College and Research Libraries Automation in College Libraries Richard Hume Werking This article reports results of a survey of the "Bowdoin List" group of liberal arts college libraries. The survey obtained information about which automation modules were in place at the library and when they had been installed; the financing of automation and the impact on the library's budget; and library directors' views about several matters relating to library automation and the nature of the college library. !though library automation is a popular topic in the profes- sional literature, as well as in conversations and conference programs involving academic librarians, little has been done to provide over- views of the state of automation in aca- demic libraries. 1 This article attempts to provide such an overview, albeit a cur- sory one, for thirty-five of the forty-two liberal arts college libraries in the "Bowdoin List" group. A previous article, C&RL January 1991 issue, reported on collection growth and shifts in patterns of expenditures in this group of college libraries, comparing the findings with developments in research libraries. As a part of that same research project, I surveyed the college library directors in the winter and spring of 1989 about automation in · their libraries.2 Readers should consider that the data, attitudes, and opinions reported here for the colleges are as of mid-1989. COMPONENTS REPORTED OCLCIRLIN By 1982 all thirty-five college libraries responding to the survey had im- plemented the OCLC bibliographic net- work, with the exception of one that is using RLIN instead. The first of these libraries to adopt OCLC did so in 1967. TABLE 1: OCLC/RLIN First 1967 Third 1972 One-fourth 1974 Half 1975 Three-fourths 1978 Third most recent 1980 Most recent 1982 Richard Hume Werking is Director of Libraries at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas 78212 He gratefully acknowledges the many contributions of Dorothy R. Williams, his adminstrative assistant at Trinity; financial support from Trinity and the Council on Library Resources; and the cooperation and interest of the "Bowdoin List" college library directors in the preparation of this study and the one published in the January 1991 issue of C&RL . 117 118 College & Research Libraries Online Circulation In sharp contrast, only thirteen of the thirty-five libraries have acquired an on- line circulation system. The first of these was added in 1979, and the most recent in 1989, but only two before 1987. The table below demonstrates the recency of this adoption. TABLE 2: ONLINE CIRCULATION SYSTEMS First Second Third & Fourth Fifth through eighth Ninth through thirteenth 1979 1986 1987 1988 1989 On the other hand, by 1987 three-quar- ters of the 115 research libraries respond- ing to the ARL Automation Inventory of that year (74 percent) had installed an automated circulation system.3 Online Acquisitions A greater number of the college librar- ies, fifteen of them, have implemented an online acquisitions system, beginning in 1981. More than half of these libraries have acquired such systems during the past two years, as the following distribu- tion shows. TABLE 3: ONLINE ACQUISITIONS SYSTEMS Number of Year Libraries Acquired 2 1981 2 1982 2 1984 1 1987 6 1988 2 1989 By 1987, 74 percent of the ARL libraries had implemented automated acquisitions systems, exactly the same percentage as for circulation. 4 March 1991 Online Serials Only ten of these college libraries own online serials systems-fewer than any other automated component-with the first one implemented in 1982 and the most recent in 1989, and only half of them implemented by 1988. Likewise, in 1987 fewer than half the ARL libraries, 42 percent, had online serials systems. 5 Online Public Catalog In marked contrast, twenty-one of the thirty-five college libraries (60 percent) have online public catalogs, eighteen of them acquired in the last three years and the first acquired as recently as 1983 . TABLE 4: ONLINE PUBLIC CATALOGS Number of Year Libraries Acquired 1 1983 1 1985 1 1986 5 1987 7 1988 6 1989 The directors at an additional thirteen of the thirty-five libraries expect to have an online catalog in operation within two to three years, and the other director expects one in three to five years. In 1987, seventy-one percent of the ARL libraries reported that they had installed online catalogs, compared with fewer than one- quarter of the responding college libraries. 6 CD/ROM Technology Twenty-six of the thirty-five respond- ing college libraries presently have CD /ROM technology, the first of which was acquired as recently as 1986. The number of CD /ROM products ranges from one to seven per library. FINANCING AUTOMATION Financing Initial Costs The college library directors were pre- sented with a list of methods and asked: "How has your library financed, or how do you expect it to finance, the initial cost of the [above] technologies?" The thirty- five respondents selected a total of 103 methods. The methods are indicated in descending order of occurrence in the table below. TABLE 5: FINANCING INITIAL COSTS Method Special one-time allocations from college or university administration Special grants from private foundations · Operating funds [chiefly for OCLC and CD/ROM] Special gifts or bequests from benefactors Special government grants As part of a building fund Through cooperative purchasing Other:"as part of college capital campaign" Other:"fabulous discount...by vendor" Times chosen 26 25 18 17 7 4 4 1 It is worth noting that the one option offered that was not chosen by any of the thirty-five respondents was "special user fees/ charges," a method some univer- sity libraries have used to finance inte- grated online automation systems.) Ongoing Costs Directors were also asked: "How is your library financing, or how do you expect it to finance, the ongoing costs of these technologies?" Thirty-four direc- tors identified fifty-six methods. (See table 6.) Extent of Impact on Existing Library Budget The college library directors were asked: "To what extent have the costs of automation been borne from within the library's budget, either from funds al- ready in the budget or from funds that would otherwise have gone elsewhere Automation in College Libraries 119 TABLE 6: METHODS/FINANCING ONGOING COSTS Method Operating funds Special grants from private foundations Special gifts or bequests from benefactors Through cooperative purchasing Special government grants Special one-time allocations from college or university administration Other: "discount" Times chosen 33 6 5 4 4 3 within the library budget?" The re- sponses, and the number of directors choosing them, are provided below. Thirty-three usable responses were re- ceived. TABLE 7: AUTOMATION FINANCED THROUGH THE LIBRARY'S BUDGET Response "Not at all" "To a limited extent" "To a great extent" Number 20 10 3 The three directors choosing "a great extent" reported that the total impact was $39,500, $30,000, and $8,767. Only one of these three libraries, that which reported $30,000, has an online public catalog. The library reporting the $39,500 figure has recently invested in a number of CD/ROM products and work- stations. Of the ten directors selecting "a limited extent," nine could provide a specific dollar impact, as follows: $50- 75,000, $50,000, $35,000, $25,000, $24,000, $20,000, $6,000, $3,000-5,000, and $2,000. Of these ten libraries, all but two have installed online public cata- logs. Of the twenty library directors re- sponding "not at all," eleven of their libraries have online public catalogs; one of these directors, whose library had re- cently installed an integrated system, added the observation "Thank God!" 120 College & Research Libraries INTERVIEW RESPONSES At the twenty-two libraries visited, I learned a great deal about several closely related issues involving the introduction of (what was for them at least) 1980s automation: the online public catalog and the other components identified above. These issues were the perceived benefits of automation, the willingness of the directors to reduce acquisitions or staffing levels in order to automate their libraries, perceived trade-offs involving automation, and the directors' percep- tions about the changing nature of the college library. Twelve of these libraries already had automated catalogs, one had selected an integrated system, while another four were actively involved in the selection process. Benefits of Automation Twenty-two of the directors re- sponded to the question "What do you consider the benefits of automating?" (This was indicated to be a level of auto- mation beyond OCLC and online database searching.) Listed below are the benefits that were offered by two or more of the respondents, in descending order of occurrence. • Thirteen of the directors included bet- ter searching of the catalog by patrons as an important benefit. • Six mentioned efficiencies in various clerical operations. One commented, "I'm tired of maintaining a card cata- log, thank you," while another ob- served that "We used to spend tens of thousands of dollars a year for filing cards; we're now using people to better advantage." • Another six offered the sharing of li- brary resources through consortia as a benefit. As one of them put it, "Net- working is the reason for automating, not just the library asking for money to fancy up its card catalog." • Five directors referred to automation's either enabling or facilitating shared acquisitions and shared collection de- velopment with certain nearby libraries. March 1991 • Five respondents mentioned the possi- bility of remote searching of the catalog by faculty from their offices, or by others. • Another five referred to obtaining management information from circula- tion statistics about which parts of the collection were being used. Four of the directors brought up the library's image vis-a-vis other libraries and its image on the particular campus. One of them said she occasionally heard comments from students to the effect that "My home town library has an on- line catalog; why doesn't this one?" An- other director observed that the library's position on the campus had been en- hanced. A third noted: "The idea that the college has managed to do something of this sort for its students has helped do- nations from younger donors (a 'cradle to the grave' view). They identify with the library as an up-and-coming place. We've implanted ourselves in their minds this way; normally we don't hear from them until they're out about twenty-five years." A separate image issue offered by three directors was that library automa- tion is a factor in admissions competition with other institutions, to gain "a com- petitive edge in the liberal arts market- place," as one of them put it. Two respondents in environments with sev- eral branch libraries pointed to the ad- vantage of "getting everything into one database." Two more directors were quite interested in the prospect of own- ing and mounting additional databases. Another two respondents considered li- brary automation an important factor in the library's increasing role in coordinat- ing information on campus. A benefit explicitly offered by only one director is nonetheless worth repeating. According to him, a very important ben- efit was the opportunity for weeding the collection: "I'm one librarian who's try- ing not to build another building." Acquisitions and Staff Dollars versus Automation Dollars During the interviews, I askedthe di- rectors: "Wou~d you reduce acquisitions in order to automate?" Of the twenty- one usable responses, eleven were "no," seven were "yes," two were "no initially but yes later," and one director was un- decided. While the directors were quite protective of acquisitions dollars, they were even more protective of staff dol- lars. In response to the question "Would you reduce staff (including student workers), or reduce pay increases in order to automate?" sixteen of the direc- tors said "no," three replied with a highly qualified affirmative, and one did not know. Trade-offs Involving Automation All the directors interviewed thought that the advantages that had been brought. or would be brought by the in- troduction of automation outweighed any disadvantages. At the same time, some of them perceived problems that they were encountering or likely would en- counter in their libraries as a result. Some of their observations are given below. The biggest problem is the online catalog itself and the use of it. Subject searching isn't easy. The user is given so much more than he or she can han- dle, and the catalog isn't used well. Also, records need to be cleaned up. The headings themselves are problem- atic, and there are inconsistencies in how our several institutions have treated headings. But I'd rather have these problems than the problems of the card catalog. Trade-offs with automation other than cost? Well, there's somewhat less atten- tion by reference people to the tradi- tional user, sacrificing the traditional user; we don't give up an online search to help someone at the reference desk because we get instant gratification from the online search process. Also, online searching is more fun. But I don't think things are necessarily being lost. We have the worst card catalog known to man; at...we had a great card catalog. Automation is forcing us to be disciplined, and it will cost the library some money, maybe $50,000 a year in economies: acquisitions, travel budget, maybe staff. Automation in College Libraries 121 I don't think the college libraries have suffered much, so far, in terms of the costs of introducing automation. The larger campuses have suffered more in that they've had to eat into their own money. Automation is a costly thing that pro- vides different services. It's hard to com- pare what you get with what you were getting. By putting our catalog into a local area network, we may lose contact with the faculty, especially if that is com- bined with having materials delivered to their offices. Presently, this is how we see the faculty, when they come to the library. The big thing is the dollar cost, but there's also the political cost. Luckily here the introduction of automation has been tied to a new building, al- though I did get $50,000 more annually for maintenance. God help me if I need to ask for a new reader-printer; I've used up my chips and don't have any for awhile. This is true not just of auto- mation, but would be true for any big expense, like a building. It's like the syndrome among the state legislators in [the state capital]: "We did health last year." Is the Nature of the College Library Changing Fundamentally? The directors were asked, "Is the na- ture of the college library changing very much, changing fundamentally, at your institution and around the country?" Eight of the directors believed that it was, six believed it was not, and the rest of the responses were mixed. Not fundamentally. Librarians are more service-oriented, whereas they used to be collection oriented. Certainly the way we do business is changing. The basis of what libraries do is pretty much the same-provide information. But we don't have to own as much of it, and we have other ways of getting at it. Not really. Automation and various media introduce a different way of working, but that doesn't matter much; people adapt and come to take 122 College & Research Libraries it for granted. Alumni might find it bewildering and think that we're al- ready in the twenty-first century. Yes, it is changing fundamentally. It's splitting in half, into two types of libraries. Librarians are still responsi- ble for information services: census tapes, books, sound CDs, slides, scan- ners, satellite dishes, microforms; and then there is the museum side, the spe- cial collections where people are con- cerned about the book as an artifact, displays, preservation, etc. The biggest change I've noticed in librarianship is the tendency of the administration to want to expand the definition of the library. The language laboratory is now a part of it. There is a whole new set of problems: satellite TV, interactive video, CAl, etc. I worry about how to encourage the faculty and educate them. The satellite dish will place a lot of demands on us for taping programs. Students are wanting to start a new TV station, and work with me and the AV librarian. Unless we expand this way and take on responsibility for addi- tional forms of information, we'll die. Yes, and I think it's the nature of the college librarian. The most notable change in my professional life is getting librarians out of clerical detail, and into administrative matters, teaching (like bibliographic instruction), and more ref- erence work. When I came to this insti- tution, there wasn't much demand for reference help. There was not even a separate reference desk; the librarians got behind the circulation desk and did more circulation work, as circulation supervisors. Librarians are also taking on a larger role in collection develop- ment, which used to be faculty driven. CONCLUSIONS The introduction of online library au- tomation into this group of colleges has lagged behind the same phenomenon in the ARL libraries. Nevertheless, during the 1980s automation caught on rapidly among this group, to the point where three-fifths of the thirty-five reporting libraries had installed online catalogs, or were to have installed them by the end March 1991 of 1989. Perhaps in part because of the speed with which automation has taken hold, the associated costs of computer hardware and software, some mainte- nance, and a good deal of retrospective conversion have generally come from outside the library budget, either from the college administration or from out- side the college altogether. In fact, per- haps it is the externality of the funding that may explain some of the rapidity with which automation has been and is being adopted in these college libraries. In contrast, the impression lingers that because of the much greater automation costs in the research libraries and the more formidable task of retrospective conversion, these institutions are more frequently obliged to absorb these costs from the library budget, often by leaving salary lines open. Another factor may be that many of the ARL libraries are in publicly supported universities and hence have received relatively few grants from foundations to support au- tomation. An important question is the extent to which the college libraries' current bud- gets will remain relatively immune from the future costs of upgrading and replac- ing computer hardware and software. Perhaps the percentage of expenditures for materials will begin to decline. Studying the data from the twenty-one libraries that have installed an online catalog, or expected to install one by the end of 1989, gives no indication that the materials budget has yet suffered as a result. The median percentage of expen- ditures for materials among these librar- ies, both in 1986-87 and in 1987-88, was thirty-seven, one point below the me- dian for the larger group; and in 1988-89 it had risen to thirty-eight percent. Com- pared with their own percentages ten years before, in 1976-77, eleven of these libraries had higher percentages in 1986-87, nine had lower, and one showed no change. For 1987-88 (N=20), ten of them show a higher percentage than the previous year, eight show a smaller, and for two there was no change. For 1988-89 (N=20), seven of these libraries show a higher percentage than in 1987-88, seven show a smaller, and six show no change. 7 College library directors often see trade-offs involving library automation, but none of them believes that the disad- vantages outweigh the advantages. Al- though the college library directors disagree about how "fundamental" the changes are, they perceive that academic libraries are changing the ways in which they operate. An important question concerns the role of the librarian in the more electronic environment. Many of the directors anticipate a greater degree of librarian involvement with students. To the extent that they are correct, and to the extent that relatively more dollars will go to pay for more librarians, or for Automation in College Libraries 123 higher salaries to attract or retain capa- ble librarians with high degrees of en- ergy and skill, it is quite possible that materials expenditures will decline pro- portionately. This trend would run ex- actly counter to the recent plea by Jerry Campbell, university librarian at Duke, that "materials/access" should grow to 50 percent of expenditures and that sal- aries/wages should drop to 33 percent. In Campbe.ll's opinion, "we simply can- not provide enough people to answer all the questions." 8 One problem with his construct, however, as with much of the current discussion about" access," is that library staff, like all other elements in the library operation including the collec- tion, are there to provide "access." REFERENCES AND NOTES 1. There have been four "automation inventories" produced for members of the Associ- ation of Research Libraries between 1984 and 1988, and ARL has produced at least two SPEC kits which furnish some of this information for thirty-one and twelve member libraries, respectively: The Automation Inventory of Research Libraries (Washington, D.C.: Office of Management Services, Association of Research Libraries, 1988); Integrated Library Information Systems in ARL Libraries, SPEC Kit 90 (Washington, D.C.: OMS, · Association of Research Libraries, 1983); Automated Library Systems in ARL Libraries, SPEC Kit 126 (Washington, D.C.: OMS, Association of Research Libraries, 1986). 2. Richard Hume Werking, "Collection Growth and Expenditures in Academic Libraries: A Preliminary Inquiry," College & Research Libraries 51:5-23 (Jan. 1991). This article provides details about my research via questionnaires and interviews. For additional information, including additional responses garnered during my interviews with library directors, and a copy of the survey instrument, see Collection Growth, Expendi- tures, and Automation in Academic Libraries: A Preliminary Inquiry (Educational Resources Information Center, Document #318482, 1990). 3. OMS, ARL, Automation Inventory (1987), p.7. 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid., p.8. 6. Ibid., p.7. 7. Data in the possession of the author and described in both publications cited in note 2, above. 8. Jerry D. Campbell, "Academic Library Budgets: Changing 'The Sixty-Forty Split,"' Library Administration & Management 3:79 (Spring 1989). B§Link™ It's now even bigger, faster, and more accurate- connecting you to our 10 million book inventory plus any in-print, out-of-print, and forthcoming title. Fill all your book ordering needs in one place in record time thanks to B& T link™- an extra- ordinary system of search and order software modules from Baker & Taylor Books. 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