Page 2n"he BattalionAThursday July 18, 1985
OPINION
Picking the cream
of the text crop
It’s harvest time in Texas once again. Time, to harvest the
leaves of knowledge and distribute them to the state’s youth.
That’s right, it’s textbook pickin’ time.
Picking books for school children isn’t quite as simple as
picking berries. The State Textbook Committee hears testimony
from people around the state and then sends its recommenda
tions to the State Board of Education which will choose the
books next month.
Naturally, no one seems to agree on what constitutes a good
textbook. According to Mary Lassiter of Mesquite, Martin Lu
ther King, Jr. was a criminal. Lassiter claims a book which por
trays King as a role model should be rewritten to “eliminate the
praise for lawbreaking” in its references to the civil rights leader.
Lassiter’s views are more than slightlv narrow. Sure, King
broke the laws, but they were laws which allowed racial discrimi
nation to thrive. He advocated an equality that was long in com
ing to American blacks.
Many prominent historical figures broke laws, but the out
come of their actions was the improvement of society. Our
founding fathers engaged in numerous illegal activities during
their opposition to British rule. The greatness of George Wash
ington, Thomas JefYerson, Benjamin Franklin and their ilk can
not be denied.
Mahatma Gandhi became famous for his peaceful means of
lawbreaking and even inspired King’s methods. If King’s actions
are to be omitted, Gandhi’s should also. And what about Henry
David Thoreau who developed the concept of civil disobedience
while sitting in prison for riot paying a poll tax which he found
immoral?
A child shouldn’t be kept from learning about great men
merely because some of their methods of creating a greater
good violated some existing laws. Only by being presented with
these facts can a child develop a sense of what is right and
wrong.
We can’t expect to force-feed one person’s set of morals to
every child in the state. When picking textbooks we must make
sure to get the cream of the crop.
The Battalion Editorial Board
Exotic animals abound
A day at A&M zoo
I bet you didn’t
know that Texas
A&M had a zoo.
Well it does. It is a
wonderful zoo,
lull of interesting,
exotic creatures
that roam uninhi
bited a c r o s s a
game preserve
that also doubles
as the Texas A&M
campus.
To identify the animals better, I have
compiled a list of the most frequently
seen exotic creatures that roam across
i he preserve.
First is the fish.
Not your ordinary fish, mind you, but
a special breed of fish. These fish don’t
swim, but rather they travel across the
preserve on two legs.
Another distinguishing characteristic
is the fish’s special breeding. It has been
raised and nurtured in a maroon envi
ronment with a geneology that can be
traced back through several generations
of former fish that once had lived on the
preserve.
The best place to observe the Fish is at
the MSC. Find a comfortable bench by
the fountain and be prepared to enjoy a
colorf ul array of fish as they wander by.
The fish will be accompanied by their
handlers, who surround the young Fish
to protect them from their natural ene
mies — those who prey on innocence.
The f ish also travel in schools.
If you would like to identify the par
ticular species of the fish, just observe
the name tag the fish will be wearing.
The handlers also wear the same name
tag in case you miss the fish.
Also take note of the plastic bag the*
fish carrv all the time as well as the gray
folder. I’m not sure what the purpose of
these two items serve, but you won’t see
a f ish without one.
If you’re lucky, perhaps a fish or one
of its. handlers will stop and shyly ask
vou where they might find Rudder
Tower. Turn them around and point to
the tall building behind them.
Other animals of interest are the
bunm rabbits oji campus.
File largest concentration of bunnies
can be found on the north side of cam
pus. If you want to watch something
amusing, watch bunnies.
'The bunnies travel in large groups, at
least 40 or more and their coats come in
a vast array of colors like green, white,
blue and red or a combination of all of
them.
If you are having trouble telling the
bunnies from the fish, just look for
white feet. Bunnies always have little
white feet with a dash of color on the
top.
You can look for bunnies in two par
ticular places on campus. I hey can be
found at the northside dorms in little
groups screaming at each other at the
top of their lungs, while jumping up
and down (they will also be giggling and
darting glances at anything male), or
you could go to G. Rollie. At G. Rollie
they will be doing their bunny dances.
Bunny dances should not be missed.
The bunnies change into a more color
ful coat and procede to carry out a care
fully choreographed dance that only
they know the purpose of. They will
usually be happy to do a variation of
these dances on request if you are male.
Finally, my personal favorites: the
wolves in firemen’s clothing.
These animals are hard to find at the
zoo itself. They have usually escaped
from the preserve and are found lurk
ing in local nightspots in Gollege Sta
tion.
Wolves are hard to identify from the
normal patrons who hang around in the
local nightspots. But if you look care
fully, you can spot otie. Look for unusu
ally boisterous behavior, loud voices and
hyperactivity. The wolves also have a
low tolerance for alcohol, a tan line
around the left ring linger and average
dancing ability.
Wolves tend to stalk the females in a
club with total disregard for the proper
social etiquette, they have also been
known to bother male patrons as well by
disturbing a domino game, interrupting
conversations and inducing volatile situ
ations.
All of these animals can be found at
the game preserve on can>pus. All you
neeed is to look carefully around you
and you will be amazed at how many of
these wonderful animals surround you.
But remember what you mother al
ways told you when you visit the zoo.
Don’t feed the animals.
Cheryl Clark is a senior journalism ma
jor and a columnist for The Battalion.
Cheryl
Clark
Whot the Ijbrory needs
Library lacking
materials
This is the sec
ond in a three- 1
pun series on Charles
what the library Schultz
needs. Guest Columnist
Since the area in
which the Evans Library ranked lowest
in the latest Association of Research Li
braries survey was total holdings, one
might conclude that the library’s great
est need is more books and journals.
Certainly a good case could be made for
this, but it is really necessary tq keep in
mind all the needs and to endeavor to
solve all of them simultaneous To
provide a clear understanding of all the
needs, however, it is necessary to de
scribe them separately.
By the Clapp-Jordan Formula, the
most widely accepted mechanism for
determining the quantity of books an
academic library should have, the Evans
Library should have around 4 million
volumes rather than the 1.5 million it
now has. It took 64 years after the first
library was destroyed when the Main
Building burned in 1912 for the Evans
Library to acquire its first 1 million vol
umes. To reach 4 million volumes by the
year 2000, the Evans Library will have
to increase its annual growth from the
62,000 volumes added in 1983-84 to
170,000 volumes per year. If the average
cost per volume is $30, adding an addi
tional 118,000 volumes per year will re
quire supplementary funding of $3.5
million annually. Any of you who have
purchased textbooks lately will know
that $30 is not a high figure for a new
book. It is definitely a low figure for
out-of-print titles, of which the Evans
Library needs to purchase large num- (
bers to adequately meet the research
needs of students and faculty in the arts,
humanities, and social sciences.
It does not matter whether the books
are new or old paper copies or micro
format or if they are recorded in some
form of sophisticated new' technology
such as laser disks, they w ill still have to
be located, acquired, cataloged, labeled,
and shelved, all of which takes staff
time. Even with the additional 120 fac
ulty and s.taff members mentioned in
my previous column, it would not be
possible for the Evans Library to in
crease its growth by 250 percent without
additional extra librarians and support
staff. The library would either have to
hire extra staff over the next 15 years or
would have to contract out much of the
work.
There has been a great deal pub
lished over the past decade that implies
that traditional libraries with miles of
shelves full of books will cease to exist.
While it is possible that a number of
journals might be available in machine-
readable form so that a prospective
reader can dial up a database and have a
particular article displayed on a termi
nal, there is absolutely no reason to be
lieve that any of the many millions of
books and journals published in the past
w ill ever be treated in this f ashion
To put the 20 million books in the Li
brary of Gongress on videodisks could
require as many as 10,000 disk. The
simple matter of transferring the image
would cost untold millions of dollars.
No one can imagine what the access
charges would be. If one were to sit at
an online terminal and read a w hole ar
ticle or book, the fee would be astro
nomical. The only alternative would be
a paper printout or a duplicate disk to
be read on a local or personal machine.
Thus the bookless library and the pa
perless office are about as likely to hap
pen as a paperless bathroom.
The equipment needs of the Evans
Library w ill be determined to some ex
tent by the format in which materials
are acquired and by how the library’s us
ers gain access to information about
holdings of the Evans Library and other
libraries.
The first and probably most pressing
equipment need is a more adequate
computer. Other academic libraries of
less stature than the Evans Library have
their own mainframe computers pur
chased for them by their university ad
ministration with supplementary funds,
not acquired out of funds appropriated
for books and salaries as was the Evans
Library’s present computer. The com
puter now in the library is and will be
taxed to hold the necessary bibliogra
phic data and other information nec
essary to handle the library’s 1.5 million
volumes. The possibility of including
the necessary data on microtext materi
als, government documents, archives,
and learning resources materials — to
say nothing of an additional 2.5 million
volumes — does not exist.
Because the existing equipment can
not provide access to even half of the
current library holdings, a more ad
equate computer is an absolute neces
sity. Judging by what engineering col
leagues say, one new computer in the
next decade and a half is probably not
going to be adequate if the Evans Li
brary is to provide the best available
service. Two or even three new comput
ers might be needed to keep up with the
latest technological developments.
When the fully integrated on-line sys
tem that has been proposed to pro
vide author, title and subject access to
all the library’s holdings becomes a
reality (Even I, a traditionalist histo
rian with fondness for paper card cat
alogs, know that this is the logical way
to go because of the improved access
available through such a technologi
cally advanced system that is properly
conceived and implemented;), many
more terminals will be needed.
Those terminals can be distributed
throughout the campus so that a user
will not actually have to enter the li
brary to see whether or not the Evans
Library owns a particular title,
whether or not the book is on the
shelf, when the book is due to be re
turned or how many other users have
placed a hold on a particular book.
As the size of the library faculty
and staff increases, the library will
have to acquire more equipment such
as desks, chairs, computer terminals
used in cataloging materials and mi
crocomputers used in office automa
tion. A year ago the Evans Library
purchased 32 microcomputers to
start an office automation system. At
least 50 more are needed to have an
adequate number. The equipment to
link them into a system is also needed.
The use of microcomputers for in
structional purposes has increased
tremendously. As it grows in the fu
ture, the library will have to add addi
tional micros to its Learning Re
sources Department to meet the
demand. In addition, every few years,
engineers tell me, it will be necessary
to replace the old ones with new,
more sophisticated micros so that our
students entering the real working
world will not be hampered by uni
miliarity with the latest equipment|
If the past growth in usecontinia
at the present pace, it seems reasJ
ble to expect that by the year 20(( |
whole floor of the library could bed;
voted to microcomputers for snj
dents’ use.
As more and more materials are j
quired in micro format, the libra
will need to acquire additionaljeadeil
and reader printers and to replatl
much of its older equipment. Riffl
now the library needs to replace all
its reader printers and several of
readers.
Cqnsidering the amount and vai
ety of equipment needed by the
brary, it is not unreasonable to ci
elude that an average of $1 million
year over the next 15 years coulde:
ily be expended upon equipment
order to develop a Class A und(
graduate library. Thus, annual su|
plementary funding of $4.5 i
ins needed for materials and
ment.
Charles R. Schultz is the Univem
Archivist for Texas A&M.
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest loitmalism Confcicntc
The Battalion Editorial Board
Kellie Dworaczyk, Editor
Kay Mallett, John Hallett, News Editors
Loren Stef f y, Editorial Page Editor
Sarah Oates, City Editor
Chat eau Williams, Sports Editor
The Battalion Staff
Assistant City Editor
Katherine Hurl
Assistant News Editors
Cathie Anderson, Trent Leopold
Entertainment Editors
Cathy Riely, Walter Smith
Staff Writers Karen Bloch,
Ed (iassavoy. Jerry Oslin.
Brian Pea ram
Copy Editor Trent Leopold
Make-up Editor Ed Cassavov,
Columnists Cheryl ClarK,
Karl Pallmeyer
Photographers Greg Bailey.
Anthony, Casper
Editorial Policy
The lintliilion is ;i non-jitoUt. sdl-stipiyonin^ ncwsfy.ijn'r I
operated as a (omtnunitx set vic e to Testis J&A/ uilth |
liryan-Collcffe Station.
Opinions espt essed in The Battalion arc those ol ik
Editorial Board or the aiithot. and do not nctvssmih ii'Ie
t esent the opinions oT Texas . \&.\l achniiiistniloix ihvIM
or the Board of Regents.
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As materials come out in newB
formats such its videodisks and laitl
disks, the library will have to acquiB
more and more types of equipment
enable users to read the materials
these formats.
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