ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


C&RL News m  January 1998 / 19

THE W AY I SEE IT

Academic librarians as scholars

Publishing is your moral obligation

by John Newman

A t this stage o f my academic career, my position is secure and further advance­
ment is unlikely. Thus, I can bear the risk of 
making some new enemies in return for this 
delightful opportunity to share my views, 
and perhaps generate some useful discus­
sion, about the role o f academic librarians 
as scholars.

Broadly stated, my opinion is that aca­
demic librarians should publish more and 
complain less. I think that scholarship is both 
an obligation and a pleasure and that con­
cerns about lack o f time can be managed.

M o ral o b lig a t io n s
Original scholarship and the publication that 
emerges from it are the moral obligations of 
those who accept public money to perform 
as intellectuals. The perspective here is that 
of an academic librarian with full faculty sta­
tus in a public institution.

When not at work, I usually associate with 
people in the building trades. Many o f them 
lead lives that are somewhat more demand­
ing, over a broader spectrum o f human ac­
tivities, than those lived in academia.

When we accept, through taxes, money 
from such hardworking people, we accept 
as well, I think, a mission to do our best. 
The highest intellectual order o f activities 
available to a university professor is the cre­
ation and dissemination of new knowledge. 
It is what others expect o f us and what we 
should expect o f ourselves.

B e co m e  a s c h o la r
There is a second set o f obligations, perhaps 
more social than moral, to our academic col­
leagues both at our own institutions and 
worldwide. It is no secret that not everyone 
in academia thinks librarians should enjoy 
full-faculty status. This is true no matter how 
much traditional library service we provide 
or how good that service is. Some version of 
the debate about professors who spend their 
time in esoteric research instead of teaching 
has always been with us, but those who pub­
lish seem to acquire more material and so­
cial rewards. By establishing ourselves as 
scholars, librarians can more honestly claim 
full membership in the academic community 
with corresponding access and influence. We 
can also earn the rewards that are fun to have.

Publication itself is fun. Scholarly books 
and major articles display our ideas on an 
in te rn a tio n a l stag e. M odesty is alw ays 
praised, especially by those who clearly be­
lieve they deserve their own, but most of us 
in academia think we are smart. Otherwise, 
to accept wages for intellectual work would 
raise ethical issues. Publication provides a 
revealing opportunity to invite others to 
measure the dimension and product o f our 
intelligence. Those who know more may 
point out that we know less. The resulting 
dialog advances the course o f knowledge. I 
find it rewarding, exciting, and valuable to 
engage in this process at the highest level I 
can manage.

A b o u t th e  a u th o r

John Newman is professor and university archivist at Colorado State University Libraries; e-mail: jnewman@
manta.library.colostate.edu



20 / C&RL News m January 1998

T h e  t r u t h  a b o u t  r e s e a r c h
Research that precedes publication is easier 
for librarians than for teaching faculty. The 
national anthem o f academic librarians might 
b e a dirge about the lack o f time to do re­
search. Librarians claim they must “be on 
the d esk” or, worse, in a meeting and thus 
cannot undertake any intellectual activity 
more profound than answering reference 
questions. Let me hasten to assert that I, too, 
believe that w orking with patrons is our 
highest priority, but it is not always our great­
est intellectual challenge or opportunity. Fur­
ther, our ability to serve patrons must be 
fueled by som e measure o f original thought.

The knowledge and associations that ac­
crue to academic librarians, as insiders in a 
research library, far outweigh any disadvan­
tage o f less free time. We know how to use 
information resources more powerfully and 
efficiently than do our colleagues in the class­
rooms, and w e all have friends to help. Also, 
our experien ce assisting others with their 
inquiries is useful in forming and addressing 
our own research goals.

F in d in g  t h e  t im e
Becau se it looms so large in the array o f 
excuses for not publishing, the issue o f free 
time d eserves a bit m ore consid eration. 
Everybody has 24 hours each day to spend 
as they must or will. I find time for research 
on evenings and weekends. I place private 
activities in no array o f value on any scale 
(so long as they are legal) and I believe those 
with family and similar obligations must cer­
tainly have considered their effect on pro­
fessional opportunities. The ability to think 
ahead is surely needed by those who wish 
to b e paid for their thoughts. So, too, is the 
ability to adapt to circumstances that are less 
than ideal and to create opportunities. If aca­
demic careers w ere easy, everyone would 
want one.

Those for whom finding time for research 
is too difficult may learn that the substance 
o f anything worth serious intellectual con­
sideration is even more difficult. A relent­
lessly effective, but apparently unpopular, 
way to discover if one has time for scholar­
ship is to begin a project and then see how 
time can be found. Far more popular among 
academic librarians is to complain that there 
is no time, so nothing can be undertaken.

Library administrators can often provide 
help through flexible scheduling, sabbaticals, 
administrative leave, and even material re­
wards for scholarly achievement. Colleagues 
w ho have experience and contacts can serve 
as mentors.

A valuable developm ent in recent years 
is a growing view that patrons should sched­
ule their access to academ ic librarians rather 
than expect us all to b e  in the library, wait­
ing to answer questions at any time. An ap­
pointment-based concept o f availability b en ­
efits everyone, including patrons. By ap­
pointm ent, they may encounter librarians 
w ho are more prepared than distracted, and 
librarians can schedule their time more ef­
fectively.

Finally, we can find more time for research 
by using less time talking to each other—  
both in library meetings and at professional 
gatherings. In construction work, the prin­
ciple that only one person can be in charge 
is clearly established. Meetings at a job site 
are few and brief. Participatory management 
is useful in academia, but it needs to be more 
efficient and realistic.

We know w e spend too much time in 
meetings. We need, simply, to stop— stop 
calling meetings, stop attending them, stop 
listening to “presentations” that could bet­
ter be distributed in advance or not given at 
all, and stop droning on ourselves. To para­
phrase a rhetorical question from the 1960s, 
“What if they had a meeting and nobody 
came?”

H o w  u s e fu l a r e  c o n fe r e n c e s ?
Finally, w e need to take a hard look at con­
ferences (as much as w e love them) and 
question their efficiency and value and the 
quality o f the information conveyed at them. 
C onferences are great places to gossip, and 
scholarship is often lonely, but we should 
consider w here a few days o f our time will 
earn better results. It is hard to focus re­
sponsibility for results on attendees at a con­
ference, but easy to identify who should be 
associated with the success or failure o f pub­
lished research. This issue is really about 
responsibility.

As m em bers o f the acad em ic com m u­
nity, librarians can and should em brace 
the responsibility that such m em bership 
entails. ■



C&RL News m  January 1998 /  21