College and Research Libraries


50th Anniversary Feature-A C&RL Classic Reprint 

The Changing Role 
of Directors of 

University Libraries 
Arthur M. McAnally and Robert B. Downs 

The role of the university library director has changed markedly in the last decade. The position 
of library director has become a difficult role to serve. Directors have been subjected to pressures 
from different quarters. Five sources are identified by the authors, including pressures from the 
president's office, library staff, faculty, and students. These difficulties coupled with a declin-
ing ability to meet user needs, the lack of cohesive library planning, and an institutional inabil-
ity to accommodate change have all contributed to the declining status of the library director. 
Recommendations as to ways to ameliorate the problem are offered. Among the suggestions 
included are better planning, improved budgeting techniques, and the introduction of new or-
ganizational patterns. 

Editor's Note-Shortly after the completion 
of the manuscript, Arthur McAnally died un-
expectedly. His death was both a professional 
and personal loss. Arthur was particularly 
generous to young librarians who aspired to be-
come library administrators. I was one of those 
who was fortunate in receiving his friendship 
and counsel. His last manuscript represents, in 
my opinion, an important contribution to our 
professional literature. It is a privilege to be able 
to publish it. 

raditionally the directorship of 
a major university library has 
been a lifetime post. Once ali-
brarian achieved such a posi-

tion of honor and leadership in the profes-
sion, he usually stayed until he reached 
retirement age. In the 1960s, however, an 
increasing number of incidents occurred 

· which indicated that all was not well in the 
library directors' world, resulting in a 

vague feeling of uneasiness. Then in one 
year, 1971-72, the seriousness of the situa-
tion became dramatically evident: seven 
of the directors of the Big Ten university 
libraries (plus the University of Chicago) 
left their posts, only one a normal retire-
ment for age. These are major universities 
on the national scene whose directorships 
had been stable in the past. 

To discover how widespread this condi-
tion might be, an investigation has been 
undertaken among the seventy-eight larg-
est university libraries-members of the 
Association of Research Libraries. Exactly 
one-half of the directors were found to 
have changed within the past three years, 
four of them twice. This is an extraordinar-
ily high rate of change. If such a rate were 
to continue, the average span of service 
for directors would be five to six years. 
Next, to find out if the development was 
related to size of the library, those univer-

Robert Downs [was] dean of library administration, emeritus, university librarian, University of Illinois at 
Urbana-Champaign. Arthur McAnally was director of libraries, University of Oklahoma, Norman. 

Reprinted from College & Research Libraries 34, no.2:103-25 (March 1973). 

307 



308 College & Research Libraries 

sity libraries holding more than 2,000,000 
volumes were compared with the twenty 
smallest libraries in the association. Size 
apparently has some bearing, but does not 
appear to be a major factor: while 60 per-
cent of the larger libraries had changed di-
rectors, 45 percent of the smaller ones did, 
too. The authors are well aware that the 
directors of libraries in many small 
universities-as well as those in interme-
diate and large institutions-are in severe 
difficulty or under intense pressure. 
Oddly, the chief librarians of colleges and 
junior colleges do not appear to be af-
fected. The problem seems to be limited to 
university librarians only. 

Several explanations of the phenome-
non have been offered. Edward G. Holley 
observed the trend during visits to a num-
ber of urban university libraries in 1971: 
''At the end of the sixties it has not been 
uncommon for chief librarians, who by 
any objective standards served their insti-
tutions well, to retire early from their di-
rectorships, some with sorrow, some with 
relief, and a few with bitterness. Very few 
have retired with the glory and honor that 
used to accompany extraordinary accom-
plishments in building resources and ex-
panding services. " 1 Holley attributed the 
condition partly to changing attitudes of 
the library staffs. On the other hand, Ray-
nard C. Swank questioned whether many 
directors really had retired in great favor 
in the past. He also suggested that the 
present high rate of change might be due 
partly to a large number of directors who 
were appointed some thirty years ago all 
nearing retirement age about the same 
time. 2 Others believe that the problem re-
flects a highly critical attitude towards the 
university library itself rather than just 
criticism of the directors. Still others con-
clude that an era is ending and old ways 
are having to give way to new: those who 
will not or cannot adapt are finished. The 
suggestion also was made that a few of the 
changes might be attributable to weak-
nesses among the directors. Though each 
of these explanations may have some va-
lidity, the full story is far more compli-
cated. 

Directors who have recently quit their 
jobs should be authoritative spokesmen 
on the subject. The authors corresponded 

May 1989 

sp~nded or discussed the subject, there-
fore, with twenty-two directors or former 
directors whom they know well person-
ally. 3 Each was asked for his opinions 
about the causes of the extraordinary 
turnover in directorships and to suggest 
possible remedies. Every one replied, 
and many gave keen analyses of the 
causes as well as suggesting steps that 
should be taken. 

BACKGROUND FACTORS 
The numerous changes in directorships 

indicate that some fundamental dissatis-
factions have arisen within university li-
braries or their environment in recent 
years. The underlying causes may be 
deep-seated and varied. Thus the director 
might be under fire, as he unquestionably 
is, because he is the most visible repre-
sentative of an agency that is under attack, 
the university library itself. Therefore, re-
cent trends in society and the university 
were examined, as well as movements in 
university administration, the world of 
scholarship and research, and the pub-
lishing and information world, as well as 
the university library itself. 

Growth of enrollment. The extraordinary 
growth in enrollments in higher education 
during the decade of the sixties forced the 
university itself to make many changes to 
attempt to cope with the flood of students. 
Total enrollments grew from almost four 
million to approximately eight million. 
The number of graduate students tripled, 
from 314,000 to more than 900,000. The 
tremendous increase produced changes in 
the university far beyond merely making 
it larger. It became a far more complicated 
institution. 4 

University expansion began long before 
the sixties, of course. Probable effects 
upon the university library were noted in 
1958 by Donald Coney, and the title of his 
article is prophetic: "Where Did You Go? 
To the Library. What Did You Get? Noth-
ing. " 5 Except for the creation of under-
graduate libraries in some of the larger 
universities beginning at Harvard in 1948, 
few changes were made to cope with the 
rising flood. Most universities remained 
oriented basically to the single-copy re-
search concept. 

Changes in the presidency. Growth in size 



C & RL Classic Reprint: Changing Role of Directors · 309 

of the institution placed great pressure 
upon the president, and other factors 
added to his problems: rising expecta-
tions, growing militancy of students and 
faculty, disillusionment and a newly criti-
cal attitude towards higher education on 
the part of the general public that devel-
oped as a result of student activism, politi-
cal pressure from hostile legislators or 
governors, growing powers exerted by 
state boards of control, and, to cap it all, 
financial support that began to decline or 
at least levelled out. Harried from all 
sides, forced to act often on bases of emer-
gency or expediency, and with little time 
left for academic affairs, the position of the 
president has become almost untenable. 

It is not surprising that the average ten-
ure of university presidents in the United 
States is now a short five years. Chancel-
lor Murphy of UCLA stated that the office 
of president or chancellor has become im-
possible, and suggested a maximum term 
of ten years. He observed that "The chief 
executive of an institution makes his 
greatest creative impacts in the first five to 
eight years. He may need a few more 
years to follow through in the implemen-
tation of these creative impacts. Beyond 
that, however, the housekeeping function 
inevitably becomes larger, and much of 
the vitality, drive, and creativity de-
clines."6 President Lyman of Stanford 
noted that directors of libraries appeared 
to be in the same situation as presidents. 
Herman H. Fussier added that the tenure 
of all senior university administrators-
not only presidents but also vice-
presidents and deans-had declined con-
siderably in recent years. He asked, why 
should librarians expect to be different?7 

Booz, Allen & Hamilton predicted that 
term appointments for presidents might 
become common, and that even peer elec-
tion could come in the late seventies. 8 

Proliferation in university management. To 
cope with the greatly intensified pressures 
on the president, and in the belief that uni-
versities were undermanaged, nearly 
every university in the country has added 
substantially to its central management 
staff. The most striking increase has been 
in the number of vice-presidents. 

The proliferation of vice-presidents was 
noted and commented on by several direc-

tors: Lewis C. Branscomb, Thomas R. 
Buckman, Richard N. Logsdon, Robert 
Miller, and Edward B. Stanford. All ob-
served that this movement has had the ef-
fect of interposing a layer of administra-
tive officers between the chief librarian 
and the president. The director no longer 
has direct access to the president; thus the 
role of the library in the university and the 
power of the library to present its case has 
been reduced. Logsdon commented that 
unfortunately the presidents rarely have 
utilized existing administrators, such as 
directors of libraries, who have a broad 
overview of the university, to help with 
the growing burden of general adminis-
trative affairs. 9 

Changes in the world of learning and re-
search. Several factors beyond the obvious 
one of expansion of existing graduate pro-
grams and establishment of new pro-
grams have affected the university and its 
library. A major instance is the continued 
fragmentation of traditional academic dis-
ciplines. New specializations continue to 
break off from older fields; each, of 
course, smaller than the original. One au-
thority has referred to the trend as ''the 
Balkanization" of learning. 10 Another 
movement of the sixties which is having a 
major impact on libraries is the emergence 
of interdisciplinary programs, including 
area studies. New social concerns and the 
demands for relevance also foster the 
growth of interdisciplinary institutes and 
other irregular patterns outside of estab-
lished fields. Even engineering is moving 
towards a juncture with the sciences. To 
help cope with the flood of students, 
teaching methods have turned increas-
ingly to larger classes, increased use of 
teaching assistants for regular classes, 
and, to a lesser degree, the newer media, 
such as closed-circuit TV. 

These changes in the world of learning 
may presage a fundamental reorientation, 
according to Peter F. Drucker. ''The emer-
gence of knowledge as central to our soci-
ety and the foundation of economy and 
social action drastically changes the posi-
tion, the meaning, and the structure of 
knowledge .... Knowledge areas are in a 
state of flux. The existing faculties, depart-
ments, and disciplines will not be appro-
priate for long. Few are ancient to begin 



310 College & Research Libraries 

with, of course .... The most probable 
assumption is that every single one of the 
old demarcations, disciplines and facul-
ties is going to become obsolete and a bar-
rier to learning as well as to understand-
ing. The fact that we are shifting rapidly 
from a Cartesian view of the universe, in 
which the accent has been on parts and el-
ements, to a configuration view, with the 
emphasis on wholes and patterns, chal-
lenges every single dividing line between 
areas of study and knowledge." 11 

All the foregoing movements have im-
plications for the libraries. As was re-
marked by Warren J. Haas, the rise of 
small new specializations tends to drive 
up the price of books and journals because 
the clienteles are small. Interdisciplinary 
studies tend to weaken the old system of 
departmental libraries. Spread-out de-
partmental libraries do not serve the new 
needs well, and no university can afford to 
create the many new branch libraries pres-
ently being demanded. The multitudes of 
tecching assistants are not adept at utiliz-
inp- the library in their teaching. Further-
more, the large numbers of students in 
single courses demand more copies of any 
title than the library is able to provide. Few 
libraries are equipped or staffed or budg-
eted to add the newer media to their ser-
vices, and most are not oriented in that di-
rection. The effects of all these patterns of 
scholarship upon library resources have 
been ably summarized by Douglas W. 
Bryant. 12 

The information explosion. The constantly 
accelerating production of knowledge has 
been so widely publicized that it hardly 
calls for comment. When the knowledge 
produced by the world up to 1900 is dou-
bled by 1950, and doubles again by 1965, 
as has been estimated, the term '' explo-
sion" seems applicable. As early as 1945, 
Vennevar Bush wrote that "Profession-
ally our methods of transmitting and re-
viewing the results of research are genera-
tions old and by now totally inadequate 
for their purpose .... " 13 No significant 
changes have occurred since Bush's state-
ment. By 1970, a national Committee on 
Research in the Life Sciences concluded 
that ''Investigators in the life sciences 
have not been able to cope with the waves 

May 1989 

of information since 15 years ago. " 14 The 
rate of growth in science and technology 
seems fairly constant at 10 percent a year, 
which means a doubling every eight 
years. 

University libraries quite obviously 
were going to be overwhelmed by this 
flood sooner or later; the velocity of 
change produces a faster expansion of 
knowledge that can be appraised, codi-
fied, or organized. Fremont Rider first 
called attention to the problem in 1944, 
pointing out that research libraries were 
doubling in size every sixteen years. 15 The 
annual studies at Purdue since 1965 indi-
cate that the rates of growth discovered by 
Rider have continued unabated through 
1971. 16 

So long as financial support of the uni-
versity and its library grew steadily year 
after year, university libraries could hope 
at least to keep their heads above water. 
They clearly were in a very precarious po-
sition at best, however, and anyone could 
foresee that when hard times came, as 
they inevitably would, sooner or later, 
there would be serious difficulties. Those 
times have now arrived. 

Hard times and inflation. The current fi-
nancial problems of universities hardly 
need documentation. Earl F. Cheit in a 
study for the Carnegie Commission on 
Higher Education and the Ford Founda-
tion calls it'' the new depression.' ' 17 Budg-
ets have actually been cut, or the rate of in-
crease slowed drastically. 

Planning and budgeting. A static budget 
when coupled with inflation spells real 
trouble for universities. All have begun to 
reassess goals and functions, and to try to 
improve their planning and budgeting 
processes. State boards of control appear 
strongly interested in program planning 
and budgeting systems, even though 
these devices have doubtful validity for 
colleges and universities. Clearly, long 
and short range planning and analytical 
budgeting are going to be a way of life in 
universities henceforth. 

One of the budgets likely to be looked at 
hard with an eye to cutting is that of the 
university library, partly because it looms 
large. Certainly libraries can no longer 
count on steady increases to help them in 



C&RL Classic Reprint: Changing Role of Directors 311 

their efforts to keep abreast of continuing 
increases in rate of publication. In addi-
tion, libraries are harder hit than most 
parts of the university, especially in re-
gard to acquisitions, because the rate of in-
flation (or increases, if we accept the 
subject-fragmentation factor as one cause 
for increases in the price of materials) is 
higher than it is in other aspects of our 
economy. The declining status of the di-
rector of libraries in the administrative 
1amily also tends to reduce his effective-
ness in presenting library needs. 

Technology. Ever since Vannevar Bush 
proposed the Memex in 1945-the storage 
of all the information a research scholar 
needs in microform within the space of a 
desk, recallable at will-technology has 
been seen as a promising means of coping 
with the ever-growing flood of knowl-
edge. Microtext has been adopted readily 
by university libraries, though it should be 
noted that government agencies do not al-
low the counting of materials in microtext 
in basic reports on resources. There have 
been many experiments with the com-
puter, especially in computerized bibliog-
raphy, the best examples being the Na-
tional Library of Medicine's MEDLARS 
(now succeeded by MEDLINE), and 
Chemical Abstracts. Many experiments 
have been undertaken, numerous books 
have appeared on the subject, and the fed-
eral government has established a special 
agency on scientific information. One di-
rector declared in 1971 that I I Computer-
ization of information, long hoped by 
some to be the solution to library costs, is 
for that purpose substantially bank-
rupt. " 18 This judgment may seem harsh, 
but it reflects general disappointment. 
Perhaps everyone, including librarians, 
had over-optimistic expectations. Time 
may change the situation, but it is now 
thirty-seven years since Vannevar Bush's 
proposal was first advanced. 

Changing theories of management. Certain 
new theories of management emerged be-
ginning in the early 1960s. Based on psy-
chology and the study of human relations 
in an organization, the new ideas ap-
peared first in business and industry and 
subsequently spread to governmental 
agencies. The new theories are character-

ized by the growing involvement of peo-
ple in organizational decision-making, 
loosening of the traditional hierarchial 
structure, what might be called creative 
tensions, growing complexity, constant 
change, and open-endedness. Leadership 
is with a soft voice at a low key. Motivation 
and morale are stressed. Several excellent 
books on the new system have appeared. 19 

One of the cycle theories, an aspect of the 
open-end concept, it that management is 
in constant change and that a successful 
organization evolves through five stages, 
the last of which is collaboration. 20 

The new theories seem esp.ecially suit-
able to an academic organization, because 
it is made up of intellectual and rational 
men, it is bureaucratic, and hardly com-
patible with the principles of hierarchy 
and obedience. One of the particular vir-
tues of the new management plans for a 
university is that it tends to provide a de-
fense in depth for the institution, when it 
comes under attack. It marshals all re-
sources (administration, faculty, stu-
dents, staff, and regents) against any on-
slaught. Predictions are that universities 
generally will adopt the new methods. 21 

Ideas about participatory management in 
university administration are docu-
mented well by He~ L. Mason in a study 
promoted by AAUP. 2 Mason, in turn, re-
flects the ideas of Demerth, Millet, Car-
son, Kerr, and other authorities in aca-
demic management. 

Unionization. Social conditions are 
changing, and therefore management 
needs to change. Factors promoting ac-
ceptance of the new theories of manage-
ment include the growing educational 
level of workers, social disillusionment, 
activism including a demand for a share in 
the government of the enterprise, the 
need for more effective use of employee 
knowledge and spirit, the protection 
which they provide against outside at-
tacks, and unionization. The unionization 
even of faculties, long regarded as un-
likely, appears to be on the increase. 23 Par-
ticipatory management may be an accept-
able alternative. However, tight money 
and the over-supply of Ph.D.'s may speed 
the trend of college and university facul-
ties to unionize "at a revolutionary 



312 College & Research Libraries 

pace." 24 Even the AAUP is moving away 
from its former cooperative attitude to-
wards a position of being spokesman for 
the faculty as a defender of all faculty in-
terests, including salaries, class size, and 
similar concerns. Unionization is one form 
of participation in management. 

Increasing control by state boards. State 
boards of regents for higher education are 
becoming increasingly powerful and ex-
erting more and more control over state-
supported institutions. In part, this move-
ment is a result of public disillusionment 
about higher education, especially univer-
sities where the student activist move-
ment has been most evident, and partly it 
is a product of legislative wishes. Such 
boards, in some instances, are adding 
highly qualified specialists to their staffs, 
developing long-term master-plans to 
which the universities must conform, and 
emphasizing the budgeting process. 
Many already budget by formulas, and 
nearly all are strongly interested in pro-
gram planning and budgeting systems. In 
a number of states they are creating new 
community and junior colleges which are 
less subject to public disfavor, and also are 
politically popular. The junior institutions 
draw heavily on both state building and 
state operating funds for higher educa-
tion. Typical of the movement towards 
stronger control is the recent reorganiza-
tion of the State Board of Governors in 
1971 by the North Carolina Legislature, 
giving the board complete authority to de-
termine functions, educational activities, 
academic programs, and degrees. Pre-
vious assignments of functions or respon-
sibilities to designated institutions were 
cancelled. 25 The state boards appear to be 
using for overall research and planning 
the National Center for Higher Education 
Management Systems (NCHEMS) of the 
Western Interstate Commission for 
Higher Education, at Boulder, Colorado. 
The center's studies and recommenda-
tions therefore are of basic importance. 

University libraries are becoming more 
and more subject to the state boards, espe-
cially in the budgeting process and in their 
demands for more effective cooperation 
among all state academic libraries. The 
coming pattern of state budgetary controls 

May 1989 

for university libraries was predicted ten 
years ago. McAnally found in a survey in 
1962 that a majority of state boards were 
not yet using formulas for university li-
brary budgets (even though some already 
had formulas for college libraries), be-
cause of the complexity of the problem, 
but that many were interested in the sub-
ject. 26 Now there is a definite trend to-
wards formulas for budgeting for univer-
sity libraries, and man{; state boards also 
are considering PPBS. 7 The Washington 
''Evergreen'' formula, developed by busi-
ness officers, in cooperation with the 
state's college and university libraries, is 
typical of the newer, complex formulas. It 
has certain disadvantages for university li-
braries. 28 McAnally and Ellsworth had re-
ferred to the dangers of equalitarianism in 
formula budgeting for university libraries. 
If graduate programs and qualitY are not 
given adequate weight, this could be an 
end result. It remains to be seen what the 
effect of PPBS will be on university li-
braries, if this budgeting system is 
adopted widely. 

No national system for information. The 
last of the background problems for li-
braries is the failure to achieve an effective 
national system for the sharing of infor-
mation. The present uncoordinated sys-
tem was reasonably satisfactory around 
the turn of the century when advances in 
knowledge were slow and leisurely. The 
information explosion is now producing 
an enormous wealth of knowledge, pub-
lished and distributed according to the 
techniques of 1900, which is beyond con-
trol and a source of frustration, dismay, 
and continual irritation to scholars. Steps 
such as interlibrary loan, cooperative ac-
quisitions plans, union lists and catalogs, 
and the Center for Research Libraries have 
been useful, but too little and ineffective, 
and hardly acknowledged by the commu-
nity of scholars. Control is not necessarily 
a library problem, though librarians seem 
to catch the brunt of the blame. Instead, 
many agencies ought to be helping to 
solve the problem: the various profes-
sional associations in different subjects, 
publishers of books and journals, com-
puter and information specialists, founda-
tions, and last, but not least, the federal 



C&RL Classic Reprint: Changing Role of Directors 313 

government. Information is a resource of 
national importance; certainly the center 
of an effective system will be enormous in 
size and complexity. The federal govern-
ment has made some useful efforts toward 
the control of scientific information, but 
only in medicine has the work been sup-
ported adequately. 

In any event, university libraries receive 
the principal blame for failure to solve the 
problem of access, with the result that the 
director of the library has lost stature and 
prestige within his institution. Buckman 
believes that some substantial progress 
must be made towards the solution of ma-
jor national problems, such as this one, 
before the director of libraries can hope to 
regain his proper status within the univer-
sity.29 

INTERNAL PROBLEMS 

Many of the newer problems facing di-
rectors of university libraries have their or-
igins in changing social conditions or 
within the institution as it attempts to ad-
just to these social trends. Some of his 
problems, however, have developed 
within the university library itself. Few of 
the internal problems are new; mainly, 
they are expansions of existing or latent 
difficulties. 

Greatly intensified pressures. The most ob-
vious change in the director's job is the ex-
traordinary increase in the pressures ex-
erted upon him. Many of the directors 
with whom the authors corresponded 
wrote quite feelingly upon this point. A 
few key phrases describe the situation 
succinctly. Herman Fussier observed that 
"the pressures on the library and director 
have changed by one or two orders of 
magnitude in the past twenty years . . . 
the librarian sits between the anvil of re-
sources and the hammer of demands .... 
The strain is greater, just as it is for presi-
dents of universities.'' 

Louis Kaplan wrote, "Administration is 
never easy, and there were problems ga-
lore even when money was plentiful. . . . 
I had lived through the 'glory' years. . . 
. '' Louis Branscomb noted that ''It has be-
come a matter of running faster on the 
treadmill every year in order to stay where 
you were the year before.'' One director 

said that at his first interview the new 
president informed him that he did not be-
lieve in buying books, and later elaborated 
this statement. Another reported that the 
president had refused to see him for ten 
years. David Otis Kelley suggested that 
the university should have ''a younger 
man to sit on this hot seat." Edward B. 
Stanford referred to the "present climate 
of creeping discontent that pervades the 
faculty, students and staff on so many 
large campuses. 11 Ralph Parker observed 
that ''I have found the life of a Dean on 
this campus to be much cosier than the life 
of a librarian.'' And the title of a talk by 
Warren B. Kuhn describes the situation 
vividly: "in the Director's office, it's 'High 
Noon' every day! 11 

Writers on management agree that to a 
certain degree stress stimulates executives 
to better performance. But they also agree 
that excessive stress is harmful. As the 
pressures on the director increase, he has 
a tendency to become more and more de-
cisive in attempting to cope with the grow-
ing multitude of problems alone, until he 
ultimately offends too many people or else 
concludes that the rewards are no longer 
worth the cost. 

Pressure sources. The growing pressures 
on the director are exerted by five different 
groups. They are, in probable order of 
magnitude, the president's office, the li-
brary staff, the faculty, students, and, in 
publicly supported un~versities, state 
boards of control. It may seem odd to list 
the library faculty as high as second, but in 
those cases in which the principal cause 
for the director quitting his position can be 
identified, the library staff ranks second. 

Unquestionably, the president's office, 
including not only the president but also 
the academic vice-president and particu-
larly the financial vice-president, bring the 
strongest pressures to bear on the direc-
tor. In part, this is because the president is 
the most powerful man in the university, 
in part because he reflects institutional 
opinion. The president's office is a source 
of many of the director's frustrations. Nu-
merous directors commented on this 
problem, and on the deterioration of these 
relationships. As already pointed out, the 
proliferation of top-level administrators 



314 College & Research Libraries 

has severed the director from direct con-
tact with the president, interposed a layer 
of officers between the two, and reduced 
the ability of the library to present its case. 
Directors also have realized, as Thomas R. 
Buckman remarked, that they have no 
power base on which to operate, and oth-
ers-noted that the director could not even 
get to the point of a showdown, much less 
win one. All presidents are harried, some 
are inexperienced, and others may come 
from nonlibrary oriented fields such as the 
sciences. 

One of the major frustrations of the di-
rector may be with the financial vice-
president. Robert Vosper calls attention to 
a prediction by a social scientist as early as 
1961, of coming conflicts between the li-
brary and budgetary authorities. 30 The 
rate of growth of libraries observed by 
Rider and others obviously had to end 
eventually. The director sees clearly the fi-
nancial needs produced by the ever-
growing flood of publications, increased 
enrollment, expanding graduate pro-
grams, rising expectations and demands, 
and inflation, but may not be able to con-
vince the budget officer of the acuteness of 
library needs. Besides, the financial vice-
president may have no new money, is· re-
luctant to make cuts elsewhere for the li-
brary, which he may regard as a 
''bottomless pit,'' or may have less money 
than previously. Financial demands 
pressed hard are likely to see the director 
relieved of his post. A noteworthy exam-
ple of this fact occurred in one of the great 
Ivy League schools-when the director 
wrote bluntly and bitterly about financial 
support, on the first page of his annual re-
port (his only or last recourse?), he was 
immediately relieved and transferred to 
the School of Religion. The financial prob-
lems of the university library are not likely 
to decrease for the indefinite future. 

Staff pressures. It may seem strange that 
the director should be under attack from 
his own staff, or fail to receive badly 
needed support in relations with the ad-
ministration and faculty, but it is so in 
many cases. Robert Miller wrote: "In re-
cent years that has been pressure exerted 
upon the library administrator by the li-
brary staff, the overt features including a 

May 1989 

strengthened organization, unionization, 
requests for participation in administra-
tive decision-making, faculty status, etc. 
To me and to other benevolent and be-
loved administrators, this is an attack on 
the father image which I have long fan-
cied. I know one man who felt this so 
keenly that he resigned." 

Nowadays the library staff, both the aca-
demic or professional and the nonprofes-
sional, are far better educated than in the 
past. Most librarians hold at least a mas-
ter's degree, and many higher degrees. 
They also are more socially conscious, 
action-oriented, and impatient-in com-
mon with the rest of our society. They 
want and expect a share in policy deci-
sions affecting themselves and the li-
brary. 31 The rise of library specialists in 
university libraries also is producing se-
vere strains on the library's administrative 
structure, and represents a force for 
change in administrative practices, ac-
cording to Eldred Smith. 32 

A particular problem that has not yet 
surfaced fully is that the director has two 
staffs, one academic or professional and 
one clerical or nonacademic. The latter is 
the larger of the two. Different administra-
tive styles are needed for each. There is 
some danger that the two groups might 
end up in opposition to each other, espe-
cially if the nonacademic group unionizes 
and the academic group does not. 

The old methods of organization may no 
longer be acceptable, but good alterna-
tives are difficult to find. Booz, Allen & 
Hamilton identify the problem in their Co-
lumbia study. 33 In any event, new admin-
istrative styles are being called for, and 
those directors who will not or cannot 
adapt to the newer ways may be lost. 

Faculty sources. The latent conflict of in-
terests between librarians and the faculty 
were commented upon recently by Robert 
H. Blackburn and Richard H. Logsdon. 
Blackburn stated that librarians have the 
books, professors have the students. 34 

Logsdon pointed out that the typical fac-
ulty member wants complete coverage in 
his subject and centralized service; the 
professor sees the size of the library 
budget and regards the library as an em-
pire with all kinds of staff help when the 



C&RL Classic Reprint: Changing Role of Directors 315 

professor cannot even have a secretary. 
As one director wrote, these and other 
frustrations lead to ''a gradual building up 
of small things into big, lose a friend here 
and there every year, and there's bound to 
be a critic in almost every department. " 35 

A simple but cynical explanation of the 
growing problem in faculty relations may 
be financial-when there is not even 
money enough for any raises for the fac-
ulty, faculty support for other university 
functions inevitably declines. The grow-
ing militancy in society generally also may 
be a factor in bringing existing problems to 
the fore. 

Student pressure. Students do not yet 
have the power in the university for which 
they are agitating, but their power is 
growing. They, too, are action oriented, 
and are demanding improvements in li-
brary service. "Under pressure from stu-
dents and faculty there has been a forced 
change in academic library priorities," 
Robert A. Miller finds. "Service is more 
important, or holds more immediacy than 
collection building. More service is 
wanted and in more depth . . . reference 
to limitations of funds, space, personnel is 
not accepted as a sound reply, but only as 
an alibi for non-performance." 36 When 
there is no new money, improved service 
must come at the cost of collections. A spe-
cial problem is that most university li-
braries have over-emphasized services to 
research, so that except in those institu-
tions where there is an undergraduate li-
brary, the collections tend to be single-
copy collections. Professors, when they 
select books, prefer to cover as much of 
the new literature of their fields as possi-
ble, and are reluctant to spend money on 
extra copies, even of important titles. Ap-
proval plans also produce only single cop-
ies. To cap the problem, changing empha-
ses of human rights over property rights 
lead to losses-not nearly as great as fac-
ulty and students think, but certainly 
causing a very serious problem in public 
relations. 

Declining ability of library to meet needs. 
Apparently the university library is be-
coming increasingly less able to meet the 
legitimate needs of its university commu-
nity. The causes have already been out-

lined in background factors: the informa-
tion explosion, inflation, more students, 
and continued fragmentation of the tradi-
tional disciplines, coupled with hard 
times. A recent study at Harvard con-
cluded that with 8,000,000 volumes the li-
brary was less able to cope with the de-
mands of scholars than it was when it had 
only 4,000,000 volumes. Ralph Ellsworth, 
in his 1971-72 annual report at Colorado, 
came to the same conclusion. David Kaser 
states plaintively: ''The lugubrious fact is 
that our ability to supply the books and 
journals needed by Cornell teaching and 
research programs is rapidly diminishing, 
and no one seems to know what to do 
about it. Computerization of information, 
cooperation, and microminiaturization 
have not provided solutions .... The 
somber conclusion fast being arrived at by 
the library staff is that the only solutions 
likely to be effective are (1) more money, 
or (2) a substantially reduced academic 
program for the library to serve, neither of 
which appears imminent. The library 
needs, and would welcome, advice in this 
matter. '' 37 Another director observed that 
"when the library is unable to perform at 
the level of satisfaction to the faculty, the 
head of the library is held personally re-
sponsible and it is assumed that he is in-
capable of being Director.'' 

Lack of goals and planning. Like the uni-
versity itself, the library has rarely done a 
good job of planning, either long-range or 
short-range. One director remarked: 
''Many university librarians have rigid, 
pre-conceived notions about the proper 
objectives of their libraries. The traditional 
library objectives summarized cynically in 
such phrases as 'more of the same' and 
'bottomless pit' are probably unrealistic, 
and yet little is offered in their place. ''38 

Now that higher education and all its parts 
are under critical review, the lack of realis-
tic, practicable, and accepted goals, and of 
long-range planning, is a major handicap. 
There are some noteworthy expectations, 
such as UCLA, Columbia, and Illinois. 
Several writers have discussed this prob-
lem.39 

Inability to accommodate to educational 
changes quickly. The university library, like 
the university itself, is a bureaucracy 



316 College & Research Libraries 

which is difficult to change, even. though 
the need may be recognized by nearly ev-
eryone concerned. In addition, the uni-
versity library may have large collections, 
sometimes built up over centuries, re-
search collection which cannot be 
changed quickly; the library is housed in a 
great building or buildings which would 
cost millions to replace; and its staff of spe-
cialists has been developed over a period 
of years. The two groups most impatient 
for new philosophies and new types of 
services are the students and the presi-
dent's office. Inability to make changes 
rapidly, even though he tried, cost at least 
one director his job. 

Decline in status of the director. This sub-
ject has been dealt with previously, but is 
so important to the welfare of the library, 
as well as to the director personally, that it 
should be noted again in a consideration 
of internal problems. The director no 
longer is in the upper level of university 
management and cannot participate in in-
stitutional policy decisions, including 
planning and budgeting. Partly the de-
cline is due to lack of basic support. The di-
rector seldom has an opportunity to de-
fend the library, or if he does, no one 
wishes to listen to him. And on him now 
falls the chief burden of asking for institu-
tional book funds as well as staff money. 
Many directors commented on this aspect 
and asserted that it made real achieve-
ments impossible and reduced the attrac-
tiveness of the position. 

Declining financial support. When finan-
cial support for the universities slows 
down, stands still, or decreases, the li-
brary must suffer too. A static or declining 
budget causes especially acute problems 
in the library, because of the continuing 
proliferation of publications and increases 
in the prices of print well above the na-
tional average. A number of directors, in 
discussing this problem, referred to 
''housekeeping'' or ''caretaker-level'' 
funding. Booz, Allen & Hamilton warns 
that the president is inclined to look at the 
library budget as a place to economize. 
There is widespread evidence that the per-
centage of the total educational and gen-
eral budget allotted to the university li-

May 1989 

brary has declined in recent years, 
including some of our most distinguished 
universities. The national situation cannot 
be determined readily; however, Statistics 
of Southern College and University Libraries, 
which reports percentages spent on the li-
brary, reveals that decreases slightly out-
number increases over the past five years, 
but decreases outnumber increases two to 
one over a ten-year period. 

Renewed questioning of centralization. 
Every director is probably aware of the de-
clining efficiency of the general library and 
the old departmental library system in 
meeting new needs and rising expecta-
tions. Interdisciplinary studies and frag-
menting disciplines are not served well by 
the system, and libraries have no funds to 
expand. Peter Drucker expects the entire 
university curriculum to be reorganized; 40 

if so, this problem may well increase. 
Every director also is aware of the rise of 
many office collections, unofficial institute 
libraries funded from grants, and depart-
mental reading rooms supplied person-
ally by the faculty. All these developments 
indicate growing dissatisfaction with cen-
tralized controls. "Institutionalizing li-
brary resources inevitably denies individ-
ual faculty members the degree of control 
they would prefer. . . . And to this the 
even stronger desire on the part of profes-
sional schools to be autonomous within 
the university and you have another set of 
frictions. ''41 

No effective sharing of resources, computer-
ization, microminiaturization. Failure to 
make substantial progress on these na-
tional problems is blamed on the library 
and its director, and some believe it an im-
portant factor in the decline of prestige of . 
the director. 

Old-style management. As noted above, 
the traditional hierarchical and authorita-
tive style of management is increasingly 
unacceptable. As one director observed, it 
''no longer has any purchase in the mar-
ket place." Many directors are unwilling 
or unable to adapt. In addition, the direc-
tor's office now operates in a condition of 
constant change, intense pressures, and 
great complexity. These factors are of cru-
cial importance to the director personally, 



C&RL Classic Reprint: Changing Role of Directors 317 

demanding the highest administrative 
abilities as well as durability, flexibility, 
and determination. 

SOLUTIONS AND CHANGES 

It is far easier to identify the multitude of 
problems facing the university library and 
its director than it is to find solutions to 
these troubles. Nevertheless, there are an-
swers to some problems and partial solu-
tions to others. Perhaps the most impor-
tant fact for the director to recognize is that 
the old ways are being questioned and 
that changes are evolving; he should be 
receptive to continuing change, both for 
his library and for himself personally, and 
try to see that the best possible choices are 
made among various alternatives. The 
university library obviously will survive, 
for it is a fundamental part of the univer-
sity, but its nature will continue to be 
transformed. What happens to the indi-
vidual director may not be important, 
heartless though this may seem. Either he 
adapts to new ways, or another person 
will be brought in who has the qualities 
needed in the new era. But what happens 
to the leadership of the library embodied 
in the position of director of libraries is ex-
ceedingly important. 

Solutions to national problems. To restore 
the confidence of the university in the li-
brary and its director, there has to be 
''general acceptance and implementation 
of some significant national programs that 
really come to grips with fundamental 
problems of providing information and 
knowledge for people working in the uni-
versities .... The probably won't get it 
fully until he and his colleagues attack the 
national problems in such a way that the 
local university library becomes a manage-
able operation.'' 42 

Unfortunately, the problems are so vast 
that there seems to be little that the indi-
vidual director can do. Instead, the solu-
tions must come at the national level. No 
deus ex machina is likely to appear any time 
soon from the computer-information 
world, microminiaturization or other 
technologies; it is therefore the responsi-
bility of librarians to develop answers, 
even though they may be only partial and 

prove temporary. However, the librarian 
can make his views known and speak out 
vigorously about the urgent need to na-
tional agencies which are in a stronger po-
sition to attack the problems. These in-
clude the Association of Research 
Libraries, agencies of the federal govern-
ment, and the American Library Associa-
tion. Efforts of the Association of Research 
Libraries to promote a national acquisi-
tions program and to develop plans for 
more effective sharing of resources for re-
search are constructive, but the organiza-
tion is dependent upon the federal gov-
ernment and foundations for research 
funds, and is not funded to operate any 
continuing · program. Nonetheless, its 
leadership is vitally important in the over..: 
all situation. Only the federal government 
can provide the sizeable funds needed for 
a proper national plan. There are four 
comprehensive federal agencies in the 
field-the National Commission on Li-
braries, the Library of Congress, the Na-
tional Science Foundation, and the De-
partment of Health, Education, and 
Welfare-none of which is funded prop-
erly for the task, nor has national respon-
sibility for information been fully accepted 
by the government. The American Library 
Association can be helpful but has many 
diverse interests and at present has inter-
nal management problems. 

Current developments of promise are 
the recently completed ARL interlibrary 
loan cost study, the same organization's 
current study of the feasibility of a com-
puterized national referral center, and on-
going studies of national-regional periodi-
cals resources centers or lending libraries 
by the National Commission on Libraries, 
ARL, and the Center for Research Li-
braries. Both the Association of Research 
Libraries and the Center for Research Li-
braries have broadened their membership 
considerably in recent years, thereby in-
creasing their strength. ARL has adopted 
automatic membership criteria based on 
50 percent of the ARL averages on certain 
factors. Some librarians see networks as 
an answer, but existing examples are un-
coordinated and vary widely in scope and 
in value. It should be noted again that po-



318 College & Research Libraries 

litical pressures are strong for more and 
more effective cooperation, especially 
from state boards of higher education and 
from HEW. 

Better planning. Failure to plan for the fu-
ture has been one of the major weaknesses 
of university libraries in general, a condi-
tion which many authorities agree must 
be corrected in the seventies. "Planning is 
the orderly means used by an organiza-
tion to establish effective control over its 
own future . . . to be effective any 
plan . . . must be logical, comprehensive, 
flexible, action-oriented, and formal. Fur-
thermore, it must extend into the future 
and involve human resources.''43 In an era 
of change in the university and of static fi-
nancial support, the allocation of re-
sources becomes especially important. 
The components of comprehensive library 
planning include (1) university require-
ments and expectations for library ser-
vices; (2) the library's own objectives and 
plans in support of academic programs 
and general learning needs; and (3) library 
resources (financial, personnel, collec-
tions, facilities, and equipment) needed to 
implement agreed-upon plans. There are 
four ways to accommodate change. (1) 
Appoint a new chief librarian. (2) Call in 
an outside consultant. So far as the direc-
tor is concerned, results are the same as (1) 
four times out of five, especially if the uni-
versity calls for the consultant. (3) Estab-
lish a committee within the library organi-
zational structure as a research and · 
planning group. 44 (4) Appoint a staff offi-
cer in the director's office for planning and 
research, to do some of the work and to as-
sist the staff committee. Kaser points out 
that in the university ''academic decision 
making . . . is not accomplished through 
the organizational tree that we have come 
to associate with large organizations. 
Such a structure does exist in universities, 
but it exists for nonacademic decisions; ac-
ademic decisions . . . are rather initiated 
and made by faculty members as individ-
uals and with practically no centralized 
control over them. ''45 Implications for the 
library are obvious. 

Improved budgeting. During this period of 
hard times for the university, the univer-
sity library must improve its budgeting 

May 1989 

and control practices greatly if it is to re-
ceive its fair share of limited resources. 
The old add-on type budget is gone, at 
least for a while and perhaps forever. Li-
brarians need to prove their value to the 
classroom faculty as well as to the univer-
sity administration-libraries are indis-
pensable, but how indispensable? Li-
braries now have to demonstrate their 
importance to the educational program of 
the institution. There also must be more 
accountability-directors must provide 
better justifications for budget increases. 
Some steps that the director should take 
include adding a business-trained budget 
manager to the library staff for budget 
preparation; enlisting the support of in-
structional departments in preparing 
budgets; seeking faculty and administra-
tive recognition of the fact that any new 
academic program requires money and 
that special financial aid should be given 
to the library for it; making productivity 
and cost benefit analyses regularly; partic-
ipation in computerized networks and 
information-sharing systems; and having 
the director sit on the highest university 
policy board. 46 A discovery of consider-
able significance was made by Kenneth S. 
Allen, who found among thirteen sam-
pled institutions that "the percentage of 
educational and general expense funds al-
located to the library appears to be favor-
ably influenced by having faculty sta-
tus."47 Further study is needed to see if 
this is true nationally. 

State boards of higher education clearly 
are going to affect budgeting practices of 
state-supported university libraries, as 
previously observed, for their financial 
control is growing rapidly. The methods 
they adopt will govern library methods. 
Six types of budgets currently are in use: 
the traditional budget by objects of ex-
penditure, program budget, performance 
budget, Planning, Programming and 
Budgetary Systems, formula budgeting, 
and combinations. 48 

New organizational patterns. If present 
trends in the academic programs of the 
university continue-breakoff of new sub-
jects from old disciplines, growth of inter-
disciplinary studies and area studies, rise 
of programs oriented towards current so-



C&RL Classic Reprint: Changing Role of Directors 319 

cial problems, more independent study 
programs, and more adult education 
work, or if indeed there will be entirely 
different curricula by 1980 as suggested by 
some-then the university library may 
have to make considerable change in its 
organizational structure to accommodate 
to university needs. Some modifications 
are needed already, for internal as well as 
external reasons; our present patterns are 
over seventy-five years old. 

At present, no one knows with any cer-
tainty exactly what changes in organiza-
tion may be needed. The most interesting 
suggestions to date, the Booz; Allen & 
Hamilton proposals (limited to staff and 
service only) for Columbia University li-
braries, appear unwieldy and cumber-
some. The experiment should be watched 
with interest. The company reflects a 
business-industrial management firm's 
approach. In any event, the director needs 
to be aware that organizational changes 
may be needed, and to remain open-
minded and flexible on the subject. 

Services versus collection-building. The di-
rector must recognize that the emphasis in 
university libraries is shifting from 
collection-building to services, under 
growing pressures from students and fac-
ulty, and that the library must conform. 
Library staffs also seem to be becoming 
more service conscious and program ori-
ented. When financial support is static, 
there is no place to obtain the money for 
improved services other than book and 
journal funds. Therefore, the percentage 
of the library budget allotted to acquis-
tions will decline, unfortunate as this is for 
the world of scholarship in general and 
the university in particular. In its most af-
fluent days, no library was able to acquire 
more than a portion of the world's pub-
lished output. 

Every director has been made increas-
ingly aware of the growing dissatisfac-
tions with library service. Formerly faculty 
members and students were reluctant to 
voice criticism and make suggestions; 
nowadays, neither seems to hesitate to 
make attacks. Failing to receive satisfac-
tion, they may go to the president or to the 
campus newspaper. Courteous hearings 
and boxes for complaints and suggestions 

are useful. Another evidence that every 
director must be aware of is the rapid 
growth in recent years of alternatives to 
standard library service-office collections, 
unofficial institute libraries, faculty-
supplied departmental reading rooms, 
and the like. Dougherty suggests that a 
new attitude and new types of service may 
be needed for the latter group. 49 

Undergraduate libraries (or learning re-
sources centers as some state boards pre-
fer to call them) seem successful and desir-
able, and are popular with students. They 
are possible, however, only in large uni-
versity libraries. They help improve ser-
vice, but there seems to be little or no cor-
relation between the presence of such a 
unit and the tenure of the director. 

Collecting policies. Several changes in col-
lecting policies may be desirable. The first 
and most obvious change is that, with sta-
ble or declining funds, the library needs to 
be more selective in choosing from the 
world's output. Unless the library re-
ceives a book and journal budget that in-
creases steadily at least 12 percent a year, 
the recent rate of inflation in the price of 
print, library intake will decline. There is a 
trend towards selection by library special-
ists. Blanket order and approval plans are 
becoming widespread. Both movements 
seem to be satisfactory and acceptable to 
the faculty. When book funds decline, 
many libraries tend to protect their period-
ical subscriptions first. 

Institutional pride and rules of agencies 
for counting library statistics emphasize 
the codex book and the journal. Micro-
print is well used by libraries but is not ac-
ceptable for the basic count. Libraries 
need to widen their collecting net to in-
clude information in other forms, includ-
ing the so-called newer media and infor-
mation on computer tapes or discs. 
Douglas Bryant has pointed out the grow-
ing variety of forms that must be col-
lected.50 

Rare books. Some presidents, legislators, 
and state boards have long looked askance 
at the use of budgetary funds for the pur-
chase of rare books per se. Now the atti-
tude appears to be spreading to the faculty 
and to students. A little checking with fac-
ulty members in almost any department 



320 College & Research Libraries 

except history, English, and classics or 
other humanities is likely to prove star-
tling. Neither scientists nor social scien-
tists are likely to appreciate the need. Per-
haps the attitude is a product of severe 
financial problems, or McLuhanism, or 
strong emphasis on the current problems 
of our society. The director may be well 
advised to use only gift funds for such 
purposes, and to publicize this policy 
among the faculty. "Friends of the Li-
brary'' organizations can be quite helpful 
in providing funds for ''frosting on the 
cake." 

More copies of important books or cur-
rent titles in heavy demand ought to be 
purchased. Most university libraries, with 
the exception of those with undergradu-
ate units, are basically single-copy li-
braries. The most severe criticism of every 
university library in the country probably 
is the inability of students or faculty to se-
cure a copy of a high-demand title when 
needed. Changes in acquisitions policies 
clearly are required. 

Institutionalization of resources. Some 
loosening of centralized control over re-
sources and services may be in order. This 
will seem downright heresy to some, and 
an encouragement of inefficiency and 
wastefulness by others. But the fact is that 
this is already occurring. Professional as-
sociations in medicine and law in con-
certed campaigns have gained a great deal 
of independence for their schools, includ-
ing their libraries. Other professional as-
sociations are beginning to work on simi-
lar programs. The rise of many unofficial 
office collections, institute libraries, and 
departmental reading rooms has already 
been noted. The library itself cannot estab-
lish the needed new branches to serve in-
terdisciplinary and similar new programs, 
due to the financial pinch. Actually, at 
least two great university libraries have al-
ways been federations of libraries-
Harvard and Cornell. The financial and 
supportive aspects of allowing some de-
gree of freedom were suggested by 
Donald Coney in the 1950s. When asked 
why he allowed so many independent 
branch libraries at Berkeley, he replied, 
''We get more money that way.'' Cooper-
ation and a new kind of personalized ser-

May 1989 

vice to meet new needs are suggested by 
Dougherty. 51 Holley suggests that coordi-
nated decentralization as at Harvard 
should be looked at, as well as the view 
that after a certain size has been reached, 
some form of decentralization may be 
both necessary and desirable. 52 

Directors undoubtedly need all the help 
they can find nowadays, and by coopera-
tion they can maintain some degree of co-
ordination which might otherwise be lost. 
As the rate of acquisitions declines, li-
braries may have excess staff in their ac-
quisitions and cataloging departments 
which could be utilized. Policies on these 
matters need to be reviewed, and either 
re-affirmed or modified. 

Status of the director. Most directors com-
mented on the decline in status of the of-
fice of director, reflected in the interposi-
tion of layers of vice-presidents between 
the president and the director. Some de-
cline in general approval of the library it-
self also seems to be evident. This is unfor-
tunate for the director, but very serious 
indeed for the university library itself. The 
library's representative usually no longer 
participates in institutional policy decision 
making processes, and cannot present the 
library's case at the top level. 

Buckman believes that the four require-
ments to restoring confidence and credi-
bility in the director, and by implication 
the library, are: (1) some effective attack 
on major national problems; (2) establish-
ing an effective working relationship with 
the administrative officers of the univer-
sity; (3) providing a framework in which 
the director can operate effectively within 
the university's power structure and ( 4) 
setting reasonable and widely understood 
goals for the library. 53 Branscomb suggests 
that this may be a problem to be worked 
out individually on each campus, rather 
than by a considered attack from research 
libraries as a group. 54 Booz, Allen & Ham-
ilton propose that the director be made a 
vice-president. 55 The vice-president needs 
to adopt a university-wide viewpoint 
when this is done. The idea is attractive, 
and has been implemented at Columbia, 
Texas, and Utah, the two latter perhaps 
for different reasons. An important factor, 
for directors considering such a move, 



C&RL Classic Reprint: Changing Role of Directors 321 

may be that the office should be a vice-
president for information services for the 
entire campus, assuming responsibilities 
for the newer media, even closed-circuit 
TV and certain aspects of computerized 
information services. Separate budgeting 
for the latter units seems fundamental. 

The status of the director is sometimes a 
negotiable matter which should be dealt 
with as one of the conditions of appoint-
ment. The rank of dean may be negotia-
ble; the status of vice-president possibly 
not. The welfare of the library itself as well 
as the opportunity for achievement by the 
director of course are involved. 

Tenn appointments. One of the solutions 
proposed by several directors is appoint-
ment for a fixed term, perhaps for ten 
years, perhaps for five years, with onere-
newal possible. 56 If Chancellor Murphy is 
correct, and if the post of director is com-
parable to that of a president, then his ob-
servation that an individual's major crea-
tive contributions are made within the 
first three to five years, with ten years the 
maximum time needed to complete pro-
grams, the idea should be considered 
carefully by the profession. Both the li-
brary and the individual are certain to suf-
fer when the director remains in the posi-
tion past his period of optimum 
contribution. 

Several universities presently have term 
appointments for deans and other such 
administrators-with extensions possi-
ble-Cornell, Texas, and Illinois. The de 
facto tenure period for directors of ARL li-
braries over the past three years has aver-
aged between five and six years. Vosper 
does note, however, that very short terms 
inhibit planning and focused concentra-
tion, such as the three year elective term in 
Japanese academic libraries. 

If term appointments are adopted, some 
orderly plans or structure to facilitate wise 
change in administration must be formu-
lated. So far there is none, though at West 
Virginia a president acquires retirement 
privileges after five years, and at Ken-
tucky deans who return to teaching retain 
their salaries at the expense of the general 
administration. A majority of directors 
who have quit their posts have gone into 
teaching, but there are limitations to this 

concept-many universities have no li-
brary school, and the ability of schools to 
absorb a succession of directors may be 
limited. Others have become curators of 
special collections, taken early retirement, 
or moved to another university. If peer ap-
pointment should come for presidents, as 
has been suggested, it might also apply to 
directors. In such circumstances, moving 
to a lesser position in the library would be-
come more practicable. In any event, the 
profession needs to give some thought to 
the problem of how to make such changes 
feasible rather than traumatic. 

Increase the percentage of nonprofessional 
staff. Some twenty-five years ago univer-
sity libraries in the United States generally 
had a 1:1 ratio between professional librar-
ians and supporting staff. Then following 
a series of articles by Archie MeN eal and 
others in the middle 1950s, pointing out 
that perhaps two-thirds of the work in an 
academic library could be done success-
fully and more economically by nonpro-
fessional people, libraries generally 
moved to a staff composition of two non-
professionals to one professional. With 
few exceptions, this distribution is com-
mon among university libraries today. 

Among Canadian university libraries 
the ratios are different: from three-to-one 
up to five-to-one .. The movement began in 
the catalog department at the University 
of British Columbia; when catalogers com-
plained about the amount of routine and 
clerical work they were doing, the library 
increased the size of the supporting staff 
to what they deemed proper. Canadian 
university libraries have close working re-
lations, and the movement spread rap-
idly. The new ratios are reported to be ac-
ceptable and satisfactory. 

This subject requires further examina-
tion on the part of directors and their 
staffs. The education of the entire popula-
tion has improved greatly in the last fif-
teen to twenty years, from which it fol-
lows that nonprofessional personnel 
ought to be able to carry more and higher 
level duties. A careful survey of student 
opinion about the central library at the 
University of Oklahoma revealed that the 
four areas of greatest dissatisfaction fell 
within the province of the nonprofes-



322 College & Research Libraries 

sional staff. Obviously the library needs 
more assistants. 57 Eldred Smith also had 
speculated that the university library may 
not need many more academic or profes-
sional staff, but better ~alified and more 
specialized individuals. Harold F. Wells 
suggests that the ratio of clerical to profes-
sional ought to be five-to-one; adding that 
all staff are better educated, one year is a 
short period of graduate education, the 
Army is very dependent on sergeants, 
and libraries ought to upgrade clericals 
and assign more duties to them. 59 A tenta-
tive inquiry about a research grant to es-
tablish the proper ratio was unsuccessful. 

In relation to nonacademic staff mem-
bers, there are three special problems for 
the director: they may fit a somewhat dif-
ferent administrative pattern, no one 
knows what are the proper relationships 
between the academic and the nonaca-
demic staff, and clerical assistants appear 
to be more likely to join a union. 60 Booz, 
Allen & Hamilton proposals in the Colum-
bia study attempt to come to grips with the 
problem, one of the first efforts to date. 
Other approaches need to be explored. In 
one major university library, the two 
groups have already come into conflict. 
The problems will grow in proportion to 
increases in size of the assistant group. 

CHANGING PATTERNS 
OF MANAGEMENT 

New management styles rapidly are re-
placing the old traditional techniques in 
the university library world. The trend has 
been observed and commented on by sev-
erallibrarians who have made surveys of 
university library management around 
the country during the last two years: 
Edward G. Holley, Maurice P. Marchant, 
Eldred Smith, and Jane G. Flener. 61 In-
volving increased staff participation in the 
management of the library to one degree 
or another, they are called participatory 
management, collegial management, or 
democratic administration. The theory 
and principles have been drawn from two 
different sources, business and industry, 
and academic itself. The new styles are be-
ing adopted rapidly because the argu-
ments in their favor are persuasive. They 
draw in to the solution of problems a di-

May 1989 

verse group of good minds with varied 
viewpoints, thereby improving the qual-
ity as well as the effectiveness of decision 
making. They are the answer to growing 
staff pressures, particularly from the aca-
demic or professional staff, for participa-
tion in planning and policy decisions, as 
well as administrative affairs affecting 
themselves. They tend to improve the mo-
rale and dedication of the staff. They mar-
shall the entire staff in defense of the li-
brary against attacks from outside, thus 
relieving and supporting the director, a 
defense in depth, as it were. The director 
has to surrender some of his old authority, 
and becomes more of a leader. His influ-
ence may not be diminished, but it must 
be exerted in different ways. 

There are three principal styles, two 
based on busines~ and industry, the other 
on university academic practices. The 
three might be called the business man-
agement plan, the unionization method, 
and collegial management or academic 
plan. A director may not be free to choose 
among them. If his university has not, and 
probably will not, grant academic status to 
librarians, such as the Ivy League univer-
sities, he must choose one of the first two. 
If the professional staff already has faculty 
status, then he would be wise to accept 
that style. A show of hands recently in the 
Association of Research Libraries indi-
cated that three-fourths of the directors al-
ready had academic status or were inter-
ested in seeking it for their staffs. If a staff 
is unionized already, a new director has 
no choice. All of the new styles are so new, 
comparatively speaking, that there are 
still wide variations in practice in all three 
groups. Each may be successful. The di-
rector who enters upon any one of the 
paths grudgingly and because he is forced 
to, and drags his heels all the way, how-
ever, is likely to find himself in trouble af-
ter a short time. 

Business Management Plan. Examples of 
libraries experimenting with the profes-
sional but not academic approach (i.e., 
their staffs do not have faculty status nor 
are they unionized) are Cornell, Colum-
bia, UCLA, and recently Harvard. The 
method may give more options to the di-
rector, and allow him to make more deci-



C&RL Classic Reprint: Changing Role of Directors 323 

sions concerning the degree of staff partic-
ipation. There are no firm outside models; 
therefore, the director and his staff have to 
make many basic and difficult decisions. 
A director who goes into this system de-
termined to cede only what he has to 
treads a very difficult and possibly dan-
gerous path. There is likely to be a latent 
restlessness in the staff which will burst 
forth if there is even slight provocation. 
Given hard work, good judgment, and co-
operation from both sides the method 
should be successful. 

It is interesting to note that Booz, Allen 
& Hamilton, Inc., in their original report 
of 1970 on Problems in University Library 
Management, make no mention of staff 
participation matters. Subsequent papers 
by Seashore and Bolton of the firm's staff, 
however, stressed the desirability of ex-
tensively involving the staff in manage-
ment, and their recommendations in the 
Columbia study also emphasize this fea-
ture. A representative of the firm declined 
to commit himself about faculty status for 
librarians . 

Unionization. Management by collective 
bargaining probably produces the most 
drastic changes in management of all the 
three methods. In some respects it is the 
newest and least-known of all. Chicago, 
California (Berkeley) to a certain extent, 
and the City University of New York are 
examples. A guide exists on the subject of 
unionization of library staff. 62 DeGennaro 
believes that unionism and participatory 
management are incompatible; which will 
emerge as the trend of the future is still un-
certain. 63 One university library union, it 
should be noted, includes both profes-
sional and nonprofessional staff mem-
bers. 

Factors that might tend to lead to union-
ization are large size and unsatisfactory 
business management types of participa-
tive management. The larger the staff, the 
more difficult it is to develop participatory 
management plans that will effectively in-
volve all of the staff. Academic, faculty, or 
collegial management seems less likely to 
lead to unionization of the professional 
staff, but if the classroom faculty is union-
ized, the library faculty undoubtedly will 
be included. 

Academic Management. The model for the 
third or academic styles lies in the univer-
sity itself-administration of a college. The 
director should be comparable to the dean 
of a college or perhaps a vice-president, 
and the professional staff to a college fac-
ulty. Like the first method, however, it 
has both advantages and disadvantages. 
First, despite many libraries working in 
this direction for a number of years-
Illinois, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Ohio 
State, Oregon, Penn State, Miami, and 
Kentucky, for example-there are still 
about as many variations as there are in 
the first method. Excellent statements of 
principles under this system are those 
produced by Miami, Houston, Oregon, 
Minnesota, and Oklahoma. Numerous 
problems exist; the transition is neither 
simple nor easy. The director has less 
choice about the degree of participation in 
management which is to exist; he has 
more than many think, but the example of 
faculty-dean is close at hand, and there 
the respective roles are well-established 
and clear. To find out what the role of a di-
rector may be in such a plan, he has only to 
examine the role of the dean. A guide to 
the effects of academic status upon organi-
zation and management is that by 
McAnally. 64 It should be noted that a dean 
of a nondepartmentalized college tends to 
have considerably more power and influ-
enced than a dean of a college with many 
departments. The role of a dean of li-
braries in a large university library which 
has to be subdivided into both academic 
and administrative departments is quite 
different. Middle management tends to be 
much stronger in this case. Both types of 
colleges flourish in American universities. 
Another disadvantage of the system is 
that numerous time-consuming commit-
tees are required. The excesses to which 
committee operation could be carried 
were illustrated at the Library of Congress 
by a pioneer in garticipative management, 
Luther Evans. Committee of classroom 
faculty members produce certain prob-
lems and this is an area the director needs 
to watch. 

The advantages of academic manage-
ment or operation as a college are substan-
tial. It provides recognition of the library 



324 College & Research Libraries 

as an academic unit. The methods of man-
agement fit the standard university pat-
tern, hence are accepted readily by admin-
istration, classroom faculty, and the 
library staff. It draws in to planning, solu-
tion of problems, arid management gener-
ally a wide variety of backgrounds and 
knowledge, so that decision-making 
tends to be better and the decisions ac-
cepted more readily. It promotes continu-

. ing education and professional growth, 
and increased professionalization. Morale 
is higher. One study indicates that it tends 
to imgrove financial support of the li-
brary. Another indicates that the class-
room faculty tends to be better satisfied 
with the library when the library operates 
as a faculty-academic unit. 67 

Productivity. Productivity under partici-
patory management has been questioned 
by Lynch. 68 Her comments would seem to 
apply to business-style participatory man-
agement, academic management, and the 
unionization method alike. Marchant, 
however, points out that "While group 
decision-making alone appears to be nei-
ther adequate nor necessary to assure 
high productivity, it has been found to be 
generally characteristic of high-
production organizations. " 69 In a highly 
professionalized staff, his observation 
would seem particularly applicable. Any 
director who is convinced that the tradi-
tional hierarchical and authoritarian ap-
proach should be retained because it is 
best for the university would be well-
advised to start looking for a new job, or a 
series of them, in view of current manage-
ment trends. 

Uncertain place of the supporting staff. Cur-
rently in university libraries in the United 
States, as previously observed, the sup-
porting staff outnumbers the professional 
or academic staff two to one. The propor-
tion is likely to rise during the next five 
years to the three to one up to five to one 
common in Canadian university libraries. 
The place of the nonprofessional staff in 
the management system, however, is still 
generally uncertain. Only in unionism is 
its role clear. Obviously, there must be so-
lutions found for the proper involvement 
of the supporting staff in the government 
and management of the university library. 

May 1989 

Its members are better educated and bet-
ter qualified than they were twenty years 
ago, and they will perform two-thirds to 
four-fifths of all work done in libraries. 
Various plans should be tried to find the 
best. Currently most nonacademic staff 
members operate under rules set by the 
university personnel office. 

QUALITIES OF A MODEL DIRECTOR 

The qualities required of a director of li-
braries are the same as they have always 
been. Certain aspects, however, receive 
more emphasis nowadays than they did in 
the past. First, the director must be more 
flexible and adaptable; the old certainties 
are being questioned or are gone, and the 
university library will continue to undergo 
changes. He must be willing to accept 
change as a way of life, and be open-
minded about alternatives. Any man (or 
woman) unwilling to operate in such ami-
lieu, or unable to accept uncertainty as a 
way of life should not undertake the man-
agement of a university library for the 
years immediately ahead. Second, he 
must possess a stable and equable temper-
ament, and the ability to keep his emo-
tional balance under the constant tensions 
that come at him from all directions. The 
tensions are unlikely to decrease. The apo-
thegm of a former president seems appro-
priate: ''If you can't stand the heat, stay 
out of the kitchen!'' Third, he must have 
endurance. Luther Evans, who once de-
scribed the qualities of a good library ad-
ministrator, chose the term "endurance" 
instead of the term "vigor," which busi-
ness and industry favored. 70 His choice 
seemed odd in the 1940s, but more apt 
now. 

Finally, the director must be exception-
ally persuasive. Ability to present library 
interests and needs effectively to the ad-
ministration, classroom faculty, students, 
and state boards is essential. He must 
have facts derived from continuous plan-
ning and from continuing cost studies, in-
cluding cost-benefit, but he also needs to 
have a personality that commands atten-
tion and respect. The new type of leader-
ship within the library requires that he be 
a leader and not merely an authority. 
Sometimes it seems that a worker of mira-



C&RL Classic Reprint: Changing Role of Directors 325 

des is wanted-a search committee for a 
new director of one of the major university 
libraries specified a mature and experi-
enced man having at least ten years of pro-

fessional career yet to go who would be 
able to persuade the university to increase 
financial support of the university library 
in an era of declining institutional income! 

REFERENCES AND NOTES 

1. Edward G . Holley, "Organization and Administration of Urban University Libraries," CRL 
33:175-89 (May 1972). 

2. Raynard C. Swank, Discussion with Arthur McAnnaly, Chicago, January 1972. 
3. Lewis C. Branscomb, Thomas R. Buckman, Robert Carmack, Herman H . Fussier, John A . Heuss-

man, Edward G. Holley, Robert K. Johnson, Louis Kaplan, David Otis Kelley, Roy L. Kidman, 
Warren B. Kuhn, Frank A. Lundy, John P. McDonald, Stanley McElderry, Robert A. Miller, Ralph 
H. Parker, Benjamin B. Richards, Eldred R. Smith, Edward B. Stanford, Lewis F. Steig, Raynard 
C. Swank, and Robert Vosper. 

4. For a brief survey of some of these changes, no only in size but in other areas, and their probable 
effects on the university library, see President Richard Lyman (Stanford), "New Trends in Higher 
Education: The Impact on the University Library," Association of Research Libraries, Minutes of 
the Twenty-Eighth meeting, May 14-15, 1971 (Washington: A .R.L., 1971) p .3-7. Also Booz, Allen & 
Hamilton, Inc . "Trends in Higher Education and Their Implications for University Libraries and 
University Library Management," p. 11-20 of their Problems in University Library Management 
(Washington, D.C.: Association of Research Libraries, 1970). 

5. Donald Coney, "Where Did You Go? To The Library . What Did You Get? Nothing," CRL 
19:179-84 (May 1958). 

6. Franklin D. Murphy, "Some Reflections on Structure," in John Coffrey, ed. The Future Academic 
Community: Continuity and Change. (Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education, 1969), 
p .88-94. 

7. Herman H. Fussier, Letter to Arthur McAnally, March 8, 1972, p.2. 
8. Earl C. Bolton, "Response of University Library Management to Changing Modes of University 

Governance and Control," CRL 33:308 (July 1972) . 
9. Richard N . Logsdon, Letter to Arthur McAnnally, August 10, 1972. 

10. Jean Mayer, "The College and University: A Program for Academic Renewal," Harvard Bulletin 
(Nov. 16, 1970), p .21-27. 

11. Peter F. Drucker, The Age of Discontinuity, Guidelines to Our Changing Society (N .Y.: Harper & Row, 
1969), p.389-90. 

12. Douglas W . Bryant, "Problems of Research Libraries: Development of Resources," A.C.L.S. 
Newsletter v. 22, no .1 (Jan. 1971) p.3-8. 

13. Vannevar Bush, "As We May Think," Atlantic Monthly v. 176, no. 1 (July 1945), p.101-08 . 
14. National Research Council. Committee on Research in the Life Sciences. The Life Sciences: Recent 

Progress and Application to Human Affairs, the World of Biological Research, Requirements for the Future. 
(Washington: The National Academy of Sciences, 1970), p.406. 

15. Fremont Rider, The Scholar and the Future of the Research Library, a Problem and Its Solution (New 
York: Hadham Press, 1944). 

16 . 0. C. Dunn, et al. The Past and Likely Future of 58 Research Libraries, 1951-1980: A Statistical Study of 
Growth and Change (Lafayette, Ind.: University Libraries and Audio-visual Center, 1965- ). 

17. Earl F. Cheit, The New Depression in Higher Education, A Study of Financial Conditions at 41 Colleges and 
Universities; A General Report for the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education and the Ford Foundation 
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971) . 

18. Cornell University Libraries. Report of the Director of University Libraries, 1970/ 71 (ltaca, N .Y.: Cor-
nell University Libraries, 1971), p.7. 

19. Representative leaders include Chris Argyris, Understanding Organizational Behavior (Homewood, 
Ill .: Dorsey Press, 1960) and his Interpersonal Competence and Organizational Effectiveness (Home-
wood, Ill.: Dorsey Press, 1962); Rensis Likert, New Patterns of Management (New York: McGraw-
Hill, 1961); Peter F. Drucker, The Effective Executive (New York : Harper & Row, 1967); Robert A. 
Sutermeister, People and Productivity; 2d ed. (New York : McGraw-Hill, 1969); Alfred J. Marrow, et 
al., Management by Participation; Creating a Climate for Personal and Organizational Development (New 
York: Harper & Row, 1967); and Harlon Cleveland, The Future Executive (New York: Harper & 
Row, 1972) . A good summary of the early movement is Timothy Hallimen, New Directions in Orga-



326 College & Research Libraries May 1989 

nization Theory (Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND Corp., Sept. 1968. P-3936). 
20. Larry E. Greiner, "Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow," Harvard Business Review 

v.50, no.4 (July-Aug. 1972), p.37-46. 
21. See for example Earl C. Bolton, Response of University Management, p.308. 
22 . Henry L. Mason, College and University Government, A Handbook of Principle and Practice (New Or-

leans: Tulane University, 1972). 
23. See for example Myron Lieberman, "Professors, Unite!" Harper 's Magazine v . 243, no.1457 (Oct. 

1971), p.61-70; and Terrence N. Tice, ed. Faculty Power: Collective Bargaining on Campus (Ann Ar-
bor, Mich. : Institute of Continuing Legal Education, 1972). 

24. ''Unionization of Faculty Expected to Pick up Speed Because of Tight Money and Ph.D .s," College 
Management 6:38 (Sept. 1971). 

25. "Analysis of an Act to Consolidate the Institutions of Higher Education in North Carolina, Session 
Laws of 1971, Proceedings, Chapter 1244, Ratified 30 October 1971." 

26. Arthur M. McAnally, "Budgets by Formula," Library Quarterly 33:159- 171 (April1963). 
27. Kenneth S. Allen, Current and Emerging Budgeting Techniques in Academic Libraries, Including a Cri-

tique of the Model Budget Analysis Program of the State of Washington (Seattle: April, 1972). 
28. Washington (State), Office of Interinstitutional Business Studies, A Model Budget Analysis System 

for Program 05 Libraries (Olympia, Wash.: 1970). 
29. Thomas R. Buckman, Letter to Arthur McAnally, June 8, 1972, p .2. 
30. Second U .S.-Japan Conference of University Library Directors, Oct. 17-20, 1972. Robert Vosper, 

"The Role of the University Library Director: Principal Issues of the Seventies," p.7 . The social 
scientist is Richard L. Meier. See "Information Input Overload: Features of Growth in the 
Communications-Oriented Institutions" LIBRI 13:11, 1963. 

31. See L. Carroll De Weese, ''Status Concerns of Library Professionalism,'' CRL 33:31-38 (Jan. 1972) . 
Also Edward G . Holley, "Organization and Management." Also Maurice P. Marchant, "Partici-
pative Management as Related to Personnel Development," Library Trends 20:48-59 (July 1971). 
Directors who have commented on this point, besides Robert Miller, included Edward B. Stan-
ford, Lewis C. Branscomb, David Kaser, and Richard H . Logsdon. 

32. Eldred R. Smith, The Specialist in the Academic Research Library, a Report to the Council on Library Re-
sources. [Berkeley, Calif.] May 1971 . 

33. Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Inc. Organization and Staffing of the Libraries of Columbia University: A Sum-
mary of a Case Study. (Washington, D. C.: Association of Research Libraries, 1972) . (The full study 
will be published in two volumes). 

34. Robert T. Blackburn, "College Libraries: Paradoxical Failures; Some Reasons and a Possible Rem-
edy," CRL 29:171-77 (May 1968). 

35. Richard H. Logsdon, "Librarian and the Scholar: Eternal Enemies," Library Journal 95:2871-74 
(Sept. 15, 1970) . 

36. Robert A . Miller, Letter to Arthur McAnally dated March 17, 1972 . Also, see Hendrik Edelman, 
"Motherhood, the Growth of Library Collections, Freedom of Access and Other Issues," Cornell 
University Libraries Bulletin, no.176 (April1972), p.5-6 . See also Eldred R. Smith, "The Specialist 
in the Academic Research," p.34. 

37. Cornell University Libraries . Annual Report of the Director, 1970/71 (Ithaca, N.Y . : The Libraries, 
1971), p.7. 

38. Thomas R. Buckman, Letter to Arthur McAnally, dated June 8, 1972 . 
39 . See Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Inc . Problems in University Library Management. Also David Kaser, 

"Planning in University Libraries; Context and Processes," Southeastern Librarian 21 :207-13 (Win-
ter 1971). For a pioneering effort in long range planning, see Marion Milczewski, "Cloak and Dag-
ger in University Library Administration," CRL 13:117-21 (April1952). 

40. Peter F. Drucker, The Age of Discontinuity, Guidelines to Our Changing Society (New York: Harper & 
Row, 1969). 

41. Richard H. Logsdon, Letter to Arthur McAnally, August 8, 1972. 
42 . Thomas R. Buckman, Letter. 
43. Earl C. Bolton, Response of University Management, p.309. See also Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Inc . 

Problems in University Library Management, p.5-6 et passim. 
44 . Robert P. Haro, "Change in Academic Libraries," CRL 33:97- 103 (March 1972). 
45. David Kaser, "Planning in University Libraries," p.288. 
46 . These and other excellent suggestions are made by Kenneth S . Allen, Current and Emerging Budget-

ing, p.37-46. See also Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Inc. Problems in University Library Management. 
47. Kenneth S. Allen, Current and Emerging Budgeting, p.40 . 
48. Ibid., p .18. 



C&RL Classic Reprint: Changing Role of Directors 327 

49. Richard M. Dougherty, "The Unserved-Academic Library Style," American Libraries 2:1055-58 
(Nov. 1971). 

50. Douglas Bryant, "Problems of University Libraries: Development of Resources," ACLS Newslet-
ter, v.22, no.l (Jan. 1971), p.3-8. 

51. Richard M. Dougherty, "The Unserved." 
52. Edward G . Holley, "Organization and Administration," p.186-87. 
53. Thomas R. Buckman, Letter. 
54. Lewis C. Branscomb, Letter to Arthur McAnally, April3, 1972. 
55. Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Inc. Organization and Staffing of the Columbia University Library: A Summary 

of the Case Study. Also their Problems in University Library Management, cited previously. 
56. Herman H. Fussier and Robert Vosper, op. cit., Larry Powell made a similar observation to Vos-

per. 
57. University of Oklahoma Library Ad Hoc Committee on Library Service . Final Report of a User Study 

of the Bizzell Memorial Library with Special Reference to Problems. (Norman, Okla.: July 1972) . 
58. Eldred Smith, "Academic Status for College and University Librarians-Problems and Pros-

pects," CRL 31:7-13 (Jan . 1970), p.ll. 
59. Harold F. Wells, Telephone conversation with Arthur McAnally, July 8, 1972. 
60. Edward G. Holley, "Organization and Administration," p.182. 
61. All have been cited already except Jane G. Flener: "Staff Participation in Management in Large 

University Libraries," Indiana University Library News Letter, v.8, no.l (Oct. 1972) p.1-3. 
62 . Melvin S. Goldstein, Collective Bargaining in the Field of Librarianship (Brooklyn, N .Y. : 1968). 
63. Richard De Gennaro, "Participative Management or Unionization," CRL 33:173-74 (May 1972). 
64. Arthur M. McAnally, "Status of the University Librarian in the Academic Community," in Re-

search Librarianship, Essays in Honor of Robert B. Downs, ed. by Jerrold Orne (New York: Bowker, 
1971), p.19-50. Administrative operation is p.31-46. 

65. Luther H. Evans, "The Administration of a Federal Government Agency," L. C. Information Bulle-
tin, Sept. 20-26, 1949, Appendix, p.l-9, See also his annual reports of the period. 

66. Kenneth S. Allen, Current and Emerging Budgeting. Thirteen institutions . 
67. Maurice P . Marchant, Participative Management, p.54. Also Lewis C. Branscomb, letter to Arthur 

McAnally, April3, 1972. 
68. Beverly Lynch, "Participatory Management in Relation to Library Productivity," CRL 33:382-90 

(Sept . 1972). 
69. Maurice P. Marchant, Participative Management, p.48 . 
70. Luther H. Evans, "The Administration of a Federal."