University of Arizona Library Tucson 1966

Annual Report, 1967/1968 Authors University of Arizona Library; Johnson, Robert K. Publisher University of Arizona Library (Tucson, AZ) Download date 06/10/2021 15:19:26 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/124701 UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONALIBRARY TUCSON Annual Report Sunimary 1966 - 1967 Prepared by DONALD M. POWELL Assistant University Librarian UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA LIBRARY ANNUAL REPORT 1966 - 1967 Summary COLLECTIONS A total of57,656 items processed during the year brings the Library's holdings to 1,161,526 of which 1.61i,729 are hard-bound volumes. The balance of 696,797 items includes government documents, maps, micro-forms, and other non-book materials. Expenditures from all sources for library materials came to a record $1171,050. The large special funds obtained for the Library during the past two years have been most helpful. These special funds plus those obtained specifi- cally for Latin American purchases and some NDEA funds provided by certain departments have brought our book budget close to half a million dollars. However, all this and more will be required in the next and following years as current and developing University programs require increasingly heavy purchase of current and retrospective foreign language materials, monographie and serial, as well as some retrospective domestic items. Lager budgets will be needed to enable us to come even close to meeting the needs of students, faculty, and staff.While a few allotments for purchases for departments were not used up, most such allotments were fullyspent by mid- year, and for all practical purposes departmental orderswere reduced to a mere trickle by April. Comparisons with other universities, however, reveal thatto do well our job of servicing theUniversity's needs we should have now a book collection -2- f 1,000,000 bound volumes to reach "threshold adequacy." While it can be argued that such comparisons are neither objective nor valid, they bear out 5ubject impressions and general agreement, If such libraries as Michigan, Illinois, and North Carolina can be said to have very good collections for the academic programs they support, we are probably short of the basic minimum by some 537,275 books. The problem of the unmet need for current American books will be largely solved beginning July 1 of the 1967-1968 fiscal year when the Library begins to receive from its jobber the total significant output of major American publishers including university presses. However, there still remain areas that require major infusions of funds -- out-of--print monographs, serial backfiles, increased journal subscriptions, and such special subject areas as Latin America, Oriental Studies, Optical and Space Science, English, History, Philosophy, etc.- Also needed is a discretionary fund for the Librarian to enable us to take advantage of unique or important subject collections or other unusually valuable potential purchases that come on the market from time to time. It is pleasing to close on an encouraging note. The University adminis- tration is clearly aware of the situation concerning the University's library resources and has been doing its best to provide special funds to help the Library attain strength as one of the major academic resource centers of the Southwest as rapidly as possible. PHYS ICAL REQUIREMENTS Here again, in spite of construction of the Science Division library building and remodeling of the Main Library only four years ago, the University of -3-- Arizona has a seriousproblem on its hands. It must be solved soon if we are toprovide satisfactorily for the Library's patrons, staff, and books. At present wehave only 1360 reader spaces in the two buildings. Adding the seating capacity in the Music Collection (50) and Instructional Materials (60) gives a total of 1LI.70 spaces for a student body of approx- imately 22,000, or space for less than 7% of the student population. As for the faculty, there is virtually no adequate space available except as they can find it in the general reading rooms or occasional locked cubicles which are also in demand by graduate students actively engaged in writing theses or dissertations. If we assume that only a 25% ratio of seats to students is an acceptable standard we are deficient by roughly 3700 seats. New quarters now being built or planned for Music and Instructional Materials respectively will do little to solve the problem for readers. Space for books likewise is rapidly disappearing. Earlier estimates of carrying capacity, especially in the Main Library were somewhat too san- guine. Within the coming year it will be impossible to make any more major shifts to produce any appreciable space, and certainly within two years we will be literally piling books on the floor in Main or will have to retire a portion of the collections to storage, and the situation in Science is onlylight1y less discouraging. Quarters for the administrative staff appear to be reasonably adequate for a few more years; however, working Space for both public and technical service personnel is again getting tight. It istime that we begin to give serious thought to the location and type - L1_ aswell as to priorities for new library construction. As in the matter of resources theadministration is aware of and sympathetic to the Library's space andbuilding requirer!ts for optïmu servíc STAFF it is likely thatfew if any libraries are better than the staff that slects, processes binds and. services ïts collections. Despite the t±iculties of recruiting, the present Library staff is not only basically well-trained and qualified, hut probably the best Library staff not only in the Library's history but in the Southwest. With the exception of salaries our over-all staff problems on the whole are not major. Since most newly authorized positions are at the beginning professional level these salaries are reasonably competitive. The main difficulty comes in recrúiting at the lower-middle, middle and upper-middle levels (experienced catalog, reference or other specialist librarians); only re- cently were we able to fill two cataloging positions, both of which had been vacant for a year. Because this is a university community we are able to attract sub-professional staff of better than average training and compe- tence, and we usually do not have serious difficulty in filling these positions. Although there is considerable turn-over in some positions at this level, with consequent breaks in continuity and expenditure of time involved in replacement and re-training, this problem apparently is University-wide and we do not suffer alone. Our student assistantson the whole are intelligent, efficient and con- scientious. Currently one of our problems is retaining the better ones who leave formore lucrative hourly wages offered elsewhere on and off the campus. Inasmuch as the Library is one of the largest campus employers, -5- and since thework generally requires more literate and capable s-tents, our budget for this purpose must be one of the largest and our hourly rates competitive. The alternatives of leaving rates where they are or increasing them and cutting services are unacceptable. IMPORTANT EVENTS The significant growth of library services and resources is always a matter of satisfaction for the institution's officials and Library staff. This year in addition to the noteworthy increases in funds for purchase of materials alluded to above a number of important events have occurred. Briefly they may be summarized as follows without any attempt to ranz them as to compara- tive importance: On invitation from the Association of Research Libraries the Univer- sity became a member through the Library. The appointment of Dr. Arnulfo D. Trejo as Bibliographer for Latin American Collections and establishment of a special fund for purchases significantly increased the Library's progress in this area. The authorization to establish a Photographic Laboratory as a unit under Mr. James Babb made a new range of photocopying services - photoprints, microfilm - available to the university community. -1. The Library became a member of the Committee on Library Automation, an unofficial but important "by invitation only" group of major American libraries engaged in significant automation work and ex- periments. 5. Climaxing a search of almost ten months for a qualified librarian knowledgeable in acquisitions, cataloging, and computer procedures, -6- we secured the services of Mr. Charles M. Peters who began service as Chief Technical Services Librarian July 1, 1966. This appointment filled a major gap in the staff, provided needed coordination of technical services work, and enabled us to move forward in step- by-step phasing of selected clerical chores into automated routines on a priority basis. The student recipient of the Library Staff AssociationTs $100 first prize in the Undergraduate Book Award contest, Mr.. Charles Pease, was awarded $200 and second place in the Amy Lo.veman National Book Award competition for his collection on speleology with consequent publicity in at least two national journals, as well as in the Arizona Daily Wildcat and local newspapers. Mr. John Sanderlin of Florida Atlantic University presented the second Library Lecture in May on the topic "Man or Machine: The Dynamics of Data Processing in the University Library." On July 1, 1966, Mr. Donald M. Powell became editor of the monthly checklist, Books of the Southwest, when Lawrence Clark 'oweil re- tired as editor and as Dan of the School of Library Service at UCLA. Mr. Powell also was awarded the Tucson Retail Trade Bureau's Faculty Recognition Award for March. NOTABLE ACQUIS ITIONS Twenty-two items of rare Western and Southwestern Americana from the sale of the library of Thomas Streeter. Forty-one volujnes of the Journal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, gift of Dr.

Load more