Unit 2 Assignment - Selecting a Vendor ILS 519 Collection Development Dr. Arlene Bielefield Prepared by: Lucinda D. Mazza September 20, 2011
With the creation of a new public library for the growing town of Middleburg, one of the major decisions I need to make as Director is who our major book vendor will be. There are many variables to consider when researching vendors. It will be important to find a vendor that will work with us to develop a "Day One" collection since we are a brand new library. As a public library our patron base will include children, young adults and adults. Within each patron base, there are unique sub-categories of books such as fiction, non-fiction, biographies, board books, easy readers, picture books, graphic novels, large print and reference resources. Robust collection development lists created by qualified staff will be a major asset when creating the collection. The vendor will need to work with our Technical Services Librarian regarding cataloging procedures to insure correct classification scheme, marc record accuracy, and ease of integration with our ILS system. The level of processing done by the vendor will need to be negotiated with Technical Services. Considerations include the size of the Technical Services staff and the volume of books that will be processed as the community grows to 75,000. Once defined, specific processing guidelines will need to be documented for the vendor such as, barcode location, book cover options, information stickers, library stamp locations on books, etc. Automated and online acquisition tools will be required to manage the large volume of materials ordered, received, invoiced and paid for on a monthly basis. Important qualities are ease of use, integration with the library ILS system, minimizing duplication, and ability to integrate marc records into the catalog with relative ease and consistent format. ILS 519 Unit 2 Selecting a Vendor 2
Let's take a look at some of the vendors we considered for this undertaking. This first list includes all the vendors we considered, primarily because we were unfamiliar with the vendor, but chose not to use them for various reasons. Vendors Considered - Not Chosen 1. Yankee Book Peddler, Inc (YBP) Yankee Book Peddler provides books and technical services to academic, research and special libraries worldwide. They were acquired by Baker & Taylor in 1999 and have continued their role as an academic and scholarly bookseller. 2. Blackwell Blackwell is a company based out of the United Kingdom that provides books and services to the academic community. Their focus is not public libraries and logistically it would not be efficient to ship item from Europe. 3. Harrassowitz Harrassowitz provides books and services to academic and research library communities. Their specialty is scholarly books, periodicals, e-resources and music scores. Like Blackwell, this company is located in Europe, based out of Germany. 4. The Book House, Inc. This vendor's strength is in the areas of trade, scientific, technical, university press and business publications. The Book House also specializes in locating print and non-print products, from small presses outside of North America. 5. Regent Book Company ILS 519 Unit 2 Selecting a Vendor 3
Regent Book Company delivers books targeted for PreK to High School age patrons. I was unable to find any bibliographies or listings for Adults at their site. Their collection is too specialized to meet the diverse book needs of a Public Library. 6. Emery-Pratt Emery-Pratt's primary collection development focus is on books and resources for academic and medical libraries. They appear to have a limited children's and young adult collection and very few collection development tools for public libraries. Vendors - Top Contenders 1. BWI - Titletales BWI is a vendor I was not familiar with at all. They are a company that works solely with Public Libraries, ensuring a rich level of expertise and experience to support their public library customers. They take pride in their personalized collection development assistance, high-quality catalog records, customized cataloging, processing and specialized services. BWI was a complete unknown to me, so I spent time reviewing their website and signed up for an account to access their bibliographies and lists of new items. What stood out the most to me was the level of specialized attention patrons get from them. They pride themselves in customizing their product for each library. Given I will be creating a brand new library, having a vendor I could partner with when designing collection development strategies and defining cataloging standards would be very beneficial. They also provide a service and support team of professionals to develop every aspect of your "opening day collection". ILS 519 Unit 2 Selecting a Vendor 4
The cataloging personnel have MLS degrees and were recently recognized by the Library of Congress for reaching NACO (Name Authority Cooperative Program) independence. Members of the collection development team also have MLS degrees, emphasizing the importance they place on hiring personnel that understand their patrons. A unique product offered by BWI is "The Tumble library of products. This product "provides a range of dynamic experiences for readers of all ages from animated, talking picture books, to read alongs, to full-length, unabridged classic audio books. This online collection offers unlimited access 24/7 there s no limit to how many computers can be using a TumbleBook at the same time"(bwi, 2009). Other services they offer include Standing Order Plans, Essential Lists (core bibliographies) for opening day collections or collection building, processing solutions tailored for each libraries needs, and a "Grants & Funding Guide" which identifies the best opportunities to receive funds and how to make the most of your grant money. 2. Baker & Taylor Baker & Taylor is well known and frequently used by Public Libraries, as a major player amongst library book vendors or jobbers. They "maintain one of the largest in-stock inventories of books, videos and music in the U.S. - about 385,000 titles in inventory and more than 1.5 million titles available for order"(baker & Taylor, 2011). Baker & Taylor provide several customized services to support patrons through changes in the industry and growth of new collections. They provide specialized services for special collection projects such as Opening Day Collections. Work is done to "generate detailed collection, subject, and demographic profiles" (Baker & Taylor, 2011) unique to ILS 519 Unit 2 Selecting a Vendor 5
