ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries B u ild in g a fir m fo u n d a tio n : ACR1 leadership, 1 9 3 9 - 1 9 8 9 B y E dw ard G. H olley School o f Inform ation and Library Science University o f N orth Carolina a t Chapel Hill Presented at the luncheon in honor of academic leaders held at the A C R L Fifth National Conference in Cincinnati, April 6, 1989. W h e n ACRL threatened secession from ALA in After a highly em otional meeting at the ALA Conference in Buffalo in 1946, led by th a t aggres­ sive ACRL president, Blanche P richard M cCrum , the struggle was over. The ALA Executive Board capitulated, gave ACRL an executive secretary in 1947, and ACRL moved farth er dow n the road to ­ w ard autonom y w ithin ALA. The ACRL rebellion has been recounted else­ w here b u t perhaps no one has yet told the complete story of the behind-the-scenes m aneuvering, the incendiary letters th a t passed betw een the oppos­ ing forces, and the resistance of persons like C arl M ilam, ALA executive secretary, and ALA Execu­ tive Board m em bers R alph Ulveling, and M ary U topia (“Topey”) Rothrock. O n the ACRL side the le a d e rs in c lu d e d M c C ru m , B ro w n , R a lp h Ellsw orth, and, behind th e scenes, K uhlm an. In ­ com ing 1946-1947 A CRL President E. W . Mc- D ia rm id , w ho w o u ld , in 194 8 -1 9 4 9 , becom e ALA’s youngest president in its history, seemed to be a m oderating force, w ith an assist from th a t M achiavellian change agent, C harlie Brown, who co u ld n ’t b rin g him self, in th e w ords of R alp h Ellsw orth, “to break up the good old ALA.” Parenthetically, Brown, w ho h ad the most to do w ith ACRL’s founding, was never president. How- 1946, for the first tim e since th a t perennial gadfly, John C otton D ana, h ad led the special librarians out of the Association in 1909, the ALA executive d ire c to r a n d E xecutive B oard experienced th e greatest trau m a they ever had. Those quarrelsom e academ ic librarians h ad been difficult enough in the tw enties and thirties, w hen they plotted a reor­ ganization leading to ALA’s first semi-autonomous division. They h ad claim ed th a t ALA ignored aca­ demic librarians (true enough, to be sure). They w anted m ore attention to their special needs and better support for their program s. And they were determ ined to attain their objectives. Under the leadership of Charles Harvey Brown (1875-1960), a consumm ate politician if there ever was one, ACRL was born in 1938. O ur official jo u rn a l, College and Research L ibraries, w as launched in Decem ber 1939 under th e editorship of the vigorous and articulate A. Frederick Kuhlm an. For the first eight years, to use the current jargon, ACRL “didn’t get no respect.” And so, in 1946, the battle was joined. Was ACRL to separate from ALA and become an independent organization or was ACRL to rem ain w ithin the ALA w ith m ore autonom y and a full-tim e executive secretary? 464 / C& RL News ever, he saw to it th at the first president, Frank K. W alter, was someone he trusted, to lead the college librarians in the right way. W hat a decade th a t first one was! The leadership included Frank K. W alter at Minnesota and Phi- neas L. Windsor at Illinois. Up and coming youn­ ger lib rarian s included R obert B. Downs and Donald Coney, who would argue w ith each other over most of their careers about the merits or de­ merits of faculty status for librarians. Three women were president: Mabel L. Conat, head of reference at the D etroit Public Library (re­ member th a t ACRL was “College and Reference Librarians” until 1956), followed two years later by an o th er reference lib ra ria n , W inifred Ver Nooy, and then McCrum. Not yet mentioned is Charles B. Shaw, of the fa­ mous Shaw List o f Books fo r College Libraries, predecessor to o u r c u rre n tly highly respected BCL3. C o m p le tin g th e d e ca d e w as W illiam H. Carlson, who was a member of the ALA Com m it­ tee on postwar planning. At the time of his presi­ dency Carlson was director of libraries for the Ore­ gon State System of Higher Education. He had also chaired the College and University Postwar Plan­ ning Committee which in 1946 had produced Col­ lege and University Libraries and Librarianship, a major assessment of and plan for the future of aca­ demic libraries. T hat first decade also saw the appointm ent of ACRL’s first executive secretary, N. O rwin Rush, 1947. Rush established a pattern that has become familiar in ACRL: executive