ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries April 1987 / 189 L ibrary services to the a c a d e m ic a lly d isa d v a n ta g ed in the pub lic com m un ity college: A d raft P rep ared by the CJCLS Com m ittee on Services to the D isad van taged Madison Mosley, Chair The role o f the library in educating basic skills students. This d raft position p aper is a p roduct of the ACRL Com munity and Junior College Libraries Section’s Com mittee on Services to the Disadvan­ taged. This paper addresses the role of the library in serving this segment of the comm unity college student population. W ork began on this position paper in 1984 under the able direction of Cay Thomas (Florida Com ­ m unity College at Jacksonville). Com mittee m em ­ bers included Rosa Babcock (El Centro College), M ildred Kirsner (Miami-Dade), Susan Maltese (Oakton Com munity College), Luis Chaparro (El Paso Com munity College), and Madison Mosley (South Florida Com munity College). An open hearing on this draft will be held during the 1987 Annual ALA Conference in San F ran ­ cisco. Section members and other interested ACRL members are invited to share w ritten comments be­ forehand w ith the current chair of the Services to the Disadvantaged Committee: Madison Mosley, Director of the Library, South Florida Com munity College, 600 W est College Drive, Avon Park, Flor­ ida 33825. Introduction The public comm unity college is the initial point of entry into higher education for over half of to­ day’s college students. W ith its com m itm ent to an open access policy, the comm unity college serves a large contingent of students who are academically unprepared for the exacting demands of college. After acknowledging the litany of names by which these students are known, Cross defines as “basic skills students” … these students [who] are severely lim ited in life choices because they lack th e basic skills essential for lifelong learning. In an earlier era they m ight not have graduated from high school and almost certainly w ould not have gone on to college.1 To prevent the open door from becoming a revolv­ ing door, m any comm unity colleges have instituted basic skills programs to provide support services for these students.2 The purpose of these programs is “to develop students’ basic skills to a level from which they can enter regular college curriculum 1K. Patricia Cross, “The Im pact of Changing Student Populations on Com m unity Colleges,” C om m unity College Review 10 (Spring 1983):31. 2Lee Noel and Randi Levitz, eds., How to Suc­ ceed w ith Academically Underprepared Students: A Catalog o f Successful Practices (Iow a City: American College Testing Program , National Cen­ ter for the Advancement of Educational Practices, 1982). 190 / C &R L News program s.”3 The library provides services to support all as­ pects of the college’s program . However, these ser­ vices are p rim arily directed tow ard the traditional college student. Since … m any high-risk students at entry level are simply not verbal learners and they are incapable of acquiring knowl­ edge by routine listening or reading4 it appears th a t custom ary library services are not meeting the educational needs of basic skills stu­ dents. Rippey and T ru ett’s study lends support to this contention. W h at, then, should be the role of the library in the education of these students? It is the position of this comm ittee th a t librarians must take an active role in the education process which will bring basic skills students up to app ro ­ priate levels. Two separate assessments of basic skills program s5-6 indicate th at a significant aspect of successful program s is their high degree of indi­ vidualization. G rant and Hoeber assert th at Not only must program s be individually tailo red from cam pus to cam pus, but they m ust be also uniquely modified; de­ signed from student to student.7 Library services to these students should also be as individualized as possible and designed to reinforce verbal and w ritten skills acquired in basic skills programs. One-on-one interaction has long been the hallm ark of truly good reader service, and this m ark of excellence should be continued. In addi­ tion, attention to the unique needs of basic skills students in the following areas of staff develop­ m ent, collection developm ent, program s, services and visual accessibility will help to elim inate some of the barriers th at can prevent learning. Staff developm ent Professional and support staff should be given opportunities to p articipate in continuing educa­ tion workshops to enhance services to basic skills students. Workshops which focus on personal in­ teraction w ith ethnic, foreign or disadvantaged populations will help generate awareness of cul­ tural differences, if it is determ ined th at such an aw areness is lacking. P ub lic service lib ra ria n s should be encouraged to serve as m entors or faculty advisors, w here such program s exist, to students 3John E. Roueche and R. W ade Kirk, Catching Up: Rem edial Education (San Francisco: Jossey- Bass, 1973), 6. 4Ibid., 66. 5John E. Roueche and Jerry J. Snow, O vercom­ ing Learning Problem s (San Francisco: Jossey- Bass, 1978). 