ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries College & Research libra No. 3, March 1974 ACRL News Iss r ue i (A e ) of s C ol n lege e & R w esear s ch Libraries, Vol. 35, No. 2 ALA Proposes New Dues Structure Financial matters and dues proposals domi­ nated the Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association, held in Chicago, January 20-26, 1974. Predictions of bankruptcy in two to three years were made by the ALA Treasurer Frank B. Sessa, the Chairman of the ALA Com­ mittee on Program Evaluation and Support ( COPES) William Chait, ALA President-Elect Edward G. Holley, and ALA President Jean E. Lowrie. A motion to present a balanced budget for fiscal 1974/75 without dipping into the en­ dowment principal, made by Councilor George M. Jenks, Bucknell University, was narrowly defeated. President Lowrie pledged that the ALA Executive Board would do everything it could to reduce the deficit and to present a budget for 1974/75 as close to being balanced as possible. The dues proposal presented by COPES was passed by ALA Council and will be presented to the membership of the association in a mail vote in the spring. The proposed schedule, for personal members, is as follows: Category Dues STUDENT MEMBERS—m e m b e rs $10 who are enrolled at least half-time in a program of library and informa­ tion science in a four-year undergrad­ uate or graduate school. Limited to two years. NONSALARIED LIBRARIANS, IN­ $10 ACTIVE LIBRARIANS, RETIRED LIBRARIANS, LIBRARIANS WITH A SALARY OF LESS THAN $6,000 PER ANNUM FO REIGN LIBRARIANS—foreign $20 librarians not employed in the U.S. or U.S. possessions REGULAR MEMBERS—librarians $35 not covered in above categories, friends of libraries, trustees, and others interested in the work of the American Library Association Divisions Perquisites $15 American Libraries; member rates at conferences; discount on ALA mono­ graphs; Handbook; insurance privi­ leges; voting privileges. $15 American Libraries; member rates at conferences; discount on ALA mono­ graphs; Handbook; insurance privi­ leges; voting privileges. $15 American Libraries; member rates at conferences; discount on ALA mono­ graphs; Handbook; insurance privi­ leges; voting privileges. $15 American Libraries; member rates at conferences; discount on ALA mono­ graphs; Handbook; insurance privi­ leges; voting privileges. C ollege & Research Libraries is published by the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, 17 times yearly—6 bimonthly journal issues and II monthly, combining July- Augusf, News issues at J20I-05 Bluff St., Fulton, Mo. 65251. Subscription, $15.00 a year or, to members of the division, $7.50, included in dues. Circulation and advertising office: American Library Association, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, III. 60611. Second-class postage paid at Fulton, Missouri 65251. News.editor: Allan Dyson, M offitt . Undergraduate Library, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720. Associate News editor: Susana Hinojosa. Assistant Librarian. Reference Department, M offitt Undergraduate Library. R,c"ard M. Dougherty, University Library, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720. President, ACRL: Norman Tams. Executive Secretary, ACRL: Beverly Lynch, ALA. Under this proposal, ACRL members will pay annual dues of $50, giving them all rights and privileges afforded ALA members and all rights and privileges afforded ACRL members. The divisional fees will go directly to the divi­ sions for their own use. A substitute dues proposal presented by the American Association of School Librarians was similar in concept to the COPES plan but low­ er in actual fees. Under that proposal, members would have paid a basic fee of $35, which would have included membership in one divi­ sion. Of the $35, $15 would have gone directly to the division for its own use. The AASL pro­ posal was similar to the one presented by ACRL at the Las Vegas meeting. Bernard Franckowiak, president of AASL, called the COPES proposal “a guaranteed annual wage” for central ALA headquarters personnel, since approximately 40 percent of the current ALA budget supports the administration and opera­ tions of central ALA. ACRL supported the AASL proposal, but the two divisions were un­ able to muster enough votes in Council to pass the AASL proposal. ACRL and AASL both stand to gain under the COPES proposal, since for the first time in several years divisions will have fiscal autono­ my. Both divisions pledged to work for the re­ duction of the enormous overhead costs at headquarters. The ALA Council was charged by some members of the association with being fiscally irresponsible, since in recent years Council has passed policies which also mandate expensive methods of implementation. It was argued dur­ ing debate on the floor of Council that the ALA Executive Board should refuse to implement policies that ALA cannot afford. The Executive Board gave every indication that it would ac­ cept that responsibility in the future. The draft ALA policy on equal employment opportunity, brought forward to Council for adoption during the meeting, was amended to exclude methods of implementation. ACRL supported the amendments. Few social issues were considered by Council during the Midwinter Meeting. Council re­ fused to admit to its agenda a resolution sup­ porting the impeachment of President Nixon. The power struggle between the divisions and central ALA continues, with increased strength being given to the argument that there are some matters that concern all librarians and some that concern librarians in different work­ ing environments, i.e., in different types of li­ braries. Clearly, the COPES dues proposal sup­ ports the argument for the decentralization of authority and power. ■ ■ Captain Serves New Jersey Academic Libraries A centralized computer operation will order, developed by IBM in cooperation with Rutgers e and has been in operation on the Rutgers cam­ o­ puses since last spring. r­ When a member library wants to order a a­ book, it processes an order request through a computer hookup with Rutgers’ Alexander Li­ e brary here. The system then orders the book te from the publisher, encumbers the funds, re­ of ceives, catalogs and processes the book, and s returns it to the ordering library ready for s shelving, together with a set of catalog cards— s, thus eliminating a great deal of duplication. i­ Officers of the corporation, in addition to e Lucker, are Secretary Fleming Thomas of Bur­ lington County College, president of the Two- r- Year Colleges Library Association of New Jer­ a­ sey, and Treasurer Mrs. Virginia Whitney, li­ e brarian at Rutgers. - A nineteen-member advisory council, repre­ e. senting both public and private college inter­ to ests, is being formed and a full-time executive t­ director will be hired to administer the project. s ■ ■ receive, process, and catalog books for th academic libraries of New Jersey under a pr gram being developed by Captain Library Se vices Corp., a newly formed nonprofit educ tional corporation here. The outgrowth of three years of cooperativ effort by Rutgers University, the eight sta colleges, and the New Jersey Department Higher Education, the program as it mature should provide better service to library patron and increased efficiency in library operation according to Jay K. Lucker, associate un versity librarian at Princeton, who heads th board of the new corporation. Serviced initially by Captain ( Compute Aided Processing and Terminal Access Inform tion Network) will be the libraries on th various Rutgers campuses and libraries at Stock ton State College and William Paterson Colleg Other units of the state system are expected join in the future. Funded by the state Depar ment of Higher Education, the program wa 50