The Malaysiana Conference Collection of theUniversity of Malaya Library: The First Phase

Zainab Awang Ngah*

Abstract: The first phase in the establishment of the Malaysiona Conference Collectionbegan in 7984 and involved locating and collating all proceedings of conferences heldlocally and papers concerning Malaysia for those held abroad which were already availablewithin the Main Library and bringing them into a special 'Conference Collection' keptwithin the National Collection Division (NCD) for reference purposes. Simultaneously,form letters were also sent out to request for proceedings of conferences currently heldwithin the country. All papers of these conferences are indexed according to thei: subjectmatter and the subject cards filed in the 'Conference Index Card Catalogue' kept outsidethe NCD. Figures based on statistics compiled in December 7987 showed that there were'2076 titles of conferences in the Collection which contained about 20,000 papers.Figures also showed that borrowing from this Collection has steadily increased since July7984, which clearly indicated the usefulness of this collec tion as a source of reference forundergraduates and researchers alike.

Abstrak: Pada peringkat pertama penubuhon Koleksi Persidangan Malaysiana yang ber-mula pada tahun 7984, satu usaha untuk menqumpulkan kertas-kertas persidangan tem-patan serta yang meliputi Malaysia letapi dibentang di luar negeri teloh dijalankan. Didalam usaho terse but kertas-kertas persidangan yang sedia ada dalam sistem PerpustakaanUtama Universili Malaya telah dikesan. Dengan ini wujudlah satu 'Koleksi Persidangan'untuk rujukan para pengguna yang diuruskan oleh Bahagian Koleksi Kebangsaan (BKK).Di samping usaha pengumpulan cara tersebut di atas, surat-surat resmi telah juga dihantarkepada penganjur-penganjur persidangan temp atan yang sedang dijalankan. Setiap kertaskerja diindeks mengikut bidang yang diliputi dan kad-kad mengikut bidang ini diatur kedalam satu 'Katatoq Indeks Persidangan' yang diletakkan di luar BKK. Berdasarkanstatistik pada bulan Disember 7987, 2076 judul persidangan telah dapat dikumpulkan.Koleksi persidanqan ini mengandungi lebih kurang 20,000 kertas kerja-kertas keria. Pe-ranqkaan juga menunjukkan bahawa pinjaman dari koleksi ini kian meningkat seiak bulan[ulol 7984. Ini membayangkan betapa bergunanya koleksi ini sebagai bahan rujukan padapara graduan dan penyelidik,

Conference proceedings have become an increasinglyimportant source of information for those who needto know thc state-of-art of the various branches ofknowledge. This is especially true of the MalaysianaConference Proceedings Collection kept in theNational Collection Division (NCO), University ofMalaya Library, whcre there has been an increase inthe number of borrowings and requests from thecollection since a systematic effort was made ofacquiring, processing and indexing the locally hcldconference papers.

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It was to accommodatc the need of thc under-graduates and researchers who consistcntlv facedproblems when searching for materials on varioustopics with a Malaysian orientation, that the NCOdccided to gear its efforts towards a more svstcrnaticacquisition of papers presented at conference, held inMalaysia and those pertaining to Malaysia presentedoutside the country. This decision was made some-time in January 1984.

Kekal Abadi 7(2) [un 1988

AcquisitionThe very' first step taken was to locate all conferenceproceedings held locally, whether published or un-published, that could be obtained readily within theMain Library system. Some were found to be locatedwith the NCD itself. This was especially true of con-ferences in Malay language. A substantial numberwere sent to the open shelves before the 1980's whenthe NCD initially concentrated on acquiring materialson the language, literature and culture of the Malayworld written in the Malay/Indonesian language. Withthe help of available clerical staff in the Division, the

shelf list catalogue was searched during the Univer·sitv's long vacation in 1984. It was then estimatedthat about 1,000 titles of locally held conferenceswere already available within the Main Library. Asusual problems were encountered during the search.

This was especially so in the case of conference pro-ceedings which had been catalogued under editors.Items which were vague were individually checked bythe professional staff of the Division to ascertainwhether these collected works were actually collec-tions of papers presented at conferences. Anotherproblem was items ~hich were identified but whichcould not be located. They were neither found on theopen shelves nor were borrowed out.

Simultaneous to the effort of examinig the shelflist catalogue, a standard letter was also drafted torequest for papers from conferences held currently.Four daily newspapers which were indexed for thenewspaper cuttings collection by the Division formedthe chief source of information for news on confer-ences held currently or forthcoming. Name of organ-izers were usually mentioned in these reports.Directories of professional bodies and telephonedirectories were searched for addresses of theseorganizers. Besides information from newspapers,the Library also received pamphlets bearing news offorthcoming conferences or was officially invited toattend some of these conferences. Represen tativesof the Library who attended these conferences alsobecame important donors to the collection.

Table 1 indicates the total number of conferencetitles received upon request from January 1984 toDecember 1987. As expected, figures for each year

show that about slightly more than half (56--64%) oforganizers were willing to send to the Library copiesof collected papers of conferences they organ ired.Some imposed charges ranging from M$20--$200,for which the library was obliged to pay despite tightfinancial constraints. About '1-3% were kind enoughto reply or telephone to inform us that no paperswere presented. From January 1984 to December1987 a total of 656 titles were received upon request.

