Feedback | Letters to LJ, July 2011
“Five senior librarians have left the library...and are better off now that [they] no longer have to endure the administrative culture that was often...disrespectful...” Jul 15, 2011Unqualified?
I am writing to express my support, and appreciation, for Francine Fialkoff’s Editorial “Can Bankers Keep Our Books?” (LJ 2/15/11, p. 8). Her point is well made that our industry has many excellent library leaders with the complete skill set such that library boards don’t need to settle for someone who is missing the librarian component.
Several library leaders without this qualification have responded, and I understand their difficulty in understanding what it is they are missing and why it matters. Look what Matt Poland’s response (“I’m one of them,” Feedback, LJ 5/15/11, p. 11) fails to provide in the way of background. Many of the accomplishments he mentions were conceived and set in motion by previous administrators (and guess what, they were librarians!). While one of the stipulations of Poland’s appointment was that he have an MLS librarian on the administrative staff, this role was filled in his reorganized administration the first year by the former IT manager. Since this person’s appointment 18 months ago (which, by the way, was made internally after just a year’s experience and not from a competitive national process), five senior librarians have left the library, one way or another, and are better off now that [they] are no longer have to endure the administrative culture that was often disrespectful and acrimonious.
The comparison to a hospital just underscores how little Poland understands what we value in the role of our great library leaders since the differences are so significant and obvious. Above all, chief hospital administrators aren’t in charge of shaping what their doctors practice.
Perhaps LJ could do a longer article exploring how those librarian qualifications are key to leadership positions. And, perhaps, those administrators without the qualification could recognize what they are missing and take steps toward remedying it.... Ultimately, I believe our field benefits most from library leaders who can meet as peers and engage in meaningful debate. Our field should have qualification requirements, as is common for leaders in many professions.—A former Hartford P.L. Librarian
Restraint of trade
This is probably a very naïve comment, but this scenario, in which “The International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers (STM), representing some of the major STM publishers like Elsevier, Wiley, Springer, among others” work jointly to determine how their products may be consumed and distributed as reported by Michael Kelley in “Research Libraries, Publishers Stake Out Positions on International ILL” (p. 14) seems as if it might constitute a form of anticompetitive behavior that U.S. antitrust laws are designed to prevent.—Thomas Dodson, Libn., Cambridge, MA
No help wanted
Having been both an academic library administrator and a library science professor for about 20 years each, I’ve often thought about writing a column on the misconceptions both groups have about each other, as Academic Newswire columnist Barbara Fister notes. While I have an excellent liaison librarian at Wayne State University, a former A+ student of mine from the early 1990s, I don’t know what she would do if she moved into our faculty office area. First, we now teach online, so few of us are there regularly. I come in about one day each week. Second, as Fister states, adjuncts teach half our courses and would never be in the office area. Third, and perhaps most important, I also agree with Fister that many if not most faculty won’t welcome a librarian in their space offering help that they mostly won’t want.
Personally, my use of librarians since my doctoral studies days in French literature at Yale University has been to ask practical questions about access and to seek help when I needed to move outside my areas of scholarly expertise. I would bet that most faculty know quite well the resources in their core areas and don’t need any librarian help for most of their research.
As an atypical aside, given my background in French, I once angered a prominent proponent of the thesis that librarians can always help faculty do better by asking this person how they could do that if they didn’t know the language of the faculty member’s research.—Robert P. Holley, Prof., SLIS, Wayne State Univ., Detroit
Insights to apply
I just read Michael Stephens’s Office Hours column “Heretical Thoughts” (LJ 12/10, p. 72). A great read. I agree with his comments and found them to be relevant both for new graduates and students enrolled in library and information science programs or considering it. I have worked for more than 20 years in a corporate library setting and the past year in a university setting. [His] insights are applicable to both....—Barbara Hawkes. Libn., Hodges Univ., Naples, FL
