National Library of Australia


University of Melbourne collection assessment
Biological sciences

Liz Wakefield and Dorothea Rowse
July 1996

  1. Aims
  2. Methodologies
  3. Nature of the Discipline
  4. Schools and Faculties of the University teaching Biological Sciences
  5. Life Sciences Libraries
  6. Special Collections
  7. List Checking
  8. Shelf Scanning
  9. Evaluation by Experts
  10. Assessment of the Collections
  11. Areas of Research Strength
  12. Areas Needing to be Enriched

1. Aims

2. Methodologies

The collections were assessed using criteria laid down in the Australian Conspectus Manual:

3. Nature of the Discipline

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description of plant species can remain relevant for over a century, while works in biochemistry and genetics will be out-of-date by the time they are published.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.

4. Schools and Faculties of the University teaching Biological Sciences

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.

5. Life Sciences Libraries

5.1 Statistics

Collection : Books
Collection : current journal titles
% spent on jnls
Book Vote Allocation
Botany
11,300
74%
$136,768
Zoology/Genetics
10,000
70%
$164,175

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.

6. Special Collections

6.1 Microforms

The University of Melbourne holds an extensive collection of primary and secondary resource material in microform. Collections relating to the biological sciences include:

6.2 Maps

The Map Collection of the University Library holds a significant collection of maps relevant to the Biological Sciences. Some notable examples are:

6.3 Theses

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.

6.4 Rare Books

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:

6.5 BX Collection

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:

6.6 AX Collection

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.

6.7 Ducker Collection

Contains about 20 shelves of material in the Biological Sciences, mainly botanical with an emphasis on phycology, but with some material on marine biology.

6.8 McLaren Collection

This is another Australiana collection and has a section on natural history, mostly relatively popular but older material.

6.9 Howitt Collection

10 shelves of books on entomology, mainly nineteenth century.

7. List Checking

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 Lists used

7.1.2 Results of list checking

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
No. checked
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:

8. Shelf scanning

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.

9. Evaluation by experts

Academic staff have assisted in the serials evaluation.

10. Assessment of the Collections

10.1 Performance Works

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 Monographs

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.

10.3 Journals

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.

10.4 Indexing and Abstracting Services

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.

11. Areas of Research Strength

11.1 Ecology

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. Areas Needing to be Enriched

12.1

Last modified: August 18 2004.