History of pioneer: Utah's online library

PresentationText of a speech given by the author on October 4, 2001, at the Nevada Library Association Annual Convention

Scraping by on $7 million a year

ManuscriptWhenever we talk about electronic resources, the phrase that comes up is: "We have no money." I am tired of hearing myself say, "We don't have the money." Is this true

Libraries investing in the future first - some practical suggestions

ReportThis essay offers some practical suggestions for implementing transformative strategies for libraries, with a focus on using the materials budget as an investment fund

Saving yourself into the poor house

Journal ArticleSense and Sensibility column: "Saving yourself into the poor house...Perhaps it might be a good thing, especially when thinking about life four or five years down the road, to look more closely at these tempting small "incremental expenditures" for "Big Deals." "Saving yourself into the poorhouse" is what my mother--or perhaps it was my grandmother--used to call it. Just spend a bit more to get lots and lots of good stuff

SNARB - coming soon to a library near you

Journal ArticleAuthor's note: I wanted to write something provocative and a bit funny, thinking about the shrinking differences between libraries and bookstores; and about what happens for good and ill as we are able to search across greater and greater aggregations from disparate parts of our lives. This is how it came out

Acquisitions preconference 3: the summary

Journal ArticleThe Acquisitions for the Eighties Preconference, sponsored by the Association of American Publishers and R.T.S.D., was intended to bring together publishers, wholesalers and acquisitions librarians to explore the issues that will affect acquisitions in the coming decade and to consider ways in which the three groups might, both individually and collectively, respond in meeting the changes that may be expected

Collection development: in response to issues raised at the Janus Conference, Cornell, October 2005

Journal ArticleI left the library the other evening to dig my car out of the snow and join the line headed into the mist. It's the darkest time of the year. Do they know where they're going? Do I want to go there too? A first real snow is a wonderful sort of thing. It is cold and I don't like cold. But it is also exciting and extremely beautiful. Landmarks are obscured--there's a basic plan--you can tell that. Roads head off in a direction you think you'll probably be happy with. But it's difficult to see where you're going and you can't see any street signs. That is how I've felt about Collection Development lately. Is the basic plan still there? I think we don't know. And we should just admit we don't know.We're moving along, sticking largely to the rules we're familiar with--and trying to guess what we will find under all that snow once it melts

Something old, something new: the evolution of the out-of-print book business:

Journal ArticleThis well-thought-out panel produced an outstanding afternoon, despite its being after lunch in a warm, filled-to-capacity room (producing some lapses in reporting coverage and a plea to ALA for a bigger room next time). Discussion focused on the ways in which automated applications have transformed the out-of-print market and the players in it and what the implications of this might be for the future of the out-of-print book business

Missing issues: a response

Journal ArticleI am inclined to retitle this article "Missing Issues: One Technique for Doubling Staff, Postage, and Xeroxing Expenses While Needlessly Alienating Vendors." I cannot, of course, be sure it would double expenses as the author does not supply figures, but we utilize the spare moments of one part-time student to fill in a very simple two-part form (without certified mail, return receipts, or Xeroxed copies of previous correspondence) to order our missing issues

Getting it right - the evolution of reference collections

ManuscriptSUMMARY. Reference works were present in the earliest libraries; and their numbers have grown inexorably ever since. They consume an increasing share of library acquisitions budgets. This article traces the evolution of reference collections, drawing on experiences at the author's library. The author concludes that while reference questions will always be with us; it is perhaps less certain that they will always be answered from "reference works" in collections labeled "reference.