ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

News From the Field

ACQUISITIONS

• The University of Kentucky at Lexington, recently has added several important manuscript collections to its Modern Political Manuscript Collection.

The library has received over 300,000 papers from the family of Frederick Moore Vinson, thirteenth Chief Justice of the United States. Vinson was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Truman in 1946 after a long career in Democratic politics. He was a member of Congress in the House of Representatives from 1923 to 1929 and from 1931 to 1935; associate justice of the United States Court of Appeals from the District of Columbia, 1938-1943; chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals, March 1942 to May 1943; and director of the Office of Economic Stabilization, 1943-1945; appointed director of the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion in April 1945; and appointed Secretary of the Treasury on July 23, 1945. He was nominated Chief Justice of the United States and confirmed by the Senate in June 1946. He died on September 8, 1953. Vinson’s papers, dealing primarily with his official career, will be cataloged and available for use by early 1973.

The estate of John C. Watts has given the library 117 file drawers of official correspondence relating to his twenty-year career as Democratic congressman from Kentucky’s Sixth District. When Representative Watts died on September 24, 1971, he was the second ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee. Watts, an ardent backer of the Truman administration, was elected to the House in April 1951, in a special election in Kentucky’s Sixth District. He was reelected successively to the eighty-third through the eighty-ninth Congresses.

Thruston Morton, former U.S. Senator and chairman of the Republican National Committee, has placed in the library papers dealing primarily with his senatorial and national comiriittee man careers. Born in Louisville on August 19, 1907, Morton was a member of the eightieth to eighty-second Congresses as a U.S. Representative. After serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations for the U.S. Department of State from 1953-1956, Morton was elected U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1957-1968. He was chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1959-1961.

The Watts and Morton papers are still in the process of being cataloged and are not yet available for public use.

• The library of the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore received its finest gift of this century when Lester S. Levy, a noted collector of sheet music, and consultant for the society, gave all items concerning The Star-Spangled Banner which the society did not have. Involved were about 200 music sheets, including some unique and several very rare, early song books containing The Anacreontic Song, and a unique broadside. With this gift the society holds the most complete archives of The Star-Spangled Banner. The collection will be called The Lester S. Levy Star-Spangled Banner Collection.

• Two items printed at Ephrata Cloister and long thought forever lost by historians have been discovered in the State Library of Pennsylvania.

Robert Bray Wingate, rare books librarian, said the broadsides fell out of a book being used by a researcher. A patron was seeking watermarked paper made at Ephrata Cloister and had held the book up to the light to study a marking when the two sheets of paper fell out.

“At first we thought the sheets were pages of the book,” Dr. Wingate said, “but closer inspection proved otherwise.”

The two broadsides are the exact size of the book page and were so neatly tucked into the book that someone leafing through would not have known they were not actual pages.

Wingate said scholars had been searching for copies of the leaflets for more than 150 years. The broadsides are printed on one side only and are approximately seven by eight inches. Both are in German.

The oldest broadside is dated 1768 and is a hymn that was written to be sung or chanted at funeral services for Conrad Beissel, head of the cloister, who died July 6 of that year. The writer was a Sister Anastasia, described only as “a Swiss woman.”

The second broadside was also a hymn and was written for ceremonies honoring a Sister Melania in 1784. The reason for the commendation is not revealed. Sister Melania died at the age of eighty-seven on September 19, 1813, records show.

The book in which the broadsides were found is entitled “Zionitischen Stiffts” (The Foundation of Zion) and is dated 1745, the date the state library was founded. Inscriptions in the book show that it had been previously owned by a Benjamin Lightfoot and a Samuel Becker.

GRANTS

• The Graduate School of Library Science at Drexel University, Philadelphia, has been awarded a grant of $7,601 from the State Library of Pennsylvania to conduct a workshop which will explore ways in which large libraries may share resources among themselves. The workshop will be held at the Hershey Hotel, Hershey, Pennsylvania in January of 1973.

A group of thirty librarians from large libraries in Pennsylvania will be invited to attend and will, together with outstanding resource people, investigate ways in which their informational materials and expert staffs may be shared in order to provide better library service to all citizens of the state. Such topics as shared or coordinated acquisitions, union lists, common storage of little-used items, use of telecommunications to transmit materials and bibliographic citations, and the sharing of specialists will be studied. Brigitte L. Kenney, assistant professor, is director of the workshop.

