College and Research Libraries


By ARTHUR M. SAMPLEY 

Five Years of Library Cooperation 
in the North Texas Region 

Dr. Sampley is librarian~ North Texas 
State Teachers College, Denton. 

A PROJECT in library cooperation in the North Texas region has extended 
from its inception in December I942, 
to the publication in mimeographed form 
on Aug. I, I948, of a completely revised 
North Texas Regional Union List of 
Serials. The publication of this list may ap-
propriately be the occasion for a summary 
of the history of this project and a brief 
account of what it has accomplished. 

In December I942, a survey to deter-
mine whether it was feasible to organize 
a cooperative regional library enterprise was 
authorized by the presidents of North Texas 
State Teachers College, Southern Method-
ist University, Texas Christian University, 
and Texas State College for Women. Dr. 
A. F. Kuhlman, who carried out the survey, 
included in it also the public libraries of 
Dallas and Forth Worth and the library of 
Southwestern Baptist Theological Semi-
nary. Thus three libraries in Fort Worth, 
two in Dallas, and two in Denton were 
brought into the enterprise. These li-
braries, located within an hour's driving 
distance of each other, are in the heart of 
the thickly settled North Texas region, and 
contained in I943 a book stock of 8Io,ooo 
volumes. 

As a result of the survey, Dr. Kuhlman 
recommended the organization of the North 
Texas regional libraries with a coordinator 
or director ; the mimeographing of a union 

list of serials; the expansion of the serial 
resources through planned, cooperative pur-
chasing; cooperative acquisition of addi-
tional reference and bibliographic tools; a 
regional program for collection of govern-
ment documents, newspapers, and manu-
script collections; a union catalog of books; 
proper financial support; systematic plan-
ning for the strengthening of library re-
sources; and local coordination of libraries. 1 

Of these recommendations two have been 
carried into effect: the mimeographing of 
a union list . of serials, and the expansion 
of_ the serial resources through planned, 
cooperative purchasing. Some progress has 
been made in the local coordination of li-
braries. On the proposals involving the 
creation of some central library system, no 
steps have been taken. The fact that each 
of these libraries operates under a separate 
governing body is an obstacle which is not 
likely to be overcome in the near future. · 

The recommendation · for the mimeo-
graphing of a union list of Serials has been 
fully carried out. Each of the cooperating 
libraries sent i.n cards of their serial holdings 
to North Texas State Teachers College, 
where the master card catalog was _ estab-
lished. ·From this catalog the first North 
Texas Regional Union List of Serials was 
published in mimeographed form in N ovem-
ber of I943· A supplement to this list 
was issued Jan. I 5, I 94 5, and a second 

1 Kuhlman, A. F., The North T exas Regional L i· 
braries: An Inquiry into the Feasibility and Desira· 
bility of Developing_ Them as a Coop erative Enterprise 
(mimeographed), Nashville, Peabody Press, 1943, 
pp. 77·82. 

24 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



supplement was added Mar. I5, I946. On 
Aug. I, I948, a completely revised union 
list was published. 2 

ln the original Union List, Dr. W. 
Stanley Hoole, the editor, compiled the 
foliowing table of titles held in the region: 

The growth in serial holdings over the 
period from November I5, 1943, to June 

I, 1948, is indicated in Table III. 
These rates of increase, ranging from 

49 to 85 per cent, must be attributed in 
great measure to the stimulus of the regional 
project. 

Not only have the libraries rapidly in-
creased their holdings in serials; they have 
also made a concerted effort to eliminate 

Table J3 

Titles in the Region 

(I) (2) (3) • (4) <s) 

Complete 
Incomplete Complete Total Titfes Held by: Closed Files & Current Columns Rec 'd Files Files I- 3 Currently 

7 libraries II II 4 
6 libraries SI 3 54 s8 
5 libraries 3 113 7 I23 70 
4 libraries 7 222 I9 248 I3I 
3 libraries 14 4I8 46 478 I8I 
2 libraries 68 773 92 9.13 295 
I library 385 2406 395 3I86 834 

Totals 6o6* 7042* 846* 8494* 32I7* 

* Obtained by multiplying the figures in each separate bracket by the number ot institutions opposite, and totaling. 

An analysis of holdings of serials as of duplication of rarely-used material. A com-
June I, 1948, appears below: mittee of faculty representatives from North 

Table II 

Titles in the Region, June I, 1948 

(I) . (2) (3) (4) (s) 

Complete -Incomplete 
Complete Total Titles 

Held by: Closed & Current Columns Rec'd 
Files 

Files Files I- 3 Currently 

7 libraries II II I3 
6 libraries 66 8 75 94 
5 libraries 4 I6S IS I84 109 
4 libraries I9 342 4I 402 I68 
3 libraries 29 609 64 702 238 
2 libraries 119 1058 I69 1346 429 
I library 573 3373 748 4694 I378 

Totals Iooo* 9982* IS6s:" 12,547* 4822* 

*Obtained by multiplying the figures in each separate bracket by the number of ins titutions opposite, and tot aling. 

2 North Te x as Regional Union List of S erials (mimeo-
graphed), Revised Edition, edited by Arthur M. 
Sampley and Louise Evans, Denton, Tex., North 
Texas State Teacher s College, Aug. 1, 1948. 

s North T exas Regional Uni on L ist of S erials 
(mimeographed ) , edited by W. Stanley Hoole, Denton, 
Tex., North Texas State Teachers College, 1943, p . x. 

JANUARY, 1949 

Texas State Teachers College, Southern 
Methodist University, Texas Christian 
University, and Texas State College for 
Women met in the spring and summer of 

25 



Table III 

Increase in Serial Holdings 

Per Cent 
1943 1948 Increase 

Complete Closed Files 6o6 1000 65 
Incomplete Files 2406 3373 49 
Complete and Current Files 846 1565 85 
Titles Rec'd Currently 3217 4822 so 

I 944 and drew up a master list of serials 
to be acquired for the region .as a whole. 
Each of these four libr aries was assigned 
a certain number of files for which it was 
to fill ·in the gaps not held in the region. 
In the three-year period from July I, I945, 
through June 30, I948, $40,000 was spent 
by these four libraries in completing files 
for the region. None of this sum was spent 
to duplicate materials already held. 

While this procedure strengthened the 
library resources of the region and reduced 
duplication in certain files, it did not reduce 
the total amount of duplication, which, as 
Table IV shows, has slightly increased. 

At first glance it may appear that the 
regional project has had no effect in keeping 
down duplication, but this conclusion fails 
to take into account the probability that 
without cooperation the increase in duplica-
tion would have been considerably greater. 
All the libraries are growing rapidly and 
are making up for a late start in acquiring 

materials. The two public libraries have 
similar clienteles, and the four colleges and 
universities have similar curricula. ThlJS 
if the latter, all of which are members of 
the Southern Associaiton of Colleges and 
Secondary Schools, had files of all the peri-
odicals recommended by the Association, 4 

the amount of duplication would be very 
much greater than it is. It is nevertheless 
true that more ·careful planning could re-
duce the acquisition of rarely-used files by 
more than one library. 

One of the recommendations which has 
borne fruit is that calling for greater local 
cooperation in utilizing library resources. 
In Denton, for example, students of each 
of the two state-owned institutions have full 
use of the library facilities of both colleges. 
The result is that the library resources 
available to the students in each institution 
have been increased by not less than fifty 
per cent, 5 without the cumbersome process 
of interlibrary loans. 

(Continued on page 68) 

4 Southern Association of Colleges an~ S econdary 
School s Commission on Institutions of Htgher Educa-
tion, The Classified List _of ~eference. Books. ~nd 
Penodicals for College L~branes, Revtsed Edtbon, 
19f~h~P-to~!i10~~mber of books available would ~e 
increased by a much g reater per cent, but ~here ts 
considerable duplication of titles. A companson of 
sos books from North Texas State Teachers College 
and 503 books from Texas State College for \Vomen 
sh owed in 1943 that 159 of the N.T.S.T.C. books were 
d uplicated at T.S.C.W., and that 224 of the T.S.C. W. 
books were duplicated at N.T.S.T.C. See Kuhlman, 
op. cit., p. 24 . 

Table IV 

Duplication of Files, 1943, 1948 

1943 I 1948 
Titles Held By Number of Number of 

Percentage Titles Percentage Titles 

1 library 29()2 6o . 8 3796 57 ·7 
2 libraries 841 17.6 II96 18 . 2 
3 libraries 444 9 · 3 687 10.4 
4libraries 282 5·9 455 6.9 
5 libraries 170 3·6 253 J.8 
6 libraries II9 2.5 169 2.6 
7 libraries 16 ·3 27 · 4 

Totals 4774 100.0 65s3 100.0 

26 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



members with regular assignments without 
seriously interferring with necessary day to 
day operations. An alternative, possible in 
larger institutions, would be to establish a 
research or laboratory unit where new ideas 

· could be tested before they were put into 
regular operation. Perhaps we should go 
further than this and take a lesson from 
industry where a process may be tested in a 
pilot plant before it is attempted on a pro-
duction basis. If this is to be our approach, 
the large library could make a small begin-

ning by diverting staff time to experiments 
and pilot operations. However, a great deal 
more could be accomplished in a shorter time 
if libraries worked together in setting up an 
experimental laboratory for technical serv-
ices. If we had as little as $5o,ooo a year 
for five years (possibly less than 2 per cent 
of our annual expenditures for technical 
services), we might come out at the end of 
the five year period with new ideas and pro-
cedures capable of saving several times that 
amount annually. 

Library Cooperation in North Texas 
(Continued from page 26) 

Administrative difficulties in maintaining 
the regional union list of serials have thus 
far not been great. The initial arrange-
ment was made by a conference of the 
presidents of North Texas State Teachers 
College, Southern Methodist University, 
Texas Christian University, and Texas 
State College for Women. After the plans 
had been agreed upon, however, the direc-
tion of the work has been largely in the 
hands of the chief librarians of the cooperat-
ing libraries. The typing and mailing of 
extra cards for the central file and the 
maintaining of the master card catalog have 
been carried on by some score of librarians 
in addition to their regular duties. The 
mimeographing of the union list, however, 

has become a formidable problem wh1cn 
involved cutting eight hundred stencils for 
the revised edition. The cumulative burden 
of work, which is the nemesis of all union 
catalogs, may eventually force a new method 
of financial support or some other means 
of publishing the contents of the master 
card catalog. 

The benefits of the North Texas re-
gional project have been the strengthening 
of the serial resources of the region, the 
development of a plan of cooperative pur-
chasing, and greater local cooperation in 
using library materials. Though the ven-
ture has not accomplished all that has been 
hoped for it, it has nevertheless made con-
siderable progress. 

Correction 
Mr. Paul Alcorn of the University of Connecticut reports that the figures given in the 

printed sources in ' ;Administrative Organization and Financial Support of Land-Grant Col-
lege and University Libraries," IX, October 1948, p. 330, on which Table I was based are 
incorrect and incomplete. The enrollment, according to Mr. Alcorn, was 3355, and library 
expenditures $60,100. The per student expenditure for Connecticut was thus $17.91 and the 
ratio 3.12 % . If these figures are used, the average per student expenditure would be $23.07 , 
and the average ratio 2.88 % . While these changes are of importance to the University con-
cerned and do alter the general averages somewhat, the general conclusions of the article remain 
entirely valid. 

68 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES