The Department of Acquisitions and Collections Development

The department of collections development, management and inventory represents an important part in the existance of any library, it is "the entrance gate" for all the documents (books, periodicals, standards, manuscripts, maps and other documents) in the library, ensuring a normal development of the publications fund. The three activities follow one another and complete one another, accomplishing a unitary whole which could finally offer, together with the other departments, as much information as possible about the library collections.

The collections development

The development of the collections can be current (it represents the method of maintaining the collections up-to-date) and retrospective (there are purchased publications of great documentary value or the ones which ensure continuity/completion of already existent collections).

It can be accomplished in the following ways:

  • buy directly from publishing houses, distributors, persons, juridical bodies considering the offers (on-line, editorial catalogue, editorial presentations, reviews, press announcements, national and local bibliography, specialized magazines) , presently in Romania there are more than 7,000 publishing houses registered at the National Library
  • collaborate with distributors from abroad and consult their offers
  • participate in book fares
  • by the effect of the Legal Deposit Law (Law no 111/1995) which applies to CUL Iasi as well
  • donations from some juridical bodies and persons
  • national exchange (with university libraries in the country) and international exchange with different partners (different types of libraries from all over the world) interested in the Romanian publications (in Romanian or other foreign languages)
  • transfer from other libraries which, out of various reasons, can offer items which complete certain collections
  • suggestions from the library users, following the link "Suggestions for Acquisitions" from the web page.

The whole process of choosing the library documents refers to a few principles which should be taken into account:

  • the structure of the existent collections (CUL Iasi is an encyclopedic library)
  • the library profile
  • the dynamics of the editorial market
  • the beneficiaries of the library (teachers, students, PhD students, researchers, other beneficiaries)
  • consult the scientific advisors from the faculties by intermediary of the branch head-librarians
  • frequency of the loans for titles and fields
  • support of the publication (print, on-line, optical units)
  • the space dedicated to the repository

The collections inventory

The inventory process which includes receiving, stamping, registering the publications coming into the library has the purpose of conservation, planning, organizing and undertaking the library activities, but also of accomplishing the necessary statistics for the library funds. This stage, in the normal route of any document in a library solves several aspects from different points of view:

  • financial and accounting terms
  • to assign to the document a place in the library (library location) but also in the inventory register – “the mirror of library entries,” which reflects the source, dynamics, size, value and structure of the library collection
  • the fill in the Register of Funds Movement which integrates all library entries and leaves
  • primary record of books in the on-line catalogue using ALEPH, the integrated library system
  • updating information on the status of the document/book

Any suggestion, corroborated with the current possibilities of the library is welcome and of a real help in a future perspective, which could please as many beneficiaries as possible. Following the link "Suggestions for Acquisitions" from the web page proves your understanding of the efforts we make to attend to the numerous and diverse requests for the collections in CUL Iasi.

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