ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


119

MANUAL ON CONVERSION TO 
LC BOOK CLASSIFICATION

A grant of $2,000 to Desmond Taylor, di­
rector, and Raimund Matthis, technical ser­
vices librarian, of the University of Puget 
Sound’s Collins memorial library, for prepara­
tion of a manual on the Library of Congress’ 
classification of books has been made by the 
Council on Library Resources.

The manual will be based in part on the 
practical experience gained in converting from 
the Dewey Decimal System to the Library of 
Congress’ classification system at the Tacoma, 
Washington, university library. The authors 
expect to cooperate with the processing de­
partment at the Library of Congress in the 
project.

The philosophy and rationale for favoring 
the Library of Congress’ system, detailed pro­
cedures for conversion to the system, conver­
sion cost data, and other information will be 
included in the manual.  ■ ■

SC IEN TIFIC  AND 
TECHNICAL INFORMATION

The Bibliographic Systems Center of the 
school of library science, Western Reserve 
University, announces that with the aid of a 
Unesco grant it will establish a Clearinghouse 
for Scientific and Technical Classification 
Schedules, Key-word and Descriptor lists and 
Thesauri in the English language. The provi­
sion of this type of material, for the purpose of 
assisting individuals and organizations in their 
scientific and technical information retrieval 
problems, is the Center’s main function. Upon 
inquiry, the Center informs the user of items 
relevant to his areas of interest; the user may 
then borrow any of the material for a four­
week loan period.

As a consequence of the Unesco grant, the 
Center will be able to enlarge substantially the 
basic collection ( approximately nine hundred 
titles in the scientific and technical fields) and 
will be able to continue free service to users. 
Please address inquiries to: Bibliographic Sys­
tems Center, School of Library Science, West­
ern Reserve University, 11161 East Boulevard, 
Cleveland, Ohio 44106.  ■■

LC PRESERVATION PROGRAM
Frazer G. Poole has been appointed Preser­

vation Officer at the Library of Congress, 
In his new duties, Mr. Poole will direct the 
Library of Congress program for the physical 
preservation of its varied types of library ma­
terials, developing managerial and technical 
solutions not only for the library’s use but 
also for use or adaptation by other libraries

faced with similar preservation problems. Li­
braries throughout the U.S. are concerned 
about preserving their collections from the 
inroads of time and the effects of environment. 
They not only face problems with paper, ink, 
and bindings of traditional materials such as 
books, manuscripts, and newspapers, but also 
deal with unknown factors affecting twentieth 
century forms, such as films and magnetic 
tapes. Together with the Association of Re­
search Libraries Preservation Committee, the 
Library of Congress has developed a national 
preservation program. This includes a cam­
paign to rescue thousands of “brittle books” 
printed on acid paper in the last one hundred 
years and now disintegrating in libraries all 
over the country. Through a recent grant from 
the Council on Library Resources, Mr. Poole 
also will direct a pilot project on this problem.

■■

ACLS COM M ITTEE FOR 
RESEARCH LIBRARIES

The American Council of Learned Societies 
has announced the appointment of a committee 
of scholars, librarians, and university presi­
dents to propose programs of action to meet 
the urgent and long-term needs of American 
research libraries.

Research libraries tend to double in volumes 
held every fifteen years and the result is in­
creasingly critical shortages. One important 
topic the committee will take up is the extent 
to which shortages of space, personnel, and 
funds can be overcome by the application of 
modern technology.

The study is being made at the request of 
the National Advisory Commission on Libraries. 
It is being financed through a grant of $39,300 
from the Council on Library Resources.

Members of the ACLS committee are: Wil­
liam O. Baker, Bell Telephone Laboratories; 
Kingman Brewster, Yale University; Douglas 
Bryant, university librarian, Harvard Univer­
sity; T. Robert S. Broughton, University of 
North Carolina; Lyman S. Butterfield, Massa­
chusetts Historical Society; William S. Dix, 
librarian of Princeton University; Warren Haas, 
director of libraries, University of Pennsylvania; 
Chauncy Harris, University of Chicago; James 
D. Hart, University of California, Berkeley; 
H. Field Haviland, Jr., Brookings Institution; 
Gordon N. Ray, John Simon Guggenheim Me­
morial Foundation; Robert G. Vosper, univer­
sity librarian, University of California, Los 
Angeles; Herman B Wells, Indiana University; 
Walter Muir Whitehill, director and librarian, 
Boston Athenaeum; Gordon R. Williams, di­
rector, Center for Research Libraries, Chicago; 
Edwin Wolf 2nd, librarian, Library Company of 
Philadelphia; and Louis B. Wright, director, 
Folger Shakespeare library.  ■ ■