Using Ockham's Razor:
Cutting to the Center

The passion generated by the perception that library and information science education programs are focusing less on libraries is an occasion to celebrate. Librarianship is not a desiccated profession letting the leaves drop from the tree until a barren silhouette stands naked against the sky. Librarianship is vibrant, reverent, and optimistic. It is vibrant as those who want to provide traditional models of service are doing so while incorporating new technologies; it is reverent because there is a litany of precursors we uniformly invoke; it is optimistic in that horizon seekers incorporate knowledge management and digitization as part of the next day's work.

Yet we come to this Congress with a sense of unease about the future of education for librarianship. Emblematic of this unease is the debate over maintaining or deleting the word "library" in the name of the programs that prepare librarians and the degrees they earn. Higher education, in general, accords greater status to those disciplines that examine phenomena in their purest state. Professors of physics command more respect than professors of engineering; professors of sociology command more than professors of social work; a professor of psychology commands more than a professor of counselor education. Needless to say, it seems to some in our universities that a professor preparing librarians would generally be accorded less status than a professor preparing those who study information.

This theme is underscored in a forthcoming paper by Suzanne Hildenbrand in which she notes, "library and information science education has responded to the Information Age in a variety of ways, both ideological and structural…while the addition of 'information' to the titles of the programs is a step toward greater inclusiveness, the eradication of 'library' is the opposite. It disguises the gendered nature of library and information work by severing the connection with the female workforce.(1)" According to Hildenbrand the deletion of the word "library" helps faculty identify with colleagues in university departments and helps distance themselves from the largely female workforce in libraries(2).

Thus, changing the name of the programs that have educated librarians is very human behavior. In the status conscious milieu of the modern university where resources are meted out on the basis of research monies brought in, doctoral degrees granted and refereed articles published, it is simply pragmatic for each discipline to strive to be "more like" the disciplines accorded higher status and more resources. If dropping the word "library" from the name of a program or a degree helps a School to look more like those accorded higher status, then this will happen at those universities where this is viewed as a strategic necessity. After all, our field was once called "library economy" before we switched to the more modern "library science." But all schools do not feel the need to do this, confident that in their particular university the resonance of the word "library" is a positive value that needs no shape-shifting to be understood. Dean Leigh Estabrook of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois has declared:

Estabrook upholds the traditions of librarianship while pointing out that information specialists will need to have the same core concerns. The tension, the cause for debate, derives from the less well-defined or explained ethos of the schools that have abjured the library as emblematic. But we should not make the word "library" the shibboleth that provides passage. Rather accreditation of library and information science programs should be the focus to guarantee that those who graduate from a given program – regardless of its name – share the values and possess the knowledge to be granted stewardship of institutions we know as libraries, be they print on paper or digital(4).

But what is the core of knowledge and what are the skills and abilities that will be taught in the curricula of programs that seek to be accredited? This Congress requires us, once again(5), to look anew at discourse on the professions. If the centuries honored designation "librarian" should give way to the vague designation "information professional" then what is the result? To analyze this question a summary on the current status of the debate over "professionalism" is in order as it affects librarianship and professionalism in general.

Examination of the structure and content of education for librarianship must begin with consideration of librarianship as it stands at the beginning of a new century. In doing so, it seems appropriate to review Project Century 21: Examining Librarians' Role in Information Delivery, an American Library Association Project conducted under the aegis of 1992-1993 President Marilyn L. Miller.(6)

One of the background papers, by this author, reviewed the concept of professional jurisdiction and based observations on the "fundamental belief that the tasks of information professionals are oriented toward a substantive set of values.(7)" These values assume information provision to be a basic human need in a democratic society.

However, safeguarding of values that, broadly speaking, assure access to information may not remain the sole purview of librarians. In his paper, "Professionalism and the Future of Librarianship," Andrew Abbott describes three contexts in which the work of librarians will change.(8)

The first, larger social and cultural forces, is characterized by technological changes which include not only the way work is conducted, but the shift of proprietary database services from a librarian-based orientation. At this same time, governmental support of libraries faces stronger competition from other social services. Internal intellectual change focused on retrieval and summary is radically transforming scholarship and librarianship. Ours is increasingly a culture of images rather than print requiring new attitudes toward emergent media. Additionally, the legitimization of professional knowledge will be altered as a democracy of culture expands to include even broader criteria for selection.(9)

The second context, other professions, will most likely result in a continuing vertical differentiation wherein a core professional elite is concerned with "maintaining the increasingly centralized knowledge and physical resources of librarianship – algorithms, databases, indexing systems, repositories – and a larger but peripheral group provides actual client access to these resources.(10)" This has, indeed, long been the case in our profession and needs to be a focus of the examination of its future. That is, will the activation of resources for equity of access to information be a stronger enhanced focus for education for our field in the next century?

