ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 246 From Inside the DLP By Dr. Katharine M. Stokes College and University Library Special Training and Resources Branch, Division of brary Programs, Bureau of Libraries and E ucational Technology, U.S. Office of Educati Washington, D.C. 20202. After agonizing adding, subtracting, co paring, and re-examining on the part of DLP personnel, the Title II-A (H E A ) colle library resources grants for FY 71 were fina recommended for BLET officials’ considerati The carefully planned criteria, aimed at d covering the neediest institutions in terms inadequate library collections and a large number of students from economically deprived backgrounds, turned up many worthy appli cants who were unable to be funded within the part of the appropriation which was re leased, $9,900,000. Ironically, 2,165 applications were received for basic grants of up to $5,000, totalling $9,999,717. The attached supplemental grant requests added up to $18,481,637. They came from institutions that could score only as little as one point, or even none, because they had li braries of a size approaching or exceeding the minimum size recommended in the ALA Standards and had few disadvantaged students enrolled. The fact that the librarians of the institutions submitted applications can only indicate that they did not realize how fortu nate they are, comparatively! Many of them are suffering from cuts in their book budgets and will feel th a t their good performance in the past is now working against them in depriving them of federal support when they find their state and private support decreasing. For Special Purpose Type A grants there were over 500 applications. The funds would stretch only to fund 75, most of them for much less than the amount requested, which totalled $11,057,037, while there was only $650,850 to award. The Special Purpose Type B awards were cut down drastically from the $846,234 re quested by some 50 applicants to the $201,000 available. Small amounts were given to 26 institutions in the hope th at a little money might give them a start on their projects. Some 60 Special Purpose Type C applicants requested $17,290,999. Only 14 of them could be funded out of the $755,000 earmarked. The academic members of the consortiums re ceiving awards number 220, though some of them, such as the 3R’s Councils in New York State, include many nonacademic members who may also benefit indirectly from the grants. ist, Only 532 institutions received the combined L i basic and supplemental grants. Seventeen new d institutions to be opened next fall received on, only basic grants of $5,000. The other 1,616 applicants for combination basics and supple m e n ta l had to be disappointed, though many m of their applications approached the score of the 21 points which was the lowest level to be ge funded. When each of the members of the lly consortiums receiving Type C grants who did on. not also receive basic and supplemental grants is is counted, a total of 780 institutions were of benefitted in the 1971 program. ■ ■ ACADEMIC STATUS Dear Colleagues: This is a call for help. Approximately 100 state college librarians in New Jersey find them selves in an unequal battle with the state bureaucracy. While more and more states are joining the trend towards recognition of li brarians as fully integrated members of the faculty, New Jersey—a pacesetter in this trend—has now reversed itself and stripped its librarians of their academic status with all of the attendant rights and responsibilities. November 20, 1970, will go down in library annals as a black day for college librarians. On that day New Jersey state college librarians were dispossessed. Contracts were abrogated, tenure rights were put in jeopardy, promotion ladders vanished, work years were lengthened, salary ranges were lowered, in fact, chaos reigned. As of June 1970 no job specifications existed for the new civil service titles bestowed on the librarians. The librarians have explored all avenues of appeal and are now proceeding with legal ac tion recommended by an experienced labor lawyer. This Takes Money and that’s where you come in. This is not just our struggle. If this attempt to downgrade the profession is successful it will set a precedent for all state and college administrations. PLEASE, send your contributions to: Miss Ruth Beach Harry A. Sprague Library Montclair State College Upper Montclair, New Jersey 07043 Checks should be made payable to New Jersey State College Librarians’ Advisory Com mittee. For more information write Mrs. Marian Siegeltuch, Chairman, New Jersey State 247 248 College Librarians’ Advisory Committee, at the above address. Sir: As a contribution to the current quest for faculty status for academic librarians I offer an extract from the 1767 Laws of Harvard College. The following paragraph from Chap ter 8 “Of the Governors and Officers of the College, Their Duty & Power” must be the earliest statement authorizing faculty status for librarians in this country. V. The Librarian shall have the like Power & Authority in all Cases, as the Tutors have, & he shall act with the Presi dent & Tutors in all their meetings, & with the President, Professors & Tutors in all such cases as come under their Cognisance, & shall be intitled to the same Tokens of respect from the Undergraduates as the Tutors are & shall have a Chamber as signed him by the Corporation, suitable for the Inspection of some District in the College; & any Affront or Insult offered to him shall be punished as if offered to a Tutor. Colonial Society of Massachusetts. Publications, XXXI, 377. Many of the earlier library keepers at Harvard became tutors after completing tours of duty in the library; a few held appointments as tutors and library keepers concurrently. The 1767 code was the third set of rules governing the conduct of the librarian. (The pleasantly anachronistic title of Library Keeper seems to have disappeared by 1767.) The rules of 1667 and 1736 gave specific directions for the care and use of the library but did not indi cate the status of the librarian. The new status conferred in 1767 included an increase in salary in view of his “increased trust & work.” The discussions that preceded these decisions are not reported but the enormous task of renew ing the library after the disastrous fire of 1764 may have been more important than a desire to emulate college teachers. There may be no useful moral to be drawn from this vignette except that academic li brarians of 1971 might reflect on the possi bility that very few problems of librarianship are entirely new. Joe W. Kraus Illinois State University Normal, Illinois ■ ■ New, Comprehensive Source o f Information fo r Conference Proceedings in the Social Sciences and Humanities DIRECTORY OF PUBLISHED PROCEEDINGS, SERIES SSH, SOCIAL SCIENCES/HUMANITIES, 4-YEAR CUMULATED VOLUME, 1968/71, will be published early in 1972 by the InterDok Corp. Including approximately 3,000 conference proceedings citations, it is by far the most complete and comprehen sive source of information for published proceedings, specializing exclusively in all phases of the social sciences and humanities . . . education, economics, busi ness administration, law, management, religion, psychology, social welfare and other areas of research in the social sciences. The Directory of Published Proceedings Series SSH is also published quar terly by InterDok at a subscription rate of $60.00. Included in the fourth quarterly issue of each volume are complete annual indices. The Series SSH 4-Year Cumulated Volume will be priced at a pre-publication rate (through Dec. 31, 1971) of $60.00 to current quarterly subscribers; $75.00 on a non-subscription basis. On January 1, 1972 the subscription rate will be $75.00; $95.00 on a non-subscription basis. The D irecto ry o f P u b lish ed P roceedin gs INTERDOK CORP. • P.O. BOX 326, HARRISON, N.Y. 10528