ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 277 Continuing Education CE and the Academic Library Administration As an academic library administrator, I recog­ nize the critical importance of continuing educa­ tion to the developm ent of staff interests and skills which are essential to the effective opera­ tion of the academic library. The past decade has dem onstrated, w ith its developm ents in areas such as data base searching and networking, that library schools, even as they develop two-year cu rricu lu m s, do not and cannot provide th e breadth and depth of training that new staff re­ quire, and that in any case, with the large num­ ber of new areas and new interests that are de­ veloping, older staff require additional training and skills. More than ever it is essential for library staff who are to be productive contributors to a li­ brary, or libraries, over a long career to be able to keep pace with developments in the field and to undergo substantial professional growth and development over that career. No librarian can expect to provide quality service over a period of as much as forty years simply on the basis of what was learned in library school and what may be learned directly through work experiences. Con­ tinuing education is one element of the kind of professional activity that can furnish the necessary growth and development. An academic library administrator must directly partake of that kind of professional growth and development and must encourage it among the staff. An academic library administrator has broad responsibility for providing both effective library service to an institution and leadership and sup­ port to the library staff. This broad responsibility requires support of activities that will enable staff to acquire new skills, maintain quality library ser­ vice, and be effective contributors to the opera­ tion of the library. Continuing education is one, but only one, of those activities. Continuing education, and all of those activi­ ties, must be put into perspective. In both the broader sense and in term s of particular pro­ grams, continuing education must be subject to careful evaluation to be certain it is beneficial to both the individual and the library. As with most professional activities, continuing education cannot be measured simply in terms of participation. It must be measured in terms of the effectiveness of that participation and the im­ pact that that participation, in turn, has on im­ proving the individual staff m em ber’s perform­ ance and skills. Reward for participation in con­ tinuing education activities, w hether it comes in the form of salary increases, promotion, or the assignment of new responsibilities, must be based on what has been learned and how it is put into practice. It must be evaluated by the academic library administrator and staff in their terms. Re­ ward cannot be given simply on the basis of parti­ cipation, even if an external agency certifies the quality of a particular program, or on the accu­ mulation of a fixed num ber of “continuing educa­ tion units.” If it is effective, continuing education should c o n trib u te both to th e gen eral professional growth and development of the individual and to an im provem ent in job performance. For that reason the time and money needed for participa­ tion in such activities should be a shared respon­ sibility. N either th e individual nor the library should be expected to provide all of the support, but the ratio of those contributions can be com­ plex. It is dependent upon local factors such as institutional policies and resources. It is also de­ pendent upon a careful evaluation of the potential benefit to the individual and the library. While general policy guidelines are n eeded in each academ ic lib rary to pro v id e for balance and equity in the allocation of time and money for staff participation in continuing education activi­ ties, rigid form ulas should be avoided. The academic library administrator needs the flexibil­ ity to be able to provide a greater level of sup­ port than may be normal for participation by indi­ vidual staff m em bers in particular continuing education activities that may provide unique be­ nefits to the library or unique opportunities for the individual. Continuing education is not an end in itself. It must contribute to professional growth and de­ velopm ent. What is learned must be put into practice on the job, but it must also be assimi­ lated into the individual’s professional knowledge and skills. It must contribute to a broader aware­ ness of the field on the part of the individual. For that reason continuing education cannot be an isolated aspect of the individual's professional life. Just as the knowledge and skills that may be learned in library school cannot form the basis for an effective lifetime library career, neither can that knowledge and those skills simply be cou­ pled with participation, no matter how frequent and how high the quality, in continuing education activities. What is learned, w hether in library school or continuing education, cannot be applied only to day-to-day job responsibilities. Given the breadth and complexity of present day librarian- ship, it must also be applied beyond the local set­ ting. The depth of understanding that comes from research and publication is one important compo­ 278 nent of this broader application. So too is partic­ ipation in professional activities and organiza­ tions w h eth er it be of a general (e.g ., m em ­ bership on a committee or service as an officer of a local, state, or national library association) or more directed (e.g., membership on a committee or service as an officer of a local, state, or nation­ al cooperative library activity or network) nature. The academic library administrator, therefore, expects the library staff to have an interest in and to participate in continuing education activities as appropriate. The academic library administrator also expects, however, that the library staff will use that participation as a means of improving skills and performance, will expect recognition and reward to come from the im provement of skills and performance, will recognize that partic­ ipation is a shared responsibility of the indi­ vidual and the library, and will use what may be learned not only as the basis for improved job performance but also as the basis for a broader pattern of professional growth and development. All of this is to be done, of course, while main­ taining ongoing job responsibilities in an era of staff shortages, increasing demands for library service, and the development of new library and individual responsibilities and services. It seems an impossible task. It is remarkable that so much is already being accomplished by so many librar­ ies and so many individuals. It is essential that academic library administrators, managers, and professional staff work together to find ways of in­ creasing their support for continuing education and other activities that contribute to professional growth and development.