I. INTRODUCTION

The Acquisitions Staff once again met high productivity goals while introducing a number of improvements to our processing, thus providing better service to our users. We introduced the FastTrack Service, which provides very quick turn-around on the receipt of high visibility titles for the Undergraduate Library. We also established a new approval plan for titles from the New York Times Book Review, the Times Literary Supplement and UNC authors. This plan, with YBP Library services, enables us to fast-track these high profile titles through the process from Acquisitions to Circulation. We also implemented a Gifts Donor Database that enables us to provide a variety of reports more quickly than the previous manual system would allow. We analyzed, streamlined and documented a significant number of procedures. We also identified significant service issues with several of our subscription vendors and made substantial progress toward resolving them. The report below highlights only some of these achievements, as the list was too long to be inclusive. We achieved these goals as a result of the staff's high standards and work ethic. I salute them for another year's results of which we can be very proud.

II. ACCOMPLISHMENTS

PRODUCTION

Met our yearly encumbrance and expenditure goals through the hard work and dedication of the staff, additional student hours, and the help of four Temporary Graduate Assistants, a .75 FTE Tar Heel Temp, and assistance from a former searcher now working in Cataloging

Received and processed invoices for ca. $8.5 million for purchases from all sources of funding

Received and processed 147,051 pieces of printed material from all methods of print acquisition: firm orders, approvals, blanket orders, standing orders, gifts, subscriptions, and gifts and exchange

Added access to 536 e-journals on the E-Journals Web Page and 97 e-resources on the EID Web Page

NEW SERVICES

Established the FastTrack Service, which reduced the turn-around on high visibility titles for the Undergraduate Library to only a day or two

• The Undergraduate Librarian selects high-profile titles from the Student Stores.
• The books are "fast-tracked" through Acquisitions, Cataloging, Preservation Services, and Circulation.

Established a new approval plan for titles from the New York Times Book Review and Times Literary Supplement as well as titles by UNC Authors

• Had the titles shipped separately
• Gave them top priority for processing from Acquisitions through Circulation
• Dramatically improved the time at which these titles became available to our users

Developed and fine-tuned a gifts donor database and produced our first Carolina Fund annual report using it

MANAGEMENT

Experienced turnover in seven of twenty SPA positions (35%); covered for vacant positions, recruited and trained six new SPA staff members (one position was vacant at year's end)

Recruited and trained one Tar Heel Temp (.75 FTE), who served as a floater, to assist with heavy workloads, primarily in the Order Section

Incorporated the use of two Carolina Academic Library Associates into the department's work, while providing enrichment opportunities for their pre-professional development

Effectively used three Temporary Research Assistants to meet high production demands in the monographic area during the spring

Collaborated within the department to meet highest departmental goals through the loan, or ongoing use, of staff from other sections as workloads permitted

• Bibliographic Searcher assisted with receipt of standing orders
• Bibliographic Searcher assisted the Gifts Unit with receipt of the NC Textbooks under consideration
• Approval Specialist and Order/Receipt Expediter assisted the Gifts Unit with receipt, unboxing and sorting of a large gift collection
• Bibliographic Searching Specialist searched large batch of problematic standing orders for Serials Acquisitions Section
• Gifts and Exchange Specialist in the Serials Acquisitions Unit prepared the quarterly monographic statistics and served as backup to the payroll person in the Order Section
• Gifts and Exchange Specialist (due to her Slavic language skills) received the firm order materials for Slavic Biblio

OUTREACH

Taught the following course in SILS

• Managing Serials in an Electronic Environment

Presented the following classes for SILS courses

• "Electronic Resources: Licensing and Collection of Online Resources" -- Resource Selection and Evaluation Course (twice)
• "Management of Electronic Resources" -- Managing Serials in an Electronic Environment Course
• "Overview of Acquisitions" -- Resource Selection and Evaluation Course

Presented the following internal information sessions:

• Serials Record Information Sessions for library staff (4 sessions)
• Firm orders for departmental librarians (1 session)
• Overview of monographic acquisitions for Interdepartmental Awareness (1 session)

Conducted orientations for new selectors

• Music Librarian
• SILS Librarian
• Preservation Assistant
• GIS Librarian

STREAMLINING OF PROCEDURES

Reduced the coverage of the annual report and changed it from narrative to a list style to highlight the numerous achievements of the year and to save time in its preparation

Negotiated an agreement with the RBC collection whereby we now rely on their searching, except for items costing more than $250 which are searched by our experienced searching staff

Collaborated with selectors in decision to switch from Library of Congress proof slips to slips provided by YBP Library Services

• Reduced the cost of the forms
• Eliminated duplication of effort in Biblio Central (unnecessary review) and in Acquisitions (unnecessary searching) because YBP Library Services extracts all titles already supplied or profiled for this Library

Consulted with the Head of Cataloging (and various staff within that department) about ways to simplify the routing arrangements for firm orders; made substantial progress in identifying issues and possible solutions

Hired a student assistant to prepare book plates for the firm order gifts, thus relieving full-time staff of the distraction of dealing with this exceptional routine and eliminating a very large backlog

Negotiated an agreement whereby the Catalog Department is now responsible for the searching and cataloging of backlogged gifts; the Gifts Unit still manages the backlogs and provides bookplates

Upon consultation with Larry Alford, now place paperback gifts into the Book Sale rather than searching them as possible additions to the collections

Ceased searching the card catalog for gifts because of the low hit rate, thus speeding up their processing

Stopped reconciling gifts receipts with the lists provided by donors, discontinuing a very labor-intensive process that we do not have staff to continue

Began routing all unbound SAV material to SIBU for them to barcode and add holdings before routing to ordering locations

Changed internal procedures for new titles and cessations so that Serials Cataloging now handles all holdings changes in DRA

Researched holdings required; discovered duplication as a result; reduced number of copies of the North Carolina Session Laws received and distributed

Changed the collection of monographic statistics from monthly to quarterly to save staff time

Transferred remaining NCC gift subscription titles to North Carolina Collection to consolidate two workflows into one

BY METHODS OF ACQUISITION

FIRM ORDERING

Established a blanket order with Hogarth to obtain material from sub-Saharan Africa

Used the p-card to purchase 714 volumes; enabled us to quickly acquire a wide variety of materials including serial issues, rush requests for monographs, coins, etc. from a large number of sources (including online auction houses)

Continued to work on the problems and issues associated with the book plate production process (both for firm orders and gifts-in-kind)

Placed and followed up on complex NC Adopted Textbooks orders for 1999 and 2000

Reviewed, clarified and updated a significant number of internal procedures

• Firm Order Receiving
• LC Blanket Orders
• Claiming and Cancellation

Reviewed and resolved a number of order record problems, thus leading to closure of these records

Cancelled various expensive orders during the budget crisis

APPROVAL PLANS

Established three new small approval plans

• Planning Library with YBP Library Services
• German Belles Lettres with Otto Harrassowitz
• UNC Authors combined with New York Times Book Review, and Times Literary Supplement (to expedite delivery and processing of high profile material) with YBP Library Services

Searched YBP's list of 1,000 core titles and determined that we had acquired almost all of them, a good indicator of the quality of the approval plan profiles and services

Collaborated with YBP Library Services and Lindsay and Howes to cancel outstanding approval plan titles when the budget crisis required this action

GIFTS-IN-KIND

Began receiving a significant new gift from the Editor of the American Political Science Review

• Current titles were handled promptly
• Resulted in the addition of 904 titles worth ca. $37,968 (using average price of $42) to the collections

Reduced gift collection searching backlogs substantially

• Received searching assistance from the Catalog Department
• Sent unbound backlogged gifts to the Friends of the Library Book Sale

Completed the searching and cataloging of a major gift collection from Dr. Alfred and Mary Claire Engstrom

Acquired potential NC State textbooks for adoption from a donor, a less labor intensive process than previous methods, which also provided the ancillary material for the Curriculum Materials Center

Quickly processed the NC State textbooks after adoptions for 2002 were announced

Made substantial progress on revising the Gifts Policy and Procedure guidelines

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Implemented electronic claiming of serial subscriptions with Harrassowitz, the second major serials vendor with whom we have implemented this service

Compiled extensive lists of problems and service issues and presented them to Swets Blackwell; decided to transfer multiple copy subscriptions to other vendors

Transferred all Gordon and Breach titles to the new publisher, Taylor and Francis

Transferred 22 titles from Kamkin (a Slavic subscription vendor who went out of business) to Eastview

Established taxed and untaxed accounts with the three major subscription vendors

• Set up new vendor codes
• Migrated all appropriate order records to these new accounts
• Updated the vendor codes and title numbers in order and check-in records

Designed and populated 70 serials review databases with data from INNOPAC for potential serials review and cancellation project

Completed the paperwork to cancel subscriptions and standing orders that had ceased since 1999

Experimented with use of SICI for wanding serials issues; as a result, determined that this streamlining approach actually requires more steps; also, there is still not a critical mass to warrant yet another workflow

LEASING ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC RESOURCES

Continued to provide access to the following large packages of electronic resources: JSTOR, Project Muse, Springer LINK, Elsevier ScienceDirect, Wiley Interscience, BioOne, Cambridge University Press, Kluwer Online, and Synergy

Continued to provided access to electronic resources through intermediaries such as Catchword, Blackwell Publishing, SilverPlatter/Ovid, ProQuest, and ISI

Now provide access (as of 7/30/02) to 5,281 e-journals and 453 Electronic Indexes and Databases on the web pages

Began process of developing a new Electronic Journals Interface that would incorporate titles from aggregated databases previously not available through the OPAC or EJ Pages

Participated in decision on choosing a provider of e-journal data for online journal finder database

Initiated new partnership as affiliate of NERL (Northeast Research Libraries Consortium) for subscriptions to large foreign language databases

Continued to work with SOLINET, TRLN, and ULAC consortia to leverage buying power for leased resources

GIFTS AND EXCHANGES SUBSCRIPTIONS

Straightened out the exchange orders for Romance Notes and Hispanofila

STANDING ORDERS

Began receiving electronic invoices from YBP Library Services; a time savings for the Accounting Department

Resolved a number of backlogged problems, claimed more non-receipts. and updated more documentation than had been possible in previous years

Compiled extensive lists of problems and service issues and presented them to Swets Blackwell; decided to transfer all standing orders to other vendors

III. NEW INITIATIVES FOR 2002-2003

SERVICE ENHANCEMENTS

Incorporate both e-selection, ordering and maintenance of e-books into the department's workflows, keeping in mind the hybrid nature of the materials (acts somewhat like a monograph and somewhat like a serial)

Train selectors in more effective use of the lists functions in INNOPAC (in both the text-based and the Millennium versions)

Provide more timely communication to selectors regarding acquisitions policies, procedures, deadlines, and staffing situations

• FAQ for Firm Orders
• FAQ for Standing Orders
• FAQ for Approval Plans

Work with ILS and E-Reserve Librarians to incorporate essential licensing information into new e-journals interface

MORE EFFECTIVE USE OF TECHNOLOGY

Learn to use some modules of the Millennium version of INNOPAC effectively and efficiently

Serve on appropriate Campus-Wide ILS Task Groups as requested

Prepare an INNOPAC "Data Dictionary" to use in the migration to a new integrated system

Clean up as much data in INNOPAC as possible in preparation for migration

• Through more consistent anomaly detection
• Through earlier identification and resolution of problem records and fields

Expand use of electronic claiming for serials to Swets Blackwell

Increase the use of the extended approval plan interface for firm orders, beginning with OttoEditions from Otto Harrassowitz

Establish electronic ordering for firm orders with Bennett, our Australian vendor, and Ingram, one of our media resource vendors and other vendors as identified

Review and develop a new system for managing electronic licensing information

Begin reviewing the use of Gobi Editions 2 seriously in the spring of 2003; expected implementation in the summer of 2003

VENDOR RELATIONS (TO IMPROVE SERVICE)

Add cancelled standing order titles to existing approval plans when requested to do so, and when the vendor is able to handle that change in method of acquisition

Complete large number of subscription and standing order transfers (if the titles are not on the cancellations list)

• Problematic standing orders and subscriptions to Harrassowitz
• LAIR orders to a new vendor per understanding negotiated with LAIR Bibliographer
• South Asian orders to a new vendor per recommendation of TRLN South Asian Bibliographer
• Establish subscription accounts with LC New Delhi and LC Pakistan Foreign Offices to handle these titles more efficiently and cost-effectively

Review other subscriptions and standing orders for possible transfer to a more effective vendor?

• List of remaining Swets Blackwell subscriptions for possible consolidation with

• EBSCO or Harrassowitz?
• Porcellino and Touzot?

Establish new approval plans

• Music material with Harrassowitz?
• Humanities and Social Sciences materials with Lindsay and Howes?
• Humanities and Social Sciences materials with Bennett?

Coordinate establishment of new blanket orders and implement associated new procedures

• LC --Pakistan
• LC --Cairo (Middle East)
• LC --Jakarta (South East Asia)
• LC --Islamabad

Evaluate IMS subscription control and consider possible consolidation of all subscriptions with one vendor. Evaluate feasibility and desirability of checking in IMS material centrally.

