Developing and Managing the Brown University Library Collections
Academic Cluster Review Process:  Library Support Statements

Library Support for Physical Sciences
September 28, 1999

The Sciences Library at Brown University maintains core collections in support of the teaching and research programs in the physical sciences, including: Chemistry, Environmental Sciences, Geology, Engineering, Physics, Mathematics and Applied Mathematics. Recognizing its critical role as a resource to these departments, the Library attempts to acquire materials that create RESEARCH level collections that will prove beneficial to the research and study needs of the faculty and students within these departments. This commitment to maintaining a RESEARCH level collection is outlined in the Library's Collection Development Policy Statement. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of these fields, direct support for one leads to additional support for the others.

Support for these disciplines is provided in two primary ways, provision of resources in the form of print and electronic materials and provision of services. The Library expends a growing proportion of the its $4.8 million materials budget to support these fields. The table below shows expenditures for each program for the past three years, as well as five years ago, and the increase over the five-year period:.

PROGRAM	1993/94	1996/97	1997/98	1998/99	5-YEAR CHANGE
Applied Math	$87,978	$115,433	$111,676	$113,394	28.9%
Chemistry	$197,377	$286,398	$291,833	$346,188	75.4%
Engineering	$154,379	$218,462	$239,222	$262,216	69.9%
Environmental Science	$8,190	$13,518	$14,417	$12,242	49.5%
Geology	$102,824	$141,159	$134,188	$135,032	31.3%
Mathematics	$85,536	$101,417	$109,183	$108,610	27.0%
Physics	$219,651	$281,878	$284,437	$289,967	32.0%
TOTAL	$855,935	$1,158,265	$1,184,956	$1,267,649	48.1%

The support of these programs has grown at a much greater rate than the total library materials budget, which increased by 18.4% over the same 5-year period. As a result, this support takes a greater percentage of the total budget. In 1993/94, it comprised 21% of the total expenditures, and was 26% in 1998/99. This growth has been almost entirely due to the increase in the price of serials, which comprise almost all of the expenditures in these fields. In fact, the decreases in expenditures for some of the fields in 1997/98 are due to a concerted effort to cancel many serial titles in the previous year. The smaller increase we see for 1998/99 is probably due to the growing strength of the dollar during that period, which affects the prices of journals coming from foreign publishers. The cost of this increase, then, has been borne mainly by shifting funds from the humanities and social sciences into the sciences. In the coming years, without a greater increase in the Library’s base materials budget, we will need to cancel a great number of serials to avoid any further drain on these other fields.

Every month, more and more journals are being provided electronically, typically via the World Wide Web. We currently about 215 such titles published within these fields. Although the availability of the journal literature electronically improves access to these materials, electronic access has not alleviated the problem of the rising costs. Pricing and licensing arrangements for electronic resources can vary greatly. At this moment, some publishers make electronic versions of their journals available for no added cost, if we subscribe to the print version. Others, however, add as much as 25% above the print cost. Brown now provides electronic versions of all the journals of several scholarly societies, including the American Chemical Society and the Institute of Physics.

The expenditures above , of course, reflect the purchase a large number of titles in support of specific programs. We do not yet have the complete figures for 1998/99, but the number of current serial subscriptions for these fields in the previous year (1997/98) was:

Applied Math	182
Chemistry	267
Engineering	497
Environmental Science	29
Geology	380
Mathematics	318
Physics	318
TOTAL	1991

Monographs are another very important component of a research collection, and our monographic collections have suffered as a result of the rising cost of serials. In fact, a survey of faculty opinions about our collections revealed that most of the sciences faculty are quite satisfied with the serials holdings, but many feel that the book collections are weak. In the Library, we feel that we are still maintaining research level collections, and that serials simply provide the great bulk of material used in the sciences. However, some fields, especially Mathematics, still publish a significant body of monographic literature. Our expenditures reflect this: last year we spent $2,824 for books in chemistry, but $10,048 in math and $20,336 in Engineering. It should also be noted that some of the titles we count as serials are actually monographic series.

It is difficult to estimate the total number of holdings supporting the specific programs, because many of the titles are used by more than one of them. Using the Library of Congress classification system, however, we can estimate that we hold more than 120,000 titles (including both books and serials) supporting the physical sciences. Some attempt at a more specific breakdown follows:

Program	Titles
Applied Mathematics	4,000 (in addition to titles supporting Math)
Chemistry	12,000
Engineering	32,000
Environmental Science	(Impossible to estimate, as these are in so many classifications)
Geology	13,000
Mathematics	36,000
Physics	23,000

In addition to these resources, there are a number of bibliographic databases that directly support these fields. Dissertation Abstracts, Science Citation Index (Web of Science), and General Science Abstracts are interdisciplinary in nature and provide research level support for all of the disciplines. Other bibliographic databases that are more subject specific are also available. EI Compendex Plus is the core database in the field of engineering. EI Village, although not a database, supports engineering by providing access to technical and industrial information and news. Mathematics and Applied Mathematics are both supported by MathSciNet, the leading index to mathematics related research. We have recently subscribed to both Beilstein and SciFinder Scholar (Chemical Abstracts) in online form to support chemistry research. All of these resources, as well as some for Computer Science and Bio-Medicine serve to meet some dimension of each of the disciplines.

All of these resources also serve to meet the needs of the research centers found within, and dually supported by, multiple departments. The Center for Fluid Mechanics, the Lefschetz Center for Dynamical Systems, and the Center for Advanced Materials Research benefit from the research level collections in engineering, physics, applied mathematics and pure mathematics. Although we have no specifically allocated support for these centers, we do collect more heavily in these areas of research, and support that collecting under the aegis of the overarching departments. Aspects of fluid mechanics, for example, are collected under the rubrics of Engineering, Applied Math, and Physics.

The provision of materials in itself is an ongoing service provided by the Library. As the nature of information changes, this service will evolve to ensure the availability of core research materials. In addition to this service, the Library also provides other services including document delivery services, reference services, and instructional services. In order to maximize the value of these services, the Library has librarian specialists assigned to each program. There are two such librarians for the physical sciences: Lori Jargo, who covers Chemistry, Environmental Science, and Geology; and Mark Shelton, who covers Applied Math, Engineering, Math, and Physics. The Library recognizes the importance of supporting these departments with staff who understand and are capable of meeting the needs of the faculty, staff and students within each department. We are fortunate to have two such knowledgeable and experienced librarians. They can be reached at:

Lori_Jargo@brown.edu (phone: 863-2363)
Mark_Shelton@brown.edu (phone: 863-2363)

Notes on specific programs:

Applied Math

Support for Applied Math is difficult to characterize, as the interests of the faculty range so widely. We certainly collect very strongly for the mathematical aspects of the field, but it is very important for the faculty and graduate students in this program to let us know their needs when they cross over disciplinary boundaries, as they almost always do.

Chemistry

Brown has vigorous programs in organic, inorganic, physical, and bio-chemistry as well as in related areas. Within the broad field of organic chemistry, there are research groups pursuing the total synthesis and the biosynthesis of natural products, the development of new synthetic methodology, the application and mechanisms of organometallic reactions, the intricacies of biochemical reaction mechanisms, and the dynamics of photochemical and free radical reactions. The research in inorganic and physical-inorganic chemistry spans the gamut from inorganic glasses, bioinorganic polymers and metalloenzyme models to work with multimetallic molecules, electrochemistry, and models for hydrodesulfurization. Research in biochemistry includes studies of enzyme mechanisms; the relationship between DNA sequence, conformation, and biological properties; the insertion of non-natural amino acids into proteins; and the in vivo NMR of biological tissues, organs, and organisms. Finally, physical chemistry and chemical physics are represented by theoretical and experimental programs focusing on surfaces, clusters, and liquids as well as on the development of state-of-the-art spectroscopic and ultrafast-electron-diffraction techniques.

