ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries January 1989 / 17 Letters Postcards To the Editor: As a m em ber of Wisconsin W om en L ib rary Workers, I was delighted to discover the postcard featuring Minnie E arl Sears reproduced in Billy R, Wilkinson’s article, “Academic Library Postcards” (C&RL News, November 1988, p. 649, fig. 4). Please alert readers of C & RL N ews th a t the “Muriel Fuller Memorial Postcard Series,” unlike some of the other postcards pictured, is still avail­ able for purchase from the source. The packet of five postcards honoring women librarians may be ordered from Wisconsin W omen Library Workers, PO Box 1425, Madison, W I 53701. The cost per set is $1.75 plus .25 for postage.—Susan E. Searing, Wisconsin W om en Library Workers, Madison, Wisconsin. To the Editor: I enjoyed “Academic Library Postcards” by Billy R. Wilkinson in the November 1988 C &RL News. In partial answer to Wilkinson’s question about “hold-to-light” cards; I have never seen such an item for an academic library, but I do have a nice copy of the Library of Congress, die-cut, ca. 1905 (with undivided back). It was published by Samuel C upples E nvelope C o., St. Louis, M o., “ Sole W orld’s Fair Stationers,” but was probably pro­ duced in Germany. I’d be glad to hear from others who share this interest.—Siegfried Feller, Chief Bibliographer and Associate Director fo r Collec­ tion Development, University o f Massachusetts, Amherst. ■ ■ A statement of purpose and content fo r College & Research Libraries News. Purpose of C&RL News College & Research Libraries News is the official news magazine of the Association of College & Re­ search Libraries, a division of the American Li­ brary Association. Its purpose is to record signifi­ cant activities of ACRL and to report news about academic and research libraries. As the official ACRL news magazine, C&RL News maintains a record of selected actions and policy statements of the Association and publishes timely reports on the activities of ACRL and its sections, committees, discussion groups, councils, task forces, and chap­ ters. As a vehicle for communication among college and research libraries, C&RL News reports news items pertinent to academic and research librari- anship, including information on bibliographic in­ struction, continuing education, appointm ents, C&RL News guidelines for submission of articles or columns 18 / C&RL News acquisition of special collections, grants to li­ braries, new technology, and publications (brief notices). The editor bears responsibility for the contents of each issue of C&RL News. Materials selected by the editor must be newsworthy, timely, and of practical value to people in the field. The editor has authority to decide w hat material is appropriate for publication, based on the following guidelines. The editor also reserves the right to make appropri­ ate revisions in material selected for publication in order to standardize style or improve clarity (ex­ cept official ACRL documents, president’s letters, and similar material). Formal, theoretical, or research-oriented arti­ cles inappropriate for C&RL News will be for­ w arded to the editor of College &- Research L i­ braries for review. I. Length Articles and columns should be no more than 3,000 words and no less than 500 words. II. Style C& RL News style is informal, but informative and accurate. III. Content Materials selected should fall into one of the fol­ lowing categories: a. Reports on a project, program , or research un­ derway or recently completed dealing w ith a topic relevan t to academ ic librarianship. Footnotes should be minimal and charts or tables avoided. These reports may be preliminary descriptions of programs or research to be published formally at a later date in library literature (e.g., “Cataloging Slavic m anuscripts in M icroform ,” D ecem ber 1988). b. Reports on a recent conference or workshop of interest to academic or research librarians (e.g., “F ourth U.S.-Japan Conference on Libraries and Information Science,” January 1989). c. Reasoned and informed speculation or com­ m ent on a relevant topic, especially if solicited by the editor or an official ACRL group (e.g., “Ethics and the Nuclear Age,” December 1988). d. State-of-the-art reports on a relevant topic (e.g., “A Case Study in Audio Tape Transfer,” No­ vember 1988). e. Standards, guidelines, or recommendations of an ACRL committee or other official ACRL group (e.g., “Guidelines for Borrowing Special Collec­ tions Materials for Exhibition,” December 1988). IV . Manuscript A uthors should su b m it tw o copies, d o u b le­ spaced, following either the Chicago Manual of Style or Turabian. Printing output to be avoided: low-resolution dot matrix, proportional spacing, oversize type, and hyphenated word breaks. Manuscripts may also be subm itted in electronic form at (hard copy is still required) either: a. via ALANET, to ALA0306; or b. in a text file on an IBM-compatible diskette, preferably in Xywrite III + or in an ASCII file. V. Requests for Donations C&RL News may occasionally print requests for the donation of books or materials to libraries, es­ pecially foreign libraries, which have suffered ex­ tensive loss through fire, hurricane, or other natu­ ral disaster. O ther libraries soliciting contributions for other reasons will be referred to the rates for classified advertising in C&RL News. E ditor’s Note: These guidelines were adopted by the C&RL News Editorial Board at the Denver M idwinter Meeting on January 25,1982. ■ ■ RBMS conference in Cambridge, England, September 5-8, 1989 The history and present state of the international trade in rare books and manuscripts will be the sub­ ject of a major conference sponsored by the ACRL R are Books and M anuscripts Section (RBMS). “Markets for Books and Manuscripts: The Trade in A ntiquarian Materials, Past and Present” will be held over a four-day period, September 5-8, 1989, at Cambridge University in England. Of interest to librarians, scholars, and booksel­ lers, the conference will be chiefly devoted to his­ torical aspects of the trade. Conference sessions will cover a w ide variety of topics including: the or­ igins of the trad e in France and England; the devel­ opment of book auctions; the trade in medieval and modern manuscripts; the rise of Americana in the marketplace; the place of the British Museum in th e history of th e tra d e ; th e role of B ernard Q uaritch; the trade in early printed books; and the French trade in the nineteenth century. Speakers from both sides of the Atlantic will present papers: Robin Alston (British Library), Giles Barber (Ox­ ford University), Nicolas Barker (British Library), Christopher de Hamel (London), Lotte Hellinga (British Library), Eric Korn (London), Richard Landon (University of Toronto), Felix Oyens (New York), A nthony Rota (L ondon), Jean V iardot (Paris), Joan W interkorn (London), and Edwin W olf 2d (Philadelphia). January 1989 / 19 The conference will also attem pt to bring into focus key issues and trends in th e trad e today through panel discussions among American and European antiquarian booksellers. Newnham College, Cambridge, will serve as the conference headquarters site. Founded in 1871, Newnham College was originally designed by Basil Champreys in the “Queen Anne” style and built be­ tween 1875 and 1910. L ater m odern additions blend nicely with the original buildings, and the college is specially noted for its fine gardens. Two hundred single room s have been reserved in Newnham and in neighboring Selwyn College for conference attendees desiring to stay in college. In addition, tours of libraries and museums in and around Cambridge are being planned, and the Provincial Book Fairs Association will hold a book fair at Newnham College during the conference. Details about registration and accommodation will be available this coming April. For further in­ formation at th at time, contact: Mary Ellen Davis, ACRL/ALA, 50 East Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611; (800) 545-2433; in Illinois (800) 545-2444; in C anada (800) 545-2455. ■ ■ Moving fu lly-load ed stacks inexpensively By Stephen D. Fitt Head, Special Resources Division San Diego State University Library The Range Dolly solves stack-shifting problems at San Diego. A .n expensive, labor-intensive activity in both ac- ademic and public libraries is the shifting of free­ standing steel shelving to accommodate new floor layouts or the installation of new carpeting. All books must be removed from shelves and tempo­ rarily stored in boxes or on book trucks, w ith care taken to preserve some kind of call number order. During this period, patrons have limited or no ac­ cess to the books. Shelving is at least partially disas­ sembled and slid to the new location, in the case of new floor layouts, or out of the way, in the case of recarpeting. The shelving must then be reassem­ bled and the books returned to the shelves in the correct call num ber order. Devices and procedures which may help some­ w h at to simplify this procedure have been dis­ cussed in the literature; none have entirely solved the problem, due to requirements to unload ranges all or in part, or prohibitive prices. An article by Brian Alley discussed a dolly developed at Miami University. This device, using rolling trailer jacks, attaches to an upright column and permits move­ m ent of a range, after all the books have been re­ moved from the shelves.1 In a 1986 article, James Segesta described several range-moving devices, and suggested procedures 1Brian Alley, “Moving Steel Stacks w ith a Spe­ cial D olly,” L ibrary Acquisitions: Practice and Theory 6 (1982): 253-57.