ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

PUBLICATIONS

by George M. Eberhart

• Archives and You: The Benefits of HistoricalRecords, a booklet published by the New York State Archives and Records Administration (12 pages, October 1990), helps explain the fundamentals of historical records to a general audience. As examples, five profiles of how New Yorkers use records are presented: a homeowner’s association near Syracuse uses records from the construction of the Erie Canal to make a case for replacing a 70- year-old bridge; a botanist uses a botanical journal written in 1846 to determine the future use of Goat Island at Niagara Falls; elementary school students in Saratoga Springs learn about their city using historic photographs and letters from an 11-yearold girl visiting the resort city in 1842; the Dance Theatre of Harlem uses the records in its relatively new archives to plan performances of the company and document the history of the first successful black ballet company and school in the world; and planners at Central Park consult historic photographs, a stereopticon collection, and the drawings of Frederic Law Olmsted to rebuild the Park. The booklet could serve as an appropriate handout at presentations or as part of a bibliographic instruction program. A free copy may be obtained from Terri Sewell, State Archives and Records Administration, 10A46 Cultural Education Center, Albany, NY 12230.

• Arts and Entertainment Fads., by Frank W.Hoffmann and William G. Bailey (379 pages, 1990), is a browsable miscellany of popular but short-lived enthusiasms of the 19th and 20th centuries. Most are of recent vintage, since our fastpaced, market-oriented society seems more prone to fads than our less capricious ancestors. The authors summarize 122 topics ranging from minstrel shows to Freddy Krueger. The descriptions, although supplemented by short bibliographies, are ruthlessly brief. However, the book may prove a useful resource for undergraduates seeking such elusive topics as soft sculpture, dime novels, and answer songs. Copies are available for $29.95 bound or $16.95 softback, from Haworth Press, 53 Main St., Binghamton, NY 13905. ISBN 0-86656- 881-6, 0-918393-72-8.

• Black Arts Annual 1988/89edited by DonaldBogle (254 pages, October 1990), is the second in a series that reports on the year’s important events in African-American art, photography, literature, music, dance, theatre, movies, and television. Each well-illustrated chapter provides commentary from a Black critical perspective. Celebrities like Arsenio Hall and Whoopi Goldberg are included, as well as artists Dread Scott and Martin Puryear. The annual costs $40.00 and may be ordered from Garland Publishing, 136 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016. ISBN 0-8240-4943-8.

• Comics Librarianship: A Handbooks by Randall W. Scott (188 pages, November 1990), delivers a strong argument for collecting an often neglected but socially significant medium. Entertainingly written by the selector and cataloger of the world’s largest library collection of comics at Michigan State University, this handbook serves as a guide for the private collector as well as the librarian. The best way to become a comics librarian, says Scott, is to get a job as an acquisitions librarian in a research library, engineer a few curriculum-relevant donations, generate publicity and interest, finesse the catalogers into organizing the collection, and read the New York Times when it looks like you’re having too much fun. Scott covers acquisition, storage and preservation, cataloging, cartoon history and comic book sociology, and he challenges the reader with 232 suggested research topics to “encourage thought, research and writing about comics.” The final chapter describes 48 libraries with special collecting interests in the area of comics or cartoons. The book may be ordered for $32.50 from McFarland & Co., Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640. ISBN Aluri and Donald E. Riggs (342 pages, October 1990), describes the expanding field of expert systems, computer programs that inform, make recommendations, or solve problems in a manner and at a level of performance comparable to that displayed by a human expert. The different aspects of expert systems are illustrated by specific examples: Refsearch, POINTER, Scholar, ORA, and Med- IndEx. An especially detailed survey of the use of knowledge-based systems in classification is given in a chapter by Irene L. Travis. Copies are available for $35.00 (personal) or $52.50 (institutional) from Ablex Publishing, 355 Chestnut St., Norwood, NJ 07648. ISBN 0-89391-589-0.

• Gay and Lesbian Library Service, editedby Cal Gough and Ellen Greenblatt (355 pages, November 1990), examines theoretical and practical issues involved in improving library collections and services of special interest to gay and lesbian library users. Chapters cover collection development, case studies of special lesbian and gay collections, bibliographic access, library staff attitudes, library exhibits, reference materials, and AIDS information. Sixteen appendices list bibliographies, films and videos, music, plays, publishers, and organizations. The cost is $36.50. Contact McFarland & Co., Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640. ISBN 0-89950-535-X.

• Great Flower Books., 1700-190(L by SacheverellSitwell and Wilfrid Blunt (189 pages, 2d ed., October 1990), was originally published in 1956 in a very limited edition. Sitwell’s text and 51 full-color pages of fine historical prints make this a botanical treasure. More than 750 colorplate flower books are described in a bibliography prepared by W. T. Steam, Sabine Wilson, and Handasyde Buchanan, and, in a special appendix for this edition, Buchanan explains the printing techniques of the time period. A copy may be ordered for $65.00 from the Atlantic Monthly Press, 19 Union Square West, New York, NY 10003. ISBN 0- 87113-284-2.

• Guide to the Library Binding Institute Standard for Library Binding, by Jan Merrill- Oldham and Paul Parisi (62 pages, October 1990), supplements the Institute’s binding standard (8th ed., 1986) by clarifying its technical language and describing procedures in greater detail. The guide places bookbinding in a historical context, discusses research and development issues, and acknowledges unresolved controversies. While it does not repeat the text of the LBI Standard, its numbering scheme parallels the standard so that a side-by-side reading of the two documents can be made. Sixty-eight illustrations by Gery Frost complement the text. The initiators of this project were members of the former Library/Binders Relations Committee (now the Physical Quality and Treatment Committee) of the ALA Association for Library Collections and Technical Services’ Preservation of Library Materials Section. Copies are available for $17.50 from the ALA Order Department, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611-2795. ISBN 0-8389-3391-2.

• Library Perspectives on NREN, the National Research and Education Network, edited by Carol A. Parkhurst (75 pages, October 1990), is based on the popular Information Packet on NREN distributed at the 1990 ALA Annual Conference. This monograph contains twice as much material, including the four presentations at the 1990 LITA President’s Program, an updated legislative chronology and information, and a new glossary of terms. The proposed network would be an electronic telecommunications infrastructure that will expand and upgrade the existing interconnected array of research networks so that it could operate at a capacity of 3 billion bits per second by the year 2000. The book includes a chronology of significant events in the development of NREN and library community involvement prepared by Carol C. Henderson of ALA’s Washington Office. It is available for $10.50 (LITA members $9.50; quantities of 10 or more $8.50 each) from the ALA Order Department, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611- 2795. ISBN 0-8389-7477-7.

• The Linguistics of American Sign Language, by John O. Isenhath (255 pages, October 1990), is a practical guide to understanding American Sign Language (ASL) both as a communications system and as a leamable language. ASL’s linguistic structure is explored, from topicalizing a sentence to stress and complex sentences. A variety of sentence patterns are presented with a discussion of how each pattern is influenced by linguistic and situational constraints. A copy may be ordered for $37.00 postpaid from McFarland & Co., Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640. ISBN 0-89950-493-0.

• Preserving Knowledge: The Case for Alka- line Paper (August 1990) has been issued as a revision of the Association of Research Libraries Briefing Package number 3. Published by ARL in collaboration with ALA, the Commission on Preservation and Access, and the National Humanities Alliance, this collection of papers, documents, and standards promotes the use of alkaline paper in order to ensure the longevity of research materials. Copies may be ordered for $18.00 postpaid (ARL members $9.00) from the Association of Research Libraries, 1527 New Hampshire Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20036. ISBN 0-918006-18-X.

• Scientific and Technical Literature: An Introduction to Forms of Communication, by Richard D. Walker and C. D. Hurt (297 pages, November 1990), examines scientific journals, conference proceedings, technical reports, patents, maps, secondary literature, and online services and reports on the strengths and weaknesses of each format in authority and accessibility. The book provides an excellent historical perspective, beginning with the first issue of the Journal des Scavans in 1665. The cost is $39.50, from the ALA Order Department, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611-2795. ISBN 0-8389-0539-0.

• Strategic Planning: A How- To-Do-It Man- ual for Librarians, by M. E. L. Jacob (120 pages, October 1990), draws on material used with the ACRL continuing education workshops on strategic planning as well as the planning documents of more than 200 OCLC member libraries. The book includes chapters on the strategic planning process, institution and community, environmental scanning, goals and objectives, action plans, plan format, and monitoring. The manual’s workbook format features many forms, checklists, examples and definitions. Copies are available for $35.00, $3.50 shipping, from Neal-Schuman Publishers, 23 Leonard St., New York, NY 10013. ISBN 1-55570- 074-8.

• Words of the Vietnam War, compiled byGregory R. Clark (604 pages, November 1990), defines all the slang, jargon, abbreviations, nicknames, slogans, people, and places that you are likely to find in any history or novel about the Vietnam War. The book has 10,000 entries (including see references), with more than 4,300 definitions. A casual stroll through this dictionary will let you glimpse what the war was like, from the grit to grand strategy. Copies may be ordered for $47.00 postpaid from McFarland & Co., Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640. ISBN 0-89950-465-5.

Call for papers: “Acquisitions or Access? The Changing Environment”

The theme of the Second National Conference on Acquisitions, Budgets, and Collections to be held April 10 and 11, 1991, at the Radisson South Hotel, Minneapolis, is “Acquisitions or Access? The Changing Environment.” Some other subtitles might be “acquisitions in an environment of change; growing budget options, collection building in an era of electronic communication and document transfer; or conventional acquisitions in an increasingly unconventional environment.” Automation, online public access catalogs, online subscription agencies and electronic vendor services are affecting virtually every aspect of acquisitions: the types of materials acquired, the way in which they are acquired, processing, procedures, and personnel qualifications and duties.

Administrators as budget makers and allocators are faced with a growing number of budget decisions such as whether to fund the acquisition of holdings or access services. Is electronic access and document transfer a solution to escalating periodical and book costs? New sources of funds and new fund accounts are needed. Should librarians continue to acquire expensive books and journals or is mere access to them acceptable? What is the fiscal impact of these changes? Should the library acquire multiple copies of a reference tool at $349 per copy for three locations or should the library buy one CD-ROM at $1,395 and restrict its access to a single location? How can the CD-ROM vendor and the library arrive at a mutually acceptable pricing structure for single-site, single use, local networking, and dial-in access?

What is the impact of technology on collection development? What criteria can be applied to making tough choices within tight budgets—i.e., allocating funds among competing formats (audiovisuals, books, periodicals and electronic media) and among a growing variety of specialized subject areas? How should collections continue to be developed? Will newer media replace or supplement older media?

There will be a $250 award for the best paper from each type of library (academic, public including city, state, and federal, and special) and separate awards for each of the three topic categories; a total of $1,500 in all). Criteria will be substance, relevance, timeliness of topic, and clarity. Conference breakout tracks will be grouped by type of library where possible.

Contributed papers are invited from all types of libraries (academic, public including city, state and federal, and special). Papers are invited on any aspect of acquisitions, budgeting, and collection development as well as online acquisitions and serials systems or subsystems. The conference is intended for acquisitions librarians, serials librarians, library administrators, and collection development librarians. The purpose of this conference is to provide a substantive, relevant, practical, educational experience on current timely issues. The conference format will include plenary sessions, contributed papers, and vendor exhibits. Proceedings will be published.

Program/Review Committee includes Dora Biblarz, Arizona State University; Audrey Eaglen, Cuyahoga County Public Library; Caroline Early, National Agricultural Library; Jasper Schad, Wichita State University, and Katina Strauch, College of Charleston, program chair.

Send two copies of title, outline, abstract or text, plus descriptors, name, address, brief biographical data, and phone number of principal contact by no later than February 15,1991. Papers will be distributed to the Review Committee. Proceedings will be published immediately after the conference. Contributors must give presentation and attend conference at own expense, but will receive discount registration. All responses will be acknowledged.

Write for suggested topics and technical specifications. Address all papers and correspondence to: Acquisitions ’91, c/o Genaway & Associates, Inc., P.O. Box 477, Canfield, OH 44406-0477; (216) 533-2194. ■■