Hello all and Happy Friday!

 

I would like to ask the collective wisdom of ARLIS if anyone has any experience to share regarding the acquisition of shelf-ready stock in an art library context?

 

At University of Cumbria, all in-print books are purchased shelf-ready from Dawson’s in that they are ready- classified etc and pre-made catalogue records are imported. However, whilst this seems to work satisfactorily for other subject areas, in the library at our arts campus we notice a number of issues:

 

-          Classifications rarely reflect the purpose for which they have been purchased. For instance, a children’s storybook bough for illustration content for our Illustration students will be classified with children’s literature (understandably!). But as we know, creative students discover resources through speculative browsing and so often this books are bypassed as students tend to browse through ‘their section’.

 

-          Imported catalogue records are poor in metadata with scant keywords attached which makes searching through the catalogue much more difficult for students and academic staff

 

Currently, we have a policy forbidding the amendment any records that have been imported or the change of any classmarks as shelf-ready is a service we pay a premium for and management are not keen on relenting. I just wondered if other art libraries had any experience of shelf-ready services at all and if so, how they overcome the kinds of issues we have been facing?

 

Many thanks and best wishes

 

Claire

 

 

Claire Stewart

 

Learning Enhancement Adviser

Academic Engagement, Skills and Retention

 

Library and Student Services

Brampton Road Library

University of Cumbria

Carlisle

CA3 9AY

Tel: 01228 400375 (Internal: 8375)

Email:[log in to unmask]

 

We welcome your feedback about the service we provide - please could you fill in our survey at

https://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/cumbria/academicguidance1415

Thank you!

 

University of Cumbria E-mail Disclaimer
University of Cumbria is a Company Limited by Guarantee, Registered in England & Wales No. 06033238. Registered Office: University of Cumbria, Fusehill Street, Carlisle, CA1 2HH. Telephone 01228 616234.

Confidentiality: This email and its attachments are intended for the above named only and may be confidential. If they have come to you in error you must take no action based on them, nor must you copy or show them to anyone; please reply to this email and highlight the error.

Security Warning: Please note that this email has been created in the knowledge that Internet email is not a 100% secure communications medium. We advise that you understand and observe this lack of security when emailing us.

Viruses: Although we have taken steps to ensure that this email and attachments are free from any virus, we advise that in keeping with good computing practice the recipient should ensure they are actually virus free.

For up to date information on forthcoming workshops and free visits please see the online ARLIS/UK & Ireland Events Calendar 2013 at http://arlis.org.uk/