ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

“ABOVE AND BEYOND”

In the Winter/Spring 1966 issue of the Calibrarian newsletter, Robert Vosper, University Librarian, UCLA, and immediate past president of ALA, wrote the following at the editor’s request.

“One of my predecessors is said to have remarked that the ALA presidency took ten years off his life span. I trust the results are not always quite so brutal, but it is true that the three year period, during which the ALA president is committed to heavy statutory responsibilities, does blot up a remarkable amount of time, energy, and even of personal finances, all of which must somehow be maneuvered while still (hopefully) staying on top of one’s own job back home. More than once this past year I have been struck by the ironical fact that many ALA members actually assume that I am on official leave (with pay?) from UCLA, and thus left with nothing to do but travel to state meetings and White House Conferences, preparing a special and publishable speech for each such occasion of course, while working arm in arm with the Headquarters staff. I have even been asked whether I have moved to Chicago. I understand that the presidents of NEA and of the JC’s live in such bliss (although not in Chicago I trust) but not ALA’s president.

“I am also frequently asked: “But isn’t the

University of California terribly proud of your position and thus prepared to cover you with additional staff and expense budgets?” Well, some universities might feel that way; but I would guess that, in light of the number of Nobel laureates and Academy members around the place, the University of California, while not blase, can face one more such office, or the lack of it, with some equanimity. Therefore, as a matter of fact, I and the ALA in general owe a special debt to my secretary and to my associates at UCLA who necessarily absorb greater workloads while I get all the visibility and publicity.

“There is further irony in the expectations laid upon the president of ALA. At one end of the scale I, who have never invested a dime in anything and have shamefully never read an issue of the Wall Street Journal, am required to chair a meeting at which ALA’s learned investment trustees forcefully discuss basic investment policy and practice for our $4,000,000 portfolio with a battery of vicepresidents of the First National Bank of Chicago. At the other end of the scale I must try to live up to the expectations of people who say publicly, and with all evidence of sincerity, that I really cannot know how exciting it is actually to meet an ALA president! And in between I am expected to speak responsibly (I would say ‘pontifically’) before any group at any time on any library subject. I must say that all of this gives me pause; I worry about the fate of ALA under the circumstances, and I also worry about the erosion of my own character.

“However, I do not really want to sound bleak about all this. More importantly, I am increasingly convinced that all of us, if we have any sense of professional integrity, should support the ALA much more than we now do, to the point of personal sacrifice. In San Francisco at the CLA banquet I tried to say why this is increasingly the case, so I will not repeat the arguments here, only the plea. I have little respect for librarians who fail to join the ALA. I have less respect for chief librarians who fail to foster membership and participation. I have little patience with members who sit at home and complain that the ALA is not responsive to membership or that it does nothing for its members. In my book the ALA’s primary responsibility is to serve the profession, and I believe that in general it does this well. It is hampered in this task only by those librarians who are not prepared to think and to act in professional terms. I am convinced that all members can and should be prepared to do more than just pay dues and wander through annual conferences. The ALA fully deserves active and devoted service from all librarians.”