ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries College & Research libraries news No. 7, Ju ly /August 1973 ACRL News Issue (A) and (B ) of College & Research Libraries, Vol. 34, No. 4 Annual Report of the President, 1972-73 The major event in the administration of ACRL was the appointment in September 1972 of Dr. Beverly Lynch as executive secretary. Dr. Lynch quickly established herself not only as the manager of our headquarters office, but also as an able spokesman for academic and re­ search librarianship. She has represented ACRL as the liaison officer with many other profes­ sional associations in various aspects of post­ secondary education and has put us at the fore­ front of new developments among these groups. She also serves on the ALA Staff Committee on Mediation, Arbitration, and Inquiry ( SCMAI). This is an essential assignment since approxi­ mately one-half of the cases considered by SCMAI involve academic librarians. Her work­ load is prodigious and it is unfortunate that ALA has not been able to fund a position for a professional assistant for the division. ACRL is the only unit working on SCMAI that does not have this kind of staff assistance. ALA’s serious financial problems continue to hamper the development of divisional programs and projects. The divisions were instructed to prepare budget proposals for 1973-74 that held the line on program and, in addition, were asked to comment on the effect of a potential 5 percent reduction in funding. The ACRL Board of Directors estimated that it would take an increase of approximately $4,000 just to maintain ACRL’s current level of activity. In addition, we felt strongly enough about our needs to recommend an additional $7,600 for urgent new programs. As a guide to the budget deliberation process, the Planning Committee proposed the following priorities for the divi­ sion: (1) additional support for the headquar­ ters staff; (2) ACRL’s liaison activities with other organizations; (3) ACRL’s program of communication and publication; and (4) strengthening of ACRL’s section programs. ACRL’s entire slate of programs for the Las Vegas meeting was threatened by the allotment of less than 40 percent of the funds requested for conference expenses. Program plans were sharply curtailed, and a successful appeal was made to the ALA Executive Director for addi­ tional funding to hold the truncated sessions. Advertising revenue for College & Research Li­ braries dropped sharply last year, threatening that journal’s level of operation. The same social conditions that have induced the changes in the administration and the pro­ grams of the American Library Association must be faced by the Association of College and Research Libraries. We must clearly under­ stand the issues that are affecting postsecondary education and thus library and information ser­ vices. From this understanding we should be able to delineate the problems that a profes­ sional association can and must address and thus derive a program and structure for ACRL. To this end, the Planning Committee has creat­ ed an ad hoc committee with a mandate to identify appropriate goals for the association and to recommend organizational mechanisms to achieve these goals. The committee will pre­ sent its preliminary findings at the New York conference in 1974. College & Research Libraries is published by the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, 17 times yearly—6 bimonthly ¡ournal issues and II monthly, combining July- August, News issues at 1201-05 Bluff St., Fulton, Mo. 65251. Subscription, $15.00 a year or, to members of the division, $5.00, included in dues. Circulation and advertising office: American Library Association, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, III. 60611. Second-class postage paid at Fulton, Missouri 65251. News editor: Allan Dyson, M offitt Lindergraduate Library, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720. Associate News editor: Susana H inoiosa, Assistant Librarian, Reference Department, M offitt Undergraduate Library. Editor: Richard M. Dougherty, University Library, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720. President, ACRL: Russell Shank. Executive Secretary, ACRL: Beverly Lynch, ALA. 166 ACRL is also negotiating a proposal for a planning study on the role and problems of aca­ demic libraries with the Association of Ameri­ can Colleges and the American Association of University Professors. Hopefully, the planning period would be followed by a continuing pro­ gram of research on the problems identified. As a preliminary event to a study of the future, the ACRL Las Vegas Program featured the findings of the Carnegie Commission on Higher Educa­ tion and of the Commission on Non-Traditional Study. Changes in the United States government’s attitude toward funding and administration