ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

From Inside the DLSEF

By Dr. Katherine M. Stokes

College and University Libraries Specialist, Library Planning and Development Branch, Division of Library Services and Educational Facilities, U.S. Office of Education, Washington, D.C. 20202.

On May 10, 1968, a letter from the Division was sent to presidents of higher education institutions which offered library education programs. This letter requested an expression of interest in holding institutes in library and information science during the summer of 1969 and/or the academic year 1969-70. Duplicate copies of the letters were sent to the heads of the library education programs. Only 21 institutions responded with letters of interest in holding institutes directly concerned with academic library matters.

Readers of this column will recall a brief listing (June 1968 issue of CRL News, page 170) of the nine institutes of special interest to academic librarians which were funded this year under Title II-B of the Higher Education Act. Six of these have been completed; 160 librarians attended these institutes, and each award carried a basic stipend of $75 a week, plus allowances for dependents where applicable. Thirty-five librarians are still attending the institute being given part-time at the Universiy of Oregon on Mechanization in Technical Service and Circulation Areas of the Library; this institute will be completed in February 1969. Thirty more librarians will take part in the Library Executive Development Program Institute to be held at the University of Washington in April, and another thirty in the institute on Bibliographic services in East Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin in June.

Many participants have given enthusiastic reports of their experiences at the completed institutes. Their libraries are expected to find them more valuable as staff members because of this concentrated, though brief, educational interlude in their working lives.

There is still time to send an application for an institute grant, even if no letter of intent has been submitted. The deadline for receipt in the Division Office is December 1, 1968. If you would like to attend an institute on some particular phase of librarianship, you might write the faculty of any institution that has a library school about your interest and inspire them to prepare an application for an institute next summer. Perhaps your own alma mater would be interested in sponsoring such an institute. Successful applications will probably be announced at the beginning of 1969. You will then have plenty of time to make your own application to any school where an institute is to be given.