ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 173 blood into the teaching faculty. I am doubtful that there will be any change of career patterns in the majority of academic institutions. Ed.: What does it take to be director o f a large university library? Is it harder now in the 80s than it was 20 years ago? Weber: It is commonly said that students are brighter today and that management is more dif­ ficult today, and so on. I am not at all certain that the management of a major academic library is any more difficult now than it was ten or twenty years ago. Thirty years ago I worked as adminis­ trative assistant to Keyes D. Metcalf and saw him working as widely and as hard in diverse areas of library management as I do now—utilizing the staff capabilities, solving problems with methods that are regarded today as appropriate, modern methods of university library management. It is true we have somewhat more varied techniques today, and many libraries have much larger col­ lections and staffs and budgets. However, we also have more technical and professional specialists to call upon. I would urge librarians to develop their profes­ sional capabilities as broadly as they can. One may start out as I did as a descriptive cataloger, but in order to build a strong career in leading an academic library, I believe that one needs to have a good understanding of collection develop­ ment, relationships with faculty and students and administrators, the standards of service, person­ nel needs, personnel management methods, financing and budgeting, fund raising, and so on. Ed.: What made you decide to enter the library profession? Weber: There is no doubt that it was my father who planted the seed. He was a professor of En­ glish literature, a very distinguished scholar in­ terested in the development of the college library and its rare book and manuscript collections. Through him I met in our own home people like Fred Anthoensen, Robert B. Downs and James Humphry. There were lots of books in the fami­ ly—my mother and father were both omniverous readers, scholars and students, often discussing authors and books, words, places, names, at the dinner table. It was therefore a very congenial atmosphere for the formation of an academic li­ brarian. B ib liograp h ic In stru ctio n A N on-C redit/N on-G raded Course at the U niversity of Kansas In a continuing effort to determine the best approach(es) for bibliographic instruction at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, reference and instruction librarians are developing a non-credit/ non-graded sequence for students who are in­ terested in learning basic research skills. The course was advertised by posters placed through­ out major academic buildings on campus, the stu­ dent union, and Watson (main) Library. Enroll­ ment and attendance are voluntary: the sequence is open to students at all levels and in all areas of study. The course, which lasts for seven weeks, meets once a week for one hour and forty-five minutes. Each session covers a predetermined topic (sylla­ bi are made available) and consists of a lecture, relevant demonstrations using handouts and sup­ porting materials, and interactive discussions. The sessions cover the following topics and con­ cerns: 1) Introduction; classification systems; card cata­ log—Author/Title. 2) Card catalog—Subject; Library of Congress Subject Headings; subject tracings. 3) Periodicals; periodical indexes; our COMCAT for serials. 4) Reference books—dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographical tools, others. 5) Reference books (cont.)—bibliographies. 6) Other materials, including microforms, news­ papers, and government documents. 7) Designing a search strategy; other topics; review. At the conclusion of each of the first six ses­ sions, an assignment sheet for those who wish to follow up the session’s coverage with a brief set of exercises, is distributed. Typical questions ask the student to utilize class materials and basic re­ search tools. For example, an exercise following 174 the first session lists a group of call numbers— re p re se n tin g major and local classification schemes—for identification, and after another ses­ sion the students are asked to evaluate several periodical indexes for their respective coverages of the topic “inflation.” Thus a blend of quick, specific questions and more detailed, evaluative questions is offered. This program stresses no particular subject area. Students are asked to state their major areas of study/interest and, if any are identified, rel­ evant examples are used in explaining procedures and materials. In response to interests in educa­ tion, the Current Index to Journals in Education was utilized in one class for explaining a periodic­ al abstracting service. However, the principal in­ tent of the instructors is to teach basic skills ap­ plicable to research in the sciences, social sci­ ences, and the humanities. This practice provides a course that can be used as a basis or prere­ quisite for subject-specific instruction or as an in­ dependent study. Many academic departments currently offer or require some type of subject re­ search, but they presuppose knowledge and tech­ niques that many students are lacking. This sequence was offered on two evenings (two sections) during the first seven weeks of the spring 1981 semester, and one section was given during the last seven weeks of the semester. The turnout at this early stage has been encouraging. S tu d en ts from n u m erous discip lin es have attended several or all of the sessions, and both graduates and undergraduates have participated. Our intention at the time of this writing is to offer the course during summer session. Evaluation methods are being employed in the form of a pre- and post-test of general library knowledge and a simple questionnaire distributed at the last class meeting. Some effort was made to reach students who could not or chose not to attend the final session in order that a larger pool of data could be obtained. The same test was given on both occasions the first time the course was offered. Q uestions concentrated on local situations as well as a general knowledge of li­ brary systems. For example, students were asked about the structure of the public catalog in KU’s Watson Library and quizzed on the constituent parts of a citation taken from a Wilson periodical index. For those who took the test of twenty fac­ tual questions twice the mean score on the pre­ test was 9.7; the mean score on the post-test was 15. The respective ranges were 6.6-14 and 9.5- 20 (all students improved th e ir scores). Those who took th e p re -te s t b u t not th e p o st-te st showed a mean of 7.7 and a range of 1.4-17. Stu­ dents were not shown the pre-test scores until after the post-test was given and corrected. The supplem entary questionnaire asked for comment on topics such as the relative difficulty and importance of the respective sessions and whether or not the student would enroll for a one-credit course which, if offered, would require tuition charges. As a follow up, we have suc­ ceeded in getting a valuable question placed in an official university survey to be piloted before the end of the spring sem ester that reads, “If Watson Library were to offer a one-credit course in basic library research skills, would you be in­ terested in taking this course?” This method of instruction appears to be worth further investigation and development. A uni­ versity w ith an en ro llm en t o f approxim ately 23,000 students and more than 100 academic programs providing majors or concentrations of study presents both formidable obstacles against and various opportunities for testing and im­ plementing methods of bibliographic instruction. A dvertising, scheduling, course content, and evaluation methodology all need to be expanded and/or refined. Better use of campus advertising media can be made, and evaluation methods pro­ ducing more accu rate m easu rem en ts can be formulated. In time, other approaches may sup­ plement or completely replace this approach, but at present it provides a valuable contribution to our instructional program.—Charles M. Getchell, Jr., and Robert W. Melton. E d ito r’s Note: Charles M. Getchell, J r ., and Robert W. Melton are Reference and Instruction Librarians at the University o f Kansas Libraries, Lawrence, Kansas. N E W C H O IC E S T A F F M E M B E R Susan C. Cooper has been appointed assistant editor for nonprint materials at Choice magazine, ACRL’s review journal for college libraries pub­ lished in Middletown, Connecticut. She comes to Choice from her for­ m er position as non­ p rin t librarian at the University of Maryland Libraries, College Park. In that position she was resp o n sib le for the coordination of re fe r­ ence services, selection of software, and super­ vision of the film collec­ tions and bibliographic Susan C . Cooperm aintenance staffs. Prior to her position at College Park she was circulation librarian at the University of Maryland’s Law School Library in Baltimore. Cooper received a bachelor’s degree in educa­ tion from the University of D elaware and an MLS from the University of Maryland. 176 W A T E R D A M A G E A V E R T E D AT R E R K E L E Y More than 4,000 valuable water-damaged hooks belonging to the University of California at Berke­ ley have been restored using a space simulation chamber in Sunnyvale, California, at the Lock­ heed Missiles & Space Company. According to Barclay Ogden, conservation department head of the university’s general library, all the water- damaged volumes can be salvaged and returned to the shelves for use. The books were damaged last February 7 when a defective sprinkler system at the Doe Library' annex caused w ater to (low down over book stacks. Most heavily damaged were the collec­ tions of the General Library’s Government Docu­ ments department. These include U.S. Congres­ sional and budget records and British, French, and Italian parliamentary records dating to the seventeenth century. The books were moved within 36 hours to a cold storage installation and frozen to prevent mildew deterioration while arrangements were made with Lockheed to use its vacuum chamber method to dry the books. Within the chamber the combination of con­ trolled heat and vacuum causes the water in the books to change directly from solid ice to water vapor, avoiding the damaging liquid phase. The Lockheed vacuum chamber was also used to restore books damaged in the 1978 flood at Stanford U niversity Libraries. See Philip D. Leighton, “The Stanford F lo o d ,’’ C&RL 40 (September 1979):450-59, and Sally Buchanan, “The Stanford Library Flood Restoration Pro­ ject,” C bR L 40 (November 1979):539-48. Ogden said that Berkeley’s formulation of a dis­ aster plan for just such an emergency allowed their staff to freeze the books quickly enough to allow proper restoration. The plan, which had been dis­ tributed to key staff members, identified the loca­ tions of valuable library materials, defined the chain of command to allow an im m ediate re­ sponse, and detailed the necessary procedures for clean-up. Even though the damage had occurred on a Saturday evening, the library staff was able to freeze all the affected books by Sunday night. Restored books are examined by Linda McWilliams Ogden, private rare book conservator from Ber­ keley, California; Leon Davies, Lockheed project engineer; and Barclay Odgen, conservation depart­ ment head o f the University’s general library. 177 A C A D E M IC /R E S E A R C H LIBRARIAN O F T H E YEAR AW ARD ACRL invites nominations for the Academic or Research Librarian of the Year Award, presented jointly by ACRL and the Baker & Taylor Com­ pany. Anyone wishing to submit nominations should request a nomination form from the ACRL office, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. Recipients of the award since its inception in 1978 have been: Keyes D. Metcalf and Robert B. Downs (1978); H en riette D. Avram and Frederick G. Kilgour (1979); and Evan I. Farber (1980). The Awards Committee selects persons to re­ ceive the award in accordance with the following guidelines: PURPOSE: To recognize an individual mem­ ber of the library profession who has made an outstanding national or international contribution to academic or research librarianship and library development. CRITERIA: Individuals nominated should have demonstrated achievements in such areas as 1. Service to the organized profession through ACRL and related organizations. 2. Significant and influential research on academic or research library service. 3. Publication of a body of scholarly and/or theoretical writing contributing to academic or research library development. 4. Planning and implementing a library pro­ gram of such exemplary quality that it has served as a model for others. The nominee does not have to meet all four criteria stated above. NOMINATIONS: Nominations for the award must be returned to ACRL, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611, and must be postmarked no later than January 1, 1982. Nominations must be submitted on an application form, in quintupli- cate, with no attachments or secondary letters. NATURE OF THE AWARD: The Academic/ Research Librarian of the Year Award shall con­ sist of $2,000 and an appropriate citation. The Awards Committee for 1982 is chaired by Pearce S. Grove, Western Illinois University, Macomb. T H IN K TANK A P P O IN T E D ACRL’S Bibliographic Instruction Section has named a seven-member ‘think tank to discuss present and future trends in bibliographic in­ struction at the BIS Preconference in San Fran­ cisco, June 24-26. The group will report its delib­ erations in a panel presentation at the closing general session. The think tank facilitator is Joanne Euster, director of the library at San Francisco State Uni­ versity. She will provide a procedural framework for the group and keep it moving using both indi­ vidual and group process techniques. The other members are: Fran Hopkins, coordi­ nator of reference services, Paley Library, Tem­ ple University, whose interest is in the sociology of knowledge and organizational behavior; Donald Kenney, head of general reference at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, who is interested in the impact of automation in BI, and AACR2; Brian Neilsen, head of reference at Northwestern University, who won the Best Pa­ per Award at the National Online Information Meeting in 1980 for a paper entitled, “Online Bibliographic Searching and the Deprofessional­ ization of Librarianship;” Anne Roberts, coordina­ tor of library instruction at SUNY Albany, who has a book in progress on BI for librarians; Carla Stoffle, assistant chancellor for educational ser­ vices at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, who has published extensively on faculty involve­ ment, planning objectives, and evaluation; and Paula Walker, library instruction coordinator at the University of Washington Undergraduate Li­ brary, who has developed a successful program oí course-related instruction called BIBLIO LAB. After the annual conference the BIS think tank may meet on an informal basis to continue to dis­ cuss the future of bibliographic instruction in academic libraries. 