The Section regularly co-sponsors programmes of general interest to those concerned with publishing and collection building. The Section is closely monitoring the impact of the electronic environment on acquisitions functions, collection development policies, collection evaluation and assessment, and organisational structures. A major theme attracting the attention of the Section is the selection and acquisition of electronic publications. As access to such materials becomes an increasingly viable alternative to ownership, the Section finds itself working more closely with the IFLA Core Programme on Universal Availability of Publications, and the Sections on Serial Publications and on Document Delivery and Interlibrary Loan. There are over six thousand subscribers to date.
Some sections also have their own listservs and home pages.
Its success depends on the willingness of volunteers across the world to provide input, and the currency is improving now that each Section has its own Information Coordinator. The following note is based on a Press Release dated 25 March 1998. The document addresses current and future electronic information environment issues such as the increasing expectations of library users in a stable funding environment, fair use, archiving of information, pricing strategies, and electronic information delivery metrics. The preferred practices section covers contract negotiations, pricing, data access and archiving, system platforms, licensing terms, information content and its management, and user authentication. The explosion in electronic licensing, the wide variance in publisher practices, rapidly escalating prices, and a concern about the reduction in the number of independent scholarly information providers all served as the impetus for the statement.