ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

From Inside the DLP

Dr. Katherine 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.

Since the authorization for Title II-A of the Higher Education Act of 1965 will end June 30, 1971, you may want to keep yourself informed by asking your Congressman for copies of bills introduced to extend it. On January 22 Congressman Perkins of Kentucky introduced a bill to be cited as the Comprehensive Higher Education Act of 1971, H. R. 32. Senator Pell introduced a similar bill, S. 659, on February 8; Congressman Quie of Minnesota introduced on March 1 the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 1971, H. R. 5191. You may be interested in reading his remarks for March 1 in the Congressional Record beginning on page 1,041.

This is a good time to consider what has been accomplished in the past five years with the Title II-A appropriations totalling $94,816,000. Statistically, we know that the number of libraries benefitted by the grants has risen from 1,830 in 1966 to 2,201 in 1970. We know too that the enrollment in the institutions receiving grants totalled 5,169,638 in 1967 and had risen to a total of 7,023,118 in 1970, although there was a $25 million appropriation for grants in 1967 and only $9,816,000 in 1970. The percentages of funds awarded to junior colleges in 1967 was 20.1, and by 1970, it was 30.597. Four-year colleges received 44.5 percent of the funds in 1967, but in 1970, their percentage had slipped to 39.422. Universities also received a smaller percentage of the funds in 1970, the 1967 amount being 35.4 percent and the 1970 figure 29.882. The remaining .99 percent in 1970 went to one-year institutions, usually technical institutes.

The narrative reports accompanying the statistical ones in the three years when special purpose grants were awarded, 1967 through 1969, are occasionally accounts of very unusual or significant acquisitions, but in general, they fit an almost universal description of the situation of higher education institution libraries in the late 60s in the U.S. Growing enrollments, rising book prices, and expanding programs at every level from undergraduate courses to the Ph.D. are characteristic reasons given for basic and background purchases made with federal grant money in most accounts of the use of basic, supplemental, or Special Purpose Type A funds. The type of purchase most frequently mentioned was backruns of scholarly journals in microform.

The Special Purpose Type B grants were awarded in many cases to university libraries which had been participating in the Farmington Plan. Accounts of their use largely concerned acquisitions of foreign publications to be shared by researchers on and off campus.

The Special Purpose Type C grants to consortiums of libraries showed more variation. They also paved the way for what is likely to be the direction in which academic libraries will be forced to aim their future activities because of their inability to obtain funds from private or public sources to continue to expand their individual collections indefinitely. The best summation of the long-range benefits of Type C grants is the following from a West Coast library’s report:

“The availability of those funds has made it possible to strengthen our resources for graduate study and research without depleting our regular book budget and thus avoiding the limitation of the support of undergraduate programs and the support of beginning master’s programs. Transcending the highly significant immediate benefits has been the effect exerted by the successful administration of the grant on the member institutions. . . . Participation in this successful cooperative venture has sparked a series of interinstitutional projects and has united the librarians into a well functioning organization having established lines of communications and a scheduled program of meetings and workshops. . . . Last but by no means least among the benefits is the spark of enthusiasm which the successful accomplishment of this cooperative endeavor infused into the association at a time when financial problems seem to become overwhelming and are creating an atmosphere of pessimism in the private institutions.” ■ ■

BUILDING PLANS NEEDED

If you are building a new library or making substantial physical changes in your library, the Library Administration Division of the American Library Association will appreciate receiving pictures, slides, floor plans, sketches, explanatory materials, and a copy of your written building program.

These materials are needed in the buildings collection used by librarians, architects, and other building planners.

For details about this collection write Mrs. Ruth R. Frame, Executive Secretary, LAD, ALA, 50 East Huron Street, Chicago, Illinois 60611. ■■