Daily Bulletin, Friday, April 15

BOOKS TO STORAGE:  University librarian Murray Shepherd announced
yesterday that about 150,000 books are to be removed from the Dana Porter
Library stacks and put into storage.  His memo says the sixth to tenth
floors of Porter Library "presently house more than 700,000 
volumes.  Designed to house a maximum of 590,000 volumes, the building 
has been overcrowded for some time.  Furthermore, the collection is 
growing at a rate of about 2.7 per cent per year (or more than 93,000 
volumes over the past 5 years) and conditions are such that there is, for 
all practical purposes, no room for new materials arriving and existing 
books are at risk of damage.

"The need to remove material from Porter was emphasized in 1992 in the 
report of the Task Group on Dana Porter Library Collections Space, 
chaired by Dr. Ron Lambert of the Sociology Department.  That task force 
advised that the best solution to the library's space problem was 
construction of a new storage facility, preferably in cooperation with 
neighbouring universities.  Prospects for such a project are still 
uncertain."

So, Shepherd says, as a short-term solution about 150,000 books "for
which there is no record of use for at least the past 12 years" will be
moved to storage space on Phillip Street.  "The move does not involve 
discarding any items from the library's holdings," he notes.
The books will be stored in boxes, for cost reasons, and "the boxes must
be stored in such a way that access to any one book is not practical."
If anyone needs a book that is in this form of storage, the library will
get it through interlibrary loan instead, Shepherd's announcement said.
The move is to start May 2.

STATUS OF WOMEN:  The report on "The Status of Women at the University of
Waterloo", issued earlier this week, is available on UWinfo under the
heading "Events, News, Weather" and the subheading "Documents FYI".

Here are a few of the recommendations in the report, which was prepared by
the Advisory Council on Academic Human Resources:
 
     (1a) Day care centres on campus should collectively undertake to
     compile a list of emergency day care providers who would be available
     to parents faced with an unexpected disruption in their normal day
     care provisions.

     (3b) The Graduate Student Association, the Federation of Students and
     Counselling Services should jointly sponsor a workshop every Fall for
     all students (graduate and undergraduate) on the subject of balancing
     academic demands and personal lives.

     (12c) The Library should maintain an up-to-date listing of recent
     acquisitions dealing with work done by and about women to help
     instructors update their courses.

     (13b) Other Faculties should be obliged to follow the lead of
     Engineering in holding workshops on harassment and discrimination,
     with attendance obligatory for new TAs.

STAFF NEWS:  The staff association's newsletter StaffNews will be available
on UWinfo from now on.  The April issue can be seen now, under the main
heading "Departments, Faculties, Associations" and subheading "Staff
Association".

Among matters of interest in the April issue is a note saying that work is
being done on "a Bereavement Policy or Guideline" regarding time off for
staff members at a time of death in the family.  "It may be prudent to
entrench rights such as these in the form of a policy," suggests Bill
Anderson of civil engineering, one of the staff association directors who
have been working on the issue.  He's inviting comments.

IN AFRICA:  If you've been looking for UW president James Downey this week,
the reason you didn't find him is that he's in Botswana, chairing a
conference for the Association of Commonwealth Universities.  Downey is
now vice-chair of the ACU, which represents 427 universities in 32 "countries
or regions".

Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
888-4567 ext. 3004      credmond@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca