College and Research Libraries


By J O H N S. R I C H A R D S 

A . L . A . Reorganization and 
College and Reference Libraries 
Mr. Richards, executive assistant, Uni-

versity of Washington Library, Seattle, 

was the Pacific Northwest Library Asso-

ciation s representative on the A.L.A. 

Council when A.L.A. reorganization was 

discussed at the midwinter conference last 

December. 

TH E COLLEGE or university library of 1940 is an entirely different institu-
tion from its prototype of the last century. 
T h e libraries of H a r v a r d and Yale have 
increased in size about seven times since 
1900, while the libraries of many of the 
state universities have come into existence 
in the last twenty-five or thirty years. 
T h e concentration of large book stocks, 
the growth of huge student bodies, and 
the development of new teaching methods 
have produced a host of problems for the 
large college, university, and reference li-
brary unknown before the turn of the 
century. 

These new problems have too often been 
handled through expediency growing out 
of the local situation, and as a result there 
is the greatest diversity among research 
institutions in the organization and ad-
ministration of the library. For years 
public libraries have insisted that $1 per 
capita was the minimum with which ade-
quate service could be given their clien-
tele. However inadequate this figure may 
be, the constant reiteration of it as a 

minimum standard has had a distinct in-
fluence in maintaining library budgets for 
the public library. College and reference 
libraries, despite their efforts, have failed 
to demonstrate their right to any definite 
percentage of the institutional budget and 
there is the widest variation in support. 

T h e Association of College and Refer-
ence Libraries, in its new relation to 
A.L.A., should insure a professional or-
ganization which can agree on objectives 
and then provide machinery for their 
realization. For the first time college and 
reference librarians will have a really 
democratic organization with a degree of 
specialization for different types of insti-
tutions, the whole organization closely 
knit so as to forward the work of each. 

T h i s new organization should once and 
for all answer the plaint " W h a t has the 
A.L.A. to offer m e ? " As a member of 
one of the subsections of A.C.R.L., the 
A.L.A. can offer the youngest junior as-
sistant in the largest library, participation 
in the development of the program of the 
type of library in which he is working. 
T w e n t y per cent of the dues he pays to 
A.L.A. will be allotted to A . C . R . L . to 
carry on this work. A new periodical, 
College and Research Libraries, is a v a i l a -
ble to present his views on college and 
research library problems. 

These facilities for professional develop-
ment are the more important because the 



professional status of college and univer-
sity librarians has often been questioned. 
W h e t h e r or not we deserve the title "hod-
carrier" or "obstacle" to scholars and 
scholarship, we have often enough failed 
to recognize our partnership in the busi-
ness of academic and scholarly life. T h i s 
failure may have come about in large 
measure because of the lack of specializa-
tion in our professional organizations. 
Less than two hundred librarians belonged 
to the College and Reference Section of 
the A.L.A. at the time of its reorganiza-
tion. T h i s lack of interest is probably 
not to be duplicated in any other profes-
sional group. T h e problems of the college 
and research library had become sharply 
differentiated from those of the public li-
brary, but the rank and file of the pro-
fession showed no awareness of this in 
their professional affiliations. It is sig-
nificant that the membership in A . C . R . L . 
has shown a large increase since its re-
organization, though it still includes only 
a fraction of the librarians in this field. 

In the by-laws of the A . C . R . L . the ob-
ject of the association is stated to be: 

T o encourage the maintenance and im-
provement of library service to students, 
faculty and research workers, and of refer-
ence service to all library patrons. As a 
means toward attainment of this end, it 
shall be the policy of the association to en-
courage (a) a program of activities di-
rected by the group, (b) advancement of 
standards of library service in college, uni-
versity and reference libraries, and (c) the 
continued professional growth of those en-
gaged in the work of these libraries. 

Since the A . C . R . L . will be given com-
plete autonomy over and responsibility for 
the conduct of its own affairs, the program 
foreshadowed above can be translated into 
action in the immediate f u t u r e . 

For several months an A . C . R . L . com-

mittee on budgets, compensation and 
schemes of service for libraries connected 
with universities, colleges, and teacher-
training institutions has been at work as 
a subcommittee of the A . L . A . Board on 
Salaries, Staff, and T e n u r e . As this work 
progresses, librarians in the various types 
of educational institutions will have an 
opportunity to check and help revise the 
schemes so that they may be of greatest 
use. T h i s is an example of the type of 
cooperation now possible between the 
A.L.A. and its various divisions. 

W i t h these increased lines of communi-
cation between A.L.A. and A . C . R . L . and 
the free interchange of ideas between the 
five subsections of A.C.R.L., provision is 
made for a healthy growth of the profes-
sion and the self development of the in-
dividual librarian. 

T h e last sentence might well have read, 
"provision is made for a healthy growth 
of the profession through the self develop-
ment of the individual librarian," for no 
matter how able and scholarly our lead-
ers, our libraries can never take their 
proper place until they are manned from 
the bottom up with a devoted personnel 
infused with a philosophy of the profes-
sion. Such a philosophy only can insure 
a professional standing for the group which 
will withstand attack from without and 
furnish the necessary stimulus and co-
hesion from within. 

Active participation in A.L.A. through 
membership in A . C . R . L . becomes a defi-
nite challenge to every college and refer-
ence librarian. A.L.A. reorganization has 
provided for greater differentiation be-
tween library services. College and ref-
erence librarians have both an opportunity 
and an obligation to develop their arm of 
this service. Active membership in the 
A . C . R . L . is the first step. 

4 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES