III. Acquisition versus Borrowing


Information is an intermediate good, used as an input in the researcher's production process.
Hence, demand patterns, combined with transactions costs, will lead libraries to acquire certain
materials and not acquire others. The pattern of acquisition should follow from the specialized
research talent employed by the university. The intensity of usage of a particular item may lead
the library to acquire the publication instead of borrowing it from another library.

Another acquisition issue that must be considered if there is a lack of cooperative collection
effort is the uncertainty factor. After acquiring the high demand, instructional level materials that
they all need for their user community, libraries face the thorny question, "Do we really want to
acquire this research-oriented, lower demand material, if..." The "big if" is: if the individual
library does not acquire the item, can they borrow the item from another library if a user actually
does appear, or will no one acquire the item? This is a difficult decision. In economic terms, it
means {1 }estimating the probability the item will be requested in the future (or number of future
requests), {2}estimating the probabilities that another library will acquire, or that the library can
buy the item on the OP market at that time, versus no one acquires, {3 }figuring the explicit and
implicit costs under each of the above scenarios, then {4} calculating an "expected", or weighted
average, cost of not acquiring the item, then comparing that to the costs associated with
upfront acquisition.

In reality, librarians "guesstimate" or apply some rule of thumb to the acquisition decision, but
their thought process probably contains elements of the above analysis. Either way, one thing
stands out: the higher perceived local demand for the item, the more likely that item will be
acquired even though the item is also likely to be acquired by another library. Conversely, even
if the probability of no one else acquiring the item is high and the costs associated with that
scenario are very high, if local demand is predicted to be very low, that item may not be acquired.
As a result, collections across libraries begin to look similar, not just in the basic instructional
material, but in their collection of lower level research material as well. There may be
"somewhat specialized" library collections oriented towards faculty concentrations, but because
libraries in a non-cooperative environment are "hedging their bets" by acquiring a more diverse
research collection, monies are diverted from in depth acquisitions in one area. To the extent that
cooperation removes the uncertainty aspect from marginal items, libraries can rest assured that
they can forego acquisition and still have access via interlibrary loans. This just leaves the
acquisition decision contingent on local demand, the cost of borrowing, and the cooperative
collection development agreement.

Determining what items would be acquired or not acquired under non-cooperation is an
important component of this analysis. By predicting what publications would not be acquired,
we can begin to construct costs of non-acquisition for the user community. Acquisition entails
the cost of the item, as well as overhead and management costs, and opportunity costs reflecting
alternative uses for the money spent. Borrowing entails delivery costs, processing costs for both
libraries involved, as well as time costs for the ultimate user. When the costs of acquisition are