ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


144

AIR LOAN SERVICE

Assistant Secretary of Agriculture and Di­
rector of Science and Education George L. 
Mehren and Pennsylvania Secretary of Agri­
culture Leland H. Bull have announced inau­
guration of a daily round-trip interlibrary loan 
service by air between the National Agricul­
tural Library in Washington, D.C., and the

Mrs. Freeman and W . Carl Jackson

Pennsylvania State University library at Uni­
versity Park, Pa.

Mrs. Orville L. Freeman, wife of the Secre­
tary of Agriculture, initiated the new agricul­
tural library service in a ceremony at Page Air­
ways, National Airport, Washington, D.C., at 
5:15 p.m. April 17. She began the reciprocal 
service by sending off the first two books after 
a brief ceremony highlighting National Li­
brary Week.

According to Assistant Secretary Mehren, this 
cooperative agreement marks the first “flying 
books” service between a national library and 
a land grant university. Although the inter- 
library loan service has been going on for 
years, time required to borrow a book often 
exceeded the time it was actually used. The 
new reciprocal service will permit delivery of 
publications to patrons at both locations well 
within twenty-four hours from the time a re­
quest is made.

Also participating in the ceremonies with 
Mrs. Freeman were W. Carl Jackson, Penn 
State University, director of libraries; Foster E. 
Mohrhardt, director of the National Agricul­
tural Library, and assistant director for pro­
gram coordination, Mrs. Blanche L. Oliveri, 
who developed the program for the depart­
ment. ■ ■

TITLE I CONSTRUCTION 
GRANTS AND LOANS

New federal grants and loans of more than 
$17 million will help thirty-one colleges and 
universities build or remodel libraries in eight­
een states, Puerto Bico, and the Virgin Islands. 
New and supplemental grants totaling approx­
imately $11 million were awarded to twenty- 
three institutions for construction projects for 
libraries* under Title I of the Higher Educa­
tion Facilities Act, which provides for federal 
aid of up to one-third of the cost of academic 
construction at undergraduate schools and up 
to 40 per cent of construction cost at public 
community colleges and technical institutes. 
Under Title III of the Act, which provides for 
construction loans, eight colleges and univer­
sities received a total of almost $6 million for 
library construction projects.*

The grants will support projects costing al­
most $47 million and loans will support projects 
costing approximately $14 million.

* I n  som e pro jects, lib rary  co n stru ctio n  is c o m b in ed  
w ith  o th e r p rojects su ch  as in s tru c tio n a l, science o r 
h u m a n itie s, a n d  a d m in istra tiv e  con stru ctio n .

HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
IN ITALY TO RE ISSUED

Among the many serious points of destruction 
brought on by the flood in Florence last No­
vember was the historical Palazzo Gerini which 
houses the Museo Nazionale della Scuola, the 
only Italian museum of its kind. It contained 
in its collections, some of the richest and rarest 
European and world educational materials, and 
was dedicated to the history of education and 
teaching. The damaged contents, as well as 
murals, furnishings, and the exterior total to 
unknown millions of lire. About 66,400,000 lire 
have been estimated as the cost of restoration.

This restoration was begun almost immedi­
ately. As one form of self-assistance, however, 
the Centro Didattico Nazionale di Studi e 
Documentazione of the Ministry of Public In­
struction has announced that its numbered edi­
tion of a unique volume, which was begun 
sometime ago, will be published in the autumn 
of 1967. The first edition of this book, entitled 
XXV Secoli di Educazione e Scuola in Italia, 
will be approximately three hundred pages in 
length and it will be available through sub­
scription. Historical in character with colored 
as well as black and white illustrations, it will