ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES NEWS Enemies of Books David Taylor Head, Undergraduate Library University o f North Carolina Chapel Hill To scholars any damage or wanton destruction of library books and serials is reprehensible. By the nature of their profession and their dedication, they have respect for knowledge; and library books represent that accumulated knowledge of mankind that we call wisdom, even though many of these books may be mistaken, superseded, and far from wise. Now many are beginning to wonder whether re­ spect for books and the knowledge they represent is dying out in America in the last half of the twentieth century. A national survey taken in 1972 found that mutilation of books is a problem at almost all college and university cam­ puses.1 We thought that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was a lucky exception to that general rule. We are not. More and more mutilation is being discovered. Time after time students complain that every article that they locate through the Readers’ Guide to Periodical 318 In this issue: Enemies of Books ....................317 View from H Q ...........................319 Relator Terms for Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Cataloging ............322 Bibliographic Instruction: Library Seminars ..................326 Library Organization Development at Northeastern University .......327 Washington Hotline ...................328 News from the Field ...................330 People ...........................................332 Publications .................................339 C a len d a r........................................340 Classified Advertising .................344 College & Research Libraries News (ISSN 0 0 9 9-0 086) is published by the Association of College and Research Librar­ ies, a division of th e Am erican Library Association, as 11 monthly (com bining July-August) issues, at 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 606 11. A nnual subscription: $10. Single copies and back issues, $3.50 each. Second-class postage paid for at Chicago, Illinois, and at additional m ailing offices. Editor: George M . Eberhart, ACRL√ALA, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611; (312) 944 -67 80. President ACRE David C. Weber. Executive Director, ACRE Julie Carroll Virgo. P roduction and c irc u latio n offic e : 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. Display advertising should be sent to Leona Sw¡ech, Advertising Traffic Coordinator, ALA. at above address. Send classified ads to ACRL. Change of address and subscription orders should be addressed to College & Research Libraries News, for receipt at the above address at least two months be­ fore the publication date of the effective issue. Inclusion of an article or advertisement in C&RL News does not constitute official endorsem ent by ACRL or ALA. A partial list of the services indexing or abstracting the con­ tents of C&RL News includes: Current Contents: Social & Be­ havior Sciences: Current Index to Journals in Education: In­ form ation Science Abstracts: Library & Inform ation Science Abstracts: Library Literature: and Social Sciences Citation In­ dex. To th e p o s tm a ster: Please send undeliverable copies to ACRL, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. © A m e ric a n Library Association 1981. All material in this jo urnal subject to copyright by the Am erican Library Associa­ tion may be photocopied for the noncomm ercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement. Literature has been cut out of the periodical col­ lection in the Undergraduate Library. By a lucky chance, however, we have been able to dem onstrate that the mutilation is not new and not only an U n d erg rad u ate L ibrary problem. In 1978 the bound copies of Sports Il­ lustrated were transferred from the Wilson Li­ brary Periodicals D epartm ent to Undergrad. The next year a donor gave us a second copy of sev­ eral volumes. We know that those copies were in perfect condition two years ago. A recent survey of copy ones and copy twos in the 1970 and 1972 volumes reveals: Mutilations Copy One Copy Two 1970 (25 issues examined) 7 2 1972 (13 issues examined) 9 2 We can assume from this small sample that mutilation has been occurring for some time and only came to our attention when the damage had accumulated to a certain proportion. Less noticeably, another kind of damage has b een accum ulating in th e lib rary collections. Books, not so subject to the razor as periodicals, are more subject to underlining and marginal comments. Fifty-three of one h u ndred U nder­ graduate Library books surveyed in April had b een m arked by read ers w ith p en cil or pen. Some underlined books eventually are ruined and must be discarded or replaced. Most are merely made esthetically displeasing and distracting to readers. Reading an underlined book is like lis­ tening to a scratched or warped record. It b e­ comes hard to concentrate on the original con­ tent. Is the library the victim of teaching methods which inadvertently teach disrespect for books and periodicals? A whole generation of students seems to have been raised clipping pictures from periodicals for elementary school projects. They have also been taught to bring out key ideas with a back hand slash of yellow or pink hi-liner. It is very possible that some students or even faculty m em bers no longer know how to read a page without a pen or pencil in hand to pick out the high spots. They may underline instinctively and thoughtlessly in books that are not th e ir own. The results are the same as if the marks were callously intended to show contempt for all others who m ust read the volume afterward. No one else can ever read that book as the author wrote it. T he u n d e rlin e d p h rase s will ju m p o u t at readers destroying their rhythm and distracting them in their attempts to comprehend the mean­ ing of the words. Another perplexing problem to the library is the incidence of vandalism. Signs in the Wilson Library stack addition keep disappearing, appar­ ently to take up new residence on dorm room 319 walls. Everyone is familiar with the graffiti that grows like a fungus on public rest room walls. That it bloomed as fast and as virulently as it has in the new stack addition is discouraging and sur­ prising. What is it in human nature that must foul a place it inhabits before it feels comfortable in it? It is the side of humans brought to vivid life by the orcs in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord o f the Rings— those beings who scarred and destroyed every­ thing they touched, who could be tracked across the countryside by the detritus and filth and bro­ ken things they left in a broad trail behind them. Will the people who write in library books and cut the pages or steal the signs be the same ones who leave their beer cans and potato chip bags in Grand Teton National Park? This orcishness of human beings is an expen­ sive problem to the library, the solution for which the library is still searching. W hatever steps are taken to protect the library buildings, furnishings, and collections, it appears that more vigilance will be required, more of a public rela­ tions effort will be necessary, and that penalties for culprits will need to be strictly enforced. It is also undoubtedly true that an indignant, angry faculty and student body will be the libraries’ best allies in the fight against the enem ies of books. 1Clyde Hendrick & Marjorie Murfin, “Project Library Ripoffi A Study of Periodical Mutilation in a University Library,” College & Research Li­ braries 35 (1974): 402-11. See also Dana Weiss, “Book Theft and Book Mutilation in a Large Urban University Library,” College I? Research Libraries, 42 (1981): 341-47. Editor’s Note: This contribution originally ap­ peared in the May, 1981, issue o f Library Notes, published by the University o f North Carolina Library, Chapel Hill. The View from HQ C. B rigid Welch ACRL Program Officer Editors Note: Written in response to membership requests, this column features news from ACRL headquarters and discusses features o f the office’s operations. In 1980 and 1981 ACRL initiated two new pro­ grams in continuing education and bibliographic instruction. This column summarizes the direc­ tion th ese program s have taken and the plans for th e ir fu tu re developm ent, and will point out several ways in which members may become involved. Continuing education courses at the ALA An­ nual Conference in San Francisco and at the ACRL National Confer­ ence in Minneapolis are am ong th e first steps toward establishment of C. B rigid Welch the long-range program of continuing education mandated by the ACRL Board of Directors in June 1979. The program’s goal is to provide quality continuing education at a reasonable cost to ACRL members. Short, concentrated courses will include topics from the following five subject areas: manage­ m ent, library skills, technology u p d ate, the academ ic en v iro n m en t, and professional d e ­ velopment. These short courses (one to two days in length) will feature an intensive treatment of a particular topic, thus enabling the participants to gain more than an overview of the subject. In order to facilitate and enhance the educational experience of the participants, courses will build upon one another, enrollment will be kept low (35 registrants maximum), and specific levels of background and experience will be required. A proven means of providing quality, cost- effective continuing education, the Medical Li­ brary Association’s continuing education program has been adopted as ACRL’s model. The ACRL continuing education program will utilize, like MLA’s program , stan d ard ized instructional materials—course outlines and exercises, syllabi, bibliographies—for each course. ACRL will con­ tract with qualified course designers to develop the instructional materials; a network of instruc­ tors at the national and regional level will be asked to teach the courses. This approach reduces the design costs frequently incurred with each continuing education course offering and at the same tim e increases th e accessibility of the courses to ACRL members. C u rren t work on th e continuing education program s development includes identification of qualified course designers as well as instructors from the academic library and information science community. Planning is underway for courses to be offered prior to the ALA Annual Conference in Philadelphia. Proposed topics include writing