ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 410 / C&RL News Every Librarian a Leader Leadership beyond the lib ra ry : Accrediting team s B y W illia m N. N e ls o n How librarians can become effective members o f these teams M embership on a regional or specialized accrediting team provides the academic librarian a unique opportunity for leadership among peers outside librarianship. Service on an accreditation team presents the rare chance both to ensure the effective operation of an institution’s library services and to share with teaching faculty and administrators a mission crucial to higher education. The opportunity and responsibility of reviewing the overall ef­ fectiveness and viability of an academic insti­ tution and of recommending required actions to the accrediting agency is indeed an awe­ some responsibility and a valuable learning experience. Proper preparation can make li­ brarians more effective in this leadership en­ deavor. Sum m ary For effective membership on an accrediting team, a librarian should: • have experience as a librarian (prefer­ ably varied), • have (as nearly as possible) the same aca­ demic background as other team members, • know the criteria (standards), • attend training sessions, • have experience with accreditation, • use training materials, and • read re g io n a l a c c re d itin g a g e n cy publication(s). Preparation The librarian who aspires to become a mem­ ber of a regional or specialized accrediting team should have the following background, expe­ rience, and training to be effective. Obviously, the prospective team member should have ex­ perience as a librarian. Preferably this back­ ground should be varied and include service in at least one position that provides a broad understanding of the total operation of the li­ brary and of its relationship to the parent insti­ tution. Most often this would mean some ser­ vice in a policy-making role such as library director, associate director, or perhaps as a department head in a medium to large library. A prospective team member should have, as nearly as possible, the same academic back­ ground as other members. The majority of team members are teaching faculty or top adminis­ trators who have earned the doctorate. Fre­ quently, however, several members have a ter­ minal degree other than the doctorate. Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) regional accrediting agency teams include a business manager who typically has a master’s as terminal degree; frequently fine arts faculty members (especially music and art) have not earned the doctorate in their field. Sometimes computer services and student affairs profes­ sionals with other terminal degrees are also members of a team. Thus, although the MLS is sufficient for consideration, a doctorate or sec­ ond master’s degree could increase the prob­ ability of a librarian being selected. @A@ll team members are expected to under­ stand the criteria or standards for the regional accrediting agency or specialized association. Advance review and study can provide this k n o w led g e, as w ell as e x p e r ie n c e with accreditors and with the institutional self-study process. Materials are generally available to assist in learning the standards and in prepar­ ing for an accreditation visit or for member­ ship on a visiting team. For example, SACS has published the following handbooks for its mem­ bers: Criteria f o r A ccreditation and The H a n d ­ b o o k f o r P eer Evaluators. William N. Nelson is library director at Augusta State University in Georgia; e-mail: wnelson@ac.edu mailto:wnelson@ac.edu J u n e 1 9 9 7 / 411 BLACKWELL’S Collection Manager The next level of Approval Plan management now includes breakthrough “why” technology! Collection Manager provides immediate, web-based access to your approval profile and matching titles. Now you can easily determine why a specific approval action was taken for each title. A new concept in approval management! ALA Annual Booth 2 7 1 4 BLACKWELL’S Partnership Through Technology For more information contact: Matt Nauman 1 -8 0 0 -5 4 7 -6 4 2 6 mktg@bnamf.blackwell.com mailto:mktg@bnamf.blackwell.com 4 12 / C&RL News It is advisable to attend training sessions to prepare for membership on an accreditation team. Some sessions are offered by the regional agencies, frequently in conjunction with an annual institutional membership meeting. At the December 1995 meeting, SACS offered a num­ ber of general sessions and one specifically about libraries, “Libraries: New Realities, New Opportunities.” Prospective team members, including librarians, can gain valuable informa­ tion and insight through attendance at some of these sessions. Other training sessions are some­ times offered at library conferences or as free­ standing workshops. Most of these latter ses­ sions, however, seem to be geared more for preparing to receive an accreditation visit; even these could be of substantial value to prospec­ tive evaluators. Experience with accreditors is probably one of the better ways to prepare to becom e an effective member o f an accrediting team. This service can take several forms, including: mem­ bership on a campus committee, membership on a campus steering committee, and mem­ bership on a self-study committee. Sometimes library directors are asked to chair the institu­ tional self-study committee. This could be be­ cause librarians have skills of organization and evaluation, are user-oriented, and have edito­ rial abilities. Often librarians are also viewed as a neutral party to help mediate competing demands of the varied disciplines represented at the institution. Additional opportunities for pertinent accreditation experience are given by Bangert and Gratch in their article, “Accredita­ tion: Opportunities for Library Leadership.”1 Tapes, books, and other training materials are a good source of information for visiting team preparation. SACS, for example, makes available audiotapes of many sessions offered at the annual institutional membership meet­ ing. Tapes can be ordered for 20 presentations at the 1995 meeting including the library ses­ sion already mentioned, and for programs on international education, indicators of excellence, distance learning, outsourcing, and “Using the Self-Study Process to Effect Change.” Mono­ graphs such as Edward Garten’s The C hallen ge a n d P r a c tic e o f A c a d e m ic A c c r e d ita tio n : A S o u r c e b o o k f o r L ib r ary A d m in istrators2 and ALA’s P reparin g f o r A ccreditation : A H a n d b o o k f o r A ca d e m ic L ibrarian s by Sacks and Whildin,3 are available to assist in this preparation. Help­ ful and informative articles are often found in journals such as College a n d R esearch L ibrar­ ies, College a n d R esearch L ibraries News, and the J o u r n a l o f A c a d e m ic L ib r a ria n sh ip . Regional accrediting agency publications offer important information regarding accredi­ tation, including future conferences and train­ ing programs. SACS publishes bimonthly P ro­ c e e d in g s . The second issue (March/April) includes a complete report of sessions and de­ cisions o f the preceding annual institutional membership meeting. The other issues are much smaller, but contain valuable informa­ tion such as the schedule of the next annual meeting and order forms for audiotapes. Team m em ber appointm ents For SACS, visiting accreditation team members are currently appointed based on a completed application form, including an endorsement or recommendation by the president o f the insti­ tution. Approved applicants are then entered into a registry o f individuals eligible for ap­ pointment to a visiting committee. In the past, experience and an institutional endorsement were sufficient to receive an offer to serve. Now it is important to receive some specialized train­ ing; indeed such training may now be a pre­ requisite for committee service. The assigned SACS staff member and the visiting committee chair select the team mem­ bers for a committee. Every member, includ­ ing the chair, is evaluated on every visit. These evaluations apparently play a key role in sub­ sequent invitations to serve. Sometimes an in­ dividual is repeatedly asked to go on visits with the same chair or staff member. Apparently there has been a recent conscious effort to in­ crease the pool of librarians in the registry. A librarian is included on every SACS team, which evidently is not the case for most other regional accrediting agencies. O b servatio n s For the team member, an accreditation visit is intense, structured, and pressured. One must be organized and extremely flexible. Best re­ sults are usually obtained when the member drafts preliminary findings, based on the self study document and other institutional materi als. From this base, the member sets out to confirm, modify, and amplify the assigned por­ tion of the report. All parts of the final report are a team effort and must be unanimously ap­ proved by the team members. Librarians on a SACS team, in addition to examining library (L ead ersh ip cont. on p a g e 4 2 6 ) Ju n e 1 9 9 7 / 413 Q u e s t i o n : What Affects the Barotropic Stability of a Hurricane’s Vortex? A n s w e r : I n f o r m a t i o n Q u e s t Dawson. Inc. announces searching capabilities through a Information Quest — a new Web- state-of-the-art search engine. based information research, Timely e-mail notices alerting access and retrieval service sup­ you of article availability. porting simple to sophisticated Detailed usage reports for collec­ queries. This easy-to-use tool tion analysis. Plus, the future delivers one-stop access to scien­ ability for OPAC integration and tific, technical, medical and busi­ on-line subscription ordering. ness electronic content conve­ To learn how Information niently at your desktop. Quest can help you answer those Information Quest provides difficult and unique questions, powerful full-text indexing and call 1-800-422-3223. I N F D R M A T I O N Q U E S T A D A W S O N C O M P A N Y W o rld w id e H ead q uarters: 5838 Edison Place • Ca rlsb ad , C A 92008 • (760) 431-8400 U R L h t tp ://w w w .in fo rm a tio n q u e s t.c o m ©3/1997, Dawson Inc. http://www.informationquest.com 4 2 6 / C&RL News as descriptions of sacred objects used in heal­ ing rituals, types of healing ceremonies, and herbal remedies. A w ell-docum ented com pila­ tion o f Native American ethnography. $55.00. ABC-CLIO, 130 Cremona Dr., P.O. Box 1911, Santa Barbara, CA 93116. ISBN 0-87436-852-9. The Exclusion o f B lack Soldiers fro m the Medal o f H o n o r in W orld W ar II, by Elliott V. Converse III, et al. (200 pages, May 1997), investigates the reasons why no African Ameri­ can soldiers w ere aw arded the Congressional Medal o f H onor in World War II. The authors show in this report, com m issioned by the U.S. Army, that segregation, exclusion from com ­ bat, and racism w ere indeed the causes for in­ equity in awarding the medal. Based on this study, the Army forw arded in May 1996 the nam es of seven African Americans to Congress and the White House as potential recipients. In January 1997, President Clinton presented the medal to First Lieutenant Vernon J. Baker for valor beyond the call of duty in the Italian cam­ paign, and to the relatives o f the other six, all now deceased. $23.50. McFarland & Co., Box 611, Jefferson, NC 18640. ISBN 0-7864-0277-6. E y ew itn e ss to H is to ry , edited by Brian M. Fagan (493 pages, February 1997), brings to­ gether 55 first-hand accounts of archeological discoveries that recreate the excitem ent and mystery of uncovering bones, buildings, and artifacts that have lain buried for centuries. In­ cluded here are: Donald Jo h an so n ’s discovery of Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) in Ethio­ pia in 1974; Cham pollion’s recounting of how he first deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs; Le­ onard Woolley’s reconstruction o f a royal fu­ neral at Ur; David Soren’s description o f find­ ing an early Christian com m unity in Cyprus buried by an earthquake in 365 a. d . ; Konrad Spindler’s account of the 1991 discovery in the Alps of Otzi the 5,000-year-old man preserved in a glacier; and Ivor H um e’s excavation of the colonial settlem ent at Martin’s H undred, Vir­ ginia, that was destroyed by Indian attack in 1622. These fascinating stories will undoubt­ edly inspire future generations of archeologists. $39.95. Oxford Univ. Press, 198 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016. ISBN 0-19-508141-2. Slee’ s H e a lth C are Term s, by Vergil N. Slee, D ebora A. Slee, and H. Joachim Schmidt (655 pages, 3rd ed., January 1997), pulls together all the relevant terminology from earlier edi­ tions and defines many new w ords and phrases that came into com m on usage during the health care reform m ovem ent of the 1990s. Medical, legal, and policy terms are included. Have this one on hand next time you attem pt to read an HMO prospectus. $49.95. Tringa Press, P.O. Box 8181, St. Paul, MN 55108. ISBN 0-9615255-8-4. W e W e r e N e x t to N o th in g , by Carl S. Nordin (257 pages, April 1997), is a first-hand account o f an American POW’s experience in prison camps in the Philippines and Japan dur­ ing World War II. Throughout his 27 months in captivity, Nordin detailed his thoughts on the camps in a secret diary that becam e the basis of this work. Memoirs like this are in­ valuable records of the horror and costs of war. $28.95. McFarland & Co., Box 611, Jefferson, NC 18640. ISBN 0-7864-0274-1. An interesting co m p ariso n can b e m ade w ith B ernard T. Fitzpatrick’s The Hike into the Sun (McFarland, 1993), a record of the Bataan Death March and similar Japanese internm ent camps. ■ (Leadership cont. from page 412) services, frequently are also assigned media services and com puter resources. A team m em ­ ber w orks very hard but learns a great deal about a specific library operation and gains an understanding of the m any facets o f an educa­ tional institution. Also, there is frequently an opportunity to share ideas and “best practices.” This is a valuable leadership opportunity for an academic librarian to be included as a peer with other academic specialists in specific and detailed deliberations on the effective o p era­ tion of an academic institution. Should you have the opportunity to serve as a m em ber o f a re­ gional or specialized accrediting team, I rec­ om m end that you accept. It is a challenging but very rewarding leadership experience. N o te s 1. Stephanie Bangert and Bonnie Gratch, “Accreditation: Opportunities for Library Lead­ e r s h ip ,” C&RL News 56 (N o v e m b e r 1993): 697-99. 2. Edward Garten, The Challenge a n d Prac­ tice o f Academic Accreditation: Sourcebook fo r Library A dm inistrators (W e stp o rt, C onn.: G reenw ood, 1994). 3. Patricia Ann Sacks and Sara Lou Whildin, Preparing fo r Accreditation: A Handbook fo r Academic Libraries (Chicago: ALA, 1993). ■