Handbook of Electronic and Digital Acquisitions

Citation

Van Kiel, H. (2007), "Handbook of Electronic and Digital Acquisitions", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 41 No. 4, pp. 428-429. https://doi.org/10.1108/00330330710831620

Contrary to one of the previous books I reviewed which was a complete how‐to‐do‐it manual, this handbook deals with different aspects of electronic and digital acquisitions without really pretending to cover all the issues. However, anyone searching for a view or useful advice or templates on certain topics will be pleased with this handbook.

Chapter One is written by Doris Van Kampen and deals with acquisitions and copyright. Although it is written by an American and specifically mentions American copyright law, it gives even a European reader a lot of tips and pitfalls to be taken care of when dealing with copyright issues. The notes all refer to recent literature, which provides you with a lot of extra information.

In the second chapter Linda Neyer focuses on one specific item of copyright, which is copyright and fair use as far as it concerns electronic reserves. The same remark goes that although written from a US point of view, the ideas and points to be looked at are useful on both sides of the ocean.

I would have expected Audrey Powers' chapter on evaluating databases for acquisitions and collection development to be the first chapter of the book, somehow this seems to be the logical starting point when acquiring databases. The author provides us with useful questionnaires for the evaluation of databases, comparison of different databases and different examples on how to get an overview of the results of these questionnaires.

Four authors collaborated on collection development strategies for online aggregated databases. Starting with a small history on CD‐ROM and aggregator databases this chapter also provides the reader with checklists to compare different aggregator databases.

Describing the situation in his own university (Auburn University Montgomery), Rickey D. Best gets all the issues on the selection of electronic resources into the open. He gives the reader an insight into how electronic resources were fitted into the collection profiles, how they were chosen and where budgets were found. By means of a real example, he demonstrates how his library got support from the university to move to bigger databases. Once you have those databases you will have to maximise access and measure user satisfaction, and, last but not least, Best describes the evaluation process of electronic resources at his university.

A rather unexpected chapter from Robert Slater and Denise Johnson is the one about choosing virtual reference software. It is a rather technical chapter, which is a bit out of tune with the others in the book. The university library where I work is more concerned at the moment with implementing Library 2.0 and Web 2.0 than any virtual reference software. It is a short overview of benefits of virtual reference software for anyone who has to deal with buying these kinds of packages and explains the advantages of implementing such a system.

In the final chapter Sha Li Zang and John H. Williams give readers a short overview of electronic data interchange and vendors: enhancement of acquisitions services. Two angles are looked at: the download of bibliographic records, and electronic data interchange. In their short chapter they give an overview of what theoretically should happen when exchanging bibliographic records or financial data. They do not really touch on the problems that do occur with this interchange of data, which I think is a pity.

To conclude, I think this is an interesting book for people searching on a specific topic on electronic and digital acquisitions. The book gives current information and refers to recent literature both in print and on the web. The questionnaires, exhibits and tables will be very useful for readers.