College and Research Libraries Bimonthly and Future Program of COLLEGE A N D RESEARCH LIBRARIES DU R I N G T H E S P R I N G of 1955 a question-naire was sent to members of A C R L asking for comments on the format and contents of C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I - B R A R I E S and for suggestions of ways for improving the journal. T h e purpose of this brief statement is to report on the results of the questionnaire. O u t of a total distribution of 5,072 blanks, 1,429, or 28% of the total, were r e t u r n e d by readers. For those who were interested enough to reply, there was a serious effort on their part to assist the Editors, and many readers provided spe- cific suggestions. Features. Practically all of the features of C & R L are considered useful by most of the readers contributing comments. T h e r e was an especially strong following for "Selected Reference Books," "New Periodicals," "Reviews," and "News f r o m the Field." Such features as "Per- sonnel" and "Statistics" claimed less in- terest. "Notes f r o m the A C R L Office" and " A C R L Minutes" were considered desirable, b u t like the reports of most meetings and actions of organizations, were of least interest. r Conflicting opinions were held by some of the members in regard to the coverage by "Personnel" and "News." Some suggested that the scope of these features was not large enough, a n d a smaller n u m b e r preferred greater selec- tion so that the presently allotted space could be used for additional articles. Although a total of 893 readers re- ported that they used "Statistics" regu- larly, 1,101 indicated that they would have no objection to their appearance in some source other than C & R L . During this year the question of the publication of the "Statistics" will be considered by the Committee on Statistics and the edi- torial staff. Format. Actually, there were only 11 comments directly concerning the for- mat of the journal. These referred to p r i n t i n g fonts and the crowded make-up of pages. It is expected that new print- ing arrangements may be accompanied by improvement in format. Particularly wanted were captions in articles and in such features as "News." Authors have sometimes in the past complained about the addition of captions to sections of their papers; they can help by supplying such divisions themselves. Attention was also called to the use of broad titles to describe articles which warrant more specific titles. Advertising. About two-thirds of the readers responding indicated that they used the advertisements for information concerning books, supplies, and other items. Only one person suggested the re- moval of advertising. Distribution of C & R L . Of the 1,042 readers who answered the queries on the use of the issues of C & R L , 539 reported that only they read their copies. T w o people read issues received by 147 mem- bers, a n d several examine those received by 356 readers. Articles. T h e largest a m o u n t of com- ment was concerned with the articles. One can only report after reading the re- marks that all articles have some inter- est for some readers. It would not be u n f a i r to state, however, that the readers uniformly requested articles which have to do with library practice. An unusually large n u m b e r were appreciative of the descriptions of operations, particularly if they were new approaches, in specific libraries. Imaginative proposals for mas- t e r i n g p r e s s i n g p r o b l e m s w e r e a l s o w a n t - e d . S u r v e y s of p r a c t i c e s i n g r o u p s of l i b r a r i e s h a d a n a p p e a l t o a l a r g e n u m - b e r of r e a d e r s , p a r t i c u l a r l y if c o n c l u s i o n s w e r e r e a c h e d o n d e s i r a b l e p r a c t i c e s . A f a i r l y l a r g e g r o u p a s k e d if m o r e a r t i c l e s a p p l y i n g t o p r o b l e m s of t h e s m a l l e r li- b r a r y c o u l d n o t b e i n c l u d e d i n f u t u r e issues. A r t i c l e s e v a l u a t i n g e q u i p m e n t w e r e r e g a r d e d as e s p e c i a l l y u s e f u l . F i v e o r m o r e r e a d e r s r e q u e s t e d a r t i c l e s o n t h e f o l l o w i n g s u b j e c t s : a c a d e m i c s t a t u s , ac- q u i s i t i o n s ( p r o b l e m s of c o l l e g e l i b r a r i e s , film l i b r a r i e s , s a l a r y i n c r e m e n t s , l i b r a r y - a d m i n i s t r a t i o n r e l a t i o n s ) , a u d i o - v i s u a l w o r k , b u i l d i n g s ( l a y o u t , f u r n i t u r e a n d e q u i p m e n t ) , c a t a l o g i n g ( c a t