Environmental impact: a preliminary citation analysis of local faculty in a new academic program in environmental and human health applied to collection development at Texas Tech University Library by William T. Johnson LIBRES Volume 9, Issue 1 (March 1999)
New academic programs in environmental science prompted a citation analysis of local faculty by the Texas Tech University Library (TTU). The purpose of this study is to characterize the citation patterns of the interdisciplinary field of environmental and human health as compared with other disciplines and to apply the results to collection development. Twenty-four articles were selected from 1996 and 1997 with over 1600 citations to more than 950 listed references. The average age of citations was 10.5 years for journals and 9.4 years for books. On average, journals were cited 67% of the time while books were cited 17% of the time. Proceedings, theses, and technical reports were also cited but that data was not applied to collection development. The impact on collection development has been to identify a small number of specific books which were frequently cited but were not in the collection and to identify important subject terms with which to guide the selection of related books. Finally, 12 new subscriptions to frequently cited journals will be reviewed with faculty to determine their suitability as additions to the collection.
Canadian academic libraries and cross-divisional assignments: a survey by Sandra Hoffman and Anne-Marie Bélanger LIBRES Volume 9, Issue 1 (March 1999)
This paper reports the results of a survey of Canadian academic libraries to determine whether traditional technical/public services divisions still exist, and where they do, to what extent professional librarians were performing both technical and public services functions. Data was gathered in the fall and winter of 1995/96 through a mailed questionnaire which was then discussed with each participant in a telephone interview. Findings show that separate divisions still predominate, but that 74% of the libraries had librarians performing functions in another division. Respondents indicated when cross-divisional assignments had been initiated, factors involved in the implementation, advantages and disadvantages to the library, the numbers and types of duties performed, and the proportion of time spent in these split assignments. All participants with professional librarians performing both public and technical services functions stated that the practice would continue. Cross-divisional assignments appear to work well for the libraries where they are in place.
