The role of the library in developing historical collections, with a focus on medicine.
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This paper reports the major findings of a study of collection development activities at the National Library of Medicine (NLM) from 1965 to 1977. The CATLINE file was the source of the data; analyses were performed on classification number, date of entry, and language. An overview analysis of the data base is presented for major subject and form classes. An in-depth subject analysis of the monograph collection was performed using the NLM call number. An analysis by date of entry revealed that the subject content of CATLINE has varied only slightly over the years; the most notable change was a recent decline in the related and peripheral subject areas. The language analysis indicated that 83% of the data base consisted of works published in English, German, Russian, and French. Throughput processing time was measured for English language monographs for selected years.
The landmark citation method is a new collection assessment method based on the citation record of a single landmark article. This citation record is developed by identifying sources which cite the landmark article. A bibliography, extracted from the citation record, is then used to complete an assessment of the collection. This method was developed and used to assess the biotechnology collection of the National Library of Medicine. The information gained from this study, in addition to demonstrating the technique, also provided insight into the evolution of the biotechnology literature.
The introduction to this revised list (seventeenth version) of 610 books and 141 journals addresses the origin, three decades ago, of the "Selected List of Books and Journals for the Small Medical Library," and the accomplishments of the late Alfred N. Brandon in helping health sciences librarians, and especially hospital librarians, to envision what collection development and a library collection are all about. This list is intended as a selection guide for the small or medium-size library in a hospital or similar facility. More realistically, it can function as a core collection for a library consortium. Books and journals are categorized by subject; the book list is followed by an author/editor index, and the subject list of journals by an alphabetical title listing. Due to continuing requests from librarians, a "minimal core" book collection consisting of 78 titles has been pulled out from the 200 asterisked (*) initial-purchase books and marked with daggers ([symbol: see text]). To purchase the entire collection of books and to pay for 1997 journal subscriptions would require $101,700. The cost of only the asterisked items, books and journals, totals $43,100. The "minimal core" book collection costs $12,600.
A survey of collection development policies and practices in medical school rare book libraries indicated that only 20% had documented criteria for collection development. The advantages of preparing and maintaining a formal written collection development policy are presented with guidelines for formulating such a policy.
The collection development practices of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), with the goal of comprehensive acquisition of biomedical monographs, are compared with those of the resource libraries of the TALON (Region IX) Regional Medical Library. Holdings of two resource libraries in the TALON region, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, and of the TALON Union Catalog of Monographs were compared with the NLM CATLINE data base for four subject classes and selected imprint years. Foreign-language coverage is lacking in Region IX, with English-language coverage is lacking in Region IX, with English-language coverage ranging between 70 and 88% of titles listed in CATLINE. Absent English-language material tends to be ephemeral or otherwise out of scope for the resource libraries. Between 7.1 and 18.8% of monographs acquired in each subject class by the two recource libraries are lacking in CATLINE; this represents between 2 and 8% of the CATLINE titles for each class.
Academic health sciences libraries in the United States and Canada were surveyed regarding collection development trends, including their effect on approval plan and blanket order use, and use of outsourcing over the past four years. Results of the survey indicate that serials market forces, budgetary constraints, and growth in electronic resources purchasing have resulted in a decline in the acquisition of print items. As a result, approval plan use is being curtailed in many academic health sciences libraries. Although use of blanket orders is more stable, fewer than one-third of academic health sciences libraries report using them currently. The decline of print collections suggests that libraries should explore cooperative collection development of print materials to ensure access and preservation. The decline of approval plan use and the need for cooperative collection development may require additional effort for sound collection development. Libraries were also surveyed about their use of outsourcing. Some libraries reported outsourcing cataloging and shelf preparation of books, but none reported using outsourcing for resource selection. The reason given most often for outsourcing was that it resulted in cost savings. As expected, economic factors are driving both collection development and outsourcing practices.
The heart of the library lies in its collections, and collections have to be built continuously. Budgetary constraints perforce stress the need for better defined collection development policy, although the ultimate goal should be an improvement of library service rather than any reduction of library cost. A written collection development policy facilitates a consistent and balanced growth of library resources, and a dynamic policy is one that evolves as the institution grows. Such a policy is based on the understanding of the needs of the community it serves and seeks to define and delimit the goals and objectives of the institution. A collection development statement is not a substitute for book selection; it charts the forest but does not plant the trees. It should be used as a guidepost, not a crutch. Book selection requires judgment and the courage to choose. A sound collection development policy, on the other hand, provides the necessary rational without which a collection may grow amoebalike, by means of pseudopodia.
OBJECTIVES: The paper describes and evaluates the success of a zero-based collection development approach to print serials in a community teaching hospital. METHODS: The authors first assessed the environmental factors that would determine future needs of the medical library and its customers. Liaisons to various departments and constituencies were substantially involved in the data-gathering phase. Using newly defined collection parameters, a list of journals to consider was compiled and each journal was categorized justifying its inclusion. Any title not having a strong fit in at least one category was eliminated from further consideration. RESULTS: Overall, 21 subscriptions were cancelled and 34 were added. Despite a 15% increase in total subscription costs, mostly due to normal annual journal price increases, the average cost per journal went down from $344 to $327. Journal usage went up over 30%, interlibrary loan lending went down 25%, and borrowing went up 20%. CONCLUSION: As resources available to libraries decline, it becomes critical that collections and services are continually and systematically reviewed with a view to keeping them aligned with the mission of the organization, needs of the customers, and emerging trends. Zero-based collection development can be a valuable tool in bringing a print journal collection into closer alignment with the needs of library customers.
