Factors responsible for the acquisition of Canadian fiction by U.S. public and academic libraries

Abstract

A survey of U.S. libraries owning fiction from Canadian publishers revealed important differences in how Canadian fiction is acquired by U.S. public and academic libraries. Public libraries demonstrated remarkable uniformity in how they acquire Canadian fiction, academic libraries great diversity. The importance of reviews—especially in public libraries and especially reviews in a small core of journals—was confirmed. Other factors contributing to the acquisition of Canadian fiction especially by U.S. academic libraries are described and their impact analyzed. The paper ends with a warning that one must not conclude from these findings that public libraries in general depend uniformly or primarily on reviews for the bulk of their fiction selection. A subsequent study of Ontario public libraries showed this not to be the case.