ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


638 /  C&RL News

Culture keepers: Enlightening 
& empowering communitiesConference 

Circuit

By Sheila D elacroix

A report from  the Black Caucus o f 
ALA’s conference

R osa Burnett (library director, Georgia State Technical Institute) spoke of a legend 
about a people w ho disappeared. “What 

pened to these people?” an old m an is asked. 
“They lost their history, so they died,” he re­
plied. Members of ALA’s Black Caucus (BCALA) 
gathered in Columbus, Ohio, September 4-6 
to be sure that African Americans and African 
American librarians in particular do not meet 
the same fate.. For this first-ever conference of 
BCALA, the them e was “Culture Keepers: En­
lightening and Empowering Our Communities.”

The 952 registrants heard 90 presenters ex­
plore the conference them e from a w ide vari­
ety of angles. They visited the booths o f over 
one hundred vendors—from the smallest, one- 
person operation to international publishers— 
each keeping a piece of the culture alive. If 
numbers alone w ere left to tell the story, this 
conference w ould automatically be hailed a 
success. But numbers do not capture the ex­
citement and em otion evident in Columbus. 
The four keynoters—Rep. Major Owens (D-N.Y.), 
Gloria Naylor (author), Augusta Alexander Clark 
(librarian, lawyer, councilwoman), and Randall 
R obinson (executive director, TransAfrica, 
Inc.)— congratulated, inspired, and challenged 
the group to stress information and education 
in the present in order to guarantee survival in 
the future. Robinson told the crowd, “We are a 
poorly educated nation. If the majority can af­
ford this, the minority cannot.”

More than 25 authors, illustrators, and film­
makers w ho have contributed positively to the 
African American literary experience came to 
the all-conference reception at the Columbus

h

Metropolitan Library to be honored by BCALA 
for their work. The conference drew  a small 
but enthusiastic contingent o f Canadian librar­
ians w ho prom ised to be back and bring oth­
ers with them next time. A very impressive group 
of teenagers from Louisiana w ere genuinely 
thrilled to share their experience as “teen li­

abpr­arians” in a high school media center. Many 
conference goers wore stunningly beautiful Af­
rican print clothing, lending an almost royal 
feel to som e events. Words like “m om entous” 
and “historic” w ere heard w ith great frequency.

Recruitment and retention of minority librar­
ians w as a major concern of many attendees. 
Some sessions like “African American students 
in white library schools,” “Recruiting minorities 
for librarianship: Issues and strategies revisited,” 
“Recruiters, retainers and renegades: Recruit­
m ent and retention of African American aca­
demic librarians,” and “Wanted: More African 
American Ph.D.s: W e’re calling your nam e” 
addressed the concerns directly.

Other sessions started with the belief that 
there will be sufficient numbers of African Ameri­
can librarians in the future: “Incorporating black 
dialect and poetry into the library curriculum,” 
“Cataloging the Afrocentric w ay,” “Building a li­
brary in a predominantly African American com­
munity in the 1990’s,” and “Educating the black 
librarian and information professional for lead­
ership in the twenty-first century.”

From whatever perspective, the subject came 
up early and often; the need for guaranteeing 
a future generation of culture keepers w as 
acutely felt. Hiram L. Davis (director of librar­
ies, Michigan State University) urged all attend­
ing the session “Academic and research librari­
anship: African American directors’ outlook” to 
go out and replace themselves in the profes­
sion, to recruit at least one African American 
person into the profession. “If w e do not re­

Sheila Delacroix is assistant university librarian f o r  reference a n d  inform ation services at A u b u rn  
University, A labam a



N ovem ber 1 9 9 2  /  6 3 9

place ourselves, w e  will have m ade a passage, 
but will w e have m ade an impact?” Davis asked.

Both Marilyn Miller (president, ALA) and Rob­
ert W edgew orth (president, International Fed­
eration o f Library Associations) h ad  greetings 
for the conference at its closing session. Miller 
delivered hers in person, fresh from h er trip to 
India, an d  W edgew orth delivered his via vid­
e o tap e as he w as still in India presiding over 
the IFLA conference. Both sp o k e o f the sights 
an d  sounds o f India an d  o f the universality of 
librarianship. And both w arn ed  against being 
o v erw h elm ed  by the responsibilities o f our 
position, the im mensity o f our task o f bringing 
know ledge an d  inform ation to  all p eo p le on 
the globe. “I have seen,” W edgew orth said, “how  
p eo p le die from lack o f routine inform ation.”

In his final, emotion-filled rem arks to the 
culture keepers attending the conference, Dr. 
Axel Boyd (BCALA president) spoke of the “fam­
ily” that h ad  gathered in Columbus. He said, 
“This is a defining m om ent in the history of 
African American librarianship, b u t it is only a 
p oint o f departure. We have b e e n  em pow ered 
here to m ove into the future.” Boyd closed by 
announcing that the next BCALA national co n ­
ference will be h eld  in tw o years on Labor Day 
w e e k e n d  in M ilwaukee, W isconsin. ■

Letters
The importance of acting
To the Editor:

As a form er librarian turned investigator, I 
often peruse th e professional literature o f both 
fields. Thus, I read  w ith considerable interest 
Trudi E. Ja co b so n ’s excellent report o n  “G ood 
acting secret o f successful BI” in the July/Au- 
gust issue. By citing D ean William E. C onnor’s 
contention that teaching is theater, Ms. Jacobson 
is quite correct. H ow ever, I w ould ad d  that an 
im portant, b u t som etim es overlooked, p art of 
investigative w ork is also theater or acting. The 
intent, goals, an d  results of th e theatrics in my 
field an d  in Ms. Jaco b so n ’s m ay differ, but the 
techniques, such as focusing o n  your subjects 
an d  role playing, are similar. In m ore than 15 
years as an investigator I have learned that act­
ing, especially spur-of-the-m om ent im provisa­
tion w h en  n eed ed , is a h andy skill to possess, 
an d  if o n e is g o o d  at it, the results can b e  sat­
isfying. After all, w h at’s the old goo d  g u y/bad 
guy routine b u t acting?— M ark H. W innegrad, 
associate investigator, N. Y.C. Dept. o f  Transporta­
tion