College and Research Libraries 178 College & Research Libraries March 1983 6. Ibid., p.248. 7. Ibid. 8. NormanS. Endler, "Beyond Citation Counts: Developing Research Profiles," Canadian Psycholog- ical Review 19:152-57 (1978). 9. Robert L. Hemreich and others, ''Making It in Academic Psychology: Demographic and Personal- ity Correlates of Attainment," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 39:896-908 (Nov. 1980). 10. David Lewis Smith, Thomas Roche, and William Snizek, "Quality of Graduate Productivity in Sociology as Measured by the Citation Index: A Longitudinal Overview," Research in Higher Edu- cation 13:343-52 (1980) . 11. NormanS . Endler, J. Philippe Rushton, and Henry L. Roediger ill, "Productivity and Scholarly Impact (Citations) of British, Canadian and U.S. Departments of Psychology (1975)," American Psychologist 33:1064-82 (Dec. 1978). 12. Richard C. Anderson, Francis Narin, and Paul McAllister, "Publication Ratings versus Peer Rat- ings of Universities,'' Journal of the American Society for Information Science 29:91-103 (March 1978). ''Non-Depository'' or Not: An Examination of the Designation of Non-Depository Titles in the Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications Steven D. Zink The Monthly Catalog of United States Gov- ernment Publications includes citations to various government publications not dis- tributed to federal depository libraries by the Superintendent of Documents. For the most part these elusive publications represent titles which are produced in re- gional government printing facilities or by private contractors for a government agency. Although this distinction alone does not preclude distribution to deposi- tory libraries, the sheer lack of available copies has frequently resulted in only an entry in the Monthly Catalog. 1 The sole dis- tinction in the Monthly Catalog entries be- tween these non-depository titles and the publications distributed by the Superin- tendent of Documents is that the deposi- tory publications are distinguishable by an item selection number and a black dot (•). The black dot simply indicates that the ti- tle was available for distribution to deposi- tory libraries and that, at the very least, re- gional depositories, as required by law, have a copy of the publication. The item selection number is even more crucial. The nearly 5,500 current item numbers represent all of the possible categories of publications available which selective de- pository libraries may elect to receive. For example, item number 17 represents the Yearbook of Agriculture. If a depository would select that item number, it would annually receive the Yearbook of Agricul- ture. Therefore a depository is capable of establishing a selective profile to suit us- ers' needs much like a library would with an approval plan. Absence of these two el- ements indicates that the publication was not available for distribution to depository libraries. In an effort to have as complete a collection of government publications as possible, many depositories have sought to acquire some or all of these non- Steven D. Zink is head, Government Publications Department, University of Nevada Library, Reno. The au- thor wishes to thank library intern Jeanne Smith for her assistance in compiling the data used in this article .. depository publications. For the past thirty years the most effortless means of obtaining these titles has been through a subscription to the Readex Non- Depository Microprint Collection. Since 1953, through an agreement with the Li- brary of Congress, the Readex Corpora- tion has been locating and converting into microprint all government publications listed in the Monthly Catalog but not dis- tributed through the Superintendent of Documents depository library program. In late 1981 the Government Publica- tions Department of the University of Nevada-Reno (a regional federal deposi- tory with a collection exceeding one mil- lion documents) undertook a study of this service by attempting to acquire these non-depository publications by means other than through subscription to the Readex Non-Depository Microprint Col- lection. 2 One unexpected finding was that the placement of the item selection num- ber and black dot data elements in the Monthly Catalog entries was far from com- pletely accurate. As a part of the analysis, the entries of the first seven issues of the Monthly Cata- log for 1981 were monitored and requests were sent to the agencies authoring the publications for a copy of the non- depository titles listed. A request for each publication was also submitted to the Li- brary of Congress' Documents Expediting Project using its special request service. As solicited non-depository publica- tions began to be received and subse- quently shelved in the department, it be- came clear that many duplicated depository publications were already on the shelves. After careful checking andre- checking, it was discovered that of the 234 non-depository titles listed in the January through July 1981 Monthly Catalog, 94 (or 40 percent) of all the non-depository titles had in fact already been received through the depository library program.* Thus 40 percent of the titles designated in the Monthly Catalog as being non-depository (by the absence of the black dot) were, in Research Notes 179 fact, received on a depository basis (see ta- ble 1). The original number of erroneous citations was in actuality somewhat higher, but the Government Printing Of- fice subsequently discovered five entries which were in error and noted that correc- tions should be made to the Monthly Cata- log.3 These errors in the Monthly Catalog have a number of serious consequences for the users of government publications. Per- haps the greatest concern connected with these omissions is the most obvious . Li- brarians in hundreds of depositories that do not subscribe to the Readex Non- Depository Collection tell their patrons, when searching through the Monthly Cata- log, that the library could only possibly own those publications received on a de- pository basis and cited with a black dot. Hence, 40 percent of the time such an as- sertion for a complete depository would have been incorrect if the Monthly Catalogs covered in this study had been used. The patron would never have utilized the ma- terials readily available on the library's shelves. Consequences of these errors also afflict subscribers to the Readex Non-Depository Microprint Collection. The basis for inclu- sion of titles in the Readex Non- Depository Collection is the absence of the black dot in the Monthly Catalog. When the black dot and item number are mistakenly deleted from an entry for a depository ti- tle, the patron will be led to believe that the library only has a copy of the publica- tion in microprint, thus limiting its circula- tion and, in many instances, its usefulness to the patron. If the citation is taken from a Monthly Catalog of the past two or three years, the patron will be told that the li- brary does not even own a microprint copy due to the current time lag in receipt of the Readex microprint. The error in failing to accurately place the item number and black dot in the Monthly Catalog citation for depository ti- tles is not without its fiscal considerations. Depository libraries purchasing the *The depository status of certain titles was double-checked for accuracy by Roberta Scull against the holdings in the Government Documents Department at Louisiana State University. 180 College & Research Libraries March 1983 TABLE 1 ACCURACY OF NON-DEPOSITORY TITLE DESIGNATION IN THE MONTHLY CATALOG Percent Total Titles Titles Titles Erroneously Monthly Des~nated as Actually Actually Not Designated Catalogs Non- epository Non-Depository Depository as Depository Jan. 1981 6 Feb. 1981 9 March 1981 30 tfari11981 67 ay 1981 22 June 1981 26 Jullc 1981 74 otal 234 Readex Non-Depository Microprint Col- lection will receive and pay for those titles incorrectly indicated as non-depository in the Monthly Catalog. In times of tight budgets, such needless duplication of de- pository titles in microprint is disturbing. Based on the Readex subscription price of over $2,000 for the non-depository publi- cations in the 1980-81 fiscal year, a consis- tent 40 percent error rate would have re- sulted in over a $900 expenditure for duplicated depository titles in microprint. Multiplying the cost of this unfortunate duplication by the number of depositories subscribing to the Readex Non- Depository Collection makes these errors, collectively, very expensive. One question that naturally emerges out of a study of non-depository publications is why there are today any non-depository publications in the Monthly Catalog. The basis for the traditional listing of non- depository publications was that only a single copy of each title, required for cata- loging and classifying, was received by the Government Printing Office and thus distribution was impossible. 4 The prob- lems inherent in an agency supplying too 4 2 33 6 3 33 22 8 27 34 33 49 11 11 42 15 11 42 48 26 35 140 94 40 few copies or even only one copy for dis- tribution to depository libraries should not pose a problem today. Given the size of the current Government Printing Of- fice's microfiche program (GPO estimates that it will distribute 53,000 different titles in microfiche in 1982), 5 it stands to reason that when the Government Printing Of- fice receives a copy of a title for cataloging and inclusion in the Monthly Catalog, it could make a microfiche copy for distribu- tion to depositories. GPO has the capabil- ity to do this. Without question, current non-depository documents would receive more widespread use at far less expense than is presently the case. If all non- depository materials currently noted in the Monthly Catalog cannot be integrated into depository distribution, it is impera- tive that tighter quality control be insti- tuted to curb the grievously high error rate observed in designating which materials are depository or non-depository. Not only are such errors costly, inconvenient, and a disservice to the documents-user community, but they undermine confi- dence in the reliability of the entire Monthly Catalog. 6 REFERENCES 1. For an excellent history of the Monthly Catalog and legislation affecting depositories see: LeRoy C. Schwarzkopf, "The Monthly Catalog and Bibliographical Control of U.S. Government Publica- tions," Drexel Library Quarterly 10:79-105 (Jan.-April1974); LeRoy C. Schwarzkopf, "Regional De- positories in Peril: Or the Future Is Now," Drexel Library Quarterly 16, no .4:19-39 (Oct . 1980). 2. Steven D. Zink, "Analysis of Non-Depository Documents in the Government Publications Collec- tion," Collection Building: Studies in the Development and Effective Use of Library Resources 4:39-43 (1982). 3. Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications 1044:xii (Aug. 1981), 1045:xii (Sept . 1981), 1047:xiii (Nov.-Dec. 1981). Research Notes 181 4. Joe Morehead, Introduction to United States Public Documents (2d ed.; Littleton, Colo.: Libraries Un- limited, 1978), p.87. 5. U.S. Government Printing Office, ''Comparison of Paper and Microfiche Distribution to Deposito- ries" (distributed at Depository Library Council Meeting, Boston, April1982). 6. There is a growing chorus of concern over a wide variety of inadequacies and inaccuracies in the Monthly Catalog. For published criticism see: W. Ellen Daniel and William C. Robinson, "Time Lag in the 1972 Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications,'' Government Publications Review 3:113-21 (1976); Jon J. Harrison, "United States Congressional Publication Indexing: Statistical Comparisons between the CIS/Index and the Monthly Catalog," Government Publications Review 5:273-83 (1978); Carol Boast and Cheryl Nyberg, "The Monthly Catalog-July 1976-August 1977- 0bservations, Evaluations, Congratulations," Government Publications Review 5:167-76 (1978); Joe Morehead, "A Status Report on the Monthly Catalog and 'Serials Supplement,' " Serials Librarian 4:131-41 (Winter 1979); Paul Axel-Lute, "Recent Developments in Federal Documents," Law Li- brary fournal71:250 (May 1978); John A. McGeachy, "The 'List of Special Materials' in the Monthly Catalog," Reference Services Review (forthcoming). SUPERIOR ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY TEXTS ---- From The Publishers of MACHINERY'S HANDBOOK ---- INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS SOLAR ENERGY DICTIONARY HANDBOOK V. 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