ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


542 /  C&RL News

nology it is essential to have good cooperation be­
tw een the library and the academic adm inistra­
tion, a situation th a t has worked well at Parkside.

O ther speakers at th e NIU symposium were: 
Hiroki Kato, professor of Japanese language at 
N orthwestern University, who highlighted the dif­
ferences between U.S. and Japanese academic fac­
ulty; Nancy Brown, university librarian at the Uni­
v e rsity  of S a s k a tc h e w a n , w h o  spoke on th e  
eo-existence of hierarchical and collegial govern­
ance structures in academic libraries; Joe Boissé,

university librarian at the University of C alifornia, 
Santa B arbara, who talked about collective b a r­
gaining (“its prim ary advantage is th a t it creates a 
new  pow er base of unionized lib rarian s ’); and 
Paul Vassallo, dean of library services at the Uni­
versity of New Mexico, who emphasized the neces­
sity for adequate planning strategies for academic 
inform ation systems.

N orthern Illinois is exploring the possibility of 
having another symposium on the same topic some 
tim e in the future. ■ ■

H igher E d u cation  Act revision 
du e in 1 9 8 5

By N ancy K ra n ich

N ew  York University
Chair, A C R L  Legislation C om m ittee

A C R L ’s Legislation Committee grapples with the 
definition of a “needy library. ”

T h e  Higher Education Act will expire on Sep­

tem ber 30,1985. Although the Act is subject to au ­
tom atic extension, it is highly likely to be consid­
ered for revision by th e next Congress. Several 
a tte m p ts  a t revision w e re  in itia te d  la st y ear. 
C aught in a debate over student aid, the bill never 
moved out of committee. Among the other contro­
versial parts of the bill was the College L ibrary Re­
sources Program  (H E A II-A )—a program  th a t was 
not funded at all in the FY 1984 budget.

The original purpose of Title II-A was to provide 
grants to academic libraries to assist in the m ainte­
nance and im provem ent of th eir lib rary  collec­
tions, and to enable them  to share resources and 
participate in library networks. W hile the program  
allotted only $890 per institution in FY 1983, it has 
been authorized to expend up to $10,000 per appli­

can t. Since its in cep tio n  in 1966, over 45,000 
awards have been granted, w ith an annual p artici­
pation of 2,500 academic libraries, resulting in a 
cum ulative contribution exceeding $196 million 
for acquisitions.

Congressional reluctance to continue to fund 
HEA II-A has stemmed from a belief th a t the p ro ­
gram  m ust be need-based and not just provide 
equal and m inimal sums of money to any academic 
library th a t applies for support. Indeed, m any li­
braries have benefited greatly from this program  in 
the past; those not currently m eeting even the m in­
imal standards for adequacy of library resources 
(estimated at half of all four-year college libraries 
in a recent analysis) could make significant prog­
ress tow ard upgrading their resources if funds were 
available once again. A renew ed program  could





544 /  C& RL News

also provide the necessary im petus for institutions
to raise their support for cam pus libraries, p a rtic u ­
la r ly  th o se  10% t h a t  f a ile d  to  m e e t th e
m aintenance-of-effort requirem ent w hen applying
for H E A II-A  monies during the last funding cycle.

Recently, attem pts by House Postsecondary E d ­
ucation Subcom m ittee Paul Simon and Subcom­
m ittee M em ber W illiam  F ord to develop need cri­
teria for aw arding grants did not evoke a consensus
am ong academ ic librarians. Nevertheless, Simon
rem ains com m itted to enactm ent in the 99th C on­
gress of “im proved assistance program s for college
libraries to enhance quality and to strengthen ser­
vice delivery capacity.” W ithout a m an d ate from
the profession, however, it is unlikely th a t the full
Congress w ill be convinced to reauthorize and fund
this program  w hen so m any others need support.
Therefore, it is crucial for college librarians to join
together to com m unicate the value and need for
this program  to their legislators over the next few
months.

After abandoning its proposals for revising HEA
II-A, the Subcom m ittee passed the responsibility
for proposing need criteria back to th e library com ­
m unity. ALA has worked on recom m endations for

 

 
 

 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

incorporating need criteria into Title II-A since 
1978. But devising such criteria has been a difficult 
task and, as yet, there is still no consensus on w h a t 
criteria w ould be simple, w orkable, and fair.

The ACRL Legislation C om m ittee is now w ork­
ing closely w ith the ALA W ashington Office at for­
m ulating a good w orking definition of a needy li­
b r a r y  w h ile  a n a ly z in g  lib r a r y  s ta tis tic a l d a ta  
collected by the N ational C enter for E ducation 
Statistics. The C om m ittee has sought w ide in p u t 
from th e field w hich it will use as a cross-check 
w ith the analyses of th e NCES com puter tapes. If 
q u an titativ e descriptors can be developed, they 
will be recom m ended for inclusion in any need for­
m ula to be incorporated into the legislation.

Over the next few m onths, the com m ittee will 
com plete its review of the criteria and report its 
findings to the ACRL Board and the ALA Legisla­
tio n  C o m m itte e  a t th e  M id w in te r M e e tin g  in 
W ashington. Those w ishing to contribute to the 
discussion on HEA II-A need critria should contact 
the ACRL Legislation C om m ittee C hair, Nancy 
K ranich, New York University Libraries, 70 W ash­
ington Square South, New York, NY 10012; (213) 
598-2484. ■ ■

Conference 
proceedings available

The proceedings of th e T h ird  N ational C onfer­
ence of the Association of College and Research L i­
braries, held in Seattle on April 4 -7 , have been 
published.

E d ite d  by Suzanne C. D odson, U niversity of 
British C olum bia, and G ary L. Menges, University 
of W ashington, this 414-page volum e includes the 
full text of the nine them e papers, a transcript of 
the W rap-U p Session, and the full text of the 14 al­
ternative form at papers and the 47 contributed p a ­
pers.

T he contributed papers are arranged by general 
subject areas: academ ic lib ra ria n sh ip , autom a- 
tion/bibliographic control, bibliographic instruc­
tion, collection m anagem ent, general adm inistra­
tion, an d  public services. A th ree-p ag e subject 
index allows for m ore specific location of topics.

C om plim entary copies of the proceedings have 
been sent to all full registrants who attended th e Se­
attle Conference, the them e of w hich was “Aca­
dem ic Libraries: Myths and Realities.” A free copy 
has also been sent to each organization w ith an ex­
hibit at the conference.

O thers m ay purchase copies from  ACRL at $20 
for ACRL m em bers an d  $28 for non-m em bers. 
T h e  ISBN is 0 -8 3 8 9 -6 7 8 7 -6 . S end o rd e rs  to  
ACRL/ALA, 50 E. H uron St., Chicago, IL 60611- 
2795. ■ ■

ACADEMIC LIBRARIES: 
M YTHS RND REALITIES

Proceedings of the Third National Conference of the 
Association of College and Research Libraries

April 4-7, 1984 
Seattle, Washington