WESTERN-EUROPEAN POLITICAL-SCIENCE - AN ACQUISITION STUDY

National bibliographies from 1990 for France, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, Iceland, and Catalonia (Spain) formed the basis for a study of U.S and Canadian acqusitions in the field of Western European political scien ce materials. Of the materials deemed important to be available in at least one research library in the United States or Canada, 15 percent of French, 30 percent of Italian, 55 percent of Swedish, 19 percent of Catalan, 75 percent of Icelandic, and 57 percent of Belgian materials were not found in a search of RLIN and OCLC. The citations were furth er examined for patterns of ownership, and it was found that in some c ases traditional collecting patterns and agreements still seemed to be functioning to bring some materials into libraries, but in other case s a lack or decline of traditional commitments meant that these countr ies were particularly underrepresented in research library collections . Factors in addition to acquisition funding were identified as import ant in providing for adequate collecting levels. These include adequat e staff in collection development and acquisitions, as well as attenti on to cataloging these materials and making information about their av ailability accessible.