ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 388 / C&RL News R ecruiting for the profession By J o n a th a n D. L auer Head o f Public Services Wheaton College How one library publicizes careers in information science. O n e measure of career satisfaction is the extent to which one feels compelled to encourage bright, young adults to enter one’s chosen field. We in li- brarianship, in order to improve the future quality of our profession, ought to give more consideration to the question of recruitm ent. In his Passion fo r Books Lawrence Clark Powell reprints a memo­ randum he once wrote his staff: Staff members should remember th at our profes­ sion does not automatically perpetuate itself. A good measure of a library—and of each depart­ ment in that library—is the number of students or clericals it has recruited for Librarianship. Each of you should ask yourself the question, W hat have I done and w hat am I doing tow ard peopling my profession?... Every student who works for us is a potential librarian. The best recruits are those who are inspired by the librarians for whom they work to see in L ibrari­ anship a dynam ic service profession. “ Love of books’’ is not enough. Offer no refuge to the escap­ ist; discourage the dilettante; pity the spiritual mis­ fit, but close the door to the maladjusted. Librari­ anship holds no m agic th erap y . Its successful practice calls for normal (not average) men and women. Good health, good nature, good sense— look for these qualities. We do not wish to recruit students all of one type. Keep the varied aspects of our work in mind when you are sizing up a prospect. Neither pure ex- t r avert nor introvert makes the bestI lib r a ian; most of us are hybrids, and properly so.1 Some 25 years later, enter John Naisbitt. If Naisbitt L aw re n c e Clark Powell, A Passion fo r Books (New York: W orld Publishing, 1958), pp. 125-26. is correct in Megatrends, and it seems hard to deny th at he is, ours is an expanding field, one in which new and varied opportunities are becoming avail­ able. W hether “Information Professional” will be­ come the preferred term to describe practitioners of the gathering, controlling, and dissemination of information is an open issue. However, the fact th at graduates of our professional schools are in­ creasingly entering positions in non-traditional li­ brary settings is readily apparent. The moment seems ripe for the seizing. Our library faculty was recently involved in a venture aimed at interesting capable students in thinking about careers dealing with information. Our relatively modest beginning took the form of a one evening seminar entitled, “Career O pportuni­ ties as an Information Professional.” W hat follows is a report of the planning and presentation of that seminar. E arlier this year we in public services were charged with the responsibility of establishing an annual library-sponsored, student-oriented discus­ sion group, workshop, or seminar. This activity was not conceived as relating to the utilization of library resources, but was rather intended to pro­ vide contact between professional librarians and students, to dispel stereotypes and change percep­ tions. In the Fall semester we initiated discussion with the campus career development office. It was agreed that before further work be undertaken, a steering committee should be formed composed of representatives from career development, the stu­ dent body, the teaching faculty, and the library faculty. This committee proved most helpful, as September 1984 / 389 several perspectives were necessary to make opti­ mal decisions regarding numerous planning issues. Calendar College and university campuses are classic cases of overkill when it comes to opportunities for extra­ curricular educational and entertainm ent activi­ ties. W e sought to schedule a tim e when there were no significant calendar conflicts (major athletic events, dram atic performances, etc.). Further, we chose a date th a t was three weeks into the new aca­ demic term , a tim e when students were back into their routines, but before the toll of the heaviest p ressu re s. T h ir d , w e h e ld th e s e m in a r on a W ednesday evening, a tim e when students enjoy a short distraction. Content of the seminar From the outset it was our desire to strike a bal­ ance betw een an academ ic and a p ractical a p ­ proach to the seminar. Originally, we had planned a tw enty m inute lecture on the history of inform a­ tion gathering to be followed by presentations on the education of the inform ation professional, em ­ ploym ent opportunities, salaries, and career paths. The student representative on the steering com m it­ tee suggested shortening the background and em ­ phasizing the present opportunities in the field. This proved a fruitful adm onition. It was also agreed th a t outside speakers representing corpo­ rate libraries would be a draw ing card. So the final phase of the seminar was given over to three speak­ ers, two from Chicago libraries (we paid travel ex­ penses for each and a small honorarium ), and one from our library, charged w ith the task of talking about their work, their job satisfaction, and how their education had prepared them for their daily responsibilities. Publicity Planning publicity for a new venture can be a precarious business indeed, especially when one has booked a room w ith seating capacity of only 32 w ith no way of knowing w hat kind of interest our seminar would generate. (Recent history at the ca­ reer development office showed about four gradu­ ates yearly expressing an interest in library sci­ ence.) Fortunately, career development did have some experience in planning similar undertakings, but their track record was not particularly encour­ aging. Some seminars drew as few as four attend­ ees; 20 was considered a good turnout. To avoid an embarrassingly low attendance we decided to err on the side of overkill as far as publicity was con­ cerned. Career development agreed to include a blurb in their general campus mailings, but th at was only a token beginning. A student graphic a rt­ ist was hired to design a broadside, which was dis­ tributed to the entire campus com munity of 3200 individuals. Posters were placed in areas of heavy student traffic. Both the broadside and the posters played on the Megatrends tie-in, a device ap p ar­ ently quite effective. The student on the steering committee w rote an article for the campus newspa­ per, which appeared in the issue just prior to the seminar. In addition, the campus news coordina­ tor sent a news release to the local papers. Various faculty agreed to announce the meeting in class. “Love o f books“ is not enough. Gentle reminders in casual conversation spread the particulars of the event by word of m outh. The upshot of all this is th a t the night of the semi­ nar the room was filled to capacity, including 12 members of an LTA class and their instructor from a local com munity college, who were attending the program in lieu of class. Coffee and donuts were served at intermission, though it is difficult to know how much attention the serving of refreshments generated. The publicity for the seminar is itself a case study in the dissemination of inform ation. Seminar format The seminar was presented in a lecture form at. An outline of the session’s content was distributed to each participant. For the coverage of salaries and placements, appropriate handouts were dis­ tributed. There were numerous library school cat­ alogs and relevant pieces of literature available for perusal. A bibliography of books relevant to the seminar content, produced in p a rt w ith the assist­ ance of an online literature search, was m ade avail­ able. Though response was good throughout the session, the highlight of the seminar was the final 45 minutes in which the invited guests talked about their work. Each of the three speakers had very dif­ ferent perspectives and interests, while at the same tim e conveying a realistic picture of the workaday world of the inform ation professional. The speak­ ers were received enthusiastically and established excellent rapport w ith their audience as evidenced by the post-seminar inform al interaction. Follow-up Since the seminar, several students have filtered into our offices to discuss further the opportunities available in our profession. One or two have even taken the tim e to listen to the audio-tape of the seminar. Others have requested copies of the hand­ outs. In sum, the seminar has helped com municate our interest in telling students about the work we do and w hat is involved in becoming a professional 390 / C&RL News librarian. Further, our relationship with career de­ velopment has been enhanced greatly through our mutual planning and interaction. Concluding remarks Ought we to recruit for our profession? We say yes, and with an enthusiastic recommendation that you try something similar to our initial attempt! (You will need a minimum budget of about $300). The planning involved in a such venture is consid­ erable, but the visibility and reward that accrue in the process are gratifying. In higher education we are in the business of opening the minds of our stu­ dents. That “library and information science” ex­ ists will be revelatory to many. That it is a true aca­ demic discipline will be shocking to most. But the study and practice of librarianship in its growing dimensions will be pleasantly surprising to at least a few. The author wishes to thank his colleague, Daniel J. Bowell, fo r his criticism and editorial assist­ ance. ■ ■ ACRL officers for 1 9 8 4 - 8 5 The official A C R L election results. S haron J. Rogers, university librarian at George Washington University (Washington, DC 20052), is the forty-seventh president of the Association of College and Research L ibraries. D u rin g her one-year term of office, she will preside over the ACRL Board of Direc­ tors and the ACRL Ex­ ecutive Committee. She w ill c h a ir th e ACRL C o n feren ce P rogram Planning Committee for the 1985 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago and will plan ACRL’s m ajor program at the Sharon J. Rogers conference. As president of the di­ vision, Rogers will represent ACRL on the ALA Chicago Conference Program Committee. She will also represent ACRL and ALA in their relations with other organizations. Rogers has contributed to ACRL as a member of the ACRL Board of Di­ rectors, as chair of the Task Force on Academic Li­ braries and Higher Education, as chair of the Advi­ sory Committee for the Bibliographic Instruction Liaison Project, and as chair of the Bibliographic Instruction Section (1980-1981). Last year she served as chair of the Legislation Subcommittee of the ALA Status of Women in Librarianship Com­ mittee, and as a member of the OHIONET On- Line Reference Council. Sharon Anne Hogan, d irecto r of the Troy Middleton Library, Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, LA 70803), has been elected vice- p r e s id e n t/p r e s id e n t- elect of the Association of College and Research L ib ra rie s. T he 1984 election results showed 1,240 votes for Hogan and 1,024 for Janice T. Koyama, head of Mof­ fitt U ndergraduate L i­ brary at the University of California, Berkeley. As v ic e-p re sid en t/ p re sid e n t-e le c t of ACRL, Hogan will serve Sharon Hoganon the ACRL Board of Directors and the ACRL Executive Committee. She will chair the ACRL