A Publication for the faculty, staff, administrators and friends of California State University, Chico
March. 10, 2005 Volume 35 / Number 5

Brother, Can You Spend a Dime?

My work week now begins on Sunday morning with a steaming mug of coffee, a purring cat on my lap, and a leisurely perusal of the San Francisco Chronicle Book Review and the New York Times Book Review. Tough work, but somebody has to do it. In the past, this was fun but frustrating since I could buy books for myself or friends, but I controlled not one red cent of library funds. If a book seemed essential to our collection I’d have to buy it from my own pocket, and occasionally I did.

Previously, part of our book funds went directly to the academic departments for “firm orders” and part went to the “approval program” that sent weekly book shipments fitting a certain profile. The only discretionary funds librarians had were for reference materials, some interdisciplinary titles, and a few other categories such as faculty publications and audio-visual. Typically, and appropriately, most departments spend most of their limited funds to support faculty research interests, leaving limited library funds to cover interdisciplinary and undergraduate needs. Departments use varying methods to select books for their areas. To find out the book chair and subject librarian for your department see http://www.csuchico.edu/lacq/dept/faculty.htm .

While the departmental allocation process remains the same, automatic approval book shipments have ceased. Librarians now receive weekly e-mail notifications of books that fit the profile, and may select books from these lists, reviews, publisher catalogs, or other recommendations. This results in greater flexibility and power to build a collection which supports undergraduate research and instruction across all disciplines and a higher bang per buck ratio.

Early returns indicate that the new system is working. Circulation of new books has increased. Among the nominees for the 2005 National Book Circle Awards we had already ordered all six nominees for fiction, four of six for poetry, and four of six for criticism. I promptly ordered the remaining books. I also discovered that the library had none of the excellent poetry books published by Beth Spencer’s Cohasset-based Bear Star Press ( www.bearstarpress.com) and remedied that situation. Spencer is a lecturer in the literary editing and publishing program.

Faculty members, please note that there is a fund to purchase new books that you have written. Please contact Julie Clarke (née Rankin) to have these added to the collection.

—Jim Dwyer, Meriam Library Bibliographic Services