ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


172

A C o n v e rs a tio n  w ith  D a v id  W e b e r
Editor’s Note: During the April meeting o f the 
ACRL Executive Committee in Chicago, 1 had the 
opportunity to talk with 
David C. Weber, vice- 
p r e s id e n t!  p r e s id e n t­
elect o f ACRE, about 
his views on the future 
o f academic librarian- 
ship.

W eber has been 
director o f libraries at 
S ta n fo rd  U niversity 
since 1969. He begins 
his term o f office as 
43rd president o f ACRL 
at the end o f the ALA David C. Weberannual conference in 
July 1981.

Ed.: What are the major issues.that ACRL will be 
addressing in the next few  years?

Weber: It seems to me that there might be four 
themes that one could draw out of recent issues. 
The first will be my effort to maintain the pro­
gram pace, in the footsteps of Lee Anderson, 
Penny Abell, and others, and to support the very 
strong central staff that we have—Julie Virgo and 
her colleagues here at ACRL headquarters—as 
well as support the programs of sections, chap­
ters, committees, and the momentum that each 
of these has. That should be my prime effort.

A second theme is to ensure the fiscal sound­
ness of the association in times of great economic 
change. Certainly the impact of governmental 
policy on our own academic institutions and our 
association is understood to be very strong— 
perhaps stronger than it has been in several dec­
ades. The inflationary factors are ones that we 
will have to pay more attention to than we did in 
what seemed to be more stable times ten or 
fifteen years ago.

Third, I am concerned about the quality of 
academic and research librarians—drawing into 
the profession those who will be the academic li­
brarians of the 80’s and 90 s and beyond, and the 
leaders in our association and our profession. De­
riving from that is the effectiveness of recruit­
ment, the quality of education for librarianship, 
placem ent efforts, staff developm ent, career 
counseling, and other personnel areas which are 
of considerable importance to us all. The quality 
of those human resources will have a fundamental 
impact on our future, both as an association and 
as practicing professionals in the field.

Fourth, certainly we must look to how we can 
contribute to shaping academic librarianship as it 
is needed in response to our clientele over the

next 10-20 years. To me that means recognition 
of the current forces in librarianship, a recogni­
tion of historical developments in the recent past, 
and an attention to future characteristics—where 
we are going and how we will get there. That 
attention to the future certainly encompasses con­
cerns about the basic quality of our services, the 
nature of our collections, the relationship with 
our clientele, the working environment within 
the profession, the financial resources needed to 
perform effectively our mission, the nature of 
management of libraries, and the utilization of 
technology.

That doesn’t cover everything, but it covers a 
lot that can challenge the association.

Ed.: How active a role do you see ACRL taking 
in shaping the future o f academic librarianship?

Weber: That is probably up to each president, 
each officer, each section and committee chair, to 
answer for themselves. There will be some differ­
ence of opinion. I would hope that ACRL is an 
active force, an initiator of ideas, providing lead­
ership and coherence and clarity in the field. 
That does necessitate continuing education pro­
grams, a strong publication program, providing a 
forum for academic librarians all over the country 
to come to g eth er u n d er the aegis of ACRL. 
ACRL should be active as well as responsive. Af­
ter all, it is a membership organization and all of 
us should contribute toward its goals as well as 
draw from it.

Ed.: One active role ACRL is taking lies in the 
question o f academic status. Do you foresee im­
provements in this area?

Weber: I think for some institutions it needs to 
be strongly advanced, and for others it may be 
quite reasonable as it now is. At Stanford we 
have a program that most of us believe to be an 
excellent form of professional standing and recog­
nition. However, it is short of providing librarians 
professorial rank or all of the perquisites of the 
teaching faculty. Yet librarians have a position of 
honor within the academic staff, and are so recog­
nized formally within the university.

The enrollm ent trends over the next 15-18 
years in academic institutions and the economic 
forces that derive from that could well put several 
pressures on our profession. There may be fewer 
positions available, although I am very doubtful 
that there will be any sharp drop. Some institu­
tions will feel it more than others. The difficulty 
of bringing new, talented men and women into 
the field is a problem that we should give a good 
deal of attention to, just as college and university 
presidents are concerned about bringing new



173

blood into the teaching faculty. I am doubtful 
that there will be any change of career patterns 
in the majority of academic institutions.

Ed.: What does it take to be director o f a large 
university library? Is it harder now in the 80s 
than it was 20 years ago?

Weber: It is commonly said that students are 
brighter today and that management is more dif­
ficult today, and so on. I am not at all certain that 
the management of a major academic library is 
any more difficult now than it was ten or twenty 
years ago. Thirty years ago I worked as adminis­
trative assistant to Keyes D. Metcalf and saw him 
working as widely and as hard in diverse areas of
library management as I do now—utilizing the 
staff capabilities, solving problems with methods 
that are regarded today as appropriate, modern 
methods of university library management. It is 
true we have somewhat more varied techniques 
today, and many libraries have much larger col­
lections and staffs and budgets. However, we also 
have more technical and professional specialists to 
call upon.

I would urge librarians to develop their profes­
sional capabilities as broadly as they can. One

may start out as I did as a descriptive cataloger, 
but in order to build a strong career in leading an 
academic library, I believe that one needs to 
have a good understanding of collection develop­
ment, relationships with faculty and students and 
administrators, the standards of service, person­
nel needs, personnel management methods, 
financing and budgeting, fund raising, and so on.

Ed.: What made you decide to enter the library 
profession?

Weber: There is no doubt that it was my father 
who planted the seed. He was a professor of En­
glish literature, a very distinguished scholar in­

 terested in the development of the college library 
and its rare book and manuscript collections. 
Through him I met in our own home people like 
Fred Anthoensen, Robert B. Downs and James 
Humphry. There were lots of books in the fami­
ly—my mother and father were both omniverous 
readers, scholars and students, often discussing 
authors and books, words, places, names, at the 
dinner table. It was therefore a very congenial 
atmosphere for the formation of an academic li­
brarian.

B ib liograp h ic In stru ctio n

A N on-C redit/N on-G raded Course 
at the U niversity of Kansas

In a continuing effort to determine the best 
approach(es) for bibliographic instruction at the 
University of Kansas, Lawrence, reference and 
instruction librarians are developing a non-credit/ 
non-graded sequence for students who are in­
terested in learning basic research skills. The 
course was advertised by posters placed through­
out major academic buildings on campus, the stu­
dent union, and Watson (main) Library. Enroll­
ment and attendance are voluntary: the sequence 
is open to students at all levels and in all areas of 
study.

The course, which lasts for seven weeks, meets 
once a week for one hour and forty-five minutes. 
Each session covers a predetermined topic (sylla­
bi are made available) and consists of a lecture, 
relevant demonstrations using handouts and sup­
porting materials, and interactive discussions. 
The sessions cover the following topics and con­
cerns:

1) Introduction; classification systems; card cata­
log—Author/Title.

2) Card catalog—Subject; Library of Congress 
Subject Headings; subject tracings.

3) Periodicals; periodical indexes; our COMCAT 
for serials.

4) Reference books—dictionaries, encyclopedias, 
biographical tools, others.

5) Reference books (cont.)—bibliographies.
6) Other materials, including microforms, news­

papers, and government documents.
7) Designing a search strategy; other topics; 

review.
At the conclusion of each of the first six ses­

sions, an assignment sheet for those who wish to 
follow up the session’s coverage with a brief set of 
exercises, is distributed. Typical questions ask the 
student to utilize class materials and basic re­
search tools. For example, an exercise following