Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. / MBA Professional Report / The purpose of this MBA project is to determine how best to collect empirical data regarding the current state of services acquisition management of the installation level within the Department of Defense and conduct an initial analysis of collected data. The project designed a web-based, self-administered, cross-sectional survey using SurveyMonkey, a web-based survey engine. The survey's pilot test was conducted between mid-October and early November 2007 and obtained a 50 percent response rate. Of the respondents, 60 percent was Army, 20 percent was Marine Corps, and 20 percent Air Force. The pilot test captured valuable data which was analyzed; however improvements to the core survey maay generate a higher response rate and provide a clearer picture of the current state of services acquisition management at the installation level within the Department of Defense. The results of this project will support on-going research in the area of services acquisition management.

Public libraries are facing a great challenge to succeed in serving their increasingly diverse communities. This thesis focuses on the acquisition of foreign-language books in public libraries and attempts to address the question whether libraries have special strategies to select and acquire foreign-language books. Particular attention is paid to fiction, the main genre offered by public libraries. To help answer the thesis question, the author compares the acquisition strategies of the Municipal Library of Prague and the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin using structured interviews with the key persons responsible for the acquisition of foreign-language books. As a background, the author provides a literature review of foreign-language materials in public libraries and specifically, the acquisition strategy for those materials (i.e. including case studies, research projects and trends from the Czech Republic, the US, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Denmark and Netherlands). This knowledge foundation is considered in the comparison of the two libraries and their acquisition strategies. The comparative study confirms the trends highlighted in the literature review, such as outsourcing, approval plans and gifts as common ways of acquiring foreign- language literature. This thesis further contributes...