ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

ALA candidates on ACRL

The three candidates for ALA vice-president/president-elect share their views on academic and research librarianship.

Recently the ALA presidential candidates were asked to give some thought to ALA/ACRL relations and academic librarianship in general for this special C&RL News feature. Their statements may aid you when you vote for ALA officers on this spring’s ballot.

Margaret Chisholm

Margaret Chisholm:

Quality is never an accident. Quality is a goal to be achieved in the services each academic library provides and in the accomplishments of each individual professional.

ACRL has demonstrated a commitment to quality. Quality and excellence in programs and services must be the mutual goals of ACRL and ALA.

Through careful planning, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution, librarians working in academic and research libraries have achieved an impressive range of goals. Academic and research libraries have never been free of obstacles. Yet, history clearly indicates that librarians have persevered and have moved ahead in difficult times to achieve notable accomplishments.

The paradox, however, is that no matter what commendable progress is made, new, unprecedented concerns continually surface to challenge academic and research libraries, as well as all other libraries.

Overwhelming and pervasive challenges are found in declining budget support, rapidly changing information technology, internal budget crises, increasing sophistication of patron needs, complex copyright regulations, the competition of the private sector and the pressing needs for resource sharing. All of these call for change, for creativity, and for innovative solutions. The need for a high level of professional development, enhanced programs in bibliographic instruction, opportunities for mentoring, the escalating need for public relations programs, institutional development programs, the recruitment of capable, effective personnel and the ever present need for space also are ongoing concerns.

A question I must answer is: As Vice-President/President-Elect of the American Library Assocation what can I do to address these challenges and concerns?

I will stress leadership. I am convinced that within ACRL there are great numbers of persons with talent, with expertise in automated systems, in finance, in public relations, in bibliographic instruction, fund raising and all other areas of concern. Solutions can be found by identifying, supporting, and training leaders. There must be a search for new, young leaders, particularly women and minorities. Both small businesses and large corporations have realized this need to encourage and develop leaders and are holding leadership seminars, training institutes, and making management development a top priority. I would implement a similar program. Talent must be identified, and skills must be enhanced. With a vision, a commitment, a plan, and a program, we can develop leaders to meet the challenges of our times.

Leaders must emerge who will have sophisticated skills in working with legislators at the state level and with Congressional members at the national level. Leaders within the profession must work with administrators and Boards of Regents at the campus level, primarily for the purpose of increasing funding. It is imperative that every academic and research library work toward increased visibility and a higher level of resource allocation on every campus. Leaders must be able to work with local and national media to “tell the story’’ and communicate the needs of academic and research libraries.

Leaders must be identified who can work cooperatively with experts in developing automated systems and networks and in implementing the optimum and appropriate levels of information technology. Resource sharing is essential, and leaders with vision must coordinate these efforts.

I will give attention to enhancing the relationships between ACRL and ALA. By recognizing mutual goals, leaders within ALA and within ACRL can work constructively to achieve them. The Operating Agreement must be open for continuous evaluation and scrutiny, and adjustments should be made when appropriate to meet changing needs.

Symbiosis should characterize the relationship in that there should be a flow of benefits that are mutually exchanged between ALA and ACRL. A strong ACRL means a strong ALA, and a strong ALA means a strong ACRL.

Synergism must also characterize the relationship, as the whole must be greater than the sum of the parts. The strength of ALA depends on the unity of all libraries. Unity is essential for speaking with impact and for working effectively to meet the needs of member institutions and individual members.

The major part of my professional career has been in higher education. For seven years I had the particularly valuable experience of serving as Vice-President of a major research university. During that time I worked closely with budgets, personnel and university policies as they related to the entire campus as well as the library systems. These experiences have provided me with knowledge and insights that are of critical importance in dealing with the current concerns of college and research libraries. I have served as a member of Council for two terms and am serving my third year on the Executive Board, Through these experiences I have developed a good understanding and appreciation of the current and future goals of ACRL and the resources needed to fulfill its mission.

Again, quality is never an accident. Quality programs and services demand vision, commitment, and dedication. The gratification in reaching our goals makes the efforts worthwhile.

I look forward to having the opportunity to work with each of you in our mutual effort to achieve quality in our professional lives and in our libraries.—Margaret Chisholm, Director, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.

Charles W. Robinson:

To pass myself off as an expert, or even very knowledgeable about ACRL or academic librarianship in general is patently ridiculous. Nevertheless, as an ALA member and as a past president of an ALA division, I have been an admirer of ACRL as an organization, and as a librarian,

I’m convinced that academic libraries have the same basis of public support as do public libraries.

Cr: Lois Pearson

CharlesW. Robinson

ACRL is a hotshot division in ALA, for a good reason: academic librarians find it wise and/or advantageous, for whatever reason, to be members of ACRL, and their participation is enthusiastic and capable. Hence, ACRL is the largest and richest division and has the most active program in ALA. In many ways ACRL is the most important division—if you don’t think so, look at the representation from academia on the Council and among the officers of the Association for the past twenty-five years. In these days of creeping federalism in ALA, any president who ignores the wishes of the divisions, and particularly ACRL, won’t get very far. That’s the reality, and as an active member of several divisions, I’m comfortable with that.

