ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 1030 / C&RL News A partnership brings improved access to folklore scholarship By Daniel Uchitelle Director, Center f o r Information Services M odem Language Association Indiana University’s Library and Folklore Institute form a Cooperative Folklore Bibliography Project with the Modem Language Association. T he M odern Language Association and Indiana University have em barked on an unusual program designed to increase the in coverage of a subject area—folklore—covered in the M LA International Bibliography, one of the major reference works in the humanities. The project is designed to involve IU folklore graduate students and faculty as subject specialist volunteer indexers, and to enlist the support of Indiana Uni­ versity as an institutional sponsor for one section of the MLA Bibliography. In addition to enhancing the coverage of folklore scholarship, it is hoped that this project will serve as a model for cooperation between library collections and publishers in other scholarly fields. The M LA Bibliography analyzes monographs, monographic series, festschriften, dissertations, and periodicals, with citations for periodical ar­ ticles making up the greater part of each annual compilation. Currently, over 2,500 journal titles are examined. Entries are contributed from two sources: a small team of in-house indexers working full time at MLA headquarters in New York, and a network of approximately 200 volunteers, known as d field bibliographers, working at academic institu­ tions throughout the world. The field bibliographer esxyisntgem allows the MLA to draw on the subject expertise of the same scholars who will be the ultimate users of the bibliography, and permits the bibliography to closely track and reflect the latest developments in the world of humanities research. There are some serious problems with this sys­ tem. In addition to the difficulties of maintaining communications with and coordinating such a large group o f contributors, there is the more seri­ ous problem of access to material for coverage. The MLA has virtually no acquisitions budget, and relies on appeals to journals for complimentary subscriptions in order to supply its in-house index­ ers with material. W hat cannot be obtained or covered at MLA headquarters must be handled by field bibliographers—volunteers who, in consulta­ tion with MLA staff editors, are responsible for choosing titles for consistent coverage. Despite this responsibility, most field bibliographers have little direct control over the material being received and processed by their institution’s libraries. In deci­ sions to add or drop titles from the collection, or to December 199 0 / 1031 expedite or delay processing, consideration is rarely given to the presence at the institution o f one or two field bibliographers for MLA. Moreover, field bibliographers work as individuals, often moving from one university to another, and it is difficult to maintain continuity o f coverage when moving betw een collections. F o r this reason, the M LA Bibliography, despite its many strengths, has been plagued by inconsistent coverage o f all but the most widely held journal titles. An additional problem for field bibliographers is the lack o f encouragem ent within th eir institutions, for while everybody supports in general the prin ­ ciples of service to the field and the im portance of bibliographic analysis to research, few academic departm ents have given substantive support to their own faculty and graduate students working as field bibliographers. This twin burden o f lack of consistent access to titles and lack o f administrative encouragem ent has been a chronic problem and has prevented the M LA International Bibliography from achieving its full potential in breadth o f coverage. Recently, the MLA began looking into ways to strengthen the field bibliographer system while establishing more com plete subject coverage within the bibliography. After examining a num ber o f potential approaches to this problem , it was decided to initiate a project that would address the major deficiencies o f the field bibliographer system by creating an institu­ tional locus for bibliographers working within spe­ cific subject areas. An institutional affiliation cover­ ing a single topical area could be designed and situated to draw on the best library collections and the strongest academic departm ents in each o f the areas covered by the bibliography. The initial outlines o f this project were first discussed at the MLA in 1988. Discussion centered on two potential subject areas: East E uropean literature and folklore. Both o f these subjects are covered in depth in the annual bibliography, b u t it was felt that much material was still being missed. In the fall o f 1988 th e topic was raised for discussion at th e annual American Folklore Society convention. Since 1971, the AFS has supported the publication o f the folklore section o f the annual bibliography with a cash subvention. M ore re ­ cently, a num ber o f folklorists had independently been mulling over the possibility o f strengthening the link betw een th eir discipline and the MLA. The proposal o f a cooperative bibliography project generated great enthusiasm at the AFS convention, and convention participants m ade many valuable suggestions. On the subject o f an institutional sponsor, there was almost com plete consensus th at the best site, in term s o f both collection strength and potential administrative support, would be Indiana Univer­ sity in Bloomington, hom e o f the IU Folklore Institute and N orth America’s largest folklore li­ brary collection. Thus began a series o f planning meetings b e ­ tw een AFS m em bers, IU administrators and li­ brarians, and the staff o f the MLA. The result of these meetings was a draft o f the cooperative proj­ ect, sponsored by the IU Folklore Institute, the IU Library, and the MLA. The project was designed to recruit field bibliographers from the Institute and give them direct access to materials in the folklore collection o f the library. Administrative coordina­ tion at IU would be provided by Polly Grimshaw, folklore librarian, in consultation with Inta Gale C arpenter, associate director of special projects in th e Folklore In stitu te. Local coordination by Grimshaw and C arpenter would assure that the project receives maximum budgetary and adminis­ trative support both in the library and in the Folk­ lore Institute. Training, final