Library Support for Neuroscience
January 18, 1999

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Our Collection Policy Statement enables us to determine which portions of the Library of Congress Classification support Neuroscience, and thus how many titles we hold in that portion of the Classification. The Department has indicated that QP351-495 (Neurophysiology) holds most of the material supporting its subject. The Library has some 3,000 titles in this part of the Classification, but there are certainly many other titles in the collection which also provide support. Individual title counts, however, are not so important in this subject, which depends more upon the journal literature.

Other measures of support can be given only for all of Biology. For instance, the Library subscribes to 495 current serials for Biology, but we have no way to determine which of these are specifically for Neuroscience. The same goes for overall expenditures, which we track only for Biology as a whole

Neuroscience is one of four departments within Biology, so one might assume that expenditures for it amount to about one quarter of the total expenditures. Of course, they may be somewhat more or less than that in reality.

Currently, there is a proposal to establish a Brain Science Program. The goals of this include establishing a "pre-eminent graduate training program in brain sciences" .... "To maintain outstanding undergraduate training in brain sciences through new courses and collaborative activities among brain science concentrations"...."To establish Brown University as a world leader in brain research." This will make a big impact on Neuroscience.

The challenge for the Library collection in meeting the needs in these areas has been and will be with the journal literature. For example, the demand develops this way. The Neuroscience courses have large enrollments. Students use MEDLINE (covers 3800 journals and contains records back to 1966), Biological Abstracts (Library has back through 1991) and PsycLIT (covers journals back through 1887 and book chapters back through 1987) for researching their topics, and that stimulates a large demand for journals we do not own. That is evident from the undergraduate level, but applies to graduate students, too. Additional faculty and graduate students that would come to Brown with the proposed Brain Science Program will bring additional demands.

The Library currently is initiating a mechanism to try to respond to this problem. We now will more quickly order journals that have demonstrated a record of demand via interlibrary loan. The following journal titles, as examples, are ones borrowed on ILL many times each year and/or have been requested by faculty. These titles were listed by the Library in response to the Brain Science Program proposal.

• Applied Developmental Science
• Artificial Life
• Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
• Cerebral Cortex
• Current Directions in Psychological Science
• Current Opinion in Neurobiology
• Group Processes and Intergroup Relations
• Health Psychology
• Journal of Behavioral Decision Making
• Journal of Computational Neuroscience
• Journal of Consciousness Studies
• Journal of Neuroscience Research
• Laterality
• Learning and Memory
• MCN: Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience
• Machine Translation
• Memory
• Molecular Cell
• Molecular Neurobiology
• Natural Language Semantics
• Nature Neuroscience
• Neural Computing and Applications
• NeuroImage
• Neurochemistry International
• Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Review
• Seminars in the Neurosciences
• Thinking and Reasoning

Determining the journals needed is one thing. Obtaining the funds is the issue here. With the high cost of neuroscience journals, there are a number of journals that the faculty and students need that we cannot buy. One possible solution might have been to cancel Brain Research and, with the savings which now would be well over $15,000 per year, subscribe to several other neuroscience journals. We looked into that, but decided we could not cancel Brain Research because of its high level of use.

The Library is attempting to gain electronic access to the full text of electronic journals as they become available and financial terms permit.

Neuroscience is a very strong field at Brown. Several departments are doing research that utilizes that knowledge. With the research as well as the growing number of undergraduates choosing Biology as a concentration, this is a sound area to put resources into.

» Frank Kellerman, Sciences Librarian
» William S. Monroe, Head, Collection Development