ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries June 1985 / 301 College librarians seek n a tio n a l advice B y W illiam A. M offett Chair, A C R L College Libraries Section College librarians will experiment with a national council at the AC RL chapter level. T he College L ibraries Section is trying some- thing new. In anticipation of the ACRL strategic planning process as well as in an attem pt to forge links betw een the CLS E x e c u tiv e C o m m itte e a n d college lib ra ria n s a c tiv e a t th e A C R L c h a p te r level, th e sec­ tion is currently engaged in setting up a national advisory council. It will have its first m eeting at ALA Conference in C hi­ cago on Saturday m orn­ in g , Ju ly 6. S ectio n members who have been looking for ways to be­ come more involved in W illiam A. M o ffettthe life of the section are urged to attend or w rite for a report. W e recently invited presidents and chairs of the various ACRL chapters to nom inate representa­ tives from am ong the college librarians already ac­ tive in th eir chapters. W e have deliberately al­ lowed for a good deal of self–selection too, because the prim ary consideration is one’s willingness to as­ sist us in m aking the section m ore effective in m eet­ ing the interests of its membership. W hy is th a t im portant? If the CLS does not suc­ ceed in becoming more responsive to the needs of college libraries, who then will represent the inter­ ests of the small and medium-sized institutions? The problem of better representation in ACRL, w hich has increasingly tended to reflect the con­ cerns of its other constituencies, is a particularly difficult one for our section to solve, constituted as it is of a large and extremely diverse membership. It has been virtually impossible to get the m em ber­ ship as a whole caught up in the activities of the sec­ tion, especially as the work of the section has tra d i­ tionally been conducted alm ost entirely at the annual and m idw inter meetings which the great m ajority of members do not attend. Developing new leaders has been haphazard at best because the system discourages m any good librarians from ever getting involved. There has been absolutely no con­ nection between the activities of college librarians at the chapter level and the national level, and no very clear expression of our constituency’s needs and expectations. The needs are probably substan­ tial; the expectations are not. W e don’t even know each other very well, m uch less w h at we can expect of one another. W e are especially aw are of the problem when participating in the annual nom ination and elec­ tion of executive com m ittee officers. W ith little n a ­ tional visibility for college lib rarian s, th ere has been a tendency for the membership to rely on nam e recognition, w ith the predictable bias to­ w ards directors over rank-and-file librarians, and 302 / C &R L News towards those affiliated w ith better-known institu­ tions in thickly populated regions, expecially the Midwest and Middle Atlantic. A truly representa­ tive national council might enable us to overcome this tendency. We think it would also respond to expressions of concern from a num ber of members who have felt left out, or who have charged th a t the programs sponsored by the executive committee are not rele­ vant. Participation in the national advisory council m ight also provide a means of m aintaining an ac­ tive role for persons who have previously served on CLS committees and task forces. All too often in the recent past these people have dropped out of to u c h , an d w h a te v e r th ey le a rn e d from th e ir former participation has been lost to the incum ­ bent leadership. The purpose of the council and the future of the section will be the only items on the agenda for the membership meeting in Chicago on July 6. If w hat is planned as a three-year experiment proves to have the value m any of us think it has, we will eventually take the steps necessary to am end our by-laws and make it a perm anent body. Incidentally, we are joining the university li­ brary section in sponsoring a program on July 7 en­ titled, “Defining the Academic L ib rarian ,” and the CLS Executive Com m ittee meets on July 9. Kibitzers are cordially welcome. W e hope you’ll come. ■ ■ ★ ★ ★ News from the f ie ld Acquisitions • The Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, has acquired the im portant m anuscript library of the now defunct C hina Trade Museum, formerly of Milton, Massachusetts. The gift consists of over 50 linear feet of manuscripts plus a large collection of graphic and photographic m aterial and 42 anno­ tated navigation charts. A large segment of the ac­ quisition, spanning the years 1732-1930, consists of the papers of three generations of the Forbes fam ­ ily: Robert Bennet, Francis Blackwell, and Francis M urray Forbes, Boston merchants. The collection surveys the C hina Trade from various points of view. The Samuel Austin papers provide a good in­ sight into the C hina m arket, while those of C aptain Eben Linnell record the trade and times from the quarterdeck. Samuel Shaw, first American consul at C a n to n , presents the view from C h in a , the Lewis W harf papers and Thomas Lewis papers re­ veal the Boston scene, while the papers of Charles A. Tomes relate his work as an agent for Russell and Company. • N o rth ern K entucky U niversity, H ig h lan d Heights, has received an extensive collection of state and national historical literature from news­ paper publisher W arren Shonert. The Presidential Signature Series consists of portraits and photos of every President from W ashington to Reagan, ac­ com panied by authenticated signatures and p er­ sonal or biographical notes. M em orabilia from past Presidential and Congressional cam paigns add color and scope. The 1,500-title book collec­ tion contains Civil W ar literature, Kentucky his­ tory, and works on Abraham Lincoln, and is richly enhanced by several rare works, including John Filson’s Discovery, Settlem ent, and Present State o f K entucky. The acquisition also includes num er­ ous Civil W ar artifacts, many from the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky. • The University of California, Los Angeles, has acquired a large num ber of books and documents, including much scarce and unique m aterial, from the estate of the late H an Yu-shan, the first profes­ sor of Chinese history at UCLA. The collection is H an ’s personal library which he had started as a student in China sixty years ago. Highlights of the collection include: 500 exam ination papers and other papers related to C hina’s civil service system dating from the 17th to the 19th centuries; m ateri­ als describing individual private academies which prepared many candidates for the civil service ex­ aminations; a complete set of printing blocks for the D iam ond Sutra (Chin-kang ching), one of the most highly regarded of the Buddhist scriptures; 24 m anuscript patents from a superior conferring a prom otion or other m ark of distinction on someone for outstanding achievement in a scholarly or h u ­ m an field of endeavor, such as unusual filial piety; and a 1775 Japanese reprint of an early Chinese herbal, the Cheng-lei pen–ts’ao. • The University of California, Santa B arbara, has b een given a c o lle c tio n of m aps of th e 1 6 th -1 8 th centuries by Peggy A. M axim us, of Santa Barbara. Printed from copper plate engrav­ ings, the 310 maps of various regions of Europe w ere d ra w n by 12 m aster m apm akers, am ong them G erhardus M ercator, W illem Blaeu, and A braham Ortelius. Many of the maps originally had been published as p art of bound atlases and later removed. • The University of Michigan Library, Ann Ar­