ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries Ju n e 1984 / 315 retired in 1955, he worked to achieve a remarkable renaissance of the University’s neglected libraries. He also served a five-year term as executive secre­ tary of the Association of Research Libraries, and played a major role in the Farmington Plan and re­ building the war-ravaged libraries of Europe. After his retirement from Penn at the age of 70, David went on to plan and establish the Eleuther­ ian Mills Historical Library, a major research col­ lection for American business and industrial his­ tory, at Longwood, Delaware. Then he established the Maritime Library at the Mystic Seaport Mu­ seum in Connecticut. During these “retirement” years he also served as chairman of the Board of Trustees at West Chester State Teachers College and guided it through a difficult transition.— Richard De Gennaro, University of Pennsylvania. John M. Sekerak, former agricultural sciences librarian at the University of California, Davis, died on April 2 in Sacramento. He previously held positions at Modesto Junior College and American River College, and also undertook foreign assign­ ments for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organi­ zation in Sudan and Bangledesh. His subject bibli­ ography, Grapes, Viticulture, W ine and W ine Making, was sponsored in 1975 by the American Society of Enologists. Caroline M. Shillaber, former librarian of the G raduate School of Design, Harvard University, died on March 22. She had been associated with Harvard since 1931, when she became assistant li­ brarian of w hat was then the library of the D epart­ ments of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning. In 1951 she moved to MIT, where she served until 1963 as librarian of the Rotch Library of Architecture and Urban Planning. In that year she returned to Harvard as librarian of the G radu­ ate School of Design. Jolan G. Szendrey, of the Departm ent of Spe­ cial Collections and Archives, Rutgers University, died on April 12. She had been with the Rutgers li­ braries for 33 years and was well known for her work as agricultural librarian at the College of Ag­ riculture and Environm ental Science. She also worked as associate librarian at the Library of Sci­ ence and Medicine. ■ ■ N E W T E C H N O L O G Y • Alos Micrographics Corporation has devel­ oped a desk-size rollfilm reader-printer that utilizes a dry printing process. The reader is for 16mm rollfilm in open reels or cartridges. Film drive and film tension are controlled by solid-state electron­ ics. The dry printing process produces high resolu­ tion, high contrast positive prints from both posi­ tiv e an d n eg ativ e film s. The use of monocomponent toner makes toner refill simple. Contact: Alos Micrographics Corp., P.O. Box407, W alden, NY 12586; (914) 778-7511. • CLASS has announced a multi-user version of its Checkmate serials control software system that allows access to the system from more than one lo­ cation, so that up to three persons can check in peri­ odicals or look up records for reference. The system works with a TRS-80 Model 16 microcomputer, and requires a Xenix operating system and a hard disk containing at least 8 megabytes. The cost is $4,500. The single-user version of Checkmate will continue to be available for IBM PC and IBM PC- XT microcomputers only. Contact: CLASS, 1415 Koll Circle, Suite 101, San Jose, CA 95112; (408) 289-1756. ♦ Collector’s D ata Service is a new database that will go online on June 15. Designed to provide buy­ ers and sellers of fine collectibles with a compre­ hensive communications link, it may also be of ser­ vice to special collections and acq uisitions librarians. Available to anyone with access to a computer and modem, the service has no member­ ship fees, minimums, or monthly charges—the only costs are for connect time for users and listings for sellers, both handled by on the spot credit card validation. The major categories of collectibles in­ clude rare books, art, musical instruments, an­ tiques, and stamps. Lists of stolen property will be carried, along with newsletters, events calendars, auction listings, and shows. For more information, contact Collector’s D ata Service, 420 W. Mercer, Seattle, WA 98119; (800) 435-0100. ♦The Dukane Corporation now offers a Manual Direct Projection microfilm reader which projects sharp images downward through high resolution 316 / C& RL News optics onto a com fortably angled 15-degree screen. T he 18x20-inch screen allows full page viewing of reference m aterials through an 18x lens or a zoom lens w ith a range of 13x to 23x. C ontact: D ukane C orporation, Audio Visual Division, 2900 D ukane D rive, St. Charles, IL 60174; (312) 584-2300. • Inform atics G eneral C orporation has intro- duced softw are th a t reduces online tim e and costs w hen accessing an d searching m u ltip le rem ote databases. PC /N ET-L IN K will simplify the selec­ tion of one or m ore databases from D IA L O G , BRS, or other retrieval services, w ith autom atic connect, disconnect, log-on and log-off dow n to a p articu lar file. T he softw are runs on an IBM PC w ith h ard disk drive or on an IBM PC-XT, and requires a p rin ter, a Hayes Sm artm odem 1200 or Genasys Te- lios telecom m unications softw are to operate. For m ore inform ation, contact Joseph Simpson, Infor­ matics G eneral C orporation, L ibrary Services D i­ visio n , 6011 E x e c u tiv e B lv d ., R ockville, MD 20852; (800) 638-6595. • T he L ibrary C orporation is now m arketing a laser disc system, BiblioFile, th a t contains the com ­ plete retrospective L ibrary of Congress MARC file, the com pany’s ANY-BOOK acquisition d ata for a million English language books, 20,000 publisher names and addresses, and indexes by LC card n u m ­ ber, ISBN, ISSN, author, title, and title key-word. BiblioFile laser discs are recom piled and replaced each m onth. The system, com plete w ith Sanyo or IBM PC m icrocom puter, Pioneer disc player, and Laser D a ta controller, is currently available for a yearly subscription price of $3,800. Libraries al­ ready having access to either type of m icrocom ­ p u ter will receive a discount. The L ibrary C orpo­ ration anticipates th a t the subscription price will drop w ithin the next year because of im provements and cost m odifications in laser disc technology. For m ore inform ation, contact Brower M urphy, The L ibrary C orporation, P .O . Box 40035, W ashing­ ton, D C 20016; (800) 624-0559. • N orthrup Services at NASA’s G oddard Space Flight C enter has com pleted engineering plans and design for a deacidification facility th a t will use tw o 7,500-book capacity cham bers and ap p ro p ri­ ate support equipm ent for a m inim um production capacity of 500,000 books per year. T he facility, for w hich funds have been requested in the L ibrary of Congress 1984 supplem ental budget, is slated to be built at F o rt D etrick in Frederick, M aryland, and is planned for com pletion in 1986. It will be used to deacidify the L ib rary ’s new incom ing p a ­ per m aterial w hile also being applied to a large num ber of cu rren t collections th a t have been iden­ tified as candidates for preservation. Im p o rtan t en­ gineering research undertaken in th e past year by the L ib rary of Congress has reduced the treatm en t tim e to five days, refin ed p ro ced u res, an d d e ­ creased th e qu an tity of diethyl zinc used in the p ro ­ cess. T he result is a technically successful process at low unit cost th a t is safe to staff, th e environm ent, and the books being deacidified. • O C L C , In c ., installed its first M300 W orksta- tion at th e Mossey L ea rn in g Resources C en ter, Hillsdale College, M ichigan, on M arch 21. The w o rk sta tio n , an IBM PC to w h ich O C L C has added special h ard w are and software, serves li­ b ra rie s as an on lin e te rm in a l for access to th e O C LC central com puter system and can also be used as a m ultipurpose m icrocom puter. Hillsdale will use the M300 for cataloging, interlibrary loan and retrospective conversion via the O C L C Online System, dial access to non-O C L C databases, and as a budget m anagem ent tool and w ord processor. O C LC plans to install approxim ately 1,200 w ork­ stations this year. • Small L ib rary C om puting has developed an acquisitions program for use w ith an IBM PC or other m icrocom puter using the MS-DOS or CP/M- 86 operating systems. The program , Bib-Base/Acq, M icrocom puter users, unite If you are using or plan to use a m icrocom puter in your job, there is now a user group for you. The ALA Public L ibrary Association’s M icrocom puter Task Force invites your participation in its cam ­ paign to develop a national database of library m i­ crocom puter users. L ibrary m icrocom puter user groups have been suggested by the PL A Task Force as the best w ay to share know ledge, in fo rm atio n , an d expertise in this rapidly changing and developing field. The Task Force is creating a database of library m icro­ com puter users to facilitate the form ation of re­ gional groups. The database includes the names, addresses, and telephone num bers of users, as well as type of com puter ow ned and softw are applica­ tions employed. Coded by geographic region, in­ form ation in the database can be accessed by a va­ riety of categories w ith in a specified region or across the nation. Details on access will be m ade available at the ALA Annual Conference in Dallas and through other sources. A listing in the database indicates your w illing­ ness to share knowledge and, w here appropriate, to establish a local or regional library user group. M embership in the database is free and open to those who work in any type of library. Request an a p p lic a tio n fo rm by se n d in g a se lf-ad d ressed stam ped envelope to Carol F. L. Liu, Queens Bor­ ough Public L ibrary, C entral L ibrary, 89-11 M er­ rick Boulevard, Jam aica, NY 11432. ■ ■ June 1984 / 317 features a full-screen editor and uses variable- length records containing MARC-tagged variable- length fields. The database may be searched by au­ thor, title, call number, or order number. The cost is $895. An operating manual and a demonstration version of the program are available separately. Contact: Small Library Computing, 837 Twining Road, Dresher, PA 19025; (215) 884-1722. ■ ■ PUBLICATIONS Notices ♦ The 18th Annual Report of the National En- dowmentfor the Humanities contains brief descrip­ tions of NEH programs and policies, and a com­ plete list of all NEH grants, entered by the division and program in which they were funded, for fiscal year 1983. Single copies are available from the NEH Public Affairs Office, Room 409, 1100 Penn­ sylvania Avenue, N .W ., Washington, DC 20506. 9 The Assistant/Associate Director Position in ARL Libraries, SPEC Kit #103 (100 pages, April 1984), reports on the varying responsibilities, qual­ ifications, and m anagem ent styles of the senior manager position. The kit contains survey results, documents concerning the position from eight li­ braries, and a short list of readings. Single copies may be purchased for $15, prepaid only, from the SPEC Center, Office of Management Studies, As­ sociation of Research Libraries, 1527 New H am p­ shire Avenue, N .W ., Washington, DC 20036. 9 The Comet Halley Handbook: An Observer’s Guide will undoubtedly be in demand as the fa­ mous comet becomes visible to the naked eye in 1985-1986. The handbook provides a current orbit of the comet th at includes observations through January 1983; the expected behavior of the comet in terms of brightness, coma diameter, and tail lengths; observing conditions for the comet; histor­ ical, physical, orbital, and ephemeris data from 1982 to 1987. It may be ordered for $4.75 from D ep t. 36-EN , S u p erin ten d en t of D ocum ents, Washington, DC 20402 (033-000-00892-9). • The Directory o f Public Domain (and User- Supported) Software for the IBM Personal Com­ puter (109 pages, January 1984) catalogs hundreds of public domain programs already available for the IBM PC. O ther user-supported program s, those which the authors distribute with a request for a donation, are also listed. Programs are listed for word processing, communications, DOS and BASIC utilities, games using color graphics, Pas­ cal, spreadsheet templates, RAM disks, and others. Copies are $4.95 from the PC Software Interest Group, 1556 Halford Ave., Suite 130, Santa Clara, CA 95051. ISBN 0-915835-01-0. • “Documenting America”: Assessing the Condi- tion of Historical Records in the States, edited by Lisa B. Weber (72 pages, 1984), summarizes the findings and recommendations of historical rec­ ords assessment and reporting projects completed in nearly two dozen states in 1982-1983 with grants from the National Historical Publications and Rec­ ords Commission. These projects, carried out by State Historical Records Advisory Boards, an a­ lyzed the condition of historical records program ­ ming in four areas: state government records, local government records, historical records reposito­ ries, and statewide functions and needs. The Na- Seed information no longer scattered Science and horticulture librarians will be pleased to note th at the Council on Botanical and H orticultural Libraries is planning to pub­ lish a comprehensive list of locations for both old an d c u rre n t seed catalo g s. A lthough ephemeral, seed catalogs contain much valu­ able research information for agricultural his­ torians. The Council’s list, developed with the cooperation of the National Agricultural Li­ brary, will direct researchers to nursery and seed companies, nurserymen, historical soci­ eties, museums, and libraries th at have such collections. If your have or know about a collection of seed or nursery catalogs and have not yet re­ ceived a questionnaire from the Council, con­ tact: June Rogier, Co-Chairman, CBHL Nur­ sery and Seed Catalog Project, P.O. Box 39, Chanhassen, MN 55317.