ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


172

are available the workshops will be held in loca­
tions in the Southeast and the Midwest. C &RL 
News will report on the status of the NEH/ACRL 
program as details become available. ■ ■

VIRGO CHALLENGES THE 
CALIFORNIA GRASSROOTS

On February 11, Julie Carroll Virgo, executive 
director of ACRL, completed a four-day whistle 
stop tour o f California. The successful six-city 
tour, sponsored by the California Academic and 
Research Librarians (CARL), was itself an histori­
cal occasion which introduced librarians in met­
ropolitan areas in the northern and southern parts 
of this large state, as well as librarians nationwide 
through tapes of her talks, to the provocative and 
well-articulated ideas of this energetic academic 
library leader and educator.

Virgo tied her talks together with two impor­
tant and timely themes: 1) the challenge to the 
profession from the proposed reclassification of 
the federal librarian positions by the U.S. Office 
of Personnel Management, and, 2) the value of 
the new article by Allen Veaner, “Continuity or 
Discontinuity: A Persistent Personnel Issue in 
Academic Librarianship,” Advances in Library 
Administration and Organization 1 (1982): 1, 
where he “incisively delineates the role of the li­
brarian and the role of the support staff in the 
academic environment.”

In San Diego and Berkeley, Virgo addressed 
“The Role of the Librarian as M anager.” With 
this topic she explored “the larger role of the li­
brarian in the academic or research community, 
the educational preparation necessary to build 
that role, how the environment impacts on that 
role, and how we reconcile the array of roles that 
would be placed upon us: librarian, manager, 
educator, faculty member, scholar, researcher.” 

She supported h er prem ise that lib rarian s’ 
“primary responsibilities are as practitioners of 
our profession” as she discussed faculty status and 
the implications of technological change in rela­
tion to the proposed revised federal standards 
and Veaner’s article.

In “Certification, ” the topic of her talks in both 
W hittier and Sacramento, Virgo addressed the 
problem of credibility and the role of the library 
schools in the education process.

She summarized the complexities of developing 
a certification program, basing her talk on her 
experiences as director of education for the Med­
ical Library Association where she was instru­
mental in the developm ent o f a com petency- 
based certification program. Her answer to the 
question, “Is the possession of a set of stated 
competencies a viable alternative for an MLS in 
academic libraries?” was yes and no. “Yes,” she

said, “if we have resources to develop excellent 
competency-based examinations, but the answer 
is no at the moment because I don’t think that 
we have that capability.”

Northridge and Stanford hosted presentations 
on “C urrent Issues in H igher Education and 
Academic Librarianship.” Seven current issues in 
higher education: financing, demographics, cur­
riculum, faculty, societal and political changes, 
technology, and economics, were woven into Vir­
go’s fifteen  su ggested solu tions. H er w ell- 
reasoned and substantial text discussed why li­
brarians have to respond to these issues and what 
actions libraries could take to soften the impact, 
and to survive these nationwide trends.

Several of her many suggestions were to “in­
crease productivity of library staffs, be prepared 
to terminate employment of the less productive, 
look for ways to cut personnel costs through ap­
propriate technology, challenge assumptions on 
the extent to which collections and services are 
used, conduct fund raising, and be consumer- 
oriented, not product-oriented.” The value of 
bright, strong, knowledgeable library leaders was 
implicit in her tough and practical suggestions.

The state-wide tour was the first of this mag­
nitude attempted by the CARL librarians. Her 
published stops were complemented by a series 
of coffees, wine receptions, lunches, and dinners 
where she had the opportunity to informally meet 
the California librarians and gather their con­
cerns. These grassroots, or local, concerns, fac­
tored into her own thinking, she said, provided 
her with greater insight as she represented us on 
the ACRL Board, a function she feels is vital to 
her role as an academic library leader.

The tour was noteworthy also as it set a prece­
dent for academic library cooperation and for par­
ticipation in professional activities at the local 
level, one of ACRL’s goals for the state chapters. 
Too, it allowed timely and consistent information 
to be personally delivered to the California librar­
ians by a nationally respected figure in academic 
librarianship.

Tapes of Virgo’s three presentations are being 
offered by CARL as a fund raising effort. With 
this offer librarians can add Virgo’s speeches to 
their library’s collection and concurrently help 
support this large ACRL state chapter.

“Certification,” “The Role of the Librarian as 
Manager,” and “Current Issues in Higher Educa­
tion and Academic Librarianship” are each ap­
proximately one hour long and consist of Virgo’s 
speech and her answers to questions following it.

Tapes are available for $10 each. Please indi­
cate the titles you wish, make your check out to 
CARL, and send both by August 1 to Julie Virgo 
Tapes, C SU LB Library, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., 
Long Beach, CA 90840, Attn: Wendy Culotta. 
P l ease allow 30 days for d e liv e r y .— W endy 
Culotta, Science-Technology Librarian, Califor­
nia State University‚ Long Beach. ■ ■