Hi.B.C. LIBRARY NEWS Volume V, No. 1 December/January, 1971/72 Vancouver, B.C. c This newsletter is published as an information service for UBC faculty, students and other readers outside the Library. It contains feature articles and news about developments in the library system which we feel will be of interest or concern to the larger community. The News welcomes all comments, criticisms and suggestions for future articles. FACULTY LIBRARY GUIDE WELL RECEIVED In mid-December the Information and Orientation Division issued a 7-page library guide for faculty. Because of limited funds, it was distributed as a special issue of the UBC Library News, rather than as a separate publication in a more permanent form. Copies were mailed to 2,114 members of the faculty and academic staff. Readers were encouraged to record their feelings about the guide on a brief questionnaire and return it to the Division. Completed questionnaires have since come in from 96 faculty members, or about 4.6% of the total number who received copies. We were agreeably surprised by both the number and tone of the responses. Ninety-two of the 94 who answered Question 1 ("Have you personally found this guide useful or instructive?") checked off either "Very" or "Moderately". Only 16 of the returned questionnaires made suggestions for improvement or indicated that more information was needed. Others commented on the value of the guide, and/or of the library's information publications generally. (Our special thanks to that anonymous bard in Physical Plant for his poem!) All readers who asked specific questions have either received answers or had their problems passed on to other library departments for action. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents indicated that they would prefer the present format rather than a more permanent one. Several explained that they felt this would ensure frequent revisions, and that more expensive guides are not always updated as often as they should be. As the guide's content seems to be more important to readers than its format, revised and expanded versions will be issued in much the same form as the first one. Personal copies will be mailed at least once each session to all members of the faculty and academic staff. CRANE GETS FEDERAL FUNDS Through an application sponsored by the North Shore Unitarian Church, the Crane Library for the Blind recently received a $27,836 grant from the federal Local Initiatives Program. This money has allowed Crane to hire ten full-time readers with subject and language specialties. Working in the evenings and on weekends, they will supplement the library's regular volunteer audio-taping program. Between January 3 and May 31 the new readers are expected to add about 400 titles to Crane's fast- growing collection of taped material for blind and sight-restricted students. A printed catalogue listing all Crane's tapes will be produced this summer and distributed across Canada. Its cost will also be covered by the federal grant. All tapes listed will be available for nation-wide loan. T.V. CREATES LARGE PRINT BOOKS During the first months of 1972 the Crane Library will be experimenting with two T.V. systems which can convert any book to large type. Both methods use cameras to project an enlarged image of an ordinary book page onto a screen. The blown- up page can be easily read by partially-sighted students. Since comparatively few books, and virtually no university texts, are available in large print, these methods could do much to help visually handicapped students at UBC. However, no decisions will be made until Crane finishes testing the systems in March. REPORT ON WOODWARD LIBRARY JOURNALS SURVEY A common complaint among UBC library users is that needed journals never seem to be on the shelf. This is an annoying problem for all readers, but particularly for those working in the sciences, where access to current information is especially important. For this reason the Woodward Biomedical Library was chosen for a two-week survey aimed at discovering exactly why readers were having trouble finding journals. From October 25 to November 5, 1971, all users were asked to report whenever they had problems locating any journal. The survey was directed by Anne Piternick of the School of Librarianship, and was carried out under the direct supervision of Gerry Dobbin, the Systems and Information Science Librarian. There were a total of 370 cases in which readers reported difficulties finding journals. Each of these reports was followed up by the survey team. Their main findings are given below. It is significant that almost half of the reports related to unbound journals, as opposed to bound journals. (This is in contrast to Woodward's general circulation figures, which indicate that unbound material accounts for only about 1/5 of the items borrowed.) It is also interesting that the number of unbound journals circulating during the survey period (470) was much higher than could have been predicted. The figure was over twice as high as for the same period in 1970, and 64% higher than the average for October and November, 1971. This high circulation figure could be partly attributed to a lag in binding compared to 1970, resulting in an unusually high number of journals left unbound. A further reason could well be that a higher than average number of people asked for, and received, help in finding unbound journals during the survey. Of the 370 bound and unbound journals which could not be found immediately, the largest number (100) were items which Woodward did not hold in the first place. In 11 cases the issue needed had not yet been received. The other 89 items were either held by a library other than Woodward, or were not held by UBC at all. Results of a questionnaire distributed in April, 1971 indicated that circulation — i.e. lending for use outside the library — is assumed to be the major factor in reducing availability of journals. This was not borne out by the present survey. Of the 370 reports turned in, 281 represented items which should have been available in Woodward, and 64 of these, or 22.8%, were not found because they were in circulation. During the survey period, however, 1,373 journal volumes or issues were borrowed and a further 2,953 used in the library — a grand total of 4,326 items. The 64 journals not found because they were in circulation represent only 1.5% of the total number which were found and used. Of all 64 items in circulation, 44 (69%) were available within one week of request and a total of 58 (91%) within 12 days. The remaining 6 (9%) had still not been returned two weeks after the survey period ended. Ten of the items (16%) were requested by another borrower on the same day they went out on loan; 41 (64%) had been in circulation less than seven days when requested; and 11 (17%) had been in circulation more than two weeks.(The Woodward Library's loan periods for journals are: two weeks for faculty members, one week for graduate students, and overnight for undergraduates.) If all journals in circulation had been returned by the required due date, the figure of 64 would have been reduced by 19 (around 30%). Judging from this small sample, faculty members seem to be most interested in borrowing journals circulated to other faculty, graduates in borrowing items circulated to other graduates, and undergraduates in obtaining material on loan to other undergrads. The Woodward Library plans to continue data collection in this area for some time during this term to provide a larger sample. In-library use accounted for fewer problems. Of the 370 journals which readers reported they could not find, 34 were in use in the library or awaiting reshelving after library use. A further 17 were most probably in use in the library. They were not found when checked initially by the Woodward staff, but turned up later on the shelf, even though users were specifically asked not to reshelve journals after use during the survey. In theory all "library use" items should have been found by the next day, but actually only 32 of the above 51 items were found in that time. In some cases they may have been hidden or illegally removed from the building. However, all but two were located within one week. Of the 370 items sought, 66 more were off the shelf because they were at some stage of the binding process. Nearly two- thirds of these items (43) were in the bindery preparation stage and were readily available; in fact, 86% of them were produced within ten minutes. A further 23 were in the bindery and technically unavailable. However, all but six did become available during the survey period. Anyone turning in a report was asked to specify whether or not he wished action to be taken on it. Forty-two out of 52 faculty members asked for action to be taken, as compared with 41 out of 99 graduate students and 79 out of 168 undergraduates. Actually, items in both categories were followed up, although "action" items had priority over "no action". It is a pity that not more people persisted; of 101 "no action" items, 32 (32%) were available in less than ten minutes of checking, and a further 23 by the next day for a cumulative total of 54%. Comparable figures for 177 "action" items are 73 (41%) and 34 (cumulative 60%) respectively. "No action" was specified in a number of cases where a journal was not held by the Woodward Library. Fifty of these were held elsewhere on campus, or at the Biomedical Branch Library at the Vancouver General Hospital, and 39 were not held by UBC at all. In 26 such cases, however, "action" was called for, and ten of these items had been made available in Woodward by the end of the survey period. The 39 items not held by UBC represented 32 different titles. Of these the library had incomplete files of nine; one was on order and another immediately ordered; one was not identified in any serials listing, and probably represented an incorrect citation. Many users whose items were not available in Woodward could take advantage of second or multiple sets. In 81 cases such sets were potentially available in the UBC library system. (Cases where the duplicate set was known not to be available are excluded from this figure.) In 30 cases, a duplicate set should have been available in Woodward. Library users are not always aware of these duplicate sets, but the Woodward