Difficulties for Western Nations in Obtaining Publications from Other Nations

Extract

For science librarians in the developed nations of the West, the difficulties of obtaining publications from other parts of the world seem to center around two interconnected factors: the number of copies printed of each publication and the availability of timely information about publication plans. For example, as quite a few people in today’s audience are aware, many advanced research publications from the Soviet Union are issued in relatively small quantities. As a result, libraries in the West must often order Soviet books in advance of publication in order to have a reasonable chance of obtaining them. By the time a specific title from the Soviet Union gets listed in the national bibliography, Knizhnaia letopis’, copies are no longer available for purchase. With respect to periodicals, the limited number of copies has an effect both on new orders and on claims. An order to initiate a subscription must be submitted several months in advance of the first issue of the volume which is to start fulfillment of the subscription. Otherwise one or more issues will be missed; only those issues actually published after the subscription has taken effect will be received by the subscribing library. After a subscription is firmly established, there is always a possibility that a particular issue may not be received by the subscriber. Libraries in the West are accustomed to sending in a claim for each missing issue, but this is seldom effective in the instance of Soviet periodicals, since few (if any) extra copies are printed.