ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 640 / C&RL News Nothing ventured, no one gained B y A n n e K . B e a u b i e n A C R L President and Head, Cooperative Access Services University o f Michigan Many bright‚ creative people are not considering information science as a career and never will unless we intervene. G osh, you don t LOOK like a librarian! How often have we all inspired th at com m ent? Every tim e I h e ar it, two thoughts occur to me. The first is th at the popular image of librarians is still a sad stereotype— intellectual, professional, andphysi- cal— of who we really are. T h e second is that people in general, even very well educated people, do not have the faintest idea about what we do or about how varied and challenging our jobs are. I f my thoughts are correct, it follows that many bright, creative people are not considering information science as a c are er and never will unless we, as individuals, intervene. I believe th at each o f us can do a lot with very little effort to improve th e com­ m on perception about ourselves and ou r work and to help recruit outstanding people to our field. H ere are som e ways to achieve these goals: 1. Be a good, conscientious role model for your own paraprofessional and student staff. (Those o f us in d irect contact with library users can also impress them with th e range o f our knowledge and respon­ sibilities.) 2. Becom e m ore active within your institution and com m unity to enhance th e profile o f librarians as doers. F o r instance, library instruction, collabo­ rating with teaching faculty on their research, par­ ticipating in faculty governance, serving on local citizen groups, and assisting in youth projects all bring o u r talents to the attention o f others. 3. A ttend m eetings o f o th er professional associa­ tions or o f social, religious, or recreational organiza­ tions with th e “hidden agenda” o f interesting others in information science careers. F ind out ahead if th ere will b e a place to p u t recruiting m aterials on librarianship in the exhibit or placem ent area of the conference. I f so, contact the Office for Library Personnel Resources at ALA (800-545-2433, ext 4279), your state library association, and library schools to ask for brochures you can take along to display or distribute. I f circumstances perm it, you can even volunteer to run a poster session or partici­ pate on an informal panel. 4. W ork with the guidance and career counselors in local high schools and on cam pus to let them know about our field, its requirem ents and rewards. O ffer to speak individually with students w ho may b e considering librarianship or related careers and contact academic departm ents to reach students w ondering what they can do with that major. And don’t forget that not all graduate students e nd up as professors; m any o f them would be delighted to learn how valuable advanced degrees are when com bined with professional training in information science. 5. Plan a program for student library workers about th e many career options in librarianship. C onsider rotating student workers into different units every sem ester so they will experience that variety first hand. 6. M entor paraprofessional staff by working closely with them on special projects and allowing th em to develop all their skills in th e library setting. 7. Identify graduates of your institution who have becom e information professionals and invite them back to speak with c u rrent staff and students about th e ir careers and the decisions that got them there. 8. Perhaps most im portant o f all, brainstorm regularly with your colleagues at work, nearby, and November 1991 / 641 in your chapter about how you can individually and collectively prom ote the benefits of librarianship. I f we all do our share o f lively recruiting, the next comm ent we should hear is, “Gosh, I didn’t know librarians could do all that!” Ed. note: This article first appeared in the East­ ern NewYork/ACRL C hapter Newsletter, Fall 1991, and is reprinted with permission. ■ ■ Literacy and social issues topics at Society o f American Archivists meeting Nearly 1,300 archivists, manuscript curators, records managers, and preservation specialists con­ vened in Philadelphia Septem ber 23-29 for the 55th Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archivists (SAA). This record num ber of partici­ pants for an SAA meeting enjoyed a multifarious program of 87 formal sessions and workshops, plus a plethora of committee, round table, and section meetings. The program was complemented by a wide variety of tours of Philadelphia’s sights and institutions, and rounded out with a large num ber of social events, all orchestrated by the Host Com ­ mittee. SAA president Trudy H. Peterson, of the Na­ tional Archives and Records Administration, chal­ lenged the mem bership with disturbing observa­ tions in her Presidential Address, “Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmetic: Speculations on Change in the Research Process.” Beginning with a brief historical overview of the development of widespread lit­ eracy, Peterson observed that the ability to read and write is a comparatively recent social phenom ena, one that may well have peaked. She went on to speculate on the implications that declining literacy may have on public cultural institutions like ar­ chives . Noting that the need for information will not decline with the public’s ability to assimilate it directly from texts, Peterson posited a growing intensity in the services that archivists will be called on to provide, and a major shift in the way archival materials are organized and controlled. H er sober­ ing reflections are directly relevant to research libraries. Many of the program sessions were also of direct relevance to the interests of ACRL members, perhaps witnessing the continuing convergence of the archival and library professions. Statewide pres­ ervation planning, the ALA Standards for Accredi­ tation, geographic information systems (GIS), ad­ ministering audio recordings, user studies, fakes and forgeries, friends groups, women in manage­ ment, copyright, trends in research methodologies, information policy development, and preservation education were b ut a few of the topics to which program sessions were devoted. A num ber o f the SAA sessions m ight easily appear on an ACRL meeting program, including those on services for genealogists, local and regional history manuscripts, mass deacidification, and the impact of technology on reference services. Many of the business meetings of the committees and round tables were also marked by concerns that are of interest to librarians. A few examples: the SAA Task Force on Library Archives is attem pting to devise strategies for increasing the awareness among librarians that the records of their institutions are im portant cultural materials, and that the disposi­ tion o f these records is probably governed by state records statutes; the NOTIS Users Round Table and the RLIN Users Round Table discussed archi­ val aspects of the respective systems that librarians may view as their own; and the Archival Educators Round Table reviewed a num ber of developments in library education th at have impact on still-devel- oping archival education. The SAA business m eeting also touched on a num ber o f them es that ACRL mem bers might find familiar. One of these revolved around a set of guidelines for access to primary source materials drafted by ACRL’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, which SAA has been asked to adopt jointly. The issue with the most striking parallel to ACRL, however, is the question of taking political and social factors into account in selecting m eeting sites. Arising originally out of the invitation to hold the 1996 Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, which has been opposed by some mem bers of SAA due to Utah’s stringent anti-abortion law, the issue has broadened to include other social and political factors. SAA’s action in this m atter is still pending; a decision regarding the 1996 meeting, and the process for selecting future meeting sites, is ex­ pected at the January m eeting of Council. In short, the SAA m eeting was chock full o f interesting and informative events useful to college and research librarians. ACRL m em bers should consider keep­ ing an eye on SAA Annual Meetings in the future, and take advantage of the opportunity to attend when convenient. Future meetings are planned for Montreal, Septem ber 14-18, 1992, and New O r­ leans, Septem ber 2-5,1993. F o r more information contact the SAA, 600 S. Federal, Suite 504, Chi­ cago, IL 60605; (312) 922-0140.—Robert S. Mar­ tin, Assistant Dean f o r Special Collections, LSU Libraries, Louisiana State University ■ ■