University Park or Capitol -- Heindel autonomy challenged
LIBRARY” continued from
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system, demonstrated it with
visible pride, first to the library
staff in the morning and then to
the Administrative Council that
afternoon.
The acronym LIAS stands for
Library Information Access
System. It is a computer
system that has been under
development at University Park
since 1975. Its memories now
contain around 4 million files,
the complete catalogs of
holdings at the 17 Com
monwealth Campuses as well
as most of Pattee’s catalog.
Increasingly powerful and
sophisticated subsystems allow
ing access to more and more
detailed databases including
commercial indexing and
abstracting services (such as
OCLC’s ODIN described in last
month’s Capitol Times) are
under development and ex
pected to be on-line by 1985.
These will permit preparation
of bibliographies with a speed
and ease students could only
dream of before.
LIAS will be used by the
librarians to check books out
and in using a light pen and a
bar code on the books. Each
patron will have a magnetic
card (available to all students,
staff, faculty members and
residents of Pennsylvania) for
secure identification. The com
puter will also keep track of
tines and prepare overdue
notices, and will be used for the
cataloging of new acquisitions.
Dr. Forth took the floor dur
ing the Council meeting after
the question of administrative
control had been raised. He
frankly stated that he wanted to
integrate the two de facto
autonomous libraries in the
Penn State system (Heindel
Library and the library of the
“Maybe I’m wrong here. I’m making the
assumption that we all want the best the university
has to offer.”
Hershey Medical Center) in
with the University Libraries.
The Dean said that the trend
of all libraries was to increase
interrelationships, to share in
acquisition responsibilities
avoiding duplication of expense
and effort. He wants to develop
the collection with a system
wide strategy and wants access
for CC to the LIAS database to
the 80 to 90 thousand titles uni
que in Penn State.
Dr. Forth pointed out tha t
since the book and journal
budget is a system-wide respon
sibility of his, we might see an
improvement in our book
budget if we integrate. “I have
to fight my own librarians now
to help you.”
He further pointed out that
Pattee’s research specialists
have no responsibility to aid
Capitol and Hershey’s faculty
and students, while they would
if the libraries integrated with
the University. A faculty
member later remarked, “He
was assuming we cared without
asking what did concern us. It
Theodore Gross
Provost Dean
was inappropriate.”
At all the meetings held over
the past two weeks a concern of
particular interest to students
was briefly touched on, but not
resolved: since Pattee and the
Commonwealth Campuses’
libraries are not permitted to
join local library cooperatives,
would the Heindel Library have
to relinquish membership in
ACLCP after administrative in
tegration with the University
Libraries?
The Associated College
Libraries of Central Penn-
sylvania (ACLCP) consists of 15
college libraries ranging
geographically from Juniata to
Bucknell to Lebanon Valley to
Gettysburg, plus the State
Library in Harrisburg. Any stu
dent or faculty member at
Capitol can obtain a green
ACLCP courtesy card at the
circulation desk in the library.
With this card, one can check
out books at any library in the
system just as if he or she were
a student there.
When Dr. Forth was asked
privately if the proposed
change in library administra
tion would preclude member
ship in the ACLCP, he replied
that ACLCP “is not a big deal,”
it is just a convenience. The
Dean did not unambiguously
state (hen or in the Council
meeting that Heindel Library
could remain in ACLCP. Gor
don Rawlins did assure those
attending the meeting that local
organization affiliation would
not be affected by LIAS.
Several faculty members,
though reluctant to be named in
print, have expressed since the
meetings with Stuart Forth the
opinion that no question rtf
substance concerning the
“administrative integration” of
Heindel Library with the
University Libraries was
resolved—no specific com
mitments have been made.