that library. Baker & Taylor "have partnered with The Library Corporation (TLC) in creating a state-of-the-art, customized cataloging process" (Baker & Taylor, 2011). The technical processing services provided by Baker & Taylor can be tailored to fit a library's specific requirements, ranging from simple applications of labels to shelf-ready product. Book leasing options are available from Baker & Taylor. When new best selling releases come out and the demand for the book is high one or two books in the collection may not be enough to fulfill the demand from your patrons. Leasing options provide additional copies for 6 months, to meet the initial high demand put on new books. Once demand drops, the leased books can be returned, leaving only the one or two you purchased for the library. Having worked with Baker & Taylor (B&T) in the past, my experience has been average. Frequently, B&T did not stock the books requested or they were backordered. The unpredictability of stock availability was frustrating and time consuming in an otherwise busy schedule. The library staff generally felt that the collection development and acquisition tools were not very user friendly, often finding it difficult to find a book that is actually in stock. 3. Ingram Ingram's product line focuses on public, K-12 and academic libraries. They provide "immediate access to more than two million titles and fully customizable library services" (Ingram, n.d.). Ingram is staffed with experienced, MLS-degreed librarians, insuring libraries they understand what their needs are. ILS 519 Unit 2 Selecting a Vendor 6
Ipage is the collection development web site for librarians. It provides "complete title information, collection development resources, reviews, real-time stock checks, and the latest industry news" (Ingram, n.d.). Ingram provides accurate cataloging and customized services to meet the individual specifications of the library. Like Baker & Taylor, Ingram is a NACO participant, the first vendor to receive this honor. Processing options are plentiful when working with Ingram; they have as many as 100 different options for books and audio books. Most orders are turned around in 3 to 10 business days We currently use Ingram in our library and in general they have been a good vendor. Their sales representative is responsive when called upon. However, we have had two instances in the 4 months I have been working at this library that were unacceptable. The first involved a human error on their part that put all our orders on hold for over 3 weeks. They are our primary vendor for books in all departments and for a small library this prevented us from having any new books to display for 3 weeks and when the orders did come in our part time cataloging person was inundated. By using Ingram exclusively for books, we get a higher discount, but it also puts you at risk when there is a problem with the vendor, in this case Ingram. It took three calls before Ingram realized the mistake they made and shipped our books. We did receive a credit to apply towards future orders. Another time we received a shipment of books that were damaged internally, in other words the shipper had nothing to do with it. They did ship us replacements at no cost and told us to keep the damaged items. ILS 519 Unit 2 Selecting a Vendor 7
In summary, Ingram may be one of the largest vendors, offering a wide selection to choose from. However, they are lacking in quality customer service, attention to detail and collection development bibliographies. Vendor of Choice Brodart Brodart provides "more than four million English-language titles, Spanish-language materials, plus audio and video products"(brodart, n.d.-a). Books are offered from more than 80,000 publishers and the warehouse is stocked with more than 2,000,000 books. Their "collection development team has the knowledge, experience, and customized selection tools to help you build and maintain a quality collection for your library's patrons"(brodart, n.d.-a). Collection Builder is a customized system, designed by Brodart, to build an entire collection or to expand an existing collection. System parameters are set based on your libraries demographics. Then you may define your parameters by subject, Dewey range, genre, authors, publisher's series, specific bibliographies or review sources. Much like Baker & Taylor and BWI, Brodart offers Opening Day Collection Services. Professionals from Brodart provide guidance from start to finish when planning an opening day collection. Brodart has created its own online collection development tool called Bibz.com. It can be "used to access relevant titles, build your own bibliographies, select the best items for your collections and place orders online"(brodart, n.d.-a). ILS 519 Unit 2 Selecting a Vendor 8
McNaughton is a service offered by Brodart that helps you take high demand titles off your reserve list and place them in the hands of your patrons. This program has been offered for more than 50 years, setting a standard by which others follow. Monthly selection lists are provided featuring over 300 titles. Free standard cataloging and processing is offered with options to expand cataloging options based on the library's needs. "Brodart's Book & Automation's Precision One Cataloging System is an extensive resource database with access to more than two million MARC records, including new releases, pre-1968 titles, and Library of Congress records"(brodart, n.d.-c). Although not related to book collections, I noticed a product they created for accessing websites called DartClix. DartClix, is "a database of professionally selected, high-quality cataloged Web sites in MARC format, ready to import directly into your library s existing bibliographic file"(brodart, n.d.-b). My final decision was a difficult choice; it came down to two vendors, BWI or Brodart. One of the reasons I did not choose BWI is because their focus for a long time was on children's and young adult books, having only expanded into adult collections within the more recent years. There experience in adult collection development may not be as extensive. I was also impressed with the diverse collection of products that Brodart offers such as McNaughton, which I used in our last library and it provided a valuable service to patrons waiting for the latest bestsellers. Brodart's extensive access to more than 2 million MARC records is impressive and provides a level of high quality cataloging expertise. ILS 519 Unit 2 Selecting a Vendor 9
The ability to create a collection development plan based on your libraries demographics speaks volumes to Brodart's commitment to meet the specific libraries needs. What better way to start your collection development planning than by capturing your user base first. No other vendor provided that level of individualized collection development. Although no one vendor can really support all the collection needs for one library, for example DVD's, audio books and music, Brodart appears to be a good vendor for books and core collection development. I will be exploring Brodart as a possible new vendor for the Hollis Social Library as a result of this assignment. ILS 519 Unit 2 Selecting a Vendor 10
References Baker, & Taylor. (2011). About Us. Retrieved September 19, 2011, from http://www.bakertaylor.com/index.cfm Brodart. (n.d.-a). Collection Development. Retrieved September 19, 2011, from http://www.books.brodart.com/content3.aspx?p=99 Brodart. (n.d.-b). DartClix. Retrieved September 20, 2011, from http://www.books.brodart.com/content3.aspx?p=98 Brodart. (n.d.-c). Putting our Experience to Work for You. Retrieved September 19, 2011, from http://www.books.brodart.com/ BWI. (2009). Tumble Products. Retrieved September 20, 2011, from http://www.titletales.com/products/tumble.php Ingram. (n.d.). About Us. Retrieved September 19, 2011, from http://www.ingramlibrary.com/public/default.aspx ILS 519 Unit 2 Selecting a Vendor 11