[This text is machine generated and may contain errors.]

Collection development,
in the strict sense of fhe
phrase, may be a myih in
many libraries.

President

LELAND M, PARK
Davidson College Library
Davidson, NC 28036
(704) 892-2000 Ext. 331

First Vice-President/
President-Elect
PAULINE F. MYRICK
Moore County Schoois
Box 307
Carthage, NC 28327
(919) 947-2976

Second Vice-President

M. JANE WILLIAMS
Division of State Library
109 East Jones Street
Raleigh, NC 27611
(919) 733-2570

Secretary
ROBERTA S. WILLIAMS

Transylvania County Library
105 South Broad Street
Brevard, NC 28712

(704) 884-3151

Treasurer

EUNICE P. DRUM
Box 40034
Raleigh, NC 27604
(919) 733-4488

Director
SHIRLEY B. McLAUGHLIN
Asheville-Buncombe Technical
College
340 Victoria Road
Asheville, NC 28801
(704) 254-1921 Ext. 300

Director
JERRY A. THRASHER
Cumberland County Public
Library
Box 1720
Fayetteville, NC 28302
(919) 483-1580

Past President

MERTYS W. BELL
5608 Scotland Road
Greensboro, NC 27407

ALA Representative

EMILY BOYCE
Department of Library Science
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC 27834
(919) 757-6621

NCLA EXECUTIVE BOARD

1983-85

SELA Representative
REBECCA S. BALLENTINE
Institute of Government
UNC-Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
(919) 966-4130

Editor, North Carolina
Libraries
ROBERT BURGIN
School of Library Science
North Carolina Central
University
Durham, NC 27707
(919) 683-6485

SECTION/ROUND TABLE CHAIRS

ChildrenTs Services

KAREN M. PERRY
Archdale-Trinity Middle School
Box 232
Trinity, NC 27370
(919) 431-6714

College and University
ROBERT N. BLAND
Ramsey Library
UNC-Asheville, NC 28814
(704) 258-6543

Community and Junior
College Libraries

MARY AVERY
Learning Resources Center
Rowan Technical College
Box 1595

Salisbury, NC 28144
(704) 637-0760

Documents

STUART BASEFSKY
Duke University Library
Durham, NC 27606
(919) 684-2373

Junior Members Round table
VIVIAN W. BEECH :
New Hanover County Public
Library
201 Chestnut Street
Wilmington, NC 28403
(919) 763-3303

N.C. Association of School "
Librarians :
JUDIE DAVIE
_ Department of Library Science/
Educational Technology
UNC-Greensboro
Greensboro, NC 27412
(919) 379-5100 Ext. 63

Public Library
JUDITH K. SUTTON
Public Library of Charlotte
and Mecklenburg County
310 North Tryon Street
Charlotte, NC 28202
(704) 336-2660

Reference and Adult Services
LARRY BARR

Department of Library and
Media Studies

Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608

(704) 262-2243

Resources and Technical Services

BENJAMIN F. SPELLER, JR.

School of Library Science
North Carolina Central University
Durham, NC 27707

(919) 683-6485

Round Table for Ethnic Minority
Concerns
MARY P. WILLIAMS
J. Y. Joyner Library
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC 27834
(919) 757-6691

Round Table on the Status of
Women in Librarianship
PATSY J. HANSEL
Cumberland County Public
Library
Box 1720
Fayetteville, NC 28302
(919) 483-8600

Trustees

DOROTHY R. BURNLEY
508 Ashe Street
High Point, NC 27260
(919) 733-4838

tA. CAIOINO
(O"IGS

TABLE OF CONTENTS



iby

ISSN 0029-2540

Articles
4 Introduction, Patsy Hansel and Harry Tuchmayer
5 Building a Usable Library Collection, Harry Tuchmayer
10 Balancing the Books, Valerie W. Lovett
12 Approval Plans as a Method of Collection Development,
Sallie E. Mann
15 Faculty vs. Staff Selection: Collection Development in the
Academic Library, Eugene Huguelet
17. The System of Allocations from the Book Budget at
UNC-G, James H. Thompson
20 Computers and Collection Development, George B. Viele
23 Building a Serials Collection in an Academic Library,
Joline R. Ezzell
26 Development of a Collection: The Music Library at East
Carolina University, Geraldine Laudati
29 Collecting North Caroliniana, Alice R. Cotten
32 Developing Your Fiction Collection " Realistically
Speaking, Frances Bryant Bradburn
35 Collection Development in a Municipal Public Library,
Robert C. Russell
39 Collection Development in a Public Library Branch,
Patrice Gaffney Ebert
43 The Hatteras Library: A Small Unit in a Regional System,
Anne D. Sanders
45 Merchandising the Collection from the Small Branch
Perspective, Barbara Cashwell
47 LibrariansT Attitudes Toward Networking,
Peggy Chapman
Features
2 From the President, Leland M. Park
52 New North Carolina Books
61 NCLA Minutes
Cover: Joline R. Ezzell, oBuilding a Serials Collection in an Advertisers: American Library Association, pp. 31, 42; Baker &
Academic Library,� North Carolina Libraries 43 (Spring 1985): Taylor, p. 3; ChildrenTs Services Section, NCLA, p. 19; Ebsco, p. 4;
23-25. This issue features a number of observations on collection Freedom to Read Foundation, p. 4; McGregor, p. 38; National
development in North Carolina libraries. Georgraphic, p. 9; Phiebig, p. 8; Ruzicka, p. 22; University

: Microfilms, pp. 22, 44.
Volume 43, Number 1 Spring 1985

From the President

Governmental Relations. This is the commit-
tee that, when the legislature and the Congress
are in session, stays on the move. There are days
planned for librarians to opress a call� on their
representatives in Raleigh, and the trip to
Washington in April during National Library Week
is all set. With the fifth largest library association
in the country having highly visible membes in
each of North CarolinaTs one hundred counties, it
is a formidable force when organized. Keep in
touch with your section chairmen and/or Louise
Boone, who heads up the Governmental Relations
Committee for NCLA. They can use your help to
oStand Up For Libraries.�

MsM Interviews. Be sure to catch the publi-
cation of the Round Table on the Status of Women
in Librarianship, MsManagement. ItTs excellent,
and the interviews with librarians of note in our
state are uniformly interesting and informative.
Jane Williams, Elaine Von Oesen, Dale Gaddis,
Mattie Russell are just a few of the notables inter-
viewed. And it makes you even more proud to be a
part of this profession in North Carolina.

Government Documents. There are thirty-
five federal depository libraries in North Carolina,
from the mountains to the coast. Their resources
are vast and rich, and they work together in col-
lection development and resource sharing. A new
North Carolina State Documents Plan has been
written delineating the organization of the mate-
rials and how they may be accessed by everyone.
Jaia Barrett (Duke), Jean Porter (NCSU), and Rid-
ley Kessler drew up the plan. If you donTt have a
copy for your library, write Mr. Kessler, the
regional depository librarian, at Davis Library,
UNC-Chapel Hill.

New Scholarship Fund. Elsewhere in this
issue you will find the exciting news of a gift to
one of our sections, NCASL, of $5,000 by NCLA
president emerita Eunice Query to establish yet
another scholarship fund for library school stu-
dents. Miss Query has worked hard for library
education for decades; in her retirement she has
proved that she opractices what she preached.�

2"North Carolina Libraries

stand up for
libraries

NORTH CAROLINA LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

We are most grateful for her continued support
and especially for her friendship. We are proud to
claim her as a colleague par excellence.

Spring Workshop. April 12-13 will find NCLA
hosting its annual spring workshop at Greensboro
College. We are entering the home stretch of the
biennium, and this is an important time for com-
mittees, the executive board, and section officers
to meet and make plans for the October confer-
ence and other activities during the next several
months. All meetings are open; join us.

Raleigh Conference. Pauline Myrick and her
committee are working hard on the fall confer-
ence in Raleigh. Speakers for the general sessions
and banquet will be announced soon, and I think
you will be most pleased. Sections are firming up
plans for their meetings, and exhibitors are being
contacted. (Ask salesmen if their firms will be
represented; contact Bill Kirwan at Western Caro-
lina for information.) It is a great undertaking to
put a conference together, and NCLA has a repu-
tation for outstanding ones. Plan to be there:
October 2-4.

Membership. Renewals for memberships
have been mailed by treasurer Eunice Drum in
the last several months. If you received one, be
sure to renew right away. You donTt want to miss
any issues of North Carolina Libraries, Tar Heel
Libraries, ballots for officers (which will be
mailed in late Spring), or information about the
conference. Besides, NCLA needs you!

Tag News. A librarianTs car made the news
recently! Martha H. Davis, library director of the
Rockingham County Public Library, has recently
installed a new CLSI LIBS 100 circulation system
in her libraries. Mrs. Davis is so pleased with the
system and so interested in spreading the word in
her county about the librariesT new venture in
automation that she has oLIBS-100� as her carTs
license plate number. Check the Winter 1985 issue
of Newsletter of Library Automation (p. 15) for a
super picture.

Next Executive Board Meeting: Greensboro,
April 12-13, 1985.

Leland M. Park, President

Ordering books shouldn't be a maddening
experience.

Dealing with an inflexible book supplier is no tea
patty.

That's why so many librarians prefer to deal with
Baker & Taylor For over 150 years we've been listen-
ing carefully and responding with economical and
customized methods to help librarians get the most
from their budget.

We've developed time-saving, cost-effective programs
like our Continuation Service, Book Leasing System
and Approval Program. And our electronic ordering ser-
vices like BalaPHONE® BalaSYSTEMS�"� and LIBRIS II�"�

are state of the art. All have been developed with the
help of professional librarians who understand the
needs of todayTs libraries.

So whenever you have any questions about how to
improve your book ordering services, ask Baker &
Taylor

You can expect some very straight answers. And that's

no fairy tale.
EXPERIENCE YOU CAN DEPEND ON

Call or write us now BAKER & TAYLOR

for more information. a GRACE company

Eastern Division, 50 Kirby Avenue, Somerville, NJ 08876 (201) 722-8000 Midwestern Division, 501 S. Gladiolus Street, Momence, IL 60954 (815) 472-2444
Southern Division, Mt. Olive Road, Commerce, GA 30599 (404) 335-5000 Western Division, 380 Edison Way, Reno, NV 89564 (702) 786-6700

1985 Spring"3

Introduction

PLAIN
AND
SIMPLE

Our physical size and financial strength"necessary to make
and honor commitments"indicate the successful working
relationships we have with thousands of libraries worldwide.

But the plain truth is, simply, that it is our sensitivity to
your unique requirements, and our flexibility in providing an
exhaustive and relentless effort for total customer service
that is our real strength.

We want to work with you"to help you provide
exceptional patron service, which is your strength.

We can help. Write today"

EBSCO SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES
The Serials Professionals

=e\

As the following assortment of oobservations�
demonstrates, there are no hard and fast rules
concerning collection development. Collection
development happens in libraries. Some librar-
ians take a fairly cavalier approach to it, some are
very serious about it, most probably operate
somewhere in between.

This variability in approach lent itself to an
issue devoted to oobservations� from a number of
librarians on collection development themes. We
asked for an assortment of short observations
(not full-length articles) that might raise a few
eyebrows and generate some debate in the library
community. What we present to you fulfills part of
our original design; it is left up to you, the reader,
to complete the project.

8000 Forbes Place, Suite 204
Springfield, VA 22151
(703) 321-7494/321-9630

Harry Tuchmayer
New Hanover
Public Library

Patsy Hansel
Cumberland County
Public Library

If the right to express your ideas is important to you...
then you can help fight suppression of free expression.

Freedom to Read Foundation

The battle is an important one. Today
reports of attempts to censor books
and information are at record highs.
Any book, magazine, photograph

or other material can be the target

of would-be censors from the left,
right or center.

Your membership in the Freedom
to Read Foundation can make a
difference in protecting the free flow
of information and ideas"the basic
principles of the First Amendment.

The Foundation is a 14-year-old
organization of librarians, lawyers,
educators, booksellers, authors,
publishers and other concerned citi-
zens who have joined together to
safeguard the tradition of-free expres-
sion in America. The Foundation
provides legal and financial support
to those at the frontline of censorship
challenges.

Your membership in the
Freedom to Read Foundation will:

¢ help support librarians across the
nation who are beleaguered by
raids on our libraries

* expand the freedom to read by
offering legal and financial help
in cases involving authors, pub-
lishers and booksellers

* entitle you to the Freedom to Read
Foundation News, a quarterly
newsletter on censorship trends,
current court cases, legislative
developments, and reports
of successes in bouts with censors.

Books and ideas aren't dangerous...
but information restraints on a free
people are. Protect the future of

the First Amendment. Join the
Freedom to Read Foundation.

Yes, | want to become active in the
Freedom to Read Foundation.

My membership check for $

is enclosed. This tax-deductible
contribution entitles me to vote for
Foundation trustees and to receive

the quarterly Freedom to Read
Foundation News.
$10 student $100 sponsor

$25 regular
$50 contributing

0 $500 patron
$1000 benefactor

Name

Address

City State Zip

Please make checks payable to
Freedom to Read Foundation and
mail to Freedom to Read Foundation,
50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611.

Seen ss a,

4"North Carolina Libraries

Building a Usable Library Collection

Harry Tuchmayer

Librarians have lost touch with their collec-
tions. When new advances in management theory
called for participatory management practices
that took the employeesT needs into account,
librarians were quick to become opersonnel man-
agers.� When automation continued to blossom,
We became oinformation scientists.� And it should
come as no surprise to see that as those in educa-
tion return to basics, we too find ourselves think-
ing along similar lines.

But does a return to basics in the library
world really mean returning to the three Rs?
Libraries are, above all else, a place for books. But
what kind of books should be there? In the past,
conventional wisdom had it that libraries should
be the storehouses of great literature and impec-
Cable scholarship. Our mission was to educate
Society and offer to the community a place where
those who wanted to could familiarize themselves
with ohigh culture,� as a means towards self-im-
provement. Paperbacks were unheard of and
Pulp novels rarely raised their otrashy� heads in
the stacks. We wanted readers"but we wanted
them on our terms. Somehow, we were more con-
cerned with building a collection that we as pro-
fessionals could be proud of than we were with
building one that could and would be used.

Today all libraries, not just public libraries,
are at the crossroads. We are faced with a
demanding clientele and a publishing industry
that is producing more and retaining less. We
need to be responsive to these demands by sup-
plying our customers with the books and mate-

rials they want and need when they want and
need them.

Cornerstones to Collection Building: Identify-
ing Your Users and Their Needs

Each library serves a distinct community of
users. Identifying who these users are and what
their needs may be is not an easy task. However, it
is the necessary first step in attempting to build a
"--"_"".

Harry Tuchmayer is Head of the Technical Services Depart-

Pag of the New Hanover County Public Library in Wilming-
m.

usable library collection. How do we identify user
needs? How do we assess strengths and weak-
nesses of a library collection geared towards serv-
ing these needs? Certainly such methods as
community surveys, user surveys, and analyzing
circulation records will all have certain bits of
information that can be used to build a library
collection, but we need to do much more than
that. We need to pinpoint areas both in nonfiction
and fiction where customer demand is present.
Business libraries have successfully identified
their customersT needs by utilizing SDI services
(selective dissemination of information) as a way
of earmarking new information and routing it to
those people who would be most interested in
hearing about it. They have succeeded by knowing
what projects certain employees are working on
and where their fields of interest lie. Libraries,
both public and academic, should do similar
things. Branch librarians, for instance, instinc-
tively offer this type of service when they inform
regular customers of the publication of Harold
RobbinsTs latest novel or the arrival of an interest-
ing historical biography. ShouldnTt we use this
approach"our knowledge of all our customersT
reading habits and interests"in deciding on the
purchase of titles? We need to build viable nonfic-
tion collections in areas of interest to our clien-
tele. This means buying multiple copies of good
how-to books for the public library. It means buy-
ing multiple copies of the standard scholarly
source for the history student at the undergradu-
ate institution. The fact remains that somewhere
in the backs of our minds, we have always been
able to identify the needs of our customers. The
problem is that we have been ounwilling� or
ounable� to supply them. Unfortunately, many of
us believe, or were taught to believe, that the
quantity of titles is more important than the
appropriateness of the volumes we have.
Traditionally, academic libraries, especially
the four-year institutions, have shied away from
multiple copies of a particular title. The incentive
has always been to buy as many distinct titles as
possible. But does this really serve the clientele?
Does it do the undergraduate any good to find an

1985 Spring"5

esoteric title on the American Revolution when
any one of three standard sources would have
been perfectly acceptable for the report he
needed to write? Keeping up with the scholarship
in the field, communication with instructors, fig-
uring out what courses are offered, and what
requirements are being asked of the students, all
play an important part in helping the librarian
decide which materials to purchase. Similarly, in
the public library, numerous areas can be identi-
fied as being obottomless pitsT"areas where an
unending number of titles could be provided to a
multitude of customers. The question becomes,
oShould we provide multiple copies of good
sources or look for one more copy of one more
title to fill this need?� Librarians ought to spend
the time necessary to select standard titles in
these areas and then purchase multiple copies of
them. This will ultimately provide the customer
with a better selection of materials and a greater
likelihood of obtaining them. Quality service
results from quality collections, and quality col-
lections are built not by the number of titles held
but by the usefulness of the titles in the collection.

Building a collection that meets customersT
demands does not mean buying otrash.� Rather,
we should look at collection building in much the
same way as any major department store looks at
merchandising. Quality stores exist and thrive
when their stock meets the varying needs of the
customer. In the same fashion, the library has an
obligation to provide its customers with all of
their literary entertainment and information
needs. The local department store has no problem
carrying Pierre Cardin and Liz Claiborne clothing
on racks across the aisle from Levis and odesigner-
less� brand labels. Why should we in the library
world see a problem with multiple copies of Jn
Search of Excellence and Come Love a Stranger
coexisting on the new book shelf? Building a usa-
ble collection is synonymous with developing a
quality collection. It requires a commitment on
the part of the library to actively purchase and
collect from the entire range of published mate-
rials.

Process of Collection Building: Selection and
Acquisition of Materials

Identifying what your customers want is only
the first (and perhaps easiest) step in building a
usable collection. Selecting the appropriate mate-
rial and guaranteeing its prompt delivery and
speedy access by the customer complete the pro-
cess.

6"North Carolina Libraries

What we select has a direct bearing on how
well our library is used. Unfortunately, in many
libraries the selection process is far removed from
the demands of the customers. In many academic
libraries, faculty selection constitutes the bulk of
the monographic selections; in many public librar-
ies, selectors are enticed by salesmen and seduced
by reviews. Nowhere in this process are the con-
cerns of the primary users of material placed at
the forefront of the selection process.

Reviews in such publications as Booklist,
Library Journal, and most scholarly journals
offer competent and sound advice concerning the
oquality� of the items in question, yet they provide
us with this information months after the date of
release. Add to this the lag time involved in the
ordering and processing procedures of most
libraries, and we are confronted with delays in
receiving onew� materials that reach upwards of
six months. Does it benefit any of our customers
when they wait months for the next Robert Lud-
lum bestseller or an academic work by the leading
scholar in the field?

Building a collection that meets
customersT demands does not
mean buying otrash.�

Of course, libraries have developed omecha-
nisms� to deal with this, so we buy bestselling
authors without the benefit of reviews and estab-
lish approval plans and blanket orders for books
by renowned publishers in specified disciplines.
Why the dual standard? Why subject the rest of
our collections to this standard of oquality� when
we turn our heads in the case of some of our most
heavily used, or most extensively purchased,
materials? Part of the answer is knowledge"we
intuitively know what our customers are looking
for. And part of the answer is time and the recog-
nition that speed matters. It matters because our
customers demand it and the publishing industry
requires it.

Short publishing runs and the ever-increas-
ing demands for timely information on the part of
all library customers have changed the ground
rules for the selection of materials. We must order
materials based upon prepublication announce-
ments and reviews; speed up the selection process
by creating selection oteams� or committees that
are responsible for the selection of materials for

the entire system; streamline the ordering process
by centralizing the selection process; and reduce
the time it takes to process materials by recogniz-
ing that Technical Services is, first and foremost, a
public service.

How do we accomplish this? First, let us
demand that the periodicals that supply us with
reviews shift their emphasis to prepublication.
Vendors have already recognized this need by
publishing monthly magazines that omirror� PW.
Why not insist that Choice, LJ, Booklist, and oth-
ers offer prepublication reviews? Why not request
that scholarly journals run their own reviews
from galleys? Use the prepublication sources that
are available and use them heavily. Advertising
budgets, author tours, and publication runs
inform us of the potential demand any title will
see. We should stay attuned to these demands,
both real and potential, and devise alternate
sources of information on books. Keeping in touch
with what the local bookstores sell is a good start-
ing point. Local talk shows, popular magazines
and upcoming community events also reflect your
ClienteleTs interests.

Let us revamp our selection processes to best
meet these challenges. First, the public library
should create selection teams that meet regularly
and decide the fiction and nonfiction book selec-
tion for the entire system. The team should be of a
Manageable size (three to four maximum), meet
once every three weeks, and represent all areas of
library service, openly soliciting and encouraging
Suggestions for purchase from all interested staff.
Allocate a specific dollar amount to be spent
Solely on mass market paperbacks. Make this the
primary responsibility for each branch librarian.
This will allow them to immediately satisfy
demand for current literature"a demand that
already exceeds 20 per cent of most public librar-
iesT total circulation.2 Otherwise, do away with
hard and fast budget allocations for each branch
and instead purchase to meet demand. Reasona-
ble guidelines should be established, depending
on the libraryTs budget and service requirements.
Cut down on time-consuming bibliographic check-
ing by staying ahead on orders, centralizing the
process of selection, and utilizing different chan-
nels for ordering items. Make arrangements with
local bookstores to buy paperbacks at a maxi-
mum discount. Use your standard high discount
vendor for all current purchases and establish
different procedures for those items earmarked
as collection redevelopment.

Priority must be given to processing new

Material quickly. Stop relying on technical serv-
ices departments as backups to traditional public

services and instead realize that fast turnaround
time és a public service. Providing new material to
your customers before, or at least at the same
time as, the local bookstores do informs your
clientele that the library does service their needs.
(It also reduces the need to buy additional copies
of many titles by getting a head start on the
reserve list.)

Making the selection of material a priority
operation of library services is the ultimate goal of
the process of collection building: the emphasis
should be placed upon staying current, providing

We must reduce the time it
takes to process materials by
recognizing that Technical Serv-
ices is, first and foremost, a
public service.

your customers with the information that they
want, when they want it.

Collection Building as a Total Library Policy:
Guaranteeing That the Books Get Used

Buying current material that is in high
demand is only part of the process of building a
usable library collection. Oftentimes, needs
change and holes develop in our collections. Or, as
is more often the case in heavily used sections of
the library, our collections either cannot support
the demands of the customer or have lost a good
percentage of the material through attrition. For
whatever reason, it is important that the entire
collection, both nonfiction and fiction, be exam-
ined and evaluated on a regular basis. The objec-
tive is to identify strengths and weaknesses in the
collection and to make recommendations for
weeding and purchasing of materials in order to
update the holdings.

Each member of the professional staff should
be assigned specific areas of the collection. A
major part of each personTs responsibility would
be to personally examine the holdings and look at
the changing activity of the items in that section.
Then a detailed report could be prepared to iden-
tify which specific areas need to be weeded, where
the collection appears to be strong or weak, what
areas contain sufficient materials to meet appar-

ent demand and what areas need further strength-
ening. These reports should be organized around
specific LC or Dewey class numbers and a priority
ranking of areas deemed most in need of material
should be provided. The collection development

1985 Spring"7

librarian could then review these reports against
circulation statistics broken down by specific
class number. Then some final recommendations
concerning where the library should begin its col-
lection redevelopment process can be made.

The by-product of this detailed attention to
the collection is three-fold. First, it aids in the
purchasing of new materials by reaffirming areas
of high demand. It also indicates to those respon-
sible for certain sections why the library does not
need to purchase just another good title in an
area of low demand. New purchases in these
areas can therefore be tailored to meet various
needs and a realistic attempt at developing a
truly obalanced� collection"one where the library
has the appropriate amount of good material
available in all areas of the collection"can be
made.

Second, it reminds us that library collections
are not static. Unlike our own personal collections
of books, library material has a high level of attri-

Why not insist that Choice, LJ,
Booklist, and others offer pre-
publication reviews?

tion. One cannot reasonably expect all the mate-
rials we have purchased over the years to either
still be available (items do get lost, stolen, or dete-
riorate beyond use), or be worth having in the

current collection.*
Finally, it brings the entire professional staff

back in touch with the primary purpose of the
library. Librarians not only need to be aware of
what our customers want"we need to be con-
stantly aware of what we have to offer them. This
type of attention to the collection is not designed
to produce better librarians but better libraries. A
nice by-product, of course, is that it does produce

better librarians.
Our goal, as professionals, is to build a usable

library collection that meets the needs of our cus-
tomers. This goal is our overriding objective, and
we must accomplish it with the same zest and
enthusiasm we have put into automation and
managerial concerns. This is not to say that posi-
tive trends in personnel management and auto-
mation have not been beneficial to the library
world. They have, but the emphasis needs to be
shifted to make them beneficial to the process of
collection building. Let us restore the importance
of this activity to the profession. Library schools
must stress collection development as the corner-

8"North Carolina Libraries

stone of the profession; library administrators
must emphasize this activity among their staffs;
and reference and technical services librarians
must devote as much time and energy to this as
we have to automation. Libraries can meet
demand and build quality collections at the same
time. It doesnTt necessarily take money; but it does
take time and commitment. Only when we
approach collection development with this com-
mitment to excellence will we begin to develop a
truly usable collection.

References

1. IngramTs Advance Magazine offers the best example of this
trend. Other vendors, such as BrodartTs T.0.P.S. (Titles of Prime
Selection), Baker & TaylorTs Forecast, and WaldenbooksT Best-
seller, carry similar publications.

2. New Hanover County Public Library circulation statistics for
the year 1984 show that over 22 per cent of the main library
circulation figures are a result of mass market paperbacks. Fig-
ures for the branches exceed 50 per cent.

3. Active weeding is recommended for all libraries, academic
and public, with the exception of those libraries truly designed
to support major research operations, primarily Ph.D.-granting
institutions.

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1985 Spring"9

Balancing the Books

Valerie W. Lovett

Between 1982 and 1985, Wake County Public
Libraries became one of the premier public library
systems in the United States. It redirected its
book selection policy and used a rapidly growing
book budget to create unparalleled circulation
growth among American public libraries in the
past three-and-a-half years. Its creative ap-
proaches to the challenges offered by growth can
be examined by others wishing to create a pro-ac-
tive library system whether or not a rapid growth
dynamic exists.

Growth does not guarantee the progress one
anticipates. The initial years of book budget
expansion at Wake County are an example of this
situation. From FY 1979 through FY 1981, the
book budget increased 60 per cent, but book cir-
culation only increased 13.5 per cent. During this
time a six-month cataloging backlog existed, book
selection lagged months behind bookstore availa-
bility of titles, long waiting lists queued for best
sellers, and the entire process choked on paper-
work. Clearly, the library system did not use the
opportunity provided by budget growth to give
better service to the community. It merely con-
tinued to do what it had previously done.

Before the Wake County system could pro-
gress, it had to recognize that growth creates new
situations that must be dealt with through alter-
native approaches to library operations. New
approaches must be relevant to the goals and
objectives of the library system; otherwise the
management process will make changes that are
no more relevant than maintaining the status
quo.

Rapid increases in Wake CountyTs book
budget highlighted two areas in which change
had to occur in order to capitalize upon that
growth. First, the technical services department
could not continue its current practices in the
same manner and handle the increased book
purchases. The option of increased staff was not
available. Second, the book selection philosophy
and its concomitant procedures had to be reex-
amined because the available new funds were not

Valerie W. Lovett is Assistant Director of the Wake County
Public Libraries in Raleigh.

10"North Carolina Libraries

producing proportional increases in circulation.

Both areas were addressed during FY 1982.
The new library director, Tom Moore, set a per-
formance objective for technical services that
books were to leave that department fully pro-
cessed within five days of receipt. This objective
recognized the public service need of having
materials promptly available to the public.

This objective forced the technical services
staff to examine every aspect of the acquisitions
and cataloging process. During the analysis, all
procedures were flowcharted and questioned
from this perspective: oDoes this procedure
directly benefit public service? Is it a procedure
that has lost its meaning over the years? Is it
being done for internal reasons that are not cost
beneficial? Is it being done because it is a stand-
ard technical service procedure but not necessar-
ily relevant to public libraries in general or this
library specifically? If we stop doing this, or do it
another way, who will notice and will the differ-
ence directly improve public service?�

Between 1982 and 1985, Wake
County Public Libraries became
one of the premier public li-
brary systems in the United
States.

Some of the major changes implemented by
staff were: (1) using the available accounting sub-
system of the on-line ordering system to do all
accounting, thereby eliminating all paper files;
(2) eliminating individual branch book budgets
and instructing branches to buy what they
needed; (3) converting the shelflist to a title file
and combining all on-order/in-process files with
it, thereby simplifying searching procedures for
the order section, cataloging, reserves, and ILL;
and (4) removing the accessioning process from
the book flow by ceasing to add accession
numbers to holdings information.

Changes made in WakeTs technical services
department showed positive results. In 1982 the
department processed 53,474 books. In 1985 it
will process 104,000 books with fewer staff.

These are not traditional solutions to techni-
cal services production problems; however, given
the stated objective, technical services found
innovative ways to reach the objective without
diluting the quality of its product. Indeed, techni-
cal services operations must contribute to the
timely availability of materials, not impede them.

The same statement can be made about the
book selection and acquisitions process of a
library system. Unlike its approach to the opera-
tions problems of the technical services depart-
ment, library administration initially addressed
the existing problems in book selection and
acquisitions from a philosophical basis. From the
analysis of book budget growth vs. circulation
growth, from the data collected during a system-
wide inventory, from the reserve lists for popular
materials, and from the comments by library
users, it was evident that the library system was
not purchasing materials in a way that satisfied
Patron demand.

ES
Technical services operations
must contribute to the timely

availability of materials, not
impede them.

CL """"" se

With this information in hand, the adminis-
trative staff had extensive discussions about the
direction book selection should take. An exami-
nation of the Baltimore County Public Library's
approach to book selection favorably impressed
the administrative staff. Thus, the administration
moved from the philosophy of the traditional bal-
anced collection to a philosophy of demand buy-
ing, i.e., providing current patrons the materials
they want and need in sufficient quantity so that
they are reasonably certain of finding that mate;
rial when they come into the libraries. Therefore,
the collection is balanced based on user needs
rather than on arbitrary standards of collection
composition.

Putting that emphasis into practice required
restructuring the entire selection and order pro-
cess. Selection was centralized into a book selec-
tion committee, meeting weekly and composed of
administrative staff and branch heads. Batch
ordering for all branches was reintroduced, there-
by improving upon the efficiencies achieved in the
order section the previous year. Pre-publication

purchasing from ads was accelerated. Everything
necessary was done to insure that Wake had
enough copies of a book in its branches by the
time that a bookstore was displaying the same
book.

A decision to purchase a title is based upon
the question of the quantity that is needed in the
system. It is as important to purchase 4 copies of
Allen GinsbergTs Collected Poems as 297 copies of
Joe McGinnissTs Fatal Vision.

The selection process has been an evolution-
ary one. One cannot implement demand buying
without making mistakes. Procedures have
changed over the past three years as the entire
staff has become more experienced in the pro-
cess, and we expect change to continue. What has
not altered is the philosopy behind the selection"
that public libraries exist to provide the public
with the materials that they want to read and
that public use is the yardstick by which a library
system measures and evaluates its performance.

Examining Public Response

Public response to the redirection of the
selection philosophy can be examined. From FY
1982 to FY 1985 the book budget of the library
system grew 112 per cent (from $406,980 to
$861,700). Projected circulation growth through
the same period is 113 per cent (from 1,080,993 to
2,300,000). This is a measurably better perform-
ance in materials selection than the 60 per cent
book budget growth vs. 13.5 per cent circulation
growth in the preceding three fiscal years. The
proportionality of the two growth rates is a valid
indication that Wake County is on the proper
course. However, it appears that the system has
reached the crossover point for these figures. In
the future, circulation growth should be greater
than book budget growth as a cumulative result
of better book selection and collection manage-
ment.

Rapid growth in a book budget is not a pre-
requisite condition to demand buying. Any library
can examine public response to its purchasing by
looking at its circulation figures in a variety of
ways"circulations per capita, population growth
vs. circulations growth, potential circulation pro-
jection vs. real circulation, and so forth. If the
examination does not show an active and increas-
ing response to book purchases in the use of the
collection, that library should not be satisfied
with its performance. It should re-examine its
philosophy of buying, remembering that it is
accountable ultimately to its paying customers,
the taxpayers, for effective use of their tax dol-
lars.

1985 Spring"11

Approval Plans as a Method

of Collection Development
Sallie E. Mann

Over the past four decades, the subject of
book selection has occupied a prominent place in
the professional literature of librarianship. Few
topics have been so consistently under pro-
fessional scrutiny as the process by which library
materials are selected and acquired.

oHerman Fussler, when he was director of
libraries at the University of Chicago, voiced this
opinion: ~I venture to say that (a) the most impor-
tant, and (b) one of the most difficult activities in
... a [research] library is the selection of books
and other materials.T Harvard librarian Kayes
[sic] Metcalf expressed a similar view in 1950:
~The greatest single problem in acquisition for
a research library ... is the selection of new
books ...T Speaking before an international audi-
ence in 1967, J. Periam Danton stated his convic-
tion that book selection ~is the most fundamental,
the most challenging and the most indispensable
function of a library.T He added that ~aside from
the fundamental consideration of budgetary sup-
port there are no matters of greater importance
for the library"and its patrons.T Another writer,
James Skipper, then assistant director of libraries
at Princeton, expressed precisely the same opin-
ion in saying ~I can think of no higher responsibil-
ity of a library than to build the best possible

collections, with the resources available.�!

oWith the feeling of professional pride and
responsibility for book selection running so deep
in the ethos of librarianship, it is understandable
that academic librarians have viewed with con-
cern selection techniques which tend to shift the
responsibility for book selection from the library
to other individuals or agencies. Especially have
librarians been skeptical of commercial agencies
which offer to select or pre-screen books for indi-
vidual libraries. Traditionally ... academic library
collections have been built jointly by librarians
and faculty members ... Historically, in many col-
leges and universities primary responsibility for

Sallie E. Mann is Education Librarian for the Curriculum
Materials Center at East Carolina University in Greenville.
The full paper was presented at the NCLA Resources and
Technical Services Section mini-conference in Whispering
Pines in September 1984.

12"North Carolina Libraries

book selection has been vested in the academic
departments, while in others this function was
carried out almost entirely by librarians. Between
these two extremes, a broad spectrum of selec-
tion practices has developed, delineated by var-
ious combinations of shared responsibility. Regard-
less of where the ultimate decision-making author-
ity for book selection lay, however, the actual
selection process almost always involved a sepa-
rate decision, either by faculty members or librar-
ians, for each title added to the library. Thus
academic library collections were the cumulative
result of hundreds upon hundreds of individual
decisions.�

A pattern of selection has been slowly evolv-
ing in which an increasing amount of scholarly
library materials are being acquired more or less
automatically through a variety of acquisition
programs known as blanket order plans, gather-
ing plans, and approval plans. Though these var-
ious programs differ somewhat in purpose and
scope, they all are designed to supply mass quan-
tities of books without the library staff initiating
individual orders. These purchasing plans are
essentially an agreement between a library and an
agent or publisher in which the library agrees to
purchase all of a certain set of publications or to
select from books sent and return any unwanted

books.

Almost all research libraries active in acquisi-
tions have found it necessary to set up approval
plans for books published in the United States,
Latin America, Western Europe, and other coun-
tries or language areas of particular interest to
their curriculum. These plans, which are defined
in nature and scope by the needs of each particu-
lar institution, have been necessitated by the ever-
increasing numbers of contemporary publications
that have made it almost impossible for any
library to order these multitudes of titles on an
individual basis. Since unwanted titles can be
returned, these comprehensive plans do not
obviate the principles of selection. The library has
an opportunity to review what titles are to come
and what others are required before the volumes
actually arrive.

Divided Opinion

The published literature shows divided opin-
ion on the question of whether these plans actu-
ally improve the overall acquisition programs of
the libraries they serve. Proponents of approval
plans point out that they are practical, provide
for better evaluation of the material in question,
deliver books soon after publication, speed up the
acquisition process, reduce clerical costs by the
convenience of single billing and elimination of
Single orders, minimize bibliographic checking,
and assure broader coverage of current mono-
graphs. They also argue that, by providing auto-
Matic coverage of certain categories of new
publications, approval plans free librarians and
teaching faculty to concentrate their selection
efforts on the more obscure items and on retro-
Spective collection building.

On the other hand, these plans are not with-
out critics. Opponents maintain that the mass
purchasing plans tend to produce canned libra-
ries"all having virtually the same collections"
and that most plans fail to supply multiple copies,
so additional ordering is required. Critics claim
that it is difficult to determine whether particular
titles will be received and that evaluation is more
EL

Few topics have been so con-
Sistently under professional
scrutiny as the process by
which library materials are
Selected and acquired.

EEE

difficult and time-consuming because books are
frequently received before scholarly reviews are
available. Some maintain that by participating in
these programs, academic librarians may actually
be slowly abdicating their responsibility to build
strong collections geared to the unique needs of a
given academic community. This would be partic-
ularly true in cases where the library staff fails to
evaluate carefully incoming books or neglects to
follow up the approval plan with individual
orders for books missed by the dealerTs selection
network.

Blanket orders are, in effect, a broad based
standing order. Examples of blanket orders
would be agreements to purchase everything pub-
lished by a university press or all new books pub-
lished in a designated subject area from a selected
publisher, Normally, a characteristic of a blanket
order is that the library must pay for and keep
whatever material is sent.

Approval order plans, on the other hand, are
books sent by arrangement, or if you will, oon
approval.� These plans are set up so that
unwanted volumes may be returned. They are
usually initiated as an attempt to speed up and
make more efficient the acquisition of new publi-
cations, usually on a rather broad scale. A typical
example would be asking a jobber to supply a
library with all publications in English, selecting
specific subject areas to be covered. Within the
framework of broad subject categories, exclusions
would be determined; for example, no fiction, no
medicine, or no lower-level textbooks. The major
difference between blanket and approval plans is
the option to select and return books not wanted
to the jobber.

To cope with acquisitions problems, aca-
demic libraries have implemented blanket orders
and approval plans. Traditionally, book selection
in academic libraries has operated under the
strong influence of the teaching faculty. Pressures
to acquire even greater quantities of materials in
a time when there is an increasing number of
titles from which to select have produced a trend
away from faculty selection and title-by-title
ordering of books. Consequently, a larger role in
selection of materials is being given to librarians
as a result of heavier reliance upon blanket orders
and approval plans for book acquisition. Some
libraries have developed a corps of bibliographers,
each with one or more subject areas for which
they are responsible. They initiate book orders
and are responsible for the depth and mainte-
nance of the collection in their respective areas.

Approval plans are becoming more the rule
than exception for selection in large academic
libraries. Summarizing a report on approval plans
of forty-four academic libraries, Norman Dudley
reiterated the need for careful review of approval
materials received. He indicated othat if materials
are not reviewed with thought, discrimination,
and some measure of professional expertise, if
close contact fails to be maintained with biblio-
graphic sources, and if new orders are not gener-
ated, then it is likely that the library will lose its
flexibility and fail to meet its responsibility to
respond to changes in the academic environ-
ment.�3

RaneyTs Study

Leon Raney conducted a study of the effects
of a domestic approval plan on book selection in a
given academic library. His study simulates the
application of a commercial approval program to
a medium-sized academic library for the purpose

1985 Spring"13

of determining how closely approval plan selec-
tions relate to the existing pattern of book selec-
tion in that library. The investigation was
designed primarily to answer the question: Is it
possible to program the selection mechanism of
one of the leading domestic approval plans in
such a way that it will automatically supply
within certain categories a high percentage of the
titlés that would have been acquired by a given
library through conventional acquisition meth-
ods, and at the same time screen out a high per-
centage of titles that would not have been
selected through conventional methods? The
study addresses the question of general adapta-
bility of such a program to the existing pattern of
book selection in a medium-sized library.

In RaneyTs study, he states that oit would
seem reasonable to conclude that the adoption of
an approval plan would not per se result in better
book selection or an improved acquisition pro-
gram at the participating library, although the
potential for both would seem to be present in the
program simulated in the study. If an approval
plan were entered into after a thorough review of
strengths and weaknesses of the library collec-
tion, if in the process an effort were made to cor-
rect deficiencies of the present selection mech-
anism, if librarians and faculty members worked
jointly in developing the library profile, if flexibil-
ity of the dealerTs profiling technique were fully
exploited, if titles pre-selected by the approval
system were reviewed with the same discrimina-

pe

Opponents maintain that the
mass purchasing plans tend to
produce canned libraries.

| RC EY

tion that is applied to other library acquisitions,
and if libraries and/or faculty members continue
to select appropriate titles which are not covered
by the approval system, then the approval pro-
gram could serve as a focal point for overall
improvement in the selection and acquisition
effort.�4

Approval plans are an established method
for the acquisition of books and have been made a
part of many academic librariesT acquisitions pro-
grams. An approval plan can be a collection
development tool that begins in the acquisitions
department. The acquisitions role is emphasized
in two results of the study done by Kathleen
McCullough, Edwin Posey, and Doyle Pickett:

14"North Carolina Libraries

othat % of the librarians responding said their
plans were initiated because they were believed to
be an efficient acquisitions tool and that acquisi-
tions department personnel were involved in
initiating the plans nearly 60% of the time as con-
trasted with collection-development personnel,
less than 20% of the time. Because of the ultimate
function of an approval plan, the collection devel-
opment role should be strengthened both in prac-
tice and in subsequent research and discussion in
the literature.�

Acquisitions is the point at which an approval
plan procedure starts; collection development is
the piont at which it ends. It is possible, given staff
and time, to organize the special procedures
needed for an approval plan into a reasonably
efficient routine, at least for those procedures
that are under the control of the acquisitions
department. If the approval plan ultimately
serves collection development well, the additional
effort needed to administer it is justified.

oThe professional staff must become prac-
ticed at approval plan apologetics and exegetics
and at mediation among the various interested
parties: teaching faculty, selection librarians,
vendors and processing staff.� An understanding
of approval plans is important to any acquisitions
librarian, whether or not he works in depth with
such plans. To understand these procedures is to
understand some of the important techniques of
acquisitions. The financial crunch of the present,
which promises to extend into the future, will no
doubt mean that the days of the grandly sweeping
acquisitions of all appropriate titles in given areas
may be over. On the other hand, the continuation
of approval plans with carefully constructed pro-
files, limited and and closely defined, can serve as
a viable method of collection development if they
are constantly monitored to assure that the pro-
file reflects the needs of the institution and if
selection is done systematically and conscien-
tiously with the user in mind.

References

1. Leon Raney, oAn Investigation into the Adaptability of a
Domestic Approval Program to the Existing Pattern of Book
Selection in a Medium-Sized Academic Library� (Ph.D. disserta-
tion, Indiana University, 1972), 2.

2. Raney, 3.

3. G. Edward Evans and Claudia White Argyres, oApproval Plans
and Collection Development in Academic Libraries,� Library
Resources and Technical Services 18 (Winter 1974): 41.

4. Raney, 243.

5. Kathleen McCullough, Edwin D. Posey, and Doyle C. Pickett,
Approval Plans and Academic Libraries (Phoenix: Oryx Press,
1977), 124.

6. McCullough, et al., 131.

Faculty vs. Staff Selection: Collection
Development in the Academic Library

Eugene Huguelet

Several questions come to mind immediately
when considering what should be the most pro-
ductive method of managing the development of
an academic library collection (i.e., the process of
fund allocation and item selection): oHow can this
activity, which takes place in a very complex
organization, be reduced to a list of acceptable
guidelines that will allow for a consistent ap-
proach to collection growth?� oHave basic princi-
ples governing this process in academic libraries
been established and proved valid?� oSince every
academic library operates, or should operate, to
fulfill the particular needs of its parent institu-
tion, could a set of general principles serve the
individual library as it works to establish its
unique collection development strategy?� oWhere
should collection development responsibilities
reside, with faculty or with librarians?�

Most academic librarians have more than
likely considered these and many other relevant
questions, and some have developed firm ideas
(solutions?) that they feel should guide year-to-
year, or decade-to-decade, collection develop-
ment programs. All have, of course, qualified their
answers with what are perhaps the primary vari-
ables in all such considerations: size and history
of the library; characteristics of the institution
that the library serves; and the existence of coop-
erative arrangements, potential and/or actual,
with other libraries. Many would probably agree
that, even in these days when the automation of
library operations appears to be the foremost
topic under consideration in the literature and in
Operating budget requests, the most important
question, considering its implications for library
success or failure, still concerns the way a library
proceeds to develop the most efficacious local col-
lection of materials for the academic community
that it serves. Certainly no other question con-

fronting an academic library deserves more pro-
fessional attention, effort, and (oine hopes)
Insight. Computer-based operations are no doubt
desirable and unquestionably necessary, espe-
cially in larger libraries; but it helps to be
reminded that the basic measure of a libraryTs

Eugene Huguelet is Director of the William Randall Library at
the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

effectiveness has been, and will be, the quality of
its own collection in terms of its stated mission.

In view of the apparent complexities and
uncertainties underlying the collection develop-
ment process, how should a library go about this
most vital process? Or, to put the question
another way, what should be the basic premise in
any policy developed to guide the use of given
resources to accomplish the goal of achieving the
most effective collection possible"a obalanced�
collection that will satisfy adequately the most
immediate needs of the academic community?
Regardless of the size of an academic library, it
appears obvious that effective collection devel-
opment should be based on a policy that estab-
lishes, in concrete terms, a cooperative effort
among faculty, librarians, administrative staff,
and students. Each of these four components of
the academic community should have an explicit
procedure for adding titles to the collection easily
and with a minimum of bureaucratic delay. With
each of these groups participating in title selec-
tion, the collection will grow according to the cur-
rent needs of the community for which the library
operates. It is probable that a collection develop-
ment system based on such a broad community of
involved participants will result in a collection
that reflects the particular interests and
strengths of the institutionTs research and instruc-
tional program.

It is difficult to see how the academic library
collection can remain an effective tool in the edu-
cational program without systematic title selec-
tion by faculty in each discipline that the library
must support. It is especially important for
faculty to concentrate their selection efforts on
the acquisition of current publications. Regard-
less of the bibliographical expertise of librarians
in a given discipline, they cannot always remain
aware of current research and _ instructional
directions taken by the individual faculty mem-
bers working in the discipline. It is true that some
academic departments are, at certain points, less
interested than others in building the library col-
lection; however, this situation can be countered
by a persistently strong library effort to encour-
age the slower departments to participate effec-

1985 Spring"15

tively. More importantly, it is also true that, given
by policy a large share of the responsibility for
determining what their library contains, the large
majority of faculty will contribute willingly and
effectively to the library's collection development
program.

Allocation Process

In libraries where funds for new materials
are limited, academic departments or schools
must receive an annual allocation for new mate-
rials; and this allocation process can be one of the
most difficult tasks faced by the library director.
Perhaps the most effective method"one that
allows the library the year-to-year flexibility that
it requires"is to have allocations determined by
the library director in consultation with the
chairperson of the faculty library committee,
reviewed by the entire faculty library committee,
and with a final review by the chief academic
officer of the institution.

Equally important in the collection develop-
ment process is the contribution of the libraryTs
professional staff, especially those who are
assigned to the public services areas. Because of
their daily interaction with users, public services
librarians are in an excellent position to develop
an in-depth awareness of the degree to which the
collection responds to current needs and require-
ments. Making sure that the collection is respon-
sive to usersT needs should be one of their most
important ongoing duties. Given their particular
vantage point for a detailed knowledge of the
total collection, this group is perhaps in the best
position to make the most effective retrospective
purchasing decisions. Definite annual allocations
should be made available for this group in order
to formalize and facilitate their work in the selec-
tion process. It is crucial that public services
librarians accept responsibility for developing
and maintaining an ongoing dialogue with faculty
in all matters pertaining to the collection devel-
opment effort. If librarians are indeed partners
with the faculty in the educational process, this
cooperative effort in collection development will
proceed as an inevitable outcome of their collabo-
ration.

A procedure for acquiring materials required
by the administrative staff of the academic com-
munity should be established and made readily
available. Allocating funds directly to this large,
varied group, which is usually outside of the regu-
lar library-faculty communications channels,
might be impossible; therefore, the library direc-
tor should plan to have a fund available for this

16"North Carolina Libraries

purpose. A large effort should be made to com-
municate to this group the library's responsibility
to serve its needs as well as the needs of the
instructional staff and students. Ordering and
notification procedures should be explicit, and a
persistent effort should be made to encourage
administrative staff to contribute to the collection
development program.

The academic library should always establish
a definite procedure for receiving and acting
upon title requests submitted by students. Of
course, many student recommendations may
prove to be inappropriate for the collection; how-
ever, a very large number will be highly desirable
titles that were overlooked by faculty and librar-
ians. Very few public relations activities can
generate more goodwill toward the library than
inviting students to have an active role in the
development of the library's collections. This pol-
icy can lead more and more students to refer to
the library as oour� library rather than othe�
library"a development that can only help the
library in its effort to remain the center of the
intellectual life of the student body that it serves.
Student recommendations can be received in a
suggestion box located in a heavily-used part of
the library or through the public services librar-
ians who work with students on a daily basis. It
also helps to have a library director whose office
is easily accessible and always open for discus-
sions of new titles with enthusiastic, motivated
students.

If it is accepted that effective academic
library collections can be best developed through
a well-coordinated cooperative effort by faculty,
librarians, administrative staff, and students,
what kind of collection development policy
should govern the process? It would seem advisa-
ble to establish a policy that concentrates on facil-
itating this cooperative effort rather than to
emphasize, for example, numbered levels of pur-
chasing activity among the various Library of
Congress classification groups. Over the years,
given such a cooperative joint effort, the obal-
anced� collection"that is, a collection that ade-
quately satisfies the general requirements of the
total academic community"will begin to take
shape. At least the library might be assured that,
to a certain extent, the collection is growing in
direct response to current user requirements for
informational resources. The level of success
achieved in fulfilling these requirements is the
primary measure of the effectiveness of the aca-
demic libraryTs contribution to the educational
program of the institution.

The System of Allocations from the
Book Budget at UNC-G

James H. Thompson

The Criteria

Roughly 25 per cent of the book budget at the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro was
designated in 1984-85 for allocation to the aca-
demic departments for their use in ordering
books and new serials subscriptions for the
library ($260,430 of a total book budget of
$1,045,201); the remaining 75 per cent was
retained for allocation within the library. Eleven
criteria have been accepted by the university's
Faculty/Student Library Committee as factors to
be used in these departmental allocations. These
criteria are as follows:

1. The strengths and weaknesses of the col-
lection in the different disciplines as defined by
the library's Collection Development Committee.

2. Consideration of an annual statement of
library needs described in general terms by each
department head or dean and submitted to the
library director each spring. In this statement of
needs, the department head or dean describes
new research emphases, new faculty with differ-
ing research needs, the adequacy or inadequacy
of past allocations, and the like, which he or she
wishes to be considered in the coming yearTs allo-
Cation.

3. Spending patterns in the recent past in the
various disciplines as reported by the Acquisition
Department. From this report it is determined
whether departments and schools have encum-
bered all of their allocation in previous years and
whether they have shown the need for more book
funds or less.

4. The number and level of degrees offered in
the various disciplines and the number of degrees
awarded.

5. New degree programs and areas of study
being planned or recently adopted.

6. Increase or decrease in the number of
Credit hours offered by each school/department
at both the undergraduate and graduate levels
based on studies received from the Office of Insti-
tutional Research.

James H. Thompson is Director of the Jackson Library at the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

7. Degree of reliance of the school/depart-
ment on library materials.

8. The effect of joint-ordering, which often
supplements cross-disciplinary programs.

9. The supplementing of subject areas by
library ordering from the library general and
standing order funds.

10. Attention to excessive costs of library
materials using average per-volume prices of
hardcover books from Publishers Weekly, the
Library of Congress, and vendors.

11. Amount of continuing library funds
realized by schools/departments for ongoing
serials in their disciplines from the built-in serials
budget of the library.

The System

The library fiscal year extends from July 1 to
June 30 of each year, but the book ordering or
encumbrance year begins on March 1 of each year
and continues to the end of February of the next
year. The reason the encumbrance year ends on
February 28 is that in a world-wide book ordering
program, it takes the remainder of the fiscal year
to receive all books and invoices and pay all bills
by June 30, as required by the state. A depart-
ment may begin ordering from its allocation on
March 1 of each year (the encumbrance yearTs
accounts having been closed for the preceding

year the day before) even though the exact
amount of oneTs allocation is not known until

budget figures for the next fiscal year are released
the next July. It is a reasonable assumption to
conclude by March of each year that the book
funds available for the next fiscal year will not be
substantially less than in the present year. On the
other hand, to be certain that there are not
excessive encumbrances in the spring and early
summer, no department is allowed to encumber
more than 65 per cent of the amount represented
by the present yearTs allocation before September
of the following summer, at which time a second
allocation is made. This second allocation com-
pletes the commitments from a book budget that
by that time (September 1) is known in detail. In
July of each year, at the beginning of or shortly

1985 Spring"17

after the start of the new fiscal year, exact budget
figures are announced for the new fiscal year.
These figures are usually quite close to the pro-
jected figures estimated in February and March of
the previous year (the beginning of the book
ordering year), because in the first year of a bien-
nium the budget recommendations of the Gov-
ernor and the Advisory Budget Commission have
been published by February and in the second
year of the biennium the biennial budget has
already been tentatively approved by the previous
session of the General Assembly. With these firm
figures in hand, the library director is then in a
position to allocate the remaining book funds at

the beginning of the fall semester.

