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Network Bulletin No. 98-61 Date: November 13, 1998 Subject: Collection development Index term: National Advisory Group on Collection Building Activities, 1998; recommendations and NLS responses Enclosed is a copy of the responses to the recommendations made by the National Advisory Group on Collection Building Activities at the meeting September 16-18, 1998. Enclosure For further information contact: Ruth J. Foss Head, Collection Development Section ___________________________________________________________ Attachment Recommendations of the 1998 National Advisory Group on Collection-Building Activities with NLS Responses 1. Committee recommends that NLS make it a high priority to update the Magazines in Special Media catalog. Response: The 1998 revision to Magazines in Special Media is now available in large print and on the NLS website. It will also be produced in cassette, flexible disc, and braille formats. 2. Committee recommends that NLS review the current collection production rates in relation to existing policy statements, such as the allocation of children's and foreign-language materials, and fiction to nonfiction ratios. Response: The Collection Development and Production Control Sections have recently adjusted NLS production rates to achieve the desired balance between adult and juvenile, and braille and recorded materials. For example, juveniles (defined by NLS as children thirteen years and under) represent approximately five percent of the national readership. However, to encourage reading at an early age, NLS will continue to produce twenty-two percent (reduced from thirty- six percent) of the titles selected for this audience. Similarly, only two or three percent of NLS adult readers use braille, although NLS, to promote braille literacy, will continue to produce twenty-two percent of selected materials in braille and print-braille (reduced from thirty-two percent in recent years). Fiction versus nonfiction and current versus retrospective ratios are considered at every stage, beginning with selection. Although CDS monitors the book publishing market closely, we are aware that what is available in print at any given time may influence our ability to maintain the balances stated by NLS policies. Similarly, the availability of narrators or the workload of producers may affect balances temporarily. One of CDS's primary responsibilities is to examine the collection to verify what it contains, to understand its strengths and weaknesses, and to determine what needs to be weeded and what needs to be added. In performing these duties, we welcome suggestions from this committee, NLS network library staff, and readers. Please see Response No. 5 concerning foreign-language materials. 3. Committee recommends that NLS increase the number of fiction titles, including bestsellers by popular authors, in braille as well as recorded format. Response: We will make more fiction titles by popular authors available in braille. However, most popular titles, particularly bestsellers, will still need to be produced in a recorded format. As you know, production in duplicate formats will reduce the total number of new titles that will be made available annually. Some fiction titles are simply too ephemeral in nature to justify the additional expense of braille production and long-term storage. We are also committed to meeting the informational needs and preferences of all readers. Nonfiction, therefore, will remain an important part of the NLS collections. 4. Committee recommends that NLS include in its outreach efforts children who are mainstreamed in schools. Response: NLS has consistently provided information to a wide range of organizations involved with mainstreaming issues and children who are mainstreamed. NLS has implemented all available options. State and local librarians, however, can work with their boards of education. Person-to-person contact at the regional and subregional library is perceived as a very effective approach. 5. Committee recommends that NLS continue to produce a minimum of thirty-five foreign-language titles per year, with an emphasis on Spanish, not excluding other languages. Response: Unfortunately, the FY 99 budget will limit NLS production of foreign-language titles to twenty-five. Also, please bear in mind that currently a single producer, who employs one or two narrators, is under contract to produce titles in Spanish for NLS. Due to the economics of contracting procedures, it may not be feasible for a producer to audition, employ, and retain a narrator to record a small number of titles other than Spanish. If NLS were to consider producing talking books in a foreign language besides Spanish, it would be to produce up to five titles in one other language only, most likely Vietnamese. For the most part, the NLS foreign-language collection will continue to be developed by purchasing recorded materials in various languages from producers, including foreign agencies for the blind and commercial sources. This mechanism allows NLS to include many more foreign languages in the collection than would be possible if NLS tried to produce all foreign- language materials itself. 6. Committee recommends that NLS continue to produce all titles in an existing series, as defined in the 1997 recommendations. A series, as defined by the committee, is a collection of books with a continuous story line that must be read sequentially. Since some titles may be out of print, we recommend that NLS pursue every means of obtaining these titles. Response: We will continue our attempt to do so. Unfortunately, a vacant library technician position in CDS tends to slow the effort to locate out-of-print titles. 7. Committee recommends that the braille-formatted files of magazine texts be included with the other braille material available through the NLS website. Response: NLS will focus first on mounting braille books on the NLS website through the Web-Braille project. In the last quarter of fiscal year 1999 NLS will investigate adding braille magazines. 8. Committee recommends that NLS narrators insert an appropriate pause where necessary to indicate a transition between the sections of a book. Response: The use of pauses to indicate transitions between sections of a book is a practice used by skilled NLS narrators. NLS will encourage studio narrators and monitors to make full use of this technique. 