College and Research Libraries

Catalog Subject Searches in the
Yale Medical Library

BY BENEDICT BROOKS AND FREDERICK G. KILGOUR

THE PURPOSE of the present study was to
obtain specific data concerning the heav-
iest use of the subject cards in the catalog
of the Yale medical library. These data
will serve in the design of a catalog com-
puterization project being carried out at
the medical libraries of Columbia, Har-
vard, and Yale universities.

A search of the literature reveals some
thirty surveys on the use of the card cat-
alog,l but most do not contain informa-
tion useful to this investigation. Frarey2
provides an excellent review of the studies
of card catalog use, one of his summary
statements being that subject use of the
catalog had been found to be about equal
to author use. Jackson gives the results of
the only attempt to obtain comprehensive
information on a statistically meaningful
scale. He shows "subject searches" as 43
per cent and "known-item searches" as
57 per cent for special libraries, the low-
est percentage of "subject searches" for
any of the library categories listed. The
mean was 52 per cent "subject searches"
and 48 per cent "known-item searches."3
Spalding, 4 analyzing call slips at the Li-
brary of Congress, concludes that 25 to
50 per cent use is made of the subject
approach. Emily Brown5 investigated the

1 Sidney L. Jackson, Catalogue Use Study, edited
by Vaclav Mostecky. (Chicago: ALA, Resources and
Technical Services Division, Cataloging and Classifi-
cation Section, Policy and Research Committee, 1958),
p.51.

2 Carlyle J. Frarey, "Studies of the Use of the
Subject Catalog; Summary and Evaluation," in
Maurice F. Tauber (ed.) The Subject Analysis of
Library Materials (New York: School of Library
Service, Columbia University, 1953), pp.147-66.

a Jackson, op. cit., p.10.
4 C. Sumner Spalding, "The Use of Catalog Entries

at the Library of Congress," Journal of Cataloging
and Classification, VI (Fall 1950), 95-100.

s Emily Klueter Brown, The Use of the Catalogue
in a University Library, (Master's thesis, University

NOVEMBER 1964

Mr. Brooks is a Cataloger and Mr. Kil-
gour is Librarian, Yale Medical Library.

use of the card catalog at the library of
the University of Wisconsin. She reported
that the subject division received 13 per
cent of the use while the author-title di-
vision received 87 per cent and that staff
use accounted for 28 per cent of the total.
Although the majority of those using the
subject catalog used only one subject
heading, the largest number of subject
headings searched was seven, while the
average was 3.8.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A plot made of recorded circulation
for the preceding year in the Yale med-
ical library served as the basis for select-
ing a week of heavy use. Since this plot
showed a fairly steady high of library use
during October and November, the choice
fell to Monday, October 28, through Fri-
day, November 1, 1963, as the period of
observation.

The card catalog of the Yale medical
library consists of a single large case, con-
taining in its two sides cards in a dic-
tionary arrangement constituting a single
alphabet. An observer on the opposite
side of the room, facing the single free
end, has no difficulty simultaneously not-
ing activity at both sides. A continuous
record made by . an observer as catalog
of Chicago, Faculty of the Graduate Library School)
60l. Another pertinent study of a university library
with generally similar results on card catalog use is
Robert L. Bovey and Satinder Kumer Mullick, "A
Study of Library Usage," in Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity Research Library, Progress Report on an Opera-
t-bons Research and Systems Engineering Study,
(Baltimore: 1963) Section IV, pp ;53-108.

483

~ Staff' Use
I PublicUse

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Hr. Ending 0900* 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 2100 2200 2300 2400

M Monday, Oct. 28, 1963 W Wednesday, Oct. 30, 1963 F Friday, Nov. 1, 1963
T Tuesday, Oct. 29, 1963 Th Thursday, Oct. 31, 1963 * Represents 0 hr. as library opens at 0830

TRAFFIC AT THE CARD CATALOG OF THE YALE MEDICAL LIBRARY

trays were consulted during all the hours
of library opening (0830 to 2400 each
day) of the observation period produced
the information on traffic at the card cat-
alog. This record reflects the "transac-
tions" alone, disregarding information on
users. Since the authors felt that a gross
distinction could be made between the
type of use made of the card catalog by
the library staff of the technical service
departments of cataloging and acquisitions
(hereafter referred to as "staff") and that
of the public plus other library personnel
(hereafter referred to as "public"), the
record makes this distinction. The only
other distinction made in the record con-
cerns the number of trays consulted by a
particular user before leaving the card
catalog, designated here as a "session."

Since the Yale medical library has a
dictionary catalog, the observer could not
record information concerning approach
by subject, author, etc. Therefore, the
authors designed an interview question-
naire to elicit these types of data. This
form was purposely kept simple so that
as much informality and "naturalness"
could obtain in the interviews as possible.
Interviews xarely required more than one
or two minutes. Greater control in tabu-
lating the results was possible since but a
single interviewer filled out all the ques-
tionnaire forms. The interviewer set up
a schedule of two-hour periods, during
which he intended to interview all users
of the card catalog. The recording of total
traffic coincided with these two-hour pe-
riods so that the two parts of the study
might serve as a check on each other.
Each day the interviewer was on hand for
six hours, staggered over various times
during the library day so that every hour
from 0830 to 2400 appeared on the
schedule at least once. A few persons did
escape being interviewed during three of
the busier periods, but their number was
small. The authors feel that the data thus
obtained are statistically reliable since
they agree closely with unpublished re-

N 0 V EMBER '1 9 6 4

suits obtained during random interview-
ing periods which spanned a month.

RESULTS

The accompanying figure depicts the
traffic at the Yale medical library card
catalog during the period of observation.
First to be noted is that no clear pattern
of card catalog use emerges, particularly
in regard to staff. The least ambiguous
result is that the hour 1400 through 1459
(recorded as 1500) comprises the peak
use of the card catalog by the public.

Sessions at the card catalog consisted
usually of one, two, or three drawers
consulted, but the record was thirty (a
member of the public checking forty-two
separate periodical titles to see if the
library possessed them) . Staff members
not infrequently consulted twenty or more
trays before quitting the card catalog.

The table, analyzing the searches of
public and staff in the card catalog by
approach used, lists separately those
searches in which subject approach was
utilized and those in which subject ap-
proach was not utilized. It must be em-
phasized that nowhere do these figures
reflect number of card catalog users (or
interviews conducted) , but rather the unit
is the "search," here construed as all
steps involved in locating a known item,
or references to material on a subject.
Thus, for example, a person who wished
material on the subject of tuberculosis as
it affects the spleen and who looked un-
der "Tuberculosis" and "Spleen" was con-
sidered to have performed a single search.

The table indicates that 501 searches
occurred during the thirty hours of inter-
viewing and that these searches involved
60 1 card catalog entries, making ap-
proaches 120.0 per cent of searches.
These 50 1 searches are divided nearly
equally between 251 for the public rep-
resenting 292 entries or 116.3 per cent
of searches, and 250 for the staff repre-
senting 309 entries or 123.6 per cent of
searches. Other figures to be commented

485

SEARCHES OF PUBLIC AND STAFF IN THE CARD CATALOG OF THE YALE
MEDICAL LIBRARY BY APPROACH USED

PUBLIC* STAFFt ALL UsERS

A B c D E F G H J K
-------- -- ------ ----

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..c: ..c: + ..c: ..c: +
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<ll

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0 0 ;... o.g s X 0 0 "' o..C s ::: o;o ::: ::s ~ ~ 0. ::s ::s ~ ~ 0. ~ <ll 0 Q) ~ <ll 0 Q) "'0 ~

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]:E~

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011 C<l ,!d > () ,!d > 0

3
"0 ::s

<'$ 0 ..... Ill-;... () oS 0 -~ <'$-;... () C<l ~- () lQ
~ ~ .g ~ ~ g; ;... Q) > ,.Q ~ ~ g; "' <'$ 0 ;... APPROACH TO CARD CATALOG 0 Q) ;... ~ ::s 0 Q) ;...Q Q) P=l .... <ll P=l .e <'$ E-t P-<- P=l· ... <ll P=l .e <'$ E-t P..- 0~ P..----- -------- ----

Subject - 68 68 27.1 - 25 25 10.0 93 18.6
Author 132 4 136 54.2 218 9 227 90.8 363 72.4
Periodical title 51 2 0 51 20.3 5 1 6 2.4 57 . 11.4
Other title . 26 2 28 11.2 3.8 3 41 16.4 69 13.8
Editor . . . . . 5 0 5 2.0 1 1 2 0.8 7 1.4
Corporate added entries 2 0 2 0.8 5 0 5 2.0 7 1.4
Series 1 0 1 0.4 1 1 2 0.8 3 0.6
Personal added entries 1 0 1 0.4 0 0 0 0.0 1 0.2
Cross references+ - - - - 1 0 1 0.4 1 0.2

-------- -------- ----
Total . 218 74 292 116.3 269 40 309 123.6 601 120.0

------ -------- ----
Searches represented 2062 45 251 100.0 231 19 250 100.0 501 100.0

* "Public" is taken here as including all card catalog users except members of the library staff in the cata-
log department and acquisitions department only, who constitute "staff" in this table.

t This figure includes 42 titles, counted as 42 searches, because the individual was checking to see if the
library possessed as many journals.

:t: Included here as a special category for catalogers only where the card catalog was consulted specifically to
check on a cross reference ; use of cross references by others was regarded as approach by author, etc., as
appropriate and . is so listed.

on are the percentages in columns D, H,
and K. The public uses subject cards more
than the staff-27 .1 per cent for the pub-
lic, 10.0 per cent for staff. Conversely,
there is a higher use of the author ap-
proach by the staff-90.8 per cent as
compared to 54.2 per cent for the public.
On the basis of figures in the table the
percentage of subject use of the card
catalog, calculated on the basis of the
number of searches is 12.8 over-all or
17.9 if the public alone is considered. Re-
garding the subject searches, twenty-five
of the public's forty-five, and five of the
staff's nineteen, consisted of consultation
of a single subject only; the largest num-
ber of subjects consulted in a single search
was four, by a member of the public.

DISCUSSION

Although, as has been mentioned
above, no clear pattern emerges from the

figure regarding times when the card cat-
alog in the Yale medical library is most
used (except for the 1400 through 1459
maximum as far as the public is con-
cerned) , the pattern for the public, to-
gether with the less clear pattern for staff
can provide figures to help predict what
size of load a computerized catalog should
be prepared to handle. The high point
seen at 2200 W does not give a picture
of a typical Wednesday at that hour, for
it includes the single thirty-tray session,
the extreme for the observation period as
noted above, but nonetheless points up
the kind of peak which must be taken in-
to account in deciding on capacity for
computer operation.

Results of the interviewing constitute
the table broken down by approach em-
ployed in searches. There was no attempt
to separate main entries from others, but
on the whole the approaches called "au-

486 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES

thor" and "periodical titles" represent
main entries, while other approaches are
added entries. The authors' strong im-
pression is that users of the Yale medical
library card catalog tend to seek their
known item by means of the most direct
or "obvious" approach.

What has been said above for the pub-
lic applies to the staff as well, except that
the staff makes particularly heavy use of
the author approach, largely because of
the extensive checking of items done by
the acquisitions staff. The cataloging staff's
use of the card catalog is predominantly
to determine authority, for in the Yale
medical library the public catalog is the
authority for names and subject head-
ings.

Additional information to come from
the interviews must remain qualitative in
nature because the limitedness of the sub-
ject use of the card catalog in this inves-
tigation does not permit statistically mean-
ingful results. Nevertheless, the following
indications are clear. First, the public
seeks material in English almost exclusive-
ly, and at any rate preferentially. Second,
publication dates of material sought by
the subject approach parallel closely the
findings of Kilgour6 regarding recorded
use of books in the Yale medical library,
indicating the heavy preference for locat-
ing as recent material as possible. Third,
a considerable number of the . public
choose to locate a known item through
the subject approach. Fourth, some indi-
viduals looked up a subject in the card
catalog to learn the classification of the
topic, or, in other words, as a quick guide
to shelf location of material. And fifth,
location of a particular form of material
(e.g. periodicals of biochemistry, text-
books of embryology) constitutes a defin-
able group of subject searches.

CONCLUSION

The peak load of catalog use between

6 Frederick G. Kilgour, "Recorded Use of Books in
the Yale Medical Library,'' American Documentation,
XII (October 1961), 266-69.

NOVEMBER 1964

1400 and 1500 hours can serve as a guide
for predicting the amount of use that
must be provided when a machine is avail-
able to do the searching.

An author catalog is required for the
operation of a library, for the staff must
be able to determine the library's holding
before deciding to purchase or add a
book to the collection. On the other hand,
the subject catalog is designed primarily
for public use. However, this study shows
that the public makes relatively little use
of the subject catalog at a time when
public demand for more and more infor-
mation is soaring. One conclusion to be
drawn from these observations is that the
traditional card catalog having an aver-
age of about 1.6 subject entries per
book7 • 8 does not furnish references ade-
quate to meet new demands.

SUMMARY

An investigation of the use of subject
cards in the catalog of the Yale medical
library took place to aid in designing a
catalog computerization project. Data
gathered by continuous observation dur-
ing a week of heavy use indicate that, in
general, the peak traffic load at the card
catalog occurs between 1400 and 1500
hours. On the basis of short interviews of
card catalog users, 501 searches, which
broke down almost equally between pub-
lic-251, and sta:ff-250, yielded sixty-
four or 12.8 per cent subject searches in
all. If only the public is considered, there
were forty-five or 17.9 per cent subject
searches.

In a significant number of cases the
purpose of the subject search is to locate
a known item, obtain a quick guide to
the shelves through the classification num-
ber, or to find a particular form of ma-
terial (e.g., periodicals). • •

7 Peter M. Sprenkle, and Frederick G. Kilgour,
"A Quantitative Study of Characters on Biomedical
Catalogue Cards-A Preliminary Investigation,"
American Documentation, XIV (July 1963), 202-206.

8 Henry J. Dubester, "Studies Related to Catalog
Problems,'' Th e Library Quarterly, XXXIV (January
1964)' 97-105.

487