College and Research Libraries Letters The Undergraduate Library (continued) To the Editor: In his recent article (Jan. 1978 C&RL) Mr. Wingate seems to suffer from some of the confusions he attributes to undergradu- ate libraries in their attempts to define their role. The "basic tenet" of these undergrad- uate libraries that still seem to be in a healthy state has very little to do with those identified in the Wingate article but would seem to be more akin to the list Irene Bra- den (Hoadley) defined in her thesis on "The Undergraduate Library. " 1 In fact, several of the "defects" Wingate pinpoints are advan- tages when observed from the undergradu- ate library seat. Most of us go out of our way to avoid "segregating" the undergraduate from the research library. We do, in fact, deliber- ately try to lead undergraduates, when they are ready , to the more comprehensive re- sources of the other place/s. Statistics in fact show that Toronto undergraduates use all three collections. They do , however, find different needs being met by each collec- tion. We often make the comparison of super- market to gourmet store when we speak of the respective roles of the Sigmund Samuel Library and the research libraries. Any mul- tiple copies that are purchased will be in Sig. Sam-our "supermarket" -where there is still a wide enough breadth of titles to support the variety of courses being offered and the diversity of teaching methods being used in the Faculty of Arts & Science. A number of the institutions whose undergraduate collections have closed do not appear to have had sufficient depth in their collections to meet the diverse de- mands of today's undergraduate. But we must remember that "A bigger library is not better for aU purposes . ... Beyond a certain point, somewhere around 250,000 volumes, further increases in size sharply diminish the usefulness of a library for most demands. "2 By this standard the Sigmund COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES Samuel Library contains approximately 250,000 of the "most frequently used vol- umes" from the total holdings of the library system. To achieve our " raison d"etre as a conve- nient library of first resort"3 for the under- graduate and , indeed, for graduate students and faculty members who are new to our campus or to a particular subject, we also concentrate heavily on instruction in library use. This is one objective. of undergraduate libraries that seems to have been totally ig- nored by Mr. Wingate, though it is on Bra- den's list of, the six attributes that distin- guish undergraduate libraries from research libraries. One could go on and on and dissect statistics for each of the institutions quoted by Mr. Wingate or those appearing in the annual statistical compilation in the UGLI Newsletter. We may not meet all needs; but in an institution of 34,142 undergraduates and 11,796 graduate students, we are still able to keep some of the personal touch in our library services both for undergraduates in Sig. Sam. and for graduate students and faculty members in the research libraries. We feel our readers in Toronto benefit by the split, and similar tales are told by the librarians (and the statistics) at such diverse institutions as the Universities of British Co- lumbia, California (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and San Diego), Hawaii, Michigan, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas and at Cor- nell, Harvard, McGill, and Stanford U ni- versities and others . 4 -Sheila M. Laidlaw, Sigmund Samuel Librarian, University of Toronto. REFERENCES 1. Subsequently published as ACRL Monograph No. 31 by ALA in 1970. 2. University of Toronto, President's Advisory Committee on the Sigmund Samuel Library Collection, Report (Toronto, 1972), p.~lO. 3. Ibid., p.s.· 4. ACRL Undergraduate Librarians' Discussion Group, UGLI Newsletter: Statistical Issue, No. 12 (Jan. 1978). I 401 Now for the first time, you can search the journal literature of all the major arts and humanities disciplines with one, easy-to-use reference tool: ARTS & HUMANITIES CITATION INDEXTM Multidisciplinary The new Arts & Humanities Citation Index covers over 800 of the world's important journals in literature, history, languages, religion, philosophy, drama/theater, art, music and other related fields. Each journal is indexed from cover to cover, so that you can locate in the A&HCI™ items like fiction, poetry, correspondence and book reviews as well as articles. Current The Arts & Humanities Citation Index cuts to a minimum the lag time between an item's publication and its coverage by an indexing service. You can locate new articles within a few months of their appearance in the literature. 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