Event Title
Self-published Books - A Challenge for Traditional Collection Development, Acquisitions, and Cataloging
Document Type
Presentation
Location
Room 405 - Conaton Learning Commons
Start Date
23-5-2017 10:10 AM
End Date
23-5-2017 11:00 AM
Description
- Robert P. Holley, Professor Emeritus, Wayne State University
Self-publishing in the United States has increased to between 50-75% of book titles published annually, facilitated by the popularity of ebooks and print-on-demand. Amazon.com and other companies have encouraged the trend by paying royalties and providing support to authors. Self-published books can be indistinguishable from trade publications but fall outside many of the structures of traditional publishing. Since both public and academic libraries have reasons to acquire self-published materials, the author believes that ways should be found to provide increased bibliographic control since the current system mostly ignores self-published materials. The Library of Congress does not purchase many and excludes them from Cataloging in Publication so that records for shared cataloging are often lacking. Most library vendors do not include them in their inventories. The major library reviewing sources do not publish book reviews or do so separately from reviews from commercial publications. Libraries thus find it difficult and more costly to identify important self-published books, acquire them from their traditional vendors, and find acceptable cataloging.
Some libraries, mostly public, have nonetheless started collecting self-published items, a majority by local authors, and are adding records to the OCLC database. Another positive factor is the large number of reader-generated reviewing sources such as Goodreads. A blogger has proposed a cooperative project to purchase and place self-published materials under bibliographic control. Since, according to Publishers Weekly, fifteen of the 100 bestselling books of 2012 were self-published, libraries, bibliographic agencies, library organizations, and traditional publishers should monitor developments as self-publishing becomes increasingly important.
Self-published Books - A Challenge for Traditional Collection Development, Acquisitions, and Cataloging
Room 405 - Conaton Learning Commons
- Robert P. Holley, Professor Emeritus, Wayne State University
Self-publishing in the United States has increased to between 50-75% of book titles published annually, facilitated by the popularity of ebooks and print-on-demand. Amazon.com and other companies have encouraged the trend by paying royalties and providing support to authors. Self-published books can be indistinguishable from trade publications but fall outside many of the structures of traditional publishing. Since both public and academic libraries have reasons to acquire self-published materials, the author believes that ways should be found to provide increased bibliographic control since the current system mostly ignores self-published materials. The Library of Congress does not purchase many and excludes them from Cataloging in Publication so that records for shared cataloging are often lacking. Most library vendors do not include them in their inventories. The major library reviewing sources do not publish book reviews or do so separately from reviews from commercial publications. Libraries thus find it difficult and more costly to identify important self-published books, acquire them from their traditional vendors, and find acceptable cataloging.
Some libraries, mostly public, have nonetheless started collecting self-published items, a majority by local authors, and are adding records to the OCLC database. Another positive factor is the large number of reader-generated reviewing sources such as Goodreads. A blogger has proposed a cooperative project to purchase and place self-published materials under bibliographic control. Since, according to Publishers Weekly, fifteen of the 100 bestselling books of 2012 were self-published, libraries, bibliographic agencies, library organizations, and traditional publishers should monitor developments as self-publishing becomes increasingly important.
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