Academic library monographic acquisitions: Selection of Choice's Outstanding Academic Books

There are strong indications that academic libraries are acquiring fewer un ique titles, prompting the concern that the nation's library resources are effectively shrinking. This study examines one portion of that concern-the acquisition of particular titles by academic libraries of various sizes. Th e source for the titles is "Outstanding Academic Books, " as selected by Ch oice for several years. Holdings are taken from the OCLC/AMIGOS Collection Analysis CD-ROM products. Findings demonstrate that across all subject and for broad subject areas, there have been significant declines in holdings o ver time and for all groupings of libraries. The changes in holdings over t ime are not always significant when specific subject areas are measured, ho wever. In general, the concern that has been expressed regarding shrinking library resources is corroborated in this study. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd.