THE LIBERTAS ACQUISITIONS SYSTEM

Abstract

At the time of writing (late December 1987), SLS Swalcap Library Services Ltd was in the process of demonstrating to existing and potential customers the order/acquisitions facilities of its integrated library system LIBERTAS. The software is to be installed in its beta test‐site, the Polytechnic of Central London, early in 1988. This article takes a first look at acquisitions in LIBERTAS, based on a demonstration at SLS. It concentrates on the general principles and on the online processes; obviously order printing, claims production and other batch output form a crucial part of any acquisitions system but cannot be realistically assessed until running and tested in an actual library. This first release of LIBERTAS acquisitions software provides for order creation and production, for chasing and claiming, for fund or budget control, for receipting and accessioning and for invoice processing and payment. It includes options for the placement of orders for serials, for standing orders and for non‐bibliographic materials such as, say, stationery or equipment. However, it is the monograph acquisitions facilities which have been most fully and comprehensively developed and it is, therefore, on these that this article concentrates. Serials, for example, does have the basis of a subscription control and journal issue receipting system, though what is currently available is better viewed as the hooks on which the future serials software will hang rather than as a definitive solution.

Citation

(1987), "THE LIBERTAS ACQUISITIONS SYSTEM", VINE, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 4-12. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb040383