ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

ACRL Announces Preconferences

Now is the time to register for the ACRL preconferences to be held in June before the ALA Conference in Dallas.

The Continuing Education Committee (CEC), the Bibliographic Instruction Section (BIS), and the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) of ACRL all plan to hold preconferences.

Advance registration is required for these meetings, and attendance will be strictly limited; so act now!

Continuing Education

The Continuing Education Committee will hold a preconference on June 22, 1979, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dallas. The conference theme will be the “Nuts and Bolts of Workshop Planning.” The committee is sponsoring the meeting to help people who want to learn more about putting a good workshop program together.

The conference is designed for individuals charged with planning conference programs, workshops, or staff development projects. The topics covered will include (1) selecting topics, (2) working with consultants and instructors, (3) developing support materials, (4) selecting facilities, and (5) handling the details that make a program operate smoothly.

The program will include lectures, demonstrations, exercises, and group discussions. There will be six sessions: I, “The Planning Process”; II; “The First Planning Meeting”; III, “The Program”; IV, “The Production”; V, ‘The Day of the Workshop”; and VI, “Was It Worth It?”

The program leader will be Peggy O’Donnell, formerly coordinator, CELS Project, Southwest Library Association, now director, ALA/NEH Courses by Newspaper Project.

Registration is $27 for members, $32 for nonmembers. Advance registration for the conference is required. Attendance will be limited to 150. For registration information, contact ACRL headquarters.

Bibliographic Instruction Section

The Bibliographic Instruction Section will hold a three-day preconference June 21-23, 1979, at Southern Methodist University (SMU), Dallas, Texas. “Tools, Techniques, and Tactics: Six Workshops” will be the theme of the meeting. Participants will choose one from six workshops to attend. The topics of the workshops will be: (1) teaching librarians to teach, (2) organizing and managing a library instruction program, (3) workbooks, (4) the one-hour stand, (5) course-related and integrated library instruction, and (6) library instruction for faculty and graduates.

Registration is $70 ($85 for non-ACRL members) and includes conveniently located and air- conditioned dormitory accommodations at SMU and meals from Friday breakfast through Saturday lunch. The registration deadline is May 15. For registration information, write: Mimi Dudley, 425 Kelton Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024.

Rare Books and Manuscripts

The Rare Books and Manuscripts Section will hold its twentieth annual preconference at San Antonio and Austin, Texas, June 19-23. The theme of the preconference is “Bibliophilie Miscellany, a Collection of Papers by Divers Hands.”

From June 19 to 22 the conference will take place at San Antonio. The program at San Antonio will include six addresses on topics ranging from “Collecting Texana” to “Computer Cataloguing,” and five workshops on subjects ranging from “Mechanical, Optical and Electronic Aids for Studying Manuscripts and Books” to “Preparing Guides for Special Collections.”

On June 22 the preconference will move to Austin, where there will be a tour of the Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas, a reception and buffet supper, and visits to libraries and bookshops.

The registration fee of $110 for ACRL members, $125 for nonmembers, includes four meals and the bus ride from San Antonio to Austin. The registration deadline is May 19. For registration information, contact ACRL headquarters. ■■

NATIONAL LEVEL BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Representatives of the Library of Congress and of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) met in Washington, D.C., January 5-6 to discuss “National Level Bibliographic Record (NLBR)— Books,” a draft document issued by the Library of Congress in the fall of 1978. This document sets forth specifications for the data elements that should be included in machine-readable catalog records. The Library of Congress drafted these specifications as part of its effort to develop standards for input by contributors to a national data base.

The Library of Congress draft document proposed three levels of content for cataloging records: (1) full level original cataloging, (2) transcription of Library of Congress records, and (3) minimal level original cataloging for less important materials.

At the Washington meeting, ARL and Library of Congress representatives reached agreement that instead of three levels there should be a continuum of levels of input for cataloging records. These levels would range from an absolute minimum level to a full level record.

The conference participants agreed that it would be helpful to users of records to have on view in the records codes that would indicate their level of completeness. Accordingly, they decided that all records should be coded to indicate the level of cataloging completeness in the following six areas: (1) bibliographic description, (2) name and title access points, (3) subject headings, (4) classification, (5) content designation for variable field length, and (6) coding of fixed length and other coded data fields.

When questions were raised regarding the usefulness of all the fixed field information currently required in the full MARC format, the Library of Congress representatives agreed to review these fields for possible reduction.

The Library of Congress has published a report on the ARL meeting in the February 23 issue of the Library of Congress Information Bulletin and has made available copies of the original NLBR document through the Cataloging Distribution Service, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Following the receipt of recommendations and comments, the NLBR document will be revised■■

PRESIDENTIAL PAPERS

The Presidential Records Act, signed into law last November by President Carter, terminates the tradition of private ownership of presidential and vice-presidential papers and the reliance on volunteerism to determine the fate of their disposition.

Records created by a president or aides in the performance of official duties are declared government property and must be transferred immediately upon the conclusion of a president s tenure in office to the custody of the archivist of the United States. The archivist is given the responsibility for placing the records in a presidential library or other federally operated facility. Currently existing presidential libraries would not be affected. The measure will become effective with the presidential term beginning in 1981.

Strictly personal papers are exempted, and in addition a president can restrict access to sensitive information for up to twelve years after leaving office. Papers that are not sensitive or no longer subject to restriction will be governed by the Freedom of Information Act. After the period of restrictions has run, the archivist has an affirmative duty to make records available to the public as rapidly and completely as possible. ■■