In December 1997, the authors completed an in-depth collection assessment project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Health Sciences Libraries. The purpose was to develop a framework for future collection assessment projects by completing a multifaceted evaluation of the libraries' monograph and serial collections in the subject area of drug resistance. Evaluators adapted and synthesized several traditional collection assessment tools, including shelflist measurement, bibliography and standard list checking, and citation analysis. Throughout the project, evaluators explored strategies to overcome some of the problems inherent in the application of traditional collection assessment methods to the evaluation of biomedical collections. Their efforts resulted in the identification of standard monographs and core journals for the subject area, a measurement of the collections' strength relative to the collections of benchmark libraries, and a foundation for future collection development within the subject area. The project's primary outcome was a collection assessment methodology that has potential application to both internal and cooperative collection development in medical, pharmaceutical, and other health sciences libraries.
BIOETHICSLINE uselogs were analyzed during months when second-year medical students were engaged in ethics coursework that included curriculum-integrated bibliographic instruction. Uselog data showed that peak activity occurred while students were preparing a required paper. Further uselog analysis indicated that students applied database features such as controlled vocabulary, the "explode" command, and a combination of multiple search concepts. In addition, the study examined journal use and interlibrary loan activity for a correlation with online search activity. Higher bioethics journal use and interlibrary loan statistics coincided with peak BIOETHICSLINE activity periods. Citation analysis of student bibliographies reflected the interdisciplinary nature of BIOETHICSLINE and the need for ethics, legal, and clinical information sources in a bioethics collection. This study suggests that the integration of bibliographic instruction and the coordination of collection development with students' curricular needs lead to increased and more competent use of information resources.
From the early 1960s, the US National Library of Medicine (NLM) has been a leader in applying computer technology to accomplish traditional bibliographic and reference functions. medline, in the early 1970s, was the first large-scale online medical bibliographic reference system. That role has been altered by today's Web environment, which has increased the number and extent of NLM services and the audience for them. The NLM has formally declared that it will seek to serve the general public after over a century of serving the library and medical communities exclusively. In the last several years, many new services have been introduced to fulfil this mandate, including medlineplus and ClinicalTrials.gov. Also a part of the NLM's vision for the 21st century is the need to ensure that the proliferating forms of electronic health information-bibliographic, full text, graphic, audiovisual-are captured and preserved for posterity. A national library such as the NLM has as much an archival responsibility for this electronic information as for centuries-old printed and manuscript historical treasures.
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Research documents the existence of racial and ethnic health disparities. As a result, policy makers are seeking to address these disparities. This list is a starting point for building or updating a collection that supports this policy development process. It is written for health policy librarians and researchers and includes annotated recommendations for books, periodicals, government publications, and Websites. Entries for print publications are primarily from 1998 to 2003.
We have developed a quantitative serial ranking system based on multiple citation analysis techniques, library use statistics, expert opinion, and selected distinguishing publication characteristics. Evaluation criteria categories include: average Science Citation Index (Impact Factor, Immediacy Index, Total citations) rankings from 1987 to 1992; citation source counts of multiple "core" biomedical informatics publications; a questionnaire sent to American College of Medical Informatics Fellows; publication delay; distinguishing characteristics (e.g., subscription cost, total circulation, year established, places indexed, affiliation with a professional society, major biomedical resource library holdings); and the total number of interlibrary loan requests to the U. S. National Library of Medicine. The top serials were Computers and Biomedical Research, MD Computing, Methods of Information in Medicine, Medical Decision Making and Computers in Biology and Medicine.
OBJECTIVE: Experts disagree on the parameters to use to identify the "best" serials within a scientific field. The author set out to develop an extension to Dhawan's journal selection model for ranking serials in any scientific field. METHODS: Comparison of three different instantiations of Dhawan's model were used to rank thirty-four biomedical informatics serials. RESULTS: The first instantiation of Dhawan's model identified seven serials and divided them into two groups. The second instantiation of Dhawan's model identified twelve serials and separated them into two groups. Using fuzzy set theory the new extended model produced a rank ordered list of the top twelve biomedical informatics serials. CONCLUSIONS: Use of fuzzy set theory to assign set membership and combine data in Dhawan's journal selection model allows one to: (1) eliminate the need to determine arbitrary cutoff points for inclusion of serials within each of Dhawan's evaluation criteria categories, (2) combine data from disparate sources, and (3) obtain a rank-ordered list of the biomedical informatics serials rather than simply identifying a set of the "top" serials. Such a ranked list provides librarians and researchers alike with the information necessary to help them make their biomedical informatics serial selection decisions based on objective, quantifiable data.
Canadian health professionals and their patients are deprived of important evidence to guide health and healthcare decisions, ensure quality and avoid unnecessary deaths because, unlike other developed countries, Canada does not have a national medical library as can be found in the United States' National Library of Medicine and the United Kingdom's National Health Service.
Online use statistics can provide libraries with a tool to be used when developing an online collection of resources. Statistics can provide information on overall use of a collection, individual print and electronic journal use, and collection use by specific user populations. They can also be used to determine the number of user licenses to purchase. This paper focuses on the issue of use statistics made available for one collection of online resources.