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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 She went on to say that the books are outdated and are in poor condi tion.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 Robison says despite the fact, their library also has a lot of outdated materials.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