College and Research Libraries Research Notes Research Questions of Interest to ARL According to Herbert F. Johnson, president of the Association of Research Libraries during 1987, "the attached list represents questions [topics] that have evolved from discussions within the Association of Research Libraries and the scope of the list has been defined largely by the recent activities of ARL committees. ''It does not represent a research agenda but may ''en- courage, shape or direct research activity. " 1. Impact of Technology on Research 1.1 What is the impact of changing infor- mation technology on scholars' behavior and what are the implications for library services and buildings? 1.2 What are the effects of electronic pub- lishing on traditional quality-control mech- anisms such as peer review? 1.3 What are appropriate procedures to as- sess and monitor the quality of commercial databases and the integrity of those who produce and market them? 1.4 To what extent does the existence of databases take graduate students away from libraries and into textual studies? To what extent are limitations of databases im- posing limits on research; i.e., do users per- ceive machine-readable databases as com- plete? 1.5 How could research libraries best re- spond to the increase in electronic publish- ing (acquiring, storing, and providing ac- cess to these materials)? 1.6 Is access via a campus LAN (local area network) of sufficient scholarly utility in ac- cessing materials to justify the access costs from personal workstations? Will selective off-loading to scholars' workstations be convenient access to publications on optical disc? 2. Impact of Library Procedures on Research 2.1 How often and under what circum- stances do visiting or independent scholars again access to research library collections? Are there barriers or inhibitions for visiting or independent scholars gaining full access to the material in the collections of research libraries? Are there additional potocols or procedures through which visiting or inde- pendent scholars and others might be given improved access to research library collections? 2.2 How do different physical locations of library resources influence the use of mate- rials? What is the relative cost and impact of using remote locations for housing of li- brary materials? How often and under what conditions do scholars need material on demand as opposed to waiting for deliv- ery from another location? What is the im- pact of fewer centers for specialized mate- rial? What is the impact of multiple remote locations for library materials and speed of availability on collection development deci- sions? 2.3 What are the psychological and socio- logical perceptions of users regarding ac- cess to library resources? 2.4 What is the impact on library users of the inclusion of more and more records for nonbook materials into a single catalog with records describing book and journal materials? 3. Impact of Economics and Pricing Policies on Research 3.1 What are the dimensions and patterns of differential and discriminatory pricing for journal subscriptions and what has 467 468 College & Research Libraries been the effect on research library budgets and the availability of journals? 3.2 What is the impact on scholarship and library services of restricted access data files (e.g., subscription at low rates but limited in terms of who can use them)? 4. Assessing Inter-institutional Cooperative Activities 4.1 What conditions in the library or uni- versity inhibit or support inter- organizational cooperation? For example, geography? organization? staffing? tele- communication standards? technology proprietary databases? funding? 4.2 How do you measure changed behav- ior arising from cooperative resource shar- ing activities (for example, would it be re- flected in collection development statements? borrowing patterns? shifting of collections? shifting of positions? other?) Has the behavior of a library changed as a result of another library assuming a cooper- ative responsibility? Have new technolo- gies made it easier to cooperate with li- braries not in geographic proximity? What are the patterns of cooperative agreements now in place in terms of explicitness and subjects covered? 5. Assessing U.S. and Canadian Access to Foreign Publications 5.1 To what extent do the libraries of the United States and Canada provide compre- hensive access to research material that is published outside these two countries? What do research libraries spend to acquire journals and other materials published abroad? 5.2 How are foreign-language materials used? Is the use different from English- language material (patterns of use, catego- ries of users, etc.)? 6. Exploring Costs and Impact of Different Models for Bibliographic Description Prac- tices 6.1 What models could be developed tore- flect alternative patterns for distributed cat- aloging programs (e. g., transfer of books or journeyman catalogers? different roles for LC? investigation of cataloging allocation within the National Coordinated Catalog- ing Project?); and what would be the cost and impact of each model? 6.2 What are the costs of current methods and standards for creating bibliographic records in relation to the benefits received? How much information in a MARC record is useful in relation to the time lags in cata- loging? Can national-standard records be created more cost-effectively than they now are? Are there cataloging practices that September 1988 can, should, and possibly ought to be re- fined or eliminated to reduce costs and nor- malize practices for participation in coordi- nated cataloging projects? 