Forthcoming Books – provides author, price, publication date and publishers for very new American books, and for books that will be published in the near future. Information is often given for books that BIP does not list or which are listed as not yet published. (Acronym: FCB) 56. Government documents – monographs, serial publications, reports, or official communication published by any public governing body - - federal, state, country or municipal. 57. Gray literature – printed works such as reports, internal documents, PhD dissertations, master’s theses, and conference proceedings, not usually available through regular market channels because they were never commercially published, listed, or priced. 58. Greenaway Plan – a form of blanket order plan in which a large library or library system agrees to receive from a publisher for a nominal price one advance copy of all the trade books it publishes, to encourage acquisitions librarians to order selected titles in advance of publication. The publisher relies on the probability that enough titles will be ordered in multiple copied to cover its costs. The plan is named after Emerson Greenaway, the librarian at the Philadelphia Free Library who conceived the idea in 1958. 59. In-process file – “a file of bibliographic items which have been received but for which cataloging and physical processing have not been completed.” (ALA Glossary, p.119) 60. Intellectual property – tangible products of the human mind and intelligence, entitled to the legal status of personal property, especially works protected by copyright, inventions, which have been patented, and registered trademarks. An idea is considered the intellectual property of its creator only after it ahs been recorded or made manifest in specific form (ODLIS, 2002) 61. Interlibrary loan – a service to obtain from other libraries, books and journals which the library does not own and which patrons have requested. 62. Invoice – billing from a publisher or an agent for library materials received. 63. ISBD – acronym for International Standard Bibliographic Description; a standardized format for descriptive bibliographic information compatible for computer input. 64. ISBN – acronym for International Standard Book Number. A unique ten-digit or thirteen-digit number divided into parts, which must be printed on the verso of the title page, or any other prominent position. 65. ISO (International Standard Organization) – a network of national standards institutes from 140 countries working in partnership with international organizations, governments, industry, and business and consumer representatives. (Johnson, 2004) 66. ISSN – acronym for International Standard Serial Number. A unique eight-digit number assigned to each serial title published. 67. Jobber – a wholesale bookseller/dealer who serves as middleman between the publisher and library or retail bookseller. 68. Journal consortium – an organization that handles the production and distribution of a number of journals, but does not necessarily exercise editorial control over them if they are owned by other organizations. In the United States, perhaps the best-known example is the journals publishing division of the Johns Hopkins University Press which provides online access through Project MUSE to the fulltext of its own journals, plus sixty titles from other scholarly publishers. (ODLIS, 2002) 69. Lease – a contract by which one party grants access to or the use of real estate, equipment, or a resource for the specified term and for a specified amount to another party. (Johnson, 2004) 70. License or licensing agreement – permission to do something that, without such permission, would be illegal. A license is a contract that presents the terms under which a vendor grants a license to a library, granting the rights to use one or more proprietary bibliographic databases or online resources, usually for a fixed period of time in exchange for payment. (Johnson, 2004) 71. Line-item budget – a method of budgeting used in some libraries and library systems in which anticipated expenditures are divided into discrete functional categories called “lines” (salaries and wages, materials, equipments, etc.) for the purpose of tracking operating expenditures. 72. List price – the publisher’s price for materials being sold before discounts are applied.

