Washington, D.C.
October 16-18, 1996

Redefining Higher Education

Program Session III: Comparing Notes Across the Institution:

Comments and Discussion With Chief Academic Officers

Introduction

Douglas Bennett, Vice-President
American Council of Learned Societies

When considering this panel, I found myself thinking about Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff , where, in the beginning, the test pilots with the "right stuff" are very sophisticated and in control, but, as they become astronauts, they realize they are going to be strapped into the nose-cone of a rocket and completely out of control. I wonder if something like that is happening in research libraries. That is to say, research library directors were once in control, steered their libraries, and felt like they were taking them in new and fresh directions. Increasingly, however, library directors are wondering, "Where am I being pushed; where am I being taken?"

So, we thought that, in a situation where almost everybody feels out of control and feels that somebody else must know where we are going, it would be very useful to have a collective conversation among some chief academic officers and research library directors, not only to hear different points of view, but also to have an opportunity to discuss what we have in common, in order to discover which direction to go from here.

We will put our heads together and to discover some possible threads to explore after the break, but we also invite you to join in and ask some questions or give some comments.

Each of the academic officers will be introduced by their library director.