ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


November 1 9 9 0 1 959

the following reasons. First, it was not difficult to 
secure th e cooperation o f library users because the 
USF research cen ter psychiatrists, psychologists, 
and o th er m ental health practitioners are library- 
oriented and very aware o f rising journal costs. 
Second, because th e research cen ter library has a 
staff o f four— one full-tim e professional, two full­
tim e paraprofessionals, and one graduate assis­
tan t— it was necessary to utilize a p rocedure th at 
was not heavily labor-intensive; various ways o f 
m arking journals, distributing patron surveys, or 
direct observation w ould not have b een  feasible.

O nce th e choice was m ade, th e following p ro ce­
dure was im plem ented. D uring th e day, any jo u r­
nals th a t are found anywhere within th e library are 
brought to the circulation desk. Available library 
staff records th e usage for each journal, with tally 
marks on a weekly data collection sheet th a t lists all 
cu rren t journal subscriptions. T he item s are th en  
placed on a reshelving cart. At th e en d  o f every 
m onth, th e total o f these weekly tally records is 
com bined with interlibrary loan statistics and in­
serted into a Lotus 1-2-3 com puter spreadsheet. 
Form ulas automatically com pute th e usage for the

year to date, and printouts are provided to any 
in terested  patron.

Adm inistrators and d ep artm en t chairs regularly 
review th e m onthly journal usage, and these statis­
tics serve a useful purpose. C om bined with reports 
o f periodical subscription increases supplied by the 
librarian and updates o f th e ongoing research proj­
ects o f th e Institute staff, journal usage statistics 
help to determ ine which subscriptions will be can­
celed and which ones added in th e next fiscal year. 
T h ere are no funding surprises, and th e re is no 
req u irem en t for a w ritten justification for a periodi­
cal budget increase from th e  librarian. Also, by 
involving faculty and staff in th e project, they ac­
quired a vested interest, and “th e ” library becam e 
“o u r” library. Unwittingly, th e library staff m ade a 
positive contribution to public relations with li­
brary patrons. Indeed, perhaps this enhanced col­
legiality has b een  th e most valued result o f all.

By refining th e data collection sheets and adding 
categories for th e next fiscal year, th e research 
c e n te r library staff plans to study additional aspects 
o f periodical usage.

Access to serials: Local improvements 
may make a difference

By David Trithart

Reference Librarian 
Potsdam College o f  SU N Y

Every library has a lim ited list o f serials to which
it subscribes. Beyond th a t it relies on interlibrary
loan or some o th er means to obtain articles for its
patrons. Most libraries have seen th e use o f this
service expand in recen t years. T he n u m b e r o f
journals grows and th e proportion rep resen te d  in
th e local collection inexorably falls. It is com monly
believed th at th e advent o f indexes on C D  will
contribute to th e dem and for articles not in th e
local collection.

W hat alternative is th e re  to increased reliance
on borrowing or docum ent delivery services? W e
d eterm in ed  to try to im prove access to th e journals
we already receive. Like many libraries, we re
cently introduced com pact disk indexes and have
seen th e ir use grow quickly. W e also noticed that
th e re rem ained a bottleneck in th e search process.
Checking th e citations obtained so quickly from the
C D  had to be done manually in th e library’s serials

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

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list. T he first rem edy th a t occurred to us was to 
som ehow m atch the journals on th e C D  with a list 
o f those we receive, and have our titles highlighted 
or otherwise noted on th e screen.

W e have suggested this to C D  producers, and 
th e re  is some expressed interest, b u t nothing to 
show for it yet. Since we catalog our serials and 
shelve th em  by call n u m b er we w ould n eed  to 
show, in addition to th e holdings o f a title, th e call 
num ber, in theory this should be possible since we, 
like m ost libraries, have o u r serials and holdings in 
m achine-readable form. T he screen display for 
each citation could include local holdings inform a­
tion obtained from th at list.

But this d id n ’t seem  to be an im m ediate possibil­
ity. A less au to m ated  approach was, however, 
within th e range o f our abilities. Using Microsoft 
Works (a simple, w idely-used database program ) 
on a M acintosh com puter, we produced a database



960 /  C& RL News

o f all th e  periodicals to which we had subscribed 
since 1980. Holdings and call n u m b ers w ere in ­
clu d ed  for each title. F o r each index we n o ted  those 
titles on o u r list w hich w ere covered by th e  index. 
T h e lists provided in th e indexes them selves w ere 
su p p lem en ted  w ith inform ation taken from  our 
serials control system (in this case SC350) which 
allowed us to search and display th e  510 field o f th e 
MARC records for o u r serials. This inform ation 
was displayed in a simple, single-line form at in 
alphabetical o rd e r by periodical title.

