College and Research Libraries To the Editor: Anthony Ralston's "The Library Lobby" perhaps should not be taken seriously, since it represents not a scholarly approach to an academic problem but a political approach. However, it does appear as the lead article in a scholarly journal, and therefore, should be criticized in the hope that it will not be taken seriously. It is clear that Ralston does not under- stand the purpose of libraries, and one doubts that he understands the purposes of computers. The technology of comput- ers, yes; the purpose, no. The purpose of the library in the university should be aca- demic. So should the purpose of the com- puter. He says that the computer is a gen- eral intellectual resource for the entire uni- versity community and "all users make use of approximately the same set of resources." True, perhaps, but the actual data useful to a large segment of academia is almost nil. Ralston says that "lack of adequate com- puting facilities or fast service can be a se- vere, sometimes fatal impediment to effec- tive research activity," and "it is relatively unusual for the lack of specific items in the university library to make a research activi- ty unfeasible." Try that last one on the next professor requesting an interlibrary loan! Such statements reveal an ignorance of re- search and its techniques. Perhaps, as Pro- fessor Billington of Princeton has said, "the advent of the computer has encouraged the trivialization of scholarship and the belief that things that count are those that can be counted." 0 Ralston suggests the library charge stu- dents for providing information and that each department have a budget for libra1y usage to which each transaction be charged. So now we are to provide service 0 Quoted in The Chronicle of Higher Edu- cation 6:5 (12 Oct. 1971 ). 140 I Letters only to those students and departments that can provide a budget for it. It is quite true that some departments use the library more than others, and that library services need to be evaluated, but we need more inter- disciplinary cooperation, not a further frag- mentation of the university based on ability to pay. Ralston's views are not new. They repre- sent the nan-ow view that technologists have always held and which have contrib- uted so much to the belief that if something is technologically feasible it should be done, and should be supported, without concern for the implications to society. The com- puter is a marvelous tool and has many ap- plications in both data processing, and some day, information retrieval. It needs the firm hand of the humanist to guide it if it is to make a significant contribution to goals of the university. G. M. Jenks Ellen Clarke Bertrand Library Bucknell University L ewisbu1·g, Pennsylvania To the Editor: Elizabeth Stone's article, "Quest for Expertise: A Librarian's Responsibility" ( C RL, Nov. 1971) , discusses ideas and makes suggestions which have wider appli- cation than just to academic librarians. All librarians, academic, special, public, school, etc., have an obligation to develop profes- sionally. What concerns me is the narrow- ness of ways and subjects in which Stone suggests librarians can grow professionally. I agree workshops are an excellent way in which to keep up with the new develop- ments in the field of library science. Library schools should do much more in sponsoring one- or two-day meetings designed to keep professional librarians up to date. I question the advisability of taking more than two or three more courses in library school after one has their MLS degree unless studying for a doctorate. Formal courses in library science per se can only go so far and after a while cannot really help one to grow pro- fessionally. Also, I seriously question Stone's conten- tion that librarians should be expected to engage in research and publication as a matter of course and that growth will auto- matically follow. A great deal of research and scholarly writing done today is repeti- tious, dull, and of little significance. It may enhance the writers' reputation and if em- ployed in teaching it is necessary to advanc- ing one's career. Whether it really contrib- utes to the profession and learning in gen- eral is another question. Not all people are equipped to do research or have the incen- tive to do it. Testing the results of research is always a questionable task since condi- tions usually have to be right and situations do not always call for the application of re- search results. Stone suggests that librarians become in- volved in the community outside the library as librarians. I would suggest librarians be- come involved in the community in any way they wish as individuals whose profes- sion happens to be that of a librarian. What is necessary, I think, for the librarian is first and foremost for the librarian to develop as a person; to have other interests than the library. One may have strong interests out- side the library and the library profession and still be a dedicated, up-to-date librari- an; if one is aware of the world in which they live they can serve the public better than if they try to apply everything they come across to librarianship. In this day of specialization and social upheaval it may be rather old-fashioned to suggest librarians return to the concept that a librarian should be a "Renaissance Man," but that is what I think we should aim for. Stone emphasizes the social and behavioral sciences to the exclusion of the sciences and humanities. The librarian in- terested in the sciences or humanities has as much to contribute to the profession as those interested in the social sciences. Librarians deal with people in social sit- utations, true, but they deal with individu- als more. A humane and particular interest in each person's needs is more important Letters I 141 than dealing with the library public as a so- cial group. To the Editor: Lois E. Newman Librarian RAND Corporation Library Santa Monica, California Thank you for Mrs. Stone's article. I will now start reading, widely, outside library professional literature-take courses and re- ceive formal instruction-attend everv workshop I can-calm my fears, undo my ignorance-join Common Cause, and Sierra Club, the Republicans even-never miss a PTA meeting-and see how I progress. Do we report back a year from now? For those who cannot bring themselves to any of these, be consoled. Motivation is in the genes and if Stone's findings are cor- rect, librarians are wanting in this part of their genetic makeup. Genetic engineering is indicated; exhortations are useless. T. Mark Hodges Associate Librarian Southeastern Regional Medical Library Prograr,n Er,nory University Atlanta, Georgia P. S. Anthony Ralston's article was a real humdinger. To the Editor: I am a little surprised to see ·Mason's ad- jectival orgy taken so seriously ( CRL, Sept. 1971). I expected Clyde King's evaluation of the Gas Bubble to conclude "but of zero scholarly value." I find it difficult to believe that anyone ever believed all that Licklider told us in "Libraries of the Future," · or that senior members of the profession should fail to recognize that the computer is to the print- ing press what the internal combustion en- gine is to our own two feet. Did you ever know anyone who sold his car after costing it against his own two feet? Amongst the problems facing the costing of automation projects is the problem of costing our services and finding th.e time to do it. If Mason cared to visit the Universi- ty of Newscast]e-upon-Tyne, he could see 142 I College & Research Libraries • March 1972 an order system which, when I left the post in the spring of 1970, had not been evalu- ated beyond «we couldn't go back to the old system." Amongst the benefits I would not know how to cost are monthly lists in- forming staff of the progress of orders placed in response to their requests, regular reminders in place of the annual dismem- berment of the order file, relief from filing, a printout allowing much speedier consulta- tion than a card file . The early literature stressed that comput- ers were looked to to solve problems of in- creasing loads which manual systems were unable to bear, especially circulation sys- tems. This hardly tallies with the vision of manual perfection that emanates from Hof- stra. If Mason has no problems he can well afford to watch from the wings until fully developed packages are available for him to take over-development costs nil. To the Editor: john H. Russell Sub librarian Salford University Salford, England Re Carver's letter re Corbin re Mason: Carver, I think, does Mason some justice, and some too to Corbin. But, my goodness, the last paragraph of the letter-well, all one can say is: "For heaven's sake, block that flyaway metaphor." Peter Gellatly Serials Librarian University of Washington Libraries Seattle To the Editor: As a university librarian, and now a stu- dent of information problems, I could not agree more with Anthony Ralston ( CRL 32:427- 31, Nov. 1971). In the last few years, my entire orientation on the question of building library collections has been-in library committee meetings, at professional library meetings, and in my writings-to- ward making more efficient use of the books we have and by making more efficient allo- cation of the book budget. I have taken this stance even 'if it were to mean a reduc- tion in the library's budget, or a reduction of the percentage of the university's budget allocated to the library. Finding ways to "consider the utility of a particular book or periodical when order- ing it," as Ralston puts it, is one of our pro- fession's great unsolved problems. How do we predict demand for a book at time of purchase? And how many copies do we buy to satisfy that demand? The second ques- tion has been partially answered, but not the first. To wait until the book has or has not circulated over a period of time before determining demand merely contributes to the usual frustration in libraries. If Ralston can suggest a solution to this problem-or even suggest a resea1·ch method-he would be making a contribution to our profession even greater than he has with his article. Not until we have this solution can we ef- fectively reduce our budgets, or pacify the faculty at large who are after all the ones whose demand for large libraries accounts for library budgets which everyone except men like Ralston say aren't large enough. William E. McGrath Syracuse University School of Library Science Syracuse, New York To the Editor: I was astonished to find, in the annota- tion on p.40- 41 of the January 1972 issue of C RL ("Selected Reference Books of 1970-71") that Gazety SSSR, 1917-1960 is the "definitive bibliography of Soviet pe- riodical literature," lists "journals by sub- ject," and omits archival locations for "jour- nals." This is a crucial error in a usually re- liable listing such as Mr. Sheehy's, since the highly important bibliography under review lists only n ewspapers, as is clearly indicated by the unambiguous title. As the volume's preface states, this is the first attempt to compile a complete listing of post-Revolu- tionary newspapers printed in the USSR. And, as any Slavic librarian should know, the definitive periodical bibliography for the 1917-1960 period (covering journals, monographs in series, and miscellaneous re- current publications) has been in print for some years. Periodicheskaia pechat' SSSR, 1917-1949 (M., 1955-63) was followed by Letopis' periodicheskikh izdanii SSSR, 1950-1954 and Le.topis' periodicheskikh 'r I I l izdanii SSSR, 1955-1960. A forthcoming supplement will list interim journals pub-lished from January 1917 to the establish-ment of Soviet power in 1923, thus com- pleting a se!ies of periodical bibliographies spanning the period from 1703-1960. I should also like to take exception to Ms. Evelyn Lauer's criticism of the lack of library locations for the so-called "jour- nals." Such a union listing would be re- dundant, since all the newspapers listed are available either from the Lenin Library (Moscow) or the Saltykov-Shchedrin Li- brary (Leningrad), and the major all-Union newspapers (such as Pravda, Izvestiia, Eko- nomicheskaia Gazeta, Krasnaia Zvezda, etc.) are also held by the city libraries of the Republic capitals. I hope this note will clarify the scope and intent of Gazety SSSR, 1917- 1960 for librarians who otherwise might have been regrettably misled, and who might not have added this exceedingly valuable pioneer work to their collections. To the Editor: Rosemary Neiswender Slavic Bibliographer University of California Los Angeles Mrs. McCaghy and Mr. Purcell have made a good case study of "Faculty Use of Government Publications" at Case Weste1n Reserve University (CRL 33:7- 12, Jan. 1972) and I agree with them on sugges- tions made to increase user's awareness of the documents collection. Indeed, no mat- ter what organizational scheme the library may adopt for maintaining government publications (U.S. federal), it would very much depend upon librarian's efforts and expertise to promote a fuller use of them to support academic and research programs Letters I 143 of the institution and, in this sense, a closer and constant communication between facul- ty members and librarians should be more encouraged and desirable in the area of government publications. The degree of using government publica- tions by faculty members (and students) may also depend upon what type of aca- demic and research programs the institu- tion carries on. The paper does not include this factor in conducting the survey and the outcome of it could have been ·somewhat different. Following are some of the academic and research programs at State University of New York at Stony Brook which generate a heavier use of government publications both by faculty members and students in the group, among others, of . statistical/ technical publications, and U.$. congres- sional committee hearings: For Undergraduate Academic Programs: 1. Interdisciplinary Program in Black Studies · 2. Interdisciplinary Program in Environ- mental Studies · 3. Interdisciplinary Progra'm in Urban Science and Engineering For Graduate Academic and Research Programs: 1. Earth and Space Sciences 2. Ecology and Evolution 3. Marine Environmental Studies . 4. Urban Science and Engineering 5. Applied Ecology Project As you may know, the majority of publica- tions to support the above programs are government-authored at all levels. I ai Liang Yun Documents Librarian State University of N ew York at Stony Brook