ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

From Inside the DLP

By Dr. Katharine M. Stokes

College and University Library Specialist, Library Planning and Development Branch, Division of Library Programs, Bureau of Adult, Vocational, and Library Programs‚ U.S. Office of Education, Washington, D.C. 20202.

As this article is being written, ten days before Christmas, application forms for College Library Besources grants (Title II-A, Higher Education Act) are being mailed to presidents of institutions of higher education, specifying February 20, 1970, as the deadline for return to our offices. The instructions accompanying them have a special note at the bottom of the first page. The note states that no special purpose grants will be made in fiscal year 1970 and basic grants will not exceed $2,500; but “In the event that the level of funding for fiscal year 1970 is substantially altered from the level anticipated, then further instructions will be sent to all institutions of higher education advising them of any and all program changes for fiscal year 1970.”

The anticipated level of funding for fiscal year 1970 is $12,500,000, half the amount appropriated for each of the last three years. Duplicate application forms are being sent to college and university librarians with letters stating that no substantive changes were made from last year’s requirements for basic and supplemental grants and urging that the applications be submitted as soon as possible. We hope that many will come in before the deadline date, because funds for extra help to process the 4,100 or more applications probably will be severely limited. Last year 2,282 applications for basic grants and 1,808 for supplemental grants were processed.

This year, for the first time, colleges planning to enroll students by the fall of 1971 may apply for basic grants. Formerly, only those institutions with students already attending classes were eligible for basic grants, so the number of applications may be somewhat higher than last year’s. Any librarian who thinks his institution would be eligible under the amended legislation should read very carefully section 131.2(m), pts. 1-6, on page 4 of the Regulations accompanying the application form.

The eighty-five fiscal year 1970 applications for grants to support institutes for training in librarianship (Title II-B, Higher Education Act) were evaluated by a visiting panel of twenty library educators and librarians just before Thanksgiving. Because of the decrease in the scheduled appropriation, it is anticipated that forty short-term institutes will be funded in 1970 as compared with the 92 shortand long-term institutes funded in 1969.