At a meeting of the steering committee of the general faculty yesterday, College President James Freedman said he will announce the formation of a task force next week to investigate Dartmouth's library needs and to begin planning for the expansion of Baker Library at the end of the century.
The announcement came as part of the steering committee's review of reports issued by four College councils.
The Council on the Libraries has begun discussions about dimensions of the new library facility, but the task force will explore these issues in greater depth.
Classics Professor William Scott, who will head the 16-member task force, said its principal objective "is to formulate for the architects what the community, including undergraduates, graduates, faculty and all of the community, wants for library services."
The task force, comprised of faculty, undergraduates and graduate students, will meet for the first time on Oct. 4 and will work until the completion of the new Berry Library.
With the future Berry facility doubling the current size of Baker Library, Scott said a main focus of the task force will be to determine how much of that space will be used for book storage and how much for new, updated information transfer technology.
Scott said these issues will continue to evolve as more periodicals and other literature are printed electronically, rather than on paper.
The Council on Sponsored Activities reported a verbal agreement recently reached with the federal government by College Director of Grants and Contracts John Kavanagh that will progressively lower the College's indirect costs over the next four years.
The report also revealed that for fiscal year 1992-93 the eight principal divisions of the College were awarded a total of 597 grants, totaling more than $66 million, a $10 million increase from last year.
The steering committee also approved the agenda for the annual meeting of the general faculty, set for Oct. 18. Freedman's annual report to the faculty is the only item on the agenda.
In response to a report presented by the Council on Computing, steering committee members questioned the possibility of increasing support services for those with Macintosh computers and bolstering counseling services for those without Macintoshes.
Steering committee members also said there is a need to give precedence to faculty requests for computer network assistance.
