Library in finance bind,
but not ‘playing dead’
The University’s four libraries have several things going for them
— “a good collection, direct access to books, and a staff competant
and willing to work” — says Carl Hintz.
But these aspects are severely hampered by the sizeable lack of
money available to the libraries, he adds, and the libraries are being
treated inequitably in University budget money.
Hintz feels that, although the libraries are in bad financial shape,
they haven’t given up in trying to serve students well “We don’t have
as much as we think we need, but we’re not going to roll over and play
dead.”
Hintz ought to know about the situation of the libraries — he’s the
University librarian and has been for the past 23 years. He has the top
responsibility for the University’s four libraries.
They are: the main library, located just south of PLC, the Ar
chitecture and Allied Arts Library in Lawrence Hall, the Law Library
in the new law building at 11th Ave. and Kincaid and the below-ground
Science Library adjacent to Emerald Hall.
Also, several smaller reference areas come under his jurisdiction
the EMU Browsing Room, the Bureau of Governmental Research
and Service Library in Commonwealth Hall and the Map Room in
Condon Hall.
All of these campus libraries comprise the locations of the
University’s 1,104,320 volumes, 26,596 rolls of microfilm, 350,685 rolls
of other microforms, more than 100,000 maps, and numerous sound
recordings and slides.
“For an undergraduate student’s purposes, we should be able to
satisfy any of his needs,” says Hintz.
Keeping a good quality and up-to-date collection of materials is
difficult though, he adds, and it gets more difficult the more recent the
needed materials are.
Because of the “knowledge explosion,” as some like to put it,
“there are more books, more publications being published. And it’s
difficult to keep up with a representative quantity and group of
materials say, one-fourth of everything published — there’s a
squeeze. Your money buys less, but there is much more to buy.”
Book price increases are astonishing, he says. Between the years
1969 and 1970, the average price of hard-cover books increased 22.7 per
cent, Hintz reports, and the subscription prices for periodicals for that
period of time increased 11.8 per cent.
“Unfortunately, the Library’s budget is restricting our ability to
acquire all of the new publications that we, librarians, faculty,
students and graduate students, ought to have.
“In this connection, our expenditures for library materials
haven’t increased in the last few years commiserate with the growth
of the University and to keep up with rising costs.”
Money from the state of Oregon through the last State Legislature
increased “about 10 per cent” he says, but federal funding for the
Library has been completely cut off.
"Federal funding two years ago was about $40,000, last year it was
somewhere around $13,000, and for this year, nothing.” Hintz says he
doesn't know why the federal money was cut, other than that federal
priorities had been reversed.
Despite the money difficulties though, the libraries are still trying,
Hintz emphasizes.
"We’re willing and prepared to help students all we can.”
He says new students to the University who come from smaller
towns not equipped with large libraries “will probably find the library
kind of baffling Students ask questions: ‘Where do I go’ for this and
that
“The thing 1 like to stress here, is, rather than a student coming
and saying ‘Oh boy, 1 can’t hack it,’ to go about it a little
systematically and ask someone for what they want — and it will
usually pay off."
A course in librarianship, acquainting students to the library, is
offered every term, Hintz says, and is for one credit. About 100
students a year take the course.
Also, during the summer and fall, orientation sessions are held for
students to find out about the different aspects of the libraries.
'Hu* University’s libraries work on an "open-shelf concept,”
which is "to provide a variety of books on a subject and students can
take books right off the shelves to look at them. There is no barrier be
tween the students and the actual books." He explains that at other
schools students "don’t have fret* access to the total collection as it is
here."
Hintz describes the libraries as being “subject-divisional" as to
location. Materials dealing with humanities and social sciences are
found in the main Library, and other subjects are found in the outlying
smaller campus libraries.
Also available inside the main Library are the Douglass Listening
Room, where students can listen to recorded materials; the down
stairs Audio Visual Media Center and the Graphic Arts Service, where
charts and illustrations can be printed
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