College and Research Libraries Headache or Opportunity? National Library Week for the Academic Library NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK, sponsored by the National Book Committee cooperat- ing with the American Library Associa- tion, was launched in the spring of 1958. Its first slogan, "Wake up and read," was rather strongly criticized, and the idea of the Week itself received mixed reviews. The comments on the annual slogans, as NLW's promoters pushed on with nothing if not determination, and the yearly evaluation of results by nu- merous sources, apparently have caused closer attention to planning and consid- eration of the possible effect of the slo- gans upon the intended recipients. It cannot be d~nied that there have been some impressive results if the statistics of NLW's various activities and pro- grams are really significant; and the 1962 slogan, "Read and watch your world grow," was .one of the better efforts. The National Library Week organiza- tion indicates that much progress has been made toward its stated goals which are to produce a " ... concerted nation- wide effort to focus public attention on reading as a source of personal fulfill- ment, on the importance of reading in our national life, and on the libraries, which, if used fully and supported prop- erly, can make reading materials accessi- ble to everybody," and " ... to help build a reading nation and to spur the use and improvement of libraries of all kinds." So far so good: hardly anyone can quar- rel with such obviously constitutional pronouncements. However, even though MARCH 1963 Bv ROBERT K. JOHNSON Dr. johnson is Director of Libraries and Professor of Library Science at Drexel Insti- tute of Technology~ Philadelphia. these statements seem to read largely like a public library credo (or perhaps "notes on contributions toward a philosophy of librarianship"), academic libraries cer- tainly have not been excluded and obvi- ously can sneak into the tent through the open door in the last quoted sentence. A number have done so, but nevertheless, numerous college and university librar- ians have felt National Library Week to be chiefly something for public librarians to use in the achievement of their own important goals. For the former, the thought of another activity to get into, a scheme requiring planning, coordina- tion, promotional activities, and the re- lated expenditure of time and labor, has created another sharp twinge in aching backlogs. The result has been that many academic librarians have seemed to agree that NL W is probably a good thing, have given it a nod in passing, with per- haps the purchase and use of some pro- motional aids, and then have left it up to others. But in the meantime, what have the Faithful and the Believers in colleges and universities been doing? Tabulation by Irene Christopher, librarian of Emer- son College, of 407 replies to a 1961 ACRL questionnaire showed that 324 99 academic libraries participated that year in NLW as follows: community activity, 98; their own programs, 246; campus committee, 74; specific goals: standards -47, financial aid-48, other-126; ac- tivities: book sales-38, open house or coffee-61, student contests-26, convo- cation or assembly-51, authors' pro- grams-6, library exhibits-297, outside exhibits-100, and forum on needs-13. Publicity media used were: campus newspaper, 214; alumni publications, 36; local newspapers, 136; local radio, 75; local TV, 25; statewide media, 16; bro- chures or book lists, 107; NL W promo- tional aids, 179. A survey of the numer- ous comments which were made on these questionnaires resulted in a list of a number of promising ideas for activities, some of them in cooperation with public libraries. Aside from a plea for correla- tion of ACRL activities with state NLW agencies, the chief criticism was that NLW materials are slanted toward pub- lic libraries and are too costly. Because of the lack of specific description, it is impossible to know exactly what some of the activities listed above actually were; and without knowing how many academ- ic libraries received the questionnaire its validity cannot be determined. N everthe- less, this list shows a respectable partici- pation in a number of different activities in the promotion of the Week by a nu- cleus of academic libraries. Probably no library could attempt to engage in all of these programs; perhaps som~ would be inappropriate or of little value at certain institutions or libraries, and no doubt many libraries have been carrying on their own library promotion either inde- pendently of National Library Week or in conjunction with it but without re- porting in the questionnaire. In addition to the above, it might be helpful to see what is being done by the libraries of two specific institutions, dif- fering in size, location, purpose, student body, and support: the University of Pittsburgh, and Connecticut College at New London. One of the general promo- tional ideas at the University of Pitts- burgh has been an active and productive student library committee, and in part its work has been aimed purposely at promoting National Library Week in spite of the fact that some of the earlier NL W slogans were not very appropriate for college students. Among this group's activities were book drives (with mixed benefits for the library), displays ar- ranged by committee members, and com- mittee members' appearances on televi- sion; a personal library contest was in- augurated, and recruiting for librarian- ship was stressed. The library administra- tion at Pittsburgh believes that NLW, and student participation in it, have been beneficial. At Connecticut College some of the library promotion is aided by the col- lege's Office of Press Relations which pro- vides mimeographed press releases on the activities. Among the programs are sen- ior new-book donations, a freshman book drive, book sales, and soliciting of facul- ty for contributions of materials (some for the library; some, like newspapers, to be sold for the benefit of the library). In addition, there have been an exhibit of new books and a senior contest for the bookplate design used for senior class books presented to the library. There is a student library committee here also. At this institution, not only are these activ- ities not timed for a tie-in with National Library Week, but they also seem to be carried on independently of NL W en- tirely (or in spite of it). Connecticut Col- lege apparently has its own library week every week, but these programs represent the kind of promotion which other li- braries could adopt or adapt in connec- tion with NLW. At this point, mention should be made of a relatively new "personal library" contest, the Amy Lovemen National Book 'Awards. This is an annual event, 100 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES started in 1961-62, which could be re- lated to NL W. Even though the winning awards at participating institutions may be announced before NL W, they could be recognized at appropriate ceremonies during NLW. Considerable effort has been made to elicit the participation of academic li- brarians in NLw.· In 1961, Edmon Low (then ACRL president), Felix Hirsch (chairman, ACRL Committee on Stand- ards), and LeMoyne Anderson (ACRL- NL W chairman) issued a joint appeal to college · and university librarians asking help in publicizing widespread needs and inadequacies in academic library fa- cilities and the seriousness of this situa- tion. They stated that NL W represented an excellent opportunity to bring this information to the attention of the larg- est possible public, and listed nine sug- gested NLW activities and programs to focus attention on the ACRL Standards and the need for strong and increased support to help academic libraries meet standards. In addition, the thorough and detailed NLW Organization Handbook has contained a list of special program suggestions for colleges and universities (pp. 56-61). From the information sur- veyed for the present article, however, it seems that while some libraries have en- gaged in a number of activities and have gained much publicity as a result, a large number of college and university librar- ies have not jumped into the ring with full enthusiasm. Some of the reasons which have been advanced for the reluctance of academic libraries to participate in NL W activities are: students have to read all the time anyway and this sort of appeal will not draw them; students often complain about library books, service, and librar- ians, and library promotion is not likely to change their minds; NL W slogans sometimes have not been very applicable to the situation in which students find MARCH 1963 themselves-"Wake up and read" (no time 'for more reading); "Are you well informed?" (students are likely to feel well informed already); and "For a rich- er, fuller life" (somewhat meaningless to students). "Build your home library" ap- parently was the first NL W slogan to have appeal to students, and "Read and watch your world grow" seemed to strike a responsive chord. However, in spite of the complaints and the doubts as to whether the great amount of work in- volved and some of the promotional ac- tivities are actually of any value, the aca- demic libraries which already participate in NL W activities or engage in their own promotional programs seem to have found enough meat in a number of the ideas tried or suggested to make worth while the effort of testing NLW for their own purposes. Even those libraries which have done nothing with NLW must en- gage in some library promotion among their clientele, and it would require only a little more effort to coordinate these with NLW. If NLW is bypassed by academic li- braries it may mean the loss of a good opportunity to put a continuing and worthwhile promotional campaign into motion. Apparently for some libraries it remains to be seen how much good this sort of promotion can do; once under way an NL W program should be easy to continue, and it should not be difficult to- start if a library's existing publicity programs are used as a nucleus. The co- ordination of a library's existing promo- tional activities with National Library Week (or the establishment and use of some where they are lacking) may be found to be gratifying, or may turn out to be more headache than opportunity- or perhaps a mixture of both, with the benefits outweighing the disadvantages. Without a sincere attempt over time enough to try out new ideas, no one will know. It certainly seems to be worth. the effort to find out. • • 101