College and Research Libraries


Intuition, Research, 
and the Academic Library 

In 1933, Pierce Butler lamented the fact that the library profession ap-
peared to be almost anti-intellectual in its approach to library problems 
and seemed to stand alone in the "simplicity of its pragmatism." In 1973, 
we find Jesse Shera stoically referring to research. as an activity "largely 
foreign to a profession oriented toward service rather than analysis of 
bibliothecal phenomena or introspection of its own activity." I fully agree 
with both men when they argue that the library profession has been gen-
erally uninterested in research, and I am also convinced that we have 
reached a point where no substantive gains in the quality of library service 
will be possible without the initiation of a systematic, aggressive, and long-
term research effort. We simply will not see any major advances in theory 
or practice if we continue to rely on the intuitive infallibility of the pro-
fessional in the field as we have in the past. This approach appears to be 
bankrupt. 

If one accepts this premise, and it seems to me to be incbntrovertable, it 
follows that research in library and information science, and the intelligent 
utilization of research findings, become the key to any real progress. 

But how, in the face of the economic and socio-political constraints cur-
rently facing the profession, can such a research effort be initiated? It ap-
pears obvious that the library schools with their small faculties, large en-
rollments, and practical/technical emphasis, are incapable of undertaking 
a long-term or large-scale research program. At best, they may be able to 
train adequately a generation of scholars to fill research positions elsewhere. 
Similarly, the research institutes which showed some promise several years 
ago now are dying in the wake of the withdrawal of federal support for 
research in library and information science. 

It now appears that there is only one institution capable of sustaining a 
research program of the size and extent envisioned here; that is, the Amer-
ican academic library. If the top 500 university and college libraries in this 
country were to provide shelter for a research/systems office under their 
organizational umbrellas, a considerable research component might thus be 
established. The individuals involved, who hopefully would be encouraged 
to undertake basic as well as applied research, might well constitute a ten-
fold increase in the size of the research wing of the profession. 

Of course, this idea is hardly more than a pipe dream unless academic 
librarians are willing to commit a part of their resources to an ongoing 
research program. While they generally have not been willing to do so in 
the past, there does seem to be evidence of an intensifying interest in this 
issue among contemporary academic librarians. Perhaps a new age is 
dawning. 

MICHAEL H. HARRIS 

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