core competencies for the acquisitions librarian

Core competencies for the acquisitions librarian

William Fisher*

School of Library & Information Science, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA 95192-0029, USA

Abstract

Position announcements for acquisitions-related jobs were analyzed to determine what knowledgeand skills were sought by employers in 1999, 1987, and 1975. The competencies identified from theposition announcements were compared with other input regarding competencies for acquisitions andcollection development work, and a good deal of similarity was found to exist. From this, a list of corecompetency areas is presented. © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Competencies are all the rage –or so it seemed during the 1990s. While a concern withcompetency has been with us for a long time, much of the current interest in competencies wasgenerated from a 1990Harvard Business Reviewarticle entitled “The Core Competence of theCorporation” [1]. Taking an organizational approach rather than an individual approach, theauthors of the article defined core competencies as sets of integrated skills and technologiesunique to a particular organization. These core competencies are valued by the organization’sclients and allow the organization to differentiate itself from other organizations and therebyprovide goods or services that other organizations cannot provide. The authors point out thatorganizational competencies develop from the combined competencies of the people within theorganization. Since that article was published, organizations of all types have been trying toidentify the current and future competencies of their members. A quick search of WilsonWeb inmid-May, 2000 demonstrates continual interest in the competencies issues in a number ofdisciplines throughout the decade of the 1990s, as shown in Table 1.

If nothing else, this has left us with a variety of definitions of competencies to consider. In1991, Marcy Murphy, then on the faculty at Indiana University’s library school, writing in the

* Corresponding author.E-mail address:[email protected] (W. Fisher).

Pergamon

Library Collections, Acquisitions,& Technical Services 25 (2001) 179–190

1464-9055/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.PII: S1464-9055(01)00190-7

preface ofFuture Competencies of the Information Professional,defined competencies as theinterplay of knowledge, understanding, skills, and attitudes to do a job effectively [2]. Compe-tencies have been a topic of great interest within the special library environment as evidenced bya 1993 article, “Core Competencies of Special Librarians of the Future” [3] and a 1996 reportentitledCompetencies for Special Librarians of the 21st Century[4]. The former work looked atboth information management competencies (the organization and delivery of information) andorganization administration competencies (working in an organizational context) as beingneeded. The latter work defined competencies as a combination of skills, knowledge, andbehaviors important for organizational success, personal performance, and career development.

While there are any number of ways to approach the competencies issues, much of thework that has been done in this area looks at both professional competencies and personalcompetencies. A third competency, educational competency, should be added to the mix.Professional competencies are occupation-related knowledge and skills that make one tech-nically proficient at the tasks that comprise one’s job and are needed for success in aparticular work setting. These competencies change over time as one’s job changes; they alsochange over time as technology and other factors impact one’s work. Personal competenciesare individual traits, attitudes, and behaviors needed for success in almost any venue. Thesecompetencies change as one gets older and acquires more experience within organizationalsettings dealing with a variety of people in different situations. Educational competencies arethose skills, traits, and attitudes that result from studying a body of knowledge on a giventopic as one learns how to learn. These competencies change as one recognizes what he/sheknows and recognizes what he/she does not know.

Since all these competency areas change over time, it is important to emphasize contin-uous or lifelong learning in the acquisition and development of competencies. While thisdoes not relieve our professional education programs from being concerned with competen-cies, it does require the profession to look at an array of options for developing andmaintaining competencies. Tom Shaughnessy of the University of Minnesota wrote that therole of MLIS programs is to prepare people for entry into the profession, and the compe-tencies needed to progress beyond that point need to be achieved through practice and otherdevelopmental activities, including advanced study, continuing education workshops, attend-ing conferences and institutes, and mentoring opportunities [5].

2. Materials and methods

The study described below is based upon two assumptions. First, work-related compe-tencies are a combination of knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to be successful at a

Table 1Number of Wilson Web articles in the 1990s about competencies

Applied Science & Technology Library Literature Omnifile*

1990–94: 16 1990–94:25 1990–94: 4341995–99: 98 1995–99:42 1995–99:1285

*includes business, education, science, social science, humanities, and general articles

180 W. Fisher / Libr. Coll. Acq. & Tech. Serv. 25 (2001) 179–190

certain job now and into the future. Second, no organization wants to hire incompetentpeople –regardless of how well someone may “work out” or “fit in” with an organization, theperson would have been hired because he/she was believed to be competent based uponwritten documentation and/or an interview. If these assumptions are valid, then one possibleway to determine how similar organizations define competencies is to study job announce-ments for certain positions that the organizations are trying to fill. This is what was done togather data to identify the core competencies for acquisitions librarians.

The job announcements appearing inAmerican Librariesform the basis for the datagathered, and calendar year 1999 was used as the current timeframe. In an effort to determineif those competencies have changed over time, job announcements from 1987 and 1975 werealso analyzed, again using the announcements found inAmerican Librariesfor those years.These 12 year intervals were used for two reasons. First, the entire range of 1975–1999covers a period of significant change in the profession and it should be interesting to see howthis change is reflected in position announcements for acquisitions librarians. Second, theintervals were selected because the author had access to complete runs ofAmerican Librariesfor the years 1975, 1987, and 1999. In addition to theAmerican Librariesdata, during thelast four months of calendar 1999 [the period of active data gathering], print and web-basedannouncements from theChronicle of Higher Educationwere also used, as well as jobannouncements posted to a variety of professional-oriented listserves, Acqnet being the mostnotable of this group. When an announcement appeared both electronically and inAmericanLibraries, the print version was used for consistency of wording, although few differenceswere found between print and electronic versions of the same announcements. It was noted,however, that a number of the announcements that appeared electronically in late 1999 didnot appear at all inAmerican Libraries.If an announcement was repeated in more than oneissue ofAmerican Libraries,the initial version of the announcement was the one used.

Both the position title and the contents of the announcement were scanned to determineif a job posting would be included in the study and analyzed further. Position announcementsfor acquisitions librarians were easy enough to identify, however, having acquisitionsresponsibilities and having “acquisitions” in one’s job title are two different things. Accord-ingly, if the announcement included acquisitions-related activities in either the duties/responsibilities section of the announcement or in the qualifications section of the announce-ment (or both), the announcement was included for analysis regardless of the position title.While there were a variety of position titles represented for purposes of further analysis theposition announcements were put into one of four categories: acquisitions, collection devel-opment, serials, and technical services; with “other” used as a catch-all category for thosepositions not in one of the first four groups. The appendix contains the complete list ofposition titles analyzed for this study, displaying how many times each title was used in eachof the years surveyed. The original position titles are provided to allow the reader to see thevariety of positions that included acquisitions-related functions. For those positions with dualtitles and responsibilities, the position was classified under the first part of the job title. Forexample, a position listed as collection development/acquisitions librarian went into thecollection development category not the acquisitions group; while the position monographic/serials librarian went into the acquisitions category, not the serials group.

181W. Fisher / Libr. Coll. Acq. & Tech. Serv. 25 (2001) 179–190

3. Description of data

For the three years used for data gathering, 1999, 1987, and 1975, there were 161 positionsanalyzed. The number of positions increased each year: 1975–15 positions (9% of the total);1987–71 positions (44% of the total); and 1999–75 positions (47% of the total). For thoseinterested in acquisitions-related work, the job market appears to be somewhat steady overthe last 10–12 years. However, if one wanted to do acquisitions-related work in a publiclibrary environment the opportunities are scarce. Of the 161 positions analyzed here, only 26(16% of the total) were from public libraries, while the other 135 positions were in academiclibraries. As previously mentioned, the positions were identified by both position title and bythe terminology used in the job announcements themselves. This lead to most of theannouncements analyzed for this study falling into one of four categories: acquisitions (Acqin Table 2-A and 2-B), collection development (CD in Table 2-A and 2-B), serials, andtechnical services (TS in Table 2-A and 2-B). The 45 positions (28% of the total) that fallinto the acquisitions category were the primary focus of the study. However, as the positionswere screened, 38 positions (24% of the total) titled collection development or collection

Table 2-A25 most frequently cited competencies

Competency Rank 1975 1987 1999 Total Type of Library

n 5 15 n 5 71 n 5 75 n 5 161 Academic Public

acquisitions work 1 9 31 52 92 76 16employee supervision 2 5 41 46 92 80 12communication skills 3 1 42 47 90 84 6automated libr systems

(non-system specific)4 4 43 39 86 74 8

interpersonal skills 5 1 34 46 81 74 7unit management 6 4 34 31 69 59 10collection development 7 3 30 34 67 59 8budgeting/fiscal mgmt 8 2 26 32 60 57 3serials 9 6 12 33 51 50 1other duties (non-acq related) 10 4 21 25 50 38 12planning/goal setting 11 1 19 27 47 45 2work with vendors 12 1 12 33 46 45 1cataloging 13 4 11 29 44 34 10automated libr systems

