College and Research Libraries By P A U L W A S S E R M A N and S T E P H E N A . M c C A R T H Y O n Developing an Administration Library for a Foreign University THIS IS A CASE S T U D Y of the develop-ment of a specialized library f o r a foreign university by an American uni- versity library. W h i l e the incidence of such developments is decidedly on the rise, to this date there has been nothing in the literature to document such an experience. Even though the project under discussion was one of limited size, details of its planning, procedure and administration may be of relevance to others engaged in similar ventures. Most library developments in special subject fields for foreign universities tend to be relatively m i n o r parts of larger, more comprehensive technical assistance programs. T h e Cornell experience is per- haps unique in that the library develop- ment is the only part of a larger master plan which has thus far been undertaken. Cornell University's relationship with Indonesia can be traced back over a long period during which it has become a leading center for Southeast Asia studies. In the winter of 1954, at the request of the government of Indonesia, Dean Ed- ward H . Litchfield and Professor Alan C. R a n k i n of Cornell's Graduate School of Business and Public Administration vis- ited Indonesia and conducted an exhaus- tive study of p u b l i c administration in that country. Based u p o n this survey, a full-scale blueprint for the development of a formal p u b l i c administration train- ing program f o r Indonesia was subse- Mr. Wasserman is librarian and assist- ant professor, Graduate School of Busi- ness and Public Administration, Cornell University; Dr. McCarthy is director of libraries, Cornell University. quently prepared. T h i s plan comprised a series of projects; Project I of the eight part program called for the development of administration libraries f o r Indone- sian universities. T h e purposes of the li- brary project were: (1) to provide f o u r Indonesian universities with books and papers in administrative sciences gen- erally and in p u b l i c administration spe- cifically, and to supplement the adminis- tration materials with basic reference works in the related disciplines of po- litical science, sociology, economics and social psychology; (2) to train Indone- sian librarians to direct the libraries thus established. Because the entire p u b l i c administra- tion training program was designed to be financed by several different a g e n c i e s - including the United States government, two international organizations, a pri- vate foundation and the Indonesian gov- ernment—each of which was to assume financial responsibility f o r a different part, it was possible for any one of the separate projects to be independently ac- tivated. U p to the present time only the first phase of the library project—the de- velopment of a core collection for the University of Indonesia at Djakarta—has been carried out. T h e account which fol- lows is a factual summary of the se- quence of events while this collection was being developed. P R E L U D E T O T H E F O R M A L C O N T R A C T Discussion of the proposed library project between administrative officers of the Graduate School of Business and Public Administration and university li- brary officials began in the spring of 1954. Since the library of the school func- tions as one department within the net- work of university libraries, and relies upon central facilities for its acquisition and preparation processes, it was appar- ent that the planning group should in- clude university library officers as well as school and school library representation. At this early planning stage, long be- fore an actual contract was being pro- posed, preliminary estimates were drawn up by library officers covering rough av- erage costs of acquisition and cataloging, and a general approximation of shipping charges. As detailed hereafter, consider- ably more attention was focused upon the method of classification which would be used in the projected program. During 1953, Mr. A. G. W . Dunning- ham, a British librarian, had conducted a survey of libraries in ten provinces in Indonesia. Based u p o n this study, the surveyor drew up a recommended plan for the implementation of a national pattern of library service in Indonesia. While in Indonesia, during discussions with Mr. Dunningham, Professor Rankin had learned that Dunningham favored the general adoption of the Brussels ex- pansion of the Universal Decimal Classi- fication for Indonesian libraries. At Cor- nell the Library of Congress Classifica- tion is used. Classification of books by a modified U D C plan would have been more time consuming than the use of a familiar classification scheme, and would undoubtedly have raised p r e p a r a t i o n costs considerably, and resulted in cur- tailed acquisitions. After discussion of the issue it was agreed that a reasonable compromise would be the use of the Dewey Decimal Classification. T h e Dew- ey scheme was selected for several rea- sons. First, it was felt that the Dewey numbers could always be expanded to U D C at a later stage if the latter classifi- cation scheme proved to be indispen- sable. (Examination of Mr. Dunning- ham's report failed to disclose that many libraries in Indonesia were using the U D C . As a matter of fact, virtually every library described in the report was de- picted as an unclassified, closed stack col- lection arranged either by size or by ac- quisition number.) Second, it was felt that while the use of the Library of Con- gress classification might subtly suggest American government control to a sensi- tive foreigner, there could