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Shirley Sullivan, Collection Management Librarian for the Physical
Sciences, with assistance from Lynette Lim and Meng Choo, University of
Singapore Library
April 1996
The collections were assessed using criteria laid down in the Australian Conspectus Manual:
Note: Uncatalogued collections were not considered in this evaluation, as it was believed that these could be more appropriately considered after collection development policies were in place. Items held in Kidd's Warehouse have also been excluded from the examination.
Engineering has traditionally been grouped into the subdisciplines of chemical, civil, electrical and electronic, industrial, mechanical and mining and metallurgical engineering. With the emergence of newer subfields, such as aerospace, biological materials, environmental and nuclear engineering, that overlap with other science, social science and even humanities disciplines, the scope of engineering has become enormous. Engineering applies the principles of physics, chemistry and mathematics to the solution of practical problems and the design of devices; academic engineering research is critical to virtually all types of industry. Apart from specialisation by subject field, engineers are involved in a wide range of activities, including management, teaching, research, development, design, production, construction, testing, sales and maintenance, and are employed in a diversity of industrial, academic and professional environments.
Since the close of World War 2, English has become the lingua franca of the sciences. Eighty per cent of all information stored in the world's electronic retrieval systems is in English; for example, INSPEC in 1990 was 83% English. Many journals, particularly Russian journals, are translated cover to cover and the translations then published as English-language periodicals. Others are partially translated, so that main articles only are translated, sometimes accompanied by summaries of the articles not translated. There are also a number of selective translation journals which contain translations from several foreign periodicals with a particular subject field. Some English-language periodicals include a mixture of original papers submitted in English and papers previously published in other languages.
Engineering literature comprises mainly journals, reports, proceedings of conferences and symposia, standards, trade and product information, patent literature, textbooks, handbooks, manuals, databooks, technical guides, directories, yearbooks, dictionaries and encyclopaedias, theses, reviews, and indexing and abstracting journals.
Primary publications constitute original sources, ie publications containing new material or new presentations and discussions of known material. This category includes research journals, proceedings of conferences and symposia, reports, patent specifications and theses.
Engineering societies, institutions, and organisations publish research results in their Proceedings and Transactions. They also publish more general periodicals describing developments in their fields. Learned journals are also published by commercial publishing houses, particularly the scientific and technical publishers. Technical periodicals and trade journals enable the practitioner to keep abreast of current activities and knowledge of the art, to review new products and processes, and to keep in touch with the work of colleagues and other organisations. Another type of engineering periodical is the house journal. Periodicals such as the IBM Journal of Research and Development are much closer in content to the learned journals than they are to commercial publications.
Typically, technical reports contain experimental details and production data which are then consolidated into definitive information such as statistics, materials properties and processed test results. They are a mainstay of engineering research in many subfields, at least in part because they contain substantially more data than journal articles and are a more current source of information on the progress or results of research and development. A technical report may well contain the germ of an idea over 30 years old that can be explained with a new theory; consequently older as well as very recent reports may be called upon. Other types of reports encountered in the engineering literature include status reports, progress summaries, marketing and market research reports and project evaluations. Engineers wishing to find out the latest happenings as announced by other working in the same field cannot afford to ignore the report literature.
Conferences are a useful means of publishing information and bringing together experts within the same field. Conference papers tend to be research oriented, but can be a valuable source of new information, since they usually contain more detail than a journal article, being more akin to reports in this respect. Particularly useful are papers from specialised conferences focusing on one area of interest within an engineering field, such as heat transfer or signal processing. Multidisciplinary subjects, many of which are of particular interest to engineers, often take shape and achieve recognition at conferences. In such cases the report of a conference may well be, for some years, the key literature on a subject before it has given rise to its own journals and textbooks. Conference literature generally has a useful lifetime of about five years.
Paten specifications are a valuable source of technical information for the engineer. A patent specification is normally the first published account of a new invention and is often the only published account. Even if the information is eventually published in book or journal form there is unlikely to be as much detail given as was in the original patent specification. The specification includes some background information. This in effect gives a statement of the position of the art at the time of the invention. Sometimes the specification includes a search report. This is a list of references considered relevant to the invention and usually lists several patent specifications. References to journal articles are also common. The search report may, therefore, provide a valuable lead into the non-patent literature.
Because the subject of a thesis is often narrow and specialised, and usually based on some original work, it may contain results not available elsewhere, at least at the time of submission. It is, therefore, a potentially valuable source of information.
