>Ouch!  He lures me into dropping my guard and then flames with faint
praise!
:-)

But you have to admit they're pretty cool (thermally) flames! ; )

While we have edged away from the topic, I do want to point out one other
possibility for the ILL/Acquisitions dilemma:

>When a patron makes an ILL request, instead of immediately pursuing a loan
>from another institution, we will forward that request to Acquisitions.  If
>a copy can be purchased immediately -- either from a standard new-book
>vendor or an out-of-print dealer -- we will buy it on a rush/notify basis.
>If a copy is not commercially available, we will send the request back to
>ILL and follow the usual ILL procedure.  In my experience on both sides of
>the library-vendor relationship, it is usually possible to get a book
_very_
>quickly -- assuming you're willing to pay for speed.  This often means
going
>straight to the publisher for in-print titles.

A third option already exists in many places where libraries have formed
consortia is that if another library within the consortium has the
monograph, it can usually be delivered within 24 - 36 hours depending on the
delivery service. What this does, where the transaction is patron-initiated,
is relieves the ILL burden at the same time that it also broadens the use of
materials which a library may have acquired as part of an approval plan
(sorry, couldn't help inserting that!) and part of the real thrust of such a
system is to foster co-operative collection development to a certain extent
within consortia.

Peter

Dr. Peter V. Picerno
Acquisitions and Serials Librarian
Nova Southeastern University Libraries
3301 College Avenue
Fort Lauderdale   FL   33314
(954) 262-4662
FAX (954) 262-3946