Subject(s)
Libraries, Hospital/organization & administration , Library Services/organization & administration , Databases, Bibliographic , Health Personnel , Librarians , Libraries, Hospital/statistics & numerical data , Libraries, Hospital/trends , Library Services/statistics & numerical data , Library Services/trends , Quality Control , United States , User-Computer InterfaceSubject(s)
Budgets , Inflation, Economic , Libraries, Medical/economics , Publishing/economics , United StatesABSTRACT
This paper examines the increases in prices for the last twenty years for the journals listed in the 1987 Brandon/Hill list and for the last twelve years for those on a list of medical and general periodicals published annually in Library Journal. This information is compared to the general U.S. inflation rate as measured by the Consumer Price Index. Despite the decline in the general rate of inflation, the buying power of libraries has continued to dwindle. Librarians need to use this information when justifying increased budget requests. They also need to interact more effectively with publishers to resolve this problem. The buying power of the dollar (as compared to the 1975 dollar) spent on the Brandon/Hill list journals is now 59% of that of a dollar spent in the general economy. This compares to 64% in 1983, when this research was last updated.
Subject(s)
Periodicals as Topic/economics , Humans , Libraries, Medical/economics , United StatesABSTRACT
Public health is a multidisciplinary field ranging broadly across the health care spectrum. In light of this diversity the selection of basic reference books and textbooks in the field is a complex task. This paper first defines the components of what is public health and then presents such a list to serve as a guide to the librarian faced with this task.
Subject(s)
Bibliographies as Topic , Libraries, Medical , Public HealthABSTRACT
Health administration is an interdisciplinary profession practiced in various settings. This paper presents a core list of journals for libraries responsible for supporting the study or practice of health administration in any of these settings. This paper initially examines and defines the parameters of the field of health administration to guide in the selection and organization of the list of core health administration journals. The organization of the list is based on the definition of the field as presented in the paper. The most important journals have been indicated, and sufficient information is given to facilitate ordering.
Subject(s)
Hospital Administration , Libraries, Medical , Periodicals as TopicABSTRACT
Increases in price during the last twenty years were studied for the journals listed in the 1983 Brandon list, and during the last fifteen years for all medical journals and for U.S. periodicals overall. When compared with increases in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), prices in all three categories of publications have increased much more rapidly than have prices overall. Libraries whose journal-acquisition budgets increased merely at the same rate as the CPI during the periods examined today can purchase only 50% to 70% of the journals they purchased in 1963. This information should help librarians justify budget increases.
Subject(s)
Periodicals as Topic/economics , Costs and Cost AnalysisABSTRACT
A study of the increases over the past twenty years in the cost of the journals included in the 1977 Brandon list was conducted. This information is compared to the general U.S. rate of inflation for the same period as represented by the consumer price index. Results indicate that the Brandon list journal's prices have been increasing at a significantly higher rate than the general rate of inflation for this period. This information should be useful to the hospital librarian who must justify to administrators the need for increased funding beyond the general rate of inflation.