College and Research Libraries D I A N A A M S D E N Information Problems of Anthropologists This paper discusses the background of the information problems of anthropologists, the character of their discipline, and the consequences of this character for the arrangement and cataloging of anthropology literature in the library. An exploration is made of the seriousness of two aspects of a present information crisis: (1) access, both retro- spective and current; and (2) awareness. An analysis of current index- ing is included. Partial and possible aids to alleviate the problem are enumerated. A questionnaire sent to professional anthropologists to determine their information-seeking habits, problems, and needs is described. The conclusion lists four major needs of anthropologists which should be met. A_NTHROPOLOGISTS are currently having more difficulty with information prob- lems than are the members of many other major academic disciplines. There was a time when the scholar in this field, as in most, could keep up fairly well with his specialty. H e had read most or all of its literature—perhaps even owned much of it personally—and he was able to read all pertinent material as it was published. This has now been impossible, however, for many years. The problems caused by a new super- abundance of material are compounded by lack of manpower, specialization, and a tendency for the literature to deterio- rate in quality. Consequently the anthro- pologist finds his perseverance and de- tective skill exercised almost as much in the library as in the field, and his col- lecting instinct as much for his informa- tion needs as for his museum. Diana Amsden is a Catalog Librarian and a doctoral candidate in anthropology at the University of New Mexico. The nature of anthropology itself ex- plains part of the problem; as the "sci- ence of man" it is concerned with hu- mankind in the dimensions of time and space, on every part of the globe—even under water and into space—and from the genesis of man into the future. Be- cause of this scope it has been proposed that anthropology will become what the classics were: the foundation and the framework of a good education. This universal quality is revealed in the obser- vation that the anthropologist considers f e w subjects "outside his field"; i.e., he believes most human knowledge to be within the legitimate range of his inter- ests. Its Classification. Anthropology is classified academically as a social sci- ence; yet, as Kroeber says, its father was natural history and its mother aesthetical- ly-inclined humanities.1 Because of the breadth, depth, and comprehensiveness of its interests, it is a master science, a 1 Alfred L. Kroeber, "The History of the Personality of Anthopology," American Anthropologist, LXI (June 1 9 5 9 ) , 3 9 8 - 4 0 4 . / 117 118 / College 6- Research Libraries • March 1968 member of the physical sciences and the humanities as much as of the social sci- ences. This is demonstrated dramatical- ly in any university library, whatever its classification system; material of use to the anthropologist is scattered literally from one end of the system to the other. As any experienced library researcher can testify, the subject headings for an- thropology in the average university card catalog leave at least as much to be desired as the classification, whether the Sears List of Subject Headings, used with the D e w e y classification, or the Library of Congress subject headings are used. Enough descriptors are usually not assigned to a given work; the descriptors are often not sufficiently specific for the topic; and perhaps worst, the subject headings frequently do not appear to be organized into a pattern designed to in- clude all pertinent material in a logical system. Even when a list of subject headings is available for consultation, lo- cation of material is difficult. This is not always the case, of course, in special libraries with special subject heading systems, such as that used by the Pea- body museum library at Harvard Uni- versity. Often important books are shelved in a separate reference room, sometimes even hidden behind the reference desk where the patron may not see them, or even suspect their existence. Government documents may also be shelved sepa- rately and not listed in the card catalog, but classified according to their own sys- tem. Different libraries, of course, differ in their decisions whether to list periodi- cals and other serials in the card cata- log, or in distinguishing between serials and monographic series, the latter often requiring cataloging of individual issues. Anthropologists, as patrons in most fields, are probably not aware that it is standard library practice to omit such beginning phrases of titles as "Introduc- tion to . . ." and "Principles of . . on the title cards. These differing character- istics and inconsistencies, despite the good reasons for their existence, frus- trate and handicap even the experienced library researcher. SERIOUSNESS OF T H E INFORMATION PROBLEM The seriousness and costliness of the information problem of scholars are demonstrated by figures from the fields of natural science and technology, which have invested enormous sums in elabo- rate equipment for information storage and retrieval. It has been estimated that it is less expensive to repeat research costing $100,000 than it is to search the literature to discover whether it has al- ready been done.2 The information ex- plosion of the last two decades has made bibliographic control in anthropology, al- ready poor, almost impossible, despite the efforts to date of anthropological so- cieties, institutions, federal agencies, and international organizations. The two major problems anthropolo- gists face in obtaining information are: ( 1 ) difficulty of access; and ( 2 ) diffi- culty of maintaining awareness. Access. For access w e find f e w good sources in anthropology comparable to the best in some other disciplines. Retrospective access. T h e Harvard University Peabody Museum of Archae- ology and Ethnology Author and Subject Catalogues, one of G. K. Hall and Company's growing number of special library catalogs, is anoutstanding excep- tion. The Harvard University Peabody museum library began in the 1860's to collect what is perhaps "the most com- prehensive and balanced collection of ethnological, archaeological, and physi- cal anthropological material in the world," containing more than eighty thousand items at the time of G. K. 2 Joseph N. Bell, "Crisis: How Can W e Store Human Knowledge?" Popular Mechanics, CXVIII ( N o v . 