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THE SUMMER SESSION KANSAN
Tuesday, June 18, 1968
Large library still has loopholes
By Susan Brandmeyer Kansan Staff Reporter
Of the 60 libraries in the United States containing more than 500,000 volumes, KU's Watson Library is ranked 30th in size and facilities by the American Research Libraries Association.
Yet many students and faculty complain of conditions in the library which need improving.
Complaints are frequent about the difficulty of working in the reserve room of the library. Students thinking it is too crowded and noisy have suggested that books be permitted outside of the closed area.
The present Xerox machines will be replaced by quieter ones next fall. Terrence Williams, assistant director of the library, said. In the past instructors have been able to specify a circulation period for books on reserve, however stiff fines did not always persuade students to return the books on time, he said. Other students in the same class were unable to use the book when they needed it.
"THE XEROX machine usually operating in the reserve room is so noisy it is often almost impossible to concentrate," Jeanne Blau, Overland Park junior, said. "Instructors should be able to specify a limited circulation period, such as three hours or three days, for books used in his course."
"There was one instance when a student checked out all the copies of a particular book so that none of his classmates could use them." Williams said. "When the student contacted the student, he refused to bring it back and we had no authority to make him return it."
ANOTHER FREQUENT student complaint is the difficulty of doing any extended research in periodicals. Scattered throughout the library, some periodicals are located behind the periodicals desk, some bound volumes are in the stacks and the remainder are located in the Reserve Room or in the bindery. The reserve desk offers a one-year backlog of some periodicals, such as Life magazine, while its backlog of others extends back several years, for example, The Shaw Review.
Next year all periodicals will be located in a periodical reading room in what is now the smoking room, Williams said. A smaller room across the hall may be used as the smoking room.
"The large smoking room is rarely full and when it is the place resembles a pool room," Williams said. "Turning it into a periodicals reading room will also
eliminate a lot of traffic in the reserve room from students using the bound periodicals kept there now."
THE INCONSISTENT backlog of periodicals is due to the size of the various magazines, as well as the frequency with which they are issued, Williams said. It takes only a few months to collect enough issues of one magazine to have it bound, while it may take years to fill a bound volume with another periodical.
The card catalogue may be the facility of the library receiving the most criticism from student users. There are often incomplete sets of cards for a book and no indication is given for the location of books kept in the locked cage. Books in branch libraries are often not so listed in the card catalogue, while some new books included in the brief listing system can be found only by author and not by subject. This means that if the author is not known, some books cannot be located except by searching the stacks.
With a library of this size, where almost 60,000 books are acquired annually, it is simply impossible to keep the card catalogue in prime working order, Williams said. Presently they are unable to catalogue more than 25,000 books a year, so the brief listing system is the only alternative.
THEERE IS A *small backlog of uncatalogued books at almost every major library, Williams said. At the University of Colorado the backlog is simply stacked in the
At KU there are about 150,000 uncatalogued books in the stacks right now, Williams said. The only way to clear out this backlog would be to hire a large staff of cataloguers and the budget simply won't allow it, he said.
basement by date of acquisition. At least the brief listing system makes the books available if the author is known.
The Library of Congress is now acquiring one copy of all American and foreign books purchased by major research libraries, Williams said. When this project is completed, machine readable tape will give catalogue information on all these books.
Another innovation needed in the library is an open stack policy, Williams said. Charge out desks would be at the entrances and students would no longer have to wait at the circulation desk while staff members find the needed books. However, such a policy would involve architectural changes since the only entrance to the stacks is through the circulation desk, Williams said. Also, there are not enough elevators in the stacks to handle much traffic.
MANY INCONVENIENCES in the library are due not only to insufficient facilities and staff, but to students who are uninformed about even the most fundamental facts concerning the use of libraries—KU libraries in particular.
Misinformed students leave reference books in improper areas causing them to be out of circulation until located by librarians. Books are also improperly replaced in the stacks instead of being turned in to the circulation desk for reshelving.
Valuable library staff time is used to correct these and other mistakes. The staff must also instruct students on the use of the card catalogue, reference books and other facilities of the library, Williams said.
"THE STAFF does not mind telling students the location of facilities such as the card catalogue," Williams said, "but when a student asks what is the card catalogue, the situation is exasperating to say the least."
In 20 years at the University of California and 24 at KU, most of them as chairman of the zoology department and director of the Museum of Natural History, Hall published more than 300 scientific articles and major books on animals.
The English department at one time had such an orientation program, but it was discontinued because there was not enough time to include the material in English I, George J. Worth, chairman of the English department, said. English instructors also thought it was not merely the responsibility of the English department, but of all departments, to instruct students in the use of the library.
A required course in library usage would alleviate many such problems and also help students in the program of study.
EARLIER THIS year, the Student Association of Graduates in English (SAGE) proposed a library orientation to be included in the present freshman English courses. Because all entering freshmen are required to take English I, such a program might logically be included in the present curriculum, Pat Murphy, Bismarck, N.D., graduate student and chairman of the SAGE library committee, said. However, at that time the freshman - sophomore committee in the English department said it could not approve the appropriation of valuable class time for such a purpose.
Cottonwood Review is good investment
by Scott Nunley
Hall will do research in mammalogy, a field in which he is one of the world's authorities. Appointed to the endowed professorship in 1960, Hall is a past president of the American Society of Mammalologists and one of its few living honorary members, and is a fellow and past vice president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
First let me recommend that you invest in this spring's "Cottonwood Review."
The "Cottonwood Review" is one of the few showcases for creative literature on this campus, and this new printing contains material well worth its hire: one long but very interesting interview, one excellent short story, and two or three fine poems. Cheap at twice the rate.
THE LIBRARY staff presently conducts a tour of the library facilities during fall orientation week, but few freshmen take advantage of the opportunity, Williams said. Besides, the building and collections have become so large and complex that this tour is unsatisfactory now.
E. Raymond Hall, the Summerfield Professor of Zoology, has received an educational exchange grant from the U.S.State Department under the Fulbright-Hays act for research at the University of Ankara in Turkey in the 1968-69 year.
man non-credit mandatory course in the use of the library be established at KU.
Bill Knief's ardent attempt to drag comments from voluble poet Robert Creeley has resulted, perhaps, in a bit of an overflow. The problem is not to get RC to talk, but to explicate his prose:
The report states that a single day or week devoted to library orientation would not be sufficient time to accomplish the objectives of the committee but that even this short amount of time would be better than none. The SAGE library committee suggests a library-financed course as the ideal solution.
"He (Robert Kelly) refers to Eisenstein's manipulation of image in filming. So that Eisenstein gets a rhythmic situation in image by repetition and cutting and whatnot so he gets a rhythmic circumstance in the actual visual image. And Kelly feels that this is equally possible in poetry . . .."
A movie may be the satisfactory solution, but would be outside the budget range to produce, Williams said. Another alternative would be a list of information bulletins on the various departments, such as the reference department and the serials department, he said.
Stick with the interview—it all makes good sense the second time through, and interesting reading any time. The "Cottonwood Review" is building a reputation for meaningful interviews, but first-thanks must be extended to those concerned men in the English Department who continue to bring the country's best young poets to our Hill.
Hall is set for trip to Turkey
Eric Chaet's short story is an even better bargain. If I had to complain, I'd ask that the double viewing of the boy—seeing him both from an observer's vantage and also as he remembers himself—be continued more fully into the final half. The complexities Chaet involves in such a short space create a triumph of form. But it's not so clear that Chaet's ultimate message of "daring to live" was worth his effort. Peter Stevens had the same problem in his poem "Magpies and Thoreau"—readable language but nothing to say.
A mandatory orientation is needed, but the library lacks the time, funds and staff to initiate the program, Williams said. Even if the present library orientation were made a required part of freshman orientation, present staff would not be sufficient to instruct such a large number of students, he said.
The finest poem of the issue is obviously David Wilson's "Book Shelves." Its fragmented talking-blues is fresh among all these traditionally-modern images of "hardened songs."
Tom Clark, however, has so much to say in "For Mona" that no reader will be disappointed in not apprehending all of the content immediately. In fact, Clark's poem reads with so much fun that it could mean nothing if it liked.
"I DON'T think the university can justify a course in the library unless it is made possible through the English department," Williams said. "One hour of English I may be all that is necessary if I can get enough information to the instructors."
"Book Shelves" is ultra-contemporary in its references to current events and issues, but the fact of its fragmented comments seems to remove from Wilson's monologue any danger of dating.
The jumbled, but very much life-like, order of the language indeed suggests a character, a speaker in such close touch with his life that we are overwhelmed by his activity. So busy and so immediate is his experience that we would be unsensitive to wish it more carefully and artificially ordered.
I do have three questions about the new issue of the "Cottonwood Review."
Is it necessary that only one-third of the contributors are currently KU students; is KU's own output of creative literature that limited? Was it useful to fill half this slim volume with the Creeley interview, however big his Name? Isn't the continuous refusal to employ standard capitalization in this issue merely an affectation that grows monotonous?
The Senate library committee is now studying the need for a mandatory freshman course in library usage, along with other recommendations made in the SAGE report, Worth said. However, the committee is merely a liaison between students and faculty, faculty and the library, and has no real authority in the matter.
A report submitted this spring to the University Senate library committee by the SAGE library committee recommended a fresh-
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