Acquisitions Minutes

ACQUISITIONS COMMITTEE MINUTES

  • 2018 Minutes (Baltimore)

    Acquisitions and Serials Committees Roundtable
    Sunday July 15, 2018 12:45 pm -2:15 pm
    Baltimore, MD

    Marijah Sroczynski – Acquisitions Chair, Pat Roncevich – Serials Chair

    Attendees: Ajaye Bloomstone, Heather Buckwalter, Beth Chamberlain, Gilda Chui, Dana Deseck-Piazzon Liz Graham, Trina Holloway, Heather Mitchell, Wendy Moore, Jacob Nunnally, Cornelius Pereira, Michele Pope, Karen Scoville, Julie Stauffer, Jamie Sunnycalb

    The meeting was called to order at 12:45 am. The meeting began with an acknowledgement that this was the last roundtable for both the Acquisitions and Serials Committee as following the meeting the 2 groups were merging along with Preservation into the new Resource Management Committee. The 2 Co-Chairs of Resource Management Catherine Bye (2018-2020) and Pat Roncevich (2018-2019) led the meeting.

    The following list of topics was shared with the group in advance and discussed.

    1. Email renewals/quotes: Why do I get a 20 page .pdf or a 3000-line spreadsheet when all I want is a simple quote?
      1. Sometimes the larger document is preferred, but hard to get.
      2. LMA: Can collapse fields to make sheet more readable.
      3. Other issues:
        1. Don’t want the details yet because the director wants a basic quote.
        2. Bundling quotes: asking for one thing, getting a whole bunch of other stuff.
        3. Working with main campus to split costs of certain packages: Gale, ProQuest.
        4. Any issues with keeping invoices and payments straight?
    2. Print vendors (BNA/Lexis in particular) and our relationships with them including continued consolidation in the legal publishing industry (Lexis handling ALM, for example) and its impact:
      1. Concern about print materials: being forced into print materials to get electronic.
      2. Bloomberg print reporters going away.
        1. A comprehensive list of ceased publications would be helpful.
        2. Bloomberg law accounts: if you’re using old usernames, they will convert you over…(sometimes without asking)
        3. Titles that are pulled out of packages: Tax Notes, PLI. Now you have an extra bill to pay without sufficient advance notice. Getting the contract through purchasing.
          • Legal gray area: when signing up for new or revamped products and vendor wants something signed. University considers that a contract which must go through legal department. Work with the vendor to get an invoice with a subscription date.
        4. Dealing with purchasing units…
          • Delays, loss of discounts.
          • Example of contract upload system → Unimarket, lost some vendors unwilling to register with Unimarket.
    3. Ethical behavior vendor and institution, are there issues that people are encountering that they feel are problematic?
      1. Product being offered → KKK newspaper database several wanted to purchase it. Turned out to be only KKK newspapers. Concern was it was primary source with no commentary and how undergraduates would work with it. Librarian workaround was to include a very large disclaimer. Another example: ISIS articles.
        1. Raises point: What do we think about having controversial content without commentary?
    4. The acquisition of electronic resources/databases to enhance collections. What have folks acquired besides the usual (Hein Online, BNA Bloomberg Law, Lexis, Westlaw)? Which resources have you found easiest to acquire? What electronic resources have not been useful yet for your population?
      1. Politico Pro
      2. Increases
        1. Legal Compass
        2. ALM
      3. Clean-Up
      4. Dealing with vendors
    5. Collection Development in this age of e-resources and Amazon and PDA.
      1. University no longer allowed to purchase directly from Amazon. Must send to purchasing department.
      2. Departmental/Business Amazon accounts
      3. Rush books in GOBI disappearing?
    6. Changes in workflows and new skill sets needed?
      1. Change in procurement processes.
      2. Uncommunicative procurement departments
    7. Resource Management Group
      1. You can opt-in to the new group if you were in the new group.
      2. Things to work on in the coming years – Updating current content

    The meeting ended at 2:15
    Elizabeth Graham, recorder
    Pat Roncevich, editor
    7/17/19

  • 2013 Minutes (Seattle)

    Acquisitions and Serials Standing Committees
    Joint Meeting and Roundtable
    2013 Annual Meeting Minutes
    Monday, July 15, 2012 — Seattle, Washington

    7:15 a.m.-8:45 a.m. — Sheraton-Ballard Room

    The meeting was called to order at 7:14 a.m. by Wendy Moore (University of Georgia School of Law), chair of the Serials Standing Committee.

