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Show -8- As is our custom, copies of the P.S.L.-this time on fiche-will be made available free of charge to all departments and library representatives who desire one for reference and as a guide for new journal requests. This replaces the distribution of free hardcopy which has been provided in previous years. We are producing a limited number of book-editions of the 1976/77 Public Serials List which will be ready in mid-December. Some of these can be bought for $30 if your department desires them. The new fiche format of the P.S.L. may take some getting used to, but the obvious advantages of more frequent updates and the greater readability of the entries will soon outweigh any initial difficulties. -Deanna As tie, Serials- * The ALA Centennial: A Librarian Looks at the Profession The theme of this year's American Library Association annual conference was "Celebrate a Century." And the Association did celebrate its centennial, beginning with opening night festivities at the Art Institute and the Conrad Hilton on Sunday, July 18th, to the Fair-in-the-Park on Wednesday, right up to the inaugural banquet the following Friday. It was also the centennial of the creation of Dewey Decimal Classification, and this was noted with a seminar; and, at the book display provided by Forest Press, one could purchase a facsimile reproduction of the 1876 edition of Dewey for a mere five dollars . It was obviously a time to indulge in nostalgia and to reflect on the progress that the association of librarians has made during the last one hundred years. But it was also a time for looking toward the future. A new era of bibliographical control and library cooperation is just around the corner. The computer,data bases, and networking are rapidly making obsolete the old ways of doing things. Joe Howard of the Library of Congress might have been talking about the profession as a whole when he stated during a meeting on serial data bases, "we are on the verge of tremendous opportunity! " But what is this Association itself doing to help librarians and libraries realize this opportunity? Graduates of library schools are entering an already glutted job market. A.L.A. accredits library schools-why doesn't it assume some sort of regulatory function and control the number of students entering library schools? The schools themselves seem unwilling to do this since student population and size of faculty are tied to funding for the school. |