While reading back issues of ACQNET, I came across a quotation by Peter Stevens, Acquisitions Librarian at the University of Washington Libraries. Amazon.com is "a great bibliographic database for verifying U.S. books, better than any Bowker/Reed service." So, I checked out Amazon.com and was impressed. This site, located in Seattle, claims to be "Earth's Biggest Bookstore." There are 2.5 million titles, which not only includes most of the 1.5 million books currently in print and one million popular, but out-of-print and hard to find, books. Searching Amazon.com is easy. You can search by author, title, subject, keyword, ISBN, or "advanced query." I searched for a particular forthcoming book. The information display gave me the price, publisher, publication date, ISBN, in addition to repeating the title and author. I also had the option of looking for similar books by subject. Better than a Bowker/Reed service? Well, it is quick and easy, and it probably doesn't have that annoying BIP notation about writing the publisher for price information. This may not be the best place to look for legal publications, as I searched for West, BNA, Wiley, and Harrison titles, finding that most were listed, but not all. Using Acqweb for publishers' catalogs online may be more satisfactory. However, I don't think Harrison is available there. That address again is: http://www.amazon.com

There have been considerable postings on Law-lib concerning West Group prices and shipping and handling charges. Concerning shipping and handling, Ken Svengalis' suggestion (which he has proposed to his West account manager) that West Group consider batch shipping for those who want it, sounds like a good idea. To quote Svengalis' March 21, 1997 posting:

Currently, he says, his library may be paying $250-$300 per week on S&H; batch shipping could reduce this by 75% ($225/wk, or $11,700/yr). Thus far, I have not heard that West Group is going to do this, but, as Ken suggests, librarians can express their "outrage at these extraordinary shipping and handling charges by contacting Dennis Beckingham" at West Group, or perhaps CRIV might investigate this possibility.

HMSO (Her Majesty's Stationery Office) was sold in 1996 to a private company and is now the Stationery Office Ltd.

The main articles in the Spring 1997 issue of Library Acquisitions: Practice & Theory (volume 21, #1) are on copyright. "License Agreements in Lieu of Copyright: Are We Signing Away Our Rights?" by Trisha L. Davis (page 19) is helpful for understanding copyright, licensing and the difference between them. It is written in a question-answer format, beginning with the basics, e.g., "What is Copyright?" and "What is the "Fair Use" Doctrine?" and going on to "How Do License Agreements Relate to Copyright?" and "What Should the Librarian Look for When Examining a License Agreement?" with much more in between and after.

A new book, Collection Management for the 21st Century: A Handbook for Librarians, edited by G.E. Gorman and Ruth H. Miller (Greenwood Press, 1997), includes chapters on the Internet and collection management, collection management and integrated library systems, collection development policies and electronic information resources, electronic document delivery services, preserving electronic records, cooperative collection development, staffing, budgeting, and a selected bibliography on collection management covering 1990-1995. If you have a collection development policy, chapter 4, "Collection Development Policies and Electronic Information Resources" by Peggy Johnson, is worth reading. It presents "a case for developing collection policies for electronic resources" and suggests "approaches for developing a policy." Chapter 11, "Budgeting for Information Resources: Current Trends and Future Directions" by William Fisher and Barbara G. Leonard, looks at "some of the budgetary issues affecting the delivery of information resources by libraries to their clients."

This is my last acquisitions column. I have enjoyed writing it, but I think it's time for some new ideas, new approach, etc. It's hard to believe I've been doing this since 1991, and it's just as hard to think of all the changes that have occurred in legal publishing since then. Best wishes to my successor!