ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 201 News from the Field ACQUISITIONS • The Amherst College Library has obtained a major addition to its theater collection from M. Abbott Van Nostrand, a mem ber of the Amherst College Class of 1934, who founded the collec­ tion. The additions to the collection include a complete bound run of Lacy’s Acting Editions; a set of various series (amounting to more than 500 items) published by Samuel French, Inc., the play publisher; more than 2,000 plays published by other British publishing firms that were taken o ver by F re n c h ; n in e te e n th - and tw e n tie th - century playscripts; and photographs, operetta scores, playbills, theater account books, and other research material. • The Johns H opkins University’s Milton S. Eisenhow er Library is the recipient of a major collection of Byron works. The new collection, m ade possible th ro u g h th e ge n ero sity of the Friends of the Library, complements the existing c o llectio n of Byron m aterial a ccum ulated by Thomas Dickey in the last century. It contains 457 titles brought together by C. Kohler and rep­ resents an effort to obtain an in-depth collection of Byron materials for scholars. The Dickey collection, housed in the library’s special collections and consisting of approximately 200 volumes, focuses on first editions of works by Byron. The Kohler collection will be an excellent supplement, adding depth to the existing collec­ tion and making the Eisenhower Library the loca­ tion of one of the foremost Byron collections in the world. The Friends of the Library will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary in early 1981; this gift marks its golden a n n iv e rsa ry in a tru ly significant way.—Susan K. Martin. • Rice U niversity’s Fondren Library has ac­ quired a large body of the papers of the late Sir Julian Sorell Huxley (1887-1975). The collection, about seventy cubic feet in size and spanning three-quarters of a century, includes manuscripts and typescripts of Huxley’s published and unpub­ lish ed works; d ia rie s a nd tra v e l notebooks; sketches, slides, and photographs; pam phlets; periodicals, review s, and clippings; and more than 25,000 pieces of correspondence. GRANTS • C atholic U niversity’s G raduate D e p art­ m ent of L ibrary and Inform ation Science has been awarded a two-year $269,348 contract by the National Science Foundation to offer a short­ term, nondegree training program to strengthen the skills of Egyptian scientific and technical in­ formation specialists. • D alhousie University, Halifax, Nova Sco­ tia, is th e re c ip ie n t of a Social Sciences and H um anities Research Council grant of $35,000 that will be used to augment the Killam Library’s African Studies collection. The library will use the grant to acquire additional newspaper and periodical back files and to fill in government document holdings for English-speaking African nations. • H arvard University received a $1 million pledge from Roy E. Larsen, prior to his death last fall, to endow the position of the librarian of Harvard College. W hen the position is funded, Y. T. Feng will become the first Roy E. Larsen Librarian of Harvard College. Harvard has also received an anonymous gift of $1,554,000 for the renovation of the exterior of W idener Library. • Radcliffe C ollege is the recipient of a $7,500 grant from the Blanchard Foundation of Boston for the support of the Black Women Oral History Project at the Schlesinger Library. The oral history project, which began in 1976, has re­ corded on tape interviews with more than seven­ ty American black women, almost all of whom are seventy years of age or older. The grant will sup­ port the transcription and processing of the inter­ views so that they can be made available to stu­ dents and scholars at the Schlesinger Library and at nearly tw enty o th e r college and university libraries and oral history offices nationwide. • Sarah Lawrence College’s Esther Raushen- bush Library has received a grant from the Gan­ nett Foundation to purchase back runs of news­ papers on microfilm. The estate of William Seely, former editor of the M t. Vernon Argus and hus­ band of Elizabeth Caven Seely, librarian at Sarah Lawrence College from 1964-74, has also notified the college of a bequest to the library. This be­ quest, coupled with the G annett grant, will be used to build a strong collection of back news­ paper files. NEWS NOTES • Governors State U niversity Library, Park Forest, Illinois, has installed the Library Comput­ er System, an on-line circulation system with a capacity to support on-line, known-item searching Classified Ads With the Septem ber issue of C&RL News, the rates for regular classified ads will go up from $1.80 to $2.25 per line for ACRL mem­ bers and from $2.25 to $2.80 per line for non- ACRL members. of shelflist information. First developed at Ohio State and modified further before it became oper­ ational at the University of Illinois, the Library Com puter System is now being tested as a pro­ totype system for a statewide computer-based re­ source sharing netw ork in Illinois. As the first phase of the project the Library C om puter Sys­ tem is being installed in fourteen academic librar­ ies in Illinois, including th e G overnor’s State University Library. A telecommunications system will link the fourteen libraries into a network. • The Library of C ongress has decided not to a dopt th e pinyin system of C h in ese language romanization in January, 1981. The library had announced in June 1979 a tentative decision to switch from the Wade-Giles system to pinyin, but strong opposition to the change em erged in the research library community. • The Northwestern University Library has begun a full-scale test of its new on-line catalog. The library expects the on-line catalog to be fully operational for public use in 1980 and anticipates th a t th e ex istin g m anual card catalog will be closed in 1981. Patrons will be able to consult the com puter catalog by means of cathode ray tube te rm in a ls lo ca ted in th e lib ra ry b u ild in g and possibly at other points on campus. N orthwestern’s on-line catalog will build on a data base of nearly 400,000 records accumulated in the ten years of operation of the Northwestern autom ated cataloging system, NOTIS. • OCLC, INC., citing the uncertainty of cur­ rent national economic conditions, has decided to e nd talks w ith G eac C o m p u te r Corporation of Toronto about the possibility that OCLC would become the sole U.S. distributor of Geac’s auto­ m ated circulation system . “ Because of record- high interest rates,” says OCLC s treasurer, Jack Vincent, “OCLC could not resell or remotely in­ stall th e s e circulation system s to the financial benefit of OCLC or its users. The decision to d is c o n tin u e d isc u ssio n s w ith G eac was not, according to OCLC, in any way related to the quality or cost-effectiveness of the Geac system. • The Research L ibraries G roup (RLG) now has seventeen m em bers and expects to be self- sufficient by 1985. New York University was the sixteenth major research institution to join RLG, and N o rth w e ste rn U n iv e rsity was th e se v e n ­ te e n th . N o rth w e s te rn will m ake a v ailable to RLIN, RLG s network arm, a data base of nearly 400,000 records accumulated in the ten years of operation of the N orthw estern autom ated catalog­ ing system, NOTIS. • The San Antonio College Library for the second year in a row has conducted the Air Force Library Technology Program. Thirty-nine library te c h n ic ia n s from Air F o rc e bases a ro u n d the world w ent to San Antonio for a w eek’s crash course in library technology. Six m em bers of the San Antonio College Library stall, led by J. O. Wallace, plus two staff m em bers from the San 202 The lazy MawNHa transliterates to “mashina1' person’s (machine) and cmctema transliterates to “ sistema ” (system). guide to the If simple transliteration does not make the meaning clear, you can look Russian up the word easily in the Transliterated Russian-English section. Here you'll find over 17,000 frequently used Language. Russian words already transliterated into Roman characters and arranged into the Roman alphabetical order. With each transliterated word you'll find a brief definition and the designation of its part of speech. If you're like most people who use the Russian language infrequently, you Although the Transliterated know how difficult it can be to Dictionary of the Russian Language is recognize the characters of the Cyrillic designed primarily for going from alphabet. You also know that Russian to English, by using a remembering the alphabetic order of separate English-Transliterated the characters is not easy, either. So Russian section and the conversion it’s no wonder that you've found chart, you can identify many Russian translating Russian with a standard, words and convert them to their Russian-English dictionary is a real Cyrillic form. chore. Until now. This dictionary makes it easier for anyone without the time to study Now the Transliterated Dictionary of Russian seriously to translate Russian the Russian Language provides an titles and abstracts, request reprints, easy way around the obstacles posed deal with all kinds of correspondence by Cyrillic. to and from Russian nationals, and cite Russian material. Travellers, too, will Its simple conversion tables enable find the Transliterated Dictionary of you to convert any Russian word, on a the Russian Language of great value.letter-by-letter basis, from its Cyrillic form to Roman. Once converted many So if you find translating Russian a Russian words, especially technical chore, let the Transliterated Dictionary words, are recognized easily. For of the Russian Language make life example, the Russian Cyrillic word easier for you. Order your copy today. Antonio Public L ibrary, p a rtic ip a te d in the instruction. • The State U niversity of New York has awarded Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Librarianship to six librarians. Receiving awards were Dorothy E. Christiansen, association librar­ ian, University C enter at Albany; Meredith A. Butler, head of public services, College at Brock­ port; B. Anne Commerton, librarian, College at Oswego; Elizabeth Elkins, associate librarian, College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse; and Sylvia J. M oran, assistant professor/librarian, E rie Com m unity College, Williamsville. • Union Theological Seminary Library will undertake a full-scale renovation of its physical plant during 1980-81. The renovation is funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Construction is due to begin in May 1980 and is expected to be completed by September 1981. Although the library intends to remain in service during this period, access to certain collections will be disrupted, some ser­ vices may have to be curtailed, and reading space will be limited. Researchers expecting to make use of the library during this period should write or call in advance regarding the availability of particular materials, services, and study facilities. Inquiries should be addressed to Richard D. Spoor, director, Union Theological Seminary Li- brarv, 3041 Broadwav at Reinhold Niebuhr Place, New York, NY 10027; (212) 662-7100. • The U niversity of Kansas, Law rence’s W atson L ibrary is undergoing a $6.2 million renovation. ■■ EVAN FARBER NAMED ACADEMIC LIBRARIAN OF THE YEAR One of the nation’s leading college librarians, Evan Ira F arber, has been awarded the 1980 Academic Librarian of the Year Award by ACRL and the Baker & Taylor Com pany. The award was formally presented to Mr. Farber on July 1 at the ACRL reception during the ALA Annual Conference. At the pre­ se ntation cerem ony Farber received a cita­ tion and a check for $2,000. The citation lauded Farber, who is librarian at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, for his work in improving li­ brary service and library instruction. “ By the methods of quiet persuasion that are characteris­ tic of his approach to life, ’’ the citation said, “Far­ ber was able to bring together faculty members and librarians to make library instruction an in­ tegral part of the educational program at Earl­ ham. By the same methods of precept and exam­ ple, he has helped to disseminate the ideals of bibliographic instruction in ever-widening circles beyond the gates of the college. ” Farber was also cited for his contributions to librarianship as a consultant, writer, speaker, and spokesperson for the profession. He is the author of the fourth and fifth editions of the Classified List o f Periodicals fo r the College Library, and its m onthly supplem ent, “ Periodicals for College Libraries, ’ published in Choice magazine since S e p tem b e r 1974. A past p re s id e n t of ACRL (1978-79), he currently serves as the ACRL rep­ resentative to the ALA Council. Farber began his library career in 1951 as an assistant in the Documents D epartm ent at the U niversity of N orth Carolina Library, Chapel Hill. From 1953 to 1955 he was librarian of the State Teachers College in Livingston, Alabama. In 1955 he moved to the Emory University Li­ brary in Atlanta, Georgia, where he served as chief of the Serials and Binding Division until his appointment as librarian of Earlham in 1962. He earned A.B. and M.A. degrees in political science and a B.S. degree in library science from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. ■■ 204