ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


J u n e  1 9 9 2  /  3 7 3

C rism ond resigns ALA 
post
As C&RL News w e n t to press 
w e  l e a r n e d  t h a t  L in d a  
C rism o n d  h a d  re s ig n e d  as 
e x e c u tiv e  d ir e c to r  o f  th e  
American Library Association 
effective May 12, 1992. Rea­
sons for th e resignation w ere 
n o t k n o w n  at deadline.

ALA P r e s id e n t P a tric ia  
G lass S ch u m an  a n d  P resi­
dent-elect Marilyn Miller flew 
to  C hicago to  a d d re s s th e  
ALA staff o n  May 14 an d  an n o u n c e d  th at an 
interim  executive director will b e a p p o in te d  as 
s o o n  as p o ssib le, p re fe ra b ly  b e fo re  A nnual 

C o n f e r e n c e  in  J u n e . 
S c h u m a n  said  th e  in ­
terim  executive director 
will serve a m axim um  
o f 18 -2 4  m o n th s  a n d  
th at the B oard w ill for­
m u late a n d  c o n d u c t a 
search for an executive 
director at th at time.

In resp o n se to  staff 
questions a b o u t th e in ­

Linda Crism ond terim  director, S chum an 
an d  Miller indicated that 

the B oard is looking for a senior librarian w h o  
is a respected, credible m em ber o f the p ro fes­
sion, close to  retirem ent, a n d  w h o  w o u ld  n o t 
b e in terested  in th e p erm an en t position. N ei­
th e r m em bers o f the ALA staff no r th e ALA Ex­
ecutive B oard are b ein g  co n sid ered  for th e  in­
terim  position.

Crism ond, th e first w o m a n  to  serve as ALA 
executive director, w as a p p o in te d  o n  S eptem ­
b e r 5, 1989. Schum an said th e B oard is grateful 
for C rism ond’s service an d  w ishes h e r success 
in  future endeavors.

LC o pen s high-tech la b
T he Library o f C ongress o p e n e d  a n e w  multi- 
m illion-dollar d em onstration center for multi- 
m edia inform ation an d  educational tech n o lo ­
gies. T he N ational D em onstration C enter for 
Interactive Inform ation T echnologies (NDL) is 
e x p e c te d  to  m ake LC’s collections m ore w idely 
available an d  accessible. T he NDL, w h ich  is 
s u p p o rte d  b y  private funding, will e n ab le th e 
p u b lic to  ex p e rie n c e  a n d  evaluate th e  latest

N ew s 
fr o m  the 

F ie ld

educational an d  information 
system s w h ich  com bine the 
attractions o f v id eo  im ages 
w ith th e p o w e r o f co m p u t­
ers. T he cen te r includes a 
“v i r t u a l  r e a l i t y ” s t a t i o n  
w h ic h  tran sp o rts th e  u se r 
into a n  interactive video e n ­
vironm ent, a talking au d io ­
v isu al m a n n e q u in , a n d  a 
voice-activated “v id e o  p a ­
tien t” w h ich  teac h es diag­
nostic tech n iq u es to  m edi­
cal students.

Electronic im a g in g  la b  opens a t  LSU
Louisiana State U niversity’s (LSU) Hill M em o­
rial Library o p e n e d  an electronic im aging lab o ­
ratory o n  May 1. T he lab includes com puters 
th at optically scan p rin ted  m aterials, m aps, an d  
p h o to g ra p h s into databases w ith in d ex es and 
key w o rd  searching capabilities. T he databases 
will b e transferred to  CD-ROMs for u se b y  li­
brary p atro n s a n d  will b e  sh ared  w ith o ther 
libraries in Louisiana.

A pilot project will p ro d u ce a n  electronic 
co p y  o f H istorical Collections o f  L ouisiana, E m ­
bracing T ranslation o f  M a n y  R are a n d  Valu­
able D o cu m en ts R elating to the N atural, Civil 
a n d  P olitical H istory o f  th a t State. T he CD-ROM 
edition (w h ich  will b e e d ited  an d  include p h o ­
tographs) will b e searchable b y  k ey  w o rd  pro-

A large-screen m o n ito r  a llow s th e u ser  to v iew  
a page o f  o r igin al te x t w ith  th e  scan n ed , ed ited  
cop y, sid e  b y  side. S h ow n  h e r e  is a page from  
th e jou rn al o f  Louisiana e x p lo r e r  H en ri Joutel 
from  H is to r ic a l C ollection s o f  L ou isian a.



3 7 4  /  C&RL N e w s

viding broader access to the un in d ex ed  five- 
volum e set. A facsimile o f each page will also 
be included for researchers w h o  w ish to com ­
pare the original to the new ly edited text. The 
conversion o f texts to CD-ROM should reduce 
the w ear and tear o n  rare books and m anu­
scripts. Proposals for using the lab are invited. 
Contact Faye Phillips, Louisiana and Lower Mis­
sissippi Valley Collections, LSU, (504) 388-6551.

Successful fu n draising  b y  p aren ts …
The Parents F und P honothon at Rutgers raised 
$151,411 to su p p o rt the libraries. The m oney, 
th e  l a r g e s t a m o u n t e v e r  r a i s e d  b y  th e  
Phonothon, will be u sed  to su p p o rt the b ook 
acquisitions fund.

. . .  a n d  staff
The staff at Pasadena (California) City College 
(PCC) donated $310,000 tow ard the n ew  cam­
pus library currently u n d er construction. “Two 
separate staff campaigns have been  conducted,”

said Dr. G rover G oyne, dean o f Institutional 
A dvancem ent at PCC. “In the first cam paign 42 
staff m em bers pledged $5,000 each.” The sec­
o n d  cam paign included a challenge grant from 
the Berger Foundation in w hich they w ould 
m atch funds if $100,000 w ere raised; 100 staff 
m em bers p ledged $1,000 each. B etw een staff 
contributions an d  foundation a n d  corporate 
gifts, over $1.5 million has b een  raised for the 
new  library.

7 5 ,0 0 0  callers s a y  YES
“T here’s no greater thing than libraries. I couldn’t 
live w ithout them . I go there all the time and I 
am  never disappointed,” w as a sentim ent given 
by one o f the over 75,000 callers w ho regis­
tered their support for libraries in the “Call for 
A merica’s Libraries” cam paign sp o n so red  by 
ALA and the Friends of Libraries USA.

Names an d  addresses of supporters w ere 
collected an d  will be p resen ted  to  Congress 
an d  m ade available to  local libraries to use as a

Librarians meet in Budapest
The fourth international conference on New 

Inform ation T echnology (NIT) w as h eld  in 
Budapest, Hungary, D ecem ber 2-4, 1991. The 
purpose o f the conferences is to  equalize in­
formation sharing opportunities aim ed at in­
formation professionals from both developing 
and developed countries, to establish a global 
information network on NIT subjects, and to un­
derstand the worldwide infotmation advances.

O ver 230 registered participants, represent­
ing the United States an d  16 developing and 
developed countries from  Eastern an d  West­
ern E uropean regions, participated in the two- 
and-a-half-day conference that w as hosted and 
c o -sp o n so red  in  B udapest by th e N ational 
Szechenyi Library o f H ungary. It w as su p ­
p o rted  by m any U nited States governm ental 
agencies as w ell as by several library organi­
zations and organized by Dr. Ching-chih Chen, 
professor an d  associate d ean  o f th e  G raduate 
School of Library a n d  Information Science at 
Simmons College, Boston.

The conference concentrated o n  the fol­
lowing topics: n ew  technologies, perspectives, 
and disciplines; new  technologies and hum ani­
ties; CD-ROM publishing; library autom ation: 
the Eastern European cases; digital visual in­

form ation age; neural netw orks: experience 
and potentials; new  information technology 
in academ ic libraries; n ew  inform ation tech­
nology and users’ perspective; technology and 
biom edical inform ation access; com m unicat­
ing, sharing, an d  training; databases— inter­
national perspectives; classification, indexing, 
an d  union catalog; CD-ROM product reviews 
an d  CD-ROM use. The official conference lan­
guage w as English; how ever, sim ultaneous 
translations into H ungarian w ere available for 
all sessions.

T he conference sh o w ed  the latest NIT de­
velopm ents internationally an d  established an 
excellent inform ation netw ork am ong partici­
pants from th e developing an d  d ev elo p e d  
countries. Librarians are looking forw ard to 
the next NIT conference to  b e  held in Hong 
Kong at the en d  o f August 1992.

Copies o f Proceedings o f  N IT  ’91 and N IT 
CD-ROM can b e ord ered  from MicroUse In­
formation, 1400 C om m onw ealth Ave., N ew ­
to n , MA 02165; fax: (6 1 7 ) 527-0421 — 
S u z a n n e  D. Gyeszly, collection developm ent 
coordinator f o r  social sciences a n d  preserva­
tion, Sterling C. E vans Library, Texas A&M 
University ■



J u n e  1 9 9 2  /  3 7 5

s h o w  o f p u b lic su p p o rt for library funding. 
“Many callers ex p ressed  their outrage at library 
funding cuts as w ell as their heartfelt su p p o rt—  
an d  th ey  w an t to  d o  m o re,” said ALA P resident 
Patricia Glass Schum an. F unding for the toll- 
free n u m b e r ran o u t o n  April 11 b u t Schum an 
an n o u n c e d  a petition drive to  k e e p  th e m o­
m entum  going.

