College and Research Libraries By RALPH R. SHAW Survey of Scientific and Technical Communication in Mexico, C entral America, Panama, and Colombia! Mr. Shaw is librarianJ U.S. Department of Agriculture. CONFERENCES with many scientists and observation of scientific library research resources indicate with inescapable force that the development of scientific research in the tropics is seriously hampered by lack of scientific communication. A scientist who has no way of learning of developments in his field falls so far be- hind in a few years that he cannot con- tribute to the development of his science . Improvement in scientific communication is, therefore, an essential prerequisite for an effective program for advancing scientific and · technical research in the tropics . So long as scientific communication remains at its present low level, much of the money in- vested in training scientists and in equipping laboratories will be wasted. The Inter-American Institute of Agricul- tural Sciences is in a position to experiment with methods for improving scientific com- munication. Its own needs and the needs of scientists throughout cooperating coun- tries are close enough together so that if the institute is adequately equipped to sup- ply its own staff with scientific information, it can with very little more effort ensure better communication among all scientists. If the institute does not assume this respon- sibility, and there appears to be no other il).- 1 Part of a more extensive report made by Mr. Shaw. stitution which could perform this function adequately over the whole range of agri- culture and the sciences which underly it, the students graduating from the institute will be subject to the same discouragement, through lack of intellectual equipment, that now plagues all the scientists in the coun- tries visited. An adequate communication serv1ce would require capital investment of some $30,000 plus a program of service at about three times the amount now spent for li- brary, abstracting, and publishing by the in- stitute. In view of the expanding program of the institute, it would appear likely that in the course of eight or IO years the amount recommended for current operation would not be a disproportionate share of the in- stitute's income. However, the need for publishing, abstracting, bibliographic and copying services is urgent and it is there- fore recommended that the institute make every effort to obtain additional funds, out- side of country quotas, for the next eight or 10 years in order to start immediately on a program of experimentation in the im- provement of scientific communication. Such a regional program might well set a pattern for future library development in large areas of the world and it should be considered an experimental program with emphasis on techniques of communication rather than merely expansion of the insti- tute's own library services. It is recom- 352 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES mended that regardless of whether addi- tional funds are obtained for this purpose the institute should give this program of im- provement of communication top priority, and should do everything it possibly can to carry out this program as the only means of ensuring continuing usefulness of the train- ing and re earch work done not only at the institute, but also through the national edu- cational institutions of each country and by fellowship grants. Objectives The report which follows covers a survey of the scientific and technical library re- search potential of Mexico, the Central American countries, Panama, and Colom- bia. This study was intended to determine: I) what research library services exist; 2) the literature needs of agricultural research workers; and 3) the possible methods by which research needs can be met within funds which may possibly be available. Importance of the Problem The need for literature as a basis for re- search is well recognized by working scien- tists all over the world. The relative scar- city of such materials in the countries visited ·has been recognized and the Inter- American Institute of Agricultural Sciences as well as other institutions have been at- tempting for some time to devise plans un- der which it might be possible for any sci- entist working in the field of agriculture or its underlying sciences to have access to the recorded work of other scientists of all times and places, to the full extent to which such literature is needed for effective research. As stated in the report of the Royal So- ciety Scientific Information Conference :2 "If it is agreed that the advancement of science rests primarily upon the genius of each scientist in his laboratory, whether that 2 S cience I08:I5I, Aug. IJ, 1948. OCTOBERJ 1949 laboratory be in a great center of research or in an isolated corner of the world, and that each scientist, no matter where he may be, must profit from the work of his colleagues, all over the world and of all times, then it must follow that anything which contributes to the freedom and ease of communication among scientists is, per se a contribution to . " science. Viewed in this framework of scientific communication this study does not concern itself to any great extent with the normal routines and techniques of library house- keeping but, rather, concentrates on the major problem of the