0111 CAMPUS for Aprll 28-May •, 1975 -Page 7 Dealing with complexities of the information explosion In recent years, academic libraries have been reeling under the complexities of the information explosion with a resulting flood of printed material, inflation which has hit the publishing industry along with everything else, and an increased concern about the public service respon­sibilities of libraries. But new problems create the incentive for solutions. At The University of Texas at Austin, the General Libraries staff is emphasizing a policy of changing ser­vices to meet the changing needs of library users. "The entire Library is a public service unit," S!!JS Mrs. Lois Bebout, associate director for public services of the General Libraries. "That's what we're here for, to fulfill the information needs of the academic community and as far as possible, of the general public." Although the Library is divided into functional divisions of collection development, bibliographic control and public services, all divisions overlap in the public service purpose, Mrs. Bebout explains. "The increased bibliographic control made possible since we joined OCLC (Ohio College Library Center) last summer has enabled us to catalog and shelve books so vice. She also notes that interdisciplinary trends in educa­tion have effected changes in library organization. An example of centralized research material is the Human Relations Area Files, which UT Austin acquired last fall. The files provide a tool for comparative and in­terdisciplinary research on human behavior, social life and culture. More than 100 persons from about 20 dis­ciplines already have used the files. Fields of study represented by the researchers include such widely diverse fields as anthropology, zoology, nursing, law, economics and communication. "When we move to the new library building, in about two years, we'll have a centralized reference area for social sciences and humanities," Mrs. Bebout says. Commenting on the method of selecting materials for the UT Library, Mrs. Bebout notes that the General Libraries has bibliographers for each field of study who consult with the faculty in that discipline. Together they determine the purpose of the collection and the level of need. Suggestions about acquisitions are accepted from anyone and then the suggestsions are reviewed by the bibliographers. "And then we have blanket orders -that is, obtaining The General Libr A four-page section with text by Jo Ann Bardin rapidly that now the backlog in the Main Library is negligible," Mrs. Bebout continues. "Now the length of time from receipt of a book to shelving is frequently three to four weeks. That's down from an average of four to eight months." The OCLC is a computer-based bibliographic network. Through two computer terminals and a telephone trunk line, the UT Austin library has immediate access to about 1,200,000 citations stored in the Ohio center. For any books which have been cataloged by OCLC, a par­ticipating library may order, and receive within a week, alphabetized catalog cards, ready to file. "Our most important job is to make the right books accessible to our library users as fast as possible," Mrs. Bebout emphasizes. "After accomplishing that basic need, we can move on to improved services such as more education for library users. Since reducing our backlog, we've been able to move some of our personnel from Bibliographic Control to the Public Service Division." In discussing the increased emphasis on the Library's public service, Mrs. Bebout cites several examples of current and future changes such as expansion of the data base systems and microfilm materials, class or group in­struction by librarians on library usage, improved research guides and a speed-up in interlibrary loan ser­everything of research value published in certain fields,'' Mrs. Bebout adds. "Anything we don't want from a blanket order can be sent back. However, as money has gotten tighter, it has been necessary to cut back on blanket orders.'' Books from foreign countries are acquired through publishers or agents in the respective countries. "Of course the UT Library is a resource center for the whole state and region, as well as a national resource center for Latin American, Texas and 20th Century literary materials," Mrs. Bebout says. "Anyone can use this library, although there are some restrictions on check-outs of materials." The public service areas of the General Libraries in­clude the Reference Department, Circulation Services, Documents and Microform Collection and the Periodical Room in the Main Library. Additional public service units are the Latin American Collection including the Mexican­American Collection Project, Barker Texas History Collection, Undergraduate Library, Asian Collection, Middle East Collection, 15 branch libraries and the Computer-Based Information Services unit. The Humanities Research Center, LBJ School of Public Affairs Library and the Law Library, although separately administered, also provide public services. Adjunct ·services available in wide variety at library The University's General Libraries offers a variety of adjunct services to expedite the work of library users. The services include: RESERVE BOOKS. The reserve book collection, located in the Undergraduate Library, includes materials for undergraduate and graduate students. Most of the branch libraries have reserve collections for their subject areas. INDIVIDUAL CONSULTATION. Faculty members, research assistants and graduate students are invited to contact branch librarians, reference librarians or bibliographers for consultation on library resources, specialized services and information sources pertinent to their fields of interest. TELEPHONE REFERENCE. For assistance with bibliographic or other information problems call the Reference Department PAX 1126 or 1145 or CTX 3813. INTER-LIBRARY SERVICE. For information on how to obtain library materials not on the UT campus call Inter-Library Service, PAX 1956 or CTX 3976. MICROFORM READERS. Readers for all types of microforms are located in Battle Hall, Documents and MicroForms Collection, Engineering and Main libraries. The Undergraduate Library has microfilm and microfiche readers and other libraries have various types of readers. PROXY BORROWER'S CARD. Books may be borrow­ed for a faculty member by an authorized individual. The cards are issued at the Main Loan desk after the necessary forms have been completed. For additional in­formation, call PAX 1135 or CTX 3815. TELEPHONE DIRECTORIES. The reference depart­ment, in Main Building 227, maintains a collection of telephone directories for public use. At present the collec­tion includes 351 directories from Texas cities 305 from other states and 60 from foreign cities. ' COLLEGE CATALOGS. The Undergraduate Library maintains a collection of college catalogs which covers most American colleges and universities. They are available at the Information/Reference desk on the first floor of the Undergraduate Library. PHOTODUPLICATION SERVICE. Photocopies are made from printed materials by the Library Office (PAX 1111 or 1112 and CTX 3811). Photocopies are made from transparent or opaque microforms in the Documents Collection (PAX 1144 or CTX 7516) and from microfiche in Battle Hall libraries (PAX 1132 or CTX 1844). Most libraries on campus have coin-operated photocopying machines. TYPEWRITERS. Coin-operated electric typewriters From the rare books of antiquity to microfiche, library scientists are available on the second and third floors of the are expanding the image of libraries to include more than collections of books. Academic Center. They rent for 25 cents per hour and 10 Above is a set of microfiche containing U.S. Congressional hearings. cents for 20 minutes. Page 8 -ON CAMPUS for Aprll 28-May 4, 1975 'freeing the scholar to return to his studies' R. Buckminster Fuller, creator of the geodesic dome and multi-professional man, once discussed his appoint­ment to Harvard's Charles Eliot Norton Professorship of Poetry by saying, in part: ''. ..The word poet in this professorship of _poetry is a very general term for a person w_ho puts things together in an era of great specialization wherein most people are differentiating or 'taking' things apart. · Demonstrated capability in the integration of ideas is the general qualification ... '' In the midst of today's concern about over­specialization and under-integration of ideas, a problem to which Fuller addresses himself frequently, informa­tion scientists in academic libraries are quite busy "put­ting things together" in an attempt to make all types of information more easily accessible and hopefully ''free­ing the scholar to return to his studies." One example of the information scientists' efforts may be seen at The University of Texas at Austin .where the General Libraries operates a Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) system which is designed to expedite the work of researchers. Four Data Base Suppliers The library receives monthly machine-readable bibliographic data from four data base suppliers, in­cluding American Psychological Association which supplies Psychological Abstracts, the American Institute of Physics which supplies SPIN (Searchable Physics In­formation Notices), the Educational Resources Informa­tion Center which supplies ERIC, and the American Geological Institute which supplies GEO-REF. Data received represents references to journal articles and reports in the four subject fields. "Any of the data bases available may have from 60,000 to 70,000 articles at any one time," says Gary Menges, assistant director of public services for the General Libraries. From the data bases the Library offers two services: (1) a current-awareness service for all four data bases and (2) on-line, interactive searching of bibliographic data for Psychological Abstracts, ERIC and GEO-REF data bases, using the Computer Center's TAURUS in­teractive system and System 2000. · The current-awareness service offers faculty members and graduate students the opportunity to establish subject "profiles" (lists of index phrases which describe their area of interest). The "profiles" are used to extract references and abstracts to new articles and reports which are likely to be of interest to the individual. A print­out of the references is mailed to each participant monthly. About 400 Participants "We have about 400 participants in the current awareness service now," Mr. Menges estimates. "Ac­tually, there are more than that because some people in the same field share the reports. The service is free and we hope we'll be able to keep it that way." For the on-line, interactive searching service, the Library has three computer terminals, located on the se­cond floor of Battle Hall Libraries. "Using the computer to search for bibliographic data is much faster than a manual search," Mr. Menges points out. "It can save days and weeks of time. Also, it's more current because we usually get the tapes much more quickly than the printed version." Mr. Menges also notes that complicated logical com­binations can be used in machine searching that would be difficult or impossible manually. Instruction Sessions Faculty members and graduate students may make ap­pointments to use the library terminals without charge, or anyone with a Computation Center account number can access the data bases when they are available. "We've had as many as 21 computer terminals on cam­pus accessing library information," Mr. Menges says. "And everything is so interdisciplinary now that, for ex­ample, ERIC and Psychological Abstracts may be useful to a lot of people who are not in those fields." An instruction session on use of the computer terminals is scheduled every Monday afternoon at 3 p.m. on the se­cond floor of Battle Hall. At present the GEO-REF data base is on-line each Mon­day from 9 p.m. to 12 midnight, ERIC on Tuesday through Thursday from 8 to 10 a.m., and Psychological Abstracts on Friday from 8 to 10 a.m. ERIC reports are available in microfiche, a ppstcard size sheet of film which can contain 100 or more printed pages reduced to a fraction of their original size.Microfiche readers and reader/printers are available in Battle Hall where ERIC and Psychological Abstracts are located. Further information about GEO­REF may be obtained in the Geology Building and about SPIN in the Physics-Mathematics-Astronomy Library in Robert L. Moore Hall. Periodical services in General Libraries reorganized •1n recent years The University of Texas General Libraries' periodical services have been reorganized in recent years, including the relocation of newspapers, magazines and journals, and expansion of the Documents Collection to include microforms. Microforms include the various microphotographic film media, such as microfilm and microfiche, which enable information scientists to reduce a printed page to a fraction of its original size. All the microforms are machine readable. "The reorganization is the beginning of a centralized microform service for the Main Library," says Gary Menges, assistant director for public services in the General Libraries. "It is similar to the pattern of service we will have in the new University library." The Periodical Room, which was established in Main Building 228 in 1973, contains social science and humanities journals, and current newspapers and magazines. About 4,000 titles are included in the collec­tion. Since the Newspaper Collection ceased to exist as a separate unit in June 1974, the newspapers have been channeled to other service points. "The scope of the Newspaper Collection had been reduced in 1971 with the completion of Sid Richardson Hall," Mr. Menges explains. "At that time all the Latin American newspapers and all pre-1960 Texas newspapers were transferred to the Latin American Collection and the Barker Texas History Center. "With better microfilm coverage, use of the bound newspaper backfiles had decreased,'' Mr. Menges recalls. "The other bound backfiles have been removed to the Collections Deposit Library." Microfilm backfiles of newspapers from the Newspaper Collection for 1974 and before have been moved to the Documents and Microforms Collection (Main Building 316). A list of "newspapers currently received" is available in the Library's various public service units. "By utilizing staff from the old Newspaper Collection, the Documents and Microforms Collection was able to ex­tend its regular hours," Mr. Menges notes. "That change has provided library users with greater access to both documents and microforms." The Documents and Microforms Collection also in­cludes publications of the U.S. government, United Nations and 29 international organizations. Of special in­terest to users are the U.S. Congressional hearings and publications containing government statistical material. The University Library, which has been a selective depository for U .·S. government publications since 1884, has been complete since March 1969, by selecting all depository items. Also, the Library subscribes to numerous non-depository government publications. The UT Library is one of 37 U.S. depositories for United Nations documents, as well as having a standing order for all UN publications available for sale. Committee has advisory responsibility for library The University of Texas Library Committee is charged with the responsibility of assisting in the develop­ment of operational procedures, personnel and fiscal policies, and advising the UT Austin president concer­ning the direction and growth of the Library. Fred Folmer, University Librarian, is administrative adviser to the committee. Committee members include Dr. Wayne H. Holtzman, committee chairman and professor of psychology and education; Dr. Donald D. Brand, professor of geography; Dr. Gene A. Burd, assistant professor of jour­nalism; Dr. Janet K. King, associate professor of Germanic languages; Dr. Barnes F. Lathrop, professor of history; Dr. Robert A. Peterson, associate professor of marketing administration; Dr. Richard H. Richard­son, associate professor of zoology; Denise Schmandt-Besserat, assistant professor of art; Dr. Karl M. Schmitt, professor of government; Dr. William O.S. Sutherland, professor of English; Dr. Martin T. Todaro, associate professor of speech communication, and three students. A few statistics Statistics for the UT Austin Library System, including the General Libraries, Law Library, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs Library and special collections: 3,518,690 volumes in library 40,800 current periodicals 122 professional staff 241 non-professional staff 121 student assistants ON CAMPUI for Aprll 28-May 4, 1975 -P...,. 9 Four special library collections Four special library collections at the University provide concentrated resources for scholars in area studies of Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and the Mexican-American. The University's Latin American Collection has been recognized as "the single most important body of Latin American material in the United States." Located in Unit I of Sid Richardson Hall, the LAC collects materials from and about every country south of the U.S. and from the Caribbean. "We aim at comprehensiveness," says Dr. Nettie Lee Benson, director of LAC and professor of history and library science. "Our collecting policy is to try to acquire everything written by a Latin American and everything about Latin America in all subject areas -science, and technology, humanities, social sciences, fine arts. You name it and we cover it." 'Publishing Has Mushroomed' The LAC currently contains approximately 300,000 printed volumes, 900,000 pages of manuscript, 3,000 newspapers, 9,000 microfilm reels of newspapers and archival material, 20,500 broadsides, 2,500 flat maps and 10,000 photographs. "In 1968 when we were planning this building I es­timated that to be a comprehensive collection we would need to have 500,000 titles," Dr. Benson recalls. "Since then Latin American publishing has mushroomed. Now, I realize I should have said one million titles." "We add about 20,000 volumes a year," Dr. Benson con­tinues. "If we were being really comprehensive, we would add 50,000 a year." In reviewing the growth of the collection, Dr. Benson remembers that for many years LAC didn't have any budget and then, for a long time, only a minimal one. Much Of Collection Donated "But this collection has been built primarily on just regular University budgeted money," Dr. Benson ex­plains. "I'm not ashamed to be called a book beggar. We write more than 3,000 letters annually asking for books to be donated. And at least one-fourth of the collection was donated. All Latin American governments have con­tributed greatly to the collection. And authors are happy to give us autographed copies of their books." The widely used collection circulated almost 150,000 items in 1974. Dr. Benson notes that scholars from throughout the world come to use the internationally famous collection, some staying in Austin from three months to a year for that purpose. A 47-volume catalog of the LAC printed materials has been published by G. K. Hall of Boston. "The catalog is the most comprehensive bibliographic guide to Latin America in existence," Dr. Benson says. The MexicanAmerican Library Project, which is hous­ed within the Latin American Collection, was established in late 1974. "By virtue of our location in the Latin American Collec­tion we have an excellent historical base to build on," says Mrs. Angie Quiros, director of MALP. "We want to collect any materials that have to do with Mexican­Americans and their culture. At present we're trying to acquire personal collections and archival materials." The collection will contain books, journals, periodicals, newspapers, maps, manuscripts, records, tapes and photographs. "We've already started a record collection of Spanish regional music and a file of newspaper clippings," Mrs. Quiros adds. The special collection was developed from proposals by a student library committee in the Center for Mexican­American Studies. Both the Middle East and Asian Collections are housed in Academic Center 29. 'Tm very optimistic about Middle Eastern studies at UT," says Michael Albin, librarian of the Middle East Collection. "We have an excellent faculty and a commit­ment to improve the library collection. Even now no other school in the South can touch us as far as Middle Eastern materials go. The closest university with a com­parable collection is the University of Utah. The Middle East Collection contains 25,000 volumes and 160 periodicals in Arabic and Persian languages, with a subject concentration in religion, philosophy, history, literature and social sciences. Mr. Albin notes that the collection is especially strong in languages and literature. "My problem is I have to be on top of all that's being published in the Middle East in almost every discipline," Mr. Albin says. "And I must be a librarian to people in all those fields, to assist them in finding the information they need." Inquiries From Outside University Although the Middle Eastern and Asian collections are used primarily by faculty and graduate students, Mr. Albin says they receive many inquiries from outside the University community. "Also, we have many undergraduates coming in for ad­ vice on term papers and western language materials," Mr. Albin adds. Kevin Lin, librarian of the Asian Collection, points out that the UT Asian Collection is the only one available in the South. "The Indian and Pakistani materials are strong," Mr. Lin explains. "The Japanese and Chinese materials are small in number, but excellent in quality." The Asian Collection contains about 100,000 volumes on South Asia, 22,000 on Japan and 5,000 on China, 200 Japanese and Chinese language periodicals, and more than 200 English language magazines from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. On microforms the collection has Indian and Chinese newspapers, the complete census of India and the Indian Gazeteers. Mr. Lin points out that the Asian Collection emphasizes languages, literature, history and social sciences. "We have the China Biographical File and there are only three of those in the U.S.," says Mr. Lin, in discuss­ ing items of special interest. "On Japan, we also have 200 volumes of source material for the industrial develop­ ment of the Meiji period which covers from 1868 to 1912." Business· Administration-Economics Library gets Disclosure service The Disclosure service, a major resource of business and financial data on microfiche, was acquired recently by the University's Business Administration-Economics Library. Ten types of corporate financial reports submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission were released by the SEC to Disclosure, Inc., which converts the reports to microfiche and distributes to subscribers. The UT Austin library subscribed to the three most fre­quently used reports. Although the first microfiche was invented in 1839, its widespread use is a fairly recent development in the field of microphotography. The fiche is a postcard-size sheet of film which c'an hold 100 or more printed pages reduced to minute facsimiles and arranged in rows. The microfiche is read with a reader which enlarges the print to original size or larger. "There's no other place you could have access to this information because it's filed with the SEC and Disclosure, Inc., is the sole distributor," says Mrs. Mary Seng, head librarian in the Business Administration-Economics Library. "Information of this type on com­panies is one of the most frequent requests we have in the business library. It's very valuable to business students and faculty." About 12,000 Companies Covered The three reports in the UT Library include annual cor­porate financial statements to shareholders for the Over­the-Counter, New York and American Stock Exchanges; listing application statements from the New York Stock Exchange, and the lOK reports, which are filed with the SEC and include more detailed information than that in reports to shareholders. About 12,000 companies are covered in the three categories of reports. "The Disclosure service has been so successful that we hope to expand it," Mrs. Seng says. "For example, we would like to include Texas companies and other com­panies that are listed in Over-the -Counter stocks." Gary Menges, assistant director for public services of the General Libraries, notes that the important thing about the Disclosure service is that it provides informa­tion which has not been available before to users here. "There are more and more of these information ser­vices now, and they often have information which is not available in any other format, Mr. Menges continues. "We look on it as a supplement to