ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


63 6 /C&RL News

Every 
Librarian 

a Leader

Thoughts on leadership: 
An exchange

By Karyle Butcher, Joy Hughes, and Melvin R. George

Library leadership succeeds with 
cooperation and support

E d. note: In the July/August issue o f C&RL News, Patricia Breivik wrote an article en­
titled “Becoming Beyond-Library-Walls Librar­
ians.” Mel George, director of Oregon State Uni­
versity (OSU) Libraries, asked Karyle Butcher 
and Jo y  Hughes to read Breivik’s article and 
respond to the questions he devised. He thought 
their perspective would be useful since they 
are b oth  longtim e ad vocates o f librarians 
partnering across campus and across the state. 
Hughes has led the way for library involve­
ment in linking with information providers 
throughout the state; Butcher is currently serv­
ing on a statewide committee to investigate site 
licensing for the state, and is actively involved 
in state and local politics.

G eorge: You have read Patricia Breivik’s intro­
ductory column dealing with her theme for the 
year, “Every Librarian a Leader.” Do you think 
librarians have been very effective in revealing 
leadership skills on their own campuses? Why 
or why not?

Hughes: Breivik talks about librarians b e­
com ing “beyond-library-w alls lead ers.” On 
some campuses the leadership issue is more 
one o f removing the walls between the library 
and other information services professionals. 
When these walls are removed, librarians soon 
find themselves in positions of leadership. At 
OSU, for example, Karyle, an associate univer­
sity librarian (AUL), is also head of consulting 
services for all o f information services (IS). In 
that role she is leading librarians, but she is

also leading professionals from the Media Ser­
vices and Computer Services Departments. Her 
Consulting Services Unit is in charge of all train­
ing and instruction provided to the campus by 
IS and all front line and expert IS consultation 
with faculty, staff, and students. Charlene Grass, 
OSU’s other AUL, is now the head of IS’s project 
management group— and that’s project man­
agement for network services, media services, 
and computer services, as well as the library.

B u tch er: While I agree with Jo y  that there 
are some very exciting events happening within 
OSU Information Services in terms of leader­
ship roles for librarians, I am not convinced 
that academic librarians in general see them­
selves as able to cross campus boundaries. I 
don’t think the issue is ability; my personal 
experience and observations tell me that aca­
demic librarians can be quite effective in net­
working and developing partnerships with their 
colleagues across campus. The issue is that, 
unlike public librarians who have known for 
years that they must convince the public and 
their elected constituencies o f the value o f the 
public library, we in academia seem to believe 
that leadership is the job o f our upper-level 
administrators.

Y et librarians have ample opportunity to in
teract with faculty through committee work, li­
aison work, research collaboration, and through 
their work at the public services desks. Infor­
mation gleaned through these contacts can be 
used to increase faculty awareness o f the li­
brary and also to bring back to the library is­
sues and concerns of faculty. Frequently, one- 
o n -o n e  in te ra ctio n s b e tw e e n  facu lty and 
librarians take place in a vacuum with no feed­
back mechanism to those who might best re­
spond to these concerns.

Karyle Butcher is an associate university librarian f o r  research and public services at Oregon State 
University (OSU), e-mail: butcherk@ccmail.orst.edu. Joy Hughes is the associate provost f o r  information 
services and a member o f the library faculty at OSU, e-mail hughesj@ccmail.orst.edu. Melvin R. George is 
director o f libraries at OSU, e-mail: geotgem@ccmail.orst.edu

mailto:butcherk@ccmail.orst.edu
mailto:hughesj@ccmail.orst.edu
mailto:geotgem@ccmail.orst.edu


October 1 9 9 5 /6 3 7

Librarians are also playing more active roles 
in advocating for library services on the state 
and national levels. Oregon librarians, both pub­
lic and academic, were instrumental in promot­
ing and achieving the passage o f a state initia­
tive that funded five regional reference centers 
in the state. This came at a time when state 
funding was being reduced.

G eorge: Do librarians have knowledge that 
might be appropriate to share with colleagues 
elsewhere on campus?

B u tch er: Clearly we do. In the most obvi­
ous sense we have skills in accessing and re­
trieving information both in paper and elec­
tronic form, which puts us in the forefront on 
many campuses. On a more subtle level, but 
one which, in the long run, will prove immi­
nently useful as we form partnerships across 
campus, is that as a profession we advocate for 
all. We push for increases in the materials bud­
get not for any personal need to aggrandize 
the library but rather because we know that 
o n e  o f our prim ary m issions is to serve 
campuswide information needs. If we combine 
this advocacy with an ongoing program o f pro­
viding improved service to our users (a.k.a. cus­
tomers), we can easily demonstrate to faculty 
and students centrality to the campus mission 
o f teaching and research.

