Editorial 
Hard Choices 

Characterized as the "Professor of Gloom" by Newsweek, Richard Lamm, governor of 
Colorado, suggests "It isn't that we're faced with problems. It's that our problem-solving 
machinery has gone awry." 

In a "Hard Choices" course that he is teaching, Lamm focuses on social and cultural 
issues. In librarianship, while the issues are less dramatic, the choices are relatively hard. 
Demands increase and supplies decrease. 

In librarianship, the door to the future is ajar. We hear the words "postindustrial soci-
ety,'' ''knowledge work,'' and ''third wave.'' When we visualize the future, it is often with 
a sense of wonderment. And yet, as in a dream, our grand thoughts are not followed by 
corresponding action. We seem to limp forward. Maybe we are experiencing a typical pat-
tern of behavior when faced with such complexity and novelty. 

Almost weekly I read about some new and exciting development in the online industry. 
A whole range of potential library applications shines forth. Likewise, the possibility of 
reaching beyond the walls of the library to users in situ (i.e., in their own place) seems to 
become more and more feasible. As our systems increase in complexity, the value and ab-
solute need for strong library instruction programs also increases. However, when I view 
(1) how we allocate resources, (2) what services and programs users will support, not just 
in principle but with dollars, and (3) what fiscal agencies will fund, I also see high hurdles. 
The wonders on the horizon fade and I am faced with a bewildering array of barriers. 

Usually, because of our responsibilities or inclinations, we strive to achieve a balance, 
often a balance of interests. Some call this fence-straddling. I don't like fence-straddling as 
a permanent posture, but I do accept it as a temporary strategy. In the debate between 
those who posit the continuance of classic librarianship or the discontinuance of librarian-
ship as we know it today, I have been a fence-straddler. My view of the future as a reality is 
weak: on the other hand, my view of how we might begin to construct a preferred future is 
strong. 

Last week I fell off the fence. From where I landed, academic librarianship has a bright 
future if we start with a shared vision of a preferred future. If we continue to limp forward, 
we may find that the erosion rate is faster. Or we can stride forth. 

This is easily said on paper. It is another thing to put it on the table, to add it to the 
agenda, and to proceed. My reality is that I work with people. If we move forward, we 
should do it together. Somehow our challenge is to construct or offer a view of the future 
that also holds out a promise for others. This is how we can rebuild our problem-solving 
machinery. This is how we can begin to make the hard choices. 

In the July editorial I used a container/content metaphor to make a point. Philip Metzger 
(see "Letters") dislikes the metaphor because it does not adequately describe the reality 
that he sees. Because the point I was making is important I would like to drop the metaphor 
and restate my argument in blunt terms. That is, if librarianship is to make important gains 
as a profession it must focus on the value that our materials have for the reader. Today we 
circulate a book and that is the extent of our commitment. I believe that words, images, and 

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382 College & Research Libraries September 1985 

sounds transformed into meaning or understanding by the human mind, the user's mind, 
are the key to our professionalism. 

In a paper[" 'Stemming the Tide of Mediocrity': The Academic Library Response," in 
Libraries and the Learning Society: Papers in Response to A Nation at Risk (Chicago: ALA, 1984), 
p.5], Richard Dougherty states that the absence of attention to libraries in the At Risk report 
reflects ''the reality that libraries are not judged central to the current problem,'' that is, the 
erosion in the quality of education. If we decide to focus on user meanings or understand-
ings, we will move into the center; we will also move into an uncharted area. We will fail 
from time to time. Yet it seems better to fail occasionally at what is deemed central than to 
succeed only in a sphere considered peripheral. 

The users of academic libraries are essentially comfortable with what we now provide. As 
professionals, it is our challenge to unlock the potential inherent in the new technologies, 
to find somehow the means to transform our information (collections) into a dynamic force 
and, in the process, transform ourselves. 

CHARLES MARTELL 

IN FORTHCOMING ISSUES OF 
COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES 

Defining the Academic Librarian 
by Edward G. Holley 

Reactions to "Defining the Academic,.Librarian" 
by Irene Hoadley, Herbert White, and Sheila Creth 

Hierarchical and Collegial Governance Structures in Academic Libraries: A Union Context 
by Nancy A. Brown 

Characteristics and Problems of College and University Libraries in China 
by Thomas Y. Yeh 

Effectiveness of Book Selectors in a Small Academic Library 
by Christopher Millson-Martula 

Factors Affecting the Use of Information for Academic Library Decision Making 
by Charles R. McClure and Alan R. Samuels 

Characteristics of the Monographic Literature of British and American Literary Studies 
by John M. Cullars