Accountability for these requests was made possibleas details regarding them were maintained since 1984.An addition of 1420 titles were brought into thecollection from various other sources such as theopen shelves, the NCD collection itself, through ex-change programmes with other institutions, giftsfrom institutions and individuals as well as fromrepresentatives of the library who attended confer-ences. Therefore up to December 1987, the totalnumber of conference titles processed, cataloguedand indexed was 2076. Based on this number, it isexpected that the collection will grow by about 200titles each year in the future.

Table 1Total Number of Malaysiana Conference TitlesReceived Upon Request from January 1984 to

December 1987

Conference Titles 1984 1985 1986 1987

No. Received 134 144 183 195(60%) (64.3%) (56%) (59%)

No. Not Received 81 77 138 l32(37%) (34.3%) (42%) (40%)

No papers 6 3 6 3presented (3%) (1.4%) (2%) (1%)

Total 221 224 327 330(100%) (100%) (100%) (100%)

1. Total Number of Titles Received by the abovemethod from 1984-1987 656 titles

2. Tota Number of Titles taken from:a) The open shelvesb) Existing NCD collectionc) Exchanges, gifts, bough t, etc. 1420 titles

Total 2076 titles

Table 2 shows the type of titles received based onbroad disciplines determined by the Library of 'Con-gress Classification scheme. This can easily be identi-fied by the class numbers given to the processedtitles. The figures show that out of 2076 titles in thecollection 1758 titles (85%) are titles in the disciplineof the Social Sciences and Humanities, the bulk ofwhich are in the field of Economics and Sociologynumbering 966. It shall be shown later that this trendin acquisition is in harmony with the need of users ofthis collection since borrowings tend to orientate to-wards titles from the Humanities and especially theSocial Sciences.

Future policy considerations regarding the Malay-siana Conference Collection located in the MainLibrary may also need to take into account this

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Table 2Types of Malavsiana Conference Ti ties that are in the

Conference Collection up to Dec 1987

Subject Areas based on the Library ofCongress Subject Headings

A - C (Generalia, Philosophy & Religion)

0- E (History)

G - H (Geography, Anthropology andSocial SCiences)

J -- K (Political Science & Law)

L - N (Education, Music & Fine Arts)

P (Languages and Literature)Q - T (SCience, Medicine, Agriculture

& Technology)

U - Z (Armed Forces, Bibliographies &Library Science)

Total No. of Titles

trend. The likely question then will be whether thiscollection should in reality focus its attention interms of the acquisition, processing and indexing oftitles mainly on the above mcntiortcd disciplines so asto achieve a more efficient and productive biblio-graphic control of these lvpcs of material.

IndexingAll titles brought into the Malaysiana ConferenceCollection were checked to determine whether re-cataloguing needed to be done. This was to ensurethat no future changes in class numbers would occur,as this would complicate searching for such itemsafter they have been indexed. Recataloguing was es-pecially needed since the Library had strictly adoptedthe Anglo American Cataloguing Rules revised edition(AACR II) from 1980 onwards. Also numerouschanges in the Library of Congress Classificationscheme especially in the Social Sciences necessitatedrecataloguing of older titles in order to achieve uni-formity with the newly acquired ones. These rc-catalogued items were entered into the Library'sMalmarc database. All titles when processed werelabelled 'Koleksi Pcrsidangari' (Conference Collection)and placed on a separate shelving sequence close tothe borrowing counter in the NCO. This was to as-certain that every title could be easily retrieved tomeet users' needs.

As mentioned earlier, there were about 2076 titlesin the collection up to December 1987. Each titlecontained an average of 10 papers. It was estimatedthat about 20,000 papers were available for referencefrom the 2076 titles. Each paper of the conferences

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Total Number of Titles fromJan 1984 - Dec 1987

128 6%

124 6%

966 47%

56 3%

236 11%

167 8%

318 15%

81 4%

2076 1000;6

was indexed using the Library of Congress SubjectHeadings (9th edition) as a guide. However in somecases, terms which were more popularly used in thiscountry were preferred for easy reference. SpecificMalay cultural terms were used such as 'silat ' insteadof 'martial arts' and 'Pondok (Islamic religious edu-cation)' instead of 'Islamic religious education'

For each paper indexed, details such as the nameof the presenter, title of the paper, title of the confer-ence in which the paper was presented and classnumber of the conference title were typed on 7.5 x12.5 ern catalogue cards. The cards for each paperpresented at various conferences were then arran ccdin an alphabetical sequence according to suoicct.Each paper may be given a maximum of three subjectheadings. This decision was made so as not to bulkthe subject card catalogue index unnecessarily. There-fore, the Malaysiana Conference Index Card catalogueis at present in 2 main sequences, namely titles ofconferences held in the collection arranged alphabcti-callv and a subject sequence for <III papers presented.This card catalogue has been placed outside theDivision for users reference from June 1984.

