ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


176

SO YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE?!

W RITE FOR COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES 
BOOK REVIEWERS WANTED 

ASK HERE

The Association of College and Research 
Libraries has made available part of its ex­
hibit space in Cobo Hall, Detroit, to College 
& Research Libraries at the American Library 
Association Conference this summer.

Readers will have a chance to meet the 
editors and the Editorial Board to discuss pol­
icies, article ideas, and issues facing academic 
librarians, A major goal is to give the “silent

majority” an opportunity to get into print via 
book reviews for the journal. By meeting in­
terested potential reviewers, the editors hope 
to broaden the base of authors for the journal.

A “profile card” will be available, and the 
editors have fond hopes that daring, adven­
turous, literate souls will step forward to be 
profiled, indexed, and filed.

■ ■

From Inside the DLP
By Dr. Katharine M. Stokes

College and University Library Specialist, Li­
brary Planning and Development Branch, Di­
vision of Library Programs, Bureau of Libraries 
and Educational Technology, U.S. Office of 
Education, Washington, D.C. 20202.

Under the terms of a sixteen-month, $92,000 
contract with the Office of Education, funded 
by Title II-B of the Higher Education Act, a 
System Development Corporation team head­
ed by Dr. Carlos Cuadra has started an in­
tensive investigation of academic library con­
sortia in the United States.

While Dr. Raymond S. Moore was Educa­
tion Research and Program Specialist in the 
OE Bureau of Higher Education he prepared 
A Guide to Higher Education Consortiums: 
1965-68 (OE-50051) identifying 123 library 
components among some 1,300 academic co­
operative groups. His study inspired the pro­
posal by the Division of Library Programs 
which resulted in the Title II-B research con­
tract with SDC.

Working with Dr. Cuadra, head of the Cor­
poration’s Library and Documentation Systems 
Department, will be Dr. Robert Katter, Don­
ald Black, Mrs. Ann Luke, and Neil Sher­
man. One team operating out of Falls Church, 
Virginia, will study library consortia in the 
eastern states, and another in Santa Monica, 
California, will cover the western states. SDC 
will also draw on the knowledge and experi­
ence of persons in the library community who 
are experts on consortia arrangements and ac­
tivities.

Two major products will result from this 
study: a directory of existing academic library 
consortia and a step-by-step guide to help li­
braries plan, develop, and operate academic 
library services functioning in a cooperative 
mode. The directory will identify all known 
library consortia in higher education and a list 
of participating libraries (components) and 
characteristics (services). It will include statis­
tical summary data and one or more indexes 
to provide convenient access points for the 
directory users.

The guidelines document will outline one 
or more basic models of library consortia in 
higher education and, for each of them, pro­
vide guidelines for planning, developing, op­
erating, and evaluating library consortia. It will 
be based on the findings from both the survey 
and from in-depth analyses of fifteen selected 
library consortia. It is expected to provide 
valuable assistance not only to libraries that 
are planning or engaged in consortia opera­
tions but to private and public agencies that 
are concerned with allocating resources for li­
brary development and library services. The 
ultimate use of the guidelines will be to aid in 
the development and establishment of net­
works and other cooperative library arrange­
ments whereby the user population of one 
member library will have direct access to the 
library materials of any other member library. 
Such arrangements are becoming increasing­
ly important as the amount and variety of 
published literature soars and as new demands 
for service are placed on individual libraries.

Team members are currently at the stage of