ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

News from the Field

Ameritech to acquire Dynix

Ameritech Corporation continued its foray into the library marketplace with the recent announcement that it will acquire Dynix. If negotiations are completed, Ameritech, the Chicago-based parent of the Bell companies serving Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, will acquire 100% of Dynix Management, Inc. (DMI), holding company for Dynix subsidiaries operating in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Ireland. The sale includes Dynix Scholar, DMI’s Promark, Retro- Link Associates, and Dynix Marquis. Management will remain in place after the sale; the terms and total value of the transaction will not be disclosed. "Dynix will be a key addition to the Ameritech team and will play a major role in our efforts to expand into this important marketplace,” said Roger Plummer, president and CEO of Ameritech Information Systems.

University of California and Stanford Libraries agree to share resources

The libraries of the nine-campus University of California (UC) and Stanford University agreed to allow members of both communities access to each other’s collections, including databases. Stanford will gain access to UC’s database MELVYL © and MEDLINE ®, and UC faculty, academic staff, and graduate students will gain on-site access to direct borrowing from Stanford’s collections. UC will reciprocate for Stanford clientele, and both institutions will provide each other with priority interlibrary loans.

“The static UC library budgets of recent years, coupled with the effects of a shrinking U.S. dollar and double-digit inflation in book and journal prices, have intensified the need for research libraries to cooperate in building collections,” said Beverlee French, chair of UC library heads of public services. A key element of the agreement is the coordination of collection development policies and activities in the various libraries. However, French stressed that this does not mean that the participating libraries will no longer purchase what they need locally on campuses. Under the terms of the agreement, signed in September, all visitors must first obtain a “ŪC/Stanford Reciprocal Services Card” from their home libraries.

Harvard signs preservation agreement with Akzo Chemicals

Harvard University Library has signed an agreement with Akzo Chemicals, Inc. for a pilot program to treat 5,000 volumes with a whole book deacidi- fìcation process. Akzo is one of the licensors of a vapor deacidification process using diethyl zinc (DEZ), developed in the 1970s for the Library of Congress. LC has not adopted the DEZ process to preserve its own books although it licensed the process to the private sector in 1979.

Penn Library Association fights periodicals “use” tax

The Pennsylvania Library Association (PLA) successfully led the fight against a recently enacted “use” tax that would have added 6% to the cost of periodicals purchased by libraries. The tax had been passed as part of a wide-ranging tax legislation (Act 26 of 1991) that placed a new 6% use tax on many types of services, ranging from pest control to motor vehicle rentals, in a last-minute rush to create new sources of revenue for the strapped state of Pennsylvania. Because the new tax was not defined as a sales tax but as a “use” tax, the usual exemptions did not apply. According to a Department of Revenue ruling, any library that was not a governmental entity—separately incorporated public libraries, private academic libraries, and private/parochial school libraries—would be liable for the tax. A 6% tax added onto the serials budgets of libraries already cutting subscriptions due to cost was not a welcome event.

PLA members educated their legislators through fax, mail, phone, and office visits. Many legislators indicated that the tax had not been intended for libraries; however, they were concerned about jeopardizing revenues by reopening the entire tax bill. Efforts came to fruition when legislation was passed that moved the periodicals tax to the sales tax category, thereby exempting all non-profit institutions. The bill was signed by Governor Casey on December 13.

This news item prompted C&RL News to find out the status of the fight against the magazine tax in California that has libraries paying up to 8 */4% tax on their subscriptions. California Library Association (CLA) executive director Mary Sue Ferrell said, “CLA strongly supports the repeal of this sales tax and is supporting the Kopp Bill which calls for the repeal of a sales tax on subscription magazines.” The Kopp Bill is supported by STOP—Stop Taxation of Publications, a coalition of magazine publishers and industry vendors—and has at this writing passed the state Senate.

Peer counselors help library users

Cleveland State UniversityLibrary (CSU) created a peer information counseling program to acquaint users with computer applications in libraries. Four student assistants selected to become peer information counselors will advise library patrons on the use of the latest electronic information sources. The peer counselors will work under the guidance of reference librarians after an extensive training program in library and computer skills. Among the goals of the program are providing positive role models forminority students, increasinguse of the library for research purposes, and increasing retention rates for minority students at CSU. Funding for the program is provided by the CSU Office of Minority Affairs and Human Relations.

IFLA designates Pitt for multicultural populations depository

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Section on Library Services to Multicultural Populations designated the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Library and Information Science as the depository for its archives .These official records of the section will be made available on an unrestricted basis to any researcher. According to E. J. Josey, who was instrumental in bringing the collection to Pitt, this “will provide a central location for librarians to identify and locate information resources on services, programs, and research related to multicultural librarianship from around the world.”

