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26 Technical Services L. Libr. 1 (2000-2001)

handle is hein.lcc/tsll0026 and id is 1 raw text is: Volume 26 No. 1                                                 http://www.aallnet.org/sis/tssis/tsll/tsll.htm
September, 2000                                                                      ISSN: 0195-4857

Acquisition and Control of Electronic
Legal Resources in the 21st Century
Jean M Pajerek
Cornell Law Library
jmp8@cornell.edu
Like many libraries today, the Edward Bennett Williams     all.
Library at Georgetown University Law Center was
confronted with the challenge of adding more electronic resources to its collection.
Kristina Kuhlmann and Janice Snyder Anderson, both of Georgetown, presented
a well-attended program at the AALL conference in Philadelphia that described
how the staff at Georgetown met this challenge successfully.
Ms. Kuhlmann, who is the acquisitions librarian at Georgetown, presented the
first part of the program, which focused on the practicalities of selecting and
acquiring electronic resources. The staff at Georgetown discovered that the
procedures they used for acquiring paper titles had to be modified to accommodate
the acquisition of electronic resources. It is very important, Ms. Kuhlmann stated,
to have one person whose job is to coordinate the entire process of selecting and
acquiring electronic resources, ensuring communication and cooperation among
the parties involved.
In selecting electronic resources, Ms. Kuhlmann advises learning as much as
possible about a resource from advertisements, reviews in the literature, and from
peer libraries that already use the resource. A pre-purchase try-out period (typically
30 days) is another valuable way to glean important information, enabling librarians
and users to evaluate a resource's content, quality, user interface, and
appropriateness for the library's collection. Other factors to consider in the
selection process include the format of the resource (i.e., CD-ROM vs. networked
or Web-based resource), security (IP restrictions vs. user name and password),
access (what is the number of simultaneous users; is off-campus access possible?),
pricing structure, and add-ons (is there a paper or e-mail service that comes with
the electronic resource?).
(continued on page 6)

Technical Services Law Librarian, September, 2000                                                Page 1

Conference Report
Session L4

Technical Services Law Librarian, September, 2000

Page I

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