ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


69

ACLS Report on Research Libraries

The American Council of Learned So­
cieties Committee on Research Libraries 
has recently completed its report and for­
warded it to the National Advisory Com­
mission on Libraries. The following is from 
a preliminary statement on the study by its 
staff director Thomas P. Brockway, and is 
quoted here from the ACLS N ewsletter 
with permission.

W h ile it will b e  some weeks b efo re the 
A C L S Com m ittee report can b e  m ade avail­
able, the steps by w hich the report moves to 
the W h ite House, and the several stages by 
which recommended action is taken b y  the 
Congress or other body or agency, suggest 
that much more tim e m ay elapse before library 
problems are directly dealt with.

In the meantim e it may b e possible for re­
search libraries, th e scholars who use them, 
and the universities to go farther than they 
have gone to date to analyze the problems that 
must b e  faced, examine alternative solutions, 
and enter upon a course of action. (W h ile  the 
remarks th at follow refer to university libraries, 
th e A C L S Com m ittee of course considered 
the needs of all research libraries, and noted 
particularly the difficulties o f unaffiliated re­
search libraries with no contributory alumni 
and inadequate endowm ent.)

T he library journals often describe measures 
o f self-help b y  which individual libraries are 
attempting to overcome such lacks as the 
shortage of librarians. Doubtless considerable 
research must b e done b efore any long-term 
programs can be designed. However, while 
the library schools and the Association of R e ­
search Libraries gather data and analyze needs, 
the individual library can act if it has the 
support and collaboration of the university 
administration. T h e library m ay b e  able to 
increase the adequacy of its staff b y  such 
measures as job analysis, in-service training 
programs, the automation of library operations, 
leaves for summer institutes and graduate 
studies, etc. On the one hand job analysis 
would show th e extent to which trained librar­
ians are doing clerical work that m ight be 
satisfactorily performed by anyone after a 
moderate term of instruction. On the other 
hand it m ay b e possible to extend th e range 
of com petence in th e existing professional staff 
by planned leaves for special training and 
study.

W h at can the scholar do for the library? 
Traditionally the librarian maintains a formal 
relationship with the faculty through a com­
m ittee of departmental representatives. At a 
recent conference of research librarians such

committees w ere described as weak-minded, 
listless, dormant, and virtually funetionless. 
T h e  right of equal tim e need not b e  claimed, 
for the judgm ent was institutional rather than 
personal; and everyone will agree th at a com ­
m ittee m ust have a function and it must have 
responsibility if it is to serve any useful 
function.

W hether or not the librarian can bring his 
facu lty com m ittee to life, h e needs allies on 
the faculty, w hether h e is defending his budget 
or struggling with bibliographical puzzles. 
Interdisciplinary studies confront the librarian 
with special problems, particularly when the 
research m aterials are not readily available, 
and, when acquired, cannot b e read by anyone 
on the library staff. In  such cases the scholar 
may have to help w ith bibliography and acqui­
sition. A dram atic exam ple o f scholarly initia­
tive backed enthusiastically b y  the librarian 
and th e administration comes from Indiana 
University. T h e International Affairs Center 
there arranged an exchange w ith the Institute 
of History a t the Czechoslovak Academy of 
Sciences b y  w hich Indiana is to receive 4 ,0 0 0  
bound volumes o f significant C zech books, 
journals, and newspapers, in return for 500 
American books and two fellowships a t Indi­
ana. This brilliant b arter o f goods and services 
has a term of three years after which it  can 
b e  renewed. T h e  librarian’s enthusiasm as he 
looks forward to the cataloging of 4 ,0 0 0  Czech 
volumes suggests that there m ust b e  a secret 
codicil to the exchange agreem ent which guar­
antees the library th e services o f a few  Czech- 
reading graduate students when the books ar­
rive. This is not assuming that they would do 
anything m ore than translate though linguistic 
skill is one of the approaches to a library career.

W ithout the w holehearted support of the 
administration, there is not a great deal the 
university librarian can do to extricate him self 
from th e difficulties in w hich he is caught. In 
the rapid expansion of higher education m en­
tioned above there is evidence that the needs 
of the library have been  seriously under-rated. 
In  many cases university administrators have 
failed to take into account th e im pact o f great­
ly increased graduate study, the proliferation 
of new  areas o f research and instruction with 
their demand for instant collections, and sharp­
ly rising library costs.

A librarian in  the M iddle W est has w ritten 
of an illusion shared even b y  university presi­
dents that th e librarian has “large, uncom ­
m itted amounts o f cash stashed away in  his 
desk drawer under the three b y  five cards” ; 
and on another occasion h e said that i f  the 
university budget is tight the library is the



70

first to be cut. T he explanation is offered by 
the chancellor of a Middle W estern university: 
“University administrators all too often con­
sider library financing as postponable. W hen 
funds are tight, library requests for books and 
staff can always b e ignored until next year. 
‘Next year’ never comes.”

T he cooperation and support of the faculty 
and administration cannot be taken for granted, 
but must b e sought, maintained, and rewarded 
b y  a continuing flow of information on library 
needs, plans, and prospects. Needless to say 
the library’s educational program should in­
clude courses not only for the administration 
and the faculty, but for students and alumni, 
the governor and the legislature (o r board of 
tru stees), corporations and foundations, and 
the public, with special tutoring for dropouts.

These remarks are fairly obvious and may 
strike some as unpleasantly hortatory, but they 
are not gratuitous. They are intended to stimu­
late or provoke thought about research libraries 
and ways and means of increasing their effec­
tiveness even before the National Commission 
sends its report to th e W hite House. In  the 
appointment of the Commission and in recent 
legislation, the Administration and the Congress 
have recognized the importance of libraries, 
and Federal appropriations to libraries of all 
kinds have risen to more than six hundred 
million dollars a year. But no one knows which

o f the Commission’s recommendations will be 
acted upon, or when any action will begin to 
touch the research libraries, or whether sup­
port for their activities will be increased. But 
w hat is done by the individual library with the 
enthusiastic backing of its own clientele may 
have important effects beyond the campus. 
T h e  fact is that the Congress is likely to be 
more understanding if it learns that research 
libraries have themselves gone as far as they 
can with energetic and imaginative measures 
of self-help. ■ ■

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