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•• Lo,:,gh~rough • Umverslty
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Accession/Copy No.
Vol. No. ................
3 OCT 1997 20 MAl< 1998
2:5 MAY 1998
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40135205
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0401352056
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The Use of Document Supply Services by the Engineering Community of Loughborough University
by
Kirsty J. Campbell, B.Sc.
A Master's Dissertation, submitted in partial fulfilment of the
requirements for the award of Master of Science degree of the
Loughborough University of Technology.
Supervisor:
September 1996
Or A. Morris, B.Sc., M.Sc., PGCE, Ph.D.
Department of Information and L,ibrary Studies
© K. J. Campbell, 1996
Abstract
Librarians have an increased need for information to help them improve the
provision of document supply services to users. This increased need results
from developments in the field of document supply, such as the emergence
of CAS-IAS services. The study considers the value of using inter-library
loan statistics and studies of particular groups' information needs to provide
this information.
Individual inter-library loan records are analysed to provide information on
the need for document supply by Loughborough University's engineering
community. A smaller sample records is analysed to determine how the
current service offered by the Pilkington Library meets the need described.
Inter-library loan statistics, generated by an automated inter-library loan
management system, are used as a source of comparable information on
the service received throughout Loughborough University.
The study seems to indicate that engineers have greater need for
conference proceedings and reports, than the rest of the academic
community. Results also show that engineers of different academic grades
and disciplines differ in their use of the document delivery service. The
highest demand for the service came from research students, followed by
staff. More of their demand was for confernence proceedings, whereas
books accounted for more of postgraduate and undergraduate requests. The
departments of manufacturing, mechanical and chemical engineering
exhibited the highest demand, and proportionally more of their requests
were for serials. The departments of aeronautical & automtive engineering &
transport studies and civil & building engineering requested proportionally
more reports. The study also shows the use of bibliographic reference
services to be dependent on the academic grade and discipline of the
requester. The BIDS service was shown to be the most popular, being
favoured by research students and staff and mechanical, manfacturing and
chemical engineers. Undergraduates and the department of aeronautical &
automotive & transport studies US1d various sources in significant amounts.
The results are used as a basis to suggest possible ways of improving the
Pilkington Library's service to engineers.
ii
Acknowledgements
I am indebted to Mrs J. Chambers for allowing me access to the
Pilkington Library's inter-library loan records, and for answering my
many questions. I am also grateful to Mrs H. Jennings and Mrs J.
Clarke for their support during my time working in the inter-library
loans section.
I gratefully acknowledge the guidance and encouragement given to
me by my supervisor, Or A. Morris.
I wish to thank L. Lilis, V. Mallau, O. Matovelo and A. Penn for their
support during my studies. I also wish to thank P. Carr and my
parents for their support and encouragement.
iii
Contents
Abstract
Acknowledgements
Contents
page
ii
iii
iv
List of Figures
List of Tables
viii
ix
Chapter
1.1
1.2
1.3
Chapter
2.1
2.2
2.2.1
2.3
2.3.1
2.3.2
2.3.2.1
2.3.2.2
2.3.2.3
2.3.2.4
2.3.2.5
2.4
2.4.1
2.4.1.1
2.4.1.2
2.4.2
2.4.2.1
2.4.2.2
2.4.2.3
2.5
1 The Background of the Study
Introduction 1
4
5
The Aim of the Study
The Objectives of the Study
2 Trend in Document Supply
Trends Effecting the Document Supply Process 7
Defining Document Supply 7
The Stages of the Document Supply Process 8
Trends in Information Services 9
The Increase in Electronic Information Services 10
The Chronological Development of Information
Services 11
The Rise of Online Services 11
The Limitations of Online Services 1 2
The Rise of CD-ROMs 13
The Decline of Other Information Services 14
The Limitations of CD-ROMs 1 5
Trends in Document Delivery 1 6
The Traditional Phase 16
The History of Document Delivery 16
Traditional Document Supply Today 17
The Development of CAS-IAS Service 1 8
Features of the CAS-IAS Services 19
Reasons for the Development of CAS-IAS Services 20
Commercial Electronic Document Delivery Services 22
Conclusion 28
iv
Chapter 3 The Value of Document Supply Statistics
3.1 Why Collect Document Supply Statistics 29
3.1.1 The Value of Document Supply Statistics for Libraries 29
3.1.2 The Value of Document Supply Statistics for Other
Groups 30
3.2 Statistics Pertaining to Academic Libraries 31
3.2.1 Statistics Collected Annually 32
3.2.1.1 Statistics Collected Annually by Individual Libraries 32
3.2.1.2 Statistics Collected Annually by SCONUL 32
3.2.1.3 Statistics Collected Annually by Regional Library
Systems 33
3.2.2 Statistics Collected for National Surveys 34
3.2.3 Research Pertaining to Individual Libraries 35 3.2.3.1 Measuring the Performance of an Existing Document
Supply Service 35 3.2.3.2 Determining the Affect of an Access Policy 37
3.2.3.3 Establishing Trends Over Time 37 3.2.3.4 User Needs and Identifying Gaps in Holdings 38 3.2.3.5 Evaluating the Performance of Alternative Services 39 3.5 Conclusions 40
Chapter 4 The Information Needs of Engineers
4.1 Introduction 41 4.2 The Nature of Engineering 41 4.3 Studies of the Information Needs of Engineers 42 4.3.1 The Purpose for Which the Information is Required 42 4.3.2 The Importance of Informal Information 43 4.3.3 The Utilisation of Library and information Services 44 4.3.4 The Importance of Published Literature 45 4.3.5 The Characteristics of the Information Used 46 4.3.6 The Types of Literature Used 46 4.4 The Needs of the Groups Within Engineering 48 4.4.1 The Needs of Different Engineering Disciplines 48 4.4.2 The Needs of Engineers Involved in Different Work
Activities 49 4.5 Conclusions 52
v
Chapter 5 Methodology
5.1 Introduction 53 5.2 The Collection of Data on the Requesting of
Inter-library Loans by Engineers 53 5.2.1 The Categorisation of the Data Collected on the
Requesting of Inter-library Loans by Engineers 55 5.3 The Collection of Data on the Outcome of Inter-library
Loan Requests Made by Engineers 57 5.3.1 The Collection of Data on the Cancellation of
Inter-library Loan Requests Made by Engineers 58 5:4 The Basic Analysis of the Data Collected on
Inter-library Loan Requests Made by Engineers 59 5.5 The Statistical AnalYSis of Data on Inter-library Loan
Requests Made by Engineers 61 5.6 The Analysis of the Statistics on Inter-library Loan
Requests Made Across Loughborough University 62
Chapter 6 Results and Discussion
6.1 Introduction 64 6.2 The Location of the Source of the Bibliographic
Reference 64 6.3 The Sources of Bibliographic Reference Used by
Engineers 65 6.4 The. Types of Material Requested by Engineers 68 6.5 The Relationship Between the Source of the
Bibliographic Reference Used and the Type of Material
Requested 70 6.5.1 Sources of Bibliographic Reference Used in
Requesting Particular Types of Material 71 6.5.2 The Utilisation of Particular Bibliographic Sources
in the Requesting of Different Types of Material 73 6:6 The Volume of Demand Compared for All Academic
Grades 76 6.7 The Relationship Between the Academic Grade of the
Requester and the Type of Material Requested 78 6.7.1 The Request of Material Across Academic Grades 78 6.7.2 The Request of Materials Within Academic Grades 79
vi
6.8 The Relationship Between the Academic Grade of the
Requester and the Source of the Bibliographic
Reference Used 82
6.8.1 The Utilisation of Particular Sources of Bibliographic
Reference Across Academic Grades 82
6.8.2 The Sources of Bibliographic Reference Used by
Engineers From Particular Academic Grades 83
6.9 The Volume of Requests Made by Engineering
Departments 86
6.10 The Relationship between the Discipline of the
Requester and the Type of Material Requested 90
6.10.1 The Request of Types of Material Within Engineering
Departments 90
6.10.2 The Requesting of Different Types of Materials Across
Engineering Departments 92
6.11 The Relationship Between the Discipline of the
Requester and the Source of the Bibliographic
Reference Used 95
6.11.1 The Utilisation of Particular Sources of Bibliographic
Reference Across Engineering Departments 95
6.11.2 The Sources of Bibliographic Reference Used by
Engineers in Particular Departments 96
6.12 Status of Requests 100
6.13 Suppliers 100
6.14 Speed of Supply 102
6.15 Format in Which the Material was Received 105
6.16 Cancellations 106
Chapter 7 Conclusions and RecommendatIons
7.1 Introduction 108
7.2 Conclusion to the Study 108
7.3 The Recommendations of the Study 112
7.4 Improvements Which Could Have Been Made to the
Study 114
Bibliography 116
Appendices 123
vii
List of Figures
Page Figure 1 The Sources of Bibliographic Reference Used by
Engineers (as a percentage of the total number of
requests where a source was given) 65
Figure 2 The Utilisation of Sources of Bibliographic Reference
Which Led to Requests for Particular Types of Material 72
Figure 3 The Distribution of Requests for Different Types of
Material Arising from the Utilisation of Particular
Bibliographic Sources 75
Figure 4 Requests Made by Engineers and Received by the
Whole of Loughborough University, Analysed by
the Academic Grade of the Requester 76
Figure 5 The Distribution of the Types of Material Requested by
Engineers Within Particular Academic Grades 80
Figure 6 The Utilisation of Sources of Bibliographic Reference
Which Led to Requests by Engineers of Particular
Academic Grades 84
Figure 7 The Distribution of the Types of Material Requested
by Engineers Within Particular Departments 90
Figure 8 The Utilisation of Sources of Bibliographic Reference
Which Led to Requests Within Particular Engineering
Departments 97
viii
List of Tables
Page
Table 1 The Types of Material Requested by Engineers Compared
to the Whole of the University Over the Same Six Month
Period 68
Table 2 Requests Made by Engineers, Analysed by the Number
of Requests Made per Individual Within an Academic
Grade 77
Table 3 The Distribution of Requests for Particular Types of Material
Made by Engineers From Different Academic Grades:
Weighted Figures and Percentages 79
Table 4 The Utilisation of Particular Bibliographic Sources Across
Academic Grades: Weighted Figures and Percentages 83
Table 5 Requests Made by Engineers Analysed by the
Department of the Requester 87
Figure 6 The Volume of Requests Made by Engineering Departments,
Analysed by the Number of Requests Made per Member 88
Figure 7 The Distribution of Requests for Particular Types of
Material by Engineers From Different Departments:
Weighted Figures and Percentages 93
Table 8 The Utilisation of Particular Bibliographic Sources Across
Engineering Departments:Weighted Figures and
Percentages 96
Table 9 The Distribution of Requests by Status at the Point
of Sampling 100
ix
Table 10 The Median and Mean Speed of Supply (in days) for
Different Types Materials Received by the Engineering
Community, Compared with the Mean Speed of Supply
for Different Types of Material Received Across the Whole of
Loughborough University
Table 11 The Median and Mean Speed of Supply (in days) for
Documents Received by Engineers of Different Academic
Grades, Compared with the Mean Speed of Supply for
Documents Received by the Different Academic Grades
Across the Whole of Loughborough University
Table 12 The Median and Mean Speed of Supply (in days) for
103
103
Documents Received by Different Engineering Departments 104
Table 13 The Nature of Cancellations Within the Engineering Sample 106
x
CHAPTER 1: The Background of the Study
1.1 Introduction
The success of a library or information service depends on its
ability to tailor its holdings and services to meet the information
needs of its users (Gessesse 1994, p.347). Traditionally, libraries
have tried to achieve this by aiming to hold anything of relevance to
their users (Brown 1994, p.38). However, many libraries are
attempting to satisfy their users' information needs by offering them
access services rather than holdings. There are various reasons for
this shift. Scholarly publishing has burgeoned, fuelled in part by the
publication requirements of research posts (Brown 1994, p.37).
This has been paralleled by an escalation in the cost of journal
subscriptions (Higginbotham & Bowdoin 1993, p.9). However,
library budgets have not received increases significant enough to
cope with these changes, instead many library budgets have
declined or remained statiC (Higginbotham & Bowdoin 1993, p.8).
Therefore, rather than invest in the acquisition of materials which
will receive little use, libraries are concentrating on implementing
services, which enable them to meet the need for information from
these specialised materials on demand (Brown 1994, p.38). A
library which decides to adopt an access rather than a holdings
policy needs to invest in bibliographic services, so that users can
select what information they wish to gain access to, and document
delivery services, which allow the library to respond to immediate
information needs for specific items, both rapidly and
economically.
1
Bibliographic and document delivery services have evolved and
converged over time. There has been a shift from manual, print
dominated to electronic, automated services (Braid 1993, p.161).
Electronic services have been developed which unite all the stages
of document supply process, which includes the search for
bibliographic information, together (Cornish 1991, p.130). These
services are being targeted at end-users, rather than mediating
librarians (Cornish 1991, p.129; East & Tilson 1993, p.45). These
developments have led to the emergence of CAS- IAS (Current
Awareness Service - Individual Article Supply) services. These
services link the information search stage of the document supply
process (in the form of a current awareness database) with the
document delivery stage (in the form of the supply of individual
articles) (Brown 1993, p.39). Many CAS-IAS services are now
commercially available to libraries.
Librarians are now faced with a number of traditional and
electronic document supply services. At the same time, they are
seeking to obtain more value from their declining budgets. In this
situation, librarians need objective information to help them make
decisions about which systems are best suited to the needs of their
organisations (FIOOO, 1996; FIOOO Research Team 1996, p.1).
The analysis of statistics generated by a library's existing
document supply service can provide the librarian-with this
information. Some examples are given below.
• The performance of a library's existing document supply service
can be assessed using data on supply times, the volume of
satisfied requests and the costs incurred (Huse & Sumsion 1995,
p.2). In addition to highlighting those aspects of the current service
which could be improved, this information can form a performance
baseline, which the selected alternative service must meet.
2
• By analysing the requests made by users to a document supply
service, a picture of users' information needs, which are not met by
library holdings, can be built up. This information can serve as an
indication of what a document supply service must offer in order to
be considered as an option, as well as any specific competences,
which would be desirable.
• Document supply statistics can be used to establish trends over
time (Huse & Sumsion 1995, p.2). This can provide an indication of
what the selected alternative service must be equipped to deal with
in the future. This would lessen the risk of the chosen service
becoming obsolete.
Segmentation is a principle of modern marketing. The first stage of
segmentation is the division of one's potential population of
customers (or in the case of a library, users) into distinct groups.
The second stage is the investigation of the needs and behaviours
of these groups. By identifying groups of users which are similar in
their information needs and characteristics, a librarian can consider
the range of document supply service alternatives available and
match them to the group they have identified and, decided to focus
on. Information gained in the process of segmentation forms a base
by which the information needs of users can be met more precisely,
than if information which pertained to the whole of the potential
user population were used (Shapiro 1980, pp.471-472).
3
1.2 The Aim of the Study
The purpose of this study is to produce a comprehensive picture of
the use of the Pilkington Library's document supply services by
the engineering community of Loughborough University.The
investigation aims to provide information, which can used to
evaluate the ability of the existing document delivery services and
available alternatives to meet the document supply needs of
engineers. The results of such evaluations can help librarians
decide if offering particular document delivery services would
improve information services for the engineering community. The
study is particularly concerned with providing a baseline which can
be used to evaluate the ability of some of the commercially
available Current Awareness Service· Individual Article Supply
services to serve the engineering community of the University.
The focus of this study on the information needs of engineers and
the potential of Current Awareness Service - Individual Article
Supply services arose because it links into the work of the
Focussed Investigation of Document Delivery Options (FIDDO)
Project, which is based in the Department of Library and
Information Studies at Loughborough University. The principal aim
of the FIDDO Project is:
... to disseminate objective and reliable data on which the library
and information community can make informed decisions about
the ability of electronic and other document delivery services to
provide material economically and on time. (FIDDO ,1996)
Part of the project will involve the comparative evaluation of
existing and and potential services. The first phase the project is
concerned with the delivery of engineering documents (FIODO,
1996).
4
1.3 The Objectives of the Study
The objectives of this study are as follows:
• To define the need for document supply services within
Loughborough University's engineering community, in terms of its
volume, the type of material requested and the academic status of
requesters, and to compare it with the need shown by the
University as a whole.
• To define the need for document supply services within
engineering departments, in terms of the volume of requests
generated, the type of material requested and the academic status
of requesters.
• To define to what extent the different bibliographic sources offered
are utilised by Loughborough University's engineering community
as a whole and by the departments.
• To show how the Pilkington Library's document supply service
responds to the document supply needs of the engineers in terms
of which suppliers respond, the format in which documents are
received and the speed of supply.
• To show to what extent the document delivery needs of engineers
are satisfied by the existing service, in terms of the volume of
requests cancelled and the reasons for these cancellations.
• To postulate reasons for any variations in the need for document
supply services shown between the engineering community and
the rest of the University and between the engineering
departments.
5
• To highlight the implications of the study in terms of adjusting the
library's service to meet the needs of engineers. This includes
scenarios such as increasing holdings of materials for which
demand is heavy; targeting the needs of groups identified as heavy
users of document delivery; aiming to increase user awareness of
the potential of document delivery services in groups where
demand is light; investing in additional bibliographical services or
maintaining subscriptions to ones already held; improving the
procedure followed in the existing document supply service or
investigating alternative document delivery services.
• To highlight the further applications of this study.
6
CHAPTER 2: Trends in Document Supply
2.1 Trends Effecting the Document Supply Process
This chapter discusses the emergence of the following trends
effecting the document supply process:
• The change of document supply from a manual, print-dominated
process to an electronic, automated one (Braid 1993, p.161).
• The development of electronic systems which combine all the
stages of the process in one system. This trend began with
searching and ordering being combined, but systems which unite
all the stages have become a reality (Cornish 1991, p.130).
• The targeting of electronic systems at the end-user rather than at a
mediating librarian (Cornish 1991, p.129; East & Tilson 1993,
p.45).
2.2 Defining Document Supply
Traditionally the term interlending relates to one library supplying a
document to another library. The document may be the original,
physical text, which the supplying library will expect to have
returned, or a photocopied, surrogate copy, which is meant for
retention by the requester. This chapter will concentrate on the
supply of surrogate copies, because statistics show it to be more
frequent than the supply of original documents, and the trends
outlined above primarily effect the provision of surrogate copies not
the lending of original items. Thus the term document supply will be
used throughout this chapter as opposed to interlending, to denote
the growing importance of the surrogate copy (Cornish 1991,
p.121).
7
2.2.1 The Stages in the Document Supply Process
The process of document supply can be divided into six stages as
identified by (Wood 1994, p.61; Braid 1993, pp.161-162; Cornish
1991, pp.125-130):
• The information search The information required is identified by the researcher or student,
using online databases, CD-ROM databases or paper indexes.
• The document search A source of supply for the required information is identified. Firstly,
the library's card or automated catalogue is checked. Librarians
encourage students and researchers to conduct this search
themselves. If the item is not held by the library or is unavailable to
the requester at that time, then a second search is conducted by
the librarian of other library's holdings, using printed lists or card
catalogues or automated, networked union or individual
catalogues.
• Document ordering An order is sent to the identified supplier for the required
information using post, telex, telephone, fax, e-mail or automated
transm ission.
• Request processing On receipt, the order is processed by the supplier. This can be an
automated or manual procedure, depending on how the request
was transmitted to the supplier and the format in which the item is
required.
• Document delivery
The item is delivered via post, courier or facsimile, or by electronic
distribution.
8
• Payment The position of this stage is not fixed like the others and payment
can be made before the request is processed, delivered or in some
cases ordered. Although the supplying library will finance its
document supply service, it is usual for it to receive some payment
for its services. This has traditionally been the responsibility of the
requesting library, who may charge the requesting individual's
department or the individual themselves. However, with the
development of electronic systems, there is a trend towards the
supplier charging the individual directly.
The following discussion of the major trends effecting the document
supply process will be divided into two sections. Firstly, the trends'
emergence in the first stage of the document supply process, the
information search, will be considered. This will be followed by an
examination of their development in the rest of the document
supply process, with the the remaining stages being considered
together. This division is due to the size of information searching as
a topic.
2.3 Trends in Information Services
The paper indexes, online resources and CD-ROM databases
utilised in the first stage of the document supply process: the
information search, are collectively known as information services.
The development of information services demonstrates the three
aforementioned trends.Thus, in the development of information
services there has been a shift from print services to electronic
services; an increase in services for the end-user and the
development of systems which combine the information search
stage with the other stages of the document supply process.
9
2.3.1 The Increase in Electronic Information Services
There are several reasons why electronic information services are
becoming more popular. These include:
• Public Awareness
Demand has increased due to the general public becoming more
familiar with the basic elements of information technology (e.g.
reading from screens, following on-screen instructions and
keyboarding). Many potential users are utilising these skills daily
through word-processing and e-mail. The public are also
developing these skills earlier, as school curriculums become
increasingly computer-orientated (Hawkins 1994, p.118). This
growing familiarity has led to the expectation that libraries will offer
electronic information services, as well as an increased willingness
to use those that are offered.
• Market Demand
The market for electronic services is fuelled by the end-users'
"hands on" experience. If they found their experience a positive
one, which in part depends on system developers making systems
easy-to-use and creating pricing systems that encourage browsing,
they will be more likely to access the service again. Part of this
demand will be generated because a user, who is aiming to locate
a specific piece of information, will often become aware of other
lines of interest, which merit further investigation on the service
(Hawkins 1994, p.118).
• Pricing Attractive pricing is a significant incentive to the consumer. Such
pricing schemes are now emerging as users, database producers
and data suppliers begin to cooperate. Concessions for high
volume customers are becoming more widespread. The early
online services based their charges on the length of time a user
spent connected to their service. This system discouraged users. As
producers respond to the growing demand for flat rate pricing, use
will increase (Hawkins 1994, p.118).
10
• Vendor Reputations
There are now fewer companies operating in the information
services market, but those which remain are larger (Cox 1994,
p.119). These companies have access to extensive resources and
therefore can offer a range of services, which smaller vendors
cannot. These companies are becoming recognised in the market
place through advertising. (Hawkins 1994, p.118). Public
recognition leads to public confidence that by using the electronic
services, offered by these companies, they are guaranteed quality
and value.
• Remote Usage
There has been an increase in the number of researchers
conducting information searches from their offices, rather than in
the library. This is due to increasing work loads and the wider
availability of technology which allows remote access.
Researchers opting to do this, desire access to the same resources
as are available in the library (Hawkins, 1994, p.119).
• More Users The increasing popularity of electronic systems may be linked to
increasing student numbers (East & Tilson 1993, p.i).
2.3.2 The Chronological Development of Information Services
2.3.2.1 The Rise of Online Services
Between the early 1970s and the late 1980s, the use of information
services shifted from printed abstracting and indexing services
through remotely hosted data, available online, to local CD-ROM
databases (East & Tilson, 1993, pp.i-5).
The early market for printed abstracting and indexing services
(A & I services) was as much aimed at the individual researcher as
at the acquisitions librarian. However, expansion in the amount of
literature to be indexed and abstracted led to increasing
publication costs. This left A & I services beyond the means of the
1 1
individual, and made institutions the main market for A & I service
publishers. The end-user remained excluded from the information
services market, When, in the early 1970s, the producers of printed
A & I services began to convert them into computer-readable
databases, available through online hosts, the end-user remained
excluded from the market, as corporate demand was less prone to
flutuation than that of individuals. Online information services
allowed the user to: search multiple files simultaneously, search
using multiple terms, save searches and obtain printouts of
references (East & Tilson1993, pp.1-2).
Most of the academically important A & I services became available
online (East & Tilson 1993, p.2), as increasing computer power
made their creation simpler and the demand for such services
increased (Hawkins 1993b, p. 1 05). This increased demand was a
result of the growing trend to invest in information access rather
than holdings (East & Tilson 1993, p.2), which itself was a
consequence of a growth in literature at increased prices,
combined with static or declining library budgets (Higginbotham &
Bowdoin 1993, pp.8-9).
2.3.2.2 The Limitations of Online Services
Static or declining library budgets meant that interest in on line
services started slowly, and even when the demand for such
services increased, budget allocations for online services
increased only slowly (East & Tilson 1993, p.32) .
One of the disadvantages of online access to the major
supermarket hosts was that the user was charged for the time they
spend connected, and the searching they did within that time. Thus,
due to the risks of novice users running up large bills, librarians
mediated such services. This meant that online searching entailed
additional expenditure on human resources. It was believed that
without restriction, user demand would outstrip the library's ability
to pay for the use the services received. Thus, it became library
policy to try to restrict the use of online services, by poorly
12
promoting the service, rationing it or charging for it (East & Tilson
1993, p.2). It also meant less effort was made to make online
services user-friendly. As a result:
After almost 2 decades of commercial availablrty, mediated
online access accounted in 1990 for about one-fifth of what
academic librarians spent on the equivalent databases in print
form. (East & Tilson 1993, p.ii)
2.3.2.3 The Rise of CO-ROMs
--------
In the late 1980s, CD-ROM technology became available.
CD-RaMs are paid for by annual subscription rather than per
session, and carry no extra telecommunications charges, therefore
they are usually made available to end-users for free. They also
offer user-friendly software. These two factors create a situation
whereby the end-user can browse the database, unconstrained by
cost, with the minimum of help from staff (East & Tilson 1993, pp.4-
5).
In the period 1988-92, there was a rapid shift in the spending of
academic institutions from online services to CD-ROM. This shift
was documented by East and Tilson (1993), who undertook a
survey of the developments in the practice and policy for database
provision to the academic community. The survey sample was a
panel 15 academic institutions (East & Tilson 1993, p.10).
By 1992, the panel were subscribing to five and a half times as
many CD-RaMs as they had in 1988. Spending on CD-RaMs had
increased from £3.5K to £19.1K, a rise of 453%. Between 1988-
1992, spending on CD-ROM subscriptions by the members of the
sample had increased, from 30% of their total expenditure on
electronic information services to 62%. In the same period, the 3
supermarket hosts which were usually librarian-mediated, Oialog,
Oatastar and ESA-IRS, experienced a 40% decline in that portion
of their income arising from the academic sector (East & Tilson
1993, pp. 12-24).
13
The period between 1988-1992, saw the number of available CO
ROM titles increase seven-fold. This increase led to a rise in CO
ROM subscriptions, which in turn encouraged more libraries to
consider access through local area networks. In 1992, another
survey revealed that over 70% of universities were either running
or planning to run a local CD-ROM network (East & Tilson 1993,
pp.i-5).
2.3.2.4 The Decline of Other Information Services
East and Tilson (1993, p.29) found some evidence of electronic
information services substituting print-based information services.
A survey in 1992 found that 8 out of 15 panel members had
cancelled at least one printed database, because it was available
in CD-ROM format.
The data also suggested mediated online access was being
replaced by databases offering end-user access. With one
exception, all of the panel's top twenty databases (ranked by
expenditure between 1988 and 1992), which were showing a
decline in expenditure, had become available in CD-ROM format.
Most of the listed databases had shown a decline in online
expenditure over the 5 year period. In some cases the decline was
considerably and occurred rapidly. It was noted that 'all of the
databases listed ... were subscribed to in the CD-ROM format by at
least 20% of the panel in 1992' (East & Tilson 1993, p.26). Certain
online databases were taken up rapidly by users, upon being
made available in CD-ROM format, where as previously they had
received little use (East & Tilson 1993, pp.14-27).
14
2.3.2.5 The Limitations of CO-ROMs
Between 1988 and 1992, the mean annual expenditure on all
types of database access increased from £11.6k to £30.?k (162%).
This resulted from a large increase in spending on services giving
end-user access, which obscured a decline in expenditure on
mediated online services. Most of the increase was considered to
be due to the purchase of CD-ROM databases, but the affect of
rising expenditure on subscriptions for online services was also
recognised. The three hosts which charge for their services on a
subscription basis: Lexis, Datastream and Textline, commanded a
160% increase in expenditure between 1988 and 1992 (East &
Tilson 1993, pp. 1 0-24).
As already discussed, the rise in CD-ROM subscriptions
encouraged librarians to implement CD-ROM networks. This led to
protective pricing by CD-ROM producers, aiming to stop
exploitation which would endanger their profits. As result of this,
site licensing started to be considered, as a way of satisfying both
producer and purchaser. Another problem was that CD-ROM was
designed to be accessed on a stand alone workstation, thus
networking a CD-ROM makes it slower to use. Some publishers
responded to this by publishing CD-RaMs on magnetic tape so that
their contents could be cross loaded; others began to offer CD
RaMs with licenses allowing them to be down loaded onto hard
disc. It was thought this might lead to a trend of data being
mounted locally on hard disc (East & Tilson 1993, pp.5-?).
Thus, following the rise of CD-RaMs, librarians and users were
seeking an electronic information service which was online, in
order to cope with any increases in demand, but was offered for a
flat rate subscription. Into this situation came BIDS (Bath
Information and Data Services), the first and very popular Current
Awareness Service-Individual Article Supply Service (East &
Tilson 1993, pp.8-9).
15
2.4 Trends in Document Delivery
This section outlines the development of the stages of the
document supply process, other than the information search. As
with the information search, the other stages of document supply
are changing from manual, print based processes to automated
electronic ones (Braid 1993, p.161); they are becoming
increasingly geared to end-use, and there are growing numbers of
systems which unite all the stages, including that of the information
search together (Cornish 1991, pp.129-130).
2.4.1 The Traditional Phase
Within the United Kingdom, traditional document delivery is still
practised (Brown 1994, pA3), with inter-library lending of original
material and the supply of surrogate paper copies being the
standard practice.
2.4.1.1 The History of Document Delivery
Nationwide interlending of scientific and technical material began
in 1926, when the holdings of the Science Museum Library
became available for inter-library loan throughout the United
Kingdom. Within a decade, the number of loans made to the
Library's own users was less than the number of loans made to
other organisations. After World War 11, the demand for scientific
and technical literature expanded rapidly. In 1945, the number of
unsatisfied inter-library loan requests was 7,5000 and by 1955
this number had risen to more than 40 000 requests. The latter
figure represented just over half the external requests it was
receiving. Those it could not satisfy were sent to other libraries, that
participated in a cooperative arrangement implemented by the
Science Museum Library (Carrigan 1993, pp.220-221).
16
From 1947, a succession of government appointed bodies
recommended the creation of national lending library for scientific
and technical material, located outside London for reasons of
security (Carrigan 1993, p. 221). These recommendations became
increasingly ardent, until eventually in 1956, the Lending Library
Unit was formed as part of the Department of Scientific and
Industrial Research (DSIR). This unit was to take over the lending
service from the Science Museum Library, and to this end would
also inherit some of its literature. The unit was to be opened as the
National Lending Library for Science and Technology (NLLST),
as soon as sufficient literature was available. To achieve this, other
libraries in the United Kingdom were invited to donate appropriate
material. On the 5 November 1962, the NLLST was officially
opened. In 1973, the British Library Lending Division took over the
duties and materials of the NLLST and of the Central Library. It
also took over the former accommodation of the NLLST, 200 miles
north of London at Boston Spa. In 1986, the Britsh Library Lending
Division was renamed the British Library Document Supply Centre
(BLDSC) to acknowledge the increasing importance of the
document supply industry (Carrigan 1993, pp.220-222).
2.4.1.2 Traditional Document Supply Today
In one day the BLDSC will process more than 15 000 requests,
89% of which it will satisfy from its own stock. More than 60% of
requests are made via the messaging system ARTIel (Automated
Request Transmission by Telecommunication). As well as enabling
customers to transmit requests to the BLDSC, ARTIel also allows
customers to transmit messages; recall or change the status
requests they have already made; and check the number of
requests they have received within the previous month (All an &
Dean 1993, p.9). Other requests are sent by post on prepaid forms
or by telex, e-mail, telephone and fax. The later two methods are
used to request urgent delivery. The urgent delivery service aims to
respond within two hours of receiving a request.Therefore, if an
urgent request is received before 3.30pm, the respondent can be
notified the same day, whether the BLDSC will be able to fulfil the
17
request. If the request can be fufilled, the document is delivered by
standard mail or fax. For standard requests BLDSC aims to
respond within 48 hours of receiving the request, with most of the
documents being sent by post. Originally, the British postal system
was used to deliver items. However, in the mid-1970s, costs and
declining performance led the BLDSC to implement its own
delivery service, using contract vehicles. The transport system is
used by many libraries, which can also purchase vouchers for the
return of material. Currently, delivery is acheived by mail, courier,
fax, or satellite (Carrigan 1993, pp. 222-223; FIDDO Research
Team 1996, pp.29-30).
2.4.2 The Development of CAS-IAS Service
According to Brown (1994, pp.39-40) a new phase of document
delivery has begun, as a result of the arrival of the CAS- IAS
(Current Awareness Service - Individual Document Supply)
services. Such services link the information search stage of the
document supply process (in the form of a current awareness
service) with the document delivery stage (in the form of Individual
article supply), as such this section should be viewed as a
continuation of the section on the trends in information services, as
well as part of the development of document delivery. CAS-IAS
services also incorporate the stages of ordering and sometimes
processing (in the form of electronic storage of scanned articles)
and payment. The use of a CAS-IAS service means that the
document search is no longer a concern for the requester.
18
2.4.2.1 Features of the CAS-IAS Services
According to Brown (1994, pp.39-42), CAS-IAS services offer the
following features:
• Current Alerting Database
A digtal database is created by keyboarding or scanning in the
table of contents from the journals covered by the service. Most of
the services input only the information pertaining to the research
articles. This is usually just the author and title, with perhaps the
page numbers. However, following arguments that abstracts are
often required before users will decide to order an article, many
services are considering the inclusion abstract information. For the
same reason some services also provide the first page of the article
in full. Services aim to have the details input within days of the
processing unit receiving the journal.
• Comprehensive Coverage
Some services provide coverage of 10 000 to 12 000 journal titles,
which represents the core of all the research journals world-wide.
• Document Backup Support
National libraries, such as BLDSC, are the main suppliers of the
requested articles. However, several large publishers are also
involved in document supply (e.g. ISI, Ei).
Most of the associated document delivery is still a manually
intensive process. However, several services have negotiated,
from publishers, the rights to hold their material electronically. This
enables the article to be rapidly accessed and then printed out
locally, or transmitted through a network to the requester.
• Accessible Through a Network
As networks increase in size and functionality, the potential of the
CAS-IAS services to utilise networks to search, order and, in some
cases, deliver articles increases in importance for the subscriber
and the users.
19
• Speed of Delivery
The majority of services employ group 3 fax technology to ensure
documents are delivered within 24-48 hours of their being ordered.
Transmission over networks should mean that the speed of
delivery will increase.
• Cost Effective
It is often more economical to purchase an article through a CAS
IAS service, than to subscribe to a journal which will be rarely
used.
• Royalty Payment Services
It is a usual practice of amongst USA-based services to make a
royalty payment directly upon supplying an article. This removes
the onus from the requester of keeping within the regulations, and
provides the publisher with additional revenue.
• Global Statistical Tracking
This new development will enable publishers to see which articles
command the highest demand. Such data could help in the
formation of future publication decisions.
2.4.2.2 Reasons for the Development of CA5-IAS Services
The reasons for the development of the CAS-I AS services are:
• The Growth of Scholarly Publication
Due to the growth in scholarly publishing, libraries are no longer
able to purchase all the publications their users may require
(Brown 1994, p.37). This is particularly the case with scientific and
technical journals, whose numbers have increased dramatically
(Higginbotham & Bowdoin 1993, p.8). This trend has been fuelled
by the publication requirements of research posts (Brown 1994,
p.37).
20
• Rising Journal Prices
The cost of journal subscriptions, the material which scientists and
engineers utilise heavily, has escalated. The average price of
research journals increased by 160%, between 1980 and 1990.
Rising journal prices also have an impact on the allocation of funds
for monographs (Higginbotham & Bowdoin1993, pp.9-10).
• Insufficient Library Budgets
Many library budgets have also declined or remained static
(Higginbotham & Bowdoin 1993, p.8), and in the case of those
which have received an increase, it has not matched the growth in
demand for the literature.
• Access v. Holdings
As a consequence of the increase in the output and price of
research material and the decline in relative library budgets,
libraries can no longer follow their traditional of policy of
purchasing anything of relevance to its researchers. Instead
libraries are beginning to follow an access rather than a holdings
strategy. Instead of investing a large proprtion of their budgets on
journals which are seldom used, libraries are seeking to meet the
demand for articles from specialised journals as it arises.
Document delivery enables the library to meet a user's requirement
for a specific document, without depleteing the funds allocated to
long-term journal acquisition (Brown 1994, pp.38-39).
• Increased Technological Awareness in Libraries
Many libraries are working together with campus computer
departments to new form units, whose function will be to provide
researchers and students with additional local information services
An important role of these units is to provide the support necessary
to run electronic document delivery services, especially those
made available through networks and Local Area Networks
(LANs). The functionality and size of networks is increasing (e.g.
the creation of the super-computing network, SuperJANET) and as
a consequence the speed and quality of electronic document
delivery will also increase, as will the quantity of documents which
21
can be sent (Brown, 1994, pp.38-42).
• The Application of New Management Techniques
The use of life cycle costing has highlighted the uneconomical
nature of retaining seldom used journal issues on library shelves,
in case they are ever required. This evidence supports the
acquisition of electronic document delivery services (Brown, 1994,
p.39).
2.4.2.3 Commercial Electronic Document Delivery Services
Brief reviews of CAS-IAS services are given below. The selection
includes those commerically available, general services thought to
appeal most to UK academic institutions (i.e. the full-service is
established in the UK and the majority of articles offered are in
English). Also included are some specialised services geared to
providing engineering information.
ADONIS
Adonis was a consortium of publishers founded in the 1970s;
among its aims was the provision of articles requested from
journals, published by its members. By 1985, only three publishers
remained, Elsevier SCience, Springer and Blackwell Science. In
1991, Adonis launched a CD-ROM article delivery service
consisting of over 400 titles. It now covers nearly 700 current
biomedical I biotechnical, international journals, from more than 70
publishers. The service stores digital bit-mapped images on CO
ROM, from where they can be printed. Subscribers receive a
weekly CD-ROM disk providing a title I article index and the tables
of contents. Current journal articles are usually made available
within three weeks of the journal being published. Early in 1995, a
version of the software, which enables end-users to print articles
using local network printers, was launched (FIOOO Research Team
1996, p.40).
22
BIDS
Bath Information and Data Services (BIDS) was the result of an
initiative by the Universities Funding Council's Information
Systems committee, ICL PLC and a group of librarians 'to network
Citation Index data on a campus-wide basis' (East, Sheppard &
Jeal 1995, p.118). Following negotiations with the Combined
Higher Education Software Team (CHEST), Institute for Scientific
Information (ISI) agreed to allow academic access to three of its
citation indexes and its index of conference proceedings. Bath
University Computing Services (BUCS) sercured the contract to
provide access to the indexes, and so in February 1991, the BIDS
service was launched. Access to the databases was available to
any UK higher education institution, whatever its size, for a flat-rate
subscription of approximately £7 000 per annum.
An Online Document Ordering Service (BODOS) was launched by
BIDS in October 1993. Using this service, references of required
articles can be tagged as part of the information search, and then
ordered online.Currently orders are only supplied by the BLDSC
using post or fax, although plans are being made to offer a choice
of suppliers. The inclusion of the means to highlight local holdings
is also planned (FIDDO Research Team 1996, p.27).
BLDSC
In 1992, the British Library introduced a table of contents service
called Inside Information, which is now available under the name
Inside Serials. To generate this service, the BLDSC inputs the
titles of all the articles within their 10 000 most-used journals. This
is amounts to a approximately 1 000 000 articles per year. Though
formerly only available on magnetic tape, it is currently published
monthly in CD-ROM format and is also available via daily file
transmission. The BLDSC aims to generate records of the contents
pages within 2-3 days of journal receipt, and include them on CD
ROM within 2-6 weeks. Required articles may be ordered via post
or fax. An option which allows local holdings to be identified is
available. Payment is via credit card for end-users or by monthly
account for libraries. The database is now also offered via the
23
BIDS service. Inside Conferences, which contains details of all the
conferences the BLDSC receives, has also been introduced.
(FIDDO Research Team 1996, p.30; Carrigan 1993, p.222).
In 1996, the BLDSC plans to launch a fast two hour, copyright fee
paid document delivery service, aimed at the end-user. The two
CD-ROMs which constitute the planned service "Inside Science
Plus" and "Inside Social Sciences and Humanities Plus" cover all
the articles in 20 000 of Boston Spa's most heavily used journals.
The service links into the BLDSC request processing system and
thus end-users will be able to order documents directly (FIDDO
Research Team 1996, p.30)
EBSCO Industries Inc.
The acquisition of the document delivery service, Dynamic
Information Corporation, by EBSCO Inc., in March 1994, led to the
creation of a document delivery service called EBSCOdoc. This
service supplies documents from over 30 000 in-house titles and
library collections throughout the world. Requests can be sent to
the central headquarters in California, via mail, fax, e-mail,
telephone or selected online services. Both standard and rush
services are offered. Documents are delivered via first class mail,
air mail, fax, Ariel fax using the Internet,or a courier service. The
service is paid for by deposit account, credit card or special
arrangement. The company has also introduced access to the
ADONIS database over the WWW. Requests for articles covered
by the service can be made by fax, e-mail, mail and telephone.
Documents can be delivered within 30 minutes by fax or Ariel fax.
(FIDDO Research Team 1996, p.37).
The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and the
Institution of Electronic Engineers (lEE) have joined forces with
EBSCOdoc to provide a document delivery service called ASK
IEEE. The service supplies documents from three leading
collections in the electrical engineering, computing and physical
science fields: the collections of the IEEE and lEE and Information
Services in Physics, Electrotechnology, Computers and control
24
(INSPEC) (FIOOO Research Team 1996, p.38).
Engineering Information Inc.
This company offers a number of databases targeted at the
engineering community, including Compendex Plus. In 1981, The
Engineering Index Inc. changed to the current company name and
this was followed, in 1995, by its transition from a non-profit making
organisation to a profit making one. Also in this year, the company
made a service, entitled Ei Village, available over the Internet. Ei
Village comprises of databases and other information sources of
use to engineers, such as Internet sites and e-mail contact to a
specialist librarian and professional engineers from each
discipline. The service supplies documents via first class mail, fax,
courier or e-mail, within 24 to 72 hours. Requesters can be
invoiced monthly or pay by credit card. The Ei Village also offers
immediate access to selected current articles which have been
pre-scanned (FIOOO Research Team 1996, p.39).
OCLC
In 1967, Ohio College Library Centre (OCLC) was estabilished to
develop a computerised system, by which academic libraries in
Ohio could share their resources. In 1977, libraries outside the
state of Ohio were allowed to become members. In 1981, its name
was changed to Online Computer Library Centre.
In 1992, OCLC launched its FirstSearch service, which offers the
user access to more than 55 reference databases. The service
covers 1 8000 titles, dating back to 1990. These are supplied by
UMI, EBSCO and others, using fax, mail or courier. UMl's urgent
faxing service guarantees document delivery within the hour.
WWW access is planned for 1997 (FIOOO Research Team 1996,
p.25).
25
The Research Libraries Group
Citadel was launched during August 1992, by the Research
Libraries Group (RLG) Inc., to make the commercial citation
databases mounted on RLG's mainframe computer available. The
databases can be accessed via Internet, Sprintnet or by dial up
access. Users can search several data bases simultaneously,
providing one's library has decided to subscribe to those
data bases. Electronic documents are delivered electronically by
several suppliers (e.g UMI and Engineering Information Inc.), using
Ariel, RLGs transmission software. This software can scan
documents and then store or delete them; it can also print out
documents locally and send and receive documents
simultaneously. The software functions on PCs which are part of a
LAN. The LAN itself requires a high-speed connection to the
Internet. When requests are received by one of the libraries in the
group, ftp proctocol is used to scan, compress and transfer the
requested article. On receipt, the dedicated Ariel workstation at the
receiving library decompresses, prints and deletes the article.
Requests from certain databases have to made using traditional
channels (FIDDO Research Team 1996, pp.27-28).
Swets and Zeitlinger Subscription Agents
Swets and Zeitlinger are well established subscription agents. In
1993, the company introduced their table of contents service,
SwetScan, in the UK. The service covers the contents of 13 000
journals and is available on disk and magnetic tape, in print or via
the Internet. Documents are supplied by SwetDoc, a rapid
documents delivery service, but BLDSC is currently contracted to
provide the documents. In 1994, the Swets and Zeitlinger took over
the European concerns of Faxon Inc .. This company had previously
launched its own CAS-IAS service under the name of Faxon Finder
(FIDDO Research Team 1996, p.28).
26
UnCover
Carl Systems Inc. (later CARl Corporation) created the first
UnCover service. In 1988, the CARl Corporation introduced
UnCover2, which offers an additional electronic document delivery
service and in 1992, CARl Corporation and B.H. Blackwells united
to continue its development and promotion. In 1995, Knight
Ridder Information, Inc., a company that already offered a wide
range of document delivery supply services, took over the Carl
Corporation. This increased UnCover's ability to deliver
specialised documents, due to the expansion of the network of
institutions to which it was affiliated. (FIOOO Research Team 1996,
p.35)
The UnCover2 database covers over 16 000 titles, over half of
which are from the science, technology and medical fields. The
contents information is input onto the database, immediately upon
receipt of the journal from the publisher. Orders can be placed over
the Internet and the documents are delivered by fax. In cases
where the article ordered has been previously requested, and the
rights to store the image have been obtained from the publisher,
documents can be delivered within the hour. Requests which are
unavailable electronically are supplied by the contributing libraries,
who aim to satisfy requests within 24 hours. The price of delivery
can be before Before a user orders an article, they can check the
price they will be charged on the screen (FIOOO Research Team
1996, pp.35-36).
Five access options are offered. Free passwords are provided to
low-volume end-users, and a for a fee to individuals or
organisations who plan to be high-volume users. The later are
granted a discount on each article they receive. Organisations can
also opt for a customised gateway (FIOOO Research Team 1996,
p.36).
27
In March 1994,Uncover and BIDS agreed to provide the UK higher
education community with access to the UnCover2 database and
its document delivery service. The documents ordered through the
service are supplied by the BLOSC (FIOOO Research Team 1996,
p.36).
2.5 Conclusion
Over time the needs of users and librarians have led to the gradual
development of a electronic document supply process, which can
be controlled by the enduser using a single system. CAS-IAS
services evolved as products created to meet those needs.
The growth in the number of document delivery services available
has increased the need for objective and reliable data on which the
librarians can make informed decisions about the feasibility of
these services within their own institutions. The next chapter
discusses how document supply statistics can be used to provide
librarians with this type of information.
28
CHAPTER 3: The Value of Document Supply Statistics
3.1 Why Collect Document Supply Statistics
The collection of interlibrary lending statistics by individual
libraries, regional systems, BLDSC and National Bodies was
reviewed by Huse and Sums ion (1995). As part of this review,
librarians from 10 libraries, who had the main responsibilty for
interlibrary loans within their organisations, were questioned about
the methods of data collection and distribution they currently
employed. All those interviewed felt that the maintance of statistics
was an expensive and time-consuming activity. This demonstrates
that the collection of statistics needs to be justified by their
consequent interpretation for specific purposes (Huse & Sumsion
1995, pp.10-11).
3.1 .1 The Value of Document Supply Statistics for Libraries
There follows an outline of some of the specific purposes, which
would justify the interpretation of document supply statistics by
libraries.
• Statistics generated by the document supply activity of a library can
be used to identify gaps in the holdings of that library (Huse &
Sumsion 1995, p.2). A picture of users' information needs can be
built up by analysing the characteristics of requests made by
specific user groups. In this way deficits in stock, pertaining to the
requirements of a particular discipline or course may be
highlighted.
• Libraries can use their document supply statistics to establish the
extent to which an access policy is effecting the users' reliance on
holdings (Huse & Sumsion 1995, p.2).
29
• Statistics can form the basis of an evaluation of the performance of
document supply services. The performance of a library's current
document supply service can be assessed using statistics on the
speed of supply, the volume of satisfied requests and the costs
incurred (Huse & Sumsion 1995, p.2).
• Statistics, collated as a means of measuring the performance of a
library's existing document supply service, can also used to create
a standard against which the performance of other services can be
measured. Using such a baseline, a library can compare the
performance of their document supply service against the
performance of those in other institutions (Huse & Sumsion 1995,
p.2). A baseline can also be a valuable tool, when a library is
evaluating alternatives to their current service. This is particularly
relevant in the case of a library that is considering offering an
electronic service, such as a CAS-IAS service. Also, once a
baseline has been established from a current service, it can be
used to assess the performance of that service over time.
• Document delivery statistics can used to establish trends over time
(Huse & Sumsion 1995, p.2), so that change can be anticipated
and planned for.
3.1 .2 The Value of Document Supply Statistics for Other
Groups
There follows an outline of some of the specific purposes, which
would justify the interpretation of document supply statistics by
other groups.
• Representative bodies use document delivery statistics to support
their lobbying activities and to monitor the performance of their
members. Suppliers (e.g. sellers of books or periodicals,
databases providers and suppliers) utilise such document delivery
statistics to evaluate market opportunities, and thereby reduce the
risks of involved in making new investments (Huse & Sumsion
1995, p.2).
30
• Researchers can use document delivery statistics to highlight areas
which could benefit from research or development. They can also
use such statistics to measure the effects resulting from the
application of research and development (e.g. changes in
performance resulting from the implementation of a new concept in
document delivery). Overall, a comprehensive collection of
document delivery statistics can increase the value of a piece of
research, particularly in terms of the extent to which its findings can
be applied to practical situtations (Huse & Sumsion 1995, p.2).
• The government can use document delivery statistics to forecast
the need for training, and to allocate research and development
funds. It can also use such statistics to assess whether profit
making organisations require their financial assistance. Similarly to
researchers, the government can use document delivery statistics
to evaluate the effect of a particular development or investment
(Huse & Sumsion 1995, pp.2-3).
3.2 Statistics Pertaining to Academic Libraries
The following sections review the extent to which statistics
pertaining to the document supply activities of libraries are
collected. The collection of such statistics can be divided into three
catergories.
• Those that are collected on an annual basis
• Those that are collected for national surveys
• Those that are collected on a one off basis for research concerning
individual libraries (Huse & Sumsion 1995, p. 10).
31
3.2.1 Statistics Collected Annually
There follows a review of the statistics collected annually by
various groups.
3.2.1.1 Statistics Collected Annually by Individual Libraries
Individual academic libraries collate document supply statistics
annually, as a means of monitoring the demand for inter-library
loans and their performance in responding to it, and to aid them in
decision making. However, there is a additional reason for the
collection of these statistics. Regional and representative bodies
specify that their members submit statistics to them on a annual
basis. Many academic libraries feel that these "official" statistics
'are quite adequate for their own management purposes' (Huse &
Sumsion 1995, p.14), and therefore do not collect any additional
statistics. This is not the case for all libraries, but due to the
absence of any comprehensive research on the subject, it is
impossible to ascertain the extent to which libraries collect
statistics which are additional to those demanded by external
bodies. A small survey of 10 libraries, conducted by Huse and
Sumsion, found that the collection of additional statistics was not
common practice (Huse and Sumsion 1995, pp.10-14).
3.2.1.2 Statistics Collected Annually by SCONUL
The representative body to which university libraries must submit
statistics is the Standing Conference of National and University
Libraries (SCONUL). In 1994, figures were received, collated and
published for the number of:
• applications made
• applications satisfied by BLDSC, either from their stock or from the
stock of other libraries
• applications satisfied directly by other libraries
• applications made by other libraries (including those made via
BLDSC) and whether they were satisfied (Huse & Sumsion 1995,
pp.1 0-16, 30).
32
3.2.1.3 Statistics Collected Annually by Regional Library
Systems
Most academic libraries also present statistics to their appropiate
Regional Library System (RLS), providing they are a member of
that System and are involved in borrowing and loaning material
within the region it covers. However, not all academic libraries are
members of a regional body. This is usually a result of the library's
geographic location or part of its policy. Also, in some cases not all
libraries within a university are members of a RLS. Individual
Regional Library Systems collect statistics from each member
authority. Some of the Regions publish the collated data, but there
is no requirement for a certain format to be employed, or for a
minimum amount, or indeed any data, to be published (Huse &
Sumsion 1995, pp.15, 32).
A new form, for the submission of statistics to the Regional Library
Systems by their member libraries, was recently accepted by the
ten Regional Offices. This was the result of work by the Circle of
Officers of National and Regional Library Systems (CONARLS).
As well as being used to monitor and publicise the achievements of
the Regional Library Service and the document supply activities of
its members, regional level statistics on the total document supply
occurring in each region form the basis of national statistics. An
annual summary of all the statistics collated by the Regional
Library Systems is published by CONARLS. The statistical tables
are also published in the journal Interlending & Library Supply and
CONARLS gives a verbal presentation to the Library and
Information Co-operation Council (LING) (Huse & Sumsion 1995,
pp. 10, 15,31-32).
33
3.2.2 Statistics Collected for National Surveys
In 1977, a national survey of inter-library lending in the United
Kingdom was undertaken by the British Library Lending Division,
on behalf of the National Committee on Regional Library Co
operation (the predecessor to LING) (Huse & Sumsion 1995, p.?).
The published report was mainly concerned with the national
pattern, rather than regional differences (White 1986, p.1).
Between 1977 and 1984, many developments had occurred which
could have altered the pattern found in the first survey. It was
therefore decided that a second survey should be undertaken to
establish the current situation. The results were compared with
those obtained in the first survey, and also used to evauate the
influence of developments in technology, transport systems and co
operation. In the case of most of the variables investigated, the
pattern of inter-library loan activity had not altered significantly
since 1977. The survey also concluded that at that time
technological developments were having little affect (White 1986,
pp.1, 63-65).
Some of the 1985 findings pertaining to interlending activity in
academic libraries were as follows:
• Academic demand had remained at around half of all requests
between 1977 and 1985, with academic libraries being
responsible for approaching 60% of serial requests and around
40% of monograph requests. The 1985 figures showed the highest
demand came from university libraries (White 1986, pp.15-20).
• Sixty per cent of requests made by university and polytechnic
libraries were speculative (i.e. not checked for a location before an
application to a supplier was made) and in the case of those
requests that were checked, a location list was most heavily utilised
source of location information (White 1986, p.40).
34
• Polytechnic libraries relied most heavily on the postal services to
send requests, in contrast to university libraries which relied most
on telex. University libraries were responsible for 38% of
transmissions by automated systems and over half of those sent by
telefacsimile (which in 1985 was rarely utilised) (White 1986, p.46).
• Sixty-three per cent of the documents supplied by university
libraries were sent by the postal service, with the rest being
delivered by van services (White 1986, p.49).
3.2.3 Research Pertaining to Individual Libraries
There follows a review of research undertaken in libraries
throughout the United Kingdom, which involved the interpretation
of document supply statistics. The following cases were chosen to
give practical examples of the uses of statistics, as outlined in
section 3.1.1. Where cases illustrate more than one use of
statistics, this has been noted.
3.2.3.1 Measuring the Performance of an Existing Document
Supply Service
Statistics were used to measure the effectiveness of a local
interlending network service, Anglia Connect (Robbins 1994, pp.7-
10). The network allows direct access to the bibliographic records
of the Public Library authorities of Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk,
through the linked Geac sites of each authority. Using the system,
the status of inter-library loan requests can be checked and
available items reserved, thus removing speculative requests, and
hopefully improving supply times. According to the 1993 194
statistics of the Norfolk authority, it took 1.5 minutes to check and
reserve an item. In the same year, 59% of the requests made by
Norfolk staff involved the successful use of Anglia Connect. The
average supply time was found to be 12-14 days. These statistics
demonstrated that Anglia Connect was being successfully used in
the processing of a significant proportion of the authority's inter
library loan requests.
35
In 1986, the Newcastle -Upon -Tyne Polytechnic Library, undertook
a survey to determine the speed of supply for materials obtained
from the BLDSC, and to compare the performance of the two van
delivery schemes it utilised, one regional- and one university
based. Data on the time and date of receipt, the type of material
received and the mode of delivery were collected for 329 requests
sent to BLDSC during in a period of 3 weeks. The average supply
time was 5.9 days, with 51% of BLDSC satisfied items being
supplied within a week. Thus the Polytechnic Library compared
well with National Survey of 1985, receiving almost 20% more
items within one week than the National Survey suggested.
Periodicals and photocopied articles had an average supply time
of 5 days, with the average supply time for books being 7.2. days.
The transport scheme vans delivered 98% of the requested
materials. In terms of performance there was little difference
between the two schemes. It was found that:
... the NR LS van delivered 8% more items, but was an average
of 0.6 days slower per item than the university van. (Renwick
1987, p.120).
It was concluded that this survey would provide a baseline for
monitoring the performance of the existing service over time
(Renwick 1987, pp.118-21).
In September 1983, the British Library Lending Division performed
a survey to assess its ability to process the applications it received.
A sample consisting of one in four outgoing requests was made;
this included those which needed to be resubmitted and those that
the Division had failed to satisfy. Analysis showed that there had
been 'a gradual improvement in the overall percentage of requests
dealt with satisfactorily' (Merry & Palmer 1984, p.1 01). The number
of requests satisfied directly by the Lending Division had increased
and the number satisfied via backup libraries had declined. Since
1981, satisfaction levels for serial and monograph requests had
risen, although they had declined for conference requests. Thus,
the research could also be viewed as having highlighted a gap in
36
BLDSC holdings, which needed to be addressed (Merry & Palmer
1984, pp.1 01-1 02).
3.2.3.2 Determining the Affect of an Access Policy
In 1987, Burch and Davies (pp.84-87), investigated the assumption
that low acquisition levels led to more external borrowing. Data on
acquisitions and inter-library loan activity for the decade 1975/76
to 1984 1 85 was collected, using the annual reports of 12 libraries,
representing a range of types of university. To facilitate comparison
between acquisition and inter-library loan levels, the results
obtained were plotted on a series of graphs. In order to take
account of any special circumstances within the individual libraries,
which may have affected the findings, each librarian was shown
their library's results and asked for any further information. It was
concluded that there was 'no simple correlation between levels of
acquisitions and levels of interlibrary loans' (Burch & Davies 1987,
p.87). The statistics were affected by restrictions on the requesing
inter-library loans and by abnormally large intakes of books. The
morale of researchers and a reduction in research staff also
influenced the results (Burch & Davies 1987, pp.84-87). This
research was also investigating trends over time.
3.2.3.3 Establishing trends over time
In 1976, Roberts and Bull investigated some of the implications of
the increase in external borrowing by university libraries between
1960/61 and1972 173. The authors used figures from the annual
reports and statistical returns of 43 university libraries in England
and Wales to document the trend, and discussed its possible
causes and implications. During the academic year 1960 161,
lending exceeded borrowing in half of the university libraries
investigated. For the same year, an average of 1 600 items per
library were loaned and around 1 300 were borrowed. This was
compared to 1972 1 73, when more than 303 000 items were being
borrowed per library and around 105 000 items were being loaned.
Roberts and Bull estimated that around 80-85% of local demand
37
was currently being satisfied from universities libraries' own stock
compared with a 95% of local demand in the 1950s. The libraries
of London, Oxford and Cambridge were excluded from this
estimate. An investigation into the possible correlations between
the external borrowing of university libraries and the variables of
population, size of book stock and book expenditure proved
inconclusive (Roberts & Bull 1976, pp. 153-164).
3.2.3.4 User Needs and Identifying Gaps in Holdings
In 1973/74, a survey was undertaken within the Durham
University Library to investigate the interaction between readers
from the 12 departments in the science site and the Library's
science section. A total of 9 140 loans were analysed by the
department and status of the requester and by the type of material
requested. A typical distribution for science disciplines of 78%
periodicals to 22% books was found. The variations between
departments suggested that holdings in some subject areas could
be increased. The proportion of undergraduates utilising the
service during the survey was small. An analysis of the number of
loans to research students, according to their year of research,
showed that loans were high in the first year, therefore library skills
were required from the beginning of their studies, rather than
being acquired through the course. An analysis of loan renewals
showed the loan period to be adequate, except for 15% of theses.
Seventy per cent of renewals were made by research students.
However, despite the perceived adequacy of loan period, the users
were reluctant to return the item once their information need was
satisfied. A conclusion was made that user education was still
important (Woodward 1976, pp.271-277).
38
3.2.3.5 Evaluating the Performance of Alternative Services
In 1988, Charing Cross & Westminister Medical School Library
conducted an inter-library loan survey to investigate the ability of
suppliers other than the BLDSC to supply material not held by the
Library. The proportion of the journal requests made in 1987, which
could have been satisfied by four alternative libraries, was
analysed. Those libraries which were deemed able to supply a
signifcant percentage of the requests, were also assessed to
determine whether they were orientated towards large scale supply
and equipped to receive requests electronically or by fax. A
second survey was carried out in July I August 1988. All requests
for surrogate copies of journal articles were diverted from the
BLDSC to the two libraries that met the aforementioned criteria.
The results showed that the speed of service provided by the
BLDSC could not be improved upon. However, because of the
financial savings made by using the alternative suppliers, which
allowed the library to maintain its charge per request at £2.50, it
was decided to continue the experiment (Godbolt & Morrell 1989,
pp.168-169).
