University of Michigan - Flint

The Medicine division supports the curriculum of the School of Health Professions and Studies (SHPS), which offers undergraduate degrees in environmental health, health care, health care administration, health science, medical technology, and nursing, and master's programs in anesthesia, health education, and physical therapy. The Public Administration department also offers a concentration in health care administration in its Master of Public Administration program.

Monographs. The Library's medicine and health collection falls far short of providing adequate support for the programs offered at UM-Flint. It holds about 7000 monographs from the Medicine division, which is equivalent to a 2a; to support multiple master's programs, at least 24,000 volumes would be necessary, according to modified conspectus standards. The division has 19% of the number from the modified ACRL standard (37,515). Even given the ancillary support that other conspectus divisions may offer, the shortfall of literature in medical and allied subjects is striking.

Emblematic of the collection's inadequacy is its failure to contain even half of the volumes listed in the third edition of Books for College Libraries. The Thompson Library has 48% of the books designated by BCL as fundamental acquisitions for medical and allied subjects for an undergraduate collection.

Acquisitions. The notable strong point in the monographs collection is the currency of the material: The median publication date of the books in this division is 1985, with 39% published in the last decade, and 14% published in the last five years. However, even this strong point has its negative side. Although the figures for publication date for the past ten and past five years are both good in themselves, they indicate a steep decline in the number of titles added over the last decade. Approximately 1750 titles were added 1988-1992, but only about 980 titles 1993 or after. This decline in purchasing is consistent with overall trends in the Thompson Library.

There are separate allocations budgets for the programs in nursing, health care, medical technology, and physical therapy. Their combined 1997/1998 monographs allocations is $14,314. Taking a proportional share of librarians' budgets, plus the reference allocation, yields a weighted total of $17,348. This is sufficient to buy approximately 299 books at a discounted average price of $58.02 apiece. This amounts to about 6% of the total domestic publishing output for medical subjects, for an AC rating of 2b. Acquiring 10% of the publishing output per year would require a monographs allocation of $30,159; a 15% acquisitions rate would cost $45,778.

Periodicals. The Library subscribes to CINAHL through FirstSearch and on CD-ROM; to MEDLINE through both PaperChase and FirstSearch; CANCERLIT and HEALTH via PaperChase; and, via FirstSearch, to Health Reference Center and Health Reference Center-Academic, and MDXHealth.

There are 101 Wilson-indexed periodical titles related to medicine, of which the Library has paper subscriptions to 29 (29%=a strong 2a) and Web access to 16 more (45% total=2b). The periodicals collection related to nursing is particularly weak: of approximately 1100 periodicals indexed in CINAHL, the Library subscribes to 132 (12%=2a). Although this is partially offset by student access to the library at Hurley Medical Center, the nursing journals collection is unacceptably weak.

Sources consulted: BCL3

Prepared by Grant Burns and Paul G. Streby.

Ratings for Medicine CL=Current collection level; AC=Acquisitions commitment; GL=Goal level
LC class	Line no.	Category	CL	AC	GL	Comments
QM 1 - 81	MED 000.5	Human Anatomy	2b		3b
QP 1 - 348	MED 025.5	Physiology	2b		3b	Periodicals = 2a
QP 351 - 499	MED 060.5	Nervous System & the Senses	3a		3b
QP 901 - 998	MED 070.5	Experimental Pharmacology			2b
R 1 - 130	MED 079.5	Medicine - Periodical, Societies, General Topics	3a		3b
R 131 -687	MED 079.6	Medicine - History, Medical Expeditions (History of Medicine)	2b		3a
R 690 - 899	MED 089.5	Medicine - Special Subjects	3a		3b
RA 421 - 798	MED 097.8	Public Health	3a		3c	Periodicals = 2b/3a
RA 791 - 955	MED 101.5	Medical Geography			3b
RA 960 - 998	MED 102	Medical Centers, Hospitals, etc.	3a		3c
RA 1001 - 1171	MED 103.5	Forensic Medicine, Medical Jurisprudence	3a		3a
RA 1190 - 1270	MED 106.5	Toxicology	2b		3b
RB 3 - 157	MED 108.5	Pathology	2b		3b
RC 1 - 106	MED 112.5	Internal Medicine, Medical Practice (General)	3a		3b
RC 110 - 253	MED 115.5	Infectious & Parasitic Diseases, Communicable	2b		3b
RC 254 - 298	MED 126.5	Neoplasms, Neoplastic Diseases	2a		3b
RC 306 - 320	MED 132	Tuberculosis			3b
RC 321 - 431	MED 132.5	Neurology (Nervous System)	3a		3b
RC 435 - 580	MED 134.5	Psychiatry, Psychopathology	2b		3b
RC 578 - 632	MED 140.5	Allergic, Metabolic, Nutritional Diseases	2a		3b
RC 633 - 935	MED 146.5	Diseases of Organs, Glands, Systems	2b		3b
RC 91 - 103	MED 159.2	Diseases & Injuries Caused by Physical Agents - General Works & Handbooks			3b
RC 936 - 951	MED 159.5	Diseases of Regions of the Body			3b
RC 952 - 1299	MED 159.6	Geriatrics, Arctic & Tropical Medicine	2b		3b	Periodicals = 2b/3a
RD	MED 163.5	Surgery	2b		3b/ 3c	Includes anesthesia titles
RE	MED 182.5	Ophthalmology			2b
QP 458 - 471, RF	MED 18.5	Otorhinolaryngology	2a		3a
RG	MED 194.5	Gynecology & Obstetrics	2b		3b
RJ	MED 203.5	Pediatrics	2b		3b
RK	MED 207.5	Dentistry	2a		2b
RL	MED 215.5	Dermatology			3a
RM	MED 217.5	Therapeutics, Pharmacology	3a		3c
RS	MED 228.5	Pharmacy & Materia Medica	2a		3b
RT	MED 234.5	Nursing	2b		3b	Monographs=3a; very weak journals collection; 132 of 1100 CINAHL-indexed journals=12%=2a
RV	MED 241.5	Botanic, Thomsonian, Eclectic Medicine			2a
RX	MED 241.6	Homeopathy			2a
RZ	MED 242.5	Other Systems of Medicine	2b		2a
DIVISION AS A WHOLE			2a	2a	3b/ 3c

0 -- Out of scope

1 -- Minimal level
1a ---- Minimal level, uneven coverage
1b ---- Minimal level, even coverage

2 -- Basic information level
2a ---- Basic information level, Introductory
2b ---- Basic information level, Advanced (Appropriate for community college students)

3 -- Study or instructional support level
3a ---- Basic study or instructional support level (Adequate to support lower division undergraduate courses)
3b ---- Intermediate study or instructional support level (Adequate to support upper division undergraduate courses; not adequate for master's degree programs)
3c ---- Advanced study or instructional support level (Adequate to support master's degree programs)

4 -- Research level (Adequate to support doctoral research)

5 -- Comprehensive level