hard-copy books." Index To Microfiche Collection From the Disclosure service a library user may research such subjects as general corporate data, com­petitive strategies, mergers and acquisitions, portfolio management and legal affairs. The "Disclosure Journal," with two editions entitled "SEC Corporate Profiles" and "Index of Corporate Events," provides an index to the microfiche collection by subject and company name. The "Financial Thesaurus" will assist the library user in finding the cor­rect terminology to access his subject. In the business library two microfiche readers are available for library use, as well as a portable reader which can be checked out. In addition, a reader/printer is available in the College of Business Administration of­fice for persons who want to make copies from the microfiche. .... IO -011 CAMPUS for Aprll 28-May •, 1975 , 'The librarians are here to assist' New students at The University of Texas may be in­timidated when they first try to use the Library with its large banks of card catalogs and extensive reference materials. And many seniors and graduate students don't know how to use the Library efficiently, according to Mrs. Jean Herold, UT reference librarian. "There is a real need to make people aware of the infor­ mation sources available and to let them know that the librarians are here to assist them," Mrs. Herold says. "If. they would just ask! But many people are em­ barrassed to ask for help or prefer to work on their own. 1That's why printed guides can be so useful." To expedite researchers' work, two sets of research guides, Library Pathfinders and the UT Library Guides to the Literature, were added to the Library recently. Shortcut For Researchers The Pathfinder guide, prepared by specialists in each field , provides a shortcut for researchers by listing on one sheet the major information sources for a particular sub­ject. The listings include authoritative texts, specialized encyclopedias and dictionaries, bibliographies, journal articles, reports and reviews. "Pathfinders are designed primarily for un­dergraduates," says Mrs. Lois Bebout, associate director for public services in the General Libraries. "But they are useful for anyone moving into a new subject area because it gives the important information sources to use and can be a real time saving tool." Mimeographed Bibliographies Covering social sciences, humanities and science/ technology, Pathfinders cover 29 disciplines with a total of 382 subject headings and more in preparation. A complete set of Pathfinders is available in the Undergraduate Library and selected guides, pertinent to the respective subject areas, are in most branch libraries. The guides are in loose-leaf binders so library users can make photocopies of any guide they want to keep. "For faculty members who would like to make assignments correlated with the Pathfinders guides, a complete list of subject headings is available in each library unit," Mrs. Bebout adds. The UT Library Guides to the Literature, which are mimeographed bibliographies prepared by the General Libraries Reference Department, cover five general topics: politics and government, sociology, anthropology, Black studies and geography. Two other guides on women's studies and economics are in preparation. "The guides to the literature are a step beyond Pathfinders and are inte.nded for upper-division un­dergraduates," Mrs. Herold explains. "Students must be using them because they keep disappearing off the racks." The guides are available at the entrance to the Library on the second floor of the Main Building. All materials listed on the guides are located in the Reference Room, Main Building 227. In discussing the need for such research guides, Mrs. Herold notes that many faculty members make research assignments, assuming that all students know how to use the Library's resources. Instructed v. Uninstructed "A student can accomplish as much in two hours of in­structed research as he can in three or four days of un­instructed research," Mrs. Herold emphasizes. "And these guides are one form of research instruction. "The most effective time to teach a student about Library research is when he needs it most, for a specific topic, for a specific course assignment," she continues. "Faculty members can request the Library staff to prepare a bibliography for a particular course or a par­ ticular assignment. However, we need to have some notice to do that." Bibliographies requested for specific classes will in­clude only basic reference sources, primarily aimed at upper-division undergraduates. Librarians will assist students by directing them to more specialized or detail­ed sources. In addition, the Undergraduate Library staff recently has prepared 10 research guides for English and economics, most of which are intended for specific class needs in lower-division courses. Model of the Social Science and Humanities Library, under construction at Speedway and 21st Streets.