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LANL Research Library Newsletter September 1995
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DID YOU KNOW that the library has a free photocopy service? To find out more about it call 7-5809.
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See end of this Newsletter for publication and access information.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. FROM THE LIBRARY DIRECTOR: THE LIBRARY IN FY 1996
2. MED LIBRARY MOVES TO THE RESEARCH LIBRARY @ STUDY CENTER
3. STANDING ORDER REVIEW
4. THE ONLINE CATALOG GETS A FACELIFT
5. SEARCHING BY JOURNAL TITLE WORD: A NEW FEATURE
6. NEW JOURNAL DISPLAY
7. REDUCING SEARCH COSTS ON DIALOG
8. FINDING INFORMATION: THE INTERNET VERSUS THE LIBRARY
9. ANNOUNCEMENTS
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1. FROM THE LIBRARY DIRECTOR: THE LIBRARY IN FY 1996
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The Research Library will be significantly impacted by the FY '96 budget targets and the Workforce Productivity Initiative. We have been asked to make reductions of $970,000 based on the Research Library's FY 1995 budget of $7 million. Major cost components of the Library budget include: collection acquisitions, $2.3 million; staffing, $2.2 million; and $ 1 million for the space tax. To make decisions on the tough trade-offs involved in meeting these budget target, we discussed with the Library Advisory Board a variety of strategies to hit our target. We then identified core services which should be maintained during FY 1996:

JOURNAL SUBSCRIPTIONS - Consistently judged by our customers as one of the most important components of the Library, the journal collection will not be cut this year, although subscription prices will increase 16%. (FY '95 journal budget was $1,870,000). Although a few very expensive titles will be eliminated (e.g., FERROELECTRICS, at an annual cost of $11K), the total journal reductions will be less than 1%. The largest driver in the Library budget is the cost of acquiring journals and books. Scientific and technical journals are the most expensive category of publications to acquire; their cost continues to exceed the Consumer Price Index by a significant margin. The journal collection has been significantly reduced twice in the last 10 years; previous journal review panels felt that the cuts three years ago were going past the "fat" and into the bone.

LIBRARY WITHOUT WALLS INVESTMENTS WILL BE MAINTAINED. - We believe the ability to deliver digital information to our customers is a key long term capability. Consequently, this investment is vital to our future. For a look at where we are headed, check out http://lib-www.lanl.gov/walls/walls.htm

PRODUCTS FROM REFERENCE, THE REPORT COLLECTION AND COLLECTION SERVICES WILL BE MAINTAINED FOR RESEARCH LIBRARY CUSTOMERS.

The following library services reductions will be most severely impacted by the FY '96 budget cuts:

CUT THE BOOK ACQUISITIONS. - The book and standing orders ("Advances in...", "Progress in...") budget will be reduced by 33% ($112K) and we will eliminate a large number of selected print indexes and abstracts. We will rely on our CD-ROM network to provide access to key indexes and abstracts and use Laboratory staff feedback to determine core competency focus for the book collection. The total reduction equals $218K. [SEE item 3 below for a discussion of the Standing Order Review the Library will be conducting.]

REDUCE RESEARCH LIBRARY FTE's. - We will reduce our support staffing by 8 FTE's, which represents a 15.9% reduction in staffing.

CLOSE THE MEDICAL/BIOSCIENCE BRANCH LIBRARY. The Medical Branch will be journal collection in it will be moved to the Research Library in the Study Center. This activity consolidates all Research Library collections in one location which is more efficient to maintain. Duplicate journal titles will be eliminated. This action will save $ 35k in space tax and .2 FTE's for a total savings of $41K. [SEE item 2 next for more details.]

CLOSE THE TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE BRANCH LIBRARY. NIS-8 and NIS-9, which had been funding this branch library, requested this cutback as part of their reduction. Three FTE's will be transferred from CIC-14 to NIS to become vault custodians. Savings equal $57K and 1 FTE.

CONSOLIDATE RESEARCH AND CIRCULATION DESKS INTO ONE SERVICE POINT. - To accommodate the reduced staffing, we will work to combine two service points (Circulation and Research) into one. We will emphasize automated self-checkout and expect that some costs will be generated by the physical reconfiguration. Savings estimated at 1.25 FTE'S and $50K.

DEFER ELECTRICAL AND DATA WIRING BUILDINGS UPGRADES ON LOWER LEVEL. - This will defer Phase 3 of a seven-phase plan to modernize the Research Library within a decade. Phase 3 would wire (electrical and data) the downstairs to support modern technology and improve the electrical connections in other locations within the building. Savings equal $250K.

Here are answers to some questions we have been getting.

Q: WHY DID THE LIBRARY RECEIVE SUCH A LARGE CUT?
A: The Research Library receives its funding from the Laboratory General and Administrative (G&A) budget pool. As part of the productivity initiative, CIC's FY '96 G&A support will be reduced 25% below FY '95 levels. As a consequence, some services are being eliminated or reduced. CIC held the reduction in Library support to what we believe to be a manageable level. The preference would have been not to reduce the Library's budget at all, but with a zero- sum constraint, difficult choices had to be made.

Q: WHAT IS DRIVING THE COSTS SO HIGH FOR JOURNALS?
A: Subscriptions to foreign journals, 42.5% of the total journal budget, are expected to increase by 22% due to the devaluation of the dollar and increased paper costs. Domestic subscriptions and books are expected to increase by 11% due to inflation, rising cost of paper, and diminished consumption. Journals must be funded annually because continuing runs of individual journal issues are only available for a short period of time.

Q: DO WE NEED ALL THOSE EXPENSIVE JOURNALS?
A: The Research Library's journal subscriptions are periodically reviewed, and selection or retention decisions are made with input from our primary customers. More than 80 technical staff members representing all Laboratory core competencies participated in the last review, which was completed in June 1993. Their recommendation at that time was that no additional journals be cut from the Research Library's core list. In addition, other criteria such as usage statistics; where the journal is indexed; relative frequency of citations, etc., are applied to selection and retention decisions regarding our journal holdings.

In future months I hope to use this forum to communicate further how we are doing and how we are trying to mitigate the impact of the budget reductions.

RICK LUCE rick.luce@lanl.gov
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2. MED LIBRARY MOVES TO THE RESEARCH LIBRARY @ STUDY CENTER
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In late August the journal collection that had formerly been housed at the Life Sciences Medical Annex trailer and reading room was moved to the Research Library in the Study Center. These volumes can now be found in the compact shelving area of the lower level. The consolidation was one element of the Library's approach to absorbing a 17% budget cut for fiscal year 1996 (SEE item 1 above).

There were several reasons that justified this consolidation:
- We have been paying a $35,000/year space assessment to house a portion of the Research Library collection at the Life Sciences location.
- Maintaining this part of the collection at a distance has been inconvenient and costly for many customers. By having these journals at the Research Library we will be able to better maintain the volumes with more regular shelving, binding and security tagging to prevent loss.
- The Research Library location provides improved access to the journals; the Lab bioscience community has grown to include many groups not located at the Life Sciences building.
- The Research Library is centrally located and open 24 hours to badge holders. - Librarians will be available to assist researchers using the bioscience journals and databases during service hours.
- The Library's Document Delivery Team will provide copies for users (contact them electronically at , fax requests to 5-2948, call 7-4175).

DONNA BERG donna.berg@lanl.gov
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3. STANDING ORDER REVIEW
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Given the budget situation faced at the Laboratory, the Research Library has no choice but to make cuts in its collections. One on-going source of expenditures which will be evaluated are titles called "standing orders." These are publications for which a decision to purchase was made (typically) at the beginning of a series, and subsequent volumes are received on a regular basis. Examples of titles which fall into the standing order category are: the "ACS Advances in ..." and "Annual Reviews in ..." volumes. Altogether, the Research Library subscribes to approximately 325 standing order titles for the main (circulating) collection.

Because the library collections are shared by all Laboratory staff, the Research Library will solicit user input for the review of each title purchased as a standing order. Each title will be marked with a sheet of paper explaining the process and asking for signed user comments on the usefulness of the title. Users of a particular title are encouraged to participate in this process. The Research Library will also be convening panels of experts in physics, chemistry, engineering, the life sciences, and mathematics/computer science, to help with final decisions for retention or cancellation of each title. If you are interested in being on one of the expert panels, please call the Research Desk (7-5809) or send e-mail to ref@lanl.gov to volunteer. The review process will involve a commitment of a few hours per month throughout the fall, with the project commencing mid-September.

MARIE F. HARPER mharper@lanl.gov
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4. THE ONLINE CATALOG GETS A FACELIFT
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The Research Library's Online Catalog may look slightly different to you. The Online Catalog now offers several enhanced searching capabilities. For Boolean searching or crossing several terms or authors, use the search option COMBINE KEYWORDS. Two new search options are NOTES (N=) and JOURNAL TITLE (JT=). A NOTES search allows you to search abstracts or summaries included in the record; tables of contents of books; thesis notes; and publishers names. Please see the separate Newsletter article below (no. 5) for further details about JOURNAL TITLE searching.

Another new feature is the ability to limit to a location/collection in the library. These locations include Reference Books, Reference Indexes, Journals, Audio-Visual Materials, LIBNET (full-image/text journals available on the Research Library's databases), Main Books, and Reports. When you wish to limit a search by location/collection (LIBNET, Journals, REPT, REF, etc.), start at the main search menu and follow these steps:

Type "l" and press <ENTER>
Type "c" to change parameters and press <ENTER>
Type "??" while in the current qualification box and press <ENTER> to get a list of locations
Type the line number of the desired location you wish to limit to and press <ENTER>
Press <ENTER> until you reach the bottom of the screen that prompts you to "Resume Search" and press <ENTER>

At this point, perform your desired search but remember it is limited only to the location/collection you selected. To return to searching the whole catalog, type "W" to reset the limits from the Main Search Screen.

As users of the on-line catalog, we value your input. Please send us any comments or questions about the new search screen.

LOU PRAY lpray@lanl.gov
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5. SEARCHING BY JOURNAL TITLE WORD: A NEW FEATURE
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Searching the Research Library's on-line catalog by journal title is now available. If you are searching for a journal title or for a book in a series, use the (JT=title) search option instead of the (T=title) search. This search will eliminate the book titles from the search results. You will be able to identify the title you need faster and more efficiently.

For example, if you used the (T=title) search approach to look for the journal title SCIENCE, you would get the following search results.

             On-line Catalogue - Heading Browse

Browsing Titles: T=science



Title                                       Number of Titles



5.  Sci. watch                               (Title)       1

6.  Scieki przemyslowe. English              (Title)       1

7.  Science                                  (Title)       5

8.  Science                                  (Title)       5

9.  Science                                  (Title)       3

10. Science & discovery                      (Series)      1

11. Science & discovery [series]             (Series)      1

Browsing Journal Titles JT=science



4. SCI JCR[microform].

5. Science.

6. Science.

7. Science & engineering indicators.

8. Science & global security :the technical basis for arms 

control and environmental policy initiatives.