needs of science and the possible application of the various means of communication among scientists, includ- ing study of the parts of the problem of pub- lishing, abstracting, indexing, bibliographi- cal services, and scientific aids such as photo- graphic reproduction. Method of Investigation In the course of this survey some So li- braries of various types were visited in Mexico, Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and Co- lombia. In addition the needs and available resources were discussed with more than 200 scientists and research and extension workers in institutions of various types, in- cluding private and public research institu- tions, and including many institutions which are not primarily agricultural_ in nature . In view of the fact that the sciences which underlie agriculture, such as chemistry, biol- ogy and zoology, are basic to medical re- search as well, all medical libraries known to exist in these countries were· visited as well as the agricultural scientific, technical, university, and other scholarly institutions. In addition to appraising the total con- tent of each library, special attention was paid to the number of scientific journals on file and the types of scientific journals avail- able. In each case scientists who depended 353 upon a particular library were questioned about the availability of the· basic abstract- ing and indexing journals in the field, and also about the percentage of materials listed in the abstracting journals which they could obtain. In each case scientists were asked to discuss problems of production and distri- bution of scientific literature in their own countries, as well as problems of abstracting and use of photographic copies. Summary of Results Of all the libraries visited, not more than four could be considered good quick-refer- ence or working collections for the scientist or technologist. These include the Sec- cion de Investigaciones Especiales in Mexico City, which has a strong collection of jour- nals for the limited fields which it attempts to cover, the library of the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences at Tur- rialba, the library of the Facultad de Agronomia at Medellin, and the hi ghly specialized geophysical collection of the In- stituto Geofisico de Los Andes at Bogota. There were many libraries visited which were larger than these, and there is much material of historical value or taxonomic value in other institutions, but it can be said that no place in the countries visited had really adequate working collections, and it is doubtful, even if all of the libraries visited could pool their resources through a cooperative scheme, that the potential for re- search service would approximate as much as I 5 or 20 per cent of what might be found in current abstracting journals on any given subject. Conferences with scientists indicated al- most invariably that they rarely had access to as much as 5 or 6 per cent of the litera- ture which they might find listed on any subject in a pertinent abstracting journal, and the highest estimate offered by anyone was IO per cent. The administrators of research and re- search workers in the countries visited all agree that it is not possible to do research above the high school level without biblio- graphical resources, and all agree that mini- mum bibliographical resources are not avail- able. Thus, something must be done to improve scientific communication in the countries visited or it would appear that the investments made by various governments and agencies in their own and in coopera- tive research programs can not be as fruitful as they should be. Possible Approaches to Improvement of Scientific Communication There are a number of services now avail- able which could, if properly exploited, im- prove scientific communication in Latin America. Among these are the biblio- graphical and microfilm services provided by American institutions, such as the Army Medical Library and the United States De- partment of Agriculture Library. The fundamental requirements for im- provement of research potential are: I. There must be some way by which any scientist, no matter where he works, may find out what is being published cur- rently and what has been published that will help him do his own particular job. 2. There must be some means by which pertinent material can be obtained by any scientist as needed in connection with his research or program work. 3· Each scientist must have at hand the materials which he uses more or less con- stantly. 4· There must be adequate means for making known the results of research cur- rently as the research is completed, by pub- lishing, auxiliary publication, or similar techniques. There are many different possible ap- proaches to these problems. One of the 354 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES approaches would be for each country to attempt to build up its own collection of literature and services so as to meet its own needs completely. In view of the fact that there are some I6,ooo journals currently published which contain material of impor- tance to agriculture it does not appear feasi- ble, at least for the smaller countries, ever to plan to duplicate the world's great re- search libraries i~ these fields. Even if they should succeed in any of these countries in building up a complete library in the