4

73. Literary agent – an organization or person in the business of offering professional advice to writers on the suitability of manuscripts for publication. An agent may also provide guidance and/or assistance in locating and selecting a publisher, negotiating a book contract, arranging the sale of subsidiary rights, and handling the business of authorship in general, usually in exchange for a commission paid by the author, or a portion of the proceeds derived from the work. A literary agent may also act on behalf of a publisher to find works to fill a specific need. Not all authors use an agent – some prefer to deal directly with the publisher. Directory information for literary agents is available in the reference serials Literary Market Place and Writer’s Market (ODLIS, 2002) 74. Metadata – literally, data about data; used for different purposes. (1) Resource description or resources discovery metadata serves to identify and locate a piece of information. Library cataloging is one specific use of a subset of resource discovery metadata; Dublin Core is an example of this descriptive metadata. The Dublin Core contains a rights element as well as descriptive elements. (2) Rendering is the process of realizing a specific information object on the user’s computer. To do this, the receiving computer needs technical information, transmitted by metadata, about the characteristics of the object. For example, the need to open Adobe Acrobat to access web-based document is conveyed in metadata imbedded in the document in the file extension. (3) Rights management refers to the ownership of content and the right of user to carry out any operation on that information object. This may involve making a payment to the owner of the right, or the operation (viewing, downloading, printing) may be carried out free of charge under an existing license agreement (Johnson, 2004) 75. Monographic series – a group of individual monographs that have a collective title applying to the group as a whole. Monographic series may be numbered or unnumbered; publication is expected to continue indefinitely. (Johnson, 2004) 76. Newbery Medal – a literary award given annually since 1922 under the auspices of the American Library Association to the author of the most distinguished children’s book published in the United States during the preceding year. Sponsored by the family of Frederic G. Melcher, the medal is named after John Newbery (1713-1767), the British publisher who first published books written specifically for children. (ODLIS, 2002) 77. OCLC or Online Computer Library Center – the largest bibliographic utility in the world, providing cataloging and acquisitions services, serials and circulation control, interlibrary loan support, and access to online databases. OCLC maintains OCLC WorldCat, an online bibliographic database or member records and holdings (Johnson, 2004) 78. Offprint – a copy of an article published in a periodical, specially reprinted for the author’s use, but retaining the numbering of the issue from which it was taken. (From Harrod’s … Glossary) Sometimes called a separate. See also Preprint, Reprint. 79. OP: Acronym for out-of-print – designates that a book is no longer available from the publisher. Vendors will cancel items with this designation or search the OP market for them. The Acquisitions Department maintains a Desiderata file to search for some titles, which have been declared OP. 80. Out-of-stock – stock exhausted at the publisher’s, but another printing is expected. 81. Outsourcing – the contracting of library services formerly performed in-house to an outside service provider. Examples of outsourcing are conservation and preservation (particularly binding and reformatting), purchasing catalog records in machine-readable forms, purchasing cataloging for foreign language materials, and acquisitions plans (approval plans, blanket orders, subscription agents, etc.) (Johnson, 2004) 82. Packing slip – usually enclosed with the items being shipped or attached to the outside of the package. May be a copy of the invoice or other notification, that indicates the date and number of items shipped and the invoice number, but does not include the prices. 83. Popular press – a publishing house that issues publications for the mass market, sold at newsstands and in supermarkets and chain stores. (ODLIS, 2002) 84. Posting – the transfer of debit and credit information from a journal to the proper account in the ledger.

5

85. Preprint – a portion of a work printed and issued before the publication of the complete work. a paper submitted at a conference which is published prior to the holding of the conference. (From Harrod’s … Glossary) See also Reprint, Offprint. 86. Preservation – a broad range of activities intended to prevent, retard, or stop deterioration or materials or to retain the intellectual content of materials no longer physically intact (Johnson, 2004) 87. Private press – a small printing establishment, often operated by a single person, offering limited editions at the discretion of the owner. The results are usually of fine quality and, when offered for sale, may not be distributed through regular market channels (ODLIS, 2002) 88. Proforma – an invoice received for checking an approval prior to receipt of formal invoice; used as checklist for materials ordered; a vendor report code for an item, which the vendor had to prepay before they could order it; also, an invoice type for an order prepaid by the Library. 89. Profile – (1) Description prepared by a library for a publisher or agent who supplies materials on an approval plan or through a blanket order. The profile usually describes subject areas, levels of specification and difficulty, languages, series, formats, price ranges, and so on. (2) A demographic study of the community served by a library or library system which measures economic, social and education variables. (Johnson, 2004) 90. Provenance – the history of ownership of book or other library material. This is particularly important when the item is previously owned by a noted collected or an important individual. 91. Providers – individuals and entities providing access to information and delivery of services; includes traditional print and electronic scholarly publishers, trade publishers, information aggregators, vendors, and other electronic-only information disseminators (Johnson, 2004) 92. Publisher – the person, firm or corporate body undertaking the responsibility for the issue of a book or other printed matter to the public. 93. Publishers Weekly (PW) – the weekly trade journal of the American publishing industry since 1872, includes news and announcements, author interviews, advance book reviews, articles about book production, and analysis of trends of interest to publishers, librarians, booksellers, and others involved in the book trade. It is published by Cahners Business Information, a division of Elsevier. (ODLIS, 2002) 94. Publishing – the art of making and selling books and other knowledge products such as music, art reproductions, photographs and maps. (International Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science, 1997) 95. Purchase Order – “an official order record authorizing a dealer or vendor to deliver materials or services as a set price. This becomes a contract upon acceptance by the dealer or vendor. The basic components standard to most purchase orders include: unique purchase order number, dealer or vendor name and address, description of items ordered, quantity ordered, price per items and totals, fund to be charged, delivery address and instructions, time frame to complete order, shipping terms, discount or credit terms and the name and address of the ordering agency.” (ALA Glossary, p.183) 96. Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN) – an information management and retrieval system consisting of an online union catalog of the holdings of members of the Research Libraries Group (RLG) combined with the English Short Title Catalog (ESTC) and authority files. RLIN contains over 88 million records and is used by hundreds of libraries, archives, and museums for cataloging, interlibrary loan, and control of manuscript and archival collections (ODLIS, 2002) 97. Royalty – monetary reward received by an author for the work done based on a fixed percentage on the number of copies sold, less returns. 98. Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) – an international alliance of approximately 200 universities, research libraries, and library associations, SPARC was created in 1998 by several Association of Research Libraries (ARL) directors to address the pricing practices and policies of scientific, technical, and medical (STM) journal publishers. The coalition seeks to educate faculty on academic serials issues, fosters competition in the scholarly communication market, and advocates fundamental changes in the system and culture of scholarly communication (ODLIS, 2002) 99. Serial – any publication issued in successive parts, appearing at intervals usually regular ones, and, as a rule, intended to be continued indefinitely. The term includes Periodicals, newspapers, annuals,