Moreover, the fact that the nature o f our 
work is consultative adds to our special place 
on campus. Effective librarians excel in solicit
ing opinions and ideas from colleagues and 
users. As our organizations move towards a 
more team-based and interdisciplinary mode, 
the ability to listen, gather information, synthe­
size it, and present it to an audience will be 
invaluable.

Librarians are also in a position to advocate, 
along with classroom faculty, for an increase in 
the hiring and retention o f people o f color. 
Because we are working closely with the stu­
dent population and are hiring from this same 
population, we are mindful o f the changes tak­
ing place in the workforce and o f the need to 
continue to diversify our staff.

George: Breivik challenges librarians to be aca­
demic leaders, particularly in teaching/learning 
aspects o f campuses. Is that happening at OSU?

Hughes: Again, because o f the removal of 
the walls between the library and other infor­
mation service departments, librarians are now 
working with faculty on the development of

multimedia instructional packages and on pro­
viding network access to course resources, 
whether these resources reside on campus or 
anywhere in the world. Without their involve­
ment, the potential o f multimedia to improve 
significantly the productivity o f teaching and 
learning is far less likely to be realized. Librar­
ians know about learning resources, know how 
to select them, access them, organize them, and 
make sure they are there next week when the 
next student or faculty member needs them.

G eorge: In your role as associate provost for 
information services, Joy, do you see that tech­
nological development will thrust librarians into 
leadership roles in a way that is different from 
the past?

H ughes: I am very mindful o f Johannah 
Sherrer’s (library director at Lewis & Clark Col­
lege) concept o f the “virtual collection.” For 
years, I have been focused on the develop­
ment o f the national electronic library. I see 
now that for most librarians that is putting the 
emphasis in the wrong sphere o f influence. 
Locally, librarians need to be meeting with aca­
demic departments to discuss their information 
needs and then assembling a virtual collection 
that will meet these needs. Once this collec­
tion is assembled, it, like any collection, will 
need to b e maintained. (Who hasn’t experi­
enced the frustration o f reaching out towards a 
URL that is no longer where it should be?) The 
leadership implications associated with the vir­
tual collection concept are staggering— leader­
ship with the faculty, students, catalogers, stan­
dardization groups, Webmasters throughout the 
world, etc. And, o f course, librarians have to 
continue with their efforts to support the digi­
tization of collections, providing leadership with 
respect to copyright, rights o f individual users 
o f information, software, information organi­
zation, etc.

George: What will the roles Jo y  describes re­
quire that is new o f librarians?

B u tch er: Frankly, unlike the vast body of 
current writing on organizational change in li­
braries, I do not see our role changing dramati­
cally. We are in and have always been in the 
role of providing information to our users. What 
is very different is how this information is be­
ing packaged and presented and the skills we 
must have in order to access it. At OSU, techni­
cal services and public services librarians are 
working with others in information services to



6 3 8 / C&RL News

develop a campuswide Web, and to develop a 
teaching curricula that integrates classes for­
merly taught in the library, in computing ser­
vices and in communications media. This has 
called for new skills in automation and in­
creased skills in communication.

Hughes: I think Karyle and I have a differ­
ent definition in mind when we use the word 
“role.” I know the librarian’s mission has al­
ways been to provide information to patrons, 
but I now see their roles as changing quite dra­
matically. This is illustrated by listing the char­
acteristics possessed by a librarian/leader of 
twenty years ago as compared to those of a 
successful librarian/leader today. Managing 
change rather than maintaining stability is now 
required. Mastering a collection that grew 
slowly, year by year, is no longer a desired 
skill; participation in the creation o f an elec­
tronic collection and being able to track net
worked and dynamic collections are the new 
skills. Participation in course development is 
another new skill asked o f librarians. Working 
on teams that possess the authority to make 
significant decisions, both within and outside 
the library, is very different from providing in­
put to a manager who, though participatory, 
still makes the final decisions.

George: You both paint different pictures with 
a similar theme: we need librarians to be lead­
ers, and in very new ways. What rewards might 
be available to librarians who are leaders?

B utcher: The greatest reward will be per­
sonal and professional survival. If librarians are 
unable or unwilling to reach across the cam­
pus for partnerships with research and teach­
ing faculty, we will have missed an opportu­
nity to capitalize on our skills. Clearly, there is 
an ongoing need to increase salaries and to 
increase morale and job satisfaction by moving 
decision-making authority further down into the 
organization. All of us need to know that our 
work makes a difference to our users.

Hughes: An IS visioning group composed 
o f important deans and key faculty, including 
the faculty senate president, set six IS goals. 
One o f these says “the library is the hub of 
information services.” That goal, and the ex­
planatory material that accompanies it, provides 
evidence that campus decision-makers believe 
in the potential for library leadership in mov­
ing the university where it needs to be in the 
21st century. The goal also indicates, though, 
that the library has not yet grasped the oppor­
tunity to lead the university. To the extent it 
does, the rewards will follow. ■