College and Research Libraries


Editorial 

." ... The principal business of a library is to acquire books that are 
needed either currently or potentially." So runs a key line in the 1967 
Annual Report of a large, important university library. Perhaps not 
too surprisingly, several university librarians on whom I have tested 
this philosophy have expressed disbelief that anyone would question 
this statement. The quotation seems to express for all too many aca-
demic librarians the keystone of their professional philosophy. The 
major focus is on collecting materials rather than on developing 
services. 

ACRL is the division within ALA focusing on the academic library 
as an institution. The Adult Services Division is the division within 
ALA devoted exclusively to services for adults. Since academic li-
braries deal almost exclusively with an adult clientele, one could 
logically expect a heavy representation of academic librarians in 
ASD. Yet less than 2 percent of ASD members are academic li-
brarians; this fact would also seem to suggest that academic librarians 
are not sufficiently service-oriented. 

On many campuses, students and faculty are becoming increasingly 
involved in today's social issues. Students have not yet started march-
ing on libraries. Perhaps they see no role for their library in solving 
social problems. And too often, it seems that many of the campus pro-
testers are grossly uninformed about even the basic facts of whatever 
social issue they are dealing with. ---

Academic librarians must be far more aggressive in demonstrating 
to their communities that their libraries have the information needed 
to formulate intelligent decisions. The principal business of a library 
should be to stimulate the effective and efficient use of man's recorded 
knowledge with the ultimate aim of helping individuals and groups 
to deal realistically with and develop sound solutions to problems. 
If this can be accomplished, we may not have to be quite so concerned 
about future world leadership. In this sense, at least, libraries serving 
higher education are the change agents about which we hear so much. 

Yes, "a library is to acquire books" (and hopefully all other forms of 
recorded ideas), but the library begins there. It is what a library does, 
not what it has, that makes it a library. 

PETER HIATT 



AT LONG LAST: 
A Maior Corpus of 

BLACK STUDIES 
MATERIALS. 
Approximately 5,000 volumes* 

$48,960 on Microcard/microfiche. 
Since 195 5 the Lost Cause Press of Louisville, Kentucky, has been 
deeply committed to documenting the social, political, and economic 
history of the Black. Basic bibliographies such as those of Sabin, 
Clark (Travels in the Old and New South), Wright (American Fic-
tion), Hubbard (Oberlin College Anti -Slavery Propaganda Pamphlet 
Collection), Coleman (A Bibliography of Kentucky History) and 
others have been used for compiling this material. The best texts 
have been selected from major collections in America and abroad 
and have been reproduced according to the strictest standards of 
micro-reproduction. 

The Lost Cause Press now offers this unrivalled collection to research 
libraries and collectors as the most comprehensive corpus of material 
available in this field. 

Unique among microform publishers, the Lost Cause Press offers 
catalog cards with all of its major collections. Purchasers of these 
publications will receive the catalog cards which identify the micro-
form editions and need only to file them in their general catalog to 
make the works immediately available to readers. 

In addition, the Lost Cause Press will provide all purchasers with 
ten copies of the hard-cover book by Lawrence S. Thompson on The 
Southern Black in Slavery and Freedom: a Bibliography of Microform 
Editions, plus a supplementary check list of materials issued after Mr. 
Thompson's bibliography went to press. Together, the book and the 
supplement will list every title in the collection. 

*Duplicates of items already in library collections may be returned 
for credit within six months after receipt of shipment. 

LOST CAUSE PRESS 
1142 Starlin Building 

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY 
40202 

CABLE ADDRESS 
LOSTCAUS 
LOUISVILLE 

NANCY FARNSLEY 
CHARLES FARNSLEY 

BURREL FARNSLEY 

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