field of agriculture, there would still be the prob- lem of serving scientists other than those at the center where the research library is de- veloped. It would appear, therefore, that regardless of the extent to which each coun- try may succeed in building up its own col- lections (points I ~md 2 above) i.e., letting the scientist know what exists and getting copies to him, will still be factors which determine whether the individual scientist who has to work at a point other than a great research center can obtain what he must have in order to perform effective work. It is interesting to note that not a single one of the countries visited has, at the pres- ent time, a complete collection of its own output · in the field of agriculture. It would appear that the emerging group of scientists who realize the need for effective literature services has been too small in any of the countries, with the possible exception of Colombia, to cause any effective action or even planning toward provision of this minimum collection of the printed output of their owri country. As will be noted in the discussion of tech- niques which follows, it does not appear feasible to utilize photographic techniques in each institution in each of the small countries because of the limited amount of material which they have available to copy and the resultant high cost of such services OCTOBER, 1949 and waste of materials. It does not ap- pear feasible either to obtain agreement on the part of all countries as to a single center from which they are to obtain the needed services. It would appear, therefore, that the only feasible solution would be to estab- lish the services which all scientists in the Americas agree are esse.ntial if they are to do productive work at a single inter-Ameri- can institution such as the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences at Tur- rialba, and to start providing the required services in a few agricultural fields whi'ch are of general interest in all of the Ameri- can countries, letting the service grow as funds permit and as demands grow. In de- veloping this service two other feasible centers in addition to Turrialba might be the Secci6n de Investigaciones Especiales, Ministerio de Agricultura, library in Mexi- co City3 and if agreement among scientists and scientific institutions could be effected in Colombia, at some place in Colombia. As noted above, this does not represent any consensus of opinion but rather a pragmatic approach to improvement of scientific com- munication in an area in which workers are fairly widely dispersed, library facilities are exceedingly limited and widely dispersed, and the total research potential is so low at all points, and funds available are so limited at all points, 'that there appears to be no practical approach to increasing the re- search potential at all institutions to a satis- factory level. General Problems In the matter of providing library and bibliographical services, as in all other cul- tural measures, there are several problems of real importance despite the fact that they are mechanical. Probably the greatest prob- lem in this field is that of international currency exchange restrictions. Because 3 In cooperation with the Rockefeller Foundation. 355 each transaction requires approximately the same amount of red tape in obtaining dol- lars, the 50¢ to $5.00 transaction involved in obtaining scientific literature is just as difficult as obtaining $rooo in foreign ex- change for the purchase of a major piece of equipment. For this reason, at a number of points it was fo~nd that valuable equip- ment was idle for the lack of a small part or for the lack of supplies which has to be purchased in petty cash amounts, because of the lack of dollars. ·The second general problem is that the volume of work at each place in each coun- try is too little to justify either adequate installations of equipment or purchase of supplies in quantities that are economical. For example, if it were decided to install a camera for producing microfilm at a grow- ing and important institution such as the Agricultural Experiment Station at Palmira or the Facultad de Agronomia at Medellin, since each of these institutions has so little material that would be copied, the date on the roll of photostat paper would expire be- fore even a fraction of the paper was used. It would thus be necessary to obtain sup- plies in very small specialized quantities and much of the supplies thus obtained would spoil before they were used. It would ap- . pear, therefore, that because of exchange restrictions and because of volume of work the question of supplies is really a more critical one in the area of scientific com- munication than is the question of basic equipment. This _ is another reason why there appears to be more promise in cen- tralized service under an international or- ganization, or in cooperation with one of the North American foundations, rather than through a large number . of small installa.; tions. Utilization of a central installation which is international in character would solve the problem of obtaining supplies, both because the international institution would not have the dollar problem and be- cause the volume of use might be sufficient to make possible economic operation. General Discussion of Library Facilities Observed MEXICO: The libraries