The Cost of documentation

In the United-States, in Great-Britain and in the Federal Republic of Germany, studies on the cost of documentation are often published by subject, by type of document and by country of origin. The data (yearly or half-yearly collected) on the document production and the prices, are used by the librarians to establish acquisition policies and to negociate the budget with the university. In the United-States, those data are the best tool for elaborating and princing the collection development policies. In Germany, they lead to patterns for resources allocation in all the subjects.
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