(system specific)14 1 11 27 39 33 6

bibliographic tools 15 0 20 17 37 34 3policy/procedures 16 1 18 16 35 32 3publishing industry 17 0 19 16 35 33 2represent unit 18 1 13 20 34 34 02nd graduate degree 19 3 14 17 34 34 0yrs of acq exper 20 1 18 13 32 29 3foreign language 21 2 14 14 30 29 1problem solving 22 0 9 20 29 27 2electronic publ 23 0 1 28 29 28 1prof contributions 24 0 11 16 27 27 0materials selection 25 2 11 14 27 18 9


management were found to be using terminology similar to the acquisitions positionsregarding duties to be performed and qualifications needed to hold the position. This was notsurprising as acquisitions and collection development are often seen as two sides of the samecoin. Another 24 positions (15% of the total) that dealt with the serials function in librariesidentified duties and qualifications related to those for the acquisitions positions. This is aresult of separating the acquisitions function for serials publications from the acquisition ofmonograph material. An additional 39 positions (24% of the total) were found in thetechnical services category. These were usually at smaller institutions which combinedfunctions like acquisitions, cataloging, and serials into one position or at institutions wherethe acquisitions function was supervised by someone in a technical services position. Thetechnical services positions were included to see if the competencies needed to “do”acquisitions would be similar to the competencies needed to “supervise” acquisitions.Finally, 15 positions (9% of the total) did not fall into any of the four categories above andwere placed in a separate category labeled “Other.”

The competencies are presented in Table 2-A and Table 2-B as fairly general headings.The wording from the position announcements was used as much as possible, however, if

Table 2-B25 most frequently cited competencies

Competency Rank Nature of Competency Category of Position TS Other

Duty Qualif. Both Acq CD Serials

acquisitions work 1 55 15 22 26 18 16 27 5employee supervision 2 42 17 33 30 14 17 22 9communication skills 3 2 88 0 22 31 15 15 7automated libr systems

(non-system specific)4 14 63 9 23 16 14 26 7

interpersonal skills 5 2 79 0 17 25 12 20 7unit management 6 45 11 13 18 8 11 24 8collection development 7 31 7 29 11 36 5 9 6budget/fiscal mgmt 8 42 5 13 25 19 5 8 3serials 9 22 10 19 8 4 22 14 3other duties (non-acq related) 10 40 3 7 11 8 7 15 9planning/goal setting 11 35 9 3 10 11 9 14 3work with vendors 12 25 11 10 21 12 8 3 2cataloging 13 24 9 11 3 3 8 27 3automated libr systems

(system specific)14 13 25 1 16 4 6 12 1

bibliographic tools 15 2 34 1 10 3 9 12 3policy/procedures 16 33 0 2 7 16 5 5 2publishing industry 17 4 29 2 14 16 1 2 2represent unit 18 31 0 3 7 20 2 4 12nd graduate-degree 19 0 34 0 9 17 0 6 2yrs of acq exper 20 0 32 0 20 8 1 1 2foreign language 21 0 30 0 13 7 4 3 3problem solving 22 4 23 2 8 6 7 6 2electronic publ 23 6 10 13 7 8 9 2 3prof contributions 24 4 23 0 8 8 5 3 3materials selection 25 22 0 5 4 15 2 0 6


two announcements used different wording to describe essentially the same function, theywere grouped together. If the competency appeared as both a duty of the position and as aqualification for the position, it was counted once for that position. However, if things werephrased differently enough, they were counted as two separate categories. For example if aposition listed experience with acquisitions work, that was counted under the general “acquisi-tions” competency as a qualification. However, if the position indicated a specified number ofyears of experience of acquisitions work that went under a specific category of “years ofexperience –acquisitions.” Altogether, there were eight such “years of experience” categories.

This resulted in some 60 areas of competency being identified at least once in one positionannouncement. For purposes of further analysis, the 25 most consistently mentioned areaswill be discussed. The range of total responses for these 25 areas goes from a high of 92positions (57% of the total) mentioning a competency area to a low of 27 positions (17% ofthe total) including a competency area. Table 2-A and Table 2-B summarize the data on these25 competencies. In Table 2-A the area of competency is listed first beginning with the mostfrequently cited competency. For each year surveyed, the number of times that competencywas mentioned in a job announcement is given next, with the total citations. The number oftimes that competency was mentioned in either an academic library position or a publiclibrary position is also provided. In Table 2-B the competency areas are again provided infrequency order. The context of how the competency was mentioned is given next. Thecompetency could have been cited as a duty or responsibility associated with a givenposition, a qualification (either required or preferred) needed to obtain the position, or citedas both. Finally, the type of position for which the area is a competency is indicated.

