CORE--LIBRARY

University Of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Description: The PSC Demography Library is located on the fourth and fifth floors of the McNeil Building, which also houses the PSC itself, the Economics and Sociology Departments, and approximately two-thirds of PSC associates. The library is a research library specializing in demography and related disciplines. The library is coordinated with the main University library system, but, to avoid problems with library policy on such issues as duplicates, and because of lack of interest on the part of the University library, it is not a formal part of the system. A professional librarian, Lisa Newman, is in charge of collection development and general functioning of the library. She is assisted by a library clerk with responsibility for circulation, document delivery, and tables-of-contents distribution to associates. The Demography Library contains nearly 18,000 monographs, numerous working papers, reprints, census volumes and other materials. The library receives over 100 journal titles, 80 of which are paid for. The collection focuses on demography, family sociology, labor force, women s issues, family planning, aging and public health, with a wide geographic coverage, though special emphasis is on Africa. In addition to printed material, the Library is building a collection of material in electronic formats, both on-line and CD-ROM. This collection includes data sets (U.S. census, NSFG, DHS etc.), working papers and bibliographic resources (POPLINE). Over the last five years, the Library has completed the move from a card to an on-line catalogue, though the cataloging program used has become obsolete. New library automation software, Athena 97, is proposed for purchase early in the new grant period, to provide fully integrated catalogue, circulation, OPAC and inventory functions, and will be combined with a compatible Web interface. The Library provides the following services to associates: maintenance of a collection of printed materials in population studies; assistance to associates in locating research materials, including physical retrieval and document delivery; alerting of associates concerning newly-available resources; maintenance of the Center s Web sites; creation and maintenance of a data archive of CD-ROMs; training of associates in electronic resource access; and collaboration with other population libraries through APLIC-I.