ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 484 / C&RL News In th e Neirs How do libraries deal with declining resources? What are other alternative sources of funding for academic and research libraries? This issue of C&RL News has a variety of suggestions for dealing with budget cuts and for seeking additional sources of revenue. Dawn Bick and Reeta Sinha have developed an objective method for making serials retention deci­ sions when the budget requires that subscriptions must be cut. Norman Stevens returns to the pages o f C &R L News with an innovative idea for increas­ ing funds for library acquisitions by asserting that faculty start-up costs should include an allocation to the library for the acquisition of collections needed by new faculty. Other items to note are: the report on ACRL programs at the ALA Annual Conference includes highlights from the discussion on “Eco­ nomic Crisis: Danger and Opportunities for Librar­ ies” sponsored by the Universities Libraries Sec­ tion; the expanded “News from the Field” reports of large gifts to libraries from alumni, athletic organi­ zations, and the student body; and Carol Henderson gives us an update on the funding of the Higher Education Act, which may provide $5 million for HEA II-B library fellowship and training pro­ grams— a 668 percent increase! While perusing the highlights of the “Economic Crisis” report, take a moment to review the other programs featured in this issue. I f you were unable to attend the conference or if you had a conflict and had to miss a program, I think you’ll find an inter­ esting collection of reports. From Moon Unit Zappa on freedom of expression to gender differences in library use to information literacy about the envi­ ronment, ACRL programs offer thought-provok- ing fare. Another conference report I think you will find interesting is Pat Wand’s insights on the White House Conference on Library and Information Science. Pat anticipates your questions and offers some suggestions for us to keep the momentum of the conference going. — Mary Ellen K. Davis E d ito r & Publisher Feature your collection on a C&RL News cover C &R L News would like to feature on its covers some of the many unusual and interesting items academic and research libraries have in their collec­ tions. Photographs of items with seasonal themes or themes related to the book arts, libraries, printing, publishing, or computing are especially sought. The July/August cover featured an attractive menu from a 1914 New Year’s Eve party from Cornell Univer­ sity; this issue’s cover has a seasonal theme. I f you have material in your collection that you think would make an attractive cover for C &RL News please send us a photograph and a brief de­ scription of the item and the collection it illustrates. (Brief articles highlighting a special collection— such as “Menus: Their Use and Collection in an Academic Library” by Katherine S. Laurence [C&RL News, July/August 1991] are also sought.) Photographs may be either color or black and white and should be 5" x 7" or 8" by 10". Those photographs with a vertical orientation will work best for the C irR L News cover format. All photo­ graphs will become the property o f C irR L News. Photographs should be sent to C&R L News Covers, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. A bout o u r c o v e r this m o n th ... In the 19th and early 20th centuries, an era when most Americans lived on farms and in small farming communities, one o f the staples of American gar­ dening— the seed catalogue— appeared in almost everyone’s mailbox without fail in huge numbers from spring to spring and autumn to autumn. A significant portion o f agricultural histoiy and lore is chronicled in these ephemeral publications which poured from the growers to the American reading public. The front cover of the 1906 Annual Cata­ logue of the Springfield Seed Company (Springfield, Missouri) is illustrated here. Located at the comer of Campbell and Walnut Streets, the Springfield Seed Company was a wholesale and retail dealership, “growers and importers of seeds of all kinds,” as well as suppliers of bee-keeping and farming equipment. Part of a large collection of 19th- and 20th-century rare, colorful seed catalogues and trade catalogues in the Mercantile Library, this collection is a com­ ponent of the library’s important sources in agricul­ tural and horticultural history. Ed. note: Cover photo courtesy o f John Neal Hoover, associate librarian, and the St. Louis Mer­ cantile Library Association.