ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 392 / C& RL News K eep in g fa cu lty cu rren t B y D e b r a H assig Reference Librarian L ehm an Library, Columbia University a n d D a v id W. Lewis L ehm an Librarian Colum bia University An inexpensive, efficient way to distribute tables of contents. S o m e years ago, in an analysis of the economies of academ ic libraries, Yale M. B raunstein m ade a plea for considering the user’s costs, m ainly the cost of tim e, w hen we design library services.1 U nfortu nately, the financial constraints of academ ia and the press of expanding inform ation sources has m ade it difficult for most academ ic libraries to con sider providing new services designed to make ac cess to collections easier from the user’s point of view. The service described below is an example of an attem pt to heed Braunstein’s plea by providing the faculty w ith valuable inform ation in a m anner th a t saves them considerable tim e and effort. W hat is im portant about this example is not th a t it is a revo lutionary idea, for it is certainly not unique. W hat is im portant is th a t it is cheap and it works. For less th an half the cost of adding a new book to our col lection, we can provide an individual w ith a year’s w orth of a service th at, as one faculty m em ber de scribed it, “has saved me a great deal of effort and has m ade a significant im pact on the w ay in w hich I do my scholarly w ork.” W ith a little effort, we have provided a valued service to our faculty and in the process have netted the library good will. Table of Contents service The Table of Contents service of the Lehm an Li 1Yale M. Braunstein, “Costs and Benefits of L i brary Inform ation: The User’s Point of V iew” , L i brary Trends 28 (Summer 1979):79, 82. brary provides copies of the tables of contents of se lected journals to members of the faculty. Each in dividual is free to choose any tw enty titles to which the library subscribes. Photocopies of the contents pages are m ade and m ailed to the faculty members w ithin two days of receipt of the journal in the li brary. The current service is an adaptation of an earlier and less successful program . O ur first attem pt in volved com piling m onthly packets of journal con tents pages for the disciplines of anthropology, so ciology, political science, and international affairs. These packets were distributed to departm ents and in some cases to individual faculty members; they were also available in a num ber of library loca tions. This involved collecting all of the journals once a m onth, photocopying literally thousands of pages, and collating the packets before mailing. In addition to the considerable tim e and effort required to compile the packets, the program had a num ber of failings th a t becam e increasingly evi dent. Various comments revealed th a t from the faculty viewpoint, receiving such massive amounts of m aterial all at once proved difficult to deal w ith effectively. This was particularly true for individ uals w ith interdisciplinary interests who received m ore th an one packet. There was also a substantial tim e lag between any given journal’s receipt in the library and the com pilation of the packets; as a result of this lag, m any journals w hich had been re ceived could not be included because they were misplaced or in use w hen the packets were com September 1985 / 393 piled. Finally, the packets contained many titles th at simply were not of interest to many of the fac ulty members receiving them. It became clear that we needed a service th at was timely, more effec tively targeted, and th a t required less effort to pro cess. In September 1984, 200 faculty members were mailed a letter explaining the new service with a list of the new titles th a t had been p art of the earlier disciplinary packets. They were invited to select from these titles or to choose any others to which the library subscribed. In response to the mailing, 81 faculty members returned the lists. Most of these were in the social science departm ents th at are the lib rary ’s prim ary clientele, but others included members of area studies institutes from a wide vari ety of departm ents. Using list and sort programs available on the li b ra ry ’s D E C m ate II m icrocom puter, these lists were processed and sorted by title. Cards were pro duced for each title requested w ith the name and address of all those requesting the title. The avail ability of the microcomputer made possible the m anipulation and updating of this file, a task th at w ould have otherw ise been tedious and tim e- consuming at best. W ithout this computerized fa cility we would probably not have undertaken the project. The Kardex was then tagged for all of the titles in the service. W hen a title is checked in and found to be part of the service, it is put aside. Every day a student assistant picks up the issues, and after m atching them to the cards, photocopies the con tents pages w ith the cards, returns the issues to the to-be-shelved area, and refiles the cards. The pho tocopied information from the cards serves as the mailing labels, so the copies are simply folded, sta pled and mailed. Costs An analysis of the annual cost of implementing and m aintaining the service shows th at the current system represents about a 50% savings over the previous program . The most dram atic cost reduc tion is in student assistant time, which was cut from 30 hours per month to 10 hours per m onth, result ing in a savings of nearly 70% . Photocopying charges represent a 50 % savings. Costs for the cur rent service not incurred under the old system are word processing, m arking of Kardex periodicals re c o rd s, a n d a m e a su ra b le , a lb e it m in im a l, am ount of professional time. However, w ith the savings on student tim e and photocopying, even these additional charges bring the annual total to about one-half the cost of the previous program. On a more detailed level, annual costs are as fol lows: per faculty m em ber, $20.00; per journal, $1.30; per item mailed, $0.13. A summary of the annual costs of both the pre vious and current services is given below. These es timates are based on current wages at Columbia: $5.00 per hour for student assistants, $.05 per page for photocopying, and $11.00 per hour for begin ning professional librarian. Local mailing cost is not included. Previous service total: $3,135.00 1) staff: $1,800.00 2) photocopying: $1,285.00 3) office supplies: $50.00 C urrent service total: $1,650.00 1) staff: $950.00 2) photocopying: $650.00 3) office supplies: $50.00 Evaluation Approximately 75% of the individual lists re flected preferences th a t could not have been satis fied w ith any one of the formerly-issued subject packets. Fifty-five percent of the lists showed either an interdisciplinary (i.e., two or more disciplines) interest or a single disciplinary interest w ith a p a r tic u la r area focus. T w en ty p ercen t of the lists showed both interdisciplinary and area interests. The rem aining quarter of the lists contained selec tions w ithin a single discipline. The percentage of interdisciplinary lists was not concentrated in any one departm ent. For example, an anthropologist requested anthropology, sociology, and political science journals in addition to those pertaining spe cifically to L atin American studies. A faculty mem ber in the Southern Asian Institute requested not only Asian studies journals but also titles in anthro pology, sociology, and political science. A political scientist selected journals in political science, soci ology and two different areas (USSR and Latin America); a sociologist’s list indicated interest in so ciology, anthropology, and political science jour nals. Questionnaire results Many of the faculty lists received at the onset of the service included enthusiastic w ritten commen tary, generally extolling the value of such a current awareness service. However, these comments were made prior to the actual instigation of the system; it rem ained to be seen if and how well the system would actually work. In order to make a more ac curate evaluation, a short questionnaire was sent to participating faculty in April, after the system had been running for nearly two semesters. Its purpose was threefold: 1) to find out if the mechanics (i.e., the sorting and mailing processes) were working properly; 2) to see if in fact useful books and articles were being brought to the faculty’s attention as a result of the service; and 3) to gather any sugges tions for im provement of the service. Response to the questionnaire was quite good; 55 of the 81 faculty responded by the deadline. The fact th a t the questionnaire accompanied a request for renewal of the service certainly helped the re sponse rate. It appeared from the results of the questionnaire 394 / C&RL News th a t the system was working effectively. Over half of the faculty had received four or more table of contents pages in the last two weeks. Less than 4 % had received no table of contents pages during th at period. Most faculty reported th a t the service had regularly brought items to their attention th a t they subsequently w anted to read. At least one useful item was reported identified in the last two weeks by 94% of the respondents. Of these, 64% indi cated th a t one to three items were brought to their attention, 19 % reported four to six items, and 11 % reported th a t more than six w anted items were dis covered through the service during the last two weeks. As a general rule, it seemed th a t each table of contents page the faculty m em ber received led to th e discovery of one article of in terest. These results, in conjunction w ith the enthusiastic com ments th a t the questionnaire generated, lead us to believe th a t the service does fulfill its intended p u r pose. The comments w ritten on the questionnaire had two common themes: the service not only saved tim e (one faculty m em ber estim ated this at an aftern o o n a m onth) b u t extended th e fa c u lty ’s scope beyond w hat had been m ade possible w ith out the service. As one respondent wrote, “This ser vice is enormously useful. It does not merely make easier something I would otherwise do for myself but enables me to extend my norm al literature re view beyond w hat I used to do for myself. And I have found many things to re a d .” The questionnaire produced two other findings. W hen asked how much success they had experi enced in locating in the library those items discov ered through the service, only about 40 % had lo cated all of the items, 30 % had located 75 % of the items, and the last 30% had located 50% or less. This was a clear indication th a t we need to work harder at shelving our current periodicals area. It was not w hat we w anted to hear, but it was a use ful rem inder. W hen asked if they would like the service extended to other Colum bia University li braries, 90% said yes. The list of libraries includes half of the libraries in the Colum bia system. This is yet another indicator of the diversity of faculty in terests and their interdisciplinary needs. Conclusion The current Table of Contents service not only has the discussed advantages over the previous pro gram and the blessing of the faculty, but also is more efficient and effective than other available social sciences SDI services, such as computerized update systems or commmercially published week lies and monthlies. Com puterized SDI services, such as those performed using DIALOG or BRS and Social SciSearch or PAIS (Public Affairs Infor m ation Service), do the job, but require a signifi cant am ount of professional time and represent an ongoing expense for th e cu sto m er. P u b lish ed sources, such as Current Contents: Social and Be havioral Sciences or ABC Pol Sei, do not offer cus tomized or as wide a selection of journals and are not as frequent as the Table of Contents daily oper ation. They also require a trip to the library. Nei ther com puterized nor published SDI services are coordinated w ith the holdings of Lehm an Library: the Table of Contents service is designed to inform faculty of both the contents and availability of self- selected periodicals. It does so in a timely m anner, at no cost to the recipients (either in dollars or, per haps more im portantly, in time), and at a minimal cost to the library. ■ ■ TABLE O F CONTENTS QUESTIONNAIRE 1. D uring the past two weeks, for how m any periodical issues did you receive contents pages via the Table of Contents service? ______none ______4-6 ______1-3 ______more than 6 If none, go to question 4. 2. D uring the past two weeks, how m any articles or books th a t you subsequently w anted to read did you discover via your Table of Contents mailings? ______none ______4-6 ______1-3 ______more th an 6 If none, go to question 4. 3. D uring the past two weeks, approximately how much success did you or an assistant have in locating periodical issues in Lehm an Library th a t were needed for photocopying or reading articles identi fied via the Table of Contents service? ______found all issues ______found 50 % of issues _____ found no issues ______found 75 % of issues _____ found 25 % of issues 4. W ould you like to see this service coordinated to include mailings from periodicals received in other Colum bia libraries in addition to Lehm an Library? ______yes ______no If not, go to question 6. 5. W hich Colum bia Libraries in addition to Lehm an Library would you like to see included? ______Business Library ______Science Library ______Butler Library (humanities and history) ______O ther, which one(s)?_______________ 6. Please w rite any additional comments and/or suggestions in the space below or on the back of this page.