Study of the Information Dissemination Service-Health Sciences Library, State University of New York at Buffalo* BY HELEN J. BROWN, Librariant Lakes Area Regional Medical Program, Incorporated Buffalo, New York JEAN K. MILLER, Associate Librariant Health Sciences Library State University of New York at Buffalo Buffalo, New York
DIANE M. PINCHOFF, Staff Associate
Lakes Area Regional Medical Program, Incorporated Buffalo, New York ABSTRACT The Information Dissemination Service at the Health Sciences Library, State University of New York at Buffalo, was established June 1970 through a three-year grant from the Lakes Area Regional Medical Program, Inc. Analysis of two samples of user request forms yielded results which significantly substantiate findings in prior biomedical literature utilization studies. The findings demonstrate comparable utilization pattems by user group, age of material, journal titles, language, time to process request, source of reference, and size of institution.
THE Information Dissemination Service (IDS) at the Health Sciences Library, State University of New York at Buffalo (HSL-SUNYAB) was established by a three-year grant (June 1970-March 1973) from the Lakes Area Regional Medical Program, Inc. (LARMP). The IDS is designed to serve the informational needs of the health professionals throughout the ninecounty LARMP area. This area covers seven counties in western New York (Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Niagara, * Development of this publication was supported by Public Health Service Grant 5G03 RM 13-06A1 from the Division of Regional Medical Programs.
t Helen J. Brown is presently Librarian, Division of
Research and Development, The Carborundum Co, Niagara Falls, N. Y. Jean K. Miller is Director, Medical Library Center of New York, New York, N. Y: Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 63(3) July 1975
and Wyoming) and two counties in northwestern Pennsylvania (Erie and McKean). It spans the New York and New Jersey Regional Medical Library, Region II (RML-ll) and Mideastern Regional Medical Library Service, Region III (RML-III) boundaries. The HSL-SUNYAB was designated as an RML-II subcontract library in June 1973. Before the establishment of RML-II subcontract boundaries, the IDS extended services eastward to include Steuben and Orleans counties in New York. Administratively, the IDS service is an operation separate from the library service offered to resident SUNYAB students and faculty. The IDS staff consists of a project director, a library technician, a part-time clerical assistant, and a part-time student assistant. The clerk receives and fills requests submitted (primarily by telephone) from four major hospitals in the region. Other requests are received by telephone, Telephone Lecture Network (TLN) WATS* line, and by mail. During the three-year funding period, the IDS also provided reference service, library consultation, and SUNY-Biomedical Communications Network (SUNY-BCN) searches using the MEDLARS data base. Monthly updating of the computer-produced bibliographies was also provided. Periodic visits to participating institu*A WATS line used for interagency communication and for the presentation of continuing education programs directed toward the health care community.
259
BROWN, MILLER, AND PINCHOFF
tions were conducted to explain the service; to demonstrate use of the request forms; and to consult on other aspects of library development. All services were free during this funding period with a restriction of three article photocopies per day for an individual. During the last six months of funding, a LARMP-based librarian provided promotional services for IDS utilization and assumed responsibility for consultation visits. Continuation of the IDS after June 1973 was secured through RML-II reimbursement, hospital contribution, and university support. A fee schedule was established to enable institutions to contract for service beyond RML and IDS quotas. The IDS services were regionally promoted through press releases, the Telephone Lecture Network, descriptive brochures mailed to over 12,000 health professionals, and a March 1971 survey of potential users. In 1972, the library held 131,000 bound volumes. It receives about 11,000 bound volumes annually and has over 3,000 current journal subscriptions. The Bell Science Library houses one-third of the less used and older materials from HSL-SUNYAB. Daily retrieval and delivery is accomplished by TWX and copy machines. PURPOSES OF THE STUDY The study was initiated to ascertain the nature of the informational requests from area
health professionals and to provide comparative analyses with other biomedical literature use studies. Table 1 summarizes prior representative biomedical literature use studies. Primarily, the study was designed to compare the utilization patterns of the IDS with other biomedical literature use studies and to provide base line data for future research and planning needs, including HSL-SUNYAB resource development and RML-II area planning.
METHODOLOGY There are two discrete populations of requests recorded on separate interlibrary loan (ILL) forms. Requests from the four major teaching hospitals are recorded on a simplified ILL form that is retained for three months (Group A). These are primarily telephone requests. There were 13,592 such requests from June 1970 to December 1972. The majority of these requests were filled within twenty-four hours through the HSL-SUNYAB resources. Group A requests which cannot be filled from the HSL-SUNYAB collection are resubmitted on a longer ILL form for referral to other libraries. These forms are then processed along with all additional requests received from other institutions and individuals in the region (Group B). The entire three-month (October-December 1972) accumulation of 1,802 Group A re-
TABLE 1 SELECTED BIOMEDICAL LITERATURE USE STUDIES Authors Kovacs
Resource Libraries Downstate Medical Center
Terimod
Nature of Study
1962/63
Analysis of book and journal circulation access by user group and subject classification [5]. Analysis of book and journal circulation to Yale faculty and students [4]. Survey of users of NLL [3].
Library
Stangi and Kilgour
Yale Medical Library
1964/65
Wood and Bower
National Lending Library (NLL)
1967
(Great Britain) Hodges, Colby, Bloomquist Gomes
Countway Library (NERMLS) John Crerar Library
1967/68
1968/69
(MRML)
Overman, Overman, and Palank Tibbetts
260
Three resource libraries Bi-State RMP Project University of Minnesota Bio-Medical Library
1970/71 1972/73 1972
Review ol first year of document delivery service [1]. Analysis of first year MRML ILL requests [2]. ILL to hospitals from resource library [7]. In-house use of periodical collection [6].
Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 63(3) July 1975
INFORMATION DISSEMINATION SERVICE-SUNY, BUFFALO
notable difference between Sample A and Sample B in the filling of monograph requests. We filled from the HSL collection 59.2% of monograph requests from Sample A libraries and 90% from Sample B libraries (Table 3). Group B includes monograph requests filled through referral to other libraries whenever the HSL collection did not include the requested title. Group A reflects only the monographs filled from the HSL collection. This finding compares to the request statistics from New England Regional Medical Library Service and Midwest Regional Medical Library where the journal requests accounted for 90.0% and 86.6% of all requests [1,2]. Similarly, Wood and Bower [3 ] report 90.6% periodical and 4.2% book requests at the National Lending Library. Stangl's [41 circulation figures for Yale show 60% of the circulation to be journals; but, as Wood and Bower point out, this figure reflects heavy undergraduate book usage. A study by Kovacs [5] shows that residents and "special" patrons at Downstate were the groups borrowing more books than journals. The journal circulation to all groups was 57% at Downstate. 2. Material less than five years old accounts for the bulk of the requests for both samples. For Sample A, the highest percentage of requests for monographs was filled for material five to ten years old and one to two years old. The next highest percentage was for material three to five years old and monographs over ten years old. The lowest percentage of filled requests was for recently published material. The largest percentage of requests for journals was filled for material three to five years old (Table 3). For Sample B, the highest percentage of FINDINGS requests for monographic materials was satis1. Journal requests account for 90.4% of the fied when the age of the material was between total number of requests (Table 2). There is a one and two years (100%) or over ten years (93.9%). These two categories represent 32.0% of the total number of requests. Materials pubTABLE 2 lished during the last five years account for TYPE OF REQUEST 70.6% of all journal requests in Sample B. For Sample B material under five years of age, Sample B Sample A requests were 53.6% for books and 70.6% for % No. % No. journals. In Sample A, these requests represent 40.2% of the books and 60.4% of the journals 9.6 220 9.9 179 Book requested. In both samples, the lowest fill rate 90.4 90.1 2,060 1,623 Journal was for monographs less than one year old, undoubtedly due to books on reserve and those 100.0 100.0 Total 2,280 1,802 not yet acquired or processed.
quest forms was studied (Sample A). Group B requests (June 1970-December 1972) were enumerated. A 10% random sample of 2,280 request forms, stratified by year of request, was drawn with a confidence level of 95% and a sampling error not exceeding 2%. The study period covered the service from its inception in June 1970 to December 1972, when LARMP consultation and promotion services began. This period precedes impetus to library development occurring with formal participation in the RML regional program. For both samples, ILL request form data were coded, keypunched, and verified on Hollerith cards. The Health Information Systems Unit of LARMP wrote a FORTRAN program for data analysis on the SUNYAB Computer Center CDC-6400. Only information available on the request form was utilized, except for language determination which was ascertained from the individual journal article. In determining the time required to process the requests, only HSL-IDS working days were considered. The term "Health Planning Agency" includes requests from two comprehensive health agencies, one regional medical program, and the county offices for the aging. For the most part, borrower status is selfexplanatory. The "Physician" group includes interns, residents, osteopaths, and podiatrists. The small "Student" group represents those from schools other than SUNYAB or students whose primary affiliation is not SUNYAB. The "Researcher" and "Educator" categories include individuals whose primary responsibility is hospital-based research or clinical education. "Researcher" includes research assistants and associates.
Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 63(3) July 1975
261
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INFORMATION DISSEMINATION SERVICE-SUNY, BUFFALO
Gomes found that 53.8% of book and journal journal requests were filled, including some of requests were for material less than five years those referred to other libraries. Within five old. By extrapolation of the NLL medical mate- days, 63.1% of the monograph requests were rial lent, about 64% of the material was less completed. Within three working days, 92.1% of all Samthan 5 1/2 years old [3 ]. Stangl and Kilgour plotted total circulation against age and demon- ple A requests were filled and 73.0% of Sample strated that 52% of the journals and 45% of the B requests were filled. For Sample B, this result books were less than five years old. For in-house included delay occasioned by referral requests. journal usage, Tibbetts [6] found 58% of the Delay in filling requests for both samples occurred when the materials were in use, missing material was less than five years old. 3. In both samples, a large portion of requests or at the bindery. It is interesting that Sample B requests were filled within two working days. This finding was true for 89.2% of requests in Sample A demonstrate a 97.1% fill rate during the first six and 68.3% of requests in Sample B (Table 4). months the program was in existence. SubseThe time required to fill requests compares quent twelve-month periods (1971 and 1972) favorably to the figures for NERMLS and witnessed a comparable 96.1 and 97.7% fill rate, MRML. MRML filled 55.9% of its requests in respectively. The largest number of requests two working days and 93.3% within seven days was received in 1972, representing 60.0% of all [2]. NERMLS filled 75% within two working loans filled during the 2 1/2-year period. The time required to fill requests increased days [1]. For Sample B, 44.4% of the monograph re- during 1971. It decreased significantly in 1972 to quests were filled in one day and 56.4% of all the best performance level. Approximately requests for journal articles were filled in the 71.9% of the requests were completed in two same period. Within five days, 80.4% of all days, 77.1% within three days, and 1.4% of the TABLE 4 TIME TO PROCESS REQUEST BY TYPE OF PUBLICATION
Book
Time to Process
Request (days)
Sample A Same or 1
Filled No. %
Journal
Unfilled No. %
Filled No. %
Total
Unfilled No. %
Filled No.
1,178
14 6 2 1 0
56.2 12.3 19.2 8.2 2.7 1.4 0.0
177 42 53 28 26 2
78.2 11.8 2.8 3.5 1.9 1.7 0.1
74 16 16 9 2 0 0
63.2 13.7 13.7 7.7 1.7 0.0 0.0
1,252 185 47
100.0
73
100.0
1,506
100.0
117
44.4 9.1 1.5 8.1 11.6 16.7 8.6
3 1 1 4 2 6 5
13.6 4.6 4.6 18.2
1,138
9.1 27.3 22.7
268 102 112 174 173 49
56.4 13.3 5.1 5.6 8.6 8.6 2.4
9 5 0 3
30+
88 18 3 16 23 33 17
Total
198
100.0
22
100.0
2,016
100.0
2 3 4-5 6-10 11-29 30+
74 8 5 4 5 8 2
69.8 7.5 4.7 3.8 4.7 7.5 1.9
41 9
Total
106
Sample B Same or 1 2 3 4-5 6-10 11-29
Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 63(3) July 1975
Unfilled %
No.
%
57 33 34 4
77.7 115 11.5 25 2.9 30 3.5 15 2.0 4 1 2.1 0.2 0
60.5 13.2 15.8 7.9 2.1 0.5 0.0
100.0
1,612
100.0 190
100.0
1,226 286 105 128 197 206 66
55.4 12.9 4.7 5.8 8.9 9.3 3.0
12 6 1 7
2 8 17
20.5 11.4 0.0 6.8 4.6 18.1 38.6
4 14 22
18.2 9.1 1.5 10.6 6.1 21.2 33.3
44
100.0
2,214
100.0
66
100.0
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INFORMATION DISSEMINATION SERVICE-SUNY, BUFFALO
requests required over thirty working days to complete. For Sample A, 89.5% of all requests during the period of study were eventually filled. Hodges and associates reported that 84% of requests received by NERMLS were filled. Gomes reports that 66.3% of the MRML requests were filled. 4. It took more time to process material over ten years old or less than one year old (Table 5). Many of the holdings over ten years old are stored at a branch library and additional time is required for processing. Items published during the current year take more time to process because they are on reserve, in circulation, heavily used in-house, or not yet acquired. 5. For both samples, the largest number of monographic and journal requests was for materials in English-85.2% of total requests received for Sample A and 83.5% for Sample B. The least frequently requested were materials in Russian, Japanese, and other languages (Table 6). z For both samples, the languages in descending frequency were English, German, French, cs m and other. Gomes had found 85% of the requests a at MRML in English and about 9.5% in German w: = O and French. L'a4 For NLL, Wood found that 88.2% of the requests were for material in English, and 8.3% for French and German. Wood includes a chart CR , of language percentages from other studies. 6. The main reference sources for Sample B were Index Medicus and SUNY searches which generated 17.3% and 12.7%, respectively, of the requests (Table 7). Wood found that a periodical article was the source of reference for 37.0% of the entire NLL sample, and an abstracting or indexing publication was the source of reference for 31.5% of the interlibrary loan requests. MEDLARS searches generated only 1.8% of the requests. However, MEDLARS service was newly initiated at that time [3]. For Sample A, a shorter ILL form was used which did not elicit source of reference for 92.8% of the requests. The remaining requests were obtained from the bibliographies of monographs, abstracts, journals, Current Contents,* or computer searches. For Sample B, 45.5% of all the unfilled requests occurred in items with no source of reference indicated. Similarly, 57.8% of all the unfilled requests for journal articles occurred Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 63(3) July 1975
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when no source of reference was given. The source of reference was not included for 60.4% of the monograph requests and for 47.8% of the journal requests. For Sample B, the largest number of unfilled monograph requests cited bibliographies of journal articles as the source of reference. TABLE 7 SOURCE OF REFERENCE BY NUMBER OF CITATIONS*
Sample B
No.
%
Not available Index Medicus Computer search Journal article Current Contents® Other Monograph Other index Abstract journal Books in Print Abridged Index Medicus Colleague Science Citation Index®
1,118 395 289 131 88 74 51 45 45 31 10 2 1
49.0 17.3 12.7 5.7 3.9 3.2 2.2 2.0 2.0 1.4 0.4 0.1 0.1
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100.0
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Sample A data are not available.
Ninety-nine percent of journal articles whose source of reference was Index Medicus or MEDLARS (either from MEDLINE or SUNY/ BCN) were filled. 7. For Sample B, physician requests comprised the largest percentage, 67.5%, for all years (Table 8.) For Sample B, the greatest volume of requests from all user groups was generated in 1972. Three groups of users (students, social workers, medical technicians) did not request materials during the first or second years of the service. The Gomes study found that physicians' requests comprised 42.9%. For Sample A, the short form did not elicit the client's status; however, for one large hospital in Sample A, 89.8% of the requests were from physicians and 10% were not listed. 8. Physicians requested the largest percent-age, 67.5% of material for all age categories (Table 9). Similarly, in the Gomes study physicians comprised the largest percentage (39.3%) of those who requested the most recent materials. The researcher and educator groups requested a greater amount of recent material in proportion to their total requests (Table 9). The percentages of "total" requests for the most recent material was 23.1%, 46.4%, and 43.1%, respectively, for physician, researcher, .and ed-
TABLE 8 USER GROUP BY YEAR OF REQUEST* Year of Request
Sample B
1970
No.
Physician
1971
%
No.
Total
1972 %
No.
%
No.
%
Dentist Nurse Educator Student Researcher Health planner Social services Medical technician Paramedical Librarian Other Not available
112 2 12 10 0 1 1 0 0 3 13 1 19
64.4 1.1 6.9 5.7 0.0 0.6 0.6 0.0 0.0 1.7 7.5 0.6 10.9
539 0 52 12 0 20 10 2 0 13 30 37 24
72.9 0.0 7.0 1.6 0.0 2.7 1.4 0.3 0.0 1.8 4.1 5.0 3.2
889 29 123 29 28 48 28 12 1 34 18 64 64
65.0 2.1 9.0 2.1 2.0 3.5 2.0 0.9 0.1 2.5 1.3 4.7 4.7
1,540 31 187 51 28 69 39 14 1 50 61 102 107
67.5 1.4 8.2 2.2 1.2 3.0 1.7 0.6 0.1 2.2 2.7 4.5 4.7
Total
174
100.0
739
100.0
1,367
100.0
2,280
100.0
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INFORMATION DISSEMINATION SERVICE-SUNY, BUFFALO TABLE 11 JOURNALS REQUESTED OVER TEN TIMES Sample B
Sample A Rank
Title
*British Medical Journal *Gastroenterology Journal of Endocrinology Scandinavian Journal of Clinical and Laboratory Investigation Southern Medical Journal Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Acta Neurologica Scandinavica Biochimica et Biophysica Acta Fertility and Sterility Journal of Nutrition Medical Journal of Australia Acta Endocrinologica Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications Transactions of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, and Oral Pathology Clinical Science Endocrinology Journal of Clinical Investigation Neurology Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine
1.
