ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 309 College Libraries and Networking Networking is certainly included on virtually everyone’s list of recent significant developments in librarianship. The AC R L C ollege Libraries Section’s Impact o f National Library Policy and National Library Developments on the College Library C om m ittee concurred with this view when developing an agenda o f topics to pursue recently. The impact, experienced or expected, on net­ works in a variety of settings— urban main librar­ ies, research libraries, small law libraries, rural public libraries, school media centers, etc.— has already been discussed. H ow ever, only a few how-we-done-it-good articles concerning college libraries could be found. The Committee decided the first step should be to determine what percentage o f college li­ braries1 belong to a network.2 The table below of­ fers the percentage of participation and number o f libraries by Carnegie category and type o f con­ trol. These results suggest a few questions which might be explored and some further analysis which might be applied. • How much of the low participation by pri­ vate Liberal Arts II colleges is due to costs and how much is attributable to a choice not to join? • What percentage o f current college catalog­ ing is being entered into network databases? A few years ago it was estimated that 75% o f all academic libraries’ new acquisitions were put on­ line. • W ould a project to enter the special colleetions 1This study includes those institutions in the classifications Com prehensive Universities and Colleges (I and II) and Liberal Arts Colleges (I and II) in Carnegie Commission on Higher Edu­ cation, A Classification o f Institutions o f Higher Education (Berkeley, Calif.: The Com mission, 1976). The “ Standards for C ollege Libraries,” C &RL News, October 1975, p. 277, state that col­ leges in these Carnegie classifications are the target institutions for the standards. 2I wish to thank Neal Kaske of the OCLC Re­ search Department for providing me with a list­ ing o f OCLC college members by state. o f libraries which are not in networks be feasible? • With much attention turning toward inte­ grated systems, is it acceptable to move on to the next generation o f automation when almost one- third o f college libraries have not yet joined a network? • Are there significant variations among the percentages o f participation by state or region? If so, how are fixed and prorated costs allocated in the various state and regional networks? • What share o f contributed cataloging comes from college libraries? How much is it used? • What percentage o f network-based interli­ brary requests are filled by college libraries? • What effect has the reduced HEA Title II-A grants had on college libraries’ contributions to TABLE P e r c e n t a g e o f P a r t i c i p a t i o n i n N e t w o r k s a n d N u m b e r o f C o l l e g e s Comprehensive Liberal Arts Total Type of Control I II I and II I II I and II Public 87.8% (245) 68.3% (101) 82.1% (346) NA (0) 90.9% (11) 90.9% (11) 82.4% (357) Private 76.6% (128) 77.3% (106) 76.9% (234) 82.1% (123) 51.3% (433) 58.1% (556) 63.7% (790) Public and Private 83.9% (373) 72.9% (207) 80.0% (580) 82.1% (123) 52.3% (444) 58.7% (567) 69.5% (1147) 310 national shared cataloging and interlibrary loan ef­ forts? What might be the effects o f zero funding? Any group or individual interested in sharing additional information or concerns should contact the Chair o f the CLS Impact Committee, John Sheridan, Head Librarian, Transylvania Univer­ sity Library, Lexington, KY 40508; or the Chair o f the C ollege Libraries Section, Thomas G. Kirk, College Librarian, Berea College, Berea, KY 40404.—John Sheridan. ■ ■ The Exchange Experience: An American Perspective Larry W. Griffin Interlibrary Services Indiana University As I have just completed eleven months at the University of Edinburgh Library as an exchange librarian from Indiana University Libraries, a number o f librarians have asked me about my ex­ perience. In this report I will comment on some aspects o f the exchange program that may be use­ ful to other American librarians who are planning a similar experience in a British library. It all began in 1975 when I met Ruth M ei­ ling, British librarian now in Colchester, England, who was an exchange librarian at the Indiana- Purdue University campus at Fort Wayne. When I asked her how I might arrange a similar ex­ change, she explained that certain agencies in­ volved in exchange programs for teáchers would occasionally aid librarians, but their contacts with British libraries were inadequate. She suggested that I find someone in Britain who was interested and pursue it on my own. My plan remained dormant until March, 1980, when I responded to an interlibrary loan inquiry from Margaret Dowling, ILL librarian at Edin­ burgh University Library. For some reason I was inspired to add a postscript that read: “ W ould you be interested in trading jobs for a year? If so, let me know. W e may be able to work something out.” Ms. Dowling very quickly wrote back say­ ing she was interested. From that point it was a matter o f 1) securing from our supervisors ap­ proval in principle, 2) exchanging resumes and in­ formation about our respective positions and li­ braries, and 3) pushing all o f the paperwork for official approval through the bureaucratic process. This, along with negotiations for living accomoda­ tions and personal family matters, took a full year. A single person could easily speed up the process, but m oving my family o f four 4,000 miles required a great deal of logistic planning. Apparently my fishing technique was a stroke of luck, for a colleague o f mine has tried the ap­ proach several times with no result. British li­ brary administrators were often interested, but I met few librarians who were willing to trade jobs. Family concerns and job security were the major reasons for their reluctance. In my case most o f the paperwork was done by us rather than by the university administration. Following an exchange o f resumes and job de­ scriptions the library administrators decided what position could be offered to each exchange per­ son. It was not a direct exchange. At Edinburgh I took over Ms. D ow lin g ’ s position which was changing because o f reorganization. At Indiana my administrative position was filled temporarily with an experienced IU librarian, and Ms. Dowl­ ing was offered a position as a reference librarian in the Undergraduate Library. Each o f us found the arrangement to be exactly what we w ere seeking. For me it was a year in which I got away from the demands o f an administrative position and worked directly with users in reference and ILL. For Ms. Dowling it was an opportunity to broaden her experience by becoming actively in­ volved in library instruction and undergraduate reference service, in contrast to her working primarily with faculty and graduate students at Edinburgh. The librarian at the University o f Edinburgh and the dean o f libraries at Indiana University then agreed in writing to accept each other’s li­ brarians without pay and conform to the working conditions of the host library. Earlier it had been decided that the best way to arrange the ex­ change was for each o f us to continue to be paid by the home institution and be sent “ on assign­ ment” to the host library. Any other arrangement would have required Edinburgh to provide con­ siderable justification for a work permit for me, and it is very likely that it w ould have been denied— proving that I was more qualified for a reference and ILL position than 3 million unem­ ployed British citizens is not an easy task! At Indiana approval by the dean o f faculties, the vice president for academic affairs, the presi­ dent, and the board o f trustees was necessary. Similar arrangements had already been made for teaching faculty, so that once the dean’ s office found the appropriate procedure, it was a matter of moving the paperwork through the right chan­ nels.