Hello Nicky

 

Many thanks for your reply. The case of photography books is another classic example! One of the roots of the problem I’m experiencing is that our acquisitions is centralised at a different campus and so I’m not in direct contact with the suppliers. Unfortunately, the acquisitions manager is one of the proponents of the so-called ‘accept the scatter’ policy so I’m collecting as much evidence as I can from other institutions to support my case for a change in a procedure (ie actually allowing me to state the classmark on ordering!).

 

It’s interesting that your suppliers are happy to accommodate additional terms though. That is definitely something I’ll be pursuing as our records are often rather skeletal.

 

Much food for thought – thank you for this!

 

Best Wishes

Claire

 

 

 

 

Hi Claire

 

We have an arrangement with our supplier of shelf ready books to cover the situations that you describe. For example, books of photographs from a particular geographic area will be classified with other books on photography, not books on that geographic area. Generally, this works really well, and we only get a few instances that slip through the net. Is it possible to have this discussion with your supplier?

 

The records we get are full level, so they come with a good sprinkling of subject terms. However, we again have some specific requirements in our catalogue records, such as adding a 655 of Exhibition catalogues when appropriate, and our supplier is happy to accommodate this.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Nicky

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nicky Ransom

Data Quality Librarian | Library & Student Services

University for the Creative Arts, Falkner Road, Farnham, Surrey GU9 7DS

t: 01252 892739  | e: [log in to unmask]

www.ucreative.ac.uk

 

 

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!

 

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