ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries ISSN 0099-0086 COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBR n AR ew IES s NO. 7 • JULY/AUGUST 1976 Association of College and Research Libraries: Annual Report of the President 1975-76 The 1975-76 sociopolitical setting has not been a particularly beneficial one for the li­ brary profession; the economic and unemploy­ ment problems on the national and local scenes have also hit hard in the field of education and libraries. Some public libraries have been vir­ tually closed or have had their services sharply curtailed; some colleges have been closed, merged, or radically transformed. Yet, ALA has managed (for this fiscal year, at least) to get into the black, and ACRL continues to be sol­ vent. Professionally, it has been a year of vital­ ity, creativity, and productivity. Like any other dynamic organism whose sys­ tem has experienced a radical, internal change, ALA, as a result of the impact of the new dues structure, is presently in a period where the emphasis is on “homeostasis.” (From my read­ ing of the literature of organizational theory, I offer a working definition of “homeostasis” as: “That tendency of an organization to keep the steady state through a self-regulating sys­ tem which tends to maintain internal balance.” ) As the organization’s components struggle and juggle and shift in order to regain equilibrium, the most important priority in each unit at this time is that vital, balancing effort—the realign­ ment in order to survive. Fortunately, ACRL’s ∞ ncem for survival need not be as sharp as that of some other di­ visions, because, with a budget that is still in the black and 9,390 members (September 30, 1975, figure), ACRL is still the largest division. Lack of immediate financial concern, however, does not necessarily mean a decrease of homeo­ static activity within the division. Realignment is our top concern, too; a more detailed discus­ sion of the impact of the new dues structure on ACRL appeared in the April 1976 issue of the News. ACRL Activities One of the division’s major efforts toward re­ alignment is the Ad Hoc Committee on Goals, chaired by LeMoyne Anderson, which has been in existence for several years. This committee’s assignment is to review the division structure and its goals and objectives and to make long- range recommendations regarding the same. The first draft of the committee’s report and recommendations is almost complete and should be made available for review of the membership sometime in the coming year. ACRL has developed procedures for the op­ eration of Choice and has attempted to clarify the governance of the magazine. In April, Mel George, chairperson of the Choice Editorial Hoard, and I appeared before the ALA Execu­ tive Board to discuss the status of Choice and to point out that the magazine is a top ACRL program and that its management and control should be delegated to the ACRL Directors Board in the same manner as any other ACRL program. The ALA Executive Board felt this to be a matter to be investigated extensively and, therefore, ruled that the ALA president appoint an ad hoc committee to do this. The committee is to consist of one representative News issue (A ) and (B ) of College & Research Libraries, vol. 37, no. 4 168 each from the ALA Executive Board, COPES, the ALA Publishing Committee, the ACRL Board of Directors, the ACRL Publications Committee, and the Choice Editorial Board. Their report and recommendations regarding Choice are due in by 1977 Midwinter. W ith the exception of Choice, which has a paid editor and staff, our excellent ACRL pub­ lications are the result of volunteer effort. A C R L Publications in Librarianship, the Col­ lege & Research Libraries, and the College & Research Libraries News are all labors of love. Richard Johnson, editor of College & Research Libraries, is publishing a commendable cen­ tennial series of ten landmark articles by ten librarians, which deal with specific topics over the past 100 years. Who speaks for collective bargaining con­ cerns in ALA? Should it be the Library Admin­ istration Division? That is what ALA policy decrees as it is now written. Some people feel th a t lodging official policy-making authority in LAD for collective bargaining matters could in itself be viewed as a bias of the association. Last year, ACRL asked the ALA Executive Board to grant permission for the division to speak for ALA on collective bargaining matters involving academic libraries. C. James Schmidt, chairperson of the Committee on Academic Status, represented the ACRL president before the ALA Executive Board. The Executive Board recommended the m atter to COO for further study; and COO subsequently ruled that divisions could speak for their members on collective bargaining and recommended the m atter to Council in order that the policy might be revised and updated. The ACRL Internship Program, a three-year program funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, has just completed its second year in operation. The program, whose objective is to accelerate the development of management ability of librarians in black col­ leges and universities by providing them with internship experience in the administration of strong and progressive academic libraries, has been a successful one and one of which th e di­ vision is proud. See the July-August 1975 issue of the News (p.215) for more on this program. An ACRL president’s annual report is essen­ tially a report of the hard work of others. Sim­ ilarly, an ACRL president would be nothing without a good, hard-working administrative staff at the ACRL office. An organization may profess to be run by its membership, b u t the level of the quality and expertise of elected of­ ficers fluctuates from year to year, and the elected officers usually have other full-time jobs to perform—these are a couple among the m any reasons th a t make it mandatory to have a division executive secretary with top-level management expertise, diplomatic skills and leadership ability, and a complete division staff that is diligent, committed, and ethical. I am happy to be able to say th at ACRL has such a staff. I consider myself lucky because I could not have functioned as president without the support, encouragement and advice of these good people. Lynn Dennison was absent from the office for about six months of the year. She spent her leave traveling all over the country studying reference services in community college li­ braries— a project for which she received a Council on Library Resources M id-Career Fel­ lowship. Shari Brace, a friend and hard work­ er, resigned in April to take a job with a law firm. T he Sections The work of ACRL is largely done through the division’s standing committees, sections and section committees, and its chapters. The range and richness of the division’s program may per­ haps best be viewed through the diversity of its thirteen sections. All of the sections have been operating very actively. T he ACRL Committees Special thanks is given for the support and commitment of the ACRL Directors Board, which has to digest and make decisions on all of the proposals and recommendations from all the sections, committees, and chapters; th at’s where “the buck really stops.” The Directors Board has made a number of changes in the committees this year—perhaps due indirectly News items fo r inclusion in C&RL News should be sent to Mary Frances Collins, Assistant D irector of Libraries fo r Technical Services, University Library ULB-35A, State University of New York at Albany, 1400 Washington Ave., Albany, NY 12222. A dver­ tising (including classified ads) should be sent to Leona Swiech, A dvertising O ffice, American Li­ brary Association, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. Production and circulation matters are han­ dled by ALA Central Production Unit, at the above address. News ed itor: Mary Frances Collins, Assistant Di­ rector of Libraries tor Technical Services, State University of New York at Albany, Albany. As­ sociate News e d ito r: Anne Dowling, Assistant Lib- brarian, Acquisitions Department, Library, State University oř New York at Albany. Editor: Rich­ ard D. Johnson, Milne Library, State University College, Oneonta, New York 13820. President, ACRL: Louise Giles. Executive Secretary, ACRL: Beverly P. Lynch. College & Research Libraries is published by the Association o f C ollege and Research Libraries, a division oř the American Library Association, 17 times yearly—6 bimonthly Journal issues and II monthly (com bining July-August) News issues—at 1201-05 Bluff St., Fulton, MO 65251. Subscription, $15.00 a year, or to members of the division, $7.50, included in dues. Second-class postage paid at Fulton, Missouri 65251. © A m erican Library Association 1976. A ll material in this, journal subject to copyright by the A m eri­ can Library Association may be photocopied for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educa­ tional advancement. 169 to the dues structure. Two examples of these changes are the Ad Hoc Committee on Budget and Finance and the Chapter Committee, which were given permanent status. The Mem­ bership Committee is a new committee this year that resulted directly from the dues struc­ ture. The Planning Committee has been review­ ing and recommending on the status and charge of all committees—and this committee itself was revised greatly this year. The Consti­ tution Committee gave out the interpretation that committees do not include editorial boards. The Publications Committee has put much time and deliberation into the evaluation of recommendations for membership, status, op­ erational, and other changes involving editorial boards—the clarification of the status of Choice being only one of this committee’s time-con­ suming assignments. Your ACRL president, of course, chaired the division’s Chicago Conference Planning Com­ mittee and was grateful for the dedication and assistance provided by Herbert Biblo, Chicago Local Arrangements chairperson. The Chicago Conference is, as you know, our Centennial Conference and Allie Beth Martin selected the theme “Celebrate!” for it. It was she also who decided on the ethnic theme as a backdrop for the centennial celebration. She then requested me to coordinate all of the ethnic programs that were being planned throughout ALA so that they would all be well publicized. Taking a cue from the ALA president, the ACRL main program theme was “Let’s Celebrate Ethnici­ ty!” The ACRL main program on Monday, July 19, features Julian Bond. During the Centennial Conference, the John­ son Publishing Company kindly plans to host a reception in honor of Clara S. Jones as the first black president of ALA. ACRL and the ALA Black Librarians Caucus are jointly assist­ ing in the implementation of this event. The Committee on Academic Status com­ piled Faculty Status for Academic Librarians: A History and Policy Statements, a volume which was published by ALA this year. A sub­ committee of the Committee on Standards and Accreditation, headed by Johnnie Givens, com­ pleted its work last summer and produced the revised Standards for College Libraries. The Standards Committee now has a new subcom­ mittee, chaired by William Hoffman, which is preparing a revision of the Guidelines for Two- Year College Learning Resources Programs. The Association of Research Libraries and the ACRL Joint Committee on the Develop­ ment of a Statement on University Library Standards recently won a $7,300 grant from the J. Morris Jones Award to support their work on standards. Much appreciation is due to all of the hard­ working Directors Board members, section of­ ficers and section committee members, division committee members, and chapter members. The Chapters For the past several years, ACRL has been encouraging the development of state chapters. Chapters are viewed at the same time as ve­ hicles for more grass-roots involvement in the affairs of the association and as a source of stimulating membership recruitment. The New England chapter has been one of the most vi­ vacious and creative. Some people who have put a lot of extra time and talent and effort into chapter development are Tom Cahalan, George Bailey, and Norman Tanis. Many other people also worked long and hard for chapters. The Individuals Countless individuals who are not involved in either committee or chapter work have pro­ vided valuable contributions to ACRL. Those of you out there who only stood and waited— who simply made the decision to renew your membership another year and/or to attend the Midwinter or Annual conventions—are valuable to us too: keep on doing that. Winslow Homer Prints Several libraries in the Northeast have recently discovered that someone has cut from nineteenth-century journals in their collections most of the Winslow Homer prints which were published there. It ap­ pears the thief or thieves have used the list that appeared on pages 198-204 of Wood Engravings of Winslow Homer, edited by Barbara Gelman (New York: Bounty Books, 1969), to identify the prints to steal. Other libraries may wish to check their holdings. American Library Directory The thirtieth edition of the American Library Directory, to be published in the fall of 1976, is now in preparation by the Jaques Cattell Press of Tempe, Arizona, a unit of the R. R. Bowker Company. Questionnaires have been mailed to all the U.S. and Canadian public, academic, and special libraries listed in the previ­ ous edition. If your library has not re­ ceived a questionnaire, please send your request (indicating type of library) to: The Editor, American Library Directory, Jaques Cattell Press, P.O. Box 25001, Tempe, AZ 85282. 170 An ongoing concern of ACRL presidents has been a recognition of the impossibility of ac­ tively involving every willing member in the af­ fairs of the division. One of the prime objec­ tives of my term in office has been to facilitate the involvement in division affairs of minorities, women, and others who have not previously had the opportunity to participate. I am satis­ fied that, to a modest degree, I succeeded in the implementation of this objective. The president’s ceremonial duties this year involved attending the inauguration of Presi­ dent James Brickley at Eastern Michigan Uni­ versity in Ypsilanti; the ACE Conference in Washington, D.C.; and speaking engagements to chapters in Madison, Wisconsin, and St. Louis, Missouri. I am grateful that Beverly Lynch, Connie Dunlap, Richard Olsen, A. P. Marshall, and others were able to help out by absorbing some other ceremonial assignments. Also, I’ve called together a committee to evaluate the ACRL executive secretary. The evaluation report is to be presented to the ACRL Directors Board in July. This commit­ tee is chaired by Joanne Harrar and the other members are: Richard Ducote, Mel George, and Avery Williams. I am duly grateful that Dr. Harrar accepted this assignment on top of all her other numerous duties and in spite of the fact that she was just getting used to her new position at the University of Maryland. Lastly, I hope that I have been able to set the tone for a healthy and meaningful organi­ zational dialogue to start taking place concern­ ing the role and relationship of the division of­ fice and the executive secretary with the ACRL Directors Board, the ALA Headquarters, and the ALA Executive Board. Thank you for electing me your ACRL presi­ dent. I t has been a pleasure and an honor to serve you. And it has been a year of growth and development for me. The year was sad­ dened by the illness and death of Allie Beth Martin. Since it was she who selected the theme “Celebrate!” for our Centennial Confer­ ence, it is my hope that the implementation of all of our program plans will be successful enough to serve as a fitting celebration to her spirit. Louise Giles President, AC RL Richard Gilman Folsom Library Dedicated The Richard Gilman Folsom Library at Rens­ selaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, was dedicated on May 15, 1976. Named for the recently retired president in recognition of his accomplishments as Rensselaer’s twelfth presi­ dent, the library construction was made pos­ sible through a multi-million-dollar enabling gift from Rensselaer alumnus Erik Jonsson. Ac­ cording to James C. Andrews, director of li­ braries, the design capacities include 500,000 volumes, seating for nearly 900, and 66 private study rooms. Construction consumed 10,000 cubic yards of reinforced concrete. Energy-sav­ ing features include tinted insulating glass win­ dows and recirculation of heat generated by lighting fixtures and equipment. The building was designed by Quinlivan Pierik & Krause, architectural firm, Syracuse, New York. The functional design of this handsome new library building is the result of countless hours of col­ laboration among Rensselaer’s librarians and faculty members.