College and Research Libraries Letters Characteristics of Collections To the Editor: I feel I should call your attention to a possible error of fact in the article, "Char- acteristics of Collections Added to Amer- ican Research Libraries, 1940-1970: A Preliminary Investigation," by Grant T. Skelley (C&RL, Jan. 1975). The apparent error appears in Table 4, page 60 (though the consequence of it would be pervasive), where-if I read correctly-William and Mary is placed in the "Private" column. Although it may occasionally comport it- self after the private school-high prestige model, it was purchased by the Common- wealth of Virginia in 1906 and has been- for better, or for worse-a state institution ever since. Response Henry Grunder Curator of Rare Books College of WiUiam and Mary in Virginia I appreciate receiving Mr. Grunder's ad- vice about the fiscal support status of The College of William and Mary, and I apolo- gize herewith to the people of the state of Virginia. Perhaps my assumption that this college belonged in the "private" category was a result of an image created by the "comport- ing" Mr. G1under mentions in his letter; perhaps not. But for whatever reason, it never entered my mind to check (as it did COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES for a couple of dozen other libraries), so the image was well fixed. Spurred partly by abashment and partly by curiosity, I subsequently have taken an informal poll of thirty-six people, all of them "academics" of one kind or another. I asked whether William and Mary is a "private" or a "public" college. Every one of these people said "private," a few even thought I was pretty dumb to have to ask the question, and some said "Oh, it's got to be private." I may feel that because of this I was not alone in my ignorance, and, for that matter, that I was even in good com- pany. But this does not alter the fac't that I was in error. The consequences of the error are more or less "pervasive," as Mr. Grunder sug- gests. They are also statistically trivial. Ten collections (the number recorded for Wil- liam and Mary) amount to approximately 0.0068 percent of the total number of col- lections involved in the study ( 1,454), and 0.0078 percent of the total number of aca- demic library collections involved ( 1,283). Percentages reported in the text of the ar- ticle that involve "Academic/Public" and "Academic/Private" increase or decrease on the order of 1 or 2 percent. Besides the obvious changes (plus and minus ten) in total number of "Academic/ Public" and "Academic/Private," to readjust the figures, the information given in Table 1 about William and Mary's ten collections should be applied where appropriate. Grant T. Skelley TABLE 1 CoLLECTIONs AcQUffiED BY THE CoLLEGE oF WILLIAM AND MARY Year Type of Collection Means Acquired Source of Gift 1942 3 MS ( 3 Authors) 3 Gift 3 Unspec. 1943 1 MS (Subject) 1 Unspec. 1 Unspec. 1945 1 Book (Subject) 1 Gift 1 Unspec. 1 MS ( Hetero. ) 1 Gift 1 Unspec. 1947 1 Book (Subject) 1 Gift 1 Alumnus 1 MS ( Subject) 1 Gift 1 Unspec. 1950 1 Book ( Hetero.) 1 Gift 1 Unspec. 1967 1 Mixed ( Hetero. ) 1 Gift 1 Unspec. I 415 nrne to nan a tight ship ••• • • • consolidate all orders with us Tight budgets call for more efficient acquisition. One call to us provides you with all domestic and foreign periodical subscriptions, serials, continu- ations and monographic series, and foreign monographic books. One- source-responsibility smooths acquisition operations, saves time and money. Write or call for our International Acquisition Services brochure or ask for a representative. Let's talkl STECHERT MACMILlAN, INC. INTERNATIONAL ACQUISITION SERVICES Serving Libraries Since 1872 NEW YORK • LONDON 866 Third Avenue • New York, N.Y. 10022 PARIS • STUTTGART DIFFERENTIATING THE MEDIA A Focus on Library Selection and the Use of Communication Content Proceedings of the Thirty-seventh Annual Conference of the University of Chicago Graduate Library School, August 5-6, 1974 Edited by Lester Asheim and Sara I. Fenwick First published in The Library. Quarterly, the proceedings of the conference are a useful, provocative study of the impact of the multimedia orientation on libraries and librarians. The present volume should prove to be an important first step toward a realistic and fair assessment of each medium for providing the information, education, entertainment, and intellectual stimulation required by the diverse audiences that libraries serve. 1975 86pages Cloth $5.95 The University of Chicago Press Chicago 60637