College and Research Libraries By IDA R. MILES Scientific Collections in the University of Tennessee—Oak Ridge Area WI T H I N T H E P A S T twelve years there has been a great increase in the scientific literature resources available in the Knoxville-Oak Ridge area of Ten- nessee. During this period of time, ex- tensive additions have been made to the science collections at the University of Tennessee Library, and large specialized libraries have been b u i l t u p in Oak Ridge at the National Laboratories, the Gaseous Diffusion Plant, and the Insti- tute of Nuclear Studies. Individually, these libraries can be p r o u d of their holdings; collectively, they encompass a notable selection of scientific literature. T h e publication of Charles Harvey Brown's Scientific Serials1 and the com- pilation by the Oak Ridge Chapter of the Special Libraries Association of a u n i o n list of scientific serials in the re- gion2 have provided an excellent op- portunity for evaluation of holdings. Following W o r l d W a r II, the Univer- sity of Tennessee underwent a period of rapid increase in enrollment and an im- p o r t a n t expansion of its teaching and re- search programs at the graduate level. Enrollment, which h a d reached a prewar high of 3,834 in 1940/41, then skidded to 1,894 in 1943/44, began a sudden rise in 1945/46, reaching the postwar high of 9,045 students in 1947/48. T h e present enrollment of over 7,500 is almost twice that of the highest prewar year. During this period of greatly increased 1 C. H . Brown, Scientific Serials (Chicago: Associa- tion of College and R e f e r e n c e Libraries, 1956), 189 p. 2 Special L i b r a r i e s Association, Oak Ridge Chapter, Union List of Serials in the Technical Libraries of the Oak Ridge-Knoxville Area (3d ed.; Oak Ridge, Tenn., 1957). Miss Miles is Science Librarian, Uni- versity of Tennessee. enrollments there came a demand for the establishment of graduate programs leading to the Ph.D. degree. Approval of the doctoral program in chemistry had been granted in 1943. T h e Ph.D. pro- gram in physics was begun in the fall of 1946, and one in mathematics in the fall of 1947. During the 1948/49 school year the other science departments—botany, bacteriology, zoology and entomology, and geology—were given permission to offer courses leading to the Ph.D. T h e growth of the University was re- flected in the growth of the Library. T h e great increase in n u m b e r of students necessitated tremendous quantitative in- creases in the size of the Library. Much more important, the rapidly expanding program of graduate work demanded qualitative increases in the science hold- ings. Unquestionably, the basic scientific journals must be available. Need for many of these titles was common to sev- eral of the sciences, b u t beyond this com- mon need, the materials necessary for research varied according to the subject. Physics was chiefly concerned with recent journals; mathematics needed the nine- teenth-century literature as well as that of the twentieth century. Chemistry could fairly well limit its requests to a g r o u p of essential items, while the needs in botany and zoology were widely di- versified. In its program of acquisition, the Uni- versity Library tried to balance the im- mediate need for an availability of the recent literature with the sometimes less obvious need for back files of i m p o r t a n t older journals. Frequent reference was made to the earlier lists of most-cited periodicals for an indication of the im- MAY 1958 223 portance of journals being considered for purchase. Such statistical studies were then checked against, and supplemented by, recommendations of a g r o u p of in- terested faculty members who have made valuable suggestions over the years with respect to the immediate and long-term needs in their subjects. Extensive pur- chases of scientific serials have been made annually since the mid-1940's. In the past two bienniums, the University admin- istration has made sizable grants to sup- plement the a n n u a l book appropriations and to permit acquisition of much need- ed research materials. T h e m a j o r portion of the University Library's science collection is housed in the Science Library and its Biological Sciences branch. Centrally located near the departments it serves, the Science Li- brary is in the Chemistry Building, only a few steps from the buildings housing the mathematics, physics, and geology departments, and within easy reach of the biology and engineering departments. T h e Biological Sciences Library is in the Biology Building, headquarters for the bacteriology, botany, and zoology depart- ments. Both libraries are u n d e r the su- pervision of the Science Librarian. Ref- erence and i n f o r m a t i o n service in the sci- ences