ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


402 /  C& RL News

I asked F ather Kallistos why he was so suspicious 
of W estern scholars. He said that great treasures 
had been stolen during the last century and now 
these m anuscripts have turned up in W estern li­
braries.

The library has great treasures and those who 
are there guard it with all the strength they have. 
My experience in visiting and exam ining some of 
the m anuscripts in this library was both enriching 
and saddening. This library needs full-tim e archi­
val and preservation expertise. The archives are u t­
terly neglected because of the lack of staff and 
space and they are on the floor in a pile like trash.

The lib rary  has vast p o tential for scholars who 
could both use it and at the same tim e protect the 
collection from thieves.

T he Jerusalem  P a tria rc h a l L ib ra ry  houses a 
priceless and irreplaceable heritage. The Library 
of Congress has microfilmed a significant propor­
tion of the P atriarchal Library's holdings; interli­
brary loan requests should be directed to LC's Mi­
c ro film  R e a d in g  R o o m .— G eorge C. 
Papademetriou. Director o f the Library. Hellenic 
C o llege/H oly Cross G reek O rthodox School o f 
Theology. Brookline. Massachusetts. ■ ■

The teaching library 
enters the Electronic Age

B y  H a n n e lo re  B. R a d e r

Director. Library/Learning Center 
University o f Wisconsin-Parkside

Microcomputer technology for user instruction and access.

I t  was only seven years ago th a t the concept of an 

academ ic “teaching library" was described in de­
tail in the library literature by Guskin, Stoffle, and 
Boissé.1 Highlights of the teaching library's activi­
ties were:

•in stru c tin g  faculty, students and staff in the ef­
fective identification, use and evaluation of infor­
m ation sources;

•fostering the developm ent of students in effec­
tive life-long learning;

•p ro v id in g  access and encouragem ent to com ­
m unity residents to use inform ation sources appro-

1Alan E. Guskin, C arla J. Stoffle, and Joseph A. 
Boissé, “The Academic L ibrary as a Teaching L i­
brary: A Role for the 1980s," Library Trends 28 
(Fall 1979) :281—95.

priately;
•b u ild in g  an appropriate m aterials collection 

to support the curriculum  and together w ith a m a­
jor resource sharing effort to support all research 
activities.

The article was based on the UW -Parkside li­
brary mission and goals and its teaching activities 
and services in the 1970s. More than tw enty ad d i­
tional articles can be noted in the library literature 
which describe various facets of the UW -Parkside 
teaching library, including, am ong others, major 
contributions to workbook developm ent of library 
instruction, teaching high school students research 
skills, developing objectives for basic and advanced 
course-integrated library instruction and requiring 
a com petency test for basic library skills.

W hile the teaching mission of UW -Parkside’s li-



June 1986 /  403

b rary  was continually strengthened, it had to re ­
m ain flexible to a d a p t to changes in th e curriculum  
and changes resulting from  th e influx of new  in fo r­
m a tio n  technology in th e  1980s. F o rtu n a te ly , a 
teaching lib rary  is uniquely suited to incorporating 
new  inform ation form ats into its instruction, ser­
vice, and collection objectives. T he teaching li­
b ra ry ’s staff has an in-depth u n d erstan d in g  of the 
organization and stru ctu re of inform ation and is 
very effective in being th e interface betw een users 
an d  in fo rm a tio n . At th e  sam e tim e, th e  staff is 
ad ep t in teaching effective access routes to new  
ways of finding inform ation and is able to assist the 
novice user of technology in a capable an d  sym pa­
thetic m anner.

In 1982 th e U W -Parkside adm in istratio n  chose 
the lib rary  as a site for the new  m icrocom puter la b ­
o ra to ry , p a rtic u la rly  because of its service an d  
teaching missions and its non-in tim id atin g  a tm o ­
sp h ere." T he influx of m icrocom puters in the li­
b ra ry  has resulted in th e  follow ing changes and ex­
pansions of lib rary  activities:

•L ib ra ria n s  teach m icrocom puter workshops 
and sem inars to faculty, staff, students, and com ­
m u n ity  m em bers to facilitate im proved access to 
and h an d lin g  of inform ation. A utom ated in fo rm a­
tion g athering is in corporated into all facets of the 
lib rary  instruction program .

•L ib ra ria n s  cooperate w ith  faculty to introduce

2Alan E .G uskin, C arla J. Stoffle, and B arb ara 
E. B aru th , “L ib rary  F u tu re  Shock: T he M icrocom ­
p u te r Bevolution and th e Bole of th e L ib ra ry ,” 
C o lle g e  a n d  R e se a rc h  L ib r a r ie s  45 (M ay 
1984): 177-83.

M icrocom puter laboratory, University o f  Wisconsin-Parkside.

students to discipline-specific applications of m i­
crocom puters.

• F r e e  online searching of databases is provided 
and users are ta u g h t to perform  th eir ow n searches.

• A n  extensive pu b lic-access m ic ro c o m p u te r 
la b o rato ry  has been developed th a t offers the latest 
in technology and applications.

•M ic ro c o m p u te r technology is in c o rp o ra te d  
into m any services to provide m ore efficient user 
access to inform ation.

•M icro co m p u ter softw are and inform ation in 
electronic form ats is collected and circulated.

•A ll lib rary  staff are tra in e d  in the latest te c h ­
nological developm ents in inform ation science.

• T h e  Reference Assistance Program  (RAP) for 
m in o rity  stu d en ts to create academ ic peer role 
models has been expanded to include m icrocom ­
p u te r applications and training.

• I t  m ust be noted th a t th e process of m oving the 
teaching lib rary  into th e electronic age is a long and 
difficult one, b u t progress has been m ade and a u to ­
m ation developm ent continues. T he staff has been 
p la n n in g  for a lib ra ry  a u to m a tio n  system since 
1980 an d  is in th e process of im plem enting O C L C ’s 
LS 2000 System for circulation and th e online c a ta ­
log. As this slow an d  p ro b le m a tic  process p ro ­
gresses, th e staff has gained valuable technological 
skills and is confidently in co rp o ratin g  th e new  sys­
tem  into all facets of the lib rary  operation.

T he staff m em bers are by no m eans technical ex­
perts b u t they are experts in organizing in fo rm a­
tion and in teaching users how  to access an d  evalu­
ate inform ation in different form ats. A utom ated 
technology, especially th e m icrocom puter, is being 
utilized to o b tain , m a n ip u late and produce new  in-



404 /  C& RL News

form ation. Librarians, especially those involved in 
library instruction, are uniquely qualified to teach

users this inform ation as well as how m icrocom ­
puters can extend their intellectual pow er. ■ ■

Generous state aid for New York libraries

A library aid bill increasing state aid by $16 m il­
lion was passed by both houses of the New York 
Legislature in conjunction w ith the state’s 1986/87 
budget. Assembly support for the library program  
was led by the Hon. E d w ard  C. Sullivan, D em o­
crat of M an h attan , who enlisted every m em ber of 
the 150-member Assembly as a cosponsor for the 
bill. The Senate bill, introduced by Senator Hugh 
T. Farley, Republican from Niskayuna, was cos­
ponsored by 35 senators.

The new law  strengthens the comprehensive li­
brary systems and aid program  enacted in 1984 
(C& RL N ews, O ctober 1984, p.487). Support has 
been increased for public library aid, public library 
systems, regional database developm ent, reference 
and research library resource systems, school li­
brary systems, and conservation of endangered re­
search m aterials.

New York’s am bitious program  to develop a 
database of over 57 million records will get a m ajor 
boost w ith an increase in state aid from $1.3 m il­

lion to $3.1 million. Each reference and research li­
brary resource system and public library system 
will receive funds under the program , and regional 
p lans developed in 1985 w ill b rin g  acad em ic, 
school, special, public, and other library holdings 
into the database. State and federal funds have 
been used to com plete 37 % of the m onographic 
and serials databases.

Conservation of deteriorating research m aterials 
will be accelerated. The legislation increases sup­
p o rt for co ordinated conservation in th e eleven 
New York comprehensive research libraries from 
$1.1 to $1.4 million, and increases the discretion­
ary grants program  (open to all libraries) from 
$200,000 annually to $500,000.

The new budget also includes a $2 million m a te­
rials acquisition budget for the State L ibrary and 
additional tem porary staff, including two positions 
in the New N etherlands project to translate 17th- 
century D utch colonial records. ■ ■

Access to federal information

“Federal Restrictions on Access to Inform ation: 
Im plications for Scholarship and Research" was 
the them e of a colloquium presented at the U niver­
sity of C alifornia, San Diego, on April 16. Speakers 
included John Shattuck, vice president for govern­
m ent, com m unity, and public affairs at H arvard 
University; Anna Nelson, of the D epartm ent of 
H is to ry  a t A m e ric a n  U n iv e rs ity ; a n d  A nne 
H eanue, associate director of the ALA W ashington 
Office.

John Shattuck noted th a t U.S. governm ent in­
fo rm a tio n  policies have reversed tre n d s in th e 
1970s of m aking inform ation m ore available. C u r­
rent policies have reduced access not only to infor­
m ation produced by the governm ent, b u t also to 
inform ation produced under governm ent contract 
or produced privately by individual researchers. 
He said th a t we have to work h ard  to preserve ac­
cess taken for granted only a few years ago.

Anna Nelson cited an Executive O rder th a t al­
lows docum ents once declassified to be reclassified 
and other procedures th a t slow declassification and 
restrict the am ount of inform ation th a t can be de­
classified. She also noted how the storage of infor­
m ation in m achine-readable form endangers fu­

ture access to historical d ata, because it is usually 
not centrally archived and accessible only through 
h ard w are and software th a t may soon become ob­
solete. She concluded by pointing out th a t the fed­
eral governm ent has no real inform ation policy— 
only a system of inform ation m anagem ent th a t has 
been shaped by the m arketplace, a lack of histori­
cal perspective, and an obsession w ith secrecy.

Anne H eanue noted how federal budget reduc­
tions and new OMB policies have affected inform a­
tion access. She listed m any examples, including 
increased postal rates, reduced library budgets, li­
braries closing to the public, and the privatization 
or elim ination of governm ent publications. She 
noted a new policy of governm ent disinform ation 
th a t calls into question the accuracy of even unclas­
sified, published inform ation, and concluded th a t 
current federal governm ent inform ation practices 
will lead to lim iting access to inform ation to those 
who can pay for it or those who the governm ent de­
cides have a need to know.

The colloquium was sponsored by the UCSD L i­
b rarian s’ Association, the UCSD D epartm ents of 
History, Political Science, and Sociology7, and the 
C alifornia Space Institute. ■ ■