visited m Mexico City in- cluded the very good working collection of the Secci6n de Investigaciones Especiales, the Biblioteca Benjamin Franklin, the Bib- lioteca de la Direcci6n de Agricultura, the Biblioteca de la Direcci6n de Medicina Vet- erinaria, the Instituto Politecnico, the Insti- tuto Pecuario, the Direcci6n de Economia Rural, the Escuela N acional de Agricultura at Chapingo, the Direcci6n de Geografia y Meteorologia at Tacubaya, the Direcci6n Forestal, the Direcci6n de Conservaci6n de Sudos y Agua, the Sociedad Agron6mica, the Instituto de Biologia, the Sociedad Al- zado which is. a private scientific society, the Instituto Quimico at Tacubaya, the Insti- tuto de Medicina Tropical, the Biblioteca N acional de Mexico, the Banco de Mexico and the Recursos Hydraulicos. In addition, some 25 or 30 scientists were consulted. While the American Library in Mexico, Biblioteca Benjamin Franklin, is one of the better examples of American libraries abroad and is doing a magnificent job, its microfilm service w~s a great disappointment to this observer in terms of its present or potential service to individual scientists. The staff of the photographic laboratory, which is operated quite independently of the library, though in its quarters and theoretically un- der the director of the library, has concen- trated on long run copying of archival mate- rials, primarily for American institutions, and has not developed copying service of periodical literature for individual scholars. The prices charged for microfilms, photo- stats, or enlargement prints of short articles are a major deterrent to use of this service 356 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES by individual scientists. The basis of charg- ing apparently had no relationship to costs but rather was copied from the charges made by the Library of Congress in Washington. Thus the average article in enlargement prints would cost a scholar in Mexico 20 pesos, or more than $3.00 as compared with so¢ to $I.oo for the same material pro- vided by the Department of Agriculture Library in Washington, where labor costs are much higher. The fine photostat ma- chine, with its· enlarging head for making enlargements from microfilm, is practically unused, and the director of the laboratory indicated that it was unnecessary equip- ment. When the operation of this labora- tory is taken over by the Library of Con- gress it appears unlikely that the present direction of emphasis will be changed since programs now are all pointed to relatively large-scale copying of archival materials rather than the provision of single copies of extracts for scholars. If the basis of operations of this labora- tory could be reoriented so as to include service to scholars at reasonable cost, it might make a real contribution to the sci- entific research potential. The total vol- ume of work of the laboratory, even includ- ing its long run copying of archives, is at the rate of 6o to 70 rolls of film per year, which is only about 50,000 exposures per year. Fifty thousand exposures is about one man-months work in our photographic laboratory at Washington. Thus the total output of the laboratory, with its several standard cameras, and two microfilm cam- eras and a photostat camera, would not appear to f ustify either the staff or equip- ment being used at the present time for this purpose. In view of the fact that the resources in Mexico City are probably as great as they would be in any other single location, this indicates that it would be very difficult to OCTOBER. 1949 justify expensive camera installations in many locations in the countries surveyed. It would indicate also that microfilm and photostat service must be set up especially for service to individual scholars or they tend to become long run microfilm copying establishments. It is estimated that at the rate of pay of a staff member at Me,xico City, which was reported at 100 pesos, or approximately $15.00 per month, and the cost of the film at the rate of 45 pesos per roll, or about $6.50 per roll, the total value of the materials and labor at our standard work load of the Department of Agricul- ture Library, th~ total cost of microfilm produced, exclusive of overhead for quarters and cost of equipment, would be only ap- proximately $400, or, including bookkeep- ing costs, at the rate charged for microfilm at the Department of Agriculture Library, something less than $500 for this laboratory during the past year. This subject has been treated at some length above because it indicates several very important points to this surveyor: first, that the cost of installing microfilm equip- ment would be very difficult to justify in terms of the probable amount of work at any given point; second, that in terms of the amount of service given to scholars and the amount of microfilm actually used by scholars, it might well be cheaper and more efficient to provide photostats; and third, that such microfilm or other photographic service as is provided must be provided through centers, as was done by Brazil and Argentina when they made use of the micro- film supplied by the Department of Agri- culture Library during the war, rather than by sending microfilm to individual scholars who can't use it without considerable diffi- culty. To be sure, an occasional scholar like Contreras Arias, chief of the Direcci6n de Geografia