Information Processing Prepared by Margaret Leonard The higgest impact that information processing has a t the present time is an economic one. The subscription cost of chemical journals has skyrocketed in recent years, forcing colleee libraries to cancel subscriotions. The loss of nrimarv jc,urn.ils a c d 1 not he S I I severe i f it were IIOI for the fact that the cGrar of t h t C'hr.mrcal Ahstrarts has reached 3:lUOU for the 1976 suhscription. The decision faced by most small colleges is an eitherlor situation: orimam but no CA. or CA but no access to the original article ( 1 ) : Interlihrar; loans are one means of providing the original article but the elaosed time (up to 28hays) for such aiquisitions may be too iong for a student writing a research paper. Many journals are difficult to locate and extensive correspondence may he required before a copy is obtained. Add to this the problem of copyright law revisions and the problem becomes compounded (3). A consortium of four colleges in Florida have attemoted to solve some of these prohler& by pooling their sourcks. Bethune-Cookman College has an access terminal to on-line computer for both the Lockheed and SDC data bases in California. Jacksonville University and Florida Institute of Technology make mail requests to Bethune-Cwkman College which acts as an "information broker." Meanwhile Florida Southern College has investigated the use of batch processing for literature searches. For the hatch process search to be cost effective, however, a t least 15 simult&eous searches must he run. This is usually more than an undergraduate institution can eenerate. The on-line comouter research is an accentable metiod for such an institution; however, it would b e more acceptable if Chemical Abstracts Concentrates data base could Ihe rwdilied to inchrlr a short ahstract ( 1 1 . If relatively little accePs to tht~rhcrnwalliterature is reauired. the "information-broker" mode of operation would probably be the most valuable. The Chemical Abstracts Service has undergone many technological changes in its production in order to maintain as constant as possihle its cost to the subscriber per primary document. In the mid-19fiO's the Federal Government recognized the significance of CAS and began supplying funding ~ - large-scale to augment the resources that the ACS was able to generate itself (2). This support now amounts to &7 million dollars from the National Science Foundation. Perhaps for undergraduate institutions we are placing too much emuhasis on the availabilitv of orimarv iournals. Ninetv percent of undergraduate s t u d e k Gobahl; 20 retrospective literature searches based on secondarv sources rather than extensive "hrowsing" in the primary journals. They depend, however, on the faculty for such information. But the availability of a selection of primary journals is an inducement in the attraction and retention of faculty as well as a public service of the college to the community with resultant increase in "good will" which might he translated into increased financial support. Any evaluation of the value of maintaining a glven collection must include consideration of all of the ahove users (5). The lihrary today must he considered more than a depository of books, journals and pamphlets. I t usually houses the "software" of audio and audio-visual cassette tapes, films, film strips, records, teaching machines and other equipment used to enrich the learning experience. In fact, they are often termed "learoine-resource" centers rather than libraries. While freshmen and sophomore chemistry students will not usually browse in the primary journals or consult such classic references as "Reilstein," they will come to view audio-visual cassettes descrihinr various aspects of a lahoratorv .exoeriment . or methods of calculation or berhaps a discussion of atomic orbitals. These tapes are often easier to understand than the
text or the lecturer. Havine eotten into the habit of eoinr to the library for explanationi,;data, or other resource mateXal, they will continue to seek out such information and as juniors, seniors, and graduate students it will be a natural step for r v. iournals and them to browse in secondary and then ~ r i m a. hasic reference sources (4). In general this group of papers emphasized the impact of increased subscription costs on library budgets which are being held static or, in some cases, beinadecreased. Unfortunately the technical journals are forced to further price increases as the cost of printing and postage increases: the end is not in sight. Some sugg&tionS ha& been made in this symposium on means of cutting such costs by cooperation among institutions: use of computer data banks, use of interlibrary loan services, and even increased faculty subscriptions to primary journals for personal use. Annotated Bibliography (1) Copeland, Richard F.. Chemical Information in t h e Undergraduate college. 11. Access t o t h e Chemical Literature through Abstracting a n d Indexing Services. Division of Science and Mathematics, BethuneCookman College, - Davtona Beach. FL 32015 Describes a consortium of four small Florida colleges which use on-line computer terminal access to the Lockheed and SDC data bases in California and feel this is an acceptable and more economical alternate to manual searches of the printed Chemical Ahstrnetr where subscription rates have become prohibitive. (2) Good, Mary L. and O'Dette, Ralph E., Chemical Information in t h e Undergraduate Colleee. IV. T h e Role of t h e American ~ h & i c a l Society a n d Its ~ u b l i c a l tions. Department of Chemistrv. Universitv of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA 70122,a11d CberniEaf~hstracts Service, Columhus, OH 43210. Descrihes new technology used by CAS to cover all primary documents and maintain the cost to the subscriher per primary document in spite of inflation. (3) Lewis, G. Edwin, Chemical Information in t h e Undergraduate College. 111. Acquisition of Copies of Single J o u r n a l Articles, Department of Chemistry, Jacksonville University, Jacksonville, FL 32211 For this Florida based institution, inter-library loan service for single journal articles has not been satisfactory b~cause of the difficulty in locating a regional source of the journals: therefore,several months may elapse before a copy of the article is obtained. As the prices of chemical journals increase. subscriptions to them must be cut; only 7 are now currently in their perindieal collection. (4) Schultz, H. P., Use of t h e Library b y Undergraduate Chemistry Students, Department of Chemistry, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33124 In a large university serving about 2000 chemistry students per sem~ster,the freshman are attracted to the 1ihrar.v to view the extensive collection of video tape cassettes on chemistry and thus become familiar with its use early in their academic program and in the later years tend touse the library in the conventional sense. ( 5 ) Willard, Thomas M., Chemical Information i n t h e Undergraduate College. I. T h e Role of P r i m a r y J o u r n a l s in a n Undergraduate College. Department of Chemistry, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, FL 33802 Primary journals are used by undergraduate students in the junior and senior years, by faculty and b,v the community; the use by students is quite low but the faculty use is reflected in inslruction and the community use in enhanced "good will."
Volume 54, Number
1, January 1977 / 17
