THESEARCH FOR STANDARDS for American college libraries can boast a venerable and distinguished history spanning almost four-score years and challenging the intellects of some of the premier worthies both within and outside of the profession Marked concurrently by considerable zeal on the one hand and by chronic frustration on the other, it has been likened to the Quest for the Holy Grail, although its partial success probably renders that simile inapt Much of the persistent frustration at the academic library community’s inability to fashion tenable standards for itself can probably be attributed to the fact that i t looks so deceptively easy Like defining “pornography,” the unwary falls easily into the trap of assuming that, given a little time and motivation, any modestly informed person could do it Many knowledgeable librarians have tried unsuccessfully tomake standards, however, and the very high failure rate among these efforts bespeaks clearly the formidable character of the task Although a definitive history of academic library standardsmaking remains to be written (indeed deserues to be written, probably as a dissertation), several helpful rksumks have been prepared of the experience’ Although i t is not a chore to be undertaken as a part of this paper,2 a brief enumeration here of the early landmark efforts is useful in placing more recent labors and concerns into a time perspective

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/7237/librarytrendsv31i1c_opt.pdf?sequence=1

Standards for College Libraries

Libraries operated for centuries with two philosophies: the services they provided were of value to society; the value of those services was immeasurable. Today, those philosophies are being challenged as libraries are asked to measure the costs and benefits of the services they provide. Academic libraries in the United States spend large sums on journal subscriptions since most research is made available to others when it is published in journals. Researchers often use abstracting and indexing publications supplied by libraries to identify relevant journal articles. Indexing publications are available through electronic delivery options including networked CD-ROMs, locally loaded tapes, and flat fee online systems. Selecting the best, most cost effective option for access to indexing and abstracting data is a complex task so a cost benefit decision model is needed. This study is comprised of three parts. First, a prioritized list of costs and benefits that can affect a library's choice of access option was developed using the Delphi method. Second, usage data for each of the three access options was collected from academic institutions that have adopted one of these access options. Data was collected on the use of indexing publlcations from The H.W. Wilson Company. The data was analyzed to determine if institutional characteristics such as difficulty of admission or funding source affected the amount usage. The data suggests that all three options considered for this project can provide a reasonable level of access for students and faculty regardless of the enrollment of the institution. Furthermore, institutional characteristics had a minimal

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Ray L. Carpenter

Papers

College Libraries: A Comparative Analysis in Terms of the ACRL Standards.