Some librarians doubt if the undergraduate student can best be served by university library facilities. Thus many have adopted the concept of separately housed undergraduate libraries tailored to the needs of undergraduates. This paper examines this question and offers an alternative solution. (Author/NH)

An outline of the activities necessary to convert from comprehensiveness of collection to selectivity of collection in university libraries is presented. These are the development of 1) written collection policies; 2) deselection programs; 3) cooperative storage and acquisition programs; and 4) the criteria necessary to evaluate the resulting…

The subject specialist librarian can perform a number of important services: establishing contact with user groups; selection of materials and collection development; instruction in library use; provision of current awareness, reference, and bibliographic services; serving as a library "ombudsman" for users; and bringing user…

Compares the approval-built collection with the collection which is created when traditional select and order procedures are used. The study was limited to 1974 imprints in four subject areas and utilized the services of two major vendors. (Author)

Science libraries buy many unneeded books in the effort to provide all needed books. Since books are the least-used source of information for physicists and other scientists, highly selective, objective criteria need to be developed and applied to book selection so as to limit acquisitions to items really needed. (Author)

No single library can hope to acquire and organize for use more than a fraction of the primary sources of popular culture. Interinstitutional cooperation in identifying and preserving these fragile records of American culture is underway, but many unsolved problems remain for librarians and scholars. (8 references) (Author)

Current disenchantment with the undergraduate library concept is attributed to (1) changes in curriculum and teaching methods, (2) tighter library budgets, and (3) the realization that a separate facility works to deprive the undergraduate of a learning experience that only a large research library can offer. (Author/AWP)

Approval plans challenge library boundaries, require consensus on collection development priorities, cooperation among library departments, and a close partnership with the vendor. Few concrete performance standards exist, and effectiveness is difficult to measure. Vendors will play an active role in the evolution of approval plans, though…

Allocative formulas are preferred alternatives for distributing the book budget among departmental funds. Economic efficiency via cost-effectiveness analysis is suggested as potentially useful for within fund acquisition of library-resource units. (Author)

Traces the growth of higher education in the United States and the related growth of university libraries. (PF)

Centralized book selection on a national basis is offered as a practical alternative to the present system of selection by librarians and faculty members which, it is argued, does not produce the quality of collections needed. (14 references) (NH)

Reports on acquisitions of selected Western European political science materials deemed important for inclusion in at least one North American research library. The percentages of French, Italian, Swedish, Catalan, Icelandic, and Belgian materials not found in RLIN (Research Libraries Information Network) and OCLC are provided. Factors supporting…

A model is presented in which the division of library resources among competing interests is based upon considerations of economic efficiency. It is argued that allocation decisions should depend upon the prospective usage rate of materials, explicit value judgments about how much such use contributes to the university's goals, and costs. (Author)