be no such criticism of Dewey. Further, it would be possible to follow standard procedures in classifying by Dewey in that Library of Congress cards could be used and the suggested Dewey classification numbers employed. It was also decided that even though there was no university union catalog at any of the Indonesian universities nor a national union catalog in existence at the time, it would be advisable to provide a card for each of the two in addition to a full set of catalog cards and a shelf-list card for every title acquired. It was also agreed that the cards would be filed in a single dictionary alphabet arrangement. During this early planning stage, sev- eral attempts were made to learn what experiences others had had with similar programs. Other universities known to have carried out similar projects, or those which were at that time engaged in such ventures, were able to provide no de- tailed information about their programs, planning or cost determination. There were therefore no yardsticks to apply nor any guideposts to aid in planning the proposed project. N E G O T I A T I N G T H E C O N T R A C T There were no further developments until the winter of 1955. At this time the United States Foreign Operations Ad- ministration (later changed to the Inter- national Cooperation Administration and hereafter referred to as ICA) ten- dered to Cornell University a contract in the amount of $9,000 in order to acquire, process and ship a "complete library" of public administration to the University of Indonesia at Djakarta. T h e contract sum included an allowance of $1,500 to 376 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES cover miscellaneous university overhead expenses. T h e balance of $7,500 was to pay for all direct costs including labor, books, catalog case and shipping charges. Several contract provisions were sub- ject to question. Following discussions among the principals, the office of the university Vice-President for Research was advised to attempt to negotiate these difficulties before signing the contract. Clarification was sought for the stipula- tion that a "complete library" be pro- vided, since it was apparent that a total expenditure of $7,500 would result in a collection of little more than 1,000 vol- umes, hardly a "complete collection" in any sense of the term. T h e contract also called for delivery of materials in Dja- karta within six months after the effec- tive date of signing the contract. While assurances could be given that materials would be shipped before the end of the six-months period, it was strongly felt that under no circumstances could Cor- nell ensure delivery in Indonesia by any specified time. Following negotiations be- tween Washington and Cornell's Vice- President for Research, it was agreed that "complete library" would mean only that the collection would be complete within the financial limitations of the contract, and that having the shipment on board a vessel by the end of the six-month pe- riod would be satisfactory to the ICA officials. Another point at issue was the method of payment to the university under the terms of the contract. Certain elements could be easily recorded. T h e cost of materials (books, catalog cards and cata- log case) and shipping charges could be exactly recorded in dollar amounts. Per- sonnel costs could not be so exactly meas- ured. ICA required a detailed hourly payroll record for every person directly engaged in the project. As an alternative, the university library proposed a unit price based on average costs for acquisi- tion, cataloging and processing in the preceding year. This proposal was re- jected by ICA and the university was re- quired to accept the hourly payroll meth- od of determining personnel costs. C A R R Y I N G O U T T H E C O N T R A C T T h e contract was formally enacted on September 30, 1955. Cornell University agreed to develop and ship the library to Indonesia before the end of the six- month period ending March 30, 1956. T h e plan called for the selection of ma- terials to be made by the librarian of the Graduate School of Business and Public Administration, with the guidance of the school's faculty, and for the acquisition, processing and shipping to be handled by the university library. T h e university library was, in effect, subcontractor to the school and agreed to maintain rec- ords for and controls over the entire op- eration. B O O K SELECTION Selection of materials was actually be- gun several months before the contract was officially enacted. This was both an advantage and a disadvantage. Under the terms of the contract there could be no compensation for work done prior to the contract enactment date. However, since the largest part of the selection had been done before the contract date it was possible to launch the acquisition pro- gram immediately and thus have the use of the full contract period for the tech- nical aspects of the program. An early check had revealed that there was no ready-made list of in-print ma- terials in the fields which the collection was to cover which could be used as the basis for book selection. A random se- lection, after including a discount calcu- lation of 15-20 per cent, suggested a rough average book cost of $3.33. Con- sidering the probable acquisition, prepa- ration and shipping costs, it was esti- mated that the total collection would run to about 1,000 titles. T h e principal difficulty encountered in SEPTEMBER, 1956 3 7 7 the preparation of the buying list was the need to confine selection to titles which were in print and available from publishers within a reasonably short pe- riod. Because of the limited finances, it was also important that materials cover- ing all