Procedure:
The actual process of document selection may be initiated in different ways. The acquisition staff take note of the desirable items and present them to the subject experts for approval. Alternatively the subject experts themselves or the subject departments may make indents for items they recommend. In both instances, the acquisition staff are responsible for the routine jobs connected with selection. It is their duty to collect, complete and correct information on the documents. So also it is their risk to allow all unnecessary and unintentional duplications. Therefore, adequate care should be taken to ensure that the items selected are not already available in the library. An acceptable selection procedure can be outlined as follows:
1) Scanning All the currently received sources should be scanned regularly. Old sources should be scanned only for specific needs. Items found desirable may be ticked off in the sources: Your knowledge about the existing collection and about the items already selected or ordered will help you in avoiding duplication at this stage. If necessary, the marked items may be forwarded to the librarian and his concurrence obtained.
2) Scrutiny The purpose of scrutiny is to rule out the possibilities of unnecessary duplication. This is done by checking the marked items with the following:
• items selected earlier, by checking the "Books Selected" card tray;
• items ordered already, by checking the "Books-on-Order" card tray;
• items already received, by checking the "Books Received" card tray and the "Book-in-Process" card tray;
• items available in the library, by checking the catalogue. Only such items which are cleared after the above scrutiny are retained with tick marks.