Graduate Program Review for Chemistry
March 5, 1999

Chemistry anticipated the trend we have seen in the other sciences. The expenditures on serials have taken an increasing percentage of the budget, while the cost of those serials has driven total expenditures up at a higher rate than the general budget. five years ago (1992/93), expenditures were:

Firm orders	$ 4,579
Approvals	6,732
Serials	181,138
TOTAL	$192,449

Serials expenditures already amounted to 94% of the total; now they are 96%. Total expenditures have risen 56% over the five years, more than twice the rate of the total Library budget. The smaller increase last year is due to the cancellation of some serial titles the previous year. Still the number of current subscriptions has grown from 231 to 267 since the last review.

According to the Collection Development Policy Statement for Chemistry, the desired coverage in all aspects of the discipline is RESEARCH. A RESEARCH level collection is one that includes the major source materials required for dissertation and independent research, including materials containing research reporting, new findings, scientific experimental results, and other information useful to researchers. It also includes all important reference works and a wide selection of specialized monographs, and an extensive collection of journals and major indexing/abstract services.

The Library has endeavored to achieve a RESEARCH level collection in most of the major areas.of interest to Chemistry. Emphasis is placed on experimental and theoretical applications of physical, inorganic, and organic chemistry.

The Library has added a networked Chemical Sciences abstracting & indexing tool, Chemical Abstracts Student Edition, which indexes 200 widely held chemistry journals. In the fall of 1998, we added access to the Beilstein Database, one of the more comprehensive sources in organic chemistry. Also, in 1998, the Science Citation Index has become widely available to library users through Web of Science. This will be very useful to the Chemical Sciences. Web of Science includes source material back through 1988. In addition, the library has gain electronic access to the full text of electronic journals published by the American Chemical Society.

Overall, there are few weaknesses in the Chemistry collection. In recent years, special care has been taken to select more in the area of developing technology, such as the application of lasers in Chemistry and Biochemistry. Any weakness in Chemistry is due, in part, to the dramatic increase in the cost of journal publications. Since the last review, the Library was forced to select (with help from the faculty) many titles to be cancelled. These were primarily titles that had faded in significance in the field. The Library continues to need the input of the faculty engaged in instruction and research to alert us to what we no longer need, and to inform us about what we should be acquiring.

Lori Jargo, Sciences Librarian
William S. Monroe, Head Collection Development

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