ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 62 L etters In this issue: Committee Discusses Future of ACRL ..................................61 L e tte r s ..........................................62 ACRL C h a p te r s ...........................63 Continuing Education: Some Thoughts on ONLINE ’8 0 ............................64 News from the F i e l d ....................68 People ...........................................74 Publications ..................................81 C a le n d a r .........................................83 Classified A d v e r tisin g ....................86 College & Research Libraries News is published by the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, as 11 monthly (combining July- August) issues, at 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. Annual subscription: $5; or to members of the division, $2.50, in­ cluded in dues. Single copies and back issues, $2 each. Second-class postage applied for at Chicago, Illinois, and at additional mailing offices (ISSN 0099-0086). Editor: George M. Eberhart, ACRL/ ALA, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611; (312) 944-6780. President, ACRL: Millicent D. Abell. Executive Director, ACRL: Julie Carroll Virgo. Production and circulation office: 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. Display advertising should be sent to Leona Sw¡ech, Advertising Traffic Coordinator, ALA, at above address. Send classified ads to ACRL. Change of address and subscription orders should be addressed to College & Research Libraries News, for receipt at the above address at least two months be­ fore the publication date of the effective issue. Inclusion of an article or advertisement in C&RL News does not constitute official endorsement by ACRL or ALA. A partial list of the services indexing or abstracting the con­ tents of C&RL News includes: Current Contents: Social & Be­ havior Sciences; Current Index to Journals in Education; In­ formation Science Abstracts; Library & Information Science Ab­ stracts; Library Literature; and Social Sciences Citation Index. ©American Library Association 1981. All material in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Asso- ciaton may be photocopied for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement. Library Use Fees To the Editor: I read your note on “Student Fees for Library Privileges” (C&RL News, January 1981, p. 5) with interest. Indeed, “it is hard to believe that one has never been tried.” User fees were a stan­ dard means of financing the libraries of nineteenth century American colleges. These ranged from 50 cents to a few dollars a year and represented a true user fee, as it was demanded of only those students wishing to use the library. This practice was abandoned at the end of the century when the changing nature of scholarship and educational methods mandated a more stable method of financing acquisitions than user fees allowed. This practice was so widely spread that many libraries undoubtedly engaged in it during their early years.—Lee Schiflett, Assistant Profes­ sor, Graduate School o f Library Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. To the Editor: About the year 1900 Carleton College initiated a system of regular student and faculty fees for the use of the library. The practice was discon­ tinued in 1916. At that time the fee charged was $5 per year, which amounted to 5% of the yearly tuition that was then charged. The reason for the fees was one that was common to many college libraries: they were not yet included as items in the college’s regular operating budget. Many col­ lege libraries tried to fund themselves with li­ brary endowments. All relied heavily on gifts in­ stead of an acquisitions budget. Some, like Carle­ ton, tried use fees which they imposed on stu­ dents (and sometimes faculty also). Since 1916 Carleton has not imposed a use fee of any kind. In my view, the imposition of use fees is a giant step backwards to the turn of the century. Let us hope that our colleagues in other institutions will not become so desperate and un­ imaginative as to fall into this error.—Richard E. Miller, Public Services Librarian, Carleton Col­ lege, Northfield, Minnesota. To the Editor: As long ago as 1970, the eleven colleges in the Massachusetts State College System all charged a $10 per semester library fee to all full and part- time students. These funds in each institution were placed in what was then termed the Library Development Trust Fund and was originally in­ tended, when approved by the Board of Trustees, to supplement the meager funding provided by the state for library acquisitions. I cannot com­ ment on how the money was used in other insti­ tutions, but at Bridgewater State College where I was Associate Director of the Library, it did not take the President of the university long to dis­ 63 cover that there were no legal requirements that the funds be used for library acquisition. As a re­ sult, by the time I left Bridgewater State in 1973, more than half of the Library Development Trust Fund annually was being used to pay the salary of part-time staff members and some full-time staff members.—Tom Watson, University Librar­ ian, University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee. Editor’s Note: Massachusetts state college librar­ ies still assess this fee, which can be used in many different ways. Massachusetts state .community college libraries do not have this fee. ACRL C h a p te rs • The California Academic and Research Librarians (CARL), ACRL s California Chapter, will hold a Northern California program on grants for academic and research librarians. It will be held at California State University, Hayward, on March 20 from 9:30 to 3:30 p.m. The program will provide a forum for exchanging ideas and in­ formation with librarians who are interested in grants. The program moderator will be Michael Bruer, associate director, California Library Au­ thority for Systems and Services. The fee will be $12 for CARL members, $14 for California Li­ brary Association or ACRL members wishing to join CARL, and $15 for non-CARL members. For further information, contact Jo Bell Whitlatch, Access Coordinator, San Jose State University Li­ brary, San Jose, CA 95152. Deadline for registra­ tion is March 11. • The Iowa Chapter will hold a spring work­ shop in April, hosted jointly by Marycrest and St. Ambrose Colleges in Davenport. The workshop (tentatively scheduled for April 10 or 24) will be titled “Libraries in an Electronic Society.’ For more information, contact: Corinne Potter, St. Ambrose College, 518 W. Locust St., Davenport, IA 52803. • The Missouri Association of College and Research Libraries spring workshop will focus on “What Everyone Should Know About Grant Writing.” To be held in Springfield on April 4, the day will consist of a brief business meeting, presentations, lunch, continuation of presenta­ tions, and a tour of the new library at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield. Although the registration fee is not finalized, a tentative cost of $10-$20, lunch included, has been reported. For further information, contact: Joyce Ann Jaillite, Reference Department, PML, Northeast Missouri State University, Kirksville, MO 63501; (816) 665-5121, Ext. 2749. • The N ebraska L ibrary Asso c ia tio n ’s Col­ lege and University Section/ACRL Chapter has scheduled its spring meeting for Friday, April 24. The topic has not yet been announced. For more information, contact: Karen Kozak, Head of Cata­ loging, Creighton University, Alumni Library, 2500 California St., Omaha, NE 68178. • The New England Chapter will hold its spring meeting at Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts, on March 26-27. The program is entitled “Academic Libraries in the Changing World of Higher Education,” and one of the themes will focus on continuing education. For more information, contact: John Hannon, Director of Library Services, Bryant College, Smithfield, RI 02917; (401) 231-1200, Ext. 300. • The Oregon Chapter held a joint meeting with the Oregon Community College Library Association on February 20 at Linn-Benton Com­ munity College Library in Albany. The topic of the meeting was the state librarian’s Automation Study Committee report which recommended guidelines for developing automation for resource sharing in Oregon. The chapter will hold its spring meeting in Ashland, Oregon, on April 25 in conjunction with a meeting of the Academic Section of the Oregon Library Association. For further details about either of these meetings, contact: Virginia Seiser, Assistant Education Librarian, Portland State University, P.O. Box 1151, Portland, OR 97207. • The Texas Chapter will present “Online Li­ brary Catalogs: A Preconference to the Annual Conference of the Texas Library Association on March 31 at the Albert Thomas Convention Cen­ ter in Houston. The program will consist of a series of presentations by librarians involved with online catalogs, with questions and answers after each. The preconference, which costs $15 for pre­ registrants or $20 at the door, features sessions ti­ tled: Requirements for Online Catalogs; Hard­ ware and Software to Support Online Library Catalogs; Planning, Creating, and Maintaining the Bibliographic Data Base; Selling and Explain­ ing the Online Catalog to a User Community; and Costs of Online Library Catalogs. A separate business meeting will be held Thursday, April 2. For further information, contact: Vandolyn Sav­ age, 5550 N. Braeswood, #78, Houston, TX 77096. • The Wisconsin Association of Academic Librarians/ACRL Chapter will hold a program meeting April 29-May 1 at Nicolet College in Rhinelander, on “Academic Library Management and Bibliographic Instruction.’ There will be three general sessions and one afternoon of small group sessions relating to each topic. Contact: Tamara Miller, Wisconsin Library Consortium, Room 464, Memorial Library, Madison, WI 53706.