Due to the heavy workload involved in typingmultiple cards and filing them in the subject se-quence, the Division decided to obtain assistancethrough the Vote r (Research vote) Scheme, whichis available to university personnel undertaking anykind of research. This Vote was obtained in July1985 with an allocated sum of MB,056.00. Thisallocation was used to hire the services of 2 tempor-ary typists from July 1985 to July 1986 to help withthe typing and filing of cards.

Analysis of BorrowingIt is indeed satisfying to observe that once a serviceis provided, it is in actual fact used. This was true ofthe Malaysiana Conference Collection. Proper moni-toring of borrowings from the National CollectionDivision had shown that borrowings from the Confer-ence Collection had increased from year to year sinceJune 1984. Each borrower was required to fill in aform which showed details about the type of itemborrowed [i.e., whether it was a conference paper,

thesis, journal or reprint article] and which disciplinethe item belonged to {shown by the class number}.

Table 3 shows total borrowings from the Divisionby type of materials from July 1984 to December

1987. The statistics clearly indicate an increase from2,489 in 1984 to 10,227 in 1987. The most heavilyborrowed items are theses and conference papers.From 1986 to 1987 however, borrowings from theConference Collection (42%--46%) surpass that of thetheses {38%} and this trend is expected to continue.This indicates that as more and more papers areindexed, more usage of the collection can be antici-pated.

Table 4 shows details of borrowing trends fromthe Malaysiana Conference Collection. As indicatedearlier, borrowings from the Malaysiana ConferenceCollection increased steadily from 1984 to 1987.Monthly borrowings of the collection each year,

Table 3Total Borrowings from the National Collection Division

by Type of Materials From July 1984 - Dec 1987

From JulyType of Materials 1984 % 1985 % 1986 % 1987 %

Malay Collection 381 15% 845 17% 816 11% 1078 10%

Conference Proceeding Collection 473 19% 1344 28% 3004 42% 4669 46%

Peri odical s 278 11% 419 9% 528 8% 516 5%

Reprint Collection Not available 54 1% 66 1% 56 1%

Theses 1357 55% 2179 45% 2076 38% 3908 38%

Total Borrowings by Year 2489 100% 4841 100% 7210 100% 10,227 100%

Table 4Monthly Breakdown of Borrowings from the

Conference Proceedings Collection from July 1984 to 1987

Month From Jul1984 1985 1986 1987

Jan 138 111 523Feb 28 77 259Mar 15 100 65Apr 23 75 52May 15 45 35Jun 21 28 32Jul 18 36 114 150Aug 59 148 309 548Sept 40 151 497 861Oct 75 307 855 787Nov 167 270 310 531Dec 1 14 192 483 826Total Borrowings hy Year 473 1344 3004 4669

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clearly show a distinctive trend of heavier borrowingsduring the semester months and a decline duringvacations.

Table 5 shows the pattern of borrowings in variousdisciplines based on statistics collected in 1986 and1987. As mentioned earlier, borrowings in the

Humanities and Social Sciences surpass that ofScience and Technology. The most heavily borroweditems are those in the field of Economics and SocialSciences followed closely by titles .in Educationand History. This trend of borrowings complementsactive acquisition in these same fields.

Table 5Borrowings from the Conference Collection

According to Broad Subject Areas in 1986-1987

Subject Areas based on the Library 1986 1987of Congress Subject Headings

A - C (Generalia, Philosophy & Religion) 239 508(8%) (10.8%)

D (History) 416 604(13.8%) (13%)

G - H (Geography, Anthropology & 1175 1742Social Sciences) (39%) (37%)

J (Political Science) 56 116(2%) (3%)

L - N (Education, Music & Fine Arts) 717 972(24%) (21%)

P (Languages and Literature) 217 441(7%) (9%)

Q - T (Science, Medicine, Agriculture 175 277& Technology) (6%) (6%)

Z (Bibliographies and Library Science) 9 9(0.2%) (0.2%)

Total Borrowings 3004 4669(100%) (100%)

ConclusionThe present card catalogue of the Malaysiana Confer-ence Collection has its limitations, even though itseems to be very popular with users. First, it does notcater for the author/paper presenter approach. It istherefore impossible at present to find out how manypapers have been wri tten by a particular person. Thedecision for excluding the author sequence was madeso as not to bulk up the card catalogue unnecessarily.

Moreover there are plans to enter the currentMalaysiana Conference Index data into the computerwhereby the various desired approaches for searchingcan be used. Secondly, because of space constraints,the number of subject headings has to be kept to aminimum and this curtails detailed analysis of a mult-

disciplinary paper. It is hoped that eventually whenall data is entered into the computer no such con-straints will be faced.

Thirdly, no item from this collection is allowed tobe borrowed out of the library since the libraryusually receives only one copy from the organizerswho are kind enough to comply with our requests.The collection is therefore available purely forreference within the premises.

lnspi te of all the drawbacks mentioned above it isvery encouraging to observe that these have nothampered the use of conference papers. This isespecially indicated by the increase in the borrowingsfrom this collection from 473 in 1984 to 4669 in1987 and this trend is expected to grow in the future.