178 RBM S STA ND A RD S C O M M IT T E E Preservation of library materials led the list of topics under discussion at the third meeting of the RBMS Standards Com mittee at the ALA Midwinter Conference, Washington, D C., on February 1. Barbara Jones, head of the cataloging department at New York University, briefed the committee on the work of the Research Libraries Group’s Committee on Preservation, which is be­ ginning to study the development of a method for recording preservation information in machine- readable records. Committee members expressed an interest in having such techniques standard­ ized for inter-institutional communication, espe­ cially in the area of copy-specific information re­ lating to preservation, physical description, and provenance. Patrick Russell, Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley, and Helen Butz, Universi­ ty of Michigan Library, and chair of the Stan­ dards Committee, reported on the current status of the “Relator Terms for Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Cataloging” (C&RL News, Septem ber 1980, pp. 238-39). The ALA Re­ sources and Technical Services Division’s Com­ mittee on Cataloging: Description and Access had taken a positive view of the Standards Commit­ tee’s request that a revision of AACR 2 be initi­ ated to allow for the optional use of such standard lists of relator terms, and had sent a resolution to the Joint Steering Com mittee for Revision of AACR suggesting that it study the issue. In addi­ tion, the Office for Descriptive Cataloging Policy of the Library of Congress, responding to a letter from the Standards Committee, had also been favorably disposed to the list and had expressed its willingness to review its earlier decision not to use relators, and to study the possibility of mak­ ing use of certain terms from the list in its own rare materials cataloging. Russell, editor of the list, indicated that a few minor revisions are now in order, some stemming from suggestions made by the Library of Con­ gress. He was charged with preparing a draft “second edition” of the list for discussion at the committee’s next meeting. Stephen Davis, from LC’s Descriptive Catalog­ ing Division, reported on the progress of the Committee’s Standard Citation Forms fo r Bib­ liographies and Catalogues Used in Rare Catalog­ uing. This list had originally been prepared by Peter Van Wingen of LC’s Rare Book and Special Collections Division, and he and Davis had drafted a revised version of the list and an accom­ panying statement of working principles for the committee’s review. The committee endorsed the statement of working principles and requested that committee members be allowed to suggest additional entries for the list between now and the summer 1981 meeting. John Thomas, Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, presented a draft introduction and working principles for the Genre Thesaurus fo r Rare Books now being prepared by the committee. The committee then took up the Thesaurus o f Descriptors fo r Physical Characteristics o f Rare M aterials, originally p rep ared by Alexandra Mason, Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas. It was agreed that work would not pro­ ceed further until a comprehensive statement of its purpose and scope had been drafted. The committee also voted to sponsor an Auto­ mated Cataloguing D iscussion Group within RBMS to serve as a forum for general discussion for those who use automated systems in the cata­ loging of rare and specialized materials. The dis­ cussion group is expected to have its first meeting in 1982. Those interested in helping to plan for it are encouraged to contact Helen Butz, Head, Rare Book Cataloging Division, Hatcher Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Recruitment Open for Editor of ACRL Publications in Librarianship ACRL’s monographic series, ACRL Publica­ tions in Librarianship, will require a new edi­ tor to serve on a volunteer basis beginning in Jul y-,—1 9 8 7 whe n J o e Kraus completes his term of service Besides ACRL m em bership, candidates should have a background of service in academic or research librarianship, experience in research, editing, and bibliographical activi­ ties, a concern with publication as a means of professional communication, and an ability to analyze manuscripts for content, research methods, form, structure, and style. Together with the four to six member edi­ torial board, the editor is charged with en couraging research and writing which may be appropriate for the monographic series, solici­ ting topics and suggesting them to appropriate authors, and editing and refereeing manu­ scripts. Persons wishing to be considered for the five-year term as editor should communicate their interest, accompanied by a statement of qualifications and names o f references, to Larry Wilt, Chair, ACRL Publications Committee, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA 17013, by August 15, 1981.