JAMES
w.
MILLERPresident, Western Michigan University
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The distinguished conferees assembled here are certainly to be con-gratulated for the time, talent, and energies they are putting forth in these three days of meetings. It is most heartening to an academic administra-tor to know that this type of effort is being made to isolate the various facets and ramifications of the intellectual and technological problems in-volved in maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of our libraries. As this audience knows, the simultaneous explosions of knowledge and popu-lation are plainly placing stress on the university community no less sig-nificant and no less intensive than the tensions being placed by these same phenomena on society as a whole. Nowhere on our campuses are we feel-ing more keenly the impact of an unprecedented explosion of recorded knowledge and the sheer impact of increased numbers of faculty and stu-dents than in our libraries.
As an administrator, I would hasten to add that in this period of stress there is too often a primacy given to the quantitative rather than to the qualitative aspects of our library problems. It is not, I believe, enough to think simply in terms of providing the same library services which we have offered in the past to the increased number of library users who are with us in the present. The user's time is a constant and so far as I know can-not be changed unless modern medicine is able to modify significantly our patterns of sleep and rest. Yet the sheer mass of printed material available to us is multiplying at an exponential rate. The user not only needs rapid access to vast accumulations of highly complex and diversified informa-tion, he needs real help to get quickly to material which has pertinence for his work. The user needs-yes, requires-considerably more help than our libraries are presently organized to give him in terms of discovering relatively quickly the relevance of specific pieces of library information and the pertinence of a particular piece of literature to other literature in the field of one's interest. It is pleasing to note that in this conference you are giving attention to what the librarian should be doing as well as at-tempting to become specific on how the librarian should do it.
The title of my address is meant to focus on the intellectual rather than on the technical aspects of the problems facing our libraries. Half face-tiously and half seriously I might say that on the basis of the pattern of
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usage of some of our faculty and students we ask very little of our li-braries. This is even true of personal library holdings which seem in some cases to have been acquired to impress visitors rather than to be read for comprehension and stimulation. The persons who gather a few or many books for appearance's sake remind me of Robert Burns' comments after he was permitted to browse in a Scottish lord's library only to find the pages of the books uncut. Burns wrote the following comment on the inside cover of a volume of Shakespeare's works:
Through and through the inspired pages, Ye maggots make your windings, Oh, but respect his lordship's taste, And spare the golden bindings.
Recently an interior decorator, in what at first I could not believe was a serious recommendation, suggested that books on the shelves in my office be sorted so as to blend more aesthetically the colors of the bindings into the general color scheme of the office! Surprising as it may seem to you, this suggestion was serious and there and then I literally had to stop this person from physically demonstrating the point. Imagine being in the position of having to recall the color of the binding of a book that you might wish to examine or reexamine!
In general I think it fair to say that what we ask of our libraries is that they be organized, staffed and equipped to meet our needs. The question then is: What are our needs? Quite clearly our needs as individuals and our needs as institutions will vary. Neil Harlow in the September 1963 issue of College and Research Libraries delineates in a general way the levels of need for library services in academic institutions into three parts, namely: the levels of "college," "university," and "research." The li-braries for the beginning student, which he calls the "college" level, would concentrate on general education involving introductory materials es-sential in the humanities, the social sciences and the sciences. At the
"university" level, Mr. Harlow states the need in terms of the maturing scholar who should be provided with printed material emphasizing syn-thesis and the introduction to research. His third level, designated "re-search," is that library material which would be largely for the use of ad-vanced graduate students, faculty members and the university's research staff. Whether you agree with this particular delineation of levels or not, the point is that thought has been, is being and needs continuously to be given to the question of what precisely are the needs that we are seeking to have our libraries serve. Without this type of examination it is fruitless and extravagant business to introduce expensive and complicated mech-anized equipment into one's library. Many of us have complained about
WHAT DO WE ASK OF OUR LIBRARIES? 15 he buildings on our campus in terms of inadequacies and tend to blame he architect. In a majority of instances the fault is more likely to be with mrselves in that we have not developed clearly articulated programs.
-laving defaulted to the architect on the function of program, we blame lim for what so clearly is our own inadequacy.
Ideally, in my opinion, we should ask of our libraries that their pro-essional staff members be prepared and anxious to establish "intellectual :amaraderie" with the faculty. Professional librarians can and should )ecome fully involved in the education of students. With increasing en-'ollments and with greater emphasis and stress on independent study, li-)rarians assume a significant and critical role in stimulating and assisting ,tudents in the use of library resources. As my colleague Dr. Russell ieibert, Vice President for Academic Affairs at Western Michigan U ni-rersity, stated in a recent article, " ... every administrator should be per-nitted a few fond hopes. The fondest of those hopes is the dream of a ibrary staffed with perfect librarians: librarians who love books and the
;ontents between their covers; librarians burning with unsatisfied intellec-:ual curiosity; librarians filled with the contagious enthusiasm for learning :hat will spark a student's interest without repelling him with too much :>ookish detail; librarians who are the soul of helpfulness, sensitive to the limits of, as well as the need for, assistance; librarians who are quiet-ipoken and courteous, as respectful to those who are reading or studying 1S the mortician to the bereaved or the young mother of a sleeping
;;hild."l While the dreams of Dr. Seibert may never be fully realized, they are goals well worth striving to reach. No university can have a more valuable resource than technically competent librarians with broad cul-tural and intellectual interests dedicated and devoted to acquainting fac-ulty and student with the resources of the university's library.
Again on an ideal basis we ask of our libraries that operations of its circulation of its own current holdings facilitate rapid search, location and acquisition of the material with which we need to work. We ask for adequate control of the books and periodicals on reserve. In fact, we ask ideally for a running inventory so managed that the frustrations and losses of time involved in finding finally that a book sought is in use, misshelved, being bound, lost, or not yet recorded would be reduced to minimal pro-portions. In a perfect organization I would suspect that there would be a sustained and systematic program of critical evaluation of the library'S holdings in terms of what materials are either ready for disposal or r,@re-ment to some less costly storage area. Winnowing the rarely used and
up-solete must be part and parcel of any system which seeks to be effi~je6t~::.
effective.and economical. What we have been able to do in many area!rtii' terms of records management I venture to say may have some general applicability for our libraries.
As our libraries grow and our student body increases we ask for a plan of new acquisitions designed to meet the unique needs of our clientele. We ask for rapid procurement, classification and cataloging along with bib-liographies, indices, and reference services. Additionally we would ask for low cost and quick photocopying equipment. Ideally we would ask that a systematic screening be done to get into our hands pertinent data con-cerning the new acquisitions; this might include a table of contents, ab-stracts or other relevant information designed to offer helpful hints as to the contents of the new material. Duplicate copies of certain materials, microfilm equipment and adequate space and privacy in which to use the equipment are conveniences we would like to enjoy. Printed material which a particular library is unable to acquire for its own holdings should be accessible to the user by interlibrary loan, wirephoto, and possibly in the not-too-distant future, by electronic transmission.
Librarians of the character described in Dr. Seibert's remarks earlier in this statement, organization and procedures which are user-oriented, and a faculty prepared and willing to rationalize their relationships with the professional librarians and vice versa are, in my humble opinion, the basis upon which to build the library into the true "heart of the univer-sity. "
On this last point we should, I feel, ask of our librarians and faculty that they meet on a regular basis-perhaps in faculty departmental meet-ings-to review current literature, discuss on-going and contemplated re-search on campus and consider ways and means jointly not only to pro-mote the use of present services of the library and its study facilities but also to evaluate the effectiveness of present services and recommend new services to meet changing needs of both the faculty and student body.
In light of the growth in our libraries, the increasing amount of dis-satisfaction being expressed by users, the enormity of the tasks faced by librarians to meet the twin cascades of an exponential rate of increase in printed materials, and a phenomenal increase of students and faculty, we must do as this conference is doing-namely, explore with vigor and en-thusiasm every conceivable way in which our increasing and in many cases new needs can be served by our modern advances in technology. In any period calling for changes there are voices which will run the full gamut of the spectrum of thought in this area from the "Luddites" to the persons who see the millenium immediately within our grasp through the means of a fully automated library. Our solutions will likely be found somewhere between these extremes and possibly much closer to the fully automated extreme than with the "Luddite" group.
Libraries, it is clear, must be more than architectural structures filled with specific numbers of books, seeking ever to reach or overreach a specific quantitative figure of books per full-time-equated student. They
WHAT DO WE ASK OF OUR LIBRARIES? 17 should be fountains from which recorded knowledge can flow easily and quickly into the hands of our faculty and students and in a form econom-ical for the user in terms not only of time but also of pertinence of each piece of literature for the purposes to which the student, scholar, and researcher wished to put the material. This is what the academic world asks of our libraries. Educators and librarians can be the planners.
Electronics engineers must be active participants.
Some idea of what can be done is happening at Michigan's newest col-lege, Grand Valley State, near Grand Rapids. For this institution Sol Corn berg has provided the latest in audio-visual equipment. The library includes 256 carrels, each outfitted with a microphone, two speakers, an eight-inch television picture tube, and a telephone dial. This plan makes available to the student any information stored in a "use attitude" or repository. Carrels could be placed anywhere, Mr. Cornberg points out, and need not be confined to the library.
Mobility of recorded knowledge is of particular importance as enroll-ment growth means physical facilities on the campus spread over larger and larger areas. The newer the residence halls on our campuses, the further they are from the library. By remote control, it should be possible to bring the information from the library to the student at his study area by means of wirephoto or closed circuit television. The latter might fit well into the student's learning habits. In most homes the youngster who used to curl up with a book has been replaced by one who stretches out on the floor in front of a television screen.
Electronics can do for education, learning, and research what it is doing for current events. It is possible for me to sit in my home and see-even as it happens-a gathering at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. I can watch-as it takes place-the Ecumenical Council in Rome. Recently I wwatch-as able to see-as they contested-events in the 1964 Olympics at Tokyo.
Science, education and libraries can do the same thing for the printed word. It is in the realm of possibility that a student, professor, or re-searcher at Western Michigan University or at the University of Pitts-burgh, or anywhere, could, through the magic of electronics, have access to needed material wherever it might be located. This science can do and it should be made possible at a feasible investment and cost of operation.
Knowing what we ask of our libraries, the attention of scientific minds can be directed to making such service a reality. With the assistance of competent staff people, library material can be classified, its relative perti-nence to all other material noted and, in certain instances, recorded on tapes or disks in the interest of space saving. Means for making it avail-able instantly by electronic control would be an integral part of any such system.
By no means does the use of scientific wonders suggest that our libraries
become pushbutton operations. The type of librarian of whom Dr. Sei-bert dreamed would be of even greater importance. The human element would continue to be a prime consideration in developing, administering and servicing an outstanding library. Electronic assistance would allow time for in-depth performance of many library duties.
What we ask of our libraries will not happen tomorrow. We are look-ing ahead, but we must remember that the future is the present almost before we realize that the present is history. Man has ventured into outer space and is preparing for exploration of the moon. Rapid dissemination of the knowledge stored in our libraries is no less important, although not as spectacular. To science technology, the challenge is to help make our libraries current with this age of the atom and space travel so they can do what we ask of them before millions and millions of dollars are spent on new buildings which could become obsolete almost as they are opened.
REFERENCE
1. Russel H. Seibert, "Status and Responsibilities of Academic Librarians," Col-lege and Research Libraries, vol. XXII (July 1961), p. 255.