ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

ACRL President’s report

By Joseph A. Boissé

ACRL ’s 50th President

ACRL’s past year in perspective.

The ACRL year was dominated by the Fifth National Conference. Held in April in Cincinnati, the conference celebrated the Association’s past and looked to the future. The celebrations included the 100th anniversary of the establishment by ALA of a College Library Section which was the forerunner of ACRL; the establishment of the division itself; the launching of College & Research Libraries fifty years ago; and finally, the 25th anniversary of Choice.

JosephA. Boissé

As part of this celebration of the past, the Association conferred Distinguished Career Citations on ten academic librarians whose retirement precluded their being considered for the Academic or Research Librarian of the Year Award. The individuals who received the citations collectively represented more than 350 years of dedicated service to academic libraries. The honorees were: Page Ackerman, Gertrude Annan, Jack Dalton, Herman Fussier, Guy Lyle, A.P. Marshall, Lawrence Powell, Joseph Reason, Eileen Thornton, James O. Wallace. A large number of past presidents and past executive directors of the Association attended a special luncheon which was held to honor them.

Although much energy and effort was devoted to planning the conference, ACRL members and officers did not neglect other Association objectives during the year.

In the area of standards, the Board approved the revised “ACRL Standards for University Libraries.” These standards, which represent a departure from past approaches, were the result of an enormous amount of work by the Standards and Accreditation Committee. This spring, the ARL Executive Board endorsed the standards as developed by ACRL.

Chapter activity continued throughout the country. The state or regional organizations hosted a number of visits by board members. It is clear that the effort that ACRL puts into chapter activities is one of the major contributions that the Association makes to the advancement of academic librarianship. With the establishment of a chapter in Arkansas, there are now 40 ACRL chapters nationwide.

The awards conferred by ACRL serve to recognize the achievements and the dedication of members. This year, the Community and Junior College Libraries Section, with the approval of the Executive Board, established two new awards. These are to be called the Community College Learning Resources Achievement Awards. The awards will be given annually to recognize significant achievement in the areas of: 1) program development, and 2) leadership or community service.

When I was elected Vice-President of ACRL, I asked the membership of the organization to write to me about their concerns for the profession and for our libraries. From the many suggestions which I received, three issues in particular seemed to be of interest to the membership. These are: 1) various issues related to the use of paraprofessionals in academic libraries; 2) education for academic librarianship; and 3) the recruitment of underrepresented minorities to the profession and to work in academic libraries. Task forces have been appointed to study each of these topics and to bring recommendations to the Board of Directors during the coming Association year.

ACRL’s activities in the publications arena continued to thrive. During the past year, the third edition of Books for College Libraries was published in both print and digital form. The journal Rare Books & Manuscripts Librarianship became a regular publication of the division after successfully completing a trial period. Many other specialized publications made their debut during the past year as well.

Two years ago, ACRL President Hannelore Rader devoted a portion of her report to discussions between ALA and its divisions concerning the revision of the Operating Agreement. At that time she stated that, with any luck, the matter would be resolved and a new agreement would be voted on by ALA Council at the January 1988 meeting in San Antonio. During the past year, I have spent more time working on the revision of the Operating

Agreement than on any other ACRL activity. It is probably more accurate to speak of a totally new agreement than it is to speak of a revision of the previous agreement. Leaders of the divisions met on more than one occasion to develop a common position. This spring, we met with ALA COPES in Chicago and began the final negotiations. A document will be brought to Council, during the Dallas conference, for its approval.

My year as President of ACRL has been very stimulating and personally rewarding. It has been an honor to lead the Association, especially during this year when we celebrated so many anniversaries. During the year I have worked closely with a large number of members of the Association and I have come to know many colleagues whom I did not previously know. It has been a pleasure to work with so many outstanding members of my sections and discussion groups. The Association is fortunate to have a superb headquarters staff. Based on my experience of this past year, there is no doubt in my mind that ACRL will continue to be a vital organization and that it will continue to provide professional leadership to academic librarians.

I want to thank all of you for giving me the opportunity to serve you and our Association.

Ten librarians awarded for distinguished careers at ACRL’s Fifth National Conference

Ten librarians, all of whom made major contributions to the profession before the establishment of the Academic or Research Librarian of the Year Award and whose careers exemplify the ideals which that award was established to recognize, were presented with a Distinguished Career Citation and a plaque at ACRL’s Fifth National Conference in Cincinnati, April 5-8.

The librarians selected were: Page Ackerman, Gertrude Annan, Jack Dalton, Herman Fussier, Guy Lyle, A.P.Marshall, Lawrence Powell, Joseph Reason, Eileen Thornton, and James O. Wallace.

Page Ackerman served as university librarian at UCLA until her retirement in 1977. She was one of the first to establish a library planning office and to involve her staff in an organized way in the library’s forward planning. Ackerman now resides in Santa Monica, California.

Gertrude Annan retired from the New York Academy of Medicine in 1970, after 14 years as its chief librarian. She combined a commitment to scholarship with a commitment to service and was a leader in developing the concept of cooperative planning and networking long before it was fashionable to do so. Annan now resides in Highstown, New Jersey.

Jack Dalton retired from his position as dean of the School of Library Service at Columbia University in 1970. While at Columbia he was especially noted for reestablishing Columbia’s reputation as one of the country’s great library schools, and providing a model for the relationship between a library school faculty and the administration of the university library. Dalton currently resides in New York City.

Herman Fussier directed the University of Chicago Library for more than a quarter of a century and was responsible for the planning, design, and building of the Regenstein Library. Fussier simultaneously pursued a career of research and teaching in the University’s Graduate Library School, a career that continued after he left the directorship, and conducted the classic investigation, Patterns in the Use of Books in Large Research Libraries. Fussier now resides in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Guy Lyle’s professional career began in 1929 when he was appointed librarian of Antioch College. He then served successively as director of the library at Women’s College of the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, at Louisiana State University, and until his retirement in 1972 at Emory University. His book, Administration of the

College Library,first published in 1944, soon became the vade mecum for all college librarians; its fourth edition came out in 1974. Lyle now resides in Decatur, Georgia.

A. P. Marshall pioneered library instruction in the 1960s and 1970s, obtained one of the first prestigious five-year grants from the Council on Library Resources and the National Endowment for the Humanities for a library outreach program at Eastern Michigan University, and in 1971 assisted in the foundation of the national clearinghouse for library orientation and instruction, Project LOEX, which continues as the national center for information about library orientation and instruction. Marshall was named professor emeritus at the time of his retirement from Eastern Michigan University. He still resides in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Lawrence Clark Powell—author, bibliographer, bookman, essayist, librarian, teacher, dean, and administrator—played a major role in turning the UCLA library into one of world caliber. He was also instrumental in launching the UCLA library school. Upon his retirement from UCLA, Powell served for 15 years as professor in residence at the library and library school of the University of Arizona. Powell resides in Tucson, Arizona.

Joseph Reason spent 33 years at Howard University, including 24 years as director of libraries, and was responsible for turning it into a major research library admitted to the Association of Research Libraries (the first and only predominantly black institution to have been honored with this membership). Reason is the only person to have served as both president (1971-1972) and acting executive director (1962-1963) of ACRL. He has remained active in his retirement, serving as vice-chair of the Legislative Task Force of the Florida State Library, as a member of the Leon City, Florida, Public Library Roard, as a trustee of Eckerd College, and as a visiting professor at the School of Library and Information Science at Florida State University. He currently resides in Tallahassee, Florida.

Eileen Thornton directed both the Vassar College Library, the Oberlin College Library, and Oberlin Public Library. She was the first woman director of Oberlin’s library despite the school’s distinction of being the first coeducational college in America. Thornton served as president of two ALA divisions: ACRL in 1957-1958 and the Library Administration Division (now LAMA) in 1967-1968. Thornton still resides in Oberlin, Ohio.

James O. Wallace directed the library of his alma mater, San Antonio College, for 35 years until his retirement in 1985, when he was named director of learning resources emeritus. Wallace was extraordinarily active in professional organizations. He served as president of the Texas Library Association in 1983-1984 and was named Texas Librarian of the Year in 1969. He served on the ACRL Board of Directors for nine years, chaired the Community and Junior College Libraries Section for two separate terms, and served on that section’s Executive Committee for 16 years. He contributed significantly to the development of standards for two-year learning resources programs and currently serves as chair of the committee that is revising those standards. He continues to reside in San Antonio, Texas, where he is just completing a two-year term as president of the Friends of the San Antonio Public Library.

These ten individuals were selected by an ACRL committee chaired by Carla Stoffle, University of Michigan. Other members of the committee included: Evan Ira Farber (Earlham College), Rosemary Henderson (Coffeyville Community College) and P. Grady Morein (University of West Florida).