Title: Acquisitions Department Correspondence, 1925-2012
ID: 35/2/40
Primary Creator: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Technical Departments
Extent: 7.6 cubic feet
Arrangement: alphabetically by subject and chronologically thereunder
Subjects: Acquisitions, Library Acquisitions, Library Automation, Library Buildings, Library Statistics, Library Surveys
Formats/Genres: Papers
Languages: English
Acquisitions Department Correspondence including order cards, announcements, correspondence, meeting minutes, notes, receipts, reports, schedules, surveys, vouchers, clippings, newsletters, lists, plans and inventories received from or sent to administrators, library officials, faculty, colleagues, booksellers, and donors concerning equipment, personnel, notable acquisition (Churchill and Sandburg Collections), presentation slides, book plates, procedures, job descriptions, World War II, serials records, Farminton Plan, gifts and exchanges, budgets, ALA Mid-Winter Conferences, building plans, dissertations, faculty buying, post office and customs regulations, PL480, preservation, best practices for electronic resources, Residence Hall Collections, subscriptions, Undergraduate Library Collection, university presses, policy statements, CDS, pictures, core lists of journals, retirement of Robert B. Downs, English Department, automation systems and statistics. This series also includes Periodical Department (1914-53) and Serials Department (1954-95) Acquisitions File, containing a sample (1914, 1923, 1955) of purchase orders, exchange requests, claim requests, and related correspondence regarding periodical or serials titles ordered by the University. The remainder of the Periodicals Department Acquisitions file was destroyed in 2003 under a Records Disposal Authorization.
Acquisitions, cataloging, serials, and special languages are the technical departments of the Campus Library. Together with their divisions, such as binding, photographic services, gift and exchanges, and documents, the departments order, receive, organize, and prepare library material. In 1897, the Catalog Department was formed, with the responsibility for classifying and cataloging all books acquired to make them available for users. In 1904, an Order Department was established for the acquisition of books. During the next thirty years, divisions developed within these two departments. The Catalog Department included general cataloging, serials cataloging and card divisions. The Order Department had purchase, gift and exchange and periodicals divisions. Acquisitions procures western language monographs, and the cataloging department arranges them for use. Except for newspapers, western language serial publications are handled by the serial department. Non-Roman alphabet serials and monographs are responsibility of the special languages department and its three divisions; Far Eastern, South and West Asian, and Slavic.1 All the technical departments grew out of cataloging and ordering activities that, in 1916, formed three departments: binding, order, and catalog.2 In 1942, the order department received the new designation of acquisitions. Its responsibilities covered photographic services and binding.3 In 1955, several activities of the catalog and acquisitions department were detached and combined to set up the serials department. Its chief tasks have to do with the obtaining, cataloging, and classifying printed matter published at intervals.4 In 1964, the special languages department was established.5 In 1966, the Automation Division of the Serials Department was formed.
1. Library Annual Report, 1972-73, p. 3, 9; Library Annual Report, 1974-75, pp. 1-4.
2. Board of Trustees Transactions, 28th Report, June 30, 1916, p. 25.
3. Board of Trustees Transactions, 41st Report, June 30, 1942, pp. 567, 1105.
4. Board of Trustees Transactions, 48th Report, June 30, 1956, p. 1403.
5. Board of Trustees Transactions, Supplement, 53rd Report, July 21, 1965, p. 163.
Acquisitions
Library Acquisitions
Library Automation
Library Buildings
Library Statistics
Library Surveys
URL: https://files.archon.library.illinois.edu/uasfa/3502040.pdf
PDF finding aid for Acquisitions Department Correspondence (35/2/40)