An assessment of publisher quality by political science librarians

Publisher quality is one criterion used by collection development librarian s in making book selection decisions. Few studies have assessed the percept ions subject specialist librarians have about the quality of academic publi shers' output in specific disciplines. The author surveyed a sample of memb ers of the Association of College and Research Libraries Law & Political Sc ience Section, asking them to assess the overall quality of political scien ce books published by sixty-two academic presses and imprints. The results are reported, analyzed, and compared to a similar survey of members of the American Political Science Association. Many similarities are seen in the r ankings, although, on the whole, librarians ranked university presses highe r and commercial publishers lower than did political scientists.