ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 500 / C&R L News Towards a digital world By Danielle Mihram W estern E u ro p ea n Lan gu ages L ib rarian N ew York University The Seventh Annual Pacific Telecommunications Conference (PTC ’85). J a n u a r y 1985 marked the first year for the inclu­ sion of a working group of librarians and informa­ tion specialists in the program of the seventh an­ nual meeting of the Pacific Telecommunications Conference (PTC ’85), held in Honolulu, Hawaii, January 13-16, 1985). As its very name indicates, issues discussed at that meeting focus on one specific geographical area of the world, the Pacific, and, more specifi­ cally, the development and use of telecommunica­ tions in the nations which are located in that area. However, though the theme is regional in its orien­ tation, interest in the conference is world-wide: this year’s participants came from about thirty countries (including Europe, India, Pakistan and the Eastern United States) and the Pacific Islands. The conference, whose main theme this year was “Toward a Digital W orld,” included plenary and regular sessions, as well as “Teletrack Sessions” (a series of videotaped presentations running paral­ lel to regular sessions, and replayed, upon request, for participants in their own hotel room), work­ shops, and exhibits. Each day’s papers concen­ trated on one major theme so that, as papers were presented from one day to the next, participants were able to follow a well-organized development of the conference’s titular theme. The first day’s theme, “Development of Digital Channels of Communication,” dealt with the con­ cept of a digital world and its various current tech­ nological developments, while the second day’s theme turned toward considerations of utilization of these channels of communication: technical and engineering aspects, the planning and installation of local area networks, and the decisions involved regarding integrated services and digital networks. The final day’s papers, “Managing the Channels and Planning for Transition,” centered around dis­ cussions of international policy and policy-making for a digital world. A library workshop, “Pan Pacific Library Inter­ connection,” headed by Carmela Ruby (California State Library, Sacramento), was organized (and attended by about fifteen participants) to identify specific ways to increase and facilitate the flow of information among Pacific rim countries. Indeed, a few of the participants felt that the West Coast of the United States could be considered as being part of the Pacific rim and, as such, is a geographical group whose concerns are not well represented in ALA in view of its national rather than interna­ tional orientation. It was thus felt that, perhaps, future similar workshops should be a regular fea­ ture of the PTC. Gwen Culp gave an overview of the Washington Library Network Computer Service (WLN) and the Linked Systems Project (LSP), and Bart Kane (Hawaii State Library) commented on the current local, political, and fiscal obstacles in international cooperative activities. He underscored the need for studies of protocols governing trans-border infor­ mation flow, as well as the need for serious consid­ erations of costs when this technology is being im­ plemented. O ctober 1985 / 501 R eg rettab ly , since th e presentations of w ork­ shops were not included in the conference’s pro­ ceedings, there is no published access to C u lp’s and K ane’s notes (“T h e W ashington L ib rary Network and the Linked Systems P ro je ct,” and “T elecom ­ munications for Improved In form ation Flow to Users,” respectively). However, papers presented at the plenary and regular sessions, as well as T ele­ tra c k , have been published in the Proceedings, T e l e c o m m u n ic a t io n s F o r P a c if ic D e v e lo p m e n t : P T C ’8 5 - T o w a r d a D ig ita l W o r ld (Dan J. W ede- meyer, ed., Honolulu, H aw aii: P acific T elecom ­ munications C ou ncil, 1985). T h e them e for next year’s conference is “Evolu­ tion of the D igital P a cific” (P T C ’8 6, Honolulu, Jan u ary 1 2 -1 5 , 1986), and a library workshop, “ L ib r a r y N etw ork s,” w ill be held on T u esd ay afternoon, Jan u ary 14. F o r inform ation regarding pre-registration and the call for papers for P T C ’87 w rite to: P a c ific Telecom m u n ication s C o u n cil, 1110 University Avenue, Suite 308, Honolulu, HA 96826. T h e r e la tiv e ly h ig h r e g is tr a tio n fe e (p r e ­ registration ranging from $ 3 0 0 -4 0 0 ) m ay be pro­ hibitive to m any librarians. T he C onference’s con­ tin u in g an n u al expansion (400 p a rtic ip a n ts in 1985) m ight therefore be enhanced if the organiz­ ers could have a significantly reduced fee for par­ ticipants from academ ia and libraries. E d it o r ’s n o te : T h e A C R L P ro fe ssio n a l A s so cia ­ tio n L ia is o n C o m m it t e e m a y h e a b l e to assist li­ b r a r ia n s w h o g iv e p re sen ta tio n s a t n o n -lib r a r y p r o ­ f e s s i o n a l a s s o c i a t i o n s . F o r m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n , c o n t a c t J o a n C h a m b e r s , D ir e c t o r , M o r g a n L i ­ b r a r y , C o lo r a d o S ta te U niversity, F o r t C o llin s, C O 80523. ■ ■ News from the Fiald A cquisitions • Syracuse University’s George Arents Research L ib r a r y , N ew Y o rk , has a c q u ire d th e la rg e s t known private collection of Steven C rane m ateri­ als. T h e collection contains 62 letters by C rane, 39 letters by his w ife, a portion of his sister’s diary, as well as numerous books, photos, and related m ate­ rials. O riginally owned by the late C rane scholar Melvin H. Schoberlin, the m aterials w ere stored by his widow in O ahu, H aw aii, before their transfer to Syracuse. Highlights of the collection include C r a n e ’s ea rliest surviving m an u scrip t, a poem w ritten when he was 10 or 11 years old; four in­ scribed presentation copies of C rane novels; and letters w ritten for C rane by his w ife during the last six months of his life. • The University of Wisconsin-Platteville has re ceived a unique surname index to persons located in the Upper Mississippi lead and zinc m ining dis­ t r i c t fro m 1 8 1 5 th ro u g h th e 1 8 6 0 s . G e r a ld Fieldhouse, of Dodgeville, W isconsin, has spent the last 25 years com piling this index of people who lived, worked, or passed through southwest W is­ consin and northwestern Illinois. T h e sources used include the W isconsin territorial census between 1836 and 1847, the Illinois and M ichigan census for 1830 and 1840, the federal census for 1850 and 1860, and many other local polls and records. G ra n ts • The Boston L ib r a ry Consortium has been aw arded a grant of $ 1 0 ,0 0 0 from the F lo ren ce R oblee Foundation to develop a training module to assist librarians in dealing effectively with the hu­ m an im pact of technological change. T h e funds will support an initial survey of p racticing lib ra ri­ ans to identify relevant issues, and the develop­ m ent o f a model workshop which will be presented and tested w ith representatives from a variety of Massachusetts libraries. M aterials produced and collected for the project will be edited and made available so th at the workshop m ay be replicated by other libraries and consortia. • Columbia College’s C enter for B lack Music Research, C h icago, has received a grant o f $ 3 0,000 from the Lloyd A. Fry Foundation for the estab­ lishm ent o f a com puterized reference system and a union catalogue of black music holdings in selected C hicago-area libraries. • The Moravian Music Foundation, W inston- Salem , North C arolina, has received two grants to­ taling $ 4 3 ,8 3 2 to support the preservation of its ar­ chival collections of m anuscript music. T h e John W esley and Anna Hodgin Hanes Found ation pre­ sented $ 1 0 ,4 1 4 and the Jam es G . Hanes M emorial Fund/Foundation gave an additional $ 3 3 ,4 1 8 . T he conservation program was started by a $ 2 5,200