1996 RESEARCH AWARD
             LIBRARY ACQUISITIONS: PRACTICE & THEORY

     The Library Acquisitions: Practice & Theory (LAPT) Research Award
provides an annual prize of $1,000 for research in the broad areas of
acquisitions, serials, publishing, and collection management.  The award
will be given for one proposal and administered in two parts: $500 when
the proposal is selected to fund the research effort and $500 when the
completed manuscript is submitted to Library Acquisitions: Practice &
Theory.  The award will be granted to the individual, not the institution,
and may be used to cover expenses incurred in conducting the research
outlined in the winning proposal, including travel, postage, staff
support, supplies, and other items.

     The winning proposal will identify a critical issue in acquisitions,
serials, publishing, or collection management and outline a rigorous
approach to testing or solving the issue raised.  Proposals will be judged
on their significance, clarity and originality.  The proposal should be a
brief, concise description of the project (no more than 500 words).  A
budget proposal and a one page vita of the author must be attached.
Awards will not be limited to experienced researchers; however,
researchers should present their proposal clearly addressing the following
issues:

     1.   What are the aims and objectives of the research proposal?
     2.   What methodology and data analysis procedures will be employed?
     3.   What related research has been undertaken and/or published?
          Please include specific citations.
     4.   Is the research replication of a previous study?

     The deadline for submitting proposals is February 15, 1996.
Proposals will be reviewed by a panel consisting of the editor-in-chief,
the assistant editors, and three members of the editorial board.  The
winning proposal will be announced at the annual American Library
Association Conference in 1996 and in the fourth issue of LAPT for the
year.  Research for the winning proposal must be completed within one year
of the date when the award is announced.  Library Acquisitions: Practice &
Theory reserves the right of first refusal of the completed manuscript.

     Information on past recipients and their research follows:

     1992 -- Anna H. Perrault -- "The Shrinking Collection: A Study of the
     Effects of the Diversion of Funds from Monographs to Serials on the
     Monograph Collections of Research Libraries"  Published in LAPT v.
     18, no. 1, pp. 3-22.
          This study investigated the shrinking non-serial resources base
     for United States academic libraries, shifts in monographic
     collecting patterns and trends in the acquisition of foreign language
     imprints, and the decline in monograph acquisitions as distributed
     across subject disciplines or among language groups.

     1993 -- Samuel Demas, Anne S. Caputo, and William J. Kara --
     "Viability of the Vendor Model of Information Delivery Through a
     Library Gateway"
          The study aims to determine the viability of the 'vendor model'
     of information delivery through a library gateway.  By offering a
     campus community unrestricted access to an unprecedented scope of
     electronic information, libraries and vendors will learn for the
     first time: which files are used, how much they are used, by whom
     they are used (e.g. faculty, staff, students), and at what times of
     the day and night.

     1994 -- Tina E. Chrzastowski and Karen A. Schmidt -- "The Serials
     Cancellation Crisis: Determining Recent National Trends in Academic
     Library Serial Collections Through the Use of Commercial Vendor
     Subscription Records"
          The study will determine how recent rounds of serial
     cancellations have affected academic research collections nationwide.
     It will identify national trends in serials collections by analyzing
     serial cancellations and serial orders over three year (1991-1993)
     from ten academic research libraries located throughout the United
     States.  This study builds on the earlier work of the researchers,
     "Surveying the Damage: Academic Library Serial Cancellations 1987-88
     through 1989-90," which appeared in College and Research Libraries,
     volume 54, no. 2 (March 1993, pp. 93-102.

     1995 -- no award made

Proposals and questions concerning this year's award should be addressed to:

                       Carol Pitts Hawks
                        Editor-in-Chief
            Library Acquisitions: Practice & Theory
                     2338 Antigua Drive #2C
                       Columbus, OH 43235
                         (614) 292-6314
                      FAX: (614) 292-2015
                    Internet: hawks.1@osu.edu