of the major areas of administra- tive activity, and including the tangent disciplines of psychology, sociology, eco- nomics and anthropology, be represented in the collection. Another requisite of the selection process was the need to pro- vide comparative materials; that is, works dealing with institutions and ideas iden- tified with countries other than the United States. This was an important factor if the collection was to have the appearance of something more than an exclusively American product. It was im- perative also to make the collection a blend of the practical as well as theoreti- cal, the elementary as well as advanced, since the range of users would be likely to include the practitioner and professor, the unsophisticated as well as the sea- soned administrator. Finally, it was ex- tremely important that sample and illus- trative materials, such as charters, codes, budgets, governmental reports, commis- sion studies and other representative ma- terials on, about and by agencies of the major levels of government—national, state, county and local—be included. T o achieve these many objectives made for an extremely challenging assignment. T h e method used in selecting materi- als consisted of reviewing recent bibli- ographies, considering catalogs of profes- sional societies in public and business ad- ministration and consulting with faculty members expert in the substantive areas of administration. Before ordering any title it was checked against Books in Print. Included in the collection also, were relevant government documents, key periodical sets covering the period of 1950 to the end of 1955 which were avail- able from the original publishers or from dealers, and appropriate bibliographic and index tools. A D M I N I S T R A T I O N OF T H E P R O J E C T When the unit cost proposal for ac- quisition, cataloging and processing was rejected by the ICA, a tentative person- nel budget on a payroll basis was pre- pared. T h e plan was designed so that the operation would take place with approxi- mately one-half of the project to be car- ried out during regular working hours and the other half as an overtime opera- tion. In preparing this estimate, depart- ment heads were instructed to limit work on the project to a relatively small num- ber of staff members so that payroll rec- ords could be held to a minimum. After the tentative budget was approved, the contract was signed. T h e university audi- tor's office thereupon set up a contract account with its own account number and with the total amount of the con- tract as a credit item against which ex- penditures were to be made. At this point the project was begun. In planning the actual work of pur- chasing, receiving, cataloging and proc- essing, procedures for this special proj- ect were set up separate from, but paral- lel to, the library's own acquisition, cata- loging, and processing procedures. Stand- ard library forms, clearly marked as be- longing to the Indonesian project, were used through most of the processing. After bibliographical searching, orders were dispatched to publishers and deal- ers with a special covering order letter which requested that the material or- dered be shipped as separate items, be billed on separate invoices and be identi- fied as belonging to the Indonesian Proj- ect. For the most part publishers and dealers followed instructions and both material and invoices could be readily identified when received. In a number of instances, however, separate invoices had to be requested a second time. Upon receipt, parcels were allowed to accumu- late until a reasonable number had been received. They were then opened and the materials passed through the invoice 3 7 8 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES checking stage. At this point each item was marked with a special flyer and given a special serial number. This serial num- ber was also recorded on one copy of the multiple order form and these slips were filed in numerical order. Library of Congress catalog cards were ordered for all items for which they were available. Cards were not ordered at the time of ordering the books since it was recognized that many of the titles might not be immediately available and order instructions included automatic cancel- lation if a publication could not be sup- plied immediately. Prior to the actual ordering of catalog cards it had been determined by corre- spondence with the Library of Congress Card Division that catalog cards for such a government project would be available at a reduced price. A special number was assigned to identify orders for catalog cards which were to be used in this proj- ect. Books were held until the catalog cards had been received from the Library of Congress, and then the books and cards were forwarded to catalogers. Books were grouped so that they would repre- sent approximately a one-half day work load for an individual cataloger. Follow- ing cataloging, classification and revi- sion, the books were again allowed to ac- cumulate in lots and were then marked and labeled. Upon completion of proc- essing the books were assembled on spe- cially designated shelves, sets of catalog cards were allowed to accumulate as a separate group and then cards and books were matched for checking. The final check prior to packing for shipment came when individual books were com- pared to the item numbers assigned to them when they were originally started through the acquisition process. Special forms were prepared for the use of the individual staff members in recording regular time and overtime T w o payrolls were prepared each month, one c o v e r i n g regular time, the other overtime. These payrolls were submitted to the university auditor's office and charged to the special contract account. Under the terms of the contract, there was to be compensation only for work directly connected with the project; su- pervisory services, planning and over-all direction were not compensable. T h e rate of payment for each employee was based upon the individual's annual salary translated into an hourly amount. Pay- ment for overtime was made directly to the individual staff members; payment for regular time was credited to the uni- versity's salary recovery account and may be transferred to the university library budget at a later date. PROBLEMS AND DIFFICULTIES The element of greatest uncertainty and the cause of most concern was the difficulty of estimating the cost of publi- cations and the cost of personal services. The object, of course, was to use all of the contract funds and at the same time to avoid exceeding them. Experience here indicates the desirability of selecting more material at the outset than can ap- parently be purchased. Purchases must then be budgeted against the original estimates and a careful review must be made of the cost of the publications as they are received and the payroll costs which result after their acquisition. Since discounts are inconsistent and rather un- predictable, and since, to a certain ex- tent, the availability of material can only be determined by placing an order, it becomes necessary as the project proceeds to place additional orders in order to bring purchases to the estimated amounts. Furthermore, if personnel costs either fall short of estimates or exceed them, adjustments must be made be- tween the personnel and book purchas- ing parts of the budget in order to keep the two in reasonable relationship. Ap- parently the only reasonably sure way of achieving a final balance is to set aside a limited reserve fund. Near the close of the project, when all cost factors have SEPTEMBER, 1956 379 been calculated, this amount can be used to pay for advance subscriptions to key periodicals. This device serves to expend the unencumbered remainder funds and to assure that the institution will receive in the future the journals which are al- ready represented in the collection by bound files when they had been obtain- able. R E S U L T S OF T H E P R O J E C T At the conclusion of the project a li- brary of 1,109 titles, a catalog case and catalog cards for each item arranged in dictionary order were shipped to the University of Indonesia. An important by-product of the entire program was the preparation of a bibliography. This list contains an entry for every title acquired and provides a convenient record of in- print titles (as of winter, 1955/56) in the broad field of administration. In or- der to make the list useful as a library book ordering aid, the following details are provided for each entry: author, title, publisher, date of publication, price, and Library of Congress card order number. This list has been reproduced in the Bibliography Series of the school under the title of Basic Library in Public Ad- ministration. Copies are available upon request to the Graduate School of Busi- ness and Public Administration, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. CONCLUSIONS AND PROPOSALS T h e advantages which accrue to a li- brary which carries out this sort of proj- ect are of several kinds. Perhaps the single most important advantage is the experience gained in planning, estimat- ing, directing and carrying out a special project for a specific amount of money within a limited period of time. Another value is in the preparation of a current bibliography which can be used to re- view the library's own book collection in the subject. Still another gain is that such an opportunity enables the library to cooperate closely with an academic division of the university in furthering a program considered to be of value to the division involved. And finally, such pro- grams afford an opportunity for the li- brary to play a role of some significance by contributing to the university's over- all program for the a d v a n c e m e n t of scholarship and learning. According to a recent article by the university contract coordinator of the International Cooperation Administra- tion, there were 75 ICA financed inter- university contracts for technical assist- ance under way on September 30, 1955.1 It would be difficult to estimate how many special programs of this kind in- clude library development features. A number of American universities, how- ever, have already been engaged in de- veloping foreign library installations, and as the Point-Four technical assistance program continues many more will un- doubtedly become parties to similar pro- grams. In the light of the experience at Cor- nell it would appear that, if future pro- grams of this type are to be conducted at maximum efficiency and minimum ex- pense to the government and to the de- veloping agency, a fairly standard pat- tern should be developed for the guid- ance of the contracting government agen- cy and for the libraries that may be in- volved. Such a function might be as- sumed by a central library information clearing center operated either within the International Cooperation Admini- stration or the American Library Asso- ciation. Such an agency might then pro- vide previously prepared buying lists, cost data when available and procedural details, and perform a notable function for the federal government and the li- brary profession. 1 J. Russell A n d r u s , " T e c h n i c a l A s s i s t a n c e T h r o u g h I n t e r - u n i v e r s i t y C o n t r a c t s , " Higher Education, X I I ( 1 9 5 6 ) , 75-80. 380 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES