Evaluating Approval Slips

Evaluating approval slips

Goal

• To make you comfortable with evaluating approval slips for almost any subject area.
• To help you make selections quickly so that materials will still be available from the vendor.
• To help you make selections promptly so that materials will be made available to our patrons in a timely manner.
• To help you evaluate the slips expediently so that they don't stack up on your desk (not that this ever happens to anyone else!).
• To help you determine ways to share approval slips with faculty in order to receive feedback from them on appropriate selections for the collection.

Background

An approval plan makes library staff aware of newly published materials available for purchase. The materials then can be ordered from the vendor, often at a discounted rate. Materials are often paid for from a deposit account that the library pays into regularly from which the vendor subtracts the cost of the purchase.

The library establishes a profile with an approval vendor, which indicates the type of materials the library would like to receive notification of. The profile indicates which subjects should be covered (subject parameters), as well as which formats, publishers, and other non-subject parameters.

The library's main approval plan provider is YBP-Yankee Book Peddler-based in Contoocook, New Hampshire. The library has also established, or is working to establish, approval plans for music scores, compact discs, and foreign-language materials.

Types of approval plans

With Yankee, the library has two types of plans-a book plan and a slips plan.

With a book plan, books matching the library's pre-established profile are sent automatically for our collections. The plan is defined narrowly so as to acquire only the most relevant titles suitable to our audience and for the best price. Materials arrive pre-processed and cannot be returned unless damaged. (Note: Some book plans allow you to return materials, if they are not pre-processed. Ours does not.)

The library also has a slips plan with Yankee, also known around Musselman as "the yellow slips" (or, if you prefer, "those $@%!* yellow slips!).

Notification slips of new titles are sent based on the pre-established profile. The new titles are listed on approval slips-3" x 5" slips of paper listing bibliographic details about the title-and then the Collection Development Department staff distributes these slips to librarians, based on the Library of Congress classification numbers for the subject areas that the librarians select. Librarians select titles they would like to order and the requests are given to the Acquisitions Department for ordering.

A slips plan is generally much broader than a book plan, as you may want to review the many titles available but may only want to purchase a few. Most of the slips the library receives are yellow in color. (There are some blue slips for Asian Studies materials as well.) Some libraries, however, now favor electronic "slips"-emails listing new titles available, which can be more easily shared with faculty and other staff for review. Gettysburg College currently does not use electronic slips, although some "test" electronic alerts of newly published titles have been initiated.

At Musselman Library, materials requested through slips are not returned unless damaged. Some libraries, however, receive materials "on approval," meaning they can return unwanted materials to the vendor.

The plan itself

Before you get too deep into examining slips and thinking too much about the materials that the library receives as part of its approval plans, you may want to take a look at the plans themselves.

You can view a current copy of the books and slips plan here: S:/Dept. Collection Development/Approvals/519911--GDC approval profile bks-slps.

You may also find other documents in this folder of interest, including

• The Asian Humanities Nonfiction plan (/519951--GDC approval profile Asian Humanities Nonfiction)
• The Book Awards plan (/519912--GDC awards book plan profile)
• The list of publishers that are part of the current approval plan (/All Publishers In Your Approval Plan(s) 8-31-2004)
• The list of publishers that are NOT part of the current plan (/All Publishers Not In Your Approval Plan)

Interpreting a plan can be challenging at times, so definitely ask for assistance from your colleagues, the Director of Collection Development, or the Director of Technical Services.

How to evaluate-things to watch out for

Content

The most important point to consider when evaluating approval slips is the quality of the book on offer. You may be able to determine the quality by some of the tried and true methods-the author, the publisher, and/or a review of the work in a professional or scholarly source. However, the content of the book helps, too. Does the work seem relevant to the Gettysburg College curriculum and/or students, faculty, and staff's interests or information needs?

In lieu of a review, the tables of contents, brief descriptions, subject headings, and call numbers listed on the slip may give you some guidance on the content of and audience for the book. Searching for the title in Global Books in Print or at Amazon.com may also provide you with a synopsis of the work, which may help you make your decision.

Level (audience)

Information from the slips themselves and what it means:

• General Academic (GEN-AC)-Sometimes worth adding, sometimes not. Some "general" titles are too general; some are just right for an undergraduate collection.
• Popular (POP)-Usually too popular and general for our collections.
• Advanced Academic (ADV-AC)-Like general academic titles, sometimes worth adding, sometimes not. Some are too advanced for our audience and collections; some are just right. It's worth considering other factors-cost, notes, subject, reviews, etc., to determine whether to add or not.

Cost

Cost should definitely be considered when evaluating materials on approval. Oftentimes the high cost of a book is a good way to decide to pass on a title of marginal interest to the curriculum and the college's patrons. Prices for books can vary greatly by subject and publisher. (For a guide to average prices on North American academic books by subject, you may wish to refer to one of Yankee Book Peddler's "new title reports," available here: http://www.ybp.com/ybp/DomIndex.html?title_reports.html&1. You may also want to refer to the March and/or April issue of Choice magazine for its annual "College Book Price Information" guide.) A general rule might be to consider anything costing more than $75 per volume as worth a "reflective pause" before purchasing.

Still, materials in the sciences, technology, and art can easily cost more than $100 per volume. So . . . use cost as a guide, but don't let it limit you so much that you don't consider other factors. If a book is good-that is, if it's the right book for the right reader at the right time-then it's worth the price.

Non-U.S.-published works

There's nothing wrong with the university presses or publishing houses in Europe, Australasia, Africa, or the Americas. Certainly consider non-U.S.-published works if the topics are relevant to our students, faculty, and curriculum and the authors are considered authoritative. As with non-U.S.-themed works (see below), the question isn't whether a book published in Canada or Belgium is in and of itself worthy to be added to our collections-it's the content of the book that matters. Think less about geography and nationality; think more about content-but also realize that some works published outside the U.S. have, well, a non-U.S. focus and may not be relevant to our needs.

In addition to content, the book's paper and construction are important. Titles from India, Southeast Asia, and Latin America are often poorly constructed on poor paper. So please keep physical quality in mind as well as you make selections.

Series

On the approval slip, the series of which a book is part is indicated after the word SER, e.g., Shade, Heretical Texts, Routledge Series on the Chinese Economy.

We may want some or most books in a series, but it often depends on the content of the work. In some cases, if we really want every book in that series, we might establish a standing order for the title. In most cases though, we will simply order only that title. Considering other factors (level, cost, subject, etc.) should help determine whether to select the title.

Reference titles

Titles like Notable African American Writers or Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism may indicate that the title is more appropriate for the library's reference collection. You can certainly refer these titles to the Department of Reference and Instruction for consideration and ordering.

Textbooks

If you can identify it as a textbook-that is, a work that is aimed at meeting the classroom needs of courses, faculty, or students-chances are we do not want the work for our collections.

Unfortunately, it's often difficult to determine whether a book is a textbook or not, and lots of types of books serve as texts for courses. Look for tell-tale signs-an accompanying workbook, an instructor's edition, accompanying multimedia materials or a "kit," study questions, and the like. And when you find these signs, put the slip in the "no" pile.

Practitioner materials

Practitioner materials are materials that are used by professionals in the field, e.g., physicians, nurses, librarians, teachers, insurance agents, etc. Purchase these sparingly, if at all. You might consider them similar to textbooks in that they are designed to meet day-to-day needs and may not be appropriate for our undergraduate-focused, liberal arts curriculum.

Revised dissertations

Tough call but generally we probably don't order too many of these, unless the topic is really essential or germane to our collection interests. Generally, these are written at a much higher level than our undergraduate focus. You can consider . . . but you may want to pass. Remember that students (or faculty) can always use Interlibrary Loan services to borrow one of these titles from a more comprehensive collection.

Reprints and "previously published"

Watch out for these. Publishers sometimes reprint the exact same edition. If we already have the title, and it's in perfectly good condition, do we need the extra copy?

Sometimes publishers reprint a book with a new foreword, epilogue, notes, commentary, etc. Does the minimal additional content make it worth purchasing?

Sometimes works are "previously published" in journal issues, e.g., a collection of essays in a special journal issue that are then published as an anthology. Watch out for this as well. If we have the journal, we may not also need the book.

New editions

New editions of books we already have we may actually want. A number of factors might determine whether we buy the new edition-the reputation of the original work, the amount of new material added to this edition, the cost, the author, etc. Reviews can help determine whether to select, but reviews aren't always available.

Be careful, however, not to automatically select a new edition to add to our collections simply because we have the previous edition. Maybe somebody made the wrong choice the first time and selected a textbook, a book with intellectual content far greater than is appropriate for our patrons, or a book with a poor reputation. We may want to pass on this edition-and even withdraw the previous edition(s).

And speaking of withdrawing the previous edition, you may want to do that very thing when you select a new edition of a title. You can write that information on the slip itself-"Withdraw previous ed. JB 07/31/06." This note will then be added to the order record. Then when the book arrives, Technical Services staff will withdraw the older edition from the collection.

But what if you're not sure? What if it might be a good idea to have both the 1^st edition and this edition? Maybe both are so different, each being significant in their own right, that you might want to consider keeping multiple editions-or at least you'd like to examine keeping different editions.

You might rely on reviews of the new edition for a recommendation as to whether to keep both editions or withdraw the previous one. You also might consider having yourself notified when the new edition arrives ("Notify John Barnett when book arrives" or just simply, "Notify JB"), then compare the contents of both works. You could also keep notes of titles you want to check on and periodically do so.

New translations

New translations of major works or books we already have may be worth acquiring. The quality of the translation, the publisher, the cost, the reputation of the original work-all play a part in determining whether to purchase a new translation. Generally, reviews help determine whether we purchase a new translation-but, of course, not every new translation or book gets reviewed.

First novels

It really depends on the review-if you can find one-and the relevance to the collections, overall. There are lots of first novels out there; we don't necessarily want them all. If we do want one on offer, it might go in and be paid for with Browsing Room funds. Chances are the worth of a first novel to our collections will be determined by a well-placed review. Our Browsing Room selector keeps on top of these sorts of things, so you can always refer the item for action.

Personal essays, biographies, autobiographies

It really depends on the review and the relevance to the collections, overall. Will the work be used in an academic setting for student research, education, or enlightenment? Then we might select it for our collections. Be careful of celebrity biographies and autobiographies as well as the 21^st-century phenomenon of telling all about an awful childhood or relationship; with very rare exception, these are not worthy of our collections.

Non-U.S.-themed works

Why not? We have as one of our curricular goals local and global citizenship, so it stands to reason that we would order a healthy amount of non-U.S.-themed works.

But Canada? Australia? New Zealand?

Good point. Not that there's anything wrong with the publishing output of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or any other nation, but it all comes down to relevance to our curriculum and patron interests and information needs. We may not want every first novel by a new Canadian author, especially when we have no Canadian studies or Canadian literature program. However, there are notable authors writing and significant research going on in all corners of the world. Thus, consider the content of the work, not just the nationality or geography.

Referring titles to other selectors

No approval plan is perfect; no subject breakdown is perfect, either. It's perfectly acceptable to refer a small number of slips to other selectors if you think the titles better match their selection areas. Show them the courtesy of indicating who the title is from and what they need to do with it. Example: "Janelle, Biology? Otherwise, toss. John."

If you find that you are giving another selector the majority of your slips for a call number or selection area, then it's probably time to rethink the approval profile for that area. Talk with the Director of Collection Development about what you think needs changing, then hold tight until the necessary changes can be made.

The final word

When all else fails, remember these simple points:

• Our goal is to have the best collection possible for an undergraduate-focused, liberal arts college.
• If a book is good-that is, if it's the right book for the right reader at the right time-then it's worth having in our collection.
• We want the best bang for our buck, spending wisely and receiving high quality, useful materials for the money expended.
• Does the work seem relevant to the Gettysburg College curriculum and/or students, faculty, and staff's interests or information needs? If so, go for it; if not, bid it adieu.
• If the title seems marginal, let it go. Someone can always order it through interlibrary loan.
• We'll never own everything; we're not aiming for a comprehensive collection-just the best one.