ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Fifty-third Conference of Eastern College Librarians

No. 1, January, 1968

ACRL News Issue (A) of College & Research Libraries, Vol. 29, No. 1

SOME three hundred academic librarians made their annual post-Thanksgiving trek to Harkness Theater in the Butler library at Columbia University on November 25 for the fifty-third Conference of Eastern College Librarians. The program, which concerned “National Resources for College and Research Libraries,” was ably prepared and graciously chaired by Irlene Roemer Stephens of Richmond College. Other members of the Committee were James Govan (Swarthmore), Robert Palmer (Barnard), and Paul Kebabian (University of Vermont).

At the morning session the group heard presentations concerning federal library services to academic libraries. Paul Berry spoke for the Library of Congress; Patricia Condon described the services of the National Agricultural Library, where she is assistant program coordinator; Scott Adams, deputy director of the National Library of Medicine, told of NLM; and Russell Shank, director of the Smithsonian Institution library, defined the work of his agency.

Emphasizing how the new has grown naturally from the old at LC, Mr. Berry used as examples: the recent expansion of printed card service under the Title II-C acquisitions program; traditional interlibrary loan developing into modern photocopy service; the bibliography publication program culminating after a century and a half in the current preparation for the press of the retrospective National Union Catalog.

Among other new programs, he described Machine Readable Cataloging (MARC); the National Science and Technology Referral Center; and the Library of Congress Automation Technique Exchange (LOCATE).

Looking to the future, Mr. Berry told of three important potentialities under the amendments to the Higher Education Act. These are: (1) the acquisition of second copies of Title II-C books to be deposited in the Center for Research Libraries; (2) the extension of bibliographic services associated with II-C acquisitions; and (3) the supplying to local libraries of assistance in acquiring books from countries lacking a developed book trade. He also described aspirations to establish a MARC-type project for serials data and to gain better bibliographical control over, and to participate in the distribution of, non-GPO documents.

Miss Condon of the National Agriculture Library, answered the question “What is it?” by describing its history and the scope of its current services. In answering the question “What does it do?” she pointed out that it distributes its services to the entire agricultural-biological research community. When asked “What services does it offer?” she replied that it rendered interlibrary loan and photocopy services, maintained an open-stack collection, published lists of its new acquisitions and other bibliographies, and rendered mail-order refer-ence services. She anticipated that these services will be expanded next year following NAL’s removal into its new $7.5 million building. NAL, she explained has recently established several clearinghouses and cooperative arrangements in certain specific areas. An extensive automation program is now being planned for NAL’s operations and services.

Mr. Adams pointed out that the mission of the National Library of Medicine is “to assist in the development of the medical and health sciences.” He explained that this is interpreted currently to mean that NLM functions as a backstop to a loosely knit decentralized network of libraries serving the needs of the medical community. It furnishes interlibrary loans and photocopies, and it publishes Index Medicus and other bibliographic publications produced from the same computer base. There is also an extensive audio-visual program under the purview of NLM. Its MEDLARS search program, which is rapidly being decentralized to university libraries throughout the land, is now conducting some four hundred demand searches monthly. Under provisions of the Medical Library Assistance Act of 1965, the NLM makes construction grants, supports intern and other training programs, sponsors research and publication, and encourages regional medical libraries. In closing Mr. Adams described current cooperative efforts of NAL, NLM, and LC, and stated that continuing effort was being made to eliminate unnecessary duplication of services and as far as possible to maintain compatible machine systems.

Dr. Shank reviewed the venerable and impressive history of library activities in the

Smithsonian Institution. He stated that more than a million volumes have been received in the Smithsonian library and then forwarded, because of their inappropriate subject matter, to one of the national libraries. The Smithsonian, however, has retained some eight hundred thousand volumes, which it maintains decentrally throughout the Institution. Although it is not truly a national library, the Smithsonian keeps its books with the national collections of objects, artifacts, and specimens, which it is responsible for curating, and thereby renders a national service. There is limited library staff and control, although the libraries operate much in the fashion recommended in the Weinberg Report. The output of the curators themselves is the major bibliographic service of the Institution, although the library does render interlibrary and mail-order reference services, and it welcomes visiting scholars. Dr. Shank observed that the Institution carries on a vast publications exchange program of its own in addition to operating the International Exchange Service.

Following a vigorous question-and-answer period, the group adjourned for lunch and reconvened at 1:30 pm. The afternoon session concerned “Potential Services to College and Research Libraries.” It featured Bernard Fry, now dean of the graduate school of library service at Indiana University, who told of the Clearinghouse for Scientific and Technical Information which he had formerly directed; Howard B. Lawson, who described the services of the Defense Documentation Center as chief of its Liaison Coordination Division; Monroe Freeman, director of the Science Information Exchange, related the work of his group; and Dale B. Baker, director of Chemical Abstracts Services spoke of the national chemical information services.

Dean Fry explained that the Clearinghouse is a system for supplying research and development information to a wideranging public which is not limited to the glamorous, space-age industries with which it is associated in many people’s minds. He indicated that need for the clearinghouse was recognized following World War II, but that it was unable to launch extensive programs until recent years. The clearinghouse operates five programs: (1) document distribution and sales; (2) research in progress; (3) services to local systems;

(4) referral; and (5) reference and bibliographic services. The clearinghouse processes some sixty thousand documents annually, of which about twenty thousand are technical translations, and forty thousand are R & D reports. These documents are not selected but are brought together, indexed, abstracted, and listed for distribution, Dean Fry explained.

Mr. Lawson reminded that the Defense Documentation Center is the successor to ASTIA, which had grown out of the need to collect and organize captured German and Japanese technical literature following World War II. It now operates a computerbased data bank of basic technical and management data to indicate who is doing what, when, where, and how in order again to eliminate the unnecessary duplication of effort. The services of the DDC are furnished free to the defense establishment, to its related agencies, and to their many contractors and subcontractors. Its unrestricted services are made available to others on a cost basis. It publishes both the U.S. Government Research & Development Reports and the Technical Abstracts Bulletin, and it supplies computer-produced bibliographies either from stock or individually tailor-made on demand. Mr. Lawson said that the DDC is currently receiving approximately seven thousand requests daily for documents, either in microform or in hard copy.

Mr. Freeman explained that the Science Information Exchange, which operates out of the Smithsonian Institution, acts primarily as a clearinghouse for scientific information, and it maintains an inventory of research in progress. Some one hundred twenty thousand reports annually are submitted by a multiplicity of agencies and individuals, both in the government and in the private sector. An average of thirty units of information is identified on each, and these data are coded for machine manipulation. The rapid obsolescence of the data necessitate its prompt handling. This activity began twenty years ago based upon manual files, but it was shifted to a computer base a decade ago.

Dr. Baker explained the mission of the CAS on freeing up the transfer of chemical literature so that the efficiency of chemists can be improved. CAS now employs some three thousand three hundred abstractors, and for each abstract it publishes CAS uses some twenty-eight index entry points. Although CAS has had grants for research and development, its production has always been self-supporting. It has four kinds of output: (1) awareness of alerting tools; (2) search tools; (3) correlative tools; and (4) specialized custom services tailored to demand. He indicated that CAS is anxious to improve its communication with the library community and is taking steps to accomplish it. His organization is now developing a list of the holdings of most of the large libraries of the major sources of chemical literature, including twenty-four thousand serial entries and thirty-four hundred monographic entries. This union list is almost complete and will constitute a major service.

Again vigorous discussion ensued, following which the group repaired to an upper floor for a reception and refreshments before adjourning for another year.—DK ¦ ¦

ACRL Membership, November 30, 1967 12,658 November 30, 1966 11,220

College Libraries Section, November 30, 1967 3,440

Junior College Libraries, November 30,

1967 1,480

Rare Books Section, November 30, 1967 1,474

Subject Specialists Section, November

30, 1967 2,251

University Libraries Section, November

30, 1967 4,587