ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 300 / C&RL News INNOVATIONS An exercise to test perception of expectations for tenure and promotion B y Dennis K . G rum ling Assistant C atalog Librarian University o f Illinois at Chicago and C arolyn A. Sheehy D irector o f Oesterle L ibrary N orth Central College In an attempt to explore perceptions of how pro­ fessional activities are valued at three Illinois uni­ versity libraries, three librarians at the University of Illinois at Chicago developed an exercise to meas­ ure, contrast, and compare individual and aggre­ gate perceptions o f institutional values assigned to professional services o f various kinds. The exercise successfully created an open forum for discussion of otherwise abstract perceptions. We believe that any college or university library could benefit from using the exercise as a communication tool. The three librarians from UIC were fellows in the 1989-1990 Professional Development Pro­ gram, sponsored by the libraries of Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, and the University o f Illinois at Chicago. A cooperative program established in 1985, it is currently offered on a biennial basis to introduce librarians with seven or fewer years o f professional experience in a research library to issues that face research librar­ ies. The nine fellows (three from each participating library) meet approximately two days each month from October through June for thematic seminars. They explore the distinctive approach each institu­ tion takes to issues in research librarianship, in areas as varied as preservation, circulation, collec­ tion development, information services, and per­ sonnel. The program uses seminar discussions, field trips, case studies, research problems, and background readings. Senior staff from each li­ brary lead the seminars. The topics are chosen by directors of the program, senior staff members, and the fellows themselves. The exercise to measure the rankings of profes­ sional activities grew out of an investigation by the three fellows of the topic “Leadership at Home and Abroad.” Many questions were raised. What is the impact on library operations when librarians are required by the promotion and tenure process to establish national and international reputations? Is there a conflict between support for professional growth and long-term retention? How do institu­ tions cultivate leadership abilities among librarians on their staffs? To initiate discussion of these ques­ tions, the fellows from the University o f Illinois at Chicago constructed an exercise to determine whether everyone in a particular library viewed the concept of leadership, as reflected in professional activities, in the same way. Fifteen fictitious descriptions of professional activities were created by the three fellows (the authors of this article and Dana Edwards) to exem­ plify the professional services, publications, and campus and community services that might be reported on a professional librarian’s curriculum vitae. For example, “Chair, Bibliographic Instruc­ tion Committee, ACRL,” “Member, Board of the Museum of Contemporary Art,” “Editor, Hand­ b o o k f o r Public Service in Academ ic L ib raries,” “Presenter, ‘Managing Multiple Databases for Public Services in a PC Environment,’ ASIS Mid­ year Meeting,” “President, State Library Associa­ tion,” and “Chair, Section on Public Services in Academic Libraries, IFLA ” were included in the list. The fictitious curriculum vitae items were in­ tended to reflect a range of activity, from local to international. The fellows, directors, and governing board members— a total of fourteen individuals—were asked to pretend that they were members of a May 1991 / 301 search committee to fill the position of Assistant University Librarian for Public Services for their library. They were instructed to assume that all candidates met the minimum levels of education and experience for the position. Presented with fifteen statements purportedly taken from differ­ ent curriculum vitae, the participants were asked to rank the importance of each item for their library on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is the lowest and 5 is the highest. Individual rankings for each item were pre­ sented for discussion under the categories of “Fel­ lows," “Directors,” and “Institution.” Aggregate rankings for the group as a whole were later calcu­ lated by the authors. They showed national and international activities to be clearly favored over local and state activities, with all the local activities ranking below the median. Publications were also highly valued, ranking above the median, with both book authorship and editorship in the top quartile. Community service fell into the fourth quartile, while professional service and librarianship were scattered throughout the rankings. All participants ranked lowest a university library