News Briefs, October 1987

Scholar’s Passport: Faculty members at fifty-nine colleges and universities that are members of the Research Libraries Advisory Committee of OCLC—the Online Computer Library Center—will be able to check out books at any library at any of the institutions with a new library card issued by the committee.

Elaine F. Sloan, dean of libraries at Indiana University at Bloomington, calls the new library card a “scholar’s passport.”

Currently, faculty members who want to check books out of a library at anoth­er college or university must receive special permission from the library. This new system will enable faculty members to cross institutional boundaries and make it easier for faculty members to use other research libraries.

Slow Fires: On the Preservation of the Human Record: An hour-long preser­vation film made possible by CLR, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, NEH, and the Library of Congress, tells the story of the deterioration of materials upon which the record of mankind has been written, drawn, or photographed. The film is narrated by Robert MacNeil (of the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour) and features commentary on the impor­tance of preserving the human record by writers James Michener and Barbara Tuchman, as well as by members of the Library of Congress and scholarly com­munities.

Hour and half-hour versions of Slow Fires may be purchased in VHS, 3/4″ cassette, and 16mm film formats; the 16mm film is also available for rental. Queries about rental or purchase should be addressed to the American Film Foundation, Box 2000, Santa Mon­ica, CA 90406; 213/459- 2116.

Million $ Chair: AHA member Gabor S. Boritt was appointed Robert C. Fluhrer Professor of Civil War Studies at Gettysburg College. The college built on a challenge grant received from the NEH to establish the first fully funded, over $1 million, chair in Civil War his­tory at any institution of higher learning.

On March 28, 1987, Professor Boritt delivered his inaugural lecture examin­ing Abraham Lincoln’s attitudes toward war entitled: “The War Opponent as War President.” The lecture will be pub­lished shortly. For information contact Gettysburg College, Department of His­tory, Gettysburg, PA 17325-1486.

American Academy of Arts and Sci­ences: All six of the historians recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences are AHA members. These historians are: Nathan Irvin Huggins, Harvard; Walter LaFeber, Cornell; Leon Litwack, University of California, Berkeley; William S. Mcfee­ly, Mount Holyoke; Nicholas V. Riasan­ovsky, University of California, Berke­ley; and Lewis W. Spitz, Stanford. Founded in 1780 by John Adams and other leaders of the American Revolu­tion, the Academy is an international honorary society based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

German Historical Institute: A Ger­man Historical Institute in the US was established by the Federal Republic of Germany in Washington, DC. It began operations on April 1, 1987. The new institute is part of a tradition of main­taining German research institutes in foreign countries.

The German Science Council at the request of the Ministry for Research and Technology and the Foreign Office recommended, in November 1984, that GHI be established in Washington, de­ fined in major goals, and laid out its basic structure.

The GHI in Washington will be en­gaged in four major areas:

1. The Institute will develop a research program of its own as designed by its director in cooperation with the staff and under the guidance of the Ad­visory Board, tackling topics such as the development of democracy and industrial societies; studies on German-American relations; re­search on international history; and cooperation between American and­ German historical researchers. It will place special emphasis on compara­tive studies, but it is to provide suffi­cient leeway for the individual inter­ests of staff members and research fellows.
2. The Institute will endeavor to open up neglected parts of the growing body of source materials on German history in American collections, to get an overview of such materials, and to make them more accessible to researchers.
3. The GHI will hold conferences ei­ther in the US or in Germany as a means of exchanging insights and ideas.
4. The GHI will make special efforts to offer a wide range of services to both German and American historians in­cluding library facilities, a newsletter, information on research facilities, a series of publications, and cooper­ation with scholarly institutions and organizations in both countries.

For information contact Professor Harmut Lehmann, Director, German Historical Institute, 1759 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20009; 202/387-3355.

Librarian of Congress Emeritus: The House of Representatives approved on July 21, S. 1020, a bill designating Dr. Daniel J. Boorstin, as Librarian of Con­gress Emeritus, and the Senate con­curred to the House amendment to the legislation on July 22. The President signed S. 1020 into Public Law (P.L. 100-33) on August 4. The  designation is effective upon his retirement.