The NELLCO Acquisitions and Collection Development Special Interest Group is made up of law librarians who are responsible for the selection and purchase of library resources. Michelle Pearse, Harvard, and Merle Slyhoff, University of Pennsylvania, are serving as the group's first co-chairs.
The SIG held its annual meeting on April 3, at Fordham Law School. Prior to the meeting Tracy Thompson-Przylucki asked the co-chairs to draft a charter and propose a structure for the group, with the goal being to present the documents to the NELLCO Board for formal adoption. The Board accepted the Charter and structure at its meeting. The Charter can be viewed on the SIG's website at http://www.nellco.org/_data/global/images/Interest%20Grp%20Charter.pdf.
The ACD SIG is investigating options available for collection analysis, including OCLC's WorldCat Collection Analysis (WCCA) and Library Dynamics. The purpose is to determine if there is a way to collaboratively compare member collections. There was a presentation on the use of WCCA by a non-law consortium.
NELLCO trials were discussed, in relation to sharing opinions, concerns, and decisions. Rather than work in a vacuum, not knowing what our colleagues think about the products and services being reviewed, we agreed to create a blog to discuss issues related to NELLCO trials, including library evaluations and decisions.
A discussion as held on how we can better utilize the expertise of NELLCO members - expertise of both the librarians and within our collections - and how we can make the ACD web page more vital to our work. Among the topics discussed for inclusion on the ACD web page were:
- Sharing of collection strengths - send information to Elisabeth Umpleby (elisabeth.umpleby@law.uconn.edu)
- Titles being considered for cancellation to make sure there is a copy available in at least one member library
- Titles cancelled
- Links to member library new acquisitions pages, and unique collection development resources
The SIG also discussed the need to better utilize the listserv that exists specifically for the ACD. The email address for the list is NELLCOACQCD@nellco.org. ACD members are encouraged to post questions and issues to this list to initiate discussion.
This month NELLCO is pleased to announce the launch of a scholarship fund for aspiring law librarians. At the Spring Board of Directors meeting held at Quinnipiac University School of Law in Hamden, CT, the Board agreed that the state of the economy warranted a more thoughtful approach to our expenditures. Rather than spending our marketing budget on giveaways at the Annual Meeting we're going to channel those funds into educational support for students entering the field of law librarianship. When you stop by our table at AALL (see below) you can drop your card (or the coupon in the first issue of the Capital Crier) into our fishbowl and watch the Fund grow. For every card or coupon we receive NELLCO will add $2.00 to the Fund. In addition, we welcome any additonal donations you might wish to make (tax-deductible, of course!) We plan to issue the first awards for the 2010-2011 academic year through a competitive process. Watch this space for details!