of work on the problems of the nation’s social in­ stitutions shook the library world in 1973. As a harbinger, the U.S. Office of Education did not replace Dr. Katharine Stokes when she re­ tired in 1972 from her position as the academic library specialist on the staff of the Bureau of Libraries and Learning Resources. Congress twice failed to pass an HEW appropriations bill acceptable to the president, and early in 1973 it was made clear that the administration would phase out categorical grants for many programs in favor of subsidies for locally se­ lected projects. A scheduled meeting of ACRL and the Association of Research Libraries’ rep­ resentatives with the Commissioner of Educa­ tion in late 1972 was postponed. We were sub­ sequently represented by the executive direc­ tor of ALA at a meeting with the commissioner in which the administration’s decision to dis­ continue categorical grant programs was con­ firmed. In early 1973 the forthcoming statistical survey of libraries was threatened. I met with Commissioner of Education-Designate John Ottina and Dr. Dorothy Guilford, Chief of the National Center for Educational Statistics, in April, at which time Dr. Ottina agreed to con­ duct the 1973 survey. He was particularly im­ pressed with arguments that indicated the utili­ ty of statistics in planning library services—a potential that ACRL may have to demonstrate in order for the series of surveys to continue. Deliberations between Congress and the ad­ ministration over the issue of categorical grants are still underway. ACRL was asked in early May to provide background information to sup­ port testimony by representatives of the Ameri­ can Council on Education for continuation of basic grants under the provisions of the Higher Education Act. In order to respond quickly in the future to the need to supply Congress with information vital to legislation, the ACRL Com­ mittee on Legislation has been asked to help reestablish a network of librarians in every state who can be mobilized for this effort. The status of librarians continues to be a ma­ jor association concern. The Joint Statement on Faculty Status of College and University Li­ brarians was approved by ACRL at its Chicago meeting in 1972, and by the AAUP in April 1973. The Board of Directors of the Association of American Colleges, however, failed to en­ dorse the statement. Beverly Lynch, Father Brendan Connolly, and I represented ACRL at an informational session on the Joint Statement at the annual conference of the Association of American Colleges. The door is not shut to further consideration of the Joint Statement by AAC, but the antipathy among academic ad­ ministrators for extending academic benefits, particularly tenure, to librarians is clear. In the meantime, ACRL received communications from librarians and library groups of four insti­ tutions where the status and tenure of librari­ ans is threatened or has been revoked. As a re­ sult, the ACRL Board of Directors has directed the Committee on Academic Status to formu­ late procedures for ACRL’s use upon notifica­ tion of a potential loss of tenure or status. The committee was also directed to develop guide­ lines for local use in selection, promotion, and retention, and to promote the Joint Statement. The ACRL Ad Hoc Internship Committee has prepared a proposal for an academic library internship program for administrators of pre­ dominantly black college and university li­ braries. This $340,000, three-year program, for which a grant will be sought, would identify black librarians who are capable of and willing to serve as interns at selected academic libraries for learning experiences in aspects of library op­ erations, management, and administration that would otherwise be difficult for them to obtain. The proposal is pending approval at the June 1973 meeting of the ALA Executive Board. After a long hiatus, the post of editor of Choice was filled with the return of Richard K. Gardner to the job. Mr. Gardner held a series of meetings with subscribers in Washington at the time of the ALA Midwinter Conference which resulted in a number of proposals for further development of the publication. Rising costs forced the first increase in subscription rates for Choice and its card service since their founding in 1964. Virginia Clark replaced Rich­ ard Tetreau as editor of the Core Collection for College Libraries, and, by the time of her de­ parture in May 1973, work on production of the manuscript for the publication was orga­ nized for completion. The able Michael Herbi- son resigned as editor of CRL News and was replaced by Allan Dyson of the University of California, Berkeley. At year’s end, three works are in production in the ACRL Publications in Librarianship series: Pearce Grove’s Nonprint Media in Academic Libraries; Charles Laugh­ er’s Thomas Bray’s Grand Design; and Charles Churchwell’s Education for Librarianship in the United States … 1919-1939. It has become increasingly difficult to sustain 167 interest and effort among the division’s com­ mittees and sections, given the severe shortage of funds in the ALA drive for generalization and professionalization. But work on problems in the substance of librarianship manages to go on as is shown by these ACRL activities: • ACRL received $9,250 as a J. Morris Jones-World Book Encyclopedia-ALA Goals Award to start work on a revision of the Standards for College Libraries un­ der the aegis of its Committee on Stan­ dards and Accreditation. We are reason­ ably assured of an additional award in 1974 to complete the task. • The concept of networks among academic and research libraries was the focus for both the preconference meeting of the University Libraries Section and the regu­ lar program of the Agriculture and Bio­ logical Sciences Section. And the Board of Directors approved the establishment of an Ad Hoc Committee on Interlibrary Communications and Information Net­ works to study the implications of the rec­ ommendations of the ALA Airlie House Conference on that subject in 1970. • The Rare Books and Manuscripts Section provided a forum for the discussion of the problems of access to collections of papers awaiting publication. The Committee on Community Use of Academic Libraries is preparing to study guidelines for individu­ al library policy statements on access to academic libraries. • The Board of Directors approved two pol­ icy statements for use by the profession concerning the attainment of legal title to collections and the appraisal of gifts to li­ braries. The Rare Books and Manuscripts Section is preparing two more statements to cover photocopying of and access to special collections. • The Junior College Libraries Section has completed bibliographies of periodicals in seventeen career areas. The section will gather documentation on courses on li­ brary instruction for deposit and use at ACRL headquarters. • The ACRL Ad Hoc Committee on Biblio­ graphic Instruction has begun preparation of guidelines for library instruction. The results of its survey of instruction were submitted to ERIC/CLIS for distribution under the title “Academic Library Biblio­ graphic Instruction.” I cannot leave office without thanking many persons—other officers, committee chairpersons, association members, and hard-working friendly office staff at headquarters—for their support. Russell Shank President, ACRL Controversy over Personnel Policy ACRL has entered the battle between the California State University and Colleges librari­ ans and the chancellor’s office of the system over the new personnel policy for librarians (see the June News under Miscellany). Calling the policy vague and unreasonable, Norman Tanis (as president-elect of ACRL) has writ­ ten Glenn Dumke, chancellor of the state sys­ tem, requesting the policy’s withdrawal and asking for librarian input in setting new stan­ dards. The text of the Tanis letter follows: The American Library Association and its academic division, The Association of Col­ lege and Research Libraries, has shown an active concern in the matter of academic status for the librarians of California State Universities and Colleges since 1969 when representatives of ALA met with the Chancellor and members of his staff. We are therefore dismayed to find that FSA 73-25 was recently issued without consul­ tation with librarians, library directors, the faculties of the California State University and Colleges, and the Academic Senate. FSA 73-25 is vague, unreasonable in its requirements, and makes demands upon the librarians which California State Uni­ versity and Colleges does not provide the means to accomplish. It continues to block real and effective peer judgement and con­ trol of promotional machinery at the cam­ pus level. The document does not promote the high level of professional contribution which the California Universities and Col­ leges deserve from their librarians. Because the requirements of adequate and full consultation with faculty and Aca­ demic Senate have not been met ( Board of Trustee adoption October 26, 1967 meet­ ing of a resolution entitled “Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities,” AAUP Bulletin 52 (Winter, 1966) 375-9) we now ask you to withdraw FSA 73-25 in order to allow real and meaningful con­ sultation with the Academic Senate, the li­ brarians themselves, and library directors. Because an adequate library is the basis of teaching, study, and research and a ma­ jor criterion in judging the strength of the library is the quality of the library faculty and staff, we request that FSA 73-25 be withdrawn with a view toward seeking adequate consultation as a preliminary step to a new document.