[Missouri-l] Fw: Collection Development Advisory Group

[cory McMahon]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Smith, Richard 
To: WOLFNER_LIBRARY at LISTSERV.SOS.MO.GOV 
Sent: Friday, September 18, 2009 8:17 AM
Subject: Collection Development Advisory Group


Wolfner Library patron,

 

Below are the recommendations made by the Collection Development Advisory Group at a meeting held at NLS in Washington, D.C., May 20 22, 2009. Each recommendation is followed by a response developed by the Collection Development Section in collaboration with other responsible NLS staff members. Fran Benham is a Wolfner Library patron and a member of the Collection Development Advisory Group. 

 

Recommendations and Responses

Collection Development Advisory Group

                                                                              

Recommendations

 

The committee recommends that, during the transition from analog to digital, books in complete series be made available in digital format as quickly as possible. When analog masters are no longer available, series titles should be prioritized for rerecording to complete each series. Any partial series that exist now should also be prioritized for completion.

 

Response: We are tackling series as quickly and efficiently as we can. There are numerous obstacles, including missing and deteriorated analog masters, fluctuations in the availability and capacities of contractors, and unpredictable bottlenecks in an evolving production and distribution workflow. Our first priority is to make significant and popular new releases available as quickly as possible. It is important to remember that "missing" titles in series in digital format (on the BARD web site) are more often than not readily available on cassette. Because each rerecord displaces another book, we are wary of commitments to series whose popularity has worn thin.

 



The committee recommends that NLS send an update to current and incoming members by January 15, 2010, regarding the status of Collection Development Advisory Group recommendations.

 

Response: We will do this. 

 

The committee recommends that all available advisory committee preferred contact information and term length be posted on the NLS web site.

 

Response: We will post contact information for the 2010 group when it is complete. This information, however, may be most usefully promulgated by means of regional library web sites and newsletters. 

 

The committee recommends that NLS determine a means to ease the challenge of handling braille volumes, such as reducing the number of pages per volume or improving the binding.

 

Response: Last year (2008), in response to a similar recommendation, we replied: "This recommendation will remain under consideration until NLS can determine the impact of decreased volume size on the number of titles that can be produced annually at the smaller volume size. (Increased binding costs would result in a reduced number of total braille pages per year; the significance of the trade-off must be analyzed and evaluated.)"

 

In June, 2008, John Bryant, head, Production Control Section, wrote the following memo:

 

At your request, I ran a more detailed analysis of the 2007 braille books rather than just using averages. Attached is a spreadsheet summarizing that information. [The spreadsheet is not included here.] The result, unfortunately, is even worse that our original estimate.

 

The numbers you need in addition to the spreadsheet are these:

Average cost of a binding: $9.87

Average cost per title in 2007: $5,273.

 

As you can see [from the attachment referenced above], if we had changed the maximum pages to 175 per volume in 2007, we would have added 16,802 bindings, for a total added cost of 

            16,802 x $9.87 = $165,835.74, which is equivalent to:

            $165,835.74/$5,273 = 31.5 titles.

 

The high cost occurs because each added volume is then multiplied times the number of copies (40-60 on the list) at almost $10 each, and this adds up.

 

NLS has provisionally decided that the trade-off required to comply with this request-reducing the number of braille titles produced annually-is an unsatisfactory solution. We will continue to evaluate possibilities for improvements or cost reductions in braille bindings.

 



The committee recommends that NLS increase communication and collaboration with other national and international audio services and local network libraries and recording studios to increase the number of titles available. 

 

Response: We are always alert to possibilities along these lines. So far, our success with the use of commercial audio has been indifferent. Much commercial audio is not recorded to technical or aesthetic NLS specifications. Reproduction of audio material is not governed by the Chafee Amendment, and performance copyright arrangements are often refused by commercial audiobook publishers, who may perceive NLS use of their work as an infringement of market potential. But digital file sharing is a moving target, and we should all be watchful as new opportunities develop.

 

Realizing that NLS does not make contracts, the committee recommends that NLS express to the Library of Congress that it take specific action to ensure that the contracts are written to assure compliance with collection-development production schedules. 

 

Response: NLS and the Office of Contracts and Grants Management (OCGM) are working closely to try to resolve any problems or miscommunications that may have arisen in the past. A new set of protocols governing communications between NLS and OCGM shows signs of great promise.

 

The committee recommends that NLS proactively communicate with network libraries using avenues such as TIES, operations alerts, and network bulletins to address patron concerns regarding access to materials and potential library service issues. 

 

Response: This is precisely what TIES, operations alerts, and network bulletins are for. NLS furthermore communicates through News, Update, and Flash; biweekly telephone conference calls; direct telephone and e-mail exchanges; and the "In Brief" segments of Talking Book Topics and Braille Book Review. Recently, a large volume of informational and training material was posted to the internal network library web site, and a substantial amount of information is readily available to patrons, librarians, and the general public through www.loc.gov/nls. In a work environment already overloaded with redundant communications, it is difficult to know what more we can do to keep our constituencies in the loop. 

 

The committee recommends that NLS review standards to ensure that braille book durability is at the forefront, due to frequent failings of braille bindings within the first several years of use, and that warranties are extended beyond the current two-year period.

 

Response: This is the first we have heard of  "frequent failings of braille bindings within the first several years of use." The NLS Quality Assurance Section has also verified that it has not been receiving complaints from the field of braille binding failings. (Some years ago, a defective batch of braille bindings was introduced into the system, and NLS replaced these bindings with special repair contracts over a period of five years. We have not heard of any similar situations since.)  Please provide more detailed information to the NLS Quality Assurance Section so we can investigate.



 

The committee recommends that Collection Development staff indicate how the Collection Development Advisory Group, network libraries, and patrons can best communicate feedback and requests. This information can be relayed through publications such as "In Brief" in Talking Book Topics and Braille Book Review, and through the branded BARD web sites.

 

Response: It is NLS policy that patron requests be submitted to the patron's cooperating network library. The Collection Development Advisory Group and network library personnel are supplied with abundant contact information for the provision of feedback to appropriate NLS staff in other matters. Contact information for members of the Collection Development Advisory Group is printed annually in the "In Brief" sections of  Talking Book Topics and Braille Book Review.

 

The committee recommends that NLS increase the language-learning selection, prioritizing introductory French and Spanish, and also German, Italian, and Arabic titles.

 

Response: NLS does not ordinarily provide educational materials as such. Kindred agencies, especially Reading for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFB&D: www.rfbd.org; member services telephone 1-800-221-4792), are constituted explicitly for this purpose. Spanish for Dummies and other titles in this popular series are chosen according to the precepts delineated in the NLS "Collection Development Policy" and in the Network Library Manual.

 

The committee recommends that NLS incorporates into its collection new titles in languages in addition to Spanish (e.g., Russian). We also recommend that NLS produce and provide an updated list of recently acquired foreign-language titles.

 

Response: We are pleased to announce the arrival in the Collection Development Section of a full-time foreign-language librarian who will take the foreign-language collections in hand and increase the frequency and depth of information available about them. Among this new staff member's first tasks is the assessment and prioritization of needs for foreign-language materials throughout the network. An updated catalog of books in Spanish is also high on his to-do list. 

 

Based on patron feedback to committee members, the committee recommends that NLS explore increasing the production of recorded and braille books in the following areas: literary fiction, modern poetry, Christian fiction and nonfiction, books about individual states, African American fiction, leftist politics, cookbooks, technical books, current science, and humor, including cartoons and comic books.

 

Response: Except for cartoons and comic books, all of these subject areas are on the Collection Development Section's radar and are sampled annually in recommended proportions. The representation of cartoons, comic books, graphic novels, and other heavily illustration-dependent works is often prohibitively expensive to produce in accessible formats. Additionally, such works frequently suffer a depletion of intelligibility and entertainment value in the transition to nonvisual media. 



The committee recommends that Collection Development, Production Control, and Research and Development increase integration of tactile graphic production, particularly in the subject areas of geography, architecture, art, counting, and appropriate children's books. 

 

Response: See number 12. We are alert to patrons' desire for intensified production of works that make good use of tactile graphics, but costs restrict our capacity. Technologies are improving, and we will continually attempt to comply with this recommendation. 

 

The committee understands that NLS prioritizes production of juvenile books appearing on ALA Notable Books lists (Newbery [and Honor], Schneider, Coretta Scott King, Michael Printz), bestseller lists, publishers' best lists, and state award lists, and recommends that NLS resolve the failure to produce these books as priority.

 

Response: We will prioritize these books to the extent possible as costs permit. The committee should understand that books formally identified as "priority" entail an increase over standard production costs. The trade-off for "priority" status is a smaller number of books.

 

Books that are perennial student report topics (such as animals, dinosaurs, geography, nature, etc.) should continue to be emphasized as well, with an emphasis on increasing the number of braille titles.

 

Response: Although our primary obligation is the production of materials in alternative formats for the recreational and informational needs of adult readers, we will continue to be mindful of this recommendation.

 

The committee recommends increasing the diversity of braille books. Specific titles are forthcoming from Collection Development Advisory Group members to Collection Development staff that may reveal reading interest trends.

 

Response: We will attempt to be responsive to any changing reading trends that are noted. 

 

The committee recommends that NLS obtain circulation statistics from multistate centers that will support collection development.

 

Response: The NLS multistate centers regularly report circulation data to the Network Division. Information related to book selection is promptly shared with the Collection Development Section. Annual multistate center statistics are published in Library Resources for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, prepared by the NLS Reference Section.

 

The committee recommends that NLS seek input from network librarians regarding the subject selections before the interim application form is finalized for printing.

 



Response: The interim and, in fact, the revised final application form had gone to press before this recommendation was made. In any event, the refinement of reader subject preferences is largely a process that occurs over time, through trial and error and consultation between patrons and their local librarians and reader advisors. The subject interests indicated by new applicants to the program are not intended to provide a full reader-interest profile, but only a rough draft-a framework on which to base further development. 

 

The committee recommends that Braille Book Review be made available at the beginning of the publication month, and separate high school books from adult listings.

 

Response: Braille Book Review is published according to a production schedule that allows staff to gather the appropriate information and prepare it for dissemination by the first week of the second month in the period. Changing this schedule could impact the integrity of the publication. Books for senior high school students are suitable for adult reading and, therefore, listed in the adult section.

Commendations

 

The committee commends NLS for an enjoyable Cinco de Mayo rooftop cookout.

 

Response: CDS thanks Alice Baker, Chris Cephas, Bob Mainhart, Michelle Spezzacatena, and all the others who brought food and worked to make the rooftop picnic a success-and for including the members of the Collection Development Advisory Group.

 

The committee heartily congratulates NLS for its successful BARD launch and the prelaunch of the digital program.

 

Response: Thank you. We share your enthusiasm for these exciting developments. 

 

The committee commends NLS Collection Development staff for their openness and help with the Collection Development Advisory Group meeting, as well as being receptive to suggestions from network libraries and patrons throughout the year.

 

Response: Thank you. Even though we are unable to accommodate everyone's wishes, we do listen and try to implement what we learn. 

 

The committee commends the director and entire staff of NLS for their efforts in providing information, making arrangements, and for their hospitality during the meeting of the 2009 Collection Development Advisory Group.

 

Response: Thank you. We are glad you could be here.

 

The committee welcomes Jill Garcia to the Collection Development Section.

 

Response: We are fortunate to have acquired such a conscientious, astute, and personable new member of our section. 

 

The committee commends NLS in selecting omnibus titles and would like them to continue to do so in order to enhance title diversity.



 

Response: We will do this whenever possible. 

 

The committee commends NLS on its increased uncontracted braille selection and hopes to see the production continue.

 

Response: We will continue to watch for appropriate selections for uncontracted braille production.

 

The committee commends NLS on its production of introductory languages books such as Spanish for Dummies.

 

Response: We will continue to watch for appropriate selections along these lines; but see Recommendation No. 10, above.

 

The committee thanks our chair, Randy Pierce, as facilitator, and recording secretary, Rachel Gould, for organizing and recording Collection Development Advisory Group procedures and notes.

 

Response: We too are grateful to Randy, Rachel, and the other members of the committee for their valuable service.

 

 

Yours,

 

Richard J. Smith, Director

Wolfner Library

Missouri State Library 
P.O. Box 387 
Jefferson City, MO  65102 

Phone:  573-522-2767

In Missouri: 800-392-2614
Fax:  573-526-2985 

Email: richard.smith at sos.mo.gov

Web Site: http://www.sos.mo.gov/wolfner/

 

Not sure what to read next? Find a good digital book at: http://www.sos.mo.gov/wolfner/readings.asp

 

 
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