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

48 The University of California Libraries
to users' needs--are easier to implement for single institutions than
for libraries within a system, while others--for example, the conclusions
regarding the need to share resources and computer technologypresume
the existence of a system. What is needed to combine all of
the elements implied by the nine conclusions is a final element--an
element that curiously has been ignored by the library research, at least
as reported in the literature--and that is consideration of the immediacy
of each user's needs. Clearly if the presumption that all materials
must be immediately available is abandoned, some differentiation
in response to users' requests will result, and this differentiation
can most appropriately be made on the basis of how quickly the
material is needed.
This conclusion in turn suggests that if the materials can be differentiated
by immediacy of need (either actual or predicted), a system
of differentiated response may be designed that would be more economical
than present library methods, but more responsive to users' needs.
As indicated in Chapter X on housing of the library collections, there
are several studies which indicate that the likelihood of items being
circulated can be predicted with reasonable accuracy by such factors
as the date of last circulation and language, and that furthermore
total use (including use within the library) is highly correlated with
circulation. It therefore appears feasible to design a system of
differentiated library response based on immediacy of need in combination
with the other factors previously discussed.
A Multi-Level System. Clearly such a system must consist of multiple
levels, in contrast to the present concentration on a single
one, the campus library. As Budington notes, "a first principle of
successful planning for access requires that those records in constant
demand be acquired by each level of resource where such a demand exists
--in the personal library if essential to that person, in a shared or
institutional library where the combined needs of several persons create
continuous need, and so on to the final level where, theoretically,
a single record is enough for all present and foreseeable future
use." 9
9 William S. Budington, "Access to Information," in Advances in Librarianship,
v. 1, Academic Press, 1970, p. 8.