• The Fisk University Library has received a grant of $45,000 from the U.S. Office of Education, Title II-B, Higher Education Act, to support an Internship in Black Studies Librarianship. The program is directed by Dr. Jessie Carney Smith, university librarian, Fisk University.

This pilot project is designed to implement and test the concept of inservice training for librarians, using Black Studies Librarianship as the testing ground. The program should establish some basic criteria for similar training programs, and should produce librarians proficient in the knowledge and skills pertinent to Black Studies Librarianship. Seven interns have been invited to attend the program for the fifteen-week period, September 5-December 15. At the end of the program, the African experience may be possible for the participants through a shortterm travel program in certain African countries.

• The University of Kansas Endowment Association has announced the receipt of a bequest of $200,000 from the estate of Mary Mc-Creery Lupfer of Buffalo, New York. The gift will establish the Edward P. Lupfer Fund in memory of her late husband. Under the terms of the bequest one-half of the income will go for scholarships, the other half to be used for library acquisitions “. . . for the purposes of . . . furthering and enhancing the library facilities of Kansas University at Lawrence, Kansas, and keeping increasingly up-to-date its libraries, library books, library rooms, educational films, recordings and visual-education aids, newspaper, magazine, and other appropriate subscriptions, and its general library material, equipment, and facilities of all kinds necessary to maintain and to make always available to the students and faculty the finest complete library facilities.”

Lupfer, a member of the class of 1896 at the university, was nationally known as a designer of bridges and railroads. The Peace Bridge across the Niagara Falls and the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls are among the structures with which his name is prominently associated.

• The National Serials Data Program, a cooperative program of the Library of Congress, the National Agricultural Library, and the National Library of Medicine, has received from the Council on Library Resources, Inc., an Officer’s Grant of $20,000 to supplement the budgetary support provided by the three national libraries and to enable the program to enter its third and operational phase.

The NSDP was established to develop a central machine-readable source of serial cataloging information and an economically feasible system of handling serials that will eliminate the costly duplicative input and conversion projects that would otherwise be necessary. In the first phase of the program, the Library of Congress developed a format for recording bibliographic data about serials in machine-readable form. In 1969, the Association of Research Libraries, with a grant from the National Agricultural Library, began the administration of a two-year National Serials Pilot Project, supported thereafter by the three national libraries and the Council on Library Resources, Inc. Using the scientific and technical serials held by the three national libraries, the pilot project began the development of a union list and provided data about the characteristics of serials and the effectiveness of various techniques for handling serial information.

The program entered its third phase with the appointment in April of Paul Vassallo as director. Vassallo, who had served as consultant to the program in its initial stages, was formerly chief of the Congressional Reference Division of the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress. The third phase of the program will provide the three national libraries, and other research libraries as well, with an authoritative automated bibliographic resource for serials which will supply important cataloging information to libraries and at the same time permit the uniform transfer of data on serials among libraries; provide a base from which several kinds of library tools can be developed; and provide a serial system which will constitute the U.S. segment of the developing International Serials Data System.

In addition to the grant of funds, the Council on Library Resources, Inc., continues to make available to the program the services of George Parsons as senior systems analyst and Lawrence Livingston as consultant.

MEETINGS

Oct. 9-10: The Minnesota Library Association conference will be held Monday and Tuesday, 9 and 10 October, at Madden’s Lodge in Brainerd. Chairman of exhibits for the conference is: Stephen W. Plumb, Legislative Reference Library, Room 111, State Capitol, Saint Paul, MN 55155.

Oct. 21: The Hawaii Library Association will hold its fall meeting on Saturday, October 21, 1972, at the Kona Surf Hotel, Keauhou Kona, Hawaii. Ms. Donald W. Berndt, 95-608 Wehewehe Loop, Mililani Town, Hawaii 96789 is publicity chairman.

Oct. 23-26: Innovation has been stressed in planning the Thirty-fifth Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science (ASIS) to be held in Washington, D.C., October 23-26, 1972, at the Shoreham Hotel. The technical program will explore the theme, “A World of Information,” in seven technical sessions.

Further information on the conference, including registration and housing forms, may be obtained from the American Society for Information Science, 1140 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 804, Washington, DC 20036. (Telephone: 202/659-3644.) Consult the July/August News also.

