General

A 12-month study in 1977-78 of online bibliographic literature searching of MINET (Kansas City Libraries Metropolitan Information Network, which includes 4 public libraries, 3 medical libraries, and 1 academic medical library), involving 403 paid search sessions and searches of 544 files or data bases, showed thatthe 4 most used data bases were ERIC with 181 (33.1%) searches, PSYCHOLOGICAL ABSTRACTS with 77 (14.1%) searches, SOCIAL SCISEARCH with 51 (9.3%) searches, and MEDLARS/MEDLINE with 32 (5.8%) searches.                       (Source)

         Ibid…. showed that, of the 544 data bases searched, the vendors most used were Lockheed, 296 uses of its files (54.3% of total data base use); BRS, 182 uses of its files (33.5% of total data base use); and National Library of Medicine, 34 uses (6.2% of total data base use).               (Source)

 A survey reported in 1983 of librarians/information specialists at 2 Philadelphia area online users meetings and at the SLA annual conference in Detroit (sample size: 300; responding: 80) showed thatthe 3 top-ranked online vendors out of 7 were (in order of descending importance): (1) DIALOG, (2) BRS, and (3) SDC.                   (Source)

         Ibid…. showed that 77.2% of the respondents reported that they used DIALOG frequently; 32.9% reported they used BRS frequently; and 13.9% reported they used SDC frequently. There was a statistically significant correlation between the number of respondents reporting frequent use of a data base and the overall ranking of that vendor, i.e., the greater the number of frequent users of a vendor the higher the vendor’s ranking (significant at the .05 level).               (Source)

 Academic

 A 1975-76 study at the University of Utah Marriott Library of online bibliographic data base searching showed thatthe number of searches and average length per search were as follows:

                 CHEMICAL ABSTRACTS CONDENSATES (254 searches averaging 7.47 minutes each)

                 ERIC (341 searches averaging 14.03 minutes each)

                 NTIS (120 searches averaging 6.30 minutes each)

                 PSYCHOLOGY ABSTRACTS (227 searches averaging 11.45minutes each)

                 other (447 searches averaging 6.58 minutes each)                        (Source)

 A survey reported in 1976 of 10 academic and public libraries using the New York Times Information Bank showed thatthe areas in which the most requests for information were made were politics (9 libraries), news reports (7 libraries), and biography (6 libraries).             (Source)

 A 1978 survey of major biomedical libraries (primarily those serving accredited medical schools) (survey size: 120 libraries; responding: 88 or 73%) showed thatrespondents reported access to the following vendors of bibliographic data bases:

                National Library of Medicine (MEDLINE, et al.)                  85 (97%) libraries

                Bibliographic Retrieval Service                                             52 (59%) libraries

                Lockheed                                                                            50 (57%) libraries

                Systems Development Corporation                                      44 (50%) libraries                   (Source)

 A 1979 survey of libraries in accredited North American veterinary schools (population: 25 libraries; responding: 23 or 92%) showed thatall respondents reported that online search services were available. 10 (43.5%) libraries reported they had their own terminals; 22 (95.7%) reported direct or indirect access to the National Library of Medicine databases; and 19 (82.6%) reported access to Lockheed or Systems Development Corporation data bases.                        (Source)

 A 1979 survey of library automation in post-secondary educational institutions in Canada (survey size: 423 libraries; responding: 283 or 67%) showed thatthe 5 most frequently identified online data bases (out of 53) listed as “among the five most searched” were [no total number of respondents given]:

                ERIC                                                                  43 respondents

                PSYCHOLOGY ABSTRACTS                         41 respondents

                BIOSIS                                                              36 respondents

                MEDLINE                                                         23 respondents

                SOCIAL SCIENCE CITATION INDEX          22 respondents                   (Source)

         Ibid…. showed thatthe 4 search services most frequently used (out of 12) based on data base searches conducted were [no total number of respondents given]:

                 LRS DIALOG                            165 respondents

                CAN/OLE                                    32 respondents

                INFOMART/SDC ORBIT            32 respondents

                BRS                                               31 respondents               (Source)

A 1981 survey of U.S. depository libraries, both academic and public (sample size: 221; responding: 171 or 77%), concerning their use of online data bases (DIALOG, ORBIT, and BRS), particularly with regard to government documents showed thatthe 2 online government document data bases most frequently searched by academic depository librarians were ERIC (average of 1 search per month) and MONTHLY CATALOG (average of .6 of a search per month), while the government document data bases most frequently searched by public depository librarians were CIS/INDEX (average of .3 of a search per month) and AMERICAN STATISTICS INDEX (average of .3 of a search per month).                        (Source)

