Where Library Meets Vendor: A Comparison of Six Vendors of Russian Books

Abstract

This work compares the online catalogs, monographic holdings, and book prices of six major vendors of academic Russian books. The purpose is twofold: (1) to determine which catalogs are the most robust and, thus, most useful to bibliographers in the book selection process; and (2) to discover which of the six vendors can provide the widest range of coverage at the lowest prices. The work also alludes to the challenges Slavic librar¬ians face in the acquisition of Russian books. The study begins with a discussion of the challenges encountered during the process of searching vendors’ online catalogs, followed by a description of the methodology used to compile the checklist of titles. Vendors’ holdings are then compared across several categories. Data include raw scores and percentages. The final component compares the duplication and cost of monographs among the six vendors. The six vendors used for comparison include: ATC Books International (ATC), East View Informa¬tion Services (EV), Esterum Russian Books Worldwide (Est), MIPP International (MIPP), Natasha Kozmenko Booksellers (NK), and Russian Press Service (RPS). They were selected because of their large inventories of academic Russian books and because their inventories are readily available online. The criteria for comparison consist of monographic works, including a few monographic series, on the life and works of Leo Tolstoy.