Abbot's third context, other ways of providing expertise, looks at the reality that expertise can reside in organizations. Centralization and privatization of large databases as well as educational expenditures of commercial organizations may change the locus of work. Yet Abbot views librarianship, like engineering, as a "federated profession" which will adapt to changes in work and organization more effectively than medicine. While federated professions give up absolute credential closure, monopoly of service and personal autonomy they also have advantages:

These ideas have been put into focus by Richard A. Danner in Law Library Journal who also considers the work of librarians and information technologists within the context of the literature of the professions(12). Danner's thorough review focusing on, but not exclusive to law librarianship, includes a summary of the American Association of Law Librarians, Special Committee on the Renaissance of Law Librarianship final report which lists eight elements essential to the profession's knowledge base. These are: 1) have a solid grounding in the liberal arts; 2) understand the legal system and legal profession; 3) be well informed about information and library science theory; 4) be knowledgeable about legal resources and legal research; 5) be well informed about commercial, governmental, and nonprofit information providers, including internet resources; 6) be knowledgeable about information technologies; 7) be well versed in the cultures and likely futures of the organization in which they work; and 8) be well versed in management and administration(13). These elements re-enforce the contextual emphases delineated by Abbott underscoring the need to be cognizant of social and organization factors, capable in using the products of allied professions, and skilled at working with alacrity in large organizations.

One of Danner's most striking observations is that the "ability to provide context to the client's process of information seeking will be the key to the future of the information profession.(14)" But he is careful to elaborate that this expertise in the human elements of the information-seeking process and the content of information must be undergirded by tool building to ensure that content is accessible in ways that are meaningful to users.(15)

Observations of occupational sociologists such as Daniel W. Rossides who examines social power, the nature of knowledge and the knowledge professions as he discusses the fiction of a knowledge society must also be taken into account(16). Rossides turns to the writings of Michel Foucault who argues that knowledge comes from discourse and that the knowledge claims of the professions are arbitrary, only appearing objective because they have power behind them(17). Rossides characterizes librarians as gaining professional status from linking their activities to important social functions (education, an informed citizenry)(18). He views computer specialists as having developed a hierarchy that differentiates between creators and theorists versus those who activate systems on behalf of clients.(19)

Knowledge as a core trait of professionalism is discussed in all sociological analyses of the professions(20). MacDonald observes that professions divide into classes depending on whether the cognitive basis is scientific or normative. The influence of any given profession is a function of these qualities. Those with a foot in both camps like librarianship might be viewed as having a syncretic epistemological foundation. MacDonald then goes on to discuss dimensions (similar to Abbott's contexts). The first is the continuum of technical and moral authority; the second is institutional context; the third is professional organizations(21). While MacDonald's monograph focuses largely on the law, he does make observations with pertinence to our discussion. He views the greater embodiment of knowledge in artifacts as the opportunity for marginal expansion by practitioners of adjacent bodies of knowledge.

Finally, the entire enterprise of professionalization is placed in global perspective by Harold Perkin who examines the provenance and character of professional elites – their success in establishing dominance in the modern world of the professional expert(22). Today knowledge-based services built on advanced education and enhanced by technology have shifted the focus of power and influence. But policy is not made by these technical elite, rather by the corporate managers and state bureaucrats who employ them. Perkin sees the elite professions as in the position of leading modern post-industrial society in service to the world community or letting the world pitch in an abyss of corruption, violent conflict and self-destruction.(23)

If librarianship is truly a profession its practitioners will move to activate the moral and ethical tenets that exemplify free access to information. They will provide service to the world community in this manner. They will be those who move the world to a knowledge-of-knowledge.(24)

Taken together these writers help us to locate librarianship on the larger stage of issues relating to professionalism in general. And this is where we must be. Librarianship as we have shaped it through development of thoughtful policies and standards has strong moral authority inherent in its normative orientation. As we fight for intellectual freedom, universal literacy and free access to information we do so from a basis of moral authority. The goal displacement that would inhere in embracing technological upticks as if they were core values would move us into a foundationless mire.

There are some very simple analogies that help in gaining clarity. The two professions most often identified as the models toward which all others strive are medicine and law. The goal of medicine is healing. Regardless of new pharmaceuticals or improved diagnostics, the goal is healing. The goal of law is justice. Regardless of computerized case searching or scientific forensics, the goal is justice. Librarianship, thanks to centuries of effort, has a simple and clear goal as well. Applying Ockham's Razor, that entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity, the goal is information equity. Inherent in this goal is working for universal literacy; defending intellectual freedom; preserving and making accessible the human record; and ensuring that preschoolers have books to read.

This idea has been argued eloquently in Future Libraries: Dreams, Madness, and Reality by Walter Crawford and Michael Gorman in which the authors note:

• remember that human service to human beings and communities is the prime reason for a library to exist;
• recognize that knowledge and understanding, not data and information, are the central concerns of libraries;
• defend the central ethical concerns of librarianship – equality of access to materials and resources; service; cooperation; and intellectual freedom;
• take pride in the way libraries and librarians have honored their mission and accept the weight of that mission.(25)

Librarianship's professional claim lies not with manipulations of new technologies and not with its place in the academy, but with how it can deploy these in service of the central goal of information equity. This discussion must have this shining center as we go about the work of the Congress.

The core value and goal of our profession – information equity – did not manifest itself in the early days of the practice of librarianship. Preservation and organizing came first and this most often in service to privileged groups – nobility, clergy, the military. But the idea of librarianship as it has grown in the United States, and in those societies where it has been recognized that access to information provides equality, has converged to the crystalline concept of information equity.

Does information science have a patron saint? Is there a link between the old and the new world? Consider St. Jerome's (c. 342-420) translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew to Latin; his revision of the New Testament; the burning of his library in Bethlehem by the armed Pelagian monks; his bibliography of ecclesiastical writers. This patron saint of librarians helped establish the tenets of scholarship and bibliography as the heritage of those who manage libraries; just as did St. Thomas More for lawyers. The fact of a "patron saint" regardless of one's religious belief provides an iconographic symbol that denotes an historical role: a tradition of commitment, a link going back centuries that is part of the birthright of our profession.

This paper is not a library history, but certainly even a partial litany of our founders and ancestors invokes a collective past that should be considered as we engage in discussion. Each person attending this Congress or reading this paper will have his or her own list from our shared history. No list is comprehensive. As an example I present my list and ask that readers take a few moments to contemplate their own.

• Assurbanipal (668-627 BC) at Nineveh;
• Eratosthenus (276-195 BC) at Alexandria;
• Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 BC) of Rome;
• St. Jerome (342-420) patron saint of librarians;
• Charlemagne (742-814) at Aachen who established schools that included scriptoria;
• Thomas Jefferson (1747-1826) father of the Library of Congress;
• Anthony Panizzi (1797-1879) principal librarian, British Musem;
• Cardinal Francisco Ehrle (1845-1934) at the Vatican Library;
• José Toribio Medina (1852-1930) Spanish American bibliographer;
• Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskîa (1869-1939) founder of the Soviet library system;
• Ladies Library Associations of the State of Michigan (1876)(26)
• Jennie Maas Flexner (1882-1944) readers' advisor;
• Vannevar Bush (1890-1974) "As We May Think";
• Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) director of Biblioteca Nacional of Argentina;
• Major Owens (1936-) librarian in Congress
• St. Leibowitz (canonized 3174).(27)

We all have our touchstones and muses. Remembering them at this Congress – their work to collect and organize, their wisdom and sheer weight of sustained scholarship – helps to remember from where we have come.

The work of the scholars and ancestors we each invoke as librarianship's collective heritage have been the foundation of the 20^th century's deliberations and arduous effort to create standards, guidelines, policies and principles. These are collective work and may sometimes be left out of larger discussion. This is unfortunate, for these collective works are in themselves a manifestation of librarianship's profound deliberations on its procedures and intellectual foundations. The importance of these various documents issued by librarianship is powerful codification of the embodiment of the core ethic of information equity.

