College and Research Libraries By H . G L E N N B R O W N Union Catalogs and Inter- library Loan H. Glenn Brown is reference librarian of the University of Pennsylvania Li- brary, Philadelphia. FOR THE five years 1935-39 the Uni-versity of Pennsylvania Library handled 1805 requests for the borrowing of items on interlibrary loan. During that time the use of two union catalogs had significant effects on this routine, and it was in an attempt to find out something definite about these effects that this study was undertaken. Questionnaires concern- ing interlibrary loan from the national Union Catalog and the Bibliographical .Planning Committee of Philadelphia gave impetus to the study and suggested the procedure to be used. T h i s procedure consisted simply in tabu- lating the sources of location for items borrowed. On the back of the request card which each borrower fills out, the librarian indicates where the title is veri- fied ; any location obtained and the source of the location; from what library, or libraries, the item is requested; insurance value, charges, and date returned. T h e cards were grouped according to the source of location and counted. Only elementary statistics were employed, and while some of the information on earlier cards was difficult to interpret or too meager for inclusion, it is felt that the total number tabulated is sufficient to give a satisfactory representation.1 1 i i 9 cards contained insufficient information f o r inclusion in the statistics. T h e sources of location were classified as follows: ( 1 ) Depository Catalog at the University of Pennsylvania, which contains cards for the Library of Congress, Harvard College Library, University of Michigan, University of Chicago, Uni- versity of Illinois, Princeton University, Newberry Library, John Crerar Library, Wesleyan University, and the Vatican > L i b r a r y ; ( 2 ) Union List of Serials; ( 3 ) Union Catalog; ( 4 ) Union Library Cata- logue of the Philadelphia Metropolitan A r e a ; ( 5 ) Other; ( 6 ) N o Search and Not Located. Class 5, " O t h e r , " includes items located through printed library book catalogs or other bibliographies, such as the Bibliography of Research Studies in Education. Class 6 is a rather inadequate catch-all for those items which the library did not or could not locate. For example, when a professor or a graduate student asked the library to borrow a book he had already seen or used at some other library, there was no necessity of locating the item. On the other hand, the library found it impossible to locate some items; quite a few of the earlier cards contained notes like this: " T r y Bryn M a w r ; " " T r y Princeton;" " T r y Columbia;" " G i v e up." Class 6, then, takes care of the items for which locations were either predetermined or indeterminable. Comparative Use of Location Sources With this explanation of the location classes employed the chart on page 338 becomes easily intelligible. Each long bar 336 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES represents the total number of requests, 1 0 0 per cent, for a single calendar year. T h e segments represent the percentage of the requests according to location. T h e reader can probably draw correct inter- pretations of his own, but may bear with the writer for pointing out a few. In the questionnaire filled out for the Bibliographical Planning Committee it was discovered that in 1938 only 1 5 per cent of the requests were for periodicals. T h i s fact, together with the fact that the library has a large periodical reference collection, accounts for the small part played by the Union List of Serials. T h e large part played by the Depository Cata- log in 1 9 3 5 simply indicates that it was the one chief source of location available at that time. It is also worth noting that the " N o Search-Not Located" segment for 1 9 3 5 includes over thirty items located in local libraries by an assistant working for a professor. T h i s work would now be done by letter or by telephone calls to the Union Library Catalogue. T h e length of the No Search-Not Located segments for 1938 and 1 9 3 9 clearly demonstrates what the union catalogs have meant in this respect. T h e length of the " O t h e r " segment for 1939 may be due to the large number of theses borrowed, most of which were located when they were verified in the theses bibliographies. Effect of Regional Catalogs Probably the segments for the Union Library Catalogue and the national Union Catalog provide the most notable demon- strations of the chart. These show how much is available in the area if there is a means of locating it, and how much a metropolitan or regional catalog affects the use of the national catalog. In 1 9 3 9 over a quarter of the items were located in the Philadelphia area by the Union Library Catalogue, whereas the number of requests sent to Washington for loca- tion is 1 0 per cent less than in 1936, before the Union Library Catalogue was able to give assistance. N o w that this catalog is operating efficiently, with only the more difficult jobs of editing to be done, it is reasonable to assume that the percentages for 1939 can serve as a fore- cast for the future. Even if they do not, however, the percentages for 1936-39 are sufficiently significant to indicate one effect of a regional catalog on the national cata- log and to encourage further study of the whole problem