ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries June 1996/341 New s fro m the Field M ary Ellen Davis ALA W ashington celebrates 5 0 y e a rs ALA’s Washington Office cel­ ebrated 50 years of presence and service with a gala recep­ tion and dinner honoring leg­ islative and grassroots library champions. Carol C. Henderson, ex­ ecutive director, ALA Wash­ ington Office, wrote in her greetings, “We’re here tonight to celebrate the wisdom of legislators who recognized the need to build up great collections to support research in the special­ ized fields that keep this country competitive; to support the preservation of brittle books and of rapidly changing new technological formats; to support the recruitment of a diverse and highly educated library profession; to stimu­ late technological innovation that has encour­ aged the sharing o f library resources across in­ stitutional, political, and geographic boundaries for the public’s benefit.” Special recognition was given to U.S. Sena­ tors Mark Hatfield (R-Ore.), Nancy Kassebaum (R-Kan.), Claiborne Pell (D-R.L), and Paul Si­ mon (D-Ill.), U.S. Representative Pat Williams (D-Mont.), and Eileen D. Cooke, former direc­ tor of the ALA Washington Office. Call for p ap ers—rare b o o k s . . . ACRL’s Rare B ooks & Manu­ scripts Section (RBMS) is seek­ ing proposals for papers present­ ing current research related to the history of manuscript and print culture for presentation at the 1997 RBMS Preconference, which will be held at the Claremont Col­ leges in southern California, June 24– 27, 1997. Selected participants will have 20 minutes to present a paper on completed research or work in progress. Papers will be presented in small group ses­ sions and audience response will be encouraged. Research should not have been submitted for pub­ lication or published. Send four copies of the paper proposal no later than Septem ber 1, 1996, to: Nora J. Quinlan, Chair, RBMS Preconference Program, c/o Archives and Special Collections, Richter Library, University of Miami, Coral G ables, FL 33124- 0320; e-m ail: nquinlan@ umiami.ir.miami.edu. Pro­ posals should be no longer than one letter-sized page, double-spaced and should include a cover sheet with title, author’s name and af­ filiation, mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address. Applicants should note if they are RBMS members. Faxes and e-mail will not be accepted. Final papers should not exceed 3,000 words. Speakers will be notified by January 31, 1997. Papers will be reviewed based on relevance to the preconfer­ ence theme, originality, currency, and interest to RBMS members. Submissions from RBMS members will be given priority. Seminar presentations are also sought and are not limited to the preconference theme. For details contact Elaine Smyth, Louisiana State University Libraries, Baton Rouge, LA 70803; e-mail: notebs@lsuvm.sncc.lsu.edu. . . . an d “ Choosing O u r Futures” . . . July 1, 1996, is the deadline for submitting pro­ At the ALA Washington Office’s gala celebration are members o f the ACRL Executive Committee (1 to r): Althea H. Jenkins, William Miller, Patricia Senn Breivik, Helen H. Spalding, and W. Lee Hisle. Not pictured: Susan K. Martin. mailto:notebs@lsuvm.sncc.lsu.edu 3 4 2 /C & R L News Michael P. Olson, chair o f WESS, pauses at mile 22 of the 100th Boston Marathon with his coaches, sons Jam es (middle) and Clancy (right). posals for papers and panel sessions for ACRL’s 8th National Conference in Nashville, April 11– 14, 1997. Potential presenters should com­ plete a program proposal application and sub­ mit it along with a 250- to 500-word abstract that completely describes the proposed pro­ gram. The full “Call for Participation” and pro­ posal form may be found at http://www.ala. org/acrl.html under the National Conference heading and as an insert in the January issue of C&RL News. Or call the ACRL office at (800) 545-2433 ext. 2519 to request a copy. . . . an d pop ular culture Papers are sought for the Popular Culture As­ sociation meeting, March 26– 29, 1997, in San Antonio, Texas. Those interested in submitting a paper on any aspect of libraries and popular N e w ! ACRL gifts Be the first at your library to own these brand new ACRL items! Too new for pictures! All items will be available at the ALA Store at the New York Annual Conference next month. • Baseball cap . Black cotton twill cap with embroidered logo featuring “ACRL: Choos­ ing Our Futures.” • Paperw eight. Acrylic globe pillar featur­ ing “ACRL: Choosing Our Futures.” • Academ ic Desk C alendar. Monthly cal­ endar features full-color covers of C&RL News. culture should