Page 162 - DLIS003_LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT

Unit 9: Acquisition Section

to the authorities. Such information may relate to an actual and the potential needs of the Notes
clientele, the current and future programmes of the parent institutions, the strength and weakness
of the existing collection, the price range of publications in particular subjects, etc. These and
other types of information can also be used by the library to obtain enhanced budget provisions.
However, once the allocation is finalised, acquisition work has to conform to the financial
discipline dictated by it.

Arranging Personnel

Planning for document selection should also cover the personnel or human factor. The people
involved in the selection process are the librarian, the acquisition staff, the subject experts and
the library authority or selection committee. The ultimate responsibility for book selection
rests with the librarian. The acquisition staff is there to help him. But, neither the librarian nor
his staff are experts in all the different subjects. Therefore, it becomes necessary to take help
from subject specialists. The selection committee may or may not be composed of subject experts.
Nevertheless, committee level decisions have the advantage of being more democratic and
participatory. You must remember that document selection is not a one man job. It should be the
outcome of good team work. Therefore, you must be very prudent in choosing the members of
this team. This applies to both the acquisition staff and the subject experts. You need to maintain
a panel of subject experts who will be willing to participate in the selection process by giving
objective opinions and advice.

Task Name the person(s), group(s) and committee(s) that are involved in the process of
selection of documents for a library.

9.2.2 Procedure

The actual process of document selection may be initiated in different ways. The acquisition staff
take note of the desirable items and presents them to the subject experts for approval. Alternatively
the subject experts themselves or the subject departments may make indents for items they
recommend. In both instances, the acquisition staff are responsible for the routine jobs connected
with selection. It is their duty to collect, complete and correct information on the documents. So
also it is their risk to allow all unnecessary and unintentional duplications. Therefore, adequate
care should be taken to ensure that the items selected are not already available in the library. An
acceptable selection procedure can be outlined as follows:
(a) Scanning: All the currently received sources should be scanned regularly. Old sources
should be scanned only for specific needs. Items found desirable may be ticked off in the
sources: Your knowledge about the existing collection and about the items already selected
or ordered will help you in avoiding duplication at this stage. If necessary, the marked
items may be forwarded to the librarian and his concurrence obtained.
(b) Scrutiny: The purpose of scrutiny is to rule out the possibilities of unnecessary duplication.
This is done by checking the marked items with the following:
Items selected earlier, by checking the “Books Selected” card tray;
Items ordered already, by checking the “Books-on-Order” card tray;
Items already received, by checking the “Books Received” card tray and the
“Book-in-Process” card tray;
Items available in the library, by checking the catalogue.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 157