Shared Use of Scientific Equipment at Colleges and Universities, Fall 1978

摘要

The report, based on the findings of a survey of 676 institutions details information about the kinds of formal and informal procedures colleges and universities follow to facilitate sharing of scientific equipment. Descriptive characteristics of the sharing system in use during fall 1978 included: (1) the length of time the systems have been operating; (2) the total value of the equipment incorporated into the system; (3) the minimum value for inclusion of an item in the system; (4) the descriptive elements included in cataloging the items of equipment; (5) the types of records used in operation of the system; (6) the administrative level which maintains the system; and (7) provisions for updating information held within the system. Survey respondents were asked about some of the other means by which sharing took place and duplicate equipment purchases were avoided, and about the degree to which equipment sharing occurred outside the framework of any formal system.