The number of positions from 1975 is too small to make many comparisons, however, itis interesting to note that there is a reasonable amount of uniformity between those compe-tencies needed in 1987 and those needed in 1999, the largest difference coming in knowledgeof electronic publishing which is understandable as the emergence of electronic publishingreally began during the 1990s.

4. Results

While it is encouraging to see that one of the most often mentioned competencies wasacquisitions work itself (so the job announcements analyzed wanted this type of work to beperformed and/or wanted some knowledge of/experience with acquisitions work), the nextfive competencies mentioned are not related specifically to the acquisitions function. In fact,of the 24 competency areas listed in Table 2-A and B (“other non-acquisitions related duties”is not considered in this instance), only nine of those areas appear to be specifically relatedto the acquisitions function. This is not to say these other areas (in general: knowledge oftechnology, management skills, and personal attributes) are not important; they are relevantto the functioning of almost any area within a library.

The data presented in Table 2-A and B provide an interesting look at what has beenexpected of acquisitions librarians over the years. Most of these competency areas have beenviewed as requirements to hold an acquisitions-related position. Adding the “Qualif” columnand the “Both” column in Table 2-B results in 13 of the 24 competencies (again, “other


duties” is not considered) cited more often as a necessary qualification than as part of the job thatneeds to be performed. This may impact individuals wanting to become an acquisitions librarian,if they cannot acquire the needed qualifications. With regard to the 45 positions that wereprimarily acquisitions oriented, beyond acquisitions work itself, one especially needs to be ableto supervise others, communicate well, work with vendors, and have some knowledge of fiscalmanagement and automated library systems according to the information obtained from the jobannouncements. Furthermore, it is somewhat reassuring that 27 of the 39 technical servicespositions in this study indicated a need to know something about acquisitions work (as well ascataloging), whether it is a “jack-of-all-trades” position or a supervisory position.

These results derived from the position announcements, were further supported by peopleworking in acquisitions and related areas. Specifically, the participants at the AcquisitionsInstitute at Timberline (20–23 May 2000) were divided into five groups of approximately 15people each and asked to list what they felt were the core competencies for acquisitionslibrarians. The individual groups came up with lists of eight items (on the low end) to 23items (on the high end); when duplication among the groups is removed, the Timberlineparticipants collectively came up with a list of 31 competencies. A compilation of thecompetencies from all five groups is found in Table 3 and reveals that all but seven of theitems listed are similar to either the 25 competencies in Table 2-A and B (14 matches) or oneof the 35 other competencies found in the positions announcements but not represented inTable 2-A and B (10 matches). Each group did come up with at least one new competencynot found in the position announcements or mentioned by another group. These new areasinclude: awareness of end user needs; ability to see things from a systemwide perspective;ability to multi-task; a sense of humor; awareness of emerging trends/paying attention towhat is happening; willingness to share information with others; and awareness of trends inhigher education (the group members were predominately from academic libraries). One thing

Table 3Competencies proposed by participants at the acquisitions institute at Timberline (n5 5 groups)

Budgeting/Financial Management* (5) External Relations [represent unit]* (1)Management Skills/Supervision* (5) Gifts/Working with Donors# (1)Publishing Industry/Book Trade* (5) Knowledge of Integrated Library Systems* (1)Working with Vendors/Negotiating Contracts* Knowledge of O-P Market# (1)Interpersonal Skills* (4) Language Skills* (1)Technological Awareness* (4) Multi-tasking$ (1)Cataloging Basics/Bibliographic Structure* (3) Professional Contributions* (1)Collection Development* (3) Project Management# (1)Copyright Issues# (3) Reference Basics [non-acq duties]* (1)Licensing Issues# (3) Scholarly Communication Process# (1)Awareness of End User Needs$ (2) Sense of Humor$ (1)Communication Skills* (2) Share Information With Others$ (1)Flexibility# (2) Systemwide Perspective$ (1)Awareness of Emerging Trends$ (1) Well Organized# (1)Awareness of Higher Ed Trends$ (1) Willingness to Try New Things$ (1)Creativity# (1)

* 5 included in the 25 most frequently cited competencies# 5 included in competencies from 1975/1987/1999 not mentioned in the article$ 5original to the Timberline groups


that clearly stands out (depending on how one defines or categorizes certain items) from all fivegroups is the need for some level of knowledge, skills, and/or ability in four areas: the publishingindustry (both books and serials); budgeting/financial management; management skills; andworking with vendors/negotiating contracts. From the perspective of the Acquisitions Instituteparticipants these are four core areas needed for success in the acquisitions arena.

How do these results compare with other perspectives on the competencies needed foracquisitions librarians? There are two fairly recent works that provide good comparisons. Inearly 1998, Karen Schmidt wrote an introduction to four essays that depict what thoseauthors saw as the future directions of acquisitions work [6]. In her remarks, Schmidthighlighted five areas of competency: a) financial resources management; b) acquisition anddelivery of both non-disposable and disposable materials; c) negotiation and standardizationof contracts and licenses; d) service sector and records management initiatives; and e)personnel management. Acquisitions and personnel management are clearly covered by thetwo most frequently mentioned competencies identified form the position announcementsanalyzed. Financial resources are covered under budgeting. Vendor negotiations and knowl-edge of the publishing arena were also mentioned by Schmidt under financial resources, andboth of these areas are represented among the 25 competencies from the current study.Negotiation of contracts is also part of the “working with vendors” competency. Schmidtincludes electronic resources in her category, which comprises part of the electronic pub-lishing competency from the current study. At first glance, the service sector categoryappears to be something of a stretch, however, Schmidt explains this as acquisitions recordsbecoming more public information through the use of automated library systems. Seen in thislight, the competencies concerning knowledge and use of automated library systems coverthis area. It appears that the areas of competency identified by Karen Schmidt are alsoincluded in the position announcements analyzed in this study.

In 1997, Carol Diedrichs looked at skills needed by acquisitions librarians [7]. She beganby anticipating the current study and reviewed the job duties and qualifications for the headof acquisitions at the Ohio State University, as they existed in 1987. Briefly, the dutiesincluded: a) administering the operation of the department; b) formulating policies anddeveloping procedures; c) supervising staff; d) serving as a member of the AdministrativeStaff Conference; e) working closely with other appropriate department heads; and f)representing the library in relevant activities. The first three competencies, as well as the lastone mentioned, are clearly included among the competencies found in the current study.Serving on the Administrative Staff Conference can be seen as a component of being adepartmental manager and as part of representing your unit to the larger organization.Working closely with others can be included as an aspect of having good interpersonal skills.In addition to the duties of the position, Diedrichs also included six qualifications needed tobe OSU’s acquisitions head. Those qualifications were: a) an accredited MLS degree; b)relevant acquisitions experience; c) leadership; problem solving skills; d) analysis andplaning skills; and e) communication skills. The requirement of an accredited MLS was notspecifically counted in analyzing the position announcements, as it appeared to be a“universal” qualification. Rather, it was noted that 23 positions did not mention the require-ment of an accredited degree and/or indicated an equivalent degree (foreign or domestic) wasacceptable. Of the remaining five qualifications mentioned above, all were found in the


position announcements analyzed, however, leadership was only mentioned 16 times and notamong the top 25 competencies.

Diedrichs further identifies three areas of competencies that acquisitions librarians willneed in the future: management skills, business skills, and personal skills. The managerialskills identified were: a) having a vision and setting goals; b) creativity and innovation; c)leadership; d) problem management; and e) change management. In the positions analyzedgoal setting was seen as part of the planning competency. The term problem managementwas not used, however, problem solving was identified as a major competency. Leadershiphas already been addressed; while creativity and innovation were also mentioned in theposition announcements, they were cited even fewer times than leadership. Change man-agement and having a vision were not specifically mentioned as either a job responsibility orqualification, however, a number of the positions analyzed contained information about theinstitution undergoing change as an overarching environmental factor. The business skillsidentified by Diedrichs were: a) financial and contract administration; b) publishing exper-tise; c) automation and technical skills; and d) negotiation skills. In one regard or another,all of these areas are covered by the competencies identified in the current study. Thepersonal skills needed for the future were defined as self-leadership attributes: a) goodattitude; b) making good first impressions; c) stress management; d) assessing one’s perfor-mance; and e) using power effectively. There does not appear to be any direct connection toany of these areas and the competencies identified from the position announcements. Onecould, however, make the case that strong communication and interpersonal skills help inmaking a good first impression. Institutions in the process of revising position descriptionsmay wish to look more closely at these aspects of self-leadership, as they will no doubtbecome more and more important for successful professionals in virtually any line of work.

Expanding the focus beyond acquisitions work somewhat, Peggy Johnson has recentlyaddressed the competencies needed in collection development [8]. Competencies mentionedin this article included those that should be learned in library school and those that aredeveloped beyond formal study. While the areas suggested as competencies developed inlibrary school are much more collection development oriented than the position announce-ments analyzed, the major differences found deal with knowing the library’s community/users and understanding collection policy and procedures within the context of libraryoperations. Vision was specifically mentioned as a post-library school competency to develop,and as seen above, this area was not found among the position announcements analyzed. All theother post-degree competencies mentioned were included within the data gathered.

5. Conclusion

In looking at the similarities between the competencies identified from the positionannouncements and those identified by the Acquisitions Institute participants and in thearticles by Schmidt, Diedrichs, and Johnson, a strong case can be made that the 24 areaslisted in Table 2 (again the “other non-acquisitions functions category is not considered) dorepresent the ”core competencies“ needed for acquisitions librarians. These can be furthergrouped into four broad areas of competencies: acquisitions competencies, technology


competencies, management competencies, and personal competencies. The acquisitionscompetencies are those functions most closely related with the day-to-day activities of doingacquisitions work. From Table 2, this includes acquisitions work, years of experience inacquisitions, collection development, selection, working with vendors, the publishing indus-try, serials, cataloging, and bibliographic tools. Related to these competencies are thetechnology competencies, which include knowledge of automated library systems, bothsystem-specific and in general, and electronic publishing. Management competencies includesupervising personnel, managing the unit, budgeting, planning, policy development, problemsolving, and representing the unit. Finally, while personal competencies could be developedon the job, in most cases the person usually brings at least some aspect of these areas withhim/her. These competencies include communication skills, interpersonal skills, professionalcontributions, foreign language, and a second graduate degree. Acquisitions librarians whohave some combination of the knowledge, skills, and attributes identified above will be wellpositioned for successful careers.

AppendixPosition titles used in the advertisements

1975 1987 1999 Total

Acquisitions Librarian 1 5 6* 12Acquisitions/Cataloging Librarian 0 1 0 1Acquisitions/Collection Development Librarian 0 2 2* 4Acquisitions Librarian/Head, Monographs Department 0 1 0 1Acquisitions/Periodicals Department Head 0 1 0 1Acquisitions/Serials Librarian 0 1 2 3Acquisitions Services Coordinator 0 0 1 1Acquisitions/Technical Services Librarian 0 0 1 1Administrative Assistant 1* 0 0 1Assistant Collection Development Librarian 0 0 1 1Assistant Coordinator, Technical Services 0 1 0 1Assistant Director 0 1* 0 1Assistant Director, Collection Development 1 1 0 2Assistant Director, Technical/Automated Services 0 1 0 1Assistant Director, Technical Services 1 1 1 3Assistant Head, Acquisitions Processing Department 1 0 0 1Assistant Head, Acquisitions Services 0 0 1 1Assistant Head, Serials Control Department 0 0 1 1Assistant Librarian, Collection Management 0 0 1 1Assistant Librarian, Technical Services 0 0 1 1Assistant Serials Librarian 0 3 0 3Associate Director, Collection Management 0 0 1 1Associate Director, Collection Management/Technical Services 0 1 0 1Associate Director, Libraries/Head, Technical Services 0 0 1 1Associate Director, Support Services 1* 0 0 1Associate Head, Acquisitions Department 0 1 0 1Associate Librarian, Technical Services 0 1 0 1Associate University Librarian, Information Systems/Technology 0 0 1 1Associate University Librarian, Technical/Automated Services 0 1 0 1Associate University Librarian, Technical Services 0 0 1 1Book Selector 0 1* 0 1

(continued on next page)


Appendix (continued)

