ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


103

As Schumacher says,3 we need the freedom of 

3Schumacher, ibid., p.61.

lots and lots of small autonomous units, and at the 
same tim e the orderliness of large-scale—possibly 
global—unity and coordination. ■ ■

ACRL issues for the 80s

A C R L ’s two presidential candidates offer their views or 
the Association’s future.

Thomas Kirk Hannelore Rader

I h i s  presentation of statements from ACRL’s 

candidates for vice-president/president-elect is an 
inform ation service for ACRL members. Many of 
the issues and concerns facing ACRL are discussed 
informally at meetings, but this does not provide a 
national forum available to all members. These 
statements provide the basis for an informed choice 
w h en  you receive your b a llo t next m o n th .— 
Sharon J. Rogers, A C R L  president.

Thomas Kirk:
I have just returned from W ashington, D .C ., 

where I participated in the activities and meetings 
of the M idwinter meeting of the American Library 
Association. As I w rite this statem ent of candidacy 
my thoughts of those meetings are very much on 
my mind. ACRL is a vital and active organization. 
The m any committees, task forces, and sections of 
the Association are hard at work addressing im por­
ta n t professional and organizational issues. The 
planning process which our recent ACRL presi­
dents began is well underw ay and we can expect to

see the fruits of th a t effort in the coming years. In 
addition to ACRL organizational planning I ob­
served m any committees focusing on professional 
concerns such as College Library Standards, a new 
model statem ent on bibliographic instruction, li­
brary legislation, and the planning of programs for 
this and next year’s annual conferences, to nam e 
just a few.

In the context of ACRL’s strength I believe th a t 
my task, should I be elected, is to see th a t the plan ­
ning effort already underw ay is completed. In the 
past I have w atched the noble planning efforts of 
one president get lost when they left office. I be­
lieve we have a good effort underw ay and I am 
com m itted to seeing th a t p lanning process con­
tinue during my tenure.

There is one aspect of the Association which has 
not received much attention and I believe will need 
serious consideration over the next few years. T hat 
issue is how to best represent the concerns and in­
terests which are prim arily those of a particular 
type of library. The reorganization of the ACRL 
Roard of Directors, if approved by the m em ber­
ship, and other proposed changes in ACRL will 
w eaken the role of the type-of-library sections 
w ithin ACRL. Rut I am not interested in just pre­
serving those sections. Instead I w ant the Associa­
tio n  to explore an d  e x p erim en t w ith  w ays of 
strengthening members’ participation in activities 
and programs which focus on type-of-library con­
cerns. ACRL must not lose the capacity to speak ef­
fectively for the interests of a particular type of aca­
demic or research library.

The Association, however, should not spend all 
its energies on organizational concerns. ACRL has 
as its mission “the enhancem ent of library service, 
in the broadest sense, to the academic and research



104

com m unities.” ACRL is addressing these concerns 
th ro u g h  developm ent of stan d ard s an d  m odel 
statem ents, developm ent of lib rary  legislation, 
provision of continuing education programs, and 
m any other activities. One subject th a t I would 
particularly like to see the Association address in 
the coming years is the changing role of academic 
librarians in an evolving autom ation environment. 
As I observe the current academic library scene no 
issue seems more critical to strengthening our abil­
ity to serve the inform ation needs of our com m uni­
ties. Unless we can effectively im plem ent the use of 
new com puter technology, which includes reor­
ganizing our libraries to accept the technology, the 
academic library will be supplanted by alternative 
inform ation delivery systems.

W hile the. im pact of library autom ation on li­
braries and librarians is a subject of particular in­
terest to me there are no doubt other issues of inter­
est to ACRL members. It is my intention, if I 
become an officer of ACRL, to use my position to 
see th a t membership concerns get reviewed by the 
appropriate units w ithin ACRL. I am particularly 
concerned th a t section issues get the appropriate 
attention of the ACRL Board.

This com m itm ent to an open and responsive 
ACRL does not m ean th a t suddenly the things you 
or your ACRL unit w an t done will immediately be 
accomplished. W h at I can offer is the challenge 
th a t you actively participate in the work of the As­
sociation. W e need the active participation of all of 
ACRL’s members. In tu rn  I will make every effort 
to see th a t the Association remains open and re­
sponsive to its m e m b ersh ip  in th e  context of 
ACRL’s ongoing planning effort.

Hannelore Rader:
At this tim e, ACRL is a financially sound organi­

zation w ith the largest membership of any ALA D i­
vision. As an organization ACRL is dynamically 
dealing w ith im portant issues w ithin the academic 
library profession and higher education. This is be­
ing accomplished through the form ation of liaisons 
w ith  m any professional organizations, through 
p lanning and im plem enting successful national 
conferences, through the sponsorship of appropri­
ate and much needed professional publications, 
and through addressing staff developm ent and 
other needs of academic librarians using continu­
ous needs assessments.

The long-range planning and review process, 
begun approximately five years ago under the ener­
getic leadership of the ACRL Board, is beginning 
to show tangible results. The Association is becom­
ing stro n g e r, m ore responsive to m e m b ersh ip  
needs, and has begun to align itself more closely 
w ith higher education objectives. Task forces and 
committees have been formed to address new and 
continuing concerns of the membership, especially 
as related to the im pact of constantly-changing 
technology on inform ation issues.

It will be a challenge for the next ACRL Presi­

dent and the Board to keep ACRL strong and vital 
in the im m ediate future, yet flexible enough to ad ­
dress newly em erging inform ation, technology, 
and education issues. At the same tim e, ACRL 
must continue to be aligned w ith ALA goals and 
objectives while addressing ACRL’s m any m em ­
bership needs. Another im portant task for the next 
ACRL President and Board will be to keep ACRL 
membership strong and vital by involving as m any 
members as possible in association activities, and to 
provide members w ith adequate resources for this. 
Both ACRL services and activities must continue to 
be based on m em bers’ needs in o rd er to keep 
present members and to obtain additional ones.

As President of ACRL, a challenging and excit­
ing task which involves three years of com m itm ent 
to hard work for the candidate, I would continue 
the process to strengthen the Association by sup­
porting previous planning efforts, while aggres­
sively addressing new technology issues facing col­
lege a n d  re s e a rc h  lib ra rie s . I w o u ld  tr y  to 
strengthen and increase ACRL m em bership by 
working very actively w ith the ACRL chapters to 
bring some of their dynam ic energy back into the 
Association. Through my active membership in 
ACRL for 16 years, which provided me w ith expe­
rience on committees, task forces, chapters (Michi­
gan and W isconsin), an d  sections (EBSS, BIS, 
CLS), and through my service on ALA Council, 
other ALA committees and divisions, I have ob­
tained a clear perspective on ACRL’s role and its 
im portance as a major p a rt of ALA and academic

First rare book in space

An 18th-century Greek and L atin edition of 
Hippocrates’ Aphorisms belonging to the His­
tory and Special Collections Division of the 
UCLA Biomedical L ibrary traveled in space 
w ith Anna Fisher, one of the astronauts who 
flew  a b o a rd  th e  Space S h u ttle  D isc o v e ry  
launched from Cape C anaveral on November 
8, 1984.

A UCLA undergraduate and medical school 
alum na, Fisher had asked to take something 
w ith her th a t represented the UCLA School of 
Medicine. “W e were attracted by the notion of 
finding a symbol of medicine’s historical link­
ages between w hat is ancient and enduring and 
w hat is new and swiftly changing,” said Dean 
Mellinkoff of the UCLA School of Medicine.

The 1765 edition of the Aphorisms is in very 
sound condition, according to Victoria Steele, 
head of the History and Special Collections D i­
vision. “I t’s an attractive duodecimo bound in 
full leather w ith a coat of arms stam ped on the 
upper and lower boards. The paper is w hite 
and fresh and shows no signs of em brittlem ent 
w hatever.”—From the UCLA L ibrarian, D e­
cember 1984.



105

librarianship. If elected, my first priority will be to 
w ork closely w ith  all ACRL un its, o th e r ALA 
units, an d  higher ed u catio n  groups to address 
jointly the challenges facing libraries and higher 
education.

E d ito r’s note: Thomas Kirk is the librarian o f Berea 
College, K entucky. Hannelore Rader is director o f 
the Library/Learning Center at the University of 
Wisconsin, Parkside. ■ ■

RESEARCH 
FORUM

Structured observation: H ow  it works

By Jack Glazier

Research Assistant and Lecturer 
University o f Missouri-Columbia

The project described in this article was origi­
nally reported at the ALA L ibrary Research Round 
Table’s Research Forum  in Dallas and again at the 
College and University L ibraries Section of the 
Kansas L ibrary Association in Topeka in October 
1984. The research project1 itself was designed and 
im plem ented by Robert Grover, dean of the School 
of L ibrary and Inform ation M anagem ent, Em po­
ria (Kansas) State University, and this author. The 
project was planned 1) to test structured observa­
tion as a research methodology which can be used 
for research in schools preparing library and infor­
m ation professionals, and 2) to determ ine the in­
form ation use patterns of a specific target group as 
a study of inform ation transfer theory.

Information flow
G reer has developed a m odel2 in w hich th e 

transfer of inform ation assumes identifiable p a t­
terns influenced by the environm ent encompassing 
the social roles of the individual inform ation user.

R o b e rt Grover and Jack Glazier, “Inform ation 
T ransfer in C ity G o v ern m en t,” Public Library 
Quarterly 5 (W inter 1984): 9-27.

2Roger C. Greer, “Inform ation Transfer: A Con­
ceptual Model for Librarianship, Inform ation Sci­
ence and Inform ation M anagem ent w ith Im plica­
tio n s fo r L ib r a r y  E d u c a t i o n ,” G re a t P lains 
Libraries 20(1982):2-15.

T h at environm ent includes patterns of inform ation 
generation, dissemination, and utilization, as well 
as a specialized vocabulary, and pertinent names 
and places singular to the individual’s subsociety.

Although G reer’s inform ation transfer model 
provided a theoretical sup rastru ctu re, research 
was still needed to detail more clearly the patterns 
of inform ation transfer for various subsocieties. 
A ppropriate and innovative methodologies are es­
sential for research of this type. Consequently, one 
early objective was the development of a m ethod­
ology for research designed to m ap the patterns of 
inform ation transfer for specific subsocieties th a t 
w ould be as workable for graduate students and 
faculty as for practitioners in the field.

Structured observation
The prim ary methodology selected was struc­

tu re d  observation. S tru c tu re d  observation is a 
qualitative research methodology th a t has been 
used by the social sciences for several years. It is a 
methodology in which an event or series of events is 
observed in its n atural setting and recorded by an 
in d e p e n d e n t researcher. T he observations are 
structured in the sense th a t pre-determ ined catego­
ries are used to guide the recording process. It is a 
methodology th a t, although not used to our knowl­
edge for library research in this country before, 
seemed to us to be particularly well suited for infor­
m ation transfer research as we had envisioned it.

As a qualitative research methodology, struc­