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Empty Shelves Drive Students Away
By Sheldon Ingram
With its modern designed
structure, its colorful and attrac
tive landscape, complemented
with a towering fountain, stan
ding one and a half stories high,
highlighted with a marble stair
case, the Robert Woodruff
Library is considered to be one of
the most attractive form of art
one can lay eyes on, but it lacks
the most important element —
books.
The new library simply doesn’t
meet most of the academic
needs of the AUC community,
according to some students. As
one student from Clark College
put it, “yes, it’s a pretty building,
but you can’t judge a book by its
cover.’’
Many students in the AUC find
themselves frequently traveling
across town to use the facilities of
Georgia State University. They
really don't believe that their
time devoted to valuable
research, is worth spending at
Woodruff, here in the AUC. The
lack of resources is the primary
problem, stated a junior
economics major at Spelman
College. "In terms of resources,
the library is very limited.’’ She
went on to say that the books are
outdated and are in poor condi
tion.
The task of maintaining up
dated materials seems to be a
universal problem with many
libraries, in the eyes of Dr.
Carolyn Robison, the Library
Associate Professor at Georgia
State University.
Georgia State’s library houses
900,000 volumes with 250,000
circulating each year. Dr.
Robison says despite the fact,
their library also has a lot of
outdated materials. "With an
annual budget of $1,165,404 for
reading materials, we’re still not
keeping up with current
volumes,” Robison stated.
Despite even that fact, many
students still find Georgia State’s
library superior to that of the
Woodruff Library here in the
AUC. An attributing factor is the
fact that the library has only been
opened since January of 1982.
Mrs. Hunter, the Deputy Direc
tor of the Robert Woodruff
Library, said that the library has
recently secured its first director
on September 1, of this year,
since the death of the late Mrs.
Virginia Jones, the former direc
tor.
Another problem is embedd
ed within the faculty and
students of the AUC itself. Mrs.
Hunter said that, “the students
just don’t come to see what is in
the library." The first impression
of any person, place or thing has
significant value and Mrs.
Hunter believes that faculty
members don’t impress the
students by advocating the use of
the library. “I heard faculty
members tell students to go to
Georgia State before coming
here,” Hunter said.
A general description of the
library is inefficiency, in the eyes
of unsatisfied students. “The
card catalog is very impressive,
but it doesn’t represent what
they have,” stated a Morehouse
student. As a result, he finds
himself frequently using the
resources of Georgia State and
the Atlanta Public Library.
“The library is efficient for
undergraduates," exclaimed
Hunter, "it isn’t good for
graduate students trying to com
plete their research.” Mrs.
Hunter also believes that if the
faculty expressed a positive
image of the library, the students
would come out.
When all of the problems are
weighed, one prime element to
consider, is money. Mrs. Hunter
said that the "money crunch” is a
prime reason why current
materials are purchased
irregularly. “The average cost of
a book is $40." Based on that cost
per volume, it is estimated that it
will take $1 million to bring the
library to a total satisfactory level.
As it stands now, according to
records, Woodruff Library holds
670,000 volumes, with 290,000
circulating. Included in that
figure are 180,000 microfilms,
government documents, and
periodicals. Of that number,
486,779 volumes were given
collectively, by all of the colleges
in the AUC.
The matter confronting the
library, is the direction in which
it is headed. Attempting to
secure special grants for library
materials is one of the primary
short range objectives for the
library administration, Mrs.
Hunter said.
Mrs. Hunter said that the task
of securing funds, is spearhead
ed by Dr. Craft, the new director
of the library. "He is very
energetic and he is progressive-
minded,” Hunter said of the new
director.
There are no projected
numbers in the project, but an
unstructured plan to use por
tions of Title Three funds from
the schools in the Center has
already been intiated, according
to Mrs. Hunter.
Continued on page 12
SCLC Boycotts Winn Dixie Grocery Stores
by Marie Roberts
The Southern Christian
Leadership Conference has
organized a boycott against
Winn Dixie grocery stores to
protest what the president of the
organization called an insult to
the black community.
"Winn-Dixie is purchasing
produce all the way from South
Africa,” the Rev. Joseph E.
Lowery said. "It is the disrespect
for the community that made
them put these products on the
shelf in the first place.”
According to Lowery, Winn-
Dixie stores have stocked cann
ed peaches and pears on its
shelves with "A Product of South
Africa” on the labels.
The products were discovered
by members of the
SCLC/Women’s organization in
Atlanta and Miami stores Sept. 6.
Three days after the finding,
Lowery sent a telegram to Dr.
Dano Davis, president of Winn-
Dixie. The telegram requested a
date to discuss the'South African
products, but it received no
reply.
Sept. 24, the boycott began.
The day after the boycott was
initiated, Dr. Dano Davis wired
that he would meet with Lowery
Oct. 2 or 4.
However, on Oct. 2 Lowery
and other SCLC supporters
attempted to attend a Winn-
Dixie stockholders meeting in
Jacksonville, Fla. Upon their
arrival the meeting was im
mediately adjourned.
Lowery received a telegram
from Davis some hours later
stating that the company would
not meet with the protesters
until the boycott was ended.
"Winn-Dixie refuses to take
South African products off their
shelves and they refuse to meet
to discuss the issue," Lowery
said. “This insulting display of
insensitivity reflects racial
policies that are unjust and
unequitable. We must demand
equitable reinvestment from
those businesses that enjoy our
patronage.”
As one of the largest grocery
store chains in the south, Winn-
Dixie operates 1262 stores in 13
states, and according to statistics
from the SCLC, the grocery chain
did $7.7 billion in sales last year,
pulling in $107 million profit.
"Our estimate is that one-third
of their sales are by black con
sumers,” Lowery said. "Yet,
Continued on page 12