Judging Books by Their Covers: Managing the Tensions Between Paperback and Clothbound Purchases in Academic Libraries
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Judging Books by Their Covers: Managing the Tensions between Paperback and Clothbound Purchases in Academic Libraries Alan W. Aldrich Book purchases are a significant portion of an academic library’s budget. Selecting paperback rather than hardback editions can stretch collection development dollars. This study examines the collection development statements of forty-six academic libraries regarding the selection of pa- perback editions. Some libraries provide vague guidance, while others identify specific price differentials between the costs of paperback and hardback editions as a decision criterion. A new method of using price difference ratios is proposed and tested using four academic disciplines. The results suggest that libraries using such ratios can achieve greater control over costs while meeting collection development goals. cademic libraries in the United needs of their patrons. An examination of States spent over $112 mil- collection development statements with lion dollars to acquire books aention to paperback selection processes in 2006. This represents 15 can provide insights as to how and under percent of the overall acquisition budget what conditions academic libraries select for these libraries.1 While periodical costs paperback over clothbound editions. The comprise almost 33 percent of academic analysis presented here examines the library acquisition budgets, book expen- content of collection development state- ditures remain a considerable expense that ments from academic libraries to identify requires careful monitoring and control if and articulate the underlying reasons for libraries are to maintain their collections. their book purchase decisions. An alterna- As is the case with periodicals, the cost of tive to current practices as represented in academic books is rapidly escalating. These these statements is offered and a metric costs increased 6.4 percent in 2005 alone.2 for making paperback purchasing deci- Some academic libraries are purchas- sions is presented. ing monographs in paperback format as a means of managing the tension between Why Choose Paper Over Cloth? escalating costs and the need to develop Price is an obvious reason why an aca- and maintain collections that serve the demic library might consider paperbacks Alan W. Aldrich is an Assistant Professor in the I.D. Weeks Library at University of South Dakota; e-mail: [email protected]. The author would like to thank Carol Leibiger for her thoughtful comments and insights on multiple dras of this paper and two anonymous referees for their work in shaping the end result. 57 58 College & Research Libraries January 2009 over clothbound editions.3 In 2006 the leged window into organizational think- average price for clothbound texts in the ing and intent.11 Collection development sciences, social sciences, and humanities statements articulate the goals and was $62.154 compared to $37.01 for pa- purposes of the library in building and perback editions,5 excluding mass-market sustaining a collection.12 Collection de- books. Additional reasons for considering velopment statements from academic paperbacks include the improved quality libraries of different sizes were gathered of paperback editions, the ability to add and analyzed to identify why and under supplemental bindings to paperback what conditions paperback editions are editions (especially when heavy use is ex- purchased for academic library collec- pected), and the fact that the physical life tions. span of paperback editions oen exceeds These collection development state- the intellectual life span of their content. ments were acquired through a Web- The quality of paperback editions has based search. Google’s advanced search greatly improved over the years through function was used to identify the phrase using acid-free paper, stronger and high- collection development along with either er-quality bindings, and the higher quality one of the terms paperback or paperbacks. presses that are now producing paperback The search results were restricted to the editions alongside hardcover editions.6 Internet domain suffix .edu and to the Many libraries enhance their paperbacks English language. through rebinding or using reinforcing Collection development statements material to increase their durability under were culled from forty-six academic conditions of expected heavy use.7 library Web sites based upon the ex- The intellectual life span of information plicit mention of policies regarding the is rapidly decreasing. Slote points out that purchase of paperback editions. Phrases information in fields such as economics or describing the acquisition of paperback technology and applied sciences is con- editions were copied from each collection sidered out of date aer just five years.8 development statement. Categories were At the same time, Slote also argues against coded as they emerged from the content. weeding a book from a university library Because the phrases used to describe dif- collection unless it has not been checked ferent aspects of collection development out at least once in a twenty-year time are relatively uniform as they apply to span. Evidence presented in a series of the acquisition of paperback editions, the studies focused on the same university categories were stable and easily identifi- library collection strongly suggests that able. Each category was fully developed paperback editions will last sufficiently aer analysis of the initial twenty collec- to be in a collection for twenty years or tion development statements. Since the more with use.9 Jenkins recommends intent was to obtain a range of statements that college libraries shi their purchas- that expressed the different aspects of ing decisions from hardcover to almost collection development and no new cat- exclusively paperback editions.10 The egories were emerging, data collection next section of this paper identifies how was halted aer forty-six statements had academic libraries make decisions regard- been analyzed. ing the purchasing of paperback editions through a content analysis of collection Purchasing Decision Metrics development statements. Academic libraries employ a limited number of metrics when considering the Collection Development Statement purchase of cloth or paperback editions. Data A recent typology of these metrics iden- Goal- and purpose-driven statements tified four different orientations ranging craed by institutions provide a privi- from a cloth-only purchasing policy to Judging Books by Their Covers 59 a policy that explicitly favored selecting paper. Including this type of statement paperback editions for most purchases.13 in the collection development policy in- Of the forty-six libraries in this study, ten troduces a presumption that favors cloth libraries favor the purchase of paperback over paperback editions. Indiana Univer- over cloth editions, while twenty-nine sity at Kokomo also makes its preference libraries identify cloth editions as their for cloth explicit while allowing for the preferred format. Even though the major- purchase of paperbacks when hardcover ity of libraries in this study favor purchas- editions are not available. ing monographs in clothbound editions, The second theme focuses on the almost all of these libraries provide some cost differential between the prices of guidelines for selecting paperback edi- paperback and clothbound editions. tions. The metrics most oen mentioned Twenty-seven libraries in this study when considering paperback editions identified cost differentials as reasons for include the purchase price (twenty-seven considering paperback over clothbound libraries), the amount of use a book might editions. Both Babson College and LSU receive (nineteen libraries), the lasting and A&M College identity a “significant value of the content (ten libraries), and price difference” between the cost of the the quality of the press and/or paper paperback versus clothbound edition as a (three libraries). decision criterion. The statement made by The role played by price in the selection the University of Arkansas at Lile Rock decisions of academic libraries is evident offers an explicit economic justification for in the following statements: selecting paperback editions without pro- • “Paperback monographs for the viding any further guidance. The qualifier regular collection are acquired when sometimes suggests that purchasing trade hardback editions are not available or paperbacks is not a common choice for when there is a significant price difference this library. between the hardback and paperback edi- While price is the dominant consid- tions.” (Babson College)14 eration for academic libraries when de- • “Hardbound monographs will ciding to purchase a paperback edition, normally be selected over paperbacks. factors such as the expected use of a title, Paperback monographs for the regular the lasting value of the work’s content, collection will only be acquired when and the reputation of the publisher can hardback editions are not available or influence the decision-making process as hardback cost is prohibitive.” (Indiana seen in the following statements: University-Kokomo)15 • “The library reserves the right to • “For reasons of economy, trade choose between hardcover and paper- paperbacks are sometimes purchased.” back when both are available; however (University of Arkansas at Lile Rock)16 our preference is to purchase hardcover • “To increase the purchasing power whenever feasible. If the cost of the hard- of the materials budget, paperback mono- cover edition is significantly