Guide to Out-of-Print Materials: (ALCTS Acquisitions Guides Series)

The acquisition of out-of-print materials provides unique challenges to librarians in all types of libraries. Guide to Out-of-Print Materials offers a helpful overview of tools (both traditional and electronic) and techniques available for locating and purchasing these often hard-to-find items. Chapters cover books, serials, and audio-visual materials. Also includes a glossary of commonly used out-of-print terms, a bibliography of recommended readings and resources, and a URL resource list appendix. While not intended as a comprehensive source of information, acquisitions librarians will find it a handy tool for enhancing their collections.

About the Author :
Narda Tafuri is an Assistant Professor and Acquisitions Librarian at the University of Scranton and has published several articles on out-of-print books. Anna Seaberg has chaired the Music Library Association's Public Libraries Committee and is currently the Music Selection Librarian for the King County Library System in Issaquah, Washington. Gary Handman is the Director of the UC Berkeley Media Resources Center. He is the editor of two editions of Video Collection Development in Multi-type Libraries,and has taught and lectured extensively on topics relating to film and video librarianship and film studies.

Review :
The guide is well written and the layout is easily navigable. This guide functions well as a quick reference to get you to the service providers, directories, databases, and so forth that can help you locate the out-of-print materials you are seeking. The authors are experienced in locating out-of-print materials....I recommend this guide for all acquisitions librarians and anyone involved in locating out-of-print items. This guide would also be a welcome addition to many reference collections here the Reference Librarians can use it to help searchers locate difficult to find materials. When you need to locate an out-of-print item, this guide is an excellent starting point for your search. This guide also would be an excellent source book for students taking courses in collection development. Outside the library community, anyone whose work consists of locating out-of-print and/or difficult to locate books, music, or video materials should find this guide to be a welcome asset. ...a concise but thorough collection of resources and techniques for locating and purchasing out-of-print materials....On the whole, the guide is an excellent introduction and resource for acquisitions librarians who must occasionally search for out-of-print materials. This slim handbook gives ways to find out-of-print materials such as books, recordings, serials, videotapes, CDs and DVDs by using both traditional methods and online sources. It gives specialty dealers, print-on-demand services, sources of newer and remaindered editions, and sources of audio-visual materials. It also gives the benefits and limitations of these two approaches to searching, a URL resources list, a glossary of terms, and a list of further reading. The table of contents does double duty as an index.