    Approval of the Acquisitions Standing Committee and the Serials Standing Committee Minutes

    Motion was made by Ismael Gullon (Mercer University School of Law) and seconded to approve the minutes from the Acquisitions Standing Committee and the Serials Standing Committee meetings held at the 2012 Annual Meeting & Conference in Boston, Massachusetts. Motion carried.

    Reports

    1. Exchange of Duplicates Program (Patricia Roncevich, University of Pittsburgh School of Law)
      As more libraries are binding fewer titles every year, there are fewer members who participate in the program. The program has improved the exchange and storage of information in the database, especially the checking of title authority before adding information to the database. Currently the program raises funds through the membership fees and approximately 1/3 of the available funds are expended on the support work of a database administrator. The question at hand is how often the exchange services should be done. It is a lot of work. One option would be to handle the exchange approximately once a year. Wendy Moore stated that she had brought up this issue with the board and that the Serials Committee will submit the issue to the board again.
    2. Project COUNTER Task Group (no report provided)
    3. Survey on Collection Development Trends in Law Libraries (Damon Campbell, Florida Coastal School of Law, in absentia)
      Wendy Moore reported that the survey has been completed and that Damon requests assistance from members who know how to calculate statistics. Volunteer are welcome to help compile and analyze the data for the report. Damon may be contacted at: dcampbell@fcsl.edu.
    4. AALL Price Index for Legal Publications (Carol Nicholson, in absentia)
      Wendy Moore reported that Carol Nicholson, editor of the AALL Price Index for Legal Publications will continue her role in editing the annual publication as a retiree. Luz Verguizas (Columbia Law School) reported that the Committee for the Price Index for Legal Publications is discussing expanding and changing categories. Examples would be to include e-resource pricing and access options. Comments and concerns about possible changes may be submitted to the Committee. Stephanie Edwards (Roger Williams University School of Law) stated that it would be useful to have electronic pricing data included in the Index.
    5. List of Law Publishers (Anne Robbins, University of Illinois College of Law, in absentia)
      Wendy Moore reported that the project to convert the current List of Law Publishers (formerly AcqWeb) to a blog format to ease the management of the resource has stalled. Wendy stated that Anne Robbins is seeking volunteers and may be contacted via email if you are interested in assisting with this project. Wendy Moore stated that a taskforce from both the Serials and Acquisitions Standing Committees may provide enough people to complete the project as well as accountability to get the work done. Stephanie Edwards stated that it remains a valuable resource. One of the goals of moving the site to a blog format is that it could readily support having multiple editors for ongoing maintenance.

    Education Programming for AALL 2014

    Wendy Moore stated that Christine Dulaney (American University Washington College of Law) is the incoming chair of the Education Committee. The Committee is considering changes to AALL programming processes and how best to work with AMPC. The AMPC seems to want only the ideas for programming topics and then they would pursue the programming details. Wendy stated that Brian Striman (University of Nebraska College of Law) is not going to leave us alone. Brian is particularly obsessed with programing ideas from the Acquisitions and Serials standing committees. Wendy asked the attendees to push themselves to provide ideas to the Education committee in order to keep Brian at bay.

    Roundtable Discussions

    Topics

    1. New discovery, purchasing and management
      1. Ebook acquisitions and management
        1. There was much discussion about the LexisNexis Digital Library.
        2. Often packages were being negotiated by the main library whereas the law library continues with title by title selections.
        3. There was interest in partnering for the cataloging of the West Study Aids. This is limited because law libraries are not purchasing the package. The wide disparity may be due to variation in pricing quotes, though the pricing may be standardized by West soon. Melody Lembke (University of California at Irvine Law Library) suggested subdividing the cataloging work by series.
      2. Patron-driving acquisitions (demand driven acquisitions or DDA)
        1. Law school had pushed DDA to its faculty to make use of main campus (University Library) DDA services. Assessing the cost to the law school as yet to be worked out.
        2. A law library in Florida negotiated with the main campus library to have all K schedule acquisitions from DDA be billed to the law library.
        3. It was suggested that some vendors seem not to have experience working with and for law library needs in this area.
      3. Electronic Resource Management systems
        1. ERM systems continue to be useful for managing subscriptions and statistics.
        2. There are several libraries who have or are working to deploy open source ERM clients.
        3. One library reported that their ERM is overpopulated with titles entered as an access provider rather than for management. It is time to sift out titles that are ‘free’ or that do not require oversight (other than access) by the library staff.
        4. OLLARA and ERMes were briefly discussed.
      4. Next-generation library management systems and newer discovery environments
        1. The application of ERM systems may be changing due to the availability and implementation of discovery platforms. The result may be that ERMs become more of an internal management resource than a public access tool.
    2. Evolution of acquisitions and serials work in law libraries
      1. What changes to workflow and staff duties have you made this year?
        1. Changes have been driven by more electronic acquisitions and less print.
        2. Interdepartmental staff sharing is trending (placement of staff shared between library and other law school departments such as communications or web design.
        3. More cross training of staff.
        4. While centralizing technical services (e.g. Harvard Law) may be discussed, law libraries are also withdrawing from a centralized support model to focus on law school management needs.
        5. More collaboration with public services was noted.
      2. How are our roles as technical services librarians changing?
        1. Technical services staff have contributed to maintenance and creation of finding aids such as LibGuides pages.
        2. Direct faculty support is growing. Examples included acquiring copyright permissions and assisting with faculty research.
        3. Tech Services librarians are participating more in the marketing of library services.

