DOCUMENT RESUME L/ 002 210 ED 045 106 Bassett, Robert J., Fl. AUTHOR University of Tennessee Library Lectures, Numbers TITLE Nineteen, Twenty, and Twenty-One, 1967-1969. Tennessee Univ., Knoxville. INSTITUTION PUB DATE 69 NOTE FAID. FDRS Price MR-0.25 HC-52.75 ERRS PRICE *Automation, *Librarians, *Libraries, *Research DESCRIPTORS Libraries, *School libraries Library Autcmation IDENTIFTERS PS'17,171CT This issue of "Library lectures" contains lectures nineteen, twenty and twenty-one. lecture nineteen, "Librarianship Today - Crisis or Change," presented by Pr. Jerrold Orne considers change a natural result of growth which should rot be feared as a critical disruption. The twentieth lecture, "Twentieth Century scholarship and the Research Library: A Marriage of Convenience," given by john H. Perthel, serves +o remind librarians of the necessity for intensive dialogue between scholarship and the research library in the face of continually expanding knowledge. 7n the concluding lecture, number twenty-one, entitled "Automation and the Acaiemic Library," W. Carl Jackson provides a sensible outline for implementing the changes brought about by automation which are destined to affect all libraries. (Author /NN) q:) CO r"*4 -PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS COPY RIGHTED MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED Lrt BY TO ERIC AND ORGANIZATIONS OPERATING UNDER AGREEMENTS WITH THE US OFFICE OP EDUCATION POTHER RERR00uCncor C:1 OUTSIDE THE ERIC SYSTEM AEOuiRES PER IL) MISSION Of THE COPYRIGHT OWNER University of Tennessee LIBRARY LECTURES it numbers nineteen, twenty, and twenty-one 1%7.1969 EDITED BY POBERT J. BASSETT US OtrARTWlNT vitAL14.(0vCaE)041 swEltARE Of PK I 10v0A11044 Vol WNW(' RAE AS SUN RE oft0OuCE0 IRActo AS RfcErYED th0 M Imt PERSON OR EIRCANIZAnORI CR+0014111R0 It pontiff Ot Wt, OR OPINIONS StAtt 0 00 NOT NEM 8 ION! POOH WO OPM1AL ot tDqj OFF CI C4.11014 POSITION OR 11.04.PC H PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE, KNOXVILLE ONIIN .....1"- Copyright, 1969, by THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: A62-4361 FOREWORD In 1967, The Shoe String Press, Inc., brought together the first eighteen University of Tennessee Library Lectures in a volume entitled The Library in the University. The present book continues that compilation of viewpoints of eminent librarians with Library Lectures nineteen, twenty, and twenty-one. Dr. Jerrold Orne, Librarian, The University of North Caro- lina, delivered the nineteenth lecture, "Librarianship Today Crisis or Change," on April 4, 1967. In a sense, Dr. Orne pro- vided the theme for this collection; that is, change should be considered the natural result of growth and ought not be feared as a critical disruption. The twentieth lecture, 'Twentieth Century Scholarship and the Research Library: A Marriage of Convenience," was given by John H. Berthel, Librariai., The Johns Hopkins University, on May 7, 1968. Mr. Berthel reminded us of the necessity for intensive dialogue between scholarship and the research library in the face of continually expanding knowledge. In concluding this volume, it seems appropriate that the twenty-first lecture, presented by W. Carl Jackson, Director of Libraries, The Pennsylvania State University, treated the chal- lenge of the machine. On April 22, 1969, Mr. Jackson's contribu- tion, "Automation and the Academic Library," provided a sensible outline for implementing these changes which are des- tined to affect all libraries. Robert J. Bassett May 1, 1969 CONTENTS I lecture nineteen Librarianship TodayCrisis or Change by Jerrold Orne 15 lecture twenty Twentieth Century Scholarship and the Research Library: A Marriage of Convenience by John H. Berthel lecture twentyone 33 Automation and the Academic Library by W. Carl Jackson library lecture number nineteen UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE LIBRARY, APRIL 4, 1967 By Jerrold Orne Librarian The University of North Carolina Librarianship Today Crisis or Change A few months ago I received a business letter from an or- ganization called the Council for Management of Change, Inc. This new firm is offering (for an outlandish sum) a periodic news letter entitled Innovation and Management of Change, ad- vising its clients of notable events which will result in change and telling them how to prepare for it. This service is simply a high-priced, top-business management version of a recent journal called Changing Times, which now enjoys an extensive sub- scription list. These are only two illustrations of the mcde of our time; they could be multiplied without great effort. Obviously change is a vital part of our way of life. The word "crisis" is now applied to current problem areas throughout our society. Libraries are not exempt. We have a seeming crisis in personnel, in methods, in volume of materials, in costs; in fact, almost every aspect of our work is referred to as a crisis by someone. The crisis is usually blamed on some kind of "explosion." These are pretty violent terms; it will be my purpose to look more closely into their appropriateness in the environment which encompasses us today. Let us look first at the basic content of the library, its books, journals, and information resources of all kinds. Fifty years ago a library in our country had books, periodicals, and possibly a few newspapers. In the class of other "information resources" one might have found some stereoscopic views and viewers. Government documents were provided in a few of the larger libraries, but their numbers were not overwhelming. There were not so many publishers and consequently fewer books published. Many of our sciences were at a primitive stage; the social sciences were being born and the humanities followed traditional lines. Libraries were seeking readers, promoting the use of li- braries along with universal education, and the profession of librarianship was in its infancy. If you stand this sketch beside the present-day array of facilities, the contrast is stunning. If Melvil Dewey could return to see the collections of one of our medium-sized public or aca- demic libraries, it would be difficult to convince him he was not in the British Museum. There are now scores of libraries pos- sessing over a million volumes. Large libraries and many small ones have to deal with a broad range of