send an abstract of no more than 250 words by Septem ber 15, 1996, to Allen Ellis, Associate Professor of Li­ brary Services, W. Frank Steely Library, Northern Kentucky Uni­ versity, Highland Heights, KY 41099-6101; (606) 572-5527; fax: (606) 572-5390; e-mail: ellisa@ nku.edu. W ESS chair uses Boston m arathon a s fu n draiser Michael P. Olson, chair of ACRL’s W estern European Specialists Section and librarian for Ger­ m anic collections at Harvard University, completed the 100th Boston Marathon in April in four hours and 30 minutes. Olson used the marathon, his first, to raise funds for the Germanic collections at Harvard’s Widener Library. Olson said, “The entire experience was ex­ traordinary, and I would do it all again in a second. I certainly now have the marathon fe­ ver: I next intend to run in Berlin on Septem­ ber 29, in an attempt to qualify for the 101st Boston.” (The Berlin marathon immediately precedes the Frankfurt Book Fair which Olson attends annually.) Olson recently established two endowments to support Harvard’s Germanic collections: the Eva and Clarence Olson Germanic Book Fund, in memory of his parents who supported him in his Germanic studies from high school through a Ph.D. from UCLA, and the Friends of the Harvard Germanic Collections Book Fund. Olson had asked for donors to sponsor him in the race at $100 per sponsorship and estimates that the marathon will contribute $ 1 0 ,0 0 0 - $25,000 to the Germanic collections’ fundrais­ ing efforts. Olson estimates that about 14 percent of the nearly 13 million volumes in the University Li­ brary are Germanic by language making the Library o f Congress the only institution with holdings of comparable stature elsewhere in the world. However, Olson feels that much more should be collected: “I’ve always got this fishing-net mentality. You have to bring the ma­ terials in, process them, and let scholars deter­ mine whether they’re worthy of research.” For details on sponsoring Olson’s marathon run or joining the Friends of the Harvard Ger­ http://www.ala Ju n e 19 9 6 /3 4 3 manic Collections, contact Olson at W idener 197, Harvard University, C am brid g e, MA 0 2 1 3 8 ; e -m a il: olson@fas.harvard.edu; (6 1 7 ) 4 9 5 -2 4 2 6 ; fax: (617) 495-0403. “ Choosing O u r Futures” open for discussion at W eb site “Nearly all academic librarians agree that academic libraries have to change in order to respond suc­ cessfully to the new realities of the higher education environm ent, rapidly developing information and telecommunications tech-nologies, and the crisis in scholarly communi­ cations. But there is little agreement on what must change, how the changes will take place, how fast the changes must occur, and how much change is neces- sary.” Now you have an opportunity to voice your opinion on how libraries will change in the fu­ ture. The above abstract is from “Choosing Our Futures,” an article C&RL e x ch a n g e s a rtic le s w ith G erm an co unterp art Seeking to give American librarians a sense of the intellectual vitality of librarianship be­ yond our borders, C ollege & R esearch L ib rar­ ies has undertaken an article exchange project with its German counterpart, ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR B IBLIO TH EK SW ESEN UND B IB L IO ­ GRAPHIE (ZfBB). Twice now the officers of the Germanist Discussion Group o f ACRL’s Western European Specialist Section (WF‚SS), together with a representative from the C&RL Board, have selected an article from Z fBB for publication by C&RL. The first, “Secret Dissertations in the Ger­ man Democratic Republic,” by Wilhelm Bleek and Lothar Mertens ( C&RL‚ September 1995) combined 1992 and 1994 ZfBB pieces on the recent discovery that the government of the GDR had deemed thousands of dissertations too sensitive to list in indices, and, with the compliance of universities and libraries, had removed them physically and expunged them bibliographically. The article was translated by WESS member John Cullars (University of Illinois-Chicago) on a volunteer basis. This year Nancy Boerner (Indiana Univer­ sity), also a member of WESS, translated Ingo Kolasa’s article on the looting of German books by Soviet forces at the end of World War II. This study o f the thorny issues that are now the focus of extremely difficult negotiations between German and Russian librarians and government officials will appear in the Sep­ tember 1996 C&RL. The ZfBB, in turn, published in its Janu­ ary/February 1996 issue a translation of Bar­ bara M. Wildemuth and Ann L. O ’Neill’s “The ‘Known’ in Known-Item Searches: Empirical Support for User-Centered Design” ( C&RL‚ May 1995). An