ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Contracts for Studies of Library Service

The National Commission on Libraries and Information Science has awarded its first contracts for studies, totaling $52,000 for fiscal year 1972.

Dr. Frederick Burkhardt, chainnan of the commission, said that “these contracts are the first steps towards an overall evaluation of library service in this country on all levels. The contracts cover a wide area of concern, and we hope to use these as a base for additional national planning efforts."

The studies to be done include: (1) preliminary investigation of present and potential library and information service needs contracted to the University of California (Berkeley); (2) an analysis for social, economic, and technical requirements for libraries and information services, 1975-1980, contracted to Dr. Edwin Parker, professor for Communication Research at Stanford University; (3) a study of funding sources for public libraries to be handled by the Public Administration Service, Chicago, Illinois; and (4) a feasibility study of centralized and regionalized interlibrary loan centers to be done through the Association of Research Libraries, Washington, D.C.

The study for the investigation of present and potential library and information service needs will be done through Charles Bourne who is director of the Institute of Library Research and professor, School of Librarianship, University of California, in Berkeley. The comprehensive working paper produced by this study will assist the commission in establishing its priorities in developing national planning for library and informational needs as charged by law. The intent of this study will be to identify needs for service on the part of various “publics” served and to see how the library and information community can best serve those needs.

Some of the major issues to be explored will be a review of the literature relating to the objectives and specifications for post-1975 library services and a survey and assessment of planning, methodology, and techniques that could be helpful. In this study preliminary identification and formulation of tentative specifications will be máde for post-1975 information service.

In support of this paper, Dr. Parker, who is professor for Communication Research at Stanford University, shall prepare a comprehensive written document which will identify in specific terms the ways in which United States social-economic factors in 1975-1980 and advances in communications and information technology will have impact on the library and information needs of all types of citizens in various information-using roles. Dr. Parker’s report will be available to the commission on January 1, 1973.

The Public Administration Service in Chicago has accepted a task for the commission to look at funding sources for public libraries. More than $800,000,000 is spent on public libraries and library systems in America and much is known about how the money is spent. Too little is known about its sources. Some libraries obtain revenue from the smallest political areas served (the city, the town, the county), some from the largest (the state). Others obtain money from a combination of sources including municipal, county, region, state, federal, gifts, and endowments. No report of the full scope of fund resources is available, and the commission feels it is now needed.

This study will, Dr. Burkhardt hopes, “let public libraries all over America see where additional funds could be made available and how to get at the money which is so sorely needed by libraries and information centers all over America.”

The National Commission on Libraries and Information Science has also contracted with the Association of Research Libraries in Washington for a feasibility study of centralized and regionalized interlibrary loan centers. This particular study will review the current literature, estimate the demand for interlibrary loans in the future, prepare an outline of methodology for a cost study of initial development of central and regional monograph lending centers, establish a professional committee to review recommendations, and to prepare a report to be available to the commission for a working paper, by the end of March 1973.

“These first positive steps on the part of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science are merely the beginnings,” said Dr. Burkhardt, “in providing guidance and leadership for the library community with which the Commission has been charged by the President of the U.S. and the U.S. Congress.” ■ ■