ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


205

From Inside the DLP
By Dr. Katharine M. Stokes

College and University Library Specialist, 
Training and Resources Branch, Division of Li­
brary Programs, Bureau of Libraries and E d­
ucational Technology, U.S. Office of Education, 
Washington, D.C. 20202.

By the time you read this you will probably 
know w hether or not you are a successful ap­
plicant for a Title II-A (H E A ) grant for col­
lege library resources to be spent by June 30, 
1972. In spite of the redirection of the pro­
gram to stress assistance to libraries in great 
need of expanded collections to serve the large 
numbers of economically disadvantaged stu­
dents on the campuses, over 2,000 applica­
tions for supplemental and basic grants were 
received from librarians hopeful that they 
might be among the neediest. There will be a 
lot of disappointed applicants in th at category 
as well as among those who tried for Special 
Purpose grants, since there was only $8,400,000 
to be allotted for supplemental and basic grants.

For Type A Special Purpose grants there

were about 500 applications, and only $550,000 
was allotted for distribution to that category. 
Some of the applications were for $3,000 or 
less, but most were for over $10,000 with a 
few for over $100,000.

The Type B applications were allotted ap­
proximately $200,000, and the fifty or so that 
came in amounted to something like $600,000. 
The sixty Type C’s had to be considered and 
reconsidered and the final few awarded were 
scaled down to the remaining $700,000.

Fifteen of your colleagues from all over 
the country (Massachusetts to Washington, 
North Carolina to Arizona) and from various 
types of academic libraries ( junior colleges, 
four-year developing institutions, urban uni­
versities) labored conscientiously to select from 
the applications with the highest scores those 
that fitted the announced priorities most close­
ly. The effort to give each applicant every 
possible consideration was really agonizing, and 
a remarkable agreement was finally achieved 
by these librarians from diverse backgrounds. 
They would have liked to have been able to 
see you receive a greater amount of money. ■ ■