College and Research Libraries B y P E R C Y D . M O R R I S O N Variation of the Subject Divisional Plan at Oregon Mr. Morrison is head social science li- brarian, University of Oregon Library. TH E F U N D A M E N T A L purpose underlying the r§eent reorganization of the U n i v e r - sity of Oregon L i b r a r y is to facilitate and encourage research processes appropriate to each level of the University program. T h e idea is to provide special services in subject fields and yet take into account the essential unity of knowledge; to remove all possible barriers between the library's resources and its readers but at the same time provide ade- quate control f o r the collections. T h i s reorganization has been in the plan- ning stage since 1 9 4 6 and w a s put into effect coincident with the occupation of an extensive addition to the library's physical plant in October 1 9 5 0 . 1 T h e new plan involves a subject-divisional organization but, as w i l l be shown, varies considerably f r o m the plan generally implied in the words "divisional l i b r a r y . " In the description of the plan, note may be taken of f o u r features designed to pre- serve unity in the collections and services: ( 1 ) that architectural considerations were important, since the main library building w a s designed specifically to house a con- ventional departmental organization, while the new annex is a modular structure pro- viding the flexibility required for subject- oriented services; ( 2 ) that since the f a c u l t y members of the University were accustomed to receiving a high level of service under the old organization, it seemed 1 Morrison, P . D. "Organization Not Frozen in Brick and Stone," Library Journal, 76:194-6, Feb. 1 , 1 9 5 1 . unwise to eliminate any efficiently-function- ing, well-received services; ( 3 ) that it did not seem desirable to fragment one of the best examples of a medium-sized library col- lection which is both physically and adminis- tratively centralized under one r o o f ; and ( 4 ) that neither ideas nor books w i l l all fit into logically tight compartments. General services are needed to cut across subject lines. F o r these reasons three unified services were maintained—and one added. T h e book stock was retained in one classified sequence instead of being broken up into the core collections featured in most divisional- plan libraries. T h e first of the three centralized services retained was that of general reference.. T h e purpose of this service is to give refer- ence assistance in " b r e a d t h " as opposed to " d e p t h . " T h i s means that the General Reference Division handles requests f o r specific facts which can be obtained f r o m such general compilations as encyclopedias, yearbooks and periodical indexes which tend to ignore subject boundaries and treat the w o r l d of knowledge as a whole. Such ques- tions usually come from undergraduates. T h e second " b r e a d t h " service is the main- tenance of a single reserve book room—on an open shelf basis—to house and service books f o r assigned undergraduate reading. N o segregated reserves are maintained in the subject divisions. L i k e General R e f e r - ence, General Reserve is maintained to sup- port the unified, general-education features of the University curriculum. 158 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES A third unified service is that of a cen- tralized circulation department. T h e effi- ciency of having all circulation controlled from one point has not only saved money but also freed professional subject-specialist librarians from the duty of supervising cir- culation routines and enabled them to con- centrate on the bibliographic, selection and instructional services discussed below.2 T h i s efficiency of control was made possible by the fact that the collection is shelved in a single sequence and hence no subsidiary circulation points are needed in the subject areas. ( O n e exception is the case of periodi- cals which circulate only on special permis- sion of divisional librarians and are recorded by them.) T h e self-service principle has also promoted economy in the centralized control of circulation. T h e only paging done is of a deferred-search basis. It should be noted, however, that some of the person- nel saved by centralized circulation con- trol is used in the increased shelf-reading activity required in open-stack operation. T h e fourth centralized service is a cen- tralized government and international docu- ments service. T h i s service, now in the process of being established, is administra- tively a part of the General Reference Division. C u r r e n t plans call f o r the documents unit to be a clearing house f o r information concerning the location and contents of government publications. It w i l l contain a relatively small collection of not-fully-cataloged documents to include the " S e r i a l S e t " of U . S . government reports and current numbers of established serials — t h e latter to be placed in the main stacks when bound. Also in the documents area w i l l be a small collection of mimeographed or otherwise processed documents which do not require f u l l cataloging or permanent binding. T h e decision as to how much and , 2 Apparently the University of Nebraska has come to the same conclusion by trial and error processes. Cf. Patricia Marvin. "Circulation in the Divisional Li- brary: The New Plan of S e r v i c e , " College and Re- search Libraries, 1 2 : 2 4 1 - 4 , J u l y i , 1 9 5 1 . what type of governmental publications should go into a documents collection is a difficult one to make. O n the one hand, a large segregated documents collection would tend to violate the principle that, in a sub- ject-orientated