The University of California Libraries: A Plan for Development (1977)

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28 The University of California Libraries It follows that planning for a library can only be successful if it is firmly based on such analysis. The Users of the Library. One of the complaints most frequently heard in discussions of library problems is that so little is known about library users. Actually, more is known than is generally realized, thanks to the large number of user studies that have been published during the past half century, particularly during the last decade or so. Martin begins a review of such studies with one by Dana dating back to 1916, 2 and Tobin found a surprising total of 477 indexed in Library Literature between 1960 and 1973. 3 More research is still needed on many aspects of user characteristics and needs, but it is surprising that so little use had been made of the insights offered by studies already conducted. Some characteristics of the users of the University of California libraries are implied by the discussion in the previous chapter. There are numerically more users than in most comparable institutions, in the first place, because the University is so large. A high percentage are graduate students, and many of the faculty who use the library are eminent scholars with both extensive and intensive library needs. As noted in Chapter I, the University is the primary state-supported academic agency for research, and as a consequence productive research is expected of all regular faculty. Their library use, and that of their graduate students, is therefore strongly oriented toward their research needs. The established excellence of many of the University libraries also attracts an unusually large number of non-University users to their resources. The purposes for which users come to a university library are fairly consistent from institution to institution, with most of the differences explained by differences in the character of the institutions themselves. Rzasa and Moriarty analyzed the purpose for which users 2 Lowell A. Martin, "User Studies and Library Planning," Library Trends, January 1976, pp. 483-496. 3 Jayne Culver Tobin, "A Study of Library 'Use Studies,'" Information Storage and Retrieval, v. 10, no 3/4 (March/April 1974), pp. 101-113.
II. The Function of the Library 29 visited the Purdue University library, by category of user, and found the following as the "most common" reasons: • for faculty, to "do research for a publishable paper or book"; • for graduate students, to "find and read material for a course"; • for undergraduates, to "do homework with own books" (with the next most frequent response "to find and read material for a course"). 4 Raffel and Shishko found that the "main purposes" of users of the M.I.T. library were to find "books and materials for research" (76 percent), "to browse and read current journals" (63 percent), and to read "required and recommended" materials (61 percent). Only 20 percent looked on the library as a place to study their own materials, and only 2 percent as a place "to lounge, relax, socialize." 5 It is clear, then, that for all users except undergraduates, the primary purpose in coming to a library is access to information (of one sort or another), and even for undergraduates this purpose is second only to their desire for a place to study. The Nature of Information Needed. The information needed by library users falls into three categories: • brief factual information (for example, the formula of a chemical compound, the population of a city, or the birthdate of a composer); • information items of which the user already knows the identity (for example, a particular book, journal article, or technical report); • bodies of recorded information (for example, a collection of books on a given topic, or--as a student might phrase it--"something on" a particular subject), the items themselves requiring examination in person by the user in order to determine their relevance to his needs. Brief factual information may be found by the user himself in a reference work, or it may be provided by a librarian or library assistant. A study at Yale University of over 5,000 reference desk inquiries 4 Phillip V. Rzasa and John H. Moriarty, "The Types and Needs of Academic Library Users: A Case Study of 6,568 Responses," College and Research Libraries, v. 31, no. 6 (November 1970), p. 406. 5 Jeffrey A. Raffel and Robert Shishko, Systematic Analysis of University Libraries: An Application of Cost-Benefit Analysis to the M.I.T. Libraries, M.I.T. Press, 1969, p. 66.
Page 1: A PLAN FOR DEVELOPMENT Office of th
Page 5 and 6: PREFACE The first draft of the plan
Page 7: goals of the library system on a mu
Page 11 and 12: CHAPTER I THE UNIVERSITY AND ITS LI
Page 13 and 14: I. The University and Its Libraries
Page 37: CHAPTER II THE FUNCTION OF THE LIBR
Page 41 and 42: II. The Function of the Library 31
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Page 45 and 46: CHAPTER III THE NEED FOR A NEW APPR
Page 47 and 48: III. The Need for a New Approach 37
Page 55 and 56: CHAPTER IV A UNIVERSITY LIBRARY SYS
Page 57 and 58: IV. A University Library System 47
Page 67 and 68: CHAPTER V IDENTIFICATION AND LOCATI
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CHAPTER VI DELIVERY AND USE OF MATE
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VI. Delivery and Use 81 At the depa
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VI. Delivery and Use 83 which they
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VI. Delivery and Use 85 3. "If the
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VI. Delivery and Use 87 At the camp
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VI. Delivery and Use 89 The allocat
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VI. Delivery and Use 91 In the mean
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VI. Delivery and Use 93 2) That int
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VI. Delivery and Use 95 At the syst
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VI. Delivery and Use 97 Several alt
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VI. Delivery and Use 99 its develop
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CHAPTER VII INFORMATION AND INSTRUC
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VII. Information and Instruction 10
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CHAPTER VIII ACQUISITION AND PROCES
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VIII. Acquisition and Processing 11
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Table 15 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA M
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138 The University of California Li
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CHAPTER X HOUSING THE LIBRARY SYSTE
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X. Housing 149 The shortage of spac
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X. Housing 151 visited each campus,
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X. Housing 153 Year Actual FTE Staf
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Table 23 X. Housing 155 Space Requi
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X. Housing 157 Total, All Campuses
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X. Housing 159 Table 26 Total New L
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X. Housing 161 asf, the low figure
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X. Housing 163 not be housed in exi
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X. Housing 165 Table 30 Cost of Sub
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X. Housing 167 that are meant. Howe
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X. Housing 169 Third! (There is a h
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X. Housing 171 that "past use" is "
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X. Housing 173 Table 32 Costs of Sh
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X. Housing 175 monographs, on the o
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X. Housing 177 For the purposes of
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X. Housing 179 degree of overlap be
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X. Housing 181 • that brief bibli
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X. Housing 183 Region. The principa
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X. Housing 185 Table 35 Estimated N
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The University of California Libraries: A Plan for Development (1977)

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