9. Committee recommends that NLS encourage network libraries to continue to share their volunteer recordings through the Union Catalog. Response: This is done on an ongoing basis through suggestions made during consultant visits and by encouraging network librarians to participate in the quality assurance program at the Multistate Center East. Earlier this year, the Bibliographic Control Section (BCS) implemented an electronic and paper process by which network libraries can submit "in-process" information for titles they are working on. This information is included in the BPHI file on Web- BLND and updated weekly. BCS is also developing a process for libraries to submit cooperative cataloging electronically. 10. Committee recommends that NLS produce its bibliographies in large print, computer diskette, and recorded formats, and make the bibliographies available on the NLS webpage. Response: NLS-produced subject bibliographies are currently available in large-print, braille, and recorded formats. NLS is beginning, and will continue, to mount these bibliographies on its webpage. We have no plans to provide them on computer diskette. On the other hand, network libraries have the option of downloading NLS bibliographies and making them available to readers in diskette among other formats. 11. Committee recommends that NLS pursue the production of titles on alternative medicine and stress reduction in braille as well as recorded formats. Response: We will do so. At least twenty such titles are currently in process. Other subject headings that may be used to locate related titles include: holistic medicine, healing, mind and body, relaxation, yoga, massage, meditation, stress, herbs, folk medicine, chiropractic, and health. 12. Committee recommends that NLS improve access to network library- produced bibliographies via the Internet. Response: NLS continues to look at ways to accomplish this goal. Listing network-produced bibliographies is the easy part. However, by doing so we create an expectation that a network library can provide a copy to anyone who requests it; this is not always possible. We also may create the expectation that a network-produced bibliography will be similar to an NLS-produced bibliography, which is also not always the case. 13. Committee recommends that NLS encourage network libraries to download braille-formatted materials from the NLS website to computer diskettes for distribution to patrons who have no access to the Internet. Response: NLS will explore this option. 14. Committee recommends, for the second time, that NLS include the volume number, issue number, and date on the first side of each recorded magazine since this information is displayed on the title page of braille magazines. Response: The date is included. The NLS Engineering Change Control Board will consider the inclusion of issue and volume numbers. 15. Committee recommends that NLS update its reference circulars pertaining to materials not produced by NLS, such as educational and reference books, and announce the availability of these reference circulars in Talking Book Topics (TBT) and Braille Book Review (BBR). Response: The NLS Reference Section produces new and revised publications, including bibliographies and circulars, annually. An up-to-date catalog of all reference titles appears in Facts: Books for Blind and Physically Handicapped Individuals, published each year in January. New bibliographies and circulars, as published, are also posted on the NLS website and announced in TBT and BBR. An update of Reference Books in Special Media is in process. 16. Committee recommends that, because many patrons comment on their difficulty in hearing high-pitched voices, the NLS Research and Development staff investigate playback devices that have the capability of adjusting the pitch of the voice without affecting the speed. Response: With analog cassette technology, independently adjusting speed and pitch is not economically feasible. Digital technology, however, makes it more practical. Independently adjustable speed and pitch is one of the features to be included in the digital talking book presently in development. 17. Committee recommends that, at the end of a cassette book, the narrator instruct the reader to either rewind or fast forward the tape, whichever is appropriate. Response: This suggestion has been previously considered by the NLS Engineering Change Control Board and failed to win its approval. The ECCB believes that patrons could interpret this instruction as condescending or demeaning. Moreover, NLS policy recommends that all returned books be opened and inspected by the library upon return. If necessary, rewind or fast forward can be done at that time. 18. Committee commends the Collection Development Section Head, Ruth Foss, and staff for their excellent facilitation of this meeting, including travel arrangements, hotel accommodations, and transportation. Response: Thank you. We too are pleased that all of these arrangements went smoothly. 19. Committee commends the NLS staff for its attention to and prompt action in the implementation of the recommendations of the 1997 committee. Response: Thank you. The ability to fill librarian positions has been most helpful. 20. Committee commends NLS for its continued solicitation of suggestions from patrons and network librarians for selection of library materials. Response: We will continue to do so. 21. Committee commends NLS for its leadership in providing patrons and network staff with improved access to the Union Catalog through electronic media, for example, the CD-ROM catalog, and the World Wide Web. Response: NLS will continue to explore ways, including new technology, to improve access to the collections. 22. Committee commends NLS for its continued effort toward providing a balanced collection of titles with and without explicitly sexual content. Response: This remains an ongoing effort. 23. Recognizing that patrons must have playback equipment in order to access the NLS recorded collection, the committee commends the Materials Development Division for procuring, maintaining, and supplying a sufficient number of machines. Response: Everyone involved in this process appreciates your recognition.