The library purchases most of its big-ticket items in June, the end of the fiscal year, after invoices for expenditures have been received and paid, when we know precisely what’s left to spend. In May, we sort through requests to purchase databases, journals and other resources and rank them by need as best as we can; we also review low-use subscription resources to determine if we may cancel any to clear space in this account for new acquisitions. (At present, there are two ways to acquire a new subscription database: to cancel an old one or to reduce the book fund permanently by the cost of the new database.) Here are big-ticket items acquired last June for FY10:

Periodicals Archive Online Collection Extensions.
PAO is an archive of hundreds of digitized, full-image articles published in journals of the arts, humanities and social sciences, providing access to more than 200 years of scholarship. Earliest PAO journals begin in 1802; we advanced coverage of this collection by five years, from 1995 to 2000.
Link: http://biblio.middlebury.edu/record=b2117470~S2

Oxford Encyclopedia of Popular Music Online. The 10-volume Encyclopedia of Popular Music is a comprehensive reference work devoted exclusively to popular music. In addition to being regularly updated, it will also be fully cross-searchable with Grove Music Online in the new Oxford Music Online gateway.
Link: http://biblio.middlebury.edu/record=b1569964~S2

Godey’s Lady’s Book Folios. Godey’s Lady’s Book, a 19th century magazine for women, was the most successful women’s magazine in the United States by the outbreak of the Civil War, with a circulation of 150,000 and an estimated readership of a million persons. We acquired folios VII (1886-1889) and VIII (1892, 1893, 1896) to complete the run of this publication.
Link: http://biblio.middlebury.edu/record=b2129257~S2

–Joe Toth