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SiMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
MEMORANDUM
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To
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Sublscs...
Senate. Library. Committee
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Report 1982-1983
From. . .
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Senate..Librar.y..comiijttee
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Date..
..Octobe.r..2.O,..19.83, .......................
At its meeting of October 17th the Senate Library
Committee received the attached report, The W. A. C.
Bennett Library: 1982-1983
,
from the University Librarian.
After some discussion the Committee endorsed the
report and agreed that it should, along with a few comments
which are contained in this memo, constitute the annual. -
report of the Senate Library Committee for 1982-1983.
RECON (Retrospective Conversion of Library Records)
The University Librarian informed the Committee that
after his report was written he learned that the funding
was no longer available from the Government to support
Recon and that five of the
six
positions currently devoted
to this activity are being eliminated. The Committee
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expressed its regret and its hope that the project might?
be revitalized when more funds are available.
Re-shelving Backfiles
Paul Percival stated that the re-shelving of all bound
periodical backfiles in one alphabetical sequence was counter-
productive for the sciences. This view was balanced by the
opinion expressed by Marilyne Bowman who found the new arrange-
ment very helpful due to the interdisciplinary nature of much
research in psychology.
Collection of Outstanding Fines
The Committee expressed its long-standing concern about
the apparent uncollectability of some library fines and
discussed various possible remedies. However, after learning
from the University Librarian that the Finance Office has
appointed a Committee to investigate the problem on a Univer-
sity-wide level, it was agreed that no further action would
be appropriate at this time.
There were no caveats expressed regarding the rest of
the attached report which I submit herewith to Senate for
its information.
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attachment
THE W.A.C. BENNETT LIBRARY: 1982-1983
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A Report
:tà.
the Senate Library Committee
by
The University Librarian
I.
General
The academic year 1982-83 was an extremely active one for
the Library. I believe that we met the demands of increased
enrollment without any diminuation of service and that, on the
whole, in spite of fiscal and spacial constraints we were able to
enhance our level of service to the community.
The primary thrust of our current activities has been to
plan and implement procedures which will enable us to maintain
services at their present level or to make improvements where
necessary while living within the stringent monetary and physical
conditions which we can expect to prevail in the immediate future.
To this end we have articulated a collections development policy
which emphasizes use of the secondary collection, begun to plan
specific developments required for the implementation of a "steady-
space" library, and continued to expand our commitment to the new
technological advances in bibliographic control. The extent to
which we can maintain this momentum during the next few years will
provide a measure of
.
the efficacy of these plans.
II.
Recent Activities of Note
A. Amalgamation
The amalgamation of reference services for the Humanities and the
Social Sciences enabled us to increase hours of reference service,
expand the number of Librarians on reference duty during peak
hours, and compensate for the loss of two Sessional Librarians
without hiring any extra staff.
B.
On Demand. Cataloguing
Since it seems apparent that a cataloguing backlog will be
an inescapable-fact of life for some time, we introduced the
On Demand Cataloguing procedure to mitigate its effect on
individual users with specific requirements.
By organizing our procedures in such a way as to move specifically
requested titles from the backlog to the head of the non-rush
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queue we have, at no discernable cost, provided a defacto
elimination of the backlog for those individuals with precise,
identifiable needs.
.
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C. Questionnaires
During this period we issued several questionnaires designed
We
to
surveyed
help us understand
faculty members
how we
and
are
graduate
viewed by
students
our constituency.with
respect
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to their usage of other libraries and found that some 80% used
other
activities.
libraries regularly for their research and
instructional
More general questionnaires were issued on the services offered
by the reserves unit, in the periodical reading room and on the
level of general satisfaction with library services.
While none of the results have been unexpected they have helped
us shape our service policies.
D.
Meetings with Library Representatives
This year I revived an earlier custom of periodical meetings
with groups of Library Representatives. The meetings were
designed to provide a forum for both Librarians and Representa-
tives and, I believe have been successful -- at least for the
Librarians.
E.
BCLN (British Columbia Library Network)
We continued our efforts to implement new acquisitions and
cataloguing procedures through the establishment of BCLN and
the acquisition BLIS software. If successful, we will take
a long step toward the eventual creation of an
on-line
public
access catalogue. Testing of the BLIS software will take place
during 1983/84.
F. Re-shelving Backfiles
After years of complaints over 6th floor shelving patterns we
were able, through work-study grants for student shelvers to shelve
all bound periodical backfiles in one alphabetical sequence.
G.
Recon (Retrospective Conversion of Library Records)
We have received government
funding
for
six
years
and
we have
now
converted two thirds of all our bibliographic records to an
electronic format. At the present rate we will complete the
creation of this data base in about three years and the creation
of an on-line public access catalogue will become a feasible
goal.
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III. Major Concerns for the Coming Year'
SDuring the 1983/84 fiscal year we hope to maintain the momentum
established in 1982/83 and to emphasize the following activities:
1)
Continue planning ways to make most effective use of
space allocated to the Library.
2)
To experiment with an "open door" policy on the Periodical
Reading Room during the Fall semester.
3)
Continue to work on the establishment of BCLN and the
implementation of new acquisitions and cataloguing
systems.
4)
Re-organize our services and support functions for
Government Publications.
5)
Continue to analyze the appropriateness of our collection
in terms of the curriculum and research requirements of
the University community.
6)
To encourage a more equitable use of Library seating and
to discourage useof the Library as an adjunct cafeteria.
is
7) To develop a plan for a data tape library.
Selected Statistics
1972/73
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1977/78 ?
1982/83
Total Circulation
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378,994
Reference questions
?
52,190-
Current Serials
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11,846 ?
Bound Letterpress Collection 391,350
Microform Collection ?
237,156
Letterpress Volumes added
to collection ?
50,895
Permanent staff (FTE) ?
144 ?
()
407,462
485,813
72,027(1)
67,863
• 13,527
13,570
540,031
784,577
696,283
767,825
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39,918 ?
27,377
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129 ?
131
(1)
In September, 1977 the Library closAd the Card Catalogue
and instituted the new microcatalogtle, causing a large,
temporary increase in reference infOrmation desk questions.
(2)
A decline of 24 positions from the 1970/71
high of
168.
ST/dab
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