M illio n th -v o lu m e  celebrations
Both th e University o f D elaw are (UD) a n d  the 
University o f W ashington Libraries (UW) are 
celebrating collection m ilestones. UW joined 
w ith th e UW Press to  celebrate th e acquisition 
o f th e Libraries’ 5-m illionth volum e. Professor 
W. T. E d m o n d so n ’s The Uses o f  Ecology, Lake 
W ashington a n d  B eyond, a UW Press publica­
tion, w as ch o sen  as th e 5 m illionth volum e in 
recognition o f its critical im portance an d  b e ­
cause it represents th e quality o f th e  w orking 
collection o f th e  UW Libraries.

UD celebrated its tw o-m illionth volum e w ith 
the acquisition o f a S hakespeare S econd Folio. 
UD's 1,999,999th volum e w as a scholarly analy­
sis o f S hakespeare p u b lish ed  b y  th e  UD Press 
an d  its 2,000,001st volum e w as the u se r’s guide 
to th e  CD-ROM edition o f the O xford English 
D ictionary. T he th ree item s w ere selected to 
sh o w  th e  in terd ep en d en ce o f traditional an d  
electronic formats and the relationship b etw een  
creativity, original sources, scholarship, tech ­
nology, an d  access to inform ation.

W is e  o n e com es to  U o f A riz o n a
T he University o f A rizona officially n am ed  its 
n e w  online C am pus Inform ation System “Sabio” 
from  the S panish w o rd  for w ise o n e o r sage. 
T he entry, selected from  over 400 contest e n ­
tries, w as chosen to  reflect the function o f th e 
C am pus Inform ation System in transm itting in­
form ation an d  kn o w led g e as w ell as to reflect 
th e S outhw estern com m unity an d  environm ent.

NEH refe re n ce  a w a r d s  a v a ila b le
T he N ational E ndow m ent fo r the H um anities 
(NEH) Reference Materials Program  is offering 
su p p o rt to  projects p rep arin g  reference w orks 
that will im prove access to  inform ation a n d  re­
sources. S upport is available for th e  creation o f 
d ictio n aries, atlases, en c y c lo p e d ia s, c o n c o r­
dan ces, referen ce gram m ars, datab a ses, text 
bases, an d  scholarly guides such as bibliogra­
phies, indexes, catalogs, u n io n  lists, a n d  o th er 
guides to  m aterials in th e hum anities. T he a p ­
plication d e a d lin e  is S ep tem b er 1, 1992, for

projects b eg in n in g  after July 1, 1993. Contact: 
R eference Materials, R oom  318, NEH, W ash­
ington, DC 20506.

N e w  w o m e n 's  studies boo k published
ACRL has just p u b lish ed  W o m e n ’s Studies Col­
lection D evelopm ent Policies. This u n iq u e tool 
identifies issues an d  provides m odels of exist­
ing policies. C om plete policy statem ents from 
16 university libraries illustrate the range o f is­
sues a n d  provide a variety o f m odels. The RLG 
C onspectus: W o m e n ’s S tu d ies s u p p le m e n ta l 
guideline, included as an appendix, identifies is­
sues unique to w om en’s studies and describes ma­
terials and sources. This publication w as prepared 
by the Collection Development and Bibliography 
Committee, W omen’s Studies Section, ACRL.

W o m e n ’s S tu d ies C ollection D evelo p m en t 
Policies is available for $29-95 for ACRL m em ­
b e rs a n d  $35-95 fo r n o n m em b ers. To o rd e r 
please contact: O rd er D epartm ent, ALA P ub­
lishing Services, 50 E. H uron St., Chicago, IL 
60611; 1-(800) 545-2433; fax: (312) 944-2641. 
For additional inform ation contact Mary C. Tay­
lor, (312) 280-2515.

W in  a  " k n o w le d g e a b le "  m o u sepad  
fo r y o u r  co m p uter
S top b y  ACRL’s m e m b e rs h ip  b o o th  in  San 
F ra n c is c o  a n d  e n te r  a d r a w in g  to  w in  a 
m o u sep ad — featuring a q u o tatio n  from  Samuel 
J o h n s o n  a n d  a tree-o f-k n o w led g e g rap h ic—  
fo r y o u r c o m p u te r. Royal b lu e  w ith  w h ite  
print, th e  p a d s sell for $10. T o o rd e r call ALA 
G raphics at l-(8 0 0 ) 535-2433, p ress 8, o r ext. 
5046, 5048, 5049; o r call: (312) 944-6780; or 
fax: (312) 440-9374. ■

The n e w  ACRL m ou sep ad  available from  ALA.