editing, authority control, production o f the bibliography, and overall coordination o f the project would be carried out by th e MLA staff, who are also responsible for dis­ seminating the finished product. After months o f additional discussion and plan­ ning, the project was officially launched in Septem ­ b er 1989. T he MLA assigned staff tim e and ex­ penses for recruiting and training IU participants; the IU Folklore Institute com m itted funds for the 1989-1990 academic year to hire a project coordi­ nator; and the IU library provided supervision and workspace in the folklore collection office. Moira Smith, the project coordinator hired by the Folklore Institute, began recruiting volunteer field bibliographers in January 1990. The Folklore Institute publicized the project in seminars and through its newsletter, and actively encouraged both graduate students and faculty to sign on for training. Titles for coverage were chosen by volun­ teers based on th eir interests and their language proficiencies. Polly Grimshaw, the folklore librar­ ian, arranged to have all newly arrived issues of relevant journals available to IU field bibliogra­ phers. Equally im portant, she was able to use the library’s serials acquisitions records to inform the MLA about discontinued, renam ed, new, and d e ­ layed publications in folklore. T he Cooperative Bibliography Project has been in place for a year, and it is both popular and successful. T he num ber of folklore citations in the current M LA International Bibliography is almost 30% above the previous year’s total, and we plan to continue to expand and refine the project. One refinem ent will involve the creation o f a graduate course in folklore research methodologies which will include training as an MLA field bibliographer. To expand the project, an attem pt will be made to recruit Folklore Institute alumni as volunteers to cover those titles which are not available in Bloom­ ington. 1032 / C&RL News We hope that in the future this project can be duplicated at other institutions with o ther subjects in the bibliography. In the meantime, we hope that this project will dem onstrate the benefits o f coop­ eration betw een academic departm ents, libraries, and th e publishers o f bibliographic reference works, and will help to train an ever expanding group of scholars in the art of indexing and bibliog­ raphy. A u th o rs note: The developm ent o f this project is the result o f the efforts o f many individuals. In particular, the author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Richard Bauman, Inta C arpenter, Polly Grimshaw, Moira Smith, and Catharine Wall. F or a history of the place of folklore in the bibliog­ raphy, see Michael Taft, “The Folklore Section of the MLA International Bibliography,” Interna­ tional Folklore Review 2 (1982): 61-64. ■ ■ Subject experts needed for MLA Bibliography project The M odern Language Association has re ­ quested assistance from ACRL and the RASD Reference Tools Advisory Com m ittee on a study of the scope and overlap in the MLA Bibliography and other reference works. The project will be explained at the Midwinter m eeting (Saturday, January 12,9:30-11:00 a.m.) and interested partici­ pants are invited to attend. ACRL president, Bar­ bara J. Ford, has appointed Elaine Franco, Univer­ sity of California, Davis, and Eva Sartori, Univer­ sity of Nebraska, Lincoln, to co-chair the project. According to Daniel Uchitelle, interested par­ ticipants should have a broad knowledge of p u b ­ lished reference works and the ability to analyti­ cally com pare scope, depth, and com pleteness between one work and another. It is anticipated that betw een 10 and 20 m em bers will be needed to complete the project by November 1, 1991. Participants will choose a classified category in which they have expertise from the Bibliography. They will undertake a detailed examination o f the extent and nature o f coverage of that area in the bibliography versus other currently from the Bibli­ ography from the Bibliography available reference works. In addition, some areas not currently cov­ ered by the bibliography, such as Middle Eastern literature, will be examined. Once the examination is com pleted, participants will write a report for each classified section describing their findings. Uchitelle states that, “These reports will then be discussed by the com m ittee as a whole, and a com prehensive set o f recom mendations will be form ulated to help guide the MLA in focusing its indexing resources most effectively.” F or more information, contact the com m ittee co-chairs: Elaine Franco, Cataloging D epartm ent, Shields Library, University of California, Davis, CA 95616-5292, (916) 752-9860; Eva Sartori, C entral Reference Services, 203B Love Library, University o f N ebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, N E 68588-0410, (402) 472-6987. ACRL considers future o f Sixth National Conference in Phoenix The ACRL Executive Com m ittee m et on No­ vem ber 9-10,1990, and discussed the future o f the April 1-4,1992, ACRL National Conference. The committee was concerned that Arizona voters had rejected a paid holiday honoring the Rev. Martin L uther King Jr. National reaction to the narrowly defeated referendum has been strong and some groups are considering boycotting the state. Donald E. Riggs, dean of university libraries at Arizona State University and a m em ber o f the ACRL National Conference Executive C om m it­ tee, reported that Arizona Governor Rose Mofford could issue an executive order to create a paid state holiday honoring King. H e also stated that the city of Phoenix continues to have a King holiday. At the 1990 ALA Annual Conference, the ACRL National Conference Comm ittee, chaired by Jo­ seph A. Boissé, University o f California, Santa Bar­ bara, discussed what ACRL might do if the King holiday was rejected by the voters. The com m ittee recom m ended to the ACRL Board that ACRL keep its com m itm ent to m eet in Phoenix and make cultural diversity a major them e o f the conference. Program co-chairs, Clarence Chisholm, Pennsyl­ vania State University, and Sherrie Bergm an, W heaton College, are contacting major black lead­ ers to speak at the conference. ACRL President Barbara J. F ord reported that the ACRL Board would keep a close eye on devel­ opm ents in Arizona. She stated that she would confer with Arizona librarians during the Novem­ b er m eeting o f the Arizona State Library Associa­ tion. F ord is speaking at the conference.