toc 212 College & Research Libraries May 2001 Editorial Academic Library Leadership and the “Life of the Mind” After reading the excellent study by Pe­ ter Hernon, Ronald R. Powell, and Arthur P. Young of the attributes of present and future directors of libraries holding mem­ bership in ARL, I began thinking about the lack of contribution to the research/ professional literature by ARL university library directors and directors of other academic libraries.1 The bottom line is that the contribution to the research/profes­ sional literature by the leaders of North American academic libraries is relatively insignificant. A quick perusal of the ar­ ticles in College & Research Libraries and the Journal of Academic Librarianship dur­ ing the past ten years revealed that only a handful had been authored by ARL university library directors. While serv­ ing nearly eighteen years as dean of li­ braries at two ARL libraries (Arizona State University and the University of Michi­ gan), I discussed their work habits and scholarly activities (or the lack thereof) with several academic library directors, and I continue to observe the scholarly aspect of their work. The scholarly credentials of a library director, however, normally pale quickly when compared to those of a dean of a college or school. Justifiable Reasons and Excuses Lack of time is the most common reason given by academic library directors for not writing scholarly pieces. One direc­ tor is noted for saying that because of ex­ traordinary demands on his time, he could not find time to write the library’s annual report. Does this sound like mak­ ing time to do something one wants to do, or does it sound like finding an ex­ cuse for not doing it? Regard­ less, the lack of time issue is real among academic library directors, who today spend an unprecedented amount of time on business-type issues that library direc­ tors formerly did not have to perform (e.g., fund-raising). Several of these direc­ tors work sixty hours or more per week. Unlike Deans of Colleges and Schools Library directors normally progress up­ ward through the administrative ranks to become director. They are judged on their administrative ability, whereas persons aspiring to become deans of colleges and schools must prove themselves via re­ search and publications. To become dean of a college/school at a major university, one normally has to establish oneself as an author/scholar in a particular disci­ pline. Deans must build an extensive bib­ liography of their scholarly endeavors, and must be tenured and hold the rank of full professor. Possession of an earned doctorate is a given. The scholarly creden­ tials of a library director, however, nor­ mally pale quickly when compared to those of a dean of a college or school. In defense of library directors, before becom­ ing director, they were not afforded the luxury of sufficient time to write and pub­ lish as the teaching faculty were. Most academic library directors do not have the earned doctorate and have not had to jump the rigorous “high hurdles” of gain­ ing respect as a scholar via scholarly pub­ lications. If one were to look closely at the cumulative research and publication records of library directors holding the rank of full professor at some of our most prestigious universities, one would dis­ 212 Editorial 213 cover that their credentials do not mea­ sure up to the research/publishing records of full professors/deans of the colleges and schools. Indeed, it is not un­ common to find many librarians in a given academic library with a better scholarly record than that of the direc­ tor. Unlike the deans of colleges and schools, the academic library director does not lead by example when it comes to scholarly activities. The lack of the doctorate and of a respectable scholarly record creates a situation where the teaching faculty, deans, provosts/vice presidents for academic affairs, and presidents do not perceive the library director as a fellow academician. This is especially true in institutions where li­ brary directors/deans are supposedly on par with the academic deans. Conclusion Will directors continue to contribute little to library/information science litera­ ture? Probably. Their time constraints will likely increase, not lessen. Intellec­ tually, the profession will suffer from the absence of the directors’ insights, re­ flections, and assessments. Only time will tell what impact this absence will have on the role of the library in the academy. DONALD E. RIGGS Editor, College & Research Libraries Note 1 . Peter Hernon, Ronald R. Powell, and Arthur Young, “University Library Directors in the Association of Research Libraries: The Next Generation, Part One,” College & Research Libraries 62 (Mar. 2001): 116–45. << /ASCII85EncodePages false /AllowTransparency false /AutoPositionEPSFiles true /AutoRotatePages /All /Binding /Left /CalGrayProfile (Dot Gain 20%) /CalRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CalCMYKProfile (U.S. Web Coated \050SWOP\051 v2) /sRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CannotEmbedFontPolicy /Warning /CompatibilityLevel 1.3 /CompressObjects /Tags /CompressPages true /ConvertImagesToIndexed true /PassThroughJPEGImages true /CreateJobTicket false /DefaultRenderingIntent /Default /DetectBlends true /DetectCurves 0.0000 /ColorConversionStrategy /CMYK /DoThumbnails false /EmbedAllFonts true /EmbedOpenType false /ParseICCProfilesInComments true /EmbedJobOptions true /DSCReportingLevel 0 /EmitDSCWarnings false /EndPage -1 /ImageMemory 1048576 /LockDistillerParams false /MaxSubsetPct 1 /Optimize true /OPM 1 /ParseDSCComments true /ParseDSCCommentsForDocInfo true /PreserveCopyPage true /PreserveDICMYKValues true /PreserveEPSInfo true /PreserveFlatness false /PreserveHalftoneInfo true /PreserveOPIComments false /PreserveOverprintSettings true /StartPage 1 /SubsetFonts false /TransferFunctionInfo /Apply /UCRandBGInfo /Preserve /UsePrologue false /ColorSettingsFile () /AlwaysEmbed [ true ] /NeverEmbed [ true ] /AntiAliasColorImages false /CropColorImages false /ColorImageMinResolution 151 /ColorImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleColorImages true /ColorImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /ColorImageResolution 300 /ColorImageDepth -1 /ColorImageMinDownsampleDepth 1 /ColorImageDownsampleThreshold 1.10000 /EncodeColorImages true /ColorImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterColorImages true /ColorImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /ColorACSImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /ColorImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /JPEG2000ColorACSImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /JPEG2000ColorImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /AntiAliasGrayImages false /CropGrayImages false /GrayImageMinResolution 151 /GrayImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleGrayImages true /GrayImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /GrayImageResolution 300 /GrayImageDepth -1 /GrayImageMinDownsampleDepth 2 /GrayImageDownsampleThreshold 1.10000 /EncodeGrayImages true /GrayImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterGrayImages true /GrayImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /GrayACSImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /GrayImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /JPEG2000GrayACSImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /JPEG2000GrayImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /AntiAliasMonoImages false /CropMonoImages false /MonoImageMinResolution 600 /MonoImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleMonoImages true /MonoImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /MonoImageResolution 1200 /MonoImageDepth -1 /MonoImageDownsampleThreshold 1.16667 /EncodeMonoImages true /MonoImageFilter /CCITTFaxEncode /MonoImageDict << /K -1 >> /AllowPSXObjects false /CheckCompliance [ /None ] /PDFX1aCheck false /PDFX3Check false /PDFXCompliantPDFOnly false /PDFXNoTrimBoxError true /PDFXTrimBoxToMediaBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXSetBleedBoxToMediaBox true /PDFXBleedBoxToTrimBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXOutputIntentProfile () /PDFXOutputConditionIdentifier () /PDFXOutputCondition () /PDFXRegistryName () /PDFXTrapped /False /CreateJDFFile false /Description << /ENU (IPC Print Services, Inc. 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