a l o g i n g - r e f - e r e n c e r e l a t i o n s , c a t a l o g i n g p r o b l e m s i n s m a l l l i b r a r i e s ) , c i r c u l a t i o n ( c h a r g i n g sys- t e m s f o r c o l l e g e l i b r a r i e s , c o m p a r a t i v e m e t h o d s ) , c o l l e g e l i b r a r i e s ( r o l e of l i b r a r y i n g e n e r a l e d u c a t i o n , t h e l i b r a r y staff i n t h e a c a d e m i c s i t u a t i o n , s t a f f - a d m i n i s t r a - t i o n r e l a t i o n s h i p s , b u i l d i n g b o o k collec- t i o n s ) , c o o p e r a t i o n ( i n a c q u i s i t i o n s , a r e a s of s u b j e c t r e s p o n s i b i l i t y , b i b l i o - g r a p h i c a l c e n t e r s , d e p o s i t l i b r a r i e s ) , ex- h i b i t s , f a c u l t y - l i b r a r y r e l a t i o n s h i p s , his- t o r y of l i b r a r i e s , p e r s o n n e l ( p r o b l e m s , a d m i n i s t r a t i o n , p e r s o n n e l p r a c t i c e s ) , r e a d i n g ( i m p o r t a n c e of c o n t e n t of b o o k s t o l i b r a r i a n s , w a y s t o e n c o u r a g e staff r e a d i n g , w a y s t o e n c o u r a g e r e a d i n g of u n d e r g r a d u a t e s ) , r e f e r e n c e service (in- t e r l i b r a r y c o o p e r a t i o n , e x t e n d i n g re- sources, s o l u t i o n of d i f f i c u l t r e f e r e n c e q u e s t i o n s , e x t e n d i n g services, services i n p u b l i c l i b r a r i e s , c o n t r o l l e d s t u d i e s of v a r i o u s aspects, r e f e r e n c e - c a t a l o g i n g re- l a t i o n s h i p s , t r a i n i n g of r e f e r e n c e li- b r a r i a n s ) , r e s e a r c h p r o j e c t s ( l i s t i n g of s t u d i e s c o m p l e t e d i n l i b r a r y s c h o o l s o r i n l i b r a r i e s ) , r e v i e w s ( c o v e r i n g m o r e e v a l u a t i o n of titles), s c i e n c e l i b r a r i e s , s m a l l c o l l e g e l i b r a r i e s , s u r v e y s ( r e p o r t s o n i n d i v i d u a l l i b r a r i e s , m a n a g e m e n t s u r v e y s a n d w o r k s i m p l i f i c a t i o n ) , t e a c h - ers c o l l e g e l i b r a r i e s ( a d m i n i s t r a t i o n , b o o k s e l e c t i o n , r o l e of A A C T E , u s e of t h e li- b r a r y , s t u d i e s of e f f e c t s of r e a d i n g , h o w t o t e a c h w i t h b o o k s ) , t e c h n i c a l p r o c e s s e s ( s u b j e c t d i v i s i o n a l a r r a n g e m e n t , o r d e r p r o c e d u r e s ) , a n d u s e of t h e l i b r a r y ( m e t h o d s of i n c r e a s i n g use, l i b r a r y h a n d - b o o k s ) . T h e E d i t o r a n d t h e e d i t o r i a l staff a r e g r a t i f i e d by t h e i n t e r e s t s h o w n by t h e m e m b e r s i n t h e q u e s t i o n n a i r e . W e a r e q u i t e p r o u d of t h e b o u q u e t s w h i c h w e r e i n c l u d e d i n t h e f o r m s w h i c h w e r e re- t u r n e d . W e a r e c o n s t a n t l y c o n s c i o u s of s h o r t c o m i n g s , a n d a r e g r a t e f u l f o r t h e o c c a s i o n a l , u n s o l i c i t e d s u g g e s t i o n s . T h e E d i t o r a n d t h e staff c o n s i s t e n t l y t r y t o l e a r n of s t u d i e s w h i c h h a v e b e e n com- p l e t e d o r a r e i n p r o g r e s s , a n d s o l i c i t p a - p e r s f r o m t h e f i e l d . A s t h e official j o u r - n a l of A C R L , w e a r e c o n c e r n e d a b o u t p u b l i s h i n g p a p e r s p r e s e n t e d a t t h e As- s o c i a t i o n ' s c o n f e r e n c e s , m i n u t e s of m e e t - ings, a n d o t h e r a c t i v i t i e s r e l a t e d t o t h e g r o u p . T h i s is p r o b a b l y as it s h o u l d b e . A t t h e p r e s e n t t i m e , a l t h o u g h w e a r e e m b a r k i n g o n a b i m o n t h l y basis, t h e r e is n o i n d i c a t i o n t h a t a d d i t i o n a l s p a c e w i l l b e f o r t h c o m i n g i n t h e j o u r n a l . S p a c e l i m i t a t i o n , t h e r e f o r e , r e s t r i c t s s o m e w h a t t h e p o s s i b i l i t y of p r e s e n t i n g a l l p h a s e s of o u r w o r k t h a t t h e r e a d e r s w o u l d l i k e t o see i n c l u d e d . P e r h a p s i n t i m e t h i s l i m i t a t i o n w i l l b e m i n i m i z e d . A j o u r n a l is as s t r o n g as its m e m b e r s w o u l d l i k e t o m a k e it. T h e e d i t o r i a l staff m e m b e r s h a v e b e e n e x c e e d i n g l y h e l p f u l i n t h e p a s t i n r e v i e w i n g p a p e r s s u b - m i t t e d b y A C R L m e m b e r s a n d o t h e r s . W e t r y t o e l i m i n a t e t h o s e t o p i c s w h i c h h a v e b e e n c o v e r e d i n t h e l i t e r a t u r e i n e i t h e r b o o k f o r m o r i n p e r i o d i c a l s , b u t w e s o m e t i m e s r u n a p a p e r w h i c h e m p h a - sizes a p o i n t of v i e w w h i c h b e a r s re- p e a t i n g , if t h e r e is a n e w s l a n t i n v o l v e d . T h e p r o t e s t by s o m e r e f e r e n c e l i b r a r i a n s a n d l i b r a r i a n s of s m a l l colleges t h a t w e h a v e n e g l e c t e d t h e i r a r e a s c a n b e h e l p e d by s p e l l i n g o u t t h e s i t u a t i o n s , c o n d i - t i o n s , o r o p e r a t i o n s w h i c h r e q u i r e s t u d y . T h e " A - V C l e a r i n g H o u s e , " i n t r o d u c e d i n t h e J u l y , 1955, issue, is d e s i g n e d t o (Continued on page 40) 12 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES that the Library of Congress p r i n t e d catalog does not by any m a n n e r of means include all the references in the Library of Congress card catalogs, a precedent which might well hold for the published National U n i o n Catalog. And for entries u n d e r a variety of forms, the editors must do their best a n d allowance must be made in the published work for a certain a m o u n t of inconsistency. I t would be easy to spend millions of dollars in editing the catalog, b u t this must be avoided. A bird in the h a n d is worth two in the bush. T h e i n t e n t of this p a p e r is to urge the acceptance of a limited program for the publication of the National U n i o n Catalog. I n essence the publication would be com- plementary to the Library of Congress print- ed catalog, as well as to the various other accepted bibliographies. It would not be a complete a n d perfect bibliography, but it would be a tremendously valuable biblio- graphical tool, both for the location of copies a n d for the compilation of bibliogra- phies of various kinds. W i t h the proposed expansion of the Library of Congress Au- thor Catalog into a u n i o n catalog, b e g i n n i n g next year, the time has come to reproduce the retrospective National U n i o n Catalog to the best of o u r ability. If general agree- m e n t can be reached on this proposal, we could ask the Library of Congress to study the costs involved, to estimate the size of the subsidy, if any, that would be required, to make possible a publication at a low enough price so that the whole project would be- come feasible. Future Program (Continued from page 12) provide readers with information on de- velopments in the audio-visual field. A number of readers have already ex- pressed favorable comments on this new feature. Librarians in practice can assist in improving the journal by writing and by encouraging their staff members to write. If there is any single criterion to guide writers, it is to present new ideas. Contributors should follow the basic style of the journal in presentation, foot- note citations, and tabular organization. We are counting on your full coopera- tion.—Maurice F. Tauber, Editor. Faculty Service (Continued from page 13) ject specialists, but the functions of the specialist might well be performed im- mediately under the office of the direc- tor, or out of a subject divisional li- brary, or out of a departmental library. It is believed, however, that once the service is created the confidence and sup- port necessary to its success would soon be established in sufficient degree to make the innovation successful. Certainly the librarian convinced of the efficacy of his calling will not cringe at improving or increasing services. Let the faint-hearted but look back over the progress of the last half-century and see how far he has come already. He should note also that special libraries have al- ways given most of the services discussed above. Indeed, the coordination of fac- ulty services entails little more than the adaptation of certain special library practices to an academic situation. Use of TAAB (Continued from page 18) which TAAB service provides. In conclusion, it might be said that the TAAB method has the virtue of be- ing cooperative, comprehensive and competitive. It is cooperative in the sense that libraries and booksellers derive mu- tual benefit in a new and imaginative way. Comprehensiveness is achieved by the large-scale attention given by book- sellers to an individual library's wants. It is competitive because of the number of dealers involved and this tends to en- courage low quoting on items desired. T h e method has much to recommend it. 40 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES