Association of Research Libraries (ARL®)

Convened by Jerry Campbell
Presiding President
ARL

MR. CAMPBELL: Good morning. Welcome to the 127th ARL Membership Meeting. Since we were together last time, one of our esteemed colleagues, Beth Shapiro, University Librarian at Rice University, died. I would like for us to begin this meeting by observing a moment of silence in memory of Beth. Thank you.

This meeting is entitled “Building Partnerships that Shape the Future.” We have chosen this theme because this is something of a watershed period for libraries, mostly because of the great debates now surrounding intellectual property and the urgency that those issues have achieved in our midst.

We have taken the partnership approach, because, all other things being equal, we are a small association with large agendas. They require a great deal of focus, and they require more presence than we can bring to the table alone.

So, to be effective, this Association must focus its energies and resources on a few strategic issues. Understanding the role of libraries in this chaotic environment requires a level of knowledge that can only be provided by a well-rounded, diverse group of collaborators. The resulting partnerships have proved to be and will, we believe, continue to be dynamic, successful, and more rewarding than if we were on our own.

There is another imperative behind our collaboration. In this era of budget cuts and personnel reductions, building partnerships for collective strength is essential to successfully influencing the emerging information environment.

In the five program sessions planned for the next two days, we have tried to give a brief overview of the most relevant cooperative efforts undertaken by the Association recently. Program Session I will cover the AAU/ARL Research Libraries Project, which was undertaken to examine and facilitate new options for the collection and dissemination of scholarly information in order to expand access to university-generated information and, at the same time, to reduce the unit cost of that access. A steering committee for this project will share with you updates on their work and summarize the anticipated opportunities for each of you to become more involved in this project.

The Journal Storage project is the subject of Program Session II. JSTOR, as it is known, was undertaken with the assistance of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and is designed to provide on-line electronic access to core scholarly journals in order to advance the research process.

After reviewing the kinds of cooperative projects that have been developed, Program Session III will discuss the barriers to achieving economic and other benefits from inter-institutional, coordinated collection management.

In this session we will examine the results of two projects undertaken by ARL member libraries and discuss the expectations for inter-institutional agreements that are designed to substitute for or expand upon local collection management. We will discuss the reality of expecting these agreements to offer improved performance and economic benefits.

The Luncheon Session will focus on the Administration’s White Paper on Intellectual Property. We will also examine the shifting balance of rights in copyright policy and the implications of this change on the higher education and library communities.

Program IV will be held at the new National Archives building in College Park, where we will address initiatives for establishing partnership opportunities between the private sector and federal government. We will examine the new models for disseminating government information being developed by the National Archives, the Bureau of the Census, and the Office of Management and Budget.

During the Business Meeting on Friday we will, among other things, elect new board members, review the dues proposal, and hear from Duane Webster about administrative issues of the moment.

Our last program session, Program Session V, will shift the focus from maximizing the benefits of collaboration to examining the changing face of the academic librarian. We will hear reports on the projections of significant retirements among the professional staff at ARL libraries and strategies for meeting the challenges we will face by the changing demographics in the workforce.

Before proceeding with Session I would like to welcome Mike Ridley of the University of Guelph; and Sarah Michalak, from the University of Utah, who will be introduced by Betty Bengtson.

MR. SHEPHERD (University of Waterloo): Good morning. There are very few academic library directors who have enjoyed the privilege of working with the number of distinguished colleagues that I have worked with who have become directors in their own right. I love what I do and I love where I do it, so I’ve been at the University of Waterloo for more than two decades. The downside for me has been that I and the University have lost a number of those people to other institutions, some of whom sit among you. The most recent is Michael Ridley. Many associate directors over the years have been asked to assume perhaps more than they would have expected relatively early in their careers, and they have taken on these responsibilities, but none have done so more capably than Mike.

Mike was at the University of Waterloo for what seemed to me a very short time. He came to Waterloo from McMaster University in August of 1991 and left to go to Guelph University in August of 1995. While he was with us he was the Associate Librarian for Systems. When he went to Guelph Mike worked with Margaret Beckman and John Black; John had been a mentor for Michael for a number of years even before he went to McMaster University. From 1988 until he came to Waterloo, Mike was the Head of the Systems and Technical Services section at McMaster University’s Health and Science Library.

If I were to single out Mike’s most important contribution in those four short years, it was the leadership that he provided to the organizational evolution at Waterloo. Mike provided willing leadership throughout that exercise, even to the point of, when an unexpected emergency took me away from the library to another department of the university for about five months, taking the helm at the University Library.

In my absence he guided the library staff through the formulation of a mission statement. He also concluded a collaborative agreement with neighboring universities, Guelph and Wilfrid Laurier. There are several of these cooperative projects underway, and they are going quite well, largely because of Mike’s contribution.

Mike left me with a quotation from George Bernard Shaw that I think suits the situation. It reads, “I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.” Mike is not only a great librarian, but he is a very good friend of mine and a heck of a nice guy. I hope you get an opportunity to meet him.

MR. CAMPBELL: Thank you, Murray, and welcome, Mike.

MS. BENGTSON (University of Washington): It is my pleasure to introduce Sarah Michalak. I had the pleasure of working with Sarah for seven years at the University of Washington Libraries. I’m sure that you will find her to be as wonderful a colleague as I did.

Sarah has her undergraduate degree from UC-Riverside and her M.L.S. from UCLA. After having worked at UC-Riverside Library she began as head of the Science Libraries at UW. Other responsibilities that she performed included heading access services as special assistant to the director.

In her last position as Assistant Director for Library Planning and Development, Sarah was responsible for our building project, a very large addition to the main library. She developed a wonderful expertise in what is needed in library buildings for the future, and she took that expertise to the University of Utah’s Marriott Library, where there is now a large addition to that library underway.

Sarah has also been active in the Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA), and was involved with the recent ARL Institute for Assistant and Associate Directors. I hope you will join me in welcoming Sarah Michalak to her first meeting of ARL Directors.

MR. CAMPBELL: I also welcome some of our guests attending the meeting, starting with Doug Bennett, Vice President of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). In addition to his other ACLS roles, our community has benefited from his active participation in the Conference on Fair Use.

Next there is Tim Mark, Interim Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL); Richard Ekman of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Deanna Marcum, from the Council of Library Resources, and two of her colleagues; Glenn La Fantasie and Gail Sonnemann. Finally, welcome also to our SCONUL friends from Great Britain.

We’re glad to have everyone here.