1. EUUG 2000 Acquisitions sharing session Anne Freeman Electronic Services Librarian, The Natural History Museum a.freeman@nhm.ac.uk http://www.nhm.ac.uk/library/

2. Programme About me About the Museum The Department of Library & Information Services Acquisitions processes Facts and figures Issues / problems Open forum

3. My background Natural History Museum since 1991 7 years in (serial) acquisitions »serial orders; routine serials accessioning »successive serial conversion projects »shadowing systems Systems librarian since 1998 Not an acquisitions expert Not regularly involved in acquisitions

4. The Museum library Large collection »~ 1 million volumes; 10,000 current serials Small immediate audience »~ 300 research scientists on site Not a lending library 1 title, 1 copy Comprehensive subject coverage »many vendors, currencies; obscure, difficult titles

5. The Department of Library & Information Services 50 staff »12 involved in monograph acquisitions Multi-library site »10 Unicorn libraries = 8 collections + Archives and Exchanges »5 administrative/staffing units »5 reading rooms on 2 sites: London and Tring Unicorn since April 1998 (ex URICA) »Acquisitions 1 month later

6. Departmental organisation Decentralised monograph acquisitions except for exchanges »funds, vendors, orders associated with local library Large Gifts & Exchanges programme »~ 650 partners Mixed centralised/distributed cataloguing Serial orders centralised (accessioning distributed) Tiered support »local support team sys. admin. & shadows

7. Standard acquisitions processes Books ordered in libraries »brief record, not shadowed Orders sent weekly »most e-mail, some post, no EDI Books received in libraries »full catalogue record added: from OCLC (SmartPort), locally or central cataloguers Claims at two levels »first + higher »monthly or bimonthly according to local preference

8. Facts and figures Budget »£150,000 p.a. for monographs in 6 funds Annual receipts »2768 ­2064 purchased ­188 on exchange ­516+ donations Active vendor numbers »~ 200 book suppliers »~ 750 donors 27 currencies

9. Issues/problems Variant procedure for donations One-off vendor Too many steps! Problems unpicking Duplication of vendors across libraries Splitting of funds between libraries Restrictions on load order Problems with central support Problems with central reporting