From: "Larry E. Dixson" <ldix_at_loc.gov>
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
June 1997
Report on collection development activities at the Library of
Congress to the Collection Development Officers of Large Research
Libraries Discussion Group.
Policies: Draft collections policies have been prepared (although
not yet approved) for * History of Science and Technology * Science
General * Earth Sciences * Technology General * Civil Engineering
*Mechanical Engineering * Chemical Engineering * Composite
(covering manufacturers, handicrafts, arts and crafts, and home
economics, including cookery). In addition, LC is contributing a
section to a joint policy on Human Nutrition developed by NAL and
NLM. A policy relating to electronic resources is under
development.
Budget: The Library has requested a price level increase of 13.4%
for the FY98 GENPAC and Law materials budgets. This amount includes
the price level increases requested but not granted in FY96 and
FY97, as well as the increase for FY98, plus funds to compensate
for GPO published Congressional documents no longer furnished
gratis. Congress has not yet acted on the FY98 LC budget.
Area Studies: The four area studies reading rooms (African and
Middle Eastern, Asian, European, and Hispanic) are now open in the
renovated Jefferson building. Home pages are available for each
area studies division, describing their collections and services.
The Asian Division coordinated a symposium and exhibit
relating to Hong Kong and its reversion to the PRC. Working with
a dealer in Hong Kong, the Library is collecting ephemeral
materials relating to the transfer of power.
The first six Mellon Foreign Area Fellowships were awarded in
June. These post-doctoral fellowships, made possible by the Andrew
W. Mellon Foundation, are designed to support research that uses
the Library's unrivaled foreign-language and area-studies
collections. Competitions will be held again in 1988 and 1999.
There are two major personnel changes relating to area
studies. John Van Oudenaren was named chief of the European
Division in January; Laila Mulgaokar (currently chief of the
Copyright Acquisitions Division) moves to Cairo in August to be the
director of the Library's Field Office there. She replaces Gene
Smith who retired earlier this year.
In cooperation with ARL, the Library created a home page for
the ARL/AAU German Demonstration Project
(http://lcweb.loc.gov/loc.german/), a cooperative project to
improve German-North American resource sharing and to extend access
to German parliamentary documents though the development of digital
archives and interoperable systems.
A symposium on global newspapers, co-sponsored by the Library
of Congress, CRL, ARL, and the Commission on Preservation and
Access, was held at LC at the end of May. Additional information
on the symposium and the recommendations coming from it can be
found in the CRL report to this group.
Since the beginning of the fiscal year, staff have taken
acquisitions trips to Hong Kong, Eritrea, Israel (to visit the
Jerusalem Book Fair), Bulgaria, and the former states of
Yugoslavia, as well as visits to the LC field Offices in Cairo,
Nairobi, and New Delhi by the subject specialists working in the
areas the offices cover. Trips to South Africa, Chile, and
Venezuela are planned by the end of the fiscal year.
Overseas Operations: (In this section I repeat the message Judy
McDermott, Chief of Overseas Operations, sent to all the
participant-based listservs to insure that you receive this
important information as it may have an impact on your materials
budget.)
The Overseas Operations meeting at ALA will be on Sunday, June
29 at 7:00 pm in the Marriott Hotel's Pacific Suite 1. Fred
Protopappas will be presiding; questions on this section of the
report should be addressed to him.
1. Update on revolving fund legislation. As I (Judy
McDermott) write this, it appears that the enabling legislation
will be included in the Legislative Branch appropriations bill. We
continue to be very optimistic that it will be approved. Therefore,
we ask that you pay your FY98 bills, on the assumption that the
program will continue. Fred Protopappas will provide updated
information on the 29th, including contingency plans for refunds
should the unthinkable occur, and including any actions that
participants might take to assist in supporting this legislation.
2. APO. As I (Judy) explained in past meetings with you, our
shipping via APO is now subject to full cost recovery by the
Military Postal Service. This will result in dramatically
increased shipping charges on your FY98 bills, in many cases
doubling your current shipping charges. By the time of the ALA
meeting, you will either have received your bill or it will be in
transit to you. I am asking Fred to take with him summary data
about individual participant accounts. Please bear with us. We
have not yet received the bills in Washington, but expect them
shortly.
3. Dollar days (end of rupees) for India. The US India fund
rupees will be fully expended midway through FY98. FY98 bills for
accounts previously covered totally by rupees will have a partial
dollar payment assessed. In FY99, the bills will be 100% dollars.
A separate email to SACAP participants will be issued by the end of
the week, explaining the situation in more detail.
Miscellaneous: The Library of Congress joined JSTOR as one of the
charter members, providing electronic access to complete runs of
many journals in the humanities and social sciences. The
Collections Policy Committee at the Library sponsored a talk at LC
by Kevin Guthrie, Executive Director of JSTOR. The Library also
formally joined CIRLA--the Chesapeake Information and Research
Library Alliance--a consortium of research libraries in Maryland,
Delaware, and the District of Columbia.
The Library is participating in the 1997 North American Title
Count. LC has participated in this ALA-sponsored count since its
inception in the early 1970's.
Related Areas of Interest: Preservation: This year, 45,000 books
have been deacidified, bringing the total number of books treated
by the end of July to 72,000. The books are deacidified using the
Bookkeeper mass deacidification process, owned by Preservation
Technologies, Inc. of Pittsburgh. In June, Congress approved a
plan that will permit the Library to formalize deacidification as
a regular preservation activity and make it possible to deacidify
an estimated 275,000 books over the next four years. We are working
on the criteria for selecting these volumes.
The Library has completed microfilming telephone directories
for states A through Delaware, plus Hawaii, Iowa, and Maryland.
Runs of directories begin with the earliest in the Library's
collections and stop at the date microfiche of directories is
available. Reels of these directories (except those not available
due to copyright restrictions) are available for sale.
ILS: Nine vendors responded in February to the Library's RFC on
functional requirements for an integrated library system. The
Library is still actively developing and pursuing a RFP for
possible release in early summer. The RFP will be made available
via the Internet after the period for receiving proposals has
closed.
LC Bicentennial Program: Winston Tabb and John Cole will co-chair
a meeting "Promoting Libraries Through the Library of Congress
Bicentennial" on Saturday, June 28, 2:00-4:00 in the San Francisco
Marriott, Golden Gate A1 meeting. This program provides an
opportunity to hear the ideas of different segments of the library
community on how to promote libraries while celebrating this
historic occasion. Seven library leaders will discuss their
suggestions for the bicentennial and audience participation is
encouraged.
Exhibit Booth: The Library booth is 3016. Among the various
activities of interest to collection development librarians are
demonstrations of new features and information on the Library's WWW
site and the four options available for searching the Library's
catalogs.
Bill Schenck
Library Services
Received on Fri Jun 20 1997 - 17:16:48 EDT