College and Research Libraries 50th Anniversary Feature- ACRL's Fiftieth Anniversary: For Reflection, for Celebration, and for Anticipation Edward G. Holley We want to link the past with the future, and the lOOth anniversary of the College Library Section gives us an excellent opportunity for reflection, for celebration, and for anticipation of the next 100 years.-Martha A. Bowman, cochair, ACRL Fifth National Conference, Research Libraries in OCLC: A Quarterly, Autumn 1987. REFLECTION: THE BIRTH OF COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES When A. Frederick Kuhlman edited the first issue of College & Research Libraries (December 1939}, he pronounced its aims in the authoritative manner that was his hallmark. C&RL was to serve as the com- munications medium for the new ACRL, but the journal was to do much more than that. The quarterly was also to publish ar- ticles from convention speeches, to serve as a clearing-house for educational re- search, to bridge the gap between college administrators/faculties and librarians, to serve as a bridge with other agencies and learned societies, to review and abstract books of interest to ACRL members, to stimulate research on improving library service and publish the research results, and to "help develop the A.C.R.L. into a strong and mature professional organiza- tion."1 Those were ambitious gaols, to say the least. But in retrospect it is amazing not only that Kuhlman's aims and goals have been achieved in the last fifty years, but also how similar those aims and goals are to the current ACRL Strategic Plan. 2 In- deed, A. F. Kuhlman would probably be amazed, surely gratified, at how far aca- demic librarians have come since the days when he did battle with ALA Executive Secretary Carl Milam (1920-48) and the ALA establishment. For Kuhlman and his colleagues were anything but reticent about ALA's neglect of matters that con- cerned academic librarians. At the heart of the disagreement was the ALA headquarters staff's lack of under- standing of the nature of higher education and the academic library's relationship to scholarship and learning. Academic li- brarians believed the way to success in the academic library was to be more like the faculty, interested in scholarship, con- cerned about teaching, and devoted to re- search and publication. In that effort C&RL was to play a crucial role. As David Kaser, one of Kuhlman's successors as ed- Edward G. Holley is Professor at the School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3360. 11 12 College & Research Libraries itor (1963-69) later commented, '' C&RL was a periodical intended at once to be [ACRL' s] news bulletin, scholarly journal, and its forum. '' 3 At various stages it served all three functions well. Today, af- ter the spin-off of the news to College & Re- search Libraries News in 1966, C&RL is pri- marily a scholarly journal, indeed often the most cited and highly rated among all the scholarly periodicals in the field of li- brarianship. 4 But ACRL and C&RL have been a long time reaching that eminent position. ACADEMIC LIBRARIANS AND ALA: THEACRLBACKGROUND Despite the fact that college and univer- sity librarians had formed the first ALA section in 1889, there is little doubt that public librarians dominated the associa- tion's leadership well into the second half of the twentieth century. True, the first three ALA presidents could be regarded as academ'ic types: Justin Winsor (1876-85), who had been Boston public li- brarian for nine years before transferring his allegiance across the river to Harvard in 1877; William Frederick Poole (1885-87), whose strong commitment to the public library did not preclude histori- cal scholarship; and Charles Ammi Cutter (1887-89), librarian at the Boston Athe- naeum, whose ''delicate and accurate scholarship" in his famous catalog was well recognized in the scholarly commu- nity. But it was chiefly to the rapidly ex- panding public libraries that the associa- tion looked for leadership during its first 100 years; it was public library concerns that occupied most of the association's at- tention. Of course there were scholars who as- sumed the presidency of ALA during its first century, e.g., Reuben Gold Thwaites, William Warner Bishop, Louis Round Wilson, but their presence did not alter ALA priorities. As Wayne Wiegand has noted, there were 45 public librarians among the first 100 ALA presidents (1876-1986), outnumbering academic li- brarians 2.6 to 1. 5 After World War I academic librarians expressed increasing disillusion with ALA's neglect. Criticism began to be . January 1989 voiced after William Warner Bishop's presidency (1918-19) and the failed ALA effort in 1919-20 to secure funds for mas- sive improvement in library ser-Vice . This ''Enlarged Library Program'' has been de- scribed by historian Dennis Thomison as ALA's short-lived experiment as a welfare organization. 6 For the next two decades academic li- brarians' dissatisfaction grew until it fi- nally culminated in the birth of ACRL in 1938. THE COLLEGE AND REFERENCE LIBRARY SECTION From its beginning in '1889, the ALA College Library Section was mainly a small discussion group of academic library administrators. To accommodate refer- ence librarians, the section changed its name to the College and Reference Library Section in 1897. However, though the sec- tion began electing officers early in the twentieth century, it remained small until 1923 when it adopted its first set of by- laws. Growth was rapid after that, from 90 members in 1923 to 800 members in 1928, though membership declined after 1928. Still, throughout the twenties, the College and Reference Library Section had obvi- ously begun to attract attention. Growth of the section doubtless reflected both the changes in American higher education and the growth of colleges and universi- ties in the first quarter of the. century. With larger enrollments came expanded li- braries and more librarians. 11 Many academic librarians-both behind the scenes and occasionally in public-began to argue for a stronger professional organization that would emphasize bibliographic and schol- arly activity to meet their needs in serving an expanding higher educa- tion community.'' The section's programs reflected peren- nial issues in academic librarianship: per- sonnel and faculty status, teaching stu- dents the use of the library, standards, interlibrary loans, and on- and off-campus services. Though formal and informal dis- cussion of these issues continued until 1938 (and indeed throughout ACRL's fifty-year history}, many academic librarians-both behind the scenes and oc- casionally in public-began to argue for a stronger professional organization that would emphasize bibliographic and schol- arly activity to meet their needs in serving an expanding higher education commu- nity. In 1921 Ernest J. Reece and his library school students began a series of articles, "College Library News," in the Library journal. The articles offered current infor- mation on personnel changes, publica- tions, buildings, gifts, and appointments for the period covered. This series contin- ued through the midforties. C&RL began publishing the series in 1943 but dropped it in 1945. Other events in the twenties promoted a sense of need for a stronger forum for aca- demic librarians. George Works' book, College and University Library Problems (1927}, the result of a survey financed by the Carnegie Corporation, drew attention to the status of academic libraries and had a tremendous impact on librarians and some university administrators. The emergence of the Graduate Library School (GLS) at the University of Chicago, another major Carnegie venture, offered both hope and skepticism in the library community. GLS aimed to prepare lead- ers through a program of research at the Ph.D. level, and thus do for librarianship what Harvard had done for law and John Hopkins for medicine, to use Carnegie fresident Keppel's phrase. The first significant open disagreement with ALA came from Frederick Telford's study of library staff classification and pay plans in the midtwenties. ALA had em- ployed Telford to do for librarians what was already being done by the federal government for civil service workers: de- fine jobs and establish pay scales. 7 What happened was a not-so-subtle revolt of the academic librarians in ALA. They believed that Telford didn't understand academia (he didn't) and that a plan that might work well for public librarians would not work ACRL' s Fiftieth Anniversary 13 at all for academic librarians. Conse- quently a subcommittee was appointed, under the leadership of Charles Harvey Brown (1875-1960}, to develop a supple- mentary plan for librarians in higher edu- cation. Charlie Brown, who would later defend a higher status for academic librar- ians in the "Library" section of the U.S. Bureau of Education's massive study of land grant colleges and universities (1930}, went to work with typical zeal and developed a separate report-Budgets, Classification, and Compensation Plans for University and College Libraries (1929)- adopted as a supplement to the Telford plan for public librarians. By the late twenties the section began to consider its future seriously. High among its priorities were bibliographic tools and a publication that would address the spe- cific needs of academic librarians. Thus began the short-lived College and Reference Library Yearbook (1929-31). The Yearbook was dropped after only three years, osten- sibly because it didn't pay its way (proba- bly a result of the Great Depression) but also because a suitable editor couldn't be found . The Carnegie Corporation, responsible for GLS' emergence, also expanded its in- terest in academic libraries. 8 The Corpora- tion sponsored surveys, standards, book collections, and basic book lists by under- writing the Charles Shaw and Foster Mohrhardt predecessors to Books for Col- lege Libraries. The corporation's efforts gave added emphasis to the ALA's ne- glect of such matters . These activities have been well covered in Neil Radford' s book The Carnegie Corporation and the Develop- . ment of American College Libraries, 1928-1941, ACRL Publications in Librari- anship, no.44. Partly in response to the unrest among academic librarians, especially their re- quest for a college library specialist at headquarters (turned down for financial reasons}, ALA established a College Li- brary Advisory Board (CLAB) in 1931. De- spite the board's membership of librarians from such notable institutions as Michi- gan (Bishop); Vassar (Borden); Iowa State (Charles Brown); and Penn State (Lewis}, the board was not very effective, chiefly 14 College & Research Libraries for financial reasons, according to Rad- ford, but also because of lack of interest on the part of ALA headquarters staff, ac- cording to Blanche McCrum (1887-1969), Washington & Lee University librarian, who found her services as chair of CLAB frustrated by headquarters. 9 CLAB did not stop the growing discon- tent in the thirties as the Carnegie Corpo- ration, chiefly influenced by Bishop at Michigan and Louis Round Wilson at GLS, invested not only in research and bibliographic compilations but also in grants for college library book collections. In 1932 university library directors dis- banded their recently formed Administra- tors Round Table in favor of a separate As- sociation of Research Libraries where they could discuss problems of large libraries. By the midthirties a number of leading academic librarians were pushing for a re- organization of ALA to reflect the diverse interests of the association through stronger subunits. In 1936 the section ap- proved a committee under Brown's lead- ership to study reorganization. The ACRL Organization Manual (1956) called the Brown committee's report of 1937 "the key document of ACRL history.' ,to Accep- tance of the report was to result not only in "a radical reorganization" of the section (Brown's phrase), renaming it the Associ- ation of College and Reference Libraries in 1938, but also in ACRL' s becoming the first ALA division in 1940. The restructured ALA emerged from implementation of the report of its Third Activities Committee, which Brown also headed immediately upon completion of his report on the College and Reference Li- brary Section. Brown had served on the Second Activities Committee and subse- quently was to be ALA president in 1940-41, so he could see that his four years' work on ALA restructuring was neither neglected. nor hindered by head- quarters. The ALA activities committees were an outgrowth of criticism leveled by that per- ennial gadfly and founder of the separate Special Libraries Association, John Cotton Dana. In 1919 Dana, in a stinging criti- cism, had said that the chief ALA problem was ''the lack of brains on the part of the January 1989 members.'' He followed that criticism with another letter in 1927 that was highly critical of ALA's efforts in library educa- tion. The result had been the first Activi- ties Committee, which reported in 1930, and another activities committee that re- ported in 1934. Neither the first nor the second committees' recommendations had resulted in significant organizational change, however. The Third Activities Committee was different, though the results would not be apparent for a dec- ade. The difference came from the political skills of Charles Harvey Brown and, sub- sequently, ACRL's 1945-46 president, Blanche Prichard McCrum. While the Third Activities Committee's achievement was, in form, the "radical re- organization" that Brown intended, it never resulted in a federation-type organi- zation that brought in separate library as- sociations like SLA in an umbrella ar- rangement, as Brown desired. The reorganization did give major ALA units semiautonomous status, however, and, after ACRL's threatened secession in 1946, an executive secretary of its own- the long-desired college library specialist at headquarters. 11 Subsequently, despite the partial success of the Cresap, McCor- mick, and Paget management/organiza- tional study in the midfifties, and the fail- ure of ACRL President Ralph Ellsworth's second attempt at secession in the early sixties, ALA did move toward stronger di- visions.12 Much later, after the turmoil of the late sixties and early seventies, realis- tic self-determination came only after the chan9e in the ALA dues structure in 1974. LEADERSHIP: PRESIDENTS AND EXECUTIVE SECRETARIES The obvious leader for the new Associa- tion of College and Reference Libraries (the name was changed to Association of College and Research Libraries in 1957, when the reference librarians departed to form their own division) was Charles Har- vey Brown. When Brown declined to be selected as ACRL' s first president, it was not because he was reluctant to assume that responsibility. His reasons were. clear: he wanted to see the recommenda- tions of the Third Activities Committee implemented, and he did not intend to leave that to chance. What he did was to convince Frank K. Walter to become the first ACRL president and thus assure con- tinuation of the thrust that had already been established. Correspondence in the ALA archives and in Brown's other letters indicates well his manipulation of the pro- cess. He had conducted an exhaustive sur- vey of the ALA membership, spoken and written extensively on ALA restructuring, and was confident that decentralization of ALA was desired by the membership as well as desirable for academic librarians. Fortunately for him (though fortune prob- ably had little to do with it), Brown was elected ALA vice-president in 1939 and served as president in 1940-41. Thus he was in the enviable position of assuring that his reorganization plan was carried out. In J. Victor Baldridge's terms, Charlie Brown was truly a ''Machiavellian change agent'' for ALA and ACRL. 14 In the intervening fifty years, ACRL has had some remarkable leaders. After the secession movement of 1946, led by Blan- che McCrum and Ralph Ellsworth, there were frequent tensions between ACRL and ALA. Many members did not believe that ACRL could trust the parent ALA to do the right thing by its major division. The strongest of that group was undoubt- edly Ralph Ellsworth, the only person to have served two terms as ACRL president (1951-52; 1961-62). A leader in the 1946 battle, Ellsworth was a frequent ALA critic. In an oft-quoted article, "Critique of Library Associations in America,'' in Li- brary Quarterly (1961) on the eve of his sec- ond ACRL presidency, Ellsworth reiter- ated his criticisms of the organization. 15 While recognizing the importance of ALA's battles for intellectual freedom, federal legislation, international relations, and the welfare of all librarians, he also thought the organization was too bureau- cratic, too big, and too indifferent to spe- cialized interests of academic, public, and special librarians. He argued once more for ALA as a workable federation of library associations. In response to this critique, ALA Execu- tive Director David Clift noted that ACRL' s Fiftieth Anniversary 15 Ellsworth would soon have the opportu- nity to try to bend ALA to his will, because he would shortly be ACRL president again. Ellsworth himself did not think that would occur, and it didn't. 16 His dream of a separate ACRL and a federation of li- brary associations was delayed another decade, until the ALA changed its dues structure, transcended the old arguments, and became, in fact if not in theory, a fed- eration. That old attitudes die slowly was clear to this author when he joined several per- sons to testify before the ALA Executive Board in support of ACRL' s request to hold a second national conference. Talk of secession if the board declined to grant permission was again in the air on the night before the meeting-political naivete. Few boards willingly confront a phalanx of distinguished representatives from their largest unit without giving them what they want. The ALA Executive Board usually backs down under strong protests from its smallest unit; there was no likelihood of turning down a request from its major division. What kind of persons have led ACRL in the last fifty years? Among the leaders one should certainly include presidents and executive secretaries, but also those who have edited its journal, C&RL. An exami- nation of the leaders' backgrounds and in- terests is revealing (see appendix A for a list of ACRL presidents and executive se- cretaries/ directors). From the beginning, university librari- ans have been the most numerous among ACRL presidents. Starting with Frank K. Walter at the University of Minnesota and continuing through Joseph W. Boisse at the University of California-Santa Bar- bara, in 1988-89, they constitute a remark- ably strong group of leaders-this despite the competition from ARL, which, it has often been said, drained ACRL of the real · academic library leadership. Of course not all of these presidents came from ARL li- braries, but many have-including anum- ber of the most recent presidents. Not surprising, in view of the fact that approximately fifty percent of the mem- bership comes from university libraries, those institutions account for 35 of the 50 16 College & Research Libraries persons who have served as ACRL presi- dents. 17 Eight came from college libraries, one from a community college library, two each from public libraries and other types of libraries, and two from library schools. Of the college librarians, three were from women's colleges. Most of the ACRL presidents have been library directors. Five ACRL presidents have subse- quently been elected ALA presidents, as has one ACRL executive director. WOMEN AND MINORITIES IN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS In a gender-conscious age, one should note that only sixteen of the presidents have been women, though six of those served in succession from 1982-1988. Beverly Lynch, who became executive secretary in 1972, was the first woman to hold that office. Since that time all execu- tive secretaries/directors (the title was changed to executive director in 1980-81) have been women. For reasons not clear to this author, no woman has ever served as editor of College & Research Libraries nor has one ever served as editor of ACRL Publications in Li- brarianship. However, one should note that a number of gender studies indicate that women librarians have not been as ac- tive in publishing as men. Cline's study indicated that males accounted for an overwhelming 80 percent of the contribut- ing authors and 73 percent of the cited au- thors in C&RL during its first forty years. 