HIT #2: HAWAII HANDS OVER COLL-DEV

[Pat Wallace <DENWALL@AOL.COM>]

From Pat Wallace (DENWALL@aol.com):

> Early this month  (9/2/96)  I posted a query titled MULTICULTURAL
COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT expressing my concern over what appeared to be a
growing dependency on vendors and lack of interest in supplementing
mainstream review & selection sources with"  alternative press"
sources...............

>On  9/20  I  posted this message:
Let me call your attention to the June '96 issue of School Library  Journal
"News" on pp 10-11: "Hawaii Hands Collection Development to Baker and
Tayler".....

>On 9/25 I posted HIT #1 with replies from librarians
in Hawaii.  This is HIT #2.  Focus is on the need for
better training in collection development and on
issues of conflict of interest and inherent limitations
involved in handing book selection over to jobbers.
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POST #6:  John Buschman--BUSCHMAN@genius.rider.edu
Rider University Library
To:   PLGNET-L@cornell.edu (progressive/alternative library community)/ Fri,
Sep 20, 1996

        >I smell the  same rat in the Hawaii situation as I have
in info tech. issues:  library leadership  (administrators & lib. school
profs.) get publicity,  a little money thrown at them,  & professional
rewards when they latch on to the  "next wave" & adapt it to libraries.  On
info. tech. issues, they've long been willing to sell out the profession and
the collections with fuzzy Alvin Toffleresque mumbo jumbo.  Now, they're
aping GM and software producers with outsourcing - in cataloging and
now collection development.

      >The problem is, these are the same folks who structure the rewards for
librarians in the field.  To challenge them is to risk one's grade, job
assignment, or job security.  Those of us in a position to do so need to
continue to speak out.   SLJ's pallid little news blurb isn't enough to
inform the profession - and it speaks volumes about the commercial library
press.
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POST #7:  MISSOURI   Peggy Sue LaPorte
               mst61@rockwood.k12.mo.us
               Marquette HS /Chesterfield, MO
               Fri, Sep 20, 1996

      >Perhaps some of our problem may be that we need better training in
selection, selection sources, publishers and vendors in some library science
programs.

*************************************************POST #8:  Re: Multicultural
Collection Development
               Alice H. Yucht--AliceInfo@aol.com
                  Library Management/Information Skills
               Consultant/Highland Park, NJ
               Mon, Sep 16, 1996

         >.... hasn't anyone pointed out to your prof. (who thinks vendors
should do collection development) that this means his colleagues who teach
the subject area resources courses will be out of jobs -- because no-one will
need to take THEIR courses??!!
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POST #9:  RE:  Teaching Collection Development
      Keith Swigger--a_swigger@VENUS.TWU.EDU
      Dean/SLIS/Texas Woman's University
      To:   pubyac@nysernet.org (Multiple recipients of list)
        Sat  9/21/96

       >It may be that a member of our faculty has said in class that
outsourcing collection development in some circumstances is a good idea.
 Certainly I respect faculty's academic freedom to present their views on
professional issues.

       >The views of one faculty member do not necessarily represent the
views of all of us.  As a faculty, we are committed to teaching collection
development,  believing,
as a group,  that learning both principles and practices for collection
development is important.
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POST #10:  CANADA-Larry Phillips-ljp@GPU.SRV.UALBERTA.CA
ljp@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca/(403) 473-8623/Fri, Sep 20, 1996
To: RPE-L@uhccvm.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Multiple recipients of list
 RPE-L (Restructuring Public Education Discussion Group)

        >There are two obvious problems with turning selection of library
materials over to a vendor.  The first is the actual and perceived conflict
of interest.  B&T buyers will favour their publications.  The second is
losing the industry knowledge.  In-house staff know all the players and
their products, while a vendors staff will be familiar with the vendors
products.  The vendors knowledge of competitors products is normally marginal
and biased.  If you don't know a competitor has a better product, you don't
have to lie about it.

      >You might use the conflict of interest inherent in the arrangement as
a lever to increase community involvement in the acquisition process.  A
 selection committee made up of stakeholder representatives might be an
improvement on the current system.
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POST #11: Joe Beckman--Jcb22stone@AOL.COM
        Director of Development, Oekos, A Foundation
          Fri, Sep 20, 1996
To: RPE-L@uhccvm.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Multiple recipients of list
RPE-L   (Restructuring Public Education Discussion List)

         >You might look at the political contributions made by Baker &
Taylor and the selection process by which the contract was awarded.
Increasingly, decisions are not what they seem.  A formal request for
information under state Freedom of Information Acts regarding political
contributions is sometimes enough to smoke out a fool.

