College and Research Libraries


50th Anniversary Feature-

''The Changing Role of Directors 
of University Libraries'': 

Introduction to a 
Reprint of a C&RL Classic 

When Arthur McAnally and Robert 
Downs wrote their essay they were con-
cerned about the "increasing number of 
incidents . . . which indicated that all was 
not well in the library directors' world." 
They cited a dramatic turnover among di-
rectors of Big Ten universities in 1971-72. 
At present, there are over fifteen vacant 
directorships among ARL libraries. 

A generation has passed, but much has 
remained the same. The pressures de-
scribed by the authors are as apparent 
now as when the article was first submit-
ted for publication. After my first reading, 
I knew their essay would be an important 
contribution to our professional literature, 
but little did I realize how important. 

The pressures McAnally and Downs 
identified have remained at the forefront 
and several have grown in intensity. Dis-
ciplines and their literatures have become 
more specialized, and this specialization 
has contributed to the continued rise in 
the cost of books and journals. And, yes, 
the information explosion is alive and 
well. Libraries are still plagued by hard 
times, and technology has accelerated or-
ganizational change and added a new ele-
ment of instability. 

In some ways, the environment has 
changed as well. The explosive growth in 
higher education enrollments has leveled 
out at most institutions. Unions are still 
present on some campuses, but their in-
fluence has not grown as the authors felt 
might occur. The current internal sources 
of pressure have not changed much: aca-

demic administrators who know much 
about libraries are still rare-libraries are 
still seen as financial bottomless pits; staff 
who seek ever greater roles in decision 
making still agitate; and faculty who are 
concerned about collections and services 
to support their programs still lobby. 

The authors felt that libraries were less 
able to meet needs than they had been in 
the 1960s, and that changing patterns of 
instruction and research were also adding 
new stresses to the organizational struc-
ture of university libraries. These pres-
sures continue to mount as new techno-
logical tools make it possible for users to 
consult libraries and catalogs without 
physically visiting the library. 

The advice offered by McAnally and 
Downs is as sound and fresh as the day it 
was written. We need to plan better, 
budget more effectively, be more innova-
tive in organizing library services, and fi-
nally, accept the reality that no library can 
stand on its own bottom. The rhetoric of 
resource sharing and cooperation still 
plays' well, but the reality of actual pro-
grams has not progressed much further 
than that of the world inhabited by the au-
thors. 

The greatest change that has occurred in 
the last fifteen years can be found in the fi-
nal paragraphs of the essay under the 
heading ''Qualities of a Model Director.'' 
The authors write, "The director must be 
more flexible and adaptable; the old cer-
tainties are being questioned or are gone, 
and the university library will continue to 

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306 College & Research Libraries 

undergo changes. He must be willing to 
accept change as a way of life, and be 
open-minded about alternatives" (em-
phasis is mine). The environment hasn't 
changed, but there has been a marked 
shift of gender in positions of responsibil-
ity. Problems remain the same, but we 
have definitely seen a passing of the ''old 
boys' club." -Richard M. Dougherty, Pro-

May 1989 

fessor in the School of Information and Library 
Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann 
Arbor, Michigan 48109-1092. 

''The Changing Role of Directors of Uni-
versity Libraries" by Arthur M. McAnally 
and Robert B. Downs appeared in College 
& Research Libraries 34, no.2:103-25 (March 
1973).-Ed. 

50TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR: 1939-1989 
IN JULY COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES 

Guest Editorial 
by Richard D. Johnson, former editor 

Foundations of Academic Librarianship 
by Michael Buckland 

Technology and the Future of Libraries 
by Susan K. Martin 

Research Patterns and Research Libraries: What Should Change? 
by Peter S. Graham 

The Censorship Phenomenon in College and Research Libraries: An Investigation of the 
Canadian Prairie Provinces, 1980-1985 

by Alvin M. Schrader, Margaret Herring, and Catriona de Scossa 
Genevieve Walton and Library Instruction at the Michigan State Normal College 

by Clare Beck