These two allocations guarantee balanced
book ordering over the course of the entire year
since funds are made available in the spring and
in the fall. Moreover, there is the stipulation that a
substantial portion of a departmentTs allocation
must be encumbered in a given book ordering
year (March 1-February 28) by December. If that
is not the ease, a department may lose funds,
which will then be transferred to other needs.
Funds not encumbered fully by February 28
revert automatically for immediate reassign-
ments. The allocated funds may be used by the
departments for the ordering of new books or
new serials subscriptions. The initial one, two, or
three year subscription for serials is taken from
the department allocation; the continuing costs
are absorbed in the Serials Fund, a part of the
ongoing built-in funds retained by the library.

The Procedures

The university's Faculty/Student Library Com-
mittee, on recommendation from the library
director and the Collection Development Com-
mittee of the library, allocates to each academic
department 65 per cent of its previous allocation
at its meeting in late February of each year. This
amount is intended to satisfy the needs of the
departments until the next September 1 at which
time the second allocation will be made, exact
budget figures then being known. Before the end
of the spring semester, each academic depart-
ment head submits to the library director a
statement of book/serials needs for the next year
expressed in general terms. In this statement of
needs, a number of issues are addressed (new
programs, adequacy of last yearTs allocation, new
faculty and new specialties, the changing nature
of the discipline). The library director also
requests a study of credit hours (undergraduate
and graduate) offered that year by each depart-

18"North Carolina Libraries

ment compared to the previous year from the
Office of Institutional Research. Shortly after the
beginning of the fiscal year, July 1, the Collection
Development Committee of the library meets to
examine these documents, in addition to internal
statistics and reports and its own perceptions,
and to recommend to the library director the
second and final allocations for the year. The Col-
lection Development Committee applies the
eleven criteria cited above. The library director,
after his examination of these recommendations,

Faculty participation in collec-
tion building is a healthy sign
of faculty interest in the library
and is something to be encour-
aged.

passes them on to an Allocations Subcommittee
of the university's Faculty/Student Library Com-
mittee. Very early in the fall semester, around
September 1, these recommendations are taken to
the full library committee at its first meeting of
the year for approval.

Each academic department appoints a li-
brary representative who coordinates book and
serial ordering in that department and counter-
signs each order card. Some departments have
library committees that meet and regularly dis-
cuss library matters, but the formal contact
between the library and the academic depart-
ments is the departmentTs library representative.
Monographic orders are sent directly to the
acquisitions department; serial orders are sent to
the Serials Department and ordered only after
full justification for need has been examined
along with sample copies by the Collection Devel-

opment Committee.

There are built-in commitments retained by
the library that are, in effect, library allocations.
These funds are the serials fund for ongoing sub-
scriptions, roughly 50 per cent of the total book
budget; the library general fund for the ordering
of current monographic publications in all disci-
plines to assure that the major output of the lead-
ing publishers is acquired each year; the collec-
tion development fund for the purchase of
retrospective material used mainly in filling in
gaps in the collection; the reference fund for the
purchase of reference books; the documents fund
for the purchase of currently published non-
depository documents and retrospective sets; the
replacements fund; the library directorTs contin-

gency fund for the acquiring of high priority items
that become available unexpectedly for a limited
period of time; and the standing order fund for
purchasing of books from the major university
presses and other publishers with whom the
library has standing orders. As stated above,
these built-in commitments consume roughly 75
per cent of the total library book budget.

Each departmental library representative
and each librarian responsible for one of the
internal allocations receives a monthly account-
ing record from the head acquisition librarian
reporting his departmentTs encumbrances and
expenditures to date.

An Assessment

The criteria and procedures described above
may seem complex, but actually they fall into
place very easily over the course of the year. The
allocations system takes time because it is subjec-
tive in that neither an automatic formula nor tra-
ditional allocated amounts are used. On the other
hand, the system is fair in its subjectivity, and it
has the flexibility of changing from year to year as
the programs and priorities of the university
change. Some universities have passed in recent
years from a shared faculty-library ordering sys-
tem to one which relies entirely on library biblio-
graphers. It is the feeling on both sides at UNC-G
that faculty participation in collection building is
a healthy sign of faculty interest in the library and
is something to be encouraged. The interchange
between faculty library representatives and
library staff is an important part of the collegiality
evident at this university between the teaching
faculty and the library, and it provides to a very
important group of faculty an insight into the
work of the library staff. This close feeling and
understanding has resulted, in part, in such
benefits as meaningful faculty status for profes-
Sional librarians, the election of librarians to
important positions in faculty government, and
the very supportive role of the university's Library
Committee for the program of the library rather
than an adversarial role as is the case on some
campuses. Some may say that this conclusion
overstates the importance of this shared librarian/
faculty responsibility, but I would argue, having
watched the system develop over the last fifteen
years, that collaborative efforts such as this do
indeed engender a sense of equality and respect
from the teaching faculty for the librarians.

Other benefits of the system include the

commencement of the book ordering year from
March 1 instead of September 1 ensuring that

book ordering over the course of the year is bal-
anced and consistent, with several checkpoints
(September 1, December 1, February 28) to verify
that all funds are equitably and fully encumbered
and spent on time. Theoretically the Library
Committee of the university has the authority to
allocate the book budget, but in practice it has
never questioned to any significant degree the
recommendations brought to it by the Collection
Development Committee of the library and the
library director. In effect, therefore, the system is
controlled by the library staff and director.

In conclusion, the allocations system at
UNC-G, which developed experimentally over the
early and mid 1970s, has reached a level of fine
tuning which now meets the needs of a medium-
sized research university.

"""""= * """

CHILDREN and LIBRARIES

An Investment in Our Future

ChildrenTs
Services
Section NCLA

Is currently selling notepads for $1.00.
Proceeds will go to pay program ex-
penses for the Oct. T85 NCLA Confer-
ence.

The pads are 8% X 5%, have 50 pages
each, and are available in pink, green &
yellow.
Order from: Rebecca Taylor
College Sq. Branch Library
330 S. College Rd.
Wilmington, NC 28403
$1.00 + 50¢ postage and handling.

1985 Spring"19

Computers and Collection Development

George B. Viele

Collection development, book selection, the
acquisition of materials"what is it all about? At
the Greensboro Public Library we have been
attempting to establish or maintain book collec-
tions that reflect actual use. Our endeavors are
based on computerized circulation records for a
four-year period.

Table I shows actual user demands as a per
cent of the non-fiction circulation of selected
individual Dewey Decimal categories. It should be
noted that all non-fiction categories show one
related consistency for the Greensboro Public
Library and its branch system, that consistency
being that demand for a given subject category
changes very little from year to year. The compu-
ter-generated data we have gathered clearly sup-
port F.W. Lancaster's position that othere is
considerable built-in inertia associated with
larger communities� whose interests change, but
very slowly.!

Table II presents usage of five of ten Dewey
Decimal divisions. The data again show little fluc-
tuation or change from year to year in the publicTs

reading habits.
In 1983, when building the book collection for

the new branch that was to be opened in Guilford
College that fall, we developed the one hundred
Dewey categories percentagewise based on the
composite circulation records of three branches
and the main library. A study of demographic
census data indicated that the similar socio-eco-
nomic data of that community warranted the
approach taken. In other words, the amount of
shelving space for each Dewey Decimal division
and the per cent of non-fiction books in each of
the one hundred categories were determined by
our circulation-usage study.

The use of a computer in any facet of collec-
tion development or maintenance results in a
constellation of considerations for the librarian.
The basic consideration, however, is buying books
that reflect the actual demands of borrowers.
Usage data can easily be computer generated. It
can also, of course, be done manually.

George B. Viele is Director of the Greensboro Public Library.

20"North Carolina Libraries

Raw data, regardless of how obtained, must
be organized or compiled in some way that will
facilitate usage. Consequently, we add the circula-
tion for the one hundred non-fiction categories,
compute the average or mean, and find the
standard deviation for each category.

A balanced book collection is brought closer
to reality when past usage data serve as a basis
for allocating money for books. Believing this, the
writer developed a book budget formula for
determining how much book monies are to be
spent for the various non-fiction areas at the
Greensboro Public Library. The formula involves
the use of the following:

1. The standard deviation of each of the non-

fiction categories.

2. The sum of all the standard deviations of

all one hundred categories.

3. A percentage of the total monies allocated

for books at the Greensboro Public Library.
4. The average cost per hardback volume per
subject category (source - The Bowker
Annual).

5. The total number of hardback volumes
published per subject category (source -
The Bowker Annual).

6. The total value of all hardback volumes

published (source - The Bowker Annual).

The book budget formula for categories of
one standard deviation or more is:

(9)

0 = The standard deviation
DC = The Dewey Decimal category
2 = The sum of all Dewey Decimal categories
M = Money for non-fiction at the Greensboro
Public Library
A= Average cost per volume in a subject
category
V = Number of volumes published in a sub-
ject category
TC = Total cost of all volumes published

a
TABLE I
Location - Benjamin Branch
(in per cents)

Mali (ofS olin iiaye wig yor Bl ae Se tel neh Der eS ee

Category 1980 1981 1982 1983
790-799 93 85 8.1 8.6
610-619 6.9 7.0 hel 7.0
330-339 2.4 2.5 2.5 2.5
910-919 5.6 5.2 54 54
810-819 oft 27. 3.1 3.0

LL

By taking the square root of the products
found we are able to balance out any unusual
variations that may exist in a given area, which, if
not compensated for, would distort or unduly
influence the allocation for a given subject
category. Examples of possible variations include
an unusually high average cost per volume, an
exceedingly large number of titles published in a
given subject category, or high actual circulation
as compared to other categories.

Here is an example of the formula at work. In
1984 the Greensboro Public Library was allocated
$50,000 for the general book collection. In
calendar year 1983, 84.3 per cent of the adult cir-
culation at the library was non-fiction. Thus
$50,000 times .843 gave the amount to be spent
for non-fiction, namely, $42,150.

The top fifteen demand categories consti-
tuted 45.08 per cent of all non-fiction circulation.
Multiplying .4508 times $42,150 produced a pro-
duct of $19,000, which is the oM� in the formula.

The sum of the standard deviations for cate-
gories one standard deviation or more above the
Mean was 24.4. The sports/recreation category,
790-799, was 2.65 standard deviations above the

mean. Plugging the 2.65 and the 224.4 into the
formula, we have

2.65
""~ }_ $19,000
24.4

The remaining data were obtained from a
table on page 375 of The Bowker Annual, 23rd
edition. The table showed the average per-volume
prices of hardcover books for the years 1977-1982.

Looking under the sports/recreation category, we
found that the total price for this category (aver-
age cost times number published) was in 1982
$9,159.99. The grand total price for all non-fiction
books in 1982 was $738,724.98. Using these fig-
ures, we end up with the formula being com-
pleted.

2.65
24.4

$19,000

$ 9,159.99

$738,724.98

$19,000

[ (1086)(s19,000 ) ][ (012) (19,000) |

¥( 2,025.4) (228 )
4 461,791.2

$679.55 or $680, the amount to be
allotted
for sports/recreation in fiscal year 1985.

Using the Viele formula, we have an oppor-
tunity to spread the book budget in a manner that
assures the eventual success of achieving a bal-
anced book collection.

Does this writer recommend this formula to
other librarians? The answer is an absolute no!
The calculations are long (not hard) and time
consuming unless the librarian uses either a cal-
culator or a computer to do the computations.
But, perhaps, once every ten years down the trail
of book acquisitions would be worthwhile.

ED
TABLE II
Location - Benjamin Branch
(In per cents)

EE per CCS)

Category 1980 1981 1982 1983
700's 23.8 Daa 21.0 22.3
600's 25.2 27.0 28.0 27.6
300Ts 14.2 13.5 13.8 13.8
900's 15.7 16.7 16.1 16.2
800's 7A 6.7 68 6.9

EE

1985 Spring"21

You will never know until you take that first
great step toward building better balanced book
collections through computer-generated data
and mathematical formulas applied to book
budget allocations.

References

1F,.W. Lancaster, oEvaluating Collections by Their Use,� Collec-
tion Management 4 (Spring/Summer 1982): 16.

This publication
is available

in microform
from University

Microfilms
International.

Call toll-free 800-521-3044. In Michigan,

Alaska and Hawaii call collect 313-761-4700. Or
mail inquiry to: University Microfilms International,
300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106.

Cape Fear Union List of Serials

The sixth edition (1984) of the Cape Fear
Union List of Serials is now available. The Union
List includes approximately two thousand serials
titles held by Cape Fear area libraries, including
Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville Techni-
cal Institute, Command Reference Center and
Main Post Library (Fort Bragg), Methodist Col-
lege, Pembroke State University, Base Library
(Pope Air Force Base), and Cumberland County
Public Library and Information Center.

CFLA would like to extend special thanks to
Barbara Beattie, Cape Fear Valley Medical Center,
for her work in compiling this yearTs list. The list is
available for $7.00. Orders may be sent to

Cape Fear Library Association

c/o Barbara Beattie

Library Services

Cape Fear Valley Medical Center

P.O. Box 2000

Fayetteville, NC 28302
An invoice will be mailed along with the list.

pe catyate | Souk Inc.

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Telephone (919) 299-7534

22"North Carolina Libraries

Building a Serials Collection
in an Academic Library:

Joline R. Ezzell

One observation about building a serials col-
lection in an academic library that can imme-
diately be made is that it is a very difficult task. Or
to be more precise, it is difficult unless the library
has enough financial support to purchase all the
serials that are wanted and needed for the collec-
tion. In view of the number of titles published
worldwide and the costs of these titles, are there
any academic libraries so endowed today? Assum-
ing that there are not, all of them will find them-
Selves having to choose between title A requested
to support academic department X and title B
recommended to enhance a course taught in
department Y. These are tough choices that must
be made on other than a subjective basis and that
must be justified.

Part of the difficulty of selecting serials for
the collection stems from the very nature of these
publications. They are ongoing and so is the
commitment made when a decision to subscribe
is reached. When new serials are added to the
Collection, the length of the list of titles on sub-
Scription increases as does the amount of money
expended for them. Without regular review and
evaluation of the serials collection, resulting in
Cancellation of titles deemed no longer necessary
to the institutionTs objectives, the expanding
Serials budget can result in reduced funds avail-
able for the purchase of monographs. Each
library should have such a program of regular
evaluation of its serials on subscription, to judge
whether they remain useful to the institutionTs
Courses of instruction. If the initial selection has
been made without the benefit of a sample issue,
such examination is even more important. Many
Journals change title, issuing body, frequency, or
Subject matter over time; some do it within the
first year, so that volume 1, no. 4, may be quite
different from volume 1, no. 1, which was the
basis for the decision to subscribe. In many aca-
demic libraries, the subscription continues auto-
matically, despite both these changes and a
Steady increase in the subscription price; titles
Continue to be received and housed when they

Se |

Joline R. Ezzell is Head of the Serials Department at the Duke
University Library in Durham.

may no longer be appropriate for the collection.
Evaluation of the serials collection often comes
only when forced by budget restrictions that
necessitate the identification of titles for cancella-
tion in order to buy new serial titles or mono-
graphs.

Building the serials collection is hard work,
then, because of the decisions that have to be
made and because, in most cases, of their lasting
impact. The task may be more difficult because of
the lack of a sufficient number of knowledgeable
personnel to select materials from all disciplines
in which classes are taught and research is done.
Collection development, in the strict sense of the
phrase, may be a myth in many libraries. For
those that have had neither collection develop-
ment staff adequate to select materials consist-
ently in all subject areas over the life of the library
nor written collection development policies and
guidelines, the serials collection may be a product
of the particular interests of the selectors, be they
faculty or staff. The quantity, as well as the qual-
ity, of the serials collection in any particular dis-
cipline will be a result, in large measure, of the
interest or disinterest of the selectors.

Faculty Selection

In past years, much of the collection devel-
opment in academic libraries was done by faculty
members, who took great interest in this activity
and conscientiously built the library's collection in
their subject areas. The majority of the present
generation of faculty, however, do not consider
the selection of library materials to be their
responsibility and find themselves too busy with
other duties to recommend materials for library
purchase on a regular basis. Their selection is
limited to an occasional title needed for course
reserves or their own research. The responsibility
for collection building, then, becomes the library's.
In many institutions where selection of materials
was primarily an activity of the faculty, library
staffing is not sufficient ot take on this extra duty.
Staff time borrowed from the reference, circula-
tion, or cataloging departments is likely to be
inadequate for consistent, thorough collection
building. A knowledgeable, thoroughly trained

1985 Spring"23

staff sufficient in numbers is required for this
most important task. Identification and selection
of serial titles is time-consuming and requires
staff members the majority of whose time is dedi-
cated to collection development activities. The
selection, optimally, should be done by those who
have taken the time to gain a feel for the total
library collection"its strengths and weaknesses
and its special collections.

Identification of new serial titles requires
good communication with serial publishers who
will be willing to send announcements of new
journals in the libraryTs fields of interest as well as
sample copies. It requires reading the library

Serials are ongoing and so is
the commitment made when a
decision to subscribe is reached.

literature, which frequently carries announce-
ments of forthcoming publications, and the litera-
ture in the subject area for similar information.
Interested faculty can also be helpful in alerting
the library to new journals that they have learned
about through colleagues who are serving as edi-
tors or authors. Though sources of reviews of new
journals are few, they can be helpful as well.
Assuming that provisions can be made for
the recommendation of serial titles to be added to
the collection, where does the final decision-mak-
ing responsibility lie? Is everything that is recom-
mended ordered? Most likely not, unless the
library is extremely well endowed. Because of the
ongoing commitment made when a serial sub-
scription is placed, review of recommended titles
is usually more rigorous than that given to
recommended monographs. There are a variety of
options for making final decisions. Recommenda-
tions of faculty may be accepted automatically,
whereas those of library staff may be reviewed.
Final decisions may be made by one or more col-
lection development officers, by a committee of
library staff, or by a committee composed of
library staff, students, and faculty. Whatever the
mode chosen, the goal must be to provide a serials
collection that supports the teaching and re-
search needs of the academic institution"easy to
say but much more difficult to effect when faced
with decisions to be made about individual titles.

Questions

Some of the questions that each person
charged with the responsibility of selecting from
among recommended serial titles must answer

24"North Carolina Libraries

are the following: Does the library collect mate-
rials of this type of in this subject area (e.g., news-
letters, Oriental music)? To what extent does it
collect them? Will this title help to provide bal-
ance of opinions on this topic? Are there existing
cooperative collection development agreements
with other libraries that will affect this decision?
Do we receive other serials on this subject that
could be cancelled in exchange for this one? What
is the quality of this title in relation to the others
dealing with the same subject? What is the actual
use of the other library titles on this subject? Does
the college or university plan to develop a pro-
gram of instruction in this subject area? Does the
college or university plan to reduce the enroll-
ment in this discipline? What courses would this
title support? How many titles of this type (e.g.,
regional literary magazines) are needed in the col-
lection? How many, and which, recreational mag-
azines are needed in the periodical collection?
Where is the journal indexed? Should the serial be
retained permanently? Can the issues be bound,
or are they made of newsprint? Should they be
retained in paper copy and bound? Is microform
available? Should the title be retained perma-
nently only on microform? If it is published in a
foreign country, should air mail delivery be
requested? ,

The basic determination to be made through
the posing of these questions is the value of a
particular serial in relation to its cost, the other
serials to which the library subscribes, and the
institutionTs programs of instruction. Some of the
questions may be answered in written, regularly

Collection development, in the
strict sense of the phrase, may
be a myth in many libraries.

updated collection development policies. Those
concerning the plans of the institution can be
answered through good communication with the
college or university administration. Questions of
the titleTs usefulness to particular academic
departments can be answered through consulta-
tion with faculty members, who are usually quite
willing to provide advice concerning specific
serials even when they are not able to do selection
themselves. Having an active library representa-
tive in each teaching department can be quite
useful in this regard.

Some librarians have predicted that the
serial as known today will not exist in the future.!
They believe that journals will be published only

electronically. Those librarians who now focus
their attention on building serial collections will
instead in the future assist patrons in searching
electronic databases for needed information, ac-
cording to this scenario. One writer predicted in
1980 that it would be at least five years before
there was any major shift from printed to elec-
tronic journals. Considering the progress made to
date and the many questions remaining to be
answered about electronic journal publishing

Staff time borrowed from the
reference, circulation, or cata-
loging departments is likely to
be inadequate for consistent,
thorough collection building.

"""""

(copyright; rewards, both tangible and intangible,
to authors; and standards for telecommunica-
tion), it is likely to be at least another five years
before such a shift is made and unlikely that all
Serials will be published electronically. In the
meantime, even as we plan for the utilization of
electronic journals in academic libraries, we will
continue to build serial collections. Consequently,
we will continue to need individuals with good
judgment, who are knowledgeable in the subjects
in which they select, familiar with the existing col-
lection, and alert to new or revised institutional
programs. Serving as the foundation to this entire
process is a comprehensive, frequently revised
collection development policy.

References

~Meredith Butler, oElectronic Publishing and its Impact on
Libraries: A Literature Review,� Library Resources and Techni-
cial Services 28(January/March 19840: 41-58.

2A.E. Cawkell, oElectronic Information Processing and Publi-
shing"Problems and Opportunities,� Journal of Information
Science 2(October 1980): 192.

Instructions for the Preparation
of Manuscripts

for North Carolina Libraries

1. North Carolina Libraries seeks to publish articles, book
reviews, and news of professional interest to librarians in
North Carolina. Articles need not be of a scholarly nature,
but they should address professional concerns of the library
community in the state.

2. Manuscripts should be directed to Robert Burgin, Editor,
North Carolina Libraries, School of Library Science, N.C.
Central University, Durham, N.C. 27707.

3. Manuscripts should be submitted in triplicate on plain white
paper measuring 8%4"x11".

4, Manuscripts must be double-spaced (text, references, and
footnotes). Manuscripts should be typed on sixty-space lines,
twenty-five lines to a page. The beginnings of paragraphs
should be indented eight spaces. Lengthy quotes should be
avoided, When used, they should be indented on both
margins.

5. The name, position, and professional address of the author
should appear in the bottom left-hand corner of a separate
title page.

6. Each page after the first should be numbered consecutively
at the top right-hand corner and carry the author's last
name at the upper left-hand corner.

7. Footnotes should appear at the end of the manuscript. The
editors will refer to The Chicago Manual of Style, 13th edi-
tion. The basic forms for books and journals are as follows:

Keyes Metcalf, Planning Academic and Research Library
Buildings New York: McGraw, 1965), 416.

Susan K. Martin, oThe Care and Feeding of the MARC
Format,� American Libraries 10 (September 1979): 498.

8. Photographs will be accepted for consideration but cannot
be returned.

9. North Carolina Libraries is not copyrighted. Copyright rests
with the author. Upon receipt, a manuscript will be acknowl-
edged by the editor. Following review of a manuscript by at
least two jurors, a decision will be communicated to the writ-
er. A definite publication date cannot be given since any
incoming manuscript will be added toamanuscript from
which articles are selected for each issue.

Issue deadlines are February 10, May 10, August 10, and
November 10.

stand up for

libraries

ts NORTH CAROLINA LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

1985 Spring"25

Development of a Collection: The Music
Library at East Carolina University

Geraldine Laudati

Although seven yearsT experience (which
included primary responsibility for material selec-
tion and budget management in music libraries)
preceded my appointment as music librarian at
East Carolina University in 1982, I was surprised
at the extent of challenge presented by the rather
small special collection. At the core of the prob-
lem was the Music Library's history and its unique
position as the universityTs sole branch library.

As is the case with many academic special
collections, the Music Library began as a depart-
mental collection: the School of Music purchased
sound recordings and some scores, typically of
the ~performance editionT genre, and housed them
in the department, where they would be more
readily available to music faculty and students. At
the same time, Joyner, the university library, col-
lected and housed most monographs and serials
about music and some scores, including many of
the large and expensive collected works editions
and anthologies. The situation was altered as a
result of the 1973 accreditation visitation by the
National Association of Schools of Music, which
recommended consolidation of music materials
into a single collection. The School of Music was
the recommended repository site due to the phys-
ical distance"a ten-minute walk across cam-
pus"between the school and Joyner Library, and
the association justified its choice on the basis of
the locationTs being the most appropriate to the
largest community of users.

By 1976, a branch library policy was drawn
up by university administration, and the Music
Library was officially designated as an adminis-
trative branch of Joyner Library. A collection
development policy was also written, and the
transferral of most of the scores, as well as a large
number of books and serials (those specifically
selected by music faculty), was effected.

In the intervening years, however, two living
collections continued to be developed, albeit spo-
radically, simultaneously. The Music Library
received all materials recommended by music
faculty or the music librarian and materials that

Geraldine Laudati is Head of the Music Library at East Caro-
lina University.

26"North Carolina Libraries

fell into the category of oserious� music. Non-se-
rious (ostensibly) music, music-related items
recommended by the reference department as
part of the collection development process of the
university library, and music materials requested
by non-music faculty, such as dance or drama,
continued to be added to the main library's collec-
tion.

Funding responsibilities were equally nebu-
lous, and the annual amount provided by the
School of Music (originally intended for the pur-
chase of sound recordings) was being used to pay
for serial titles that the main library would not
assume. In fact, a study of the funding patterns
revealed that library allocations for music mate-
rials had declined steadily since the Music
Library's branch status, despite a not unhealthy
library budget relative to institutional size and a
large, active School of Music.

Other problems were evident in the mechan-
ical aspects of collection development. Acquisi-
tions functions for Music Library materials"
processed centrally by the university library"had
seriously deteriorated, and faculty were com-
plaining of three or four year waits for materials
and of requests that had simply dropped from
sight, never to reappear. Even items documented
as having been received were prone to disappear,
and the short distance between libraries had
assumed the distorted proportions of a black
hole.

Finally, and perhaps symptomatic of the
underlying problem, the branch collection con-
tinued to be referred to, even in official corre-
spondence, as the School of Music Library rather
than the East Carolina University Music Library.
And the collection development policy, it became
apparent on study, was partially responsible for
the perpetuation of the library's departmental
collection mentality. The document stated the
Music LibraryTs purpose as oto provide the mate-
rials necessary to support the undergraduate and
graduate curricula of the School of Music.� Period.

1982 held special significance for the Music
Library. Faced within a year with a re-accredita-
tion visit from the National Association of Schools

of Music, administrators at all levels were deeply
concerned with our problems, and a willingness
to cooperate towards solution and a sense of
direction for the collection were soon evident.

First, an assessment of the potential user
community was undertaken and yielded not only
the 350-odd students and 55 faculty members of
~the School of Music but a campus community of
nearly 14,000 FTE students and 800 faculty,
including those in active dance and drama
departments (located, coincidentally, in an adja-
cent building), a new medical school, plus a cam-
pus radio station with no classical record library,
all of whom might depend on the library to satisfy
a broad variety of instructional, informational,
and recreational musical needs. In addition, the
relative geographic isolation of the university
placed an extra responsibility to service on the
institution, and as a special collection, the Music
Library could be expected to provide a unique
resource to the eastern region of the state.
Indeed, many of our patrons were graduates or
graduate students teaching in local school sys-
tems and who had access to no other source of
musical information.

Armed with the knowledge of the collectionTs
potential, a reinterpretation of the branch library
Policy was suggested, in particular:

The needs of the campus majority (not the
branch clientele) are paramount ... While it is
perhaps frustrating at times not to have relevant
materials close at hand, it is still more frustrating
to more people on our campus to have to g0 from
one library building to another in order to pursue
study. The assumption that a disciplineTs mate-
rials can be transferred in toto from a central to
a branch library without impeding library serv-
ices is naive...

While the statement itself was not invalid, it
seemed more naive to assume that anyone was
being better serviced as practically all musical
study still required the use of both libraries, as
did, unfortunately, Music Library reference serv-
ice. The distinction between School of Music cur-
riculum-related areas and non-curricular areas,
furthermore, was a blurred one and somewhat
Subjective. Finally, but of major importance, was
the fact that staff with music degrees were
employed in the Music Library, while the main
library, understandably, included no one with this
Subject expertise.

These points were well taken, and while
retaining curricular support as the Music
Library's first priority, we were able to add the
following purposes to our interim, working ver-
Sion of the collection development policy:!

The collection should provide a broad base of
support for general cultural interests in music
and its role in the history of civilization on an
international scale;

The collection will provide for interdepartmental
academic needs in dance, drama, art, folklore,
the study of ethnic and popular cultures, film
production, and others as applicable.

The issue of a split collection was thus addressed.
A systematic transfer of the music items remain-
ing at Joyner was begun along with an interim
practice of housing in the Music Library all items
that class in L.C. classification oM� (ie., M, ML,
MT), as well as all sound recordings of musical
materials regardless of funding or selector
source.�

At this point, a publicity campaign was
undertaken to acquaint the campus community
with the collection and services offered. A Music
Library newsletter was begun, and we spoke to
various campus groups, Friends groups, commit-
tees, and essentially, anyone who would listen.
That the campaign was successful and our mes-
sage received was made evident by two annual
allocations from the East Carolina University
Student Government Association for the devel-
opment of a contemporary jazz recordings collec-
tion, for use in the Music Library by the campus
community.

Ironically, while aggressively promoting the
catholic quality of our collection and services, a
study of the objectives of the School of Music was
concomitantly undertaken to better determine
how the existing collection was meeting instruc-
tional support needs and how it might better
meet those needs. Through conferences with
School of Music administration, departmental
chairmen, the departments as groups, and finally,
with individual faculty members, it was possible
to obtain a clearer picture of our strengths and
weaknesses, as well as to anticipate future direc-
tions which were under consideration.

For a variety of reasons, principal among
them the idiosyncracies of funding mechanisms, it
was apparent that faculty had wielded much
power in past collection development practices,
as was to be expected given the collectionTs his-
tory. The existing collection showed little overall
direction and was insufficient in many areas.
While it was a delicate undertaking to quickly
switch the balance of developmental responsibil-
ity from primarily user dominated to primarily
librarian dominated, it seemed, in my opinion, the
most pressing objective for the moment. A poten-
tial taint of autocracy was somewhat obviated by
the earlier conferences, a continuing dialogue

1985 Spring"27

between the Music Library and the faculty, and
the reassurance that no departmentTs special
interests would receive priority except as against
the overall needs of the collection.

At this point, a collection assessment project
had been completed. Designed to evaluate the
present level of the collection and to determine in
what ways it was inadequate, assessment was
made through use of specialized bibliographies
and discographies, by comparison with collec-
tions at institutions of similar size, user communi-
ties, and programs, as well as on the basis of
information gathered from faculty conferences
and discussions with graduate and undergradu-
ate students. Gaps were identified, a prioritized
desiderata file established by the type of material,
and suggestions made as to the extent of retro-
spective development necessary to bring the col-
lection to a level consistent with our needs and
stated purposes.T Areas requiring intensive atten-
tion were scheduled into a developmental time-
table that will ensure them major concentration
in their turn.

With this information, it was little trouble to
prepare two documents on the funding require-
ments of the Music Library. The first, a proposal
for limited term special funding for retrospective
collecting, was developed on the basis of esti-
mated costs of needed materials. To date, approx-
imately 40 per cent of this proposal has been
funded. The second, and more complex, reflected
the level of continuation (ie., annual) funding
necessary to maintain the collection. Borrowing
the university library's materials allocation plan,
which assigned a percentage factor to such data
as number of students, faculty, credit hours
taught, as well as information from the publishing
trade, it was possible to request a more appro-
priate level of support for each of the material
types collected, namely monographs, serials,
scores, and sound recordings.* In addition,
responsibility for this support between the School
of Music and Joyner Library was more clearly
defined.

Two and a half years later, the Music Library
is well along in its developmental schedule,
including retrospective collection, and the results
of earlier efforts are readily apparent. The final
version of a collection development policy is near-
ing completion, written with extensive input from
the School of Music Library CommitteeT and
faculty, as well as the Head of Collection Devel-
opment at Joyner Library. Although library
funded music materials continue to be ordered
and processed centrally, the working relationship
between departments is excellent: as awareness

28"North Carolina Libraries

and understanding of the Music Library's special
needs increased, so did communication, coopera-
tion, and consequently, service. The eagerly await-
ed 1983 report of the National Association of
Schools of Music identified the Music Library as
one of the SchoolTs three main strengths, com-
menting that the institution was well on its way to
having an excellent music library and adding its
blessing oit is hoped the improvements continue
and that the library will become a truly fine one.�
Less easily documented but of even more signifi-
cance is the perceptible attitude of understand-
ing, respect, and cooperation that has evolved
among the three principal factions directly
involved. As a result, the Music LibraryTs role as a
branch library is clearly defined, its goals and
directions outlined, and its commitment to con-
tinued development assured.

Postscript

The reader with experience in large univer-
sity libraries or long established special collec-
tions will no doubt realize that most of these
observations are obvious enough to go without
saying. That they needed to be said, and said
emphatically, is perhaps an indication that there
are yet situations, particularly in smaller institu-
tions, where physical separation, misconception
of or ambiguity of purpose, ambivalent commit-
ment, and perceived divided loyalties may oper-
ate to the detriment of the branch collection.
Often, identification of the problem is the first
step to a solution.

References

1. University of Texas at Austin. General Libraries. Collection
Development Policy. 2d ed. (Austin, 1981): Music, was the model
from which additional statements of purpose were borrowed.

2. The exception is that music reference tools deemed necessary
or appropriate to the Joyner Library reference collection are
duplicated by the reference department. As the university col-
lection development policy is in process of revision, many prac-
tices have been adopted as interim.

3. Retrospective development here refers to the acquiring of
materials, most typically in print, necessary to bring the collec-
tion up to a desired level. For the most part, antiquarian mate-
rials are generally not required for our purposes.

4. Other factors such as circulation statistics and past develop-
ment experience were included. While the figures have fluctu-
ated somewhat as work on the collection development policy
continues, they provided a base from which to begin.

5. The Music Library Committee was restructured in 1983 to
include one faculty member from each of the schoolTs five
departments rather than randomly appointment members. Its
function also changed to an advisory group charged with dis-
semination of information.

6. The position was created in 1984. Until that time, responsibil-
ity for direction of collection development was divided between
the reference and acquisitions departments.

Collecting North Caroliniana

Alice R. Cotten

Selection of material to be included in the North
Carolina Collection is very simple"there is no
selection. Every book, pamphlet, article, that can
be secured, relating to North Carolina, is care-
fully preserved.!

This statement of sixty years ago was the col-
lection development policy for the North Carolina
Collection at the library of the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill from its beginning. It
served the collection well, providing flexibility and
an oopen door� policy for many ephemeral items
that otherwise might have been lost. But today
one library cannot collect all items relating to
every city, town, crossroad, school, organization,
business, and organization in the state. Much of
this responsibility rests on local libraries. This
article will recommend that public and academic
libraries actively collect and preserve printed
information about local people, events, organiza-
tions, institutions, and buildings, and will suggest
the need for cooperation among libraries to
ensure preservation of North Caroliniana.

The first question is how to define oNorth
Caroliniana.� It includes nonfiction and fiction,
poetry and prose, monographs, pamphlets, doc-
uments (local, state, and federal), maps, news-
Papers, journals, magazines, annual reports of
business, newsletters, photographs, broadsides,
dissertations, theses, clippings, recordings, and
films about the state, its people, or any of its polit-
ical, geographic, or social divisions. It can also
include material written by North Carolinians,
regardless of the subject.

The combined holdings of the North Carolina
Collection in Chapel Hill and the North Carolina
State Library in Raleigh are nearly comprehensive
in their collecting on the state level. Both collect
local items too, but on a more limited basis. Of
course, neither has all the municipal documents,
the local church histories, the bird club newslet-
ters, the programs from the dedications of new
schools or parks, the maps showing proposed new
developments or zoning regulations, or the local

Alice R. Cotten is Assistant Curator of the North Carolina
Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill. She also serves as Book Review Editor of North
Carolina Libraries.

newspapers. No one library can collect that
extensively for every municipality in the state.
Even if a library had the money, time, space, and
staff to collect at this level, many of these ephem-
eral items are produced in limited quantities for a
specific event, and the supply is quickly ex-
hausted.

The greatest need today in the field of collect-
ing North Caroliniana is for the acquisition and
preservation of local information. Who is keeping
local government documents"council minutes,
annual reports, budgets, thoroughfare plans,
ordinances and charters, proposals for waste
dumps, and zoning regulations? Some public
libraries are, and are doing the job well. One suc-
cess story is that of the High Point Public Library,
which a few years ago began a municipal docu-
ments collection and an index to the local news-
paper. Their director, Neal Austin, reports
that it has been an oeffective low-cost project.�? In
1980 and 1981, the Documents Section and the
Public Libraries Section of NCLA adopted resolu-
tions and guidelines encouraging public libraries
to reach agreements with local governments to
collect and provide access to municipal docu-
ments. Some libraries showed interest, but there
has been little coordinated effort since then. This
project is worthwhile and deserves renewed
emphasis.

There is also a need to preserve local, small-
town newspapers. The Division of Archives and
History in Raleigh administers an excellent pro-
gram that identifies, films, and makes available
for purchase all eighteenth and nineteenth cen-
tury newspapers, but there is no coordinated
effort to assure that twentieth century local pa-
pers are preserved anywhere. A week rarely
passes that someone does not come to the North
Carolina Collection in Chapel Hill to ask for an
issue of a small paper. He shakes his head in dis-
belief as a staff member says that the collection
does not have that paper. oBut you get all North
Carolina newspapers, donTt you?� he asks. oAfter
all, you are the North Carolina Collection.� We
explain that we get only a few newspapers, mostly
major dailies on microfilm, and that he should

1985 Spring"29

check with a library in the area in which the
paper is published. Some newspapers do keep
backfiles, but these are often incomplete, unavail-
able to researchers, or deteriorating. The histori-
ans, sociologists, political scientists, and gen-
ealogists of the next century will have to work
without one of the essential sources of their pro-
fessions unless we as librarians collect, preserve,
and make available local newspapers.

Clipping files, or vertical files, of selected arti-
cles from local papers can be valuable. The North
Carolina Collection at Chapel Hill began its clip-
ping file in the 1940s. By the mid-1970s, the file
was large, deteriorating, and in need of an over-
haul. The collection hired a student to go through
the clippings (over 100,000), divide them into sub-
ject and biography, make an authority file, and

a

The first question is how to
define oNorth Caroliniana.�

ee ss

arrange them in chronological order within each
subject or name. The librrayTs Photographic Serv-
ices Section microfilmed the file and made paper
prints from the film. The collection bound 164
volumes of biographical clippings and 190 vol-
umes of subject clippings. The project took about
three years and was expensive, but users are
enthusiastic, and the bound volumes are used
heavily. The collection anticipates adding volumes
at ten or fifteen year intervals. While an undertak-
ing of this magnitude is not possible for most
libraries, a clipping file of local information may
be possible and will be used extensively by enthu-
siastic researchers.

Actively seek and keep publications from
local schools, churches, civic organizations, clubs,
historical societies, businesses, banks, chambers
of commerce, and other similar organizations.
Who knows what future novelist, president,
scientist, or anarchist may today be writing for
your local schoolTs literary magazine. Someone
should be keeping yearbooks, church directories
(church bulletins in some cases), reports of busi-
nesses, and local promotional materials. These
will be invaluable for the study of a local commun-
ityTs change.

Among the most used items in the North
Carolina Collection in Chapel Hill are programs,
directories, and brochures from early twentieth
century womenTs clubs. These materials show
important developments in womenTs history and
social history in our state and nation. But the col-
lection doesnTt have them all, particularly those

30"North Carolina Libraries

from small towns and rural areas. Minority mate-
rials of all sorts are important. Seek them and
keep them if they are produced locally. The his-
tory of a community is incomplete without a
record of the existence of the local Ku Klux Klan,
the gay rights activists, and ~the Sneetches with
stars upon tharsT to complement the record of the
Kiwanis Club, the Scouts, and the churches.

Ability to Predict

One of the most valuable qualities of a librar-
ian responsible for a state and local collection is
the ability to predict what will be valuable to
future scholars. William S. Powell, former curator
of the North Carolina Collection in Chapel Hill,
was outstanding in this respect. In the early 1960s
he began gathering the printed commentaries of a
little-known but outspoken announcer from a
Raleigh television station. These oviewpoint� edi-
torials of Jesse Helms are now used extensively by
the media, faculty and students of the university,
and other researchers. Several years ago the col-
lection, anticipating increasingly heavy use of
these editorials, had them filmed for security,
withdrew the originals, and made paper copies
from the film. While all television or radio com-
mentators will not go on to become senators, their
editorials, if available, will reflect some of the con-
cerns of the community for present and future
scholars.

Another example of Professor Powell's far-
sighted collection development policy was his
tenacious collecting of telephone books and city
directories for many towns and cities. These are
wonderful sources for many kinds of information.
They can be used, with appropriate caution, to
document who lived where at what time and
what businesses operated in a given year. City
directories provide additional information: occu-
pation, name of spouse, whether a person rents or
owns his house, who lives at each address, and
who has each telephone number. Possibilities for
use are numerous.

The greatest need today in the
field of collecting North Caroli-
niana is for the acquisition and
preservation of local informa-
tion.

Libraries sometimes overlook the value of
local maps. These maps show growth, change, and
development and should be collected and pre-

served permanently. In the late nineteenth cen-
tury, the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company in
New York began printing large colored maps
showing streets and structures in towns all over
the United States. Today these maps are valuable
resources for people doing architectural surveys,
restoring homes, writing local histories, and many
other projects. Locally produced maps are espe-
cially valuable, for they often show backroads or
structures that do not appear on commercial
maps.

Photographs are also part of North Carolini-
ana. Scholars of the next decade, or the next cen-
tury, will be grateful to those libraries that
preserve likenesses of local buildings, events, and
people. With restoration efforts at a peak, many
landmarks are being renovated for new uses, but
many more historic buildings and houses have
been demolished. For many of these buildings, no
pictures exist.

Minority materials of all sorts
are important.

Information about local authors and collec-
tions of their works are important additions to
any library. Small press publications, limited edi-
tions, privately printed or published works, arti-
cles in journals or magazines are often not
collected at all. The North Carolina Collection at
Chapel Hill collects the works of many authors,
but some escape its attention until their work is
unavailable. And the number of North Carolinians
who write"and publish"is increasing, making it
harder for one library to collect all authors. Some
authors are willing, even happy, to donate copies
of their works to their local library. In addition to
acquiring the works of local authors, libraries can
add newspaper articles about the author, book
reviews, and dust jackets to supplement the
actual writings. The oliterary scrapbooks� at the
North Carolina Collection in Chapel Hill provide
researchers with a lot of information about Tar
Heel authors and their writings, information that
is hard to find through normal literary indexes.

As Marjorie Lindsey of the North Carolina
State Library pointed out, most of these items are
not books. Maps, photographs, pamphlets, leaf-
lets, and broadsides all require special handling,
preservation, space, and the staff to acquire and
process them. This paper has recommended that
libraries collect extensively on the local level, rec-
ognizing that libraries have limits on money, staff,
time, and expertise.

Collecting North Caroliniana is a challenge,
and no one library can do it all. Most public and
academic libraries collect some local material. A
few collect extensively. Most collect on a limited
basis because of the restraints mentioned earlier.
There appears to be a need for communication
and coordination, a onetwork for North Carolini-
ana.� But unless libraries assume responsibility
for collecting and preserving local information,
much of it will be lost, and a part of the literary
and historical heritage of our state will be gone
forever.

Acknowledgement

The author acknowledges with appreciation
the suggestions of Marjorie W. Lindsey of the
North Carolina State Library.

References
1. oNorth Carolina Collection at the University,� North Carolina

Library Bulletin 6:1 (December, 1924): 11-12.

2. Jane Williams and Rebecca Ballentine, oExpanding Local
Information Services in North Carolina Public Libraries,� Popu-
lar Government 47 (Fall, 1981): 7.

ME. ENCANTAN LOS
FINALES FELICES

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American Library Association

Snoopy READ poster
now available in Spanish

oMe encantan los finales felices� (I love happy
endings), beams Charles SchulzTs Snoopy,

ona Spanish READ poster now available
from the American Library Association.

The poster may be ordered for $3.00 plus
$1.00 postage and handling"the same price
as the English version. Write: Public
Information Office, ALA, 50 E. Huron Ste
Chicago, IL 60611. Orders under $15.00
must be prepaid.

1985 Spring"31

Developing Your Fiction Collection"
Realistically Speaking

Frances Bryant Bradburn

As a school media coordinator attempting to
develop an adequate, up-to-date collection for
grades six through twelve, I usually have little
trouble determining which nonfiction books to
select and then justifying their purchase. The
schoolTs curriculum, student information needs,
and my library budget tend to make these deci-
sions moot points. Naturally, there will always be
the weighing of one departmentTs needs against
anotherTs, one grade or reading level over another,
middle school materials as opposed to upper
school materials. But the basic academic and
information requirements are outlined for me,
waiting only for money and appropriate materials
before their purchase.

But what of the fiction collection, that nebu-
lous area of the book collection so often over-
looked when budgets tighten and censors, real or
imagined, rear their inhibiting heads? Are fiction
books worth the price, both in real dollars and in
that grayer area of selection: one book over
another? To this question I must answer a most
resounding yes! But how do we justify fiction pur-
chases? In exactly the same manner we justify
nonfiction purchases"academic and information
requirements"with the wonderfully aesthetic
addition: a good story.

Selection of any material obviously begins
with a comprehensive selection policy which
encompasses the school and its media center's
reading and viewing philosophy. From there it is,
in all honesty, no small matter to continually
research selection tools to find what titles really
fit your special needs. I personally use a variety of
selection tools, from the more traditional periodi-
cals such as Booklist, School Library Journal,
Library Journal, and Top of the News to the more
YA-directed Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA), the
ALAN Review, and the various YASD Best Books
lists. In attempting to develop a current and ret-
rospective sixth grade collection this year, I have
found the Elementary School Library Collection
an invaluable resource. I also peruse the local

Frances Bryant Bradburn is Upper School Librarian at
Greensboro Day School and is a member of the Editorial
Board of North Carolina Libraries.

32"North Carolina Libraries

newspapers, New York Times, Christian Science
Monitor, and various national magazines in my
search for materials which serve the academic
and developmental needs of sixth through twelfth
graders and the faculty who teach them.

One of the most satisfactory means of justify-
ing fiction purchases is by linking them to the cur-
riculum. Take for example the obvious juxtaposi-
tion of history and historical fiction. Few history
textbooks or class discussions can bring to life the
womenTs suffrage movement as successfully as
does Irene HuntTs book Claws of a Young Century.
The quiet desperation and determination which
ultimately gave birth to the Underground Rail-
road in Marcy HeidishTs A Woman Called Moses
and the graphic step back into time in Belinda
HurmanceTs book A Girl Called Boy force young
people to relive the bonds of slavery if only in their
minds.

History teachers often complain that stu-
dents fail to see the relevance of the curriculum to
their lives. Some of these complaints can be an-
swered by units such as the World War II/Holo-
caust unit that the Middle School English and
History teachers used last year. After reading as a
class The Summer of My German Soldier by Bette
Greene, students chose a book from a World War
II/Holocaust bibliography of both fiction and non-
fiction books. (See Appendix A.) As each student
read his book, he selected one area of the war or
the Holocaust in which he was especially inter-
ested. This specific topic was developed into a
research unit from which a final research paper
was the ultimate product.

Fiction integration is not limited only to the
English or history curriculum. An equally success-
ful unit was conceived with the upper school
science department entitled oNuclear War as an
Environmental Issue.� Titles such as OTBrianTs Z
for Zachariah, VonnegutTs CatTs Cradle and Dead-
eye Dick, FrankTs Alas, Babylon, MarukiTs Hiro-
shima No Pika, and GoldingTs Lord of the Flies
were combined with such nonfiction selections as
SchellTs The Fate of the Earth, PowersTs Thinking
about the Next War, Herseys Hiroshima, and
Ground ZeroTs Nuclear War: WhatTs in It for You?

Both fiction and nonfiction titles were used to
stimulate students to think of the effects nuclear
war has had and would have on the environment
as we know it.

Ah, but those are the easy fiction purchases,
you say. What about the other ones, especially
those books on teenage life style"those odirty�
books"that someone is bound to complain
about? You're right, of course. There are no easy
answers; but there are suggestions.

No one is immune to questions about book
choice. In this library, which serves grades six
through twelve, I often have parents come to me
With legitimate concerns about what they view as
potential reading problems within our fiction col-
lection. Most worry that their sixth or seventh
grade child will read something written for an
eleventh or twelfth grader, which he will not
understand"or worse yet, which he will under-
stand and then want to do something about!

a

One of the most satisfactory
means of justifying fiction pur-
chases is by linking them to the
curriculum.

a

In talking with these parents, I very seriously
discuss my philosophy of a young person's right to
read"of everyone's right to read"and how it
especially relates to choosing fiction books. It is
important to me that all students be able to find
books that help them make intelligent, knowl-
edgeable decisions about how they wish to con-
duct their lives. Non-fiction materials are
extremely useful in helping to formulate these
decisions, but fiction books can offer a unique
perspective. Fiction, particularly that genre we
label orealistic fiction,� places characters in a mul-
titude of situations that young people potentially
face. The key word here is potentially. Just
because a student is reading about a particular
issue or behavior does not necessarily mean that
he or she is actively involved in it. But it does
mean that he or she is at least thinking about the
issue and consequently deserves the chance to
make an informed choice. Children rarely read
books voluntarily before they are ready for the
subject matter contained therein. There are just
too many things to do and read. Many times I
have had students return a book with the com-
ment oI didnTt like this� or oI didnTt understand
this� or oI would rather read another bookT or the
insightfully honest oITm not ready for this.� But the
student who is ready should have access to the

book. Books allow teenagers a variety of contem-
porary role models and true-to-life situations that
can help them in shaping their own lives. Adoles-
cents certainly do not need, and do not necessar-
ily desire, first-hand experience with various
situations, problems, or emotions" but they do
want to know about them. Books offer an ideal
medium for vicariously facing a situation, watch-
ing how someone else handles it, and deciding
whether or not that experience is worth incorpo-
rating into oneTs life pattern and, if so, when. As I
assured one parent, oAt least it gives them a few
good lines to use.�

right to expect some reading guidance from the
librarian/media specialist for his child. This is
why I have no guilt when I tell an immature sixth
grader that I feel she will enjoy Harry MazerTs I
Love You, Stupid! when she gets a little older, even
though I have just booktalked the same book for
ninth grade English classes. That is why I will fight
to keep Aidan ChambersT Dance on My Grave and
Nancy GardenTs Annie on My Mind accessible on
these library shelves even though I will steer most
younger students in other directions. That is why
I schedule afternoon and evening booktalks for
parentsT groups as well as using them for regularly
scheduled student classes. Reading guidance
lends credence to all book selections but espe-

cially in that subjective area of fiction selection.
Ee

Books allow teenagers a variety
of contemporary role models
and true-to-life situations that
can help them in shaping their
own lives.

""""""

Fiction deserves to take its rightful place
among the competition for book-buying dollars.
Yet it must be evaluated, like its nonfiction coun-
terpart, within the framework of its relationship
to the curriculum and to student information/
developmental needs.

Appendix A
World War II/Holocaust Bibliography

Beach, Edward. Run Silent, Run Deep. New York: Pocket Books,
1956.

Beaty, David. The White Sea Bird. New York: Morrow, 1979.

Bethancourt, T. E. Tune in Yesterday. New York: Holiday, 1978.

Brancato, Robin. DonTt Sit Under the Apple Tree. New York:
Knopf, 1975.

Davis, Daniel. Behind Barbed Wire. New York: Dutton, 1982.

1985 Spring"33

Dolan, Edward. Adolf Hitler: A Study in Tyranny. New York:
Dodd, Mead, 1981.

Ferry, Charles. Raspberry One. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983.

Frank, Anne. Anne FrankTs Tales from the Secret Annex. New
York: Pocket Books, 1983.

Frank, Anne. Diary of a Young Girl. New York: Pocket Books,
1958.

Greene, Bette. Summer of My German Soldier. New York: Dial
Press, 1973.

Haas, Gerta. These Do I Remember: Fragments of the Holocaust.
New York: Cumberland, 1982.

Hersey, John. Hiroshima. New York: Knopf, 1946.

Hersh, Gizelle. Gizelle, Save the Children. New York: Everest
House, 1980.

Hirschfeld, Bert. A Cloud Over Hiroshima. New York: Messner,
1967.

Koehn, Ilse. Mischling, Second Degree: My Childhood in Nazi
Germany. New York: Greenwillow, 1977.

Koehn, Ilse. Tilla. New York: Greenwillow, 1981.

Korschunow, Irina. A Night in Distant Motion. New York:
Godene, 1982.

Magorian, Michelle. Good Night, Mr. Tom. New York: Harper &
Row, 1982.

Marrin, Albert. The AirmanTs War. New York: Atheneum, 1982.

Maruki, Toshi. Hiroshima No Pika. Lothrop, Lee and Shepard,
1980.

McKay, Ernest. Undersea Terror: U-Boat Wolf-Packs in W. W. IT.
New York: Messner, 1982.

Reiss, Johann. The Upstairs Room. New York: Crowell, 1972.

Richter, Hans Peter. Friedrich. New York: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, 1970.

Richter, Hans Peter. I Was There. New York: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, 1972.

Siegal, Aranka. Upon the Head of the Goat. New York: VAL, 1983.

Takashima. A Child in Prison Camp. New York: Morrow, 1974.

Westall, Robert. Fathom Five. New York: Greenwillow Books,
1979.

Westall, Robert. The Machine Gunners. New York: Greenwillow
Books, 1975.

Nuclear War as an Environmental Issue Bibliography

Briggs, Raymond. When the Wind Blows. New York: Schocken
Books, 1982.

Frank, Pat. Alas, Babylon. New York: Lippincott, 1959.

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Coward-McCain,
1962.

Groueff, Stepane. Manhattan Project. New York: Little Brown,
1967.

Ground Zero. Nuclear War: WhatTs In It for You? New York:
Pocket Books, 1982.

Harvard Nuclear Study Group. Living with Nuclear Weapons.
New York: Bantam Books, 1983.

Hersey, John. Hiroshima. New York: Knopf, 1946.

Hilgartner, Stephen. Nukespeak. San Francisco: Sierra Club
Books, 1982.

Hirschfeld, Burt. A Cloud Over Hiroshima. New York: Messner,
1967.

Kunetka, James W. Oppenheimer: The Years of Risk. Englewood
Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1982.

Maruki, Toshi. Hiroshima No Pika. New York: Lothrop, Lee and
Shepard, 1980.

OBrien, Robert C. Z for Zachariah. New York: Atheneum, 1975.

Powers, Thomas. Thinking About the Next War. New York:
Knopf, 1982.

Schell, Jonathan. The Fate of the Earth. New York: Knopf, 1982.

Vonnegut, Kurt. CatTs Cradle. New York: Dell, 1963.

Vonnegut, Kurt. Deadeye Dick. New York: Delacorte Press, 1982.

34"North Carolina Libraries

RTSS Grant for the NCLA
Biennial Conference

The purposes of the grant are to encourage
(1) membership in NCLA and RTSS, (2) attend-
ance at NCLA Biennial Conferences, and (3) par-
ticipation in RTSS activities.

The grant will be for $250.00 to finance
attendance at the next Biennial Conference of
NCLA. Membership in NCLA and RTSS are
required upon acceptance of the grant.

The grant will be awarded without regard to

sex, age, or type of library.

Criteria for Selection

1. Atleast part of the applicantTs current work-
must involve an aspect of technical services:
acquisitions, cataloging, classification, resources,
collection development, preservation of library
materials, or related activities.

2. The applicant must not have attended an
NCLA Biennial Conference previously.

3. The applicant must work in North Carolina.

4. The applicant must demonstrate financial

need.
5. The completed application form must be neat

and intelligible.
6. The applicant must secure work leave appro-

val as appropriate.

Conditions of Grant Acceptance

1. The recipient must provide confirmation of
acceptance in writing to the chairperson of the
Resources and Technical Services Section.
2. The recipient must be a member of, or join,
NCLA and RTSS.
3. The recipient must attend the entire Biennial
Conference and all RTSS functions and will assist
with RTSS programs if requested by the Executive
Committee.
4. The recipient must notify the chairperson of
the section, and return the grant funds if the
terms of the grant cannot be met.

The selection of the grant recipient will rest
solely with the RTSS Executive Committee. In the
absence of qualified applicants, no grant will be

awarded.

For application forms, write to: Joline Ezzell,
Head, Serials Department, Duke University Li-
brary, Durham, N.C. 27706. Deadline for applying:
July 1, 1985.

cen emer mere ee

Collection Development in a Municipal
Public Library

Robert C. Russell

hon sc, essen gas cataetn cman aema dane meee hnerh nl eet ete LEC

Elbert Ivey Memorial Library is a municipal
library for the city of Hickory. According to sur-
veys of our borrower registration files, we serve a
population of approximately fifty-five thousand
people. Our citizens are well above the state aver-
age for both education and per capita income.
The library has a collection of about 80,000
volumes, with an annual book circulation of about
180,000. We are essentially a single-unit library
system: we do not offer bookmobile service, and
our one branch circulates fewer than 3,000 books
a year. We have a staff of 15.5 FTEs, with three
professional librarians (director, reference librar-
ian, childrenTs librarian). Our book budget is
approximately $55,000 a year.

This is not a ohow we do it good� article,
because we donTt do it good, or at least we donTt
do it as well as we should; and I would guess that
many, if not most, small and medium-sized librar-
ies share this failure. Yet I am convinced that
nothing we do is more important than collection
development in determining the quality of library
service that we are able to give to the public.

What follows is a discussion of the methods
for collection development used in our library;
some problems which result from the use of these
procedures; and some changes we have made this
year, which we hope will result in a better book
collection and better procedures for maintaining
this collection. I assume that most medium-sized
and small public libraries use similar methods for
collection development, encounter similar prob-
lems, and thus might find much of this informa-
tion applicable to their situations.

I define collection development, in a public
library, as the process of building a collection that
meets the needs and interests of library patrons
and that represents the best works available, for
the layman, in all fields of knowledge. To the
extent that these goals are in conflict (and
because of budget limitations, they always will
be), the balance will be determined by the person
responsible for collection development in a par-
ticular library.

Robert C. Russell is Director of the Elbert Ivey Memorial

Library, Hickory, and a member of the Editorial Board of
North Carolina Libraries.

Collection development, as practiced in our
library, can be divided into three major areas:
current selection, retrospective selection, and col-
lection evaluation. By collection evaluation, I
mean the process of determining what materials
we have in the various subject categories, as com-
pared to what is available and also as compared
to the demand for materials in each subject area.

I will now discuss the process of collection
development in our library. For the sake of sim-
plicity, I will confine my discussion to the area of
adult non-fiction books.

At the beginning of the fiscal year, I divide
our book budget among several areas: adult fic-
tion, adult non-fiction, childrenTs services, local
history, and so forth. This gives us the total dollar
amount available by area to purchase books dur-
ing the year.

Most of our time and energy is devoted to
selecting current titles. For selection tools, we use
Library Journal, Booklist, Publishers Weekly,
New York Times Book Review, state and local
newspapers, and occasionally publishersT cata-
logs. We also rely heavily on patron requests in
selecting new titles. We have a large number of
active book clubs, whose members frequently
request new titles well before they are reviewed.
And finally, we of course look at the best seller
lists and lists of books discussed on radio and
television programs.

Four staff members participate in the book
selection process: two veteran staff members, who
have a good knowledge of the reading interests of
book club members and other frequent users of
the library; the reference librarian; and I. The
selection sources are routed to all of these per-
sons; they mark their recommendations and pass
the journal on to the next person on the list. Iam
the last person to see each selection source and I
make the final decision as to what will be pur-
chased.

Retrospective Selection

The procedures for retrospective selection
are much less precise. A few subject areas pre-
sent no problems: we know that we must fre-

1985 Spring"35

quently replace or update materials on such
subjects as resumes, armed forces and college
entrance exams, and auto repair. Beyond this, the
procedure becomes rather haphazard. The circu-
lation staff may become aware of a need for mate-
rials in a given subject area because of comments
by patrons or reserve requests. Staff members
discover some obvious gaps while shelf-reading or
shelving books. We go through discarded overdues
(though not as thoroughly or as promptly as we
should) to find titles that need to be replaced.
When we run across subject bibliographies in
Library Journal or other sources, we check these
against our holdings and purchase what we think
we need

None of these methods is really satisfactory.
No staff member has the knowledge or training to
identify every weak area in the collection by look-
ing at the shelves. We do not have the available
personnel to divide the collection among subject
specialists. Many discarded books are out of print,
and we often do not have (or at least do not take)
the time to see if they need to be replaced with
other titles on the same subject. And we certainly
canTt count on patrons to point out every gap in
our collection. I suspect that the typical patron
who does not find the materials he needs simply
leaves the library without saying anything.

Last spring, we decided to make collection
development one of our major goals for 1984-85.
As we looked at the process described above, we
became increasingly aware that we needed to do
a great deal of work in the areas of collection
evaluation and retrospective selection, as well as
doing some fine-tuning of our methods for cur-
rent selection.

tion by looking at the shelves.

The first thing we did was try to determine
why we were placing so little emphasis on collec-
tion evaluation and retrospective selection; why
collection development had become, for the most
part, current selection. We came up with the fol-
lowing reasons:

1. We had not developed any precise methods
for collection evaluation. We did not have a clear
picture of what was in our collection, of which
areas were being used most heavily, and of which
areas were weak.

36"North Carolina Libraries

2. We had no set of procedures, as we do for
current selection, for doing retrospective selec-
tion.

3. Since we didnTt have any organized method
for doing retrospective selection, we had come to
identify the book budget as funds allocated for
purchasing books reviewed in current review
sources. Thus, there was no money available for
any significant retrospective selection project. It
works something like this: I know that I have
$24,000 available to purchase adult non-fiction
books. Without any conscious effort on my part, I
establish in my mind what we can and cannot
afford and I order about $2,000 worth of books a
month. I donTt add figures or calculate discounts
each time I read a selection tool and mark my
choices. It just turns out that way, and I think
that anyone with experience selecting books will
find the same thing happening"what you have,

you spend.
We then stated the following brief objectives

for collection development:

1. Develop a method for determining what
we have in our collection, as compared to what
our patrons want and as compared to what
standard bibliographies say we should have.

2. In both current and retrospective selec-
tion, emphasize the subject areas that are in great-
est demand.

3. Make sure that we have a basic collection
of recommended materials in all subject fields. We
will, of course, use our own judgment in determin-
ing what is basic in any given subject area.

As stated earlier, goals two and three will
oftenT conflict, and we will again use our own
judgment in deciding upon the proper balance
between the two. (However, we did not see this as
a problem, and thus far it has not been.)

Collection Development Project

With these problems and objectives in mind,
we set to work on a collection development proj-
ect. Our first step was to set aside $5,000 for ret-
rospective selection. This was money in the book
budget but not available for selecting current
titles from review sources. For the reasons stated
above, I felt this was the only way we would have
the funds available to do any significant amount
of retrospective selection.

Our next task was to evaluate the collection.
We needed to find out three things: what we had
in our collection; what subject areas were in great-
est demand by our patrons; and how what we had
compared to what we felt we shouid have, using
standard bibliographies.

The first thing that became apparent was
that our shelflist and card catalog did not give an
accurate record of what we actually had in our
collection, available for the use of our patrons.
This was mainly due to the number of long-
overdue books that had not been discarded. Our
policy was to keep these cards for three years,
and we had actually fallen a year or so behind
that schedule. We discarded all of these long
overdue books and pulled the cards from the
catalog and shelflist. (We are now keeping cards
for overdue books for one year before discarding
the books and will probably reduce this time
period to six months. I have done a couple of
studies which indicate a return rate of less than 5
per cent after six months. To my mind, this rate of
return does not justify keeping these cards in the
catalog, deceiving both staff and patrons.)

We conducted a complete inventory of our
collection two years before beginning this project.
About one year after the initial inventory, we
rechecked for all books which were missing in
inventory and discarded those which were still
missing. This brought us a step closer to an assur-
ance that our catalog and shelflist provided an
accurate record of our actual holdings.

Now it was time to gather some statistics. We
chose the oquick and dirty� but fairly reliable
method of dividing the collection by Dewey
numbers and calculating for each area the per-
centage of our total collection and the percentage
of total circulation. We had also kept statistics on
discarded overdue and missing-in-inventory
books and were able to use this information in our
statistical study. Table I is an example of the type
of information this study gave us.

a

TABLE I
Library Holdings, Circulation, and Discards

EEE

Classification % of % of % of
Range Collection Circulation Discards
2 ict

70-179 A4 A2 54
700 - 709 83 23 49
950 - 959 .20 74 87

SS

We began with the assumption that, within a
given classification range, the percentage of the
collection, of circulation, and of discards should
be about the same. If they were not, then we
Would need to examine these areas more closely
and probably make some adjustments, buying
more or fewer books in that subject area. For
example, we would conclude that section 170-179
is about right, that we need to purchase more
books in the 950-959 range, and that we have

been purchasing too heavily in the 700-709 range.
I must stress the fact that we used these statistics
only as a starting point not as an absolute for-
mula for allocating our book budget. However, we
have now examined all of the areas which the
table indicated needed to be examined and have
found that, in most cases, the information can be
used as a guide to purchasing more or less in
those subject areas. (In some cases, we found that
what was really needed was a more thorough
weeding; in others, we decided, for various rea-
sons, that we could justify over-emphasizing or
under-emphasizing that subject area.) We have
used this information to allocate the $5,000 avail-
able for retrospective selection. I am also finding
it helpful in choosing books from current selec-
tion tools.

Our third goal, as stated earlier, was to make
sure that we had a basic collection of recom-
mended materials in all subject areas. We decided
that this was too much to tackle at one time, so
we narrowed it down a bit. We decided to concen-
trate upon selected areas of the humanities and
other subject fields in which there were likely to
be easily identifiable oclassics.� We then used the
appropriate sections of Public Library Catalog
(most of the 100Ts, 200Ts, 800Ts, and selected areas
of the other schedules). These titles were checked
against our catalog to determine basic titles
which we do not own and need to purchase.

Final Step

The final step in the project was to select and
order books; this phase is not yet completed. We
are using Public Library Catalog to order the
obasic collection� books and also for selecting
titles in some of the subject areas in which we did
not have sufficient materials, according to our
survey of the collection and of circulation. It is
immediately obvious that Public Library Catalog
is not sufficient for selecting titles in many other
subject areas. In these cases, we are using subject
bibliographies, recent (last year or two) reviews in
review periodicals, subject experts on the staff or
in the community, and publishersT catalogs. (The
Dover Press catalog is a good source for selecting
books on chess, which was one of our weak
areas.)

Surprisingly, we have not spent a great deal
of time on this project. The circulation staff
gathered the data on circulation by Dewey
number while counting daily statistics. A Repay
worker measured our shelflist and compiled sta-
tistics on the collection as broken down by Dewey
number. Several staff members checked our

1985 Spring"37

catalog against Public Library Catalog, usually
spending no more than thirty minutes a day on
this project. This task took less than a month to
complete. I evaluated all the data and compiled
(and am still compiling) the lists of books to be
ordered.

What time we did spend on the project was
time well spent. Our circulation staff, from com-
piling the statistics and checking Public Library
Catalog against our card catalog, has a better
knowledge of our collection. I feel that my own
knowledge of our collection and of the reading
interests of our public is vastly improved. I have a
much better idea of what we need, not only in
doing retrospective selection, but in reading cur-
rent reviews as well.

Along the way, we have developed a few
methods and procedures that will be incorpo-
rated permanently into our collection develop-
ment/book selection process. We will allocate
funds each year for retrospective selection; we
will pull all catalog cards for books within six
months to a year after they become overdue; we
will conduct circulation surveys at least every six
months. These are just a few of the procedures
that I feel will give us much better control over
collection evaluation and retrospective selection.

The longer I work with our collection devel-
opment project, the more convinced I become
that it is essential that we continue to devote time
and effort to the allocation of our materials
budget. In every library, we carefully evaluate our
personnel, shift job responsibilities, and reorgan-
ize departments in an effort to obtain maximum
productivity from available personnel. We com-
pare prices in supplies catalogs to stretch this
part of our budget as far as possible. We use com-
petitive bidding to get the best equipment at the
lowest cost. We turn thermostats up or down to
stretch our utilities budget.

Yet, all of these areas are peripheral to our
most important function, that of providing mate-
rials to our users and making sure that we pro-
vide the best materials and materials on the
subjects of highest interest to our patrons. I think
it is essential that we devote at least the same
level of time and effort to selecting books that we
do to these other areas.

Cleaver Symposium to be Held

oThe Cleaver Symposium: A Consideration of
the Contributions of Vera and Bill Cleaver to Con-
temporary ChildrenTs Literature,� sponsored by

38"North Carolina Libraries

the School of Library Science and the Southern
Historical Collection of the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, will be held May 23
through 25, 1985.

Speakers include Dr. Louis Rubin, writer,
critic, and Distinguished Professor of English at
UNC; John Rowell, author, book reviewer, and
Professor Emeritus, Case Western Reserve; Sue
Ellen Bridgers, author of childrenTs books; and Pat
Scales, library media specialist. Activities will also
include a film and readersT theater presentation
and a program given by the staff of the North
Carolina Botanical Garden.

Mrs. Vera Cleaver will close the conference by
responding to the symposium program and, with
her editors, discussing the development of the
CleaversT novels.

For further information or registration mate-
rials, contact Marilyn Miller, School of Library
Science, Manning Hall 026A, Chapel Hill, NC
27514.

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en

Collection Development in
a Public Library Branch

Patrice Gaffney Ebert

Collection: oAn assembly of objects or speci-
mens for the purposes of education, research, or
interest.� Development: oGradual advance or
growth through progressive changes.� As these
definitions from WebsterTs Third New Interna-
tional Dictionary imply, a library collection is a
dynamic creature. Libraries have the power, as
well as the responsibility, to shape their collec-
tions.

This article will attempt to explore the prob-
lems and opportunities in developing the collec-
tion of a large metropolitan branch. Some of the
Strategies, which can stretch even a fairly large
budget, should have universal applications to the
development of any branch library collection.

At first thought, one usually equates collec-
tion development with the selection of new titles
to be purchased. While this is probably the great-
est expenditure, many other factors enter into
the overall strategy of collection development:
replacement titles, added copies, mending and
rebinding, gifts, weeding, and special collections.
In the interplay of these factors, weeding dated
and unattractive materials ranks as high as
acquiring new and attractive materials. Equally
important is the relation of the branch collection
to other collections in the library system.

The Sharon Branch Library houses some
50,000 books and circulates 425,000 volumes
annually. The fact that I manage a branch collec-
tion, even one which circulates more materials
than the main library, takes some of the stress out
of book selection. I do not have to make sure that
I acquire every important title in any field; that is
the central libraryTs job. If our branch does not
Own a title requested by our patrons, we call the
main library. The branch collection can be more
tailored to the needs of our patrons. One of the
most important lessons library school teaches is
the admonishment to the professional: know your
community. Branch libraries, as cogs in the
machinery of a library system, allow the fine-
tuning of a collection to the needs and wants of a
neighborhood clientele.

Patrice Gaffney Ebert is Branch Head of the Sharon Branch

Library of the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg
County.

The central library in a system houses the
research materials, costly reference titles, and
comprehensive collections. The branches may
then concentrate on recreational reading and
books for homework topics. Let the main library
get the costly, scholarly, and esoteric titles. The
branches can borrow as needed.

Questions of literary merit versus popular
demand are not so critical in a branch library. The
selector must address this issue, to be sure, but
patron requests must be considered in the neigh-
borhood library. Some two hundred patrons, for
example, queued up in a waiting list for Robert
LudlumTs Aquitaine Progression at the Sharon
Branch. One can always use rental plans to fur-
nish multiple copies of massively popular titles.
Weeding after demand subsides is no problem:
simply return excess copies. Even if the library
chooses to purchase multiple copies, cheaper
book club editions are often available for mass
best-sellers. (Book clubs are a marketing tool for
the publishers who, as rumor has it, predetermine
best-sellers with advertising budgets and market-
ing schemes.) Given the poor quality of many
book bindings these days, thereTs a good chance
that the extra copies, book club or not, will self-
destruct fairly quickly anyway.

Let the main library get the
costly, scholarly, and esoteric
titles. The branches can borrow
as needed.

Rr 2 A RE TEES

Given the popular tone of branch collections,
the selection of new titles will always be the back-
bone of collection development. Branch patrons
want a continually replenished supply of new
books. ITm sure that every branch library has
patrons who never venture past the new book
shelf (or reserve shelf) into the stacks. They read
book reviews and keep up with developments in
the publishing world. Fiction"lots of new fiction"
must be provided.

1985 Spring"39

Genre Readers

Then there are the genre readers. These
patrons would not only love to have all the mys-
tery, romance, science fiction, or westerns shelved
together; they would never leave these areas were
the library arranged this way. One way to save
both time and money is to subscribe to the genre
book clubs. I am not sure that the quality of this
fiction is always top grade, but the patrons do not
seem to mind. If they do object, they simply avoid
the book club titles. In the best of all possible
worlds, librarians would spend all their time on
book selection and not have to worry about
canned offerings. These genre book clubs, how-
ever, take some of the worry out by supplying a
number of titles automatically each month.

New popular non-fiction also features prom-
inently in selection needs. While each branch pro-
file will differ because of community interests,
some topics are of universal interest: crafts, cook-
books, how-to books, World War II, pop psychol-
ogy, and so forth. Paying attention to topics in the
news also pays off. In recent years, eating dis-
orders such as anorexia nervosa have become
ohot topics� for popular reading. On the other
hand certain topics will be of local appeal. Sharon
Branch, for example, offers a large collection of
Judaica and Holocaust materials for our Jewish
patrons.

Given the popular tone of
branch collections, the selec-
tion of new titles will always be
the backbone of collection de-
velopment.

Retrospective collection building is just as
important in developing the collection as select-
ing new titles, but it requires more time, effort,
and thought. Librarians know they are going to
read all the reviews and get as many of those
wonderful new books as their budget will allow.
Taking the time to find gaps in your collection and
then selecting titles to fill them is just not as much
fun. It is easy to see gaps in the collection when
following another selector. We are quick to notice
deficiencies in areas where we have expertise or
concerns. No matter how hard we try to be unbi-
ased and complete, personal interests invariably
influence book selection. As professionals, we
must strive to overcome personal bias and pro-
vide balanced collections.

40"North Carolina Libraries

Patron requests for books and information
that cannot be found in the collection identify
areas that need development. It helps to keep a
notebook at the desk for staff to jot down obser-
vations about titles and subjects in demand.
Keeping records of materials borrowed from the
central library and other branches also provides
information about gaps in the collection. If a sub-
ject area consistently shows up, that collection
needs some work.

Due to space and staff limitations, the refer-
ence and circulation functions are not separate in
many branch libraries. This fact makes staff input
all the more important. Everyone on the staff
fields reference questions. These same staffers
handle every book that crosses the desk. Their
observations about patron needs and wants make
significant contributions to collection develop-
ment.

The Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklen-
burg County uses a formal scheme for ordering
retrospective materials. Orders for certain Dewey
classes and fiction are placed at specific times of
the year. This plan facilitates the coordination of
weeding and selecting new titles in subject areas.
We keep a ocollection development file� at Sharon
Branch. Staff can note a needed title or subject at
any time, then slip it into the proper class file.
When the time to place orders for that subject
area rolls around, comprehensive decisions about
developing that collection are possible. Rather
than building collections one title at a time by
intuition and memory, this scheme offers the
opportunity to evaluate a section as a whole.

Records of lost books also play a prominent
role in retrospective collection building. While we
never know all the materials which are lost,
stolen, or strayed, we do know which books have
been checked out but never returned. We review
receipts for materials lost and paid, as well as
long overdue files, and consider these titles for
replacement.

Since the tax law no longer encourage pub-
lishers to warehouse copies of backlist titles, many
books are going out of print more quickly. How dis-
tressing to find that the very titles one needs to
replace are either out of print or available only in
paperback! Paperbacks may be second best in some
case, but at least they allow our patrons access to
the books. Binding techniques which mount the
paperback in a sturdy binding, such as Super-Flex
or Permabound, or plastic jackets permanently
applied to the paper binding, called oCover-Ups,�
offer a longer circulation life. These pseudo-hard-
backs stand up to as many circulations as the
recent hardback offerings do. It makes sense to

catalog these and shelve them in the stacks rather
than in a browsing collection, since they are
intended as permanent replacements.

Homework Topics

Homework topics feature prominently in ret-
rospective collection building. As the largest
branch with the largest reference collection out-
side of the main library, Sharon Branch attracts
many students who live in the affluent southern
part of the county. This is our greatest service to
the older elementary through high school popula-
tion; they are too busy with school and commun-
ity activities to attend programs. They come to
study and do research for their assignments.
Their school libraries are closed after school
hours. The public library must meet student
needs for books and information. While we should
not be expected to supply circulation needs, sup-
plementary and research materials must be made
available. This is perhaps the best way to serve
our young adults and keep them as library
Patrons.

One way to supply enough copies for hot
homework topics and mass assignments is to
purchase multiple paperback copies. Identify
titles by requesting reading lists from the schools.
If the lists are not available, photocopy the lists
students bring with them to the library. Even
though the teachers may not assign the very same
titles next year, be assured that those titles will
cycle up as assignments again soon. The osummer
reading lists� often contain standard YA titles and
non-fiction titles anyway. All the more reason to
purchase multiple copies. Certain subject areas
inevitably show up as mass assignments every
year: mythology, tree identification, science pro-
jects, Indians of North America, Shakespeare, and
so on. Reach for the standard catalogs and select
paperback titles for mass purchase.

es

Retrospective collection build-
ing is just as important in
developing the collection as
selecting new titles.

LL

Adult patrons have collection needs that can
best be met with multiple paperbacks as well.
Every branch librarian has ordered these mate-
rials over and over again: résumé books, study
guides for the Armed Forces placement tests,
names for babies, and wedding etiquette. Since
these books are subject to high loss rates, it makes

sense to order paperbacks. Rather than investing
in more expensive rebinding procedures, a strip
of sturdy book tape on the spine will prolong the
life of these paperbacks.

Weeding, the essential converse to acquiring
materials, also develops the collection. It is a sim-
ple mathematical truth that branch libraries have
only so much room. Unless the branch has serious
hope of moving to larger quarters, one book must
be weeded for every book acquired. In evaluating
the collection, look for dated materials, super-
seded editions, ugly, ragged volumes, and mate-
rials that have not circulated in a given time
period. Every library system should have a weed-
ing policy with guidelines for weeding the various
Dewey classes. An American Library Association
publication, Evaluating and Weeding Collections
in Small and Medium-Sized Public Libraries:
The Crew Method (Chicago, 1980), offers valuable
advice. Be ruthless. Systematic weeding not only
frees space for more attractive and up-to-date
titles; it also makes the branch library more
appealing to patrons.

While the weeding process is continuous, I
devote a good deal of time each summer to the
books that have not seen any use. Pages read the
shelves and pull any book that has not circulated
in two years. These become weeding candidates.
We then check the titles against the standard
catalogs: Fiction Catalog, Public Library Catalog,
ChildrenTs Catalog, and the Junior High School
Library Catalog. We also consider availability at
the main library and at other branches. Sharon
Branch may not need a copy if the title is readily
available elsewhere. Certain titles are retained
because of literary merit or anticipated demand,
but very few weeding candidates get back to the
shelf.

Rebinding and mending worthy titles can be
budget savers. Some libraries never rebind, figur-
ing that patrons will want a clean, shiny, new
copy. If the title is still in print and not very
expensive, this theory works well. Sometimes,
however, it is more cost-effective to rebind a used
copy for one-fifth the cost of a new copy. At the
time of this writing, it costs about $4.00 to rebind
a standard sized novel, yet a new copy may cost
$20.00. If the book self-destructed because of
cheap binding practices, it makes little sense to
purchase yet another copy from the publisher.
Better to rebind and retain the original copy in a
guaranteed binding. Paper jackets can be saved
and then replaced with a clean, new plastic cover.
Simple mending with glue and book tape can
often prolong the life of a useful book. This is
especially important for out-of-print titles or for

1985 Spring"41

books one just wants to keep around until
replacements arrive.

Stringent standards should, of course, be
applied to any bindery or mending candidates.
Items to be rebound must have at least half-inch
wide inner margins. The rebinding process trims
away part of the pages at the spine. Consider
whether illustrations will still be useful after
trimming. Books mended with tape should never
be sent to the bindery, as tape will gum up the
binding machines. Never mend a book that you
may want to rebind someday. Send it right to the
bindery instead. No bindery or mending candi-
date should have dirty, stained, torn, or defaced
pages. The paper should be of good quality, not
yellow or brittle. These books, in general, should
meet the same standards of quality as items con-
sidered for purchase. Non-fiction should be exam-
ined for accuracy and timeliness. If a newer
edition is available, discard the superseded edi-
tion and purchase the newer. Fiction titles should
either be listed in the Fiction Catalog or, if not, be
of potential lasting interest in the collection
because of the author or subject. Inspect mended
books carefully after completion. They should still
be clean and attractive. A bad mending job can
ruin an otherwise useful book.

Weeding, the essential converse
to acquiring new materials, also
develops the collection.

Gifts can play a role in collection develop-
ment, but some of the same caveats for rebinding
and mending apply. Inspect gifts closely for con-
dition, currency, quality, and need. Do watch for
clean copies of out-of-print standard titles.
Include only sterling candidates in the collection,
remembering that even a ofree� book costs the
library its handling and processing time. Cash
donations for new memorial books or magazine
subscriptions are true budget savers.

Every branch library may develop special col-
lections unique in the branch library system.
While the central library holdings should be all-
inclusive, branches can strive to share resources
among themselves. In Charlotte, for example, the
South Branch collection includes the North Caro-
lina General Statutes, while Sharon Branch
houses the largest business reference collection in
the branch system.

Every branch library contains a unique col-
lection of materials. Careful attention to the

42"North Carolina Libraries

details of collection development should result in
a balanced, up-to-date, and complete collection
especially designed for the needs of the branch
patrons.

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cee imlarceerchrree enna rere eeneneerrenr ETT,

The Hatteras Library:
A Small Unit in a Regional System

Anne D. Sanders

sibeethc socal, staph sein hk eh ie ee

I first visited the Hatteras Library in Decem-
ber 1972. At that time the library was housed in
an abandoned school building, was operated by
volunteers, and was made up largely of gift books.
Mrs. Lillie Peele, a Hatteras native and natural-
born librarian, spent most of her time managing
the library, carefully selecting the few new books
that the $500.00 per year budget allowed, and
maintaining records. Mrs. Peele and I immediately
established a relationship full of mutual concerns
for the library, not the least of which was to make
the Hatteras Library a part of the East Albemarle
Regional Library system. To make a long story
short, that feat was accomplished in April 1977,
at which time the library was moved to one sec-
tion of the new Hatteras Community Building
that now stands on the site of the old school-
house. Unfortunately, Lillie Peele did not live to
see her dream come true, but I have made every
possible effort since her death to make the Hatte-
ras Library the kind of institution she so desired
for the residents of the village.

A number of steps have been taken since
1977 to make the collection viable. First, the
entire collection had to be screened. This was
done under the supervision of Judith Israel, who
was the Dare County Librarian at that time. After
the initial sorting, all uncataloged books were
classified by Elizabeth Hermann, a retired librar-
ian and tireless volunteer. A card catalog was set
up, and the library began to take shape. The
major problem at that time was the scarcity of
new books. The regional book selection policy
stated that materials purchased for Hatteras
would have to come from Dare County LibraryTs
share of the book budget. The regional book
budget was so small then that none of the librar-
ies was receiving an adequate number of new
books. Therefore, a serious attempt was made to
keep a large circulating collection in Hatteras,
drawn from the other libraries in the region.
When we could spare the money, we added some
professional tools for the Hatteras librarian, Yan-
cey Foster, and sometimes took several staff

Anne D. Sanders is Director of the East Albemarle Regional
Library.

members for a day-long work session to help
catch up on filing and typing.

Then in 1983/84, with additional state aid,
we were finally in a position to study the Hatteras
collection with enthusiasm. One article proved to
be especially useful to Yancey, Amy Frazer (the
Dare County Librarian) and me. The article,
entitled oA Bare Bones Nonfiction Collection for
Small Vermont Public Libraries� and written by
Marianne Cassell, Development and Adult Serv-
ices Consultant, Department of Libraries, Mont-
pelier, Vermont 05602, appeared in The Un-
abashed Librarian, number 45, 1982. Using the
article as a starting point, Amy checked the
shelves while I consulted with Yancey and took
copious notes. As we talked, Yancey was able to
recall requests for materials which the library did
not own. Amy handled practically every volume in
the non-fiction collection as we worked, thereby
assessing its use and condition. When we finished
going through the bibliography, I had several
pages of titles and subjects to be ordered. These I
turned over to Alise Irvin, in charge of acquisi-
tions for the region, who used the standard catal-
ogs primarily for sources.

A particularly difficult area for us was the
reference collection, which was scant. Because
the entire library space is only 1,890 square feet,
we had to be highly selective in our choices. In the
area of literature, especially, I thought of times
when even our largest library could not satisfy the
demands of students; what then should I choose
for Hatteras, which had virtually no material in
the 800s? A trip back to the headquarters library
proved helpful at this point. With pad in hand, I
scanned the reference collection and noted the
materials that had been most useful to me in the
past.

For the large number of tourists who visit the
Outer Banks in the summer, I was especially anx-
ious to have available historical materials, as well
as additional materials related to the area. These
included commercial and sport fishing, boat con-
struction, small engine repair, marine life, marine
science, and seashell identification. I see this area
of the collection growing in the future, as well it

1985 Spring"43

should. I strongly believe that public libraries
should reflect the interests and natural charac-
teristics of the area in which they are located.

Again, I gave subject requests to Mrs. Irvin,
who carefully chose the best of each subject she
could find. Our ubiquitous enemy was, and con-
tinues to be, space or the lack of it. It is in the area
of adult fiction that space really presents a prob-
lem.

AmyTs thoughts on this were that the adult
fiction collection should be maintained largely by
circulating titles from the other three libraries in
the region, thereby utilizing shelf space to its full-
est advantage. One of the advantages of a regional
library is that both money and shelf space are
extended by our constantly moving and sharing
single titles. For example, it has been a policy of
this system since the beginning to buy only one
copy of a mystery or western title (unless there is
a great deal of promotion of a particular title) for
the entire region. Mrs. Irvin spreads the owner-
ship so that one library gets every third new mys-
tery or western title. The justification for this is
that even if we had unlimited funds and space, we
could never satisfy the appetites of our avid mys-
tery readers. Since many mysteries are read at
one sitting, they are returned quickly, which
means that they will move on to the next library
in a short time.

(eu 2 eT

Public libraries should reflect
the interests and natural char-
acteristics of the area in which
they are located.

el

The second opinion that Amy had was that
the permanent adult fiction collection did not
need to include as many literary classics as the
other three libraries, since interlibrary loan could
take care of any requests in this area. The Hat-
teras Library is visited at least once a week by
someone from the Dare County Library or region
for the purpose of transferring books and other
library materials and equipment. In addition, I
encourage Yancey to use the telephone as often as
needed, even though Hatteras calls are long dis-
tance to the other libraries. Because of the dis-
tance involved, library service is made more
efficient by the use of the telephone for requests.
We also use the postal service to its greatest
advantage. The Dare County Library and Hatteras
Library staff have become quite resourceful in

44"North Carolina Libraries

finding ways to transport books and equipment:
the trustee who lives in Frisco, the sheriff, the
mail truck driver, and anyone who is going to or
coming from Hatteras, is likely to end up with a
box of books and notes for Yancey or Amy.

Having concurred with AmyTs suggestions, I
then agreed that Hatteras should have its own
copy of highly popular new adult fiction titles.
Space for these titles is not a factor, since often-
times the physical life of a popular book is not
long, and the problem takes care of itself.

The next area we have to consider is the
juvenile collection. For this, I am going to rely
heavily on the expertise of our newest regional
staff member, Carol Veitch, who holds a Ph.D. in
Library Science. Carol was associate professor in
the Department of Library Science at East Caro-
lina University before joining us as librarian of the
Currituck County Library. She also has twelve
years experience as a school librarian. Carol will
serve a double role in the region as county librar-
ian and co-ordinator of childrenTs services.
Because she has been with the region less than a
year, I have purposely waited on the Hatteras proj-
ect until she is fully acclimated to the area and
her new position. She and I have discussed the
situation, and I feel confident that she will make
prudent decisions.

One thing that I learned quickly as a director
was to utilize the skills and expertise of my staff.
In the area of collection building, I found this par-
ticularly helpful for the Hatteras Library. Creativ-
ity and resourcefulness were essential in dealing
with the small space with which we had to work.

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Merchandising the Collection from
the Small Branch Perspective

Barbara Cashwell

Nice sucess aaa cia ipaaceciaeeti aii ana em RR

Merchandising does move books! I learned
about this concept at a Cumberland County Pub-
lic Library staff training session in the spring of
1983. The program was informative, and displays
were set up to reinforce the information pre-
sented. I was encouraged to select any of the
materials used in the displays. These items
included posters, wooden cubes, record covers,
and boxes of various shapes and sizes.

Later that afternoon, I delivered the display
materials I had chosen for my branch. My car
looked like an early Christmas promotion with
the brightly colored boxes and posters in the back
seat. Once inside the library I was anxious to try
my creativity with the displays. Time flew by as I
spent the entire afternoon assembling the exhib-
its. Being creative did not seem like work.

I set up my first display on the floor in the
juvenile section under the window. I used several
boxes of different shapes and sizes, covering them
with muted tones of different colored wallpaper.
I put new fiction and popular paperbacks on and
around this cubicle of boxes. This lay-out looked
very appealing. But I was curious to see how long
it would hold up under the three- to five-year-old
inspection teams. Much to my surprise and
delight, this display was never knocked down. I
used this particular display for at least twelve
months. The only thing that ever needed replac-
ing was books!

My merchandising ideas overflowed into the
juvenile section with another display. I used
Paperback dumps from a local book store on
which I stapled a large cardboard poster of Judy
Blume. After removing some of the dividing sec-
tions from the top, I displayed hardback Judy
Blume books and paperbacks in the remaining
slots. This display is currently being used and has
often*answered the inquiries as to the location of
the Judy Blume books. Merchandising is truly
effective in this area.

In the following weeks, I expanded on my
ideas for the juvenile section with a small red
bookcase placed at an eye-catching angle. Choose

"""""

Barbara Cashwell is Librarian at the Hope Mills Branch of the
Cumberland County Public Library and Information Center.

Your Own Adventure, Return of the Jedi and Bev-
erly Cleary paperbacks were displayed on the
shelves. On top of the bookcase, I put new juvenile
fiction and a large shallow basket, which held the
Charlie Brown and Heathcliff cartoon soft copies.
To complete the scene, a Raggedy Ann doll with
legs crossed, reading a Beatrix Potter book, occu-
pied the window sill nearby. Raggedy Ann has not
had achance to finish the book yet as it is so often
borrowed by patrons.

The success of one particular display was
aided by a friendly ghost. I constructed the ghost
using a balloon for the head and ascrap piece of
sheeting for the body. The ghost was suspended
from the ceiling with fishing line. Black adhesive
letters spelling oGhost Stories� were stuck on the
front of the ghost. Ghost stories, fiction and non-

Sea adventure or pirate books are displayed on both sides ofa
metal ship in the J 900 section.

1985 Spring"45

fiction, juvenile and adult, were placed on a dis-
play underneath the ghost. Books had to be
borrowed from the main library and other
branches to keep this display filled. Ghost tales
are so popular that this could be used any time of
the year.

A seasonal idea was introduced at Easter
using baskets and colored eggs. In a small basket,
there were small plastic eggs and a small stuffed
bunny. In a larger basket, I used various colors of
oLeggs� eggs. Books about spring, rabbits, and
Easter, both fiction and non-fiction, were set up
next to the baskets.

Encouraging interest through the use of oeye-
catching� materials makes a very effective promo-
tion. Displaying fiction and non-fiction books on
the top shelves has also proved successful. What
really completes the appeal is the addition of
other imaginative objects. For instance, a metal
ship is placed over the J 900s. Sea adventure or
pirate books are shown on both sides of the ship.
Two puppet insects are also used along with a
bright red plastic apple on some other shelving
units. I have included an 8�x 10� framed autumn
scene on yet another shelf as well as a small
framed clown picture to create a bright area. Last

The wooden spools that wire comes on are stacked to hold a
lot of books.

46"North Carolina Libraries

February, I did a black history display. A com-
memorative tray of Martin Luther King added
just the right touch to this exhibit.

One of the best ideas I have incorporated
uses the wooden spools that wire comes on. They
were a contribution from an electrical supply
company. I used various sizes in stacks of three
and four spools. Although I chose not to paint
mine, the idea of doing so would be a worthy
extra. These spools hold a lot of books! On occa-
sion I drape the spools with some type of fabric. I
have beige velour on one of mine. Red satin or
velvet would be nice during the months of
December through February. Green material
could be used March to May.

The eye-catching materials in merchandising
are enhanced with easy-to-read signs. Such signs
are regularly displayed on the oBest Seller� shelf,
the oClassics� shelf, the oMystery� location, the
oFamily Saga� exhibit and the ever-popular oHis-
torical Romance� area.

Realizing the significance of the location of
displays to the overall effect of merchandising, my
branch relocated the paperbacks. I moved the
rack closer to the front entrance in order to
encourage the interest of the arriving patron. I
included categories on romance, western and war
adventure, horror, science fiction, and mystery.
One of the most favored racks is a small wire one
placed next to the charge-out machine. This rack
contains the newest and most attractive paper-
back copies.

The ideas presented here are some of the
most successful at our library. The effectiveness of
these ideas is confirmed by patrons. More than
one has made the comment oYour books seem to
say, ~Take Me!� I am convinced. Merchandising
moves books.

This eye-catching display highlights the historical romance
section.

LibrariansT Attitudes
Toward Networking

Peggy Chapman

Abstract. Networking, as an answer to library
problems, is a concept that is receiving much
attention. The attitudes toward networking of
public librarians and school media specialists in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, were surveyed.
While both groups agreed that there are many
benefits to be derived from networking, more pub-
lic librarians than media specialists expressed a
willingness to participate in inter-library co-
operation. Lack of clerical help was the over-
whelming barrier identified by the media
Specialists.

In the world today, the information explosion
is requiring immediate access to an abundance of
resources; at the same time, libraries are facing
uncertain funding. Some manner of cooperative
effort seems to be inevitable if libraries are to
bring their services efficiently and economically to
those who need and want them. These coopera-
tive efforts might require some major changes: in
the rules, regulations, and responsibilities that
libraries have traditionally observed.

Networking

The system of obtaining resources from other
agencies is called networking. In many circles of
librarianship, this cooperation, or networking, is
meeting with some resistance. If it is true that
networking is effective at mobilizing total library
resources, why is there opposition? The answers
seem to lie in the attitudes librarians have toward
networking. The question most frequently asked
is whether such different kinds of libraries can
truly share ideas, services and resources. One
concern is that federal funding will not be con-
tinued and that networking will be resisted as
librarians become more concerned about restrict-
ing the use of their collections to their patrons
Only. One problem in undertaking networking is
getting people to work together productively.

If librariansT attitudes prevent them from
wholeheartedly supporting the network concept,
then this solution to the problems of increased

a
Peggy Chapman is Acting Coordinator of Media Services for
the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools.

library costs, increased demands for information,
and greater cuts in library budgets will have little
chance for success.

Networking in Schools and Public Libraries

Although there is a wealth of material in the
literature on networks (e.g., the benefits of, barri-
ers to, and history of the movement), there is very
little descriptive research on how the attitudes of
librarians affect their use of networks.

Illinois has been a leader among the states
involved in networking. As early as 1965 the
Library Systems Act was passed, providing for the
establishment and development of a network of
library systems. Much progress has been made in
implementing this law. However, Robert Drescher,
in an article written for Illinois Libraries in 1976,
listed some barriers that still existed. Prominent
among these barriers were several that directly
relate to librariansT attitudes.!

Networking seems to work best when used
among people who associate with each other in
professional activities and who are friendly with
each other.2 For cooperation to work, attitudes
must be favorable, not only at the administrative
level but also at the points of contact at all levels
of activity.

In 1977 Johnson and Hines? prepared a posi-
tion paper for the Task Force on the Role of the
School Library Program in Networking. In this
paper, the authors stated that the literature
showed the attitudes of librarians and some
library users to be the major obstacle to partici-
pation in networks.

One bright note in the sometimes gloomy pic-
ture of uncooperative attitudes is found in a
report by David W. Griffith. He enthusiastically
enumerated all the forms of cooperation in which
his library in Youngstown, Ohio, was involved for
one year. He also emphasized the importance of
attitude.*

Librarians raise many objections to network-
ing when faced with the question of interlibrary
cooperation. Many school librarians feel that they
have little to contribute to a system of network-
ing. Some personnel in larger libraries feel that, in

1985 Spring"47

joining a network, they will be overrun with
requests and that their collections will be de-
pleted. Although some of these fears are legiti-
mate, there is reason to agree that osome observe
that obstacles to resource sharing are not primar-
ily technological but are human in nature.�

Hypothesis

Ho: There will be no significant difference in
the attitudes of public librarians and of school
media specialists toward networking.

Methodology

In order to assess whether the attitudes
toward networking of public librarians are differ-
ent from the attitudes of school librarians, a sur-
vey was conducted. The questionnaire was de-
signed to ensure the anonymity of the librarian
responding to the questions. In the upper right
corner were the initials PL (for public librarian)
or SL (for school librarian). These initials were
necessary to identify the type of library from
which the questionnaire was returned. There was
no other mark of identification. A cover letter
explaining the need for their opinions was sent
with the questionnaire to the sixty-eight media
specialists in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County
(North Carolina) schools and to the thirty-three
professional librarians in the Forsyth County Pub-
lic Library system. A stamped addressed envelope
was enclosed.

Of the sixty-eight questionnaires sent to
school media specialists, forty-eight were com-
pleted and returned. Table I illustrates the
number of elementary, middle schools, junior high
schools, and high schools represented by the
completed questionnaires. The number of media
specialists and the number of aides working in
these media centers are also shown on the chart.
It is evident that in most of the schools, the media
center has a staff of only one person.

TABLE I
Media Centers
Level Number Media Specialists Aides
Elementary 23 24 3.5
Middle School 4 4 0
Junior High ¥¢ G 0
High School 14 22 9.0

Most of the schools in the Winston-Salem
Forsyth County System have a large number of
elementary and middle schools with each school
serving relatively few patrons. The junior high and
high schools are fewer in number, but each serves
a greater number of students. (See Table II.)

48"North Carolina Libraries

TABLE II
Users Served

Level 300-599 600-1000 Over 1000
Elementary 14 is Pe
Middle School 3 1 0
Junior High 4 3 0
High School 0 5 9

It is apparent (Table III) that even in the
smaller elementary schools the collections in each
school are fairly substantial.

Of the thirty-three questionnaires sent to the
professional librarians in the Forsyth County Pub-
lic Library, twenty were completed and returned.
Table IV illustrates the way in which the librar-
ians, aides, users served, and collections are
divided between the main library and the branch
libraries.

Summary of Survey Data

Each librarian and media specialist was
asked to put a check by selected types of mate-
rials on hand in his/her library. The questionnaire
also instructed the librarians and media special-
ists to check the types of materials that they have
requests or needs for and the types that they
would be willing to lend to other facilities. The
tabulations indicate that all the libraries and
media centers contain most of these materials.
Seventy-one per cent of the school libraries, but
only 45 per cent of the public libraries have film-
strips; 73 per cent of school and 75 per cent of
public libraries have records. All of the libraries
contain fiction and non-fiction books. Seventy-
one per cent of the school and 60 per cent of the
public libraries have AV equipment; 67 per cent of
the school and 90 per cent of the public libraries
have documents or pamphlets.

We asked to indicate how long a loan period
they would consider satisfactory for sharing
materials with other facilities, the public librar-
ians were willing to use a longer time period. (See
Table V.)

The librarians and media specialists were
asked to list the benefits and drawbacks that they
perceived as important in implementing inter-
library loans. The media specialists listed as
benefits:

1. that materials not owned by individual
media centers would become available to them
(79 per cent),

2. that there could be a cost saving if there
were less duplication in acquisitions (19 per
cent),

3. that there would be an advantage in being
able to work with other media specialists (4 per

a

TABLE III
Collection Sizes - Books & AV
Level Fewer Than 7500 Items More Than 7500 Items
Elementary 2 21
Middle School 1 3
Junior High 1 6

i 13

High School eS

a

TABLE IV
Public Library
Fewer Than Over 7500 Items 7500 Items
Librarians Aides 300 1000 Or More Or More
Users Users Books Only Books & AV
Main Library 25 33.5 0 1 0 1

Branch Libraries 10 20 1 5 2 4

cent),

4. that interlibrary loans would be conve-
nient for students (4 per cent),

5. that they believed the maximum use of
materials would be a benefit of networking (4 per
cent).

The public librarians considered the follow-
ing items to be benefits of cooperation:

1. that more books would be available to
their patrons (75 per cent),

2. that there would be a cost saving in acqui-
sitions with less duplication (40 per cent),

3. that they would have more satisfied
patrons (25 per cent),

4. that networking is a way to secure more
current and varied materials (20 per cent),

5. that interlibrary loans would make avail-

materials on loan returned when they were due
(19 per cent),
5. that many of their materials would be lost

(17 per cent),

6. that a union catalog could not be kept cur-
rent enough to be of use to them (6 per cent),

7. that they do not have enough materials to
lend (4 per cent),

8. that the cost of networking would be pro-
hibitive (4 per cent),

9. problems with the transportation of mate-
rials (4 per cent),

Drawbacks listed by the public librarians
were as follows:

1. that their patrons would be deprived of
materials that were on loan (35 per cent),

2. that the service would be too slow (25 per

able to them out-of-print childrenTs books (10 per cent),
cent). 3. that cost would be a problem (25 per
There was general agreement between the cent),

two types of librarians that more materials would
be available to them and to their patrons through
networking. The public librarians foresaw the
possibility of a much greater cost savings in
acquisitions than the media specialists did.

Media specialists saw as drawbacks to net-
working:

1. lack of clerical help, thereby involving too
much of their time and effort (75 per cent),

2. that their users would be deprived of
materials (49 per cent),

3. that there would be greater damage to
their materials, thereby causing them to have a
Shorter use time (25 per cent),

4. that they would have trouble getting

4. that too much time and effort would be
involved in networking (20 per cent),

5. that materials would be kept beyond the
due date (15 per cent),

6. that there would be omisuse� (not ex-
plained) of the network (15 per cent),

7. that smaller libraries would benefit more
than large libraries (10 per cent),

8. that materials would be lost (10 per cent).

Most of the media specialists saw as the
major drawback to networking their lack of cleri-
cal help. This problem was not a concern of the
public librarians. Although both types of librar-
ians felt that their users would be deprived of
materials that would be on loan to other facilities,

i

TABLE V
Loan Periods
1 Week 2 Weeks 3 Weeks 1 Month
Public Librarians 0 5 2 12
School Media Specialists He 29 0 5

wchool Media SpeC OS

1985 Spring"49

the media specialists saw this as a bigger problem
than the public librarians did. Loss of and damage
to materials were concerns to all the librarians,
particularly to the media specialists. Ten per cent
of the public librarians felt that smaller libraries
would benefit more from networking than large
libraries. Only one media specialist mentioned
this as a problem of library cooperation.

Responses to the question, oDo you feel that
you need to know more about networking at your
level to perform your job?� differed to a statisti-
cally insignificant degree (X? = 1.4, df = 1, P .05).
Of the forty-seven school media specialists an-
swering this question, thirty-two said oyes.� Ten
public librarians answered in the affirmative,
while nine felt that they could engage in network-
ing with the knowledge that they currently pos-
sess.

When asked if they felt that having access to
materials from other media centers and libraries
would outweigh any inconvenience and extra
work involved in lending their materials, nineteen
out of the twenty public librarians answered that
they did. The school media specialists felt differ-
ent to a significant degree. Of the forty-one media
specialists answering this question, only seven-
teen replied in the affirmative (X? = 15.94, df= 1,
P=.0));

The public librarians and the school media
specialists all thought that lending their materials
would deprive their users of some services. How-
ever, thirty-six out of forty-six media specialists
and seventeen out of nineteen public librarians
felt that this inconvenience would be relatively
small. Although there was a difference, it was not
significant. In referring to Tables 3 and 4, it is
apparent that most of the school media centers
and the public libraries have substantial collec-
tions. Possibly for this reason, both types of librar-
ians felt that they did have enough materials to
lend to other facilities. No significant difference
between perceptions of media specialists and
public librarians occurred on this question (X? =
3.42, df= 1, P.05).

When the data were arranged by size of col-
lection (i.e., placing both school and public librar-
ies that own fewer than seventy-five hundred
items in one group and libraries owning more
than seventy-five hundred items in another
group), there was no significant difference in atti-
tudes toward becoming involved in networking.

When questioned about their opinions on the
number of loan transactions per month that they
would consider satisfactory, the school media
specialists overwhelmingly chose the category 0-
30. This choice was the lowest number given in

50"North Carolina Libraries

the multiple choice question. The public librar-
iansT answers were evenly divided among the
available categories: 0-30; 30-50; and 50 and up
(X? = 51.03, df = 2, P .01).

The consideration of whether the use of net-
works would add to the cost of operating a library
revealed that public librarians and school media
specialists differed in their beliefs that costs
would increase (X? = 3.90, df = 1, P .05). This
difference was, however, barely significant.

Answers to the last question really summed
up the attitudes of all the librarians: it asked if
given a choice they would prefer to be involved in
networking. Sixteen school media specialists said
yes, thirty-two, no; while fifteen public librarians
said yes, and four answerd no (X2 = 11.36, df = 1,
P .01). This difference is statistically significant
and large enough to leave little doubt of the opin-
ions of the librarians surveyed in this study.

Conclusions

There is a scarcity of literature pertaining to
librariansT attitudes toward networking. One
study® found that public librarians are not as will-
ing to participate in interlibrary loans as school
media specialists. According to another paper,T
school librarians were not cooperative either.
There seems to be a general consensus that most
librarians profess to be interested in networking
but would actually prefer not to become involved.

This study was surprising in revealing a great
difference between attitudes of school media spe-
cialists and public librarians in Winston-Salem
and Forsyth County.

The school media specialists believed that the
benefits of obtaining materials from other facili-
ties would not be great enough to justify the
inconvenience imposed on their own users, who
might also be deprived of materials. The opposite
view was held by the public librarians. Although
they agreed that there would be an inconvenience
to users, they felt that the value of library cooper-
ation would outweigh the disadvantages.

In looking for the reasons for the finding that
media specialists responded with twice as many
negative answers as positive ones, several under-
lying causes can be found. By referring to Table I,
it is evident that many school media centers have
practically no staff. In most cases, one person
must serve the users indicated in Table II, meet all
the classes in the school, serve the needs of the
faculty, and process all materials. The Winston-
Salem/Forsyth School System does not have cen-
tral cataloging. Some days, perhaps on the day
the questionnaire arrived, one more task might
seem to be too much.

The public librarians serve just as many users
as the schools, if not more. Public libraries main-
tain a larger staff, however, even in branch librar-
ies. Cataloging is done centrally, and books arrive
ready to be shelved.

The benefits of networking that the school
media specialists and the public librarians listed
are strikingly similar. They agree that more and
varied materials would be available to their
patrons, that costs could probably be cut by
reducing duplication in acquisitions, and that
their users would be more satisfied with their ser-
vice.

It is interesting to note that, in enumerating
drawbacks to inter-library cooperation, school
media specialists listed first their lack of clerical
help. The public librariansT first concern was that
their users would be deprived of materials while
they were on loan. This concern was the second
one listed by the school personnel.

There is clear evidence in this survey that, at
least in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, there
is a significant difference in the attitudes of public
librarians and school media specialists toward
networking. The null hypothesis was rejected.

Although the concerns of the school media
specialists are justified by their lack of help, a
solution to increased costs and lower budgets
must be found. Participation in a network will do
much to meet student learning needs as well as
the resource needs of teachers and the general
public, Networks should not be a substitute for
effective local media service but should be an
expansion of school and public library programs.

According to a plan for library cooperation in
Pennsylvania, collective action works best among
people who come in contact with each other in
professional organizations and who are friendly
with each other. Perhaps opportunities for school
media specialists and public librarians to visit
each otherTs libraries would be a good way for
them to become acquainted with each other.
Actual networking activities could begin on a
small scale and grow as the participating libraries
become more willing to share their resources.

Workshops or training sessions for the mem-
bers who would be involved would be useful for
working on and solving common problems and
fears. At these workshops a handbook of policies,
services, and key people could be compiled. In
order for communications among libraries to be
Satisfactory, the time involved in making provi-
sions for sharing materials must be kept to a min-
imum. By working on policies to deal with
problems of this type before networking network-

ing is begun, many unsatisfactory situations can
be avoided.

The purpose of activities designed to involve
different types of librarians in some form of
cooperation is, one hopes, to start a change in
their attitudes. If attitudes are indeed the major
obstacle to networking, a change is needed before
any form of networking can be successful. School
and public librarians both oface enormous chal-
lenges and both will have to change, fundamen-
tally, their attitudes and understandings about
each other's programs, about learning and teach-
ing, about services for people, and about informa-
tion management.�®

There is no way to prove conclusively that
attitudes direct our choices and our behavior, but
there is strong evidence that this is true. Trian-
dis! states that attitude is a contributing cause to
behavior. oScientists have felt the need for a con-
cept ~attitudeT for this purpose.�!! Certainly the
connection between attitudes and behavior is a
very strong one. The traditional concept has been
that the direction of this connection runs from
attitude to behavior. There is reason to believe
that this connection also runs in the opposite
direction, ie., that behavior sometimes influences
the attitude.�

References

1. Robert Drescher, oSchool Library Cooperation in the Illinois
Library and Information Network (ILLINET),� Illinois Librar-
ies 58 (September 1976): 548-551.

2. C.T. Meadow, A Plan For Library Cooperation in Pennsyl-
vania, (Philadelphia: Drexel University, 1976) (ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. ED 136 757).

3. Mary Frances Johnson and Theodore C. Hines, oSchool
Media Programs and Networking: A Position Paper.� Greensboro,
N.C. University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 1977. (ERIC
Document Reproduction Service No. ED 175 442).

4. David W. Griffith, oCooperation: WhatTs In a Name?� The
Unabashed Librarian #29 (1978): 32.

5. David M. Moore, oLibrary Networks"A Technological System
Whose Time Has Come,� Journal of Educational Technology Sys-
tems 8 (1979-80): 147-53.

6. Esther R. Dyer, oCooperation in Library Services to Children:
A Fifteen Year Forecast of Alternatives Using the Delphi Tech-
nique.� (Doctoral Dissertation, Columbia University, 1976). Dis-
sertation Abstracts International 39 (1976): 1904A-1905A.

7. Esther B. Woolls, oCooperative Library Service to Children in
Public Libraries and Public School Systems in Selected Commu-
nities in Indiana.� (Ph.D. Dissertation, Indiana University, 1973).
8. Meadow, Op. cit.

9. D. Phillip Baker, oSchool and Public Library Programs and
Information Dissemination,� School Media Quarterly 5 (Winter
1977): 120.

10. H.C. Triandis, Attitude and Attitude Change (New York:
John Wiley, 1969).

11. C.A. Kiesler, B.E. Collins, and N. Miller, Attitudes Change
(New York: John Wiley, 1969): 5.

12. C.A. Insko, Theories of Attitude Change (Englewood Cliffs,
N.J.: Prentice"Hall, 1967).

1985 Spring"51

New North Carolina Books

Alice R. Cotten, Compiler

Jill McCorkle. July 7th. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algon-
quin Books, 1984. 387 pp. $17.95.

Some librarians put their spare time to more
interesting uses than others: Jill McCorkle wrote
this spritely second novel during a stint as an
acquisitions librarian in Melbourne, Florida.

July 7th focuses on the lives of townspeople
in Marshboro, North Carolina, on that particular
day. The plot stems from an amalgam of blind
chance, although the consequences have far-
reaching effects on the lives of the characters.
Sam Swett, a disillusioned twenty-one-year-old on
the run from New York City as well as from his
southern parents, wakes from a bourbon-induced
stupor to discover that he has witnessed a
murder at the Quik Pik just off I-95. Harold Weeks
is the second witness: he too suffers from a hang-
over and has been on the run from his wife, Jua-
nita, ever since he caught her disporting herself in
the room behind the Winn Dixie meat counter.

Other characters, whose variety springs nat-
urally from southern stereotypes, brings the town
to life; Juanita Weeks, a swinging electrologist who
keeps herself fit for HaroldTs return by working
out at the Nautilus; HaroldTs sister Kate and her
husband, Ernie Stubbs, whose house in the Cape
Fear Trace subdivision (formerly Piney Swamp)
does not quite cancel out ErnieTs upbringing on
Injun Street; Corky Revels, a shy and lonely wait-
ress at the Coffee Shop, who befriends the newest
stranger in town, Sam; and Bob Bobbin, the
policeman who decorates his apartment with red
shag carpet and red and black velour wallpaper
and who is only waiting to install matador lamps
before he invites Corkey over for dinner.

McCorkle has a flair for believable characteri-
zations, whether she deals with the elderly, such
as Granner Weeks, whose goal is to reach another
birthday while avoiding her son-in-lawTs efforts to
install her in a highrise old folksT home, or with
the poor, such as Fannie McNair, the black house-
keeper for another family in Cape Fear Trace.
Novelist Lee Smith comments, oJill McCorkle has
left the old stereotypes dead under the magnolias
as she stakes out her own territory: the New
South with its subdivisions and Winn Dixies and

52"North Carolina Libraries

country music, lovesick electrologists and dope-
smoking cheerleaders and swinging town cops, its
tricky new racial and social balances. ItTs scary
the way she invades her characters, writing so
close to them that the books seem to happen
inside your head.�

July 7th captures the humor and pathos of life
in a small town which also happens to be south-
ern. Characterizations are recognizable stereo-
types, but their actions and reactions ring true.
McCorkle deftly balances Sam SwettTs craving for
detachment and perspective with the need for
involvement in life, with all of its pettiness, joys,
and sorrows.

McCorkle was raised in Lumberton, North
Carolina, graduated from the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill and received her M.A.
from Hollins College. She now lives in Chapel Hill.
She has been awarded the Jesse Rehder and
Andrew James Purdy Prizes for fiction, and her
short fiction has been published in Crescent Mag-
azine and Seventeen. In an unusual step high-
lighting McCorkleTs promise as a novelist, Algon-
quin Books simultaneously published both July
7th and her first novel, The Cheer Leader. With
these two novels, McCorkle, at age twenty-five,
has her career well under way.

July 7th is recommended for most fiction col-

lections.

Margaretta Yarborough, Univeristy of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill

John R. Finger. The Eastern Band of Cherokees,
1819-1900. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee
Press, 1984. 253 pp. $24.95 cloth, $12.50, paper.

oWhy another book on the Cherokees?� the
author asks in his preface (p. xi). Surprisingly,
there are no modern histories of the Eastern
Band. Most of the accounts chronicle the early
period of the tribe and the events that led up to
its 1838 removal. Thereafter, scholarly attention
has focused upon the Cherokee Nation and those
who moved westward to the Indian Territory.
This volume attempts to provide a history of how
those who remained in the East oendured a pre-

carious and anomalous legal status� and how
these people were osomehow able to retain their
identity as Cherokees throughout their travail� (p.
xi). A second volume is planned to cover the
twentieth century.

Finger begins with a brief account of the ori-
gins of the Cherokees and, in particular, the orig-
ins of those who successfully resisted removal to
the West. He demonstrates that these were the
more conservative and less acculturated Indians
who lived outside the Cherokee Nation in Western
North Carolina. The author deals with the Tsali
legend and convincingly argues that the Qualla
Cherokees were not fugitives who avoided remov-
al through the martyrdom of Tsali but traditional-
ists who were citizens of the United States under
an 1819 treaty.

The following chapters chronicle the Eastern
BandTs constant struggle to ensure their right of
permanent residency. The Cherokees wanted
land and the legal status of citizens in order to
preserve their traditional ways. But, to persuade
state and federal governments that they deserved
citizenship, they found it necessary to emphasize
their acculturation and progress. For most of the
nineteenth century the tribe was troubled by the
tension between tradition and progress, a tension
reflected in growing tribal factionalism, a tension
resolved by Cherokees accommodating their ways
to white expectations and adapting white institu-
tions to their-needs.

Throughout, attention is devoted to the role
of William Holland Thomas, a white merchant
who was adopted into the tribe and who for forty
years served as their legal counsel, lobbyist, and
tribal leader. Because Indians were disabled from
Owning land by an 1835 North Carolina law, Thom-
as spent much of his life acquiring property in
western North Carolina for an Indian homeland.
The author has clarified some of the confusions of
Thomas's land dealings, the various suits and
frauds involving the Eastern Band, and other
threats to the CherokeeTs land possession.

By 1900 the Eastern Band had been recog-
nized by the federal government and had estab-
lished its own tribal government. It had survived
the devastation of civil war and epidemic. And it
had resisted incursions onto its land and into its
Cultural heritage. The land and its resources,
however, now accessible to the railroad, were
attracting the attention of both lumbermen and
conservationists. The Indians were taking tenta-
tive steps toward modernity while retaining the
Core of their traditions.

Finger does an admirable job of using archi-
val and Bureau of Indian Affairs records to

New North Carolina Books

untangle the confused relations of the Cherokees
with the federal and state governments. He also
ably explicates the complicated affairs of William
Holland Thomas. If he is less convincing in his
cultural arguments, it may be because his sources,
as he himself points out, are documents produced
mostly by whites. But Finger has produced a read-
able volume that is likely to become the standard
work on the subject. With an index and extensive
bibliography, it is suitable for both informed lay-
persons and scholars. It should be acquired by
most public and academic libraries.

Eric J. Olson, Appalachian State University

Tony P.Wrenn. Wilmington, North Carolina: An
Architectural And Historical Portrait. Photo-
graphs by William Edmund Barrett. Charlottes-
ville, Virginia: Published for the Junior League of
Wilmington, NC, by the University Press of Virgi-
nia, 1984. 341 pp. $27.50.

Although this book is primarily an architec-
tural history of WilmingtonTs historic district and
the surrounding area, Tony Wrenn does more
than simply describe buildings and monuments.
He also includes details of local history that relate
to the structures. Consequently, WrennTs audience
includes those readers interested in local as well
as architectural history. The book is very useful as
a reference source and as a guidebook to take on
a walking tour of the city. Since it has lots of pho-
tographs, many people especially interested in
Wilmington will find this volume attractive as a
coffee table book.

Wrenn begins with a short history of Wilming-
ton, then describes the architecturally significant
buildings of the downtown area. His spatial ar-
rangement is street-by-street, beginning at the
Cape Fear River and moving eastward to Ninth
Street, then from Red Cross Street on the north to
Surry Street on the south. This section is followed
by the oStreet Car Suburbs,� an area of mansions
and working class dwellings developed during the
first two decades of the twentieth century. The
final section describes nineteenth century ceme-
teries and early twentieth century parks.

Wrenn includes only structures standing at
the completion of his study. When several build-
ings of a particular architectural style are extant,
Wrenn chose a representative sample. Wilming-
tonTs black history is included in the study. For
example, WrennTs discussion of Pine Forest Ceme-
tery, founded as a black burial ground, is espe-
cially interesting for its information about the

1985 Spring"53

New North Carolina Books

people buried there. Nevertheless, the space
devoted to black architectural history is less than
that devoted to white architectural history
because fewer structures unique to black history
are still standing. Indeed, Wrenn makes no claim
to being comprehensive; in fact, he urges others to
continue this project of documenting Wilming-
tonTs architectural history.

Preceding the discussion of buildings is a
general introduction to each street, and then
each block, that typically describes the zoning of
the area, the significant paving materials, the
landscaping, and any extant street furniture. For
each building or monument entry, Wrenn gives its
name, construction date, architect, and builder.
He then describes the architectural features of
the structure and gives information pertaining to
its original owner. Whenever appropriate, Wrenn
mentions other notable owners or occupants of
the building. He also records changes in the func-
tion of the building and business ownership and
name changes. In these entries, Wrenn often
quotes newspapers or other sources that give
details of a particular buildingTs history. Public
buildings, such as churches or government struc-
tures, are given the lengthiest treatment, usually
two to three pages. Residential buildings are each
covered in less than a page. Over 180 black and
white photographs and eight color plates accom-
pany the text, thus providing illustrations for
about half the entries. In the section on cemeter-
ies and parks, Wrenn tells how each area was
established and mentions markers significant
either as art forms or for the people buried
beneath them. Several of the gravestones men-
tioned are illustrated by photographs. The book
concludes with two appendixes, one listing build-
ings in the National Register of Historic Places, the
other listing early paving materials. There are also
a note on sources and an index.

This volume is the result of dedicated
research by several people. When he began the
project in 1973, Wrenn was associated with the
North Carolina Division of Archives and History,
but he is now archivist at the American Institute
of Architects in Washington, D.C. The Junior
League of Wilmington sponsored this project, and
members of the organization assisted with the
building survey and searched deed books, news-
papers, and other primary sources. Also working
with Wrenn were several well-respected local his-
torians associated with the Lower Cape Fear His-
torical Society.

The photographer, William Edmund Barrett,
is a free lance architectural photographer in Cen-
treville, Virginia. His photographs are excellent.

54"North Carolina Libraries

Each shot is taken from the angle best suited to
show the details of the structure being discussed.
They show imagination and skill.

On the endpapers of the volume are maps of
the area, each with a key to the structures dis-
cussed. The typeface is large and clear. The paper
and binding are of high quality, and the book will
lie flat when opened. It is a durable and attractive
volume that will be of most interest to those pub-
lic and academic libraries whose clientele are
interested in North Carolina history or architec-
tural history.

Sue C. Hiatt, University of North Carolina at Wilmington

Robert J. Cain, ed. Colonial Records of North
Carolina: Records Of The Executive Council,
1664-1734. Raleigh: Division of Archives and His-
tory, 1984. 763 pp. $25.00 + $1.50 postage.

This is the seventh volume in the new series
of colonial records. The first contains the charters
and constitutions of the colony between 1578 and
1698 while the next five consist of the Higher
Court records from 1670 to 1730. Each of them,
carefully and accurately edited and indexed, has
made much new information about North Caro-
lina available to historians and genealogists. In
addition, the casual reader will spot interesting
facts in all of them about such topics as clothing,
debts, family relationships, household furnish-
ings, Indians, jury service, land, Negroes, occupa-
tions, robbery, skins and furs, towns and trade,
tools and equipment, wages, weapons, weights
and measures, and a great deal more.

During the period covered by the latest
volume, great changes took place in North Caro-
lina. From the earliest settlement and creation of
government well into the royal period, the execu-
tive council played a significant role; initially it
was both advisory to the governor and legislative
as a part of a unicameral assembly. Afterwards,
however, it came to be regarded as an upper
house. Members of the council also were often
deputies of the Lords Proprietors and as such had
a special role, yet when vacancies occurred the
governor often filled them. Government in North
Carolina, in other words, followed few rules. It
developed and grew to meet local needs; direc-
tives from London were ignored with impunity.

In addition to dealing with the developing
government, the volume also covers the period of
the Tuscarora Indian War and the years when
piracy flourished. Quakers were numerous and
had political aspirations; attempts were being
made at the same time to establish the Anglican

Church, and these two opposing religious groups
were the cause of considerable dispute. The coun-
cil also had occasion to consider and act upon the
matter of new settlements such as those on the
Neuse and Cape Fear Rivers.

The forty-five-page introduction to this vol-
ume is a splendid, close look at the history of the
colony during a limited period of time. It sets the
Stage for the documents that follow, but it also
relates them to other contemporary events. The
editor has included new facts and interpretations
that will surely find a place in general histories of
the state in the future. The splendid, detailed
index opens up a large variety of subjects and
makes the volume a delight to the trivia buff as
well as to the historian, the general reader, and
the reference librarian. All will find facts and
fancy to please.

William S. Powell, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Marguerite Schumann, ed. Grand Old Ladies:
North Carolina Architecture During the Victor-
ian Era. Introduction by Sterling Boyd. JoAnn
Sieburg-Baker, head photographer. Charlotte:
The East Woods Press, 1984. 128 pp. $19.95.

Grand Old Ladies presents the first state-
wide, thematic approach to the architecture of
North Carolina since The Early Architecture of
North Carolina; A Pictorial History, by Frances
Benjamin Johnston and Thomas Tileston Water-
man, appeared in 1941 (and which has been long
out of print). That volume was devoted solely to
the study of the stateTs architecture of the ante-
bellum period, so that Grand Old Ladies fur-
nishes a much-needed pictorial survey of North
CarolinaTs architectural heritage dating from the
immediate post-Civil War period through the first
decade of the twentieth century.

Fittingly, the North Carolina chapter of the
Victorian Society of America sponsored the bookTs
publication, with society member Marguerite
Schumann serving as editor. Miss Schumann, Pub-
lications Officer at the University of North Caro-
lina at Chapel Hill, is the author of Tar Heel
Sights, A Guide to North CarolinaTs Heritage; The
Living Land, An Outdoor Guide to North Caro-
lina; walking guides to several North Carolina
universities; and other historic and architectural
works. The twenty-two page introduction, by Ster-
ling Boyd, former head of programs at the North
Carolina Museum of Art, is by no means a schol-
arly essay, but it gives the reader a concise inter-
pretation of the stateTs architectural development
during the Victorian era.

New North Carolina Books

Of course, the greatest attraction of the book
is the collection of photographs of the Victorian
courthouses, churches, college buildings, stores,
and predominantly, houses, the grand old ladies
themselves with wrap-around skirts of ginger-
bread porches and peaked bonnets of turrets and
towers with cast iron cresting and patterned
roofs. The head photographer for the book, JoAnn
Sieburg-Baker, is a free-lance architectural pho-
tographer with several awards to her credit. An
excellent photographer, Ms. Sieburg-Baker pro-
vides a number of stunning pictures. Particularly
notable are her depictions of the Daniel Branson
Coltrane House in Concord; the Barracks in Tar-
boro; the interior of the Redmond-Shackleford
House, also in Tarboro; and Eaton Place in War-
renton. In addition, the book features a number of
photographs taken by the staff of the state Divi-
sion of Archives and History. Scattered among the
photographs are excerpts from the writings of
North Carolina authors, with Doris Betts, Max
Steele, and O. Henry among them, containing
appropriate references to Victorian buildings,
both real and fictional. The photographs repres-
ent buildings from one end of the state to the
other, as well as the full range of Victorian styles
from the simple board-and-batten St. Barnabas
Episcopal Church in Snow Hill to the overblown
extravaganza of Biltmore House in Asheville.

Grand Old Ladies has two major drawbacks
for the reader. One is the annoying division
between the text, which contains the information
on the buildings, and the photographs, which
have captions giving only the name and location
of the building; the reader must continually flip
from the pictures to the text looking for more
information. The other drawback is the lack of
color photography, always an expensive asset to
any volume. The beautiful color dust jacket allows
for great disappointment when the reader opens
the book to pages of black-and-white photo-
graphs. The distinguishing feature of Victorian
architecture was the overwhelming desire to pit
building form against form, and texture of mate-
rial against texture, with all of it highlighted by a
wide range of colors. As excellent as the black-
and-white illustrations are, the lack of color pre-
vents the readerTs access to an important dimen-
sion of the architecture.

Nevertheless, Grand Old Ladies does present
a comprehensive pictorial survey of the stateTs
Victorian architecture and as such will be of
interest to libraries and readers in every county of
the state, although the lack of footnotes and bibli-
ography prevents its use as a reference tool. For
those interested in historic preservation, neigh-

1985 Spring"55

New North Carolina Books

borhood revitalization, and the economic and
social development of North Carolina in the last
half of the nineteenth century, Grand Old Ladies
offers the best examples of the stateTs man-made
heritage from an important and exuberant period
of the stateTs history.

Marshall Bullock, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Belinda Hurmence, ed. My Folks DonTt Want Me
to Talk about Slavery: Twenty-one Oral His-
tories of Former North Carolina Slaves. Win-
ston-Salem, N.C.: John F. Blair, 1984. 103 pp.
$14.95 cloth, $5.95 paper.

With experience as a fiction editor before
becoming a librarian, Belinda Hurmence brought
a critical eye to the perusal of young peopleTs
literature. What she did not see was enough good
writing about the black experience for young
blacks to read. So she began writing for them her-
self, first stories for Humpty Dumpty and Jack
and Jill, then novels about black children (Tough
Tiffany, A Girl Named Boy), and most recently,
Tancy, for which she received the 1984 American
Association of University Women Award for Juve-
nile Literature from the North Carolina chapter.
With My Folks DonTt Want Me to Talk about Slav-
ery, Ms. Hurmence moves into editing oral history.
The introduction sets forth her reasons for com-
piling it and describes the extent of her editing. It
was her own reading of narratives collected in the
1930s by the Federal Writers Project that revealed
to her how vividly these statements by elderly
former slaves conveyed a sense of life in bondage.
Aware of the continuing need to deal with an
issue so significant in American history, she
determined to make these powerful words more
accessible for young people. She chose to focus
the collection on North CaroliniansT accounts and
only on those of men and women who were ten
years old or older when freed. From 176 North
Carolina interviews, she picked 21. She regular-
ized dialect spellings, cut hearsay, and omitted
unnecessary repetitions, but she retained gram-
matical structures indicative of the original
speakers.

Her introduction also contains a careful
reminder about influences on the content of these
oral histories. For example, she points out that
the memory of times/long past may not be as thor-
oughly accurate as they seemed to the speaker,
that looking back from the midst of the Depres-
sion could make earlier times appear happier in
contrast, and that a black former slave might say

56"North Carolina Libraries

what he thought a white interviewer wanted to
hear. Young people, new to reading and thinking
critically about oral history, are provided with the
basic intellectual tools for discovering in it valua-
ble evidence of human experience. Additionally,
Ms. Hurmence presents a fresh viewpoint: these
memories of slavery are also memories of the lives
and work of AmericaTs black pioneers. Their con-
dition of servitude cannot negate the contribution
they made to building and sustaining the coun-
tryTs growth.

Familiar place names will enable many a
North Carolina reader to envision these scenes of
oslavery time� as set on neighboring terrain. As the
narrators describe living in slavery, they repeat
each other in the lament of many hard conditions,
but variety of experience is equally apparent.
Slave owners are often recalled with considerable
affection, but the small kindnesses that earned
such regard are disproportionate to the misery so
widely inflicted by other masters and through
Reconstruction hatred and its aftermath. W.L.
Bost was surely not alone to observe, oI didnTt
know the Lord would let people live who were so
cruel.�

Many of these former slaves recall ownersT
methods of control; beatings were common but no
more effective than the separation of slave fami-
lies and the strict denial of education. Such pat-
terns were maintained through 246 years of
American history. Their debilitating effects on
individuals and on efforts to establish new pat-
terns when freedom was finally granted are strik-
ingly evident in each account. These conditions
meant that the struggle for freedom was sup-
planted by a struggle with freedom when even to
name the cause was a risk. The bookTs title was
taken from the words of Sarah Debro: oWeTs come
a long way since them times. ITs lived near about
ninety years, and ITs seen and heard much. My
folks donTt want me to talk about slavery, theyTs
shamed niggers ever was slaves.�

But Sarah did talk about it and so did Patsy
Mitchener. She was owned by a Raleigh news-
paperman. To her interviewer, she suggested that
her masterTs record of the past, his paper, could
be found in the museum, about which she added,
oI reckons they keeps all way back yonder things
in there just to remember by.� Fortunately we also
have her words to remember by. Belinda Hur-
mence has made them available to young people,
black and white, who can find in them an impor-
tant part of the history they share.

Tucker Respess, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Hubert A. Eaton, oEvery Man Should Try.� Wil-
mington, N.C.: Bonaparte Press, 1984. 360 pp.
$17.95 cloth, $9.95 paper, plus $3.00 for shipping
and handling. (P.O. Box 517, Wilmington, NC
28401).

Wilmington, North Carolina, the home of the
Wilmington Ten and the frequently analyzed race
riots of 1898, is also the home of Dr. Hubert Eaton,
well known leader in the civil rights movement in
North Carolina. In oEvery Man Should Try,� Dr.
Eaton has told the story of his life, highlighting
the long and involved lawsuits he initiated to end
racial discrimination in New Hanover County.

Eaton describes himself in 1947 as a thirty-
one-year-old successful doctor surrounded by a
loving family and comfortable home complete
with private tennis court. He was shocked to dis-
cover the use of two Bibles, one for whites and the
other for ocoloreds� in a New Hanover courtroom.
oSegregated Bibles! I was stunned. It was like
TIA"a little stroke. My eyes fogged, my ears
hummed and a quiver ran down my spine. I
almost gasped.�

Shorly thereafter Dr. Eaton and a colleague,
Dr. B.C. Roane, decided to investigate the schools
in New Hanover County to determine if the
county was adhering to the separate but equal
laws as set down in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson
Supreme Court ruling. With little cooperation
from the New Hanover County School Board, a
series of class action suits had to be initiated
using Hubert Eaton, Jr., then seven years old, as
plaintiff.

In 1954 when the Supreme Court overturned
Plessy v. Ferguson in favor of ordering the deseg-
regation of public schools, Dr. Eaton soon realized
that New Hanover County would have to be prod-
ded to comply with the new law. Despite numer-
ous class action suits and vital support from the
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, it
was not until the 1971-72 school year that the
New Hanover School Board complied with total
integration. The New Hanover County public
schools remained under court order stemming
from EatonTs suits until 1983 and was the last
school system in the state to ask for the court
order to be lifted.

Other desegregation actions taken by Dr.
Eaton deserve mention. He was associated with
several lawsuits to end discrimination in the med-
ical care provided in New Hanover County. In
more peaceful efforts, he was successful in inte-
grating the YMCA, the City Golf Course, the Wil-
mington Public Library, and Wilmington College
(now UNC-W).

New North Carolina Books

Of particular interest is his unique relation-
ship with Althea Gibson. Dr. Eaton and a medical
colleague undertook the education, coaching, and
support of Ms. Gibson with the idea that she
would break the color barrier in international
tennis. She was the first black to win at Wimble-
don, in 1957 and 1958.

Carefully saving the letters, papers, photo-
graphs, and newspaper clippings associated with
his busy life, Dr. Eaton documents his memoirs
well. Photographs taken in 1950 comparing New
Hanover CountyTs black and white schools are
particularly moving. Appendixes reveal EatonTs
interest in both the history and future of the black
physician in North Carolina.

To say that oEvery Man Should Try� is a sig-
nificant contribution to the black history, con-
temporary history, and local history of North
Carolina would be an understatement. ItTs easy
readability also makes it a must for high school,
public, and college libraries across the state.

Beverly Tetterton, New Hanover County Public Library

Jeffrey J. Crow and Flora J. Hatley, eds. Black
Americans In North Carolina And The South.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
1984. 200 pp. $19.95.

Readers interested in North Carolina history
will perhaps be familiar with The Southern Expe-
rience in the American Revolution and Writing
North Carolina History. These volumes, both
edited by Jeffrey J. Crow and Larry E. Tise, were
published by the University of North Carolina
Press in 1978 and 1979 respectively. Like these
earlier volumes, Black Americans in North Caro-
lina and the South consists of essays presented
originally at a symposium sponsored by the North
Carolina Division of Archives and History. The
papers delivered at this more recent symposium,
held in February 1981, have been edited by Jeffrey
J. Crow, the divisionTs historical publications
administrator, and Flora J. Hatley, coordinator of
the divisionTs black history program.

Black Americans is a less substantial and less
cohesive volume than the two published pre-
viously but is nevertheless a significant contribu-
tion to the stateTs historical literature. Its six
essays include a historiographic survey, a method-
ological proposal, a demographic study of eigh-
teenth-century North Carolina, and three essays
relating to particular institutions or setttings.
Raymond Gavins, who teaches Afro-American
history at Duke University, reviews the literature

1985 Spring"57

New North Carolina Books

of black history in North Carolina, interweaving
comments on books, articles, and dissertations
with information relating to the study of black
history and the history of race relations in the
state. This essay, with its twenty-three pages of
notes, is a useful introduction to research on
black North Carolinians up through 1981. In a
much briefer essay Leland Ferguson, associate
professor of anthropology at the University of
South Carolina, calls for further archaeological
study of black Americans, especially in the South.
He offers examples of archaeological investigation
and notes the kinds of information that can and
cannot be obtained through such study. The third
essay, oA Demographic Analysis of Colonial North
Carolina with Special Emphasis upon the Slave
and Black Population,� discusses such topics as
immigration and natural increase as sources of
population growth, changes in population den-
sity, and the implications of sex ratios and sex
imbalance ratios on familial patterns. Thoroughly
documented tables present the extensive statisti-
cal data upon which the authors, Marvin L.
Michael Kay and Lorin Lee Cary, professors of his-
tory at the University of Toledo, base their conclu-
sions.

The three final essays relate to the period
between 1860 and World War I. Linda M. Perkins,
whose doctoral research at the University of Illi-
nois dealt with black educational history,
describes the experiences of northern black
women who taught under the auspices of the
American Missionary Association in the South
during the 1860s. She focuses on their motivation
for teaching and the discrimination they faced
within the association. Howard N. Rabinowitz,
associate professor of history at the University of
New Mexico, compares race relations in southern
cities, especially Raleigh, with conditions in
northern cities between 1860 and 1900. His
observations concerning Raleigh are similar to
conclusions offered earlier in his book Race Rela-
tions in the Urban South. Todd L. Savitt, who
teaches medical history at East Carolina Univer-
sity, traces the history of Leonard Medical School
at Shaw University from its establishment in 1882
to its closing in 1918 because of inadequate fund-
ing. He relates the institutionTs history to devel-
opments in medicine and to the needs of the black
community.

All six essays are well documented. Several
make good use of tables to present data, and sev-
eral benefit from illustrations, of which there are
two dozen in all. The volume is indexed, but there
appear to be no entries in the index for names,
titles, or topics mentioned in the notes to the

58"North Carolina Libraries

essays. The absence of such entries is unfortunate
particularly with regard to GavinTs historiogra-
phic essay. While one might wonder whether most
of the essays could just as well have been pub-
lished as articles in various journals rather than
as a collection of essays, still one can appreciate
the contribution the volume makes to promoting
the study of black history in North Carolina.
Though Black Americans is suited primarily for
students and scholars, it will be a useful addition
to library collections serving adult readers inter-
ested in the history of blacks and race relations in
North Carolina.

Robert L. Byrd, Duke University Library

Lindley S. Butler and Alan D. Watson, eds. The
North Carolina Experience. An Interpretive And
Doéumentary History. Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 1984. 467 pp. $29.95 cloth;
$9.95 paper.

The nineteen essays comprising The North
Carolina Experience were all written by histori-
cal scholars who have published works to their
credit. The essays provide a topical survey, begin-
ning with the first settlers, the Indians, and run-
ning to the present, of most of the major events,
contributions, and issues that should be de-
scribed and interpreted in any history of North
Carolina. There are gaps in this history, though,
and the editors warn their readers of this in their
preface. To cite a few examples of the gaps, the
military role of North Carolinians in our national
wars and their contributions in the fields of edu-
cation, literature, and the arts are not covered.

The second through the sixth chapters sur-
vey the period from the beginning of Elizabethan
explorations to the entry of the colony of North
Carolina into the Revolutionary War. The next
chapter describes the otherwise-mindedness of
North Carolinians about joining the federal union.
This same independent spirit is also captured in
oUnwilling Hercules: North Carolina in the Confed-
eracy.� The lot of blacks and issues concerning
them are treated in chapters on slavery, Recon-
struction, and oSit-ins and Civil Rights.� The
thread of politics naturally runs through all of the
chapters, and two of them specifically concern
political parties. The first of these deals with the
reemergence of the two-party system after the
demise of the Whig Party, and the second one dis-
cusses Populism and the Fusionist interlude.
Economic issues are dominant in the chapters on
the awakening of the oRip Van Winkle State� in the

1850s, the stateTs place in the New South, and the
effects of the Great Depression and the New Deal
on North Carolina. Religion and its influence are
discussed in oAn Agrarian and Evangelical Cul-
ture,� and oProfessors, Fundamentalists, and the
Legislature� examines the evolution controversy
of the 1920s. Interestingly, the chapter outlining
the status of women in North Carolina through-
out its history comes last. It is only fair to say,
however, that the chapters run roughly chrono-
logically, and the struggle of both women and
blacks to gain their civil rights and increased
opportunities in education and careers is carried
into the early 1980s.

This history was designed to be a osupple-
mentary reader� for college courses in the history
of the state and to serve as a obasic text in brief
survey courses or as a source book for teachers on
the elemertary, secondary, or postsecondary
level.� It meets these goals admirably in the areas
that it covers, and these include a very high per-
centage of the major aspects of the stateTs history.

Each essay is supported by original docu-
ments dealing pro and con with the major theme
of the essay and a bibliography. Citations of doc-
uments and occasionally of bibliographical items
within the essays are adequate substitutes for
footnoting these general accounts. The inclusion
of documents with each essay serves in part to
give the reader insights into and feelings for peri-
ods of history as only original records can do.
These carefully selected documents, along with
occasional mention of differences of opinion by
historians on a particular point, should give
young students and lay readers some idea of how
history is written and lead them to question the
alleged definitiveness of any secondary account.

The essays naturally vary somewhat stylisti-
cally, but they are all solid and well written. A
thirteen-page index to both texts and documents
and a list identifying the contributors round out
the volume. It is the kind of history of North Caro-
lina that should be available to all students and
teachers of the subject and to the general reader.

Mattie U. Russell, Duke University

Michael H. McGee. Separation And Divorce In
North Carolina: How To Do It With Or Without
A Lawyer. Charlotte: East Woods Press, 1984. 144
pp. $9.95 paper.

In 1970, courts in North Carolina granted
13,702 divorces. Ten years later, 28,050 divorces
were granted. It is fairly certain that many parties

New North Carolina Books

involved in those 28,050 divorces experienced
much pain, anger, and frustration. It is also fairly
certain that many of the persons involved in those
28,050 divorces did not understand the legal con-
cepts, the legal proceedings, and the ramifications
of those proceedings. In Separation and Divorce
in North Carolina, Michael H. McGee offers sound
legal and practical advice to persons who need
information about the separation and divorce
laws in North Carolina. McGee writes that his goal
with this book is to help persons separating and
divorcing begin to make a plan for the future,
understand what type of proceedings they are
experiencing, and handle some of the unpleasant
(yet very necessary) tasks that are required of
people who split up. McGee satisfies his objective
in this well-written book by dividing the book into
three parts and by including sample forms and
worksheets to assist the readers.

Part one of the book concerns the law of
divorce in North Carolina. This part details the
grounds for divorce in North Carolina since the
1983 revision of the divorce laws. Currently there
are only two grounds for divorce in North Caro-
lina: (a) one yearTs separation, or (b) three yearsT
separation if one of the parties is incurably
insane. This discussion should clear up any mis-
understandings regarding possible grounds for
divorce (ie., adultery). In addition, McGee pro-
vides practical advice concerning the necessity of
oliving apart� during the one yearTs separation.
Courts will interpret the slightest interaction
between the two persons during the one year
period as not living apart. For example, the North
Carolina Court of Appeals recently ruled that one
single act of sexual intercourse by the couple,
regardless of living arrangements, would end the
yearTs separation. Other chapters in part one con-
cern the legal effects of an absolute divorce,
where the case should be brought (jurisdiction
and venue), annulment, and a special chapter on
the Catholic ChurchTs annulment process.

Part two of Separation and Divorce in North
Carolina is devoted to separation periods and the
problems that might be encountered by the par-
ties during that period. In this part of the book,
McGee explains how to select and work with an
attorney. In fact, McGee warns throughout the
book that some professional legal advice and
assistance are needed. His book does not replace
the need for an attorney, except in the case where
the parties do not dispute anything. Rather, this
book helps the parties to prepare for a meeting
with an attorney and to recognize the importance
of proceedings that they are approaching. Part
two also deals with a new equitable distribution

1985 Spring"59

New North Carolina Books

law in North Carolina. This law, passed by the
North Carolina General Assembly in 1981, essen-
tially guarantees that marital property will be dis-
tributed evenly and equally between the two
parties. The equitable distribution act has specific
requirements that must be followed if the parties
wish to take advantage of its provision. In addi-
tion, the act is constantly being reviewed by the
courts in North Carolina. Another important
chapter in part two concerns child custody and
support. This extremely important part of the
separation and divorce process is clearly de-
scribed by McGee. McGee correctly notes that the
courts in North Carolina award custody of a child
to osuch person, agency, erganization or institu-
tion as will, in the opinion of the judge, best pro-
mote the interest and welfare of the child.� The
child custody chapter also includes a very practi-
cal checklist to assist in determining the amount
of child support payments needed.

Part three of the book includes chapters on
how to do your own divorce, the effects of pre-
vious divorce actions, how to write a complaint
(with a sample), how to file the necessary papers,
how to serve the spouse, and how to prepare for
court. There is also a short chapter on what to do
if the judge denies the divorce. Rarely is an uncon-
tested divorce actually denied; either party, how-
ever, can appeal to the North Carolina Court of
Appeals if he or she believes that the judge was
incorrect in the decision.

The author, a resident of Charlotte and an
attorney with the Equal Employment Opportun-
ity Commission in the Charlotte district office,
writes clearly and objectively. No reader should
experience any problems with this book; legal
terms are defined clearly and McGee assumes
that the reader has had no previous contact with
the law and the courts in North Carolina. McGee
recognized the need for a book like this one before
he joined the EEOC; prior to working with the
EEOC, he was in private practice and worked ona
osubstantial number of separations and divorces.�
It is through those experiences that he recognized
the need for this type of book.

60"North Carolina Libraries

Some problems do exist with the book. An
annoying problem which will be most evident to
attorneys, law students, law professors, and law
librarians is the use of incorrect legal citation
format. Understandably, McGee has attempted to
make his references clear for the lay users; how-
ever, citations using correct legal abbreviations
and format would have been just as easy to use.
Probably the most obvious mistake in this area is
the lack of dates with some cases cited in the
footnotes. The other concern is updating. It is
extremely important that anyone who uses the
book have access to the latest changes in the
divorce laws and the courtsT interpretations of
those laws. For example, the North Carolina
Court of Appeals decided an important equitable
distribution case in late 1984. This case further
defined what is separate and marital property in
North Carolina and should be mentioned in any
discussion of the equitable distribution law. Other
changes and elaborations are sure to come and
must be included in some manner.

The strongest point of the book is McGee's
offer of sound practical advice to parties who are
involved in a separation and/or divorce proceed-
ings. His best advice is reflected in the following

excerpt:

Always try to solve your problems at the
lowest level of conflict possible. The scars of
an angry court fight can last for years and
affect your children and others. Use those
weapons only when you personally believe
they are necessary to avoid being taken
advantage of by your spouse.

Overall, this book is well written and certainly fills
a need. McGee should be commended for recog-
nizing the need and writing such a valuable hand-
book. It should be read by anyone who is
contemplating, experiencing, or has experienced
divorce. For that reason, every library in North
Carolina, whether public or academic, should
purchase the book and make the public aware of

its existence.

Timothy L. Coggins, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

a i mea ee et |

NCLA Minutes

See Me es ee

North Carolina Library Association

Minutes of the Executive Board
October 12, 1984

The Executive Board of the North Carolina Library Associa-
tion met on October 12, 1984, at the Richard H. Thornton
Library, Oxford, North Carolina. Board members present were
Leland Park, Pauline Myrick, Jane Williams, Roberta Williams,
Eunice Drum, Mertys Bell, Judie Davie, Jerry Thrasher, Robert
Burgin, Patsy Hansel, Judith Sutton, Vivian Beech, Mary Avery,
and Benjamin Speller. Also present were Rebecca Taylor
(representing ChildrenTs Services Section), William Mott (repre-
senting College and University Section), Stuart Basefsky
(representing Documents Section), Euthenia Newman (repre-
senting the Round Table for Ethnic Minority Concerns), Johnny
Shaver, Arial Stephens, Louise Boone, Mae Tucker, Bob Pollard,
and Frank Sinclair.

The meeting was called to order by President Park. He recog-
nized Arial Stephens, director of the Richard H. Thornton
Library, who welcomed the group to Oxford and to the library.

President Park gave a report on the meeting of the State
Library Commission held in Raleigh on September 11. Results of
the evaluation survey on the State Library and the State Librar-
ian were reviewed. The commission also heard an excellent
report from the Networking Steering Committee. Board mem-
bers Judith Sutton and Mary Avery, who attended the meeting
of the commission along with President Park, also gave brief
reports.

President Park presented the report of the Nominating
Committee chaired by H. William OTShea. Mr. OTShea had
expressed to President Park the need for clearer guidelines to be
included in the charge to the Nominating Committee. After
some discussion, the board decided to take no formal action at
this time. It was noted, however, that the Nominating Commit-
teeTs report will also include a nominee for a representative from
NCLA to ALA. Ballots for voting on candidates for NCLA officers
for the 1985/1987 biennium will be mailed to the membership in
April or May 1985.

President Park reported to the board that requests for the
NCLA membership mailing list had been received from the Vir-
ginia Library Association and the campaign headquarters of
Rufus Edmisten, Jim Martin, and D. M. Faircloth.

Several communications from the American Library Asso-
Ciation were shared with the board by President Park. Amanda
Bible has been appointed to represent NCLA on a committee to
plan national library activities to celebrate the 200th anniver-
sary of the adoption of the U. S. Constitution. Dean Edward
Holley of UNC-Chapel Hill School of Library Science and Des-
retta McAllister-Harper of North Carolina Central University
School of Library Science have been appointed to the Library
Education Centennial Task Force by the ALA Standing Commit-
tee on Library Education. The president read a letter from ALA
Headquarters explaining why ALA Annual Conferences are
sometimes scheduled so that two conferences fall within the
Same budget year. Space requirements for exhibitors and avail-
ability of suitable hotel and meeting facilities were the chief
reasons given.

The minutes of the July 20, 1984, meeting of the Executive
Board were presented by Roberta Williams, secretary. There
being no corrections or additions, the minutes were approved as
presented.

Eunice Drum gave the treasurerTs report and distributed
copies to all board members. She noted that the checking
account is now drawing interest and that several small accounts
have been consolidated to permit more efficiency in banking
transactions. On behalf of the Round Table on the Status of
Women in Librarianship, Patsy Hansel presented Treasurer
Drum with a lovely floral arrangement in appreciation of her
hard work in bringing the round table's financial structure and
records up-to-date.

Pauline Myrick, vice-president/president-elect, gave an
update report on plans for the 1985 Biennial Conference. She
recognized Johnny Shaver, who is chairman of local arrange-
ments for the conference. Shaver stated that his experience in
working with the recent NCASL conference which was held at
the Raleigh Radisson and Civic Center has been very helpful in
making plans for the NCLA 1985 conference. He stressed the
importance of preplanning as a key to a trouble-free, successful
conference.

Arial Stephens discussed the meeting space and parking
facilities available at the Raleigh Civic Center and noted that
these seem to be quite adequate for all conference functions. He
stated that it was the recommendation of the Conference Plan-
ning Committee that charges for exhibit booths be set at $225,
with a pre-registration charge of $200 and a 20 per cent dis-
count for multiple booths. These would be the same rates
charged for exhibit booths at the 1983 Biennial Conference in
Winston-Salem. Robert Burgin moved that the Executive Board
approve the recommendation of the Conference Planning
Committee regarding charges for booths at the 1985 conference.
This motion was seconded and passed.

The Conference Planning Committee requested a recom-
mendation from the Executive Board regarding provisions for
exhibit space for non-paying groups. Robert Burgin moved that
exhibit space at the 1985 conference be provided to the follow-
ing only: paying exhibitors; ALA; SELA; and NCLA sections,
committees and interest groups. This motion was seconded and
passed.

Arial Stephens stated that the Conference Planning Com-
mittee recommended that registration fees for the 1985 confer-
ence be set as follows:

Pre-Registration
NCLA members Entire Conference $20.00
Per Day 15.00
Non-members Entire Conference 35.00
Per Day 20.00
Registration at Conference
NCLA members Entire Conference $25.00
Per Day 20.00
Non-members Entire Conference 45,00
Per Day 40.00

1985 Spring"61

NCLA Minutes

Library School Students
(any length of time without membership)

It was noted that these rates were the same as those charged for
the 1983 conference. Robert Burgin moved that the Executive
Board approve the Conference Planning CommitteeTs recom-
mendation regarding registration fees for the 1985 conference.
This motion was seconded and passed.

Pauline Myrick stated that Joseph Ruzicka-South will again
provide for printing of the conference program. She requested
that all information for the program be sent to her as soon as
possible. The printing deadline is July 1, 1985.

Euthenia Newman, reporting for the Round Table for Eth-
nic Minority Concerns, stated that members of the round table
are still hoping to sponsor Representative Major Owen as a
speaker for the 1985 conference. There is a possibility that the
Documents Section of NCLA will co-sponsor this event.

Reporting for North Carolina Libraries, editor Robert Bur-
gin stated that the Fall 1984 issue on childrenTs programming
had recently been mailed. Future issues include Winter 1984 (no
theme), Spring 1985 (collection development), and Summer
1985 (library history). Deadline for the Winter issue is November
10. Burgin asked the boardTs advice as to what should be done
with the archival copies of North Carolina Libraries that he has
in his files. President Park suggested that Burgin contact the
Archives Committee to get their advice about this and that he
present a recommendation at the next meeting of the Executive
Board. The President also requested that Burgin draw up
recommended guidelines and a format for written reports by
section and committee chairmen and present these for consid-
eration at the January 1985 meeting of the board.

Louise Boone, chair, Governmental Relations Committee,
reported that six persons will represent North Carolina at the
ALA Legislative Workshop in Washington on January 5, 1985.
The Governmental Relations Committee is presently working
with various individuals and sections of NCLA on the following
issues: (1) clarification of depository laws for North Carolina
state documents; (2) the state laws regarding confidentiality of
library use records; (3) recommendations from the Executive
Committee of NCASL regarding the allocation of media person-
nel in North Carolina. The Governmental Relations Committee is
also considering the possibility of a workshop on lobbying to be
held in the spring of 1985.

Mae Tucker, chair, Constitution, Codes, and Handbook
Revision Committee, reported that her committee has approved
the request of the Junior Colleges Section to change its name to
a title that would more accurately reflect the kinds of libraries
represented by the section. Mary Avery, chair, Junior Colleges
Section, stated that the section members had already voted to
adopt the new name of Community and Junior College Libraries
Section. She moved that the Executive Board approve this name
change and that the section be officially called the Community
and Junior College Libraries Section. This motion was seconded
and passed.

Patsy Hansel asked what action had been taken on the
question of whether chairpersons of round tables should have
voting privileges at NCLA Executive Board meetings. President
Park stated that the question has been referred to the Futures
Committee for study with a report to be made later to the Exec-
utive Board.

Bob Pollard, chairman of the Finance Committee, presented
the proposed budget for January 1, 1985 - December 31, 1986.
Robert Burgin moved that the proposed budget be accepted as
presented. After discussion, the motion was seconded and
passed.

The ChildrenTs Services Section report was given by Rebecca
Taylor for Karen Perry, chair. The section plans to have a break-
fast meeting at the October 1985 conference with childrenTs

62"North Carolina Libraries

author David McPhail as speaker. The ALSC Notable Showcase
will also be presented as a program at the 1985 conference.
Special notepads are being sold by members of the section as a
fundraising project.

Bill Mott, reporting for the College and University Section,
stated that a workshop is being planned for Spring 1985 on
academic library networking and online cataloging.

The report of the Documents Section was given by Stuart
Basefsky for Emily Correll, chair. The Section will have a work-
shop at the Durham Public Library on October 19 with Michael
Crowell and Raymond Greene as speakers. The section also has
a membership drive underway. Stuart Basefsky will replace
Emily Correll as section chair at the end of 1984.

Vivian Beech, chair, gave the report for JMRT. The Execu-
tive Board of JMRT met on Friday, August 10, in Wilmington. A
nominating committee was appointed to secure candidates for
vice-chairman/chairman-elect, a vacancy that occurred with
the recent resignation of Gayle Keresey. Plans for JMRTTs parti-
cipation in the 1985 NCLA conference are underway. The round
table is also considering sponsoring a oYoung LibrarianTs Award.�

Reporting for NCASL, Judie Davie stated that the 1984
NCASL Biennial Work Conference held in Raleigh October 3-5
was most successful, with over 900 individuals (including more
than 80 exhibitors) participating in the three-day event. A pre-
conference for system level supervisors attracted 69 partici-
pants. The Executive Committee of NCASL has forwarded to the
NCLA Governmental Relations Committee a legislative platform
which includes the following recommendations: (1) the assign-
ment of one media position per 400 students; (2) the allocation
of one media supervisor position per county and additional
media support personnel at the building level. Elsie Brumback,
Emily Boyce, Gayle Keresey, and Helen Tugwell will represent
NCASL at the ALA Legislative Workshop in Washington on Sat-
urday, January 5. Judie Davie and Helen Tugwell will represent
NCASL at the 1985 ALA Legislative Day. Plans for School Media
Day, 1985, and for NCASLTs participation in the 1985 Biennial
Conference are underway.

Dr. Benjamin F. Speller, Jr., chair, reported that the Re-
sources and Technical Services Sections had held a successful
mini-conference on oThe Changing Role of the Technical Services
Librarian� in Whispering Pines on September 26 and 27. Total
registration for this conference was 128, including representa-
tives from college and university libraries, community college
libraries, public libraries, special libraries, and school libraries.

Judith Sutton, chair, Public Libraries Section, reported on
the meeting of the Planning Council held October 4, 1984, at the
Durham County Public Library. The Public Library Section will
send Nancy Massey as its representative to the Greenbrier in
White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, November 3-6, 1984, for
the Eastern Regional Workshop planning for the ALA/NEH-s-
ponsored oLetTs Talk About It� Workshop. The Development
Committee has arrived at the draft stage of an eagerly awaited
publication, oNorth Carolina Public Libraries Disruptive Behav-
ior Policy.�

Patsy Hansel reported that the RTSWL summer workshop,
oThe Good, The Bad, The Ugly: Documenting Employee Perfor-
mance,� was very successful, with 60 participants attending. The
evaluations of the workshop were very positive, and there was
interest expressed in more workshops related to personnel and
general management concerns in libraries.

Other reports were given by Arial Stephens (Network Steer-
ing Committee), Mary Avery (Community and Junior College
Libraries Section), Leland Park for Rebecca Ballentine (SELA),
and Arial Stephens for Dorothy R. Burnley (Trustees).

Ben Speller gave a brief report on the Round Table for Eth-
nic Minority Concerns workshop, oPromoting Oneself in the
Field of Librarianship,� held October 5 at Shaw University in
Raleigh.