    The meeting adjourned at 8:46 a.m.

    Respectfully submitted by
    Stephanie Schmitt
    Assistant Technical Services and Systems Librarian
    University of California Hastings College of the Law

  • 2011 Minutes (Philadelphia)

    Acquisitions Committee and Roundtable
    2011 Annual Meeting Minutes
    July 25, 2011, 7:00-8:30 a.m. — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

    The business meeting was called to order on Monday July 25, 2011 at 7:00 AM at the Philadelphia Convention Center Room 105(B) by Eric Parker, Acquisitions Librarian, Northwestern University Pritzker Legal Research Center.

    The business meeting began at 7:02 a.m. A motion was made, seconded and carried to approve the minutes of last year’s meeting. Attendees introduced themselves and a sign-up sheet was passed around.

    Old Business:

    List of law publishers in ACQWEB:

    Eric got an email from Anne Robbins, who has maintained our own legal publishers’ list this last year. She has set up a mock blog to meet the criteria to update the list. There is a website and she needs people to add publishers. There is a user’s guide, an A-Z list of publishers and a search box. Eric asked for volunteers to help Anne. Eric will help and Wendy Moore and Ajaye Bloomstone also volunteered. Anne asked for input on how large to make the comments section. Eric suggested that they work on the website for several months and then turn it over to the TS-SIS webmaster. He might be able to link to it from the TS-SIS website. The address is http://legal-acquisition-forum.blogspot.com/.

    Collection development policies:

    They are now available on a webpage with the ALL-SIS password, not the regular AALL password. Is there a better solution? Ismael Gullon suggested using the TS-SIS embedded password instead of the ALL-SIS password. Eric will ask the TS-SIS webmaster, if it can be done.

    Report from and Q &A with CRIV incoming Chair Shaun Esposito:

    CRIV has a chair, vice-chair, nine members and a non-voting Executive Board liaison. Their mission statement is on the AALL website. The committee’s goals are education and advocacy. They help with complaint resolution and publish the CRIV Sheet. CRIV tools are available and there are suggestions for dealing with vendors. The Committee selects a product for the Best New Product Award. They sponsor a vendor roundtable and colloquium held today in room 111(B) at 12:15 PM. They propose programs for the annual meeting and are looking into presenting webinars. The committee encourages vendor compliance with the AALL Guide to Fair Business Practices for Legal Publishers. In the coming year, the committee will be working with the new Vendor Liaison. They are not sure just how CRIV will work with the Liaison. The Liaison is the chair of the Vendor Colloquium Working Group. The Chair will take suggestions to the AALL Board and CRIV will help implement them and look at new products. Contact Shaun, if you have a complaint with a vendor. Their new website has a link to make a complaint or email Shaun directly. Last year CRIV handled 16 major complaints.

    New Business:

    Eric asked for ideas for 2012 programs. The AMPC deadline is September 15. The TS-SIS Education Committee has an August 15 deadline and they will work with you on a proposal. The contact is Jim Mumm, the Chair of the Education Committee.

    Ajaye Bloomstone suggested several ideas for programs:

    • An in-depth program on RDA training.
    • Usage statistics for electronic packages.
    • Law for Technical Services librarians without JDs.

    If members are interested in speaking at one of these programs, contact Ajaye.

    The Business Meeting was adjourned at 7:42 a.m.

