Acquisitions in the New Information Universe, by Jesse Holden

Jesse Holden, Acquisitions in the New Information Universe: Core Competencies and Ethical Practices. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2010. 135 pages. ISBN 9781555706968.

I read Acquisitions in the New Information Universe in my quest to understand acquisitions activities better than I do. While the book wasn't exactly what I had expected, I still found it to be an interesting discussion of how acquisitions practices have changed now that much of the information we're purchasing or licensing is electronic. Author Holden makes it clear in the first chapter that we need to make a paradigm shift in acquisitions. No longer can we be content with knowing where to buy something, but we also need to be aware of the many ways to provide access to specific information. This change in responsibilities is increasing the competency level expected of acquisitions staff.

Chapter 2 includes useful discussions about services that vendors provide, vendor relationships, and selecting a vendor. Chapter 3 provides information about the many formats in which information is available, and provides some background on traditional and emerging acquisitions workflows. In Chapter 4, Holden discusses the services that acquisitions units provide, and encourages the systematic collection and analysis of feedback to continually improve those services. In Chapter 5, the author encourages us to "radicalize" acquisitions. By this he means that we must "move definitively away from models that are based on the fixed linearity of process or standardization of information objects." (p. 108). He stresses that we must base our practices on service needs, use vendors and technological solutions when possible, and explore collaborative efforts to "leverage resources and streamline workflow." (p. 109).

I found this book to be an interesting and stimulating discussion on the state of acquisitions today. I think it would be most appropriate for someone who is already familiar with acquisitions processes. Students or others who want to learn about basic acquisitions processes and best practices might find Liz Chapman's Managing Acquisitions in Library and Information Services to be a better introduction. Nevertheless, this is a valuable contribution to the literature.

Managing Acquisitions in Library and Information Services, by Liz Chapman

Liz Chapman, Managing Acquisitions in Library and Information Services. Revised edition. London: Facet Publishing, 2004. 150 pages. ISBN 1856044963.

As a fairly new division head, overseeing not only cataloging and catalog management, but also acquisitions and the systems department, I'm trying to learn more about the areas that I'm less familiar with. To that end, I've identified two books on managing acquisitions that we had in our library, including this one. I know it's a bit dated, but I wanted to read both, and I decided to read them in chronological order, so that I could see what has changed in that area.

Chapman's book is a good general overview of the acquisitions process. It's organized into ten chapters. After an introduction, there are chapters devoted to pre-order searching, the publishing environment, and ordering non-book formats. Chapman also discusses working with suppliers, the actual ordering process, and ordering items that are out of the mainstream, like standing orders, blanket orders, electronic resources, out of print and used materials, etc. She devotes a chapter to the receiving process, and then discusses issues related to finances, such as managing invoices and payments.

Much of the information is still current, but there have also been many changes since this book was published in 2004. I consider this book a useful resource if it's in your collection already, but I would seek out a more recent book on this topic if I were purchasing something. I plan to read Acquisitions in the New Information Universe: Core Competencies and Ethical Practices by Jess Holden next, and will be able to compare and contrast the two books.

Say it with Data, by Priscille Dando

Priscille Dando, Say it with Data: A Concise Guide to Making Your Case and Getting Results. Chicago: ALA Editions, 2014. 132 pages. ISBN 9780838911945.

This is an excellent introduction to gathering and using statistics and other information to support your library's efforts, whether they are to garner more financial support or are in support of other initiatives. Although not obvious from the title, this book is aimed primarily at school and public librarians. All of the examples that Dando uses to illustrate her points are from school or public libraries. That being said, however, the principles that she describes for gathering, using, and presenting statistics would be applicable in any sort of library.

Say it with Data has six chapters. Topics include: determining need, message, and audience; effective communication; working with statistics; survey techniques; focus group methodology; and how to best present the data that you gather. There are also a number of appendices with checklists for surveys or focus groups, and examples of surveys for specific audiences, such as public library patrons, students, or teachers. The book is well-written and includes both a bibliography and an index.

Even though the book is geared towards public and school libraries, it would also be useful for department heads in larger libraries. I could envision its use in cataloging, acquisitions, systems or other operational departments as they perform assessment and look for ways to effectively present the results. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in assessment and looking for ways to present the results in a meaningful way to their stakeholders, whether they are library administration or others.

The Art of the Data Center, by Douglas Alger

The Art of the Data Center: A Look Inside the World’s Most Innovative and Compelling Computing Environments. By Douglas Alger. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc., 2013. 360 pages. ISBN 9781587142963.

I’m marginally involved in the University Libraries’ migration to a new data center at the University at Albany, SUNY, so I was very interested in reading this book on state-of-the-art data centers. Author Douglas Alger interviewed key managers and leaders at eighteen data centers in the United States, Canada, and Europe to learn about how their data centers were developed and managed.

Alger spotlights these eighteen data centers with photographs, essential details, a few background paragraphs, and interview questions and answers. The photographs highlight the architectural details, as well as the layouts of the data centers. They also show some of the equipment that supports the data centers, such as generators and environmental control equipment. Essential details include the name of the organization, location, when it went online, notable features, time to design and build, size, power, tier (if applicable), cabinet locations, power density, infrastructure delivery, structural loading, and fire suppression system.

The bulk of the book consists of the interviews with key personnel. Alger asks questions that get at important design elements and how decisions were made. He addresses green efforts, cooling techniques, energy sources, the use of virtualization, challenges, and what developers would do differently. Many of the data centers that he showcases are LEED certified. Some of the buildings were retrofitted and others were built to specification. One data center is housed in a former church; another is inside a former particle accelerator. Some of the data centers are fairly small, and others are quite large. Power sources range from natural gas to wind to solar. Some are single tenant data center, and others are multi-tenant. I was impressed with the variety of approaches to all of the key design features. Many decisions are made based on geography: whether the data center is being built in a hot or cold climate, in a disaster-prone area, and what kinds of power sources are most economical.

The weakest part of the book, for me, was the interview structure. I found it difficult reading many pages of interviews. It struck me that short quotes from interview subjects are not difficult to read, but long unedited quotes are annoying. Interview subjects repeat themselves and sometimes their sentences don’t make any sense. A statement that one might overlook in a conversation makes no sense when it’s written down. Sometimes I wasn’t sure what they were trying to say. It would have been much better if someone had heavily edited their responses, or simply asked them to respond to the questions in writing in the first place. That would still probably have needed editing, but not necessarily as much.

The data centers that Alger spotlights in this book are:

·         ACT
·         Affordable Internet Services Online
·         Bahnhof
·         Barcelona Supercomputing Center
·         Calcul Québec
·         Cisco
·         Citi
·         Digital Realty Trust
·         eBay
·         Facebook
·         Green House Data
·         IBM
·         Intel
·         IO
·         NetApp
·         Syracuse University
·         Terremark
·         Yahoo!