National Library of Australia


State Library of Queenland collection assessment
Library science

Division Report Comments :

This division overlaps with the Division of Computer Science in the area of Dewey 003-005. Assessment of this area is included in the Division of Computer Science.

Holdings for both monographs and serials compared to the standard bibliographies checked are at level 3b. Holdings in individual categories are also strong, giving the overall rating of 3a.

A total of 20,955 monographs are held in this division. This represents 5.3% of the 397,000 monographs quoted for SRL and Special Collections in the 1995/96 annual report of the State Library of Queensland. 3% of the total number of monographs in this division are held in the Reference collection.

Most acquisitions in a five-year period have been made in 1980-84 with 27% of the collection acquired in the last 10 years.

Serials holdings are strong with 451 open and 770 closed serials in this division.

This is a very diverse collection which is quite strong in a number of areas. Most notable is the number and range of directories, indexes and bibliographies held. These include directories of research centres, organisations, associations, museums and libraries, learned societies, publishers, institutions of higher education, periodicals and the media; bibliographies on a range of topics; indexes to various branches of literature, especially poetry, book reviews in print and CD-ROM format and newspapers.

Library science is another area of strength with all aspects of librarianship well covered.

A number of general encyclopedias including works in French, Italian and German are provided as well as a good range of encyclopedias in CD-ROM format. There is a very good collection of dictionaries of quotations, mottoes, allusions and similes.

Although there are three encyclopedias in languages other than English, the foreign language code has not been applied to the divisional assessment as, in principle, the library acquires only works in English.

It is Library policy not to acquire juvenile literature, school or tertiary curriculum textbooks, or advanced academic research material.

Holdings in the John Oxley Library have not been included in this assessment. With its focus on Queensland History and as Legal Deposit Library, this library collects works relative to Queensland and/or published in Queensland in all subject areas.

In the category of Manuscripts, Rare Books and Other Printed Material (Dewey 090) holdings in State Library's special collections have not been considered. State Library has four special collections of rare books and a "rare books reference" collection which provides a range of reference material and serials in this area.

Relevant sections of the following major standard bibliographies have been checked against State Library's monographic holdings:

Title

Total checked

SRL Holdings

% Held

ABN 1992-1996

Walford's Guide to Reference Material 6th ed

Reader's Adviser 1994

Collier's Encyclopedia

Information management and library science (1994)

369

384

59

67

253

129

164

20

25

117

35

43

34

37

46

Serials:

There are 451 open and 770 closed serials in this division.

Relevant sections of the following bibliographies have been checked against State Library's holdings:

Title

Total checked

SRL Holdings

% Held

Periodicals in Print: Aust.NZ.etc

Magazines for Libraries (Katz)

Information management and library science (1994)

207

97

217

77

46

62

37

47

29

Last modified: August 18 2004.