ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


196 /  C &R L  News

RESEARCH 
FORUM

The three R’s: Reading, writing, and research

How do Am erican academ ic librarians rate as 
writers and speakers? Here is the report card on the 
C ontributed Papers presented at the F o u rth  ACRL 
National Conference held April 1986 in Baltimore, 
as indicated by the fifty-eight evaluations received 
from people w ho read and heard  those papers.

Overall quality. “Papers w ere good” (7); “some 
good, some b a d ” (3); “need to im prove” (48).

Virtues. “Better th an  they used to be” (4); “liked 
idea briefs” (1); “good range of topics” (1); “de­
lighted w ith currency of inform ation” (1); “pleased 
that several papers dealt w ith nitty gritty catalog­
ing” (1); “enjoyed the discussion” (4).

Faults. “Need to improve the refereeing” (15); 
“superficial …  stale …  rehashed …  jargon 
…  titles don’t indicate content …  e tc .” (20); 
“speakers need to im prove their presentation skills 
…  e tc.” (16).

The following evaluation seems to deserve a ca t­
egory of its own: “Conference m ade m e asham ed to 
be a lib rarian  …  left early.”

In all fairness, I m ust adm it th a t m y choice of the 
evaluation comm ents and even m y m athem atics 
have been designed to prove a point; I have shown 
the picture as blacker th an  it probably really is. But 
not much! W hen you consider th a t all of the C on­
tributed Papers w ere refereed an d  th a t the ones ac­
tually presented at the Baltim ore conference were 
considered to be the best of th e lot, it is clear th at 
American academ ic librarians have a great deal to 
learn about w riting and speaking.

H arsh as it is, this verdict upon ourselves is quite 
acceptable, because our failings are relatively eas­
ily rem edied. Good w ritin g  an d  speaking (aca­
demic style) are m uch m ore the result of acquired 
skills th an  they are of native talent. H aving some­
thing w o rth  saying m ay d epend m ostly on the 
brains we w ere born w ith, b u t expressing th a t idea 
effectively is a craft w e can all quite readily learn to 
master.

A very good w ay to start gaining th a t m astery is 
to take a course specifically designed to help aca­

demic librarians produce better papers. ACRL is 
offering this course (CE 506) as p a rt of its continu­
ing education program  in June p rior to the 1987 
ALA A nnual Conference in San Francisco. T he in ­
structor is Suzanne Dodson, w ho is not only herself 
a w idely experienced auth o r and lecturer b u t who 
also can d raw  on the special knowledge she gained 
as the person responsible for the contributed papers 
program  a t A C RL’s T h ird  N ational Conference in 
Seattle in 1984. H aving examined the 166 papers 
subm itted for possible inclusion at th a t conference, 
D odson has lea rn e d —th e  very h a rd  w a y —just 
w h at most Am erican academ ic librarians really 
need to know in order to w rite and speak better.

A w r i t t e n  p a p e r  a n d  its p r e s e n te d  v e rsio n  
s h o u ld — e x c ep t fo r th e  b a sic  m essag e th e y  
convey—be tw o quite different things. This course 
examines each in tu rn , tackling the w ritten  p aper 
first and talking about its presentation second.

I t begins w ith a look at w riting in general, in­
cluding spelling, p unctuation, g ram m ar, and ja r­
gon, and goes on to consider the various elements 
which m ake up a p a p er—organization, title, ab ­
stract, illustrations, and bibliography, to nam e a 
few.

The a rt of presenting a p aper follows, w here the 
discussion covers such topics as m ethods of deliver­
ing a p a p e r, h an d lin g  th e question perio d , and 
avo id in g  com m on sins co m m itted  by speakers 
e v e ry w h e re — novice a n d  experienced alike. In  
fact, seasoned speakers are so often guilty of these 
sins th a t few  people can afford to be sm ug about 
their prowess. A refresher course never h u rt any­
one!

T he aim of this course is to m ake the process of 
w riting and presenting a p aper a tre a t instead of a 
tria l—for a uthor and audience alike. See the infor­
m ation in this issue on registration for ACRL con­
tinuing education courses. Try it-y o u  just m ight 
need it!—Sam uel Rothstein, School o f Library, A r­
chival and Inform ation Studies, University o f Brit­
ish Colum bia. ■  ■