6

numbered monographic series and the proceedings, transactions and memoirs of societies. (From Harrod’s … Glossary) 100.Series – a number of separate works, usually in succession, and usually related to one another in subject form, issued by the same publisher, and in uniform style. The collective series title may appear at the head of the title page, on the half-title page, or on the cover. 101.Small press – a small publisher of comparatively limited resources, functioning independently of the publishing “establishment” and consequently more likely to issue works outside the cultural mainstream. Most small presses employ fewer than a dozen people and publish no more than 20-30 new titles per year (ODLIS, 2002) 102.Standing Order – order sent by supplier for materials to the library for purchase as it is published unless otherwise notified. It is usually used for a series of related items that are produced over a long period of time. 103.Statement of account – billing; notices of paid and unpaid invoices from the vendor. 104.Subscription – an agreement between a library and a publisher or vendor to supply a serial title (e.g. an annual, a quarterly, etc.) to be renewed and prepaid annually until canceled. 105.Textbook – an edition of a book specifically intended for the use of students enrolled in a course of study or in preparing for an examination on a subject or in an academic discipline, as distinct from the trade edition of the same title, sometimes published in conjunction with a workbook, lab manual, and/or teacher’s manual. Also refers to the standard work used for a specific course of study, whether published in special edition or not. 106.‘Til forbidden – a term used by jobbers to indicate that a subscription for a serial is to be placed for a library and that renewals are to be made automatically until library decide to cancel the subscription. 107.Tracking fund – used to track the amount of money spent for items in a subject area from an account other than their own. For example, gift funds are often used to purchase items from a variety of subject areas. Tracking allow us to see how much money was used to purchase items that fall in a specific subject area. 108.Trade books – books published by commercial publishers, both textbooks and technical in treatment. 109.Trade publisher – a publishing house that issues books of interest to the educated reader, for sale in college and quality retail bookstores (example: Farrar, Straus and Giroux or St. Martin’s Press). Few large trade publishers remain independent. A case in point is Alfred A. Knopf, now owned by Random House, which is in turn owned by the international publishing and entertainment conglomerate Bertelsmann AG. (ODLIS, 2002) 110. Ulrich’s International Periodicals Directory – an annual reference serial published since 1932 by R. R. Bowker, provides bibliographic information and pricing for a classified list of over 164,000 regularly and irregularly issued periodicals currently published in the US and internationally, including titles available electronically. The directory is indexed by title and ISSN, with separate sections for cessations, title changes, referred journals, and titles available in various digital formats. It is also available on CD-ROM and online by licensing agreement. 111. University Press – a publishing house associated with a university or other scholarly institution, specializing in the publication of scholarly books and journals, particularly works written by its faculty (example: Johns Hopkins University Press). Most university presses operate on a nonprofit basis, relying on a committee of senior faculty members to select manuscripts for publication. 112. Vanity Publisher – a type of publisher, more common in the United States than in other countries, that specializes in producing books at the author’s expense, used mainly by writers whose works have been rejected by commercial publishers, and by individuals of private means who are convinced they have an important message to impart to the world. In England, vanity publishing is used primarily for poetry. Books published by vanity publishers are avoided by reviewers and rarely purchased by retail booksellers and libraries, also synonymous with vanity press (ODLIS, 2002) 113. Vendor – an organization whose business is to buy direct from the publishers. They are often able to offer libraries price discounts, free shipping, and approval plans, ex. YBP.

7

114. Volume – this word is used to describe two different materials 1) A series of printed sheets, bound, typically, in book form, or 2) An arbitrary number of consecutive issues of a periodical. 115. Voucher – a form that verifies a business transaction as correct, authorizes its entry into the books, and approves payment of charges. 116. Wholesaler – a person who sells large quantities to retailers (Evans, 1987) 117. Zero-base budget (ZBB) – a financial plan that starts from zero at the beginning of each new budget cycle, with no assumptions carried over from previous experience. Under this budgeting method, every expense must be justified (ODLIS, 2002) 118. ‘Zine – a small circulation, narrowly focused, often irregular, noncommercial magazine, newsletter or newspaper, self-published by one person or a small group and usually not available by subscription. (Johnson, 2004)

8