Publishers, etc.

On the librarian front, one thing I have a hard time getting a handle on is publishers. There are so many, doing so many things, plus so many mergers, etc. As an Acquisitions Librarian, I'm expected to have some knowledge of the lay of the land, but other than a few major guys (the big UPs, Routledge, etc.), I feel like my knowledge is really sub-par. Reference/Subject librarians have an edge up here, in that they get to spend more time with material. At some point, is the Acq Librarian just a workflow manager? And, there are so many things going on, that it's really hard to find time to just hang out with the books, although that is what I need to do to learn more. This is something that's hard to cram too--you can't read an article to get this stuff.

Trying to arrange some vacation time that will allow me to dig in the dirt on a prolonged basis. Maybe the rest of President's Day week.... Weather's icky but really can spring be that far off?