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Liz Wakefield and Dorothea Rowse
July 1996
The collections were assessed using criteria laid down in the Australian Conspectus Manual:
The areas covered by Dewey Classes 570-599 are scattered across many of the Library Branch Libraries - Agriculture and Forestry, Botany, Zoology and Genetics, the Medical Library, Veterinary Science, the ERC and the Baillieu, with small scatterings of books elsewhere. The considerable duplication of areas and of exact titles which took place in earlier decades suggests that a Life Sciences satellite library would be an advantage to the customers and to the use of resources.
The useful life of the literature in this area varies widely. Materials relating to the description of plant species can remain relevant for over a century, while works in biochemistry and genetics will be out-of-date by the time they are published.
The major emphasis is placed on journal literature in which the latest research work is published. In the botany area there is still some slight need for foreign language materials but on the whole English is the language of the sciences. A good research collection could contain only English - language materials. Conference proceedings do not feature much in the literature.
There is a strong split between the more traditional research areas and the newer molecular based research areas with a resulting double stream of literature resources.
The School of Botany and the Departments of Zoology and Genetics are the main teachers and researchers in this area. However, the Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Horticulture and several Departments within the Faculty of Medicine are also users of the materials. In addition, certain of the ecology materials are used by other faculties notably Science and Architecture. Generally the collections are geared to support the work of Botany, Zoology and Genetics. Major areas of interest in those Departments are supported to a 4 level. Postgraduate and post-doctoral research are of considerable importance in all three Departments.
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| Botany |
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| Zoology/Genetics |
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5.2 The collections grow steadily and all relevant book material is purchased. In many parts of the classes 570-599 very little is published annually. Journal literature is of considerably more importance than books and it is difficult to keep pace with the new titles appearing in this area.
The older journal runs are well-used in Botany but are less used in Zoology and Genetics.
Much of the materials selection in both libraries is undertaken by the academic staff, with the library staff ensuring that the collection remains balanced.
The University of Melbourne holds an extensive collection of primary and secondary resource material in microform. Collections relating to the biological sciences include:
The Map Collection of the University Library holds a significant collection of maps relevant to the Biological Sciences. Some notable examples are:
The Zoology and Genetics Branch Library and the Botany Branch Library maintain collections of The University of Melbourne postgraduate theses from their respective departments and school. These duplicate holdings in the main Thesis collection in the Baillieu Library.
The Rare Book Room in the Baillieu Library holds many titles in the Biological Sciences area, particularly in the Botanical Sciences. Some notable examples are:
This special collection which houses valuable, older and vulnerable material is again quite strong in the Biological Sciences, particularly Botany and Zoology. It contains material such as:
This collection houses older, valuable and vulnerable Australiana material.
There is a much smaller amount of material covering the Biological Sciences material than in the BX Collection, but there is significant and valuable material.
Contains about 20 shelves of material in the Biological Sciences, mainly botanical with an emphasis on phycology, but with some material on marine biology.
This is another Australiana collection and has a section on natural history, mostly relatively popular but older material.
10 shelves of books on entomology, mainly nineteenth century.
Several lists were used to assess the collection strengths in the biological sciences. Emphasis was placed on checking serial holdings as serials are of greater importance in this area than monographs. There were some difficulties in relating these lists to the conspectus breakdown of subject areas as it is DDC based, putting medicine, agriculture and veterinary science in the 600s not in the 500s and many of the serial lists include these subjects in biological or life sciences.
7.1.2.1 Monographs
Using the biological literature was a very useful tool for
checking. It breaks down the biological sciences into useful divisions and then
divides the literature into the relevant kinds for each discipline. As a an up
to date publication concentrating on the "best books' it provides a very
valuable yardstick particularly for reference material. ANB was valuable for
checking our Australian holdings as our perception from shelf scanning was that
our holdings in Australian material was weaker, particularly in zoology, than
we could wish for.
| Title | Subject | No. checked | No. held | % |
| Davis | Genetics | 118 | 101 | 85.6 |
| Zoology | 167 | 94 | 56.29 | |
| Plant Biology | 278 | 220 | 79.14 | |
| Ecology, Evolution, Animal Behaviour | 168 | 132 | 78.58 | |
| Entomology | 75 | 28 | 37.33 | |
| Molecular & Cellular Biology | 91 | 59 | 64.84 | |
| Microbiology & Immunology | 149 | 80 | 53.7 | |
| Total | 1046 | 714 | 68.26 | |
| ANB | Biology (574-579) | 243 | 159 | 65.43 |
| Botanical Sciences (580-589) | 245 | 106 | 43.26 | |
| Zoological Sciences (590-599) | 412 | 212 | 51.45 | |
| Total | 714 | 477 | 66.8 | |
| ABN (sampling of 7 nos.) | 574.8 Cellular, molecular biology | 1101 | 297 | 26.98 |
| 581.1 Plant physiology | 263 | 71 | 27 | |
| 583.1 Dicotyledons -primitive | 67 | 13 | 19.4 | |
| 583.4 Myrtales etc | 132 | 32 | 24.24 | |
| 588.2 Musci | 19 | 10 | 52.63 | |
| 595.1 Worms & related animals | 107 | 25 | 23.36 | |
| 599.5 Cetacea & Sirenia | 375 | 26 | 6.94 | |
| Total | 2064 | 474 | 22.96 | |
| Total | 4010 | 1665 | 41.52 |
7.1.2.2 Serials
Again, Using the biological literature proved valuable. Alston
and Cooms Biosciences was a comprehensive list but did not break down the
journals into subdisciplines. It also included many titles which would be
classified in the 600s in medicine and agriculture rather than the 500s in
biological science. Ulrich's was checked for every 3rd entry in genetics and
every 5th entry in zoology. It was not as valuable as the others in strictly
practical terms as it contains many titles that we would regard as out of range
of our collecting intentions, for example newsletters of very tiny societies.