Information Desk staff will always check on request to see if they are available. In 51 of the 81 cases, extra sets should have been available elsewhere in the UBC collections. For example: there were 13 requests for different issues of Nature (16 sets available, including two in Woodward); six for Scientific American (12 sets available, including two in Woodward); seven for Journal of Bacteriology (four sets, including two in Woodward); six for the New England Journal of Medicine (four sets, including one in Woodward). There were "runs" on ten journal issues which were assumed to be on reading lists: four for Pharmaceutical Sciences students, three for Nursing students, and three for Biological Sciences students. Together these accounted for 23 reports. The main findings discussed above are summarized in this table: JOURNALS FOUND DURING SURVEY PERIOD (12 DAYS): Issues or volumes borrowed Issues or volumes used in library TOTAL SUBTOTAL 1,373 2,953 4,326 JOURNALS NOT FOUND: NOT RECEIVED IN USE c USER PROBLEMS NOT SPECIFIED not held by UBC 38 not in Woodward, but elsewhere at UBC 50 not yet received 11 — in circulation — in use in library 64 34 IN BINDING — awaiting binding, but available — in bindery 43 23 ADMINISTRATIVE REASONS - on "hold", in "Morgue", in New Serials Room, etc. 21 - misshelved 5 - missing (i.e. could not be found by Nov. 22) 14 - title or call number incorrect or incomplete 10 - shelving arrangement misunderstond (includes failure to find second sets in Woodward) 31 - reason could not be determined 23 - reason not specified 2 TIME TAKEN TO MAKE JOURNALS AVAILABLE: Less than 10 minutes Same day Next day One week Two weeks Not available by end of survey Not available because held in Woodward, not at UBC or yet received ( TOTAL 370 SUBTOTAL 100 98 66 40 41 25 TOTAL 370 CUMULATIVE SUBTOTAL TOTAL 106 29% 9 31% 50 45% 65 62% 25 69% 69% 27 7% 88 24% 31% 100% The Woodward survey has drawn attention to certain points which will be of value to both the library and the user. Information on items not found at all during the survey has been passed on to the library, and suggestions have been made regarding administrative practices. As far as the users are concerned, some suggestions are in order: 1. Always check the bound journal shelves for second sets. "Anchored" (non-circulating) sets are distinguished by a red mark on the spine. 2. Check at the Information Desk for second sets of recent issues, or for recent volumes which may be awaiting binding. 3. Note that if there is a second set available at the Biomedical Branch Library at Vancouver General Hospital, it will be brought up to Woodward for the use of anyone who requires it. 4. Check with the Information Desk if you cannot find any trace of a title you would expect to find in Woodward. The title or call number you have may be incomplete or incorrect, or you may not understand the Woodward filing system. (These faults accounted for 41 of the 370 journals not found, or over 11%). 5. Please try to return journals by the due date. 6. Check before you complain. One professor (whose report was not counted in the survey) discovered that the journal he could not find was signed out to himself! NOW WOODWARD HAS CHECKPOINT Last summer the Fine Arts Library, plagued by book losses, installed a "Checkpoint" security system near its circulation desk. Checkpoint reacts electronically to specially treated book paper. Under this system, items are handed to the desk attendant and charged out in the normal way, but they are returned to the borrower on the far side of the sensitive Checkpoint zone. If treated books are carried through this zone without being checked by the desk attendant, a muted buzzer is set off and the turnstile locks. The Fine Arts Library reports a minimum of problems with the system, and service to users has improved. Toward the end of January the Woodward Library also installed a Checkpoint system. Borrowers leaving through the new main floor exit stations will now be asked to hand their books to the turnstile attendant before passing the Checkpoint station. Otherwise, loan procedures remain the same. Other libraries currently using this system include the University of Pennsylvania's Fine Arts Library, the Free Library of Philadelphia, and the Yale Medical Library. Book losses in these places have dropped by as much as 93%. Woodward, which has suffered frequent losses in the past, hopes that the Checkpoint system will improve readers' access to the items they need. Checkpoint will also be installed in the new Sedgewick Undergraduate Library when it opens this fall. NEW INDEX TO DRUG STUDIES For the past three years the UBC library system has been subscribing to two of the world's most comprehensive drug information services, Drugs in Research and Drugs in Use. Only a few other Canadian libraries hold either one. Published by the New York firm of Paul de Haen, Inc., they give pharmacologists and other medical researchers speedy access to data which would otherwise be available only through extensive literature searches. Both of these systems bring together the major facts of drug use in humans as reported in the scientific literature, and