The Acquisitions Librarian as Change Agent in the Transition to the Electronic Library

Abstract

All information services, regardless of the format used to convey the information, can be divided into the two fundamental categories of delivery and mediation. Delivery is the less visible but no less critical service responsible for shifting the physical information package among different locations. Delivery will become an increasingly significant—but no less invisible—function after the arrival of routine electronic publishing. Acquisitions administrators—who, along with circulation, interlibrary loan, and preservation officers, have primary responsibility for delivery in the paper-based academic library of today—need to begin planning now to expand their knowledge and responsibilities to respond to the new requirements for information delivery in the rapidly approaching age of networked information. If they can achieve such objectives, acquisitions staff will play a key role in improving the future contributions of the library to the academy.