materials, of which books and journals are only a part. Microfilm, m. rocard, micro- fiche, copyflow Xerox, and a multitude of varied photocopy forms now abound in our libraries. Phonodiscs are now supplemented by magnetic tapes. Magnetic tapes are now used for reproducing new copy by computel .activated printers, and great efforts are now mounted to achieve universal availability of library re- sources by remote access devices. It appears likely that it is only a matter of time before the total library resources of our country can be available to all, no me." where the original piece is located. Considering only this rapid review of two periods of time, let me ask, "What have we here, crisis or change?" In the volume and character of library materials and operations, we have considerable change, but in my view, no crisis. As the volume of library material has increased, however, and in keeping with the accelerated tempo of our time, the more slowly developing techniques of acquiring and preparing these materials for use have often invited the cry of crisis. The buying of books when they were fewer in numbers and from fewer sources was a relatively simple matter. Transportation and com- munications were slower and there was less pressure to get books 2 fast. Fewer books were bought abroad and most of them from countries with well-developed book-trade channels. Journals were not so numerous, nor were they as costly as they now are. The few foreign titles acquired were fairly stable in production and delivery. Sources were usually well-known and dependable. Most libraries provided a few local or regional newspapers and one or two of national character, such as the New York Times. It was a rare library that sported half a dozen newspapers in a foreign tongue. Since there were no other materials then of any great consequence in libraries, the methods of acquisition were simple and direct. Again, there was no intense pressure of speed or variety; old-timers who still remember that period will no doubt think of it as a golden era. Today the acquisitioner has a far more complex task. For printed materials, he must be prepared to search sources in any one of a hundred languages, published in countries where biblio- graphic tools are primitive or do not even exist. He must struggle with book-trade sources where the book-trade is not organized, either for publication or distribution. As if this were not enough, he has to cope with a mass of reprint and near-print publications produced by hundreds of little-known sources well off the beaten path of standard supply. He must be prepared to acquire new forms of material, such as photocopies, microforms, pamphlets, tapes, visuals of all kinds, and audio materials. The complexity of this function is enough to paralyze the will to action, but there have been massive changes in the tools to facilitate the action. Domestic or even all English'- language bibliography is virtually complete and up to date. The early, limited issues of the Cumulative Book index are now massive compendia of current publication. They are supplemented by a number of monthly bibliographic journals and announcement lists that literally blanket current English-language production. The retrospective literature of all countries is broadly repre- sented in the great series of printed catalogs published by the Library of Congress, the British Museum, and the Bibliotheque Nationale. There are now many more and better national biblio- giaphies produced in other countries. More recently the numer- ous photo-offset printed catalogs of great subject libraries have given yet another dimension to bibliographic access in our coun- try. The proliferation of printed subject bibliographies has been 3 just as rapid. Guides to other forms of material are already at hand. Machi: e methods and new business devices are now commonly found in larger libraries to further simplify opera- tions and increase the speed of handling as the flow of materials increases. This combination of improved methods and resources has in fact enabled the libraries to keep up with the rapidly expanding levels of production. What might have led to crisii has in this area led to considerable change, no more. Now, this expanding production also developed an almost incredible series of economic problems. The ordinary trade book which libraries used to buy for four dollars now costs six or seven, and the annual production of books from which the li- brary must choose has doubled in the last ten years. Periodicals are now being born in numbers estimated variously at fifty to one hundred a week, and those to which we now subscribe have increased in cost from fifty to three or four hundred percent. Clearly, it costs a lot more in dollars to maintain and build good library today. The paperback book came into its own, first as A means of reducing costs for the mass of book-buyers, but then as another way of reducing overall production costs for a very broad range of titles. There has been a rapid proliferation of abstract jourimls, indexing services, and other new types of information access tools resulting from increasing difficulty in keeping up with the contents of all these journals. fly hercu- lean effort, the already great union lists of serials in American libraries have been supplemented and brought up to date by national guides such as New Serial Tige$ and the new edition of the Union List. Many other state and regional lists have also come into being. There has been no single tool representing monographic literature in a union list, but the publication in book form of catalogs representing many great specialized col- lections has helped considerably in establishing locations. There is, in fact, a definite program to publish the entire retrospective national union catalog in book form within the next ten years; this will provide virtually complete bibliographic access to li- braries all across the land. What then is the situation so far as cost of materials is concerned? We are spending a great many more dollars; there is no doubt about that. These dollars are worth lest but we do have larger budgets to go with the times and their value The book industry, the community of users and the library profession have combined their efforts to provide extensive bibliographic access to a world of material which no 4