College and Research Libraries


By R O B E R T VOSPER 

Foundation Support Of College Libraries 
Mr. Vosper, who is director of libraries 

at the University of Kansas and pres-
ident of ACRL, made this address at 
the ACRL membership meeting at Mid-
winter on the evening of January 31, 
1956. 

THE recent Ford F o u n d a t i o n grant of $260,000,000 particularly for salaries 
of faculty will provide not only im-
mediate bread-and-butter assistance; it 
also effectively dramatizes one part of 
the desperate financial problem faced in 
these days by privately supported higher 
education in America. 

T h e recent W h i t e House Conference 
on Education may perhaps bring some 
federal money to local areas; more im-
portantly, it also focuses greater atten-
tion on the financial problems of tax-
supported public school education. 

I n my home town of Lawrence, Kan-
sas, the University rides a hill above the 
town, and d u r i n g very recent years we 
have looked down on the construction 
of a new high school building and nine 
grade school buildings in the town and 
adjacent county. Several years ago f r o m 
our Mt. Oread we saw flood waters 
rising f r o m the Kaw River. Now we see 
a flood of students welling u p f r o m the 
public schools; and the crest of this 
new flood will inevitably come right into 
the university buildings in a few more 
years. T h e financial problem of tax-sup-
ported higher education in America is 
no less gigantic t h a n that of privately 
supported higher education or that of 
public schools. 

T h e r e is no point in saying more 
here about the large financial problem 
all of us in higher education will face 
d u r i n g the next two decades a n d more 

as enrollments rise rapidly, as the econ-
omy continues to be inflated, and as 
taxation problems at federal and state 
level are f u r t h e r compounded. You are 
all aware of this situation. 

Let me remind you publicly that the 
Ford grant for faculty salaries said 
nothing specific about librarians' sal-
aries, although I presume that a few 
of our more f o r t u n a t e colleagues will 
benefit as the faculty do. Let me f u r t h e r 
remind you of the h a r d fact that as the 
squeeze for operating f u n d s grows great-
er, many college libraries in this country 
may well face a serious depression. T h e r e 
will be dramatic campaigns for im-
proved faculty salaries, for student hous-
ing, for class room space. But what about 
books and libraries? I suggest that they 
will be overlooked in many cases. 

My colleagues and I in the research 
library group will have their own 
troubles, I am sure, b u t we already have 
an active spokesman in the Association 
of Research Libraries. I urge today that 
our college libraries also desperately 
need a spokesman at the national level 
in regard to this and other critical prob-
lems. A C R L must continue to be that 
spokesman a n d to an even greater ex-
tent t h a n in the past. 

Something has already been done. 
More will be done if we continue to 
have vigorous a n d imaginative leader-
ship of the kind A r t h u r H a m l i n has 
provided; more will be done if A C R L 
increases its capacity for direct and co-
ordinated action on a large scale in the 
best interests of American higher educa-
tion. W e are indeed prepared for such 
a program; we are prepared to state ef-
fectively at a national level the problems 
and needs of college libraries. W e are 

MARCH, 1956 141 



already embarked on such a program 
and at this point we need thoroughgoing 
support of our full membership if we 
are to maintain impetus. 

At this point we have three special 
debts to honor. W h e n the U n i t e d States 
Steel F o u n d a t i o n made us a $30,000 
grant last summer, it provided not only 
money. More importantly, it recognized 
a basic need in higher education that no 
other g r o u p h a d perceived. T h i s was an 
act of imagination a n d of some faith. 
Secondly, I want publicly to recognize 
L i b r a r i a n H u m p h r e y Bousfield of 
Brooklyn College, who knew when and 
where to p l a n t an idea. T h i r d l y , we are 
indebted to our executive secretary who 
has recognized this as a significant de-
velopment and has worked persistently 
to assure that the U. S. Steel grant bears 
f u r t h e r f r u i t . H e saw immediately that 
we must not only provide stewardship 
for the U. S. Steel f u n d s b u t t h a t we 
must develop a continuing program and 
t u r n this first grant into "seed corn." 

T h e actual details of our procedure 
in alloting the $30,000 grant and de-
veloping a program have been reported 
carefully by Mr. H a m l i n in a printed 
statement.1 I urge you all to read it. It 
embodies a dramatic t u r n in A C R L af-
fairs. I will limit myself to a bit of com-
mentary and reflection. 

Already 89 college libraries have re-
ceived some small tangible benefit. More 
importantly we have come, with a sense 
of shock I think, to realize how utterly 
poverty-stricken are the majority of col-
lege libraries in this country. T h e y 
operate too frequently on a subsistence 
level or worse, and these libraries are 
in no position individually to seek sub-
stantial outside financial aid. 

Here is the problem we must face. I 
can say here a n d now that the outlook 
for the next year is optimistic. Already 
Mr. H a m l i n , acting with initiative and 

1 "A Program for Grants to A s s i s t College Libraries, 
and a Report on the U n i t e d States Steel F o u n d a t i o n 
Grant of 1955," Chicago: A C R L , 1956. Available on 
request from the A C R L headquarters office. 

u n d e r authority given h i m by the com-
mittee, has secured a grant of $5,000 
f r o m the New York Times. T h e printed 
report on the U n i t e d States Steel grant 
will suggest the circumstances u n d e r 
which this came to us. O t h e r grants will, 
I am confident, be forthcoming. 

I want to add f u r t h e r that the pro-
curement and h a n d l i n g of f o u n d a t i o n 
f u n d s is not a simple or passive task. 
T h e New Yorker has said something in 
satirical vein about the difficulty of seek-
ing and giving mon^y. I can say sincerely 
that this task requires positive leader-
ship, vigor, a high level of sophistication, 
and some statesmanship on the part of 
our executive secretary and his staff. It 
also requires hours of h a r d work. After 
a year of working closely with your head-
quarters staff I can assure you that I 
have complete respect for them a n d con-
fidence in them. 

You will note that the printed report 
is directed particularly toward industrial 
and corporate foundations. T h i s reflects 
a significant change in the complexion 
of American philanthropy. Organized in-
dustrial giving is new a n d it is burgeon-
ing. It seeks a philosophy of action and 
a significant area of action in the public 
interest. W e have tried to understand 
this development, b u t we certainly do 
not propose to limit ourselves in the 
search for aid to college libraries. I as-
sure you that college libraries need all 
the aid we can bring to them. W e seek 
membership help in getting the official 
statement into the right hands. 

In seeking this aid A C R L needs wide-
spread membership support. Foundations 
will place f u n d s in our custody only if 
they are confident that A C R L is a solid, 
a durable, and an honorable professional 
organization; only if they are certain that 
A C R L is indeed the recognized national 
spokesman for all libraries in American 
higher education; they will t u r n to us in 
confidence only if they are certain that 
A C R L has a broad base of membership 
among the profession. 

142 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES