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ARLIS/NY COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT MEETING
In late October, approximately 22 members of the Collection Development Group of the New York ARLIS Chapter met in the Conference Room in the Annex of the Whitney Museum of American Art.  The meeting opened with Annamaria Poma-Swank (Cloisters) who introduced guest, Dror Faust, from PUVILL LIBROS.  Dror spoke briefly to the members about the company which was founded in Barcelona in 1945.  It is a privately owned family company that has been offering library services over three generations.  Puvill specializes in Spanish, Mexican, Portuguese, Andorran and Latin American books and periodicals, and provides bibliographical support services to academic libraries, research and public libraries all over the world.  Puvill recently moved their headquarters to two new facilities (Barcelona and Mexico).  In spring of this year, over 25,000 in-process book records from late 1993 through January 1996 were loaded into RLIN.  The Puvill library identifier is XPUV.  (http://www.puvill.com/)

 
Carol Rusk, host, led attendees through the pre-established items in the agenda, beginning with the first one, carried over from the last meeting:

 
1.  Library online subscriptions:
“What selection criteria do you use to add or keep electronic resources?”
Many attendees agreed that economics is generally the driving force behind decisions made in most libraries.  Of course, users are depending more and more on online access to scholarly information.  Increases in per search cost, subscription updates and staff maintenance of the sites drives the library’s investment upwards.  Continuous training for users has to be provided as vendors upgrade their sites.  More libraries are placing annotated commentary of their subscriptions in their own bibliographic records. There is little satisfaction that recently many auction and exhibition catalogs are no longer published in hard copy but appear only on the web.  The only way to guarantee continued access to images is to print a copy.  This is naturally another tedious process.

Librarians admitted often making use of other library sites for references to available sources.  They, too, rely on Metro referrals for obtaining access to sources for which they have no subscriptions.  A few members said they are adding summaries to the links in electronic resource section of their websites.  Scope notes rather than vendor-released information is often added to provide unbiased portrayal of the database.  Some participants emphasized cataloging electronic resources and describing databases in records. 

How can selection of resources be made easier?  Some members said they select more full-text journals that include graphics.  Conducting staff surveys on preferences, (but how to monitor in an academic environment?), monitoring e-resources and reviewing statistics on quantity of use may help to compare  the usefulness over cost of resources.

How can access be made easier?
Website simplicity is an important criteria  to consider, so look to university website pages; with rising costs for subscriptions, we have to find the balance between frequency of use and cost of use;  memebrs were interested in full-text documents available online.  Everyone agreed on the importance of their memberships in METRO for cost-saving subscriptions; there are also memberships in Nylink and Waldo consortia that help reduce subscription costs.  Smaller institutions are obviously faced with the high membership fees required for using these additional services. 

Someone suggested setting policies for use of databases should harmonize with the library’s collection policy.  Database training for staff and patrons adds to costs; many still are interested in more cooperative resource sharing between institutions besides ILL.  The library homepage can be designed carefully with a similar interface in use by major databases (i.e.: OCLC FirstSearch), enabling patrons relative ease in accessing their selections.  Bibliographic instruction can be devised directly from our library web pages. 

2.      Printed Library Catalogs. 
Members were interested in continuing the discussion, raised on the ARLIS-L listserve , by Sam Duncan of the Amon Carter Museum, about what everyone’s doing with their old printed library catalogs.  Four members have already put them into storage.  Most libraries will hold on to them, probably in offsite storage, and will not discard them as they have not yet been put into online catalogs. (and may never get there!)

 
3.      Library Exchange Programs
Representatives from the Philadelphia Museum of Art were particularly interested in this subject and traveled the farthest of anyone to hear what other museums were doing about exchange programs.  They, as well as the few others who still exchange their institution’s publications with others, noted that the costs of the catalogues, mailing and staff time involved ultimately takes a large bite out of the library budget.  Some other problems: items are often sent out by other departments in the museum therefore duplicating the mailing; libraries receive an inconsistent flow of publications, or receive them after copies have already been purchased; paperwork involving correspondence and general maintenance of lists with exchange partners requires additional staff involvement.

Many museum libraries have eliminated exchanges altogether for the above reasons.  The Watson Library at the MMA has already ceased its exchange programs; they send a letter declining participation in exchange programs, and inform other libraries that all MMA publications are available through the Yale University Press.  (It was noted that most catalogs are now co-published with larger presses.)  Some institutions will conduct limited exchanges with a core group of similar institutions.  A few members said they do conduct a limited exchange with international institutions that otherwise have limited access to our published materials.  It can be equally difficult or expensive to purchase foreign catalogues in the USA.

Maintenance of exchanges can be complicated and require extensive work.  Items received but not wanted then have to be addressed by storing them followed by arranging to sell them.  Most present agreed that it is more trouble than it is worth, and requires additional staff to maintain to a fully functioning program.

4.      Special Collections  
Approximately 7-8 institutions remarked they had holdings considered “special collections.”  In the Watson Library, it consists of printed matter from the drawings and  prints collection; the Cloisters Library holds special rare books,  manuscripts and archives; at NYU: Fales and Tamiment libraries hold collections of special rare books and archives.  These and other libraries at IFA and Bobst collect artists’ books.  In regards to special gifts to libraries: some libraries will pass unwanted items to other institutions if they do not relate to their own collection policy.

The Whitney Library’s Special Collections contains fine press artist/writer collaborations, artist illustrated books, rare 20^th century exhibition catalogs, catalogue raisonnes and artists’ books as well as photographs and ephemera.  Over the past few years, there has been a preservation initiative in effect and staff will remove any item considered “rare” from the stacks or artist files and place it into Special Collections.  All members agreed upon the necessity of creating policies for accessioning, handling and maintaining special collections for both staff and users.

The meeting closed with two agenda items to pass on for the next meeting of Collection Development group:  “Institutional Archives” and “Library Development and grant writing, collaborations.”  Someone announced that Franklin books closed, and was absorbed by Coutts, Canadian.  Coutts then merged with BMBC, one of the leading academic suppliers in the UK.  The new company, Coutts Information Services, has Library Services divisions in the USA, Canada and the UK.  (http://www.couttsinfo.com/uk/). 

After the exhilaration of good discussion, members were treated to an extraordinary selection of cheeses, crudités, fruit, sweets and wine--all generously donated by  Dror Faust and Puvill Libros.  On behalf of all members in attendance, we sincerely thank you, Dror!