BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS
the actual use of a particular book to be small, that title normally is not added to the core list even though it might appear on all the standard lists. The entire core list is revised and updated annually. Individual superseded editions, however, are replaced automatically by the new editions at the time they are received. This paper does not purport to present the definitive core collection for biomedical libraries, and will not publish its own selection here. Rather, this paper is intended as an exposition of how such a collection is handled and utilized in this particular library. Similar collections in other institutions, having different demands on their resources and services, will require correspondingly different orientations. What we are presenting in this paper is a concept, a pragmatic concept that has worked, and worked very well for us. We hope it will prove useful for others. REFERENCES 1. STEARNS, NORMAN S., AND RATCLIFF, WENDY W. An integrated health-science core library for physicians, nurses and allied health practitioners in community hospitals. N. Engl. J. Med. 283: 1489-1498, Dec. 31, 1970. 2. BRANDON, ALFRED N. Selected list of books and
journals for the small medical library. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 65: 191-215, Apr. 1977. 3. INKE, GABOR. A list of most frequently recommended medical textbooks. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 59: 589-598, Oct. 1971. 4. WEST, KELLY M.; WENDER, RUTH W.; AND MAY, RUBY S. Books in clinical practice 1971-1975; a
selected and annotated list for medical practitioners, indexed by subject and author. Postgrad. Med. 56 (7): 60-81, Dec. 1974.
The Mount Sinai Medical Center Library User Survey BY JANE S. PORT, Associate Librarian for Public Services Gustave L. and Janet W. Levy Library Mount Sinai Medical Center New York, New York
THE Gustave L. and Janet W. Levy Library at the Mount Sinai Medical Center of New York is a research resource for faculty, students, and staff of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Mount Sinai Hospital, its affiliated hospitals, and the other units in the City University of New York Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 65(2)April 1977
(CUNY). The library is located in close proximity to several other medical schools and hospitals in New York City, and to the New York Academy of Medicine Library, which is open to the public. The Levy Library has been in its present location since July 1974. Most of the collection is readily accessible in open stacks, and the facility has been praised by users for its comfortable study and public spaces. During the academic year the library is open and staffed 97.5 hours per week, including evenings and weekends. Reference librarians are on duty Monday to Friday from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. and Saturday until 2:00 P.M. Anticipated budget cuts recently impelled the library administration to evaluate scheduling and staffing patterns in order to maximize staff during periods most suited to our primary users. We decided to find out which user groups were in the library at various periods throughout the week, and whether nonaffiliated individuals were using the collection or services to the detriment of our primary users. METHOD
The library staff involved in the survey met to discuss its purpose and method, and to prepare for anticipated problems. In order to allow for changes in use patterns due to examinations, holiday schedules, and other seasonal variations, four sample weeks between February and July 1976 were selected. In a series of brief interviews with library users during scheduled sampling periods, the staff collected and recorded the data sought. During the sample weeks, staff members interviewed every individual in the library at the following times: Monday to Friday: 10 A.M., 2 P.M., 10 P.M. Saturday: 11 A.M., 2 P.M., 8 P.M. Sunday: 2 P.M., 8 P.M. Staff explained the purpose of the survey and asked users to provide the following information: Primary affiliation: Mount Sinai CUNY Affiliated hospital Other Position: Student House staff Faculty/attending physician Other Mount Sinai employee Other 289
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS TABLE I RESULTS OF SURVEY % of users
P
affiliation Mount Sinai CUNY Affiliated hospital Other
78.5 14.4 2.5 4.6
Student House staff
Primary
% of users
Faculty/attending physician Other Mount Sinai employee Other
60.7 15.6 10.5 9.8 3.5
Materials in use Own
Library's Both Neither
% of users
30.8 46.6 21.5 1.1
Materials in use:
comparison with similar reports from other health Own sciences libraries and for planning staffing, Library's scheduling, and service patterns. A more detailed Both analysis of user activity according to group and time period would be desirable but was beyond the Neither Each interview lasted approximately one scope of this investigation. minute. Library users cooperated fully. Many REFERENCE were interviewed on a number of occasions, sometimes more than once on the same day. 1. DAVis, B. B. User needs: the key to changing library services and policies. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 63: 195-198, Apr. 1975. RESULTS The following results represent data collected during five survey weeks, the four in the original A Citation Analysis of the Bulletin of sample and the first week of our subsequent ongo- the Medical Library Association ing analysis. In comparing data on a week-byweek basis, a consistent pattern emerged. The BY CHING-CHIH CHEN, PH.D., results of 3,381 interviews appear in Table 1. Associate Professor Of the students in the sample, 30% were School of Librarv Science present in the evenings, 35% during the weekends. Simnmons College Of the house staff in the sample, 22% were present Boston, Massachusetts in the evenings, 21% during the weekends. Of the faculty/attending physicians, 17% were present in A SYSTEMATIC study of all the articles published in the 1966-1975 Bulletin of the Medical the evenings, 18% during the weekends. The results indicate that user distribution by Library Association, together with citations position is similar to that reported by Davis [1]. contained in their bibliographies, was conducted in This survey confirmed that the Levy Library's 1976. The preliminary results were presented at users are predominantly from the primary popula- the Poster Session at the Seventy-fifth Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association in tion to which we attempt to direct services. At the present time budgetary constraints have Minneapolis [1], and the detailed results and disnot forced us to reduce the hours of library opera- cussion of methodology have been presented as tion. Survey data were utilized in scheduling Part I of the author's recent Sourcebook on abridged summer hours. Because the results Health Sciences Librarianship, published by demonstrated substantial use during evening and Scarecrow Press [2]. Because BMLA is generally weekend hours, we were able to respond to user considered the definitive journal in the health demand for extended hours during those periods. sciences library field, a summary of the study is Revised scheduling for the academic year was also presented here for the readers' general interest. based on the data collected. We plan to repeat this SUBJECT COVERAGE survey every ten weeks throughout the year to detect changing patterns of use resulting from It was found that during the ten-year period, seasonal variation or changes in other local library BMLA published a total of 403 articles, the policies and schedules. number ranging from thirty-one in 1966 to fortyThe results presented here may be useful for nine in 1971. The broad subject areas covered in
290
Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 65(2)April 1977
the actual use of a particular book to be small, that title normally is not added to the core list even though it might appear on all the standard lists. The entire core list is revised and updated annually. Individual superseded editions, however, are replaced automatically by the new editions at the time they are received. This paper does not purport to present the definitive core collection for biomedical libraries, and will not publish its own selection here. Rather, this paper is intended as an exposition of how such a collection is handled and utilized in this particular library. Similar collections in other institutions, having different demands on their resources and services, will require correspondingly different orientations. What we are presenting in this paper is a concept, a pragmatic concept that has worked, and worked very well for us. We hope it will prove useful for others. REFERENCES 1. STEARNS, NORMAN S., AND RATCLIFF, WENDY W. An integrated health-science core library for physicians, nurses and allied health practitioners in community hospitals. N. Engl. J. Med. 283: 1489-1498, Dec. 31, 1970. 2. BRANDON, ALFRED N. Selected list of books and
journals for the small medical library. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 65: 191-215, Apr. 1977. 3. INKE, GABOR. A list of most frequently recommended medical textbooks. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 59: 589-598, Oct. 1971. 4. WEST, KELLY M.; WENDER, RUTH W.; AND MAY, RUBY S. Books in clinical practice 1971-1975; a
selected and annotated list for medical practitioners, indexed by subject and author. Postgrad. Med. 56 (7): 60-81, Dec. 1974.
The Mount Sinai Medical Center Library User Survey BY JANE S. PORT, Associate Librarian for Public Services Gustave L. and Janet W. Levy Library Mount Sinai Medical Center New York, New York
THE Gustave L. and Janet W. Levy Library at the Mount Sinai Medical Center of New York is a research resource for faculty, students, and staff of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Mount Sinai Hospital, its affiliated hospitals, and the other units in the City University of New York Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 65(2)April 1977
(CUNY). The library is located in close proximity to several other medical schools and hospitals in New York City, and to the New York Academy of Medicine Library, which is open to the public. The Levy Library has been in its present location since July 1974. Most of the collection is readily accessible in open stacks, and the facility has been praised by users for its comfortable study and public spaces. During the academic year the library is open and staffed 97.5 hours per week, including evenings and weekends. Reference librarians are on duty Monday to Friday from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. and Saturday until 2:00 P.M. Anticipated budget cuts recently impelled the library administration to evaluate scheduling and staffing patterns in order to maximize staff during periods most suited to our primary users. We decided to find out which user groups were in the library at various periods throughout the week, and whether nonaffiliated individuals were using the collection or services to the detriment of our primary users. METHOD
The library staff involved in the survey met to discuss its purpose and method, and to prepare for anticipated problems. In order to allow for changes in use patterns due to examinations, holiday schedules, and other seasonal variations, four sample weeks between February and July 1976 were selected. In a series of brief interviews with library users during scheduled sampling periods, the staff collected and recorded the data sought. During the sample weeks, staff members interviewed every individual in the library at the following times: Monday to Friday: 10 A.M., 2 P.M., 10 P.M. Saturday: 11 A.M., 2 P.M., 8 P.M. Sunday: 2 P.M., 8 P.M. Staff explained the purpose of the survey and asked users to provide the following information: Primary affiliation: Mount Sinai CUNY Affiliated hospital Other Position: Student House staff Faculty/attending physician Other Mount Sinai employee Other 289
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS TABLE I RESULTS OF SURVEY % of users
P
affiliation Mount Sinai CUNY Affiliated hospital Other
78.5 14.4 2.5 4.6
Student House staff
Primary
% of users
Faculty/attending physician Other Mount Sinai employee Other
60.7 15.6 10.5 9.8 3.5
Materials in use Own
Library's Both Neither
% of users
30.8 46.6 21.5 1.1
Materials in use:
comparison with similar reports from other health Own sciences libraries and for planning staffing, Library's scheduling, and service patterns. A more detailed Both analysis of user activity according to group and time period would be desirable but was beyond the Neither Each interview lasted approximately one scope of this investigation. minute. Library users cooperated fully. Many REFERENCE were interviewed on a number of occasions, sometimes more than once on the same day. 1. DAVis, B. B. User needs: the key to changing library services and policies. Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 63: 195-198, Apr. 1975. RESULTS The following results represent data collected during five survey weeks, the four in the original A Citation Analysis of the Bulletin of sample and the first week of our subsequent ongo- the Medical Library Association ing analysis. In comparing data on a week-byweek basis, a consistent pattern emerged. The BY CHING-CHIH CHEN, PH.D., results of 3,381 interviews appear in Table 1. Associate Professor Of the students in the sample, 30% were School of Librarv Science present in the evenings, 35% during the weekends. Simnmons College Of the house staff in the sample, 22% were present Boston, Massachusetts in the evenings, 21% during the weekends. Of the faculty/attending physicians, 17% were present in A SYSTEMATIC study of all the articles published in the 1966-1975 Bulletin of the Medical the evenings, 18% during the weekends. The results indicate that user distribution by Library Association, together with citations position is similar to that reported by Davis [1]. contained in their bibliographies, was conducted in This survey confirmed that the Levy Library's 1976. The preliminary results were presented at users are predominantly from the primary popula- the Poster Session at the Seventy-fifth Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association in tion to which we attempt to direct services. At the present time budgetary constraints have Minneapolis [1], and the detailed results and disnot forced us to reduce the hours of library opera- cussion of methodology have been presented as tion. Survey data were utilized in scheduling Part I of the author's recent Sourcebook on abridged summer hours. Because the results Health Sciences Librarianship, published by demonstrated substantial use during evening and Scarecrow Press [2]. Because BMLA is generally weekend hours, we were able to respond to user considered the definitive journal in the health demand for extended hours during those periods. sciences library field, a summary of the study is Revised scheduling for the academic year was also presented here for the readers' general interest. based on the data collected. We plan to repeat this SUBJECT COVERAGE survey every ten weeks throughout the year to detect changing patterns of use resulting from It was found that during the ten-year period, seasonal variation or changes in other local library BMLA published a total of 403 articles, the policies and schedules. number ranging from thirty-one in 1966 to fortyThe results presented here may be useful for nine in 1971. The broad subject areas covered in
290
Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 65(2)April 1977