 Public

 A 1975 study of online searches provided free of charge in the DIALOG data bases over a 3-month period in 4 San Franscisco Bay Area public libraries (411 usable requests; 429 searches undertaken, including some duplicates) showed thatthe top 3 data bases searched were: NTIS, 168 searches or 17.84% of the total number of searches; PSYCHOLOGY ABSTRACTS, 155 searches or 16.57% of the total; and ERIC, 125 searches or 13.35% of the total.               (Source)

 A 1975-76 study of 359 online searches over a 7-month period using DIALOG in 4 public libraries in the San Franscisco Bay area where patrons were charged half the connect costs (in contrast to a study the year before in the same libraries when searches were free) showed thatthe 3 most frequently used data bases were ERIC (159 or 22.78% searches), NTIS (119 or 17.05% searches), and PSYCHOLOGY ABSTRACTS (107 or 15.33% searches).                (Source)

 A survey reported in 1976 of 10 academic and public libraries using the New York Times Information Bank showed thatthe areas in which the most requests for information were made were: politics (9 libraries), news reports (7 libraries), and biography (6 libraries).             (Source)

 A 1981 survey of U.S. depository libraries, both academic and public (sample size: 221; responding: 171 or 77%), concerning their use of online data bases (DIALOG, ORBIT, and BRS), particularly with regard to government documents showed thatthe 2 online government document data bases most frequently searched by academic depository librarians were ERIC (average of 1 search per month) and MONTHLY CATALOG (average of .6 of a search per month), while the government document data bases most frequently searched by public depository librarians were CIS/INDEX (average of .3 of a search per month) and AMERICAN STATISTICS INDEX (average of .3 of a search per month).                        (Source)

 Special

 A 1978 survey of North American health sciences libraries that were users of the National Library of Medicine search services in November 1977 (survey size: 708 libraries; responding: 376; usable: 345 or 48.7%) showed thatthe average number of NLM searches per data base per respondent during 1976-77 was as follows:

                MEDLINE (274 respondents)              842.0 searches per library

                AVLINE (242 respondents)                     4.7 searches per library

                CANCERLIT (250 respondents)           14.2 searches per library

                TOXLINE (250 respondents)                30.7 searches per library

                SDI profiles (276 respondents)               24.7 profiles per library              (Source)

        Ibid…. showed that, of the 199 respondents providing online search services in addition to those offered by NLM, the 3 most frequently used vendors were:

                Lockheed                      144 (72.4%) respondents

                SDC                             134 (67.3%) respondents

                BRS                                67 (33.7%) respondents

Further, on the average, respondents reported using SDC for 2.7 years, Lockheed for 2.4 years, and BRS for 1.0 years.         (Source)

         Ibid…. showed that, of the 199 respondents providing online services in addition to those offered by NLM, the average number of searches per institution for the 6 most frequently searched data bases in 1976-77 were as follows:

               CA CONDENSATES                                 121.1 searches

                BIOSIS PREVIEWS                                    52.2 searches

                NTIS                                                            43.7 searches

                PSYCHOLOGICAL ABSTRACTS             36.0 searches

                ERIC                                                            32.2 searches

                AGRICOLA                                                 26.0 searches                        (Source)

 A 1978 survey of major biomedical libraries (primarily those serving accredited medical schools) (survey size: 120 libraries; responding: 88 or 73%) showed thatrespondents reported access to the following vendors of bibliographic data bases:

                National Library of Medicine (MEDLINE, et al.)                  85 (97%) libraries

                Bibliographic Retrieval Service                                             52 (59%) libraries

                Lockheed                                                                            50 (57%) libraries

                Systems Development Corporation                                      44 (50%) libraries                   (Source)

 A 1979 survey of libraries in accredited North American veterinary schools (population: 25 libraries; responding: 23 or 92%) showed thatall respondents reported that online search services were available. 10 (43.5%) libraries reported they had their own terminals; 22 (95.7%) reported direct or indirect access to the National Library of Medicine data bases; and 19 (82.6%) reported access to Lockheed or Systems Development Corporation data bases.                 (Source)

Dr. David Kohl

 "Libraries in the digital age are experiencing the most profound transformation since ancient Mesopotamian scribes first began gathering and organizing cuneiform tablets."

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