Faculty Publications Databases in Academic Health Sciences Libraries

Abstract

A survey of 172 academic health sciences libraries was conducted to determine how many have databases of faculty publications and what their databases are like. Of 128 respondents, only thirty-two have faculty publications databases. The majority of those who have them maintain comprehensive databases using commercial bibliographic software running on individual workstations. Only two institutions maintain databases containing exclusively journal article citations. The balance include citations from other formats, as well as journals. Notices from faculty and commercial databases are the main sources of data for input. Most libraries use their faculty publications database to produce periodic bibliographies and reports to administration. The study indicates that databases are not commonly held because many academic librarians perceive that they are too time consuming and are a duplication of databases that are commercially available. The results of this survey suggest, however, that most faculty publications databases include citations that are not commonly available on commercial database systems and that they are frequently a valuable custom-made information resource.