ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Why are professional library meetings so bad?

By Jonathan D. Lauer Library Director Houghton College

Last April I passed an important milestone in my library career, having reached my tenth anniversary as an academic librarian. A decade is not a lifetime, nor is it a career, but ten years does constitute a measure of time most would consider significant. Through those years I have attended scores of library meetings; local, regional, and national. They have included committee meetings, hands-on workshops, vendor presentations, panel discussions, business meetings, and continuing education classes. I am sorry to say, with a few notable exceptions, these meetings have been amazingly bad. As I was yawning and fuming through a plenary session at a regional workshop recently, I gathered a few notes which I hope shed some light on this problem, one we sorely need to address. On to my prolegomena.

1) Speakers at library meetings are anything but dynamic. Even our big guns, our nationally- known luminaries, more often than not drone on interminably. When not droning, they mumble, demonstrating the meaning of inarticulate in its most basic sense. College juniors in required public speaking classes are more compelling. Perhaps most appalling is that speakers commence without having been introduced, or short of that, even introducing themselves. Either we are expected to know them or they assume we do not care who they are. In most cases, neither of those assumptions is correct.

2) Participants are insensitive to the purpose of varying types of meetings, particularly plenary sessions of workshops and conferences. In the nit- picky atmosphere we seem to love to foster, questions and comments inappropriate in a large group setting are endured by scores while two participants engage in dialogue they should be having over coffee, or in a small group setting.

3) Vendors sell and users gripe. Our lack of professionalism in dealing with each other is embarrassing. Meetings billed as workshops to update skills become trade shows hawking new products. On the other hand, librarians know no shame when given the opportunity to tell vendors their products are next to worthless for not laundering clothes and shining shoes.

4) Facilities are too often ill-suited to the gathering. Lecture halls with a capacity of 500 are booked for a meeting attracting 80 participants. Classrooms designed for 25 are packed to the gills with 42 librarians anticipating a “small group discussion.” Acoustics are poor, sound equipment substandard, lighting is bad, and temperature controls haywire. We melt. We freeze.

So we have a lot to learn about meetings and public speaking. Fortunately, many of us can draw on local resources. Most colleges and universities have personnel in charge of hosting special campus events, conferences, Elderhostels, and the like. Their expertise and experience can be of great value. And apropos of public speaking, try the communications department and the media center (seen yourself on video lately? It can be a frightening, but highly instructive experience). Or perhaps we need to call a conference on holding professional meetings. Most anything would help.

James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress.

Midwest regional conference

Around 450 academic librarians from Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin together met for the first time in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on April 27-29. The conference was sponsored in part by a grant from ACRL and featured 50 different programs of interest to public and technical services librarians from small and large academic libraries.

Keynote speakers were James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress; Joanne Euster, ACRL’s President; and Charles Bailey, who presented the speech that was to be delivered by President Van Horn of the University of Houston. The three-day conference also included a one-day CAI workshop led by Patricia Arnott and Deborah Richards from the University of Delaware, as well as a one-day CD-ROM Fair.

Other highly rated sessions included two presentations by Judy Myers, University of Houston, on 1) loss of access to information in the government sector, and 2) expert systems; and a presentation by James Sweetland, University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee, on the impact of laser disk technology on reference service. Other programs included peer presentations that provided opportunities for librarians from the five states to share their own ideas, research, and practical experience with their colleagues.

Plans will be made for another regional conference within the next five years to promote the cooperation and information sharing begun this year. — Lois Komai, Steenbock Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

ARL’s confidentiality statement

In the wake of current actions by the FBI and other government agencies that inhibit the freedom of individuals to receive and exchange ideas, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) adopted a Statement on Library Users’ Right to Confidentiality at their 112th membership meeting in May. The complete text of the statement follows:

“The Association of Research Libraries is committed to the principle that unrestricted access to and dissemination of ideas are fundamental to a democratic society. Libraries, in addition to their other information services, exercise a unique responsibility in preserving the freedom of citizens to receive and exchange ideas. Public confidence in libraries must not be shaken by any breach in the confidentiality of individual use of library resources.

“The Association condemns the efforts of any government agency to violate the privacy of library users, to subvert library patron records, and to intimidate or recruit library staff to monitor so-called ‘suspicious’ library patrons or report on what or how any individual uses library resources. Such actions are an affront to First Amendment freedoms, individual privacy, and all citizens’ right to know. These actions violate the basic tenets of a democratic society. ”

National Archives establishes Presidential library board

The Archivist of the United States, Don W. Wilson, announced today the establishment of an Advisory Committee on Presidential Libraries. The eight Presidential libraries around the U.S. are operated and maintained by the National Archives.

The committee will be a standing advisory group with no fixed duration; each member will serve renewable three-year terms. The committee will be composed of nine members initially, each providing a perspective on the development of Presidential libraries. The members are:

•Martin J. Allen Jr., banking executive and chairman of the board of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation.

•David Eisenhower, grandson of the former President and author of the recent Eisenhower at War.

•George M. Elsey, president emeritus of the American Red Cross.

•William J. vanden Heuvel, president of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute in New York City.

•Tom Johnson, publisher and chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Times.

•Robert J. Lipshutz, who served as counsel to President Carter, and now practices law.

•Jeremiah Milbank, president of the J.M. Foundation.

•Frederick J. Ryan Jr., assistant to the President and director of private sector initiatives at the White House.

•Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, daughter of the late President.

Wilson said the committee is “essential to the effectiveness of the libraries’ archival, museum, and public programs by ensuring that they are responsive to public needs and interests.” He called the nine members “a singularly distinguished group who will provide fresh insights on how the libraries can enhance their roles as research centers and community resources.”

The committee will hold its first meeting in Washington, D.C., in the fall of 1988. The Presidential libraries are: Herbert Hoover Library, West Branch, Iowa; Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York; Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, Missouri; Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, Abilene, Kansas; John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts; Lyndon B. Johnson Library, Austin, Texas; Gerald R. Ford Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Jimmy Carter Library, Atlanta, Georgia.

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