This p ro ject took som e tim e, b u t was m ade 
considerably sim pler by having som e o f this infor­
m ation already on disk. T h e rest was added over th e 
course o f several m onths. T h e products have b een  
som e 11 index-specific lists th a t are kept on th e 
co nsulting ta b le b esid e th e  a p p ro p riate index. 
R ath er th an  check citations against a large alphabet 
o f titles, users can check a short list th a t pertains to 
ju st th e  index th ey  are using. This is particularly 
useful at th e  C D  indexes. T h e W ilsonDisc indexes 
we have only extend back to th e  early 1980s, so th e 
lists w e p ro d u ce are com pletely accurate as to  our 
holdings o f th e  journals indexed. M aintaining th e 
lists has proven to be quite easy. Both staff and

stu d en ts agree th a t th e tim e to p ro d u ce th e lists was 
well spent.

T h e interesting developm ent is th a t o u r requests 
for interlibrary loans have decreased quite signifi­
cantly for th e twelve m onths since these lists w ere 
p ro d u ced . This may b e coincidental, b u t o th e r 
libraries I have contacted do not rep o rt this trend. 
W e may b e able to a ttrib u te this decrease in m ore 
effective use o f o u r own collection. T he C D  indexes 
m ake it easy to search m ultiple years o f an index, 
an d  th e  lists we have p ro d u ced  enable users to 
quickly check w hich ones are here. C irculation o f 
b o u n d  an d  u n b o u n d  periodicals th e  p ast year 
show ed a 15% increase com pared to th e  average o f 
th e  previous 4 years, and was 26% above th e 
im m ediately p rio r year.

T o see interlibrary loan going down at th e  same 
tim e th a t local circulation is on th e  rise does raise 
som e questions. Users may b e relying on articles 
several years old instead o f requesting new er ar­
ticles from  journals we d o n ’t  have. F o r m ost u n d e r­
g rad u ate research and paper-w riting this is p ro b a­
bly satisfactory. It ju st m ight b e th a t som e fairly 
sim ple efforts to im prove access have co n trib u ted  
to this result. ■  ■

Section funding discussion

By Helen H. Spalding

Associate D irector o f  Libraries 
University o f  Missouri-Kansas C ity

A C R L’s B udget and F inance C om m ittee has 
b een  reviewing how  ACRL sections are fu n d ed  
w ithin th e overall divisional b u d g et and is now 
asking for your input. N othing is inherently w rong 
w ith how  sections are fu n d ed  w ithin th e division, 
b u t w ith th e c u rre n t level o f section participation, it 
may b e a good tim e to look at c u rre n t practice, 
inform  th e m em bers, and d ocum ent th e funding 
structure.

In an effort to examine section funding strategies 
and form ulate recom m endations for keeping th e 
cu rre n t practice— or for trying one th a t may be 
m ore responsive to th e priorities and needs o f 
m em bership— th e B udget and F inance C om m it­
te e is inviting all m em bers to atten d  an open h e a r­
ing on section funding on Sunday, January 13, 
1991, at th e ALA M idw inter M eeting, from  8:00 
p.m . to 10:00 p.m . (location to b e announced). 
Your reaction to this article and feedback at th e 
open hearing is crucial to th e C o m m ittee’s ability to

d e te rm in e  if change is w arranted, and if so, how  it 
can b e done in th e b est interests o f th e m em bers.

Divisional dues are th e  only source o f funds th e 
B udget and Finance C om m ittee has to support 
m em bership services, including Board support; 
statistics; advisory services; standards distribution; 
awards; com m ittees; sections; chapters and discus­
sion groups. W hen sections generate new  activities 
(new sletters, for example) th a t req u ire financial 
support, or w hen new  sections are form ed, th e ir 
funding m ust com e from this pool o f m em bership 
dues. Unless m em bership dues are raised to cover 
new  activities, section budgets m ust be w eighed 
against o th e r m em b er activities.

Traditionally, th e sixteen ACRL sections subm it 
th e ir annual budget requests, w ith justification 
b ased  upon th e Strategic Plan, by D e cem b e r 1 
each year. Based upon th e  section’s initiative, th e 
c u rre n t division budget, and th e p ro jected  division 
budget, th e  B udget and F inance C om m ittee re c ­