DOCUMENT RESUME EU 049 804 LI 002 786 AUTHOR Penland, Patrick E. TITLE -Communication fcr Librarians. INSTITUTION Pittsburgh Univ., Pa. Graduate School of Library and _Information Sciences. PUB DATE 71 NOTE 189p. AVAILABLE FRCM Bookstore, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15213 ($2.50) ErEs PRICE EDRS Price MF-$0.65 HC-$6.L.3 DESCRIPTORS *Communication (Thought Transfer), Communication Problems, Communication Skills, Content Analysis, Cybernetics, *Information Dissemination, *Information Science, *Information Theory, *Information Utilization, Librarians, Library Education, Library Science IDENTIFIERS *Epistemology ABSTRACT This preliminary work in human communication for librarians is designed to help the library profession address itself to significant communication problems. As they relate to the library and information sciences, the three major areas of communication science covered are: (1) History and theory of communication and culture, organization and function of communication institutions, and communication structures in biological and social organization; (2) Transfer of meaning, design and processing of messages in different media, analysis cf message content and systems; and (3) Individual behavior, social interaction and experience, attitude formation and change, public opinion and collective behavior, and the consequence of exposure to various messages. A listing of 253 references is included.(See also LI 002 783 to LI 002 7835.)(Author/MF) "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS COPY- RIGHTED MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY &thii_ le%Pei/AWL_ TO ERIC AND ORGANIZATIONS OPERATING UNDER AGREEMENTS WITH THE U.S. OFFICE OF EDUCATION. FURTHER REPRODUCTION OUTSIDE THE ERIC SYSTEM REWIRES PER- MISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNER?' 1.: COMMUNICATION FOR LIBRARIANS 1.: Patrick R. Penland Graduate School of Library and Information Science is U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATFIN THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO- DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM' THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIG- INATING IT. POINTS OF VIEW OR OPIN- IONS STATED DO NOT ',IECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDU, CATION POSITION OR POLICY. University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213 Copyright 1971 Patrick R. Penland (Discourse Units in Human Communication for Librarians) Preliminary Edition 41971 2 CONTENTS Introduction 1 Human Communication for Librarians....,. 5 Development of Communication 31 The Search for Order 48 Context of Communication 61 Content Control 79 Professional Consideration 103 Illustrations 131 Summary Postscript 156 References 165 ji [I 11, 3 [ ti- INTRODUCTION The general purpose of this preliminary work.in human communication for librarians is first to "keep the faith" with such leaders in library communication as Butler, Waples and Berel- son, and secondly to raise some additional considerations which have been made necessary by developments in cybernetic theory. In general, communications in library science is concerned with three major areas: History and theory of communication and culture; organization and function of communication institutions; and communication structures in biological and social organization. Transfer of meaning; design and processing of messages in different media; analysis of message content and systems. Individual behavior, social interaction and experience; attitude formation and change; public opinion and collect- ive behavior; and the consequence of exposure to various messages. This consideration of communication science is designed to help the library profession address itself to the significance of such problems as the following.How so the disciplines and pro- fessions process, transmit and integrate information into given frameworks of knowledge?How do societies produce symbol systems and muster their communication technologies so as to decrease the time lag between knowledge creation and citizen involvement? How are the issues and choices inherent in the sociopolitical and cultural systems assigned value and significance for the ordinary citizen? How are communication policies and message systems to be measured for their role in sociopolitical and cultural change, and indeed for that matter in the changing personalities of an individual? How does a story, a message, a symbol evoke or elicit response, unite or divide, bind or release? Knowledge is created in the crucible of scientific endeavor, preserved by publishers, stored by library and information science professionals and distributed to those who have an interest in using information. The motivation for this thrust has come from the traditional few in the power structure and the scientific and cultural elite who have stood to profit most from adequate infor- mation sources. But the vast majority of citizens have yet to be- come widely involved with information utilization in order to 2 c,olve especially the urban problems of our time. Communications librarians are being prepared with an understanding of and ability to help an increasing range of citizens to work with the symbol manipulators in the sociopolitical and economic structure of society. Data supply is one thing, and the profession of library and information science has helped American society to build a network of information centers that often serves as a model for other countries to emulate; but the significance of that data to the actual problems of people and communities is another matter. Most people in communities are either frightened by the "information explosion" or react to it as another tax supported machiavellian control device which serves the military-indtstrial complex.A great deal remains to be done in making the knowledge-store kinetic for the concerns and interests of a wide range of citizens.The purpose of communications study is to improve the librarian's understanding for and skills in motivating the widest possible range of citizens towards information utilization and in the application of information to their concerns and interests. The new social bases of message design and usage meant a revolution in the exploitation of information and in popular culture. Information has become a social resource to be exploited for the betterment of all men. The institutions of communication have created publics and have cultivated common tastes across boundaries of time, space, status and culture.New patterns of information flow stimulate social development and machine control, and cybernetically shape the referential terms of our negotiations with one another and the real world. Any change in the process of information stimuli and in the negotiation of mutual intentions alters both the individual per- sonality and the nature of human society. Society is today in the midst of revolutionary transformations. Communications science consequently has had to encounter major change both in technology and in the societal bases of symbol production and use. New media alter form, content and context. New modes of communication change ways of selecting, composing and sharing messages and per- spectives. The message and the medium tend to become reciprocal as Marshall McLuhan has dramaticized so remarkably. The emerging information systems and networks employ communi- cation specialists that exert information leadership in the trans- formations of sociopolitical and economic institutions which are underway and for revolutionary changes in managerial functions. Organizations, public and private, are being managed less by lawyers and financiers and more by the emerging profession of decision-makers and problems-solvers who can handle large amounts of information about quite different issues and subjects. Such communications specialists move from issue to issue, and indeed from public to private sector, demonstrating competence to focus the immense volume of general and specialized knowledge for organizational decision-making. In the past, the understandings of sociopolitical and economic life needed by public services and managerial librarians were more frequently learned on the job than in their professional education. With the development of a library communications profession, ad- ministrators and public services staff will be\trained to better advantage, to attack, not immediate and specific problems pecu- liar only to one locality, but sets of problems of basic consider- ation to a wide range of leadership, communications and community applications. Over a period of time, such an approach will event- ually bring greater visibility to fundamental and current problems of communications in the library field and create an awareness of, and ability to apply the voluminous literature of research in communications and related fields.Among the many advantages of developing a communications profession for librarians, the following appear to stand out: 1. Provide new impetus in giving library public services explicit form as a major professional area based upon concepts and ideas, or models from the discipline of library communications. 2. Provide the profession with principles and methods for the development and evaluatio-, of new program ideas and new methods of motivating citizen participation and learning. 3. Focus attention on the need for long range systeratic' research programs using new methods and techniques of research, as a basis for effective planning in library public services. 4. Develop and validate techniques of investigation which II minimize error and maximize yield of information for both research in the laboratory and evaluation of 'in- going