toc 112 College & Research Libraries March 2001 Guest Editorial The Ties That Bind (December 31, 2000) I write this editorial on the cusp of the real millennium. There are no grand par­ ties planned. There will be no worldwide watch as midnight moves around the planet. We will not be riveted to the tele­ vision as we were last year as each com­ munity greeted the New Year. It will be a quiet turning of the page as we move into the new millennium and a future we can­ not even begin to imagine. The end of the year is always a period for wistful reflection. This year has special meaning for me. At midnight on Decem­ ber 31, 2000, the incomparable Betty Bengtson and I metaphorically will clink champagne glasses. She will retire after ten transformative years as director of univer­ sity libraries at the University of Washing­ ton. I will begin my tenure as the new di­ rector, standing on the shoulders of giants. In preparation, I have been cleaning out files, moving offices, and letting go of my former responsibilities and anticipating the new ones. When weeding my reprint file that spans two decades, I was struck by how quaint and old-fashioned many of the file names now seem—bibliographic instruction, BITNET, super catalogs, infor­ mation superhighway, virtual libraries, GUIs, Mosaic, CD-ROM networking, and LCS/FBR. However, there were some gems in those outdated files, and I want to share three of them with you. The first was a light-brown booklet, measuring 3 by 5 inches, with twenty-four yellowing pages. I nodded in concurrence as I read Five Objectives of a University Li- brary written by William E. Henry, librar­ ian at the University of Washington, in 1927.1 Reflecting on thirty years spent in a university library, Henry wrote that his “conclusions may be wrong. They are at least sincere.” With language that seems quirky, yet melodic, to the new millennium reader, he wrote eloquently of the five objectives of a univer­ sity library: • The objective of content • The objective of assembling and or­ ganizing • The objective of distribution for service • The objective of staff • The objective of housing for preser­ vation and service Henry concluded his essay with an ad­ monition to future generations: While each of these objectives pos­ sesses an individuality and a mean­ ing quite distinct, it still remains that each and all gain vital significance, not as an end in itself but as a means to one infinitely important end which is the purpose of all library service, namely: to put the indi­ vidual of the present in possession of the experience of the past in what­ ever line he may select and for the final good of the future. A smile came over my face when I found the file entitled WITS. Ten years ago, before the Web had transformed the way we work and live, I was part of an interdisciplinary group of women at the University of Illi­ nois at Urbana-Champaign. We gathered to discuss issues of “Women, Information Technology, and Scholarship” in one of those Victorian wooden houses still stand­ ing amidst the brick Georgian buildings on many Midwestern campuses. WITS was one of those totally satisfying experiences (which happens all too seldom) when we move out of our own professional circles to engage deeply with individuals from other parts of the university. After a heady semes­ ter of guest provocateurs and rambunctious discussions, we concluded the seminar by 112 Guest Editorial 113 defining our “ideal information technol­ ogy.” We wished the future would bring us: Technology that is mobile (interna­ tional, remote controllable, solar- powered, available as a lapel but­ ton), compact, flexible in size, per­ sonally customized, sensitive to us­ ers and to the environment, accom­ modating of multiple input and out­ put modes, and inexpensive. Technology that provides conceptual quilt piecing, nonlinear information coding, expert problem-solving sys­ tems, translations of jargon into under­ standable language, a broad array of information (including telephone num­ bers and household information), all languages, images, and retrieval cus­ tomized to one’s personal history. Learning and training is to be done through mentor mom, computer god­ dess, or parole officer models. We de­ sire that progress be monitored with feedback as one works (both within and between sessions, through an 800 e-mail number, and with split screens), compassionate and sympa­ thetic peers and teachers, active par­ ticipation in the learning process, and multiple learning modes. Technology where issues of privacy and control are manifested in technol­ ogy being a birthright, empowerment of the currently powerless, protection of personal information, the easy shar­ ing of ideas and information for all, and free access to basic services. In the decade since WITS, I now have some of what we wished for as I “beam” a business card from my handheld PDA to that of my colleague. The third gem I ran across was an editorial by Tom Gaughan in American Libraries entitled “Larger-than-life Li­ brarians, Part One.”2 He wrote of the late, great Hugh Atkinson who was larger than life while he lived and is even larger now. This one made me a little misty. Tom recounted Hugh’s trade­ mark motorcycle, his eye patch, his biker boots, his word play, and his eclec­ tic reading habits. I remember Hugh’s knack for hiring, inspiring, and mentoring (without them really know­ ing it until years later) future library leaders. I remember his office with that big oval table, but no desk. I remember his asking me in 1980 to imagine what libraries would be able to do when they would have the power of mainframes on individual desktops. As we sally forth into the new millen­ nium, we know that we will be living in times of deep change. The boldest of us will even try to predict the future. But as one wise soul said, “those who make crys­ tal ball predictions often end up eating glass.” It is my prediction that librarians at the end of the twenty-first century will look back on our writings, reflections, and predictions and find some gems such as I found in W.E. Henry’s words, Hugh’s ac­ tions, and the WITS collaboration. When it comes down to it, it is the influence of individuals and the relationships among them that build community and enable us to do work worth doing. Whether we experience their influence firsthand, learn from the stuff of legends, or connect through a faded pamphlet, these are the ties that bind and inspire us in a future we cannot even begin to imagine. BETSY WILSON President, ACRL and Director of University Libraries University of Washington Seattle, Washington Notes 1 . William E. Henry, Five Objectives of a University Library (Seattle: Univ. of Washington, 1927). 2 . 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