       >Other than that, a third party evaluation of what B & T
achieves, both in terms of costs and of library diversity, should be a
reasonable contract for a college, community college, or university class to
hustle from the contracting agency. It would save lots of time and trouble,
and, ultimately, except for obvious conflicts of interest, it would be very
interesting to see if a private buyer would be (a) less expensive or (b) less
politically motivated in book ordering. It is not at all clear that either
conclusion is obvious, from past performance of past privatizing schemes. Yet
it is also not clear that either conclusion is wrong.
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POST #12: COLORADO--GenAnn Keller
        gkeller@CSN.NET
        Elizabeth Middle School/589 S. Banner
        Elizabeth, CO / Fri, Sep 20, 1996
          To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU

      > Doesn't anyone see the conflict of interest here?  What is to prevent
a publisher from paying a jobber to select their books, no matter what the
quality or focus, over those of other publishers?  Its a pretty dog eat dog
world in publishing and I for one would never plan on housing the wolves with
the sheep.
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POST #13: TEXAS-- Pamela A. DeVoe
        devoe@fastlane.net
        LIBRARIAN, Arlington Heights HighSchool/ Fort
        Worth, TX/ Fri, Sep 20, 1996

         > I am concerned about this.  B & T say that "quite a few" of the
selection staff have library degrees.  I wonder just how many and also how
much care and concern go into their decisions.
        > " Hummmm, should we buy the most  expensive edition for this
library or try to save them some money."   Let's see that's a tough one!
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POST #14: MISSOURI: Peggy Sue LaPorte         mst61@rockwood.k12.mo.us
Marquette HS /Chesterfield, MO
Fri, Sep 20, 1996

      > A vendor is still a salesman and is in business to sell their titles,
therefore complete dependence on these options would seem to me to be a very
dangerous trend.
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POST #15:  Helen Seagraves--Hcgraves@aol.com
Hood River / Sat, Sep 21, 1996

     >I took it for granted you would have much bigger guns than mine aimed
at this ill thought proposal.

    >I have been librarian in 11 schools, elementary, middle, and high
school. There is no way that the varied needs of children from widely
disparate  educational, social, and cultural backgrounds could have been met
by packaged libraries.  One size did not fit all.

    > It is a whole lot like putting the head of A&P in charge of
designing school lunches, isn't it?  The kids would eat what made the most
money for the grocery chain. The jobbers will be sellers and buyers, how
tidy.  Of course, muzzling library staff members doesn't make Mr. Kane sound
like he has much confidence in his viewpoints. (Suppose he watched Citizen
Kane a few times too often and got delusions of power.)  Sometimes it seems
as if stupidity has risen to the top.
I agree with your feeling that this is a move which cannot
be good for libraries, and it encourages my reservations about B&T as library
jobber.
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POST #16:  WASHINGTON: Janice Weihs
    phslibr@orca.esd114.wednet.edu
    Peninsula HS Library/Gig Harbor, WA
    Fri, Sep 20, 1996

     >Collection development by B & T?  I have found them not to be even the
best jobber--things I order, tailored to this high school's curricula, they
frequently don't have.  Things I order from SLJ reviews frequently are out of
stock, or already remaindered, and can't even be reordered, because SLJ
reviews are later than Booklist's reviews.  They will undoubtedly try to do a
good job in the business sense, but they are
limited by their own merchandising practices.

      >Selection is at the core of public service--is this head of the
Hawaiian libraries even a librarian in the classic sense?  Or is he a
businessman, bent on cutting costs, while maintaining a facade of a library
system?
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POST #17:  WASHINGTON   Jonathan R. Betz-Zall
  jbetzzall@igc.apc.aorg
  Children's Librarian/Sno-Isle Regional Library
  System/Edmonds WA

To: pubyac@nysernet.org/PUBYAC  DIGEST 788, Mon Sept 2, 1966
Re: Multicultural Library Collections/Using Jobbers

    >THANK YOU for bringing up this problem!  I was beginning
to think that no one was objecting to centralizing materials selection on
grounds other than erosion of professional scope and knowledge of
collections.  My only experience with jobber selection has been
through...Bro-Dart, who has been quite careful to include multicultural
materials in the lists...But the principle of diversity of sources is
important to maintain..... What happens with material that the jobber finds
too difficult to obtain but a library COULD obtain directly from a small
press?  Its very easy for a big outfit like BroDart just not wanting to keep
up with the myriad of small presses.  Keep raising those concerns in your
classes!
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POST#18: MINNESOTA  Kathy Geronzin
kgeronzin@po1.northeast.k12.ia.us)
Northeast MS-HS Librarian/Goose Lake, IA
Fri, Sep 20, 1996

 >Pat,  I can't imagine that Baker & Taylor would be able to do the same type
of job as the librarians who are directly involved with the patrons.
 > Also, I would be concerned that you could only get books
supplied by Baker and Taylor and the publishers that they carry. This means
you couldn't special order books from small publishers. When I read your post
I thought what next!
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POST #19:  TEXAS (Mary Lee Freeman--mlf@tenet.edu)
    Carrollton Christian Academy
    Carrollton TX/ Fri Sep 20 96

      >I am at a private K-12 school since last year.  The year before, I was
at St. Monica, K-8 Catholic school in Dallas, and before that a public
elementary K-4.  At all of these schools I used Follett or Permabound for the
general collection, but had to go to  smaller,  regional or university
presses for Texas books. None of the jobbers carry them.

    >You can imagine how little religious or Christian material they have.
 Parents are willing to pay private school tuition because they want their
children to have religious instruction.  Public schools and public libraries
seem to avoid controversy by buying almost nothing with a religious theme.  I
buy directly from Christian presses orbookstores ...

    > For reviews I use those in the Christian Science Monitor as well as
those from Christian magazines.
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