ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries D ecem ber 1987 / 717 Identifying needs and solutions B y JoA n S. Segal E xecutive Director, A C R L T he role o f librarians in historically black colleges and universities. Tw enty–eight librarians from Historically Black Colleges an d Universities (HBCU’s) m et in A tlanta on O ctober 18–20 to discuss plans for an ACRL project to help HBCU libraries. A p lanning grant from th e A ndrew W . Mellon F oundation under­ w rote the cost of the meeting. Public and private institutions from 12 states and the D istrict of Colum bia convened to identify the needs and suggest solutions to th e problem s of li­ braries in H BCU’s. T he m eeting began late Sunday afternoon w ith a w ine and cheese reception hosted by the A tlanta University (AU) L ib rary School and W o o d r u f f L i b r a r y , a n d s p o n so re d by Black- w ell/N orth America. At dinner the group was w el­ comed by AU C enter provost Prince Rivers, com ­ m itte e c h a ir B everly L y n c h , a n d A C R L vice president-president elect Joseph A. Boisse. Keynote speaker Samuel P roctor addressed the group on M onday morning. Proctor, pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist C hurch in N ew York City, is a fo rm e r p re sid e n t of V irg in ia U nion U niversity (1955-1960) and N orth C arolina A & T S tate Uni­ versity (1960-1964). From 1964 to 1984 he was M artin L u th e r K ing Professor in th e G ra d u a te School of E ducation a t Rutgers. Since his retire­ m ent in 1984 he has been professor em eritus there. Proctor stressed the needs of HBCU students in his address to the librarians. These needs, he said, are m et not only in the classroom, b u t by the entire academic com m unity, including the library. To­ day’s black students are culturally isolated. They come w ith academ ic deficiencies, b u t also—more seriously—w ith a c u te a ttitu d in a l problem s th a t hinder th e ir ability to learn or to accept even legiti­ m a te a u th o rity . T h e ir life experiences have left them tra p p ed in an intellectual conundrum , not know ing w h at th e ir com m itm ent should be. W hile all young people face a n id e n tity problem , the “W ho am I?” question is m ore serious for the black stu d en t. T h e m u ltiplicity of cu ltu ra l objectives means they must live in an d ad a p t to a culture th a t is not theirs, w hile keeping in touch w ith and m ain­ taining appreciation for black history and culture. H e described this as an “am phibious existence,” w here one m ust be able to ad a p t to and cope suc­ cessfully in one or th e other environm ent upon de­ m and. Referring to DuBois’ “tw o personalities” concept, he stressed th e need for black students to learn to live in both cultures an d hence th e im por­ ta nce of inducting them into th e life of th e m ind. Proctor cited his experience in a tradition w here he was ta u g h t th a t blacks m ust do equally well as w hites at w h at w hites do; as he p u t it, “play the sam e clarinet, b u t play it b etter.” T he post-1960s culture instructs th a t blacks need not subscribe un- questioningly to the culture of the majority. But these advances have not yet led to a reconciled un ­ derstanding or an intellectual justification of the need for cu ltural duality, and a serious b arrier to learning exists. Proctor teaches his students to learn their black heritage, b ut to realize th a t th e ir for­ tunes lie in this country an d th a t they m ust know the dom inant culture too. An aw areness of th e plight of these students leads logically to increased library involvement in their education. F aculty w ho don’t use library resources 718 / C& RL News Samuel Proctor, professor em eritus in the Rutgers Graduate School o f Education. w ith students are “playing our children cheap,” he accused. Too m any “textbook cam puses” exist w here “Pablum ized” textbook inform ation, in­ stead of being used as an introduction to a subject, constitutes all the exposure to a subject th a t a stu­ dent gets. The drive to expose students to a broader literature and knowledge can create a truly intel­ lectual atmosphere (“tone”) on a campus, w ith the library as one key to change. Librarians, he as­ serted, are not warehouse keepers or exterminators (of book-destroying forces)—they are “head” peo­ ple, too sm art to be errand persons. Libraries are places w here ideas are buried for faculty and stu­ dents to dig out. Librarians should play a significant mentoring role for inquisitive students, claiming them for the life of the mind and encouraging them to study in­ dependently under the guidance of librarians and others. “W e don’t know ,” he said, “who these peo­ ple are. They may be leaders of the future—a Jesse Jackson or a Douglas W ilder.” Encouraging librarians to take an activist stance in their relations w ith academic administrators, he suggested w e rethink librarians’ roles and functions in contributing to the effectiveness of higher educa­ tion. Proctor’s inspirational message was followed by a historical review of programs targeted tow ard black librarianship. Accounts of several key proj­ ects, including the ACRL/Mellon internship pro­ grams (1974-1978), the National Agricultural Li­ brary’s work w ith the 1890s Land G rant Colleges and Tuskegee Institute (which included an intern­ ship com ponent), the Southern Education Foun- dation/Mellon project th a t will give over $2 million for humanities collection development in private HBCU’s, and a recent FIPSE project on computer- based services (directed by Lorene Brown) which trained librarians, established contracts, collected statistics, and provided workshops. Small groups then worked on identifying prob­ lems and needs and suggesting solutions. The Tues­ day morning session synthesized the group work into the following major themes: Im age building: the need to impress on aca­ demic administrators the im portance of libraries in institutional effectiveness. Accreditation: w ith all HBCU’s facing reaccred­ itation w ithin 5–10 years, there is a need to help the librarians prepare to participate actively and to in­ fluence accrediting bodies. Staffing: demands for more and better-qualified staff; recruitm ent problems; the need for staff de­ velopment especially in teaching, management, and autom ation. Questions of library education; suggestions for staff an d faculty reciprocal ex­ changes; need for assistance to pay for tuition, tra­ vel for staff development. Facilities: problems of buildings inadequate to support new technologies; preservation, conserva­ D ecem ber 1987 / 719 tion, and restoration of m aterials; th e need for help in planning. N etw orking and autom ation: th e great need for consulting help; planning; ongoing cost problems; difficulties w ith fu n ding present cooperatives; the desire for shared access to n ational bibliographic databases an d collections. Collection D evelopm ent: questions about fac­ ulty cooperation, funding (including m oney for processing), an d special collections. Bibliographic Instruction: ideas on tying in w ith collection developm ent; th e pros and cons of fac­ ulty involvem ent; program planning; disciplinary tra ining for course–related BI program s. T h e m e etin g ad jo u rn ed a t 11:15 a .m ., a fter hea rin g com m ittee ch a ir Beverly Lynch’s prom ise to m ove fo rw ard w ith all d u e haste to set up one or m ore projects an d seek th e necessary funding. ■ ■ * New s fr * om th e f * i eld Acquisitions • G eorge W ashington U niversity, W ashington, D .C ., has acquired a nu m b e r of m anuscript and archival collections to support research on th e past and contem porary history of th e city of W ashing­ ton. O ne collection is the papers of Polly Shackle­ ton, w ho served on the D .C . C ouncil for 16 years; the collection includes inform ation on planning, zoning, an d h u m a n services. T h e L ib rary has also acquired th e records of th e C om m ittee of 100 on the F ederal C ity, a p rivate citizens’ organization overseeing m ajor city p lanning issues. O rganized in 1923, the C om m ittee has been active in areas such as conservation, historic preservation, and land use planning. O th er acquisitions of note in­ clude th e archives of th e G r e a te r W a sh in g to n Board of T ra d e, consisting of 200 lin ear feet of rec­ ords datin g from 1889 to 1980; th e archives of the Jewish C om m unity Council o f G reate r W ashing­ ton; and a group of papers on th e history of the M etrorail system, including plans, m em oranda, reports, an d oral histories. • I d a h o S ta te U n iv ersity , P o catello , has re- ceived th e en tire library of G lenn E . Tyler, late chairm an of th e History D ep artm en t an d an ISU faculty m em ber from 1955 to 1975. T h e approxi­ m ately 22,000 books an d m anuscripts cover a vari­ ety of topics, w ith notew orthy collections on the history of science an d th e R eform ation period, es­ pecially Calvinism an d P uritanism . M ore th a n a hundred rare volumes include th e collected ser­ mons of John Calvin on th e Book of Job, p rinted in 1584. O th er notable items are a second edition of S prat’s H istory o f the Royal Society (1702), Isaac N ew to n ’s O b servations u p o n th e Prophesies o f D a n ie l a n d th e A p o c a ly p s e o f J o h n (1733), D oum ergue’s seven-volume biography of Calvin, and a group o f works on English an d A m erican P u­ ritanism . In accordance w ith Tyler’s w ish, all of the books except those req uiring special care and attention will become p a r t of th e regular circulat­ ing collection. They w ill be identified by a specially designed bookplate. • Johns Hopkins U niversity, B altim ore, M ary- la n d , has been chosen as th e repository for th e a r ­ chives of th e Association of A m erican Universities. T h e records consist of correspondence, com m ittee m inutes an d reports, an n u a l conference materials, an d office files. F ounded in 1900, th e AAU now in ­ cludes 54 A m erican an d 2 C an a d ian universities. Johns Hopkins U niversity w as a founding m em ber. • T he L ib rary of Congress, W ashington, D .C ., has a c q u ired 44 volum es th a t once belonged to Thom as Jefferson (1743-1826), th e gift of M ary G resham M achen, M r. an d Mrs. A rth u r M achen Jr. an d M r. and Mrs. C. H arvey P alm er Jr. T he books are p a r t of th e collection Jefferson form ed af­ te r he sold his library to Congress in 1815 to replace books b urned by British soldiers du rin g th e W a r of 1812. T h a t lib rary becam e th e foundation of the L ib rary of Congress. In his la ter years, Jefferson’s litera ry interests focused on th e classics, in their original languages as w ell as in English. In th e col­ lection is a n eight–volum e set of th e W orks of T aci­ tus, Jefferson’s favorite R om an au th o r, and a 12- volum e collection of Cicero’s Letters. Both contain m arginal corrections of gram m atical errors in Jef­ f e r s o n ’s h a n d . J e f f e r s o n ’s c o p y o f P la t o ’s R epublic— a w ork he disliked—an d works by Aris­ tophanes, H orace a n d H om er a re also included. T h e collection was first purchased in 1829 by Lewis H enry M achen, la ter p rin c ip al clerk of th e Senate, a t an a u c tio n fo llo w in g Jefferso n ’s d e a th , an d passed through successive generations of his fam ­ ily. • P o rtla n d S tate U niversity, O regon, has re- ceived th e Italian history research lib rary devel­ oped by G eorge A. C arbone, professor em eritus of history. Consisting of m ore th a n 1,300 volumes, th e collection includes books an d pam p h lets on 19th- an d 20th-century Ita ly an d th e diplom atic