{"id":220,"date":"2010-11-27T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-28T02:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/slisgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-descriptor\/?p=220"},"modified":"2010-11-27T18:30:00","modified_gmt":"2010-11-28T02:30:00","slug":"just-in-case-or-just-in-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/just-in-case-or-just-in-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Just in Case or Just in Time?"},"content":{"rendered":"
by John D. Berry<\/span>

<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

I\u2019ve been musing over collection development this year.<\/span>  Our collection development has been frozen in time since the Third World Strike in 1968\/69.<\/span>  It\u2019s never gone up, but it hasn\u2019t gone away.<\/span><\/div>\n

 In the interim the Native Librarians, responsible for the Native American Studies Collection at U.C. Berkeley, have valiantly built our collection.<\/span>  This is just our collection in the Ethnic Studies Library, not the Bancroft or the Main Library, as we are an \u201cAffiliate Library.\u201d<\/span>  All that generally means is, we don\u2019t get their money, but they can\u2019t tell us what is important either.<\/span>  In the 40+ years since, we have developed a world class collection.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>
All of the libraries I\u2019ve worked in over the past few decades have done their collection development using the JIC (Just in Case) model.<\/span>  We should add this material, JIC, one of our patrons might look for it.<\/span>  JIC it\u2019s needed for accreditation.<\/span>  JIC, we should add multiple copies.<\/span>  We never actually know using this model if it will be used, but we still get it, JIC.<\/span><\/div>\n

Now comes the difficulty, we are in times of economic drawdown, budgetary cutbacks, fiscal crisis.<\/span>  Woe be unto us, as in all so many places Libraries are not a priority, oddly enough.<\/span>  We are busier than ever but still we suffer cutbacks.<\/span>  Do more with less.<\/span>  Lose people? Redistribute the duties?<\/span>  Lose resources? Oh my, what now?<\/span>  More money for digital and less for print or serials or AV, what to do?<\/span><\/div>\n
I\u2019ve never worried very much, Native Libraries and even Native Collections have never been well funded, we have that population percentage disadvantage going for us.<\/span>   You know, we\u2019re only 1% of the population \u2013 ergo \u2013 a funding disaster ever since dispossession, if you will.<\/span>  So, I am a consummate scrounger, I haunt book sales and thrift stores, I pass out my card at the drop of a hat, I have actually been known to run out of my office to help a patron \u2013 lol \u2013 strolling sedately once reaching a public area.<\/span>  As a result, people give me things, and I always write them a thank you note and a letter for the IRS, no values included, but an acknowledgement of the gift.<\/span>  I\u2019ve probably added a thousand volumes a year for the past decade to our collection above and beyond what we\u2019ve been able to buy with our static funds.<\/span><\/div>\n
But, it is still all, JIC.<\/span>  I admit it, I\u2019m an Alexandrite and I hate to weed.<\/span>  Perhaps another way is needed.<\/span>  Most people aren\u2019t scroungers like me.<\/span>  Pulling an old management title out of the dustbin, how about Just in Time (JIT), collection development?<\/span>  Don\u2019t own it, Inter-library loan it (ILL), such an unfortunate acronym.<\/span>  But, that means speeding up ILL , which you can\u2019t really do.<\/span><\/div>\n
Digital copy might be available, but you can\u2019t bet on that for every request.<\/span>  But, there\u2019s used!<\/span>  Those of us in the Bay area are fortunate; we have very good used book stores.<\/span>  How about paying 50-80+% off the new price for your library copy?<\/span>  That\u2019s a big yes for me already.<\/span>  Even better, now there\u2019s Amazon.com and EBay.com and others.<\/span>  JIT ordering, on request of a title, can even beat out ILL for speed.<\/span>  If you can minimal catalog on the run, the patron can have it in less than a few days if you are willing to pay the express postage.<\/span>  You don\u2019t buy so much JIC, and you can make people happy with JIT and take the pressure off your ILL and your budget to boot.<\/span>  The trade off comes in accounting and staff time.<\/span>  I\u2019ll let you look up your own professional bibliography on buying used books.<\/span>   My thanks go out to Dr. Robert Holley, for providing affirmation to my musings.<\/span>  Wishing everyone luck and fortitude during our economic disparity, build your collections well!<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
John has previously worked at Federal Libraries, other academic libraries, he has been the assistant admissions director of a Big 10 graduate college, a field archeologist in the U.S., Israel, and the South Pacific, a machinist and a stage coach bandit.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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