College and Research Libraries


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CONNIE R. DUNLAP 

Library Services 

to the Graduate Community: 

The University of Michigan 
This paper discusses the unique problems and special needs of gradu-
ate students and how one library, dedicated to serving graduate stu-
dents, attempts to provide specialized programs to meet their needs. 
The setting of goals, the establishment of priorities, and staff involve-
ment in the planning and development of new programs are reviewed. 

OwiNG TO THE GREAT INFLUX of under-
graduate students in the 1950s and 
1960s, academic institutions, and hence 
libraries, directed their major efforts to-
ward the development of programs and 
facilities for undergraduates. Graduate 
students, despite their increasing num-
bers (more than two and a half times 
as many nationwide in the years be-
tween 1960 and 1972), 1 were, if not for-
gotten, largely ignored. Concurrent with 
the emphasis on undergraduates there 
was a tremendous increase in all types 
of publishing coupled with large infu-
sions of federal money to library book 
budgets. Together the emphasis on un-
dergraduate programs and the intensive 
development of book collections occu-
pied and preoccupied librarians to such 
an extent that there was almost preclud-
ed the possibility of directing any spe-
cial attention to the needs and problems 

C annie R. Dunlap is university librarian, 
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. 
This article is based on a talk given at the 
ACRL University Libraries Section pro-
gram on library services to the graduate . 
community at the ALA Conference in San 
Francisco, July 1, 1975. At that time the 
author held the post as deputy associate di-
rector, University Library, University of 
Michigan, Ann Arbor. 

of graduate students. It was not until 
the late 1960s that librarians really be-
gan to take notice of the increasing-
ly large graduate student population 
which, by that time, was a complex mix 
of students from a wide variety of 
backgrounds. Today affirmative action 
and equal opportunity programs are 
opening graduate education to students 
who frequently have special needs and 
special problems that require service on 
an individualized basis. A still different 
kind of need is presented by the <Colder" 
students, especially those in fields in 
which knowledge and training quickly 
become obsolete, ·who are returning to 
the campus in greater and greater num-
bers for brief refresher courses. Each 
group of students makes very different 
demands on the library. 

In addition to a shift in the mix of 
students, many significant developments 
have taken place in higher education. 
Methods of teaching and course content 
have changed considerably, and research 
is becoming more diversified and more 
specialized. As a consequence, graduate 
students are making less use of pre-
scribed reading lists and course reserves 
and greater use of a broad range of ma-
terials. The application of the interdis-
ciplinary approach to nearly all fields 

/247 



248 I College & Research Libraries • May 1976 

of study and the growth of new combi-
nations of subject matter within fields 
have tended to promote more indepen-
dent study and research. The interdisci-
plinary approach has caused the crea-
tion of a vast array of specialized ref-
erence tools to provide in-depth access 
to materials in related disciplines, but 
it is also creating a massive void for 
which suitable reference works are not 
yet available. Reference librarians are 
thus required to become increasingly 
imaginative and creative in ferreting 
out needed information. The use of a 
wide variety of technological aids, from 
the computer to videotape, has opened 
new areas for research and has provided 
new techniques for supplementing class-
room teaching. Their use has promoted 
the creation, in many institutions, of an 
entirely new concept of library service 
which provides the students with spe-
cially equipped carrels or viewing rooms 
for using slides, movies, videotapes, or 
closed-circuit television. 

It is becoming increasingly apparent 
that providing a large book collection 
is only one element of good library ser-
vice. Research libraries are extremely 
complex organizations; and unless ser-
vice programs designed to teach students 
the effective and efficient use of a large 
library are fully developed, their rich 
resources will lie largely untapped ex-
cept to a knowledgable few. We cannot 
continue to justify the expenditure of 
millions of dollars each year to build 
collections which are only minimally 
used. New ways must be developed to 
permit and encourage greater exploita-
tion of the collections. Given present 
economic conditions, there seems little 
likelihood that budgets for staff will be 
augmented to any significant degree in 
the foreseeable future so the cost of 
such programs may have to be funded, 
to some extent at least, at the expense 
of the book budget. The idea of sacri-
ficing a small part of the book 'budget 
for service programs will become less 

abhorrent as national plans for resource 
sharing and cooperative collection de-
velopment reach a more advanced state 
and as specialized programs for gradu-
ate students are more highly developed 
and have fully proved their worth. 

GRADUATE STUDENTS' NEEDs 

In studying for the doctoral degree, 
graduate students are attempting to gain 
in-depth knowledge of a specialized 
field and to prepare for a career in 
which research is a basic element. To 
achieve these goals, a thorough under-
standing of the organization and intri-
cacies of a large library and the acqui-
sition of research skills are absolutely 
essential. A recent survey by the Disser-
tation Review Committee in the Gradu-
ate School at the University of Michi-
gan revealed that faculty, Ph.D. candi-
dates, and Ph.D. alumni felt that the 
five most important objectives of the 
dissertation were to acquire broad re-
search skills, to organize and communi-
cate research :findings, to develop the 
capability of making future contribu-
tions to knowledge, to identify impor-
tant problems, and to develop high-level 
problem-solving skills. According to the 
survey, the respondents' judgments 
about the importance of dissertation 
objectives are related in part to the aca-
demic division in which they operate. 
By and large, the life and physical sci-
entists were most oriented to high-level 
problem-solving, contributing thereby to 
the advancement of knowledge. To a 
lesser extent, the social scientists were 
concerned about essentially the same 
things. Ph.D.'s in humanities and edu-
cation, on the other hand, had a greater 
interest in more generalized research 
skills than in high-level problem-solving 
skills and placed greater emphasis on 
communication to the public and to stu-
dents in the classroom.2 To achieve 
these objectives, graduate students must 
be given a thorough indoctrination into 
the effective methods of using library 

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resources if they are to develop fully 
their capacity to pursue research inde-
pendently. 

ONE INsTITUTION's REsPoNsE 

In an institution such as The Univer-
sity of Michigan, which grants Ph.D. de-
grees in over 100 fields and master's 
degrees in more than 150 and which has 
over 15,000 graduate students who are 
required to work through the maze of 
one of the largest research libraries in 
the country, the need for specialized 
programs is obvious and overwhelming. 
These programs necessarily take a wide 
variety of forms according to the com-
munity of scholars served. A number of 
libraries at Michigan have special pro-
grams for graduate students. 

For example, the automated data 
bases in MEDLINE, the independent 
interlibrary loan network established by 
the National Library of Medicine, make 
available to clientele of the Medical 
Center Library the broad range of 
medical and related scientific literature. 
Under development at the Medical Cen-
ter is a massive media program to coor-
dinate the use of all video and audio 
materials for the medical community. 
Computerized carrels will be an impor-
tant component of this new service. 

The Engineering Library has devel-
oped two special programs to instruct 
students, faculty, and others about the 
resources and services of that library. 
Only about one-third of the individuals 
taking advantage of these programs are 
engineers, the other two-thirds being li-
brary science students, faculty, or repre-
sentatives of local industry. One is a 
slide presentation illustrating the use of 
the catalogs, basic indexes, and the 
union list and delineating the kinds of 
services available. The slide presenta-
tions are narrated by staff, rather than 
being recorded on tape, to permit inter-
action between staff and viewers. In this 
way the students can stop the presenta-
tion to ask questions or to request fur-

Library Services: Michigan I 249 

ther explanation. The other program is 
divided into three sets: indexes and ab-
stracts, patents and standards, and gov-
ernment documents and technical re-
ports. In this latter program, it was de-
cided against using an audiovisual ap-
proach because the information is more 
detailed and more difficult to grasp. In-
stead, liberal use is made of brochures 
showing examples of types of materials 
and giving explanations of how to use 
the tools in the field. Both programs 
have been highly successful. 3 Other di-
visional libraries, besides engineering 
and medicine, have also developed spe-
cial programs according to the needs of 
the students they serve. 

The Graduate Library at Michigan, 
which houses the main research collec-
tion, serves primarily, but by no means 
exclusively, the graduate students and 
faculty in the more than thirty academ-
ic departments in the social sciences and 
humanities. Students in these disciplines 
rely most heavily on the library for 
their research and require the broadest 
range ·of scholarly materials and the 
greatest diversity of special services. If 
such students wander aimlessly about 
the library, testing and probing with 
only marginal success, the quality of 
their work is diminished and the time 
necessary to complete it is lengthened. 

In order to meet the widely varying 
needs of a large graduate student pop-
ulation and a research-oriented faculty, 
as well as to serve as the primary re-
search library on campus and as a re-
source library for the entire state, it has 
been necessary for the Graduate Library 
to develop or expand a broad range of 
services. These include the traditional 
services of information, reference, in-
terlibrary loan, and microforms, among 
others, to which a number of new ser-
vices have been added including a serials 
service, a publishing program, and bib-
liographic instruction. 

Since the control and servicing of pe-
riodicals and serials had long been a rna-



250 I College & Research Libraries • May 1976 

jor weakness, high priority was given to 
improving service in this area. Included 
are a noncirculating periodical collec-
tion comprising the bound volumes of 
about 400 of the most heavily used ti-
tles and an adjacent current serials ser-
vice, which incorporates an improved 
method of controlling unbound serial 
publications and an expanded serials 
reference service. An index room con-
taining the periodical and newspaper 
indexes and the major abstracting ser-
vices was established in close proximity 
to both the current serials service and 
the public catalog. 

A completely different kind of ser-
vice, designed to provide students with 
a wide variety of specialized informa-
tion needs, has been a publishing pro-
gram. The most significant of the pub-
lications in the program is the Graduate 
Library Guide Series, which ultimately 
will provide each discipline or special 
subarea with critically annotated bibli-
ographies of the major research tools in 
the field. 

Another type of program, and the 
one which has had the greatest impact 
on the training of graduate students 
and which will have the most far-reach-
ing ramifications for the future, is bib-
liographic instruction. This program has 
dealt the most directly with the special-
ized needs of graduate students and 
gives them extensive training in research 
methodology and an in-depth introduc-
tion to research materials. Term-long 
courses are tailored to the specific needs 
of advanced graduate students in a giv-
en subfield, and the techniques learned 
can be applied to related disciplines and 
to any other research library. In addi-
tion to providing them with subject-
specific information, students are taught 
how to dispel the mysteries of a large 
library. These courses, taught in the li-
brary by librarians, are a direct scholarly 
service to the academic programs and 
have resulted in a major extension of 
the library's contribution to the educa-

.. 

tiona! process. It is also this service 
which most closely parallels the mission 
of the university-the advancement and 
organized transmission of learning. 
When fully developed, this program 
will have a major impact on teaching 
and research and also on the status and 
stature of librarians in the academic 
community. 

IMPLEMENTING CHANGE 

Making significant changes in service 
patterns is sometimes very difficult, espe-
cially when those changes require sub-
stantial alteration of attitudes and hab-
its. The Graduate Library at The Uni-
versity of Michigan has been fortunate 
because two major building projects 
over the last ten years have made change 
an accepted way of life. It has been pos-
sible to take advantage of the natural 
upheaval and resulting physical altera-
tions of a building under construction 
to shift direction and to introduce a 
new concept of service with relatively 
little additional stress. Many of the 
staff, stimulated by the visual show of 
progress that the construction of a new 
building made, were eager to extend 
that progress to an expansion and im-
provement of the total range of services 
offered. Each departmental unit within 
the Graduate Library was asked to re-
view its operations and to set both short-
and long-range goals and priorities. 
These were correlated and melded with 
the broader goals of the Graduate Li-
brary and with the mission of the uni-
versity library as a whole. 

In the establishment of new service 
patterns, the primary goals were to de-
velop ways of reaching as many students 
as possible on as individualized a basis 
as limited staff would permit, to make 
an attempt to minimize the factory or 
supermarket atmosphere of a large in-
stitution, and to develop techniques 
which would make it possible to respond 
more quickly to the changing needs of 
students and to changes in the university 

...... 



) 

community. In setting priorities, first 
rank was given to those services which 
would complement the university's 

. teaching function and the educational 
process to the greatest extent and which 
would have the greatest impact on the 
training of graduate- students. Tradi-
tional services, with major improve-
ments, had to be maintained, leaving at 
the bottom of the list a myriad of mis-
cellaneous functions that are now being 
done if and as time permits. Backlogs 
in such areas have rarely been of serious 
concern; some of them seem no longer 
to matter very much. Actually, the back-
logs are caused primarily by lack of 
clerical help and have relatively little to 
do with the new priorities. In most cases 
the staff has been so stimulated by the 
new challenges that twice as much is 
being accomplished. 

Setting goals and establishing priori-
ties are relatively easy, or at least rela-
tively easier, in times of restrictive 
budgets than finding staff with the time, 
the energy, and the creative ability to 
plan, implement, and continue new pro-
grams. In order to stimulate staff suffi-
ciently to insure full cooperation and 
to gain a commitment to any new en- . 
deavors, it is vital that they be deeply in-
volved in the planning and decision-
making processes. Major changes cannot 
be made without their enthusiastic sup-
port, for it is they who will do all of 
the hard work and they who will be di-
rectly responsible for any success a new 
program achieves. 

A major consideration in the setting 
of priorities and the subsequent assign-
ing of duties, whether to professional 
or to support staff, was to insure that 
each individual was given opportunity, 

Library Services: Michigan I 251 

through a variety of responsibilities, 
for maximum personal growth and de-
velopment. It was intended that over a 
period of time all professional librari-
ans, for example, would be given broad 
experience, as their talents and inclina-
tions suggested, in supervision, book se-
lection, instruction, reference, and spe-
cial services. Giving staff a wide r·ange 
of experience increases their interest in 
and commitment to the library. It also 
produces a staff which is very knowledg-
able and is flexible enough to make 
shifts in program emphasis with maxi-
mum ease. The fullest and best use of 
our human resources is one of the most 
important elements in any library ser-
vice program, and their proper utiliza-
tion will become even more vital as 
budgets continue to decline. In order to 
take advantage of the many technologi-
cal changes that will occur over the next 
decade and to implement innovative 
and personalized services to graduate 
students and scholars on a much broader 
scale than is now possible, every creative 
and driving force in the staff must be 
stretched to its fullest potential, for it 
is only by maximizing these resources 
that we can hope to shape and control 
the future. 

REFERENCES 

1. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Ab-
stract of the United States: 1975. (96th ed.; 
Washington, D.C.: Govt. Print. Off., 1975), 
p.556. 

2. "The Doctoral Dissertation Survey," Rack-
ham Reports 2:6 (Spring 1975). This publi-
cation is issued by the Horace H. Rackham 
School of Graduate Studies, the University 
of Michigan. 

3. From a conversation with Maurita Peterson 
Holland, Engineering Librarian, University 
of Michigan Library.