ACRL College & Researc Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

News from the Field

ACQUISITIONS

• Boston College Library, through the generosity of Philip J. McNiff, has recently acquired an extensive collection of materials printed by the Stanbrook Abbey Press. The collection contains some 175 examples of fine printing, including greeting cards, hardbound books, booklets, folders, broadsides, and correspondence. The Press is operated by the Benedictine nuns of Stanbrook Abbey, Callow End, Worcester, and is the oldest extant continuously operating nineteenth century private press in England.

• Case Western Reserve University Libraries, Cleveland, has received a substantial gift of manuscripts of compositions and other archival materials by the American composer Donald Erb, composer-in-residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music since 1966. The gift contains sketches and pencil scores covering the period of Erb’s 30 year career. Also included are a large number of programs, reviews, newspaper clippings, and correspondence.

• Middlebury College’s Starr Library, Middlebury, Vermont, recently acquired 400 volumes of early New England historical and literary materials. The earliest imprint in the gift is a book of sermons printed in Boston in 1691. The collection contains a wealth of material relating to Vermont history.

• The New York State Library, Albany, has acquired the papers of William Beauchamp (ca. 1860-1930), consisting mainly of his notebooks and scrapbooks concerning the history of the Iroquois Indians. The notebooks include material on Indian language, folklore, and place names, the Moravians, and New York State archeology. The library has also received the papers of former Senator Jacob Javits, covering his press releases, speeches, and campaign materials for the years 1957-1978.

• The Ohio University Library, Athens, will receive a collection of Chinese books as a result of the close cooperation in educational and cultural exchanges between Ohio University and two universities in Taiwan, Feng Chia University and Tamkang University. Several librarians from Taiwan have taken advantage of the internship program offered by Ohio University Library. The Central Library of the Republic of China, with the financial support and approval of the Ministry of Education, will present the entire collection exhibited at ALA’s annual conference this year to the library. The collection of 634 volumes covers a wide range of subjects including art, culture, economics, geography, history, language, literature, martial arts, medical science, philosophy and technology.

• St. Mary’s College Library, Moraga, California, has acquired the Leonard Verbarg library of over 800 books related to Western Americana, especially California. Included in the collection are vertical files containing over 1,100 entries related to Californiana in the form of clippings and correspondence that Verbarg had amassed during his more than twenty years as editor of “The Knave” page of local history that appeared weekly in the Oakland Tribune.

• The U.S. Naval Academy’s Nimitz Library, Annapolis, has received a collection of C. S. Forester books and manuscripts from Frances Phillips, a longtime Forester friend. Most of the 54 books and all 12 manuscripts are presentation copies inscribed by the author.

• The University of California, Los Angeles, Music Library has received the manuscripts, performing parts and copies of the film music of composer George Antheil (1900-1959). Antheil gained notoriety for his avant garde work Ballet Mechanique in 1926. He began writing film scores in 1935 and contributed music to such movies as The Plainsman, The Buccaneer, and The Pride and the Passion.

• The University of Tulsa recently acquired the Len Weaver Collection of Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967). This is a complete collection of all the published writings, including some very rare early publications. A number of books also came from Sassoon’s own library at Heytesbury House, while others are inscribed to such friends as Edmund Gosse, Edward Marsh, Edith Sitwell, and E. M. Forster.

Tulsa’s McFarlin Library has also received the Robert Frost Collection, assembled by the late John Kohn, a friend of Frost and proprietor of Seven Gables Book Shop in New York. The collection contains all first editions of Frost’s works, his appearances in anthologies and periodicals, translations into other languages, and critical works.

GRANTS

• The National Endowment for the Humanities has announced grant awards for several projects concerned with preservation:

Brown University,Providence—$39,803 to provide supplementary support for indexing, editing, and proofreading the 1601-1650 volume of A Chronological Guide to Writing on the Americas Published in Europe and to compile the 1701- 1725 installment.

Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts—an award of $113,058 to support a survey of archives, historical societies, libraries, museums, and other institutions for setting priorities and planning long-range conservation needs.

New York Public Library—$150,000 plus a matching grant to support the rehabilitation of the main card catalog.

New York University—$72,177 to support creation of finding aids to the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives of labor history, workers’ education movements, and other labor-related documents.

Northwestern University,Evanston, Illinois—$51,786 to support processing of the Africana archival holdings of the Melville J. Herskovits Library.

• Chatham College’s Jennie King Mellon Library, Pittsburgh, will be aided in the implementation of an automated circulation system by a $72,300 grant from the Pew Memorial Trust. The funds will be used to convert bibliographic card catalog records to machine-readable form, allowing Chatham’s participation in the Western Pennsylvania Buhl Network (WEBNET).

• Emory University’s Woodruff Library, Atlanta, has been awarded a $34,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to process the personal papers of six Atlantans who played major parts in building the city’s progressive image. The papers are those of Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908), creator of the Uncle Remus tales; William B. Hartsfield, mayor of Atlanta from 1937 to 1961; Richard H. Rich (1901-1975), an Atlanta business leader for over 30 years; Eleonore Raoul Greene (b. 1888), suffragist and organizer of the Atlanta League of Women Voters; Helen Bullard (1908-1979), public relations consultant; and Josephine Wilkins (d. 1970), social reformer and founder of the Georgia Citizen’s Fact Finding Movement in the 1930s.

• Harvard University’s Andover-Harvard Theological Library has received a grant of $9,000 from the Zion Research Foundation of Boston for the purchase and preservation of periodicals and serials dealing with Biblical archeology and its scholarship. The funds will be used to repair or microfilm many valuable titles.

• Radcliffe College, Cambridge, has been awarded funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a two-year oral history project to interview women who have made significant contributions to society through government service. The NEH funds include a $50,000 grant and a $24,920 gift to be matched by donations from other sources. The project, “Women in the Federal Government: Documentation of Their Contributions Through Oral History,” will begin in September with a nationwide search of candidates to be considered for the project. The interviews will be conducted by scholars in women’s history and other experienced oral history interviewers and will be transcribed at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America.

• The St. Louis University Vatican Film Library has been awarded a $54,071 three-year grant by the National Endowment for the Humanities to aid its expansion of research resources. The fund will be applied to the completion of the microfilming of the Vatican Library’s Ethiopic Collection and the cataloging of rare books on microfilm.

• Sioux Falls College, South Dakota, has been awarded a partial matching grant of $20,103 by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to establish an archives records management program for the college and to prepare a report on the feasibility of establishing similar or cooperative archival programs on the other nine campuses of the Colleges of Mid-America.

• The Syracuse University School of Information Studies has been awarded $166,612 by the National Science Foundation for a study of “Value Added Processes in the Information Life Cycle” in cooperation with the National Federation of Abstracting and Indexing Services. The 18-month study is under the direction of Robert S. Taylor, former dean of the school. The purpose of the research is to develop methods of analyzing information systems by studying relationships among three factors: those steps in formal information systems where the potential usefulness of items being processed is enhanced; the methods of costing those steps; user costs or benefits associated with those added values. The study will utilize data and information from abstracting and indexing services.

• The University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Urbana, has received a grant of $15,000 from The Permanent Charity Fund of Boston on behalf of an anonymous donor. The gift will be used to increase a fellowship fund that was established in January 1955 to assist graduate students in library science.

• The University of Oklahoma Libraries, Norman, have been awarded a $200,000 challenge grant by the Kerr Foundation of Oklahoma City. The university will raise an additional $400,000 from private sources for a total grant of $600,000. The funds will be used for collection development over a three year period beginning in July 1982 to strengthen the libraries’ holdings in the American West, energy, 19th and 20th century Americana, philosophy, music, and art.

• The University of Pittsburgh's School of Library and Information Science has been awarded a grant of $15,000 for a preliminary study of library and information manpower and training needs in Spain. The study, to be carried out jointly with the Subdirectorate of Libraries of the Spanish Ministry of Culture, is supported by the Spanish-North American Joint Committee for Educational and Cultural Cooperation. The joint project results from the recommendations of a U.S.-Spanish Seminar on the Training of Librarians and Documentalists held in Madrid in April, 1980, at which leaders in the Spanish library and information communities identified the need for systematic analysis of current and future national information manpower requirements.

Retired Librarian of Congress, L. Quincy Mumford answers librarians’ questions about the

CUMULATIVE TITLE INDEX TO THE CLASSIFIED COLLECTIONS OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 1978

the unique 150 volume, single-alphabet listing of virtually every work classified by LC since 1897.

Background: Librarians have been asking penetrating questions about the Cumulative Title Index to the Classified Collections of the Library of Congress (TLC) ever since it was first announced. We distilled what we believed to be the most significant of these questions and discussed them with retired Librarian of Congress Dr. L. Quincy Mumford, whose 21 year regime (1954-1974) witnessed such relevant landmarks as the beginning of MARC and the introduction of the Shared Cataloging Program. Here are some of the questions and his answers.

Carrollton:Dr. Mumford, just why is titie access so important?

Mumford:Well, in the case of the Title Index to the LC Collections, its greatest value probably lies in its most obvious use. When only titles are known to a searcher, TLC will show: authors’ names (and the years of publication), which lead to National Union Catalog entries: precise LC Classification Numbers, which lead to specific card images on the LC Shelflist microforms, and LC Card Numbers for ordering from the Cataloging Distribution Service. In the case of the Shelflist, of course, searches for the precise Class Number should be made in TLC even if the author is known as well as the title.

In addition to this primary use, I should like to comment on the recent trend by acquisitions departments to set up their records by title in order to enjoy faster and more precise access than is provided in main entry catalogs (especially when corporate authors and other problem authors are involved).

The Catalog Management Division of the Library of Congress converted its own Process Information File from a main entry to title arrangement about eight years ago, and I understand that their searching efficiency increased substantially after that change.

In short, librarians have long needed a definitive, singlealphabet title index to the Library's huge retrospective collection of the world's literature, and there is no doubt in my mind that this 150 volume set is going to fill that need.

“Because of the overwhelming size, longevity, and international scope of LC's holdings, the great majority of the 6.5 million records in its Classified Collections have never been included in MARC, OCLC, or any other data base.”

Carrollton:Now that we've established the importance of title access, let's explore just how many and what kinds of titles are In the Classified Collections.

Mumford: Essentially, these contain all of the materials (both monographs and serials) which have ever been cataloged and classified by the Library of Congress since the adoption of its Classification System in 1897. As of January 1979, these totaled approximately 6.5 million titles. About one million (or 18 percent) of these records are included in the MARC (MAchine Readable Catalog) data base which was established in 1968.

Carrollton:In view of the fact that access to the MARC data base is already available to libraries in a wide variety of segments and formats — and as it amounts to only one-sixth of the Library’s collection — would you describe for us just what records make up the non-MARC portion of TLC?

Mumford:Yes. The more than 51/2 million non-MARC entries in TLC will include the following:

— English Language works cataloged before 1968,

— French Language works cataloged before 1973,

— German, Spanish and Portugese Language works cataloged before 1975,

— Materials in the other Roman-alphabet languages cataloged before 1976, and

— Transliterated non-Roman alphabet materials cataloged by LC through 1978.

Because of these delays in entering the Romanalphabet non-English-Language materials, it is estimated that more than half of the one million records prepared during the 12 years of the Library’s Shared Cataloging Program have not entered the MARC data base.

A small number of exceptions to the above listing are represented by the Library's highly selective RECON (REtrospective CONversion) Program which after several years has only just reached its 150,000th record (most of which covered 1968 and 1969 English Language reprints).

Actually, it has been the Library's long range emphasis on collecting and cataloging non-U.S. materials which has led it well beyond the role of a “national library" to its preeminence as a “library to the world". This emphasis is illustrated by the fact that in the last ten years, only 37 percent of the books processed by LC were in English (and, of course, a large number of these were of non-U.S. origin).

Carrollton:Well, that pretty well takes care of TLC's coverage of the non-MARC records. Now let's talk about OCLC. Several librarians have asked what benefits they would get from the Title

Index that they would not already be getting as OCLC participants.

Mumford:First, of course, is the matter of coverage. Because of the overwhelming size, longevity and international scope of LC's holdings, the great majority of records in its classified collections have not been included in MARC, OCLC, or any other data bases.

Actually, there's no way of knowing exactly how many records are in the LC Classified Collections that are not in OCLC. We know how many records LC has sent to OCLC (over one million MARC records) but we do not know how many nonduplicate retrospective LC records have been put into the data base by OCLC participants. In spite of the large numbers of records cited by OCLC, after one deducts the MARC input, non-print materials, duplicate records, local publications, and other non-LC materials, the number of retrospective non-MARC LC records entered by OCLC participants should be relatively small. Based on conversations with LC catalogers and others, however, my outside guess would be that some 1.5 million unique non-MARC LC records may have been added by OCLC participating libraries.

This, of course, leaves 4 million non-MARC records in the Classified Collections that are not in the OCLC data base.

The main reasons for the relative lack of OCLC overlap, as indicated above, are the size and international nature of the Library of Congress holdings when compared to those of even the largest of the OCLC participants.

COMPARISONS OF HOLDINGS

The overwhelming relative strengths of the LC collections in specific subject areas are best illustrated in the biennial report, Titles Classified by the Library of Congress Classification: National Shelflist Count (published by the University of California at Berkeley under the auspices of the organization of “Chief Collection Development Officers of Large Research Libraries’’). This study compares the holdings of LC to those of 27 major U.S. research libraries in individual LC Classification Schedules.

The 1977 edition of this report shows that the Library of Congress’ holdings are often two or more times as large as those of second-place libraries in a wide variety of significant subject areas, including: American History (Classes E-F), Social Sciences (H-Hx), Language & Literature (P-Pz), Technology (T-Tx), and Bibliography and Library Science (Z).

In a telephone survey conducted by Carrollton Press during September, 1979, of the 20 largest members of the Association of Research Libraries, it was learned that although 16 of them are currently OCLC participants, none submit significant numbers of retrospective LC records to OCLC. (A possible exception to this is the University of Texas, which has sent OCLC approximately 20,000 retrospective records to date.)

As the TLC Index Is produced from the REMARC Database, the title entries will be enhanced by the addition of full Imprint data. Also, TLC Itself can be used to order full REMARC records for retrospective conversion.

LC CLASSIFICATION NUMBER CHANGES

Tens of thousands of LC Classification-Number changes will have been picked up and printed in TLC. In many cases where participating OCLC libraries derive their cataloging data from old LC printed cards it would be beneficial if they would consult TLC entries before they contribute retrospective cataloging to the OCLC data base.

Access to up-to-date LC Classification numbers, of course, will also be extremely important to libraries converting from Dewey to the LC Classification system. Moreover, OCLC participants can refer to TLC to find LC Class Numbers for those OCLC records which show only Dewey call numbers.

Carrollton:Dr. Mumford, you've demonstrated the usefulness and unique coverage of the LC Tille index. But the set is expensive (even with our prepublication prices and extended payment plans). How can librarians justify’its cost?

Mumford:I think the cost effectiveness of the set is best illustrated by the fact that for a one-time expenditure which is less than the year’s salary of a cataloger, TLC will go on year after year saving time and money for a library's Reference,

Acquisitions and Cataloging Departments — and do so during those future years when inflation will have increased staff salaries and other costs.

Looking at it another way, TLC records cost only $2.48 per thousand at the pre-publication price — and even less if paid in advance. The arguments for ordering the set now and paying in advance also seem impressive to me. Those libraries which ordered Mansell’s Pre-1956 Imprints edition of the National Union Catalog when it was first announced paid less than half of today's price for that set. Also, the 10% prepayment discount on the Title Index amounts to a healthy $1,293. It is therefore obviously advantageous for libraries to get their orders on record now at the prepublication price. That way, they'll be certain to get the “Z” volumes at the same price they paid for the “A" volumes.

NEWS NOTES

• NELINET, Inc., Newton, Massachusetts, has elected three new members to its Board of Directors at its annual spring membership meeting held April 1. Artemis Kirk, director of libraries at Simmons College; Colin McKirdy, systems librarian at Boston College; and Richard Talbot, ' director of libraries at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, assumed three year terms on the board on July 1. Former NELINET Board Chair, Jay Lucker, director of libraries at MIT, was re-elected by the membership to serve a second term on the board.

• The Texas A&M University, College Station, has announced that a special keepsake publication on artist, illustrator and teacher Harvey Dunn produced for the Friends of the Library has won an award. The keepsake, published in the spring of 1980, was entitled I Am My Work; My Work Is Me, and included some of Dunn’s work as well as a few of his thoughts about art. In a recent regional competition sponsored by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), the keepsake was selected to be the recipient of the Council’s Grand Award in Special Print Communication.

• The University of Texas at El Paso has been authorized by the University of Texas System Board of Regents to begin construction of a new central library building. The total project cost is estimated at $28.8 million. The site will be near the academic center of the campus, convenient to the public and in an area that will accommodate future expansion. The new building will house 1.2 million volumes, provide seating for 2,420, and fulfill present and anticipated growth for the next ten years.