College and Research Libraries ROBERT B. DOWNS Doctoral Degrees and Library Resources This paper brings up to date a similar report which was published in College & Research Libraries in 1966 showing the relationship between library holdings and the number of doctoral degrees granted in several American universities. Correlation between the two remains high. Generally speaking, the strongest graduate offerings are at institutions with the strongest libraries. A STUDY PUBLISHED in 1966 revealed a close relationship between doctoral de- grees conferred by American universi- ties and library resources and support. 1 The recent publication of the lOth edi- tion of American Universities and Col- leges2 provides an opportunity to up- date the previous investigation. In a tabular summary of "Earned Doctorates, 1957- 1966, by Field and Institution,"3 the ACE directory presents the number of d egrees awarded by each institution. The figur es are broken down further by broad categories: humanities, biological sciences, physical sciences, social scien- ces, and a miscellaneous group not clas- sifiable by fields. A total of 214 universities, colleges, seminaries, institutes, and schools are listed by American Universities and Colleges as having conferred five or more doctoral degrees during the dec- ade 1957- 66. For present purposes, only those institutions granting one hundred or more degrees in the course of the 1 College & R esearch Libraries, XXVII (March 1966)' 123-29, 141. 2 Washington: (ACE) American Council on Educa- tion, 1968. a Ibid., p. 1699-1702. Dr. Downs is Dean of Library Adminis- tration in the University of Illinois . ten-year period are considered-a total of 120 universities or other institutions of higher education. The accompanying table includes the selected group, re- arranged in the order of the number of degrees conferred. The two final col- umns report for each library the num- ber of volumes held and the total ex- penditures for books, p eriodicals, and binding as of 1966, the final year cov- ered by the ten-year record of statis- tics of doctoral degrees. 4 According to the ACE summary, 121,750 doctoral degrees were granted by American universities and colleges during the decade. Of the total, 77,465 degrees, or about 64 per cent (nearly two-thirds), came from thirty-eight in-.. stitutions with library holdings in excess of a million volumes each. The mean figure for the thirty-eight libraries was 2,135,565 volumes. A close correlation existed also be- tween the number of degrees conferred and the level of financial support. The forty universities whose libraries spent more than $500,000 each for books , periodicals, and binding in 1965--66 granted a total of 79,126 doctoral de- grees, or 65 per cent of the whole fig- ure of 121,750. 4 The library data are based chiefly on Library Sta- tistics of Colleges and Universities, 1965-66 (Chicago: American Library Association, 1967) . I 417 418 I College & Research Libraries • September 1969 The list of degree-granting institutions was headed by the University of Cal- ifornia, which awarded 6,981 doctorates during the decade. The total represents seven campuses, but 4,869 degrees came from Berkeley and Los Angeles combined, both owning multi-million volume libraries. Book collections and expenditures have continued to expand since the 1966 figures were compiled. As report- ed in the Association of Research Li- braries' "Academic Library Statistics" for 1967-68, fifty-one of the seventy mem- ber libraries possessed more than a mil- lion volumes each and eleven more were on the verge of reaching the million- volume level .at the end of the year. In expenditures for books and binding, twenty-six of the seventy exceeded $1,000,000 each for 1967-68; sixty of the seventy had book expenditures above $500,000 for the year. A distinction should be made among several principal types of institutions in- cluded in the select group of 120. First, there are the general universities, en- compassing virtually all fields. Second, there are a score or more of former A. and M. state colleges recently con- verted into general universities, since which time a majority have been ac- tively engaged in developing major gen- eral libraries. Examples are Purdue, Iowa State, Pennsylvania State, Oregon State, Oklahoma State, Texas A. & M., North Carolina State, Washington State, Kansas State, Auburn, Utah State, Col- orado State, and Montana State. A third recognizable category is the specialized technical institutions-California Insti- tute of Technology, Carnegie Institute of Technology, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, Rensselaer Polytechnic In- stitute, Illinois Institute of Technology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Case In- stitute of Technology, and Georgia In- stitute of Technology-which confer de- grees primarily in the physical and bio- logical sciences, and whose library re- quirements, therefore, are considerably less diverse than are those of general universities dealing with all fields. Another group of specialized institutions, a small one, is represented by the New School for Social Research, the South- western Baptist Theological Seminary, and the Union Theological Seminary. Purely from a pragmatic point of view, one may conclude that quantita- tively a library in a university offering comprehensive doctoral programs should possess a minimum of 1,500,000 volumes and ought to be spending not less than $750,000 annually for books, periodicals, and binding. Among the thirty-four uni- versities which granted an average of one hundred doctorates a year, or more, during the 1957-66 period, twenty-two met the suggested standard for volume holdings, as of July 1, 1968, and twenty- nine of the thirty-four spent in excess of $750,000 each for books. In summary; statistics of doctoral de- grees granted and of library holdings and book expenditures strongly support the view that there is a high degree of correlation between the two in universi- ties distinguished for their doctoral programs. With rare exceptions, an in- stitution outstanding for its graduate of- ferings is equally notable for the strength of its library resources. It is perhaps equally obvious that a number of in- stitutions granting the doctorate lack the library resources to support advanced level graduate study and need to under- take extensive development of their li- braries. •• DocTORAL D EGREES AwARDED, 1957-1966, AND LIBRARY RESOUHCES Book Total No. Bi ologica l Physical Social Volumes in Expenditures lnstitntion Degrees Humanities Sciences Sciences Sciences Misc ellaneous Library, 1966 1965-66 California (all campuses) 6,981 519 2,031 2,670 1,731 30 7,111,539 $5,254,125 Columbia 5,679 998 550 1,074 3,041 16 3,675,920 927,775 Illinois 4,194 384 960 1,872 938 40 4,083,634 1,744,763 vVisconsin 4,189 525 1,421 1,112 1,091 40 1,746,321 1,107,503 Harvard 3,864 813 452 981 1,591 27 7,600,357 1,596,989 Michigan 3,395 563 744 1,175 872 41 3,516,355 1,066,365 New York University 3,225 420 556 676 1,567 6 1,648,437 572,900 Ohio State 2,960 292 859 869 940 1,845,069 622,734 Minnesota 2,854 246 1,093 717 788 10 2,484,402 866,343 Stanford 2,613 261 265 1,248 791 48 2,764,211 1,074,801 Purdue 2,565 21 1,102 1,145 296 1 770,666 615,439 Indiana 2,542 419 280 332 1,504 7 1,943,256 1,116,335 Chicago 2,469 370 409 576 1,077 37 2,445,141 904,012 MIT 2,424 31 119 2,128 146 900,468 413,061 Yale 2,396 830 391 659 507 9 4,995,398 1,420,206 Michigan State 2,251 158 778 478 837 1,224,528 783,111 Cornell 2,132 208 891 456 571 6 2,892,539 1,149,001 Texas 1,957 235 356 732 634 1,912,018 1,002,131 Iowa State 1,934 396 516 822 200 586,627 291,379 Penn sylvania 1,809 311 298 533 657 10 1,958,602 655,402 Pennsylvania State 1,759 62 411 676 577 33 891,396 752,648 Northwestern 1,650 456 204 606 384 1,771,899 529,006 Southern California 1,579 333 218 153 875 1,192,240 379,345 University of Washington 1,568 221 378 596 365 8 1,466,906 840,028 Princeton 1,504 260 131 783 305 25 1,846,776 671,953 Iowa 1,362 27 396 352 587 1,284,836 623,896 Pittsburgh 1,220 156 250 391 420 3 997,896 544,327 North Carolina 1,135 234 246 266 389 1,385,234 581,824 Maryland 1,122 61 348 413 300 754,108 742,962 Rutgers 1,122 26 551 282 254 9 1,289,554 612,619 .T ohns Hopkins 1,103 142 312 470 174 5 1,500,322 320,361 Missouri 1,083 98 296 231 458 1,230,000 486,049 Florida 1,040 98 311 310 318 3 1,147,711 574,396 Catholic 1,007 367 149 205 285 1 681,901 114,990 Colorado . 961 79 161 369 352 1,205,863 668,698 Duke. 957 174 282 223 278 1,783,803 611 ,870 Syracuse 941 64 131 254 385 107 1,262,051 505,545 Louisiana 867 78 364 217 208 1,029,650 418,770 Book Tota l N o . Biological Physical Soci al Volum es in Expe nditures In stitution D egrees Hum a nities Scien ces Sci en ces Scie nces Miscella n eo u s Library, 1966 1965-66 Kansas 857 38 239 321 259 1,201,615 568,045 Rochester 855 248 247 286 74 906,410 449,786 Nebraska 803 38 170 146 449 820,791 340,938 Oklahoma 799 60 190 207 340 2 1,023,894 361,236 California T ech. 779 60 719 161,433 156,767 Florid a Stat e 749' 56 206 202 273 12 747 ,116 559,568 Boston University 709 224 100 385 665,655 239,732 Wayne 709 84 97 193 333 2 992,242 581 ,535 Oregon State 680 18 344 215 95 8 506,662 246,361 Utah 677 43 171 329 134 924,381 352,140 Oregon 666 17 108 113 427 1 1,112,743 349,679 Fordham 650 165 152 93 240 721 ,276 250,127 Tenness ee 640 23 217 205 195 903,665 609,132 Oklahom a Stat e 634 2 194 242 196 800,200 278,000 Carnegie T ech. 633 8 14 569 42 246,616 126,176 Western Reserve 608 71 131 93 313 864,885 178,306 Brown 607 104 113 310 79 1 1,150,052 376,253 Virginia 574 54 60 213 243 4 1,288,634 465,780 Colorado State College 557 1 20 1 520 15 256,744 104,044 Texas A. & M . 547 258 258 31 475,070 261,885 Notre Dam e 545 97 41 306 101 781,002 337,840 Connecticut 539 36 165 115 223 619,406 653,693 Washington ( St. Louis ) 527 42 126 235 119 5 936,754 571,528 North Carolina State 503 258 196 49 370,959 407,912 Washington State 499 243 94 162 879,094 296,225 Vanderbilt 497 149 129 134 85 995 ,839 379 ,732 Brooklyn Polytechnic 473 473 122,312 144,899 Tulane 460 113 168 98 79 2 950,710 391 ,901 St. Louis 450 88 95 119 148 719,741 216,653 Arizona 434 12 137 171 113 1 858,067 347,367 D enver 432 142 83 10 197 518,173 180,583 T emple 429 49 109 94 177 730 ,791 383,775 Rensselaer Polytechnic 423 7 401 9 6 130,927 120,909 Case Institute 415 377 37 1 138,545 ll9 ,085 G eor ge Peabody 397 23 49 20 305 995 ,839 379,731 Cincinn ati 396 46 80 209 56 5 905,047 222,343 Kans as State 382 2 238 132 lO 381 ,685 251 ,965 Georgetown 363 29 51 107 175 512,990 202,588 Am erican University 361 44 9 308 151 ,007 153,583 Kentucky 360 18 117 66 159 1,131 ,070 441 ,246 Virgini a Po]yt echnic 356 184 172 399.121 166,912 Book Total 0. Biological Physical Social Volumes in Expenditures Instituti on D egrees Humanities Sciences Sciences Sciences Miscellaneous Libra r y, 1966 1965-66 Illinois Inst. Tech. 345 1 56 285 3 84,135 27,500 Arkansas 343 31 19 66 227 508,370 157,981 Rice 343 33 28 265 17 547,383 396,204 George Washington 308 5 124 32 147 409,340 170,000 Georgia 303 15 118 35 124 11 678,529 500,084 Delaware 286 2 38 240 6 546,908 285,203 Loyola 278 36 133 17 92 462,216 251 ,272 Hou ston 277 117 28 132 383,376 342,843 Lehigh 277 7 16 239 15 448,378 124,412 Alabama 270 6 64 59 141 816,156 378,306 New Mexico 248 33 13 117 85 479,710 363,219 S.W. Baptist 248 248 366,954 48,332 Massachusetts 238 2 175 44 17 427 ,714 790,191 Emory 228 49 81 32 49 17 858,765 286,506 Wyoming 228 35 35 158 416,375 181 ,095 Brandeis 227 19 62 71 75 335,286 199,356 Yeshiva 215 35 87 18 75 397,025 257,712 Georgia T ech. 213 213 420,138 186,417 Claremont 210 48 51 111 402,202 172,475 Clark 200 67 96 37 252,527 41 ,714 Auburn 190 1 59 50 80 459,476 263,673 St. Johns 179 28 55 6 90 330,730 245,570 Utah State 179 120 29 30 408 ,950 159,558 Colorado Stat e University 170 68 70 32 373,899 366,789 Arizona State 169 2 6 36 125 497,500 174,500 West Virgini a 154 1 71 49 33 592,274 284,479 North Texas 150 16 134 537,097 313,741 South ern Illinois 148 25 42 2 79 700,000 604,700 Tufts 148 4 42 22 80 363,566 149,033 Bryn Mawr 141 61 15 24 35 6 323,524 81,862 North Dakota 140 35 7 98 280,733 150,940 Mississippi 135 3 45 28 59 396,829 153,901 Baylor 133 1 81 29 22 356,200 116,957 New Sch. Soc. Res . 124 9 34 8 1 46,009 35,381 Union Theological 123 123 393,123 30,187 T exas T ech. 121 12 16 19 74 700,316 418,137 Montana Stat e 111 31 50 30 416,122 125,013 Adelphi 107 91 16 149,520 122,475 New H am p shire 105 4.5 60 394,494 209,944 Lawrence 103 103 171,433 52,721 Brigham Yo-ung 100 7 9 35 49 589,295 488,056