secretaries have been persons who assumed the position, did their duty, and moved on to other positions. After two years, Rush was succeeded by young Arthur T. Hamlin, described as “fresh from the University of Pennsylvania.” In Ham lin’s seven- year tenure, he oversaw the birth of the ACRL M onograph series, including its first hardcover book, Charlie Brown’s Scientific Serials, 1956. W hat of the next four decades? Under one of its periodic, b u t strife-producing, organizational studies, ALA established new divisions, including the Reference Services Division. W ith the depar­ tu re of the reference librarians, ACRL was re­ named the Association of College and Research Li­ braries (following, incidentally, the name of its journal), and thus it remains. The fifties saw continuation of higher educa­ tion’s enrollment expansion which led Donald Co­ ney to w rite a perceptive article in C&R L , “Where Did You Go? To the Library. W hat Did You Get? Nothing.” The growth of college and university li­ braries followed higher education’s lead: books, buildings, staffs, and staff salaries began their own long-awaited expansion. Michigan followed H ar­ vard’s lead and opened a separate undergraduate library in 1958. T h at p articu lar year promised even m ore explosive grow th of libraries as the country reacted to Sputnik w ith a National De­ fense Education Act which included support for acquiring library materials from abroad. H ig h e r e d u c a tio n a c c re d itin g associations strengthened their standards, as did ACRL, whose 1959 college library standards would have a tre­ mendous im pact in the sixties when m any entirely new college and university campuses came into ex­ istence. Among the respected ACRL leaders of this pe­ riod were names familiar to many a library school student of my generation; college librarians like Wyllis E. W rig h t of W illiam s College, Eileen Thornton of Oberlin, W yman W. Parker of Wes­ leyan. The controversial Ralph Ellsworth, the only person to be elected ACRL president twice, again becam e ACRL president in 1961. Also Guy R. Lyle, whose textbook on college library adminis­ tration went through four editions. And Robert Vosper, whose directorships at Kansas and UCLA made their libraries into national research collec­ tions. Vosper, along w ith Downs, M cDiarm id, Ben Powell, and Russell Shank, was one of the five ACRL presidents who also served as presidents of ALA. Not to be overlooked is Edm ond Low, the in­ defatigable leader in federal legislative and copy­ right battles. As we look at the list of leaders over this period and the succeeding two decades, we cannot help being impressed w ith how fortunate ACRL has been in its leadership. Presidents and executive sec­ retaries led the Association through tumultuous times: the golden age of federal support, especially during President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society Programs; the retrenchm ent of the seventies; the blahs and financial pressures of the eighties. Let us confess th at on a few occasions leadership was not always w hat one might have wished. At one period an executive secretary lamented to me th a t the current president didn’t wish to be both­ ered making tough decisions. The individual said, “I have to deal w ith these problems all the tim e at G o t a policy? The Reference Collection Development and Evaluation Committee of the Reference and Adult Services Division’s Collection Develop­ m ent and Evaluation Section is initiating a project to gather the reference collection devel­ opm ent policies currently in place in all types of libraries. The committee hopes to publish the collection of policies after the documents are re­ ceived and categorized. All types of lib raries—academ ic, public, school, and special—having collection develop­ m ent policies referring specifically to their ref­ erence collection or including a section on the reference collection are urged to forward the policies to: Jane Kleiner, Chair, CODES Refer­ ence CD&E Committee, Louisiana State Uni­ versity Libraries, Baton Rouge, LA 70803. June 1989 / 465 hom e. I d o n ’t w a n t to come to th e ALA conference and re p e at th a t experience.” T h e executive secre­ ta ry expostulated th a t this w as an irresponsible a t­ titu d e a n d if a n in d iv id u al d id n o t w ish to deal w ith A C RL problem s, th a t person should n o t seek elec­ tive office. I suspect th a t a n u m b e r of executive sec­ retaries h a d sim ilar problem s on occasion. H o w ­ ever, on th e w hole, th e presidents have served us w ell. T h e fo u n d atio n they laid is one w h ich should give us b o th satisfaction a n d pride. O n e of th e d is a p p o in tm e n ts w h e n o n e looks b a ck w a rd is th e lack of w om en a n d m inorities in significant positions, except in recen t years. O berlin lib ra ria n E ileen T h o rn to n (w ho is w ith us today), w as th e only w o m an elected p resident in th e fifties, w hile th e sixties saw th e presidencies of K itty Stokes, from W estern M ichigan, a n d H elen M arg aret B row n, from W ellesley. By th e seventies th e situ atio n w as changing, w ith th e ap p ea ra n ce of A nne E dm onds, Louise Giles, an d C onnie D u n lap . T h e eighties, of course, have seen six distinguished w om en presidents in succession. W om en have also d o m in ated th e executive se­ c re ta ry /directo r position since Beverly L y n ch ’s se­ lection in 1972. D r. L ynch, soon to becom e dean of th e U C LA G ra d u a te School of L ib ra ry a n d In fo r­ m a tio n Science, is a n o th er A C R L le ad e r w ho b e­ cam e ALA president. J o s e p h R e a s o n b e c a m e t h e f i r s t A f r ic a n - A m erican to becom e presid en t in 1971-1972. R ea­ son h a d also served as in terim executive secretary a decade earlier, 1962-1963. T h e only o th er African- A m erican p resid en t w as Louise Giles, w hose trag ic d e ath in th e m iddle of h e r presidential te rm cut sh o rt a prom ising career. As alread y m en tio n ed , b eh in d th e scenes w ere th e executive secretaries/directors. These able p e r­ sons, som etim es for short periods, som etim es for longer periods, k ep t th e Association on tra c k d u r ­ ing th e tu rm o il of th e la te sixties and early seven­ ties. A nd u n d e r th e leadership of Beverly L ynch, Julie V irgo, a n d JoAn Segal th ey saw th e Associa­ tio n becom e in fact, if n o t in theory, th e tru ly a u ­ tonom ous ALA u n it for w h ich th e A C RL founders h a d fought. F ro m th e beginning university lib rarian s have been th e m ost num erous am ong A C RL presidents a n d executive secretaries. O v erall, 35 o f th e 50 p resid en ts h av e com e from univ ersity lib raries, perh ap s n o t surprising since a b o u t fifty p ercen t of th e m e m b e rsh ip also com es from u n iv ersity li­ braries. F rom F ra n k K. W a lte r in 1938-1939 to Joseph W . Boissé in 1988-1989, th ey have given ded icated service to o u r Association. This has been tru e de­ spite th e assertion th a t th e Association of Research L ibraries has d ra in e d A C R L of research lib ra ry leadership. O f course, not all university directors have com e from ARL institutions, b u t a significant n u m b er have, including a n u m b er of th e presidents in th e last decade. E ig h t of our fifty presidents have been college li­ b rarian s, w hile one cam e from a com m unity col­ lege lib rary , tw o each from p u b lic libraries and o th er agencies, a n d tw o from lib ra ry schools. Most o f th e ACRL presidents have been directors of li­ b raries, again n o t surprising. F o r oldtim ers like m e, w ho h av e b o th p a rtic i­ p a te d in an d observed o u r Association of College a n d Research L ibraries m a tu re , th e accom plish­ m ents of th e last tw o decades provide a firm fo u n ­ d a tio n on w hich to b u ild for o u r next century. As I in d icated in th e Jan u a ry C & R L , th e facts are clear. T hanks to a dedicated m em bership an d strong p re ­ sid en tial/executive directo r leadership, A C RL on its fiftieth anniversary is fa r a n d aw ay th e largest, m ost effective, an d m ost prosperous of th e ALA d i­ visions. Am ong all th e lib ra ry associations o f the w o rld , ACRL ranks fifth in m em bership. O u r Association has led th e w ay in ALA divi­ sional natio n al conferences, in co ntinuing ed u ca­ tion, and in n o tew orthy professional a n d scholarly publications. O u r college lib rary stan d ard s, an d o th er standards an d guidelines, are recognized u n ­ officially, if not officially, as th e objectives for aca­ dem ic libraries to a tta in . O u r journals, Choice, College ćr Research Libraries, R are Books & M a n ­ uscripts Librarianship, a n d College ć- Research L i­ braries N ew s, are p re-em in en t in th e ir field. W e ow e a d eb t of g ratitu d e to all those w ho h av e m ade contributions, w h e th er larg e o r sm all, to such an o u tstan d in g Association record. As I studied A C R L ’s p a st le ad e rsh ip , I cam e across W illiam H . C arlson’s rem ark ab le article, “P rep a ra tio n for Progress,” w ritte n a t th e begin­ n in g of his presidency in 1947. T h a t y ear w as a t i m e o f h ig h h o p e s a n d so m e a p p r e h e n s io n . A C R L ’s first executive secretary w o u ld soon take office an d set th e stage for a new relationship of th e division w ith ALA. M em bership, re c ru itm en t, ed ­ u catio n al p re p a ratio n of lib rarian s, a n d financial su p p o rt for A C RL’s expanded activities w ere very m uch on C arlson’s m ind, even as th ey are today. In speaking o r th e im p o rtan ce of th a t tim e, C arlson w rote: “All of us m ust surely ap p ro ach th e w ork of th e forthcom ing years w ith a sense of unusual op­ p o rtu n ity . W h a t w e do in these first y e a rs...m a y d eterm in e th e p a tte rn of our developm ent an d th e effectiveness of our w ork for a long p erio d of years. T h e next very few years w ill d eterm in e w h e th er w e are to shape an d sh arp en , w h e th er w e can shape a n d sh arp en o u r association into an in stru m e n t eq u al to th e times. W e m u st succeed. W ith th e h elp , support, an d active w ork of every college, u n iv ersity , a n d referen ce lib r a ria n w e w ill suc­ ceed .” College ò- Research Libraries 8 (July 1947): 202. L ike C arlson, a t th e beginning of o u r next one h u n d re d years, w e too “m ust surely ap p ro ach th e w o rk of th e forthcom ing years w ith a sense o f u n u ­ sual o p p o rtu n ity .” O u r look a t th e p ast should give c o u ra g e to o u r fu tu r e le a d e rs as th e y p r e p a r e 466 / C & R L N ew s ACRL for the tw enty-first century. O ur predeces­ sors built a firm foundation. Their accomplish­ ments, in good times and bad, served the academic library profession well. Appropriately, w e salute those leaders, and express our special thanks to those who are w ith us today. And let us, as we leave C incinnati, also “approach th e forthcom ing years w ith a sense of unusual opportunity.” “W ith the help, support, and active w ork” of every ACRL m em ber, w e, too, will succeed. T hank you. ■ ■ T he University o f F lorid a’s m oving experience B y A n ita L. B attiste, D e n ise M. B e a u b ie n , C arol A. D rum , B everly L. P o p e , a n d A lice L. P rim ack University o f Florida Consolidating branches into a central science library. I n F ebruary 1987 the M arston Science L ibrary at the University of Florida first opened its doors to the public. At th a t tim e, four branch libraries w ere closed and the agricultural, biological, physical and earth sciences, and m athem atics libraries w ere consolidated in the new location. This article dis­ cusses the phases and events th a t led to th e opening of th e new library, from choosing an architect to the final integration of collections and staff in the new facility. Background The idea of a centralized science library at the U niversity of F lorida w as conceived m ore th a n tw enty years ago, b u t it did not have w idespread acceptance am ong the science faculty, university adm inistration, or state legislature at th a t time. There w ere four departm ental branch libraries on campus: agriculture, chemistry, engineering, and physics/astronomy. O ther science disciplines (ex­ cept medicine) w ere served by the m ain library. By th e m iddle to late 1970s, the branch locations as well as th e m ain library w ere becoming seriously overcrowded. L im ited budgets had necessitated the cancellation of most duplicate journal subscrip­ tions, forcing some science researchers to use up to five different libraries on campus in order to do their research. The theft rate h ad increased d ra ­ m atically in libraries w ith 24-hour key access and/ or lim ited security. To secure these libraries would have m eant the elim ination of faculty and gradu­ ate student key access and expensive alterations to the buildings. G radually, support for a central sci­ ence library grew am ong the faculty and adm inis­ trators. After a num ber of years of jockeying for po­ sition on th e state’s building priority list, the library was funded in the early 1980s. Designing and refining the building L ibrary committees w ere formed to provide in ­ p u t on program s and issues th a t w ould directly af­ fect the design of the library: circulation/reserves, au to m atio n , in te rlib rary loan, docum ents, etc. June 1989 / 467