ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


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ences the user and librarian can access in common. 
We are currently in a fortuitious position to begin 
already planning for and thinking o f the innova­

tions necessary for this technological and historical 
change in academ ic library reference service.

■ ■

Librarians: An element of diversity 

within the faculty

By Diane C. Parker

D irector o f  Libraries 
W estern W ashington U niversity

One librarians answer to the question, “Why are librarians 
faculty ?”

A t any college or university, librarians tend 

to be a small percentage o f the faculty, 
perhaps 3% to 4% of the whole. It is easy for a such 
a small group to becom e relatively unnoticed and 
not widely understood. In fact, librarians provide 
an elem ent o f diversity within the faculty. They are 
the same as other faculty in fundam ental nature, 
but differ in the form  and scope o f their profes­
sional activity.

A. The fundamental similarities

1. Faculty are involved with the life of the mind. 
They interact with others to share and extend the 
realm o f know ledge.

2. Faculty are engaged with the subject m atter of 
the academ y.

3. Faculty are involved with teaching others.
4. The career developm ent o f faculty m em bers is 

based on increm ental accom plishm ents culm inat­
ing in a high level of professional m aturity and 
contribution to the furtherance o f knowledge. Their 
promotion to senior ranks depends on enhanced 
mastery o f their discipline within a position, rather

than changing jo b  assignm ents.

B. Patterns of engagements

Instructors and librarians differ in their patterns 
of engagem ent with the fundam entals. Some o f the 
various patterns are described below:

1. W hile instructors focus more on the content of 
a discipline, librarians focus m ore on the structure 
of disciplines and how they are organized.

2. Librarians collect and organize m aterials into 
coherent collections so that instructors and stu­
dents can find specific items and brow se through 
subject m atter easily. The lib rarian ’s perspective 
on know ledge tends to be encyclopedic, with con­
cern for the whole universe of knowledge.

3. Instructors are professionally com m itted to 
academ ic freedom  with its principles of the right to 
profess a point of view , provided that it is done 
responsibly. Librarians are professionally com m it­
ted to intellectual freedom  with its principles of 
providing a neutral forum  for diverse points of 
view.

4. W hile instructors provide a disciplinary inter­



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pretation or perspective on know ledge, librarians 
stress diverse points o f view and com parison o f the 
m any ways o f approaching a topic.

5. For instructors, teaching focuses m ore on 
subject m astery and specific skills. For librarians, 
teaching focuses on fostering skills for independent 
research and lifelong learning.

6. W hile both instructors and librarians teach, 
instructors do m ore group teaching, and librarians 
tend to do m ore one on one teaching.

7. Instructors have m ore opportunity to interact 
with the same students and hence are m ore likely to 
set values and be role m odels. G enerally, instruc­
tors have the final responsibility for evaluating the 
student’s accom plishm ents. The teaching setting 
for librarians is usually m ore inform al, and values 
are m odeled, not prescribed.

8. In addition to focusing on current curricular 
and research needs, librarians tend to take a long- 
range view, preserving our intellectual and cultural 
heritage as well as anticipating the future.

C. Engagement with the 
knowledge cycle

Know ledge may be view ed as a process or cycle 
that begins with its creation and continues with its 
organization for retrieval and use by others. In­
structors and librarians both are active in the full 
cycle, but differences exist in the patterns of en­
gagem ent at each stage. The stages in the cycle are 
described briefly below:

1. Producing know ledge through scholarly and 
creative work

2.Organizing knowledge by classifying materials 
for use by others

3. R etrieving know ledge through system atic, 
structured m ethods that can be applied to a variety 
of disciplines

4. U sing know ledge, assessing the value of what 
currently is know n and incorporating it back into 
the process o f producing new know ledge

Instructors and librarians both are involved to 
varying degrees with the entire cycle of knowledge.

D. Intellectual domain of librarianship

Each discipline attem pts to define its own intel­
lectual dom ain, its own issues. Such definitions are 
not easy at a time when traditional discipline bounda­
ries are eroding and interdisciplinary or cross- 
disciplinary interests are becom ing m ore prev a­
lent. But w hat is the dom ain o f the librarian? 
Potentially everything; there are few boundaries or 
lim its. There are, however, typical interests. Some 
are listed below:

1. Broad categories:
philosophy and principles o f indexing and classi­

fying knowledge;
bibliographic description o f information;
intellectual freedom;
the history o f know ledge;
the sociology o f knowledge;
the organization of know ledge;
characteristics of disciplines;
the boundaries betw een disciplines;
textual criticism;
language and its use;
rhetorical theory;
learning styles;
cultural learning differences.

2. Narrow categories:
content issues in a specific discipline;
bibliographic issues in a specific discipline;
history of books, printing and libraries;
collection developm ent;
public services;
technical services;
application of appropriate technologies;
evaluation o f organizational effectiveness (in­

cludes systems analysis);
content issues in a specific discipline;
bibliographic issues in a specific discipline;
effective interview ing techniques;
literacy.

