MILLICENT D. ABELL

The Changing Role of the Academic : Drift and Mastery

There are elements of both stability and change in the academic environment. Hence, although the traditional functions of the library will persist, are increasingly confronted with opportunities and requirements for the im­ provement of library services. Their success depends on librarians' ability to escape a working pattern of routine and reaction and to master the professional role. Crucial to this mastery are an awareness of the library's dynamic environ­ ment, the exercise of individual initiative, and the willingness to engage in critical analysis and evaluation of the performance of the library and tlie profession.

MoRE THAN SIXTY YEARS ago Walter In this paper I shall try to identify and pro­ Lippmann entitled one of his works Drift and ject the main elements of the role of the Mastery: An Attempt to Diagnose the Current academic librarian and the professional Unrest. "Drift and mastery" is a theme that abilities embedded in it. Several of our profes­ suggests a constantly recurring set of options. sional forebears and contemporaries will be We have a choice. We can drift with environ­ cited to illustrate the constancy of the princi­ mental changes or we can try to master them, ples of academic librarianship and our primary and occasionally succeed. As a profession, our mission. development and effectiveness have ebbed and flowed through the years. Broadly speak­ GROPING: THE ISSUES ing, we are now working in an era of extraordi­ In this decade it seems to be incumbent on nary opportunity to shape the flow and utiliza­ all writers and speakers in librarianship and in tion of information and ideas and to play our higher education to demonstrate that they roles in the academic enterprise more effec­ understand-or can at least identify-the tively than ever before. principal issues before getting to the point of As we have sought over the years to exercise the paper. Nevertheless, were the history of our full potential as academic librarians, our issue identification not a key to my contentions professional leaders have often clearly articu­ in this paper, I would be tempted to utilize the lated the issues of librarianship and higher technique of Steven Muller, who in a recent education-and sometimes even the means paper, "A New American University?" states for resolving these issues. One of the most in his last footnote: "I am conscious of having difficult professional challenges has been to avoided almost the whole of the current escape the drift of routine and reaction and to agenda of problems confronting higher educa­ raise our level of performance to match more tion .... "and then explains why he has done precisely the historical aspirations of academic so. He completes the footnote by listing a librarianship. In this effort to gain mastery of dozen or so broadly encompassing problems, our particular role in academe, we have man­ so that you know that he knows them, ending ifested a variety of stages which might be with the classic weasel words: " ... and a host labeled: groping, coping, and hoping. of others. " 1 A particularly comprehensive statement of issues for libraries in higher education ap­ Millicent D. Abell is university librarian, Univer­ peared in an article published by College & sity of California, San Diego . Research Libraries in 1973. It is the widely

154 I The Academic Librarian I 155 cited piece by McAnally and Downs, "The knew how to deliver it, and that we had the re­ Changing Role of Directors of University Li­ sources to get the job done. As regards libraries, the braries. "2 In trying to account for the recent press and public expected them to purvey extended instability of directorships, the authors sur­ services through in~tant computerization. Univer­ sity presidents expected them to cut costs. Faculty veyed a number oflibrarians who had recently expected them to deliver everything they needed. experienced changes of position and through Students expected them to stay open all night. Staff them identified some all too familiar critical expected that work should never be dull and that issues. salaries should rise 10 percent per year. 3 Among background factors they list the fol­ lowing: growth of enrollment, changes in in­ In.yet another cut at problem definition, a stitutional presidency, proliferation of univer­ colleague produced the following: sity management positions, changes in the world of learning and research, the informa­ There is a law affecting the growth of libraries not unlike that of geometric progression. By the princi­ tion explosion, hard times and inflation, ple of noblesse oblige, a library which has attained a changes in planning and budgeting processes, certain size is called upon to grow much faster than technological disappointments, changing when it was smaller. Each year's additions result in a theories of management, unionization, in­ good many books which are but beginnings of series creasing control by state boards, and no na­ to be indefinitely continued; or the enlargement of tional system for information. Their explica­ the scope of the library by the purchase of books in tion of the last issue is well worth reviewing in some departments hitherto neglected makes it nec­ light of the positive steps toward re-solution of essary to cover the inCJ"eased ground every year some national issues now being undertaken. thereafter. Not long ago the trustees of the Astor Library (now the NYPL) complained that they could In the few years since publication of this hardly use any of their large income for the purchase article other specters have loomed on our of really new books, on account of the demands for changing horizons, such as the increasing de­ continuation of series already commenced. So with mands for accountability from a variety of Library, where it is reported agencies, declining enrollments, stabilized or that over $7,000 is required annually for subscrip­ declining budgets in the face of continuing tions to serials and for other standing charges en­ increases in costs, and the ill-understood ef­ tered against the income as liabilities to be met fects of initiatives like California's Proposition before a dollar can be appropriated for new books. 