Oct. 27-28: “Acquisitions Explored” will be the subject of the Library Institutes Planning Committee’s fifth annual institute, to be held October 27 and 28, 1972 at Rickey’s Hyatt House Hotel, Palo Alto, California. Registration for the two-day meeting is $20.00 and includes two luncheons. Details may be obtained by writing to Joseph E. Ryus, 2858 Oxford Avė., Richmond, CA 94806. The July/August News also contains further details.

Nov. 1: The Rutgers Graduate School of Library Service holds its second annual Richard H. Shoemaker Lecture on Bibliography on Nov. 1, 1972 at 8 p.m. at Hickman Hall, Room 138 (New Brunswick, Douglass Campus). Richard D. Altick will lecture on Librarianship and the Pursuit of Truth.

Nov. 9-10: A conference on the Use of Audiovisual Archives as Original Source Materials, to be sponsored by the National Archives in cooperation with the history department of the University of Delaware, will be held Nov. 9-10 of this year at the Conference Center of the University at Newark.

For further information write or phone: James W. Moore, Director, Audiovisual Archives Division, National Archives and Records Service, Washington, DC 20408. Phone (202) 962-2513. Further details are to be found in the September News.

Nov. 12-15: The 1972 Allerton Library Institute will focus on “Information Resources in the Environmental Sciences.” It will be held at Allerton House, Robert Allerton Park, University of Illinois Conference Center, Monticello, Illinois. Additional information may be obtained from Leonard E. Sigler, Institute Supervisor, 116 Mini Hall, Champaign, IL 61820.

Nov. 19-24: The Association of Caribbean University and Research Libraries (ACURIL) which is presided by Michael Gill, librarian of the University of the West Indies in Barbados, will hold its Fourth Annual Conference at the Puerto Rico Sheraton Hotel from Sunday, November 19 through Friday, November 24.

Delegates from the fourteen member institutions of ACURIL in Puerto Rico met on July 7 at the José M. Lázaro Library, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, to plan and organize this important event. The Steering Committee will be presided by Dr. Albertina Pérez de Rosa, past president of ACURIL.

Distinguished librarians from the Caribbean have been invited to present papers focusing Personnel Management in Libraries. Wide attendance from countries such as Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, United States, Trinidad, Barbados, Jamaica is expected.

The following institutional members will sponsor ACURIL IV in Puerto Rico: Caribbean Regional Library, Department of Education Library, University College of the Sacred Heart Library, Humaco Regional College Library (U.P.R.), Bayamón Regional College Library (U.P.R.), University College of Cayey Library (U.P.R.), Agricultural Experiment Station Library (U.P.R.), General Library (U.P.R.), Mayaguez, Interamerican University Libraries (San Juan and San Germán Campuses), Law Library (U.P.R.), School of Education Library (U.P.R.), Institute of Caribbean Studies Library (U.P.R.) and José M. Lázaro Library (U.P.R.).

Additional information on ACURIL IV may be obtained from the headquarters of the Association at Box S—University of Puerto Rico Station, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00931.

Nov. 30-Dec. 2: Virginia Library Association annual conference, Nov. 30-Dec. 2, 1972, in Norfolk, Virginia, Scope Cultural and Convention Center.

March 18-21, 1973: The Alaska Library Association annual meeting will be held in Fairbanks, Alaska. The theme is “Communications.” Exhibits chairman is Ms. Patsy Willey, North Star Borough Library, 901 First Ave., Fairbanks, AK 99701; and program chairman is Ms. Kay Shelton, Juneau-Douglas Community College, Library, Box 135, Auke Bay, AK 99821.

April 29-May 2, 1973: The tenth annual Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing will be conducted by the Graduate School of Library Science, University of Illinois, from Sunday, April 29 to Wednesday, May 2, 1973. The theme of this clinic will be “Cooperative Ventures in Library Applications of Data Processing.” The speakers will discuss a wide range of existing cooperative activities, with special reference to the use of computers in library networks and the role of computers in cooperative processing for libraries.

This subject is of critical importance and great current interest. While many library operations involve repetitive, routine tasks that lend themselves readily to automation, not all libraries have funds available to allow the development of automated procedures. However, by interinstitutional cooperation, at national, state, or local levels, certain automated procedures become both feasible and economical. It is this theme that will be discussed at the 1973 clinic.

E. W. Lancaster, associate professor of library science, is chairman of the clinic. Further information may be obtained from Mr. Leonard E. Sigler, Division of University Extension, 116 IUini Hall, Champaign, IL 61820.

MISCELLANY

• The following resolution was adopted by the Council of the American Library Association on June 30, 1972, during the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago:

Whereas, The concerns of librarians throughout the free world have been addressed to the case of librarian Raiza Palatnik, currently imprisoned in the Soviet Union, and Whereas, The President of the American Library Association addressed to the U.S. Department of State a letter, dated May 11, 1972, concerning the plight of Raiza Palatnik and her colleague, Amaliat Trachtenberg, who is also imprisoned, and

Whereas, The U.S. Department of State replied on June 14, 1972, expressing the policies of the U.S. Government, as follows:

U.S. government spokesmen have repeatedly called upon the Soviet government— in public statements here, in representations in Moscow, at the United Nations, in the Inter-Governmental Committee for European Migration and before other international bodies—to allow Soviet citizens to exercise the rights due them under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Soviet Constitution itself.

Therefore, be it resolved, That the American Library Association vigorously condemns the harassment of Raiza Palatnik and Amaliat Trachtenberg, both Russian librarians and Jews, by the Soviet Government as reported in the October and December 1971 issues of the Assistant Librarian; and

Further, That the American Library Association urges the United States Government to intensify its efforts to protect the rights of Raiza Palatnik and Amaliat Trachtenberg and the rights of all citizens under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and

Further, That a copy of this Resolution be submitted to the Secretary of State in support of U.S. policy and to the Secretary General of UNESCO.

• The Board of Trustees of Case Western Reserve University has announced the establishment of the Frederick L. Taft Endowment Fund in recognition of his thirty-five year association with the university, first as professor of English and later as director of libraries. Dr. Taft was appointed director of the library of Case Institute of Technology in 1961 and associate director of libraries of the federated Case Western Reserve University libraries in 1968. He served in this capacity until 1971, when he retired with the rank of professor emeritus of English.

Dr. Taft’s interest in libraries was not confined to the libraries of CWRU. During his administration he was actively involved in many professional library associations and climaxed his career as secretary of the International Association of Technical and University Libraries. He continues to be involved in library affairs as secretary of the Friends of the Libraries at CWRU.

The income from the amount of the original endowment and from any gifts that are added to it will be put at the disposal of the Case Western Reserve University libraries.

• A new computer system, the first of its kind for library use, has been installed at the University of Pennsylvania. According to Richard De Gennaro, director of the University’s 2.5-million volume complex, the new System 7 computer will provide broader and faster services to patrons than the system it replaces. In addition to the old system’s ability to record borrowing transactions, the new system can immediately identify a card reported stolen or lost, and automatically prepares notices to users when books they’ve reserved are available. To borrow a book, a user presents his ID card at the desk and the worker inserts it into a terminal. If the ID hasn’t been reported lost or stolen, the book card is inserted and in a few seconds the transaction is completed, including a complete record of the user’s number, the books borrowed, the library branch, and the due date. Each day, when the library closes, this and other information which has been temporarily stored on a magnetic disk, is electronically transferred to the university’s main computer where late notices and circulation lists are prepared. These notices and lists are again transmitted to high-speed printers in the Franklin Building across the street from the main library, and when the library opens in the morning the new lists are ready.

Since the terminals are primarily operated by part-time student employees, the system is designed to detect operator errors. If an entry is incomplete or incorrect, the terminal locks and no other transactions can be entered until the operator acknowledges the error. Complex transactions, such as book reservations or borrowing without an ID card, are simplified by step-by-step instructions displayed by the terminal. These instructions tell the operator what card to insert and how to enter manual information to complete a transaction.

Lois Kershner, head of the circulation department, who has directed the use of computers at the library since the first system was installed four years ago was instrumental in the design of the new system. In addition to the main library, there are now terminals in four branch libraries, and eventually the system will be expanded to include the smaller branch libraries around the campus. Thus, not only will the circulation department’s operations be centralized, but many manually prepared statistics and reports from these smaller branches will be eliminated.

