ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES NEWS No. 9, October 1969 ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries, Vol. 30, No. 5 ACRL Report to Council, 1968/69 JUNE 1969 Event of the year in ACRL was the depar­ ture of one Executive Secretary and the advent of another. George M. Bailey, after having served admirably in this office for five eventful years, removed in August to the librarianship of York College of the City University of New York. After a three-month hiatus during which we were well looked after by more members of the Headquarters staff than could be enumer­ ated here, J. Donald Thomas, former associate librarian at the University of Chicago, took over the post with a will and a vigor that have served us well in the latter eight months of the year. Looking back upon this transition, we feel we came out of it in excellent condition; there were times during the experience, however, when we feared we would not. The main work of this Association was con­ ducted throughout the year by its Committees, Publications, and Sections. The balance of this report will discuss their several activities. C o m m i t t e e s Under the able chairmanship of A. P. Mar­ shall, the Audio-Visual Committee moved for­ ward with its current main preoccupation, the compilation of a handbook of guidelines for college libraries which plan to institute or re­ organize their audio-visual services. By year’s end this major task was moving rapidly toward early completion. The Committee on Community Use of Aca­ demic Libraries, chaired by E. J. Josey, com­ pleted analyzing responses to its extensive sur­ vey of community use of junior college libraries and began the preparation of its report for pub­ lication. Guided by chairman John P. McDonald, the Committee on Cooperation with Educational and Professional Organizations continued its good work of establishing personal contact with such varied agencies as the American Council of Learned Societies, the Engineers Joint Coun­ cil, and the Asia Foundation, and of acquaint­ ing their officers with the programs, purposes, priorities, and prospects of ACRL. Now completing its fourteenth year, the Committee on Grants accomplished its tradi­ tional task of distributing small sums to college libraries, totalling this year some $63,550 to seventy-six institutions. In addition, chairman H. Vail Deale led the group through a salutary period of self–scrutiny in an effort to rationalize the grants program in accord with several re­ cent modifications in the environment in which it functions. Past President Katharine M. Stokes’ Commit­ tee on Library Services at midyear handed over to the recently established AASL/ACRL Committee on Instruction in the Use of Li­ braries its concern for student library orienta­ tion and began addressing itself to extended service possibilities inherent in the development of library networks. Major among the year’s concerns for the Publications Committee was the identification of nominees for the editorships of three of the As­ 314 sociation’s four publication series: College & Research Libraries, the Monograph Series, and the Microform Series. Chairman Mark Gorm­ ley reports that all three changes in editorship have now been successfully negotiated. The Committee on Standards found itself moving major projects ahead on three fronts: (1 ) revision of the Standards for Junior College Libraries; (2 ) revision of the Standards for Col­ lege Libraries; and (3 ) an approach jointly with the Association of Research Libraries to the problems of standards for university li­ braries. Veteran chairman Norman Tanis indi­ cates substantial progress on all three tasks. The Joint AAC-ÀCRL Committee on College Libraries, under the chairmanship of Richard Harwell, converted its previous occasional cir­ cular letter on library problems to college presi­ dents into a full-fledged periodical, College Li­ brary Notes. Initial reaction to this new peri­ odical, which is prepared by ACRL and pub­ lished by the Association of American Colleges, has indeed been gratifying. Also in the course of the year the AAC sought ACRL advice in several other library matters through this joint committee. The Joint AASL–ACRL Committee on In­ struction in the Use of Libraries, with James F. Govan in the chair, concentrated its efforts on the problem of educating college students pre­ paring for careers in teaching in better methods of library utilization for instructional purposes. Publications The Association maintains four serial publica­ tions, Choice, College & Research Libraries, AC RL Microform Series, and AC RL Mono­ graph Series. Choice, edited by Peter Doiren, was founded five years ago under a grant from the Council on Library Resources and is now completely self-supporting. Some 5,600 reviews appeared in its most recent volume, done by about 2,500 reviewers. Subscriptions rose 10 per cent during the past year, and advertising revenue in­ creased 40 per cent. College b Research Libraries, which I edit, is now in its thirtieth year of publication and currently appears in seventeen issues annually. It too is self-supporting. It utilized more pages of type in 1968-69 than ever before. Although Publications Officer Mary Falvey left ACRL proper during the year, she continued her good service as Managing Editor of CRL through her new assignment as head of ALA0’s Central Pro­ duction Unit. ACRL Microform Series under the editorship of Felix Reichmann revised its format, scope, and production contract during the year and ended the season at least as healthy as it be­ gan. Now appearing in microfiche rather micro­ card, this series publishes theses, reports, and other documents of interest to the academic li­ brary community. ACRL Monograph Series, under editor David Heron, produced two new publications in 1968- 69, prepared two others for publication, and ac­ cepted a fifth. Well over thirty monographs have now appeared over this imprint since its establishment. Sections Much of ACRL’s work is conducted through its vigorous Sections, of which there are five: the College Library Section, the Junior College Library Section, the Rare Books Section, the Subject Specialists Section, and the University Library Section. The College Library Section, currently chaired by Evan Ira Farber, accomplished ad­ vances in the areas of library instruction to students, in presenting the college library “mes­ sage” to several library school student bodies, and in developing better understanding of non- Western resources for undergraduate study. The Junior College Library Section, which Shirley Edsall has chaired, worked in several ways on the problems of multi-media use in junior colleges, guided the Junior College Li­ braries Information Center of ALA to its com­ pletion in May, and urged funding of its proj­ ects to survey current library practices and to establish demonstration libraries in junior col­ leges. The Rare Books Section, J. M. Edelstein, 315 chairman, restructured itself so as to accom­ modate the interests of a substantial number of old and new members of the Section con­ cerned with manuscripts and archives in gen­ eral libraries. It also continued its traditional liaison with the Bibliographical Society of America by planning a joint meeting with it near the Atlantic City Conference. The Subject Specialists Section works pri­ marily through its six Subsections, each of which comprises a close-knit body of specialist- librarians who find in their Subsection a focus for their professional energies and concerns. Chairman Thomas D. Gillies reports that the newest of these valuable subdivisions, the Asian and North African Subsection, has moved rap­ idly into a dynamic program of professional ac­ tivities which will be a source of considerable new strength to the Association. The University Library Section, which is chaired by G. F. Shepherd, Jr., is able to re­ port some meaningful progress in its efforts to resolve certain problems in the areas of ap­ propriate status for university librarians, of uni­ versity libraries in urban settings, and of exten­ sion services in universities. Conclusion In conclusion, I am pleased to report that this 14,000-member Association has had a good year. We close it with three unresolved prob­ lems which are beyond our ability to conclude, and we commit them to ALA in hopes of prompt attention to them. They are: 1) the inappropriateness of ACRL’s Subject Specialists Section to any existing division of ALA and our recommendation that it be reconstituted as a division in its own right; 2) the inadequacy of present ACRL staff in ALA Headquarters to meet the needs of this Association; 3) the need to remove the moratorium im­ posed last year on new activities, which will in our judgment throttle in a very short time what has been a vigorous, growing organization in a dynamic pro­ fessional society. We are confident that these three matters can be resolved to the mutual benefit of this Association and ALA. —David Kaser, President Association of College and Research Libraries 26 May 1969 ACRL Membership August 31, 1969 . . 13,238 August 31, 1968 . . 12,859 August 31, 1967 . 12,060 C O L L E G E & R E S E A R C H N E W S L I B R A R I E S ACRL News Issue of College & Research Libraries Editor, Richard M. Dougherty, University of Colorado Libraries, Boulder, Colorado 80302. News Editor, Michael Herbison, Casper Col­ lege, Casper, Wyoming 82601. Editorial Board: Richard D eGennaro, Harvard Uni­ versity; D avid H eron, University of Kansas; Ells­ worth Mason, Hofstra University; Fred Hein ritz, Southern Connecticut State College; W illiam Axford, Florida Atlantic University; Peter Hia tt, Indiana University. ACRL Officers, 1 9 6 9/70: President, Philip J. McNiff; Chairman, College Libraries Section, John E. Scott; Junior College Libraries Section, Ruthe Erickson; Rare Books Section, Robert J. Adelsperger; Subject Specialists Section, Marcia J. Miller; Agriculture and Biological Sciences Subsection, Howard Rovelstad; Art Subsection, Wolfgang M. Freitag; Educational and Behavioral Science Subsection, Donald Leatherman; Law and Political Science Subsection, Roy M. Mersky; Slavic and East European Subsection, Joseph Placek; University Libraries Section, Roscoe Rouse. News from the Field, Personnel profiles and notes, classified advertising, official m atter of ACRL, and other material of a timely nature is published in the News issues of College & Research Libraries. Inclusion of an article or advertisement in CRL does not constitute official endorsement by ACRL or ALA. Production and Advertising and Circulation office: 50 E. Huron S t , Chicago, Ill. 60611. Change of address and orders for subscriptions should be addressed to College & Research Libraries, for receipt at the above address, at least two months before the publication date of the effective issue. Subscription to CRL is included in membership dues to A C R L of $6 or more; other subscriptions to CRL are $10 per year. Neither subscriptions nor memberships include miscellaneous unscheduled supplements, which are available by purchase only. Retroactive subscrip­ tions are not accepted. Single journal copies are avail­ able at $1.50 each and News issues at $1.00 each from ALA Publishing Department. Indexed in Library Literature. Abstracted in Library Science Abstracts. Book reviews indexed in Book Re­ view Index. College & Research Libraries is the official journal of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association; and is published seventeen times per year—bi-monthly as a technical journal with 11 monthly News issues, com­ bining July-August—at 1201-05 Bluff St., Fulton, Mo. 65251. Second-class postage paid at Fulton, Mo.