The 56 papers in this proceedings are divided into three groups--theme, alternative format, and contributed papers. Myths and realities are explored in the first group as they relate to university, college, community, and junior college libraries, and to private sector information utilities. The conference wrap-up session is included in this…

This packet is designed to guide users through the steps that ultimately lead to the assignment of collection responsibilities for individual member libraries of the North Bay Cooperative Library System, Santa Rosa, California. An initial profile of the member libraries examined the subject distribution of books owned, availability of books owned,…

This Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) kit compiled by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) contains documents pertaining to bibliographic access in ARL libraries. Data collected in a 1975 SPEC user services survey are presented in two tables to illustrate new, eliminated, and planned services in ARL libraries and methods of…

This report describes a study designed to determine whether the collection of computer software by libraries falls into a pattern of library type and whether patron use of computer software falls into a pattern of clientele type. Following a summary of previous research, a discussion of the study methodology describes a survey of 154 randomly…

Describes a practical study to demonstrate trend analysis and several related statistical instruments that can be applied to library research, presents possible topic for full study, and substantiates author's view on future of libraries. An overall analysis of variance is presented and examples of data analysis are appended. (13 references) (EJS)

A survey of 29 medium-sized academic libraries gathered data on collection development methods in foreign literatures including the language and academic background of the bibliographer; bases of selection decisions; acquisition rates for French, German, and Spanish literature as compared to English/American literature; acquisition practices; and…

This collection of documentation from library materials cost studies conducted by members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries in the United States and Canada contains 11 documents divided into the following sections: (1) methodologies and data collection worksheets from the University of California at Berkeley, the…

The following papers were presented at a joint conference of the Mountain Plains Library Association, the North Dakota Library Association, and the South Dakota Library Association in September 1987: (1) "Catalog Backlog Project" (Kay Juricek, Tedine Roos, and Carol White); (2) "How Are We Doing? Using a Materials Availability…

Reviews the 1986 literature on research in the areas of cataloging, subject access, user interface, and administration. The majority of papers selected for inclusion are descriptive studies (surveys using questionnaires or interviews) or case studies of one of more libraries. Thirty-eight references are listed. (MES)

This report describes the multidimensional scaling (MDS) method for interpreting collection overlap based on the number of books held by pairs of libraries in large groups (as many as 100 libraries or more). MDS results for four groups of libraries sampled from the OCLC database are also presented. MDS is described as a class of data-analytic or…

Describes study of periodical use in medium-sized university of technology which examined use of individual periodicals in relation to language of publication; patterns of use for interlibrary lending and for multiple copy journals; methods and costs for acquiring infrequently used periodicals. Thirty-three references and most frequently used…

This study estimates the proportion of academic and public library acquisitions in the United Kingdom for which a UK MARC record is available at the time of cataloging. A beta-binomial model is used to attribute standard errors to each estimate and to compare differences between the two types of libraries. (Author/LRW)

Acquisitions librarians at two different universities studied the performance of four serials vendors by ordering the same titles at the same time. The study shows which vendor performed best in areas of delivery time, discount, fulfillment, and service, and also provides supportive data for management decisions in acquisitions. (Author/EM)

The first of two papers reports the findings of a survey on funding patterns for rare books acquisitions which was distributed to 164 libraries, including all members of the Association of Research Libraries. A second paper discusses the support provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities for special collections. (MES)

This description of the design of an online library acquisition system highlights the use of database management systems in developing information retrieval systems, and software requirements for the hierarchical menu-driven operation. A conceptual view of the database is included. (LRW)