College and Research Libraries


ANNETTE HOAGE PHINAZEE and CASPER L. JORDAN 

Centralized Library Purchasing and 

Technical Processing for Six Colleges 

in Alabama and Mississippi; A Report 
The United Board for College Development proposes centralized 

library purchasing and processing of materials .to increase the educa-
tional potential of Miles, Oakwood, Stillman, Tuscaloosa, and Touga-
loo Colleges, and Tuskegee Institute as quickly as possible. The col-
leges are similar enough in course offerings, acquisitions practices, and 
cataloging policies to make centralization feasible. Plans for develop-
ment include funding a center and the acquisition of additional ma-
terials, and encouraging other similar libraries to take advantage of the 
center's services. 

THE UNITED BOARD for College Devel-
opment has initiated a special effort to 
increase the quantity .and quality of edu-
cational materials at Miles, Oakwood, 
Stillman, Tougaloo, and Tuscaloosa Col-
leges, and at Tuskegee Institute. The 
project began formally after the ad-
ministrative officers and the librarians 
of the six colleges, and two consultants, 
Warren J. Haas and Maurice F. Tauber, 
met with Board Director Charles C. 
Turner and concluded that the needs 
for materials are greater than the abili-
ties of the libraries to supply them. The 
group decided that a feasibility study 
should be conducted to determine the 
best method of solving the problem. The 
Board succeeded in obtaining funds and 
chose the present authors as Principal 
Investigator .and Associate Investigator, 
respectively. 

The two investigators attempted to: 
( 1) analyze the current selection and 
processing procedures in the six libraries 

Mrs. Phinazee is Professor and Mr. ]or-
dan is Assistant Professor of Library Service 
in Atlanta University. 

) 

by identifying and describing relevant 
characteristics of the libraries and of 
their communities; ( 2) develop criteria 
for determining the adequacy of process-
ing services, cost, status of cataloging, 
efficiency of operations, etc.; ( 3) study 
plans for future processing procedures 
that included estimates of the volume 
of material to be processed during the 
next three years, plans for expanding 
staff and facilities, .and plans for improv-
ing conditions; and ( 4) identify solu-
tions to the problems of fulfilling the 
processing requirements by evaluating 
present and future needs and proposing 
a plan that will provide adequate per-
sonnel, facilities, quarters, and an effi-
cient system of processing operations, 
with cost estimates included. 

After searching relevant literature, the 
investigators met with the librarians on 
two occasions; the college presidents, 
or their representatives, attended one of 
the meetings. Two questionnaires were 
distributed and analyzed. Each library 
was visited and the library personnel 
was interviewed. 

Enrollment in these coeducational, 

I 369 



370 I College & Research Libraries • July 1969 

undergraduate, liberal arts colleges 
ranges from 610 to 2,856, with faculties 
varying in size from 43 to 295. Tuskegee 
Institute offers some professional and 
technical graduate courses, but all six 
schools list similar courses in 27 subject 
areas. Library holdings in 1968 were 
reported as being between 28,422 .and 
135,000 volumes. Expenditures for li-
brary materials in 1967-68 ranged from 
$10,756 to $79,000. Unusually large pro-
portions of gifts are received by these 
libraries. There are nineteen different 
kinds of special collections, all super-
vised by the main library staff. 

The study revealed that all of the 
libraries need more funds than are now 
available to them in order to pur-
chase the quantity of materials required. 
Their full-time nonprofessional and pro-
fessional staffs would have to be in-
creased substantially, and their facilities 
would have to be enlarged or rearranged 
to process materials more efficiently and 
cheaply. 

A single center for the selection, order-
ing, cataloging, and processing of at 
least 90,000 volumes annually has been 
recommended for these six libraries for 
the following reasons: ( 1) there ap-
peared to be a great deal of duplication 
of effort, with a negligible amount of 

unique technical processing being done 
in the libraries; ( 2) no significant dif-
ferences in practices were found; ( 3) a 
center would cost less to operate than 
it would cost to expand facilities in the 
individual libraries and titles could be 
processed more cheaply; ( 4) profession-
al personnel which is now involved in 
technical services would be free to con-
tribute more toward the improvement of 
service by being released to plan, make 
policies, provide more guidance in the 
use of libraries, and actually get in-
volved in the substantive aspect of the 
academic program. The center would 
employ a larger proportion of full-time 
nonprofessional workers-reducing the 
.amount of time needed for supervision 
and, hopefully, increasing the quality of 
work. 

The presidents and librarians have ac-
cepted this proposal. The librarians have 
agreed to standardize their practices and 
to accept the Library of Congress Classi-
fication system. Funds for the establish-
ment of the center and for the purchase 
of materials are being sought. 

Membership in the center by other 
similar libraries is being encouraged. 
Groups of librarians in Texas and South 
Carolina have expressed .a desire to en-
gage the services of the center. • • 

l