The Biomedical Library Acquisitions Bulletin (BLAB) is a more or less monthly electronic newsletter covering selection and acquisition of materials in biomedical libraries. Items for the Bulletin are sent in by subscribers and include notices of interesting new publications, observations on new trends in publishing and vendor services, and discussion of related issues, such as staffing organization, pricing and advertising policies, and use of approval plans. Most issues are from 7 to 10 pages, and the editorial tone is highly informal. Topics for special symposium issues have been devoted to methods for coping with declining book budgets, selection and processing of electronic journals, and staffing reorganization.
BLAB was established in April 1992 and is produced with the cooperation of the University of Southern California Norris Medical Library. Since July 1993 BLAB has been a sponsored publication of the Medical Library Association's Collection Development Section. The publication currently has approximately 300 subscribers. In May 1995 a WWW version of BLAB was created by Eric Albright while he was at Northwestern University, Galter Health Sciences Library, he is currently Head, Information and Education Services at Duke University Medical Center Library.
New issues of BLAB will be emailed automatically to anyone requesting a subscription. The continued success of this venture depends upon the willingness of subscribers to submit items of interest for publication.
All subscription and editorial correspondence may be sent to David Morse, Editor (University of Southern California Norris Medical Library) at dmorse@hsc.usc.edu. Please include your name and institutional affiliation when requesting a subscription or submitting an item for publication. Thank you for your interest in BLAB.