As part of an assessment of the ADONIS system, as regards its
potential application within the University of Wales College of
Medicine Library, the 1992 inter-library loan statistics for journal
requests were analysed, to determine the popularity of titles
covered by ADONIS. The findings were used to evaluate the
possible financial savings of installing ADONIS. Of the 3 035 titles
requested, 105 (3.4%) were held on ADONIS and 681 (11.6%) of
the 5864 articles requested were ADONIS titles. Using the cost of
a BL form as a guide, the potential cost of these requests was
estimated. It was calculated that the potential finanicial saving was
equal to the cost of buying 192 (3%) more ILLs from BLDSC, and
therefore it was decided the ILL service would not benefit
significantly from the installation of ADONIS. Other advantages and
disadvantages were discussed, and it was decided that at that
point in time ADONIS would not provide a better service than was
currently offered (Morris 1994, pp.39-50).
39
3.3 Conclusions
Despite the value of document delivery statistics in research, as
discussed in the first part of this chapter, a review of the research
which uses this tool, shows its utilisation by libraries in the United
Kingdom to be sparse. Statistics which are collected by the
regional bodies would increase in value, if further requirements
pertaining to their publication were estabilished. The last national
survey was undertaken over ten years ago. Only a few of the one
off investigations outlined above could be described as recent,
and even when the effort of collecting and analysing the statistics
has been made, there seems to be a reluctance to draw
conclusions based on the research. It could be argued that
recognition of the value of document supply statistics will increase
as access policies grow in importance.
40
CHAPTER 4: The Information Needs of Engineers
4.1 Introduction
The assumption that engineering is distinct from other disciplines,
and therefore the information needs of engineers are distinct from
the information needs of those involved in other disciplines, is
central to this study. This chapter will consider evidence drawn
from studies of the nature of engineering and from studies of
engineers' information needs, which support this assumption.
The focus will be on the distinction which can be drawn between
science and engineering. These two disciplines have often been
regarded as similar in the literature, so evidence of differences
between them makes a strong case for engineers being a distinct
group.
4.2 The Nature of Engineering
Engineering can be defined as:
... harnessing the forces of nature to the services of man .. [ by
creating) mechanical structures, mechanisms and systems which
perform prespecified functions with the maximum economy and
efficiency, by the use scientific principles ...
(Micheal Neale 1982, p.2)
This definition can lead to the assumption that engineering is
simply applied science, and that new developments in science
filter into the discipline of engineering, where they are used for
practical purposes (Sitz & Owen 1981, p.109). As a result of this
assumption, many studies in user needs have utilised populations
consisting of both scientists and engineers (Wilkin 1981, p.4-47).
However, it has been argued that engineering builds on its own
41
developments and usually relies only on science which has been
long accepted (Pinelli 1991, p.?). Therefore, user groups of
scientists and engineers are not the same, and combining them for
user studies can lead to conflicting results and problems in
developing plans for improving information services for either
discipline (Pinelli 1991, p.5).
4.3 Studies of the Information Needs of Engineers
This section reviews the findings of studies into engineers'
information needs and information use. Where comparable
information is available for scientists, this has been included. The
following aspects of information need and information use are
covered: the purpose for which the information is required; the
importance of informal information; the utilisation of library and
information services; the importance of published information
sources; the characteristics of the information used and the relative
importance of the different formats of published information.
4.3.1 The Purpose for Which the Information is Required
According to Slater and Fisher (1969, p.3), who compared the
information needs of users from 98 scientific and technical libraries
in the United Kingdom, engineers demonstrated the heaviest
demand for facts for immediate practical use. This was compared
to scientists, who had the heaviest demand for information which
was directly concerned with the core subject of their current work,
for the purposes of background reading and current-awareness. A
reflection of this difference was found in the relative amounts of
information and specific documents required. Engineers required
equal amounts of information and specific documents, where as
scientists had a higher demand for specific documents (Slater &
Fisher 1969, pp.4?-48).
42
Raitt (1985, pp.319-320) studied of the information-seeking and
using habits of scientists and engineers that were working in six
organisations: three national organisations geared towards space
research and exploration and three international research
organisations. Raitt's findings were similar to those of Slater and
Fisher, in that the engineers studied required day-to-day
information (suggesting information for immediate practical use),
which was directly related to the major projects in which they were
involved.
4.3.2 The Importance of Informal Information
Gilchrist (1983, p.45) remarked that although the tendency to
prefer informal oral contacts was not unusual, it was more
noticeable amongst engineers. Wood & Hamilton (1967, p.19)
found that mechanical engineers from various of industries used
oral communication to obtain much of their information.
Angell (1985, pp.i,3) undertook a survey of 1541 scientists and
engineers employed in UK industries, drawn from 5 professional
bodies, which included the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and
the Institution of Production Engineers. The survey showed that,
when a solution to a specific problem was being sought, work
colleagues were the most frequently employed source of
information. Work colleagues were also frequently used as a
source of background information and reference material (Angell
1985, p.47).
In a study examining information use and needs in the civil
engineering sector, Gilchrist (1983) also found that personal
contact was a dominant channel. This was true for both information
sought out for specific purposes relating to research, and for
information required to maintain current awareness. He argued that
engineers seemed to place less importance on information than
other professional groups, including scientists. He attributed this to
the greater pressure on scientists to publish papers, and to the
relatively slow rate of change, which characterises civil
43
engineering (Gilchrist 1983, pp.30-32, 44).
Shuchman (1985, pp.8, 167) analysed the responses of 1 300
engineers, employed in the disciplines of civil, electrical,
mechanical, industrial, environmental and aeronautical
engineering, from 89 firms throughout the United States. He found
that 60% of the respondents considered internal sources
(consultation with colleagues and supervisors and in-house
reports) "very important", and a further 32% thought them
"moderately important". The response was independent of the
respondents job activity, discipline or industry (Shuchman 1981,
p.171).
4.3.3 The Utilisation of Library and Information Services
The studies of Slater and Fisher (1969, pp.45-57), Angell (1985,
p.37) and Raitt (1985, p.320) all revealed that engineers used their
organisation's libraries less frequently than scientists.
Slater and Fisher found that engineers tended to try another
source before consulting the library within their organisation.
Similarly, Gilchrist (1983, p.30) found that the attitude that libraries
were to be used as a last resort, and then only if one had a clearly
formulated idea of what one required, was prevalent. However,
Slater and Fisher also discovered that engineers relied more on
assistance from librarians, and spent slightly longer searching for
information than scientists. Two additional interesting findings were
made in these studies. Slater and Fisher found that fewer
engineers than scientists claimed to employ a methodical strategy
when seeking information and according to Gilchrist (1983, p.32),
'libraries were regarded as a source of books not information' by
civil engineers.
44
According to Raitt (1985, p.320), libraries were seldom used for
conducting searches, but scientists conducted more searches
within their organisations' libraries than engineers. The problem of
required information being unavailable from their libraries was
experienced by almost three quarters of the respondents, but
especially by engineers in the international organisations.
4.3.4 The Importance of Published Literature
Previous user studies seem to conclude that engineers use
published work very much less than scientists or other research
workers (Angell 1985, p.53). Raitt (1985, p.322) stated that
engineers spent less time reading than scientists. When Wood and
Hamilton (1967, p.20) compared their survey results with those
from the ACPS survey of the information needs of chemists and
physicists, it was found that chemists and physicists placed more
importance written sources, including abstracts, than engineers.
Angell (1985, p.47) stated that the scientists in his sample rated
themselves frequent users of information sources more often than
did engineers, especially if the source was published. However,
the study revealed a number of exceptions to this observation.
Many more engineers than scientists utilised trade magazines to
locate background information. Also, more engineers than
scientists responded that they were frequent users of standards
and specifications (Angell 1985, pp.52-53).
Angell noted that above results contradicted some of the
conclusions drawn previously in the literature, in terms of the
relative importance of written sources and personal contacts. The
results showed, that although work colleagues were regarded as
the most important source, several written sources (e.g. technical
journals, books, trade magazines) were used by a considerable
number of scientists and engineers. Angell concluded that the
results of his survey did not support ' ... the view that published
sources are of secondary importance or the thesis that "engineers
don't read'" (Angell 1985, p.53).
45
4.3.5 The Characteristics of the Information Used
In his review of the literature on the user needs of engineers, Pinelli
(1991, pp.13-17) noted that engineers preferred to use the most
accessible sources, over less accessible sources known to be of a
higher quality. Accessibility has been shown to be the most
important factor in determining the amount of use an information
source receives. Evidence for this includes the fact that engineers
have been shown to favour communication with people within their
own organisation, in contrast to scientists who prefer to
communicate with people external to their organisation. The
tendency for engineers to prefer accessible information can also be
demonstrated in the context of printed sources. Pinelli highlighted
the importance of in-house reports and trade literature for
engineers, compared to the reliance by scientists on formal
literature. Gilchrist (1983, p.29) found that the engineers in his
investigation referred predominantly to sources located in the
workplace (e.g. codes of practice, trade literature and collections of
articles torn out of periodicals).
4.3.6 The Types of Literature Used
In the study by Shuchman (1981, pp.167-190), the respondents
were given a list of 30 information sources, which they were asked
to rate either as 'very important', 'moderately important' or
'unimportant'. The results were as follows:
• Texts (handbooks, tables and textbooks) were considered to be the
second most important source after internal information
(consultation with colleagues and supervisors, the use of in-house
reports). Texts were rated as 'very important' by 35% of
respondents. This opinion was not affected by the diSCipline or
work activity of the respondent.
• Sixty-five per cent of respondents regarded government sources
(standards, specifications and regulations) as their third most
important source.
46
• Approximately 60% of the respondents ranked sales material
(information gathered from manufacturers or sales representatives,
trade shows, catalogues and advertisements) as an important
source.
• Professional sources (information from university and research
organisations, dissertations, conference proceedings, external
technical reports, abstracting publications) were rated as
'important' by less than half of the respondents.
• Sixty-eight per cent of respondents rated market sources (trade
associations, patents and marketing services) as 'unimportant'.
Wood and Hamilton (1967) drew the following conclusions
concerning the use of literature. Although respondents perceived
scientific, technical and trade journals to be the sources they used
most frequently, the actual percentage who saw more 10 journals
regularly was only 12%. In contrast, 37% of respondents saw less
than 5 journals regularly. Foreign language journals were seldom
consulted, and only 47% of the respondents consulted abstracting
and indexing journals on a regular basis. Less than half of the
respondents, who consulted abstracting and indexing journals,
located a useful reference more than once a month. The majority
engineers were only light users of patents, reports and conference
proceedings. However, they were found to be heavy users of
handbooks and textbooks (Wood & Hamilton 1967, pp.4-19).
Slater and Fisher (1969, p.17) found a similar pattern, with
engineers using handbooks and databooks, standards and
specifications, more than scientists. Scientists were recorded as
being the heavier users of abstracting and indexing services and
of journals (Slater & Fisher 1969, p.51).
47
4.4 The Needs of the Groups Within Engineering
Even when the information needs of engineers are investigated
separately from the information needs of scientists, the possible
diversity of the sample of engineers must be considered. Factors
which could effect the information needs of a sample, consisting
only of engineers, include: the discipline in which they work (e.g.
civil engineering, mechanical engineering), the industry in which
they employed (e.g. chemicals, metals), the activity in which they
are involved (e.g. research, testing, design) and the level of
qualifications they hold (Wilkin 1981, p.4-47).
A researcher must ask themself, whether results obtained in one
study, concerned with the information needs of a certain population
of engineers, can feasibly claim to accurately represent the
information needs of other populations of engineers. If there are
differences in the composition of the populations being considered,
the results obtained may not be able to be applied in this way. This
depends on whether the variables, in which the populations differ,
are known to affect what is being investigated. There follows a
discussion of whether two variables, discipline and work activity,
affect information needs.
4.4.1 The Needs of Different Engineering Disciplines
. Slater & Fisher (1969, pp. 53-54) found that variable of discipline
made little difference in their studies. Their sample consisted of 321
civil engineers, 478 electrical engineers and 359 mechanical
engineers. When selected engineering and scientific disciplines
were analysed in detail, the results obtained resembled the pattern
shown by the discipline'S respective parent group. However, the
engineering disciplines varied less, in respect to the pattern shown
by their parent group, than the scientific disciplines.
48
However, Shuchman (1981, p.8), whose sample was drawn from
six disciplines: civil, electrical, mechanical, industrial,
environmental and aeronautical engineering, found that the
literature used by an engineer was dependent on their discipline.
When respondents were asked to rate various information sources
as either 'very important', 'moderately important' or 'unimportant',
the responses appeared to depend on the discipline of the
engineer. For instance, texts were considered 'very important' by
44% of mechanical engineers, compared to 26% of aeronautical
engineers. Of all the disciplines, civil engineers rated government
sources the most highly, ranking them equal to texts in importance.
Seventy per cent of mechanical engineers and electrical engineers
regarded sales information as 'important', in contrast to the majority
of aeronautical engineers who considered it 'unimportant'.
(Shuchman 1981, pp.174-181).
Using these examples, it could be argued that the results obtained
from one study could still have benefits, if used in the investigation
of the information needs of other populations of engineers, even if
the populations differed in terms of discipline. However, as
discipline can have an affect on information needs, the benefits
would increase if the results obtained from such a study were
broken down by discipline. This allows any application of the
results, to other populations of engineers, to be done so that the
populations are matched in terms of discipline.
4.4.2 The Needs of Engineers Involved in Different Work
Activities
A question which is particularly relevant to this study concerns the
work activity in which an engineer is involved. It must be
considered whether studies, which predominantly deal with the
information needs of industrial engineers, can be justifiably
applied to engineers working in a university environment. The
information requirements of engineers vary widely according to the
nature of their work; 'the research engineer who is involved with
theoretical information and the concept of pure sciences· has 'totally .. \
49
different needs to those of the design engineer. .. ' (Gessesse 1994,
p.343).
There have been studies showing the importance of the
engineer's work environment, as opposed to their discipline.
Robertson (1974, pp.384-389) investigated transcripts of five taped
diaries, recording the information-seeking events of a group of
scientists and engineers. There was a noticeable similarity
between the information-seeking patterns recorded by the two
subjects who were research academics, despite one being a
metallugurist and the other an electronic engineer.
Wood and Hamilton (1967) also found that the type of activity an
engineer was involved in was the most important determinant of
that individual's information needs and use, when compared with
industry and discipline. According to Wood & Hamilton:
... those working in the production side of industry are less
dependent on written information of the academic type and rely
more on oral communication and on compilations of data, such as
handbooks, data sheets ...
(Wood & Hamilton 1967, pp.19, 21)
Researchers and teachers were heavy users of scientific and
technical journals, textbooks, abstract journals, review journals and
reports. However, engineers whose work involved testing,
maintenance and design were the primary users of data sheets,
handbooks, standards and trade journals (Wood & Hamilton 1967,
p.4).
50
Wood and Hamilton (1967, p.21) found that the pattern of
information need and use shown by engineers, whose primary
activity was research, resembled that shown by physicists and
chemists, also involved in research, more closely than the overall
pattern obtained for mechanical engineers. In a review of the
literature, Pinelli (1991, pp.15-16) discussed research of Herner
who found that:
... researchers performing "basic or academic' work duties make
greater use of formal information channels and sources, depend
mainly on the library for their published material and maintain a
significant number of contacts outside of the organization.
Researchers performing "applied or industry" duties make greater
use of informal channels or sources, depend on their personal
collections of information and colleagues for information, make
significantly less use of the library than do their counterparts,
maintain fewer contacts outside of the organization.
(Pinelli 1991, pp.15-16)
In the light of the above studies, it would be simple to say that
populations of engineers working in industry cannot be compared
with those engineers working in a university environment.
However, the situation that existed in Wood and Hamilton's 1967
survey, where most people working in university environments
were involved in research or teaching, is changing. Llull (1991,
pp.S3-S6) discusses the implications of universities increasingly
functioning as research and development centres for government
and industry. In addition to the traditional disciplinary departments,
university campuses now possess non-diSCiplinary, technology
orientated units. Such units undertake R&D, for which the
disciplinary departments are not equipped, and also seek to further
relations with clients and other R&D establishments. The
information needs of those working on grants and contracts may
resemble those of engineers working in industry more closely, than
they resemble the information needs of those involved in traditional
university-based research.
51
4.5 Conclusions
This chapter shows that engineering is distinct from other
disciplines. Evidence of this has been provided by the examination
of the nature of engineering, and by research into the information
needs and use of engineers. Studies which have investigated the
information needs and use of engineers have attributed particular
characteristics to engineers as a group. The fact that engineers
have distinct characteristics means they must be studied separately
from other disciplines in order, for any research concerning their
information needs and use to be valuable.
The chapter also highlights the fact that although research based
on the information needs and use of engineers as a group is
valuable, consideration should be given to the composition of the
population being studied, as factors such as the discipline in which
they work, the activity in which they are involved and the industry in
which they employed can affect the results. The value of research
into information needs and use is enhanced, if the results obtained
from such a study are broken down in terms of such variables as
discipline and activity. Following such practices allows research to
have a wider application, as it can justifiably be used to predict the
information needs and use of populations of engineers, which have
similar compositions to that of the population used in the research.
Studies which break down their results are also of greater value,
when measures are being developed for improving information
services in engineering.
52
CHAPTER 5: Methodology
5.1 Introduction
In this study, data on the making and satisfaction of inter-library
loan requests were used to obtain a picture of information needs
and provision for members of Loughborough University, whose
discipline is engineering. In order to provide a comparison,
information needs and provision across the University were also
examined, using inter-library loan statistics generated monthly by
the inter-library loans section of the Pilkington Library. All data
collection was undertaken within the inter-library loans section of
the Pilkington Library.
5.2 The Collection of Data on the Requesting of Inter-library
Loans by Engineers
Those inter-library loan statistics which are generated on a monthly
basis by the inter-library loan section's automated management
system, contain no detailed analyses by department. Only the
volume of requests received across the University is broken down
by requesting department. For this reason, the inter-library loan
request cards, which are stored within the section, were used to
obtain raw data on the requesting habits of engineers. All the cards
for inter-library loan requests made between the dates 01-10-95
and 31-03-96 were manually checked. The date on which the
request was made was taken to be the date given on the card, as
part of the copyright declaration. The decision to use data from this
particular time period was made for the following reasons:
53
• Six months of requests would provide a large volume of data,
which in turn should produce valuable statistical analysis.
• The period October-March contains the smallest vacation in the
academic calendar (e.g. Christmas). It was therefore felt that this
time period would be the least affected by decreased request
levels during vacations.
• The time period chosen would provide the most current data,
without consisting of too many requests which were still pending.
The details of requests were recorded from cards which had been
completed by members of the following departments: aeronautical
and automotive engineering and transport studies (AAETS);
chemical engineering; civil and building engineering; electronic
and electrical engineering; manufacturing engineering and
mechanical engineering. The details recorded were as follows:
• The ID of the request These were used at a later stage to access individual records on
the inter-library loans management system.
• The department of the requester
Requesters were recorded as being members of one of the
engineering departments given above. Requests made by
members of the Water, Engineering and Development Centre
(WEDC) were recorded as part of the demand from the department
of civil and building engineering. If a request was made by a
member of any of the aforementioned departments, for an item
which had been lost from the Pilkington Library's holdings, this was
included.
54
• The academic status of the requester
Requesters were recorded as being either staff, research student,
postgraduate (meaning an individual on a postgraduate course
with a taught element, as opposed to an individual studying for a
higher degree which is based purely on research) and
undergraduate. Those requests on which the requester was
described as external to the department were discounted.
• The type of material requested
For approximately the first 230 requests, the full reference for the
requested item was recorded, in order to determine what
categories could best be used to describe the types of material
requested. Thereafter the material requested was defined as either
serial, conference proceedings, book, report or thesis. If there was
uncertainty as to how the material should be categorised, its full
reference was noted so that further investigations could be made
into its nature.
• The Source from Which the Bibliographic Reference was
Taken
This was not given in all cases. The title of the source was recorded
in full, so that it could be categorised at a later stage.
5.2.1 The Categorisation of the Data Collected on the
Requesting of Inter-library Loans by Engineers
Some of the data from the cards was already divided into
categories which could be used in the study (e.g. academic grade
was divided into staff, research student etc.). However, some of the
data required decisions to be taken as to how it should be divided.
55
Due to the difficulty experienced with some cases in determining
what type of material had been requested, the type of material
given on the section's Lancaster ILL Management System was
used to standardise the type of material recorded. In some cases
this information was unavailable on the system, because the
requested item had not yet been received, and there was
uncertainty as to how to categorise the type of material requested
using the details given on the inter-library loan request card. In this
situation, an attempt was made to determine the type of material
requested, by checking the Index of Conference Proceedings,
Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory and the CD-ROM,
Global Books in Print..
The nature of certain sources of bibliographic reference, which
were given on the cards, was investigated and a categorisation
scheme was devised containing the divisions: BIDS datasets,
OCLC FirstSearch, CD-ROM, hardcopy, organisation, World Wide
Web (www) and miscellaneous. The 'organisation' category refers
to requests where the name of a university, research centre,
representative body or publisher was given; it also includes those
requests where an organisation's library or library catalogue was
cited as the source of the bibliographic reference. The 'BIDS
datasets' category includes all those requests where the BIDS
Compendex, BIDS ISI or BIDS Embase databases were cited as
the source of the bibliographic reference, also included are those
requests where the source was simply cited as 'BIDS'. The
'miscellaneous' category included the following: requests where
online access to a commercial database was mediated by a
librarian; requests where a source was given, but could not be
identified; 1 request where 'verbal information' was cited as the
source and 1 request where the bibliographic information was
stored on a computer disc. The 'hardcopy' category included both
printed databases and individual publications, such as research
papers and books.
56
The locations of the sources of bibliographic reference were
established either by checking on the Pilkington Library OPAG, in
the case of hardcopy sources, or inquiring with the librarians, in the
case of the electronic sources. When the source was simply cited
as 'paper'( i.e. the reference was found in a research paper), the
location was categorised as 'unknown'. When the source had been
categorised as 'organisation', the location was categorised as
'external'.
5.3 The Collection of Data on the Outcome of Inter-library
Loan Requests Made by Engineers
Data was collected on the outcome of one out of five of all the
previously recorded requests, using the Lancaster ILL
Management System. To obtain the required information, the
archive file was checked first. This file contains all the completed
requests, and therefore held the majority of the requests with which
this study was concerned. Any request ID not available in the
archive file was searched for in the pending file, using the browse
option (Leeves 1991, pp.55-60). This file contains those requests
that are yet to be supplied, and those requests where the original
material had been supplied but had not at that time been returned
to the supplying organisation. The following details were recorded:
• The date when the Pilkington Library applied for an
inter-library loan
When collecting this data, it became apparent that the dates on
which the Pilkington Library applied for requests would provide
more accurate dates on which to begin and end the sample, than
the dates on which users made requests. This is because a user
can complete an inter-library loan card, but delay handing it into
the inter-library loans section, causing the document delivery
process to be delayed. Therefore, the sample was adjusted so that
it covered requests for which applications were made to supplying
libraries between 01-10-95 and 31-03-96.
57
• The status of the request
Requests were recorded as being either pending, received or
cancelled. The ILL management system categorised requests for
which an original item had been lent but not returned as pending.
However, for the purpose of this study, such requests were
categorised as 'received'.
• The date the requested material was received
This applied only for received items.
• The format in which the requested material was received
Received items were recorded as being either loanable (e.g.
received as original items meant for return to the supplying
organisation) or disposable (e.g. supplied as a photocopy for the
retention of the requester)
• The supplier of the request
This applied only for received items. It became apparent that
BLDSC supplied the majority of items and that no other
organisation supplied requests in more than one case. Thus, items
were defined as being supplied by either BLDSC or 'other'.
• The nature of the cancellation
This applied only for cancelled requests.
5.3.1 The Collection of Data on the Cancellation of Inter
library Loan Requests Made by Engineers
The nature of the cancellation was determined by using function
keys to display additional information relating to the request, which
is held on the ILL management system in the notes, notifications
and letters and report history screens (Leeves 1991, p.55). It was
decided to categorise the reasons for cancellation as follows:
58
• Cancelled automatically, unanswered request for
information
These were cases where a standard letter for further information
was the sent to the user, but no reply was received. Such cases
were cancelled automatically after 6 weeks.
• Not in stock I unavailable for loan
These were cases where the library, to which an application was
made, could not provide the material requested because it was
unavailable for loan or it was not held by the library.
• Cancelled automatically, alternate service offered
These were cases where the library applied to could not provide
the material requested, but offered an alternative service. The
alternative services offered included: offers to photocopy one
particularly wanted article from a serial or conference proceedings
or to purchase the material requested.
• Reference misquoted by the user
• Cancelled by reader
5.4 The Basic Analysis of the Data Collected on Inter-library
Loan Requests Made by Engineers
SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) for Windows
was used to analyse the raw data collected. Before data was
entered into the data file, numerical values were assigned to
represent the data recorded in text form (e.g. serial =1). Tables
were created showing frequency counts, percentages and totals for
the following:
• The number of requests arising from each type of source of
bibliographic reference
59
• The number of requests arising from sources held by the Pilkington
Library and the number arising from sources held external to the
Pilkington Library
• The number of requests made for each type of material
• The number of requests made by engineers from each department
and each academic grade
• The number of requests made for each type of material, arising
from each type of source of bibliographic reference
• The number of requests made by engineers from each department
and each academic grade, arising from each type of source of
bibliographic reference
• The number of requests for each type of material, requested by
engineers from each department and each academic grade
• The number of requests which had been supplied, the number
which had been cancelled and the number pending supply
• The number of requests being supplied by BLDSC and the
number being supplied by other libraries
• The median and mean time of supply in days, for each type of
material requested, for requests from each department and for
requests from each academic grade
• The number of requests received as photocopies and the number
lent as original texts
• The number of requests made for each type of material, which were
received as photocopies and the number which were lent as the
original texts
• The number of requests being cancelled for a each reason
60
5.5 The Statistical Analysis of Data on Inter-library Loan
Requests Made by Engineers
Before any further analysis was undertaken, frequency counts
concerned with the requesting of inter-library loans by academic
grades and engineering departments were weighted. This was to
remove any variation resulting from differences in the numbers of
engineers within those departments or academic grades.
Weighted figures were obtained by dividing the appropriate
frequency count by the number of engineers within the relevant
department or academic grade, to obtain a figure representing the
number of requests made per engineer in that department or
academic grade. Statistics on the number of engineers within the
departments and within the academic grades were taken from
Loughborough University's Statistical Digest April 1996. Data was
taken from the following tables: Table 1: Registered Student
Population 1995-96: Mode and Level of Study (p.?); Table
1 (supplement ): Registered Student Population 1995-96: 'Other'
Category from Table 1 (p.8) and Table 42: Staff Numbers (as at
March 1996) (p.58). When calculating staff numbers only the
numbers for academic, academic related staff and the numbers for
contract researchers were used.
Chi -squared tests were manually applied to the establish whether
there were significant relationships between the following:
• The type of source of bibliographic reference from which the
request arose and the type of material requested
• The type of source of bibliographic reference from which the
request arose and the discipline of the requester
• The type of source of bibliographic reference from which the
request arose and th;#Qademic grade of the requester
• The type of material requested and the academic grade of the . , \
requester ,
61
• The type of material requested and the discipline of the requester
The tests were undertaken manually, because the weighted figures
were used rather than the frequency counts generated by SPSS.
In order to try to obtain expected scores over or equal to 5 certain
categories were combined together. The categories of 'www',
'organisation' and 'miscellaneous' were combined, when the
variable 'source of bibliographic reference' was used. The
categories of 'thesis' and 'report' were combined, when the
relationship between the type of material requested and the
discipline of the requester, and the type of material requested and
the academic grade of the requester were investigated. Despite
combining the above categories, the expected scores were too low
to produce valid results. Therefore, the results of the
chi -squared tests are not documented in this study.
5.6 The Analysis of the Statistics on Inter-library Loan
Requests Made Across Loughborough University
The inter-library loan statistics generated by the Lancaster ILL
Management System were used to obtain information on inter
library loan activity across Loughborough University. The statistics
generated for the months October '95 to March '96 were used,
because they covered the same time period as the data collected
on inter-library loan activity arising from the engineering
departments. The statistics deal with the number of items received,
rather than the number of items requested. The following statistics
were calculated:-
• The percentage of received items supplied by BLDSC
• The percentage of received items for each type of material
• The percentage of received items requested by each academic /',
grade "
62
• The percentage of received items supplied as loans and the
percentage supplied as photocopies
• The average supply time
• The average supply time for each type of material and for items
received by requesters from each academic grade
63
CHAPTER 6: Results and Discussion
6.1 Introduction
This chapter outlines, using tables, figures and descriptive
summaries, the statistics which were derived from the raw data
collected for this study. It also discusses their possible causes and
their implications for the development of improved services for
engineers within Loughborough University. As far possible the
order of the sections within the chapter reflect the order of the
stages within the document supply process.
6.2 The Location of the Source of the Bibliographic Reference
In this study, the characteristics of 1859 engineering requests,
which were made in the 6 months between October '95 and March
'96, were analysed. The sources of the bibliographic references on
which requests were based was given in 37% (688) of the
engineering requests. Of these 37%: 86.3% of the sources were
available in the Pilkington Library. The sources available in the
Pilkington Library included online and CD-ROM databases which
could be accessed from terminals within the Library. Only in 8.0%
of the requests was a source external to the Pilkington Library
given. Most of external sources were in fact acts of communication
with other organisations, and no particular external source
predominated.This could be taken to indicate that there are no
gaps in the Pilkington Library's coverage of sources of
bibliographic reference, which need to be addressed. However, for
63% of cases no source was given, despite the assumption that
every request must have arisen from some source. Therefore, the
possibility must be considered that in some of these unrecorded
cases, the source used might have been external. Also, a user may
desire to have access to other sources, which were not accessible
64
to them, even outside the Pilkington Library, when they made their
request. For 5.7% of the requests no location could be established.
It cannot be assumed that if a source is available within the
Pilkington Library, it is only available there. Hardcopy sources may
also be available within the engineering departments and
electronic sources may be accessible on terminals external to the
Pilkington Library. In fact, the presence of a source within a
department can increase the utilisation of that source, because it
may be deemed more accessible by some users. A survey could
be conducted into the coverage of sources of bibliographic
references by the engineering departments. Such a study might
help account for variations in the use of sources across the
departments.
6.3 The Sources of Bibliographic Reference Used by Engineers
The distribution of the sources utilised, in the 37% of cases where
the source of bibliographic reference was given, is shown in Figure
1.
Figure 1 : The Sources of Bibliographic Reference Used by
Engineers (as a percentage of the total number of requests where
a source was given)
65
• BIDS Datasets 53.3%
III Hardcopy 1 9.5%
!]lCO-ROM 13.1%
El OCLC FirstSearch 8.9%
II1II Organisation 2.0%
m Miscellaneous 1.7%
!]lwww 1.5%
The use of online services, which are accessed by the end-user,
significantly exceeded the use of CD-ROM or hardcopy sources.
This remains the case even when OCLC FirstSearch is excluded
from the analysis. In fact, the BIDS datasets, accounted for over half
of all the requests for which a source was given, which shows the
datasets' popularity as a source of bibliographic reference. The use
of online services, where access is mediated through a librarian,
accounted for the source of reference in only 4 cases. Mediated
online access was recorded in the 'miscellaneous' category. The
'miscellaneous' category also included the following: 4 requests
where a source was given, but could not be identified; 1 request
where 'verbal information' was cited as the source and 1 request
where the bibliographic information was stored on a computer disc.
It is interesting to note the use of the World Wide Web as a source
of bibliographic reference, this a probably a recent development
and may increase over time.
The fact that the source of the bibliographic reference was given in
only 37% of cases may have led to a distorted picture of the
sources utilised by engineers being obtained. Although one can
assume that every request has a source, in many cases the
information searching event is performed subconsciously, for
example, a researcher may find a reference in a paper they are
reading. Such acts are less likely to be recorded than those
involving more effort, such as the searching of an electronic
database. Thus the perceived popularity of certain electronic
databases compared to hardcopy sources may be exaggerated.
Another difficulty in measuring the use of the BIDS datasets arose
from requesters citing the source as 'BIDS', rather than specifically
'BIDS Compendex' or 'BIDS ISI'. It was decided that a separate
analysis of the use of the different datasets was not feasible, partly
for this reason, and partly because in some instances the use of the
specific datasets was too small to allow statistical analysis. In an
analysis of those requests where a specific "BIDS dataset was
recorded BIDS Compendex accounted for 77.8% of the requests,
BIDS ISI for 17.7% and BIDS Embase for 4.4%. This suggests that
66
BIDS Compendex probably accounts for the greatest proportion of
BIDS utilisation.
It would have been useful, if the hardcopy category had been
divided into those cases where a printed abstract and indexing
service was used, and those where the source was a printed
document. This would have allowed a direct comparison to be
made between the use of printed and electronic databases.
There are several factors which could account for the variations in
source utilisation. One is the extent to which a source's coverage
relates to engineering or specific engineering disciplines. This is
difficult to determine, as in many of the categories several sources
with different coverage have been grouped together. In a
comparison of the literature made available to the users of the
various databases, the BIDS datasets seem to offer the most
relevant coverage, as BIDS Compendex covers all the major
engineering disciplines. Amongst the CD-RaMs on offer are Civil
Engineering and Software Abstracts and Inspec, which includes
electrical engineering references. However, the remaining
relevant CD-RaMs state their coverage to include technical and
applied science references, rather than mentioning engineering
specifically. The coverage OCLC FirstSearch is also broad, rather
than relating specifically to engineering. Other factors which could
account for the variation in source use include the extent to which
the sources are publicised by the library and the engineering
departments, the accessibility of the source (Le. can the source
only be used in the library or is it available outside the library,
either in printed form or through a terminal) and the ease of use of
the source. The affect of these factors could only be assessed
through further studies.
The findings outlined above would support a decision to continue
subscribing to BIDS Compendex.
In following sections concerned with the utilisation of bibliographic
sources, the miscellaneous category also includes the requests
arising from organisations and the World Wide Web.
6?
6.4 The Types of Material Requested by Engineers
The number of requests made by members of the engineering
departments, compared with the number of requests received by
the whole of Loughborough University, over the same six month
period, can be seen in Table 1.
Table 1: The Types of material requested by engineers compared
to the whole of the University over the same six month period
Type of Requested by Received Material Engineering % Across the
University %
Serials SS.S 6S.7 Conference Proceedings 26.2 13.2 Reports 9.4 S.2 Books 8.2 13 Theses 0.7 2.9
Over half the engineering requests were for serials and over a
quarter were for conference proceedings. Requests for reports and
books both accounted for under 10% of the demand. This does not
reflect the findings of previous research into the use of different
types of material by engineers. According to previous studies,
books were regarded as important sources and were used fairly
frequently, but conference proceedings were not regarded as
important and were used infrequently (Shuchman 1981, p.174,
187; Wood & Hamilton 1967, p.4). Neither do these results support
the theory that engineering relies upon scientific knowledge which
has been long accepted (Pinelli 1991, p.7). The results of this study
seem to indicate a need for information relating to recent
developments. The variation between the findings of this study and
those of previous studies are probably due to differences in the
work activity of the subjects. The majority of the subjects in the
previous research were involved in practical activities, where as
the engineers in this study are predominantly involved in research
and teaching. A study by Wood and Hamilton (1967), which
documented the affect that engineers' work activity has on their
information needs, supports the above findings. According to their
68
research, engineers whose work activity was classed as research
or teaching, used mainly scientific and technical journals, textbooks
and reports. However, those whose work activity was classed as
production, maintenance or design were heavier users of oral
communication, data sheets, standards and handbooks (Wood &
Hamilton 1967, p.4).
The differences between the findings of this study and those of
previous studies could have resulted because the results of this
study do not represent the complete information needs of the
engineers studied, but only those information needs which are not
met by the Pilkington Library. The engineers in this study may use
data sheets, standards and handbooks, but not obtain them
through the document supply service. This may because these
materials are held by the Pilkington Library or are required only for
a single piece of information to answer a specific question. In the
later case, the document supply service may be thought too slow
or expensive, and the requester may resort to other sources of
supply.
The different types of material requested by engineers and
received by the whole University were analysed, using chi-square.
The value of X 2 was found to be significant at the 0.001 level (X2
=246. 719 df= 4). Therefore, it can be concluded that the
distributions of the types of material requested by engineers and
received by the whole University differ significantly. A comparison
suggests that engineers have a greater need for conference
proceedings and reports, than is found in the general University
population. The feasibility of this comparison must be questioned,
as it compares 'requests made' with 'items received'. This arose
because the inter-library loan statistics for the University, which are
generated by the Lancaster ILL Management System, dealt only
with the number of items received not the number of requests
made. However, if the number of requests made by engineers is
adjusted to take account of the numbers of cancellations
associated with each type of material, the same variations are still
apparent. These variations may result from the information needs
69
of users who are not involved in technical subjects, but in the
humanities. Users involved in the later may have less of a
requirement for information on current developments, because
their fields change less rapidly than engineering. Thus, users
involved in humanities may rely less on conference proceedings
but more books. Reports may not represent a large proportion of
the literature for the humanities.
The above findings have implications should the Pilkington Library
decide to focus on improving the service it offers to engineers. The
results suggest that any service which is targeted at engineers
needs to exhibit a specific competence in the provision of
conference proceedings and reports, in addition to the expected
good performance in the provision of serials. Improvements could
include: increasing the holdings of conference proceedings and
reports pertaining to engineering, within the Pilkington Library,
providing sources of bibliographic references which offer a good
coverage of conference proceedings and reports, and offering
document supply services which show a good performance in the
supply of conference proceedings and reports.
6.5 The Relationship Between Source of the Bibliographic Reference Used and the Type of Material Requested
This section considers the relationship between the type of material
requested and the nature of the source of the bibliographic
reference which enabled that request to be made. Section 6.5.1
examines which sources gave rise to requests for particular types
of material. Section 6.5.2 examines the extent to which specific
sources led to the requesting of different types of material.
70
6.5.1 Sources of Bibliographic Reference Used in Requesting
Particular Types of Material
The pattern of source utilisation which led to the requesting of
particular types of material can be seen in Figure 2.
The pattern of source utilisation which led to serial and conference
proceedings requests was very similar. For both types of material,
the BIDS databases were the predominant source of bibliographic
reference, accounting for around 60% of requests in each case.
The BIDS datasets were followed, in both cases, by hardcopy and
CD-ROM sources. Hardcopy sources received a similar amount of
use to CD-ROM sources, in the requesting of both serials and
conference proceedings. OCLC FirstSearch gave rise to a very
small percentage of requests for serials and conference
proceedings.
In contrast, the majority of requests for reports and books came
from hardcopy sources, and around 20% of book and report
requests came from the use of OCLC FirstSearch. The BIDS
datasets and CD-ROM sources were the least used of the
bibliographic reference sources for reports and books.
71
Figure 2: The Utilisation of Sources of Bibliographic Reference Which
Led to Requests for Particular Types of Material
Serials
.BIDS 62.9%
11 Hardcopy 13.2%
ml CD-ROM 13.4%
[] OClC FirstSearch 7.3%
I11III Miscellaneous 3.2%
Books
.BIDS 2.8%
11 Hardcopy 41.7%
ml CD-ROM 11.1 %
D OClC FirstSearch 19A%
I11III Miscellaneous 25%
72
Conference Proceedings
.BIDS 58.5%
I11III Hardcopy 17.6%
Iill1l CD-ROM 14.2%
El OClC FirstSearch 6.3%
I11III Miscellaneous 3.4%
Reports
.BIDS 8.2%
11 Hardcopy 50.8%
Iill1l CD-ROM 8.2%
D OClC FirstSearch 21.3%
11 Miscellaneous 11.5%
6.5.2 The Utilisation of Particular Bibliographic Sources
in the Requesting of Different Types of Material
The extent to which certain sources of bibliographic reference
gave rise to requests for different types of material can be seen in
Figure 3.
The use of the BIDS datasets led predominantly to serial requests,
followed by requests for conference proceedings. The same was
true for requests arising from CD-ROM sources. Hardcopy sources
and OCLC FirstSearch databases showed more diversity in the
requests they generated. Serials still accounted for the largest
proportion of requests, but reports and conference proceedings
both accounted for around a fifth of requests arising from the
utilisation of either source. For both sources, books accounted for
approximately 11 % of the requests arising from their use. The
similar pattern shown by hardcopy sources and OCLC FirstSearch
has two possible implications. Firstly, even though OCLC
FirstSearch and hardcopy sources received comparatively low
usage, they may be providing an important service for particular
groups of engineers, who need other materials in addition to
serials and conference proceedings. Another implication is that an
electronic source of bibliographic information, such as OCLC
FirstSearch, could be a substitute for hardcopy sources.