MANAGEMENT ISSUES

Prepare for and implement whatever serials and standing order cancellations are required by the budget situation

Review workloads throughout department and seek ways to balance them more evenly within and across sections

Design new organizational structure to better address recent changes in ways to acquire monographic materials, time permitting

Revise the use of the Carolina Academic Library Associates to provide a more pre-professional experience; re-balance assignments among full-time staff and student assistants to cover the duties previously performed by the CALAs

DOCUMENTATION OF POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Complete and distribute the following:

• FAQ regarding firm orders
• Firm Order Mail Opening Procedures
• Hyper-linked firm order receiving document
• Gifts Policies and Procedures Memo
• Standing Order FAQ
• Approval Plan FAQ
• Firm Order Returns Procedures
• Firm Order Invoices Procedures
• Electronic Journal and EID Data Entry and Maintenance Procedures

IV. CONCLUSION

In the 2001-2002 Fiscal Year, the Acquisitions Department once again met its service goals. I am very happy to report that we met the challenges through a variety of strategies with support from the Library Administration, extra hard work by the staff, and the adoption of more streamlined processes and greater use of technology. The staff once again displayed their resilience and dedication as we not only met the essential goals but also completed a number of special projects and made a number of operational improvements and decisions.

The various streamlining projects established in the monographic area resulted in improved service to our users; however, they did not result in the saving of staff time originally envisioned. For example, while the GobiSelect process did result in earlier placement and receipt of orders, it just changed the steps and moved some of the work to a higher-level staff member. On the other hand, the Accounting Department benefited from the ability to receive the electronic invoices whereby they can process an invoice as one transaction rather than line by line. Likewise, with the LC Blanket Order, we were able to acquire more South Asian material with less effort on the part of the selectors in Biblio Central, but the process was very cumbersome for Acquisitions and took more time than the previous firm order method.

The Serials staff experimented with using students to perform the check-in function with mixed results. They plan to continue this practice, based upon the preference of the staff member who must supervise the student. The staff made dramatic progress in record maintenance, problem solving, and clean-up projects but there are still many more that need to be addressed as time permits.

We will continue to establish methods of acquisition (e.g., leasing of e-books) that meet the needs of our users, while experimenting with new ways to perform our work. However, we are finding that the more methods designed, the more complex our operation becomes and the more administrative oversight is needed to juggle the work assignments and priorities. Furthermore, we simply need more staff.

Finally, as we begin the new Fiscal Year, we face the usual uncertainty and possibly severe budget crisis regarding the library materials budget for the coming year. Keeping our morale up and continuing to feel pride and satisfaction in continuing the department's standard of excellence will be especially challenging in the coming year. Many staff members are demoralized by the increasing workload and the lack of pay raises to reward additional effort required or to cope with the increased cost of living. It is a difficult time to be a state employee in North Carolina; however, the staff continues to exhibit a high work ethic independent of recognition or reward. We realize that the Library Administration does not have control over many of the areas of concern to the staff, but appreciate the Administration's efforts to prevent layoffs.

These stressors wear on staff who soldier through them year after year. Nonetheless, we have a good spirit of cooperation and a universal desire to achieve the department's goals. Therefore, I am certain that, between that good will and whatever additional resources the administration can provide, we will once again be able to report another successful year no matter what the circumstances might be.

V. THANKS

This Department, like all others in the Academic Affairs Library System, works very closely with many staff in other departments to achieve our goals. I would like to acknowledge the excellent work of the Acquisitions staff as well as that of our colleagues in our success for the year.

I also would like to thank the following staff members for their contributions of ideas, information, and editorial work on this report: Cyndie Cowan, Betty Meehan-Black, Selden Lamoureux, Nick Vincelli, and Chris Wolf. I would also like to thank Dean Clason for his technical support.

APPENDIX A: ACQUISITIONS STAFF ACTIVITIES 2001-2002

PUBLICATIONS

Flowers, Janet L.  "Technical Services Report" Technical Services Quarterly:  18:4 (2001) pages 47-53.

Flowers, Janet L. "Standing orders: considerations for acquisitions method" Library Collections, Acquisitions and Technical Services: 25: (2001) pages 323-328.

Meehan-Black, Elizabeth C. Bibliography update and revision in Finding Solutions: A Handbook on Learning Disabilities, Attention Deficit Disorder and Legal Rights in the North Carolina Public Schools, Chapel Hill, N.C.: Learning Disabilities Association of North Carolina, 2001.