y Meteorologia in Mexico, can 357 · make a homemade wall projector, using his own camera for projection or for taking pic- tures. But by and large the volume of use of microfilm by individuals and the feasibil- ity of using microfilm appear to be approxi- mately on the same level as in the U.S., and it appears that if we are to get scientific information to the scientist in a form in which he can use it, greater use could profitably be made of enlargement prints or direct photostat. GUATEMALA: The libraries visited in Guatemala in- clude that of the Instituto Agro-pecuario N acional, the Biblioteca N acional de Guate- mala, the Biblioteca Agricola de la Secre- taria de Agricultura, the F acultad de Cien- cias Fisico-matematicas, the Facultad de Ciencias Medicas, the Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Farmacia, the Biblioteca del Instituto Guatemalteco de Cultura and the private collection of Dr. Mario Pacheco H. While each of these libraries serves useful purposes there is only one collection in Guatemala of more than four or five thou- sand volumes in the field of agriculture or science and technology, and very few cur- rent periodicals are received in these fields. Dr. Julio Valladares, dean of the Facultad de Farmacia y Ciencias Naturales, whose library was probably the strongest in the fields considered, is very much interested in the problem of scientific communication and indicated willingness to cooperate in de- veloping an effective program. The library of this faculty has some 20,000 volumes and receives 63 periodicals currently. This faculty has also published a number of im- portant contributions which should be avail- able to other libraries. EL SALVADOR: The libraries visited in El Salvador in- clude the Centro N acional de Agronomia, the Biblioteca N acional, the M useo N a- cional, and three faculties of the University, including the Facultad de Ingenieria, the Facultad de Medicina and the Facultad de Quimica y Farmacia. - There was no sci- entific library with more than 2500 vol- umes and pamphlets and none of the li- braries except the Centro N acional de Agronomia received more than five or 10 · periodicals currently. The standard in- dexes were not available and the medical li- brary, for example, receives only about 50 new titles of books and periodicals each year. HoNDURAs: In Honduras, only the Biblioteca y Ar- . chivo N acional and the Escuela Agricola Panamericana at Zamorano were visited. Neither of these attempts to provide re- search library services. NICARAGUA: In Nicaragua only three libraries were found which contain any scientific or tech- nical material at all. These were the Biblioteca Americana de Nicaragua, which includes in its 19,000 volumes an average small public library sampling of American technical books; the Instituto Pedag6gico de Varones, which is a good high school library with a few technical books; and the Biblio- teca N acional, which contains 2 r ,ooo vol- umes and does not have very much material in the field of technology. CosTA RrcA: The Costa Rican libraries visited were those of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Agricultural College, the Colegio San Luis at Cartago, the National University in San Jose, the Biblioteca N acional, San Jose, the Facultad de Farmacia, the Servicio Tecnico Interamericano de Cooperaci6n Agricola, the Centro Cultural Costarricense-Ameri- 358 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES cano and the M useo N acional, which in- cludes good historical collections in ento- mology and several other fields. The library of the Inter-American Insti- tute of Agricultural Sciences is far superior at present to the collections seen elsewhere, with the possible exception of the Secci6n de Investigaciones Especiales in Mexico, for the fields which that library covers. It is the only collection which contains any repre- sentation of agricultural economics and it could form a basis of a good working li- brary for its region. The library has a con- siderable number of duplicates which might well be made available to other institutions in its service area. Its collection of some 7 500 or 8ooo volumes has been used to an- swer more reference questions than is com- mon in libraries in this region. PANAMA: The libraries visited in Panama and the Canal Zone included the University of Panama, Summit Gardens, Ministry of Agriculture, Biblioteca N acional and the Canal Zone Library. As a result of this visit an interesting program of . cooperation between the Minister of Agriculture and the National Library is developing and that will be discussed below. CoLOMBIA: Colombian libraries visited included that of the Palmira Agricultural Experiment Station, which includes about I 500 vol- umes, and receives 30 periodicals regularly; the Cali Agricultural College, with ap- proximately 2000 volumes and 25 or 30 journals, the Facultad de Agronomia of the National University at Medellin, the Facul- tad de Ingenieria of the National U niver- sity of Medellin, the University of Antio- quia and its medical school, the University Bolivariana and the State Public Library, as well as the following libraries in Bogota : OCTOBER~ 1949 the Ministry of Agriculture; the School of Veterinary Medicine, the Laboratorio Qui- mico, the Facultad de Ciencias, the Facul- tad de Farmacia, the Facultad de Quimica, the