ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries February 1988 / 91 ALAO 1 9 8 7 By D a rw y n J. B atw ay Director o f the Library Ashland College a n d J a n ic e M arotta Head, Serials and G overnm ent D ocum ents/M icroforms Ashland College The Conference of the Academic Library Association of Ohio, Columbus, October 15-16,1987. T he A cadem ic L ib ra ry A ssociation of O hio (ALAO) held its thirteenth annual meeting at Co­ lum bus on O cto b er 15-16. ALAO has a well- defined purpose and organizational structure and exercises a needed leadership role for academic li­ brarians in Ohio. ALAO emerged w ith its own identity in 1974 when it organized a preconference to the Ohio L ibrary Association’s annual meeting. In the 1981 ALAO m idw inter meeting, the Associ­ ation of College and Research Libraries’ board a p ­ proved ALAO’s request to be Ohio’s ACRL chap­ t e r . 1 In r e c e n t y e a rs, ALAO has ex ercised a statewide influence on library instruction for high school and college students.2 L ibrarians from thirty-six colleges and universi­ ties, including one retired librarian, and represent­ atives from at least four major library associations gathered for this y ear’s conference, “ 1987: The Year of the Reader. ” One of the conference’s speak­ ers, Frederic G. Cassidy, also represented the D ic­ tionary o f Am erican Regional English project. O ctober 15 served as an introduction to the m ain conference w ith an all day workshop conducted by Zena Zum eta, an attorney and ow ner/director of the Ann Arbor M ediation Center. The workshop’s them e was “M anaging W orkplace C onflict.” Its objective was to provide those who w ork in li­ braries w ith a set of skills and an ability to handle ^ e e L in d a K. H inrichs, “ALAO and O C A ,” A L A O Newsletter 9 (June 1982) :5-6. 2Ohio L ib rary Association Task Force on L i­ brary Instruction, “Prim ed for Success,” O LA Bul­ letin 56 (October 1986): 26 33. conflicts am ong personnel or departm ents. Regis­ tration was held to fifty. The m ain program began early on October 16. W hile the rem ainder of the conference’s 150 p artic­ ipants registered, a concurrent inform ation m eet­ ing was conducted for those librarians who act as liaison representatives between their own m em ber libraries and ALAO. This supported an agreem ent by ALAO officers, board members and com mittee chairs in a leadership conference on July 6 and 7 in D ayton. Members decided th a t emphasis for this year w ould be on increasing m em bership and strengthening the role of library liaisons to ALAO. L in d a L an d is, ALAO P resident (C olum bus State C om m unity College) offered a form al wel­ come to participants. This year’s program was in­ tended to be less technically oriented th an previous conferences. This was reflected in the tone set by th e in tro d u cto ry speaker, D avid Kaser (distin­ guished professor at the School of L ibrary and In ­ form ation Science, Indiana University). “A Reading Academic L ibrarian in the 21st C en­ tu ry ” was the title of Kaser’s address. This was som ewhat misleading because Kaser did not exam­ ine reading habits bu t rath er the enduring p ro b ­ lems of librarianship. He affirm ed th a t people in society are perceived to succeed w ithout using li­ braries, and these are quite often the so-called pil­ lars of society. He has found the cost and rationale for libraries to be m ajor concerns for a substantial p a rt of his career. He recalled presenting a library budget to a board of trustees meeting at Cornell University tw enty years ago. A w ealthy m em ber of the board challenged him to explain w h at the li­ 92 / C& RL News brary could do for the University th a t was w orth the cost. After tw enty years of research, adm inis­ tratio n and teaching, he contended th a t there has A preview of programs at Annual Conference in N ew Orleans The following ACRL program s have been approved for ALA Annual Conference in July. Program titles are tentative at this point, but should be generally accurate. D ate and tim e will be given in the May 1988 C & RL News. A C R L President's Program: “Fostering C re­ ativity and Innovation.” C opyright C om m ittee: “Copyright Is Still w ith Us: A Reawakening of the Issues Posed by New Technologies.” Legislation C om m ittee: “In fo rm atio n Ac- cess: Issues and A ction.” A nthropology and Sociology Section AWes­ tern European Specialists Section: “Strangers in j New Worlds: M igration Studies in Europe and A m erica.” A rt Section: “Jazz in the Arts: Photography, Film , Dance and Music Collections.” Asian and African Section: “Preservation of Asian and African M aterials.” Bibliographic Instruction Section: “Teach­ ing CD -R O M .” College Libraries Section: “Collection D e­ velopm ent Issues in the Mid-Sized and Smaller Academic L ib rary .” C o m m u n ity and Junior College Libraries Section: “ O p tic al Disk T echnology an d All T hat Jazz.” Education and Behavioral Science Section: “The Role of Libraries, Collections, and Edu- cation/Behavioral Sciences Librarians in Ac creditation Review.” Law and Political Science Section: “Infor­ m ation Policies of International Organizations: Roadblocks to Access.” Rare Books and Manuscripts Section: “Gov­ ernm ent Documents As Rare Books,” and “In ­ sider Theft and M isappropriation by Trusted Employees in L ibraries.” Science and Technology Section: “Integrated Inform ation Systems and L ibraries.” Slavic and East European Section: “New Technology for Slavic and East European Li- brarian sh ip .” University Libraries Section: “Retention of Academic/Research L ibrarians: How and W hy to keep the Staff You H ave.” W om en's Studies Section: “W om en in T hird W orld Countries: Research Trends and Collec­ tion Developm ent C hallenges.” English and Am erican Literature Discussion Group: “The American and English L iterature of the 21st C en tu ry .” not been a truly satisfactory answer. W hy libraries should exist or w hy they are w orth the cost cannot be taught. There is likewise no catechism of ques­ tions and answers for graduates of library schools th a t will enable them to answer the innum erably uninform ed questions th a t society poses about li­ braries. Q uite simply, libraries exist because people w rite books, not because people necessarily read them . The role of the 21st-century librarian will re­ m ain essentially w h at it is today. He or she will ac­ quire, organize, preserve and deliver the w ritten record. The form at of these functions m ay change, b u t the functions will endure. In response to the is­ sue of cost, Kaser suggested th a t members of the profession m ight ask society w h at it really wants from lib ra ria n s . U n fo rtu n a te ly , society o ften w ants things cheaply. Follow ing Kaser’s address, p articip an ts w ere able to select from several one-hour sessions. One of these sessions was led by W illiam J. Studer (direc­ to r of the Ohio State U niversity Libraries) and D onald L. Tolliver (director of the Kent State Uni­ versity L ibraries). The session was entitled, “Access to Inform ation: Ohio Board of Regents’ L ibrary Facilities In q u iry .” Both speakers w ere p a rt of a five-m em ber b o ard commissioned by th e Ohio Board of Regents to look into the storage and space problem in state-supported academic libraries in O hio an d to offer suggestions. T he co m m ittee looked at thirteen universities, tw o free-standing medical college libraries and fifty tw o-year cam ­ puses. Various problems th a t the com m ittee inves­ tigated as well as solutions to those problems were discussed. The most glaring problems w ere space and money. For purposes of the com m ittee’s study, space in libraries was divided into three types: low, m e­ dium and high density. Low density represents the traditional call num ber shelf order. Medium den­ sity is the com pact shelving type of storage. High density storage appeared to the com m ittee to be the way of the future for libraries to solve space prob­ lems. This type of storage does not use call num ber order for shelving. In this system, each book has a series of barcodes th a t identifies the book, its range, shelf and storage box location. This makes it possi­ ble to depart from traditional library concepts of arrangem ent and to shelve books by size. High den­ sity storage requires restricted access and is best employed for rarely used items. T ra d itio n a l shelving a rra n g e m e n t is reco m ­ m ended for those items th a t are in frequent de­ m and. One recom m endation m ade by the com m it­ tee w ith an im pact on libraries in Ohio is th a t a high density storage facility be built at the Ohio State University. O ther recom m endations to the Regents include a proposal th a t the State of Ohio impose a restriction on building traditional library spaces unless there is a definite need, collaborative efforts for storage on a regional basis am ong li­ braries, state assistance in the conversion of hold­ ings to m achine-readable form ats, th e develop- February 1988 / 93 m en t of a s ta te w id e d is trib u tio n system , monitoring of technology, and the establishment of an oversight committee. These and other recom­ mendations with discussion can be found in the com m ittee’s report available through the Ohio Board of Regents.3 Following lunch and a business meeting, partici­ pants were treated to a presentation on the Dictio­ nary of American Regional English project. Allyn E h rh a rd t (Franklin University) form ally intro­ duced Frederic G. Cassidy (University of Wiscon­ sin), chief editor of the project’s first volume.4 Cas­ sidy has helped guide the project as director-editor since 1965. His discussion highlighted the project’s history in a most entertaining and occasionally an­ ecdotal m anner, although it did not substantially enhance the information already available to li­ brarians in the first volume of the Dictionary.5 The second session of the Conference featured a particularly informative presentation on access to U.S. government information. Carol Singer (Ken­ yon College), Saragail Lynch (Ohio State Univer- 3Ohio Board of Regents Library Study Comm it­ tee, Academic Libraries in Ohio: Progress Through Collaboration, Storage and Technology (Colum­ bus: Ohio Board of Regents, September 1987). 4Frederic G. Cassidy, ed., Dictionary of A m eri­ can Regional English (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of H arvard University, 1985), v o l.l. 5Frederic G. Cassidy, Dictionary, v o l.l, “Intro­ duction,” pp. xi-xii, and “Language Changes Es­ pecially Common in American Folk Speech,” pp. xxxvi-xl. sity) and Mary Prophet (Denison University) led a session entitled, “The Tightening Noose: Decreas­ ing Access to U.S. G overnm ent In fo rm a tio n .” Their discussion centered on the concern many li­ brarians are expressing w ith the decreased access to information available from the government within the last seven years. Libraries have seen the conver­ sion to microfiche of many items formerly pub­ lished in paper form at along with the cessation of many other topics.6 However, a close look at the list points to the fact th at certain types of much needed information are quietly being retired w ithout dis­ cussion or input from the public. The major concern at the moment is the privat­ ization of the National Technical Information Ser­ vice (NTIS).7 This has not happened yet, but it is being seriously investigated. A substantial am ount of technical information distributed by this depart­ ment would cease to be available at a price th at most libraries could afford if privatization should occur. All participants were urged to communicate their concerns to their Congressmen and other members of the government in an effort to effect some positive results. The 1988 ALAO is scheduled for the first week in November in Columbus. ■ ■ 6Karen Sinkule, “Problems with Promoting Use of M icroform D o c u m e n ts ,” R Q 26 (F all 1986):21-29. 7Marilyn Moody, “The Privatization of NTIS: W h a t Are th e Im p lic a tio n s? ” R Q 26 (W inter 1986): 157-62. RESEARCH PUBLICATONS Guaranteed availability, when you want them. Journals of Science, Technology, and Medicine in microform. Every title filmed and delivered— from the first issue forward. Current subscriptions are delivered within three months of the end of the volume year, and availability of all backfiles is guaranteed. 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