ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C &RL News / 391 base. The New York Public Library is also entering records for its retrospective collection of master negatives into RLIN as part of a project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The RLG pro­ ject will help guard against expensive duplicate filming among members and will lay the ground­ work for a cooperative preservation microfilming program now in the planning stages. NEWS NOTES •The L ib r a r y o f C o n g r e s s and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have com­ pleted the Library’s first large-scale mass deacidifi­ cation experiment. The experiment was designed to test whether as many as 5,000 books could be treated successfully at one time. Using a large NASA vacuum chamber originally designed to test satellites for outer space, LC staff used a patented process developed by the Library’s preservation scientists. The week-long process involved the use of a chemical vapor, diethyl zinc (DEZ), to perme­ ate the books and neutralize harmful acids destructive to paper, at the same time leaving an alkaline reserve to combat the return of an acid condition. Analysis of the books used in the test will now begin and complete results are expected in early 1983. •The St e r l i n g an d F r a n c in e C l a r k A r t I n s t i­ t u t e , Williamstown, Massachusetts, has joined the Research Libraries Group as the thirteenth special member of R LG ’s Art and Architecture Program. The Institute’s library is particularly strong in Eu­ ropean and American art from the Renaissance to the present. •The U n i v e r s i t y o f C h ic a g o began construc­ tion of the new John Crerar Library building on October 4. The university’s scientific, medical, and technical collections will be merged with the Crerar collections in science and technology. From the outset of discussions about the merger, it is un­ derstood that Chicago’s mathemetics collection will remain in a separate facility but will also be available to users of the Crerar Library, which has always been accessible to the public. The Crerar Library is leasing space from the Illinois Institute of Technology until the autumn of 1984, when the building is scheduled for completion. ■ ■ W A S H I N G T O N H O T L I N E by Carol C. Henderson Deputy Director ALA Washington Office Comments are invited on library education study. The Education Depart­ ment, through its Office of Libraries and Learning Technologies under the Higher Education Act title II-B research and demonstration program, recently awarded a contract to King Research, Inc. to determine the present and future competencies needed by library and information science professionals and to examine the educational requirements necessary to achieve those competencies. The study, “New Directions for Library and Information Science Education, is addressed to traditional roles of information professionals as well as new, emerging roles, and to formal education as well as ongoing, continuing educa­ tion. A planning process will be established to identify, define, describe and validate competencies; define education and training requirements; design and implement curricula; establish and validate measures of competency attainment; and evaluate curricula. This planning process will be documented so that it can be repeated as needed by associations or institutions. The contractor has established an Advisory Group of consultants and experts, plans a quarterly project newsletter, and will make copies of working documents available for review. Comments and suggestions from interested parties are encouraged, particularly relating to job descriptions, career paths, education and training received and required, and to identify potential test sites. Those interested should contact the Project Director, Dr, Jose- Marie Griffiths at 6000 Executive Boulevard, Rockville, Maryland 20852; (301) 881-6766. ” At Midwest Library Service, We Take The Team Approach To Assist Your Library T o best serve your needs, we have form ed five problem -solving service team s to help take the hassle o ut o f book-buying. Each team is com posed o f a Sales Representative in the field and a Custom er Service Representative in our hom e office. Once alerted by your phone call m ade on o u r Toll-Free W A TS Line, 1-800-325-8833, (M issouri custom ers, please call C O L L E C T 0-314-739-3100) your problem -solving team , geographically assigned to your library, goes into action im m ediately. It is a n o th er facet o f Midwest Library Service’s tra d itio n o f excellence. M idwest Library Service 11443 St. Charles Rock Road May we have the privilege Bridgeton, M o. 63044 o f serving your library? “ 23 Years of Service To College and University Libraries ”