Gay studies center established

The City University of New York’s (CUNY) Graduate School and University Center established a center devoted to academic research on the gay and lesbian experience, as reported in News from C. U.N. YLibraries. Martin Duberman, distinguished professor of history, and author of Cures: A Gay Man’s Odyssey, directs the center, which opened in October 1991.

Maryland library school safe

After a seven month review of the status and programs of the College of Library and Information Science undertaken as part of a general review of programs on the College Park campus, the University of Maryland concluded it should retain the college as a separate, autonomous entity. The university will also retain the college’s Ph.D. degree. The college had been identified for review in the wake of severe budget cuts at the university.

OCLC cleans up subject headings …

In response to a user survey on database quality issues, OCLC began in November a four-month project to correct and update subject headings in its Online Union Catalog (OLUC). A system of computer programs is reviewing all of the Library of Congress topical and geographic subject headings in the 25 million record OLUC. Over 750,000 occurrences of headings have been changed; OCLC predicts the total will reach 1.8 million. The six types of corrections being made are: style, coding, typographical, inversions, abbreviations, and manual. Linda Gabel, senior quality control librarian in OCLC’s Marketing Division and product manager for the project said, “The Online Union Catalog has been created by humans, not machines. It is very easy to make mistakes when typing bibliographic information.” Using the subject heading “Politics and government,” Gabel indicated that 266 of the 277,396 records were incorrect variations and would not be retrieved by a subject search using the correct form of the heading.

… and launches pilot project to add subject headings to fiction records

Bowling Green State University Library, Southern Methodist University, and the University of South Carolina are among the eight libraries participating in a pilot project sponsored by the Library of Congress and OCLC to add subject headings to bibliographic records for works of fiction. The addition of subject headings should improve the readers advisory services librarians are able to provide. The libraries are testingthe feasibility of guidelines developed by a subcommittee of the ALA’s Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS). Under these guidelines, individual works of fiction are described in terms of form or genre, characters, settings, and topics.

USC and Taiwan’s Central Library establish book exchange

The University of Southern California (USC) and the National Central Library (NCL) ofTaipei, Taiwan, established an exchange agreement. USC will regularly submit lists of titles on American culture, history, law, economics, politics, and society to the NCL from which any number may be selected. In return, NCL will continue to send comparable materials in Chinese. USC has already received over 5,000 volumes from NCL including books on Chinese art, culture, literature, and history. USC’s East Asian Library contains about 55,000 volumes in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages.

“Say ‘Yes’ to Your Right to Know”

That will be the message when ALA launches the “Call for America’s Libraries” campaign on Freedom of Information Day, Monday, March 16,1992. The goal is to stimulate public interest in and support for all types of libraries and to generate names (and numbers) of library supporters that can be used to impress key Congressional leaders come ALA Legislative Day on April 8.

The “Call for America’s Libraries” campaign will consist of a month-long series of radio “rallies” with ALA president Patricia Glass Schuman and some 65 ALA leaders trained as media spokespeople appearing on network radio programs and on talk shows in state capitals and major media markets across the nation. ACRL president Anne Beaubien will be participating in the rallies.

An 800 telephone number—(800) 530-8888— will allow the public to “Say Yes to Your Right to Know!” and to register support for libraries and librarians. The number will be in operation from March 16 through National Library Week, April 5- 11, and is made possible by Telephone Express based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, through the efforts of Bernard Margolis, director of the Pikes Peak Library District. There will also be an 800 TDD number for the hearing impaired to register their support. That number is (800) 552-9097.

In announcing the “Call for America’s Libraries" campaign at the ALA Midwinter Meeting, ALA president Schuman urged all librarians—school, public, academic, special—to take part by scheduling interviews on local radio stations and encouraging their libraiy users, boards, and Friends to call the 800 number.

“This is an opportunity to tell our story—to talk about the value of libraries and librarians and important Right to Know issues facing every community,” Schuman said.

She cited library budget cuts, censorship, illiteracy, and less access to public information as threats to the public’s Right to Know.

Charles Beard, of the Ingram Library at West Georgia College, and Kimberly Tayler, of the Colorado State Library, are co-chairs of the campaign. Friends of Libraries USA is lending its support.

Gaylord Information Systems will underwrite a campaign tip sheet with information on how to organize a “Call for America’s Libraries” campaign that will be mailed to some 30,000 libraries.

Acquisitions

• The John Hay Library of Brown University has acquired the George Bernard Shaw collection of Sidney P. Albert, professor emeritus of philosophy at California State University, Los Angeles. This extensive collection includes books, manuscripts, photographs, and ephemera relating to Shaw. The manuscript material includes autograph and typed letters from Shaw, autograph postcards and stereocards, notes, and signed photographs. M any related letters are present, including those of theater people involved with Shaw, Shaw’s secretaries, and his biographers. The manuscript materials present a broad picture of Shaw and his influence on literature and the theater. The collection includes over 2,000 books by and about Shaw, including a substantial group of his pre-1900 publications. It also is strong in ephemeral material, including many small press printings such as the so- called “unpublished, rough proofs,” theatrical programs, and an extensive run of Fabian tracts and publications. Over 200 periodicals, at least 80 containing articles by Shaw, and the remainder containing material about Shaw, round out the collection.

Also acquired recently, in support of the Shaw Collection, was an important collection of business correspondence between G. B. Shaw and the publishing house of Dodd Mead, his American agent. This includes 15 letters from Shaw relating to his American editions, original contracts with the publisher, an assortment of sketches and photographs by Shaw, and over 100 files covering contracts and reprint rights. This Dodd Mead archive offers another picture of Shaw as the “sharp businessman” who laboriously scrutinized contracts and scrupulously exercised all his rights to the letter of the law.

• Indiana University’s Lilly Library received a collection of rare and historical children’s materials from Ruth E. Adomeit, a book collector and author of a book on thumb bibles. The collection of over 300 items includes a large number of shape books (books which are in the shape of some object), pop-up and mechanical objects, “peep-shows,” board games, educational games, and miniature books to be added to the collection of 200 Hungarian miniature books previously donated by Adomeit.

• The Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library, sent in its report of selected acquisitions. Included in the more than 30- page listing of rare books and manuscripts are: Evening Exercise for the Closet for Every Day in the Year byjay William; numerous publications of Henry Fielding including Rape upon Rape; or the Justice Caught in his Own Trap; and a 1934 untitled, unpublished screenplay written for Paramount Pictures by John Dos Passos, and eventually produced as The Devil Is a Woman starring Marlene Dietrich.

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Grants & gifts

• Columbia Universityhasreceived$100,000 from the Booth Ferris Foundation to add 22,000 catalog records for books in the Burgess-Carpenter Library to CLIO, Columbia’s online catalog. The Burgess-Carpenter collection is used most often by undergraduates and many of its volumes form the basis upon which the National Endowment for the Humanities cited Columbia as a national model for the establishment and preservation of a core liberal arts education.

• Indiana University (IU), as part of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), will participate in a $1.8 million, CIC Coordinated Preservation Microfilming Project funded by the National Endowmentforthe Humanities (NEH) to preserve 19,666 brittle books and serials pertaining to the literature and history of the United States, Europe, Latin America, and Africa. (CIC is a consortium of Big Ten universities and the University of Chicago.) IU Libraries will receive $66,420 from the NEH for the preservation microfilming of a Latin American 900-piece pamphlet collection that reflects much of the conventional thought and wisdom of those who lived and published in Ecuador and other Latin American countries from the late 19th to mid-20th centuries.

• Niagara University Library director Leslie R. Morris was awarded a grant by the Canadian government to interview key interlibrary loan policy makers in Halifax, Toronto, London, Windsor, Edmonton, and Vancouver about their attitudes and opinions on the current state and future prospects of Canadian-United States interlibrary loan.

• Oberlin College science librarian Alison Ricker and associate professor of mathematics Jeffrey Witmer received a $1,258 grant from the Council on Library Resources to update their 1988 survey of college libraries that asked for documentation of the support they provide for research and education in the sciences.

• Penn State has received $50,000 from alumnus Donald M. Haag to establish an endowment to support the acquisition and preservation of maps, music, prints, photographs, and other rare archive materials.

• The Research Libraries Group, Inc, (RLG) received $750,000 from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to help fund new RLG efforts to improve access to information that supports research and learning. The grant monies will be used by RLG over the next three years. This is the sixth grant the Hewlett Foundation has awarded RLG overthepast 12years, bringingthe foundation’s total contribution to RLG to $3.3 million.

• The University of Kentucky (UK) received $1 million for its library campaign from Humana, Inc., bringing the total amount given to the campaign to $13.3 million so far. The goal of the campaign is to build a new Commonwealth library building at UK in Lexington and establish endowments to support the library and its services statewide.

• The University of Manitoba Libraries received a significant donation for its School of Music from the Eckhardt-Gramatté Foundation. The donation will be used for acquisitions, including periodical subscriptions, collected works by major composers, performance music parts, and books and recordings. The Music Library was dedicated the Eckhardt-Gramatté Music Library on January 21, 1992, after Winnipeg composer, violinist, and pianist Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté.

• The University of Montana has received two grants. First, a $20,400 matching grant from the Japan World Exposition Commemorative Fund (1970) to purchase both English and Japanese language reference books related to Japan. Second, a Tittle II-D grant of $97,500 from the U.S. Department of Education to network CD-ROM workstations. Reference librarians will be able to address questions without having to stop and load databases for patrons using the CD-ROMs.