committee posi­ tion, “Secretary, Library Nominations Committee, State University.” Northwestern University and University of Chi­ cago participants ranked highest a service activity, “President-elect, Reference and Adult Services Division, ALA,” while the University of Illinois at Chicago participants ranked highest a publication record, “Author, Public Services in Academ ic L i­ braries. ” This may reflect an understanding o f the importance placed on publications by the promo­ tion and tenure criteria at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Moreover, the UIC participants ranked all items nearly identically (with a difference of no more than one point). This, too, appears to reflect a clear understanding of the requirements for ten­ ure and promotion at UIC. The fellows ranked 12 of the 15 items higher than the directors and governors did. This may be attributable to the difference in years of profes­ sional experience between the two groups. This exercise was received enthusiastically by fellows, directors, and governing board members. It generated much discussion, and all participants asked to receive copies of the resulting rankings for further study and possible use in their libraries. The benefit of this exercise is that it allows perceptions to be measured and then provides a natural forum for examining, comparing, and con­ trasting those perceptions. Thus, the exercise can be used as a platform for discussion of values and can facilitate communication between staff and management. It also may engender reevaluation of professional activities in job descriptions, search and screen guidelines, and promotion and tenure criteria. Ultimately, this exercise may help build staff and administrative consensus regarding the value of professional activities. ■ ■ (Acase against.. .con’tfrompage 299) Dyckman, Reference Librarian for Instructional Services, Bobst is running a series of workshops to teach students (both graduate and undergraduate) and faculty to access any of Classmate’s 108 data­ bases. The workshops combine instructional mate­ rials from Dialog with materials produced in-house specifically for this project. They cover such tech­ niques as key-word searching, boolean logic, strategies for maximizing search time, and down­ loading results onto a disk (which works three times as fast as printing results). The pilot workshops are Meet your ACRL Board Members Come to the ACRL President’s Program in Atlanta, Monday, July 1, 2:00-5:30 p.m., and have an opportunity to talk to members of the ACRL Board of Directors. ACRL Board mem­ bers will be available to answer questions and listen to your comments about ACRL during the poster session portion of the program beginning at approximately 4:00 p.m. Bobst’s first comprehensive effort to train students and scholars to access online resources without me­ diation by a librarian. At the end of this semester, the library plans to evaluate the success of the workshops and the success students have searching the Classmate databases before deciding whether to continue participation in the Dialog Classmate program. In addition to the experimental work­ shops, Bobst Library offers a full menu of biblio­ graphic instruction, including sessions for fresh­ man English classes, on-demand instruction for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses, and classes in library resources for students under­ taking dissertation projects in the graduate schools at NYU.— Sandra Naiman 'U.S. Department of Education, Digest o f E du­ cation Statistics 1989 (Washington, D.C.: Govern­ ment Printing Office, 1989), 393. 2Electronic Industries Association, Electronic M arket Data B ook (Washington, D.C.: Electronic Industries Association, 1990), 25. 3Rick Meyer, “From Online to Ondisc,” in CD ROM: The New Papyrus (Redmond, Wash.: Micro­ soft Press, 1986), 509-16. ■ ■ 302 / C &RL News B urrage Hall Library collapses… On Januaiy 17,1991, a section of the east wall of century-old Burrage Hall on the campus of Olivet College in Michigan collapsed. The disaster oc­ curred while work was underway on a $4.6 million expansion and renovation of the library. Karen Greer, a student worker, noticed cracks appearing in the library basement and saw dirt falling through the cracks. She alerted Eric Witzke, clerk-of-works for the library project, who warned construction workers to vacate the site and evacuated everyone from the building. Moments later, the 25-by-50- foot stone wall collapsed. There were no injuries. College officials expect the costs associated with the disaster to be covered by insurance. Li­ brary collections are intact (but very dirty) in the north and south wings of the building. However, most staff offices, public and technical services, and library utilities— all located in the building’s central core— were destroyed. The staff is still as­ sessing the substantial losses, but basic library serv­ ices were reestablished within ten days, in another building on campus. Fortunately, the library had already planned a temporary move to this alterna­ tive site at the end of the school year, in order to be out of Burrage Hall while renovations were com­ pleted. That advance planning was tremendously helpful in restoring library operations. Also helpful were area college and uni­ versity libraries, which ex­ tended privileges to Olivet College students, and the Michigan Library Consor­ tium , which loaned an OCLC workstation so that IL L operations could con­ tinue. Despite the damage to Olivet’s Romanesque-style library, built in 1890, con­ struction of the new addi­ tion resumed one week af­ ter the accident. College officials predict that the expanded library will open in 1992 as scheduled. W hen the d isaster o c ­ curred, Olivet’s campaign to raise $4 million for the expansion had b een pledged $3,225,875. The college needs to raise the remainder by June 30, 1991, in order to qualify for a $350,000 challenge grant from the Kresge Foundation. ■ ■ R eference Materials awards available … The deadline for applying for awards in the National Endowment for the Humanities Refer­ ence Materials program is September 1, 1991, for projects beginning after July 1,1992. The program supports projects that organize essential resources for scholarship and improve access to information and collections. Awards are made in two categories: Tools and Access. Dictionaries, historical or lin­ guistic atlases, encyclopedias, concordances, cata­ logues raisonnes, grammars, descriptive catalogs, and databases are eligible in the Tools category. Archival arrangement and description projects, bibliographies, bibliographical databases, records surveys, cataloging projects (for print, graphic, film, sound, and artifact collections), and indexes and guides to documentation are eligible in the Access category. For information: Reference Ma­ terials, Room 318, NEH, Washington, DC 20506. May 1991 / 303 … and a Furness library is resto red Restoration o f the century-old Furness Library at the University o f Pennsylvania has returned “one of the great academic spaces in America” to its original use as the li­ brary’s reading room. Iro n ica lly , at one time the Philadelphia university considered demolishing the build­ ing, which had been al­ tered and was in need of structural repairs. At that time, appreciation of the architect, Frank Fu rness, had waned. Now, however, he is widely regarded as one o f the most important architects o f his time (1839-1912). Restoration o f the historic landmark b e­ gan to take shape after a r c h ite c t L e e G. Copeland became dean o f P e n n ’s G radu ate School o f Fine Arts in 1979. The $16.5 million In the rotunda readin g p ro ject, planned and University o f Pennsylv executed by Venturi, cu rve d ow n to m e Scott Brown and Asso­ th e sturdy ciates with th e Clio Group, restoration consultants, and Marianna Thomas, restoration architect, has been carried out in several phases since 1985. The challenge was to restore the building as faithfully as possible but also upgrade it to accommodate the university’s Fine Arts Library as well as studio and classroom space. The carefully restored exterior glows with vi­ brant reds and browns, in contrast to the buff- colored terra cotta and red brick walls o f the read­ ing rooms. The skylight and the windows surround­ ing the great reading room allow light to flood in. These and the frosted glass floors and ceilings in the stacks reveal Furness’s plan to capture as much natural light as possible, reducing the need for gas lamps, which gave off fumes that were harmful to books. The library’s design was considered very pro­ gressive in 1891. Because Furness had consulted with library experts, he designed a building with separate areas for book stacks, offices, and reading rooms. The different areas are given totally differ­ ent treatments, and the combination o f forms gives the interior robust vitality. ro o m in th e newly resto red Furness Building at the ania, th e exposed iron beam s that su pport the r o o f et d elicate terra cotta flo r a l ornam ents that top b ric k pilasters. P hoto credit: D ardas. The Furness Library at the University o f Penn­ sylvania and the Burrage Hall Library at Olivet Col­ lege are two o f the buildings identified by David Kaser in his article on “19th-century academic library buildings” in the September 1987 C &RL News. ■ ■ Help staff the L IR T booth T h e L ibrary In stru ction Round T ab le (L IR T ) needs help staffing the L IR T exhibit booth at the ALA Annual Conference in At­ lanta. I f you’d like to meet new people and can give two hours of your time to work at the booth, please contact Barbara Burns, Crown Point Community Library, 214 S. Court St., Crown Point, IN 46307, or call (219) 663-0270 by June 7 ,1 9 9 1 . You need not be a member of L IR T to volunteer.