13. As our numerous libraries grow, this tendency to demand largely increasing funds and to require To continue the depressing litany, among larger and still larger buildings gives serious occa­ the internal problems cited by McAnally and sion to pause and look the matter over to see what Downs are the following: greatly intensified can be done by way of relief. pressures from various sources; the declining ability of the library to meet needs; lack of This gem, mined by Edward Holley, ap­ goals and planning; inability to accommodate peared in 1894 in a book by William I. to educational changes quickly; decline of the Fletcher. Holley further reports that " ... Fletcher suggested that library cooperation status of the director and hence of the library; between libraries in one locality might be a and prevalence of traditional authoritarian 4 styles of management. partial remedy. " In a somewhat lighter tone with similar This remembrance of things past and effect, David Kaser has recently written: present pertains not only to issues. We can also trace the history of exhortations. Once again Edward Holley located remind­ The revolution of 1969----1970, at least as it affected libraries, was aggravated by perhaps only one atypi­ ers that there is little new under the sun. More cal characteristic-only one factor that was different than 102 years ago, Otis Hall Robinson stated from those of previous revolutions. This was the the following: frustration of unrealized expectations-expectations that had for the most part been unrealistic in the first A librarian should be much more than a keeper of place. It is difficult today to reconstruct the total books; he should be an educator . . . the relation sense of unbridled optimism that permeated the . . . ought especially to be established between a "Great Society" days of the early and mid-1960s. college librarian and the student readers. No such Somehow we had come to believe that we held all librarian is fit for his place unless he holds himself to the aces, that we knew what society needed, that we some degree responsible for the library education of 156 I College & Research Libraries • March 1979 his students .... Somehow I reproach myself if a relevant to the dynamic educational process. student gets to the end of his course without learn­ The groping occasioned by role confusion ing how to use the library. All that is taught in has not been limited to the faculty status college amounts to very litde; but if we can send quest. As librarians, we have sometimes ne­ students out self-reliant in their investigations, we have accomplished very much. 5 glected, overlooked, or relegated to secondary importance the roles of other persons, particu­ There follows a more recent qootation from larly library ;1ssistants under-whatever label, Justin Winsor, published only 100 years ago: without whom librarians, libraries~ and our clientele would be unable to function. For too A collection of good books, with a sQul to it in the long, too many library assistants have had good shape of a good librarian, becomes a vitalized power reason to ask why they should do the same among the impulses by which the world goe_s on to improvement. . . . the object of books is to be work as librarians for different status and dif­ read-read much and often .... At the average ferent pay. This issue will be noted again in the college it is thought that if anybody gets any good discussion of the specific elements of the role from the library, perhaps it is a few professors; and if of the librarian. Other issues with which we anybody gets any amusement, perhaps it is a few grope are those of participative management, students, from the smooth worn volumes· of Sterne whatever that means, and the sometimes and Fielding. What it is to investigate, a student related issue of collective bargaining. rarely knows; what are the allurements of research, a These issues have intensified in an era of student is rarely taught. 6 burgeoning organizations, new campuses, The foregoing exhortations to librarians to spectacular institutional growth, and, how­ fulfill their proper role laid the groundwork for ever sudden, confrontation with dismal fiscal the struggle to achieve recognition of that role realities. These issues will not be discussed · with the conferral of some variety of academic here in detail because most of them appear to status. An instructive, and occasionally dis­ be profoundly affected by two factors that couraging, revie~ of this struggle was pro­ make it impossible to generalize adequately in vided by Robert Downs in his ALA Centennial so short a presentation. article "The Role of the Academic Librarian, First, the environment in which one deals 1876-1976."7 Downs reports that H. A. Saw­ with an issue like faculty status or collective telle proclaimed in 1878 that the college librar­ bargaining has such influence on the options ian ought t9 work closely with the students and and the choice among them that attempts at provide guidance in the development of liter­ generalization are frequently misleading. As ary taste. Sawtelle " ... concluded that such one reviews the debates on these issues, it is college librarianship as he described ought not apparent that two diametrically opposed to be annexed to a profes'sorship, but be itself a viewpoints may be equally valid when each is professorship. "8 assessed within the particular context from As documented by Downs and others, this which it has arisen. The elements of status that search for role and status-for the academic are feasible for the Virginia community college librarian's particular mission as differentiated librarian are different from those appr~priate from other academic actors, including the so­ to the University of California librarian and called teaching faculty and the ed~cational different again from the elements meaningful technologists, and from other library at an Illinois state college. Recognition of these workers-has occupied librarians for over a differences is, of course, what led the drafters century. The search often seems as plaguing of our standards and model statement on fac­ today. No issue better exemplifies our groping ulty status to relate the elements of a given than this one. To some extent, we have been so librarian's status to parallel elements for the concerned· with defining our status that we faculty in the same institution. have lost sight of the purpose of the effort. The second consideration is that many of Surely the single most compelling reason for these issues of role confusion can be clarified seeking and maintaining academic status for by individual initiative, confidence, and the librarians is not to gain a reward or to establish will to -assume a more professional attitude a symbol, but rather to provide an organiza­ With concomitant effect on performance. tional tool to stimulate and facilitate the efforts Environment and initiative are the key of librarians to make their activities directly words. The Academic Librarian I 157

COPING: THE EFFORTS victory. It signifies pain, alienation, reversion, TO RESPOND or defeat. Pain has come through cutting and closing-cutting budgets and staff, closing li­ In spite of the rapidly increasing complexity braries. Many who are here have shared these of the environments in which we function, experiences. Even more colleagues, not many of our contemporaries have demon­ present here, have done so. strated well the ability to identify the salient To demonstrate the loss of staff within a forces and trends-scholarly, technical, politi­ limited group oflibraries I tracked the changes cal, economic, demographic, and social-with in staff size and mix in the eighty-eight univer­ which we must deal. On the national level, sity libraries that were members of the Associ­ there are numerous well-edited and widely ation of Research Libraries in 1974-75, and distributed journals through which profes­ these are shown in table 1. sional intelligence is communicated. The di­ The total FTE employed in these eighty­ visions of the American Library Association eight libraries declined by forty-nine during and other professional associations and this two-year period. You will note that the cooperating agencies have sponsored a overall reduction in regularly appointed staff is number of regional workshops across this masked by the increase in student FTE. These country on topics of current urgency. intriguing data deserve a far more careful and Several efforts, aimed at improving the abil­ complex analysis than can be provided here. It ity of an individual library to cope with its will suffice to say for the moment that they changing conditions, have been mounted in reveal some thoughtful administrative coping the last ten years. These include the institu­ and provide stimulus for reflection on the core tional efforts at Michigan, Cornell, and Co­ activities of academic librarianship. lumbia, and, stemming from the latter experi­ The preceding were raw and generalized ence, the work of the Office of Management figures. In part, they reflect the fiscal condi­ Studies of the Association of Research Librar­ tion of the research university library. While ies. inadequacy of resources is hardly a novel phe­ Through the Management Review and nomenon in research-oriented universities, Analysis Program (MRAP), the Academic Li­ austerity is a condition that has been under­ brary Development Program (ALDP), the stood and endured by the private-sector Collections Analysis Project (CAP), the publi­ undergraduate colleges for many years. It may cations, and the workshops, many of which are now be visited on our community college drawn together in the new Academic Library colleagues. Program (ALP), libraries are being provided Two environmental agents are at work. The with an impressive array of tools for coping. first is the declining birthrate, which has Moreover, with a bit of perspective on the caused 'academic institutions on all levels to efforts of this program, one can perceive that scramble for enrollments. A crucially impor­ one of the effects is the upgrading of the ability tant corollary factor is the potential effect of in libraries to anticipate, cope with, and even initiatives like California's Proposition 13. The effect change. But this is in anticipation of the effect of Proposition 13 may well be to under­ third section of this paper-what we are hop­ mine the ability of California's community col­ ing will be manifest in the changing perfor­ leges to provide education at a nominal, or mance of the academic librarian. even significantly lower, price than can be On the other hand, coping all too often sig­ provided by other educational institutions nifies something far different from the thrill of within the state.

TABLE 1 CHANGES IN STAFF SIZE IN EIGHTY-EIGHT ARL LIBRARIES

Year Category of Staff 1974/1975 1976/1977 Difference Professional staff 6,946 6,826 -120 Nonprofessional staff 13,920 13,851 -69 Student staff 5,188 5,328 +140 Total staff 26,054 26,005 -49 158 I College & Research Libraries • March 1979

Perhaps more profound in impact is the academic status have extended our perfor­ likely shift of policy control from the local to mance and have moved the profession toward the state level. Should this phenomenon a higher standard of excellence. We do not spread and the community college become a want this quest for high standards to be state-supported or pay-as-you-go enterprise, diminished. this segment ofhigher education will be forced It is also essential that we monitor ourselves to cope with its mission in new ways and may to avoid reacting to crises in a fashion th~t is be forced to rethink its assumption of general constraining for us all. In several of these education responsibilities. The implications United States, I have witnessed the debilitat­ for libraries in turn are profound. ing effects of anxious administrators respond­ Economic pressure can lead to alienation. ing to declining resources or the need for ac­ The potential for alienation lies between types tion by seeking to exercise ever greater of libraries, between librarians and the others control and more homogenization of practice. in the academic community, between librar­ No level of administration is exempt from this ians and other employees within the library. It tendency-national leaders, federal and state is critical that we be aware of this threat and departments of finance and educational com­ move to cope with it by rethinking our com­ missions, boards of trustees, central university mon, as well as our distinct, missions and administrations on statewide or local levels, roles. library administrators, department heads, One of the most disturbing of all symptoms supervisors. of coping is the tendency nf a segment of our Some such managing is essential, if novel. profession to opt for a reversion.' of status. C. In an address last year a University of Califor­ James Schmidt has described ' how well nia official stated that " ... Too many people academic iibrarians have succeeded in recent in the academic sphere felt the idea of manag­ years in gaining more appropriate recognition ing a University was almost an insult. They are of our role in higher education even in the face used to the idea that a University does not get of declining resources. He observed that the managed; it just sort of happens. "10 In the proportion of librarians with faculty status in­ same tone this speaker had stated earlier: creased from 50 percent of the academic librar­ ". . . an increasing proportion of our re­ ians to 75 percent in the years between 1966 sources has to be taken up with institutional and 1975. 9 defense-we have to try harder to stay more or However, without naming names or places less in the same place. "11 - too many of you can probably supply The danger, ofcourse , is that we lose sight of details-there are now those among us who the fact that to stay in the same place is to lose would opt to denounce academic status and ground in a changing world. We must fight for criteria and to revert to that passive, strictly opportunities to exercise individual initiative hierarchical, form of review that is solely de­ and innovation, the marks of professional en­ pendent on a supervisor's evaluation of how deavor and part of the very essence of the well assigned tasks are performed. scholarly enterprise. Should this reaction prevail, it would be a terrible blow to the quality of academic librar­ HOPING: THE VIEW AHEAD ianship. Performance reviews under condi­ To succeed at a level beyond coping re­ tions of academic status entail review of pro­ quires clear objectives, an understanding of fessional growth and contribution that may be our environment, and personal initiative. We manifest in many ways, including professional need to establish our direction and what we activity, research, and writing. This activity seek to accomplish.· We need to implement extends beyond "doing the job good," the in­ mechanisms to enable us to remain aware of variable essential element of acceptable job both stable and changing forces in our envi­ performance. As an academic, the librarian is ronment. We need to exercise the initiative expected to perform his or her work in terms of required not only to respond to change, but the future, as well as the past, to seek ways to also to effect change. The fundamental mission further the state of the art of the profession, as of the academic library will not change sub­ well as his or her own job. In my experience, stantially within the foreseeable future. It is the performance expectations associated with the means for moving toward our goals that are . The Academic Librarian I 159 marked by rapid change, change which has an essential and exciting pursuit, one in which been amply described at this conference and librarians have been engaged with distinction elsewhere in recent months. for years, and one in which the challenges are The mission of the academic library, which as great today as they ever were. It is a task largely shapes the role of t!le academic librar­ that takes brains, courage, imagination, and ian, is to contribute to the goals of the college energy. Furthermore, it can be argued that it or university of which it is a part and to the is the ideal complementary role to be played wider scholarly community. Those goals per­ vis-a-vis our clientele in an academic setting. tain to teaching, learning, research, and public It is the students and scholars who are learn­ service in some combination. The enduring, ing, mastering, and utilizing the techniques of traditional, and. widely accepted function of intellectual discrimination. the academic library is to provide biblio­ A different point of view on the· provision of graphical and physical access to the books and information has been presented by a number other information resources required to sup­ of academic librarians, notably Samuel Roth­ port the diverse missions of our various stein and Anita Schiller. Like many of you, I academic and research institutions. Adoption first encountered in library school Rothstein's of other functions, including those of direct 1960 paper "Reference Service: The New Di­ provision of information and of instruction in mension in Librarianship," with its memora­ the use of libraries, has proved far more con­ ble distinctions among minimum, middling, troversial within our profession and is deserv­ and maximum theories of reference service. ing of more profound consideration and debate You will remember that he characterizes the than has typically been generated in recent maximum theory as one that leads to the direct years. provision of needed information, not simply Robert Hayes expressed a conservative information about information, such as where viewpoint in a delightful paper presented in and how to find it. Rothstein recognizes the the Chemist's Club Library Seminar in 1974, practical difficulties of introducing such ser­ rephrasing the historical question: "Is the role vice on a broad scale, but concludes: of the library-and thus of the librarian and of the catalog, as the principal tool of the I would remind you that practical solutions are al­ ways a secondary matter; what comes first is convic­ librarian-to provide access to the books in the tion ~ If we can achieve a clear cut decision on library or to the content of those books?" In direction and policy, if we can settle on ends, I have this paper, Hayes credits Panizzi, librarian of no doubt that we can find some of the means. 13 the British Museum in the mid-nineteenth century, with arguing for a form of catalog that Anita Schiller joined the fray with a brilliant led to the decision that ". . . the crucial func­ analysis of conflicting values, goals, and atten­ tion served by libraries is to provide access to dant rationalizations within the profession. the books, and that decision set the tone for Published in Library Quarterly in 1965, her libraries ever since." Hayes goes on to note article "Reference Service: Instruction or In­ formation" provided a clear delineation of the . . . the fact that if a record is not preserved and if functions of the reference librarian in pursuit access to it is not available, it is impossible to provide of the library's goals. 14 access to the content. If the book or journal is not available, nothing in it is available (unless it has been Schiller's particular focus is on the ,an­ transferred to some other record, which simply tagonistic relationship between the mini­ changes the record to be preserved, not the funda­ mum and maximum philosophies of service. mental issue). This elemental fact has implications of The antagonism is frequently suppressed or overwh,elming importance, because it establishes overlooked. This failure to confront the the role of the library vis-a-vis other institutions; it issue directly has contributed to the library determines the ways in which the library allocates user's confusion in that he or she does not its resources; it establishes the context within which know what to expect of the librarian. In the the librarian's role is identified; it predetermines application of the minimum philosophy, li­ what the content, form, and organization of library records will be.12 brary users are expected to learn how to help themselves in extracting information Certainly, the provision of bibliographical from the library's resources. Instructional and physical access to the intellectual record is services are intended to facilitate this pro- 160 I College & Research Libraries • March 1979 cess. Schiller contends, however, that the As indicated earlier, in many academic li­ maximum view, with the goal of providing braries staff size has declined, at least relative comprehensive and accurate information, to the work load. Furthermore, there has been leads to a more direct, and hence more ef­ a major shift in proportions, marked by the use fective, type of service. of greater num~ers of student staff, especially The choice we make, personally, institu­ for those tasks characterized by minimum tionally, and professionally, is certain to have training and maximum routine. That is the far-reaching effects on the librarian's role and . result of necessary steps taken by many library environment. Failure to understand or deal administrators across the continent. with the issue is likely to leave us in the mid­ An accompanying trend in academic librar­ dle, or the muddle-groping again. ies in the last several years has been the in­ Such groping would seem to be decreasing crease in use of clerical and paraprofessional as a sign of the times. The librarian today has staff in supervisory positions and in a variety of opportunities to function at a level of profes­ complex library activities. In this respect, as in sionalism higher than ever before possible. ·many others, the larger libraries lag behind These opportunities influence in extraordi­ the community college and college libraries. nary ways the work of the librarian as well as Examples abound. High-grade library assis­ recruitment and education, the governance of tants are frequently found managi-o,g circula­ libraries, and our leadership patterns. tion departments. In some branch libraries, Inadequate fulfillment of,the academic li­ senior library assistants bear the title ofbranch brarian's potential role has been widely ob­ manager, thus freeing the professional staff in served. In 1970 Eldred Smith described this those branches from the tasks of recruitment, underutilization of professional capacities: training, and operational supervision of non­ The . . . functions that librarians perform are, more professional staff. Preorder search sections are often than not, so circumscribed by regulation and often staffed entirely by library assistants. routine, so lacking in autonomy, individual judg­ Each of you could add to this list of tasks, once ment, and expertness, as to qualify far more as tho~ght to be primary professional respon­ bureaucratic rather than professional activity. There sibilities. is little professional about an acquisition librarian In many such conversions thousands of dol­ who spends his time on bibliographical verification lars are being saved in individual library or even on the routine review of a national bibli­ budgets. Moreover, in many instances the ography or blanket order shipment; there is little professional about a cataloger who rather automati­ tasks are being performed more effectively. cally applies the principles of the Library of Con­ One can speculate on the reasons for better , gress or Dewey to a given number of books each performance by library assistants. Certainly, day-usually trying to maintain an acceptable vol­ their quality of performance is related to the ume of productivity-without real knowledge of the extensive experience in operations and super­ field in which he is cataloging or of the needs of the vision which library assistants bring to their library's clientele and how they use the catalog; management positions. Where previously' there is little professional in a reference librarian there had often been an inexperienced, freshly who answers routine and substantive questions with minted holder of an M.L.S. or a frustrated equal indifference to and lack of knowledge of the questioner and his library needs. Such librarians are old-timer, supervision was less likely to be guided primarily by institutional routines, regu­ effective. Librarians have, or should have, dif- ' lations, and values. Their relations to their clientele ferent expectations for themselves from the are, at best, indirect or fragmentary. Their involve­ handling of these kinds of responsibilities. ment with any subject or area of the collection is As noted earlier, another way in which li­ incidental and usually through the medium of book braries have been increasing production or trade lists or cataloging rules. 15 handling greater work loads with fewer dollars The current climate of austerity and re­ is through development of greater reliance on trenchment, a climate we expect to prevail for student staffing. In many instances almost all the foreseeable future, has provided us with an circulation and stack maintenance functions opportunity both to seriously reexamine the are handled by students. Students are also functions of various types of staff within the widely used for routine technical processing library and to take action on the basis of that and searching operations, special projects of reexamination. all descriptions, and not infrequently, they The Academic Librarian I 161

have worked their way into the reference team tivity to ensure an effective harmony among while shelving in the reference stacks on a diverse individual interests and organizational busy day. needs. Libraries have produced many more staff The individual librarian must work toward hours for the dollar wherever such ways can be acquiring simultaneously more specialized found to shift functions, dollars, and attitudes knowledge and more versatility. This paradox in that direction. Certainly the prospect of can best be resolved if we recognize that our increasing work loads with stable or decreas­ education must be built on a foundation of ing staff resources makes managers and librar­ principles and not be limited to current tech­ ians on all levels at least more openminded to niques. The choice is, as Steven Muller has the possibilities. put it, between higher education and higher What is the outcome? If the operation and skilling. 16 supervision of the library are turned over to What, then, are the principal functions of students, clerks, paraprofessionals, and some the academic librarian today and in the other nonlibrarian specialists, where does that foreseeable future? They are the planning, leave the displaced librarian? Out on the provision, and evaluation of service designed streets, if you believe that these activities are to meet the needs of the particular clientele the core of librarianship. In a position with group that is primary to the given academic unprecedented promise, if you believe that library. making library collections and services dynam­ This responsibility entails developing col­ ically responsive to user needs is the core ac­ lections that as a whole respond to the needs of tivity of librarianship. Librarians are being the local scholars and designing or adopting freed for essential interaction with the library's flexible and efficient alternatives for biblio­ clientele. graphic access to those and other collections. Of course, many librarians have functioned It also requires an ability. to reexamine the in this way for decades. What seems to be new library's priorities and operations critically, to is a climate that encourages and requires the develop means to evaluate the effect of those majority of academic librarians to perform in services, and to be aware of new alternatives this fashion. At the heart of the effort is the that will enable the library to deliver those necessity to understand, respond to, and in­ ser,vices more effectively. fluence faculty and students; other users; edu­ Beyond that, it requires the librarian to help cational administrators; the producers and students and faculty members find ways in vendors of library materials, services, and their learning, teachiJlg, or research that can equipment; legislators; and our own profes­ take better advantage of the services, includ­ sional leaders. ing direct and indirect provision of informa­ For effective performance it is necessary tion, that the library has to offer. It is also the that librarians be aware of the changes such as librarian's responsibility to interpret clientele those that have been described during this needs to vendors and producers in order to conference and that have invigorated our pro­ ensure timely delivery of satisfactory pr~d­ fessional literature in the past couple of years. ucts. These <].re: (1) changes in higher education; (2) Earlier, I indicated two keys to my remarks variations in management and governance; (3) -environmental awareness and initiative. I changes in scholarly communication; (4) shall now offer a third-critical analysis and changes in technology; (5) changes in patterns evaluation of our efforts. Just as we have and effectiveness of cooperation; (6) changes in passed the point in' libraries where we can ._disciplinary and individual scholarly interest; afford to compensate for individual poor per­ and (7) changes in the ways services and re- . formance by hiring a second person to do the sources are provided. job without removing the first, so too I think These changes constitute a massive stimulus the time has come to examine some sacred to the professional body. To maintain a suf­ cows and calves. ficient level of awareness and interaction the For example, library instruction is currently librarian must not be ensnarled in circulation a flourishing activity. As an early practitioner transactions. Also necessary in many libraries in its most recent revival, I am well aware of is a deliberate orchestration of professional ac- the positive impact and the personal satisfac- 162 I College & Research Libraries • March 1979 tion for teacher and learner that such activities ences it. Even as a graduate student, one provide. I am also well aware of the immense senses a rigor, a multiplicity of values, an envi­ amount of time required to prepare and teach ronment of stress and demand, a narrowness of well, especially to teach in traditional focus, from which many of us in libraries are classroom settings through traditional credit insulated. Furthermore, for many librarians, courses. subject knowledge establishes a basis for rap­ We must rigorously reevaluate that mode port with their clientele for which even the and other types of instruction in which we so most pleasant personality or extensive case­ wholeheartedly engage, to ask whether the study exposure is not an adequate substitute. typical payoff-a minority of students deeply William Moffett and Rush Miller have writ­ instructed in the use of libraries in their pres­ ten within the last six years in College & Re­ ent form-is indeed the most appropriate or search Libraries about our opportunities to productive use of anyone's time. Does library upgrade the profession through the attraction instruction provide the·student with tools for of subject Ph.D.'s. 17 Although we have re­ lifelong learning in this era of changing infor­ sponded to a limited extent, libraries and li­ mation needs and means for satisfying those brary schools alike are still insufficiently ag­ needs? How much such instruction is pro­ gressive in this regard and in raiding other vided in order to help library users compen­ types of graduate programs on other levels. sate for limitations ·in the library's operations It is, of course, perennially fashionable to and services? Finally, remember Schiller's ascribe our professional inadequacies to fail­ suggestion: Is instruction based on a philoso­ ures in our library schools. I would prefer to phy that ultimately shortchanges the clien­ stress the elements of professional education tele? These remarks constitute not a negative that might lead to a strengthening of the qual­ judgment oflibrary instructional activities but ifications of the individuals I hire and on whom a plea for thoughtful analysis and criticism of the quality oflibrary service depends. What is their effectiveness for the users. required is hardly news. As Lester Asheim has Other sacred cows that have come danger­ phrased it: ously close to consuming the entire pasture . . . the problem of educating for the future is not include the seemingly endless debates over essentially different from the problem that has faced issues of status and governance. I confess that I educators in the past: how to establish the proper have been a hyperactive participant in these mix, the theoretical and practical-the why and the activities as well. But the librarian I foresee how-so as to turn out practitioners who will be dominating the scene in the years to come is flexible; who can evaluate practice and introduce needed change; who are hospitable to new ap­ turned on more by the analysis of user need proaches but sensitive to the values in tradition; who than reflection on the professional navel. Such are capable of gathering, organizing, and interpret­ librarians are influencing decisions in ing pertinent data on which to base innovation, but academic libraries everywhere through sheer who can also make responsible decisions when the depth of special knowledge. hard data are not available. 18 What is the source of such librarians? The This is neither the time nor the place to question of recruitment is very much inter­ describe the ideal curricular content of our twined with that of the education oflibrarians. professional education, except to urge that To the extent that we are unable to educate principles and theory be emphasized over the librarians through our professional education application of current techniques. Indeed, a programs with the rigor, breadth, or depth variety of skills must be taught, but not neces­ required, we must seek compensating influ­ sarily those involved in pursuing great masses ences in their other educational experiences. of reference questions or cataloging particular I would argue that graduate education in a books. Rather, we urgently need the skills subject discipline is a highly desirable, if not required for intelligently analyzing our envi­ necessary, qualification for an academic librar­ ronment; for conducting research, including ian. Some of the best and brightest among us the manipulation of numerical data; for inter­ do not have such a qualification, but they preting various clientele needs; for applying would be better for it. To experience a library new technology; and for interacting effectively as a subject-oriented scholar does is qmte dif­ with other members of the team that provides ferent from the way that a librarian experi- academic library service . .Finally, a deep ap~ The Academic Librarian I 163 . predation for the importance of understand­ are so affected by the individuals involved, by ing the environment in which we operate is the academic environmental traditions, and by required. the situation that generalizations are very The missions of various types ofhigher edu­ risky. However, I will venture one prediction: cational and research institutions must be un­ As librarians become ever more expert in derstood. An appreciation of the sociology, identifying and analyzing change and in estab­ politics, and economics of higher education is lishing relationships within either the con­ invaluable. It is far easier to teach the ele­ sumer or the vendor community, those librar­ ments of cataloging a book into a particular ians will inevitably have greater voice in the collection on the job than to teach these more determination of the policies of any given li­ fundamental and enduring concepts and at­ brary. titudes. What is described here is a climate that Even with this kind of educational base, a facilitates increasingly widespread peer influ­ librarian's needs for continual updating are ence and leadership. However, in order to be intense. Fortunately, opportunities abound. fully effective, all participants will need the There are numerous workshops and stimulat­ courage to make tough judgments-to evalu­ ing articles in the librarian's professional liter­ ate their own and each other's accomplish­ ature and that of higher education and organi­ ments and potential in terms of the library's zational behavior. Hence, one might question mission-and the needs of students, scholars, the effort that is being invested in trying to researchers. build comprehensive, formal structures in li­ Also required is an individual commitment brarianship for this purpose. The primary un­ to the notion that our profession does play a filled need is for the kind of intensive mid­ critical role in higher education and that the career educational update from other seg­ quality of our performance and contribution to ments of the knowledge industry, such as that this enterprise is our greatest concern. We suggested by Wyatt in his earlier paper. cannot leave our future, or even our rapidly Otherwise, with some personal initiative, and changing present, to a few articulate and pow­ sometimes a little extra mutual tolerance and erful professional leaders-our stars, if you support by colleagues, most of us have more will. opportunities to learn and to grow profession­ It remains the responsibility of individual ally than we can possibly handle. librarians to monitor the probable conse­ All of this opportunity, all of this change, all quences of the decisions that are being made of this challenge has resulted in very complex today and to provide the vital linkage and organizations. One of the consequences is that feedback that will enable those who plan big some form of shared leadership and govern­ also to plan right. ance is inevitable, simply because it is impos­ The choice between drift and mastery for sible for one, or a very few individuals, to the person and the profession, dear col­ comprehend it all. Particular leadership styles leagues, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.

REFERENCES

1. Steven Muller, "A New American University?" America (: Roberts Brothers, 1894), Daedalus 107:45 (Winter 1978). p.ll6. This and the preceding quotation ap­ 2. Arthur M. McAnally and Robert B. Downs, peared in Edward G. Holley, "The Magic of "The Changing Role of Directors of University Library Administration," Texas Library jour­ Libraries," College & Research Libraries nal 52:58 (May 1976). 34:103-25 (March 1973). 5. Otis Hall Robinson, "Proceedings," American 3. David Kaser, "The Effect of the Revolution of Library journal 1:123-24 (Nov. 30, 1876), as 1969-70 on University Library Administra­ quoted by Edward G. Holley, "What Lies tion," in Herbert Poole, ed., Academic Librar­ Ahead for Academic Libraries," in Herbert ies by the Year 2000: Essays Honoring Jerrold Poole, ed., Academic Libraries, p.17-18. Orne (New York: R. R. Bowker Co., 1977), 6. Justin Winsor, "The College Library and the p.&H>5. Classes," Library journal 3:5 (March 1978) as 4. William I. Fletcher, Public Libraries in quoted in Edward Holley, ibid., p.18. 164 I College & Research Libraries • March 1979

7. Robert B. Downs, "The Role of the Academic Research Libra.ries 22:11-18 (Jan. 19tH). Librarian, 1876-1976," College & Research Li­ 14. Anita R. Schiller, "Reference Service: Instruc­ braries 37:491-502 (Nov. 1976), tion or Information," Library Quarterly 8. H. A. Sawtelle, "The College Librarianship," 35:52-60 (Jan. 1965). Library journal3:162 (June 1878), as quoted in 15. Eldred Smith, ' "Service and Housekeeping: Robert B. Downs, ibid., p.492. Changing Professional and Nonprofessional Re­ 9. C. James Schmidt, "A Letter to H. W. Axford," sponsibilities in the Academic Research Li­ in H . William Axford, ed., "The Three Faces of brary," in Papers Delivered at the Indiana Uni­ Eve: or The Identity of Academic Librar­ versity Library Dedication, October 9-10, 1970 ·ianship; a Symposium," The journal of (Bloomington: Indiana Univ, Library, 1971), Academic Librarianship 2:281 (Jan. 1977), p.59-60. 10. Frederick E. Balderston, "Keynote Address: 16. Steven Muller, "Higher Education or Higher Managing Tomorrow's University," in Craig L. Skilling?" Daedalus 103:148-58 (Fall 1974). Michalak, ed., Managing Tomorrow's Univer­ 17. Rush G. Miller, "The Influx of Ph.D.'s into sity: Proceedings of the 1977 University of Librarianship: Intrusion or Transfusion?" Col­ California Business Officers Conference lege & Research Libraries 37:158-65 (March (Berkeley: University of California Business 1976), and W. A. Moffett, "The Academic Job Officers, Sept. 1977), p.9, Crisis: A Unique Opportunity, or Business as 11. Ibid. , p.6. Usual?" College & Research Libraries 34:191- 12. Robert M. Hayes, "The Changing Role of the 94 (May 1973). Librarian," journal of Chemical Documenta­ 18. Lester Asheim, "Education of Future Academic tion 14:118 (1974). Librarians," in Herbert Poole, ed., Academic 13. Samuel Rothstein, "Reference Service: The Libraries by the Year 2000, p.129. New Dimension in Librarianship," College & for your year's subscription of periodicals on microform

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