2. 3. 4.
5.
6. 7.
*
Title
Rank
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
16.
*New England Journal of Medicine *Lancet *American Journal of Psychiatry *British Medical Journal Archives of General Psychiatry *American Journal of Public Health *Journal of the American Medical Association American Journal of Nursing *Annals of Internal Medicine Journal of the American Geriatric Society American Journal of Surgery Diseases of the Nervous System *Annals of Surgery Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease Biochimica et Biophysica Acta Medical Journal of Australia *Science *American Heart Journal Archives of Surgery British Journal of Psychiatry *Hospitals Canadian Medical Association Journal *Cancer Geriatrics Gut Journal of Urology Southern Medical Journal Hospital and Community Psychiatry
These journals now appear on RML-Area II "restricted list."
tioner with no affiliation indicated. Approximately 35.7% of student requests came through universities other than SUNYAB. For Sample A, a majority claiming hospital 9. For Sample B, the largest percentage of requests (77%) was received from users through affiliation did not identify a profession and their hospital affiliation. The second largest utilization rates by professions could not be percentage (13.3%) was received through uni- analyzed (Table 10). 10. The percentage of requests increased proversity affiliation. The smallest percentage of requests was received from health depart- portionately with the bed size of the institution. It is notable that the number of requests rement personnel (0.5%). ceived from hospitals with 200 beds or more is of For Sample B, the largest percentage educators' requests (86.3%) was received over 50% greater than the number requested by through their university affiliation. The largest institutions with 200 beds or less. For Sample B, the largest number of requests percentage of health planners' requests (92.3%) was received through health planning agencies. from hospitals of all sizes were physician reThe largest percentage of dentists' requests quests and the next largest number were re(58.1%) was received from the individual practi- quests by nurses. ucator groups. Almost half of the requests from educators and researchers is for material less than one year old.
Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 63(3) July 1975
269
BROWN, MILLER, AND PINCHOFF
11. For both samples, 3% of the journal titles satisfied approximately 20% of the journal requests. These results compare favorably with the NLL findings in which 3.3% of the journal titles accounted for 21.5% of the loans [3]. For Sample B, 3.1% of the journal titles (29 of 940 titles) provided 23.7% of the total articles requested. The 911 remaining journal titles filled 76.3% of total article requests, 83.9% of which were requested one time. Only four journal titles were requested ten or more times by the participating libraries in both samples. The British Medical Journal was the most frequently requested title of Sample A and the third most frequently requested title for Sample B; the Medical Journal of Australia was fourth and fourteenth in frequency of requests for A and B, respectively; the Southern Medical Journal was second and sixteenth in frequency of requests; and the Biomedical and Biophysical Research Communications was fifth and thirteenth, respectively (Table 11). The differences in the two title lists reflect the adequacy of the journal holdings in the four major hospitals (Sample A). Table 11 suggests that the higher journal request rate for Sample B may be due to the limited holdings of the more frequently requested journals. Twelve of these titles frequently requested by Sample B institutions now appear on the RML-II restricted list of forty journals. According to the local union list of serials prepared by the IDS, Sample A hospitals subscribed to fourteen of the twenty-nine journals on the Sample B list. Both title lists will serve to promote collection development in the two types of institutional groupings. The two title lists and the RML-II restricted journal title lists should promote institutional cooperation, increase journal holdings, and ultimately lower the request rates for items currently in demand from the IDS. Both lists have been submitted for use in RML-II planning for a supplementary restricted journal list. The complete lists are being used to evaluate the Health Sciences Library, SUNYAB, as a regional biomedical resource library. SUMMARY
Analysis of two samples of user request forms substantiates findings of prior biomedical literature utilization studies. Journal requests ac-
270
counted for 90.4% of all requests; 60.4% of Sample A and 70.6% of Sample B journal requests were for material less than five years old. For both samples, the lowest fill rate wafor books less than one year old. Requests took longer to fill when material was over ten years old. The HSL-SUNYAB collection filled 89.2% of Sample A and 68.3% of Sample B requests in two working days. The eventual fill rate was 89.5% for Sample A and 97.1% for Sample B. For both samples, about 3% of the journal titles satisfied about 20% of the requests. For both samples, language of requests, in descending order, ranked English, German, French, and other. English requests accounted for 85.2% of Sample A and 83.5% of Sample B material. Index Medicus and SUNY or MEDLINE searches were the major sources of reference cited. For Sample B, 67.5% of all requests were from physicians and 83.4% of physician requests were received through their hospital affiliation. In Sample B, 77.0% of all requests were initiated through a hospital affiliation. Approximately 23.1%, 46.4%, and 43.1% of all requests from physicians, researchers, and educators, respectively, were for materials less than one year old. The analysis of utilization patterns of the Information Dissemination Service provides data comparable to other biomedical literature use studies in terms of user group, age of material, journal titles, language, time to fill request, source of reference, and size of institution. The findings support the universality of request patterns in the population of health care professionals. REFERENCES 1. HODGES, T. MARK, COLBY, CHARLES C., AND BLOOMQUIST, HAROLD. NERMLS: The first year. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 57: 329-337, Oct. 1969. 2. GOMES, STELLA S. The nature of the use and users
of the Midwest Regional Medical Library. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 58: 559-577, Oct. 1970. 3. WOOD, DAVID N., AND BOWER, CATHRYN A. Survey of medical literature borrowed from the National Lending Library for Science and Technology. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 57: 47-63, Jan. 1969. 4. STANGL, PETER, AND KILGOUR, FREDERICK G. Analysis of recorded biomedical book and journal use in Yale Medical Library. Parts I and II. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 55: 290-315, July 1967. 5. KOVACS, HELEN. Analysis of one year's circulation at the Downstate Medical Center Library. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 54: 42-47, Jan. 1966.
Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 63(3) July 1975
INFORMATION DISSEMINATION SERVICE-SUNY, BUFFALO 6. TIBBETTs, PAMELA. A method for estimating the in-house use of the periodical collection in the University of Minnesota Bio-Medical Library. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 62: 37-48, Jan. 1974. 7. OVERMAN, DOROTHY S., OVERMAN, RALPH T., AND
Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 63(3) July 1975
PALANK, ROBERT F. Regionalizing Hospital Library Resources and Services: Report MI-2. St. Louis, Bi-State Regional Medical Program, 1973.
271
DIANE M. PINCHOFF, Staff Associate
Lakes Area Regional Medical Program, Incorporated Buffalo, New York ABSTRACT The Information Dissemination Service at the Health Sciences Library, State University of New York at Buffalo, was established June 1970 through a three-year grant from the Lakes Area Regional Medical Program, Inc. Analysis of two samples of user request forms yielded results which significantly substantiate findings in prior biomedical literature utilization studies. The findings demonstrate comparable utilization pattems by user group, age of material, journal titles, language, time to process request, source of reference, and size of institution.
THE Information Dissemination Service (IDS) at the Health Sciences Library, State University of New York at Buffalo (HSL-SUNYAB) was established by a three-year grant (June 1970-March 1973) from the Lakes Area Regional Medical Program, Inc. (LARMP). The IDS is designed to serve the informational needs of the health professionals throughout the ninecounty LARMP area. This area covers seven counties in western New York (Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Niagara, * Development of this publication was supported by Public Health Service Grant 5G03 RM 13-06A1 from the Division of Regional Medical Programs.
t Helen J. Brown is presently Librarian, Division of
Research and Development, The Carborundum Co, Niagara Falls, N. Y. Jean K. Miller is Director, Medical Library Center of New York, New York, N. Y: Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 63(3) July 1975
and Wyoming) and two counties in northwestern Pennsylvania (Erie and McKean). It spans the New York and New Jersey Regional Medical Library, Region II (RML-ll) and Mideastern Regional Medical Library Service, Region III (RML-III) boundaries. The HSL-SUNYAB was designated as an RML-II subcontract library in June 1973. Before the establishment of RML-II subcontract boundaries, the IDS extended services eastward to include Steuben and Orleans counties in New York. Administratively, the IDS service is an operation separate from the library service offered to resident SUNYAB students and faculty. The IDS staff consists of a project director, a library technician, a part-time clerical assistant, and a part-time student assistant. The clerk receives and fills requests submitted (primarily by telephone) from four major hospitals in the region. Other requests are received by telephone, Telephone Lecture Network (TLN) WATS* line, and by mail. During the three-year funding period, the IDS also provided reference service, library consultation, and SUNY-Biomedical Communications Network (SUNY-BCN) searches using the MEDLARS data base. Monthly updating of the computer-produced bibliographies was also provided. Periodic visits to participating institu*A WATS line used for interagency communication and for the presentation of continuing education programs directed toward the health care community.
259
BROWN, MILLER, AND PINCHOFF
tions were conducted to explain the service; to demonstrate use of the request forms; and to consult on other aspects of library development. All services were free during this funding period with a restriction of three article photocopies per day for an individual. During the last six months of funding, a LARMP-based librarian provided promotional services for IDS utilization and assumed responsibility for consultation visits. Continuation of the IDS after June 1973 was secured through RML-II reimbursement, hospital contribution, and university support. A fee schedule was established to enable institutions to contract for service beyond RML and IDS quotas. The IDS services were regionally promoted through press releases, the Telephone Lecture Network, descriptive brochures mailed to over 12,000 health professionals, and a March 1971 survey of potential users. In 1972, the library held 131,000 bound volumes. It receives about 11,000 bound volumes annually and has over 3,000 current journal subscriptions. The Bell Science Library houses one-third of the less used and older materials from HSL-SUNYAB. Daily retrieval and delivery is accomplished by TWX and copy machines. PURPOSES OF THE STUDY The study was initiated to ascertain the nature of the informational requests from area
health professionals and to provide comparative analyses with other biomedical literature use studies. Table 1 summarizes prior representative biomedical literature use studies. Primarily, the study was designed to compare the utilization patterns of the IDS with other biomedical literature use studies and to provide base line data for future research and planning needs, including HSL-SUNYAB resource development and RML-II area planning.
METHODOLOGY There are two discrete populations of requests recorded on separate interlibrary loan (ILL) forms. Requests from the four major teaching hospitals are recorded on a simplified ILL form that is retained for three months (Group A). These are primarily telephone requests. There were 13,592 such requests from June 1970 to December 1972. The majority of these requests were filled within twenty-four hours through the HSL-SUNYAB resources. Group A requests which cannot be filled from the HSL-SUNYAB collection are resubmitted on a longer ILL form for referral to other libraries. These forms are then processed along with all additional requests received from other institutions and individuals in the region (Group B). The entire three-month (October-December 1972) accumulation of 1,802 Group A re-
TABLE 1 SELECTED BIOMEDICAL LITERATURE USE STUDIES Authors Kovacs
Resource Libraries Downstate Medical Center
Terimod
Nature of Study
1962/63
Analysis of book and journal circulation access by user group and subject classification [5]. Analysis of book and journal circulation to Yale faculty and students [4]. Survey of users of NLL [3].
Library
Stangi and Kilgour
Yale Medical Library
1964/65
Wood and Bower
National Lending Library (NLL)
1967
(Great Britain) Hodges, Colby, Bloomquist Gomes
Countway Library (NERMLS) John Crerar Library
1967/68
1968/69
(MRML)
Overman, Overman, and Palank Tibbetts
260
Three resource libraries Bi-State RMP Project University of Minnesota Bio-Medical Library
1970/71 1972/73 1972
Review ol first year of document delivery service [1]. Analysis of first year MRML ILL requests [2]. ILL to hospitals from resource library [7]. In-house use of periodical collection [6].
Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 63(3) July 1975
INFORMATION DISSEMINATION SERVICE-SUNY, BUFFALO
notable difference between Sample A and Sample B in the filling of monograph requests. We filled from the HSL collection 59.2% of monograph requests from Sample A libraries and 90% from Sample B libraries (Table 3). Group B includes monograph requests filled through referral to other libraries whenever the HSL collection did not include the requested title. Group A reflects only the monographs filled from the HSL collection. This finding compares to the request statistics from New England Regional Medical Library Service and Midwest Regional Medical Library where the journal requests accounted for 90.0% and 86.6% of all requests [1,2]. Similarly, Wood and Bower [3 ] report 90.6% periodical and 4.2% book requests at the National Lending Library. Stangl's [41 circulation figures for Yale show 60% of the circulation to be journals; but, as Wood and Bower point out, this figure reflects heavy undergraduate book usage. A study by Kovacs [5] shows that residents and "special" patrons at Downstate were the groups borrowing more books than journals. The journal circulation to all groups was 57% at Downstate. 2. Material less than five years old accounts for the bulk of the requests for both samples. For Sample A, the highest percentage of requests for monographs was filled for material five to ten years old and one to two years old. The next highest percentage was for material three to five years old and monographs over ten years old. The lowest percentage of filled requests was for recently published material. The largest percentage of requests for journals was filled for material three to five years old (Table 3). For Sample B, the highest percentage of FINDINGS requests for monographic materials was satis1. Journal requests account for 90.4% of the fied when the age of the material was between total number of requests (Table 2). There is a one and two years (100%) or over ten years (93.9%). These two categories represent 32.0% of the total number of requests. Materials pubTABLE 2 lished during the last five years account for TYPE OF REQUEST 70.6% of all journal requests in Sample B. For Sample B material under five years of age, Sample B Sample A requests were 53.6% for books and 70.6% for % No. % No. journals. In Sample A, these requests represent 40.2% of the books and 60.4% of the journals 9.6 220 9.9 179 Book requested. In both samples, the lowest fill rate 90.4 90.1 2,060 1,623 Journal was for monographs less than one year old, undoubtedly due to books on reserve and those 100.0 100.0 Total 2,280 1,802 not yet acquired or processed.
quest forms was studied (Sample A). Group B requests (June 1970-December 1972) were enumerated. A 10% random sample of 2,280 request forms, stratified by year of request, was drawn with a confidence level of 95% and a sampling error not exceeding 2%. The study period covered the service from its inception in June 1970 to December 1972, when LARMP consultation and promotion services began. This period precedes impetus to library development occurring with formal participation in the RML regional program. For both samples, ILL request form data were coded, keypunched, and verified on Hollerith cards. The Health Information Systems Unit of LARMP wrote a FORTRAN program for data analysis on the SUNYAB Computer Center CDC-6400. Only information available on the request form was utilized, except for language determination which was ascertained from the individual journal article. In determining the time required to process the requests, only HSL-IDS working days were considered. The term "Health Planning Agency" includes requests from two comprehensive health agencies, one regional medical program, and the county offices for the aging. For the most part, borrower status is selfexplanatory. The "Physician" group includes interns, residents, osteopaths, and podiatrists. The small "Student" group represents those from schools other than SUNYAB or students whose primary affiliation is not SUNYAB. The "Researcher" and "Educator" categories include individuals whose primary responsibility is hospital-based research or clinical education. "Researcher" includes research assistants and associates.
Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 63(3) July 1975
261
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INFORMATION DISSEMINATION SERVICE-SUNY, BUFFALO
Gomes found that 53.8% of book and journal journal requests were filled, including some of requests were for material less than five years those referred to other libraries. Within five old. By extrapolation of the NLL medical mate- days, 63.1% of the monograph requests were rial lent, about 64% of the material was less completed. Within three working days, 92.1% of all Samthan 5 1/2 years old [3 ]. Stangl and Kilgour plotted total circulation against age and demon- ple A requests were filled and 73.0% of Sample strated that 52% of the journals and 45% of the B requests were filled. For Sample B, this result books were less than five years old. For in-house included delay occasioned by referral requests. journal usage, Tibbetts [6] found 58% of the Delay in filling requests for both samples occurred when the materials were in use, missing material was less than five years old. 3. In both samples, a large portion of requests or at the bindery. It is interesting that Sample B requests were filled within two working days. This finding was true for 89.2% of requests in Sample A demonstrate a 97.1% fill rate during the first six and 68.3% of requests in Sample B (Table 4). months the program was in existence. SubseThe time required to fill requests compares quent twelve-month periods (1971 and 1972) favorably to the figures for NERMLS and witnessed a comparable 96.1 and 97.7% fill rate, MRML. MRML filled 55.9% of its requests in respectively. The largest number of requests two working days and 93.3% within seven days was received in 1972, representing 60.0% of all [2]. NERMLS filled 75% within two working loans filled during the 2 1/2-year period. The time required to fill requests increased days [1]. For Sample B, 44.4% of the monograph re- during 1971. It decreased significantly in 1972 to quests were filled in one day and 56.4% of all the best performance level. Approximately requests for journal articles were filled in the 71.9% of the requests were completed in two same period. Within five days, 80.4% of all days, 77.1% within three days, and 1.4% of the TABLE 4 TIME TO PROCESS REQUEST BY TYPE OF PUBLICATION
Book
Time to Process
Request (days)
Sample A Same or 1
Filled No. %
Journal
Unfilled No. %
Filled No. %
Total
Unfilled No. %
Filled No.
