Librarians, faculty to confer on acquisitions

by Emily Silverman, special to the Chronicle

ampus librarians plan to meet with all academic departments in March and April to evaluate how best to meet the information needs of students and faculty with a significantly reduced acquisitions budget.

     One-time supplements from the Provost's Office and the administration enabled the Library to retain many journal subscriptions and to cover outstanding commitments. The Library's Fiscal Year 2002 base acquisitions budget, however, is $2.57 million, down from $5.4 million in FY01. The expected FY03 acquisitions budget, combining the base and one-time bridging money from the administration, is $4 million, or $1.4 million less than FY01.

     Librarians will consult with faculty about how to redefine collection building within the new budget parameters. They plan to reconceptualize how Library resources are provided to users. Of particular concern is the continuing erosion of the Library's base acquisitions budget. One-time bridging funds supplement the FY02 and FY03 budgets only. The Library will continue to consult with users to determine ways to make research materials available in the future, as budget constraints are expected to continue through at least FY04.

     Librarians will also introduce two new electronic information delivery programs: CISTI (Canadian Institute for Scientific and Technical Information) Source and the Boston Library Consortium Virtual Union Catalog (see box). These article and book delivery services complement existing services and resources, and are particularly important given the cancellation of over 900 journal subscriptions earlier this fiscal year. Through information delivery, the Library will provide electronic access to content as an alternative to owning the paper format.

     According to a memo sent to all faculty from Margo Crist, director of Libraries, and Jay Schafer, coordinator of Collection Development, librarians will ask the faculty to evaluate and prioritize resources for the needs of undergraduates, graduate students, and their own research. The memo states, "Faculty will be asked to evaluate the means and timing of receiving information resources, carefully considering electronic access as an alternative to owning paper format. The goal of the Library is to supply information for the campus, and to do so using a combination of strategies that allows for the most effective use of scarce resources."

     The Library will continue this "campus conversation" in the coming year as the budget picture and collection building continue to be redefined for FY04.

     For more information about the Library's acquisitions funding, contact Emily Silverman, communications specialist, at 5-0995 or by e-mail (essilverman@library.umass.edu).

Library fills information gaps with new delivery services

     The Library now offers several new electronic information delivery services, which complement existing resources. According to Library staff, the new services are particularly important given the cancellations of more than 900 journal subscriptions earlier this fiscal year. Through information delivery, the Library will provide electronic access to content as an alternative to owning the paper format.

     CISTI Source is an unmediated delivery service of journal articles not held in the campus's libraries. It is available to faculty, graduate students and staff, and is provided through the Canadian Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI), part of the National Research Council of Canada. Most articles requested through CISTI Source are delivered within 24 hours.

     The CISTI Source database has more than 15 million articles in 18,000 journals from 1993 to the present. While CISTI is noted for its strength in science, technology, and medicine, 35 percent of its holding are outside of these disciplines. In addition to the CISTI collection, the service also delivers articles from the British Library (BLDSC), the Institut de L'information scientifique et technique (INIST, France), Sunmedia Co (Japan), Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (IDTIC), Korea Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (KISTI), and the Science and Technology Information Center (STIC, Taiwan).

     Faculty, graduate students and staff can also set up an account to receive notification for specific journal tables of contents and keyword alerts through CISTI Source Alerts. Both titles owned by the Library and those not available can be included in the alerts. Users may select up to 30 journals for which they will receive the tables of contents of each new issue by e-mail. Users may also select up to 20 keywords for e-mail alerts when new articles on those topics are added to CISTI Source.

     The Library is a participant in the Boston Library Consortium (BLC) Virtual Union Catalog, which provides unmediated book delivery. This service will eventually include all BLC libraries, as well as many other libraries in Massachusetts. Libraries and consortia presently available to borrow from include Brown University, Marine Biological Lab/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the MetroBoston Library Network, the Minuteman Library Network, all the UMass libraries, Wellesley College, and Tufts University.

     Faculty, staff, and students may search the participants' catalogs simultaneously, as if they were a single database. Users can then request books, which will be delivered to the W.E.B. Du Bois Library without any required mediation by Library staff. The Virtual Union Catalog project was initiated, and initially supported by grants from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.

     These unmediated services complement the mediated interlibrary loan service, which is available to all Amherst campus faculty, staff and students. Materials not owned by the Library are obtained from other libraries by the Interlibrary Loan staff. Interlibrary loan requests may be submitted via the ILLiad online form (http://illiad.library.umass.edu/illiad/AMH/logon.html). With the ILLiad system, users can check the status of requests, do book renewals, and access articles delivered electronically. Articles are in PDF format, and require Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print.

     More information about CISTI Source, CISTI Source Alerts and interlibrary loan is available online (www.library.umass.edu/cm/ill), or by calling the Library at 5-0553. The BLC Virtual Catalog is available on the Web (www.library.umass.edu/vuc.html).