ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Global librarianship: The role of American academic librarianship and ACRL

By JoAn S. Segal Executive Director, ACRL

Active participation in IFLA is encouraged.

What are American academic librarians doing wandering around the globe attending meetings and meddling in library affairs in other countries? Why should ACRL, a division of the American Library Association, be involved in IFLA and other international organizations?

History

Interest in librarianship beyond the borders of the U.S. has been growing. ALA has had as one of its tenets since earliest days, a responsibility to provide leadership in world library matters. In fact,

ALA was among the founders of the International Federation of Library Associations in 1929 and its members have participated actively in the formation and development of international associations of many kinds. Academic librarians have played an active role in such organizations as well.

The contributions of academic librarians

The nature of the contributions made by academic librarians from institutions in the U.S. fall into twelve major areas: leadership, publications, meetings, educational activities, resource provision, exchanges and visits, standards, philosophy of librarianship, interlibrary loan, politics, and association development.

As a type-of-library division of ALA, ACRL’s interests overlap with those of ALCTS in the area of standards, with GODORT in government documents, with RASD in interlibrary loan. ACRL members have been active in IFLA in these overlapping areas, as individuals and as members of other ALA units.

Leadership.Several academic librarians from the United States hold and have held positions of leadership in international associations, from serving as officers, being instrumental in the founding of international organizations in their specialized fields, to serving on directors boards, working hard with those from other countries to steer their organizations in a forward-looking and intelligent direction.

Publications.Academic librarians from the U.S. have edited IFLA periodical publications or have served on editorial boards. In these capacities they have sometimes had a very important effect on the publications in question. They also edit non-serial publications, such as international directories. Publications enable the study of comparative librarianship and elucidate the commonalities of the profession as well as the variety of possible methods for practicing it. They often provide librarians in developing countries with precious information their isolation has kept from them.

Meetings and continuing professional education.The opportunity to share concerns with other librarians is one of the major motives that sends academic librarians around the world to meet with those from other countries. The contributions of academic librarians from the United States to these meetings has taken several forms. Many give papers, seminars, courses, or other presentations. Several others have spearheaded third-world participation by suggesting major seminars or meetings directed toward that constituency or located in third-world countries and by following through as the idea was developed and the events took place.

Resource provision.Librarians from U.S. academic institutions have generously contributed to the financing of international association activities through personal contributions, through the donation of in-kind services by their institutions, through support from ALA divisions, and through successfully seeking grant support from philanthropic and governmental funding agencies in the U.S. If a member can supply the wherewithal for the event, it is likely to take place. Academic librarians give not only through the personal support of their own participation, but literally in dollars out of their pockets, out of their institutional or association budgets, and from their own fundraising efforts.

Some contributions are not in funds, but in other kinds of donations, such as equipment and books, and arise as a secondary product of the participation of academic librarians from the United States. Having visited a third-world country, or having met a colleague from one through IFLA, many librarians have become involved in book donation programs, for instance.

Exchanges and visits.This type of contribution is extremely valuable and important. However, it seems that the less institutionalized the process is, the better it works. The best exchanges seem to come about most easily in an informal manner, based on collegiality set up through joint work in an association, rather than through a formal program of their association.

In one such type of exchange, a librarian from one country approaches a colleague from another (met at IFLA, for instance) about the possibility of such an arrangement. They either exchange visits themselves, or facilitate the exchange or visit of other members of their staffs. Another involves a sister institution type of exchange. This relationship between institutions may itself arise out of collegial association in an international organization such as IFLA, or may predispose the two institutions to participate in the same organization. Whatever the genesis, visits or exchanges of individuals or teams between institutions are common and may involve the participation of one or more librarians. Another interesting type of visit is that of a faculty member who arrives with a letter of introduction to the librarian, a colleague of the librarian in the faculty member’s institution, who can facilitate the visitor’s research project.

Standards.Librarians from the U.S. have been played an extremely significant role in the development of standards. Among standards developed or under development with the help of academic librarians from the U.S., working through IFLA and other associations, and as representatives from various divisions of ALA are: an international interlibrary loan form; an international statement on access to government information; an international standard for bibliographic information interchange and interlibrary loan; standards for university libraries; a standard for a common command language; the International Standard Book Description (ISBD) and Number (ISBN); a copyright agreement; and AACR2. The significance of such international standards is very great. New standards are needed to address the concern for barriers to transborder data flow.

Philosophy of librarianship.As any researcher who has used libraries abroad will recognize, there are great differences in philosophy of librarianship between research libraries in the United States and those in other countries. For example, interlibrary lending was until fairly recently not considered a function of academic and research libraries in Europe. The development of standards, publications, and—perhaps most importantly—a philosophy of librarianship that includes lending to and borrowing from other libraries has been a collective contribution of U.S. participants in IFLA and other international associations.

Another philosophical difference is in the openness of libraries and the attitude toward the user. European librarians and those from other countries who have been educated on the continent are trained to be “conservators,” or preservers of books and other physical traces of the culture. However, an emphasis on service underlies librarianship as practiced on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, as well as in Great Britain and Scandinavia. The impact of this service philosophy is definitely being felt in Europe, as can be seen in recent developments and in the increased sensitivity on the part of directors of major European libraries to a need for more consideration for users. Those who have participated for longer periods of time in international activities believe some of this impact comes from the constant interaction with librarians from the United States.

Political.There is some feeling it is important for us to support U.S. candidates for office in international associations. The decisions made are extremely important and it is necessary to have a part in them. European librarians in particular view international associations as a coming together of friends who have worked well together for many years, rather than as organizations with democratic representation from a variety of nations and constituencies. Of particular concern are areas, such as technology, where there is special expertise in the U.S., for which our participation is of extra importance. In these areas, support for U.S. nominees is seen as strongly needed.

Participation by U.S. librarians may have an important impact within our own country, in that IFLA may provide a powerful interest group to express concerns and effect significant domestic action, when requests for action coming only from U.S. librarians goes unheard.

Association.The role of library associations as a means to offset the isolation cited earlier is very great. Promoting membership in international associations on the part of librarians from all over the world is in itself a goal to achieve. Individuals with a broad international perspective are more valuable in our profession at home and abroad, whether home is an urban center in a highly developed nation or a rural enclave in the third world.

IFLA Representation

Although academic librarians have been active in all these areas, there has been a gap in our representation on the Standing Committee on University and General Research Libraries, the IFLA unit most closely corresponding to ACRL. The ACRL Board has recently become more aware of the IFLA structure and of the work carried out by this Standing Committee, and is eager to play a more deliberate role in the Committee’s work and in the selection of American representatives to it.

Some recent issues addressed by the Standing Committee are directly linked to activities in ACRL. For instance, at the 1989 IFLA Conference, the Standing Committee held a workshop on performance measures. The ACRL executive director participated and noted great similarities in the measures desired across a wide spectrum of countries. Subsequently ACRL has been invited to present a paper on the subject at the Standing Committee’s 1990 Open Meeting (Barbara J. Ford and JoAn S. Segal will make the presentation).

ACRL will use this opportunity to disseminate its recent work on measuring academic library performance. A second example is the Standing Committee’s work on library security. Here, ACRL’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Section has developed guidelines that might be of use to the Standing Committee, but we do not yet have access to the members to present the material to them in a graceful fashion.

ACRL policy on IFLA participation

ACRL’s interest has now extended to the development of a policy on ACRL participation in international meetings which was reviewed by the Executive Committee at its Spring Meeting. The staff will bring a revised version to the Board at Annual Conference.

The revised policy, to be reviewed by the Board, is as follows:

Nominating ACRL members FOR IFLA COMMITTEES

This policy is designed to aid the ACRL Board of Directors and section executive committees in selecting ACRL members as nominees for appointment by the ALA Executive Board to Committees of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.

A. Who may initiate recommendations

1. The ACRL Board may either identify qualified individuals and approve a ranked list of possible representatives or delegate responsibility for these actions to an ACRL subunit. In contacting possible nominees, the ACRL Board or its designate will approach individuals in ranked order until agreement to serve is secured.

2. Sections and Committees may recommend nominees to the ACRL Board.

B. Funding

Funding is solely the prerogative of the ACRL Board of Directors. It may partially fund the expenses of an ACRL representative to an IFLA meeting.

C. Application and criteria

The application consists of the individual’s resume and a rationale from the nominating body.

The following criteria will be used to select the ACRL representative:

• ALA and ACRL membership;

• Knowledge of ACRL’s goals and objectives and its programs and services;

• Demonstrated leadership in ACRL and its units;

• Demonstrated expertise in the area concerned;

• Excellent communication skills;

• Ability to attend meetings of the IFLA Committee without cost to ALA, ACRL, or IFLA.

The ACRL Board of Directors reviews the requests, makes its final decision, and notifies the appropriate section executive committee, and the candidate. The Board’s recommendations are then forwarded to the ALA International Relations Committee and thence to the ALA Board.

Conclusion

Assuming the adoption of this policy, ACRL will play a more clearly defined role in IFLA than it has in the past. The efforts of individual academic librarians can be channeled in these useful ways, ACRL members will receive timely information about IFLA developments, and an exchange of expertise can take place between academic librarians in the United States and those in other countries.

Finding a replacement for a missing national library

In contrast to France with its Bibliothèque Nationale and England with its British National Library, Germany does not have a national library that has grown historically—a consequence of the territorial fragmentation of the old German Empire. The Sammlung deutscher Drucke 1450 bis 1945 (Collection of German Printed Works from 1450 to 1945), for which the Volkswagen Foundation in Hannover has now donated 25 million marks, should make these 500 years of German literature available in a unified though decentralized form.

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Munich), the Herzog August Bibliothek (Wolfenbüttel), the Niedersächsische Staatsund Universitätsbibliothek (Göttingen), the Stadtund Universitätsbibliothek (Frankfurt am Main), the Senckenbergische Bibliothek, and the Staatsbibliothek Preussicher Kulturbesitz (Berlin) have all cooperated on this project. Each institution will assume responsibility for one 100-year period. After the five-year initial period funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, the individual libraries’ sponsors will ensure the continuation of this long-range project.

All of the participating libraries have access to rich collections, but there are still considerable gaps due to the fact that in the past there were neither uniform rules regarding obligatory copies nor agreements on acquisitions. Therefore, the first task will be to collect the material for each respective period as comprehensively as possible. This can be done either by purchasing old works in print from booksellers or by obtaining microfiche copies.

Holdings will also be reflected in library catalogues, and this process has already begun. Here, a common standard is to be maintained to ensure that records are entered into the existing database at the Deutsches Bibliotheks-Institut in Berlin.

Another task of the libraries is to preserve these historical materials at the same time as their accessibility to the public is maintained. For further information, contact: Werner Boder, Pressereferat der Volkswagen Stiftung, Kastanienallee 35, Postfach 81 05 09, D-3000 Hannover 81, Federal Republic of Germany.—From Special Science Reports, German Research Service, February 1990. ■■