College and Research Libraries FoR THE LAST YEAR the library at the University of California at Los Angeles has been making a conscious effort to expand exchanges, concentrating espe- cially on exchanges with the new nations of Asia and Africa. The problems are enormous but so are the rewards. Be- cause the institutiqns approached are usually very new many are not yet fully organized to handle exchanges. Some are so new they haven't quite finished con- gratulating themselves on existing at all. The director of the new Ghanaian li- brary school, for example, rather wryly commented in a recent report that since he was writing the day after the opening of the school, he hadn't anything to say about its past, couldn't find much to say about its present, and had perforce to deal with its devoutly-to-be-hoped-for fu- ture. On the other hand, some of the oldest learned societies in the world flourish in the new nations. One of our recent re- quests for a new exchange went to the library of the Greek Orthodox Patri- archate in Alexandria. When that library was organized (in the tenth century), herds of bison were still roaming the North American continent and baskets and fishhooks were our most magnificent cultural achievements. In one sense, the very newness of the recently or soon-to- be independent nations helps in the de- velopment of cultural exchanges. N a- tiona! pride, recently awakened, and therefore often fiercely intense, as well as a hunger for long-suppressed intellectual growth combined with the traditional impatience of youth is spurring the new nations into feverish publishing and edu- cational programs. From Elizabethville, Kampala, Accra, Djakarta publications JANUARY 1963 Expanding Exchanges Bv FAY M. BLAKE Miss Blake is Librarian assigned to the gifts and exchanges division at University of California library, Los Angeles. have begun to come in despite the most difficult internal situations. The instability of some of the new regimes creates additional headaches for exchange librarians. Since most o£ our exchange work involves serials, trying to keep up with the continuity of publica- tion sometimes becomes nightmarish. This is, of course, especially true for gov- ernment publications, where even under optimum conditions a secretariat of health, education, labor and land dis- tribution may suddenly fragment into four different departments with four different publishing programs. Coups, power struggles, and changes of person- nel in the new nations often blur the ex- change picture drastically. Not only may there be four new departments but it may also be true that none of them are on speaking terms with the others and inquiries to any about any are likely to go unanswered. To add to the confusion, there is inconsistency in continuing or- ganizations established before independ- ence. In the Upper Volta Republic, for example, the Institut Fran~ais d'Afrique Noire has continued to function, issuing a new series of the Eludes Voltaiques, but letters to the Universite Lovanium in Leopoldville, Congo have gone un- answered for many months now. Political considerations and bureauc- racy in our own government offices ham- per exchange work as well. One letter requesting clearance on the export of technical serials to mainland China has now been shunted back and forth among 53 four different government agencies for six months-and the answer is still forth- coming. As confusing as the political situation may be, however, it is the economic situ- ation which creates discernible havoc. The poverty prevalent in Asia and Afri- ca reaches out to shake us every once in a while-as when a -Burmese university sends us a snapshot of their pathetically bare library and writes that "the execu- tive committee felt honored" by our gift of 104 books but regrets they have nothing to offer in exchange. Or when an East African university librarian hesi- tates to choose a University of California serial in exchange for his institution's occasional papers because, he writes, their serial will appear only as the money for publication can be scrabbled together so he is "too embarrassed" to accept our regularly published journal. Or when an Indonesian society offers us their journal as a gift because "it is too modest" to be used for exchange. Technical difficulties of all kinds also slow down the establishment and the functioning of exchanges. Some of the material, for example, comes in on paper of such appalling quality that it is be- ginning to crumble before it reaches us. The printing is sometimes far from per- fect-words inserted upside-down or lines rippling above and below a straight horizontal line. Even such a relatively simple process as addressing may create problems-misspellings, handwriting dif- ficult to decipher (typewriters are in short supply) or woefully incomplete ad- dresses (like the recent "University Li- brary, California, USA"). As institutions of learning expand, the mere mechanical aspects of exchange ar- rangements become more and more com- plicated, and trying to transmit exchang- es becomes more and more difficult. Our exchanges, for example, are all initiated from our central exchange office in Berkeley. After weeks or months (some- times years) of negotiations with Berke- ley, despite repetition of the separate ad- dresses, it must come as something of a shock to receive an acknowledgement or a claim from an unknown in Los Angeles. On occasion this has apparently been so unnerving that either both cam- puses begin to receive duplicate or tripli- cate copies of everything or all shipments to both campuses come to an abrupt halt. At the moment Berkeley and Los Angeles are both receiving duplicate copies of a weekly newspaper issued by a certain government agency and ad- dressed to: University of California Li- brary, Berkeley and [sic] Los Angeles, California, USA. We have formed our own mental picture of the fellow at the head of that agency-parts his hair in the middle and wears a belt and sus- penders. Language difficulties are probably the most persistent and troublesome of the many problems involved in exchange work. While it is only a little amusing to be solemnly told by a very polite Jap- anese gentleman that he has rejoiced for some years now in "very intimate rela- tions" with one of our most respectable -not to say, prim-lady librarians, it is somewhat confusing to hear from Ugan- da that a brand-new journal is now at last "out of print." (We figured out that meant it was "off the press.") Or to re- ceive an offer for "elderly" Yugoslav publications does not really throw us off, but a letter in which "receive" is con- sistently used instead of "request" does. On the other hand, I shudder to think of the effect of some of our gobbledygook on an earnest and harried Burmese or Malayan librarian. One of our faculty members writes from a book-buying