Acquisitions & Collection Development Round Table

Acquisitions and Collection
Development Round Table

HISTORY
(1965-2001)

The Acquisitions & Collection Development Round Table (originally established as the Acquisitions Round Table) was one of the Round Tables ultimately created after a major reorganization of the Texas Library Association (TLA) in the 1950’s. The TLA Constitution and Bylaws were approved by the membership in 1961, so in 1961 several groups petitioned TLA for Round Table status.

John B. Corbin presided at the organizational meeting of the newly approved Acquisitions Round Table on April 1, 1965. At that time, he was the Director of Technical Services at the Texas State Library. The first program was entitled "Mechanization in Order Work," and the speaker was Robert J. Anderson, an IBM Systems Engineer. Corbin called for nominations from the floor when it came time to elect officers for the new Round Table, and the following people were elected as the first officers in the Acquisitions Round Table:

Chairman: Mary-Louise Vance, University of Houston

Vice-Chairman: Louise Evans, North Texas State University

Secretary-Treasurer: Adah May Obenhaus, Southwest Texas State College

By March of 1966, membership in the Round Table had grown to ninety-eight members with $38.65 in the TLA account for the Acquisitions Round Table. Bylaws for the new organization were submitted with the minutes of the meeting. The title of the program for 1966 was "The Impact of Federal Funds on Acquisitions" and was attended by one hundred and thirty-five people. The original goals for the Acquisitions Round Table were:

To encourage membership in TLA for all Texas librarians; to encourage attendance at TLA Conventions
To improve library service by promoting meaningful projects and enlightening programs and discussions
To unite and stimulate librarians who have mutual interest and common problems

When the Round Table held its next meeting on March 17, 1967 in Ft Worth, Dan Lacy presented a program entitled "Publishers, Library Acquisitions, and the Future." The treasury had grown to $80.95 and there were ninety members.

On April 5, 1968, at the annual conference meeting in San Antonio, Mrs. T.C. Fischer, from the Ft Worth Public Library, used slides to present a program entitled "The Fort Worth Centralized Processing Center." By this time, the Round Table membership had grown to 160 members and the treasury contained $141.85.

At the annual conference program meeting in Houston on March 28, 1969, there was a program entitled, "Building Up Library Resources in Texas." The Second Texas Conference on Library Automation was sponsored as a pre-conference on March 27, and the first edition of Directory of Automation Projects in Texas Libraries was published, under the leadership of John Corbin.

At the April 2, 1971 breakfast business meeting of the Acquisitions Round Table, the future direction of the Round Table was questioned. Should they still exist if there were only business meetings and tutorials? The group decided to continue to provide a program and a breakfast business at the annual TLA conferences. At this time, the Round Table had 140 members and $283.38 in the treasury.

Both the Chair and the Secretary-Treasurer of the Round Table moved out of state before the 1972 annual conference in Galveston on April 7, 1972, but business went on as usual with Bill Peace presiding and John Corbin taking minutes. Several topics for tutorials were discussed: Collection building, Automation, Operation Systems, and Duties of collection officers. At the breakfast business meeting, the group also voted to request representation on the TLA Council.

On March 28, 1974, at the Acquisitions Round Table meeting in San Antonio, Marion Travis, Assistant Director at the Institute of Texan Cultures, discussed the institute and entertained questions from the audience.

In 1975, the Round Table tried a new approach by co-sponsoring a program meeting with the Administration Round Table at the TLA Annual Conference in Dallas. Dr. P. R. Jeanneret, a management consultant for a Houston firm, discussed "Management by Objectives and the Measurement of Libraries. This concept was successful as 250 people attended the program. By this time, the Round Table had 233 members, although only 15 attended the business meeting.

The program for the annual conference in Houston on April 9, 1976 was a panel discussion entitled "Acquisitions in a New Library," and focused on the growth of the Tyler State College Library which grew from zero to 50,000 titles within a relatively short period of time. By this time, the treasury had grown to $659.68. Topics for future programs were discussed and the following topics rose to the top: Automation, collection building, office management, censorship, and Texas acquisitions systems.

On April 15, 1977, the Round Table met in El Paso, and had 70 people present for the meeting. The next year the annual conference was held in Ft. Worth and 80 people attend a program on April 6^th entitled "Collection Development" in which collection development policies were discussed. At this time there were 114 members in the Round Table and the treasury held $1332.

On April 5, 1979, the Acquisitions Round Table sponsored a program entitled "Gifts: What to Tell the Patron" that discussed the problems and policies involved in acquiring and accessing gift materials in Acquisitions Departments. The meeting, held in San Antonio, was attended by 70 people. Round Table membership was 145 in 1979 and the treasury held $1383.

The program for the April 17, 1980 Acquisitions Round Table meeting was entitled "Anatomy of a Collection." The speaker was Jenkins Garrett, a Ft. Worth attorney and bibliophile. A total of 50 people attended the program that year. There were 129 members in the Round Table and the treasury amount had risen to $1553. Jo Ann Karges, from Texas Christian University became the first Councilor to represent the Acquisitions Round Table, and Marie Heyden from San Houston State University was the alternate.

At the April 2, 1981 meeting of the Acquisitions Round Table the Bylaws were revised to officially include the new elected office of Councilor. The program was entitled "The State of Cooperative Acquisitions in Texas" and was a panel format. There were 163 members in the Round Table in 1981 and over $1600 in the treasury.

In Fort Worth, on March 31, 1982, 120 people attended an Acquisitions Round Table program presented by Richard Boss entitled "State of the Art in Automated Library Systems." Membership in the Round Table was 152 in 1982 and the treasury held $1810.

In 1984, revised Bylaws for the Round Table were approved, greatly expanding the section about Officers to clarify the duties of the officers. A Board of Directors section was created in the Bylaws and Nominations and Elections became a section of its own. The Bylaws grew in size from 1 ½ pages to 5 ½ pages and in content to comply with Council guidelines and current practice.

The program for the 1985 Acquisitions Round Table meeting, held on April 25, was entitled "Collection Development Information Systems" and the speaker was Glyn Evans, the Vice-Chancellor for Library Services at the State University of New York. There were 54 people in attendance.

The Round Table program in Fort Worth on April 10, 1986 was entitled "Texana Collections: Acquisitions from the Past – Possibilities for the Future." The treasury amount had declined to $358 and the Round Table was seeking ways to bolster its membership.

On April 9, 1987, Susan Nutter from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology spoke on the topic "The Use of Online Systems in the Management of Collections." The treasury held $510 in 1987, and the Round Table approved a name change to the Acquisitions and Collection Development Round Table, partially to encourage participation from faculty and staff involved in the building collections rather than simply the purchasing aspects of acquiring library materials. There was also a "Business of Acquisitions" preconference attended by 75 registrants prior to the TLA annual conference.

At the next annual TLA conference in Corpus Christi, the Acquisitions and Collection Development (A&CD) Round Table presented a program jointly with the Texas Regional Group of Catalogers and Classifiers on April 21, 1988. The title of the program was "Rough Seas or Smooth Sailing: Automation’s Impact on Libraries."

In April of 1989, the A&CD Round Table established a new tradition for planning a vendor breakfast at each TLA Annual Conference, sponsored by library vendors who participated in the breakfast and had time to visit with librarians in a casual setting away from the exhibit hall. The business meeting of the Round Table was held in conjunction with the breakfast and an additional time slot was scheduled for the program "Serials Pricing: Up, Up, and Up." The speaker was Don Riggs.

Through the years, the Acquisitions and Collection Development Round Table has sought to keep up with current trends in the field of identifying and acquiring library materials for all types of libraries. The Round Table has tried to include speakers and participation from school libraries, public libraries, and academic libraries to better meet the variety of informational needs in libraries in the State of Texas. The goals established in the early years for the A & CD Round Table and will continue to guide it in the future.

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