| Title | Subject |
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No. held | % |
| Davis | Genetics | 76 | 53 | 69.74 |
| Zoology | 71 | 35 | 49.29 | |
| Plant Biology | 47 | 39 | 82.98 | |
| Ecology, Evolution, Animal Behaviour | 66 | 47 | 71.21 | |
| Entomology | 74 | 21 | 28.38 | |
| Molecular & Cellular Biology | 24 | 16 | 66.67 | |
| Microbiology & Immunology | 43 | 32 | 74.42 | |
| Ulrichs | Genetics | 54 | 21 | 38.89 |
| Zoology | 88 | 10 | 11.36 | |
| SCI | Biology (inc. Biomethods) | 71 | 37 | 52.11 |
| Cell biology | 83 | 43 | 51.81 | |
| Developmental biology | 23 | 14 | 60.87 | |
| Entomology | 35 | 14 | 40 | |
| Genetics & Heredity | 74 | 45 | 60.81 | |
| Microbiology | 57 | 27 | 47.37 | |
| Plant sciences | 92 | 62 | 67.39 | |
| Zoology | 72 | 33 | 45.84 | |
| Alston & Cooms | Biosciences | 474 | 230 | 48.52 |
| Total | 1524 | 779 | 51.11 |
Zoological record serial sources was checked in a different way .Serial titles held by the Zoology branch library were checked against the list:
A shelf scan was done of all the holdings in the biological sciences throughout the Library system. It became very apparent very quickly that our holdings in this discipline are scattered and duplicated throughout the various branch libraries. There are many subdivisions in the biological sciences that are of interest to more than one faculty. Basic biology is studied to a greater or lesser extent in the early stages of all courses in the life sciences and this is reflected in all the life sciences branch libraries. Material on cell biology can be found in the Baillieu, Brownless Medical, Zoology, Botany, Veterinary Science and Agriculture libraries. Environmental and ecological material is similarly as widely scattered.
In general the impressions of our holdings gained from shelf scanning were reflected in the results of list checking.
Academic staff have assisted in the serials evaluation.
The collection is extremely strong in the areas of genetics, botany, ecology (approx 80% of items in Davis and Schmidt) but is somewhat weaker in Zoology (60% of items in Davis and Schmidt). All major reference works are held.
10.2.1 The collections suffers from being scattered over so many Branches. Funding has in the past been used to duplicate materials which now are occupying valuable shelving space, and should be weeded.
10.2.2 The collections are uneven in strength and reflect very much the changing research interests of the Schools concerned. This has resulted in some curious deficiencies in the Australian - specific materials, which urgently needs to be corrected.
10.2.3 Parts of the collection are 3b/4 and are adequate to support a full range of teaching and research activities. Other areas, notably the more specific works in botany and zoology relating to species, are not as satisfactory. Some funding has already been made available for this but more will be needed.
A very thorough check has been made of journals in the Botany and Cell Biology areas. The library has currently almost all the journals accepted as being essential to research, in English, and a few in other languages. Further funding will, however, be essential to fund additional titles in growing areas such as cell biology, molecular biology etc. The SCI Impact factor list for these areas has been used to sort the titles and the collection measures up extremely well. For Zoology this has not yet been done. Checks of the Zoology list against lists such as Zoological Record was fairly disappointing and this area will need a lot of attention. Genetics journals are in much the same state and are split 50/50 between the Medical Branch Library and Zoology and Genetics Branch Library.
The Library holds or provides access to all the major indexes and abstracts in the discipline in print and/or electronic format.
BA on CD/Biological Abstracts and Zoological Record are still taken in both paper and CD Rom to allow for maximum usage by the users.
This collection alls within the 4E collecting strength and supports a wide range of research projects in this area.
11.2 Evolution and Genetics
11.3 Physiology of plants (581.1)
11.4 Pathology of plants (581.2)
11.5 Geographical treatment of plants (581.9)
12.1
Last modified: August 18 2004.
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