ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

From Inside the DLP

By Dr. Katharine M. Stokes

College and University Library Specialist, Training and Resources Branch, Division of Library Programs, Bureau of Libraries and Educational Technology, U.S. Office of Education, Washington, D.C. 20202.

By the time you read this you will probably know whether or not you are a successful applicant for a Title II-A (HEA) grant for college library resources to be spent by June 30, 1972. In spite of the redirection of the program to stress assistance to libraries in great need of expanded collections to serve the large numbers of economically disadvantaged students on the campuses, over 2,000 applications for supplemental and basic grants were received from librarians hopeful that they might be among the neediest. There will be a lot of disappointed applicants in that category as well as among those who tried for Special Purpose grants, since there was only $8,400,000 to be allotted for supplemental and basic grants.

For Type A Special Purpose grants there were about 500 applications, and only $550,000 was allotted for distribution to that category. Some of the applications were for $3,000 or less, but most were for over $10,000 with a few for over $100,000.

The Type B applications were allotted approximately $200,000, and the fifty or so that came in amounted to something like $600,000. The sixty Type C’s had to be considered and reconsidered and the final few awarded were scaled down to the remaining $700,000.

Fifteen of your colleagues from all over the country (Massachusetts to Washington, North Carolina to Arizona) and from various types of academic libraries (junior colleges, four-year developing institutions, urban universities) labored conscientiously to select from the applications with the highest scores those that fitted the announced priorities most closely. The effort to give each applicant every possible consideration was really agonizing, and a remarkable agreement was finally achieved by these librarians from diverse backgrounds. They would have liked to have been able to see you receive a greater amount of money. ■ ■