ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

News from the field

Acquisitions

•Brown University’s John Hay Library, Providence, Rhode Island, acquired the papers and memorabilia of Rabbi Baruch Korff, founder of the National Citizens Committee for Fairness to the Presidency and the U.S. Citizens Congress during the Watergate era. Although richest in material relating to Richard Nixon, the collection also contains much material connected with Rabbi Korff’s other political activities, his efforts on behalf of European Jewry under Nazi and Soviet persecution, his involvement in the founding of the state of Israel and other Middle Eastern affairs, and his rabbinical activities. Over 90 linear feet of papers, including retained records of the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe, the Political Action Committee for Palestine, and the two Watergate-era committees, have been received.

•Harvard University Library received a $1 million unrestricted gift from John W. Blodgett, Jr., class of 1923, and Edith Ferris Blodgett. This was half of a $2 million donation, the other $1 million going to Harvard College. The Blodgetts have helped to support the Library since 1933, notably in the field of history, where Mr. Blodgett funded the acquisition of Leon Trotsky’s papers and the formation of The Blodgett Collection of Spanish Civil War Pamphlets.

•Harvard University’s Houghton Library acquired the Americana portion of the Moldenhauer Archives, a major collection consisting of manuscripts, scores, letters, and in some cases the entire estates of leading 20th century composers. Notable musicians represented are Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Walter Kaufmann, and many others. The acquisition is part of a joint program between Harvard and the Bavarian State Library in Munich, where a division of the Moldenhauer Archives was established in 1979. Hans Moldenhauer is noted as a concert pianist, teacher, and author, whose collection is in memory of his wife Rosaleen. This acquisition was helped by a generous gift from Francis Goelet, class of 1947.

•The Historic New Orleans Collection in New Orleans, Louisiana, recently acquired the papers of Lt. Charles H. B. Caldwell of the United States Navy. These consist primarily of orders received by Caldwell during the Civil War, the most important of which are those issued by Flag Officer David G. Farragut concerning the attack on Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip, and the orders of Farragut and Capt. Thornton Jenkins during the seige of Port Hudson. The Caldwell Papers complement several other collections which give an excellent overview of the most important Civil War battle in Louisiana.

•The Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, receiveddhe papers of noted entomologist William Morton Wheeler (1865-1937). Professor Wheeler, who specialized in the study of ants, was also renowned as a lecturer, writer, linguist, scientific historian, and social philosopher. This gift was from his grandsons William M. Wheeler Jr., and Paul S. Wheeler, and consists of 187 volumes of historical interest; 35 boxes of administrative and scientific papers, including correspondence, manuscripts, and notes; 8 boxes of reprints; and 6 boxes of illustrations.

•Purdue University Libraries, West Lafayette, Indiana, have acquired a private collection of 20,000 volumes on American literature and culture. This collection represents the largest single addition to the Purdue Libraries during its 110 years of service to the University. The titles in the collection provide a comprehensive representation of the finest in American literature. In addition to major authors, secondary and lesser known writers are also present. The most significant part of the collection contains 19th and 20th century fiction, poetry, humor, drama, and theater. In addition there are titles by recognized and lesser known women authors, and American radical literature, Black-American literature, design, photography, and the cinema are represented. There are biographies of literary figures, titles on the history of American literature, and works representing the major schools of literary criticism.

Grants

•The Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Cambridge, was given $5,000 by the Trustees of the Endowment for Biblical Research for the purchase of periodicals, monographic series, and annuals in the field of Biblical archaeology and Biblical study.

•The Bowling Green State University, Ohio, Sound Recording Archives has received a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant will support the cataloging of about 15,000 popular long-playing recordings from 1950 to 1970, and the sharing of that information with OCLC and the Library of Congress publication, “Music, Books on Music and Sound Recordings.”

•Columbia University, New York, received $3 million from the Starr Foundation for its C.V. Starr East Asian Library. This grant will ensure the excellence of the present collection and facilities, support the continued acquisition of new materials needed for teaching and research, and enable the library to lead in the areas of preservation and information technology. Opportunities for collection growth include the unprecedented explosion of new publications from post-Mao China, as well as new Japanese and Korean materials.

•Harvard University’s Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library has been awarded a three-year, $220,000 grant by the National Endowment for the Humanities to inventory some 1,000 music manuscripts in the United States written between 1600 and 1800. The work will be part of an international effort centered at Kassel, West Germany, the Repertoire International des Sources Musicales, which is compiling and publishing catalogs of musical source materials dating from before 1800.

•The Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) in Andover, Massachusetts, received a grant of $27,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support a conference for leaders of regional conservation centers serving libraries and archives and other cooperative preservation programs. The award is one of the first round of grants announced by the newly established Office of Preservation at NEH. The two- day, invitational conference will be held in October, 1985. Its purpose is to promote communication between centers, to plan for the sharing of resources between regions, and to provide a forum for articulating positions on national issues.

•Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, received a $1,000 grant from the Polaroid Foundation, Inc., of Cambridge, Massachusetts, to add to its library materials in women’s studies, particularly women and science, and women and health.

•Purdue University Libraries will establish a grant program to enable promising young faculty members to gain access to library materials vital to their research. Funds for the project, called the Library Scholars Grant Program, have been made possible through a 50th anniversary endowment from the class of 1935. Announcement of the program, along with the appropriate forms and information, will be made to the faculty in September with a due date of October for the first round of proposals. Grant proposals will be sought from nontenured faculty to fund translations, photocopying, interlibrary loan charges, computer searches, travel to other libraries, and other services to obtain research materials and data not available at Purdue. Proposals will be screened and ranked at the appropriate academic level to ensure academic quality. Following review, library faculty members will make final recommendation to Joseph M. Dagnese, director of libraries.

•Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, received a grant for $14,900 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support the planning of a series of regional programs in libraries on the framing of the United States Constitution and on the character and values of the 18th century New England society that first ratified and later considered repudiating that document.

News notes

•Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, has instituted a medal, named after an early donor to the college, in honor of the recent opening of their new library (see C&RL News, November 1984, pp.557-58). At a meeting of the New England Chapter of ACRL held at Boston College on April 30 and May 1, the Joseph Coolidge Shaw Medal was awarded to three librarians: Philip McNiff, retired director of the Boston Public Library; Yen–Tsai Feng, librarian of Harvard College; and Jeanne Aber, former acting director of the Boston College Libraries.

•The State Library of Florida, Tallahassee, has begun a major survey and planning project for library automation and resource sharing in Florida. The project, awarded to King Research, Inc., has four survey review phases, and the final five-year planning document is due in November 1985. The project will continue evaluative and planning processes begun this year during the State Library’s review and approval of the State University System’s Florida Center for Library Automation (FCLA). During the same period, two multitype library consortia, Tampa Bay Library Consortium (TBLC) and Southeastern Florida Library Information Network (SEFLIN), were reviewed and approved for LSCA Title III planning and startup grants. These three will serve as working models during the survey and planning process.

•University of Utah students have initiated an $8,000 appropriation of student funds which may lead to $50,000 in new books for the university’s Marriott Library. The Freshman Council of the Associated Students of the University of Utah is administering the “Give–a–Book” campaign. Area charitable foundations have been asked to double the $8,000 appropriated by the student assembly, and each Utah alumnus will be asked to give at least $25 toward a book in a subject area of their choice. Books donated through the campaign will have the donor’s name permanently inscribed on the inside front cover. If successful, the Give–a– Book campaign will become a permanent Freshman Council project.