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School of Biological Sciences1. The schoolThe Faculty of Science is made up of six schools and several faculty centres, some of which are cross-faculty, offering a diverse range of disciplines in undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Ten departments from other faculties, primarily the Faculty of Medicine, contribute to science teaching at all levels. There are approximately 3600 students in the Faculty of Science, including over 304 postgraduates, and an academic staff of 295 The faculty conducts undergraduate and postgraduate studies on the Clayton, Gippsland and Peninsula campuses in Australia and at Monash Malaysia. The schools within the faculty are: Applied Sciences and Engineering; Biological Sciences; Chemistry; Geosciences; Mathematical Sciences; and Physics. The School of Applied Sciences and Engineering operates on the Gippsland and Peninsula campuses and offers studies in applied biology, applied chemistry, mathematics and modelling, and resource and environmental management. Amendment history The School of Biological Sciences supports research and teaching programs at all levels of biological organisation, including molecular and cell biology, genetics, development, physiology, ecology and evolution. The school includes 21 academic staff, 26 postdoctoral researchers, 57 postgraduate students (in a teaching load of 570 EFTSU) and 26 technical and administrative staff. Research interests in the school include freshwater and marine ecology, plant molecular and developmental genetics, plant physiology and cell biology, animal behaviour, neuron development, ecology of plants, vertebrates and communities, invasion biology, biology of algae, evolution and conservation genetics, animal physiology and biochemistry. More information about:
2. General policy statementThe Collection Development Policy covers printed books and journals, electronic resources, multimedia and any other formats acquired for the Library's collection. The Policy is regularly monitored to ensure that the selection and acquisition of new resources supports the teaching and research needs of the faculties and their departments. While every effort is made to meet known information needs some gaps in the collection may develop which need attention, and suggestions to address them are welcome. This may be done through liaison with library staff or, for individual titles, using the recommendation form at lib.monash.edu.au/forms/acquisition-request.doc To ensure that the library provides collection materials to support new courses and subjects, completion of a Library Impact Statement lib.monash.edu.au/forms/impact.doc is required. When establishing new research directions staff are encouraged to liaise with the library about the provision of supporting information resources. All titles listed as prescribed or recommended reading for teaching subjects are acquired as high priority and in multiple copies depending on student enrolment numbers. This is particularly necessary for undergraduate students, who need access to adequate resources on their home campus. Electronic versions of these texts are also provided where possible, so that access is more readily available regardless of location and number of copies held. The inter-campus loan and photocopy services for undergraduates further support the needs of those students. However, the library cannot acquire every item that could conceivably be needed by Monash staff or students. The reciprocal borrowing scheme enables Monash library users to borrow from other university libraries. Post-graduates and staff may also use the document delivery service to obtain books and articles from other libraries in Australia and overseas. 3. The library's collectiona. LocationResources purchased for the School of Biological Sciences are located in the Hargrave-Andrew Library on the Clayton Campus. Although research and teaching by the Faculty of Medicine departments focuses on studies of human biochemistry and physiology or on other animals as models for human medicine, and on how microorganisms cause disease or can be harnessed for human benefit, there is some overlap with the broad interests of the School of Biological Sciences. Material purchased for the Faculty of Medicine in the area of biological sciences is located in the Hargrave-Andrew Library or in the affiliated hospital libraries. Resources purchased for the School of Applied Sciences to support its teaching in the biological sciences are generally located on the Gippsland campus. The School of Geography and Environmental Science (Faculty of Arts) conducts some courses overlapping with some Biological Sciences courses and hence there may be considerable joint use of materials held in the Matheson and Hargrave-Andrew libraries. These subject areas include the more socially oriented human impact on the natural environment, environmental policy and law. The Water Studies Centre located at Clayton campus, and various staff and post graduate students of Biological Sciences are major partners in the nationwide CRC for Freshwater Ecology, whose brief amongst others is to study Australian freshwater ecosystems including stream ecology and environmental chemistry and hence the Monash researchers involved will depend on relevant materials held in the Hargrave-Andrew Library. There is a collection of older freshwater ecology material on the Caulfield campus, which was formerly the location of the Water Studies Centre. b. LanguageGenerally only material in the English language is acquired. c. Classification used.Material acquired for the School of Biological Sciences is classified using the Dewey Decimal Classification. d. FormatsNo format is excluded, although in practice the majority of the collection is monographs or serials, both print and electronic. Due to the nature of research in the biological sciences, serial literature is seen as vital and so a high proportion of the library budget is spent on serials. e. Size of the collectionEstimated number of monograph volumes purchased per annum : approximately 200+ Number of print serial titles received : The library subscribes to approximately 130 titles on behalf of the school and these are located in the Hargrave-Andrew Library. f. Significant electronic resourcesThe library is purchasing increasing numbers of resources in electronic format, including networked or internet databases, fulltext resources such as suites of electronic journals and full text monographs, and CD-ROM databases that are only accessible within a particular branch library. As a result, an increasing proportion of the budget for library material for the Faculty of Science is spent on these resources. These include Indexing and abstracting services
Fulltext databases / electronic journal suites
Subject gateways
70% of the library materials budget for Biological Sciences is spent on serials, and 6.5% on electronic resources. g. Coverage of the collectionThe library resources acquired for the school cover in general areas of the Dewey Decimal Classification within the 333s, natural resources, the 570s, life sciences, 580s, plants, 590s, animals, and 639.9, conservation of biological resources. The main areas of collecting for the School of Biological Sciences are detailed below
The collection in the biological sciences is extensive on the Clayton campus, provides teaching level support on the Gippsland campus and supports first-level units only on the Berwick campus. Some noteworthy areas of the Hargrave-Andrew Library collection include :
4. Other significant Monash collections or resourcesNil Collections Table(T = teaching level, R = research level)
Amendment history
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