can be furnished f r o m the Science Library, where the card catalog shows a complete record of all science and tech- nology holdings on the university cam- pus. T h e u n i o n card catalog of books in the Oak Ridge libraries is also housed in the Science Library, supplementing the book-form u n i o n list of scientific serials in Oak Ridge and Knoxville libraries. T h e libraries at Oak Ridge have had a phenomenal growth. T h e end of W o r l d W a r I I f o u n d the several government laboratories at Oak Ridge with n o cen- tral library—only collections of books scattered about in the laboratories. By 1946 both the Oak Ridge National Lab- oratories and the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant had established central libraries and were beginning a monu- mental program of acquisition. But even while concentrating on their extensive acquisition program, they still depended heavily on the University of Tennessee Library for loans. At one time in the late 1940's one University Library assistant was occupied full-time in h a n d l i n g the requests for loans from Oak Ridge alone. T h e ratio of loan between the libraries has been as great as one h u n d r e d loaned to one borrowed by the University. T h e present ratio is about four to one. T h i s ratio seems high in view of the fact that the National Laboratory Library a n d its branches have surpassed the University's science collection in size, and now con- tain some 70,000 volumes, while the Gas- eous Diffusion Plant Library numbers about 24,000 volumes. Actually, the pres- ent ratio of science materials loaned a n d borrowed is probably about equal, with the other loans being in related fields of interest which do not come within the scope of these special libraries. T h e Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies was established in 1946, an inter- university venture for the promotion of research and instruction in the nuclear sciences. Almost immediately, the Uni- versity of Tennessee entered into a con- tract with the Institute to give formal graduate instruction at Oak Ridge lead- ing to the master's and doctor's degrees in chemistry, physics, and mathematics. Chemical engineering has since been added. T h e O R I N S Technical Library was started in 1948 as a textbook library for these courses, and was administered for a year by a member of the University Library staff. I n J u n e of 1949 a librarian was employed by O R I N S ; the Institute Library and the AEC Technical Library were consolidated u n d e r Institute man- agement; and the library began a def- inite program of development towards becoming a full-scale research library. T h i s library now has some 26,000 vol- umes. Special attention is given to litera- 224 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES T A B L E I M O S T FREQUENTLY CITED SERIALS IN E I G H T SCIENCES Titles Not at U.T. or Oak Ridge Total Number Total Number of Citations PER CENT of Titles on to These NUMBER OF NUMBER OF OF TOTAL List Titles TITLES CITATIONS CITATIONS Mathematics 99 3,168 2 14 .44 Physics 102 9,075 1 11 .09 Chemistry 101 10,052 5 66 .66 Geology 106 2,279 15 175 7.67 Physiology 102 5,430 7 110 2.03 Botany 107 4,135 19 203 7.30 Zoology 94 1,819 24 382 21.00 Entomology 117 1,876 42 573 30.50 ture on the applications of nuclear stud- ies in the fields of medicine, agriculture, and industry. T h e nature of much of the work done at Oak Ridge has inevitably caused an emphasis, both at Knoxville a n d at Oak Ridge, on acquisitions in mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Consequently, when a study was made of the holdings of these libraries in the eight sciences reviewed in Scientific Serials, it was these three subjects that showed the greatest bibliographic strength. T h e r e are 253 titles on the combined lists for mathe- matics, physics, and chemistry.3 Only eight of these titles cannot be located in the area. Although the libraries do not have complete files of all the journals, the combined holdings show complete sets of more than half of these titles. In most instances where sets are incomplete, only a few volumes are missing, or the missing volumes belong to the nineteenth century literature which is seldom re- ferred to in current chemical a n d phys- ical research. T h e eight journals which are lacking furnished less than 1 per cent of the total citations on the lists for each subject. Perhaps more surprising than the good collection in mathematics, physics, and chemistry, is the high percentage of the 3 B r o w n , op. cit., p p . 143-154. physiology titles available. In addition to the need for this material at the Univer- sity, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory has Biology and Health Physics Divi- sions, and the Institute of Nuclear Stud- ies has a Medical Division. Of the 102 most-cited titles in physiology,4 all b u t seven are available in the area. These seven titles, all medical journals, fur- nished only a little over 2 per cent of the total citations. T h i s strong basic col- lection is especially noteworthy since, as Mr. Brown points out, there is a great scattering of citations in physiology among journals classified in different sub- ject fields.5 I n the other four subjects which Mr. Brown has studied—geology, botany, zoology, and entomology—the percent- age of holdings is not so high. T h e litera- ture of geology and the biological sciences shows a wide scattering of cita- tions among many journals, making it more difficult to build a basic collection in these subjects than in the "compact" sciences of mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Relatively little work in these subjects is done at Oak Ridge, and the re- sponsibility rests chiefly with the Uni- versity to increase its holdings. T a b l e I shows the bibliographic strength of the University and Oak Ridge libraries for 4 Ibid. ••Ibid., p p . 112-113. MAY 1958 225 the titles on the lists of most frequently cited serials in the eight sciences. R o b e r t W . Orr, writing in Library Trends, has said, " T h e day will come, if indeed it is not already here, when li- braries will be rated less by the com- pleteness of their holdings of serials t h a n by means of a yardstick which takes into account a definitive evaluation of serial holdings b o t h in titles and time spans."6 W i t h this criterion, the Knoxville-Oak Ridge area again rates well in the phys- ical sciences, mathematics, a n d physiol- ogy. Ninety per cent of the citations in physics and chemistry are to the first thirty-seven titles; all thirty-seven are available. Ninety per cent of the mathe- matics citations are to the first fifty-three titles; all fifty-three are available. I n physiology, the first fifty-seven titles sup- ply 90 per cent of the citations; only two of these, r a n k i n g twenty-eight and fifty- six, are not available, and both journals lacking are medical journals. N o serious study of Scientific Serials should ignore Chapter IV, "Journals Most Frequently Abstracted."7 Such an investigation of the literature which is currently being made available in ab- stract form may well be a guide to f u t u r e purchase, after the basic, most-cited se- rials have been acquired. Thirty-five of the 119 journals most frequently abstract- ed in the 1954 Chemical Abstracts do n o t appear on any of the most-cited lists. Over one-third of these thirty-five are strictly chemical journals; most of the others are general scientific publications or are devoted to special subjects in ap- plied chemistry. Of the 119 titles, thir- teen are not being currently received at 6 R. W . O r r , " A Few Aspects of A c q u i r i n g S e r i a l s , " Library Trends, I I I ( 1 9 5 5 ) , 399. 7 Brown, op. cit., pp. 50-56. Oak Ridge or the University of Tennes- see; eight of these thirteen are Japanese publications. Perhaps this should serve as an indicator for f u t u r e acquisitions. Most-cited lists can serve only as a beginning, and they have served well at the University of Tennessee Library. T h e faculty members in most science depart- ments are pleased with the basic collec- tions now on h a n d . T h e next concern must be a branching-out, with serious study of what should come next. T h e needs will vary with the subjects. For example, in physics, present d e m a n d at the University is for the many new jour- nals which have been started within the past few years and which continue to spring u p . These are chiefly British and American publications. By contrast, in mathematics, d e m a n d seems to center a r o u n d publications from other than the Big Five—the United States, Great Brit- ain, France, Germany, and Russia. Now that the basic journals, as indicated on the most-cited list, are available, there is particular interest in new mathematical publications from J a p a n a n d from the countries of southeastern Europe. T h e libraries of the Knoxville-Oak Ridge area now have good collections of the most-cited titles in the sciences. T hese are supplemented by a large col- lection of other scientific journals, to provide good bibliographic strength in the sciences and technology. Some three thousand titles are listed in the recently compiled u n i o n list of serials held by the technical libraries of the area. Although the resources are scattered among several libraries, interlibrary loan relations are extemely cordial and prompt, with daily messenger service between Oak Ridge and Knoxville. T h e scientific literature is readily available for use. 226 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES