ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


7

From Inside the DLP
By Dr. Katharine M. Stokes

College and University Library Specialist
Training and Resources Branch, Division o
Library Programs, Bureau of Libraries and Ed
ucational Technology, U.S. Office of Education
Washington, D.C. 20202.

After a hiatus of a couple of months wit
nothing specific to report from a rather inac
tive summer ( I was on jury duty for all of Au
gust), I ’m glad to have some news that will in
terest those of you who are working in coopera
tive groups or thinking about becoming mem
bers of such groups. You will probably hav
forgotten that in early 1970 we made an an
nouncement about a study of academic library
consortia that was implemented by a Title II-
B (HEA) research grant awarded to the Sys
tem Development Corporation of Santa Monica,
California. Phase I of the study was to result
in a directory of the consortia identified. Phase
II was to comprise a study in depth of fifteen
consortia and was to result in suggested guide­
lines for setting up successful consortia ac
tivities.

Phase I was completed in September 1971
and two copies of the “Directory of Academic
Library Consortia” by Diana Delanoy and Car­
los A. Guadra arrived in our office for review
and approval in early October. The final ver­
sion, needing only slight changes in the intro­
duction, was of great interest to several com­
mercial publishers since it includes descrip­
tions of 125 consortia with 50 percent or more
academic members and adds a Selected Bib­
liography of Non-Academic Library Consortia
identified in the questionnaire survey. Three
indexes by name, state, and activity make ac­
cess easy to the detailed information on each
academic group. There are also two tables in
chart form. Table I, comprising four sheets, 
shows a comparison of consortia by type, mem­
bership, budget, and staff. The three sheets of 
Table 2 show the activities in which consortia 
are currently engaged or are projecting pro­
grams. The “Directory” will probably be avail­
able for purchase in some form by the time 
this article appears.

There are at least fifty groups identified of 
which we were not aware in our office, some 
of them new, but many of some years stand­
ing. Dr. Baymond Moore’s 1967 OE publica­
tion, Guide to Higher Education Consortiums 
based on 1965-66 answers to his questionnaire 
survey, identified 123 library components in 
the groups. About sixty-five of them can be de­
termined to be duplicates of the ones in the 
SDC study. This probably indicates that some 
of the ones existing or planned five years ago 
have not survived or did not materialize. Or

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perhaps changes in a name, or in its reporting, 
make identification of a consortium’s existence 

, in both studies inexact.
f For each of the academic consortiums there 

is information under most of the following fif­
 teen subsections, though in some cases not all 

of them were able to be filled in from the 
answers given in the questionnaires.

 Consortium Name and Date Founded: The 
name and founding date of the consortium. 
For those consortia without names, the names 
suggested by the questionnaire respondents 
are entered.

Part of: If the consortium is part of a higher 
 level education consortium, the latter is indi­

cated here.
 Area Served: The name of the city, state, 
 or region in which members of the consortium 

are located.
 Participating Libraries and Tear Joined: The 
 names of the participating libraries, both aca­
 demic and nonacademic, and the year in which 
 they became members.

Purposes and Objectives: A brief statement 
of purpose and objectives, taken directly from 
the questionnaire.

 Current Activities: Activities are listed as 
 they were presented in the questionnaire. 

Where an activity not covered in the question­
 naire was reported, it was added to the list 

in this section.
Projected Activities: Activities that are in the 

planning or development stages.
Special Services: Services provided by the 

consortium to users other than its member li­
braries.

Conditions of Participation: A brief descrip­
tion of the type of agreement entered into by 
members of a consortium, and any special con­
dition prescribed for those who wish to join or 
withdraw.

Annual Budget and Source: The amount of 
the current annual budget and its sources, 
such as dues, fees, grants, etc.; significant 
changes expected in budget level or funding 
sources are also noted.

Staffing: Persons (by job title) employed by 
the consortium directly or by member institu­
tions for the consortium.

Advisory Boards: The role of advisory boards, 
if any, in setting consortium policy.

Publication: The title and the frequency of 
publication of any regular publication of the 
consortium that is available to nonmembers.

Headquarters: The consortium mailing ad­
dress and telephone number, if available.

Information Source: The name and title of 
the director, coordinator, or other person who 
may be contacted for further information; the 
address of the information source, if there is no 
headquarters. B B