[COLLDV-L no. 1233 is reproduced below; the response follows it.]
From: L A Higginson - Library <itslah_at_twr2.twr.ac.za>
We are looking for standards, guidelines, norms by which one may determine
the number of undergraduate and postgraduate students per library item;
i.e how many students per item as well as the number of library items per
student, i.e. how many books per student
--
TWR - WITWATERSRAND TECHNIKON
Educational Institution
SOUTH AFRICA
twr2.twr.ac.za
=========================================================================
From: Bernard Katz <bkatz_at_uoguelph.ca>
I question the value of this measurement, except as the most gross of
indicators. At this point in time, with the world of publications at an
all-time peak, we should be looking at specific bibliographies or known
quality collections against which to make a comparison. This approach is
reflected in such projects as the Cornell bibliographies in agricultural
subjects, for example, where the literature of each field is broken down
into the "classic" literature of the past and the current literature of
significant quality. Simple numbers of books is a measure, I submit, that
*may* have had some past value but is now an outmoded method of determining
quality.
Bernard Katz, Head, Special Collections and Library Development
University of Guelph Library
Guelph, Ontario
bkatz_at_uoguelph.ca
Received on Tue Oct 01 1996 - 09:50:08 EDT