1975 1987 1999 Total

Cataloger/Acquisitions Librarian 0 1 0 1Cataloger/Collection Development Librarian 0 1 0 1Chair, Technical Services Department 0 1 0 1Children’s Materials Coordinator 0 1* 0 1Collection Development/Acquisitions Librarian 0 0 1 1Collection Development Coordinator 0 1 0 1Collection Development Librarian 0 4 6 10Collection Management Coordinator 0 0 2* 2Collection Management Librarian 0 0 1 1Collections Management Subject Specialist 0 0 1 1Coordinator, Collection Development 0 0 1 1Coordinator, Collection Development/Adult Services 0 1* 0 1Coordinator, Library Media Acquisitions 0 1 0 1Coordinator, Technical Services 0 1* 0 1Department Head, Monographs Acquisition 0 1 0 1Director, Library Technical Services 0 1 0 1Electronic Access/Serials Librarian 0 0 1 1Electronic Resources Librarian 0 0 1 1Head, xxxxx Library (name withheld) 1 0 0 1Head, Acquisitions 0 4 1 5Head, Acquisitions/Assistant Chief, Technical Services Division 0 1* 0 1Head, Acquisitions/Collection Development 0 0 1 1Head, Acquisitions Department 1 2 2 5Head, Collection Development 0 1 2 3Head, Collection Development/Acquisitions Department 0 1 0 1Head, Collection Development/Bibliographic Services 0 1 0 1Head, Collection Development Department 0 1 0 1Head, Collection Development/Preservation 0 1 0 1Head, Collection Management 0 1 0 1Head, Collection Management Services Department 0 1 0 1Head, Collection Services Department 0 0 1 1Head, Exchange/Gift Unit 0 0 1 1Head, Monographic Acquisitions Department 1 0 0 1Head, Serials Acquisitions Services Department 0 0 1 1Head, Serials Department 1 2 0 3Head, Serials Department/Coordinator, Acquisitions Services 0 0 1 1Head, Serials Unit 0 0 1 1Head, Technical Services 1* 1 2* 4Head, Technical Services/Bibliographic Librarian 1 0 0 1Librarian II 0 0 1* 1Librarian/Bibliographer 0 1* 0 1Librarian, Collection Management Services Department 0 1 0 1Librarian/Coordinator, Collection Management/Planning 0 1 0 1Library Coordinator, Technical Services/Automation 0 1 0 1Library Manager, Acquisitions 0 0 1* 1Manager, Technical Services 0 0 1 1Manager, Technical Services Department 0 0 1* 1Monographic/Serials Acquisition Librarian 1 0 0 1Order Librarian 0 1 0 1Periodicals Librarian 0 0 2 2Receipt Librarian 0 1 0 1Resources Librarian 0 0 1 1

(continued on next page)


References

[1] Hamel Gary, Prahalad CK. The Core Competencies of the Corporation. Harvard Business Review 1990;68(May/June):79–871.

[2] Murphy Marcy. Preface, In Future Competencies of the Information Professional. Washington, DC: SpecialLibraries Association, pp. v-vi, 1991.

[3] Ojala Marydee. Core Competencies of Special Librarians of the Future. Special Libraries 1993;84(Fall):230–34.

[4] Marshall Joanne, Fisher Bill, Moulton Linda, Piccoli Roberta. Competencies for Special Librarians of the 21st

Century. Washington, DC: Special Libraries Association, 1996.[5] Shaughnessy Thomas W. Approaches to Developing Competencies in Research Libraries. Library Trends

1992;41(Fall.):282–98.[6] Schmidt Karen. Facing Transformation. Journal of Academic Librarianship 1998;24(January):73.[7] Diedrichs Carol Pitts. Rethinking, and Transforming Acquisitions: The Acquisitions Librarian’s Perspective.

Library Resources, Technical Services 1998;42(April):113–25.[8] Johnson Margaret Ann. Skills, and Competencies for Collection Development, and Management. Techni-

calities 1999;19(May):1, 7–9.

Appendix (continued)

1975 1987 1999 Total

Serials/Acquisitions Librarian 0 0 3 3Serials/Bibliographic Services Coordinator 0 1 0 1Serials/Cataloging Librarian 0 0 1 1Serials Coordinator 0 0 1 1Serials/Interlibrary Loan Librarian 0 0 1 1Serials Librarian 2 1 2 5Support Services Manager 0 0 1* 1Technical Services/Automation Coordinator 0 0 1 1Technical Services Coordinator 0 2* 2 4Technical Services Department Head 0 1* 0 1Technical Services Librarian 0 5 5* 10Technical Services Manager 0 0 2* 2

* indicates position in a public library


core competencies for the acquisitions librarian

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