tour to "appraise" us of the current situation. With such a tenuous grasp of our own language how can we hope to communi- cate delicate shades of meaning to the foreign librarians to whom we write? Fa- cility with a number of languages is espe- cially important to exchange work-and title-page pidgin is not enough. All of our correspondence is written in Eng- lish, and it would probably speed up 54 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES matters somewhat if we were able to ing, but it is limited to Latin-American write fluently in several languages. As it serials in the humanities and the social is, our exchange staff has among its sciences . New Serial Titles is invaluable, members a good knowledge of German especially with the recent publication of and French, some grasp of Spanish and the two-volume 1950-1960 cumulation. Italian, and a bare reading knowledge of Our own experience has shown us, how- Russian. We are constantly discovering ever, that it is a better source for check- that we have slightly misinterpreted ing precise entry, holdings, date and some idiomatic phrase in Spanish or Italian or that we haven't quite under- place of origin, etc., than it is for dis- stood a request in one of these languages. co-yering new titles. Fortunately, among such a large staff as In a brief experiment with German that in the UCLA library there are many university publications we found that linguists and it is a simple matter to get many of the titles listed in NST which a colleague's help in translating a letter our library did not have turned out to be accurately. But the more extensive the abortive (ceased with no. 1 or 2), un- language abilities of an exchange staff, available on exchange, or highly special- the better the chance for smoother ex- ized. Ideally, the exchange librarian change relationships. would be working from a sample issue Discovering the existence of new schol- or two in hand, but this is, of course, arly institutions publishing serials can not always possible. We try to substitute become a fascinating game. The 1961-62 "very intimate relations" with faculty edition of The World of Learning has members who can often steer us to new added a number of scholarly institutions publications which may be available on in the new nations, and, as always, lists exchange and the development of a pin- addresses, personnel, and, in some cases, eal eye (symbolic, of course) trained to titles of serial publications. The Inter- pounce on any hint that might lead to · national Handbook of Universities is a new exchange. especially good for addresses of some of Basic to the successful functioning of the smaller colleges and universities and exchanges with the new nations is the also lists titles of some publications. library's philosophy toward this aspect UNESCO's Handbook on the Interna- of acquisitions. If we are to carry out our tiona[ Exchange of Publications is an ex- responsibility for conserving and dis- cellent compilation, but, since -it ap- seminating the whole of man's culture, peared in 1956, much of it is outdated. we must deliberately and consciously A new edition is in the planning stage turn our backs on the concept of "Yan- and should be a very valuable addition kee horse-traders" or "shrewd business to university exchange sections. We have deals." Our exchange relations with the also discovered a number of exchange new nations can be regarded as invest- possibilities by checking the list of ex- ments in the future. At the University changes in each issue of the UNESCO of California we are fortunate in having Bulletin for Libraries. The mimeo- a very active publishing program and a graphed Report on the Survey of the very generous university press so that the Institutions of Higher Education in Afri- ,,. library has a great deal of scholarly ma- ca issued by the World Assembly of terial to distribute. Youth in Brussels in 1959 packs a great In the exchange section at UCLA we deal of useful information into compact do not insist on absolute equity in ex- form. Zimmerman's Guide to Current change. Although our returns do not Latin American Periodicals is accurate, always equal in quantity or quality what up-to-date and a real help in the murky we distribute, we do not regard our- chaos which is Latin-American publish- selves as a charitable enterprise. For one JANUARY 1963 55 thing, the modest occasional papers or newsletters coming in now from the new nations are eventually going to be treas- ure troves for scholars. For another, the amicable relationships we develop now are, we hope, a very small encourage- ment to the scholarly endeavors of the new nations. For still another, we are not absolutely certain that the flood of schol- arly material pouring out of our rich campuses really does outweigh the ulti- mate value of the small irregular bulle- tin. New additions to knowledge have a way of cropping up in unexpected peo- ple and places. And, finally, we get a real and personal kick out of receiving a sparkling new "out of print" journal from Ouagadougou. • • Representatives of ALA 56 ALA REPRESENTATIVES at recent academic ceremonies were: Eliza- beth J. Enright, librarian of Washburn University at the inaugura- tion of Harold E. Sponberg as president of the university, on October 7; Edward G. Holley, director of libraries, University of Houston, at the inauguration of Kenneth S. Pitzer as president of Rice University, Houston, on October 10-12; Mark M. Gormley, university librarian of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, at the inauguration of Walker D. Wyman as president of Wisconsin State College at Whitewater, on October 18; John Fall of the New York Public library, at the inauguration of James M. Hester as president of New York University, on October 25; Robert W. Evans, Oberlin College library, at the inauguration of Glenn L. Mc- Conagha as president of Muskingum College, on November 2; Phyllis Maggeroli, ALA headquarters, at the inauguration of James E. Crimi as president of Aurora College, on November 3; Mrs. Nell B. Wright, Public Library of Winston-Salem, N.C., at the inaugura- tion of Kenneth R. Williams as president of Winston-Salem Teach- ers College, on November 11; Oswald H. Joerg, Davenport Public library, at the inauguration of Clarence W. Sorenson as president of Augustana College, Rock Island, Ill., on November 16-17; Mar- garet I. Rufsvold, Indiana University Division of Library Science, at the inauguration of Elvis J. Stahr, Jr., as president of Indiana Uni- versity, on November 19; G. H. Sandy, Lubbock Public library, at the dedication of Texas Technical College library, on October 21; Emerson Greenaway, director of the Philadelphia Free library, at the dedication of the University of Pennsylvania's new library build- ing. •• COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES