ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Massachusetts Central Book Processing Center Effects Savings for State-Supported Institutions

About 550,000 books are being processed and distributed to the twenty-eight state-supported institutions of higher education in one year by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in a special project for the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education.

The operation, funded by two special legislative appropriations to the board in 1969 and 1970 and totaling $4.5 million, will improve the collections of all libraries in the public higher education system. Each grant allocated $2 million for books and $250,000 for processing. University of Massachusetts’ director of libraries, David Clay, estimated that 80,000 more volumes could be provided by the two appropriations if the university library purchased and processed them than if a commercial processer were used. The library at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst agreed to be the central purchasing and processing point for books destined for libraries at all twenty-eight schools.

Dr. Edward C. Moore, chancellor of the board, said the board has filed a request for another appropriation for 1971, and hopes that this will become a continuing state project. The twenty-eight state schools still need more than three million volumes to reach minimum standards set by the American Library Association.

On the initial project 22,400 different titles representing 260.000 volumes were selected from Books for College Libraries. The bibliographic data were purchased on magnetic tape from Richard Abel & Co. The second project’s 170,000 selections representing 290,000 volumes were made from the Library of Congress* 1969 and 1970 MARC-II magnetic tapes and from a list of serial backfiles. Through the use of the BCL and MARC tapes and computers, the university library prints out the selection lists, combines the selections from the twentyeight libraries into one master list, and places the orders. The same data bases are also used to keep up-to-date records of what books the colleges have received from those they have ordered, and to produce catalog cards and book labels. Principal designers of the time-saving system were Merle Boylan, university librarian, and James H. Kennedy, an associate director of the University of Massachusetts library, who worked in cooperation with the chief librarians of the other state institutions. Hillis Griffin of Argonne National Laboratories provided some computer programs that printed the selection lists from the MARC-II tapes.

The University of Massachusetts library was chosen as the book center because of its computer capabilities as applied to library operations, according to Patrick McCarthy, deputy chancellor of the Board of Higher Education, who is overseeing the project. The board estimates savings in the millions of dollars for the several projects through handling the books centrally. The savings are made through ordering and processing many copies of the same book at one time, through use of computers, and through the larger discount realized in large bulk purchasing.

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News editor: Michael Herbison, Casper College, Casper, Wyoming 82601. Editor: Richard M. Dougherty, School of Library Science, Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y. 13210. President, ACRL: Anne C. Edmonds. Executive Secretary, ACRL: J. Donald Thomas, ALA.

Another benefit is that book dealers and publishers have been much more reliable in filling mass orders than in filling the typical order for one or a few copies of a book at a time.

Assembly-line procedures under Kennedy’s direction provide the clockwork operation required to keep 2,500 volumes arriving daily and another 2,500 being shipped out. Each college receives at least one box of 30-40 books most days, complete with book cards, pockets, and labels. The cooperative efforts of the Board of Higher Education, the chief librarians, and the University of Massachusetts library have created a uniquely valuable service for public higher education in Massachusetts. ■■