The variations shown by 4 types of bibliographic sources result
from differences in their coverage. The BIDS datasets consist
mainly of serial and conference proceedings references, where as
OCLC FirstSearch's coverage includes a significant number of
books and reports. However, the influence of a source's coverage
on user behaviour must be considered. It could be argued that
users, who want a specific piece of information, give a low priority
to what type of material holds that information. The decision to use
a particular source may be driven more by the ease-of-use or
accessibility associated with that source, than its ability to provide
the desired information in a particular format. Thus,;the type of
material requested may give an indication of w~ahsour.ces were
73
used, rather than what the requester actually needed. The
implication of this is that requesters must be aware of, and be
able to access and use, the full range of sources available, as only
then can they make a decision as to which source is most suited to
meeting their needs. This highlights the importance of user
education by librarians. There may be case for furthering user
education as regards OCLC FirstSearch, to ensure engineers are
aware that electronic access to bibliographic references for reports,
books and theses is available, if they have an information need for
these materials.
This analysis of the relationship between the source of the
bibliographic reference used and the type of material requested
suggests that the Plkington Library should maintain its subscription
to OCLC FirstSearch, as well as BIDS Compendex, and consider
aiming to increase user awareness of the former.
74
Figure 3: The Distribution of Requests for Different Types of
Material Arising from the Utilisation of Particular Bibliographic
Sources
BIDS
• Serials 70.3%
III Conference Procs 28.1 %
mBooks 0.3%
[] Reports 1.4%
II1II Theses 0%
'CD-ROM
• Serials 61.1%
I'll Conference Procs 27.8%
00 Books 4.4%
ill Reports 5.6%
I11III Theses 1.1 %
75
Hardcopy
• Serials 40.3%
I'll Conference Procs 23.1 %
IillITI Books 11.2%
[JReports 23.1%
I11III Theses 2.2%
OCLC FirstSearch
• Serials 49.2%
III Conference Procs 18.0%
ffiilll Books 11.5%
D Reports 21.3%
III Theses 0%-
6.6 The Volume of Demand Compared for all Academic Grades
The volume of material requested by engineers and received by
the whole of Loughborough University, analysed by the academic
grade of the requester, can be seen in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Requests Made by Engineers and Received by the whole
of Loughborough University, Analysed by the Academic Grade of
the Requester
Requested by Engineers Received Across the University
• Research Student III Staff Iillill Undergraduate 0 Postgraduate
Requests from research students accounted for almost half of the
demand from engineers. Over a quarter of engineering requests
were made by staff and a fifth were made by undergraduates.
Postgraduate requests constituted only a small proportion of the
demand from engineers. When the demand from engineers was
calculated on a requests per individual basis, to account for
variations in the size of the different academic groups,
postgraduates were shown to be heavier requesters than at first
thought (Table 2).
76
Table 2: Requests Made by Engineers, Analysed by the Number of
Requests Made per Individual Within an Academic Grade
Academic Requests per Grade of the Individual Requester
Research Student 2.8 Staff 1.3 Postgraduate 0.17 Undergraduate 0.15
These variations in demand could be directly related to proportion
of time a particular academic grade spends on research. Research
students are usually involved in a long period of intense research
in one specific area. Such projects often require exhaustive
coverage of the literature pertaining to the area studied, and
therefore necessitate the utilisation of a document delivery service.
In many cases, a large proportion of staff time is devoted to
administrative duties and teaching, thus leaving them with less time
available for research. This may result in them making fewer
requests for document supply, than research students.
Postgraduate and undergraduate courses involve only one,
relatively short, period of research. The remaining time is spent
attending lectures and doing assessments, which are based
around materials held by the Pilkington Library. Therefore,
postgraduates and undergraduates have little need to utilise the
document supply service. Another reason for the variations could
be that postgraduates and undergraduates have shorter deadlines
associated with the work they are researching, and therefore feel
that the wait involved with document delivery makes it infeasible for
them to use the service.
In view of the link between the proportion of time an engineer
spends on research and the demand they place on the document
supply service, the Pilkington Library might decide to focus its
document supply service on meeting the information needs of
research students and staff, rather than aiming to increase the use
of the service by postgraduates and undergraduates. However,
77
such a decision will be taken mainly on the basis of Library policy,
A comparison between the demands of engineers and the
demands of the University as a whole suggests that proportionally
less staff, but proportionally more research students and
undergraduates, made requests within engineering community
than across the University. As with the comparison of the types of
material requested by engineers and received by the whole
University, the feasibility of this comparison can be questioned,
because it compares 'requests made' with 'items received'.
However, a comparison of 'requests made' with 'items received' is
still of value, due to the relatively small number of requests which
are cancelled.
6.7 The Relationship between the Academic Grade of the Requester and the Type of Material Requested
6.7.1
This section summarises statistics describing the relationship
between a requester's academic grade and the type of material
they requested. This relationship is examined from two angles.
Section 6.7.1 examines the extent to which particular types of
material are requested by individuals from different academic
grades. Section 6.7.2 examines the types of material that are
requested by individuals who belong to particular academic
grades.
The Request of Material Across Academic Grades
The extent to which particular types of material are requested by
engineers across the academic grades can be seen in Table 3.
78
Grade
Staff
Research Student
Post graduate
Under graduate
Total
Table 3: The Distribution of Requests for Particular Types of Material Made by Engineers From Different Academic Grades: Weighted Figures and Percentages Serial % Conf. % Book % Report %
Requests Procs. Requests Requests per head Requests per head per head
per head
7.74 31 3.33 26.1 1.13 34.6 1.4
15.3 61.2 8.99 70.4 1.68 51.4 1.74
1.13 4.5 0.2 1.6 0.27 8.3 0.1
0.81 3.2 0.25 2 0.19 5.8 0.25
24.98 100 12.77 100 3.27 100 5.74
40.1
49.9
2.9
7.2
100
The demand for all types of material by research students was
heavier than that shown by staff, and in all cases the demand from
staff and research students was considerably heavier than that
shown by undergraduates and postgraduates.
The volume of demand for the different types of material reflects the
overall volume of demand shown by each academic grade.
Therefore, variations in the demand for different types of material
between academic grades only become apparent when the
distribution of requests within academic grades is compared.
6.7.2 The Request of Materials Within Academic Grades
The distribution of requests by the type of material requested
within the different academic grades is shown in Figure 5.
79
Figure 5: The Distribution of the Types of Material Requested by
Engineers Within Particular Academic Grades.
Staff
• Serials 56.8%
• Conference Procs 24.4%
m Books 8.3%
[] Reports 10.3%
• Theses 0.2%
Postgraduate
• Serials 66.7%
• Conference Procs 11.6%
[ill! Books 15.9%
[J Reports 5.8%
.Theses 0%
80
Research Student
• Serials 54.5%
• Conference Procs 32.0%
!]ill Books 6%
[] Reports 6.2%
• Theses 1.3%
Undergraduate
• Serials 54.0%
• Conference Procs 16.8%
m Books 12.3%
o Reports 1 6.8%
.Theses 0%
Staff and research students showed a similar pattern in the types of
material they requested. Serials were the most requested material,
followed by conference proceedings. In both groups, serials
accounted for over half of their total demand. However, conference
proceedings were requested more by research students than staff.
Twelve out of the thirteen theses requests made during the 6 month
sample period came from research students.
Postgraduate and undergraduate requests differed from the pattern
shown by the staff and research student requests. Requests for
conference proceedings accounted for less of the total demand
from postgraduates and undergraduates, but they requested
proportionally more books. Postgraduates requested proportionally
more serials, and undergraduates requested proportionally more
reports than the other academic grades.
The above results seem to suggest that the number of conference
proceedings requested is related to the amount of research being
done. Conference proceedings may be valued by researchers
because they focus more on ideas and opinions, than do serials.
Conference proceedings may also make available to researchers
work which is not to be, or is yet to be, published in other formats. In
contrast, books do not cover recent research, due to length of time
they take to produce. They are more often based on accepted
concepts and written for the purpose of education. This may
explain why they account for proportionally more of postgraduate
and undergraduate requests.
The demand for report literature from undergraduates is more
difficult to explain. It could be argued that a larger proportion of
postgraduate and undergraduate information needs are met by the
holdings of the Pilkington Library, and so the demands they place
on the document delivery service represent a less complete
picture of their overall information needs. This could cause the
distribution of postgraduate and undergraduate requests to vary
from the research student and staff distributions. Another
consideration is that, as mentioned in section 6.5.2, the type of
81
material requested is driven more by the coverage offered by the
source of bibliographic information used by the requester, than a
need for a certain type of material.
If the Pilkington Library decides to focus on research students and
staff as heavy users of the document supply service, any service
offered would need to have a particular strength in providing
conference proceedings and serials. However, it should not be
forgotten that these two academic grades are also the heaviest
requesters of other types of material, although these other types of
material account for less of their total demand. There may be a
case for trying to increase their requesting of reports and books, by
providing and encouraging the utilisation of sources of
bibliographic references, which offer strong coverage of those
materials. Increasing holdings in the Library for research students
and staff is probably not feasible, because every research project
probably requires access to different titles.
6.8 The Relationship Between the Academic Grade of the Requester and Source of the Bibliographic Reference Used
This section considers the relationship between the academic
grade of the requester and the source of bibliographic reference
from which their request arose. Section 6.8.1 examines the extent
to which certain bibliographic sources were used across the
different academic grades and Section 6.8.2 examines the types of
sources that were used by engineers within particular academic
grades.
6.8.1 The Utilisation of Particular Sources of Bibliographic
Reference Across Academic Grades
The extent to which certain sources of bibliographic reference were
used by engineers of different academic grades can be seen in
Table4.
82 .
Table 4: The Utilisation of Particular Bibliographic Sources Across Academic Grades: Weighted Figures and Percentages Grade Use of BIDS % Use of % Use of %
per head hardcopy CD-ROM per head
Staff 3.17 32.5 0.83 23.3 0.28 14.7 Research Student 6.28 64.3 2.6 73 1.13 59.2 Post graduate 0.15 1.5 0.07 2 0.39 20.4 Under graduate 0.16 1.6 0.06 1.7 0.11 5.8 Total 9.76 100 3.56 100 1.91 100
Grade Use of OCLC % Use of % per head Miscellaneous
per head
Staff 0.72 55 0.33 41.3 Research Student 0.52 39.7 0.43 53.8 Postgraduate 0 0 0 0 Undergraduate 0.07 5.3 0.04 5 Total 1.31 100 0.8 100
The weighted figures showed that research students and staff were
the heaviest users of all the sources of bibliographic reference, with
the exception of CD-ROM sources, which received a similar
amount of use from postgraduates and staff. Research students
were heavier users of the BIDS datasets, hardcopy sources and
CD-ROM sources than staff. These variations are probably a
reflection of the relative demand for document supply shown by
each academic grade. Therefore, in order to establish any
variations in the sources used, it is necessary to consider source
use within the academic grades.
6.8.2 The Sources of Bibliographic Reference Used by
Engineers From Particular Academic Grades
The pattern of utilisation of the various sources of bibliographic
reference within particular academic grades is shown in Figure 6.
83
Figure 6: The Utilisation of Sources of Bibliographic Reference
Which Led to Requests by Engineers of Particular Academic
Grades
Staff
.BIDS 59.6%
III Hardcopy 15.5%
GI CD-ROM 5.2%
D OCLC FirstSearch 13.5%
liliiii Miscellaneous 6.2%
Postgraduate
.BIDS 24%
III Hardcopy 1 2%
!ill] CD-ROM 64%
QI OCLC FirstSearch 0%
I11III Miscellaneous 0%
84
Research Student
.BIDS 57.4%
III Hardcopy 23.7%
[ill! CD-ROM 10.3%
El OCLC FirstSearch 4.7%
• Miscellaneous 3.9%
Undergraduate
.BIDS 36.0%
III Hardcopy 14.4%
Ill] CD-ROM 24.3%
[] OCLC FirstSearch 16.2%
I11III Miscellaneous 9.0%
Nearly 60% of the requests from both research students and staff,
for which sources were given, cited BIDS datasets as that source.
The most used sources by postgraduates were CD-ROM based.
Such sources accounted for 64% of the postgraduate requests for
which a source was given. Undergraduates showed the most
diversity as regards the sources from which their requests arose,
with all the sources receiving a significant amount of use.
There appears to be a link between the coverage of the
bibliographic sources most used by an academic grade and the
type of material most requested by that grade. Research students
and staff, who request proportionally more serials and conference
proceedings, rely heavily on the BIDS datasets, which appear to
cover a significant number of serials and conference proceedings.
Postgraduates who request serials rely heavily on CD-ROM
sources, which appear to cover a significant number of serials.
However, undergraduates who show the most variation in the types
of material they request, also show the most variation in the types
of source they utilise. A significant number of undergraduate
requests involved the utilisation of OCLC FirstSearch and
hardcopy sources. These two sources offer strong coverage of
books and reports. However one can only postulate, that a group
that heavily requests a particular type of material, uses a particular
source to locate this type of material. If there is a link, it could take
two forms. It could be that a requester chooses a source because it
covers the type of material they want. However, a requester might
choose a source for reasons other than its coverage, such as its
accessibility or because it is easy to use. In this case, the
requester's pattern of demand could be altered by the coverage of
that source. For example, a requester relying on a bibliographic
source offering only conference proceedings may request more
conference proceedings.
85
There may be other reasons for the variations found.
Postgraduates used other sources much less than CD-ROM and
did not access OCLC FirstSearch at all. A reason for this may be
the fact that postgraduates spend less time at the University, and
somehow fail to receive information on the range of sources
available to them.
Staff and research students accessed CD-ROM sources
proportionally less than postgraduates and undergraduates. One
reason for this could be that there are less terminals external to the
Pilkington Library, which offer access to CD-ROM than there are
which offer access to the BIDS datasets. As a consequence of this,
because staff and research students spend more time within their
departments, they find it easier to find a terminal on which to
access BIDS.
The results show that all the electronic sources available seem to
be required by engineers. Even if its usage is comparatively low, a
source may still be fulfilling an important need which is not met by
another source. An example of this is the possible use of OCLC
FirstSearch as an electronic source of book and report references
by undergraduates. Thus, while the BIDS Compendex is clearly
worthy of continuing subscription, so are the other less used
services. The idea that certain groups may be limiting the range of
their requests, due to the use of predominantly one source of
bibliographic reference, highlights the importance of user
education. The Pilkington Library should consider planning
introductory sessions to the use of BIDS and OCLC FirstSearch,
geared towards postgraduates.
6.9 The Volume of Requests Made by Engineering Departments
The volume of requests made by engineers from different
disciplines can be seen in Table 5.
86
Table 5: Requests made by engineers analysed by the department
of the requester
Department of Requests Made the Requester %
Manufacturing 22.3 Mechanical 21.2 Civil & Building 20.5 Electronic & Electrical 13.7 Chemical 12.4 AAETS 9.8
The departments of manufacturing engineering, mechanical
engineering and civil & building engineering made the most
requests, each department accounting for just over a fifth of the
total demand. The departments of electronic & electrical
engineering, chemical engineering and aeronautical & automotive
engineering & transport studies (AAETS) made less requests.
When departmental demand was calculated on a requests per
individual basis, to account for variations in departmental size, the
pattern altered (Table 6). Manufacturing engineers were still
responsible for the heaviest demand, though to a greater extent,
having made almost 1 request per person, and aeronautical &
automotive engineering & transport studies still made the least
requests. However, chemical engineers were shown to be heavier
requesters than at first thought and civil engineers were shown to
be lighter requesters.
87
Table 6: The Volume of Requests Made by Engineering
Departments, Analysed by the Number of Requests Made per
Member.
Department of Requests Made the Requester per Individual
Manufacturing 0.99
Mechanical 0.65
Civil & Building 0.45
Electronic & Electrical 0.37
Chemical 0.61
AAET5 0.2B
These variations may be connected to the nature of the
disciplines. Civil & building engineering and aeronautical &
automotive engineering & transport studies are relatively narrow
fields, as they are concerned with the design of specific structures.
Civil & building engineering is concerned with the design and
maintenance of bridges, buildings, dams and roads. Aeronautical,
automotive & transport engineers are concerned with the design of
structures which provide transportation. In contrast, manufacturing
and mechanical engineering can be applied to a broad range of
structures. It may be argued that narrower a discipline is, the
smaller the body of literature will be that pertains to it. The high
demand shown by chemical engineers may be due to a need for
documents from the diSCipline of chemistry.
The amount of literature available to a discipline may be affecting
the demand for document delivery shown by that department, in
several ways. The Pilkington library may find it easier to hold the
core materials of a discipline which has less literature, thus
lessening the demand for document delivery within that discipline.
In contrast, a discipline which has less literature may experience
difficulty obtaining documents which are requested through
document supply services. If this is the case, the departments of
civil & building engineering and aeronautical & automotive
engineering & transport studies may be using the current library
document delivery service less, because it does not satisfy their
88
information needs. Alternatively, disciplines which have a smaller
body of printed work associated with them may rely less on
literature during research.
There may be other reasons for the variations in demand, which
are not linked to the nature of the disciplines. The users in certain
departments may be more aware of the existing document supply
service. Another reason may be that certain departments contain a
few individuals who are heavy requesters, such as research
students involved in an exhaustive literature search. The later
seems likely, as although the numbers of research students is
fairly constant across departments, the number of requests made
by research students varies considerably. The number of serial
requests made by research students is proportional to the level of
demand shown by each department.
If the reason for the observed variation is that the departments of
civil & building engineering and aeronautical & automotive
engineering & transport studies are less aware of the service, this
can be remedied by user education. Equally, if demand is low in
those departments because their information needs are not being
satisfied by the current service, then the Pilkington Library should
consider making improvements to the service, targeted at users
from those two disciplines. However, if the needs of those
departments are being met, then the Pilkington Library may wish
to consider focussing on serving the information needs of the
mechanical, manufacturing and chemical engineering
departments, which are heavy users of document supply. The
actual reasons for the variations in demand could only be
ascertained, if user awareness and satisfaction levels with the
current service were measured across the engineering
departments. There may be a case for improving the holdings of
material pertaining to the disciplines of the three heavily
requesting departments. However, a second survey should be
implemented to check if the high demand is due to the presence of
a few heavy requesters involved in a one-off exercises, or if the
demand is constantly high.
89
6.10 The Relationship between the Discipline of the Requester and the Type of Material Requested
This section summarises statistics which describe the relationship
between the discipline of the requester and the type of material
they request. This relationship is examined from two angles.
Section 6.10.1 examines which types of material are requested by
engineers who are members of a particular department. Section
6.10.2 examines the ex1ent to which particular types of material are
requested by engineers across the different departments.
6.10.1 The Request of Types of Material Within Engineering
Departments
The distribution of requests by type of material within the various
engineering departments is shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7: The Distribution of the Types of Material Requested by
Engineers Within Particular Departments .
AAETS
Chemical
• Serials 48.6%
IIlI Conference Procs 1 7.5%
I]jJ Books 8.2%
El Reports 25.1 %
IIlI Theses 0.5%
• Serials 79.2%
III Conference Procs 1 1 .7%
rnl Books 5.2%
[] Re ports 3.0%
IIlI Theses 0.9%
90
Civil & Building
Electronic & Electrical
Manufacturing
Mechanical
• Serials 49%
III Conference Procs 18.8%
Iillill Books 12.0%
[] Reports 19.6%
II1II Theses 0.5%
• Serials 44.7%
III Conference Procs 42.7%
Ilillll Books 8.6%
[]Reports 3.1%
liliiii Theses 0.8%
• Serials 48.3%
III Conference Procs 38.6%
IlillllBooks 10.1%
[] Reports 2.4%
liliiii Theses 0.5%
• Serials 65.5%
III Conference Procs 22.1%
IillillIBooks 4.1%
El Reports 7.4%
III Theses 1. 0%
91
For all the departments, serials were the most requested material.
Chemical engineering had the highest proportion of serial
requests, with nearly 80% of the total number of departmental
requests being for serials. Serial requests also constituted 65% of
all requests from mechanical engineers. The proportion of requests
for conference proceedings was highest in manufacturing
engineering and electrical & electronic engineering, and the lowest
in chemical engineering. In the other departments, requests for
conference proceedings accounted for around a fifth of the total
departmental demand. Requests for reports were proportionally
higher in the departments of civil & building engineering and
aeronautical & automotive engineering & transport studies. Reports
accounted for a fifth of requests in the civil & building engineering
department and a quarter of requests within aeronautical &
automotive engineering & transport studies, where reports were
requested more than conference proceedings. The proportion of
requests made for books and theses did not vary much between
departments.
6.10.2 The Requesting of Different Types of Materials Across
Engineering Departments
The extent to which particular types of material were requested
across the various engineering departments is shown in Table 7.
92
Table 7: The Distribution of Requests for Particular Types of
Material by Engineers From Different Departments: Weighted
Figures and Percentages.
Department No. of serials % No. of conf. % requested per procs. head requested per
head
AAETS 1.34 7 0.48 5.4 Chemical 4.91 25.5 0.72 8.1 Civil & Building 2.24 11.7 0.86 9.6 Electronic & Electrical 1.66 8.6 1.59 17.8 Manufacturing 4.78 24.9 3.83 42.9 Mechanical 4.29 22.3 1.45 16.2 Total 19.22 100 8.93 100
Department No. of books % No. of reports % requested per requested per head head
AAETS 0.23 8.6 0.69 26.3 Chemical 0.32 11.9 0.19 7.3 Civil & Building 0.55 20.4 0.9 34.4 Electronic & Electrical 0.32 11.9 0.12 4.6 Manufacturing 1 37.2 0.24 9.2 Mechanical 0.27 10 0.48 18.3 Total 2.69 100 2.62 100
Mechanical, manufacturing and chemical engineers appear to
have been the heaviest requesters of serials, and manufacturing
engineers to have been the heaviest requesters of conference
proceedings. The heaviest demand for books came from
manufacturing engineers, followed by civil & building engineers.
Civil & building engineers demonstrated the heaviest demand for
reports. Engineers from aeronautical & automotive engineering &
transport studies also showed a significant demand for reports, but
it was noticeably less than that shown by the civil & building
engineers.
93
The variation in the proportion of serials requested may be related
to the number of serials held by the Pilkington Library. Using
classmarks to ascertain which journals pertained to which
disciplines, it was found that 287 serials were held pertaining to
aeronautical & automotive engineering & transport studies; 261
serials were held pertaining to civil & building engineering; and
460 tiles were concerned with electrical & electronic engineering.
In contrast, 140 titles were concerned with mechanical engineering
and 136 were concerned with manufacturing engineering. This
suggests that the smaller the number of serial titles available in the
Pilkington Library pertaining to a discipline, the heavier the
demand for serials through document supply within that
department. However, this theory does not hold in the case of
chemical engineering, where 263 titles were available, but demand
for serials was still heavy. This could due to a need for journals
pertaining to chemistry within the discipline. As previously
discussed, the number of serials requested may also be linked to
the scope of the requesting discipline. A manufacturing engineer
may need information from a broader range of journal titles, than a
civil & building engineer, because manufacturing engineering can
be applied to a greater range of structures.
Another reason for the variation, in the types of materials
requested, could be related to the proportion of the literature
relating to the various disciplines, which is published in certain
formats. There may be more conference proceedings held that
pertain to manufacturing engineering; more reports could be
published pertaining to civil & building engineering and
aeronautical & automotive engineering & transport studies, than to
other disciplines. Such differences could be linked to the rate of
technological change or the amount of investment within certain
disciplines. If the technology associated with manufacturing
engineering changes faster, than that associated with aeronautical
& automotive engineering & transport studies or civil & building
engineering, or if the economy places more importance on
manufacturing engineering, then this may lead to more conference
proceedings and serials being published in manufacturing
94
engineering. This in turn could lead to a greater need for these
documents by a researcher involved in the discipline.
The above findings could help in the development of plans by the
Pilkington Library to target the information needs of certain
departments, as suggested in section 6.9. If a decision was taken
to focus on the needs of those departments which place a heavier
demand on the document supply service (Le. manufacturing
engineering, mechanical engineering and chemical engineering),
serial holdings for those disciplines could be increased. BIDS
Compendex should be retained to allow those departments to the
locate serials and conference proceedings. If it was decided to
focus on increasing the low demand of aeronautical & automotive
engineering & transport studies and civil & building engineering,
an appropriate approach may be to increase user awareness
within those departments, of sources of bibliographic reference
with a strong coverage in reports and books.
6.11 The Relationship Between the Discipline of the Requester and the Source of the Bibliographic Reference Used
This section considers the relationship between the discipline of
the requester and the source of bibliographic reference, from
which their request arose. Section 6.11.1 examines the extent to
which certain bibliographic sources were used across the various
engineering departments. Section 6.11.2 examines which sources
were used by engineers within particular departments.
6.11.1 The Utilisation of Particular Sources of Bibliographic
Reference Across Engineering Departments
The extent to which certain sources of bibliographic reference were
used by different engineering departments can be seen in Table 8.
95
Table 8: The Utilisation of Particular Bibliographic Sources Across
Engineering Departments: Weighted Figures and Percentages
Department Use of BIDS % Use of % Use of % per head hardcopy CD-ROM
per head per head
AAETS 0.23 3.4 0.29 12.8 0.06 3.6 Chemical 1.74 25.5 0.46 20.3 0.38 23 Civil & Building 0.45 6.6 0.62 27.3 0.05 3 Electronic & Electrical 0.39 5.7 0.13 5.7 0.5 30.3 Manuf. 1.1 16.1 0.5 22 0.29 17.6 Mechanical 2.92 42.8 0.27 11.9 0.37 22.4 Total 6.83 100 2.27 100 1.65 100
Department Use of OCLC % Use of % per head Miscellaneous
per head
AAETS 0.21 13.8 0.09 14.5 Chemical 0.03 2 0.08 12.9 Civil & Building 0.25 16.4 0.17 27.4 Electronic & Electrical 0.6 39.5 0.06 9.7 Manufacturing 0.26 17.1 0.22 35.5 Mechanical 0.17 11.2 0 0 Total 1.52 100 0.68 100
Mechanical engineers were the heaviest users of the BIDS
datasets and electronic & electrical engineers were the heaviest
users of CD-ROM sources. Hardcopy sources were most utilised
by civil & building engineers.
6.11.2 The Sources of Bibliographic Reference Used by
Engineers in Particular Departments
The pattern of utilisation of the various sources of bibliographic
reference, within particular engineering departments is shown in
Figure 8.
96
Figure 8: The Utilisation of Sources of Bibliographic Reference
Which Led to Requests Within Particular Engineering
Departments.
AAETS
Chemical
Civil & Building
Electronic & Electrical
.BIDS 25.9%
• Hardcopy 32.8%
m CD-ROM 6.9%
o OClC FirstSearch 24.1%
II1II Miscellaneous 10.3%
.BIDS 65%
• Hardcopy 1 7%
m CD-ROM 14%
o OClC FirstSearch 1 %
II1II Miscellaneous 3%
.BIDS 29.5%
• Hardcopy 40.3%
mCD-ROM 3.1%
o OClC FirstSearch 16.3%
II1II Miscellaneous 10.9%
.BIDS 34.6%
• Hardcopy 1 1.5%
m CD-ROM 43.6%
o OClC FirstSearch 5.1 %
liliiii Miscellaneous 5.1 %
97
Manufacturing
Mechanical
.BIOS 46.5%
III Hardcopy 21.2%
mCO-ROM 12.1%
o OCLC FirstSearch 11.1 %
III Miscellaneous 9.1%
.BIOS 78.6%
III Hardcopy 7.1 %
IITill] CD-ROM 9.8%
[] OCLC FirstSearch 4.5%
II1II Miscellaneous 0%
The BIDS datasets were the most heavily used of source by
manufacturing, mechanical and chemical engineers. CD-ROM
sources were the most heavily used sources by electronic &
electrical engineers, and the use of hardcopy sources
predominated amongst requests made by civil & building
engineers. The aeronautical & automotive engineering & transport
studies department used all the sources in significant amounts.
As with the academic grades, there appears to be a link between
the type of material requested and the coverage of bibliographic
source used. The heaviest users of the BIDS datasets, which
appear to cover predominantly serials and conference
proceedings, were also the heaviest requesters of serials and
conference proceedings. The heaviest users of CD-ROM sources,
which also cover mainly serials and conference proceedings, were
the electronic & electrical engineers, who were also heavy users of
serials and conference proceedings. Civil & building engineers
were the heaviest users of hardcopy, which provide references on
all types of materials, and were heavy users of books and reports. c
The aeronautical & automotive engineering & transport studies
department used two types of sources known to provide references
98
for all types of material (Le. OCLC FirstSearch and hardcopy
sources), and was diverse in what it requested. As with the use of
the various bibliographic sources by the different academic grades,
one can only postulate that a user group that heavily requests a
particular type of material, uses a particular source to locate this
type of material. As already discussed, consideration must be given
to whether a requester chooses a source because it covers the
type of material they want, or if they choose a source for reasons
other than its coverage, and then request what is covered by the
source they have selected.
Despite the Pilkington Library offering a CD-ROM database whose
coverage focuses on civil & building engineering (Civil
Engineering and Software Abstracts), civil & building engineers
seemed to have made infrequent use of CD-ROM sources, when
locating documents to request. In contrast, the availability of
Inspec,which includes electrical engineering references, may
account in part for the heavy use of CD-ROM sources by electronic
& electrical engineers.
The above findings show, to an even greater extent than the
results pertaining to source use by the different academic grades,
that all the types of sources are important in fulfilling the information
needs of engineers. Each department favours a different selection
of sources. Therefore, all the sources should be maintained within
the Pilkington Library. One exception to this may be some of the
specialist CD-RaMs. However, a source may be used to locate
references to documents available within the Library, as well as
those documents only available through document supply,
therefore low usage in this study cannot be taken as low overall
usage.
99
6.12
Type of Material
Serial
Status of Requests A sample of 370 engineering requests was taken from the first
sample of 1859 requests. This sample was used to assess the
service received by the engineers who had made requests in the
previous 6 months. The status of the 370 requests at the point of
sampling is shown in Table 9.
Table 9: The Distribution of Requests by Status at the Point of
Sampling
No. of % No. of % No. of % requests requests requests received cancelled current
201 98 4 2 0 0 Conf. procs. 88 83.8 12 11.4 5 4.8 reports
Books
Theses
Total
28 84.8 4 12.1 1 3
19 79.2 3 12.5 2 25
2 66.7 1 33.3 0 0
338 91.4 24 6.5 8 2.2
Two per cent of the serial requests from the engineering sample
were cancelled. Approximately 12% of conference proceedings,
report and book requests were cancelled. Thirty-three per cent of
theses in the sample were cancelled. The fact that the level of
cancellations for books, reports and conferences was the same
seems to suggest that serials are easier to obtain, rather
highlighting any deficiencies in BLDSC's services. The difficulties
experienced by BLDSC would probably be experienced by any
alternative document delivery service.
6.13 Suppliers
The BLDSC supplied 99.1 % of the 370 engineering requests in the
sample. No predominant second supplier could be identified, as
all requests not supplied by the BLDSC came from different
institutions. Of all the documents received across the university
during the same six months, 96.3% were supplied by the BLDSC.
100
These figures suggest BLDSG's ability to satisfy the information
needs of engineers, in terms of satisfied requests, is equal to its
ability to satisfy the needs of other disciplines. Every application for
supply, except those for theses which are sent to the university of
the researcher, is made first to the BLDSG. Therefore, it is difficult
to know if any other supplier could provide a more efficient service.
It does mean however, that this study can be thought of as
representing the service offered by one supplier.
An implication of BLDSG being the almost sole supplier is that any
decision to utilise the GAS-IAS service offered by BIDS or OGLG
FirstSearch would yield no advantages in terms of wider coverage,
because both services use BLDSG as their main intermediary
supplier. An advantage of using the BIDS or OGLG FirstSearch
document delivery service is the guarantee of a maximum delivery
time, 3 days in the case of BIDS and 5 days in the case of OGLG,
both of which compare favourably with the average supply times
offered by the Pilkington Library inter-library loans service. Both
BIDS and OGLG FirstSearch include faster options than can be
achieved by the Pilkington Library. BIDS offers fax delivery within
24 hours and OGLG FirstSearch offers immediate online text
delivery. However, these fast options involve the delivery of
individual articles and therefore may not meet the needs of those
groups requiring whole books or reports. A disadvantage of
utilising BIDS or OGLG FirstSearch for document delivery is the
that the charges made are higher, than the charge made for a
standard inter-library loan by the Pilkington Library. Making
document delivery available through BIDS or OGLG FirstSearch,
may reduce the work load of those librarians working in the inter
library loan section, in terms of processing requests and received
documents. However, there would be an increased need for
librarians to take on an educational role to familiarise new users to
the GAS-IAS services. Thus, the main advantage of offering a
GAS-IAS service would be shortened supply times. A study would
be required to discover if engineers place particular importance on
the speed of document supply, and whether they would be
prepared to pay extra for a faster service.
101
Another question to be addressed, if the Pilkington Library wishes
to offer a document delivery service through BIDS or OCLC
FirstSearch, is the extent to which the coverage of the two services
would fulfil the needs of engineers. A sample of requests from this
study could be used to generate percentages, for the 2 databases,
pertaining to the successful location of previously requested
articles. The Library could consider offering any document delivery
service connected to a database, on which a significant number of
articles were successfully located.
6.14 Speed of Supply
The median and mean speeds of supply in days for different
statistics can be seen in the Tables below. The means that were
calculated for the engineering sample are not a good
representation of the actual speed of supply, because if the item
cannot be supplied straight from the BLDSC, the extra
communication needed to supply the item lengthens the speed of
supply to considerably. The mode is also not suitable because the
engineering sample is rather small and therefore the mode can be
easily altered. The median is the best representation of the
average speed of supply.
The calculations were made using six months of data in the case of
the engineering community, and five months of data in the case of
the whole University. The decision to use five months of data,
instead of six, for the University calculations arose, because during
in one particular month several items had taken more than 3
months to be supplied. Therefore, the statistics for that month were
not thought to represent the normal situation.
102
Table 10: The Median and Mean Speed of Supply (in days) for
Different Types Materials Received by the Engineering Community,
Compared with the Mean Speed of Supply for Different Types of
Material Received Across the Whole of Loughborough University
Type of Median Speed Mean speed of Mean speed of Material of Supply for supply for supply for the Requested Engineers Engineers University
serials 5 6.14 7.9 Conf. Procs 7 28.28 17.94 Books 7 50.37 7.9 Reports 5 6.04 22.28 Theses 28.5 28.5 29.36 All Materials 5 12.43 12.74
Table 11: The Median and Mean Speed of Supply (in days) for
Documents Received by Engineers of Different Academic Grades,
Compared with the Mean Speed of Supply for Documents
Received by the Different Academic Grades Across the Whole of
Loughborough University.
Academic Median Speed Mean Speed of Mean speed of Grade of Supply for Supply for Supply for the
Engineers Engineers University
Staff 5 7.32 34.42 Research Student 5 12.31 12.96 Postgraduate 3 3.B2 28.2 Undergraduate 5 20.57 10.44
103
Table 12: The Median and Mean Speed of Supply (in days) for
Documents Received by Different Engineering Departments
Department Median Speed Mean Speed of of Supply Supply
AAETS 5 9.63 Chemical 3 6.11 Civil & 5 14.32 Electronic & Electrical 5 9.52 Manufacturing 6 14.21 Mechanical 5 15.34
Serials and reports received by the engineering community both
showed the shortest average delivery time, followed by conference
proceedings, then books. Theses had the longest average delivery
time. These figures do not particularly support the theory that
engineers from the civil & building and aeronautical & automotive
engineering & transport studies departments may be less satisfied
by the service, because they request proportionally more reports.
However, the relative amounts of types of material requested by a
group may effect the service received by that group. For example,
on average, postgraduates received their requested items quicker
than the other academic grades. This might be linked to the high
proportion of serials they request. The speed of supply for chemical
engineers was faster than for other departments, and this also
might linked to the high proportion of serials they request. The
speed of supply for manufacturing engineers was slower than for
other departments, and this may be due to the higher demand for
conference proceedings amongst manufacturing engineers.
The average supply time across all the variables was 5 days. This
means that if the BIDS document supply option was made
available, the supply times would certainly improve, as delivery is
promised within 3 days. The coverage of BIDS Compendex would
cater for the needs of most engineers, in terms of the number of
requests satisfied, to the same extent as the existing document
delivery service.
104
A document delivery service provided through BIDS Compendex
might experience rapid take up, because it is already the most
heavily used source of bibliographic information.
The overall mean speed of supply for the whole of the University
was the same as for the engineering departments. This suggests
the supplying of engineering documents causes no particular
problems for BLDSC. The mean speed of supply for conference
proceedings and reports received across the University was
slower, than that associated with conference proceedings and
reports received by the engineer community. However, the mean
speed of supply for books received across the University was
faster, than that associated with books received by the engineering
community. Documents received by staff and postgraduates across
the University had a slower speed of supply, than those received
by the engineering community, but documents were supplied
faster to undergraduates across the University.
6.15 Format in Which the Material was Received
Of the sample of engineering documents, 70.1 % were supplied as
photocopies; the rest were supplied as the original documents for
return. This was mirrored by the pattern shown across the whole
University, where 70.4% of all documents were received as
photocopies.
These figures suggest that there is a core of requests (e.9.30%),
where the original document is required. Electronic document
delivery cannot cater for this 30%. Disposable items constituted of
75% of serials and 25% of conference proceedings. Electronic
document delivery services, which have a policy not to loan
documents but only to supply online text, faxes or photocopies,
may not fulfil the information requirements of certain groups of
engineers, who have a higher demand for books or reports (e.g.
105
engineers from the departments of civil & building engineering and
aeronautical & automotive & transport studies}. However, if the '
Pilkington Library considers using the document delivery services
offered by OCLC FirstSearch or BIDS, delivery of original
documents would still be an option, as both services use BLDSC
as an intermediate supplier.
6.16 Cancellations The reasons for cancellations within in the engineering sample are
given in Table 13 .
Table 13: The Nature of Cancellations within the Engineering
Sample
Nature of Number of Cancellation Requests
Cancelled
Cancelled automatically: unanswered request for information 9
Not in stock! unavailable for loan 6 Cancelled automatically: alternative service 6 Source misquoted 2 Cancelled by reader 1
When the nature of the cancellation are considered, one can see
that in very few cases does the BLDSC fail to offer a service. The
greatest category of cancelled requests consisted of cases where
the reader did not reply to a letter from the inter-library loans
section, which forwarded the BLDSC's request for further
information, and so the request was cancelled automatically after 6
weeks. This suggests that the number of cancellations might be
much reduced, if requesters had access databases of bibliographic
information with a good coverage of conference proceedings,
106
books and reports. This is supported by the fact that 2
cancellations arose because the reference had been misquoted by
the requester.
In six cases although the request for a loan could not be met, an
alternative service was offered. The alternative services included
offers to photocopy one particularly wanted article from a serial or
conference, or to purchase the material requested. This shows that
BLDSC tries hard to satisfy its customers, which may not occur
with some alternative document delivery services.
107
CHAPTER 7: Conclusions and Recommendations
7.1 Introduction
This chapter attempts to relate the practical research undertaken to
the concepts, discussed in the first four chapters, on which this
study is based. This is followed by suggested courses of action,
which could be followed by librarians at the Pilkington Library, in
order to improve the service to the engineering community of
Loughborough University. Finally, some improvements which could
have been made to this study are suggested.
7.2 Conclusion to the Study
This study demonstrates the value of using inter-library loan
statistics in research, a concept which is discussed in Chapter 3. In
this study, the analysis of inter-library loan records, stored by the
inter-library loan section of the Pilkington Library, enabled a
comprehensive picture of the use of document supply services, by
the engineering community of Loughborough University, to be
produced. The existence of this store of data meant that a large
number of requests could be analysed in detail. As a result, this
study is based on an amount of data, which it would have been
infeasible to have collected in a questionnaire survey, given the
time available. It also provides detailed information on the use of
document supply services by engineers, which is not available
from the monthly statistics generated by the inter-library loan
section.
108
Chapter 4 reviewed evidence in the literature on information needs
and use, which supported the concept that the discipline of
engineering is distinct from scientific disciplines. The chapter
concluded that studies which investigated information needs and
use by engineers have attributed particular characteristics to
engineers as a group. This means engineers must be studied
separately from practitioners of other disciplines, in order for any
research concerning their information needs and use to be
valuable. Chapter 4 also concluded that factors, such as discipline
.and work activity, affect information needs and use within
populations of engineers, and therefore the value of research into
information needs and use by engineers is enhanced, if the results
obtained from such studies are broken down in terms of such
variables. The detailed information that was available from the
inter-library loan records allowed the engineering community to be
studied separately from the rest of the academic community, and
also groups within the engineering community to be analysed
separately. The results of this study support the conclusions of
Chapter 3. It was found that the engineering community differs from
the rest of the academic community, in their use of the document
supply services offered by the Pilkington Library. The results also
show that the overall demand for document supply and the different
types of material requested depend on the academic grade and the
discipline of the engineer.