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Total
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Sample B Same or 1 2 3 4-5 6-10 11-29
Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 63(3) July 1975
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INFORMATION DISSEMINATION SERVICE-SUNY, BUFFALO
requests required over thirty working days to complete. For Sample A, 89.5% of all requests during the period of study were eventually filled. Hodges and associates reported that 84% of requests received by NERMLS were filled. Gomes reports that 66.3% of the MRML requests were filled. 4. It took more time to process material over ten years old or less than one year old (Table 5). Many of the holdings over ten years old are stored at a branch library and additional time is required for processing. Items published during the current year take more time to process because they are on reserve, in circulation, heavily used in-house, or not yet acquired. 5. For both samples, the largest number of monographic and journal requests was for materials in English-85.2% of total requests received for Sample A and 83.5% for Sample B. The least frequently requested were materials in Russian, Japanese, and other languages (Table 6). z For both samples, the languages in descending frequency were English, German, French, cs m and other. Gomes had found 85% of the requests a at MRML in English and about 9.5% in German w: = O and French. L'a4 For NLL, Wood found that 88.2% of the requests were for material in English, and 8.3% for French and German. Wood includes a chart CR , of language percentages from other studies. 6. The main reference sources for Sample B were Index Medicus and SUNY searches which generated 17.3% and 12.7%, respectively, of the requests (Table 7). Wood found that a periodical article was the source of reference for 37.0% of the entire NLL sample, and an abstracting or indexing publication was the source of reference for 31.5% of the interlibrary loan requests. MEDLARS searches generated only 1.8% of the requests. However, MEDLARS service was newly initiated at that time [3]. For Sample A, a shorter ILL form was used which did not elicit source of reference for 92.8% of the requests. The remaining requests were obtained from the bibliographies of monographs, abstracts, journals, Current Contents,* or computer searches. For Sample B, 45.5% of all the unfilled requests occurred in items with no source of reference indicated. Similarly, 57.8% of all the unfilled requests for journal articles occurred Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 63(3) July 1975
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when no source of reference was given. The source of reference was not included for 60.4% of the monograph requests and for 47.8% of the journal requests. For Sample B, the largest number of unfilled monograph requests cited bibliographies of journal articles as the source of reference. TABLE 7 SOURCE OF REFERENCE BY NUMBER OF CITATIONS*
Sample B
No.
%
Not available Index Medicus Computer search Journal article Current Contents® Other Monograph Other index Abstract journal Books in Print Abridged Index Medicus Colleague Science Citation Index®
1,118 395 289 131 88 74 51 45 45 31 10 2 1
49.0 17.3 12.7 5.7 3.9 3.2 2.2 2.0 2.0 1.4 0.4 0.1 0.1
Total
2,280
100.0
*
Sample A data are not available.
Ninety-nine percent of journal articles whose source of reference was Index Medicus or MEDLARS (either from MEDLINE or SUNY/ BCN) were filled. 7. For Sample B, physician requests comprised the largest percentage, 67.5%, for all years (Table 8.) For Sample B, the greatest volume of requests from all user groups was generated in 1972. Three groups of users (students, social workers, medical technicians) did not request materials during the first or second years of the service. The Gomes study found that physicians' requests comprised 42.9%. For Sample A, the short form did not elicit the client's status; however, for one large hospital in Sample A, 89.8% of the requests were from physicians and 10% were not listed. 8. Physicians requested the largest percent-age, 67.5% of material for all age categories (Table 9). Similarly, in the Gomes study physicians comprised the largest percentage (39.3%) of those who requested the most recent materials. The researcher and educator groups requested a greater amount of recent material in proportion to their total requests (Table 9). The percentages of "total" requests for the most recent material was 23.1%, 46.4%, and 43.1%, respectively, for physician, researcher, .and ed-
TABLE 8 USER GROUP BY YEAR OF REQUEST* Year of Request
Sample B
1970
No.
Physician
1971
%
No.
Total
1972 %
No.
%
No.
%
Dentist Nurse Educator Student Researcher Health planner Social services Medical technician Paramedical Librarian Other Not available
112 2 12 10 0 1 1 0 0 3 13 1 19
64.4 1.1 6.9 5.7 0.0 0.6 0.6 0.0 0.0 1.7 7.5 0.6 10.9
539 0 52 12 0 20 10 2 0 13 30 37 24
72.9 0.0 7.0 1.6 0.0 2.7 1.4 0.3 0.0 1.8 4.1 5.0 3.2
889 29 123 29 28 48 28 12 1 34 18 64 64
65.0 2.1 9.0 2.1 2.0 3.5 2.0 0.9 0.1 2.5 1.3 4.7 4.7
1,540 31 187 51 28 69 39 14 1 50 61 102 107
67.5 1.4 8.2 2.2 1.2 3.0 1.7 0.6 0.1 2.2 2.7 4.5 4.7
Total
174
100.0
739
100.0
1,367
100.0
2,280
100.0
*
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Sample A data are not available. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 63(3) July 1975
INFORMATION DISSEMINATION SERVICE-SUNY, BUFFALO
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INFORMATION DISSEMINATION SERVICE-SUNY, BUFFALO TABLE 11 JOURNALS REQUESTED OVER TEN TIMES Sample B
Sample A Rank
Title
*British Medical Journal *Gastroenterology Journal of Endocrinology Scandinavian Journal of Clinical and Laboratory Investigation Southern Medical Journal Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Acta Neurologica Scandinavica Biochimica et Biophysica Acta Fertility and Sterility Journal of Nutrition Medical Journal of Australia Acta Endocrinologica Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications Transactions of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, and Oral Pathology Clinical Science Endocrinology Journal of Clinical Investigation Neurology Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine
1.
2. 3. 4.
5.
6. 7.
*
Title
Rank
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
16.
*New England Journal of Medicine *Lancet *American Journal of Psychiatry *British Medical Journal Archives of General Psychiatry *American Journal of Public Health *Journal of the American Medical Association American Journal of Nursing *Annals of Internal Medicine Journal of the American Geriatric Society American Journal of Surgery Diseases of the Nervous System *Annals of Surgery Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease Biochimica et Biophysica Acta Medical Journal of Australia *Science *American Heart Journal Archives of Surgery British Journal of Psychiatry *Hospitals Canadian Medical Association Journal *Cancer Geriatrics Gut Journal of Urology Southern Medical Journal Hospital and Community Psychiatry
These journals now appear on RML-Area II "restricted list."
tioner with no affiliation indicated. Approximately 35.7% of student requests came through universities other than SUNYAB. For Sample A, a majority claiming hospital 9. For Sample B, the largest percentage of requests (77%) was received from users through affiliation did not identify a profession and their hospital affiliation. The second largest utilization rates by professions could not be percentage (13.3%) was received through uni- analyzed (Table 10). 10. The percentage of requests increased proversity affiliation. The smallest percentage of requests was received from health depart- portionately with the bed size of the institution. It is notable that the number of requests rement personnel (0.5%). ceived from hospitals with 200 beds or more is of For Sample B, the largest percentage educators' requests (86.3%) was received over 50% greater than the number requested by through their university affiliation. The largest institutions with 200 beds or less. For Sample B, the largest number of requests percentage of health planners' requests (92.3%) was received through health planning agencies. from hospitals of all sizes were physician reThe largest percentage of dentists' requests quests and the next largest number were re(58.1%) was received from the individual practi- quests by nurses. ucator groups. Almost half of the requests from educators and researchers is for material less than one year old.
Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 63(3) July 1975
269
BROWN, MILLER, AND PINCHOFF
11. For both samples, 3% of the journal titles satisfied approximately 20% of the journal requests. These results compare favorably with the NLL findings in which 3.3% of the journal titles accounted for 21.5% of the loans [3]. For Sample B, 3.1% of the journal titles (29 of 940 titles) provided 23.7% of the total articles requested. The 911 remaining journal titles filled 76.3% of total article requests, 83.9% of which were requested one time. Only four journal titles were requested ten or more times by the participating libraries in both samples. The British Medical Journal was the most frequently requested title of Sample A and the third most frequently requested title for Sample B; the Medical Journal of Australia was fourth and fourteenth in frequency of requests for A and B, respectively; the Southern Medical Journal was second and sixteenth in frequency of requests; and the Biomedical and Biophysical Research Communications was fifth and thirteenth, respectively (Table 11). The differences in the two title lists reflect the adequacy of the journal holdings in the four major hospitals (Sample A). Table 11 suggests that the higher journal request rate for Sample B may be due to the limited holdings of the more frequently requested journals. Twelve of these titles frequently requested by Sample B institutions now appear on the RML-II restricted list of forty journals. According to the local union list of serials prepared by the IDS, Sample A hospitals subscribed to fourteen of the twenty-nine journals on the Sample B list. Both title lists will serve to promote collection development in the two types of institutional groupings. The two title lists and the RML-II restricted journal title lists should promote institutional cooperation, increase journal holdings, and ultimately lower the request rates for items currently in demand from the IDS. Both lists have been submitted for use in RML-II planning for a supplementary restricted journal list. The complete lists are being used to evaluate the Health Sciences Library, SUNYAB, as a regional biomedical resource library. SUMMARY
Analysis of two samples of user request forms substantiates findings of prior biomedical literature utilization studies. Journal requests ac-
270
counted for 90.4% of all requests; 60.4% of Sample A and 70.6% of Sample B journal requests were for material less than five years old. For both samples, the lowest fill rate wafor books less than one year old. Requests took longer to fill when material was over ten years old. The HSL-SUNYAB collection filled 89.2% of Sample A and 68.3% of Sample B requests in two working days. The eventual fill rate was 89.5% for Sample A and 97.1% for Sample B. For both samples, about 3% of the journal titles satisfied about 20% of the requests. For both samples, language of requests, in descending order, ranked English, German, French, and other. English requests accounted for 85.2% of Sample A and 83.5% of Sample B material. Index Medicus and SUNY or MEDLINE searches were the major sources of reference cited. For Sample B, 67.5% of all requests were from physicians and 83.4% of physician requests were received through their hospital affiliation. In Sample B, 77.0% of all requests were initiated through a hospital affiliation. Approximately 23.1%, 46.4%, and 43.1% of all requests from physicians, researchers, and educators, respectively, were for materials less than one year old. The analysis of utilization patterns of the Information Dissemination Service provides data comparable to other biomedical literature use studies in terms of user group, age of material, journal titles, language, time to fill request, source of reference, and size of institution. The findings support the universality of request patterns in the population of health care professionals. REFERENCES 1. HODGES, T. MARK, COLBY, CHARLES C., AND BLOOMQUIST, HAROLD. NERMLS: The first year. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 57: 329-337, Oct. 1969. 2. GOMES, STELLA S. The nature of the use and users
of the Midwest Regional Medical Library. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 58: 559-577, Oct. 1970. 3. WOOD, DAVID N., AND BOWER, CATHRYN A. Survey of medical literature borrowed from the National Lending Library for Science and Technology. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 57: 47-63, Jan. 1969. 4. STANGL, PETER, AND KILGOUR, FREDERICK G. Analysis of recorded biomedical book and journal use in Yale Medical Library. Parts I and II. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 55: 290-315, July 1967. 5. KOVACS, HELEN. Analysis of one year's circulation at the Downstate Medical Center Library. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 54: 42-47, Jan. 1966.
Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 63(3) July 1975
INFORMATION DISSEMINATION SERVICE-SUNY, BUFFALO 6. TIBBETTs, PAMELA. A method for estimating the in-house use of the periodical collection in the University of Minnesota Bio-Medical Library. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 62: 37-48, Jan. 1974. 7. OVERMAN, DOROTHY S., OVERMAN, RALPH T., AND
Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 63(3) July 1975
PALANK, ROBERT F. Regionalizing Hospital Library Resources and Services: Report MI-2. St. Louis, Bi-State Regional Medical Program, 1973.
271