—Norman D. Stevens, University Librarian, University o f Connecticut Library, Storrs. ■■ YESHIVA U PD A TE Legislation to amend the National Labor Rela­ tions Act with regard to faculty was introduced to the House of Representatives on June 18. It is expected that hearings will be scheduled for the fall, and that comparable legislation will be intro­ duced into the Senate this session. This legislation is in response to the February 20 Supreme Court decision on the Yeshiva case (NLRR v. Yeshiva University). In a five-four rul­ ing, the justices held that the National Labor Re­ lations Board could not require Yeshiva Universi­ ty to bargain with the board-certified indepen­ dent faculty association which the Yeshiva faculty had elected as their bargaining agent. The court concluded that because the full-time faculty of this private institution “perform policy-making and discretionary functions” on a high level, they are in effect managerial employees, and therefore excluded from the protection of the National Labor Relations Act. Since the February ruling, administrators at several institutions have moved to decertify the faculty’s bargaining representative, have refused to negotiate successor contracts, or have w ith­ drawn recognition of the faculty’s elected repre­ sentatives. B ecause th e S uprem e C o u rt’s decision in NLRB v. Yeshiva University is based on an inter­ pretation of the National Labor Relations Act, it may be reversed by Congressional action. H.R. 7619, in tro d u c e d by R e p re se n ta tiv e F rank Thompson, Jr., chairman of the Labor-Manage­ m en t R elations S ubcom m ittee of th e H ouse Education and Labor Committee, would amend th e act by adding that “no faculty mem ber or group of faculty members in any educational in­ stitution shall be deemed to be managerial or su­ pervisory employees solely because the faculty member or group of faculty members participate in decisions with respect to courses, curriculum, p erso n n el, or o th e r m atters of educational policy.” ■■ OBERLY AWARD N O M IN A TIO N S S O L IC IT E D Nominations for the 1981 Oberly Award for Bibliography in the Agricultural Sciences should be su b m itted by January 1, 1981, to: John Beecher, Chair, Oberly Award Committee, Agri­ culture Library, 226 Mumford Hall, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801. Nominations will be assessed by a five-person committee of the ACRL Science and Technology Section. The Oberly Award is presented biennially (in odd-numbered years) for the best bibliography in the field of agriculture or the related sciences compiled in the two-year period preceding the year in which the award is made. Bibliographies are judged on accuracy, scope, usefulness, for­ mat, and special features such as explanatory in­ troductions, annotations, and indexes. ■■ Continuing Education Advisory Service The ACRL “Advisory Service on Profession­ al Development” responds to librarians’ ques­ tions about continuing education and staff de­ velopment. If you would like guidance in de­ signing a professional development program or direction to educational resources relevant to your needs, or if you would like to share your expertise, please contact Sarah E. How, ACRL/ALA, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. All 25 Volumes Are Available For Immediate Delivery HERE IS S U B J E C T -A N D -A U T H O R A C C E SS T O M O RE TH A N 400,000 A R T IC L E S IN T H E BA CK FILES OF 531 JO U R N A LS IN H IST O R Y, P O L IT IC A L S C IE N C E A N D S O C IO L O G Y . C R I S - H IS T O R Y , 1838-1974, in eleven hardcover volumes. More than 150,000 articles from the backfiles of 234 History journals in the English language have been indexed together and published in 9 casebound cumulative subject index volumes and 2 cumulative author index volumes. Articles were assigned to one or more of 313 hierarchical subject categories, and then computer sorted by keyword under each category to give in-depth specificity. CR IS — P O L IT IC A L S C IE N C E , 1886-1974, in eight hardcover volumes. This set contains 6 cumulative subject volumes and 2 cumulative author volumes. Coverage includes more than 115,000 articles on such topics as Politics, Public Administration and International Relations, from the backfiles of 179 English Language journals. Articles were assigned to one or more of 135 hierarchical subject categories. CR IS - S O C IO L O G Y , 1895-1974, in six hardcover volumes. From the retrospective collections of 118 English Language Sociology journals, some 85,000 articles have been indexed and their entries interfiled in five casebound folio-size cumulative subject volumes, and one cumulative author volume. Articles were assigned to one or more of 137 hierarchical subject categories. Each Volume Contains an “Introduction & User’s Guide” By Evan Farber AND N O W ... more than 1 million BOOK REVIEWS which appeared in 458 of these same journals have been indexed by author and title in a separate fifteen-volume CRIS Index Set. COMBINED RETROSPECTIVE INDEX TO BOOK REVIEWS IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS, 1886-1974 Evan Farber, Librarian ot Earlham College and author of the standard reference work. Classified List of Periodicals for the College Library, is the chief compiler of this new set. As he points out, "Our set will complement existing indexes of book reviews because the majority of its entries have never been indexed anywhere but in their own journals. "Book Review Digest, for instance, is retrospective to 1905 but quite weak in its coverage of scholarly journals. "Meanwhile, the new indexes which recently began to cover large numbers of scholarly journals are not retrospective. "Therefore, this substantial gap in coverage can only be filled by an index which is both retrospective and more thorough in its coverage of scholarly journals —namely, our Combined Retrospective Index USE THE COUPON ON THE RIGHT TO ORDER THIS SET AND THE OTHER CRIS INDEXES SEND FOR FREE BROCHURES LISTING THE JOURNAL COMBINED RETROSPECTIVE INDEX SETS CRIS, THE REFERENCE PREFERENCE OF THE RESEARCH MAJORITY, . . . is now complete and at work in hundreds of undergraduate libraries in the United States and overseas. By sheer weight of numbers, undergraduates constitute the “ research majority” in academic libraries. By eliminating hundreds of unproductive searches in short-term or single-title indexes, CRIS sets have become the favorite reference tools of those students who want to build bibliographies fast. “extremely popular with both students and faculty members” Typical of comments from library users is this quote from Roy S. Barnard, Serials Librarian, Kearney State College Library, Kearney, Nebraska. In a letter dated January 30, 1979, he wrote “ While at JUL (Joint University Libraries, Nashville, Tennessee) I became familiar with your CRIS-History and found it very helpful in my work with their History Department. Because it was so convenient and easy-to-use, it was extremely popular with both students and faculty members.” TITLES COVERED IN ALL FOUR CRIS INDEX SETS