Standards underpin today's technology-based world and are the essential common language of engineering. Knowledge of particular standards is mandatory when tendering for contracts and most engineering drawings quote specific standards. Engineers use all types of standards information. Standards literature includes specifications, codes of practice guidelines, nomenclature, and terminology rules for products ranging from nuts and bolts to computer programming languages. Sources of standards are numerous and include companies, technical associations and professional and government bodies as well as national and international bodies. A good collection of standards, together with effective methods for obtaining what is not held, is essential to engineering operations.
Trade literature provided by companies includes product catalogues and brochures, house journals and annual reports. Trade catalogues are a valuable source of information on products. Many trade directories are available which provide a subject approach to the products of a nation or a particular industrial sector. News of product developments are found in the trade and technical press in the form of advertisements, sales "write-ups" or lists of products just coming onto the market.
Review papers are not only of value in the transfer of ideas and knowledge, they are also authoritative keys to the literature of a particular subject. They are more likely to be used by engineers in research and development than by design engineers, although they are a useful way of gaining some familiarity with the state of the art in a particular field in which the engineer has little previous knowledge.
Engineering and Geomatics courses have been offered at the University since it was founded in 1855, though the Faculty as such was established in 1889.
Departments within the Faculty are:
The Faculty undertakes research in a wide range of areas, including:
The Engineering Library has a collection of roughly 44,500 monographs and 35,000 serial volumes, a reference collection comprising roughly 3,600 volumes, a standards collection of 5,550, and 22,450 microfiches. There are also 13 videos and 249 CD-ROM items. There are a further 7,5000 monographs, 10,000 reports and 1,100 serial volumes in storage at Kidd's.
The University of Melbourne Library holds one of the most important collections of primary and secondary source material in microform in Australia in many and various subject areas. Notable collections of relevance to Engineering are:
There is an AV collection held at the Education Branch Library. This included computer files, slides, pictures, and videos. The collection totals about 750 items. It is used chiefly by students within the Faculty rather than by the wider university community.
The Engineering Library collection includes current sets of standards from Standards Australia and the American Society for Testing and Materials.
The maps collection of the University Library holds about 3,000 items in the engineering fields. These include a notable set of maps produced by the Petroleum Economist covering storage areas, major shipping ports, refineries, and storage areas for fossil fuels worldwide. There are also roughly 200 sheets relating to gold mining, largely historical Victorian gold fields plans, and approximately 2,000 nautical charts, dating from the early 20th century to the present, and about 500 aeronautical charts, dating from the 1940s to the 1990s.
The Special Collection (BX) holds approximately 780 volumes. It included works such as:
The McLaren Collection contains roughly 750 items on the subjects of shipping and railways. They include items such as The Locomotive Journal, 1938-57.
The Special Collection (AX) contains roughly 240 items, such as:
The Morgan Collection has about 30 items. These include:
The U Collection contains roughly 150 items. These include:
This collection includes roughly 500 items within the DDC numbers of the engineering conspectus. Examples are:
A number of lists were used to assess the collection strengths in engineering. The list checking took 57 hours.
The most thorough list for monograph checking was Information Sources in Engineering, despite its date of publication (1985). It was comprehensive, particularly for dictionaries and historical literature, where the publication date was not a handicap. An updated edition was released this year. This has been ordered for the reference collection and will be used to check recent titles against the Librarys catalogue. Information Sources in Science and Technology was useful as a broad tool, and the list provided from the OCLC.
Table 1: Monographs
| Title | # checked | # held | % |
| Anthony | 1448 | 862 | 59.53 |
| Hurt | 601 | 261 | 43.42 |
| Malinowsky | 565 | 245 | 43.36 |
| OCLC | 337 | 152 | 45.1 |
| Overall | 2951 | 1520 | 51.5 |
As can be seen readily from the table below, the rating of the serials collection depended upon the list checked. From Malinowsky, the Library rated 54.73%, whereas from checking the international lists, the Library achieved only 30.32% and 44.1%. An overall rate of 35.16% is reasonable, given that many titles on the international list reflect foreign titles of parochial interest only. A problem was the lack of a suitable Australian list.
Table 2: Serials
| Title | # checked | # held | % |
| INSPEC | 3833 | 1162 | 30.32 |
| EI | 1667 | 735 | 44.1 |
| Malin | 190 | 104 | 54.73 |
| Overall | 5690 | 2001 | 35.16 |
A shelf scan was undertaken concurrently with list checking. This took 62 hours. Libraries on campus holding items in the relevant DDC numbers were examined. This provided a valuable overview of the monograph coverage particularly. Although the strongest collection is (naturally) in the Engineering Branch Library, significant collections are housed in Baillieu and in the research collections (B and AB) and Architecture, with other collections in Agriculture and Forestry and Chemistry, and even as far afield as Botany and Medicine.
A number of academic staff members from the Faculty were interviewed and assisted in assigning levels to worksheets. They further provided advice on areas which need to be built up to support fields of teaching and research. Specific information is provided under sections 11 and 12.
A level 3b collection, according to the standard lists in Anthony and Malinowsky. No major works are missing.
The total collection of monographs is approximately 56,000. The overall collection level of the division is 3bE. In order to fill gaps discovered in the monographs and textbooks it will be necessary to have an increase in the bookvote, as the journals collection has been pared to the bone.
The interdisciplinary nature of research is exemplified by the field of biochemical engineering. Biology, Chemistry, Medicine and Botany all use titles in this area. There needs to be consultation inter-faculty as well as intra-faculty before a decision is taken to cancel a journal title, as the decision could affect people from across faculties. The consolidation of the smaller collections into a Satellite Library would be of great benefit.
Establishment of a Satellite Library could well improve the level of front-line service also, as academic staff are frequently disconcerted by encountering inexperienced junior staff who are unable to provide the necessary levels of assistance. This occurs most frequently out of standard 9 to 5 hours. The extremely long turnaround time between ordering an item and having it placed on the shelves was commented upon. This is particularly exasperating when the items required are conference proceedings, where their utility requires rapid receipt and processing.
Discussions with academic staff indicate that no further cancellation of journal titles would be acceptable in order to place subscriptions to new journals; indeed there is call for reinstatement of a number of cancelled journals. A major cause of concern is insufficient funding for new journal titles. Research activities will suffer from the inability to keep up with the latest research being published in journals. While the number and quality of electronic journals are increasing, there is no indication that these products will lead to reduced subscription prices, at least for the foreseeable future. An increase in the bookvote is essential to support the expanded areas of teaching and research. The overall level of the collection is 3aE.
The University of Melbourne Library holds or provides access to the major indexes and abstracts in the discipline in print and/or electronic format. The electronic formats are available as CD-ROMs and/or online, through commercial vendors or through AARNet/Internet. These include
Many academics and graduate students make use of the information available through the world wide web. The following sites are examples of the diverse sources available for research:
These sites and the information they contain cannot yet be seen as substitutes for the more traditional print, microform and electronic sources, but as supplementing them.
The following are examples of electronic journals available in the areas of engineering:
These areas are within the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, which received high praise for the quality of its research as well as its education programmes in the 1995 review. These two areas are supported by level 4 collections.
This is an increasingly important area for the profession. For the last ten years the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering has built up its internationally recognised expertise and resources in earthquake engineering and the dynamics of structures. The Department now possesses an extensive range of relevant computer software, shaking tables and other specialist equipment for theoretical and experimental research in this area. Related geotechnical aspects of these problems are also considered. The Library supports this research with level 4 collections.
The Centre for Geographic Information Systems and Modelling is a joint initiative of the Department of Geomatics and the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning. The Centre has been established to carry out research on geographic information systems, their applications, environmental visualisation and modelling, and to provide a focus for University teaching in these areas. The Centre is supported by research level collections scattered across campus at a number of DDC numbers, some of which fall into the areas covered by the engineering conspectus. There are no major gaps in the collections of conference proceedings, journals and monographs. The collection is considered to be the best in the country, and is heavily used by members of other tertiary institutions and by industry. The full text of all GIS conference papers from 1994 on from all major international conferences are freely available from sites in the US through the world wide web.
There are a number of research centres using the resources in this area, including the Centre for Environmental Applied Hydrology (CEAH), the Co-operative Research Centre for Catchment Hydrology (CRCCH) and the International Development Technologies Centre. It is a central research area for environmental engineering, and has links to research in agriculture and geography. As can be ascertained from the conspectus data sheets, the collection is very weak and does not support the research interests of academic staff and postgraduate students. The collections supporting these areas must be strengthened over the next triennium.
The Department of Chemical Engineering has an international reputation in the biochemical engineering field. The reference and monograph collections are adequate for both undergraduate teaching and research in this area. The monographs are highly specialised for postgraduates, and there are not many published. New monographs for undergraduates are more often than not simply recycled information and conference papers. Since useful material from conference proceedings becomes available in the journal literature it is not important to collect conference proceedings in this area. There was an explosion in the 1980s in biotechnology journals, so initially the Library was able to build up the collection as the journals evolved, but in recent times no new journals have been added. Some necessary journal titles are held nowhere in Australia as a continuous run. Details of a few required journal titles are listed at the end of this report.
The historical collection in Mining and Minerals Processing is fine, as the area used to be a strong research interest. It has not been taught at a high level for some time or researched greatly, however, until the appointment in December 1995 of a new professor, so the area will need building up.
