Citation
David, L. and Marzo, A. (2001), "To the University of the Philippines, Diliman, College of Science Library", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 18 No. 9. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2001.23918iaf.002
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited
To the University of the Philippines, Diliman, College of Science Library
Introduction
The University of the Philippines College of Science Library (UPCSL) (http://alpha.cslib.upd.edu.ph) is the information and documentation center for the College of Science of the University of the Philippines. It is also the lead institution in the Engineering Science Education Project Library (DOST-ESEP) Network supported by the Department of Science and Technology of the Philippines (http://www.upm.edu.ph/DOST-ESEP/). As such, the UPCSL provides the information services to the science community in the following subject areas: biology; chemistry; computer science; earth sciences including meteorology and oceanography; molecular biology and biotechnology; science, education and society; statistics and science in general.
The UPCSL has a fully automated library system with an OPAC that can be accessed on the World Wide Web and the campus area network. Its resources include print, audiovisual and electronic materials on CD-ROM. It has access to an online database for the health sciences (HERDIN) and to databases available on the Internet. In addition it has consortial agreements with seven other academic and college libraries on the use of their resources. The staff of the library is competent and very responsive to the information needs of the faculty. The major channels of communication among the members of the network and the faculty are the electronic mail, telephone and fax.
With the completion of the DOST-ESEP in 1998, the College of Science Library and the members of the library network faced a bleak future with regard to the maintenance of its journal subscriptions. The project spent about US$1 million per year for journal subscriptions, which amounted to 40 million pesos with the devaluation. This short introduction to my institution highlights the resource and technology issues we face and presents the results of three studies conducted to find out how the library could cope with the demand for information by its users in 1999 and future years, knowing full well that it will be almost impossible to raise 40 million pesos annually to maintain its subscriptions. These are very real and critical concerns we face now nearly two years post-end of the DOST-ESEP initiatives:
- 1.
Study no. 1. Short-listing of journal titles for subscription. Objectives:
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To classify titles into five categories in order of priority in acquisition.
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To develop policies about journal cancellations.
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- 2.
Study no. 2. Short-listing of abstracting and indexing services. Objectives are similar to study no. 1.
- 3.
Study no. 3. Response to document delivery services. Objectives:
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To determine alternative acquisition routes for acquisition of journal articles.
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To find out if scientist are willing to pay for document delivery service.
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Study No. 1. Short-listing Titles for Subscription
Methodology
To identify titles that will be cancelled for the year 1999, the serial librarian conducted a survey of usage of the journals on current subscription. It was classified into five categories and given usage values, as shown in Table I.
In the past, whenever the faculty was requested to review and prioritize journals for subscription, only the list of titles was given to the department. Experience has proven that faculty members seldom cancel titles. They in fact tend to add new ones. To get the appropriate response, the librarians included usage value and cost of subscription in the list they sent to the department chair. The form used contained the following sections: usage value; title/s; cost; retain or drop.
Except for a few titles, the faculty dropped all journals that were very expensive and had very low usage.
After the cancellations had been made, the faculty was asked to do the following:
- 1.
Prioritize titles for subscription.
- 2.
Indicate their preference for either print or electronic access. The following symbols were used for prioritization and preference for format:
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P1= Priority 1;
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P2 = Priority 2;
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P3 = Priority 3;
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format: P = Print;
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C = CD-ROM;
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O = Online;
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I = Internet.
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- 3.
Make recommendations or propose alternatives or options for journal subscriptions.
Table I.
Usage of journals on current subscription
Results
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The number of titles on the subscription list decreased considerably.
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The faculty preferred the print format to the CD-ROM but preferred the Internet full text journal to the print, if available.
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They recommended subscription to abstracting and indexing services, in particular the current contents and the science citation index and chemical abstracts. These services should be in electronic format either as CD-ROM or on the Web but access should be made available if possible, on the faculty's Internet station.
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The College of Science Library subscribed to the Current Contents on CD reference edition and to the Web CC database.
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Documents were obtained from the authors or through document delivery suppliers through local jobbers, directly from the supplier, or from members of the ESEP Library Consortium. Some members of the faculty wrote directly to the authors.
Study 2. Short-listing of Abstracting and Indexing Services
The College of Science Library subscribes to the following CD-ROM titles:
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Applied Science and Technology Abstracts (ASTA);
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Biotechnology Citation Index with Abstracts (BCI);
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Current Contents (CC) Physical and Environmental Sciences on reference and Web editions;
- •
General Science Source (GS)
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Science Citation Index with Abstracts (SCI) (discontinued for the meantime).
Although increasingly becoming expensive, the library renews its subscriptions to its CD-ROM titles every year due to great demand for the service by its users. To be able to strongly justify the cost of subscriptions and service, a study about CD-ROM use in the library was conducted.
Objectives and Significance of the Study
The purpose of the study was to find out how users were reacting to this new reference tool. The service was introduced only in 1995, so the study was a mid-term review of the service. The study was limited only to the use of abstracts and indexes on CD-ROM with or without full text. The goal was to justify the continuous subscription to the service by proving that user satisfaction was a function of the effectivity of the CD-ROM service in providing them with access to information. The specific objectives were:
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To determine the preference of the users on CD-ROM over print formats in using abstracts and indexes.
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To identify factors that affect the success of the search by the users. (Staff assistance and level of IT knowledge of the users were the variables tested.)
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To determine the level of satisfaction of the users regarding the service.
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To determine the priorities for retention of titles by the users.
Results of the Study
- 1.
User profile. The users were students, faculty and staff of the College of Science, other UP units and other colleges outside the University of the Philippines. This finding indicates the absence of CD-ROM services for science materials in their own libraries. More than 50 percent of the respondents indicated that they had used the service prior to the survey. The students used the service for their term papers and thesis. The faculty and research personnel used the service to conduct a review of the literature and to update themselves on new developments in their areas of specialization.
- 2.
User preference for format. They also indicated their desire for the service to continue. None of the users preferred print over the CD-ROM. The reasons preferring the CD-ROM to print were:
- •
Faster and organized retrieval of information. Search strategies could be devised to combine terms. Searches that used to take one day could be finished in a few minutes.
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Ease of retrieval of information. The downloading and printing capability eliminated the need for copying the information by hand.
- •
- 3.
Factors affecting user satisfaction:
- •
In general, new users needed assistance from the librarian. Those who asked for assistance were more successful with their searches. Those who were familiar with the service no longer needed assistance from the staff. The higher the level of IT knowledge by the user, the lower his need for assistance even if he was a first-time user of the service.
- •
Users were asked to rate their level of usefulness of the search results using a five-point scale as follows: 1 = very useful; 2 = highly useful; 3 = useful; 4 = slightly useful; 5 = no value.
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Of the users, 27 percent found their search results very useful; 33 percent found them highly useful; 22 percent useful, 7.4 percent slightly useful, while the rest found the search to be of no value (see Figure 1).
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Users were also asked to rate their level of satisfaction on a five-point scale. The results were parallel to the above results for the level of usefulness of the search results.
- •
- 4.
Titles for retention and other recommendations:
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The users recommended that the following titles be retained in order of priority:
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Priority 1. Current Contents (CC). Physical and environmental sciences in two editions with recommendation that it be networked, so that the faculty could access the services from their desktop.
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Priority 2. Science Citation Index. (SCI) Also with recommendation as in above.
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Priority 3. General Science Source (SC) with abstracts and full text.
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Priority 4. Biotechnology Citation Index and Chemistry Citation Index (if the SCI abstracts could not be retained).
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Priority 5. Applied Science and Citation Index with abstracts.
- •
- •
One faculty recommended using Uncover (http://uncweb.carl.org) and the PubMed of Medline (http://wwwncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Pubmed/medline.html)
- •
Staff recommended using the DOST site for the Applied Science and Technology Index (http://www.stii.dost.gov.ph)
- •
Figure 1.
Usefulness of search results
Conclusion and Action
The subscription to the Current Contents, General Science Source and the Applied Science and Technology Abstracts was continued. Subscription was made to the Current Contents Reference edition and the Web editions. The reference editions had to be obtained in addition to the Web edition because of very slow Internet access. The Applied Science and Technology Abstracts (OVID) was continued as a test to determine if the faculty and students will prefer it to the CD-ROM.
The subscription to the Science Citation Index and other citation indexes was suspended due to lack of funds and pending results of the OVID and the CC Web experiments.
Study No. 3 Response to Document Delivery Services
A. Objectives
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To determine the alternative acquisition routes for acquisition of journal titles.
- •
To find out if scientists are willing to pay for document delivery service.
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To determine if a good delivery service is acceptable and can replace journal subscription in all cases.
B. Background Information
The College of Science Library is subscribing to journals as a commitment to the DOST-ESEP Library Network project. Owing to the devaluation of the Philippine peso, the library can no longer continue subscription to all titles. It has to find an alternative solution to the demand of the faculty and students for articles. The alternative solution proposed is a combination of subscription to priority one titles (resolved in study no. 1) and provision of access to abstracts and indexes (resolved in study no. 2) and provision of articles through document delivery service (study no. 3).
C. Results and Conclusion
- •
It was found that there were many routes that could be used in acquiring documents. The faculty preferred getting copies from the authors, whose addresses were provided in the current contents (on CD, Web or Ovid).
- •
The faculty was not happy about paying for articles, because they could get them free from the authors.
- •
The library was spending less for copies of articles, even if it paid for the copies rather than subscribing to journals; however, handling and following up correspondence for individual articles are becoming unwieldy.
- •
It was advantageous to get copies of articles instead of journals, because the budget goes a longer way and the shelving too does become a problem. New ways of storing and servicing them must, however, be devised, because under the COA rules anything that the library buys must be accounted for.
What Conclusions Can Be Drawn from These Findings about the Impact of Electronic Resources and Services on the Filipino Scientist?
It appears that the Filipino scientists who were part of the study are aware and are using electronic information sources and services. They are no longer hard pressed for journals because of the access to information offered by abstracting and indexing services and the availability of documents from the authors themselves. It has greatly affected the research productivity of the Filipino scientist, as can be gleaned from the upward trend in the amount of Filipino research cited in the Science Citation Indexes. The objective of the Filipino scientist is for his/her article to be accepted for publication in journals that are indexed and abstracted in Current Contents and in the Web of Science family of products. They are of the opinion that these global information services have the broadest coverage and most prestige and therefore scientists will be able to avail themselves of the results of their research more than if they were to publish in less recognized journals. For scientific research that is specific to the region of the Philippines, in agriculture, tropical medicine, environmental sciences, etc, this is very critical.
Electronic information resources have increased the use of information materials by Filipino scientists. Its availability in a library has also increased their level of satisfaction in availing themselves of library services. It has also increased the cooperation between librarian and scientist, because they both know where and how to get information.
Today, initiatives are under way with the Public Library of Science and the cooperative and collaborative work of librarians and publishers world-wide to offer the research communities in developing countries better and more cost-effective and subsidized access to a wider range of information products. I hope that my country and institution will benefit from this wonderful work.
Lourdes David(1ltd@eudoramail.com) is now Library Director at Rizal Library, Ateneo De Manila University, Quezon City, Philippines but was formerly Head of the College of Science Library, University of Philippines, Diliman.Arlene Marzo(arlene.marzo@ up.edu.ph) is the Acting Head of the College of Science Library, University of Philippines, Diliman.