Reading #2

Weir, R. O. (2012).  Acquiring Electronic Resources. In Managing Electronic Resources (pp. 37-51). Chicago: ALA.

Traditionally, the acquisition phase focused primarily on ordering, receiving and paying for proprietary published materials.  In the online environment, however, the responsibilities have expanded.  When ordering electronic materials, librarians encounter more exceptions to the rule and cannot assume that the resource type will dictate work flow.  Instead, other important traits should be considered- such as quantity, purchase type, costs, archival rights, vendor and license terms- that will influence initial and ongoing purchase procedures.  In addition, the librarian is responsible for gathering and distributing information that will determine the access and discovery setup process.  The action items may be performed by the librarian or passed to other colleagues, depending on roles and responsibilities.  Electronic resources are constantly changing and evolving.  As such, this chapter is only an overview of considerations identified at one snapshot of time.   By no means is it intended to be a definitive and exhaustive “encyclopedia” of acquisitions issues, but rather a sampling of possibilities in the online environment.