The new combined degree Bachelor of Engineering (Mechatronics) and Bachelor of Computer Science provides professional education in mechanical, manufacturing, electronics and computer engineering necessary for the design and development of "intelligent" products and systems. Since this is a relatively new area of research, much of the information available currently falls into either the engineering or the computer science field. Students will require a collection of textbooks synthesising the different components of the newly emerging discipline and research materials will need to be acquired as the discipline strengthens its publishing output.
The major research strengths of the group are in Signal and Speech Processing and in Communication Networks. The group currently consists of nine members of academic staff, four research fellows, and approximately twenty seven research students. Research activities are funded by the Cooperative Research Centres scheme, the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO), Telstra, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the Australian Telecommunications and Electronics Research Board (ATERB). This group noted the lack of a sufficient standards collection and, like others, commented on the scattering across campus of books they considered to be core electrical engineering books. While the actual research level books are adequate, there is not a sufficiently wide spread of undergraduate textbooks. The collection is not sufficiently comprehensive for teaching or learning at undergraduate level. This is particularly noticeable where texts are accompanied by software - there is a dearth of such material in the Library. Specialised monographs are not in high demand; what is in the Library is sufficient. The journals collection is also considered sufficient, with the lack of only one title being mentioned.
The Photonics Research Laboratory (PRL) was established in February 1990 and has achieved an international reputation for innovative research in photonic networks and systems. Activities in the Laboratory cover a wide range of topics, particularly in the areas of telecommunications and instrumentation. The Laboratorys research activities cover five main areas:
A common theme in all the work is the application of advanced devices in photonic circuits, networks, and systems. In all projects strong emphasis is placed on experimental work and applications. This group in particular stressed the weakness of the current collection of standards in the University Library. There was consensus within the Department of Electrical Engineering that there is not a sufficient collection of standards in the Library. There are no UL or European standards, very few CCITT communication system standards, and very few Austel standards. The current ITU communications "blue book" is also missing. These are essential reference materials, particularly for the Photonics Research Laboratory.
This was a very thorough collection at one time, but is now not as up-to-date as it should be, particularly regarding textbooks with accompanying software.
Not many tertiary institutions research in manufacturing so the collection needs to be a level 4. The key journals are held, but there are many new journals coming out and these should be evaluated and, if suitable, ordered so that research is not hindered by lack of up-to-date materials. There has also been a growth in the number of new books appearing in the area, but the Library is managing to keep up pretty well with books. The major lack in the monograph area is the provision of international standards. While there are 2 subscriptions to Australian standards maintained by the University Library, not all Australian standards cover ISO ones there are gaps. These standards are very expensive but the world is going ISO, and where there is no Australian standard the ISO one must be purchased. The ISO maintains a presence on the web, through which the complete catalogue may be searched, after which orders must be placed through Standards Australia.
There is a sad lack of materials in nautical engineering. Much of the material in the Engineering Library is out of date. Among other research activities, this group is working on a means of transport by very fast ships of produce for sale in countries to Australias north. There is a maritime library in Canberra and some material in the UNSW Library, but there is no other similar research group and no research library in Australia. The technology involved in development of very fast ships is completely new; some of it is sensitive and is not published, so it is necessary for the group to undertake its own research. Melbourne is the only university in Australia doing this sort of research, so a level 4 collection needs to be built up. The published research of groups like the Institute of Marine Engineers and the Institute of Naval Architects in the UK and the US equivalents are required, as also are relevant publication of the US Navy. A number of new journals and a set of up-to-date books are urgently required to support the research group, including its dozen or so postgraduate students. Opportunities have been lost through lack of research materials. Details of a few required journal titles are listed at the end of this report,
It is possible that increased electronic access to journal information will go some way to ameliorate the difficulties caused by lack of adequate funding for research journals. Through the world wide web, it is possible to search contents pages and abstracts at no charge, and order online any document by registering a credit card or establishing an account. For expensive titles used by a small number of researchers this may be a viable option. Other university libraries within Australia have reported successful experiments with similar activities.
The following are titles mentioned as desirable purchases by academic staff: These represent the minimum requirements only; they are by no means the sole title required.
Thanks are gratefully offered to the many people who gave freely of their time and advice. I thank particularly Brian Warburton, who compiled the information for the maps section of the report, Juliet Flesch, Elisabeth Garran, Margaret Murphy, Graeme Murphy and Merete Smith, from the Library, for their support and assistance, Dr Ed Dougal from Agriculture, and the academic staff of the Engineering Faculty who generously gave their time and advice to assist me to build a picture of the current collections and the needs that they are required to meet.
Last modified: August 18 2004.
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