Library journals are the fuel driving research, Lab scientists say. A Library Committee, made up of representatives from the Lab’s various divisions, was formed this week to protect this important resource. The committee is analyzing the results of the recent Library survey, which asked researchers to vote for their favorite journals from a list of 2,200 titles. Over 1,300 scientists and engineers responded to the survey, and each division was well represented.

“We had extensive interest in the survey,” said Jane Tierney, acting head of the LBNL Library. “Some researchers, who couldn’t access it online, even came to the Library to fill in hard copies.”

The aim of the survey was to create an acquisition list of most-needed journals for a proposal to restore funding to the Library, which faced a potential cut of $500,000 from the FY04 level of funding.

With the support of Director Steven Chu, the Computing and Communications Services Advisory Committee (CSAC) and the Information Technologies and Services Division (ITSD) are working together to ensure that a high level of journal subscriptions will be restored.

Survey results also indicate that prior to FY04 cuts, the Library had access to 82 percent of the top vote-getter journals. The remaining 18 percent (120 journals) represents new, highly sought journal titles that were required by an average of 25 or more scientists. One need highlighted by the survey was the rapid growth in Life Sciences, which has outstripped the Library’s budget constraints. Additional analysis on survey results is being done, with more reports to come within two weeks. For detailed reports go to the survey results homepage.