Put somewhat simplistically, Americans support public and academic libraries for one chief reason: they are a good thing for children and students. We deal with both in public libraries, and academic libraries specialize in the latter. We forget this basis for financial and philosophical support at our peril, but it’s my opinion that our users don’t, and the health of our libraries often reflects the extent to which we respond to the demands and needs of the people who walk into our buildings.

The most important responsibility of the top hierarchy of ALA—the Council, the Executive Board, and the officers, is to assure that our professional organization stays on a steady course of improvement of library services to library users—and by far the greatest proportion of library users are children and students. How we provide these services is the main business of the divisions, and of course our individual libraries, which are improved and inspired by staff involvement in ALA.

The voice of ALA represents us all to the library users of the nation, to national and local legislators, to other professions, to business and to our own profession. This voice is multiple, because it comes from Council resolutions, the Executive Director, and the current president of the Association. I have likened the position of president as akin to that of a chairman of a Board of Trustees—representing to the world outside the organization the mission and accomplishments of us all—the divisions, the round tables, the committees, and the profession itself. Any president is likely to be the product of the members. That is why it is so important to have good communication, advice, and counsel from those most closely involved with improvement of library services—the divisions—to the president of ALA.

What is ACRL most concerned with in the coming year? To some extent, this will depend on events, but in a larger sense, I am certain that their interests are identical to those of a majority of the members of ALA: legislation, funding, pay equity, the status of the divisions, long-range planning, the impact of technology’ on our mission, intellectual freedom, and education for the profession. As a long-time member of ALA, I am no stranger to these issues, and as a long-time member of the profession, I am no stranger to their relationship to the interests of our users. If I can assist in the linkage of our professional interests to the interests of users of all kinds of libraries as an officer of ALA, I'll feel that I will have made the same kind of contribution which has made the Association effective in the past.

Robert D. Stueart

Robert D. Stueart:

“Energies for Transition," the theme for this year's ACRL National Conference in Baltimore, is a challenging one for academic libraries as we approach the 21st century.

Funding, technology, personnel recruitment, collection management and services are but a few of the major issues which are addressed in that program and which have intensified in interest and in ways they are addressed, since the first ACRL National Conference, “New Horizons for Academic Libraries." which was held in Boston only eight short years ago. ACRL has clearly benefited from those conferences and I am committed to continuing their development for the good of the w hole Association. That Boston conference provided a role model for others to come, including subsequent ACRL conferences and other ALA divisional conferences. As a member of the planning committee for that first conference and co-editor of its Proceedings I was privileged to work with some of the liveliest, most imaginative, most service oriented individuals in our profession—people who care more about the benefits of their work than anything else.

Those traits of academic librarians have been confirmed through examples of colleagues in the three large academic/research libraries in which I have worked. They are reconfirmed as I talk with members and address issues: through consulting and advising academic libraries—I currently serve on two university library visiting committees and two ARL/OMS committees; through my speaking—in keynote addresses at several ACRL chapters, at seminars such as a recent OCLC one, etc.; through w ritings—including the two-volume Collection Development treatise, Academic Librarianship: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, and on topics in columns of CCRL News from “Bibliographic Instruction” to “Continuing Education.” My activities in over 20 years of ACRL membership have been such that ACRL/New’ England has voluntarily endorsed my candidacy. Major issues facing librarianship—including access to information and First Amendment rights, funding, personnel recruitment, development and utilization, pay equity, and association management—are topics which I have been addressing in solicited remarks before ALA groups. Threats from sources, such as the federal government's OMB, indicate a fundamentally flawed understanding of librarianship and the role of libraries in the information provision chain. Attempts at limiting access to information must be attacked with all of our forces.

Likewise, in the preparation of those entering the profession, we must be sure that we have adequately defined standards for entrance and then work together to ensure that those standards and guidelines are enforced. The ALA Accreditation Task Force, on w hich I serve, is examining standards and the involvement of all appropriate associations in the preparation of individuals entering the profession. I would like to be able to devise strategies to address this issue in a concrete way. Unfortunately space limitations do not permit me to elaborate on those or others about which I have concerns and to which I am committed to addressing in a significant way.

ACRL, as the largest division of ALA, has taken a leadership role in the development of national conferences, in the development of its long range strategic planning process, in an extensive and impressive publications program, and in the development of standards for types of academic libraries, to mention but a few, and those are examples of the leadership role ACRL has assumed. Priorities, identified in both of ALA's recently completed leadership and membership surveys, chart the course of the Association’s future. That course must be forged through the expertise, enthusiasm and efforts of units of ALA, and must draw on the experience of the divisions. The concerns of academic librarianship permeate the Association because ACRL members are involved in many units, round tables, committees, ALA Council, and other divisions. This is a sign of health and must be encouraged. Just as much of the strength of ACRL comes from strong chapters, the strength of units becomes the strength of ALA. Challenges cannot be addressed in isolation. Priorities in planning and programming must be developed by ALA in cooperation with all units which are committed to a common goal. That strength is achieved through the dedication of both membership and staff.

As one who has been actively involved in ACRL and academic librarianship over the years, having served on several committees and chaired others as well as on the Editorial Board of College and Research Libraries and the Journal of Academic Librarianship, I would welcome your support and want to actively solicit your participation in making our Association a strong and responsive one.— Robert D. Stueart, Dean and Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences, Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts. ■■