PRESENTATIONS

Cowan, Cyndie. "Orientation to Serial Records" February 12, 2002 and February 15, 2002, Large Lab, Davis Library

Cowan, Cyndie. "Serials Workflow Processes" February 19, 2002 and February 21, 2002. Large Lab, Davis Library

Flowers, Janet L. "Ethics within the Serials Family" North Carolina Serials Conference April 12, 2002

Flowers, Janet L. "The Changing Vendor / Library Landscape" American Library Association / ALCTS / June 13, 2002

Lamoureux, Selden. "Infrastructure Support for Distance Learning" Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Information Technology Grantees: Distance Learning Strategies to Advance Population Research in LDCs

Meehan-Black, Betty; Roach, Julie; Vincelli, Nick; Wolf, Chris. "Overview of Monographic Acquisitions." Interdepartmental Awareness Program

COMMITTEES / TASK FORCES / WORKING GROUPS

Division

FastTrack Task Group - Betty Meehan-Black, Nick Vincelli, Chris Wolf

Task Group on Automation of Technical Services-Betty Meehan-Black, Julie Roach

Library

Academic Affairs Library / UNC Press Working Group--Janet L. Flowers, Selden Lamoureux, Nick Vincelli

Carolina Academic Library Associates Steering Committee - Kelly Wooten

Committee on E-Journal Access Systems - Selden Lamoureux

DRA Acquisitions / Serials Subcommittee - Julie Roach

Electronic Resources Cataloging Working Group -- Dean Clason, Selden Lamoureux

Electronic Resources Selection Committee - Selden Lamoureux

INNOPAC Coordinating Committee-Janet L. Flowers, Dean Clason, Cyndie Cowan, Julie Roach

Publicity Committee - Dara Elmore

SPA Forum - Pat T. Anderson

Search Committee for AUL for CMRS -- Janet L. Flowers

TRLN Electronic Resources Committee (ERC) -- Selden Lamoureux (Chair)

TRLN Science Technology Medicine Committee (STM) -- Selden Lamoureux

UNC ILS Review Functional Subgroup on Acquisitions/Serials/Financial Issues -- Dean Clason, Julie Roach

University

Member / Performance Management Review Board -- Vivian C. Williamson

Member / Working Group on Scholarly Communication -- Janet L. Flowers

Professional

Education Committee / American Library Association / ALCTS / Acquisitions Section - Janet L. Flowers

Learning Disabilities Association of North Carolina / Executive Board -- Elizabeth C. Meehan-Black

Learning Disabilities Association of Orange County Chapter / Executive Board -- Elizabeth C. Meehan-Black

Librarians' Association at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Executive Board -- Elizabeth C. Meehan-Black
• By-Laws Committee -- Elizabeth C Meehan-Black
• Program Committee -- Nick Vincelli

Library Administration and Management Section / North Carolina Library Association Executive Board - Elizabeth C. Meehan-Black

Literacy Committee / North Carolina Library Association -- Elizabeth C. Meehan-Black

Roundtable on the Status of Women in Librarianship / North Carolina Library Association Executive Board -- Elizabeth C. Meehan-Black

OFFICES HELD

Library

Chair / INNOPAC Coordinating Committee -- Janet L. Flowers

Chair / FastTrack Task Group-Elizabeth C. Meehan-Black

Professional

Co-Chair / Acquisitions Librarians / Vendors of Library Materials Discussion Group / American Library Association - Janet L. Flowers

Secretary / Library Administration and Management Section / North Carolina Library Association - Elizabeth C. Meehan-Black

President / Librarians' Association at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - Elizabeth C. Meehan-Black

President / Learning Disabilities Association of Orange County - Elizabeth C. Meehan-Black

Vice-Chair / Literacy Committee of the North Carolina Library Association - Elizabeth C. Meehan-Black

Vice President, President Elect / School of Information and Library Science Alumni Board / University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill / - Selden Lamoureux

CLASSES TAUGHT

"Electronic Resources: Licensing and Collection of Online Resources" INLS 153 Resource Selection and Evaluation / School of Information and Library Science / University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill / Fall Semester 2001 / Guest Lecturer - Selden Lamoureux

"Electronic Resources: Licensing and Collection of Online Resources" INLS 153 Resource Selection and Evaluation / School of Information and Library Science / University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill / Spring Semester 2002 / Guest Lecturer --Selden Lamoureux

"Management of Electronic Resources" INLS 226 Managing Serials in an Electronic Environment - School of Information and Library Science / University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill / Spring Semester 2002 / Guest Lecturer - Janet L. Flowers

"Overview of Acquisitions" - INLS 153 Resource Selection and Evaluation / School of Information and Library Science /University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill / Spring Semester 2002 / Guest Lecturer - Janet L. Flowers

COURSES TAUGHT

Managing Serials in an Electronic Environment, INLS 226, School of Information and Library Science / University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill / Spring 2002 -- Selden Lamoureux

CONSULTING WORK

Acquisitions Administrators' Discussion Group / American Library Association - Janet L. Flowers

Technology Committee / ALCTS AS / American Library Association - Janet L. Flowers