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If you are interested in further information about Brodart products and services, call the number below or email us:
PRODUCT & SERVICE INFORMATION
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Phone: (800) 474-9816
Email: support@brodart.com
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If you are uncertain where to find help at Brodart, start by contacting our customer service department:
CUSTOMER SERVICE
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Phone: (800) 474-9802
Email: bookscs@brodart.com
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The extent to which current holdings are analyzed and considered.
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Local classification practices.
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Budget and special funds management.
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Brodart hand selection.
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Duplicates and cancellations.
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O.D.C. Factors for Success
In order for the partnership between Brodart and our customers to produce the best, most efficiently assembled collection, the challenges of a new library should be understood by all. The complexities of one approach over another sometimes add significantly to the time and effort required from Brodart and so can change the cost to a library of this service. The factors that are important in this process are:
Holdings - The most straightforward selections do not consider the holdings of any library or collection. They simply follow local preferences as we understand them and, also, selector judgments about quality. But some circumstances require that an opening day collection include only those titles already held by the library system in one of its branches. Other projects require we only purchase material that is not held by the system. In some situations, from one to more than 25 different databases may be involved in examining holdings.
The impact of holdings goes beyond the selection process and influences classification, too. This occurs in order to properly place material in collection categories using the library's schema. In addition, systems with multiple branches may want one branch used as a template to be duplicated while, at the same time, instructing us not to acquire titles at a second branch. The greater the number and complexity of these holdings relationships in making new selections, the more complex the process.
Classification Practices - Many libraries use Library of Congress classifications for their holdings. When this is the case Brodart can almost always deduce a local preference. Commonly used are: Easy (although sometimes split into Picture and Readers), Juvenile Fiction, Adult Fiction, Juvenile Nonfiction, Adult Nonfiction, Juvenile Reference, Adult Reference. There are often Young Adult categories, either Fiction or Nonfiction or both. There are sometimes browsing paperback (mass market) categories. Some libraries create entire unique, local categories with names like "Middle Zone," "Performing Arts" and "Easy Nonfiction."
Other issues arise over tags, subfields and values in holdings records because there have been inconsistencies in applying them. Audio material often is classified as "audio," "cassette" and "audio cassette" in a single holdings file.
What's more, many libraries interpret classifications in unique ways. For instance, there are different ideas of what constitutes a "young adult" work. The holdings manipulations mentioned above can give our collection development department a good idea of local practices. But sometimes we have to learn those practices and select accordingly via direct consultation with customers.
Note that this is critical because the processes of selection, ordering, funding, cataloging, processing, packing, shipping and shelving are all tightly coordinated at Brodart.
Holdings Counts - Occasionally a larger system will request a count of all copies of titles in their entire system. This count is performed by ISBN and is used to determine if (and how many) additional copies of current holdings are needed.
Category Matching - Libraries re-categorize our efforts to greater or lesser extents, approving or altering our work. Managing this process can be either straightforward or complex.
Replication - Libraries sometimes request that Brodart provide all the titles from a branch or some portion of their system. The request is to match as closely as possible what is already held. This project approach often appears straightforward, initially. But it presents serious limitations and complexities. Other methods are less costly and/or result in a better collection.
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Replication Challenges - Because the bibliographic records available for us to work with are rarely 100% pristine, complexities follow from this seemingly straightforward approach. Databases provided by customers include multiple ISBNs or those we can't locate at all. A great deal of material may be out of print and will require substitute material. And, worse, the bias in such selections is to older material, overlooking some of the best, newest titles. The result is a costly process that produces an inferior result.
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Alternatives to Replication - Brodart-provided selection lists can be created to account for current holdings in some or all of a library's collections. Titles can be included or excluded as desired and the resulting lists incorporate current holdings information as well as other profiled preferences. The key benefits are that new materials aren't omitted from inclusion and the process (cost) of managing problematic holdings data doesn't become an issue. Local selection and Brodart selection can both be tailored to provide better results and at a lower cost.
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The shortcomings and alternatives to "replication" notwithstanding, Brodart will work with you to design a program that takes your current holdings, or any selected area of those holdings, into careful account when producing your new collection.
Discounts, Cataloging and Processing - Collection development often works in a budgeted environment. A total budget for an opening day collection, and the parts of it, are provided to Brodart and we select, purchase, catalog and process to meet that budget. Discounts can vary among publishers, cataloging can have costs across a wide range and even processing can vary (with paperbacks are given Duraguard or Duralam covers, for instance). These variables add complexity to the guesstimates the selectors must work with and the buffers they must build into a selection.
Coordination - Coordination among multiple selectors can cause communication challenges. For instance, if Brodart is providing a new library's adult collection and another vendor is providing the juvenile material, which titles fall in the young adult category. Who selects them? How is it determined which titles fall in which category?
Hand Selection - We use this expression to describe non-automatic materials choices. That is, those that can't be programmed, when a librarian is making the judgment call. Automatic choices include all of a particular author or series. Automatic acquisitions sometimes are made by selecting all of a particular bibliography that is in print. True "vendor selection" projects can require librarian judgment for all or nearly all titles. At other times, local selection from Brodart-prepared lists and/or collection replication reduces this personal involvement (and so time and costs) considerably.
Duplicates and Cancellations - Some libraries prefer that alternate bindings for titles appear on selection lists. The library preferences concerning these choices sometimes can be done programmatically or may be done by hand. What's more, when materials are no longer available from publishers, substitutions must be made. This is invariably a "hand selection" process if Brodart is performing the selection.
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