As an example look to Information Power: Building a Partnership for Learning(28). This book issued jointly by the American Association of School Libraries and the Association for Educational Communications and Technology builds on a long history of guidelines published by the American Library Association going back to 1920 to foster improvement in school library media programs. If the various standards published since and up to the 1998 edition of Information Power are analyzed as to the philosophical and educational theories that have contributed to the 1998 document, we see an overriding and strong commitment to inclusiveness and equity of access.

The same may be said of the various precursors to Planning for Results: A Public Library Transformation Process(29). This new planning process for public libraries builds on a century of public librarians' efforts to establish service models through standards and guidelines(30). It is important to recognize that the 20^th century process of establishing public libraries as a means to equality of opportunity requires that librarianship "must represent both itself and library users as a constituency in the struggle for recognition of the public good of library service as well as in a struggle for a fair share of the resources devoted to the public good in general.(31)"

To some degree academic librarianship seems to find itself confronted with the toughest challenge vis-à-vis its role as characterized by Atkinson:

One partial professional response to this challenge is by the Council on Library and Information Resources which has established the Billy E. Frye Digital Leadership Institute to "effect change in the way universities manage their information resources in the digital era(33)." The Institute is intended to train 600-700 professionals who can preside over the transformation of the management of scholarly information in the higher-education community.

In parallel the Association of College and Research Libraries has recently issued "Guidelines for University Undergraduate Libraries" which seek to promote an effective learning environment(34). While the consensus building process for these guidelines was lengthy, the opportunity for national participation ensured that these values are persuasive and democratically accepted.

While all current standards and guidelines cannot be discussed here, they should be considered as contributing to the complex process of building the library profession. They are a formidable body of intellectual effort that when taken together and analyzed demonstrate many voices from many perspectives that converge on the central theme of equity and access.(35)

Additionally, the American Library Association has issued numerous position and public policy statements that define values. These include "Free Access to Information," "Literacy and the Role of Libraries," "Intellectual Freedom," "Library Bill of Rights," "Freedom to Read," "Freedom to View," "Code of Ethics," "Goals for Indian Library and Information Services," "Library Education to Meet the Needs of Spanish-Speaking People," "Library and Information Services to Asian Americans" and "Library Services for the Poor.(36)" These policies and position papers are the result of review, debates and collaboration. Taken together, they contribute to the intellectual and ethical foundation of the philosophy of librarianship.

Similarly, the various professional associations have issued documents relating to the education for the profession that are part of this Congress's overall consideration. These include the American Library Association, Standards for Accreditation of Master's Programs in Library and Information Studies(37); the Special Libraries Association, "Competencies for Special Librarians of the 21^st Century(38);" the American Association of Law Libraries' "AALL Guidelines for Graduate Programs in Law Librarianship" providing a list of General and Subject Competencies(39); the Medical Library Association's "Platform for Change," its Educational Policy Statement, which includes recommendations for education and competencies(40);

Finally, librarianship has moved to the goal of information equity while initiating efforts to develop a more diverse profession. Efforts to expand the role of women and enhance the voices and contribution of minorities have been a persistent, though not yet fully realized, focus(41). Information equity can not be realized without full participation of all people.

This is an impressive body of work; this work has been informed by librarians of large and small libraries in schools, cities, community colleges and universities and it makes for a substantive body intended – when all is said and done – to activate information equity, to find means to include all people of all ages, ethnicity and economic levels to share in the world's enshrined heritage.

The Steering Committee on Profession Concerns of the Congress requested that I address one deceptively simple question, "Is a New Profession Emerging?" My efforts to answer this question have required first, identification of the emblematic debate; second, examination of the context of professions; third, provision of a parsimonious statement of librarianship's goal; fourth, respect and honor to the past; and fifth characterization of the body of intellectual work of the U.S. library profession.

The accumulated wisdom and concentrated philosophical thought that have built the idea of librarianship are an impressive history of movement to the central goal bringing us today to the Ockham's razor of our practice…information equity. We see clearly that maintaining the record and making available the record is the point of it all.

This Congress will set the tone for librarianship as we begin the next millennium. Participants must grapple with big ideas and sweeping concepts to take with us as we move forward, keeping in mind the primary goal of information equity. We must remember the past millennia of librarianship back to Assurbanipal, the Alexandrian Library, St. Jerome, and on through the establishment of national libraries and the digital future…but we must consider these along with professional responsibility and ethical commitment.

The question whether a new profession is emerging faces all professions at this time. Speaking at the Symposium on New Paradigms for Higher Education in the 21^st Century Lewis Collens observed, characterizing education for law, medicine, psychology, business, architecture, engineering and accountancy, "We need to teach our students to draw knowledge from across professional boundaries…I would describe people who have interprofessional capability as 'Renaissance professionals.' (42)" This also applies to those who educate librarians. The past traditions and norms must incorporate ideas from across disciplines in service of the professional goal.

Yet we must also be aware of how others characterize us. In a lengthy essay, "Clarifying Professional Preparation Programs," Joan S. Stark presents a typology of professional subjects taught to undergraduates and includes librarianship(43). Her typology locates librarianship with education and journalism but notes that the faculty perceive relatively little influence from their external professional community(44). Stark's general discussion clashes with the ideas that we have been exploring, but it is critical to note that she is a professor at the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan, a university that awards the ALA-accredited degree in library and information studies as well as the Ph.D. at its School of Information. If a scholar at a higher education center located at a university with a School that awards the degree we discuss here today can miss the fact that our required credential has been graduate in nature for nearly fifty years, then our emergent status may be worth serious review.

It may be that the redesign of our professional education component has left the larger academic society with a nebulous sense of what we do, What then does society-at-large think of us? Have we talked too much to ourselves and not clarified the new directions in which we move?

Perhaps, however, the evidence as presented above points to the fact that the most prudent route is to build upon our rich past and to add to it the technologies of tomorrow. One salient example among many is the work being done by the Council on Library and Information Resources. For example, Jeff Rothenberg's report Avoiding Technological Quicksand: Finding a Viable Technical Foundation for Digital Preservation, explores technical problems of long-term digital preservation within the framework of a coherent philosophy of information equity.(45)

If medicine does not change its commitment to its central goal in light of new bimolecular research, why should librarianship? The only "newness" about our profession is the adoption and development of new technologies to best serve our goal of information equity. After all, digital preservation will extend access to the human record with the same set of values undergirding this work.

If there is a new dimension to the professional practice of librarianship it is to be found in the policy involvement we support. The major trends of professional society – a professional society in which librarians should be full participants – as identified by Perkin are: high living standard; rise of service industries; class into hierarchy; meritocracy; incorporation of women; growth of government; welfare state; centrality of higher education; rise of the giant corporation; and the global economy(46). Only activated professions can use these trends for the common good. None faces this challenge more so than librarianship – whatever our tools – our ethics and our commitment to information equity are what will navigate the course toward equalization for all.

The degree to which our professional organizations, through initiatives such as those of American Library Association presidents Barbara J. Ford on global concerns or Ann K. Symons on intellectual freedom, position us on the world stage will enable us to have an impact at ameliorating the world's problems through activation of librarianship's goal of information equity.

No, a new profession is not emerging; librarianship is evolving as it has always done. It will evolve if faculty and professionals work to yoke new technologies in service of our professional goal. The universities where we will study may choose not to have schools that invoke the word "library," but the profession, as it is practiced, remains librarianship with all that it encompasses.

*** *** *** *** *** ***

Acknowledgements: I am most grateful to Sara M. Taffae, (MLS 1979), Coordinator of Computer Services, State Library of Louisiana, and Catherine Jasper (MA in LS, May 1999) for their reactions to ideas in this paper.

*** *** *** *** *** ***

"Go, my book, and help destroy the world as it is."

Russell Banks, Continental Drift (New York: Ballantine Books, 1985), "Envoi," p.421.

--checked out from the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System

NOTES

1 Suzanne Hildenbrand, "The Information Age v. Gender Equity? Technology and Values in Education for Library and Information Science," p. 7. (forthcoming in Library Trends, 1999).

2 Hildenbrand, p. 14.

3 Leigh S. Estabrook, "From the Dean" Alumni Newsletter of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (Fall 1998/Winter 1999): p. 20.

4 A similar "disjunction" between legal education and the legal profession has been analyzed by Harry T. Edwards, Michigan Law Review 91 (October 1992): 34-78.

5 Kathleen Heim, "Professional Education: Some Comparisons." In As Much to Learn as to Teach (A Festschrift in honor of Lester Asheim), edited by Joel M. Lee and Beth M. Hamilton (Hamden, CT: Shoestring Press, 1979): 129-176.

6 The Project was a response to ALA 1991-1992 Council Document #14 -- Appendix A which was based on ALA 1990-1991 Council Document #58 (the Shank Report).

7 Kathleen de la Peña McCook, "Project Century 21: A Background Report Responding to ALA 1991-92 Council Document #14 in Project Century 21: Examining Librarians' Roles in Information Delivery chaired by Jane B. Robbins (Chicago: American Library Association, 1993), p. 1.

8 Andrew Abbott, "Professionalism and the Future of Librarianship," Library Trends 46 (Winter 1998): p. 430-443.

Abbot, pp. 435-439

10 Abbot, p 440.

11 Abbot, p 442.

12 Richard A. Danner, "Redefining a Profession" Law Library Journal 90:3 (1998): pp.315-356.

13 Toward a Renaissance in Law Librarianship: Report of the AALL Special Committee on the Renaissance of Law Librarianship in the Information Age, as reported in Danner, p. 329.

14 Danner, p. 345.

15 Danner, p. 351.

16 Daniel W. Rossides, Professions and Disciplines: Functional and Conflict Perspectives (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1998): pp. 19-20.

17 Rossides, p. 51.

18 Rossides, p. 174.

19 Rossides, p. 176.

20 Keith MacDonald, The Sociology of the Professions (London: Sage, 1995), p. 157.

21 MacDonald, pp. 168-171.

22 Harold Perkin, The Third Revolution: Professional Elites in the Modern World (London: Routledge, 1996).

23 Perkin, p. 7.

24 Walter M. Miller, Jr. A Canticle for Leibowitz (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1959), p. 70.

25 Walter Crawford and Michael Gorman, Future Libraries: Dreams, Madness and Reality (Chicago: American Library Association, 1995), p. 182. This is a required textbook at the University of South Florida, School of Library and Information Science.

26 To me these Associations represent the role of women activists in establishing U.S. libraries. For further information see Kathleen Weibel and Kathleen M. Heim, The Role of Women in Librarianship, 1876-1976; The Entry, Advancement and Struggle for Equalization in One Profession (Phoenix: Neal-Schuman/Oryx, 1979), p. 3-4; 1954-01.

27 Miller, p. 109. Though a work of fiction, A Canticle for Leibowitz, is a profound tribute to the value placed on the role of librarians. I read this initially in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1955. It has some role in my ideas about librarianship, even today.

28 American Association of School Librarians and Association for Educational Communications and Technology, Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning (Chicago: American Library Association, 1998).

29 Ethel Himmel and William James Wilson, Planning for Results: A Public Library Transformation Process (Chicago: American Library Association, 1998).

30 For a review of the process of public library standards development including the Public Library Inquiry, see Kathleen M. Heim, "Stimulation." In The Service Imperative for Libraries: Essays in Honor of Margaret E. Monroe, edited by Gail Schlachter (Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1982): 123-135.

31 Douglas Raber, Librarianship and Legitimacy: The Ideology of the Public Library Inquiry (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1997), p. 112.

32 Ross Atkinson, "Library Functions, Scholarly Communication, and the Foundation of the Digital Library: Laying Claim to the Control Zone." Library Quarterly 66 (July 1996), p. 263.

33 "CLIR and Emory University Establish New Digital Leadership Institute," CLIR Issues 7(January/February 1999): p. 1-2.

34 Association of College and Research Libraries." Guidelines for University Undergraduate Libraries." College and Research Libraries News (May 1997). These "Guidelines" are an excellent example of the collaborative work that contribute to the foundations of library service. Work on these "Guidelines" began in 1993 to update the 1987 "Model Mission Statement of a University Undergraduate Library." Three national hearings provided an opportunity for discussion and another committee was appointed to review the draft; this was published in 1995 and another national discussion held resulting in changes prior to submission to the University Libraries Executive Committee for approval in 1996 and ultimately approval by the ACRL Executive Board (July 1996) and the ALA Standards Committee (1997).

35 Recently issued documents that illustrate this observation: American Library Association-Society of American Archivists Joint Committee on Library-Archives Relationships. "ALA-SAA Joint Statement on Access to Original Research Materials." College and Research Libraries News (December 1993); Association for Library Collections & Technical Services. Guidelines for Bibliographic Description of Interactive Multimedia. Chicago: ALA, 1995; Association for Library Collections & Technical Services. "Guidelines for Standardized Cataloging of Children's Materials." In Cataloging Correctly for Kids: An Introduction to the Tools. 3d ed. Sharon Zuiderveld, ed. Chicago: ALA, 1998; Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies. Revised Standards and Guidelines of Service for the Library of Congress Network of Libraries for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Chicago: Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies, 1995; Public Library Association. Guidelines for Establishing Community Information and Referral Services in Public Libraries. 4th ed. Chicago: Public Library Association, 1997; Walter, Virginia. Output Measures for Public Library Service to Children: A Manual of Standardized Procedures. Chicago: ALA, 1992.

36 ALA Handbook of Organization 1998-1999 (Chicago: ALA, 1998), pp. 41-49.

37 Standards of Accreditation of Master's Programs in Library and Information Studies (Chicago: American Library Association, 1992).

38 Special Committee on Competencies for Special Librarians, "Competencies for Special Librarians of the 21st Century," submitted to Special Libraries Association May 1996; accessed February 23, 1999 at http://www.sla.org/professional/competency.html>.

39 "AALL Guidelines for Graduate Programs in Law Librarianship," approved November 5, 1988, accessed February 23, 1999 at http://www.aallnet.org/about/graduate_guidelines.asp.

40 "Platform for Change: The Educational Policy Statement of the Medical Library Association (Chicago: Medical Library Association, 1992); accessed February 2, 1999 at .

41 This has been an arduous effort. While each professional association has made these concerns important, a few highlights bear mentioning to ensure that the concern for diversity is demonstrated to be longstanding. See, for instance, a summary of the work of the American Library Association, Office for Library Personnel Resources under the direction of Margaret Myers (Kathleen Heim, Librarians for the New Millennium, edited with William E. Moen, Chicago: American Library Association, 1988); the work of the American Library Association's ethnic affiliates: American Indian Library Association (AILA) , Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) , Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) , Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA) , and REFORMA (National Association to Promote Library Services to the Spanish Speaking) ; the establishment of the position Diversity Officer within the American Library Association, Sandra Rios Balderrama; the Spectrum initiative ; the work of the Committee on the Status of Women in Librarianship (Catherine Jasper, "Bibliography," in Women of Color in Librarianship. Chicago: American Library Association Editions, 1998); and the work of the Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Task Force http://calvin.usc.edu/~trimmer/ala_hp.html.

42 Lewis Collens, "Innovation and Leadership: the Search for Renaissance Professionals, Vital Speeches of the Day 65 (October 15, 1998): 20-23.

43 Joan S. Stark, "Classifying Professional Preparation Programs," Journal of Higher Education 69 (July/August, 1998).

44 Stark, p. 374.

45 Jeff Rothenberg, Avoiding Technological Quicksand: Finding a Viable Technical Foundation for Digital Preservation, (Washington, D.C.: Council on Library and Information Resources, 1999).

46 Perkin, pp. 8-20.

Kathleen de la Peña McCook is professor and director at the School of Library and Information Science, University of South Florida. Previously she has been dean of the graduate school and dean of the School of Library and Information Science at Louisiana State University, and assistant professor at the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science. She holds the MA from the Graduate Library School at the University of Chicago and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. She was President of the Association for Library and Information Science Education in 1987. She has been on the Board of Directors of REFORMA, 1997-1998; chaired several committees of the American Library Association including the Status of Women in Librarianship, the Office for Library Personnel Resources and the Office for Literacy and Outreach Services Advisory Committees; and Board of Directors of the Florida Library Association and Illinois Library Association. Most recent publications are Libraries: Global Reach, Local Touch (with B. Ford and K. Lippincott). ALA Editions, 1998; Women of Color in Librarianship. ALA, 1998; "Rural Poverty Programs: Library Services to Farmworkers." In Poor People and Library Services, edited by Karen M. Venturella. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland Publishers, 1998; "Library and Information Science Faculty," (with V.L. Gregory), In Library and Information Science Studies Education. London: Mansell, 1998, pp. 33-47; "Florida Library History Project" (with C. Jasper) Webpage 1998. "Keeping the Library in Library Education." American Libraries 28 (March 1998): 59-63.

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