ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries September 1984 / 417 F rom Lim a to R eading: T he great lib rary visit B y C harles H a n so n L im a Campus Librarian Ohio State University A A U.S. librarian compares notes w ith his British counterpart. short article in College and Research Libraries News, “Visit a London L ibrary” (April 1984, p. 187), h ig h lig h ted an excellent o p p o rtu n ity for American librarians to visit one of the m any li­ braries in the greater London area. I found the pro­ cedure for arranging a visit to be simple and expe­ dient. After w ritin g the L ib rary Association to inform the director of the days I would be in the London area, I received a w ritten confirm ation of my appointm ent w ith the chief librarian of the University of Reading. Precise inform ation was provided for the day and tim e, the contact person, and the telephone num ber of two people, E dw ard D udley at th e L ib ra ry Association an d Jam es Thompson at the university, in case my plans were altered. I w anted my visit to an academic library to be as productive as possible; therefore, I specified in my le tte r to th e L ib ra ry A ssociation m y areas of in te re st— a u to m a tio n , a d m in istra tio n , records m anagem ent, and supervision—as well as describ­ ing briefly the collection size and student popula­ tion of the Ohio State University-Lima Cam pus. It was my good fortune to visit the University of Reading Library, located about 35 miles from L on­ don, a medium-sized academic library w ith ap­ proxim ately 620,000 volumes, a staff of 80, a stu­ dent population of 5800, and three departm ent (branch) libraries—music, education, and agricul­ ture. I was doubly fortunate in th a t the chief li­ b ra ria n , James Thom pson, spent several hours w ith me in an inform al, conversational presenta­ tion about libraries and librarianship. This inform al discussion focused on m any areas of library adm inistration, b u t it was the autom a­ tion project, a cooperative adventure w ith the Southwestern Academic L ibrary Cooperative Au­ tom ation Project (SWALCAP) w ith a m ainfram e com puter in Bristol, th a t seemed to be the center of much library staff effort. Since joining in 1979, the Reading L ibrary has worked on conversion of the existing collection to au to m ated entries, is c u r­ rently using an autom ated circulation system, and hopes eventually to have an online catalog (all cat­ alog entries since 1980 are on microfiche). The sys­ tem is not used at present for interlibrary loan, w hich is handled by telex system w ith the British L ibrary Lending Division in Yorkshire. D uring the tour of the library, during w hich the new addition to the library was described, I discov­ ered the library to be busy, in some areas crowded (hence the need for a new addition). There is a pleasant archives area and a large num ber of rare books, all supervised by a records m anagem ent team which has published Records M anagem ent in British Universities, a guide w ith possible applica­ tion for American universities. One of the archi­ vists pointed out to me th a t the Reading Library 418 / C&RL News h ad one of the finest Samuel Beckett collections, and he noted th a t one of the English scholars from the OSU-Lima Cam pus had utilized the Reading collection in his research on Beckett. Not supri- singly, one of the busiest areas of the library is pho­ tocopy services, w ith over one million copies pro­ duced annually. The chief librarian m aintained th a t reference and reader services w ere the key ele­ ments of library service, th a t emphasis was placed on m aking the library user friendly, all of which seemed evident on our tour. W hile it w ould be possible to elaborate on simi­ larities and differences of my library com pared to T h e U n iv ersity of R e a d in g L ib ra ry , I sh o u ld quickly point out th a t the best p a rt of the visit was th e inform al, direct contact w ith another library adm inistrator. T h at James Thom pson is a recog­ nized au th o rity on libraries, a u th o r of Library Power and The E n d o f Libraries, was secondary to our lively conversation involving space utilization, cooperative sharing of resources, staffing, and ca­ reer development. As I came aw ay from the visit carrying annual reports, a records m anagem ent handbook, and several guides to the library, I felt th a t this sharing of inform ation helps to create a sort of universal librarianship, a m eeting of minds th a t spans m any miles. ■ ■ Putting college libraries online On M onday, June 25, the College L ibrary Sec­ tion and the ACRL/BIS C om puter Concerns Com ­ m ittee sponsored an unusual joint m eeting th a t consisted of discussion groups m eeting sim ultane­ ously for tw o separate sessions to talk about “P u t­ ting College Libraries O nline.” For the last few years, members of CLS have expressed an interest in a discussion form at for their meetings—a w ay in w hich problems of current concern can be aired and solutions considered in a group exchange of opinion. In this program we attem pted the first experi­ m ent w ith this idea. The audience was broken up into ten discussion groups; after the discussions a w rap -u p leader coordinated and synthesized the discoveries which the various groups had made. Each group dealt w ith the program topic from a different perspective. Tim e was allotted for each of the attendees to participate in discussions at two different tables. The group leaders and their topics were: Sharon M ader (Memphis State University) on end user searching; K atherine Branch (Welch Medical Li brary) on teaching online searching concepts; Mi chael Haeuser (Gustavus Adolphus College) on au tom ation financing; M artha L aw ry (Ohio State University) on planning for an online catalog; Bar b a ra W ittkopf (University of Florida) on reference service online; P at A rnott (University of D elaw are) on CAI programs; C harlotte C ubbage (Northwest ern University) on user education; M arianne G rant (Rutgers University) on planning for online ser vices; Gail Law rence (University of Arkansas at L ittle Rock) on tra in in g end users; a n d S an d y W ard (Stanford University) on teaching students to use DIALO G . The program was very successful and attracted approxim ately 150 people, most of whom stayed for the d u ra tio n .—Joann H. Lee, Head, Reader Services, L ake Forest College, Illinois (program moderator). ■ ■ ACRL Publications in Librarianship needs your manuscripts ACRL Publications in Librarianship, a series de­ voted to scholarly monographs in academ ic lib rari­ anship, has issued over 40 volumes since 1952. M any of these studies represent distinguished con­ tributions to the history, theory, and practice of ac­ adem ic librarianship. T he editorial b o ard invites authors of book- length studies to subm it m anuscripts for review. Proposals for m anuscripts in progress are welcome and should be accom panied by an outline of the contents. The submission of dissertations is encour­ aged; however, m any m ay require substantial revi­ sion by the author (see the guidelines for converting a dissertation to a book on the following page). M anuscripts will be acknowledged and read by at least tw o members of the editorial board. M anuscripts related to the following topics are particularly welcome: adm inistration of college li­ braries; com puter applications; collection assess­ m en t; m a n a g e m e n t of reference services; self- directed studies; and staff development. Relevance, lasting value, and superior w riting describe the m anuscripts th a t we are seeking. Ad­ dress inquiries and proposals for publication to: Ar­ th u r P. Young, D ean of University Libraries, Uni­ versity of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881-0803; (401) 792-2666. ■ ■ September 1984 / 419 H ow to convert a dissertation or thesis to a book E dito r’s note: These are guidelines adopted by the A C R L Publications in Librarianship Series E dito­ rial Board. A m anuscript designed to com m unicate mastery of the research process to an examining com mittee frequently fails to satisfy the requirem ents of a publisher. Authors subm itting theses and disserta­ tions to a publisher may anticipate requests for ex­ tensive modifications of their m anuscript if it is ac­ cep ted for p u b lic a tio n . In d eed , some effort at revision prior to submission will enhance the likeli­ hood of acceptance. A book is addressed to an audience th a t is very different from the audience to whom a thesis, dis­ sertation, or other research report is addressed. These differences include level of interest, prior knowledge of the subject, and objectives in reading College & Research Libraries article receives an award Nancy E. Gwinn and Paul H. Mosher re­ ceived the 1984 ALA Resources and Technical Services Division’s Resources Section/Rlackwell North America Scholarship Award for their a r­ ticle, “C oordinating Collection Development: T he RLG C o n sp ectu s,” w hich a p p e a re d in C & R L ’s M arch 1983 issue. The aw ard was p re­ sented on June 25 at the RTSD Membership Meeting in Dallas. This annual aw ard, consisting of a citation and a $1,000 scholarship, donated by Blackwell N orth America to the library school of the w in ­ ner’s choice, is “presented to the au th o r(s) of an outstanding m onograph, published article, or original paper in the field of acquisitions, col­ lection development and related areas of re­ sources development in libraries.” The authors have chosen to have the scholarship donated to the University of Michigan School of Library Science. Nancy E. G w inn is assistant director for col­ lections m anagem ent at the Smithsonian Insti­ tution, and Paul H. Mosher is associate director for collection development at Stanford Univer­ sity. The aw ard citation described their article as “a thorough and complete explanation, includ­ ing background and philosophy, of a m ethod for detailed and standardized description of li­ brary collections. Developed for use by the Re­ search L ibraries G roup, th e m ethod can be used by all types and by various groupings of li­ braries.” the work. Major revisions are usually necessary, even to the most effective works. Revisions w hich are often required include dele­ tions, reorganization, and the w riting of additional m aterial. Some examples: • T h e style of a dissertation frequently requires the repetition of m aterial from sectioh to section. In m any cases this redundancy can be elim inated. Tables often should be deleted or converted into an explanatory narrative. •M an y of the fine points concerning prior re­ search or methodology on the subject should be placed in appendices or footnotes. •A bstractions m ust be carefully related to the concrete w orld through more extensive in terp reta­ tion th an w ould be necessary in a dissertation or thesis. The editorial board of ACRL Publications in L i­ brarianship encourages authors wishing to subm it theses and dissertations for publication to read the following items prior to submission. Olive Holmes, “Thesis to Book: W hat to Get Rid of,” Scholarly Publishing 5 (July 1974):339-49; 6 (October 1974): 40-50. Olive Holmes, “Thesis to Book: W h at to Do w ith W h at Is L eft,” Scholarly Publishing 6 (January 1975): 165-76. Constance Greaser, “Im proving the Effective­ ness of Research W ritin g ,” Scholarly Publishing 11 (October 1979):61-71. Elsi M. Stainton, “A Bag for A uthors,” Scholarly Publishing 8 (July 1977):335-45. ■ ■ Pick a number, any number On May 14, 1984, Subcommittee V of the N ational Inform ation Standards O rganization (Z39) m et to consider the developm ent of a standard num bering scheme to identify infor­ m ation organizations—libraries, inform ation centers, b ib lio g rap h ic netw orks, do cu m en t providers, etc. This identifier will be used to fa­ cilitate the exchange of inform ation products and services. Subcommittee V needs inform ation from li­ braries on existing identification systems and the guidelines used for the construction of these codes. Some current examples include the NUC symbols, ZIP codes, or codes assigned by n a­ tional, regional, or local networks. Send any in­ form ation, ideas, or names of contact people to the chair of Subcommittee V: M arjorie Bloss, Assistant D irector, Illinois Institute of Technol­ ogy, University Libraries, Chicago, IL 60616.