ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES NEWS P u b l i s h e r s ’ B a c k l i s t s a n d t h e I R S Vol. 41. No. 11 D e c e m b e r 1980 A February 1980 Internal Revenue Service ruling (Rev­ enue Ruling 80-60) which implements the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Thor Power Tool Co. v. Commissioner o f Internal Revenue, 439 U.S. 522 (1979), may have a serious impact on the book trade. Under the ruling publishers can no longer write down the value of their inventories for tax purposes. The resultant increase in taxes could be more than a million dollars, even for small and medium sized publishers. The impact on library acquisitions will be critical. In order to avoid a tax penalty, publishers will have to either sell most of their back stock at less than cost, or destroy it. Books go out of print too quickly as it is, and librarians seeking replacement copies or trying to fill in gaps in their collections will face even greater obstacles if the ruling is allowed to stand. Publishers may become extremely cautious in accepting contracts, with aüthors whose works are not certain to be best-sellers, especially in technical and scholarly fields. Those books that are published will be printed in fewer quantities and fewer second printings, forcing an increase in the price of individual copies. Although the original Supreme Court decision involved power tools and not books, the IRS ruling extends the deci­ sion to all warehouse inventories and makes it retroactive to the calendar year 1979. The Thor decision and the IRS rul­ ing will have a detrimental effect on all types of libraries throughout the country and their capacity to serve the changing, daily needs of their various users. According to ALA’s Washington Office, librarians, pub­ lishers, and others are pressing for legislation which will ex­ empt backlists from full value taxes. As a first step, bills are pending which will prevent IRS Ruling 80-60 from being applied retroactively to 1979. Senate bill 2805, introduced by Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D-Wisc.), is pending in the Senate Committee on Finance. Three similar measures are pending in the House Ways and Means Committee: H.R. 7390 and H.R. 7704, introduced by Rep. Barber Constable (R-N.Y.), and H R. 8154 by Rep. Ed Jenkins (D-Ga.). Letters expressing your opinion on this issue should be 330 In this issue: Publishers’ Backlists and the IRS ................................... 329 Letter ......................................... 330 ACRL Candidates, 1981 Elections ....................... 331 Tentative Schedule of ACRL Midwinter Meetings 335 Continuing Education: Library Administrators and the Need for Continuing Education in Process Skills 338 News from the F ie ld ................. 340 People ......................................... 346 Publications ............................... 354 C alen d ar..................................... 355 Classified A dvertising...............356 College & Research Libraries News is published by the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, as 11 monthly (combining July- August) issues, at 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. Annual subscription: $5; or to members of the division, $2.50, in­ cluded in dues. Single copies and back issues, $2 each. Second-class postage applied for at Chicago, Illinois, and at additional mailing offices (ISSN 0099-0086). Editor: George M. Eberhart, ACRL/ALA, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611; (312) 944-6780, Ext. 288. President, ACRL Millicent D. Abell. Executive Director, ACRL: Julie Carroll Virgo. Production and circulation office: 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. Display advertising should be sent to Leona Swiech, Advertising Traffic Coordinator, ALA, at above address. Send classified ads to ACRL. Change of address and subscription orders should be addressed to College & Research Libraries News, for receipt at the above address at least two months be­ fore the publication date of the effective issue. Inclusion of an article or advertisement in C&RL News does not constitute official endorsement by ACRL or ALA. A partial list of the services indexing or abstracting the con­ tents of C&RL News includes: Current Contents: Social & Be­ havior Sciences; Current Index to Journals in Educátion; In­ formation Science Abstracts; Library & Information Science Ab­ stracts; Library Literature; and Social Sciences Citation Index. ©American Library Association 1980. All material in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Asso- ciaton may be photocopied for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement. sent to your representative and senators, to the Chair, Senate Finance Committee, Washington, DC 20510, to the Chair, House Ways and Means Committee, Washington, DC 20515, and to Sen. Daniel Moynihan (D-N.Y.), Washington, DC 20510, who plans to introduce a bill exempting publishers from the ruling. ■■ L e tte r Travel Funds Committees To the Editor: It seems to me that the core of any successful policy of travel fund distribution lies in its being perceived as equitable by the staff (see pp. 195- 96, C&RL News, July-August 1980). This situa­ tion can be addressed most effectively as a func­ tion of library travel committees established to evaluate requests for travel funds and make rec­ ommendations to the library director. As chair of the Travel Funds Advisory Commit­ tee at Arizona State for three years, 1 am quite familiar with the many problems that involve dis­ bursement of travel funds—and I am convinced that the committee format is an excellent solu­ tion. Of the twenty-one travel policies available from ACRL (“Travel Policies of Twenty-One College and University Libraries,” ACRL, 1980, $3) and those of thirty-five other ACRL member institu­ tions we surveyed in 1978, there are thirteen that have travel funds committees. The results have been highly successful. On the one hand, library directors and department heads (who usually make the initial recommenda­ tion in the absence of a committee) are freed from the pressure of individual supplications and pleas for special consideration, from the pitfalls on inconsistent judgment, and from the inevitable charges of favoritism. The library faculty, on the other hand, feels that the committee is respon­ sive to their interests and welcomes the oppor­ tunity to participate in decisions directly affecting th eir continuing education and developm ent plans (not to mention pocketbooks). Their recommendations are generally accepted by the library d irecto r and reversals rarely occur—even in those occasional instances of indi­ vidual protest and dissatisfaction with specific de­ cisions. To promote fairness in disbursement, Ari­ zona State compiles an annual list of amounts given to each recipient. The closing wholehearted recommendation is— try a travel funds committee for your library! — Winberta Yao, reference librarian, Arizona State University, Tempe. ■■