6.3 How much duplication of expensive original cataloging occurs among the utili- ties and LC? What languages and special- ized materials would best be cataloged by national centers for specialized cataloging and how might such centers operate? 6.4 Does competition among bibliographic utilities benefit research libraries? What are the pitfalls? 6.5 What has been the impact of rising tele- communication costs on shared cataloging particularly in view of low-cost alternatives such as CD-ROM based systems? How will optical disc bibliographic access be inte- grated into the local campuses' databases- and into national databases? What are the long-term consequences of state or regional databases that limit the sharing of new cata- loging records and holdings information? How will the use of local cataloging sys- tems affect the "national database" and the programs that rely on that database? 6.6 Is it possible to bridge different biblio- graphic structures used to describe mono- graphic and journal literature, at the article level, to allow a search of both kinds of bib- liographic records at once? 6.7 What are the means for providing ac- cess to in-process and on-order records in shared cataloging databases? 6.8 What is the impact on cataloging of the AAP Electronic Manuscript Project? What should libraries consider as they decide to implement cataloging of electronic texts? 7. Identification of Material to be Preserved 7.1 What criteria should be considered during the process of identifying materials for preservation? What should be consid- ered when deciding if, in addition to con- tent, the form of the item should be pre- served? 7.2 How should priority be assigned given inadequate funds to preserve an entire col- lection? 7.3 How should materials be preserved in a field for which no library has accepted re- sponsibility? 7.4 How can we stimulate foreign partici- pation in preservation strategies to address this worldwide threat to future scholar- ship? 8. Assessing New Technologies for Preserva- tion Strategies 8.1 What factors need to be considered when evaluating new technology for appli- cation to preservation activities? THE RESOURCE AUTHORITIES. ,._HIIdat laleraaUoaaothr u,ronouw Hrriotl allottd: D Newspaper Indexes D Television News Transcripts and Indexes D Journals In Mlcrofor.m D Research Collections In Microform D U.S. and Interna- tional Patent 12 Lunar Drive/Drawer AB Woodbridge, CT 06525 Toll-free: 1-800-REACH-RP lWX: 71~5 FAX: 203-397-3893 Le Monda microfilm products and indexes provide the full French DeWB perspective. One of the world's great newspapers-Le lllonde- with backfiles to 1944, is more appea.ling than ever. Now, indexes by Research Publications can quickly put the researcher or scholar in touch with key facts and figures. Le lllon4e Diplomatique, which is also indexed, is a monthly political journal catering to diplomats, educators, politicians, and intell1gentsia. Le lllon4e de L'Bducation presents a well-rounded view of the world of education, from kindergarten to college. And, for any library looking to increase French news coverage, each edition of Le lllon4e Dossiers et Documents presents the most :Pertinent news articles on one or two subjects, excerpted from Le lllonde, Le lllon4e Diplomatique, and Le lllon4e de L'Bducation. The searching, subject grouping and categorizing is already done. For the full French news perspective-only from Research Publications---{}a.J.l toll-free: 1-800-REACH-RP (1-800-732-2477). In Alaska, Canada or Connecticut, call collect (203) 397-2600. Or, use our Infofile #20 below: 0 Please send me your brochure. 0 Have a representative call me. N&me Address City 8t&te Zip Code Documentation Phone D Patent Search For further information, or to place your order 0 =-= 1-SOo:fiiCi:ip 470 College & Research Libraries 8.2 To what extent will libraries use mass deacidification technology when it is read- ily available and what are the implications for overall preservation strategies? 8.4 Is it possible to project whether and when optical disc technology might be- come a viable (preferable) substitute for mi- croform preservation? 9. Impact of U .S. Government Policies Li- braries 9.1 What is the impact on the availability of U.S. government information of the issu- ance of OMB Circular A-130, Management of Federal Information Resources? 9.2 What is the impact on research library operations and services of budget reduc- tions at the Library of Congress, the Na- tional Library of Medicine, the National Agricultural Library, the Government Printing Office, and other library related programs? 10. Changing Roles and Contributions of Re- search Library Staff 10.1 What are the patterns of personality characteristics among research library staff and could these patterns assist in designing staff development and recruitment pro- grams? 10.2 What are the implications of multiple role requirements for professional staff? 10.3 What elements should be considered in defining, assessing, and increasing con- tributions and productivity of staff in re- search libraries? 10.4 What is the impact of technology on position descriptions and staffing patterns? For example, what new skills are required of public service librarians (e .g., content ex- pertise, ability to retrieve and prepare nu- meric and full-text data from electronic products, ability to communicate effec- tively outside the library, etc.)? 10.5 What are the long-term staffing impli- cations for optical disc and other electronic format services? 10.6 What are the effects of unionization and collective bargaining on management practice and philosophy, and on collegial September 1988 relations. and roles within a research li- brary? 11. Measures of Research Libraries 11.1 How do you measure the effective- ness of research libraries? 11.2 Are there measures that would reflect the decreasing importance of ownership and collection size vis-a-vis new technol- ogy, telecommunications, and information delivery systems? 11.3 What data elements should be added to the ARL Statistical Program that are more descriptive of research libraries in transition to an access model of service in the "electronic age" of libraries? 11.4 What measurements could be devel- oped to reflect institutional researching? 12. Impact of Technology on the Operations of a Research Library 12.1 What is the impact of changing tech- nology on library organizational structure? What recasting should take place? 12.2 What is a "wired campus" and what is the place of the library within the univer- sity in relation to telecommunications? 12.3 How has the new technological envi- ronment (the wired campus) changed rela- tionships among faculty, administrators, and librarians? 12.4 Can libraries promote optical disc standards so commercial competition does not result in a plethora of incompatible ser- vices? 12.5 What collection management data (e.g ., number of titles in each LC class) are available from machine-readable biblio- graphic files? 13 . Management of Research Library Re- sources 13.1 What is needed to develop models that might assist in research library man- agement decision making? 13.2 What are the implications of increas- ing numbers of nontraditional students for library operations and services (e.g., re- mote locations/campuses and remote stu- dents)? THE RESOURCE AUTHORITIES. The Times-with supplements and indexes-presents two centuries of unsurpassed news coverage. From the French Revqlution to major events of the day, The Times is renowned for quality re- porting and strong editorial opinion. This extraordi- nary resource is available in microform, only from Research Publications. And, the Times Index is a tremendous research aid, source of history, and gen- eral finding tool for other newspapers. For areas of special interest, The Sunday Times, The Times Literary Supplement, The Times Educational Supplement, The Times Higher Education Supplement (all included in The Times Index), Times Engineering & Trade Supplements, and Literature are incomparable sources for information. Plus, The Times Literary Supplement Index-with annual and cumulative editions-organizes the bibliographical, biographical, cultural, and historical information in every volume of The Times Literary Supplement since 1902. Two hundred years of superb news coverage by The Times, only from Research Publications. For more information call toll-free: 1-800-REACH-RP (1-800-732-2477). In Alaska, Canada or Connecticut, call collect (203) 397-2600. !-~i=-----m---liif6fil8--#21 ________ _ o Newspaper I. .~!search publications® Indexes 0 Television News Transcripts and Indexes 0 Journ&ls In Microform 0 Research Collections In Microform 0 U.S. and Intsrn&· tlon&l P&tsnt Documentation 0 P&tsnt Search and Awareness Services 0 Reference Books 12 Lunar Drive/Drawer AB Woodbridge, CT 06525 Toll-free: 1-800-REACH-RP TWX: 71 o-465-6345 FAX: 203·397 ·3893 0 Please send me your brochure. 0 Have a representative call me. Name Inetltutlon Address City Phone Title State Zip Code For further information, or to place your order directly, caJ11-800-REACH-RP (1-800-732-2477). 1-800-BBACR-BP Letters To the Editor: Thank you for publishing Wiberley and Daugherty's well-documented article on discre- tionary information seeking by end users of OPACs and online databases (March '88). They state that users seem satisfied with fewer references from an OP AC search than from a search of online bibliographic databases and give several rationales. I would like to add my own interpretation of this phenomenon. OP ACs state whether an item is available in the library, while an online search provides no such information. Thus an OP AC search furnishes the sense of information-in-hand, and fewer references are needed. Savvy pa- trons realize that they may have to overshoot their desired number of references in an on- line search to compensate for the unavailability of an unknown percentage of items. As stated by Wiberley and Daugherty, librarians must be wary of information overkill. However, with the advent of public access CD-ROM databases in libraries, we are seeing a new search behavior. Patrons seem willing to search through hundreds of references at the CD-ROM terminal, choosing only a small proportion to print. They often show reluctance to use Boolean logic to narrow their search, preferring to sift through the references in es- sentially a manual fashion. This seems a fruitful arena for further research! What is the preferred maximum number of references a CD-ROM searcher will scan? Again, thank you for a thought-provoking article. 472 CHRISTINA A. BRUNDAGE Life Sciences Librarian San Jose State University