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The escalating price of the rapidly growing number of electronic journals, databases, indexes, and books, along with traditionally published print subscriptions and monographs, will soon force library administrators and collection development officers to make decisions between electronic or print products in the new millennium. The increasing costs of the dual format subscriptions or indexes are unfeasible and perhaps even unnecessary from the users’ point of view in the disciplines of political science and economics. The researcher compared the annual subscription prices and the percentage increases of the 203 core printed journals with their electronic counterparts in the disciplines of political science and economics during the 1998‐2000 academic years. The complete list of electronically available titles was identified and priced, then titles costing greater than $500 were separated. The electronic use statistics were examined for the expensive serials, based upon the numbers of hits cumulated by users’ requests via the Web sites of the Texas A&M University Libraries. After the pricing information and use statistics for both electronic and printed resources were produced, the researcher had a clear answer to the electronic and paper dilemma.

Fee‐based electronic resources such as full‐text journals, databases, abstracts, and indexes are widely available for library users. However, scholarly books and reference sources are usually not available in electronic format, and particular disciplines are not significantly represented by available electronic sources. Traditional document delivery serves as a complement to electronic resources, and offers patrons timely access to materials not available in electronic format. The data represent document delivery requests during the academic years 1997‐1999 at the Policy Sciences and Economics Library (PSEL), a branch library of the Texas A&M University General Libraries. The requests were sorted by academic departments, user types, call numbers, and type of material. The statistics served two primary purposes. First, frequently requested items were ordered for the library’s permanent collection. Second, the data were compared to electronic resource usage statistics to determine which resources best serve the patrons. The statistics assisted the library administrators in making collection management decisions and projected short‐ and long‐term budgetary needs.

Unlimited access to the Internet and the widespread availability of both full‐text electronic resources and printed materials in many academic libraries offer almost unrestricted access to users for their research and curriculum needs. Yet the overwhelming availability and supply of information forces users to sort and filter through the wealth of information and sometimes make educated guesses regarding their validity and reliability. In order to determine user priorities and preferences for information resources and their selection criteria, questionnaires were distributed to faculty, graduate, and selected upper‐level undergraduate students of the Departments of Economics, Political Science, and the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. The survey results show that for scholarly research or serious curriculum needs the use of printed materials is still popular among faculty and graduate students, while undergraduates primarily prefer to use Internet services.

The American University of Sharjah (AUS) in the United Arab Emirates was established in 1997. The university’s international curriculum and the library holdings have changed with the growth of the student enrollment. Assessment of the library collection was, therefore, necessary to maintain the quality of the materials. The objectives of the assessment were to support the international mission and curriculum of the university and to identify the unique materials to the region and gaps in the collection. Collection development policies were created that were unique to the Gulf region. In addition, the international faculty responded to a collection development survey and participated in a serials evaluation project. As a result of the assessment, an intensive collection development program was undertaken, the approval plan extended, and thousands of new monographs ordered. The project became a model for other newly developed libraries in the Gulf region.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/01604959810227240. When citing the article, please cite: Elka Tenner, Suzanne D. Gyeszly, Julia M. Rholes, (1998), “Electronic and traditional sources for a newly established branch library: product availability and user preferences”, Collection Building, Vol. 17 Iss: 3, pp. 123 - 128.

Texas A&M University (TAMU) Libraries is a member of two consortiums that include academic and public libraries. Both consortiums purchased access to netLibrary e‐books for their members. Approximately 92 libraries within the Amigos Library Services consortium jointly purchased roughly 10,000 e‐books. The Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC), which oversees a consortium of approximately 700 state‐supported libraries, purchased roughly 9,000 e‐books. TAMU purchased an additional 193 e‐books for its own collection. The purpose of this project was to explore the use of netLibrary as an electronic collection development tool. The Library Extranet, netLibrary’s data‐gathering software, provided information necessary to compare usage based on subject categories. Data was cumulated for a total of 270 days comparing TAMU’s usage to that of the combined consortiums. Final analysis and results are provided. Collection development librarians will use these results to fine‐tune the future growth of TAMU and consortium collections.

The magnitude of Texas A&M's revision of its collection policy is evident in the doubling of the student population to 36,000 over ten years and a 69 percent collection growth to 1.44 million volumes. The intensity of the change in demands on the collection, whether in titles purchased, variety of formats, or depth of subject representation, required a major effort on the part of collection development staff. Collection development staff surveyed the University's teaching as well as research arms involving the capabilities of all university librarians. The net result was an updated collection development policy, the development of a self‐teaching guide for future collection development undertaking, and an increased awareness on the part of the librarians about the university as well as on the part of the academic faculty about the university librarians' capabilities.

One of the fastest growing sectors of the United States economy is the service industry, and tourism is almost the largest segment of this business. Tourists spent $17.3 billion in Texas during 1987, which is a 6.9 percent share of the United States travel and tourism market. In 1987, the Texas state legislature created the new state Department of Commerce (DOC). According to the chairman of DOC, two of the major thrusts of its strategy are business development and tourism. The agency is financed with .5 percent of the state hotel tax revenue, which is approximately $6 million per year. This amount finances a toll‐free number for potential visitors to call requesting Texas travel information and an unprecedented national advertising campaign, including television commercials.

The purpose of this article is to discuss a project to enhance Texas A&M University at Qatar Library's (TAMUQL's) engineering curriculum, graduate, and research programs with newly acquired monographs and maps.

The project was carried out with the partnership and cooperation of TAMUQL, YBP Library Services and TAMUL.

The project succeeded in meeting the objectives of the project, which included supporting the needs of freshmen to senior levels of the liberal arts curriculum as well as those of the faculty.

This paper adds to the growing documentation of the value of working partnerships between libraries and vendors.

For libraries, the trend toward electronic publishing of journals holds out the promise of greater availability of these materials without regard to physical location either of the collection or the patron. The establishment of the Policy Sciences and Economics Library (PSEL), as a branch of the Sterling C. Evans Library at Texas A&M University, was an opportunity to test this hypothesis. In concert with faculty from the departments of political science, economics and the George Bush School of Government and Public Service, reference and collection development librarians developed a core collection for this facility. The librarians hoped to be able to rely primarily on electronic journals to satisfy initial faculty research needs. However, a review of journals requested by the faculty served at PSEL revealed that not enough of these titles were available electronically. Further, what was available electronically often did not include the full‐text, cover‐to‐cover completeness necessary. Faculty preferences remain for the print versions, citing problems with coverage, reliability and accessibility of electronic journals.