Laboratorio de la Direcci6n de Minas y Petroleos, the library of the National Bank, of the Escuela Normal Superior, and of the Instituto Geografico de los Andes, as well as the Biblioteca Nacional, the Facultad de Medicina and the Facultad de Farmacia of the University and the Centro Colombo- americano. In addition, discussions were held with several dozen scientists in public and private research institutions on a num- ber of special factors in the program of sci- entific communication in Colombia which will be discussed below. Summary In general it might be said that one of the greatest problems in improving library facili- ties and services within the larger countries is that of dispersion of resources. For ex- ample, the National University of Colombia has nine different faculty libraries, no one of which has averaged as much as 350 new titles a year and some of which acquire as few as 40 new titles a year. The basic ma- terials in the veterinary faculty, the medical faculty, the chemical faculty, the agricul- tural faculty and pharmaceutical faculty have to be duplicated to some extent so that the total number of titles available is con- siderably less than might be obtained under a cooperative program. Furthermore, there is no central catalog so that it is not possi- ble readily to determine what is available in the university as a whole. The same might be pointed out with respect to the Depart- ment of Agriculture in Mexico, which has at least seven libraries, three of them in one building and each quite small and independ- ent of the others. For example, the Biblio- teca de Direcci6n G~neral de Agricultura has a collection of some 6ooo volumes and 359 25,000 bulletins. It does not have any rec- ord of what is available in the Livestock Bureau, the Geographical-Meteorological Bureau, the Animal Industry Bureau, the Forestry Bureau or the Rural Economy Bureau. No one of these libraries receives more than 25 or 30 serial publications regu- larly and the general library has no funds at all for purchase of books. One of the most interesting programs in process of development is a cooperative pro- gram between the National Library and the Ministry of Agriculture in Panama. Gen- erally, national libraries are concerned pri- marily with collection and preservation of materials, but in Panama, Galileo Patino, director of the National Library, who is well trained, has developed a very interest- ing and dynamic program for their library. Since the population of Panama is less than 700,000 and the National Libary is attempt- ing to provide service to all the population, its program might be compared with that of a medium-sized public library in the United States rather than with the usual type of National Library. The library has some 6o branches and other outlets around the country and attempts to serve farm groups as well as city groups. The Ministry of Agriculture, in view of the dynamic pro- gram being carried on by the National Li- brary, has agreed that they would be better served by the National Library than by at- tempting to build up a collection of their own. While this observer was in Panama the Secretary of Agriculture, Alfonso Te- jeira, and Mr. Patino reached agreement on cooperative services, with the probability that the Ministry of Agriculture will pro- vide a bookmobile to the National Library so that the National Library may carry ex- tension materials out to the rural groups. This appears to be a very promising experi- ment in maximum utilization of existent facilities. The cooperation which appears to be developing in Panama should result in better library service for the Ministry, for farmers, and for the public in general than could possibly be effected through the usual pattern of duplication of library facilities. In Colombia, considerable interest was expressed in the possibility of more coopera- tion among scholarly institutions. Mr. Ramirez, dean of the Agricultural College at Cali, suggested that it would be desirable for the research institutions of Colombia to meet together to discuss means by which they might make greater use of their total li- brary and bibliographic materials in Colom- bia. In view of the fact that this observer found many important sets of journals scat- tered around in different libraries, and in view of the fact that there is now no way for a scientist to determine what is available in Colombia, the possibility of such a meeting was discussed with scientists and authorities of other institutions, both from the point of view of the possibility of better utilization of what exists and from the point of view of a possible cooperative program in purchasing so as to decrease the amount of unnecessary duplication of titles and increase the total number of periodicals available in one insti- tution or another in Colombia. This idea was received with enthusiasm at every insti- tution visited and it would appear that if a cooperative program should be developed the research potential in Colombia would in- crease greatly. Incidentally, the development of research institutions and scientific and technical edu- cational institutions in Colombia over the last 20 years is an excellent indication of what can be achieved in a very brief time when the importance of scientific training is really appreciated. 360 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES