Problems in the acquisition of library materials in the traditional Vis-A-Vis electronic acquisition in a university library

Acquisition process in the library pertains to the procurement of books, journals and other non-book material. The working of the libraries, especially of the university libraries is organized into various sections, such as Acquisition, Periodical, Circulation, Reference, Maintenance, etc. for proper management. Amongst these, the Acquisition Section is the most important as it deals with the acquisition of new reading material in the library.

The paper deals with the objectives and functioning of the Acquisition Section. It describes the Traditional as well as the Electronic Method of acquisition, and the advantage of electronic acquisition over the traditional one. Various problems of the Acquisition Section have been discussed at length and some suggestions have been given to improve the functioning of this important section of the library, which is also known as “The Heart of the Library”.