SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 1968
Library. - ''' - 'ii'''' ... iaii ‘ 7ks, for Solutiott,:of, Problems
By MARTHA HARE
Collegian News ,Editor
The engraving to the right of Pattee
Library's pseudo-Egyptian columns says, "A
University 'ls A Collection of Books."
By this definition, Penn State ranks very
low.,
The University—in the top ten in the
country in sponsored research, in the top 20 in
graduate work and enrollment—is 46th in the
number of books in its library. -
A deficient collection is'only one of Pattee's
problems. An outmoded and complex building
with insufficient shelf space gives students a
great - deal of difficulty in locating what books
are there. An involved system and lack of staff
in the Acquisitions and Cataloguing Depart
ments cause considerable delay in ordering new
books and in getting them to the shelves.
There is seating space for only 10 per cent of
the student population, rather than the 30 per
cent strongly recommended by the American
Library Association.
Recent Improvement
Despite these weaknesses, the library has
shown much improvement in all areas during
the past five years. And long-term plans have
been made which should bring the library up
to an outstanding standard of service to stu
dents and faculty.
This development of library plant and ser
vices, which represents a major change in Uni
versity, budgeting policy, is the result of the
protests of ,an ad hoc faculty committee, or
ganized in 1964 to inform President Eric Walker
of the inadequate collection and service then
available in Pattee. Through Walker's interest
and active suppdrt, the 1965 Task Force, also
known as the Wiseley Committee, was formed
of nationally, known librarians and scholars.
The committee made an exhaustive study of
conditions in Pattee and recommendations for
their improvement.
50th in Nation
At that time, the library was 50th in its
book collection with 750,000 volumes and had
a backlog of nearly 40,000 volumes waiting to
be catalogued and put on the shelves.
The committee, realizing that such massive
problems required a coordinated effort at solu
tion, recommended the appointment of a Di
rector of Libraries, who would work with Com
Film, Play, Lectures Scheduled
The Penn State Food Science
Club will present a color film
entitled "The Mind Benders,"
at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the
Hetzel Union Assembly Hall.
This recent film about LSD
and other hallucenogenic drugs
has been released by the Food
and Drug Administration. It
gives an objective view of the
history, use and abuse of mind
expanding drugs. There is no
admission charge.
'Creative Edge' Series
Joseph H. F itton, professor
of human development, will be
the final speaker of the Winter
Term "Creative Edge" series.
He will speak on "The Science
of Aging" at 12:30 p.m. Tues
day in the Memorial Lounge of
the Helen Eakin Eisenhower
Chapel. The meeting is open
to the public and is sponsored
by the faculty committee of
United Camp as IVinistry and
the Office of Religious Affairs.
French Lecture
Robert Champigny, research
professor of French and noted
literary critic from Indiana
University, will give a lecture
in French entitled "La Tech
nique d'Apollinaire—Le Temps
et les Temps" at 8 p.m. Tues-
•monwealth Cainpus libraries as well as Pattee
and branches , on this campus.
W. Carl Jackson arrived to take this posi
tion in January, 1966. In "A Concept of Library
Service for Penn State," published soon after
wards, he stated -that he would make every
effort "to avoid confining our explorations to
traditional academic library concepts . • . We
believe that the concept which we have de
veloped goes considerably beyond the areas of
responsibility generally accepted by academic
libraries and will provide a kind of library
service not now available on any campus."
Library Service
In a recent interview, Jackson discussed
his ideas of library services and the program
which will be undertaken over the next few
years to develop those offered in' Pattee.
"I think the best things a university can
give the student are awareness of the breadth
of knowledge, a desire to learn and knowledge
of how to learn on his own through reading.
Four years are just about enough to make a
person aware of how little he knows and
where to find out what he doesn't know.
"I want to make the library. a pleasant facili
ty to use. It can be a useful facility only so long
as it is responsive to' student needs. When reg
ulations are made for the sake of the librarians,
people resent it and don't use the library unless
they have to..
To change the traditional "hidebound" at
mosphere of the library, Jackson, has intro
duced soft chairs, carpets and music to the
West Wing and has greatly increased the num
ber of smoking areas. Several attempts, have
been made to establish drive-up book drops in
various areas of campus, to make book return
easier.
A mass buying system has been instituted,
not only to increase the collection but also to
hasten the book-buying process. Last year,
delivery service was offered to faculty mem
bers "for the first time on any campus, as far
as I know." Faculty members may phone in re
quests and have the books delivered to their
offices daily.
Jackson's long-range plans also fall in with
this service philosophy. He would like to create
four levels of library service:
• Undergraduate buildings in each resi-
Colle
day in the Laurel Room of the
Nittany Lion Inn.
The lecture will be sponsored
by the University's French de
partment, and the public has
been invited atte • 4 . A coffee
hour will follow.
Stu'ent Recital
Philip Dettra (12th-piano per_
formance-Mount Dora, Fla.)
will perform works by Bach,
Mozart, Bartok, Chopin and De
bussy i.i a piano recital at 8:30
p.m. Tuesday in the Recital
Hall of Music Building.
This Is the End—
The Daily Collegian ends
publication for the Winter
Term today.
Publication will r e s u in e
with a Registration Issue on
Friday, March 29. Regular
publication for the Spring
Tdrm will begin Tuesday,
April 2.
The fifth in the series of
monthly Water Resources
Seminars will be held in Dining
Room C of the Hetzel Union
Goodbye, HUB
Committees
Hello, University Union Board
No Stuffy Atmosphere
ian Notes
Building at noon Thursday.
G. B. Engelen, director of the
department of hydrology at the
Free University of Amsterdam,
will be the speaker. The pro
gram will begin at 12:30 p.m.
and adjourn at 1:30 p.m.
Engelen will• discuss trends
in hydrological and hydrogeolo
gical education in universities
of the Netherlands and other
uropean countries. A brief
discussion period will follow his
talk, which will be open to the
public.
* *
Chemistry Colloquium
Karl Gerold Schwarzenbach,
professor of chemistry at the
Swiss Federal -Institute of• Tec
hnology, will conclude the Winter
Term Chemistry Colloquium
Series with a lecture on "Per
oxo Complexes of Titanium"
at 12:45 p.m. Thursday in 310
Whitmore.
Philosophy Meeting
Seth Benardete, of the De
partment of Classics at New
York University, will present a
paper on "The Philebus" at a
colloquium sponsored by the
University's Depart m e n t of
Philosophy at 4 p.m. Thursday
in the Assembly Room of the
Hetzel Union Building.
THE DAILY COLLEGIAN, UNIVERSITY PARK, PENNSYLVANIA
Increases Collection, Adds'Services
dence area, containing reserve books, current
periodicals and "as much general-interest ma
terial as possible." These would be for use
"until the individual becomes sufficiently in
volved in his major or in specialized study to
require greater resources."
• A research library, construction of which
will begin this fall. When complete it will add
400,000 sq. ft. of floor space to library facilities,
but it will be constructed in two stages with
the first adding 133,000 sq. ft. When it is fin
ished, Jackson plans to consolidate all branch
libraries there, with a floor given- over to each
division of ' subject matter for easy location of
materials. This would be open 24 hours a day.
Unit Collections
if Academic unit working collections within
each department to replace the present branch
libraries. These would contain reference books,
manuals and periodicals for quick and current
reference use.. They would be maintained by
each department with book Purchase funds from
the library.
• Remote access to research materials, a
program opened with the facUlty delivery sys
tern, may lead in the future -to computerized
up-to-the-minute, card catalogues located in
various academic buildings. Access to collec
tions in other libraries has also been extended
through airplane service between Pattee, the
National Library of Agriculture and the Library
of Congress. Negotiations are underway for
interlibrary loan service for undergraduates be
tween Penn State and other northeastern uni
versities:
The decentralization of undergraduate ma
terial is based on the fact that it is much easier
to duplicate than expensive and scarce re
search materials, in relation to the added con
venience to the students. Pollock Undergrad
uate Library is, the first of three to be built.
The response there has been "very favorable,"
according to Jackson, despite the library's cur
rent lack of funds to furnish the second floor.
The amount of reserve material in each
undergraduate branch will be dictated by com
puterized information on the number of stu
dents in the'class who reside in that area. Thus
the branches will in many cases require no
addition to existing reserves.
Jackson said he would like to see the num
ber of reserve books reduced. "There is too
. A. R. von Hippel, director of
the Laboratory for Insulation
Research at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, will
speak in the Mineral Sciences
Auditorium at 4 p.m. Friday
addressing the materials Re
search Laborator. colloquium.
The subject of his talk, which'
will be open to the public will'
be "Principles of Molecular
Materials Design."
(-]
Shaw of Pavilion
A one-act play by George
Bernard Shaw, entitled "Pas
sion, Poison, and Petrification"
.has been scheduled in the Pa
vilion Theatre for 5:20 p.m.
Friday. Adthision will be free'
and all have been invited to
attend.
On Thursday, also at 5:20
p.m., a program of short, orig-1
inal dances will be presented
in the Playhouse Theatre. A
number of experiments in
choreography and dance tech
niques have been staged for
this presentation, including a
dance choreograpl - ed by com
puter. Again, there will be no
admission charge.
Student Convenience
Weather Project Slated
MOSCOW (AP) A joint announcement disclosed. Scien-
French-Soviet communications • tific teams are linked by radio
experiment stretching over the teletype over a 9,321-mile span
northern and southern hemi- between the far northern Soviet
spheres has been started to village of Sogra, near Archan
gather data needed to forecast gel, and the French Kerguelen
conditions for flights of space Islands, southeast of Africa in
ships and rockets, an official sub-Antarctica.
If your father has enough money to send you off to college,
you will not die in Vietnam this year. If you are a priest,
a minister or a, rabbi, you will not be shot at by Asian strangers.
If you are a farmer, a homosexual, an ex-convict, an illiterate,
a tool-and-die maker, a married father or a scientist, do not fear:
You will never fight across a rice paddy on any murderous
midnight. No one in these categories is ever told that it is fit
ting and noble to die for one's country. There is only ones,
safer category in American life. You could be a woman.
much dependence on this system. Last term 232
courses had books on reserve, totalling 13,984
books. I :don't think reserve books are a de
sirable educational method; any book forced
on a person will not be very well digested. We'd
prefer a wide reading list with a 'variety of
viewpoints, which would refer the student to
the total resources of the library on a given
problem." .
He acknowledged this system will be more
practical when the new research library is com
plete.
• Research Buildin g
This facility will have to be attached to
the-east end of Pattee until stage two is finished,
since until that time card catalogues and part
of the collectioh" will remain in Pattee. When
complete, the research library will extend
along Curtin Road nearly to the Life Science
Building.
It is designed to be "less puzzling" to the
user—open and flexible in arrangement, with
reference facilities, rest rooms and information
service in the same area on each floor. The
building will be fully carpeted and aircondi
tioned. All functional areas will be on the
perimeter to free the interior for bookshelves
and reading stations.
BoOks will be arranged with A through Z
in the Library of Congress classification running
from top to bottom floor, with divisions only at
the end of subject groups. Related periodicals
and microfilms will be located on the appro
priate floors, and subject specialists and refer
ence materials will be stationed conveniently
for information service.
Jackson proposed this centralization of re
search materials for many reasons, including
the "interdisciplinary nature of higher re
search," the enlarging of bibliographic records
and a need for more professional assistance.
Centralize Materials
Some of the faculty has expressed opposi
tion to the dissolution of branch libraries,' he
said, but "I believe members of the faculty who
are opposed to a central research library have
probably thought in terms of their own needs
and not in terms of student needs."
, He . cited the suggestion received from a
student which protested, "I'm a chemistry
major, not a track star. Will you for God's sake
put all the collections in one building." • -
All of the present West Wing, except for
So opens "Draft Women Now." In March eye.
Must reading. Also "Donovan: Pop Visionary."
And "Warren Beatty Raps." "$8 Suit for Men."
"Hitchhiking by Air." Much more.
Plus-big fat poster.
In psychedelic color for your wall.
00•OOOOOOOOOO 00000,0000 00000 ..................
For Results-Use Collegian Classifieds
eeeeeeeee•eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee•eeeeoeeee4
Jazz Club Jazz Club
st
Come to Learn—Listen—Groove
qn =or qnp znar gm zzor (pp rug.
First edition.
Collector's, item.
500 at your newsdealer.
See him today.
While he still has a copy.
the third floor, will serve as headquarters for
the Undergraduate Libraries. The present stacks
of Pattee will be a storage area for little-used
books.
Better -Instruction
Another service Jackson would like to
offer , is an improved system, of instruction in
library use for incoming freshmen. "Though '75
per cent of the freshmen come to the present
tours, they are not successful—there is too much
to • cover and the student just-gets a sweep
ing impression of what the place looks like. It
would help to have library use covered in a re
quired clasS, such as Speech 200."
In developing the resources of the library,
Jackson said he hoped to reach the three
millionth volume by 1980. "Ideally, we should
have 7 million by then, but . . ."
The allocation for books in the budget has
nearly tripled in the past three years, from
$642,953 in 1964-65 to an estimated $1,700,000
this year. To increase the collection appreciably,
the allocation must rise by at least 20 per cent
a year, since book costs rise at 10 per cent a
year.
Problems with Funds
Asked if he could' count on getting the
funds required by these . programs, he said
thoughtfully, "We must look on the optimistic
side. There is much that needs to be done, brit
there is also a great potential here. Pattee can
become a library to reckon with nationally.
"For one thing, we have tremendous support
from the administration. I've worked with
libraries at six other universities where I got
lip service and no money. Here, if the adminis
tration can possibly do it, the library will im
prove."
, He added, "It is essential to back up the
annually given funds with special endowments.
We would allow gifts to grow in an investment
pool. The interest on one million dollars would
guarantee support in years of crisis . . . like this
one."
The budget delay in the legislature was the
main reason for various economies now being
practiced, he said. "We gambled on the bill's
being passed when we took on more student
help and opened for more hours. Now we're
trying to find ways to cut back on hourly staff
expenditures without laying anyone off."
Other programs were not suffering ser
iously, he said.
PAUL WINTER
in a s
session - workshop
2 o'clock Sunday
HUB Ballroom
Free
Everyone Welcome
NEW VIEWPOINT
PAGE THREE
Jazz Club Jazz Club
1
ecial