18 Two well-known reference librarians, Mabel L. Conat, Detroit Public Library, and Winifred Ver Nooy, University of Chicago (and the 1944-45 president who initiated the protest of 1945-46), have served as president. Female presidents from college libraries are Blanche McCrum (Wellesley); Eileen Thornton (Oberlin); Helen Brown (Wellesley); and Anne Ed- monds (Mount Holyoke). Two black persons have served as presi- dent: Joseph H. Reason of Howard Uni- versity and the late Louise Giles from Ma- comb County Community College, Michigan. EXECUTIVE SECRETARIES/DIRECTORS One of the strong arguments for sepa- January 1989 rate status had included the need of hav- ing a college library specialist at ALA headquarters. Many persons familiar with ALA's bureaucracy believe that ACRL has been especially fortunate, not only in the quality of persons serving as executive se- cretaries/directors but also in capable headquarters staff who did not stay too long, as did two ALA executive secre- taries, Carl Milam and David Clift. The first executive secretary, N. Orwin Rush, stayed only two years (1947-49). He was succeeded by "young Arthur Hamlin, fresh from the University of Pennsylvania,'' under those tenure new publications emerged, including the first ACRL monograph in hard cover, Charlie Brown's Scientific Serials (1956). Hamlin served for seven years (1949-56). Both Richard D. Harwell, 1957-61, and J. Donald Thomas, 1968-72 (the period of the revolting librarians), served four year terms. Mark Gormley, 1961-62, and Jo- seph Reason, 1962-63, were really interim executives. George Bailey, 1963-68, served five years as did Beverly Lynch, 1972-77. The three women executives, Beverly Lynch; Julio Virgo, 1977-84; and JoAn Se- gal, 1984- , have served during a time of transition for ALA divisions and a pe- riod of extraordinary growth for ACRL. During their tenure the publications pro- grams, standards and guidelines, policy and planning documents, continuing ed- ucation programs, and the national con- ferences have either been initiated or ex- panded. The executives have also been effective in seeking and maintaining divi- sional relationships with other profes- sional and scholarly associations in higher education, a matter often talked about but frequently overlooked in the face of more pressing concerns. While terms of seven years or less may be a cause for congratulation, short terms are scarcely the chief reason for their suc- cess. Each person has brought a strong background in academia and has under- stood the aims and goals of academic li- brarians. Each has also been supported by strong presidents and vice presidents. Housed as they were at ALA headquar- ters, each executive also had to balance the unique ACRL interests against the inter- ests of ALA as a whole-often not an easy task. Nor was strengthening the ties be- tween chapters and ACRL headquarters easy, since visits and speeches by staff and ACRL presidents are both necessary and time-consuming. By any objective stan- dard leadership at headquarters has been excellent. One can only be amazed that so much good work is done by so f~w per- sons. .~~Kuhlman aimed for C&RL to be both a communications medium and a vehicle for scholarship.'' PUBLICATIONS AND THEIR EDITORS College & Research Libraries Kuhlman aimed for C&RL to be both a communications medium and a vehicle for scholarship. Initially, the journal did both, first under Kuhlman himself (1939-41), then under Carl M. White (1941-48), followed by the long-term edi- tor Maurice F. Tauber (1948-62). Begun as a quarterly, C&RL became a bi- monthly in 1956. Tauber's successors in- clude a series of well-known librarians who worked steadily to improve the qual- ity and scholarship of the articles: Richard B. Harwell, David Kaser, Richard M. Dougherty, Richard D. Johnson, C. James Schmidt, and Charles Martell. During the expansion of higher education in the six- ties, ACRL approved a separate publica- tion for the news section. ACRL News, later renamed College & Research Libraries News was first published in March 1966. In its 22 years of existence C&RL News has grown to an incredible 7 48 pages per year and now publishes opinion pieces and short research articles, as well as news, ads, and official ACRL information eleven times a year. Meanwhile, C&RL, con- tinues as a bimonthly of approximately 650 pages a year. Gloria S. Cline, in evaluating C&RL's first forty years, noted that the journal has been a leading library science periodical since it first appeared. 19 She also reported that C&RL' s scholarliness improved over the period 1939-79 so that it compares very favorably with journals in other disci- ACRL' s Fiftieth Anniversary 17 plines, especially in numbers of references per article and in up-to-date citations. Pos- itive changes have occurred in the quality of manuscripts accepted and cited, and also in adhering to other high standards of scholarly publishing. But Cline found a weak core of produc- tive authors: only 17 out of 4,000 cited au- thors appeared often enough to be consid- ered an "author core." Of those, three of the most cited were also leading contribu- tors to C&RL. Six who contributed ten or more articles during the forty-year period include the familiar names of Robert Downs, Keyes Metcalf, Robert Muller, Ralph Ellsworth, Ralph Shaw, and Maurice Tauber. Also, though there was increasing collaborative authorship (a no- table factor in science publishing) in the seventies, the vast majority of articles dur- ing the period had no coauthors. · Other ACRL Series Two other series came into being in the fifties. The first was ACRL Monographs, de- signed, as Maurice Taubor had suggested, for papers either too long for C&RL or too limited in interest for the journal. The first monograph (1952), a photo offset item that sold at $.35 was Joe W. Kraus "Wil- liam Beer and the New Orleans Libraries, 1891-1927." Over the years the mono- graph editorial board, while highly selec- tive in the titles chosen (only forty-five have appeared in thirty-six years), did in- clude a number of collections of essays. Therefore, in the early seventies, the edi- torial board decided to change the title to ACRL Publications in Librarianship. While the series is ecletic, most of the titles have been well received by reviewers. The second series, initiated under Law- rence S. Thompson's editorship, was the ACRL Microcard Series. Chiefly a collec- tion of master's theses and papers from li- brary schools, the microcard series lasted from 1953 to 1969, and served, according to Charles Hale, ''as an outlet for aspiring young college librarians.'' In 1980 the College Libraries Section be- gan a new series called Clip Notes (Col- lege Library Information Packets), con- taining ''data and sample documents from academic libraries to assist librarians 18 College & Research Libraries in establishing or refining services and op- erations." Ten have now appeared. Like other ACRL series titles, CLIP Notes has been highly successful. Another major contribution ACRL has made to academic library advancement is the publication of library statistics. Non- Association of Research Libraries univer- sity statistics have been published every other year since 1978. ACRL has also pub- lished HEGIS data collected by the federal government in 1984 and 1986. The Associ- ation also collected and published statis- tics of some colleges and universities in an out-of-series mode in 1984 and 1986. The latter series will reportedly not be contin- ued. In the decline of federal government publication of library statistics, ACRL' s provision of accurate comparative statisti- cal data has been welcome. Choice and Books for College Libraries Perhaps no publications have served a more useful function than Choice and Books for College Libraries. By the mid- sixties, when the Great Society programs were just beginning, ACRL had already been at work for five years on a review journal to help college librarians and fac- ulty in their selection of the best books for college libraries. Access to a high quality faculty who could assist in the reviewing led to Choice's location in Middletown, Connecticut, near the Wesleyan Univer- sity campus. Thanks to a grant from the Council on Library Resources, the first issue of Choice: Books for College Libraries, appeared in March 1964. Under the editorship of Rich- ard Gardner, Choice quickly earned a place of importance among the book reviewing media. Drawing upon the expertise of fac- ulty for subject reviews and librarians for reference reviews, the magazine focused attention on authoritative evaluation of new titles for the expanding enrollments in colleges and universities. A recent arti- cle indicated that Choice reviewed more books per year (about 6,600) than any other publication. Especially popular was the spinoff Choice Opening Day Collection, a list of about 1,800 titles regarded by the ed- January 1989 itors of Choice as essential in any new col- lege library. Soon after Choice began publication, ALA published a major bibliographical tool, Books for College Libraries (BCL). The current reviews of academic books pub- lished in Choice was foreseen as a comple- mentary, supplemental service to a basic booklist. There had long been a desire for a successor to the Shaw and Mohrhardt lists. The establishment of new campuses in the University of California system had led to compilation of a basic list of titles un- der the editorship of Melvin J. Voigt and Joseph H. Treyz. This list of 53,000 titles became the basis for the first edition of BCL, published in 1967. ACRL and ALA Publishing collaborated on the next two editions, 1975 and 1988. The latest edition, with understandable hyperbole, is adver- tised as ''the most authoritative academic library collection development and evalu- ation tool available today." In a six- volume format, as well as online and on magnetic tape, BCL3 will likely be as pop- ular and useful as its predecessors. In this way ACRL has fulfilled one of its major purposes. STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES Important for academic librarians over the years has been the development of standards for college library collections and standards and guidelines for library personnel. Not surprisingly, standards and guidelines remain a major priority for ACRL's membership. ACRL standards and guidelines have had a strong impact on higher education, despite the fact that regional accrediting agencies have not been willing to adopt the ACRL standards as their own. None- theless, accreditation visiting teams often take note of how a college has used such documents. Moreover, a number of higher education boards used the earlier "Standards for College Libraries," (1959) as a measuring device for improving their state-supported college libraries, just as they have used the 1975 standards, and no doubt will use the 1986 revision, for the same purpose. Board staffs routinely refer to the ACRL standards as the "ALA Stan- dards," which may deny ACRL the credit but is technically correct since ALA dele- gates to its divisions responsibility for standards in their individual areas of ex- pertise. The 1975 Standards for College Li- braries broadened evaluation to include staff and space as well as collections, and have had a salutary effect in encouraging states with weaker college libraries to up- grade their library resources and services. The College Library Standards apply to those four-year colleges and universities with only modest work at the graduate level. There are also standards and guide- lines for two-year colleges and for univer- sities. Although measuring the impact may be difficult, this author believes that both the standards and the various guidelines have resulted in significant progress for small colleges and medium-sized universities, but probably have had less success in large universities. ''The battle to secure a vital role for the library in the teaching and re- search process is never ending.'' The standards and guidelines most diffi- cult to develop and maintain have been those involving personnel. The long battle of academic librarians for faculty/ aca- demic status has, at best, been only mod- erately successful. The debate over faculty status in the fifties between Robert B. Downs, a firm believer, and some other university librarians (at best, skeptical), resulted in a collection of essays published as ACRL monograph no. 22, The Status of American College and University Librarians, in 1958. ACRL adopted the Downs ap- proach of full faculty status as the ideal. However, convincing academic adminis- trators to adopt even the halfway house of academic status was hard fought, while full faculty status with rank and titles has not been achieved in most research uni- versities. Moreover, there has clearly been some retrogression in the late seventies and early eighties. ACRL' s Fiftieth Anniversary 19 In 1975 ACRL published Faculty Status for Academic Libraries, a collection of policy statements and articles in defense of fac- ulty status. A new edition, Academic Sta- tus: Statements and Resources, has just ap- peared in 1988. In the current climate of higher education one can predict that the battle for academic librarians to maintain their status and position on campus will continue. Unfortunately, their colleagues, especially administrative colleagues (sometimes even library directors), are of- ten their worst enemies. As the above par- agraphs indicate, the battle to secure a vi- tal role for the library in the teaching and research process is never ending. CONFERENCES AND AWARDS Over the fifty-year period, the ACRL presentations at ALA conferences have at- tracted increasing numbers of registrants. · In recent years the ACRL President's Pro- gram has suffered from the same problem of all similar organizations: how does one plan a program on a substantive topic that embraces everyone, from the neophyte from library school to the sophisticated and experienced professional? The an- swer is "with difficulty." The result has been to focus more attention on the pro- gram of ACRL' s fourteen sections, but even there the large numbers can present a problem. Section programs generally result in good attendance because of their more specific topics. To communicate ef- fectively with members, all except two sections have now begun newsletters and the other two are giving consideration to some form of publication. Since the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section's preconference programs began in 1958, the unit has attracted such interest that it has had to limit attendance. RBMS conference papers and symposia have of- ten been published, adding significantly to the literature in this important area. Recognizing the growing importance of its Rare Books and Manuscripts Section in 1987, ACRL began publishing a new semi- annual serial, Rare Books and Manuscripts Librarianship. Preconference continuing education courses are now a regular part of ACRL's 20 College & Research Libraries programs at ALA, as they are for a number of other ALA divisions. They have grown in popularity, as more and more members recognize their need for updating skills in the bibliographic instruction, manage- ment, and technology areas. ACRL was the first division to conduct a national conference apart from the ALA conferences. The Boston conference, in 1978, was designed for presentation and discussion of research and professional papers of high quality and no business ses- sions. With an attendance of over 2,600, the 1978 conference exceeded expecta- tions. Subsequent conferences have been held in Minneapolis (1981), Seattle (1984), and Baltimore (1986). By all accounts the conferences have succeeded in presenting current issues and research results well, though research papers have been fewer 'than professional papers. At the fortieth anniversary conference in 1978, ACRL, with support from the Baker & Taylor Company, presented its first annual ACRL Academic or Research Librarian of the Year Award to two giants in the profession: Robert B. Downs and Keyes D. Metcalf. Two other pioneers, Henriette D. A vram and Frederick G. Kil- gour, shared this honor in 1979, ·but the following years have seen the award made to only one person. In 1921 friends of Eunice Rockwood Oberly established a memorial award to honor the compiler of the best bibliogra- phy in the field of agriculture. ACRL now administers this biennial award, which technically might be called ACRL' s oldest. However, the Academic or Research Li- brarian of the Year was ACRL' s first major award. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS: PLANNING In 1982 ACRL established an Academic and Research Libraries Personnel Study Group to assess the division's current per- sonnel programs and priorities . This group commissioned Allen B. Veaner to prepare a paper focusing on "working li- brarians, not chief administrators," in light of changes taking place in the aca- demic libraries' environment. Veaner's paper, "1985 to 1995: The Next Decade in January 1989 Academic Librarianship ,'' was published in the May and July 1985 issues of C&RL, 'with comments by four librarians. 20 His observations on the types of knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes which aca- demic librarians will need during the dec- ade have led to considerable discussion, especially among library educators, and have contributed to ACRL' s planning pro- cess. Strategic planning the current buzzword in academia and the corporate world, has had its impact on ACRL. Plan- ning for the decade began in 1981 when ACRL appointed an Ad Hoc Committee on an Activity Model for 1990. 21 Soon thereafter ACRL mission, goals, and ob- jectives were adopted; afterwards an ACRL Strategic Planning Task Force was appointed to develop a strategic plan. At the 1986 ALA Conference, the task force presented the results of its work to the ACRL Board of Directors, which adopted it. The plan's basis came from top priorities identified by the ACRL member- ship: publications, continuing education, standards and guidelines, alliance with other professional and scholarly associa- tions, and chapters. 22 The introductory mission statement reads well in the light of ACRL' s history: ''The mission of the Association of Col- lege and Research Libraries (ACRL) is to foster the profession of academic and re- search libraries to serve effectively the li- brary and information needs of current and potential users." Major goals for carrying out the plan are 1. To contribute to the total professional de- velopment of academic and research librarians, 2. To enhance the capability of academic and research libraries to serve the needs of users, 3. To promote and speak for the interests of academic and research librarianship, and 4. To promote study, research and publica- tion relevant to academic and research librari- anship. (C&RL News, January 1987). One reads this summary report with a keen sense of appreciation for how well the task force accomplished its work. Not only has the task force outlined subgoals and strategies in clearly understood prose, but they have also analyzed the As- sociation~ s strengths and external envi- ronment in a commendable way. It is easy to concur with their own assessment, ''We now have a clear sense of our mis- sion, a strong set of goals for the next five years, specific objectives, and strategies for meeting them.' ' 23 The ACRL Board has also initiated procedures to review the plan annually. Another heartening aspect of ACRL' s recent activities is its leadership in ALA di- visional planning. ACRL, with support from the ALA Goals Award, managed the first divisional leadership enhancement program in 1984. The association has con- tinued to work closely with other divi- sions in hammering out a new operating agreement with ALA. The strategic plan points out the significance of ACRL' s po- sition within ALA "not only in the sym- bolic recognition of the importance of one association for all types of libraries and li- brary activities, but also in dollars .... " The willingness to improve relationships and to recognize those common goals of all librarians as well as carry out goals spe- cific to types of libraries and library activi- ties augurs well for ACRL' s future. 11 ACRL has led the way in divisional national conferences, in continuing education and in noteworthy publi- cations.'' ACRL TODAY: CELEBRATION The facts are clear. ACRL on its fiftieth anniversary is far and away the largest, the most effective, and most prosperous of the ALA divisions. Representing al- most one-fourth of the total ALA member- ship, ACRL has led the way in divisional national conferences, in continuing edu- cation, and in noteworthy publications. Among the separate library/information as- sociations in the country, only the Special Libraries Association has a larger mem- bership, by a thousand or so members. A 1983 ALA Yearbook article noted that ACRL' s membership placed it as the fifth largest library association in the world! ACRL' s Fiftieth Anniversary 21 Organizationally, the ACRL of today re- minds one of the ALA itself. ACRL is a complex organization with a strong pro- grammatic thrust. There are now 14 sec- tions, all with vigorous and active pro- grams; 39 chapters; 17 discussion groups; 49 ACRL level committees plus numerous section and discussion group committees; an active publishing program that would do justice to any major professional asso- ciation; and a continuing education pro- gram both at ALA conferences, among chapters, and in grant-funded confer- ences for improving the quality of human- ities programs in libraries. ACRL has a sound budget plan and a firm financial base. In 1988-89 there will be a headquarters staff of about ten FTE, and a general budget of $1.1 million. At Middletown, Connecticut, Choice will have a staff of twenty and a budget of $1.4 million. Reserve funds for major projects like new editions of the BCL are approxi- mately half a million dollars. With a membership of 9,044 personal and 1,126 organizational members (as of August 31, 1988), ACRL is in a strong posi- tion to celebrate the accomplishments of its first fifty years. ACRL: ANTICIPATION From the above recital, one can certainly conclude that ACRL members have a firm foundation for ''Building on the First Cen- tury.'' The fifth national conference in Cincinnati is an appropriate place to launch ACRL' s next 100 years, as cochair Martha Bowman has noted. Looking at the current and proposed ACRL programs one would be hard put to argue that the di- vision is precluded from doing anything it wants to do. The battle for autonomy in its own programs, with its own staff, budg- ets, and conferences, is over. In the un- likely event of a major challenge, any fu- ture ALA Executive Board would clearly be the loser and so would the library pro- fession. One can argue persuasively, as Charlie Brown, Blanche McCrum, Ralph Ellsworth, and other academic librarians did, that librarianship needs an umbrella organization for common concerns such as access to information, nationallegisla- 22 College & Research Libraries tion/funding, intellectual freedom, public awareness, and personnel resources (the ALA Priorities). One can also argue, as they did, that library/information science needs separate units to serve specialized interests. ACRL contributes substantially to all of the ALA priorities in its specialized con- text, the academic library/information center. One need only mention the ACRL Standards for College Libraries recog- nized unofficially, if not officially, by ac- crediting bodies and various higher edu- cation boards. ACRL publications are regarded as a contribution to the schol- arly community, whether one is talking about the prestigious book selection jour- nal, Choic( , or the ACRL Publications in Librarianship Series, or the various pub- lications of the Rare Books and Manu- scripts Section. College & Research Li- braries has long been among the top research journals in the library/informa- tion science field. ACRL could now become a separate as- sociation if it wished, but there is little in- centive for it to do so. The future looks bright for the association's next hundred years. Charlie Brown, who used his politi- cal skills to secure a semiautonomous ACRL division under an umbrella ALA, and that small giant Blanche McCrum, whose "marching orders" sent her troops into the battle from which stems ACRL' s current success, would both be proud. January 1989 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE The sources used for this paper came from a variety of places which have not been cited unless there was some special reason to do so. There are numerous letters on the early ALA-ACRL controversies in the ALA Archives at the University of illi- nois, especially in the folders for the Col- lege Library Advisory Board and for College and Research Libraries. The author has not examined these files for the period beyond 1948. The documentary record for the pe- riod after 1949 is extensive. That period also covers the time of the author's involvement with ALA-ACRL, and this essay necessar- ily reflects his own interpretation of the events from that perspective. Particularly helpful are issues of the two journals, Col- lege & Research Libraries and C&RL News, as well as issues of the ALA Yearbook, 1976- . One should also not overlook the collection of C&RL articles edited by Richard D. Johnson for the ALA Centen- nial, Libraries for Teaching, Libraries for Re- search: Essays fora Century. Chicago: Ameri- can Library Assn., 1977. ACRL Publica- tions in Librarianship, no. 39. The definitive history of ACRL is yet to be written, but Charles Edward Hale's In- diana University dissertation, listed in the references, is a good starting place for ba- sic data. Perhaps as ACRL looks ahead to its next hundred years, the board might consider encouraging research on a defini- tive history of the association. REFERENCES AND NOTES 1. A. F. Kuhlman, "Introducing 'College & Research Libraries,' " College & Research Libraries 1:7-10 (Dec. 1939). 2. "ACRL's Strategic Plan: The Mission, Goals, and Objectives of the Association of College and Research Libraries," College & Research Libraries News 48:21-25 Oan. 1987). 3. David Kaser, "A Century of Academic Librarianship as Reflected in Its Literature," College & Re- search Libraries," 37:123 (Mar. 1986). 4. Gloria S. Cline, "College & Research Libraries: Its First Forty Years," College & Research Libraries 43:208-32 (May 1982). An excellent study based on her doctoral dissertation. 5. Wayne A. Wiegand and Dorothy Steffens, "Members of the Club: A Look at One Hundred ALA Presidents," University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science Occasional Papers, no. 182 (Apr. 1988), 30p. The reason that there were only 100 presidents in the 110-year period is that four persons served more than one term. 6. Dennis Thomison, A History of the American Library Association, 1876-1972 (Chicago: American Li- brary Assn., 1978), p.72-83. 7. Richard Rubin, ''A Critical Examination of the 1927 Proposed Classifications and Compensation Plan for Library Positions by the American Library Association," Library Quarterly 57:400-25 (Oct. 1987). ACRL' s Fiftieth Anniversary 23 8. Neil A. Radford, The Carnegie Corporation and the Development of American College Libraries, 1928-1941, ACRL Publications in Librarianship, no. 44 (Chicago: American Library Assn., 1984). 257p. 9. For example, see Blanche McCrum to Charles Harvey Brown, 9/14/35 and 1/21/36; Brown to Mc- Crum, 9/16/35 and 1/16/36, ALA Archives, University of Illinois, College Library Advisory Board, 22/2/5, Box 1. 10. Association of College and Reference Libraries, ACRL Organization Manual. (Chicago, American Library Assn., 1956), p.8. 11. These events are discussed at some length in Edward G. Holley, "Charles Harvey Brown," in Wayne A. Wiegand, ed., Leaders in American Academic Librarianship: 1925-1975, p.28-36, Beta Phi Mu Chapbook 16, distributed by American Library Association for Beta Phi Mu, 1983; and his "Mr. ACRL: Charles Harvey Brown (1875-1960)," Journal of Academic Librarianship 7:271-78 (Nov. 1981). See also Betty Ruth Kondayan, "Blanche Prichard McCrum: A Small Giant," Journal of Aca- demic Librarianship 8:73 (May 1982), and her "Blanche Prichard McCrum," in Wiegand, p.201-3; Edward R. Johnson, "Ralph E. Ellsworth," in Wiegand, p.112-15; and Charles Edward Hale, "The Origin and Development of the Association of College and Research Libraries, 1889-1960" (Ph.D. diss., Indiana Univ., July 1976), p.155-66. Hale's dissertation is a valuable compilation of data on the association, its programs, and its organization for the period covered. 12. Thomison, p.195-203. See also Ralph Ellsworth, Ellsworth on Ellsworth . .. (Metuchen, N.J.: Scare- crow, 1980), p.123-29. 13. Edward G. Holley, "Federation: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?," Library Journal 99:335-38 (Feb. 1, 1974). Holley and Frank B. Sessa, "The New Personal Dues Proposal," American Libraries 5:257-58 (May 1974). For recent report, see ACRL Executive Committee, "ALA and Its Divisions: Relationships Past, Present, and Future," College & Research Libraries News 48:318-320 (June 1987). 14. J. Victor Baldridge, "Rules for a Machiavellian Change Agent: Transforming the Entrenched Pro- fessional Organization,'' in J. Victor Baldridge and Terrence E. Deal, Managing Change in Educa- tional Organizations: Sociological Perspectives, Strategies, and Case Studies (Berkely: McCutchan, 1975), p.378-88. 15. Ralph E. Ellsworth, "Critique of Library Associations in America," Library Quarterly, 31:382-95 (Oct. 1961); with a reply by David Clift, 395-400. 16. Ellsworth on Ellsworth . .. , p.128. 17. Ralph Ellsworth served twice as ACRL president, and hence the number of presidents is fifty in- stead of fifty-one. 18. Cline, p.227. 19. Ibid., p.208-32. 20. Allen B. Veaner, "1985 to 1995: The Next Decade in Academic Librarianship, Part 1," College & Research Libraries 46:209-29 (May 1985); "1985-1995, Part II," 46:295-308 (July 1985) with "Reac- tions ... ," 46:309-19. · 21. JoAn S. Segal, "The Association of College and Research Libraries: What It Can Do For Academic Libraries in the 80s," Show-Me Libraries 36:11-12 (Oct./Nov. 1984). The ACRL articles in the ALA Yearbook also provide information on the planning process. 22. "ACRL's Strategic Plan ... ," p .23. 23. Ibid., p.25. APPENDIX A. ACRL PRESIDENTS (BEGINNING 1938)* 1938-1939 Frank K. Walter 1939-1940 Phineas L. Windsor 1940-1941 Robert B. Downs 1941-1942 Donald Coney 19(2-1943 Mabel L. Conat 1943-1944 Charles B. Shaw 1944-1945 Winifred Ver Nooy 1945-1946 Blanche Prichard McCrum 1946-1947 Errett Weir McDiarmid 1947-1948 William H. Carlson 1948-1949 Benjamin E. Powell 1949-1950 Wyllis E. Wright 1950-1951 Charles M. Adams 1951-1952 Ralph E. Ellsworth 1952-1953 Robert W. Severance 1953-1954 Harriet D. MacPherson 1954-1955 Guy R. Lyle 1955-1956 Robert Vosper 1956-1957 Robert W. Orr 1957-1958 Eileen Thorton *Formerly College Reference Section. Name changed by vote of section, June 1938. Approved by ALA Council, Dec. 1938. 24 College & Research Libraries 1958-1959 Lewis C. Branscomb 1959-1960 Wyman W. Parker 1960-1961 Edmon Low 1961-1962 Ralph E. Ellsworth 1962-1963 Katherine M. Stokes 1963-1964 Neal R. Harlow 1964-1965 Archie L. McNeal 1965-1966 Helen Margaret Brown 1966-1967 Ralph E. McCoy 1967-1968 James Humphrey III 1968-1969 David Kaser 1969-1970 Philip J. McNiff 1970-1971 Anne C. Edmonds 1971-1972 Joseph Reason 1972-1973 Russell Shank 1973-1974 Norman E. Tanis January 1989 1974-i975 H. William Axford 1975-1976 Louise Giles 1976-1977 Connie R. Dunlap 1977-1978 Eldred R. Smith 1978-1979 Evan L Farber 1979-1980 LeMoyne W. Anderson 1980-1981 Millicent D. Abell 1981-1982 David C. Weber 1982-1983 Carla J. Stoffle 1983-1984 Joyce Ball 1984-1985 Sharon J. Rogers 1985-1986 Sharon Anne Hogan 1986-1987 Hannelore Rader 1987-1988 Joanne Euster 1988-1989 Joseph A. Boisse APPENDIX B. ACRL EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS 1947-1949 N. Orwin Rush 1949-1956 Arthur T. Hamlin 1957-1961 Richard B. Harwell 1961-1962 Mark M. Gormley 1962-1963 Joseph H. Reason 1963-1968 1968-1972 1972-1977 1977-1984 1984- George M. Bailey J. Donald Thomas Beverly P. Lynch Julie A.C. Virgo JoAn S. Segal APPENDIX C. ACRL'S FOURTEEN SECTIONS Anthropology and Sociology Section (ANSS) Art Section (ARTS) Asian and African Section (AAS) Bilbiographic Instruction Section (BIS) College Libraries Section (CLS) Community and Junior College Libraries Section (CJCLS) Education and Behavioral Sciences Section (EBSS) Law and Political Science Section (LPSS) Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) Science and Technology Section (STS) Slavic and East European Section (SEES) University Libraries Section (ULS) Western European Specialists Section (WESS) Women's Studies Section (WSS)