ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


Ja n u a ry  1991 / 51

Preparing fo r the W hite 
House C onferen ce

B y  S tu a rt F o r th

Member, A CRL Task F orce on W HCLIS 
Member, W HCLIS I I  Advisory Committee

The W hite House Conference on Library and 
Information Service I I  (W H C L IS ) scheduled for 
the summer o f 1991 will be similar in many ways to 
the 1979 W H C L IS . One similarity is likely to be its 
heavy emphasis on public libraries. Only a quarter 
of the delegates to the conference will be librarians 
and those o f us in academia will be heavily out 
numbered by public and school librarians. T he re­
maining three quarters o f the delegates will repre­
sent the general public, trustees and friends o f li­
braries, and public officials such as city council 
members, mayors, et al. who will be largely con­
cerned with public libraries.

Our academic colleagues who are delegates may 
not be numerous, but they can still have an impor­
tant effect on the Conference. T h e high quality of 
academic librarians being what it is, it is important 
that they speak up and contribute whatever pro­
posals and ideas they may have on the issues being 
addressed. W e must assert ourselves in those states 
and territories which have not yet held pre- 
W H C LIS conferences. F o r that matter, academic 
librarians individually and through state library 
associations can and should share their collective 
concerns and personal opinions with the W H C L IS 
staff; the sooner, the better.

Granting that the W H C L IS II  Advisory Com ­
mittee had a faltering start, once some basic per­
sonnel changes had been made, the C onference is 
shaping up well. N C L IS ’s new C hair Charles

Reid’s appointments o f Peter Young, Mrs. Jean 
Curtis, and Richard Akeroyd to key leadership 
positions, and the Chairs now appointed to various 
working co m m ittees (Program  Planning, R e ­
sources, Public Relations, D elegate Education, et 
al.) are all strong indications o f a healthy program.

Perhaps we should be thinking about a third 
national conference now! Looking ahead, it may be 
that A C R L, the Special Libraries Association, fed­
eral libraries, the bibliographic utilities folk, the 
nation’s private colleges and universities and cer­
tainly the land grant universities should collectively 
start planning for the future o f our academic librar­
ies. A C R L  is a logical and appropriate organization 
to consider this. Library directors in the Associa­
tion o f Research Libraries (ARL) could also pro­
vide leadership since their institutions are often on 
the cutting edge o f new developments in informa­
tion science.

There are indications that many states involved 
in p re-W H C L IS I I  activities already have or may 
put more emphasis on their needs for federal dol­
lars than on imaginative and creative ways o f ad­
dressing the three conference themes. T o  carry out 
W H C L IS  them es effectively we must work closely 
with the information industry. This Conference 
can be beneficial to us and to our society. Certainly 
academic libraries can contribute significantly to it 
and to improving the world.

■  ■