NANC Managers' February 10, 2003 message regarding completion of the collection
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 13:48:46 -0800
From: Tim Jewell <tjewell@u.washington.edu>
Reply-To: nanc@lists.uoregon.edu
To: Northwest netLibrary List <nanc@lists.uoregon.edu>
Subject: nanc: Completion of the Northwest Academic netLibrary Collection
The three managers of the Northwest Academic netLibrary Collection (NANC)
project are pleased to report that we have spent all remaining funds, and now
consider the collection complete. As you can see from the final list of
titles available on the NANC website, we have purchased 3,022 books, of
which 54 were duplicate copies of popular titles, with the final tally of
unique netLibrary books coming to 2,968.
When the project was undertaken, our goal was to select high quality content
in a number of fields, useful, current books on computing-related topics,
reference materials, as well as titles with special relevance for the
Northwest. We believe we have met those goals. Of the total number selected,
1285 were "Choice Outstanding Academic" titles. Another 615 were in the area
of computing, and at least 137 had special relevance for the Northwest.
Although the final list only identifies 212 titles as "general works and
reference," roughly 1,000 of the books were selected for their potential
reference value.
Current NANC members will be pleased to know that they will have continuing
access to the titles selected. However, we will not be adding new members or
additional content or copies to this collection, so consider it closed.
All NANC member libraries were contacted by netLibrary staff this fall to
assess their interest in a second NANC collection, and we understand that
many libraries did indicate such an interest. After considering our
experience in building the collection, the considerable time it took to do
it, and reviewing options with netLibrary staff, we have concluded that we
will not be offering a second collection at this time. Nevertheless, we'd
like to make you aware of two possible options.
First, we understand from netLibrary staff that BCR is currently offering a
new collection that may be of substantial interest to many NANC members, so
we'd like to draw your attention to it. Billed as the BCR Shared Collection
Set II <http://www.bcr.org/~ids/Reference/Netlibrary/NL-Menu.html>, this
collection will emphasize some of the same areas NANC was organized to
pursue, including Computing and Reference -- but will also include Business
and Economics, which is a topic in which many members expressed an interest.
As was true of NANC, the purchase price is based on FTE enrollments, but the
amounts are substantially less. The collection now numbers over a thousand
titles, with the final number to be determined on the basis of how much
money BCR brings in for it. About half of those titles (Choice and Computing
titles, for the most part) are already in the NANC collection. Although you
might consider this to be undesirable duplication, they will also serve as
"added copies" and therefore reduce turnaways. netLibrary staff will soon be
contacting NANC members soon to discuss the BCR II collection, and we think
it worthwhile for you to consider it.
Second, it may be that at some point in the future NANC member libraries
might want to pool their expertise and organize another netLibrary
collection based on a special subject interest. If that were to occur, we
will be happy to do what we can to help those efforts along.
Your NANC Managers,
John Helmer
Tim Jewell
John Popko