ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

News from ACRL Headquarters

Actions taken by the ACRL Board at its most recent board meeting were reported in the last issue of C & RL News. Among the actions reported was one which stated that "the Executive Secretary be given a column in C & RL News for direct communication to the membership and to report activities to the regional chapters.” This column is the first of what we plan to be a continuing feature each month in the News.

Two activities in which ACRL has been involved this past month have dealt with the implementation of AACR 2 and the closing of the card catalog, and planning for a new library management program that will affect college and two-year college libraries.

The ALA executive director called a meeting of organizations concerned with the implementation of the second edition of Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules. In addition to the national library associations, representatives from OCLC, BALLOTS, the Washington Library Network, the National Library of Medicine, and the Library of Congress attended. The result of the meeting was a unanimously approved resolution to the Library of Congress to delay the implementation of AACR 2 and the closing of its catalog until January 1, 1981. This will provide more time for libraries to determine what the impact of AACR 2 will be on their operations.

ACRL President Evan Farber and Executive Secretary Julie Virgo spent two days with the Office of University Library Management Studies/Association of Research Libraries staff to begin the planning process for implementing a $826,500 project to help a large number of academic libraries improve their effectiveness through self-study programs. Named the Academic Library Program (ALP), the activity is being funded by grants from the Council on Library Resources, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Association of Research Libraries.

The program will build on work previously carried out by OMS for primarily large research libraries, and will extend that work so that tools and methods will be appropriate for smaller academic libraries. Over a five-year period about one hundred outstanding librarians will be trained to serve as consultants; they will be provided with specialized guides and manuals and will be given backup assistance when appropriate.

More details on the program will be given in future columns from the ACRL headquarters.