ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


13

RESEARCH 

FORUM

Research in a rotating librarian/taculty program

By Mary M. Huston

M ember o f the Faculty/Library 
Evergreen State College

The library at Evergreen State College in Olym­
pia, Washington, offers a unique opportunity for 
research and publication to the six librarians hold­
ing joint appointments in the library and on the 
faculty. Intense involvement in research occurs for 
one quarter every three years when we leave our li­
brary reference and administrative responsibilities 
to rotate into the teaching faculty (and a faculty 
member takes our place in the library). Research is 
encouraged by our participation in multidiscipli­
nary teaching teams. Weekly faculty seminars en­
courage the sharing of individual research interests 
and guarantee collegial discussion on the common 
readings for faculty and students in the program. 
Faculty presentations to students in class are fre­
quently elaborations of these research interests.

Here is an example of the way this academic 
structure stimulates research. When I was teaching 
in the Hum an Health and Behavior program in 
1982-1983,1 brought to the seminar my interest in 
the varying world-views and methodologies of dif­
ferent disciplines. The subject stimulated a lively 
debate on the implicit and explicit assumptions 
about the nature of reality which determine the de­
velopment of knowledge as embodied in the litera­
ture of a subject. In the course of these delibera­
tions, one of my colleagues introduced me to the 
sociology of knowledge field. Later I became suffi­
ciently expert to present a contextual introduction 
for a collaboratively delivered presentation to stu­
dents on the assumptions, contributions, and omis­
sions of disciplinary literatures. O ur classroom 
analyses of the research literatures extended and 
clarified for us our seminar discussions.

Continuing dialogue on the topic resulted a year 
and a half later in a manuscript on teaching infor­

m ation evaluation in bibliographic instruction, 
w ritten by myself and the microbiologist on the 
eam. We are also w riting a paper on another as­
ect of the topic for presentation at a Canadian li­
rarians’ conference in the spring of 1985. A third 
pinoff of the seminar discussions and classroom 
resentation was a paper I presented at a Pacific 
orthwest w riting conference on “Student Re­

ponse and the Politics of Inform ation.”
In some cases then, we faculty librarians use our 

uarter of teaching to extend our familiarity with a 
opic. At other times—as I did with the sociology of 
nowledge literature—we develop new expertise 
hrough intensive research during the same quarter 
e are teaching. This occurs as an outgrowth of 
vergreen’s desire for faculty who are expert learn­
rs as well as expert teachers.

O ur full-tim e opportunity for research is not 
imited to the quarters we rotate into the academic 
aculty to team teach. Regular participation in a 
rogram ’s faculty seminar is also required for fac­
lty status. Collegial dialogue inevitably stimu­

ates new research directions. Last year, for exam­
le, I was asked by my sem inar colleagues to 
evelop a lecture analyzing the reviews of Alice 
alker’s novel The Color Purple within the con­

ext of the political environment in which book re­
iewing occurs.

Having all the same privileges as the academic 
aculty, we are also eligible for professional leave. 
ext quarter I have been granted a leave to con­
uct research on methods for teaching students to 
ecognize cultural bias in their formulation of so­
ial science research problems. My laboratory will 
e the classroom of a former seminar colleague.

The policy establishing faculty membership for

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14

Cr: W oody Hirzel
The Evergreen State College Library, Olympia, Washington.

librarians was in the development stage for o
four years from 1972 through 1976. Librarians a
many of the academic faculty supported facu
membership for librarians from the time the c
lege opened its doors in the fall of 1971. Some me

ver 
nd 
lty 
ol­
m­

bers of the academic faculty, however, questioned 
the addition of librarians into their ranks fearing it 
would dilute the intellectual quality of the faculty.

In the spring of 1973 the college president, under 
pressure from librarians to clarify his stand on the 
m atter, stated that on an individual basis present 
and future members of the library staff may be 
screened for joint membership in the faculty and 
the library. Thus was born the idea of a faculty 
member rotating into the library to work as a li­
b rarian  w hen a librarian rotated into full-tim e 
teaching.

T he next three years involved innum erable 
m eetings w here the details of the policy were 
worked out, including whether the granting of fac­
ulty membership could be dependent on budget 
considerations or the availability of specific teach­
ing positions at the college; whether faculty mem­
bership granted librarians automatic summer em­
ploym ent at the regular faculty pay scale; and 
whether the faculty librarian, if having failed as a 
teacher, could be retained as a non-faculty librar­
ian. Three librarians out of five applied for faculty 
membership in March 1976. Their portfolios were 
reviewed by a faculty hiring committee and the 
first faculty librarian appointment was made in the 
spring of 1977.

Newly hired librarians now begin as either fac­
ty librarians or administrative exempt librarians. 
en erally , lib ra ria n s w ith  sig n ifican t b ib lio ­
aphic instruction duties are hired as faculty 
embers, while librarians hired for more technical 
ties begin work as exempt staff. A librarian ap­
ying for a position as a faculty member at Ever­
een is evaluated by both the research and teach­
g c r ite r ia  a p p lie d  to acad e m ic fa c u lty  
pointments and the technical and bibliographic 
iteria applied to other librarian candidates.
Additional discussion of the rotation scheme is 
ailable in a paper by Mary M. Huston and Frank 
otley, “Faculty Membership for Librarians: The 
ergreen State College Model,” in Michael D.

Clarifications

C. Lee Jones, author of “Issues in Retrospec­
ive Conversion” in the November 1984 issue of 
&RL News, is w ith the Council for Library 
esources as a consultant, and not an employee 
f the U.S. government as stated in the Editor’s 
ote.

Edw ard G. Holley will relinquish the dean- 
hip of the School of Library Science at the Uni­
ersity of North C arolina at Chapel Hill on 
une 30, 1985, at which time he will return to 
ull-time teaching. This corrects a “People in 
he News” note th at appeared in the October 
984 issue.

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17

K athm an and Virgil F. Massman, ed s., Options fo
the 80s: Proceedings o f the Second National C o
ference o f the Association o f College and Researc

r  
n­
h

Libraries (G reenwich, C t.: JAI Press, 1982), pp. 
13-19.4

“Energies for Transition” to be theme of ACRL’s Fourth 
National Conference in Baltimore, April 9-12, 1986.

Academic and research libraries, the institutions 
of w hich they are a p a r t, th e environm ents in 
w hich they function, and the constituencies they 
serve, are all sw ept up in transitions of num erous 
kinds and dimensions.

Trends in higher education, including changes 
in instruction and research focus, and in institu­
tional relationships to governm ent, business, and 
industry, all place new  dem ands on libraries. D e­
m ographic shifts created by population m ovem ent 
an d  differing mixes of socio-econom ic-cultural 
groups, the b irth  rate, fluctuations in the economy, 
th e rise of the inform ation society—all affect insti­
tutional goals.

L ib rary  m anagem ent techniques are changing 
in order to accom odate both austerity and afflu­
ence, unionization, and em erging organizational 
structures. Campuses are being w ired to utilize 
new  technologies for d a ta  and video transmission 
and to perm it necessary telecom m unication link­
ages. A utom ation continues to find new  applica­
tions, altering libraries in their relations to each 
other and to other parts of society in hitherto un ­
dream ed of ways.

These transitions are placing dem ands on li­
braries to assume new attitudes, to seek a p p ro p ri­
ate m ethods, and to exploit finite resources to cope 
w ith ever-changing developments. T he focus of the 
1986 ACRL N ational C onference in B altim ore will 
be to explore the them e, “Energies for T ran sitio n .” 
T he Conference aims to identify the n atu re of the 
transitions facing librarians and to suggest energies 
to m eet them , both through the inform al gathering 
of colleagues and form al program s.

C ontributed papers are a m ajor feature of the 
conference, and are invited in any of the following 
three categories:

1) Research reports are to be descriptions of stud­
ies w hich utilize rigorous research methodology 
a n d  w h ic h  in c lu d e  id e n tifie d  h y p o th eses a n d  
clearly stated conclusions. T he m axim um  length of 
each report should be 2,500 words to be presented 
w ithin 20 m inutes; a 10-minute question and a n ­
swer period w ill be scheduled for each research re­
port.

2) Position papers are to be presentations in 
w hich problem s are clearly identified and solutions 
proposed. Descriptions m ay be of locally im ple­
m ented experiences (successes and failures), theo­
retical models, or state of the a rt reviews. Although 
not requiring form al research m ethodology, these

papers should be well organized, and should de­
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18

B.C. library inspires epic poem

r
rugged interior reopened Novem ber 28 thanks to 
concerted efforts by students, faculty, and friends 
of the school, w hich h ad  closed at the end of Spring 
Semester.

T he D avid Thom pson U niversity C en tre L i­
b ra ry  (D T U C ), Nelson, B .C ., was occupied by 
concerned city residents last April after th e provin­
cial governm ent’s announcem ent th a t it could no 
longer keep th e school funded. T he townspeople 
intended to prevent the breaking up of th e lib rary ’s 
collection, m uch of w hich h ad been donated by lo­
cal citizens. T he occupiers felt th a t th e  lib ra ry  
w ould be a crucial factor in the re-establishm ent of 
any fu tu re academ ic institution.

T he sit-in lasted until July w hen an agreem ent 
was reached betw een the B.C. M inistry of E d u ca­
tion an d  th e Nelson C ity Council th a t allowed the 
lib rary  to be opened to the public if th e city w ould 
pay m aintenance costs. The library, staffed by vol­
unteers, is now  open 20 hours a week.

T he w hole story of the occupiers and th eir even­
tu al triu m p h  has been told in a delightful 19-page 
m onograph by retired governm ent employee Sam 
Dodds. C alled The Sedentary Tales, the saga is

itten  in C haucerian heroic couplets accom pa­
d by medieval-looking calligraphy and illustra­
ns. T he poet likens th e seven original occupiers 
the C an terb u ry  pilgrims w ho sought lodging at 
inn (the library) and told their tales to the in n ­
per (the chief lib ra ria n ).
ere is an excerpt from “The E d u ca to r’s T ale” :

he University h ath  closed its doors, and very 
n— as ye have said—will shutter its library. 

d w h a t w ith all such careless breach of faith 
has transpired, you’ll understand how  laith 
 w e to tw iddle thum bs and stand aside 
ile others quietly sort out and scatter w ide 

e books and artifacts this cam pus h ad  in store— 
d, w ith  them , all our hopes th a t D eetuc m ay
rise once m ore!...
re, for all th e civil style in w hich we greet you, 
u see six specimens of hom o disobediens in situ .”

opies of this stirring n arrativ e are available for 
 payable to th e D TU C  Support Society, from 

 D odds, Box 200, Nelson, BC, C an ad a V1L 
. All proceeds beyond the cost of prin tin g  will 

donated to the cause of arts and hum anities ed u ­
ion in Nelson. ■  ■

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ALA Publishing Services offers aid to bibliographers

James L ym an W hitney, chief of th e D ep art
of Statistics and M anuscripts of the Boston 

m en t 
Public 

L ibrary, was a ch arter m em ber of ALA and served 
as treasurer from  1882 to 1886. W hen he died in 
1910, he left a bequest for the purpose of assisting in 
th e p rep aratio n  of bibliographic aids. In  1983 this 
fund was com bined w ith th e C arnegie R eading 
List Awards fund (established by A ndrew  C arn e­
gie in 1902) for w hich official units of ALA are eli­
gible. T he nam e of th e aw ards was changed to the 
W h itn ey -C arn eg ie A w ards. T hey are adm inis­
tered by th e ALA Publishing C om m ittee.

Eligibility: T he W hitney-C arnegie Awards are 
available to individuals.

Criteria: In  April 1982 the ALA Executive Board 
determ ined th a t grants w ould be m ade “for the 
p rep aratio n  of bibliographical aids for research. 
T he aids m ust be aim ed at a scholarly audience bu t 
have a general applicability.” T he aw ards m ay 
cover any costs appropriate to th e  p rep aratio n  of a 
useful p ro d u ct and are ordinarily for no m ore th a n  
$2,500.

Applications: G rants are m ade from  th e com ­

bined incom e of th e tw o funds. Applications from 
individuals should clearly designate th a t they are 
in ten d ed  for th e W h itn ey -C arn eg ie A w ard an d  
m ust contain the following items:

•  Statem ent of purpose, to include a description 
of th e project and its intended audience.

•  P lan of w ork, to include a schedule for com ­
pletion.

•  Budget, to include a clear justification for t r a ­
vel if funds for this purpose are requested.

•  Publication plans if a com m itm ent has already 
been m ade. Preference m ay be given to projects for 
w hich ALA m ay serve as a publisher.

T h e ALA P ublishing C o m m ittee reviews th e 
proposals and recom m ends to th e ALA Executive 
Board both recipients and the am ounts of their 
a w a rd s. P roposals sh o u ld  be su b m itte d  to  th e  
C hair, ALA Publishing C om m ittee, 50 E. H uron 
Street, Chicago, IL  60611; (312) 944-6780.

Proposals m ust be subm itted no later th a n  F eb ­
ru ary  28 for consideration a t the following m eeting 
o f th e  P u b lis h in g  C o m m itte e  (u s u a lly  in 
April). ■ ■