    Roundtable Meeting:

    The Roundtable Meeting began at 7:43 a.m. Each attendee gave a State of their Library report.

    Eric proposed a survey on what libraries have done to cope with budget cuts and cancellations. He did a survey in his area for collection development purposes. Ajaye suggested that it be put into a Google Docs spreadsheet. Wendy Moore suggested Survey Monkey. Eric will share his survey with the list of attendees and members. Shyama Agrawal and Damon Campbell volunteered to help.

    The Roundtable was adjourned at 8:30 a.m.

    Respectfully submitted by
    Earlene Kuester
    Assistant Director/Head of Technical Services
    Stetson University College of Law

  • 2010 Minutes (Denver)

    Acquisitions Committee and Roundtable
    2010 Annual Meeting Minutes
    July 12, 2010 — Denver, Colorado

    The business meeting was called to order on Monday July 12, 2010 at 7:00 AM at the Colorado Convention Center Room 604 by Ajaye Bloomstone, Acquisitions Librarian, Louisiana State University Paul E. Hebert Law Center Library.

    The business meeting began at 7:06 a.m. A motion was made, seconded and carried to approve the minutes of last year’s meeting.

    Old Business:

    Task Force Reports:

    The ACQWEB report was given by Anne Robbins. ALA has ACQWEB up and running on a Drupal platform, but the list of publishers has not been updated. The site has a volunteer who acts as the gatekeeper. There are three options available to the Committee:

    1. Give the gatekeeper our content and let them put it up. The content has not been updated in their format.
    2. Take an offered spot on the editorial board.
    3. Cut ties and perhaps put the content into Google Docs, which could become a webpage on our own server.

    Anne is in favor of option three. If it is left with ALA, will they keep it up? The group consensus is option #3. It could hang off the TS-SIS website. Volunteers for the project are Wendy Moore and Julie Stauffer.

    Emerita Cuesta, new co-chair of the Professional Development TS Committee, says their mission is to produce professional development programs for those who cannot attend AALL. They want more acquisitions programming and will be setting up a webpage for content. She foresees that the Committee will have a permanent platform for classes.

    The Collection Development Policies report was given by Ajaye. ALL-SIS has collected 191 policies and they are not password protected anymore. She asked if there were any objections to linking our policies website to theirs. There were no objections. Eric Parker mentioned that the policies on the TS Acquisitions website need to be refreshed. Let Ajaye know if there are any broken links. Eric and Wendy will email participating libraries to update their policies.

    New Business:

    Ajaye is the new TS-Education Committee Chair and needs program ideas for the 2011 conference. Suggestions include the following:

    • Eric said that NELLCO has developed USS as a back office system rather than using an ILS and what might be the effect on libraries?
    • Anne suggested a program on libraries running a law search discovery service with the main campus system.
    • Lisa Arm mentioned that Boston College Law Library won’t see their library’s records on their new catalog WorldCat Local. How can they make their catalog more relevant?
    • Pat Roncevich talked about developing more faculty services as a method for keeping our jobs.
    • Lisa asked how long will checkin jobs last? How will they morph into other jobs? Technical Services staff is taking on jobs outside their area, some of which are not traditional library jobs.
    • Emerita talked about the skills we’ll have to learn and require of new hires. Technical Services will have a new identity.
    • Ajaye mentioned several interesting programs from ALA:
      • Cooperative collection development: We really mean it this time
      • Emerging collection management dealing with cancellations
      • Other topics she mentioned were “Best way” to do things, digital library management, RDA, digital repository issues, new hires (since many librarians are retiring), getting back to basics and law cataloging workshops on electronic resources, etc.

    Ajaye asks if anyone has ideas to bring them to the Education Committee and they will help you with it.

    Emerita asks for suggestion for online programs for the Professional Development Committee.

    Ajaye says that this is her last year as Chair of the Acquisitions Committee. Eric Parker will be the new Chair.

    The Business Meeting was adjourned at 8:00 a.m.

    Roundtable Meeting:

    The Roundtable Meeting began at 8:01 a.m. Introductions of every attendee present along with a state of their library report were made. Many libraries are dealing with cancellations, cutbacks, furloughs, areas of the library taken for non-library purposes, hiring freezes and many other problems.

    The Roundtable was adjourned at 8:30 a.m.

    Respectfully submitted by
    Earlene Kuester
    Assistant Director/Head of Technical Services
    Stetson University College of Law