make it easy to tell whether or not important information has been published. The two services collect and process information from over 400 biomedical publications as well as medical conference reports, trade papers and manufacturers' announcements. Drugs in Research provides cumulative references to published material on drugs which have not yet been marketed in the United States. Drugs in Use covers products which are commercially available in the U.S. Both services make use of special product information cards which bring together data on each type of drug. Beside their obvious uses in medical and pharmaceutical research, UBC's de Haen subscriptions play a vital role in the larger community. Staff members at the campus Poison Control Centre use de Haen data to prepare and update the Centre's master file of cards indexing poisons and antidotes. Duplicate sets of these cards are maintained in 48 B.C. hospitals, where they are a major aid in the treatment of poisoning cases. The UBC Library has recently added a third de Haen drug service: the Drugs in Use Product Profile Index. This two-volume set covers about 600 drugs, i.e. all those listed in Drugs in Use which have been the subject of ten or more published papers since 1964. The index includes basic data on each of these drugs. Entries report: — What drug has been used for the treatment of what disease. — What type of adverse reaction has been observed with each drug. — Which are the diseases for which a report has been published on a given drug. — What studies cover clinical pharmcology, drug and placebo comparisons. — Which reports represent controlled studies, and in which age group a drug has been used. Each index entry is numbered; this number refers to a microfilm record of the original Drugs in Use excerpt, where full information on the product may be found. Microfilm records of 23,400 reports are supplied with the Product Profile Index. c (■ All.de Haen information systems may be used by students, faculty, local doctors and researchers, and anyone else needing quick reference data on drugs. Drugs in Research, Drugs in Use, and the new Product Profile Index are housed in the Poison Control Centre (Room 176, Cunningham Building). As the Centre has no microfilm reader, the filmed reports to which the Index refers are being held nearby in the Woodward Library. For more information on these microfilms, please see Mrs. Andrienne Clark at Woodward's Reference Desk. SCIENCE NEWSLETTERS ON TRIAL The following newsletters will be coming to the Main Library's Science Division for a trial period: Air and Water News (McGraw-Hill). Weekly. Environmental Technology and Economics (Environmental Science Services.) Bi-weekly. These are intended to provide a current awareness service, and will be of most value to those readers who visit the Science Division fairly regularly. The newsletters are available in a special slot, labelled NEWSLETTERS, on the scanning shelf under the windows in the reference area. Since they are not inexpensive we would like to know more about their usefulness to UBC readers. Each issue has a slip attached, on which users can record their opinion by checking off the appropriate column. The results of this simple survey will help the Division decide whether or not to continue, and perhaps expand, this current awareness service. SEDGEWICK COURSE FILE AUTOMATED Most students and faculty members are familiar with the Sedgewick Library's Course File, which lists all required or recommended course readings held in the collection. This listing has always been in the form of a small card catalogue, alphabetically arranged by the name of the course. The file has now been issued in printout form instead. From now on, users will be able to look up course material in any of three ways: under the name of the course, the author's surname, or the title. The three printouts will be updated weekly. Numerous copies of the course, author and title printouts are available in Sedgewick, and a full set is also held at the Main Library's Information Desk. SERIALS WANTED The following three journals are badly needed to complete library sets. If you can help, please contact Graham Elliston, Bibliography Division, Main Library (local 2304). British Columbia Business Journal August, 1970. Canadian Chartered Accountant January, 1971 (Vol. 98, No. 1) Vancouver Realtor June/July, 1970 DATA LIBRARY ESTABLISHED A Data Library is being set up to deal with files of quantative data in machine-readable form. The Data Library will perform the traditional functions of acquisition, cataloguing, storage and servicing for this type of information. The new facility, to be operated jointly by the University Library and the Computing Centre, will absorb the Data Bank now operated by the Department of Political Science, and will take over the latter's collection of magnetic tapes and punched cards. In the immediate future, Room 447 of the Civil Engineering Building will be renovated and equipped for the Data Library. Until these quarters are ready, work will be carried on from the the existing location of the Data Bank, Room 550A in the Angus Building. The Data Library will build on the foundation of the Data Bank collection, increase the number of data files available, and improve access to them. But before any efforts to acquire new data are made, the Data Library needs to know about all files of machine-readable data on campus, especially files which present holders would be prepared to deposit in the Data Library for use by other members of the university community. It is known that UBC owns other files, relating to such topics as censuses, economic surveys and public opinion polls, but these are dispersed among departments, and their nature and number are unknown. In this situation, duplication and under-utilization are possible. All holders of machine-readable data files (outside of those in the Political Science Data Bank) are urged to complete the questionnaire given below. Please return either the original or a photocopy to: „„„,.., Mrs. Pam Smortchevsky, Data Library, c/o Department of Political Science, Henry Angus Building. Interested faculty members may have suggestions about the future role and policy of the Data Library. Those who do are encouraged to write or phone Miss Gerry Dobbin, Acting Head, Data Library, Main Library (local 2393). Miss Dobbin can also supply additional copies of this questionnaire. DATA FILE DESCRIPTION Information supplied by: Name Department What is the main subject covered? Geographical area? Original data: Collected by yourself? Year collected? Acquired from another source? _ Approximate sample size? Data held on cards? Magnetic tape? Is documentation available for the data? Other? Is the data "clean" and usable in its present form? Would you consider depositing this file in the Data Library? Additional comments on the file data: BREAKTHROUGH! The R.R. Bowker Company has just published a new and revised edition of its well-known directory, American Men of Science. The title used in the 11 previous editions has now been dropped. Its new name: American Men and Women of Science. SELECTIVE NEWS INDEX, JANUARY - NOVEMBER, 1971 During the past year the News published over 80 notes and articles on aspects of the UBC library system. Most provided information which could not be found in other library guides or handbooks. All articles which might still be of interest to readers are listed in this annual index. For reprints of any item, please write the Editor or call local 2076. Acquisitions — library purchasing and Canadian publishing: results of survey (July/Aug.) — policy on buying Canadiana (Oct.) Annual Report of the Librarian to the Senate — extracts from the 1969/70 Report (Feb., Mar.) Asian Studies Library — new building a possibility if funds can be raised (Feb.) Book losses — Fine Arts installs electronic security system (May/June) —missing books and their replacement (Sept.) Borrowing privileges — loan privileges doubled for recordings (Apr.) — UBC borrowers have loan privileges with Centre for Research Libraries (Oct.) Branch libraries — results of user surveys in MacMillan, Marjorie Smith and Music (Apr.) SEE ALSO names of individual libraries (. Catalogues and cataloging — card catalogues vs. computer-produced catalogues at UBC (Dec./Jan.) — UBC Press introduces pre-catalogued books (Apr.) — Canadian shared cataloguing system speeds processing (Apr., July/Aug.) Centre for Research Libraries, Chicago SEE Borrowing privileges Copying services SEE Photocopying Crane Library for the Blind — granted loan privileges from Library of Congress Division for the Blind (May/June) — receives $1,000 gift of French literature (Sept.) — progress report (Sept.) Faculty library guide SEE UBC Library: publications Fine Arts Library SEE Book losses Journals — survey planned on problems in locating Woodward journals (Oct.) Library orientation — report on summer programs (May/June, July) — report on fall programs (Sept., Oct.) Loan privileges SEE Borrowing privileges Microforms — Microform holdings cover current topics of interest (Oct.) Missing Books SEE Book losses Missing Journals SEE Journals New Buildings SEE Asian Studies Library, Sedgewick Undergraduate Library. Photocopying — new copiers installed (Dec./Jan.) — report on photocopying in Canadian university libraries (Sept.) Reference publications SEE UBC Library: holdings; UBC Library: publications SDI service (computer-produced reading lists for scientists and engineers) — outline of services, costs and literature covered (May/June) Sedgewick Undergraduate Library — wins national design award (Dec./Jan.) Senate Library Committee — functions and memberships (Dec/Jan.) Storage — locating and borrowing storage books (May/June) UBC Library: holdings — compared to other research libraries (Apr.) — losses SEE Book losses; Journals — Canadiana: what we collect and why (Oct.) — de Haen drug information services (Dec./Jan.) — file on women's lib (Feb.) — microforms on current topics of interest (Oct.) — serials lists from other local libraries (Mar.) UBC Library: publications — notes on new library reference guides (Dec./Jan., May/June, Oct.) — two books published by UBC librarians (May/June) — faculty library guide (special issue of News) (Nov.) Editor: Mrs. J.E. de Bruijn Information & Orientation Division