organization, material should be arranged according to subject rather than by form or publisher. O n the other hand, much document material is difficult to lo- cate and control when placed in the regular stack sequence. T w o considerations have prompted the decision to establish a docu- ments center: ( i ) economy-printed United States and United Nations catalogs w i l l serve in lieu of expensive locally-pre- pared card catalog entries—and ( 2 ) the desire on the part of the faculty that an administrative unit be primarily charged with the acquisition, arrangement and serv- icing of this complex body of material. A final feature emphasizing unity is the maintenance of one sequence throughout the collection rather than the establishment of segregated groups in the subject divi- sions. Since the library is classified accord- ing to the D e w e y system, certain rearrange- ments of large blocks of material were effected so that appropriate classes would group themselves into three segments—Sci- ence, Social Science, and Humanities. T h u s , for example, the D e w e y i o o ' s as a unit were shelved in the Humanities area except f o r 1 5 0 (Psychology) which is in Social Science. A g a i n , Business ( 6 5 0 ) w a s taken out of Science and placed in Social Science. H o w e v e r , within these large blocks the books remain in classified order and a directory tells the reader where each group of D e w e y numbers is shelved. T h i s scheme has made it possible to have divi- sional collections in three definite areas without relocating individual volumes as is the case where a selected core collection is pulled from the main stack sequence and placed in divisional reading rooms. T h e public catalog also is not cluttered with APRIL, 1953 159 "half cards" or other locating devices to be constantly pulled and refiled. T h e saving in administrative and clerical time under this arrangement is considerable. Students are not dismayed by having access to the entire mass of books on a given subject rather than being spoon-fed on a segregated collection in each subject divi- sion. F o r the advanced research worker, these are also advantages in a unified col- lection. T h e only segregated collections other than reference books and government documents are those in the Special Collec- tions Division which maintains a collection of Oregon materials, manuscripts, rare books and other items not suitable f o r the general collection. Specialization and Depth W h a t are the elements in the program contrived to give additional specialization and depth to these traditional services? In the first place it should be noted that the specialized units of service were not con- ceived as mere auxiliary components tacked on to existing library departments. A d - ministratively the subject divisions—Sci- ence, Social Science, and Humanities—and the Special Collections Division (primarily concerned with N o r t h w e s t A m e r i c a n a ) are autonomous units reporting directly to the University L i b r a r i a n . Although in some peripheral aspects precise definitions of func- tion have not as yet crystallized, the plan calls f o r each special service to be responsible f o r a definite part of the collection and f o r developing a definite and distinctive part of the library's mission. Each division, f o r example, is charged with responsibility f o r maintaining liaison with the teaching faculty in its subject area. T h e divisions provide service desks from which is given not only specialized reference service in the traditional meaning of the term but also what one might call "guidance in the research process." Although subject specialists help students and faculty with searches f o r specific items of information, an equally important function is the instruc- t i o n — f o r m a l and informal—of advanced students in how to explore efficiently the literature of a subject and develop a re- search topic through the use of library re- sources. Such instruction is sometimes best given on a spur-of-the-minute basis and f o r this reason, divisional librarians are en- couraged to circulate among the readers in the library rather than officiating behind a desk. Students starting a thesis are en- couraged to register their topic with the appropriate divisional librarian and to re- quest a consultation concerning the bibliog- raphy of the subject. Such consultations are conducted in a peripatetic fashion: the librarian takes the student (or sometimes a small group of students) directly to the collection of bibliographies and other docu- mentation sources and then to the stack shelves where pertinent parts of the collec- tion are located. M e a n w h i l e he explains the functions of the various catalogs, refer- ence tools and classification symbols demon- strating on the spot how to use efficiently the various parts of a bibliography, a cumulated index, or a monograph. In working with organized class groups—and this is also an integral part of the program —divisional librarians encourage f a c u l t y members to bring their classes or seminars to the library where meeting rooms are pro- vided and where instruction can be given on the ground and where research methods can be demonstrated by practical example. Another important divisional function is in the field of acquisitions both on the policy level and in nominating specific titles f o r purchase. I n this activity the subject-spe- cialist librarians w o r k closely with the faculty. Each Division maintains a sys- tem f o r bringing appropriate titles to the 160 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES attention of faculty members f o r possible purchase through the departmental alloca- tion of book funds. Since a university li- brary must have key works in most subject fields even though no academic department is doing intensive w o r k in the area at the moment, divisional librarians select key works in fields peripheral to the subjects of concentrated interest. T h e s e are then pur- chased f r o m the general library allocation. Obviously these services call f o r librarians with special subject background as w e l l as technical library training. Each subject division has two professional librarians with such training. M o s t of these librarians have advanced degrees in one or more of the disciplines served by the Division. Each Division has charge of the periodical collec- tion in the area and is responsible f o r cer- tain other routines connected with maintain- ing vertical files, compiling bibliographies, suggesting titles to the faculty f o r possible purchase, and providing special services such as a Curriculum M a t e r i a l s Laboratory (Social Science) or a M a p Room (Science). T h e r e f o r e , each Division is provided with a clerical assistant (with state civil service status) to prepare periodicals for binding, type bibliographies and reports, and pro- vide such routine types of public service as direction-giving and locating specific titles while divisional librarians are employed in guidance and reference work. Chronologically the first of these special- ized services to be established was the De- partment—now Division—of Special Col- lections organized in 1 9 4 8 . In addition to consolidating the rare-book, manuscript and archival functions of the University, this Division has done much to promote and encourage research in Pacific Northwest History. In many ways the research, in- structional and liaison w o r k of the Special Collections Division served as a prototype f o r the more recently established subject divisions. Techniques and concepts found useful in aiding and promoting research in the field of Northwest Americana have been found applicable also to broader subject areas. In October 1 9 5 0 , when the new annex to the building was occupied the plan went into f u l l operation. V i r t u a l l y every book in the collection w a s moved in order to achieve the configuration described above. T h e entire stack area (including all of the A n n e x ) w a s opened to the public and the subject division services opened f o r business. F e w e r shakedown troubles were experienced than had been anticipated: T h e open-shelf, self-service features were considered a great improvement by the vast majority of stu- dents as was the presence of trained service personnel throughout the building. A vig- orous formal and informal education pro- gram soon accustomed students to the complexities of the building and to the sub- ject-orientation of the periodical collection. A recent survey has revealed majority satis- faction with the essential feature of the new plan. T h e Science Division w a s probably the first to hit its stride. A depression-born scheme to divide the fields of knowledge among the various institutions in the Ore- gon State System of Higher Education was modified shortly a f t e r W o r l d W a r I I per- mitting the restitution to the University of a vigorous undergraduate and graduate pro- gram in the pure sciences. T h u s , a partial vacuum had developed in the L i b r a r y ' s col- lections and services during the period that science was deemphasized. Although much w o r k had been done toward restoring the science collections prior to the establishment of the Science Division, the need f o r special- ized library personnel in the sciences w a s acute. Science was thus a fertile field f o r promotional activity: T h e science depart- ments of the University, often preoccupied A P R I L , 1953 161 with laboratory w o r k and often with per- sonnel accustomed to departmental library systems at other institutions, stood in need of a service which would point up the ad- vantages of a centralized library to the scientist and which would coordinate the collections and services of the library with the needs of laboratory-orientated special- ists. A s anticipated, the field of the social sciences is proving crucial to the success of the plan—and the one presenting the most difficulties. A m o n g the problems faced by the division serving the numerous social science departments (including Education) are those arising f r o m the f a c t that the collections under its jurisdiction are so much larger than those in the other two subject areas. T h e social science sequences extend over three different stack decks of the old building and two levels of the new annex. H o w e v e r , the present budget situa- tion permits only enough personnel to staff one service point professionally. T h u s , to give on-the-spot service, social science li- brarians have a large physical area to cover and a vast range of material to interpret. Also, it is more difficult to make a sharp distinction between functions appropriate to a specialized social science unit and those of a " g e n e r a l " nature. T h i s arises in part f r o m what bibliographic scholars have been recently referring to as "the poor state of documentation in the social sciences." T h u s , while the specialist in the physical sciences relies on his special abstracting and indexing services, the social scientist must often secure w h a t help he can f r o m general indexes and catalogs. In practical terms this means that under the new plan espe- cially close cooperation between the "gen- e r a l " and "special" services must be main- tained. Some duplication of key reference works has been necessary since " d e p t h " re- search in the fields of political science or sociology, f o r example, require exploitation of index and reference sources which were designed primarily f o r " b r o a d " coverage of unspecialized knowledge. In spite o f — o r perhaps because of—these difficulties we feel that there is a great potential in the idea of presenting specialized services in the social sciences rather than in combining them administratively with the general services as is done in many divisional li- braries. T h e very inadequacy of the instru- ments of bibliographic control in the social sciences points up the need f o r libraries to furnish services designed to f u l l y exploit those which do exist—and perhaps con- tribute to the development of better tech- niques of documentation in these disciplines. Although somewhat similar problems may confront the Humanities Division, the prob- lem is less acute in this area and progress has been made in establishing a well-defined service to specialists in such fields as Litera- ture, Philosophy, Religion, Languages, Speech and M u s i c . Since there is relatively less preoccupation with recency of informa- tion here than in the other two fields, this Division has been able to achieve stability more rapidly than the other two. Because the bibliographic needs of, say, Freshman English students differ so markedly from those of faculty research workers in the field, the provision of separate service-in- depth has been much appreciated by the latter. D u e to the fact that a laboratory collection in Architecture and Allied A r t s is located in another building, the chief coordinating activity in the humanities has been required in this subject field. H e r e again the advantages of centralization of collections is being stressed with specialized staff and flexible service preferred over f r a g - mentation of the collections and services into departmental libraries. Essential to all of the other features of the Oregon plan is the idea that very nearly 162 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES all barriers between readers and books can and should be removed. T h e stacks have been thrown open to all students and com- plete freedom of movement within the building is permitted. Books and maga- zines may be used anywhere in the stack areas (where the divisional services are also located) without charging or other formali- ties. In leaving the stack-and-study area, students pass a charging and inspection point. Loss of books has not been excessive so f a r and a survey has shown that all classes of students and faculty prefer the open stack over the traditional closed-stack system. Studious undergraduates especially appreciate stack access and the fact that reading tables and special reference services are located right among the books. Since all books and services are open to all, each student may pursue his studies to whatever depth he cares without artificial barriers based on academic rank. In this connection it should be noted that while the special subject services are oriented toward upper division, graduate and faculty research, they are open to—and frequently patronized by — l o w e r division students w h o are en- couraged not to restrict their quest f o r knowledge to the assigned reading in the reserve room. Obviously the system outlined above offers a wide range of services to a student body of about 4500. Y e t the staff has not been greatly expanded in order to make it possible. Although the library nearly doubled in physical area, the only additions to the staff were the three subject specialists to head the divisions. Recently some— temporary, w e hope—reductions in staff were made necessary by the decrease in en- rolment and consequently in budget typical of higher institutions throughout the coun- try. W h i l e ideally certain additions to the staff are desirable—notably an education librarian in the Social Science D i v i s i o n — the plan is a going concern with about the same staff as that required f o r a traditional library of the same size (approaching a half million volumes). Indicative of the effect of the reorganization were the congratula- tions offered by a faculty member on the large increase in staff the library had se- cured—when actually only a very small number had been added! T h e secret of ) the plan's ability to give rather sophisticated services on an ordinary budget seems to lie in the economies made possible by central- ized circulation control and the decision to establish no segregated collections or cata- logs. Energies which in other subject divi- sional libraries are spent in charging books and maintaining a selected " c o r e " of five to ten thousand books in each divisional room are available under this plan f o r building a good collection and facilitating its use as a whole. Summary T h e University of Oregon version of the divisional plan is one which emphasizes two concepts: ( 1 ) T h a t there is a dualistic need f o r both unity and variety in the w o r l d of learning and hence in library organization ; ( 2 ) E n e r g y is better spent in guiding stu- dents in the techniques of selecting material from a large body of recorded knowledge than in pre-selecting and segregating that which is theoretically " b e s t " f o r him. T h e first concept calls f o r some services which cut across subject lines, f o r others which are subject-orientated and f o r opening the whole range of library resources to all stu- dents. T h e second concept has been met by maintaining collections in one sequence and by providing a maximum amount of guidance to students. T e a c h i n g the tech- nique of selecting from the mass of material that which is most pertinent to the student's individual needs we call "guidance in the research process." A P R I L , 1953 163