ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 113 Proposed need criteria for HEA II-A Developed by the ACRL Legislation Committee Nancy Kranich, Chair What constitutes a needy college library? T he H ig h e r E d u c a tio n A ct is d u e fo r re- authorization in this Congress. In the past, three parts of Title II were funded: P art A, College L i­ brary Resources Program ; P art B, T raining and Research and D em onstration Projects; and P art C, S tren g th en in g R esearch L ib ra ry Resources. A fourth p a rt was proposed last year to encourage the use and development of new technologies to en­ hance resource sharing capabilities of academic li­ braries. Over the past year, the ACRL Legislation Com ­ m ittee has focused on Title II-A. For two years, this program has not had funding. In the previous year, it allotted only $890 per institution. The Congress has indicated its reluctance to continue the pro­ gram unless its purpose is to target needy libraries through a simple and workable form ula. Because the C om m ittee feels strongly th a t a program for ac­ adem ic libraries is im portant, it has w orked on de­ veloping the need criteria th a t the Congress has re­ quested. Last year, tw o bills were introduced into C on­ gress th a t suggested need criteria for Title II-A. These criteria were proposed w ithout wide input from the profession. Because m any college lib rari­ ans criticized the criteria, the Congress asked the li­ b rary com m unity to recom m end appropriate m ea­ sures of need. Accordingly, the ACRL Legislation C om m ittee has reviewed the extensive background m aterials on the program . W orking from earlier proposals and suggestions from the library com m unity, the C om m ittee tried to establish a working definition of a “needy” academic library. It also tried to iden­ tify libraries considered “needy” in order to evalu­ ate w h at criteria described them as such. All possible criteria were then evaluated through various statistical analyses of the 1982 NCES HE- GIS tapes for academ ic libraries. W hile no evi­ dence was conclusive in regard to a measure of neediness, some indicators did appear to be both descriptive and relevant. W ith the results of the analyses, the C om m ittee prepared a recom m enda­ tio n for need c rite ria an d for o th e r T itle II-A am endm ents and forw arded them to the ACRL Board and to the ALA Legislation C om m ittee at the ALA M idw inter m eeting in W ashington. The proposed need criteria and changes to the II-A program were presented as follows: • Funding should be available to those libraries w hich rank below the norm w hen scored for both “m aterials expenditures/FTE student” and “vol­ umes held/F T E stu d en t.” Libraries w ould be com­ pared to like institutions according to the classifica­ tion designated by H E G IS—2 year, 4 year, and university. • M aintenance of effort provision in relation to m aterials expenditures m ust be assured as desig­ nated in the current law. A graduated am ount be­ tw een $2,000 and $10,000 would be aw arded to needy libraries annually, based on an institution’s FTE enrollm ent range. • D efinitions of m aterials expenditures, vol­ umes, institutions, and enrollm ent w ould be based on those used by the N ational C enter for E ducation Statistics for HEGIS reports. • Libraries w ould be expected to designate how they plan to use the funds on the grant application 114 forms and to report on their use after the grant pe­ riod in conjunction w ith their final financial re­ ports. • Research libraries receiving support from the HEA II-C program would be ineligible for II-A funds in th a t fiscal year. • An appropriate organization would evaluate the effectiveness of the program after two years. W hile the criteria suggested may not satisfy ev­ eryone’s definition of a needy library, they are rele­ vant to the purpose of the program (expanding col­ lege library resources) and constitute statistically valid tests of need. Both the ACRL Board and the ALA Legislation C om m ittee endorsed the p ro ­ posed criteria. In addition, they passed a resolution recom m ending reauthorization of the Higher E d u ­ cation Act (with suggested am endm ents for II-A and inclusion of a new program for the use and de­ velopment of new technologies). The ALA Council has also endorsed the resolution. Now the entire li­ brary com m unity must rally behind the proposal in order to dem onstrate the unity necessary to re­ establish the HEA II-A program and get it funded in the future. Because it is the only federal program th a t assists college libraries exclusively and because so m any college libraries are truly needy, it is cru­ cial th a t librarians recognize the value of support­ ing and encouraging reauthorization and am end­ m ent of Title II-A along w ith all other programs included in the Higher Education Act. ■■ ACRL guidelines for publications support requests These guidelines were developed by the ACRL P ublications C o m m ittee an d approved by th e ACRL Board of Directors at their m eeting of Jan u ­ ary 8,1985. 1. Publication support requests from ACRL sec­ tions or other groups will be referred to the Publi­ cations C om m ittee by the Budget and Finance Com m ittee for a recom mendation. 2. Financial support for such publications will be viewed as a special project expense. 3. ACRL shall be offered the first right of refusal to publish any items produced w ith the assistance of ACRL special project funds. 4. If ACRL chooses not to publish as outlined in 3 above, the ACRL Executive Director shall be in­ volved in the negotiations w ith an outside p u b ­ lisher to attem pt to recoup investment expenses, or to get agreem ent regarding the type of acknowl­ edgement th a t will be m ade of ACRL support. 5. W hen publication support requests are re­ ceived at ACRL headquarters, staff shall au to m at­ ically refer the requests to the Publications Com ­ m itte e as w ell as to th e B udget an d F in a n c e Comm ittee. ■ ■ Section newsletters policy This policy was developed jointly by the ACRL Budget and Finance Com m ittee and the ACRL Publications Com m ittee. It was approved by the ACRL Board of Directors at their meeting of Jan u ­ ary 8, 1985. The following points constitute the above com­ mittee’s deliberations regarding Section Newslet­ ters. 1. The ownership statem ent for section newslet­ ters will be designed such th a t it will include the name of the section, nam e of the division (ACRL), ALA, and other essential elements as described in: “ALA Periodicals: Essential Elem ents,” an ALA P ublications C o m m ittee docum ent of July 10, 1982. 2. Each section publishing a newsletter will p ro­ vide a w ritten report to the Publications C om m it­ tee once a year. 3. E ach section m ay, under norm al circum ­ stances, expect to receive funding for either two newsletters a year, each of up to four sheets (8 pages), or one newsletter a year, of up to eight sheets (16 pages). 4. Sections shall be responsible for subm itting cam era-ready copy to ACRL H eadquarters, ac­ cording to specifications prepared by the ACRL H eadquarters staff. H eadquarters staff shall have the responsibility for getting the newsletters repro­ duced and mailed out by first class mail w ithin two weeks of receipt of the final cam era-ready copy. 5. Each section shall be provided w ith a 10% overrun of copies for the section to distribute at its own cost and discretion. If a section requires more than a 10% overrun of its membership size, addi­ tional copies will be m ade available to the section at cost. The section can then decide who it will charge. 6. In light of 5 above, ACRL will not establish a p o licy on n e w s le tte r s u b sc rip tio n s to n o n ­ members. 7. If a section believes th a t the content of its newsletter requires th a t the newsletter be more ex­ tensive th an as outlined in 3 above, the section can request special support as p art of the section’s nor­ m al budget request to the Budget and Finance Comm ittee. The request w ould be viewed as a spe­ cial program activity of the section, and w ould be reviewed by the Publications Com m ittee. ■ ■ For the researcher who needs the answer now The National Inventory of Documentary Sources in the bringsU tnhiet emdo Sstta itmesportant nFeorw the rreseeafrceherr ewhon vcaluees whis tiomrke and sis ifrnustcraeted nby uthe cdemlaycs and difficulties of finding out what is in a collection. ** National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCM C) was first published in 1959.For the researcher who wants to cover every possible source of documents - without moving out of the library.For the researcher who needs to know in detail the contents of a collection.The National Inventory brings together finding aids, lists, indexes, and catalogs to thousands of collections, reproduces them on microfiche and indexes them in an easy-to-use names and subject index.The National Inventory is continuously bein g ad d ed to.It already includes finding aids to collections in: The National Archives, Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, Presidential Libraries.Also covered are collections in State Archives, State Historical Societies, Universities, Public Libraries, and in many other repositories.For descriptive brochures, prices and sample microfiche, please call Linda Fox on (201) 692-1801Chadwyck-Healey Inc.623 Martense Avenue, Teaneck, NJ 07666 1985