ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


235

Dallas Conference Report
Dallas greeted us with a blazing Texas sun, a 

new co n v en tio n  c e n te r , sev e ral s p e cta cu la r 
hotels, and a conference schedule crammed with 
activities. We had everything at Dallas except the 
time to do everything.

The Rare Books and Manuscripts Section led 
off ACRL activity down in San Antonio, Texas, 
with a preconference that attracted 190 persons. 
T he preconference featured papers (on topics 
such as creating an OCLC record for the G uten­
berg Bible or buying “sleepers” at the London 
auction galleries) and offered five informal work­
shops. The social activity culminated in a cocktail 
party at the Alamo.

Back in Dallas, the Bibliographic Instruction 
Section drew 225 people to the campus of South­
ern Methodist University for a three-day precon­
ference on library instruction. Participants re ­
ceived room, board, and participation in a work­
shop of their choice (six were offered) for the bar­
gain cost of seventy dollars.

At the Hyatt Regency Hotel (a crystal palace), 
fifty-nine people attended the Continuing Educa­
tion Comm ittee s first preconference (on work­
shop planning). Thus encouraged, the committee 
is looking forward to holding a second preconfer­
ence next year on staff development.

At the ALA C onference itself, the big news 
was council’s decision to increase dues to fifty 
dollars (subject to membership approval by a mail 
vote).

From the A CRL Board came the announce­
ment that Jay Poole of the University of Texas at 
Austin Libraries had been selected as the editor 
of C h o ice. And at a special reception given by the 
Baker & Taylor Company, Henriette Avram and 
Frederick Kilgour were named corecipients o f the 
second A CRL Academic/Research Librarian of 
the Year Award.

Two Dallas events drew A CRL m embers in 
throngs. One was the Saturday night music and 
dancing at the conference reception at the Dallas 
City Plaza. U nd eterred  by the nin ety -d eg ree 
heat, hundreds of academic librarians danced to 
the music of the Lone Star Express. While the 
music and free refreshments inspired the gyra­
tions of the dancers, a helicopter hovered over­
head in the night sky. It blinked out the message 
that Dallas was available as the future home of 
the National Periodicals Center.

In the c o o le r atm o sp h ere o f the Fairm o n t 
Hotel on Monday afternoon, 750 people crowded 
into th e  A C R L  Program  M e e tin g  to h ear 
sociologist Hugh Cline and psychologist Loraine 
Sinno tt talk about their use o f social scien ce 
techniques to study collection development activ­
ities at seven academic libraries. At the conclu­
sion of the program, the crowd moved on to the

ACRL reception to enjoy an impressive spread of 
food and drink provided by Carrollton Press. 
Among the luminaries of the profession present 
were Daniel Boorstin and Quincy Mumford.

The Community and Junior College Libraries 
Section held one o f the nearly twenty ACRL pro­
gram events sponsored by ACRL sections, com­
m ittees, and discussion groups at Dallas. The 
community college librarians put on a day of ac­
tivity that included a talk by Dr. John Roueche 
on the needs of users, a presentation on grants 
applications, discussion sessions, and a dinner at 
the Sheraton Dallas.

I f  you w eren’t with us at Dallas, please put 
it on your agenda to join us next year in New 
York.

E d it o r s  note: T erry B ela n g er, J o le e n  B o c k , an d  
C a ro ly n  D u sen bu ry  kin d ly  su b m itte d  news f o r  
this article. ■■

RLG HAS FOUR 
N EW  M EMBERS

Four universities joined the Research Libraries 
Group (RLG) of Stanford, California, during the 
su m m er. T h e  four are Brigham  Young, 
Dartmouth, Rutgers, and the University of Iowa. 
With these additions, the total m embership o f 
the consortium now stands at eleven.

In June RLG received $600,000 in foundation 
gran ts. T h e C h a rle s A. D ana Fo u n d atio n o f 
G reenw ich, C onnecticut, and the William and 
Flora Hewlett Foundation of Palo Alto, Califor­
nia, each awarded $300,000 to RLG to help sup­
port the expansion o f its computerized biblio­
graphic system . T h ese gifts bring the total in 
grant support received by RLG since the begin­
ning of the year to $2,600,000. ■■

LIBRARIANS BARGAIN 
WITH BOSTON UNIVERSITY

At Boston University, librarians represented by 
the Service Employees International Union began 
co ntract negotiations with the university this 
summer. A year ago, twenty Boston University 
librarians elected Local 925 of the Service Em ­
ployees to represent them. The university agreed 
to bargain with the local in April of 1979, but has 
continued to press a lawsuit claiming that the li­
brarians’ bargaining unit is inappropriate. ■■