ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 688 / C &R L News The state of the Association By JoAn S. Segal Executive Director Association of College & Research Libraries The Executive Director’s report for 1987/1988. A S I begin my fifth year at ACRL, I am pleased to be able to describe here an Association w ith a stable structure and membership, burgeoning programs, an active planning and im plem entation process leading to the attainm ent of goals set out by the mem bers, and strong financial and hum an re­ sources. Structure ACRL has 41 standing and ad hoc committees, editorial boards and task forces; 14 sections; 15 dis­ cussion groups; 39 chapters; and a total of 163 sub­ committees. During the triennial review process, the Planning Com m ittee considers all standing committees and sections, their charges, activities, and future plans. Ad hoc committees and task forces are regularly formed and discharged as their tasks are accom­ plished. At present, the structure seems to be work­ ing well and is stable, w ith the needed flexibility provided by these time-limited options. Program I will again report ACRL program accomplis ments in terms of our major goals. Goal 1. To contribute to the total professional developm ent of academic and research librarians. ACRL’s local education presentations in 24 loca­ tions reached 825 people this year, while 163 p a r­ ticipated in the courses at New Orleans. The devel­ opm ent and offering of new courses is now an ongoing process based on regular membership and course evaluations and is handled by the Course h­ Advisory Committee, w ith Sandy Donnelly serv­ ing as staff. Alia Al-Taqi handles local presenta­ tions. This was a year for educational innovations in ACRL. Our first overseas conference was held in Florence, Italy, April 5-8, by the Western E uro­ p ean Specialists Section. “ S hared Resources, Shared Responsibilities” was the conference theme and also the motto of the organizing committee, headed by Assunta Pisani, chair, and Mario Casa- lini, local arrangements head. 170 participants, 80 from outside the U .S., enjoyed a variety of sessions and opportunities to meet their library, inform a­ tion center, and publishing industry colleagues. Another first was the CJCLS CD-ROM Telecon­ ference, also held in April. This high-interest topic, coupled w ith low-cost accessibility, resulted in an estimated audience of 10,000-11,000 viewers. At New Orleans, RBMS held its 29th Precon­ ference: “Librarians and Museums: Leaves from Each O ther’s Books.” The Bibliographic Instruc­ tion Section held a 3d Preconference, “The Future of BI: Approaches in the Electronic Age.” Both a t­ tracted large audiences. Mary Ellen Davis assisted as staff liaison for these preconferences. RBMS is planning a one-day preconference in Dallas, and has begun work on its Fall 1989 Con­ ference in C am bridge, E ngland, on the them e, “The A ntiquarian Book T rade.” Another im portant aspect of professional devel­ opment is career development. Through some 750 classified ads in C &RL News, publication of the Fast Job Listing Service, and m aintenance of the ACRL Jobline, ACRL helps both academ ic li­ November 1988 / 689 braries and librarians meet their staffing needs. Awards, w hereby we recognize our peers for their accomplishment, constitute yet another mode of professional developm ent. D u rin g 1988 th e Awards Task Force exam ined A CRL’s awards; their report will be considered by the Executive Committee this Fall. M ary Ellen Davis is the staff awards liaison. Goal 2. To enhance the capability of academic and research libraries to serve the needs of users. Two major program activities under this goal have been the O utput Measures Project and the Historically Black College and University library activities. After careful preparation by the ad hoc C om m it­ tee on Perform ance Measures, an RFP was pre­ pared and circulated for a Manual of Output Mea­ sures fo r Academic Libraries. Nancy Van House, University of California, Berkeley, subm itted the successful proposal, a contract was negotiated, and work has begun on the project. The measures have been pilot tested, and the m anual will be com­ pleted, field tested, and ready for publication by this tim e next year. Mary Ellen Davis has been staff liaison to the Committee. The Mellon Foundation funded a gathering of 30 librarians from Historically Black Colleges and U niversities (HBCU’s) in A tlan ta in O ctober. There the participants identified three projects for ACRL to pursue: a statistics-gathering activity, workshops for librarians in institutions undergoing accreditation (especially under the new criteria of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) and a hum anities workshop targeted at HBCU’s and their communities. Preparatory work was u n ­ dertaken in all three areas during 1988. In the 1989 fiscal year, the Com m ittee will take on the statistics project and an accreditation preconference and an NEH-funded hum anities program m ing workshop will be held. Advisory services are designed to provide assist­ ance to those who call or w rite us w ith questions about academic libraries and librarianship. In fis­ cal year 1988, we answered over 250 such ques­ tions. Although all staff are involved in this func­ tion, M ary Ellen Davis is the staff m em ber w ith major responsibility here. In addition, work is proceeding on the Univer­ sity L ibrary Standards and on the ACRL/AECT Joint Standards for Libraries in Two-year Institu­ tions. Development of an accreditation m anual is underw ay to help librarians play a more effective role in accreditation of their institutions. All through the year, C &RL News continued to carry articles inspired by Joanne Euster’s them e of creativity. The “Innovations” section of each issue has featured outstanding examples of new, creative approaches. Goal 3. To prom ote and speak for the interests of academic and research librarianship. The Professional Association Liaison Com m ittee continued its work, funding travel for ten ACRL m em bers to m ake presentations at non-library meetings and identifying 11 target associations for liaison activity. The activities of several chapters in recruitm ent w e re v ery ex c itin g . M em bers v isite d lib r a r y schools, took booths at career fairs, offered scholar­ ships, gave students special rates for events, all to encourage young people to enter the academic li­ brary profession. Alia Al-Taqi is the staff chapter liaison. The Legislation Com m ittee cooperated w ith the ALA W ashington Office on NTIS privatization, funding for both LSCA and HEA, and m any other issues. Hal Shill’s work here was invaluable. Goal 4. To prom ote study, research, and publi­ cation relevant to academic and research lib rarian­ ship. A CRL’s active publishing program produced our membership journals, College & Research L i­ braries and College & Research Libraries News. Rare Books and Manuscripts Librarianship was of­ ficially welcomed to the roster of regular publica­ tions. Twelve sections issued newsletters, Chapter Topics came out quarterly, and Choice continued to be a m ajor academ ic lib ra ry selection tool. George E berhart and Cheryl Robinson-Smith are responsible for C &RL News, RBML, and section new sletters; Alia A l-T aqi edits an d distributes Chapter Topics, and Patricia Sabosik, editor and publisher of Choice, heads a staff of 20 in the M id­ dletown, Connecticut, office. N onperiodical publications produced in 1988 were: • Academic Status: Statements and Resources. • Binding Terms: Thesaurus fo r Use in Rare Book and Special Collections Cataloguing. • Provenance Evidence: Thesaurus fo r Use in Rare Books and Special Collections Cataloguing. • Your Old Books. • Friends of College Libraries:. CLIP Note #9. • Annual Reports in College Libraries: CLIP Note #10. • English and Am erican Literature: Sources and Strategies fo r Collection Development, Publi­ cations in Librarianship, no.45. A major accomplishment for 1988 was the publi­ cation of the third edition of Books fo r College L i­ braries. Long a standard reference work in aca­ demic librarianship, the second edition had gone out of date and a new one was sorely needed. Subsi­ dized by funds from ACRL’s reserve, the editorial work ran to some $150,000 over three fiscal years. This is in addition to a similar am ount invested by ALA Publishing in production costs. It is highly un­ likely th a t sales of the work, published jointly by ALA and ACRL, will be sufficient to recover these costs in full. Use of technology also enables us to distribute the work as a tape product, an online ser­ vice and, possibly, in another alternative form at. Pat Sabosik was project officer on BCL3. 690 / C&RL News Planning at ACRL W ith each passing year, we enhance the process begun in 1984, to use planning as a way to make ACRL responsive to members’ needs. After assess­ ing needs in 1985, developing, refining, and offi­ cially adopting a mission statement, goals, objec­ tives, and strategies in 1986, and beginning to implement the plan in 1987, ACRL leaders and staff have started to establish mechanisms for an­ nual planning, for reporting on the accomplish­ m ent of planned objectives, for tying in allocation of resources more closely to the plan, and for in­ volving members at all levels in updating the plan for the future. The Planning Committee, under Carolyn Du- senbury’s guidance, has developed new means for communicating w ith ACRL units, combining m ul­ tiple information requests in an effort to encourage participation. D uring 1988 the ACRL Board set its priorities for 1989 and 1990, and adopted an Operating Plan for 1989, its first ever. In New O rleans, th e President-Elect for 1990, Bill Moffett, was able to participate actively in the priority-setting process. Also new is a long-range financial plan, now un­ der development, which will allow ACRL to pro­ vide for the financial undergirdings of its ambitious program plans. The Financial Plan is in its second draft and will be ready for member hearings and Board approval during the 1989 fiscal year. Membership and finance At $25, membership in ACRL is a bargain, as o th e r divisions begin to increase dues to $30 (LAMA, ALTA) $35 (PLA) and more (ASCLA State Library Memberships are $500). The extent of the bargain is even greater when the active pro­ gram of professional developm ent, publication, and service are taken into account. In line w ith developments in association m an­ agem ent, ACRL and m any other parts of ALA have moved over the past 10 years to establish non- dues sources of revenue, so as to “stretch” the dues dollar and also to place the burden of specific ser­ vices on their users. For instance, divisional N a­ tional Conferences, continuing education courses, and publications have been priced to be self- supporting. There are obvious advantages to such methods of financing an association. An interesting corollary is that, as the total budget grows very large w ith these revenues and expenses, the propor­ tion of the budget coming from dues decreases. Thus, in 1988-89, dues will constitute only about 23.3% of the total revenue. Another 32.8% will come from educational activities, including the Cincinnati Conference; 37.3% from publications (not including Choice), and 5.6% from outside funding for projects. One way of looking at this is to say th at member­ ship is even more of a bargain; w ith only $250,000 in dues revenue, we run a $2.5 million dollar asso­ ciation. However, it also means we need to be very clear about w hat the dues dollar buys. Since the ACRL budget is accounted for on the basis of projects, w ith expenses—including sala­ ries, supplies, and other “indirect” costs allocated to each project on the basis of actual use, it is possi­ ble for us to identify the activities th at are self- supporting, those th at are supported by grants and other outside funding, those th at are supported by dues, and those th at draw on our reserves. W hile individual p u b licatio n and education projects do not always break even, our overall pub­ lic a tio n a n d e d u c a tio n a c tiv itie s a re self- supporting. Funded projects usually require some contribution from dues or reserves, but not a major investment. Dues support the activities (including staff time) of sections, committees, chapters, and discussion groups, statistics projects, the Jobline, Board and Executive Committee activity, advisory services, awards, membership recruitm ent, and free distri­ bution of standards. Over the past 6-8 years, ACRL acquired a siz­ able “fund balance.” In 1986, the ACRL Board de­ cided this should not exceed 6 months’ expenses. Such a reserve would allow us to weather a serious financial or membership crisis or provide security against failure of a major event, such as a national conference. Between 1985 and 1989, the Board elected to use reserve funds for several major proj­ ects it could not have carried out without those monies. These included Books fo r College L i­ braries, 3d edition; the Manual of Output Mea­ sures fo r Academic Libraries; a gift to help estab­ lish the Hugh Atkinson Memorial Award, and a Special Grants Fund, which will be operative in any year when there is a reserve fund greater than 50 % of the average annual expenses over the pre­ vious 3 years. As we begin the 1989 fiscal year, ACRL’s fund balance is just at the 6-month reserve level. W hen members join ACRL, they receive C&RL News and C &RL and reduced rates on other publi­ cations and education activities. But most im por­ tantly, they receive the benefit of membership it­ self. Only members may serve on committees and task forces, be active in sections and discussion groups, be elected to office, and share in the deci­ sions th at have made ACRL a premier association, the organization th at speaks for and serves aca­ demic libraries, librarians, andlibrarianship. Only members have a say in how the ACRL dollars—be they dues or other sources—are allocated. Membership always increases in a Conference year. As our Cincinnati Conference approaches, heralding 100 years of academic librarians in ALA, 50 years of ACRL’s existence and th at of C &RL and C &RL News, 25 years of Choice, and our 5th N ational Conference, we will probably a ttract some new members. O ur task is to keep them inter­ ested and eager to remain among us, to involve November 1988 / 691 them in the many projects and activities of the As­ sociation. Staffing Over the past 5 years, ACRE staff has remained at 10-11 FTE, while the number of new projects has continued to increase. Our staff is relatively stable, w ith low turnover. The use of office auto­ mation has probably contributed to the capacity for taking on additional projects and has definitely begun to save money in design costs as electronic publishing has gradually been implemented. In FY 1988, Beverley Washington replaced Ka­ ren D uhart as Cathleen Bourdon’s administrative secretary and Cheryl Robinson-Smith became as­ sistant editor of C&RL News when Gus Friedlan­ der returned to graduate school. Sandy Donnelly’s status changed from full-time employee to p a rt­ time consultant. Summary As we begin our fiftieth year, ACRE is an associ­ ation with a bias for action through a program of publications, educational activities and other proj­ ects directed tow ard goals set by members. M an­ agement is also strong, with a good financial strat­ egy and a stable structure and valuable hum an resources, including committed volunteer mem ­ bers and a capable staff. ■ ■ ★ ★ ★ News from the Field Acquisitions • Cornell University L ibraries, Ithaca, New York, has received a 143-volume collection of books about the history and design of lace. The books are from the collection of Elizabeth Kacken­ meister of W illiamsport, Pennsylvania, who died last year. Among the donated volumes are books tracin g the developm ent of a cottage industry around lace making and the changing designs and patterns of lace. • George Washington University’s Gelman Li­ brary, Washington, D .C ., has received a collection of 1,000 Chinese-language books from Chinese Ambassador Han Xu. The collection was donated by the State Education Commission of the People’s Republic of China. The gift includes a variety of works in politics, economics, education, the arts, geography and history. • The L ib rary of Congress’ Music Division, Washington, D .C ., has received the largest com­ posite gift of music materials in the division’s his­ tory. It consists of a large quantity of autograph music manuscripts, letters, and documents span­ ning the history of musical creativity from the 12th century to modern times. The gift will become part of the M oldenhauer Archives at the L ibrary of Congress. The archives were established in April 1987 by an earlier gift from Hans Moldenhauer, the renowned pianist and author who died in Octo­ ber 1987, and were previously supplemented with major manuscripts of Johannes Brahms acquired in 1988 from Mary Moldenhauer, his widow. W ith this bequest, M oldenhauer also established the Moldenhauer Archives Foundation at the Library of Congress. • The Massachusetts Institute of Technology L i­ braries, Cambridge, have received a collection of ten rare early mathematics and mechanics books. The books are the gift of MIT alumnus John D. Stanitz, who for over thirty years worked to build an outstanding collection of historically im portant works in the areas of solid mechanics, fluid me­ chanics, mathematics, machinery, and energetics. The collection includes works by L eonard Euler, Niccolo Tartaglia, and Thomas Harriot. • The M iam i University L ibraries, Oxford, Ohio, have received the original photographs, drawings, and papers of engineer and explorer Robert Brewster Stanton from his 1889-1890 ex­ ploration of the Colorado River. The three and one-half linear feet of materials, including corre­ spondence from William Henry Jackson, Frederick S. D ellenbaugh, and other “men of the W est,” were used by the donor, Dwight E. Smith, in edit­ ing Stanton’s diaries and notes for the 1965 book, Down the Colorado. This material, which aug­ ments the diaries previously given to the New York Public Library, includes materials given to Smith by Stanton’s daughter, Anne Stanton Burchard. • The Ohio University Libraries, Athens, have received the Sammy Kaye Collection of mem orabi­ lia associated w ith the celebrated bandleader. Kaye (born Sam Zarnocay) graduated from Ohio University in 1932 w ith a civil engineering degree. The collection includes musical scores and arrange­ ments, broadcast transcripts, phonographs, news­ paper clippings, scrapbooks, correspondence, and