CHAPTER 3

Bibliographic Sources for Monographs

JEFFREY T. HUBER

Historically, monographs have played a significant role in the dissemination of health sciences information. “The seventeenth century saw the culmination of medical bibliography predicated on the publication of medical works in monographic form and the first appearance of bibliographies taking into account publication of advances in medicine in periodicals.”1 While periodicals grew to become the preferred biomedical and scientific communication forum for current research and opinion, monographs continued to serve as an important means for conveying “gold standard” information. This trend remains true today, whether the monograph be in print or electronic format. Like the monograph itself, materials used for bibliographic control of monographs continue to serve as an integral component of a reference collection.

Over time, bibliographies have been developed to bring order out of chaos by providing information that identifies works within a particular discipline or group of disciplines.2^–3 These bibliographies serve as verification, location, and selection tools. Verification refers to standard information contained in bibliographical citations such as author, title, edition, and place of publication. It may be necessary to consult multiple sources in order to verify all of the needed information about a particular monograph, often moving from a general source to a particular one with a narrower subject area. Location indicates which library or other information agency owns a particular title or the vendor from which it may be purchased. Location also specifies where a title can be found in a particular library or information agency. Online bibliographic databases are the primary resources for identifying institutional holdings. Trade bibliographies, available in both print and electronic formats, are used to determine basic purchasing data. Since collection development is an essential function within a library or information setting, the selection function presupposes bibliographies that indicate the availability of titles within a particular subject domain, by a specific author, or in a given format.

Bibliographies in the health sciences often fulfill more than one of these three functions and typically contain entries for multiple types of materials (e.g., monographs, periodicals, government documents, etc.).

Current Sources

While print resources historically have been a mainstay for bibliographic data, the generic growth in electronic information resources is reflected in current sources for monograph information. Many print bibliographic resources for monograph titles have been replaced by electronic ones.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) is the leading authority concerning current coverage of health science monographs.

LocatorPlus is the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) online catalog. In 1999, LocatorPlus replaced NLM’s telnet-based online catalog, LOCATOR, and replaced the catalog databases CATLINE, SERLINE, and AVLINE. Prior to 1999, CATLINE was a primary bibliographic source for monograph records. LocatorPlus is updated continuously and includes more than 1.2 million catalog records for books, audiovisuals, journals, computer files, and other materials in NLM’s collections. Records from the CATLINE, SERLINE, and AVLINE databases are available via LocatorPlus. LocatorPlus contains links from catalog records to Internet resources, including online journals, when available and appropriate. LocatorPlus includes circulation status information for materials, including those on-order or in-process at the Library. The LocatorPlus interface allows users to find unknown author or organization names if unsure about the exact name, view or use bibliographic records in MARC format, and view or use authority records for names and titles. Through its “Other Databases” menu, LocatorPlus provides direct access to additional free resources such as NLM databases (including PubMed/​MEDLINE), consumer health information and MedlinePlus, history of medicine databases, NLM Catalog, PubMed Central, TOXNET and toxicology databases, health services research and HSTAT, and catalogs of other U.S. medical and consumer health libraries. LocatorPlus contains only records that are available in machine readable format. Users may need to consult retrospective sources for early works covering the biomedical sciences. LocatorPlus is available free of charge.

The NLM Catalog is an alternative search interface to NLM bibliographic records for journals, books, audiovisuals, computer software, electronic resources, and other materials using the NCBI Entrez system. The NLM Catalog links to LocatorPlus for access to NLM holdings information. The NLM Catalog provides access to more than 10,000 citations. The interface allows users to explode on MeSH headings, identify or search primary subjects, find a known name of an author or organization, find a known item, and view or use bibliographic records in XML format. NLM’s cataloging records are also available from other vendors, such as OCLC.

OCLC provides shared cataloging records and bibliographic descriptions through its international network system. Cataloging records are included for a variety of materials, including monographs, in all subject domains. In addition to NLM, sources of cataloging information include the Library of Congress, National Agriculture Library, British Library, and member libraries. OCLC is a major source of bibliographic information for monographs. It also provides location information since cataloging records indicate the holding libraries for items included in its databases.

Founded in 1967, OCLC is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization serving more than 23,000 libraries, archives, and museums in 170 countries worldwide. The WorldCat database serves as the core for all OCLC services. WorldCat includes more than 82 million bibliographic records and 2 billion individual holdings contributed by libraries around the world.

Doody’s earlier print resources, such as Doody’s Health Sciences Book Review Journal, Doody’s Health Sciences Book Review Annual, and Doody’s Rating Service: A Buyer’s Guide to the 250 Best Health Sciences Books, have been replaced with electronic counterparts (see http://www.doodyenterprises.com/). Doody’s products and other general bibliographic sources, such as the National Union Catalog and American Book Publishing Record, are useful tools for verifying health science monograph information as well as identifying their location. However, these sources are not likely to be available in many health sciences libraries, particularly those outside of large academic settings.

Founded in 1993, Doody Enterprises, Inc. is a medical publishing company devoted to producing information products for health-care professionals. At the core of Doody’s clinical information database are the Doody’s Book Reviews, which evaluate books and electronic resources across a wide range of specialty areas including basic sciences, clinical medicine, nursing, and the allied health disciplines. Doody Enterprises maintains a database of health sciences titles with reviews. In addition, each review is accompanied by a Doody’s Star Rating. The expert reviews and star ratings are available electronically as part of Doody’s Book Reviews database and distributed via a weekly e-mail service and webpage. Doody commissions original expert reviews for approximately 3,000 books and electronic resources from over 250 publishers each year. About 2,000 of those titles are reviewed each year by a network of more than 5,000 academic-affiliated health-care professionals. Reviews feature the byline of the reviewer and consist of a general description of the book, intended audience, purpose, features, assessment, and a star rating. Doody’s Star Rating is derived from a questionnaire completed by the expert reviewer during the course of completing a review. Bibliographic and descriptive information is contained in each entry for in-print and forthcoming books. Access to the database is available via the Web. Some jobbers such as YBP include an option to integrate Doody’s reviews with their book ordering interface as an alternate method of access to this resource.

To serve as a replacement for the Brandon/​Hill Selected Lists which were discontinued in mid-2004, Doody’s began publishing Doody’s Core Titles in the Health Sciences. This electronic resource is designed to serve as a collection development tool for health sciences libraries of all sizes. This resource rates core titles in more than 120 specialty areas in health sciences, basic sciences, clinical medicine, allied health, associated health sciences, and nursing.

Originally published in the Journal of the Medical Library Association (formerly titled Bulletin of the Medical Library Association), the Brandon/​Hill Selected List of Print Books and Journals for the Small Medical Library, Brandon/​Hill Selected List of Print Books and Journals in Allied Health, and Brandon/​Hill Selected List of Print Books and Journals in Nursing are widely recognized collection development tools. The selected lists were the brainchild of Alfred N. Brandon who first published the Selected List of Books and Journals for the Small Medical Library in 1965. The selected list for nursing followed in 1979 and the selected list for allied health in 1984.

Stay updated, free articles. Join our Telegram channel

Join