ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 206 / C&RL News strength. In a year when the University profited from a significant enrollment increase, our budget received double the highest increase received by the colleges of the University. It also was the largest increase in funding received by the library in its re cent history. Our visibility throughout the year was enhanced by continued media, especially local tel evision, coverage of our “Year of the Reader” pro grams. Secondly, our faculty and staff gained con siderable expertise in developing and sustaining promotional activities. Academic libraries should look at National L i brary Week as an excellent opportunity to increase library awareness on the campus. While this could certainly be done through various promotions at other times of the year, I think the academic li brary can benefit from: •the national attention being centered on li braries that week; •from the materials and other support provided by ALA in its efforts to promote National Library Week; •from the activities simultaneously occurring that week in public and school libraries; •and finally, from the possibility of joining with public and school librarians to cooperatively develop National Library Week programs benefit ing all kinds of libraries. E d itor‘s note: This is a revision o f a presentation given at the National Library W eek W orkshop, ALA Midwinter M eeting‚ San Antonio. January 11,1988. A visit to the National L ib rary of New Zealand By Ja n e Kemp C irculation/Reference Librarian Luther College Less than a year old, New Zealand’s library is a national treasure. D u r i n g a trip to New Zealand for the holidays I had planned to visit several academic libraries in the various cities in which I would be staying. Ly dia Klim ovitch, general secretary of the New Zealand Library Association, had suggested a range of libraries to visit in the course of our corre spondence over the previous months. However, during our Air New Zealand flight, a program was aired over the plane’s sound system in which dep uty librarian Adam Smith of the National Library of New Zealand was interviewed. His responses in the interview made this newly opened national li brary sound so interesting and impressive that I re solved to alter my travel arrangements so as to be in Wellington for a day to visit that facility. Although the National Library of New Zealand was established by Act of Parliament in 1965, it was not completed until July 1987. At the site se lected for the new library, only a hole in the ground remained for many years for various reasons— April 1988 / 207 The National Library o f New Zealand. strikes of construction workers and changes in gov ernment and fund allocations were some of the jus tifications given for the slowness of construction. However, when it opened last year, the facility brought three existing libraries together under one roof. The Alexander Turnbull Library, a private li brary given to the nation in 1918, housed impor tant volumes of New Zealand material, newspa pers, manuscripts, paintings, and prints. The National Library Service, begun in 1938 to provide books for people in country areas, and the General Assembly Library, which had served the govern ment of New Zealand since the 1860s and was lo cated in the heart of Wellington in the midst of the government complex, were combined. The responsibilities of the National Library were also laid out in the 1965 Act: to collect, preserve, and make available recorded knowledge, particu larly that relating to New Zealand; to supplement and further the work of other libraries in New Zealand; and to enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand while enriching its cultural in terchanges with other nations. The maori name of the National Library, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, the well or spring of knowledge, symbol izes these functions. The library building itself was designed by the Ministry of Works and Development and finally built over a period of 13 years at a cost of $NZ 50 million. It is climate controlled and protected from fire with a system that “floods” an area with inert gas to smother fire. Most of the books are stored on the lower floors (there are six levels) and are deliv ered on a computer-controlled monorail delivery system that snakes its way through the building. The system runs both horizontally and vertically at about 5 miles per hour. Currently the collection consists of 5 million books, microfiche, and single-issue journals that were collected via purchase, donations, and be quests, and legal deposit. The library has copies of almost everything published in New Zealand and so can readily provide copyright evidence if needed. In addition, an extensive sound and music collection of old records, early recordings of speeches on subjects such as the royal visit in 1953, and the New Zealand oral history archive are being enlarged. A paper preservation program has also been instituted to conserve early papers and books. The staff of 320 in Wellington plus additional staff in three regional centers and 13 district centers are directed by the National Librarian. This person in turn is responsible to the Minister of Education. The library is divided into six divisions: Collections Management, Reference and Interlibrary Loan, Corporate Services, New Zealand Bibliographic Network (NZBN), Regional Services, and the Turnbull Library. The NZBN was of particular interest since it is a computerized catalog and information retrieval network for the nation established in 1982. De signed in the U.S. by the Boeing Aircraft Company for the Washington State Library Network, the li brary purchased a license to use the system. It con tains records of books and other materials held at the National Library as well as other major public, 208 / C&RL News university, government department, or private company libraries in New Zealand. Over 500,000 records per year are added to the network. The NZBN is regularly updated with records from the U.S. Library of Congress and the national libraries of Canada, Australia, Singapore, and Great Brit ain. Currently 54 members pay on a full member ship basis, and 106 casual members dial in on the New Zealand Post Office packet switch network. Future emphases for the National Library are to supplement its School Library Service and refer ence services to the nation’s public libraries with di rect collection management assistance. Mail ser vices to rural users are also being augmented as a result of a review that studied the needs of families without library access. In addition, increased em phasis is also being given to a program of depositing collections of books in rural area school/commun ity libraries. SATIS (Scientific and Technical In formation Service), a nationwide information ser vice offered for industry and business, is also being expanded. The goal of the National Library to be the mem ory bank of New Zealand is certainly being met. The Children’s Collections of the library include a comprehensive range of books for children and young adults written in New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain, and North America. The emphasis on publications printed in New Zealand and books that would have been read by children living in New Zealand from colonization (ca. 1800) to 1940, makes this a valuable resource for researchers. The Pictorial Collections of photographs, paintings, draw ings, p rin ts, maps, ch arts, and printed ephemera (posters, programs, greeting cards, etc.) encompass New Zealand and the Pacific from early times. In addition, the Sound and Music Centre provides collections in all media including scores from the Radio New Zealand library of orchestral and chamber music, collections of New Zealand music, and materials from the Oral History Ar chive. Browsing members of the public, researchers, genealogists, students, and tourists are all encour aged to use the facilities of this new National L i brary. Featuring the library on the “all about New Zealand” sound service channel of New Zealand’s largest air carrier gives some indication of the stat ure of this lib ra ry to the people of New Zealand. Nine university libraries attack journal inflation Directors and collection development officers from nine university libraries met January 28 in Lawrence, Kansas, to plan ways to confront the devastating impact runaway journal and other se rials prices are having on the abilities of libraries across the country to buy needed materials for fac ulty and students. Average inflation rates for serials of 12 % to 20 % were reported, depending on the mix of foreign and domestic subscriptions received by the individ ual libraries. Most alarming is the fact that these rates have been accelerating over the past few years. The continuing high increase in prices has already led to major subscription cuts and many campuses are anticipating even larger reductions over the next few months. The cuts are coming when most of the libraries are expected to support increased research as the basis for greater economic development and as their state governments strive to attract new industry. All of those present predicted that inflation will continue at current rates for at least the next few years. The major culprit is a weakened dollar mea sured against European currencies, a serious prob lem for universities where research requires heavy reliance on foreign journals. Another factor is the practice of price discrimination that many Western European publishers apply when selling their jour nals in North America— U.S. libraries pay more for a serial than their European counterparts. Also contributing to the problem is the ever increasing number of new journals being published in support of developing areas of knowledge. Whatever the causes of price increases all agreed that continued subscription cuts are inevitable and that coopera tion among university libraries is essential. As a result of the meeting, a common database will be developed listing all serial titles priced at more than $200. Each library will then indicate the titles it owns. The ultimate hope being that as fur ther subscription cuts are made, one copy of each important title will be maintained by a minimum of one library in the region. The next step will seek improved document delivery among the nine insti tutions. Outside funding may be sought for the de velopment of electronic means of document trans fer. F in ally , the participants agreed to share information on the overall problem and to cooper ate on efforts to inform local campus constituencies and funding agencies on the seriousness of the issue. Institutions represented at the Lawrence meet ing were Iowa State University, the University of Missouri-Columbia, Kansas State University, the University of Kansas, the University of Nebraska- Lincoln, Oklahoma State University, the Univer sity of Colorado, Colorado State University, and the University of Wyoming. The University of Oklahoma also plans to participate in the effort. The database development project is being coordi nated by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. From Washington to Reagan—200 Years of American History SPEECHES OF THE AMERICAN PRE E S dited by I Jan D et Podell an E d Steve N n Anzovin. T S Introduction by John Little, Associate Editor, W oodrow W ilson Papers 850pp approx. 1988. ISBN 0-8242-0761-0 $60 U.S. and Canada, $70 other countries. 180 Major Speeches by 40 U.S. Presidents Since the birth of the Republic, the great issues of Am erican history— war, peace, slavery, suffrage, taxes, and trade— have been the subjects of speeches by U.S. Presidents. Now, for the first tim e in a single volume, the m ost m em orable and im portant ad dresses of each of the 40 Presidents have been gathered to g ether in Speeches o f the Am erican Presidents. The Presidents Speak— And History is Made Covering the decisive events of each administration, Speeches o f the A m erican Presidents contains both landmark and lesser-known addresses, among them : ■ Adam s' “ The Nature o f the Federal G ove rn m e n t” ■ Harding's "The Rights o f Black Citizens.” ■ Lincoln's "G ettysburg A d dress." ■ JFK's "Ich Bin ein B erliner” speech. ■ FDR's "N othing to Fear b ut Fear Its e lf" speech. ■ Eisenhow er's "D on't Join the Bookburners” address. ■ Reagan's "E vil E m p ire " and "S tar W ars" speeches. “Politics is mostly talk, and this volume brings together many of the consequential and elevating moments of presidential rhetoric." —George F. Will A Reference Source for Everybody W ith an extensive Subject Index that highlights the recurring them es of Presidential ad dresses, Speeches o f the A m erican Presidents devotes a chapter to each President, and contains: ■ Four to ten speeches, m ost in full. ■ An introduction describing the circum stances surrounding the com position and delivery of each speech. ■ An account of each Presi dent's rise to pow er and the key events of his adm inistra tion. ■ An introductory essay on the history of Presidential speechmaking. To Order Call Toll-free 1-800-367-6770 In N ew York State call 1-800-462-6060; in Canada call collect 212-588-8400 THE H.W. WILSON COMPANY 50 University Avenue Bronx, New York 10452 212) 588-8400 9 ( MORE BANK FOR THE BUCK. W hen they have questions about banks, do you have the answers? Sheshunoff bank informa tion is bona fide bank information. That’s why over 13,000 bankers use our books and reports. 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