editorial note expresses the hope that the article exchange will “promote mutual dialogue and share reflections and ex­ periences.” It may not be a coincidence that C&RL chose articles on libraries as they relate to Germany’s difficult history, whereas the Germans selected an article that was techni­ cal in its focus, each drawn to and drawing on the perceived strength of the other’s pro­ fessional and intellectual traditions. It would clearly be desirable for this project to be adapted to publications from other coun­ tries. And since Europeans are more likely to read English than the other European lan­ guages, it is fair to claim that with this exchange C&RL is making the work of Euro­ pean librarians more available not only to their American colleagues but to one another. The bureaucratic hurdles in such an enter­ prise may seem formidable, but if the desire to make the project work is there, they are definitely surmountable. Finding volunteer translators with the necessary skill and gen­ erosity is another matter, and on this score one can only say that C&RL has been, so far, very fortunate indeed.— Stephen H. Lehm ann, University o f P en n sylvan ia, le h m a n n @p o b o x . u pen n .edu . mailto:olson@fas.harvard.edu 3 4 4 /C & RL News M ore ACRL ev e n ts in N ew York The May 1996 issue of C&RL News con­ tained an insert listing ACRL programs, meet­ ings, and special events taking place at the ALA Annual Conference in New York. This brief list adds to those already published. ACRL Anthropology and Sociology Sec­ tion (ANSS) Twenty-fifth A nniversary Cel­ e b r a t i o n / R e c e p t i o n . M onday, Ju ly 8, 6:00-7:30 p.m. at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 899 Tenth Ave., New York. ANSS Tour o f th e Am erican Museum o f Natural H istory Library. Tuesday, July 9, 10:00 a.m.-12:00 noon. The tour will include the reference area, rare book room, archives, art and memorabilia collection, and conser­ vation laboratory, as well as storage areas and the digitization project for collection manage­ ment in the Anthropology Department. The tour, which will be followed by a reception, is limited to the first 60 participants who ad­ vance register. To register send $5 (checks made payable to Maija Lutz) to Maija M. Lutz, Tozzer Library, Harvard University, 21 Divin­ ity Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138. ACRL Instruction Section and LIRT to h o n o r Martin Raish. Monday, July 8, 9:30 a.m. Martin Raish, creator and moderator of the BI-L listserv, will receive a special certifi­ cate of recognition and appreciation at the joint IS/LIRT meeting. The certificate recog­ nizes Raish’s critical contributions to more than 2,300 BI-L listserv subscribers. The focus of BI-L is on library instruction, with substantive discussions, requests for advice and handouts, and reports on activities, new programs, and classrooms. ACRL In ternation al Relations. Saturday, July 6, 9:00 a.m. Guests are welcome to the committee-led discussion on international li­ brarianship that will look at questions such as: How can American librarians understand and make use of the experience of librarians in other countries? What is the “political cul­ ture” of libraries? How does the planned Glo­ bal Information Infrastructure affect American and other librarians? ACRL Science and T echnology Section General Discussion Group. Sunday, July 7, 2:00–4:00 p.m. Julie Arnott, SOLINET Preser­ vation Services Manager, and Tom Clareson, AMIGOS Preservation Services Manager, will join the group. ACRL W estern E u ro p e a n Specialists Section Scandinavian D iscussion Group. Sunday, July 7, 4:30– 5:30 p.m. Will discuss grant-funded, collaborative access and pres­ ervation projects focusing on the work at Cornell’s Fiske Icelandic Collection. in the May issue of College & Re­ sea rch Libraries, written by Carla J. Stoffle, Robert Renaud, and Jerilyn R. Veldof. The article and commentaries on it (provided by Susan Lee, Bonnie Jeuergens, and Richard Hume Werking) appear in an interactive form on the ACRL 8th National Conference Homep­ age at http://www.ala.org/acrl. html. “Choosing Our Futures” is the theme of the ACRL 8th National Conference, to be held in Nash­ ville, April 11– 14, 1997. Confer­ ence organizers would like your input on the future of libraries. Visit the conference homepage and fol­ low the instructions for posting your comments and opinions. ■ Patricia Senn Breivik (1) and William Miller (r ) enjoy the gala for the ALA Washington Office with Ralph Russell (center), ACRL’s 1996 Academic/Research Librarian o f the Year. http://www.ala.org/acrl Ju n e 1 9 9 6 /3 4 5