College and Research Libraries PATRICIA STENSTROM AND RUTH B. McBRIDE Serial Use by Social Science Faculty: A Survey The 226 faculty members in the social sciences at the University of Illinois who responded to a survey of their use of serials provided information re- garding their serial needs and patterns . of use, as well as the usefulness of specified services . Implications of the findings for improving library service in spite of budgetary constraints are discussed . One finding indicates that faculty use the library's serial collection as a supplemental rather than pri- mary source , and this may invalidate the "core collection" theory . sERVICE TO THE FACULTY , undeniably a high priority of the academic research li- brary, has traditionally been seen as closely related to the size of the collection. The as- sumption has been that faculty needs are satisfied by a large collection, by special borrowing privileges, and by the provision of carrels or studies in the library. Histori- cally, academic librarians have believed that faculty members were expert bibliographers who knew how to use . the card catalog and were at home in the book stacks. 1 Refer- ence services, when given, have often been designed to help the faculty members find material for themselves. Although through the years authors like Rothstein have argued for the provision of actual information to the scholarly commu- nity, 2 academic librarians have continued to believe that such service is neither needed nor desired. To the extent that the humanist scholar is seen as the prototype faculty member, the librarians' view of the faculty ' s need for service is correct. 3 The evidence suggests that the typical social sci- ence faculty member is different from this prototype. Nelson's survey revealed that social scien- tists were less aware of library services and more critical of librarians' performance than Patricia Stenstrom and Ruth B . McBride are serials catalogers and assistant professors of li- brary administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 426 I were the humanists. 4 Line, who conducted a comprehensive study of information -re- quirements of social scientists in Great Brit- ain, has suggested that information needs of social scientists are hard to satisfy because the social sciences are less stable, lack clear boundaries, and use imprecise terminol- ogy. 5 Certainly library catalogs are better suited to the humanist since the terminol- ogy of the humanities is more traditional and better defined. 6 New fields, such as futuristics or social policy , continually emerge in the social sciences, and disci- plines overlap in such a way as to make the subject matter dependent for classification more on the author's area of expertise than on the content. Scientific fields have found ways to supplement library services through the development of sophisticated biblio- graphic tools and reprint networks, but the social sciences have not. The social science faculty has not felt well served in the past, and the financial crisis of the 1970s may contribute further to this feeling. 7 The combination of reduced budgets and inflation , both of which have been forcing libraries to formulate new and restrictive acquisition policies, will certainly decrease the number and variety of mate- rials purchased in the social sciences. 8 Serials have been especially affected by inflation. Brown , in his report on serial prices for 1977, is almost cheerful about an inflation rate of 9.2 percent, which is the second lowest increase in seven years. 9 Be- cause of the potentially long-term and con- tinuing commitment involved in serial sub- scriptions, academic libraries have been forced to reduce the number of new serials purchased and have engaged in large-scale cancellation projects. 10 For reasons mentioned earlier as well as what seems to be poor communication be- tween the library and the social science fac- ulty, serial needs of the social science group are hard to assess. If the library is buying fewer serials, how can it be sure it is buying the ones that this faculty group needs most? How can it compensate for collection deficiencies? Does a large collection by it- self provide the serial-related service that the social scientist would like? Recent library literature has concentrated on quantitative formulas to be used in the selection of serials. Some of these articles, like that by Perk and Van Pulis, 11 em- phasize circulation as a selection guide, but circulation is a measure of the use of what one has rather than of the need for what one might have. In any case, considering that faculty comprise a minority of the academic library users, circulation is a poor test of faculty use. 12 Other articles describe more elaborate quantitative measures, but, as the article by Johnson and Trueswell il- lustrates, such formulas reveal titles that should not be canceled rather than those that should. 13 Such formulas give no assis- tance in the selection of new serials, nor do they deal with important questions of qual- ity and accessibility. They certainly do not attempt to identify or evaluate users' needs for serial-related services. In order to do these things, the authors believe, a more comprehensive approach is needed. With this in mind, in the fall of 1977 the authors undertook a survey of the faculty in selected social science areas in the Univer- sity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The survey was a preliminary step in a projected multifaceted study of faculty serial use. The survey was designed to enhance communi- cation between the library and the social science faculty. It was also designed to pro- vide specific practical recommendations for the improvement of service. Line's study at Bath University provided a valuable back- ground for the survey. 14 Although some of the 1977 findings are applicable at the local Serial Use I 427 level only, many are similar enough to those reported by Line to suggest considerable commonality among social science research- ers in their patterns of information use. The findings and the methodology should be useful to other academic research libraries interested in improving services to social science researchers. METHODOLOGY The library system at the University of Il- linois consists of thirty-four departmental li- braries (including the undergraduate library) plus the general library book stacks and ref- erence area. Twelve of these libraries (in- cluding the education and social science li- brary) are located in the general library building, while the remainder are scattered throughout the campus area as much as one mile away. There are more than 90,000 ti- tles in the library's serial collection. The se- rials acquisition budget for 1977178 was $1,221,495; the anticipated budget for se- rials for 1978179 is $1,365,840. The population surveyed consisted of the entire faculty of thirteen social science de- partments, a group served primarily by the education and social science library. Nine of these departments were in the College. of Education: educational administration, sec- ondary education, educational policy, educa- tional psychology, elementary education, special education, vocational education, a child development institute, and one "other" category that included persons from administrative units too small to be consid- ered separately. The other five departments were anthropology, political science, psy- chology, social work, and sociology. Questionnaires were sent to 320 faculty, with· a return of 226 (a response rate of 71 percent), with 69 percent usable. The politi- cal science and sociology departments had the highest response rate, 76 percent and 77 percent respectively. Secondary educa- tion and educational policy had the lowest rates, 52 percent and 56 percent respec- tively. The pretested questionnaire con- sisted of twenty-one questiOI)S in four broad categories dealing with the faculty's use of serials. Patterns of use, usefulness of spec- ified services, and miscellaneous information regarding the needs of the respondents 428 I College & Research Libraries • September 1979 were among the areas explored in the sur- vey. The questionnaire and procedures for making this study were developed in con- sultation with the Survey Research Labora- tory at the University of Illinois. The labora- tory also keypunched the data and provided for its analysis according to the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. 15 Summary statistics were created through the SPSS subprogram FREQUENCIES, using all of the available statistical analyses. Con- tingency table analysis of the data, using six variables, was done according to SPSS sub- program CROSSTABS. The six variables were department, rank (standard academic rank), age, nature of specialization, general library use, and departmental library use. Chi-square test of statistical significance was computed for all variables. FINDINGS Because the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has a departmental li- brary structure, many of the questions on use were divided into two parts. One part asked about the use of the general library book stacks and the other part asked about the use of departmental libraries. De- ·partmental libraries consistently showed a higher pattern of use, and the summary of use in general is based on answers to ques- tions about departmental libraries. Even so, relative trends are the same in both the general library book stacks and departmen- tal libraries. Approximately 93 percent (204) of the re- spondents reported that they had used "se- rial literature of a general professional or in- formative nature, or for some definite re- search or scholarly purpose" during the previous academic year. The rest of the findings, with the exception of those relat- ing to new services, are based on the an- swers of this 93 percent. Examination of the responses of the remaining 7 percent indi- cates that their "no" answers were due largely either to misinterpretation of the question or the time frame of the question. Only 7 percent reported "almost never" using the serial collection during the previ- ous academic year. On the other hand, 25 percent used the collection "about once a week or almost every day." The mean use was "once every two to three weeks." Age was a significant variable. Those faculty born after 1940 used the serial collection more frequently than older faculty. In response to the question, "Which best describes the last time you used the serial collection of the library?" the reason chosen about twice as often as any other answer was "looking for a specific article" ( 4 7 per- cent). "Looking for information in your sub- ject area" was a distant second (24 percent), with "keeping up with the literature" (19 percent) close behind. Browsing accounted for only 3 percent of use. The remaining 7 percent was either a combination of re- sponses or other unspecified alternatives. Of those who had used serial literature during the previous academic year, 97 per- cent read journals regularly. The number regularly read ranged from one to twenty. The median number read was eight. Eighty-eight percent subscribed to one or more of these journals. One faculty member reported subscribing to twenty, but the median number of subscriptions was four. Sixty-seven pe~ent also read at least one journal in the library. In this instance as well, one faculty member reported reading twenty, but the median number read in the library was two. Only about 50 percent of those born before 1930 regularly read jour- nals in the library. Younger faculty read more journals in the library. In addition to asking the faculty how many journals they read and where they got them, the questionnaire also asked for lists of the journals that they read. Analysis of these lists leads ·to the conclusion that many of the journals subscribed to are either those commonly appearing on so-called core collection lists or highly specialized journals reflecting the faculty members' very specific interests. Most faculty seem to use the li- brary to supplement their personal collec- tions. · The faculty relied heavily on bibliog- raphies and footnotes in journals and books to find references to specific articles (50 percent to 70 percent) (see table 1). Fewer than 30 percent used subject bibliographies or abstracting journals to locate such refer- ences with any frequency. In this question as in another similar question, "consulting Serial Use I 429 TABLE 1 FACULTY SEARCH FOR SPECIFIC ARTICLES When you come to the library to find a specific article, how often do you find reference to the article by consulting: a. Bibliographies/footnotes in journals? b . Bibliographies/footnotes in books? c. Subject bibliographies? d. Abstracting journals? e. Colleagues? f. Librarians or library staff? g. Other (Please specify) librarians" was chosen by only a very small percentage (less than 5 percent). The question, "On the occasion when a reference for which you are searching is not part of the library collection, do you ... ?" elicited responses by the faculty as shown in table 2. Two of these choices were affected significantly by variables. Those born be- tween 1930 and 1940 were more likely to request purchase than any other age group. Psychologists and faculty with biological specializations were most likely to request reprints. Reprints were also popular with faculty in social work and elementary educa- tion. Finally, in response to the question "How helpful to you would it be . . . ?" nearly 80 percent of the faculty thought it would be very helpful to somewhat helpful to have a regularly issued list of new journal titles in their area of study. More than 87 percent thought a regularly issued printout of tables of contents of selected journals ("current contents") would be helpful. Slightly more than 56 percent indicated that it would be Usually 69.4% 51.3 17 12.6 13.6 2.4 14 .8 Occasionally 23.7% 39 38 37.4 55.9 13 . 1 18.5 Rarely or Never 7.3% 9.6 45 .50 30.5 84.5 66 .7 helpful to have trained library staff actually search for · references or for serials, and nearly 85 percent thought facilities for on- line citation searching would be helpful. SUMMARY This study was designed to investigate the serials use patterns of the University of Illi- nois social science faculty and to survey their needs with regard to serial materials and services . Improvement of communica- tion between the library and the social sci- entists was a secondary but important goal. Most of the social science faculty (93 per- cent) responding to the questionnaire use serial literature, and almost all of those (97 percent) read journals regularly. Of these, 88 percent subscribed to one or more jour- nals, but 67 percent also read at least one journal in the library. Only 7 percent of the faculty had not used the library's serial collection the previ- ous academic year. On the other hand, av- erage use of the library by the faculty was only once every two to three weeks. The TABLE 2 FACULTY AcnoN WHEN ITEM REQUESTED Is NoT IN CoLLECTION On the occasion when a reference for which you are searching is not part of the library collection, do you . . . 1. Request that it be purchased? 2. Initiate an interlibrary loan? 3. Secure reprint from author? 4. Borrow from colleagues? 5. Consult library collections other than those at the University of Illinois? 6. Purchase? 7. Abandon the search? Usually 8.3% 17.6 14.6 27.7 3.3 7.6 9.3 Occasionally 26.1% 25.8 40.8 48.8 13.7 38 58.3 Rare ly or Never 65.6% 56.6 44 .6 23 .5 83 54.4 31.9 430 I College & Research Libraries • September 1979 faculty usually go to the library to find a specific article. They find references to their articles in the footnotes and bibliographies of monographs and serials. When they do not find a journal, their favorite option is to borrow from colleagues . More than half al- most never request that the item be pur- chased or borrowed on interlibrary loan. Faculty were enthusiastic about suggested bibliographic services: listing of titles of new journals, current contents, librarians' assis- tance in searching, and on-line searching. More than half of the respondents thought that all of these services would be helpful. Finally, none of the six variables used (age , rank, department, nature of specialization, general library use , and departmental li- brary use) consistently affected the re- sponses in a significant way. Since this survey was undertaken to pro- vide guidance at the local level, the authors have made a series of recommendations to the education and social sciences librarian and to the university librarian. These rec- ommendations have been distributed to the social science faculty in the form of a report. The recommendations include implementa- tion of a current awareness service, availability in the education and social sci- 'ences library of on-line searching, publiciz- ing of interlibrary loan as well as evaluation of its procedures, and general efforts to im- prove communication . A follow-up study is planned during the next academic year to determine the effects of the improved and additional services. CONCLUSION It is useful to concentrate on those findings in the survey that have an implica- tion for library service to the social science faculty . It is apparent that the majority of faculty surveyed use the library as a supplementary rather than as a primary source of serial information. Therefore, the core collection theory may be fallacious be- cause it appears that faculty subscribe to the most often used journals and look to the li- brary only for the less often used materials . They are most likely to go to the library when searching for a specific article for which they already have a reference. How- ever, if they do not find the article in the library collection, they are unlikely to re- quest purchase or to use interlibrary loan, although the library normally identifies gaps in its holdings from these requests. One can conjecture about the passivity of the faculty to existing library services . Lan- caster has commented on the failure of li- brarians to teach users about available ser- vices.16 Faculty may not understand that the library wants requests for new serials, or they may not know the procedure for making such requests. Also, complaints by librarians about the current budgetary crisis may discourage faculty from making re- quests for purchase. Interlibrary loan may be too slow to meet the needs of the faculty who want immediate access to information . However, if the social science faculty are passive in their response to the library, it is not because their information needs are met. The question suggesting additional bib- liographic or current awareness services eli- cited a very positive response. More than half of the respondents thought having li- brary staff search for references would be helpful. This contrasts with findings re- ported in this survey and elsewhere that li- brarians are rarely consulted to satisfy in- forma~on needs . This suggests that the fac- ulty is unaware that this service might be given , rather than a lack of respect for the expertise of librarians. In the introduction we asked a series of questions about serial services to the fac- ulty. While the questionnaire did not com- pletely answer these questions , some con- clusions can be made. If the library is buy- ing fewer serials , how can it be sure that it is buying the ones needed by the faculty? It cannot be sure under present conditions. Much greater interaction between librarians and social science faculty is needed. Despite budget stringency, faculty should be en- couraged to request new serials. Only in this way will the library be aware of faculty interest. The process of communication must be a continuing one, since disciplines change, new fields emerge, and faculty in- formation requirements change. How can the library compensate for col- lection deficiencies? The collection can be supplemented by the improvement of al- ready existing services and publicizing of them. For example, further exploration is needed into the failure of interlibrary loan to provide additional services. Why is it so slow? Are its procedures too complicated? Are its policies too restrictive? If resource sharing is the hope of the future, then not only the end results but the mechanics as well must be carefully reviewed and eval- uated. Does a large collection in itself provide the serial services the faculty needs? Obvi- ously it does not. Services that help the fac- Serial Use I 431 ulty keep up with the literature and make better use of the existing collection are de- sirable. In general, the conclusion must be that while circulation and other measures pro- vide some help in analyzing the usefulness of particular serials, librarians must become more involved in helping faculty satisfy bib- liographic needs before they can evaluate competently the usefulness of serials. REFERENCES 1. Kenneth J. Brough, Scholars' Workshop (Ur- bana: Univ. of Illinois Pr., 1953), p.39-40, 150. 2. Samuel Rothstein, "Reference Service: The New Dimension in Librarianship," College & Research Libraries 22:11-18 (Jan. 1961). 3. Carl H. Kraehling, "The Humanities: Charac- teristics of the Literature, Problems of Use, and Bibliographic Organization in the Field," in Bibliographic Organization, Papers Pres- ented before the Fifteenth Annual Conference of the Graduate Library School (Chicago: .Univ . of Chicago Pr., 1951), p.l09-26. 4. Jerold Nelson , "Faculty Awareness and At- titudes toward Academic Library Reference Services : A Measure of Communication, " College & Research Libraries 34:26.8-75 (Sept. 1973). 5. Maurice B. Line, "Information Requirements in the Social Sciences," in Access to the Lit- erature of the Social Sciences and Humanities (Flushing, N.Y.: Queens' College Pr. , 1974), p.148--49. 6 . Margaret E . Egan, "Subject Headings in Specialized Fields ," in Maurice Tauber, ed., The Subject Analysis of Library Materials: Papers Presented at an Institute , June 24-28, 1952 (New York: School of Library Service, Columbia Univ ., 1953), p .85. 7. Nelson , "Faculty Awareness and Attitudes," p .268-75. 8. Richard De Gennaro, "Austerity, Technol- ogy, and Resource Sharing: Research Librar- ies Face the Future, " Library journal · 100:917-23 (May 15, 1975). 9. Norman B. Brown, " Price Indexes for 1977: U.S. Periodicals and Serial Services , " Li- brary journal 102:1462~7 (July 1977). 10. Siegfried Feller, "Library Serial Cancellec- tomies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst," Serials Librarian 1:140-52 (Winter 1976-77); Steven Campbell, "Approaching Serial Cancellations at Western Washington State College," Serials Librarian 1:153-59 (Winter 1976-77); Linda Jo Swartz, "Serials Cancellations and Reinstatements at the Uni- versity of Illinois Library, " Serials Librarian 2:171-80 (Winter 1977). 11. Lawrence J. Perk and Noelle Van Pulis, "Pe- riodical Usage in an Education-Psychology Library," College & Research Libraries 38:304-8 (July 1977). 12. L. Miles Raisig, "The Circulation Analysis of Serials Use: Numbers Game or Key to Ser- vice," Medical Library Association Bulletin 55:399-407 (Oct. 1967). 13. Carol A. Johnson and Richard W. Trueswell, "The Weighted Criteria Statistic Score: An Approach to Journal Selection ," College & Research Libraries 39:287-92 (July 1978). 14 . Bath University Library, Investigation into Information Requirements of the Social Sci- ences . Research Reports (Bath, England: Bath Univ. Library, 1971). 15. Norman H. Nie , SPSS : Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1975). 16. F . W . Lancaster, "Assessment of the Techni- cal Information Requirements of Users," in Alan Rees, ed. , Contemporary Problems in Technical Library and Information Center Management: A State of the Art (Washington , D.C.: American Society for Information Sci- ence, 1974) , p.78.