The Art of Acquistion

Gavin, J. (2015, July/August). The Art of Acquisition. Library of Congress Magazine, 4(4), 10-14. doi:10.1037/e525992015-001

I recently read an article by Jennifer Gavin called The Art of Acquisition and I thought it might be useful since we are discussing the acquisition's process. In the article, the author accounts the process books takes to become a part of the collection at the Library of Congress. I was fascinated to know about a system capable of processing 15,000 books per workday! Every time I visit the Library of Congress, the breadth of its collection impresses me. I was very interested in knowing more about how these items come to the library and their process for adding them to the collection. Gavin (2015) begins the article with an explanation of the various ways in which materials come to the Library of Congress's collection including purchases, auctions, donations, gifts, and through exchanges with other libraries. The library of congress houses the copyright office as well and a copy of every book copyrighted in the United States is added to their collection. Gavin (2015) also informs us know that the Library of Congress has a collection policy committee that meets to select materials recommended by the 200 recommending offices as well as updating their collection policy.

How does this material get from acquisition to the shelves? Gavin (2015) states that only 12,000 of the 15,000 items acquired daily are selected for addition to the collection. Then the article discusses how these materials are then sent to the cataloging department in three different buildings across D.C, and several sites in Maryland. Books that are not selected into the collection are offered to other libraries or nonprofit groups (Gavin, 2015). The article demonstrates the path books takes from arrival in the mailroom to the shelves. The article points out that all packages are inspected offsite in Maryland prior to their arrival in Capital Hill. According to the article, they are then sorted by country of origin in the mailroom and sent to an acquisition specialist for verification and for inspection of their condition. Next the Gavin (2015) explains, “The specialist evaluates each book to determine its cataloging priority—a crucial decision that determines how full a bibliographic description will eventually be created for the book.". This title is then checked by an acquisition technician to ensure it is not duplicated in the collection and creates a bibliographic record for a book in the collection. Payment is then approved by the section head and then is brought to have security tags inserted. The book is stamped and then delivered to cataloging where a senior cataloging specialist completes the bibliographic controls. According to Gavin (2015), "She also analyzes the content of the book in order to assign subject terms, using the standardized, controlled vocabulary in the Library of Congress Subject Headings". After assigning a Library of Congress call number to the book it sent off for hardcover binding and then to the shelves (Gavin, 2015). The collection of the Library of Congress is so large and varied. I wondered what the process was for adding, sorting, and cataloging such a large collection. This was a fascinating window into a very complex process of acquisition in the United States’ largest library.

Link the article:
http://www.loc.gov/lcm/pdf/LCM_2015_0708.pdf

Additional reading
If you'd like to find out more about the library of Congress's Collection development and policy:
http://www.loc.gov/acq/devpol/