E. Learning environments

R ecent developm ents in cognitive psychology 
are causing the academ y to reassess the importance 
o f the classroom  experience. L earning takes place 
in m any environm ents, and in the library individual 
instruction and independent learning are at their 
peak. Students are free to discover ideas serendipi- 
tously, with or w ithout the guidance o f a librarian. 
D oing independent research in the library is excel­
lent training for developing skills in decision m ak­
ing. In the library, students can, and frequently do, 
exercise their ow n academ ic freedom .

F. Partners in the enterprise

Both instructors and librarians play m any roles 
in the college or university. The lib rarian s’ contri­
butions to the in stitu tio n ’s m ission are in m any 
ways unique and indispensable. Librarians partici­
pate fully with other faculty to prom ote effective 
utilization and developm ent of know ledge. Com ­
plem enting each other and frequently w orking in 
partnership, instructors and librarians are close 
collaborators in the academ ic enterprise.

I w ould like to thank the Library Faculty of 
W estern W ashington U niversity for their vigorous 
debate; a num ber of other academ ic librarians over 
the last seventeen years for their insights and



comments; and several adm inistrators and lay p e r­
sons who stim ulated this effort one way or another. 
Especially I would like to thank W illiam  M cPheron

(now at Stanford) who years ago com m ented, “ I t ’s 
ju st a different pattern o f engagem ent.”

■ ■

Librarian status study

A task force appointed by the AC RL A cadem ic
Status C om m ittee has been charged with replicat­
ing and expanding the Thom as G. E nglish study, 
“Librarian Status in the E ighty-N ine U.S. A ca­
demic Institutions o f the A ssociation o f Research
Libraries: 1982,” C ollege & Research Libraries 
(May 1983): 199-211,45 (M ay 1984): 189-95. The
study will be expanded to include college and
community college librarians.

The results o f the new survey will be presented
at a program  on the “ status o f status” to be spon­
sored by the A C R L A cadem ic Status C om m ittee at
the 1991 ALA A nnual C onference in A tlanta. 
Committee m em bers are interested in obtaining
information on research or any other studies cu r­
rently in progress pertaining to faculty status. All
information is needed regardless o f scope. Task

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

force m em bers w ould appreciate hearing from 
anyone currently involved in research. You may 
contact any o f the follow ing individuals:

Susan Perry, Survey T ask Force Chair, H ead of 
M eyers Library, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 
94305.

L arry R. O berg, A cadem ic Status C om m ittee 
Chair, D irector o f Libraries, Stockw ell-M udd 
L ibraries, 602 E. C ass Street, A lbion, M I 49224.

Irene H oadley, D irector of the A dm inistration 
O ffice, Sterling C. Evans L ibrary, Texas A&M  
U niversity, College Station, T X 77843-5000.

Charles Lowry, Director of Libraries, Box 19497, 
U niversity o f Texas, Arlington, TX 76013.

R ush M iller, Dean o f L ibraries, B ow ling Green 
State University Library, Bowling Green, OH 43403.

■ ■

New library building to house film archives

On Tuesday, July 18, a new era in the history of 
the Academ y o f M otion Picture Arts and Sciences 
began w ith the groundbreaking cerem ony for the 
new M argaret H errick L ibrary and A cadem y Film 
Archive. On hand to turn the first shovelful of soil 
at the W aterw orks B uilding on La C ienega B oule­
vard in Beverly Hills were Richard Kahn, president 
of the A cadem y, and H illary S alter, m ayor o f B ev­
erly Hills.

The A cadem y is restoring and expanding the 
historic W aterw orks B uilding to house its co lle c ­
tions. B uilt in 1928 as the first w ater treatm ent 
plant on the W est Coast, the structure was one of 
the com m unity’s first m unicipal buildings. Slated 
for dem olition in 1986, it was saved by a citizens ’ 
group that lobbied for its rehabilitation. The A cad­
emy’s proposal to use the building as a library was 
accepted, the services o f architects Frances Offen- 
hauser and M ichael J. M ekeel w ere secured for 
renovation and expansion, and the project is now 
slated for com pletion by the sum m er o f 1990.

The M argaret H errick Library, founded in 1931 
and nam ed after a form er A cadem y librarian and 
executive director, is one of the largest collections 
of film -related m aterial in the world. A m ong its 
special collections are: papers and m em orabilia of

A lfred H itchcock, M ary Pickford, John H uston, 
M ack Sennett, E dith Head, G eorge Cukor, and 
Lew is M ilestone; scripts and pressbooks for m ore 
than 2,200 Param ount film s from  1912 to 1965; a 
com prehensive collection o f industry trade jo u r ­
nals dating from  1906; and the Lux R adio T heatre 
Collection o f scripts, disk recordings, and publicity 
m aterial. ■  ■

The W aterw orks B uilding in the late 1920s.

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