Publisher Cased Monographs Or
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PUBLISHER CASED MONOGRAPHS OR PAPERBACK EDITIONS BOUND BY LOCAL BINDERS - SOME BASES FOR A PURCHASE DECISION IN A UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. LESTER HOVENDEN A PROJECT REPORT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF LIBRARIANSHIP. UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES 1987 10 JUL 1987 LIBRARY ii "I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of a university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgemen is made in the text." 9 - 3 - n ii i ABSTRACT This project report considers the validity of the University of New South Wales Library's policy of purchasing publisher cased monographs in preference to paperback editions which can be bound locally. The policy was assessed in terms of comparative cost, processing times and useage. Several questions were addressed in published sources. It was found that many titles are likely to be available in both publisher cased and paperback editions. Trade or quality paperbacks are likely to be printed on good quality paper with adequate binding margins. Some writers were critical of publishers' casing and suggested that local binders, especially those observing standards such as that established by the Library Binding Institute, can produce a superior binding. A sample of publisher cased monographs purchased by the University of New South Wales Library was checked in trade bibliographies and 18% were found to be available in paperback editions. Using the purchase prices for the sample and other data collected in the Library the average cost of purchasing a publisher cased monograph and numbering it in-house was calculated as $23.14. The total cost of purchasing a paperback edition and having it bound locally was calculated as $21.14 suggesting an average saving of $1.99. The average time elapsing between accessioning and release to the shelves for a sample of publisher cased volumes was 245.95 days. The average mean time for a sample of locally bound volumes was 369.63 days. Although 8.66% of the locally bound volumes reached the shelves as quickly as any publisher cased volumes the average processing time for locally bound volumes was 123.68 days longer. The volumes in a sample of publisher cased volumes were found to have been borrowed 42 times. Although 3 volumes in the sample of locally bound volumes were borrowed more often than any publisher cased volume, overall the locally bound volumes were borrowed only 32 times. It was concluded that the University of New South Wales Library' policy of preferring publisher cased editions is valid. The relatively small cost saving to be achieved by substituting locally bound volumes would be more than offset by the longer processing time and lower useage. V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to tharkMr. Allan Horton, University Librarian of the University of New South Wales, who gave permission for the collection of data for this project report in the University Library. I am also indebted to Mr. Peter Dobrovits, formerly Deputy University Librarian (Technical Services) at the University of New South Wales Library, who read an early draft of the report and offered a number of helpful suggestions. Thanks are also due to Associate Professor Carmel Maguire and Mrs. Patricia Willard of the School of Librarianship at the University of New South Wales. Professor Maguire acted as supervisor during the early stages of the project. When Professor Maguire went on study leave Mrs. Willard became supervisor and saw the project through to completion. Finally I would like to acknowledge the important contribution of Jennie Bowes, who typed the project, and, as is appropriate to record in a report partly about binding, of Louis Klauser and Klaus Portsch of Allbook Bindery who bound the report. vi CONTENTS PAGE 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction 9 2.2 Availability of Paperback editions of imonographs 9 2.3 Methods of incorporating paperbacks in library collections 11 2.4 Standards for binding and the problems assoc- iated with binding 19 2.5 Microform and other media as substitutes for binding 40 2.6 Conclusion 46 3 OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction 56 3.2 Objective 1 63 3.3 Objective 2 73 3.4 Objective 3 79 4 RESULTS 4.1 Hypothesis 1 86 4.2 Hypothesis 2 97 4.3 Hypothesis 3 101 5 CONCLUSION 108 BIBLIOGRAPHY 115 vii LIST OF TABLES. PAGE 1. Batches completed and mean completion times 1982-1984 78 2. Savings on paperback editions 88 3. Comparison of subject distribution by Dewey Decimal Class of publisher cased volumes and equivalent paperback editions in the sample 90 4. Analysis of cost saving of buying paperback editions by Dewey class 91 5. Time taken to process publisher cased and locally bound monographs 9 7 6. Borrowing history of monographs in the sample 102 7. Borrowings of individual titles itemised by year of publication 105 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION During the 1980s the budgets of Australian public sector organ isations, including libraries, have become increasingly constrained. Concurrently wages and prices have continued rising. In these circumstances few libraries can ignore the need to obtain the maximum value for all expenditures. However the responsibilities of providing service to users and, in the case of research libraries, of preserving collections cannot be entirely ignored when economies are sought. The 'value for money' question to be considered in this study is whether the purchase of a publisher cased volume represents better value than the purchase of a corresponding paper back edition which may be bound locally. The implications for delivery of service to users and collection maintenance will also be considered. Libraries have adopted a variety of policies towards paperbacks. Some libraries have adopted, as an economy measure, a policy which precludes binding. Other reasons advanced for not binding paper backs include that they are purchased to meet short-term demand or that they are likely to be soon superseded by new editions. However other libraries, including the University of New South Wales Library where the data for this study was collected, continue to bind some or all of the paperbacks they acquire. The University of New South Wales Library's philosophy was defined in 1979 by Peter Dobrovits, then Deputy University Librarian (Technical Services), when he wrote that research libraries have a responsibility to preserve printed material and 'One of the oldest and still most effective protection libraries can (and must) provide to preserve 2 printed material is ... binding.' The data for this study was collected in 1983 in the main Library of the University of New South Wales. The main Library is situated near the eastern, or Botany Street, boundary of the Kensington campus. In 1983 the University of New South Wales Library, with 1,170,692 volumes, had the sixth largest book stock among Australian 2 university libraries. Reader services were delivered through four Special Libraries (the Biomedical Library, the Law Library, the Physical Sciences Library and the Social Sciences and Human ities Library) and an Undergraduate Library. The Law, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities and Undergraduate Libraries were housed in the main library building. The Biomedical Library was housed in the building next to the main library but was connected to it by an enclosed elevated walk-way. The only alteration to the described locations occurred in 1985 when the Undergraduate Library was integrated with the Special Libraries. The rationale for a separate Undergraduate Library had been eroded because ' ... changes in teaching methods have resulted in many undergraduates using the collections of the four research libraries quite early in their 3 studies rather than using the Undergraduate Library only.' The University of New South Wales Library has a centralised Technical Services Division consisting of separate Acquisitions and Cataloguing Departments. The Acquisitions Department is responsible for placing orders for monographs and serials and for the accessioning of mono graphs and serial backsets. Current serial issues are received by the serial entry sections in each Special Library. All mono graphs and serials which are added to the Library's collection are catalogued by the Cataloguing Department. 3 The Library does not have an in-house bindery and all work is sent out to commercial binders. Collation of serial binding has been decentralised to the Special Libraries. In addition the Law Library prepares binding instruction slips for, and checks-in, its own serial binding. The Binding and Collection Maintenance Section of the Acquisitions Department prepares instruction slips for, and checks-in, all other binding including monographs. The Binding Section arranges the despatch of all work to the binders and exer cises control over the Library's binding budget. Usually student assistants are employed in the Binding Section to transcribe call numbers onto the spines of publisher cased volumes. In 1983 the Library had 7,815 monographs and 9,852 serials bound by commercial binders. In addition 940 monographs and 343 serials were rebound. 4 A total of 16,827 publisher cased volumes were numbered in-house. Cased monographs are preferred by the University of New South Wales Library. The Library instructs book sellers to deliver a publisher cased edition in preference to a paperback whenever possible. Paper back editions are accepted when no publisher cased edition is avail able. With the exception of multiple copies of undergraduate texts, paperbacks which are expected to be heavily used or which are regarded as being of long-term interest are sent for binding.