of regional catalogs in a national plan. Over-dependence on Union Catalogs T h i s larger problem of local or regional catalogs cannot be dealt with in this paper, but two of the minor ones, which concern interlibrary loan, can at least be stated. First, there is the problem of how much to depend upon the union cata- logs. T h e obvious routine at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania is to try the Union Library Catalogue, the Depository Cata- log, and then the Union Catalog at Wash- ington. T h e question is, provided the first two sources fail to locate an item, whether to write to Washington imme- diately for location, or whether to attempt location independently through library catalogs, other bibliographies, and such suggestions as one finds in Winchell's Lo- cating Books for Interlibrary Loan. T h e latter process is likely to be time consuming and costly to the individual library, and frequently unavailing, although occasion- ally it may result in quicker service to the borrower. T h e former is simple, inex- pensive, and usually certain as to the Li- brary of Congress and the Association of SEPTEMBER, 1940 34 7 DC UC OTHER ULS ULC NS - N L C O M P A R A T I V E A N N U A L U S E OF S O U R C E S OF L O C A T I O N Research Libraries. However, this rou- tine throws the burden entirely upon the Union Catalog—perhaps quite reasonably —and develops a tendency to neglect other sources if it fails. Often its report is considered final, without examination of such works as Miss Winchell's or Gil- der's Theatre Collections. Perhaps any more exhaustive search is not feasible in most libraries, but the fact that the union catalogs are not the only sources for loca- tion needs attention. Scope of Interlibrary Loan Service A second minor problem in connection with a local or regional union catalog is that of extension of loan privileges. Knowledge that books are available in nearby libraries promotes a demand for general borrowing quite beyond the prov- ince of interlibrary loan. Undergraduate students want books they cannot find in their own libraries; industrial concerns request recent foreign periodicals they can- not afford to buy; and generally there is a demand for books of recent date, still available at moderate prices, which the borrowing library does not want to pur- chase for any of a number of reasons. Although these demands may not be legitimate, they should be recognized and treated with tact, for the time may come when such extension of the loan privi- leges will be forced upon the catalog. 338 COLLEGE AND RES E ARC LI L I B R A R I E S Financing a Union Catalog T h i s statement refers, of course, to the difficulties in financing the union catalogs. If our generous foundations cannot per- manently supply the funds, who will, and on what basis will claims for support be made? In this connection it is well to consider the alarming state of the regional library catalogs in England. T h e Year's Work in Librarianship, 1938, reports as follows (page 1 1 5 ) : Almost all the regional systems have had to inform the Carnegie Trustees at various times that the funds originally granted them would not be sufficient for the completion of the union catalogues, and the Trustees, therefore, convened a conference of repre- sentatives of all regional systems at the National Central Library on October 19th, 1938. It was clear, from the statements of the delegates, that the original grants were insufficient in all cases, as even the repre- sentatives of those systems which had not yet completed the periods covered by these grants were able to report definitely that more would be needed. If this is the situation at present, what of the future? W i l l the proposed plan of subventions from the cooperating libraries, together with voluntary service at the catalog, become practicable? A union catalog does not run itself; to give effec- tive service, it needs a well-trained staff which will not only serve the users and service the catalog, but which will also promote the continuous assistance of the cooperating libraries. An abandoned union catalog would be a great loss, not only of time and money required to pro- duce and establish it, but also in the cessa- tion of its services. Just as a location service, which is its basic function, the Union Library Catalogue of Philadelphia is fast becoming indispensable to the scholars and industrial researchers of the area. They do not quite realize yet how much saving in time and money the catalog is, but in two years more, the writer thinks they would grasp at any de- vice rather than permit the catalog to cease functioning. One device they would probably consider is extension of the service in order to provide a basis for broader claims for support. So even this simple study of inter- library loan brings to the fore the most important questions concerning union catalogs. What will be their relation to the national catalog? H o w are they to be financed? Whom are they to serve and how? And finally, will regional sub- ject catalogs, as suggested by D r . Bishop, solve all of these problems at once ? Here is plenty of opportunity for further study, and as a hint to start anyone who wants to take the opportunity, this bit of informa- tion: there .is already a demand for a subject approach to the Union Library Catalogue of the Philadelphia Metropoli- tan Area. SEPTEMBER, 1940 34 7