As discussed in Chapter 1, the investigation of the needs of groups
within a population is a stage in the practice of segmentation,
which is used in modern marketing. This study segmented the
engineering community into groups and identified groups of
engineers which have similar needs. The librarians at the
Pilkington Library can use this information to evaluate the ability of
the existing document supply services, and alternative services, to
meet the information needs of particular groups of engineers.
109
The analysis of the outcomes of a sample of applications for
engineering requests, made through the Pilkington Library's
current document supply service, as was undertaken in this study,
provides a starting point for the evaluation of document supply
services. The high percentage of documents supplied by the
BLDSC in the current service means that the service can be
considered as representing the performance of one supplier.The
results show that, in general, the supplying of engineering
documents causes no particular problems for BLDSC, when
compared to the supplying of documents for other disciplines. The
results also suggest that BLDSC tries hard to satisfy its customers
(e.g. an alternative service is often offered, when the original
request cannot be fulfilled). However, there is some variation in the
service received by different groups of engineers. Analysis shows
that serials are on average supplied faster and that they are the
least cancelled of all the types of material. Therefore, groups of
engineers that request proportionally more serials, appeared to be
offered a better service by the BLDSC. Thus, despite the adequacy
of the BLDSC as a supplier, it is suggested that the document
delivery service might be improved by the provision of an
additional document supply service.
The analysis of the outcomes of a sample of applications for
engineering requests suggested that there is a core of requests,
where the original document is required. Electronic document
delivery services, which have a policy not to loan documents, but
only to supply online text, faxes or photocopies, may not fulfil the
information requirements of such requests. This means that the
Library will need provide engineers with document supply services,
which loan original items, even if they wish to focus on the
provision of electronic document delivery services.
110
As discussed in Chapters 1 and 2 , the range of document supply
services available to libraries is larger than ever. The Pilkington
Library does not offer its users any alternative document delivery
service. However, it does offer a range of information services,
including printed abstract and indexing services, CD-ROMs and 2
online, end-user mediated databases, BIDS and OCLC
FirstSearch. The pattern of information service utilisation shown in
this study suggests that different groups of engineers have distinct
information needs, and select the service which they perceive as
best meeting those needs. The study shows that engineers who
request proportionally more of one type of material, utilise a service
which offers good coverage of this type of material. Groups of
engineers who show diversity in the types of material they request,
show similar diversity in the types of sources of bibliographic
reference they use. These results could provide librarians at the
Pilkington Library with an indication of what services should be
retained, or in the case of BIDS and OCLC FirstSearch, offered as
full CAS-IAS services, in order to improve services to the
engineering community.
The changes occurring in the field of document supply, in terms of
the expansion of the range of services available and the shift from
print-based services to end-user mediated, electronic services, as
discussed in chapter 2, are apparent in the utilisation of
bibliographic reference sources by the University's engineering
community. The utilisation of the BIDS datasets accounted for over
half of the requests, where a source of bibliographic reference was
given. This heavy usage suggests that if the Pilkington Library
decided to offer engineers the option to order articles through
BIDS, the service might experience a rapid uptake. However,
before such a decision is made, a further evaluation of the ability of
the BIDS service to meet the information needs of engineers
should be undertaken. Analysis from this study of the requests
made by engineers could be used to evaluate the coverage of the
BIDS database, and the statistics obtained from the evaluation of
the current service could be used as a performance baseline,
which the BIDS service should meet if it is to be considered. Thus,
111
information provided in this study could help the librarians of the
Pilkington Library decide whether offering an alternative document
delivery service would improve the library's service to the
engineering community.
7.3 The Recommendations of the Study
There follows suggestions for actions the Pilkington Library could
take to improve service provision for engineers.
• The study suggests that librarians might wish to offer document
delivery through the BIDS service (due to its popularity), or through
OGLG FirstSearch (due to its coverage of different types of
material). However, the main advantage of offering document
delivery through these services would be shortened supply times.
Therefore, it is recommended that a survey should be undertaken
to investigate whether engineers place particular importance on
the speed of supply, and whether they would be prepared to pay
the higher charges made by the services, in order to receive
documents faster.
• It is recommended that, if the BIDS or OGLG FirstSearch services
are considered as document delivery services, a study of the extent
to which the two databases fulfil the information needs of engineers
should be undertaken. A sample of requests, from this study, could
be used to generate percentages pertaining to the successful
location of previously requested documents on the two databases.
Data from this study could be used as a baseline for the evaluation
of the coverage of any document delivery service, which Pilkington
Library is considering offering. Data on the previous outcome of
requests could be used to evaluate the performance of the
document supply service being considered. ,
112
• It is recommended that all types of source of bibliographic
reference be maintained, as each department favours a different
selection of sources. It is also recommended that Pilkington Library
ensures users are kept aware of the range of sources available.
This arises from concern that some groups of engineers may be
using a single type of source, not because it covers the type of
material they require, but because it is the only source with which
they are familiar. This may be leading to situations where the
requesting patterns of certain groups are being distorted by the
coverage of a particular source. OCLC FirstSearch is particularly
recommended as a target for a user awareness campaign. This is
because it covers a range of types of material, and so may meet the
needs of some groups of engineers who require material such as
books and reports. It is felt that, if user awareness of the service is
heightened, its usage may increase from its current low level.
Postgraduates should also be targeted by a user awareness
campaign, because they appear to neglect everything but CD-ROM
sources. User education is also important in reducing the number
of cancellations, due to incomplete references being given by the
requester. However, it is recommended, that before a decision to
maintain all types of source use is taken, the Library should
investigate whether variations in source use arise from the ease-of
use of the source, or are due to its coverage or accessibility, or
result from publicity for the source within engineering departments.
• It is recommended that any service. which is targeted at engineers,
should have a specific competence in the provision of reports and
conference proceedings. The coverage offered by a database or
document supply service could be assessed by running trials in
locating some of the engineering requests analysed in this study.
• It is recommended that users be encouraged to state the source of
bibliographic reference on the inter-library loan card, in order to
help with further studies.
113
• It is recommended that the differences in demand between
engineering departments are investigated, before any decision is
are taken on service provision. The study has highlighted which
departments are low and high users. Therefore, the research
should be investigate whether there are any high level requesters
in departments, where demand is high, or whether publicity for the
inter-library loan service more prominent in these departments. In
the case of departments, which show a low level of demand,
engineers' satisfaction levels with the current document supply
service should be assessed. The decisions taken on service
provision will depend on the findings of these investigations.
• It is recommended that the Pilkington Library investigates the
demand for serial titles from the different engineering departments,
to establish if any particular titles are repeatedly requested. The
Library could consider holding any such titles.
7.4 Improvements Which Could Have Been Made to the Study
There follows some improvements which could have been made to
this study.
• The separation of the hardcopy category of bibliographic sources,
into those cases where the source given was a printed database,
and those cases were the reference was taken from a book or
research paper. This would have allowed the direct comparison of
the use of electronic databases and printed databases
• The comparison of the need for document supply services by
engineers and the rest of academic community would have had
more validity, if figures for the number of requests made had been
collected for the rest of the University.
114
• The recording of the full title of the serials requested by engineers,
as this might have led to titles which were heavily requested being
identified. Such titles could be subscribed to by the Pilkington
Library.
• The identification of individuals who are heavy users of the
document supply service. These individuals would be useful
respondents for questionnaires on the level of user satisfaction with
the existing services.
115
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122
Appendices
123
Appendix 1: Tabulations of the Raw Data on the Requesting of
Inter-library Loans, Between October 95 and March 96, by the
Engineering Community of Loughborough University
Table 1: Requests made by the engineering community, analysed by the
type of material requested
Type of No. of requests material made requested
Serial 1031 Conf. Procs. 487 Book 153 Report 175 Thesis 13 Total 1859
Table 2: Requests made by the engineering community, analysed by the
academic grade of the requester
Academic No. of requests grade of the made requester
Staff 495 Research student 921 Postgraduate course student 69 Undergraduate student 374 Total 1895
124
Table 3: Requests made by the engineering community, analysed
by the department of the requester
Department of No. of requests the requester made
AAETS 183 Chemical engineering 231 Civil & building 382 Electronic & electrical engineering 255 Manufacturing engineering 414 Mechanical engineering 394 Total 1859
Table 4: Requests made by the engineering community, analysed by the
type of material requested by engineers of different academic
grades
Academic No. of No. of conf. No. of book No. of No. of Total grade of the serial procs. requests report thesis requester requests requests requests request
Staff 281 121 41 51 1 495 Research student 502 295 55 57 12 921 Postgraduate course student 46 8 11 4 0 69 Under-graduate student 202 63 46 63 0 374 Total 1031 487 153 175 13 1859
125
Table 5: Requests made by the engineering community, analysed by the
type of material requested by engineers from different departments
Department No. of No. of conf. No. of book No. of No. of Total of the serial procs. requests report thesis requester requests requests requests request
AAETS 89 32 15 46 1 183 Chemical engineering 183 27 12 7 2 231 Civil & building engineering 187 72 46 75 2 382 Electronic & electrical engineering 114 109 22 8 2 255 Manuf. engineering 200 160 42 10 2 414 Mechanical engineering 258 87 16 29 4 394 Total 1031 487 153 175 13 1859
Table 6: Requests made by the engineering community, analysed by the
type of source of bibliographic reference from which requests
arose.
Type of source No. of of the requests bibliographic arising from reference use
No source 1171 BIOS 164 BIDS Compendex 158 BIDS ISI 36 BIDS Embase 9 Hardcopy 134 CD-ROM 90 OelC FirstSearch 61 Organisation 14 Miscellaneous 12 WW'W 10 Total 1859
126
Table 7: Requests made by the engineering community analysed by the
location of the source of bibliographic reference from which
requests arose
Location of the No. of requests source of arising from bibliographic source reference
No source 1173 Pilkington Library 592 External to Pilkington Library 55 Location unknown 39 Total 1859
Table 8: Requests made by the engineering community, analysed by the
type of source of bibliographic reference from which requests for
different types of material arose
Type of No. of No. of No. of book No. of No. of Total source of serial conference requests report thesis bibliographic requests requests requests requests reference
No source given 621 311 117 114 8 1171 BIDS 118 44 0 2 0 164 BIDS Compendex 96 58 1 3 0 158 BIDS ISI 35 1 0 0 0 36 BIDS Embase 9 0 0 0 0 9 Hardcopy 54 31 15 31 3 134 CD-ROM 55 25 15 5 1 90 OCLC First-Search 30 11 7 13 0 61 Org. 4 2 6 1 1 14 Mise. 5 2 1 3 0 12 www 9 0 1 0 0 10 Total 1031 487 153 175 13 1859
127
Table 9: Requests made by the engineering community, analysed by the
type of source of bibliographic reference from which requests by
engineers from different academic grades arose
Type of No. of No. of No. of made No. of requests Total source of requests requests by made by bibliographic made by staff made by postgraduates undergraduates reference research
student
No source given 302 562 44 263 1171
BIDS 51 75 6 32 164
BIDS Compendex 54 98 0 6 158
BIDS 151 9 25 0 18 36 BIDS Embase 1 8 0 0 9 Hardcopy 30 85 3 16 134
CD-ROM 10 37 16 27 90 OClC FirstSearch 26 17 0 18 61
Org. 4 4 6 0 10
Misc. 6 2 0 4 12 WWW 2 8 0 0 10 Total 495 921 69 374 18S9
Table 10: Requests made by the engineering community, analysed by the
type of source of bibliographic reference from which requests by
engineers from different academic grades arose (WWW and
organisation categories included in miscellaneous category)
Type of No. of No. of No. of made No. of requests Total source of requests requests by made by bibliographic made by staff made by postgraduates undergraduates reference research
student
No source given 302 562 44 263 1171 BIDS 115 206 6 40 367 Hardcopy 30 85 3 16 134 CD-ROM 10 37 16 27 90 OClC FirstSearch 26 17 0 18 61 Misc. 12 14 0 10 36 Total 495 921 69 374 1859
128
Table 11: Requests made by the engineering community, analysed by the
type of source of bibliographic reference from which requests by
engineers from different departments arose
Type of No. of No. of No. of No. of No. of No. of Total source of requests requests requests requests requests requests biblio- made by made by made by made by made by made by graphic AAETS chemical civil & electronic manuf. mech. reference eng. building & eng. eng.
eng. electrical eng.
No source given 125 131 253 177 315 170 1171 BIDS 12 38 26 26 19 43 164 BIDS Comp-endex 2 21 8 1 23 103 158 BIDS ISI 1 6 4 0 3 22 36 BIDS Embase 0 0 0 0 1 8 9 Hardcopy 19 17 52 9 21 16 134 CD-ROM 4 14 4 34 12 22 90 OCLC First-Search 14 1 21 4 11 10 61 Org. 2 2 6 2 2 0 14 Misc. 1 1 8 1 1 0 12 WWW 3 0 0 1 6 0 10 Total 183 231 382 25 414 394 1859
129
Table 12: Requests made by the engineering community, analysed by the
type of source of bibliographic reference from which requests by
engineers from different departments arose (WWW and
organisation categories included in miscellaneous category)
Type of No. of No. of No. of No. of No. of No. of Total source of requests requests requests requests requests requests biblio- made by made by made by made by made by made by graphic AAETS chemical civil & electronic manuf. mech. reference eng. building & eng. eng.
eng. electrical eng.
No source given 125 131 253 177 315 170 1171
BIDS 15 65 38 27 46 176 367 Hardcopy 19 17 52 9 21 16 134 CD-ROM 4 14 4 34 12 22 90 OClC First-Search 14 1 21 4 11 10 61 Misc. 6 3 14 4 9 0 36 Total 183 231 382 25 414 394 1859
Table 13: Requests made by the engineering community, analysed by the
status of the requests at the time of sampling
Type of No. of requests No. requests No. of requests Total material received cancelled pending requested
Serial 201 4 0 205 Conf. Pro cs. 88 12 5 105 Book 19 3 1 23 Report 28 4 2 34 Thesis 2 1 0 3 Total 338 24 8 370
Table 14: Requests made by the engineering community, analysed by the
supplier of the items received
Supplier of the No. of requests item received
BlD5C 335 Other 3 Total 338
130
Table 15: Requests made by the engineering community, analysed by the
format in which the item was received
Type of No. of No. of original Total material photocopies texts received requested received
Serial 179 22 20 Conf. Procs. 58 30 88 Book 0 19 19 Report 0 28 28 Thesis 0 2 2 Total 237 101 338
Table 16: Requests made by the engineering community, analysed by the
nature of the cancellations made
Nature of Number of Cancellation Requests
Cancelled
Cancelled automatically: no response to request for further information from the user 9 Not in stock/ unavailable for loan 6 Cancelled automatically: alternative service offered 6 Source misquoted 2 Cancelled by reader 1
Total 24
131
Table 17: Requests made by the engineering community, analysed by the
mean, median and mode speed of supply for different types of
material
Type of Mean speed of Median speed of Mode speed of material supply in days supply in days supply in days
Serial 6.14 5 5 Conf. Procs 28.28 7 7 Book 50.37 14 5 Report 6.04 5 5 Thesis 28.5 28.5 1 Overall 12.43 5 5
Table 18: Requests made by the engineering community, analysed by the
mean, median and mode speed of supply for material requested
by engineers from different departments
Department of Mean of speed Median speed Mode speed of the requester of supply in of supply in supply in days
days days
AAETS 9.63 5 5 Chemical eng. 6.11 3 2 Civil & building eng. 14.32 5 6 Electronic & electrical eng. 9.52 5 5 Manufacturing eng. 14.21 6 5 Mechanical eng. 15.34 5 5
Table 19: Requests made by the engineering community analysed by the
mean, median and mode speed of supply for material requested
by engineers from different academic grades.
Academic Mean of speed Median of Mode of speed grade of the of supply in speed of of supply in requester days supply in days days
Staff 7.32 5 5 Research student 12.31 5 5 Postgraduate 3.82 3 5 Undergraduate 20.57 5 5
132
Appendix 2: The Monthly Statistics, October 95 to March 96, on the Document Supply Activity Across Loughborough University
Table 1: Documents received across the University each Month: no. of items
received and mean supply times (in days)
Month of No. of Items Supply Time Statistics Received
Oct 95 814 13.1 Noy 95 899 96.8 Dec 95 569 11.1 Jan 96 818 15.7 Feb96 919 12.3 Mar 96 860 11.5 Total 4879 26.75
Table 2: Documents received across the University each month, analysed
by the supplier: no. of items received, percentages and mean
supply times (in days)
Month of BLDSC % Supply Other % Supply Statistics Time Time
Oct 95 779 95.7 11.6 35 4.3 19.28 Noy 95 865 96.22 119.8 33 3.78 27.84 Dec 95 552 97.01 8.9 17 2.99 23.86 Jan 95 791 96.7 13.1 27 3.3 29.79 Feb 96 884 96.19 9.4 35 3.81 21.46 Mar 96 826 96.05 9.4 341 3.95 20.23
Table 3: Documents received across the University in the 6 months,
analysed by the supplier: no. of items received, percentages and
mean supply times (in days)
Supplier No. of requests % Supply Time supplied
BLD5C 4697 96.3 28.7 Other 181 3.7 23.74
133
Table 4: Documents received across the University each Month, analysed
by the format in which the item was received: no. of items received,
percentages and mean supply times (in days)
Month of Disposable % Supply Time Original % Supply Time Statistics items items
received supplied
Oct 95 563 69.16 8.7 251 30.84 22.9 Nov 95 619 68.85 120 280 31.15 45.6 Dec 95 400 70.3 8.1 169 29.7 17.5 Jan 96 331 67.36 10.7 267 32.61 26 Feb 96 677 73.67 7.9 242 26.33 24.7 Mar 95 628 73.02 7.7 232 26.98 21.9 Total 3128 68.5 25.85 1441 31.5 26.43
Table 5: Documents received across the University each Month, analysed
by the academic grade of the requester: no. of items received,
percentages and mean supply times (in days)
Month of Under % Supply Post % Supply Statistics graduate Time graduate Time
Oct 95 122 14.99 6.1 6 0.74 98.8 Nov 95 177 19.69 7.4 11 1.22 26.2 Dec 95 87 15.29 8.1 19 3.34 13.7 Jan 96 72 8.8 18.3 23 2.81 13.5 Feb 96 136 14.8 9.8 38 14.13 9.7 Mar 96 144 16.74 9.9 65 7.56 5.3
Month of Research % Supply Staff % Supply Statistics student Time Time
Oct 95 394 48.4 10.1 288 35.38 17.4 Nov 95 403 44.83 55.3 304 33.82 207.8 Dec 95 242 12.53 11.5 221 38.84 11.6 Jan 96 360 44.01 16.3 361 44.13 14.8 Feb 96 388 42.22 12.3 357 38.85 13.6 Mar 96 341 39.65 14.6 303 35.23 10.3
134
Table 6: Documents received across the University in 6 months, analysed
by the academic grade of the requester: no. of items received,
percentages and mean supply times (in days)
Academic Total no. of % Supply Time Grade requests
Undergraduate 738 1 S.2 9.93 Postgraduate 162 3.3 27.87 Research Student 2128 43.8 20.02 Staff 1834 37.7 45.95
Table 7: Documents received across the University each month, analysed by
the type of material requested: no. of items received, percentages
and mean supply times (in days)
Month of Book % Supply Conf. % Supply Statistics Time Procs. Time
Oct 95 110 13.51 30.9 93 11.43 20.6 Nov 95 129 14.35 79.8 88 9.79 55.6 Dec 95 87 15.29 8.1 19 3.34 13.7 Jan 96 72 8.8 18.3 23 2.81 13.5 Feb96 111 12.08 26.1 134 14.58 16 Mar 96 95 11.05 27.5 107 12.44 21.9
Month of Serial % Supply Thesis % Supply Report % Supply Stats Time Time Time
Oct 95 556 68.3 7.7 19 2.33 15.4 36 4.42 19.9 Nov 95 604 67.19 116.6 21 2.34 25.2 57 6.34 16.4 Dec 95 388 68.19 8 19 3.34 36.3 29 5.1 7.5 Jan 96 518 63.33 10.4 31 3.79 38.9 45 5.5 35.6 Feb 96 615 66.92 7.2 24 2.61 28.5 35 3.81 33.7 Mar 96 563 68.95 6.2 23 2.67 28 42 4.88 14.7
Table 8: Documents received across the University over 6 months, analysed
by the type of material requested: no. of items received,
percentages and mean supply times (in days)
Type of No. of requests % Supply Time Material Received
Book 604 12.9 31.78 Conf. 464 9.9 23.55 Serial 3244 69.1 26.02 Thesis 137 2.9 28.72 Report 244 5.2 21.3
135
