ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


344 /  C&RL News

C rea tin g  ex h ib its in
th e  sm a lle r  a c a d e m ic  lib r a r y

By J a n e K em p

Bibliographic Librarian 
L uther College

You d o n ’t need huge special collections to have 
an effective exhibit.

Creating effective library exhibits is indeed labor 
intensive and tim e consuming as Caswell suggested 
in her article, “Building a Strategy for Academic 
L ib ra ry  E x h ib its ,” C &R L  N ew s, A pril 1985, 
pp. 165-68. It is particularly challenging to plan 
and design exhibits in the smaller academic library 
where resources are minimal. The strategy for cre­
ating exhibits in smaller libraries is similar to th at 
used in larger settings but the exhibits themselves 
freq u en tly  possess com ponents m uch different 
from those produced in larger, more fully endowed 
institutions. W hile the exhibit ideas expressed in 
Caswell’s article were fitted more realistically to li­
braries at the university or large college level, the 
suggestions m ade here will be tailored to the situa­
tion found in most smaller academic libraries.

As Caswell suggested, the traditional reasons for 
creating exhibits in college and university libraries 
are education, increased use of m aterials, and p u b ­
lic relations. A fourth goal for an exhibition pro­
gram, collection development, is also valid for aca­
d em ic lib ra rie s  of v a ry in g  sizes. Successful, 
effective exhibits in the smaller academic library 
can be designed which meet these objectives, but 
they require the planner to focus creative energies 
in ways typically not addressed in the literature on 
exhibit strategies.

Perhaps most im portantly, the smaller library 
often has few if any significant collections suitable

for display. The library m ay have several collec­
tions relating to an ethnic group close to the col­
lege, including m anuscript and archival materials. 
It may perhaps have a rare book room w ith several 
hundred books, some uniquely bound and illus­
trated. Or a donor may have given the library a 
sizeable, intact collection on a single them e such as 
music or records of a certain period. However, 
these resources are limited and do not lend them ­
selves to an exhibit schedule requiring change and 
variety.

Rather than focus on exhibits which depend on 
collections owned by the library as a basis for dis­
play, the planner in the smaller library may more 
realistically look tow ard other sources for exhibits. 
Collections owned by faculty, students or com m u­
nity members may be effectively displayed, espe­
cially if linked to classwork in progress. Diplaying a 
biology faculty m em ber’s collection of bison statu­
ary in a variety of media, for example, can be of 
significance to an art class, thus fulfilling the objec­
tive of education as a goal for a successful exhibit. It 
can also bring increased use of the library when a 
display of books featuring the artistic medium of 
some of the statuary accompanies the exhibit. In 
addition, the exhibit enhances public relations for 
both the library itself and the faculty member by 
dem onstrating the depth of the library collection in 
art and revealing the faculty mem ber as a person



July/August 1985 /  345

A recent exhibit at L uther College showcases the Villisca, Iowa, axe murders o f 1912, 
a notorious episode in local history.

with an unusual, well developed but little known 
interest.

Collections can also be originated by the librar­
ian responsible for displays. These may be created 
w ith little expense, particularly if planned well be­
fore the exhibition dates. The magazine Serials Re­
view , for example, often contains articles and an­
n otated bibliographies surveying the journals 
published in a particular regional area or state. 
These journals can run the gam ut from small spe­
cialized publications which circulate nationally 
but are relatively unknown, to magazines which 
are p art of a multi-million dollar corporation. An 
especially interesting exhibit can be planned by re­
questing single copies of the journals for the area in 
which the library is located. These can be arranged 
by topic for display, showing the range of subjects 
covered by the publications.

Although collections of some kind are custom ar­
ily used as a basis for academic library exhibits, ef­
fective displays may be planned where the collec­
tion is of secondary im portance to the display. In 
the following exhibit examples, the collection is uti­
lized prim arily to highlight the theme of the dis­
play rather than provide the predom inant focus of 
the exhibit. Striking exhibits can be designed which 
call attention to upcoming campus events. A lec­
ture series w ith a common theme on 19th-century 
English authors can generate an interesting exhibit 
of books and pictures. The campus visit of a profes­
sional dance or theatre company can be a basis for 
an exhibit on dance or theatre, using books from 
the library collection along w ith publicity p ro ­
vided by the visiting company. The deadline for 
submission to the campus literary publication may 
be near and a display of old issues of the publication 
from the library archives may be of interest. Infor­

mation about the publication combined with a his­
torical look at past issues would publicize both the 
request for submissions and the library archives.

C om m em orating im p o rta n t occurrences is a 
common way to create an exhibit for a short but 
meaningful time period. Historical events of inter­
national im portance, such as the recent celebration 
of Johann Sebastian Bach’s 300th birthday, can be 
highlighted with scores, books, records, and clip­
pings of articles about the occasion. Events of local 
or campus interest can be promoted in a similar 
manner: a campus-wide wellness day, featuring 
books on wellness juxtaposed with advertisements 
for liq u o r, junk food, tobacco and over-the- 
counter drugs can make a thought-provoking dis­
play. In this example the library capitalizes on 
publicity not only for its books but also for its peri­
odicals, an often overlooked resource for library ex­
hibits.

An electrifying exhibit

The University of California, Berkeley, Li­
brary had an exhibit this past spring on “Light­
ning, the Fire of Zeus” in two display cases out­
side th e ir P eriodicals Room. P h o to g rap h s 
captured the magnificence of an unusually in­
tense and protracted electrical storm th at rolled 
through the Bay Area in September 1984. Also 
included was a general discussion of lightning 
and some details regarding the influence of fire 
in local forests and its effect on plants and ani­
mals. The exhibit was prepared w ith the help of 
Robert M artin, a specialist in fire ecology in the 
University’s D epartm ent of Forestry and Re­
source Management.— CU News.



346 /  C&RL News

B y  S h a r o n  R o g ers

A C R L’s 46th President

A C R L ’s past year in perspective.

E very once in a while, organizations, like people, 

need to take “tim e-out” for reassessment and re­
newal. 1984-85 has been A C R L’s year to focus on 
in te rn a l goals, so th a t
the mission of the associ­
ation and the needs of its 
m e m b e rs  m a y  be 
achieved w ith enhanced 
efficiency and effective­
ness.

This keynote em p h a­
sis began w ith the design 
of the ACRL President’s 
Program  for 1985. “P ri­
orities for Academic L i­
b r a r i a n s h i p ” w as a n ­
nounced as the them e of 

Sharon Rogersa y e a r - lo n g  a c tiv ity .
A C R L  m e m b e rs w ere
asked to invest in the association by providing their 
advice on the desirability and feasibility of m oving 
fo rw ard  w ith the m any projects and activities rec­
om m ended in the 1982 Activity Model for 1990. Six 
h u n d re d  ACRL m em bers received a survey for 
their responses. They w ere also asked to provide 
dem ographic inform ation about themselves. Re­
sponses to the survey w ere presented as background

inform ation for the final priority-setting activity 
during the annual program  m eeting in Chicago in 
July. The goals of the President’s Program  w ere to:

1) establish priorities for association activities;
2) collect dem ographic and a ttitu d e inform ation 

from  a random  sam ple of m em bers and from p a r ­
ticipants at an annual m eeting to com pare sim ilari­
ties an d /o r differences betw een the general m em ­
bership and the activists w ithin the association;

3) provide basic inform ation needed for the first 
stage of A C R L’s strategic planning activity; and

4) experim ent w ith a prototype ACRL m em ber­
ship survey, to be considered for im plem entation 
on a scheduled basis.

T he P resident’s Program  is not the only example 
of the ACRL emphasis on investm ent in the associ­
ation itself. O ther illustrations, hardly exhaustive, 
include the following:

• A t the June 1984 annual m eeting the ACRL 
Board created a Strategic P lanning Task Force to 
d ra ft a five-year plan to cover 1986-1990.

• T h e  Planning C om m ittee is continuing its re­
view of ACRL com m ittees and sections to ensure 
the vitality of the existing units of the Association.

•A C R L  m em bers have just voted on a constitu­
tional change w hich, if approved, will allow for 
greater B oard representation by activity sections

challenge not only of arran g in g  a display bu t also of 
originating the foundation ideas for the exhibit. In 
such libraries the p lan n er consequently exerts as 
m uch if not m ore creative thinking and talen t in 
the initial stages of building an exhibit as in the fi­
n al stages of o rg a n iz in g  an d  la b e lin g  th e  dis­
play. ■ ■

In m any of the examples cited here the exhibit is 
perhaps not as sophisticated as one m ounted in a 
larger academ ic library. H ow ever, w ith  the lim ­
ited resources of th e sm aller academ ic lib ra ry , 
m eaningful displays w hich fulfill the goals for a 
successful exhibition p ro g ram  can be designed. 
The exhibit p lan n er in the sm aller library faces the

ACRL P r e sid e n t’s rep ort, 1 9 8 4 - 8 5