The cost of supporting Chemistry has risen at a greater rate than that of any other program, an increase that is due chiefly to the high cost of serials. Last year, expenditures for Chemistry were 7.1% of all the Library’s expenditures for materials. In 1993/94, they were 4.8% of all expenditures.

Engineering

The Library has concentrated its efforts particularly on the four emphases of the Division: Electrical Sciences; Fluid Mechanics, Thermodynamics, and Chemical Processes; Materials Science; and the Mechanics of Solids and Structures, as well as the joint programs with the Division of Applied Mathematics and the Division of Biomedical Sciences.

As we can see from the table above, expenditures for Engineering have risen at a greater rate than any other program except for Chemistry. Again, this is mainly due to the cost of serials, which have risen from 74% of all expenditures in Engineering to 84%. Expenditures for Engineering were 5.4% of total materials expenditures for the Library last year. In 1993/94, they were 3.7% of all expenditures.

Environmental Studies

The emphasis of the Center for Environmental Studies is to support undergraduate and graduate instruction and research in the issues and problems of the natural and human environment. Primary emphasis is in 20th century English language materials. Geographical focus is on the US with particular interest in Rhode Island and New England. In recent years, the Library made great strides in offering patrons access to an increasing number of non-print electronic resources such as: Environment Library on CD. Environmental Periodicals Bibliography, General Science Abstracts, PAIS International, and Web of Science.

Because of the interdisciplinary nature of Environmental Studies, additional library materials in the collections of Geological Sciences, Anthropology, Chemistry, Economics, Sociology, Urban Studies, and Community health help support the curriculum.

In addition to these, a great many Environmental Studies resources may be found on the internet via the world wide web.

Geological Sciences

The instructional and research emphasis of the Geological Sciences Department includes the traditional study of mineralogy, petrology, structural geology, geochemistry and geophysics, as well as oceanography, hydrology, mining engineering, and planetary geology. Library support for these interests is found in a core collection of monographs numbering approximately 13,000. The library subscribes to 650 serials. In recent years, the library has begun to offer patrons access to an increasing number of non-print electronic resources. These include GeoRef from SilverPlatter, Web of Science, and General Science Abstracts as well as full text electronic journals from publishers such as Springer-Verlag and the USGS. The Geological Sciences Department benefits from the library's subscriptions to electronic journals from the Institute of Physics and from the American Chemical Society. The library also provides access to various Geological Sciences resources to be found on the Internet via World Wide Web. Brown's Geological Sciences collections also support the interests of Engineering, Environmental Studies, Physics, and Astronomy.

Brown also holds some of the fundamental works in the history of geology, which reside in the John Hay Library. Included in that collection are the works of some of the earliest and most important writers in the field, including Georg Bauer, Nicolaus Steno, and James Hutton.

The Geologists have been very aware of the problems of rising serial costs, and were very conscientious in working with the Library to cut some serials in 1996/97. These cuts are reflected in the expenditures for 1997/98, which actually declined significantly for Geology.

Mathematics

The Library collections for Mathematics are among its greatest strengths. In addition to the more than 33,000 titles in the Sciences Library, which directly support the research and curriculum, we hold much more material on the history of mathematics, in support of Brown’s unique program in that field. These holdings include the Lownes Collection of more than 1000 rare books and mathematical journals, in the John Hay Library. Mathematics differs from some of these other fields in its use of a larger body of older published work, and the Library makes a concerted effort to collect this kind of material.

Physics

The Library is attempts to collect at a RESEARCH level in all the areas of interest to the program in Physics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, some areas of Mathematical Physics, Fluid Dynamics/Hydro-dynamics, Atomic/Molecular Physics, Acoustics, Heat, Optics/Light, Electricity/Magnetism, and High Energy/Particle Physics. In recent years, we have put more effort into enlarging the collections in Astrophysics, Cosmology and High Energy/Particle Physics.

Lori_Jargo@brown.edu (phone: 863-2363)
Mark_Shelton@brown.edu (phone: 863-2363)
William S. Monroe, Head, Collection Development 

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