62 · Survey Results: Survey Questions and Responses
University of Florida and Florida State University work collaboratively on monograph acquisition for religion especially.
We are partners with Florida International University as a Title VI Latin American Studies program.
We participate in Library of Congress Cooperative Acquisitions Programs we are also a depository for Malaysian books,
government documents, and media through a 25-year relationship with the National Library of Malaysia.
We participate in regional consortium: MOLLAS (Midwest Organization of Libraries for Latin American Studies). Slavic
Librarians Summit. GWLA East Asian Studies Special Interest Group.
We participate in the LC Foreign Acquisitions program, the various CRL initiatives, and in groups like the CIC subject
specialists. We also participate in the initiatives coming out of area specific groups—Middle East, East, Asia, etc.
Western regional, California, or University of California system-wide subject bibliographer groups for Africa, Latin
America, Slavic and eastern Europe, Western Europe, Korea, Southeast Asia, Middle East California Digital Library.
22. Please briefly describe up to three challenges your library has experienced in collecting global
resources, and what measures have been taken to overcome those challenges. N=50
Airmail costs are prohibitive. Items go out of print much more quickly. Sometimes difficult to find reliable vendors.
Alignment to changes in academic programs.
Approval plans. Hiring librarians with expert knowledge. Competing priorities.
Balancing funding needs of well-established global programs with those of emerging programs.
Because materials from some areas go out of print quickly, we have made more use of approval plans in recent years.
Budget uncertainties prevent us from engaging in much long-term planning that might allow us to build collections in a
more purposeful manner. We have not found a solution to this problem!
Budget—pursuing grants. Hiring—pursuing new talent this year. Need to document local immigrant communities—
following up contacts.
Budgetary constraints have limited monographic acquisitions in all disciplines. Our only advances in collecting global
resources have been in areas where there are endowments to support collecting and strong faculty interest to
assist with collecting. Global materials also present processing challenges. We get some assistance from faculty in
transliterating title page info, but must frequently outsource the processing, which adds to the cost.
Cataloguing: We have implemented a contract with OCLC Library Technical Services to handle cataloguing of non-
English language materials. Vendors: We have asked faculty who request titles in non-European languages to help
identify sources of acquisition.
Censorship for Chinese materials from mainland China. We are trying to acquire non-censored materials through
personal connections and independent distributors. Limited access to materials from certain regions and countries:
Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, parts of Africa, Central Asia. We work to find small vendors and develop contacts with scholars
to help identify and obtain materials. Buying trips, when feasible, can also be essential. Limited resources for cataloging
global resource materials, especially in more challenging, less-commonly spoken languages. As we increasingly strive to
collect unique material, this challenge will intensify. Lack of available cataloging copy for unique items means we bear
more responsibility for original cataloging. Continually work to prioritize and strategize ways of increasing support for
processing.
University of Florida and Florida State University work collaboratively on monograph acquisition for religion especially.
We are partners with Florida International University as a Title VI Latin American Studies program.
We participate in Library of Congress Cooperative Acquisitions Programs we are also a depository for Malaysian books,
government documents, and media through a 25-year relationship with the National Library of Malaysia.
We participate in regional consortium: MOLLAS (Midwest Organization of Libraries for Latin American Studies). Slavic
Librarians Summit. GWLA East Asian Studies Special Interest Group.
We participate in the LC Foreign Acquisitions program, the various CRL initiatives, and in groups like the CIC subject
specialists. We also participate in the initiatives coming out of area specific groups—Middle East, East, Asia, etc.
Western regional, California, or University of California system-wide subject bibliographer groups for Africa, Latin
America, Slavic and eastern Europe, Western Europe, Korea, Southeast Asia, Middle East California Digital Library.
22. Please briefly describe up to three challenges your library has experienced in collecting global
resources, and what measures have been taken to overcome those challenges. N=50
Airmail costs are prohibitive. Items go out of print much more quickly. Sometimes difficult to find reliable vendors.
Alignment to changes in academic programs.
Approval plans. Hiring librarians with expert knowledge. Competing priorities.
Balancing funding needs of well-established global programs with those of emerging programs.
Because materials from some areas go out of print quickly, we have made more use of approval plans in recent years.
Budget uncertainties prevent us from engaging in much long-term planning that might allow us to build collections in a
more purposeful manner. We have not found a solution to this problem!
Budget—pursuing grants. Hiring—pursuing new talent this year. Need to document local immigrant communities—
following up contacts.
Budgetary constraints have limited monographic acquisitions in all disciplines. Our only advances in collecting global
resources have been in areas where there are endowments to support collecting and strong faculty interest to
assist with collecting. Global materials also present processing challenges. We get some assistance from faculty in
transliterating title page info, but must frequently outsource the processing, which adds to the cost.
Cataloguing: We have implemented a contract with OCLC Library Technical Services to handle cataloguing of non-
English language materials. Vendors: We have asked faculty who request titles in non-European languages to help
identify sources of acquisition.
Censorship for Chinese materials from mainland China. We are trying to acquire non-censored materials through
personal connections and independent distributors. Limited access to materials from certain regions and countries:
Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, parts of Africa, Central Asia. We work to find small vendors and develop contacts with scholars
to help identify and obtain materials. Buying trips, when feasible, can also be essential. Limited resources for cataloging
global resource materials, especially in more challenging, less-commonly spoken languages. As we increasingly strive to
collect unique material, this challenge will intensify. Lack of available cataloging copy for unique items means we bear
more responsibility for original cataloging. Continually work to prioritize and strategize ways of increasing support for
processing.
