ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 356 / C&RL News In th e News In his article on developing a bibliographic util­ ity in Brazil, Richard Phillips explains that the Brazilian phrase “jeito” loosely translates as “find­ ing a way to get a difficult task done.” Librarians everywhere have substantial experience with “jeito.” Despite shrinking budgets, librarians have continued to provide quality services and collec­ tions to their library users. Networking, resource sharing, and cooperative collection development are just some of the creative ways librarians have found to provide access to materials their patrons need. In this issue we look at a variety of networks and resource sharing arrangements, both formal and informal. Susan Oberlander describes the formation of the New Mexico Consortium o f Academic Librar­ ies and its success in developing a funding formula for academic libraries. Kathleen Dunn and Myra White talk about how an informal multitype net­ work can bring benefits to both staff and library patrons. Marion Ritter describes four current re­ source sharing projects where collection develop­ ment is effectively being coordinated among a number o f institutions in the Pacific Northwest and the San Francisco Bay area. Recognizing that not all libraries can collect everything that researchers need, the Library of Congress’ experiment with the American Memory Project is an impressive attempt to provide both traditional and nontraditional research materials in one easy place— a CD-ROM workstation. A report on this project is found in this issue. The Coalition for Networked Information is also exploring the distribution o f information. At its Spring meeting, members looked at electronic library systems, N REN, and changing needs o f library users. International cooperative activities and net­ working are also important to librarians in the U.S. After a trip to Mexico, Dale Cluff offers suggestions for cooperative projects to benefit libraries in Mexico and the United States. I am pleased to introduce Gail Junion-Metz and Ray E. Metz as co-editors for a new quarterly column, “Chapter Topics.” Beginning with this issue the column will report on “some of the inter­ esting things being said and done in ACRL chap­ ters which have an impact on the profession.” As co-editors o f the quarterly A CRL newsletter, C h a p ter T opics‚ Gail and Ray are uniquely quali­ fied to report on current chapter activities. — Mary Ellen K. Davis E d ito r a n d P ublisher Letters Is correlation between reputation and graduates significant? In the March 1991 issue of C &R L News Keith Swigger states in his article “Money, sex, and popu­ lation in doctoral programs in library science” that “Wang and Layne investigated the relationship between reputation and number of graduates…but found no highly significant correlation.” In the study cited by Swigger, the statement was that the relationship between reputation and number o f graduates was “varied depending upon consideration of the different pairs of variables....” It did find “statistically significant positive correla­ tions between the perception ranking of the doc­ toral programs” and the number of graduates. (Journal o f E ducation f o r L ib rary an d Inform ation Science, Fall 1987, p. 120.) Swigger’s statement was not consistent with the conclusion o f the cited work.— Chih W ang‚ dean ‚ learning resou rces‚ XJniυersity o f Guam The a u th o r responds: Wang and Layne studied the relations between rankings and numbers o f graduates who might have been in the sample that did the ranking. They present data relating 12 pairings o f ranking vari­ ables with variables related to numbers o f these graduates. Correlations are significant for 7 of the 12 pairs. One of the pairs showing significance is the correlation between ranking and total number of graduates who might have been in the sample that did the ranking, master’s and doctoral com­ bined. As they say, however, the relationship varied depending upon consideration o f different pairs of variables. I suggest readers see Table 2 and read page 120 o f their article to come to their own conclusions. Their study did not address the num­ ber o f all graduates, only the number o f educators and directors who might have been in the ranking group. In my article, I should have described the limitations o f the Wang and Layne study in suffi­ cient detail to make the point that their study does June 1991 / 357 not present conclusive data relating to rankings of schools and the total number of persons they have graduated.— Keith Swigger, Ph.D., professor, in­ terim dean, School o f L ibrary and Inform ation Studies, Texas W om an s University Misplaced collective dream? I have just received the April issue of C‹LrRL News and was greeted by the news that ACRL moved the 1992 National Conference from Phoe­ nix to Salt Lake City. I am not sure that I grasp the moral nuance involved in the judgment to move from a site that refused to commemorate Dr. King, to a state that just proudly announced that it may not (after all) charge people involved in abortion with murder. I believe that our freedom of choice in regard to the conference site is a little suspect. Moreover, we may have temporarily misplaced our collective dream.— Pat Max, library director, Calvin Cool- idge Library, Castleton (Vermont) State College E d itor’s note: See sid eb a r on this page f o r ACRL B oard statement on conference site. A low-tech solution works well The article by David Trithart (“Access to serials: Local improvements may make a difference”) in the November 1990 issue of C&RL News prompts me to write about the simple, low-tech way in which we have solved the perennial and persistent problem he discusses— that of helping our students find out what our periodical holdings are. For each of the indexes and abstracts in our collection, we photocopied or typed the list of journals covered, and put check marks with a bright-colored felt pen beside the title of each journal to which we sub­ scribe. We also marked the titles held by the nearby state university’s much larger library. These marked lists and a few simple instructions, mounted on heavy stock and laminated, became what we call “posters” that are kept on the tables beside the relevant indexes and abstracts. Students learned quickly to depend on the posters when looking for journal materials for research papers. We made no attempt to indicate our exact hold­ ings for any specific title. Rather, we noted in the instructions (for example): “This list is completely accurate only for 1990.” Because our serials are shelved alphabetically, no other markings on the lists were needed. We update the posters every year or two, when they get shabby or when, forinstance, H.W. Wilson revises the list of journals covered by an index. Now that we subscribe to a number of indexes on compact disks, we have made similar lists to keep by the public workstations. Like Mr. Trithart, we have found that the num­ ber of mistaken IL L requests has diminished be­ cause we have made it so much easier for students to determine what we own.— Ruth Bent, librarian f o r public services, Olive Kettering Library, Anti­ o ch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio ACRL B oard reaffirms Salt Lake City conference site Although sensitive to concerns raised about holding a conference in Utah, the ACRL Board of Directors agreed during a telephone conference call on May 6, 1991, to hold the ACRL Sixth National Conference in Salt Lake City. A statement on the importance of national conferences, reasons for the move from Phoenix, and the selection of Salt Lake City was adopted by the Board. The state­ ment is available from the ACRL office, (800) 545- 2433, ext. 2516. The Board invites members to discuss the ques­ tion, “How should ACRL respond to social issues?” on Saturday, June, 29, 1991, 2:00-2:30 p.m., dur­ ing the ACRL Board of Directors’ meeting at the ALA Annual Conference in Atlanta. Individual Board members will also be available on Monday, July 1, 1991, 4:00-4:30 p.m., during the poster sessions after the ACRL President’s Program. At the Saturday meeting, the Board will also consider whether the ACRL policy on national conference site selection should be revised. C&RL/C&RL News Index published Having trouble remembering in exactly which issue of C &RL or C &R L News you saw that interesting article? Track it down with the new College & R esearch L ibraries a n d College & R esearch Libraries News Index f o r Volumes 41 to 50 (1980-89). Compiled by Eldon W. Tamblyn, Portland State University, the 180- page author, title, and limited subject index sells for $25.95 to ACRL members ($29.95 to non­ members); ISBN # 0-8389-7487-2. Copies are available from ALA’s Order Services Depart­ ment, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611; or call toll free (800) 545-2433.