1 9 6 2 ) , 1 0 4 - 1 0 , 224. Information Probletns of Anthropologists / 119 Hall's publication of the catalog (1963), and eighty-seven thousand according to a later count. 3 The library has a geographically arranged classification scheme, and includes all the anthropo- logical journals and the proceedings and reports of anthropological societies and museums throughout the world. Most important, it has incorporated into its catalog the equivalent of a periodical index. The questionnaire results de- scribed later in this paper, however, indi- cate that only 29 per cent of the respond- ents made any real use of this fine re- source. An unusual body of research material developed by anthropologists is the Hu- man Relations Area Files, started at Yale in 1937, used by the United States gov- ernment during World War II in the Pacific theatre, and incorporated as a research organization in 1949 with aid from the Social Sciences Research Coun- cil and the Carnegie Corporation. Don- ald Morrison reported a project to com- puterize it in FORTRAN II language at Northwestern University.4 A microfilm edition is available also. Current access. Anthropology has no current general index or abstract service, and this is perhaps the most desperate need outside of funds for purchasing ad- ditional literature. The anthropologist cannot do what the biologist, for ex- 3 Margaret Currier, librarian of the Harvard U n i - versity Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Eth- nology. Personal communication. 4 Donald Morrison, "Indexing the Human Relations Area Files," American Behavioral Scientist, VII (June 1 9 6 4 ) , 4 9 - 5 0 . ample, often can: go to one source (Bio- logical Abstracts) for all pertinent previ- ous data. Indexes cover f e w anthropolo- gy periodicals, and the number of peri- odicals is increasing. Analysis of Indexing. Table 1 shows not only the deplorable situation, but also the fact that it is worsening rapidly. When this research on information needs of anthropologists was begun, the tenth edition (1963) of Ulrich's Directory of Periodicals was current. The eleventh edition (1966) and its first supplement are compared with the tenth edition. This table is based entirely on Ulrich's listings under the categories of "Anthro- pology" and "Archaeology." The data in the 1966 column includes the five ad- ditional journals listed in the first sup- plement. The eleven fields to which the user of Ulrich's 1963 edition is referred are: classical studies, education, folklore, ge- ography, history, Orientalia, sociology, literature and philology, biology, art gal- leries and museums. The seventeen fields in the 1966 edition include, in addition to most of the foregoing: political sci- ence, Indians, religion and theology, sound recording reproduction, zoology, natural and physical sciences, general bibliography, art, literary periodicals and political reviews, and general periodicals —Italy. The wider range of fields reflects the increasing interrelatedness of an- thropology with other academic disci- plines. The 1963 edition lists fourteen index- ing sources, which are, with the number T A B L E 1 1 9 6 3 1 9 6 6 Per Cent Increase Total anthropology and archaeology journals 2 0 8 264 27 Number of other fields listed which have journals pertinent to anthropology 11 17 5 5 Number of indexes including these journals 14 24 71 Number of indexings of these journals 30 39 13 Maximum number of times single journal indexed . 4 11 175 120 / College 6- Research Libraries • March 1968 of anthropology journals indexed: Art Index (6), Social Sciences and Humani- ties Index (formerly International In- dex) ( 4 ) , Psychological Abstracts ( 2 ) , Catholic Periodicals Index (1), Biologi- cal Abstracts ( 1 4 ) , British Humanities Index (6), Chemical Abstracts (8), Pub- lic Affairs Information Service (PAIS) (1), Index to Religious Periodical Litera- ture (1), Canadian Periodical Index (1), Engineering Index (1), Index Medicus (2), Nutrition Abstracts and Reviews ( 1 ) , a n d Sociological Abstracts ( 1 ) , a total of forty-four indexings of thirty periodicals in fourteen indexes. The 1966 edition lists twenty-four in- dexes, including most of the foregoing. The corresponding figures are: Art In- dex ( 6 ) , Social Sciences and Humanities Index (8), Psychological Abstracts (4), Catholic Periodicals Index (1), Biolog- ical Abstracts (14), British Humanities Index ( 6 ) , Chemical Abstracts (8), PAIS ( 1 ) , Index to Religious Periodical Lit- erature (1), Canadian Periodical Index (1), Engineering Index (2), Index Med- icus ( 5 ) , Nutrition Abstracts and Re- views ( 3 ) , Religious and Theological Abstracts ( 1 ) , Biological and Agricul- tural Index (1), Music Index (1), Read- ers Guide to Periodical Literature (3), Metallurgical Abstracts (2), Meteorolog- ical and Geoastrophysical Abstracts ( 2 ) , Science Abstracts (2), Australian PAIS (1), Abridged Readers Guide (1), Mathematical Reviews ( 1 ) , a n d Applied Science and Technology Index ( 1 ) , m a k - ing a total of seventy-six indexings of thirty-nine periodicals in twenty-four in- dexes. It is obvious that the indexing of anthropology periodicals done at pres- ent is for the benefit of other interested disciplines, and not of anthropologists. Table 15 gives further data on the in- dexing of anthropology periodicals. It does not come as a surprise to learn that anthropologists make little use of indexes. Appel and Gurr,5 in their study of the bibliographical needs of social and behavioral scientists including a number of anthropologists, discovered that relatively little use is made of spe- cial resources like indexes. They found that footnotes and journal bibliographies are more often used than abstracts or personal service from librarians. They also felt that there was some ignorance of good available resources, e.g., 89 per cent of their respondents were unaware of the UNESCO bibliographies. Table 15, reporting use of indexes by respond- ents to the questionnaire administered by the author of this paper, indicates the same situation: the Art Index is used by 2.6 per cent, Biological Abstracts by 10.5 per cent, Social Sciences and Hu- manities Index by 5.3 per cent, Psycho- logical Abstracts by 9.2 per cent, British Humanities Index by 1.3 per cent, and Chemical Abstracts by 0 per cent. Ulrich's gives circulation figures for some of the journals. The circulation range of indexed journals in the cate- gories of "Anthropology" and "Archaeol- ogy" in the 1963 edition was five hun- dred to thirty-two hundred. In the 1966 edition the range was seven hundred and twenty to ten thousand. The comparable figures for non-indexed journals was up to twenty-eight thousand in the 1963 edition and to 19,120 in the 1966 edi- tion. The particular journals covered are not identical in the two editions. Even acknowledging that a high circulation figure is not necessarily evidence of quality, it appears that not all the most valued journals are being indexed. AWARENESS The problem of maintaining aware- ness, like that of access, can be demon- strated by figures from the bibliograph- ically favored fields of engineering and technology. It is estimated that the physical impossibility of keeping current in one's field, resulting in wasteful dupli- 5 John S. Appel and Ted Gurr, "Bibliographic Needs of Social and Behavioral Scientists," American Behav- ioral Scientist, V I I (June 1 9 6 4 ) 5 1 - 5 4 . Information Probletns of Anthropologists / 121 cation of research, is costing up to 50 per cent of our current multi-billion-dol- lar effort in research and development, and that wasteful duplication and moun- tainous literature searches consume as much as 70 per cent of our scientists' time. 6 CURRENT PARTIAL A N D POSSIBLE AIDS Current Anthropology a n d American Anthropologist are used by most anthro- pologists to maintain awareness. Automatic Subject Citation Alert (ASCA), a new current awareness serv- ice designed by the Institute for Scien- tific Information, utilizes user-prepared profiles consisting of questions or sub- ject citations for specific works reflecting the user's current interests. Each week he receives a report showing which current source journal article cites them. Some anthropologists are now using ASCA. 7 The services of the National Referral Center are useful to some an- thropologists also. Vincent Davis proposes a Centralized Bibliography Bank for the behavioral sciences, characterized by comprehen- siveness, with access to University Micro- films and all other organizations that record, index, and copy unpublished ma- terials.8 He is seconded by many anthro- pologists. It might b e proposed that for anthropology, the center for such a MEDLARS-type service should be the best library collection in anthropology available, in an institution with an ac- tive and progressive interest in the field. Support could be sought from this par- ent institution, the federal government, professional societies, and foundations interested in anthropology. Abroad, we 6 Allen Kent, Specialized Information Centers (Wash- ington, D.C.: Spartan Books, 1 9 6 5 ) , 5 - 6 . 7 Professor Omer Stewart, Department of Anthro- pology, University of Colorado. Personal communi- cation. 8 Vincent D a v i s , "A Proposed Bibliography Bank for the Behavioral Sciences," American Behavioral Scientist, VII ( J u n e 1 9 6 4 ) , 6 7 - 7 0 . can expect the Maison des Sciences de 1'Homme to be a major documentation center in the social sciences. One device which could prove promis- ing is Kochen's Adaptive Man-Machine Nonarithmetic Information Processing ( A M N I P ) , which includes a growing thesaurus, built by the users themselves in the course of using the man-machine system.9 Continuous updating is inherent in the system, in which users train the memory by entering statements in a semi-formalized language through a key- board console. The user inserts query words; the console responds with the number of items, e.g., documents, ab- stracts, associated with those words. The user can then expand or limit his query, the machine assisting on demand by dis- playing words with which to expand or limit his query. This man-machine con- versation can be repeated up to the ex- haustion of the machine's vocabulary of associations and/or the user's need. Then the user can enter his own word as- sociations where he found the machine's store of associations inadequate. It is a sort of living index. Another system, briefly noted in the literature, is Syntagmatic Organization Language ( S Y N T O L ) , 1 0 an all-embrac- ing system for use on materials which have already been organized by some other system, developed in France by Gardin in 1960-62 and used at the Cen- tre d'Analyse Documentaire pour l'Af- rique Noire in cultural anthropology. The informative abstracts are ten to fif- teen lines long. The language is com- piled empirically on the literature and assumed needs. Terms are entered into the system in natural language, but the indexer must be skilled in building and revising the vocabulary. Translation service like that offered 9 Manfred Kochen, Some Problems in Information Science ( N e w York: Scarecrow Press, 1 9 6 5 ) . 1 0 Jean-Claude Gardin, "A European Research Pro- gram in Document Retrieval," American Behavioral Scientist, VII (June 1 9 6 4 ) , 12-16. 122 / College 6- Research Libraries • March 1968 science and technology by the Special Libraries Association translations center at the John Crerar library is needed badly in anthropology. Transliteration at least of literature printed in the Cyril- lic alphabet would be helpful to those accustomed to only the Roman alphabet, and would be less expensive than actual translation. The Harvard University Pea- body Museum of Archaeology and Eth- nology began a Russian translation series in 1959. There are several current awareness techniques adaptable to anthropology. The "Current Contents" idea in the sci- ences should be used. Citation indexing, already in wide use in the natural sci- ences, is particularly adapted to use in the social sciences and humanities. The Science Citation Index is an ordered list of references (cited works) in which each reference is followed by a list of the sources (citing works) which cite it. In other words, it is simply a stream- lining of a favorite research technique of anthropologists. With a citation index one can go backward or forward to build a b i b l i o g r a p h y . 1 1 , 1 2 A new current awareness aid is Dis- covery—or Dissemination—of Informa- tion Through Co-operative Organiza- tion ( D I C O ) , an automatic information dissemination system. 1 3 One variant is Stochastic Adaptive Sequential Informa- tion Dissemination System (SASIDS), an adaptive network for dissemination that adjusts automatically to take ac- count of feedback from recipients. Docu- ments are automatically distributed; each participant reports which of them he finds relevant and interesting, omitting obviously standard publications, and 1 1 Eugene Garfield, "Citation Indexes in Sociological and Historical Research," American Documentation, XIV (October 1 9 6 3 ) , 2 8 9 - 9 1 . 1 2 Eugene Garfield, "Citation Indexing: A Natural Science Literature Retrieval System for the Social Sciences," American Behavioral Scientist, VII (June 1 9 6 4 ) , 5 8 - 6 1 . 13 Ibid. then the system distributes abstracts of that document to all other members. This system is being tested at the Space Sciences Laboratory of the University of California at Berkeley, and should be adaptable to anthropology. T H E QUESTIONNAIRE AND ITS RESULTS In spite of this serious information problem in anthropology, a review of both anthropology and library literature reveals almost no work done on the sub- ject, with the possible exception of John Howland Rowe's w o r k . 1 4 , 1 5 In order to ascertain the information gathering hab- its of anthropologists, as well as to de- termine the specific problems, the au- thor prepared a questionnaire. Questionnaires were sent to 250 per- sons selected at random from the De- cember 1965 "Associates in Current Anthropology" in Current Anthropology. To date there have been ninety-two re- sponses, of which seventy-six were us- able for tabulation of data. Characteristics of the Respondents and Implications. Table 2 shows that the largest number of respondents have PhD degrees. Also, most were trained in the United States. From this it can be seen that most of the respondents are pro- fessional anthropologists of some stand- ing, and that consequently the question- naire results presumably reflect the needs of the professional anthropologist more faithfully than those of the anthropology 1 4 John H. R o w e , "Library Problems in the Teaching of Anthropology," in David G. Mandelbaum, et al, Resources for the Teaching of Anthropology, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1 9 6 3 ) . 1 5 John H. R o w e , "La Organizacion de Bibliotecas Antropologicas," Boletin Bibliografico, Ano XX, XVIII ( 1 9 4 7 ) , 1 5 7 - 7 8 . T A B L E 2 D E G R E E S AND W H E R E E A R N E D United States Foreign PhD 47 15 Master 1 4 Bachelor 2 2 Other 0 2 Information Probletns of Anthropologists / 123 T A B L E 3 DECADE D E G R E E W A S EARNED Number of Respondents 1910-19 2 1920-29 2 1930-39 6 1940-49 12 1950-59 32 1960- 19 student, except insofar as these needs may be similar. Also, it can be fairly assumed that the respondents are dis- proportionately of English or American background, and that consequently the needs of the English-speaking anthro- pologist are reflected more accurately than those of the non-English-speaking one. According to Table 3, thirty-two of the respondents were trained in the decade 1950-1959, and fifty-one were trained between 1950 and the present. This may indicate that the respondent group is disproportionately young com- pared with the generality of professional anthropologists. On the other hand, this may have special value in that the needs T A B L E 4 W H E R E E M P L O Y E D Number of Respondents United States 48 Foreign 26 Not Employed 2 expressed by these younger respondents may indicate the needs of contemporary anthropology students also. The places of employment shown in Table 4 corresponds roughly with the places degrees were earned shown in Table 1. Although some foreign-trained respondents are employed in the United States and vice versa, Table 4 does not reveal any "brain drain" problem such as that which concerns some other dis- ciplines which have a tendency for a disproportionate number of foreign- trained professional persons to seek United States employment. Table 5 shows the nature of the em- ploying institution. The total number of institutions exceeds the number of respondents due to the fact that several institutions fell in more than one cate- gory. Universities are the commonest employing institution, followed by mu- T A B L E 5 T Y P E OF INSTITUTION Number of Respondents Institution 49 . . . . University 5 . . . . College 15 . . . Museum 1 . . . . High School 2 . . . . Preparatory School 4 . . . . Besearch Organization 4 . . . . Federal Agency 1 . . . . State Agency 3 . . . . . Other T A B L E 6 M O S T T I M E - C O N S U M I N G ACTIVITIES ACTIVITY FrasT SECOND TOTAL ACTIVITY United States Foreign United States Foreign TOTAL Administration 12 2 8 5 27 Consultation 3 0 0 0 3 Fieldwork 4 2 6 4 16 Besearch (other) 4 1 11 3 19 Editing 1 0 1 1 3 Museum work 1 5 1 1 8 Teaching 16 10 11 4 41 Writing 3 1 12 4 20 Other 0 2 0 0 2 124 / College 6- Research Libraries • March 1968 T A B L E 7 AREA OF SPECIALIZATION Most Second Most Area Time-Consuming Time-Consuming Total Anthropology, Applied 2 13 15 Archaeology, Historical 3 8 11 Archaeology, Prehistoric 17 12 29 Art 2 6 8 Culture Change 3 24 27 Economic Behavior 2 10 12 Physical Anthropology 1 9 10 Ethnohistory 4 12 16 Ethnomusicology 0 2 2 Folklore 1 8 9 Linguistics 0 4 4 Museum Work 7 7 14 Psychological Anthropology 2 11 13 Religion 1 12 13 Social Anthropology 9 20 29 Technology 2 12 14 Other 6 14 20 seums. Consequently, university and museum needs should be revealed most accurately in the following data. Table 6 shows the first- and second- most-time-consuming professional activi- ties of the respondents. Teaching is far in the lead, mentioned first or second by forty-six respondents, followed by administration, writing, non-fieldwork research, fieldwork, and museum work. Table 7 shows the areas of specializa- tion of the respondents, and it appears that their interests are fairly well dis- tributed over the range of subdisciplines. Consequently, the needs of these re- spondents should be somewhat represent- ative of the needs of anthropologists in general. Table 8, showing the number of pub- lications produced by the respondents in the last five years, reveals a very pro- ductive group in contributing to the overwhelming body of literature that is the main concern of this paper. The sev- enty-six respondents produced 1,339 items ranging from books to book re- views, an average of eighteen items apiece. Table 9 bears out the observation that anthropology is related to the humani- ties and the sciences as much as to the social sciences. The most pertinent areas outside the field searched for informa- tion are history, geography, biology, psy- chology, geology, zoology, and econom- ics. T A B L E 8 PUBLICATIONS IN L A S T 5 YEARS ITEM NUMBER OF RESPONDENTS TOTAL ITEM 1 - 5 6 - 1 0 1 1 - 1 5 1 6 - 2 0 2 1 - 2 5 2 6 - 3 0 3 1 - 6 0 TOTAL Books 35 2 0 0 0 9 0 74 Articles . 28 22 5 5 2 3 2 563 Conference Papers 36 8 2 1 1 1 0 266 Book Reviews . 5 1 0 0 1 0 2 144 Other . . . 55 15 1 0 0 0 0 292 Total . . 1339 T A B L E 9 PERTINENT AREAS OUTSIDE ANTHROPOLOGY Searched Searched Area Frequently Sometimes Total Administration 4 2 6 Biology 1 4 7 2 1 Botany 6 6 1 2 Chemistry 3 0 3 Economics 5 9 1 4 Education 8 4 1 2 Films . 6 8 1 4 Fine Arts 4 5 9 Geography 1 4 1 6 3 0 Geology 1 6 3 1 9 History 2 7 1 7 4 4 Law 1 4 5 Medicine . 1 0 1 1 1 Music . 3 4 7 Philosophy 7 6 1 3 Physics 1 1 2 Political Science . 4 1 0 1 4 Psychology 1 3 7 2 0 Statistics 2 5 7 Zoology 7 8 1 5 Other 1 6 4 2 0 T A B L E 1 0 FOREIGN LANGUAGES B E A D Language Number of Respondents French . . . . 4 2 German . . . . . . . . 3 8 Spanish . . . . . . . . 6 Bussian . . . . . . . . 1 5 Italian . . . . 5 Portuguese . . . . 5 Dutch . . . . 6 Afrikaans . . . . 5 Japanese . . . . 3 Table 10 indicates the number of re- spondents reading each of the major languages in which anthropological lit- erature is published. Numerous addition- al languages were mentioned, as could be expected, the average respondent reading two and more often three for- eign languages, and several reading ten or more. It was interesting to note that Afrikaans is read by as many respond- ents as Italian or Portuguese. Due to the small number of respondents, this figure should not be construed to mean that Afrikaans is read by as many anthro- (roblems of Anthropologists / 1 2 5 T A B L E 1 1 W A Y S ANTHROPOLOGISTS G E T INFORMATION Fre-quently Some-times Total Conversation with other anthropologists . 3 5 2 6 6 1 Conversation with non-anthropologists 2 4 2 2 4 6 Informal meetings with colleagues 2 5 2 7 5 2 Conferences and other . formal meetings 1 9 2 5 4 4 Visitors 1 0 2 3 3 3 Correspondence . 1 6 3 2 4 8 Pre-publication copies . 3 1 6 1 9 Anthropological 6 0 literature . . . . 6 0 2 6 2 Non-anthropological 2 5 1 7 literature . . . . 2 5 1 7 4 2 Library card catalog 1 5 1 8 3 3 Indexes and abstracts . 1 6 1 4 3 0 Footnotes or bibliographies in 2 0 4 9 books 2 9 2 0 4 9 Separate or mono- graphic bibliographies 1 8 2 3 4 1 Book reviews or publishers' an- ouncements 2 6 2 8 5 4 Seminar presentations . 7 1 9 2 6 Other 1 1 1 1 2 pologists as Italian or Portuguese. How- ever, the high figure for readers of Rus- sian is no doubt indicative of the grow- ing need for proficiency in Russian in order to utilize, for example, the mono- graphic series of the Akademiia Nauk Institute of Ethnography and Institute of Archaeology. Information-Gathering Habits of Re- spondents. Table 11 reveals the current favorite information sources of anthro- pologists. Anthropological literature and T A B L E 1 2 HOURS S P E N T P E R W E E K G E T T I N G INFORMATION Number of Respondents 0 - 9 1 3 1 0 - 1 9 3 7 2 0 - 2 9 6 3 0 - 3 9 1 4 0 - 4 9 1 5 0 - 5 9 1 60- 1 126 / College 6- Research Libraries • March 1968 conversation with other anthropologists head the list, naturally enough, followed by book reviews or publishers' announce- ments, informal meetings with col- leagues, footnotes or bibliographies in books, and correspondence. The lesser use of the library card catalog, indexes, and abstracts indicates a need for im- provement of what should be more effi- cient keys to information. Table 12 indicates that the typical respondent spends ten to nineteen hours a week getting information, the average being twelve hours, or the equivalent of one or two days a week. These seventy- six respondents spend a total of ap- proximately 890 hours a week getting information. It should be noted that in this field, work is frequently seasonal, summer being spent in the field and win- ter in such activities as teaching and writing. Table 13, showing the age of peri- odicals used, suggests that the library practice sometimes found in shelving pe- riodicals more than a few years old in a separate area, although perhaps the most efficient policy for some of the natural sciences, is not best for anthro- T A B L E 1 3 AGE OF PERIODICALS U S E D NUMBER OF RESPONDENTS AGE Often Sometimes TOTAL Less than one year old . 56 12 68 1-5 years old . 47 24 7 1 5-10 years old . 28 34 62 More than 10 years old . 24 30 64 pology. Although the "very often" col- umn indicates that periodicals are used slightly less as time passes, the "some- times" column seems to indicate the re- verse, so that when these columns are totaled, the value of anthropology pe- riodicals is revealed to remain sufficiently stable to justify continuous shelving. Table 14 shows the usefulness of types of anthropological literature. As could be expected, journals publishing papers based on original research and monographs are most used. Lack of ac- cessibility seems to be a problem in ob- taining foreign materials, masters theses, and other unpublished material, doctoral dissertations in particular. T A B L E 1 4 F O R M S OF L I T E R A T U R E USED FORM IMPORTANCE EASE OF SUCCESS FORM Very Moderate Easy Moderate Difficult Total Monographs 5 8 7 4 8 1 5 2 6 5 Elementary (undergrad.) texts . . . . 8 6 1 1 3 0 1 4 Advanced (graduate) texts 1 5 1 4 1 6 1 1 2 2 9 Foreign monographs 1 8 8 1 3 6 7 2 6 Journals publishing papers of original research 6 3 4 5 1 1 4 2 6 7 Review publications 1 9 2 3 2 2 1 8 2 4 2 Foreign journals 3 0 1 5 1 7 2 0 8 4 5 Technical reports 1 4 9 1 2 8 3 2 3 Government publications 1 6 1 9 2 6 6 3 3 5 International organization publications . 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 0 3 2 7 Encyclopedias 7 8 9 3 3 1 5 Dictionaries and glossaries 1 3 1 1 2 0 1 3 2 4 Handbooks 1 1 1 5 1 6 7 3 2 6 Masters' theses, manuscripts, other 2 6 unpublished material 9 2 3 9 7 1 4 3 2 Doctoral dissertations 1 0 1 7 6 9 1 2 2 7 Newspapers 6 1 2 1 1 7 0 1 8 Maps 2 2 1 0 1 6 1 3 3 3 2 Human Relations Area Files 7 1 2 1 3 3 3 1 9 Information Probletns of Anthropologists / 127 T A B L E 1 5 U S E OF L I T E R A T U R E Title R o P L Circulation Indexes 15 2 16 1 17 3 9 12 1 9 0 0 ' 7 3 2 8 750-800 50 13 47 16 2 26 4 23 6 2200 1 5 12 2 15 2600-2800 2 10 7 8 8 1180 4 6 13 2 15 720 1 4 2 3 3 800 5 14 1 20 1 ' 2 24 1 23 1 0 0 0 ' 4 1 3 4 1 ' 9 16 4 21 2 1 5 1 4 8 16 1 25 9000-10,000 1 ' 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 3 1 4 1 2 ' 1 1 1 2 0 2 1 2 1 3 3 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 1 5 0 7 .... 4 3 1 5 1 5 0 8 1 4 2 3 13 16 13 15 . „ . 2 6 1 7 1 5 2 3 1500 0 1 0 2 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 1 6 6 6 0 ' ' 1 ' 5 8 7 5 54 11 63 2 1 0 1 0 1 1 3 2 4 7 18 7 16 5 0 0 ' " 21 15 23 12 2500+ 1 ' 2 15 3 12 4 2 2 4 5 2 2 5 3 2 1 3 2 3 4 3 3 1 3 1 0 0 0 1 1500 1 ' 13 9 1 19 0 1 0 2 6 6 7 ' 1 ' 2 2 0 5 1000 1 6 9 5 10 6 Abstracts of New World Archaeology . Africa ( M ) African Abstracts American Anthropologist ( M ) Soc. Sci. Hum. Ind., Psych. Abstr. . American Antiquity ( M ) Soc. Sci. Hum Ind American Journal of Archaeology Chem Abstr., Soc. Sci. Hum. Ind. . American Journal of Physical Anthropology ( M ) Biol. Abstr., Chem. Abstr., Ind Med., Nutr. Abstr Anthropological Quarterly ( M ) Cath. Ind Anthropological Society of Japan Journal L'Anthropologic ( M ) Biol. Abstr. . Anthropos ( M ) Antiquaries Journal Brit. Hum. Ind. . Antiquity ( M ) Brit. Hum. Ind., Art Ind. Antropologie Archaeology ( M ) Art Ind. . . . . Archives Suisse dAnthropologie Generale Art Index Arts et Traditions Populaires Artibus Asiae Art Ind Annual Bibliography of Folklore . Biblical Archaeologist Art Ind., Bel. Per Bel. & Theol. Abstr. . . . . "Bibliographie Americaniste" . "Bibliographie de l'Oceanie" Bibliographie Ethnographique de l'Afrique Sud-Saharienne "Bibliography of Canadian Anthropology Biennial Beview of Anthropology . Biological Abstracts Chem. Abstr. . Boletin Bibliografica de Antropologia Americana British Humanities Index . . . . Buck: Introduction to Polynesian Anthropology Chemical Abstracts Biol. Abstr. . COWA Surveys and Bibliographies Current Anthropology ( M ) Soc. Sci. Hum Ind. Current Contents Elkin: Social Anthropology in Melanesia Ethnohistory ( M ) Ethnology Soc. Sci. Hum. Ind. . Ethnos ( M ) Excerpta Medica Journals Biol. Abstr., Chem. Abstr., Ind. Med I. Anatomy, Anthropology, Embryology, Histology XXIII. Human Genetics . . . . Folklore Brit. Hum. Ind "Folklore Bibliography" (Southeastern Folklore Quarterly) Geographica Helvetica Biol. Abstr. . Harvard University Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Catalogue Hesperia Art Ind Homo Biol. Abstr Human Biology ( M ) Biol. Abstr., Biol. < Agric. Ind., Chem. Abstr., Ind. Med Nutr. Abstr., Psych. Abstr. . 128 / College 6- Research Libraries • March 1968 TABLE 15 (Cont.) Title R o P L Circulation Indexes Human Organization ( M ) Soc. Sci. Hum. Ind 11 15 13 14 2700 1 Human Relations Area Files 5 12 0 17 India. Department of Anthropology Index 1 2 1 2 International Bibliography of Social and Cultural Anthropology (UNESCO) ( M ) 4 11 2 14 International Journal of American Linguistics ( M ) Soc. Sci. Hum. Ind. . 5 5 4 6 1200 1 Internationale Volkskundliche Bibliographie 1 0 1 1 Israel Exploration Journal Chem. Abstr. . 0 2 0 2 1350 1 Israel Exploration Society Bulletin . 0 0 0 0 1750 Journal of African History Brit. Hum. Ind., Soc. Sci. Hum. Ind. 8 3 3 9 1385 2 Journal of American Folklore ( M ) Music Ind., Soc. Sci. Hum. Ind 6 8 5 9 2 Journal of East Asiatic Studies . . . . 3 4 3 2 500 Keesing. Culture Change 3 4 4 5 Keesing: Social Anthropology in Polynesia 2 4 1 6 Language ( M ) Psych. Abstr 3 4 3 5 4500 1 Man ( M ) Biol. Abstr., Brit. Hum. Ind. . 20 20 18 24 2 Mandelbaum et al. "Resources for the Teaching of Anthropology" . . . 5 17 19 5 Natural History (now incorporated with Nature, q.v.) Biol. Abstr., R. G. . 11 11 8 18 145,000 2 Nature 5 12 1 18 145,000 Oceania ( M ) P.A.I.S 9 10 4 17 750 1 Palestine Exploration Quarterly Brit. Hum. Ind 1 0 0 2 1 Polynesian Society ( M ) 9 5 7 8 1300 Psychological Abstracts Biol. Abstr. . 2 5 1 8 7800 1 Revue Arqueologique Art Ind 1 0 0 1 1 Royal Anthropological Institute, London. Index to Current Periodicals Received. . 6 7 6 7 Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Journal ( M ) (now merged with Man, q.v.) 23 19 18 16 Royal Society of Antiquaries in Ireland Brit. Hum. Ind 0 3 0 4 925 1 Royal Society of Canada. Transactions. Biol. Abstr., Can. Ind., Chem. Abstr., Eng. Ind., Met. Abstr 1 0 0 3 5 Science Biol. Abstr., Chem. Abstr., Eng. Ind., Ind. Med., Met. Abs., Meteor. & Geoastro. Abstr., Nutr. Abstr., Psych. Abstr., R. G., Sci. Abstr 28 17 23 19 9 4 , 7 8 5 ( 1 9 6 3 ) 10 Scientific American Ind. Med., Math. R., 9 4 , 7 8 5 ( 1 9 6 3 ) Meteor. & Geoastro. Abstr., Met. Abstr., Psych. Abstr., R. G., Sci. Abstr., A. S. & T. Ind., Abr. R. G., Biol. Abstr., Chem. Abstr 18 16 22 15 11 Siegel. Acculturation Abstracts . . . . 1 4 2 3 Sociological Abstracts 5 8 4 10 2000 Southwestern Journal of Anthropology (M ) Biol. Abstr., Psych. Abstr., Soc. Sci. Hum. Ind 32 22 27 23 1700 3 Sudan Notes and Records 4 2 0 6 Vanyajati 0 0 0 0 1000 Wiltshire Archaeology and Natural History Magazine 0 0 0 0 Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie ( M ) . 1 9 1 9 Zeitschrift fur Morphologie und Anthropologic Biol. Abstr 1 2 0 3 1 Information Probletns of Anthropologists / 129 T A B L E 1 6 IMPORTANCE OF LIRRARY SERVICES Very Sometimes Service Important Important N e e d e d Loans and photocopies supplied 3 7 1 5 1 Quick reference service, e.g., telephone 1 1 1 0 1 0 Brief literature search 3 6 1 0 Comprehensive literature search; e.g., bibliography . 1 1 2 1 7 Critical survey of literature 5 2 7 Continuous scanning of literature 8 5 1 5 Translations 1 8 1 5 Abstracts of specified articles 1 5 8 Editorial assistance, e.g., proofreading 3 4 8 Location of audio-visual materials 6 1 1 6 Guidance by library staff 1 4 1 4 7 Library accession lists 2 3 1 4 1 Table 15 consists of individual biblio- graphical resources selected from four sources: (1) indexed anthropology and ar- chaeology journals from Ulrich's 1963 edi- tion (current at the time the questionnaire was prepared), ( 2 ) Carl White's Sources of Information in the Social Sciences, 1963, ( 3 ) Rexford Beckham's "Resources for the Teaching of Anthropology" in David Mandelbaum et al.'s Resources for the Teaching of Anthropology (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1963), and several leading in- dexes. Each item includes the following information: ( M ) recommended by Beckham; R regularly used; O often used; P personal copy; L library copy. If Ulrich's 1966 edition gives a circula- tion figure, this is included. The number of indexings is given, and the indexes named after the title. The most used journals are Current Anthropology, American Anthropologist, Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Science, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Brit- ain and Ireland Journal, Scientific Amer- ican, and Man. The fifth and seventh of these have recently merged. Heavy re- liance on library subscriptions is obvious, few respondents having the means to purchase all the literature they need. Dozens of additional periodicals were listed by respondents, the most notable perhaps being museum publications like Kiva, Masterkey, Plateau, Plains Archae- ologist, El Palacio, etc. A comparison of usage figures and indexing figures will reveal poor correlation. Needs and Problems of Respondents. Tables 16 and 17 should be of particular T A B L E 1 7 P R O B L E M S IN GATHERING INFORMATION Problem Frequent Sometimes Total Incomplete coverage by index and abstract services . 1 3 6 1 9 Unsatisfactory indexing by index and abstract services . 1 4 5 1 9 Convenient library collections inadequate 2 9 1 3 4 2 Inadequate or insufficient help from library staff . 9 9 1 8 Inadequate cataloging of library materials 1 9 1 7 3 6 Difficulty in obtaining foreign publications 1 8 9 2 7 Difficulty in obtaining unpublished material 1 0 1 0 2 0 Difficulty in obtaining technical reports 5 5 1 0 Lack of available information in a subject 1 7 1 1 2 8 Library material in your subject area inadequately organized 1 7 7 2 4 Information not up-to-date 1 1 6 1 7 Library materials too scattered 2 3 6 2 9 130 / College 6- Research Libraries • March 1968 interest to librarians serving anthropolo- gists. The most appreciated services now available are loans and photocopies, li- brary accession lists, guidance by the library staff, quick reference service, bib- liography compilation, and location of audio-visual materials. The services de- sired most are bibliography compilation, brief literature search, continuous liter- ature scanning, translation, and abstract- ing. The first and second are of a highly individual nature, best carried out by a colleague or assistant, whereas the last two could be done most efficiently in some centralized manner. The need for continuous scanning reaffirms the need for a service like the aforemen- tioned ASCA. Table 17 explores problems encoun- tered by anthropologists attempting to obtain information. Inadequacy of col- lections is the major complaint, whose only alleviating aspect may be that it is a good excuse for travel. Many re- spondents showed sympathy and with understanding of the library's effort to give good service with limited funds. The second problem, scattering of ma- terials, was discussed earlier. It is not probable that this situation can be im- proved, for reasons which are to the credit of the discipline; it is so broad and deep that it cannot be confined to a single corner of the library. Inadequate cataloging of library materials is an- other major complaint, but it is likely that only in the specialized museum or departmental library can this problem be solved, for the university library usu- ally has neither the subject-area-trained staff nor the money for this intensive cataloging. Simultaneously avoiding scat- tering of library materials and having thorough cataloging is rarely practical in university budgets. The obtaining of foreign publications should improve steadily, especially with cooperative in- ternational bibliographical ventures, such as the Library of Congress' overseas cataloging of foreign materials. Lack of available information in a subject can be due to absence of research or to difficulty of locating research results. This is one small aspect of the general problem of needing a good indexing service. The problem of inadequate or- ganization of library materials in an anthropological subdiscipline can prob- ably be solved only in the specialized anthropology library. One respondent, Alfred E. Dittert of the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe, believes a punched-card system with needles could be used to advantage in a specialized anthropology library. Also, he is concerned with the possibility of starting a Southwestern Anthropology Bibliographical Center to handle the plethora of unpublished material, in- cluding correspondence. Unpublished material is a major source of information needed by anthropologists.1 6 Summary of Questionnaire Results. A l - though the response to the question- naire was so low as to preclude statis- tically conclusive data, the results ob- tained do reflect with some accuracy the character, habits, needs, and problems of well-trained productive professional anthropologists in the United States and abroad, especially in universities and museums. The high average number of man-hours spent in obtaining informa- tion, twelve per week, coupled with low usage of the f e w pertinent bibliograph- ical aids available, indicates a need for improvement of these aids. It may also indicate a need for bibliographical in- struction, perhaps in graduate school. As it is now, however, any bibliographical instruction given to anthropologists could not reasonably include, for example, the standard Wilson indexes. Specialized bibliographies and those personally com- piled from footnotes are most used. The importance of keeping runs of period- icals intact was noted. The need for finding more efficient means of obtain- 1 8 Alfred E. Dittert. Personal communication. Information Probletns of Anthropologists / 131 ing foreign and unpublished materials was pointed out. The need for improved indexing and abstracting services is per- haps most acute. Services needed which could be provided by trained research assistants, librarians, or a central an- thropological information agency include bibliography compilation, brief literature search, continuous scanning, translating, and abstracting. The problem of inade- quate collections requires money, travel, and/or centralization. The problems of scattering of materials and inadequate cataloging can probably be solved best at present in specialized anthropology libraries. Facilities for obtaining foreign publications should improve, and, it is to be hoped, for unpublished materials also. CONCLUSIONS There appear to be at least four major contributions possible to partial solution of anthropology information problems. These are: 1. The first is a new kind of scholar, one who devotes himself to communica- tion among the researchers and teachers in his field by the writing of synthesizing and evaluative bibliographical essays. Some anthropologists are doing this now on at least a part-time basis, but their efforts need to be integrated and their comprehensiveness increased. A broad background and a mind capable of syn- thesizing and seizing on less obvious re- lationships is needed for this valuable contribution. 2. The literature of anthropology as a whole needs a prompt cumulative com- prehensive index-abstract service, in- cluding maps, films, and government publications. It should be adaptable to computerization. 3. For the individual anthropologist, the information specialist, and the li- brary, a guide is needed to the literature, comparable to Parke's guide in mathe- matics, Whitford's in physics, and Pearl's in geology. 4. The museum or anthropology de- partment library needs a practical hand- book for organizing and running the li- brary, using ideas from other types of special libraries where applicable, includ- ing automatic systems, and taking into account the unique characteristics of anthropological literature and its users, and discussing typical financial resources. Acknowledgements The author expresses appreciation to the persons who helped to make this re- search possible. Professor Bohdan Wynar of the University of Denver graduate school of librarianship gave encourage- ment and arranged for support. Profes- sor Arnold M. Withers, chairman, and Professor Alan Olson of the University of Denver department of anthropology were consulted on the questionnaire. Miss Margaret Currier, librarian of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, de- voted most of a day to helping the author, giving a guided tour of the li- brary, and providing unpublished infor- mation and suggestions. Dr. Alfred E. Dittert of the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe, generously gave the author hours of his time and outlined his efforts to date to start a Southwest Anthropology Bibliographical Center. Professor Harry W. Basehart, chair- man of the University of N e w Mexico department of anthropology and Mr. Billy M. Kirkwood of the University of N e w Mexico computer center gave sug- gestions on handling of the questionnaire data. Gratitude is particularly deserved by Professor Frank C. Hibben of the Uni- versity of N e w Mexico, a fine teacher whose inspiration and encouragement are responsible for any merits in this paper.