6M ary K. G ran t and D aniel R. Hoeber, Basic Skills Programs: A re They W orking? AAHE–ER IC H ig h e r E d u c a ti o n R e se a rc h R e p o r t, 1978-1 (W ashington, D .C .: A m erican A ssociation for Higher E ducation, 1978). d b id ., 16. w ho have been identified as “high-risk.” If such program s have not been developed, the possibility of initiating them should be examined. The teach­ ing com ponent of library service should be em pha­ sized. Reference and bibliographic instruction li­ brarians should be encouraged to view their roles as equally im portant as the classroom instructor in the teaching and learning process. Collection developm ent Liaison w ith th e basic skills faculty m ust be firm ly established at the adm inistrative level in or­ der to facilitate a cooperative venture at the teach­ ing and learning level. A portion of the m aterials budget should be allocated to the basic skills area, and the library and basic skills faculty should work together to select m aterials. These m aterials should be integrated into the regular collection, rath er th a n housed se p arately from th e lib ra ry . P ro ­ gram m ed or self–instructional items and audiovi­ sual titles on the more difficult concepts in the con­ ten t areas should be considered to supplem ent the basic collection. If learning labs are adm inistered by or located in the library, the personnel who teach in these labs should be included in collection developm ent activities. Programs and services The library is a m ajor classroom in which stu­ dents learn. Librarians should be actively involved w ith basic skills faculty in preparing program s, li­ b rary exercises and bibliographies for these stu­ dents. Bibliographic instruction should be adapted to include a variety of teaching m ethods to m eet the needs of these students. Rippey and T ru ett report t h at Num erous other groups appeared m uch m ore likely to be singled out for special library services th an the disadvantaged … such groups as nursing students and tho se in c o m m u n ica tio n s, ho ro lo g y , jew elry-m aking, crim inal justice, tech­ nical w riting, and health careers pro­ grams w ere offered special library in­ struction or orien tatio n w hile alm ost tw o-thirds of the colleges surveyed did not provide such instruction to develop­ m ental students.8 Yet studies indicate th a t “academ ic achievem ent of … high-risk students increased significantly w here library instruction was integrated w ith the teaching of developm ental English courses.”9 Reg­ u lar and freq u en t exchange of inform ation be­ tw een librarians and basic skills faculty and joint ventures into special program s and services need to be explored. 8D onald I. Rippey and C arol T ruett, “The D e­ velopm ental Student and the Com m unity College L ib rary ,” C o m m u n ity College Review 11 (W inter 1983-84) :41-47. 9Ibid., 42. April 1987 / 191 Visual accessibility Periodic profiling of patrons helps in reconsider­ ing w hat assistance some users need to understand the library and its services. It is im portant to deter­ mine the num ber and ages of basic skills students in the student body, the num ber for whom English is not the native language, the percentage of increase of basic skills students yearly and the num ber in particular programs w ith special needs. Review the location of and terminology used on library signs for c la rity , consistency and use of n o n ­ technical terms. Consider using staff name tags or name signs on the reference desk to identify library staff. As with signs, the headings and wordings of li­ brary handouts and guidebooks should be as clear as possible. “Bibliography” or “Pathfinder” m ay be less clear than “Study guide” or “Research guide.” Consider modifying terms you w ant to introduce, such as “Reference books—for in-library use” or “Subject headings—topics under which books are listed in the catalog.” Students should be able to identify where help is available upon entering the library. An inform a­ tion desk should be placed where staff can monitor use of materials and offer assistance to those having difficulty but reluctant to ask for help. Consider ways of placing book ranges to enable staff to offer help to those who are searching. Ask users for suggestions. Display a suggestion box prominently and mention it during instruction classes to encourage its use. Conclusion Basic skills students will not autom atically avail themselves of library services. It is incum bent upon librarians to identify and address the needs of these students who make up a larger percentage of the student body every year. Effective service to this population can be achieved only through coopera­ tion between basic skills faculty and librarians, supported at the administrative level. ■ ■ University librarians discuss reorganization Reorganization of academic libraries was the topic of the ACRL University Libraries Section’s Current Topics Discussion Group m eeting at ALA M idw inter in January. Three featured speakers discussed different aspects of changing organiza­ tional structures in academic libraries: Joanne Eus- ter, university librarian, Rutgers University; Jor­ dan Scepanski, director, L ibrary and L earning Resources, C a lifo rn ia S tate U niversity, L ong Beach; and Charling Fagan, assistant director of social sciences, C olum bia University Libraries. Janice Koyama, chair of the Current Topics Dis­ cussion Group, served as m oderator. The meeting was attended by more than 100 people. Joanne Euster set the scene w ith a presentation entitled, “New Technology, New Attitudes, New Organizations.” In comparing overall trends be­ tween 1973 and 1986, Euster found very few radi­ cal organization charts. Most charts are similar in showing the reporting structure, flow of comm uni­ cation, and the relationships of various library de­ partm ents and their size. Some of the purposes served by an organizational structure include opti­ m izing w ork efficiency, fa c ilita tin g decision­ making, and maximizing hum an potential. Rea­ sons for change in the structure m ight include the increasing complexity of lib ra ry processes, the technological imperative, and changes in hum an expectations—the expectations of library users as well as library staff. An organizational chart shows structure, but it also shows how the library views itself. Changes in the organizational paradigm happen gradually and tend to appear at the unit level long before they show up in the organiza­ tional chart. The next speaker, Jordan Scepanski, described the m atrix structure now in place at the Library and Learning Resources, California State Univer­ sity, Long Beach. Reorganization began in Spring 1985 when the library began moving away from functional specialization among the librarians. Scepanski, as director, was interested in loosening up the organization in order to allow tim e for scholarly activities related to achieving promotion and tenure and for greater creativity. Supervisory responsibilities for librarians were de-emphasized. T he lib rarian s are organized into four subject groups: Business A dm inistration and M anage­ m ent, H um anities and Fine Arts, Science and Technology, and Social Sciences. W ithin these four groups the goal is for all librarians to perform both technical and public services functions. Scepanski has modeled this structure after the faculty d epart­ ments. Performance evaluations are done in line w ith the faculty model, at the appropriate times for promotion and tenure decisions. A post-tenure review is conducted at five-year intervals. In an­ swer to a question about the library support staff, Scepanski said th at he felt the changes m ainly af­ fected the librarians and th at the support staff did not see their role as having changed substantially. New managem ent positions have been created and filled by non-librarians, however, including one as head of the traditional technical services opera­ tions. The third speaker, Charling Fagan, reported on 192 / C&RL News the recent merger of the C om puter Center w ith the Libraries at Colum bia University in a presentation entitled, “The Im pact of Reorganization on Job Responsibilities and Library Structures.” Although the new reporting structure occurred in February 1986, the possibility had been discussed a t th e Uni­ versity as early as 1984. The new departm ent is called the Scholarly Inform ation C enter, and its organization chart shows th e Com puter C enter re­ porting to the library director. Under this reorgani­ zation, Com puter User Services has been merged w ith Library Public Services. Fagan discussed the effect on the library structure, the funding base, and the library staff of this fundam ental change. The full im pact of the reorganization is still being realized. After the form al presentations, the rest of the tim e was devoted to questions of the speakers about various points and to discussion of some of the is­ sues th at had been raised.—Paula W alker, Ode- gaard U ndergraduate L ib ra ry , U niversity o f Washington. ■ ■ T he m ission o f a u n iversity u n d er g ra d u a te library: D raft m o d el sta tem en t P rep ared by the ACRL U nd ergrad uate Librarians D iscu ssion Group W ilma Reid Cipolla, Chair A proposed revision to the 1979 M odel Statem ent. T he purpose of the undergraduate library is to take prim ary responsibility for m eeting the library needs of undergraduate students in a large univer­ sity environm ent. The designation of a separate li­ brary expressly for undergraduates is based on the premise th at undergraduates deserve a full and fair share of the libraries’ resources—materials, ser­ vices, and staff time. The policies of the separate undergraduate library may frequently give prefer­ ential treatm ent to undergraduates to ensure this allocation of resources. The nature of the environ­ m ent, the specific needs of undergraduates, and the kinds of staff and services required to effec­ tively meet those needs are m ore fully described in the following paragraphs. Environment The library systems of large universities gener­ ally consist of several m ajor departm ental libraries plus numerous special libraries and reading rooms spread over a large campus area. The m aterials col­ lection of the library system is measured in millions of volumes. Each library w ithin the system concen­ trates on the needs of the members of a specific de­ p artm ent or field of study, and the quality of the library is defined in terms of the strengths of the re­ search collection. Specialized services are often provided for those doing research, such as com put­ erized searching of commercial resource databases. The staff members of those libraries are selected for their ability to provide graduate-level reference