Foreign literature in the collection of a republican branch library: acquisition practices of the Belarus Agricultural Library

Abstract

The Belarus Agricultural Library is a branch library which manages the collection of literature on agricultural sciences and related topics. To provide information and library services for science and production, in addition to national documents, the library’s collections are also replenished with foreign documents on paper and electronic media. Sources of acquisition of foreign literature are as follows: subscription to printed periodicals of the CIS countries, international document exchange, subscription to electronic scientific journals on the platform «Scientific Electronic Library eLibrary.ru», purchase of books, acceptance of donations and return of mistakenly withdrawn publications, receipt of documents of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The article provides an analysis of the acquisition of foreign publications in the collection of the Belarusian Agricultural Library over a 5 -year period (2017–2021). The priority sources of acquisition of foreign documents are identified, their type and quantity are examined, and the processes of obtaining documents from each of the acquisition sources are described.