ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

From Inside the DLP

By Dr. Katharine M. Stokes

College and University Library Specialist, Training and Resources Branch, Division of Library Programs, Bureau of Libraries and Educational Technology, U.S. Office of Education, Washington, D.C. 20202.

After agonizing adding, subtracting, comparing, and re-examining on the part of the DLP personnel, the Title II-A (HEA) college library resources grants for FY 71 were finally recommended for BLET officials’ consideration. The carefully planned criteria, aimed at discovering the neediest institutions in terms of inadequate library collections and a large number of students from economically deprived backgrounds, turned up many worthy applicants who were unable to be funded within the part of the appropriation which was released, $9,900,000. Ironically, 2,165 applications were received for basic grants of up to $5,000, totalling $9,999,717.

The attached supplemental grant requests added up to $18,481,637. They came from institutions that could score only as little as one point, or even none, because they had libraries of a size approaching or exceeding the minimum size recommended in the ALA Standards and had few disadvantaged students enrolled. The fact that the librarians of the institutions submitted applications can only indicate that they did not realize how fortunate they are, comparatively! Many of them are suffering from cuts in their book budgets and will feel that their good performance in the past is now working against them in depriving them of federal support when they find their state and private support decreasing.

For Special Purpose Type A grants there were over 500 applications. The funds would stretch only to fund 75, most of them for much less than the amount requested, which totalled $11,057,037, while there was only $650,850 to award.

The Special Purpose Type B awards were cut down drastically from the $846,234 requested by some 50 applicants to the $201,000 available. Small amounts were given to 26 institutions in the hope that a little money might give them a start on their projects.

Some 60 Special Purpose Type C applicants requested $17,290,999. Only 14 of them could be funded out of the $755,000 earmarked. The academic members of the consortiums receiving awards number 220, though some of them, such as the 3R’s Councils in New York State, include many nonacademic members who may also benefit indirectly from the grants.

Only 532 institutions received the combined basic and supplemental grants. Seventeen new institutions to be opened next fall received only basic grants of $5,000. The other 1,616 applicants for combination basics and supplemental had to be disappointed, though many of their applications approached the score of 21 points which was the lowest level to be funded. When each of the members of the consortiums receiving Type C grants who did not also receive basic and supplemental grants is counted, a total of 780 institutions were benefitted in the 1971 program. ■ ■