PUBLICATIONS

• A recently issued catalog describes the large collection of archives at Cheshunt College, Cambridge, England. This collection contains many letters about eighteenth century North America, reflecting the interests here of the Countess of Huntingdon, founder of the College, and of her chaplain, the Reverend George Whitefield. A limited number of the catalogs, reproduced from typescript, are available and may be ordered for $4.00 each, post free, from Edwin Welch, The Library School, University of Ottawa, Ottawa 2, Canada.

• Providence College is pleased to announce the publication of an Inventory to the Papers of Dennis J. Roberts (1940-1963) at a price of $3.00. Roberts served as mayor of Providence for ten years (1941-1950) and governor of Rhode Island for four terms (1951-1958). As governor his influence extended to the national scene where he developed friendships with Dwight D. Eisenhower, Adlai Stevenson, and John F. Kennedy, among others. Of particular interest was his close relationship with President Kennedy; from 1954 to 1960 Roberts served as a political advisor to Senator Kennedy. The papers also reflect developments in Rhode Island politics and government. For information about the collection please contact: Matthew J. Smith, Archivist, Phillips Memorial Library, Providence College, Providence, RI 02918.

• The University of California Library Automation Program has completed the computer processing to cumulate the annual supplements to the Library of Congress List of Subject Headings (7th ed.). Staff members have completed editing of a preliminary working edition, and the 1971 supplement has been merged into the previous cumulation. A fully edited cumulation for all supplements from the second, 1966, through the seventh, 1971, is now ready for publication. The first supplement to the 7th edition of the LC List is not included in the U.C. cumulation because it was not in machinereadable form.

The U.C. cumulation of the seven annual LC supplements is expected to be a useful time saving tool for cataloging. The 825-page, one-volume work contains approximately 130,000 records printed in a format which closely parallels that used in the LC supplements. The University of California wishes to acknowledge cooperation of the Library of Congress, which provided the unedited source data bases for the annual supplements.

A limited number of copies beyond those required by U.C. have been prepared and will be made available to other interested organizations at $40.00 each. Address requests to the Director, University-wide Library Automation Programs, c/o the Institute of Library Research, South Hall Annex, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720.

• Beginning this fall, the MARC Distribution Service will be expanding its coverage to machine-readable records for films. Records will be distributed on a monthly basis, that is, every four weeks, and the subscription year will cover the period from April 1972 through March 1973. Although the first films tape was not mailed until this fall, it will contain all records put into the films data base since April 1972. After this initial tape, subscribers will receive monthly tapes containing approximately 800 new or corrected film records input during the previous month.

The cost of this subscription is $400 per year. Subscribers who have regular accounts established with the Card Division may charge their subscriptions to their accounts. All others must pay in advance by sending a check or money order made payable to Chief, Card Division, Library of Congress.

A films test tape, containing approximately 200 records, will be available for purchase this summer for $20. Orders for the test tape should be handled in the same manner outlined above as orders for subscriptions to the distribution service.

Both the regular subscription tapes and the test tape will be available in either 7-track (556 cpi) or 9-track (800 cpi) mini-reels. Regular subscribers and purchasers of test tapes will also receive a copy of Films: A MARC Format, describing the record format and data fields, specifications for the tape format and character set (ASCII 6-bit or 8-bit), and code lists for language, country of publication, and geographic areas.

Orders for the distribution service or the test tape should be mailed to the MARC Distribution Service, Card Division, Library of Congress, Building 159, Navy Yard Annex, Washington, DC 20541. All orders should specify the kind of tape desired, 7-track or 9-track, and regular subscribers should also provide a mailing address to which addenda to the film format or technical notices about tapes should be sent.

The MARC Development Office has recently issued Addendum No. 1 (13 pages), Films: A MARC Format; Specifications for Magnetic Tapes Containing Catalog Records for Motion Pictures, Filmstrips, and Other Pictorial Media Intended for Projection. This will be sent to all subscribers to the forthcoming distribution service for MARC film records and is also available upon request to the Card Division, Attention: MARC Distribution Service.

• A small but very helpful publication, Production Is Slide-Tape Programs is available from Carl F. Orgren, School of Library Science, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52240. It offers the reader important considerations to keep in mind in putting together and offering slide-tape programs. ■■

ACRL Membership

August 31, 1972 ……………………………. 11,899

August 31, 1971 ……………………………. 11,587

August 31, 1970 ……………………………. 11,714