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

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

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VI. Delivery and Use 81<br />

At the departmental and college level, there<strong>for</strong>e, the plan<br />

recommends:<br />

1) That existing departmental reading rooms and libraries<br />

be continued, to the extent that they provide access to key reference<br />

works, treatises, and journals that are likely to be needed by faculty<br />

and students in particular disciplines <strong>for</strong> immediate consultation;<br />

2) That the establishment <strong>of</strong> new branch libraries be discouraged;<br />

and<br />

3) That existing branches be retained until and unless they<br />

can be consolidated into centralized campus facilities economically.<br />

Campus. Materials likely to be needed within one day should be<br />

available <strong>for</strong> use at the campus level. By current methods, however,<br />

this response time is <strong>of</strong>ten difficult to achieve, <strong>for</strong> several reasons.<br />

<strong>The</strong> material may be difficult to locate, particularly when bibliographic<br />

records are dispersed in a variety <strong>of</strong> files and catalogs, although the<br />

bibliographic projects described in the previous chapter should help<br />

remedy this problem. <strong>The</strong> availability <strong>of</strong> the book <strong>for</strong> use is also<br />

difficult to ascertain on many campuses because <strong>of</strong> the outmoded circulation<br />

systems in use. And even if this in<strong>for</strong>mation can be obtained, the<br />

work desired may be inaccessible simply because it is already on loan to<br />

another borrower. Both <strong>of</strong> the latter problems are discussed in detail<br />

below.<br />

Circulation Procedures. As the report <strong>of</strong> the Library Policy<br />

Task Force published in 1974 noted, circulation policies and practices<br />

are urgently in need <strong>of</strong> revision to improve accessibility <strong>for</strong><br />

on-site users. In 1976, it was still necessary <strong>for</strong> users on eight<br />

campuses <strong>of</strong> the <strong>University</strong> to fill out a "charge card," manually, <strong>for</strong><br />

each item they wished to withdraw. This required writing out the call<br />

number, author, title, and publication date <strong>for</strong> the items, and (on<br />

each card) the user's name, address, and status. In some libraries,<br />

it was also necessary <strong>for</strong> the patron to sign each card as well. For<br />

the user, this is a laborious practice that is no different from<br />

library procedures a century ago, and it constitutes a significant<br />

waste <strong>of</strong> time.

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