RICH IN RESOURCES DEFICIENT IN DOLLARS - WHICH TITLES DO REFERENCE DEPARTMENTS REALLY NEED

Statement of Purpose: Budget pressures, combined with the growing avai lability of resources, dictate careful examination of reference use. T wo studies were conducted at the University of Maryland Health Science s Library to examine this issue. A twelve-month reshelving study deter mined use by title and discipline; a simultaneous study analyzed print abstract and index use in an electronic environment. Methodology: Sta ff electronically recorded statistics for unshelved reference books, c oded the collection by discipline, and tracked use by school. Oral sur veys administered to reference room abstract and index users focused o n title usage, user demographics, and stated reason for use. Results: Sixty-five and a half percent of reference collection titles were used . Medical titles received the most use, but, in the context of collect ion size, dentistry and nursing titles used the greatest percentage of their collections. At an individual title level medical textbooks and drug handbooks were most used. Users of abstracts and indexes were pr imarily campus nursing and medical students who preferred print resour ces. Conclusion: The monograph data will guide reference expenditures in canceling little-used standing orders, expanding most-used portions of the collection, and analyzing underused sections. The abstract and index survey identified the following needs: targeting instruction, c ontacting faculty who assign print resources, increasing the number of computer workstations, and installing signs linking databases to prin t equivalents.