<<TOC2>> International Reader in the Management of Library, Information and Archive Services

compiled by Anthony Vaughan

General Information Programme and UNISIST

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

Paris, December 1987
PGI-87/WS/22

Recommended catalogue entry:

International reader in the management of library, information and archive services compiled by Anthony Vaughan [for the] General Information Programme and UNISIST. - Paris: Unesco, 1987. - x, 672 p. - 30 cm. - (PGI-87/WS/22)

I - Vaughan, Anthony (comp.)
II - Unesco General Information Programme and UNISIST

© Unesco 1987

<<TOC3>> Table of contents

Preface

Introduction

To the reader

1. Management, information and development
1.1 Managing information: to what end?
1.1.1. On the Librarianship of Poverty
1.1.2. Infrastructure for the development of an information policy
1.1.3. The use of archive material of the countries of the socialist community for national economic purposes
1.1.4. The special utility of archives for tie developing world 
1.2 Administration in developing countries
1.2.1. The Scope of Management and Administration Problems in Development
1.3 Management and the information service
1.3.1. Organization: in general and in principle
1.3.2. Management Training and Background
1.3.3. On library management (I)
1.3.4. On library management (II)
1.3.5. The library manager
1.4 How scientific is management?
1.4.1. Advances in archival management science
1.4.2. Library administration & new management systems
1.5 Case study: management of information in China
1.5.1. Management Development and Its Practice in Chinese Library and Information Services

2. Managing information: Introduction
2.1 Management of an information service
2.1.1. Management and policies of an information unit
2.1.2. Organizing and operating an information and documentation centre
2.2 Records management

3. Planning the service
3.1 Planning
3.1.1. Specialized problems of practical librarianship: planning
3.1.2. Archive planning
3.2 Constraints on planning: the state
3.2.1. The Archives of Argentina: Problems and Solutions
3.2.2. Government policies affecting the development and growth of libraries in Southeast Asia - a discussion
3.3 Constraints on planning: the local administration
3.3.1. The Library and the Political Processes
3.4 Public relations
3.4.1. Libraries and the world outside
3.4.2. Public relations in libraries: the Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon (Lyons City Library)
3.5 The needs of users
3.5.1. User studies in university libraries
3.6 Marketing
3.6.1. Marketing in information work

4. Organization and control
4.1 Organization and communication
4.1.1. Organisational structure and communication
4.1.2. Annual archives report
4.2 Specialization in information work
4.2.1. Subject departments in public libraries
4.2.2. Subject departments: summary of a debate
4.3 Centralized or decentralized service?
4.3.1. Centralization vs decentralization in university library administration: some reflections
4.4 Self-management in the information service
4.4.1. Co-operation between libraries on the basis of the law on associated labour and the library activity and libraries act

5. The management of staff
5.1 Personnel administration
5.1.1. Personnel administration in libraries
5.2 Human relations in personnel administration
5.2.1. Human relations in administration
5.3 Career opportunities
5.3.1. Career development of women librarians in New Zealand
5.3.2. Women librarians and documentalists in Hungary
5.4 The job description
5.4.1. Systems personnel
5.5 Recruiting staff
5.5.1. Recruitment: filling the gap
5.6 Supervising staff
5.6.1. An Overview of Supervision in Libraries Today
5.7 Training and developing staff
5.7.1. The training function in libraries
5.8 Appraisal of staff
5.8.1. Another look at performance appraisal in libraries
5.9 Technical and junior staff
5.9.1. Library technicians in Australia: past, present and future
5.9.2. Training library assistants in Mauritius
5.10 Human problems in information work
5.10.1. Stress, as experienced by some librarians
5.11 Participatory management
5.11.1. Participative management and libraries
5.12 Workers' councils and trade unions
5.12.1. An open forum for staff representatives
5.12.2. Unions and the public library
5.12.3. Trade unions and automation: a case study from Denmark

6. Management of financial and physical resources
6.1 Budgeting
6.1.1. Principles and methods of costing
6.2 Security
6.2.1. Security
6.2.2. Disasters: Can we plan for them? If not, how can we proceed?
6.3 The design of library and archive buildings
6.3.1. Archive Buildings and Equipment
6.3.2. The open plan and flexibility
6.3.3. What space for the library? A discussion on the library building

7. Evaluation and change
7.1 Evaluating effectiveness
7.1.1. Evaluating the effectiveness of a library: a theoretical and methodological framework
7.1.2. On evaluating the effectiveness of school libraries
7.1.3. Concepts of library goodness
7.2 Evaluation: specific examples
7.2.1. The management study
7.2.2. A cost-analysis of cataloguing at the Universiti Sains Malaysia library for 1975 
7.2.3. Performance measures for public libraries

<<TOC3>> Preface

For many years, the General Information Programme of Unesco has been issuing a large number of guidelines and studies to facilitate the development of national information systems in Member States -including libraries, information services and archives.

It is generally acknowledged that the best long-term investment for the development of adequate information systems is the education and training of specialists. Many developed and developing countries are making tremendous efforts to provide suitable facilities for this purpose. However, while the provision of training facilities and teaching staff is the responsibility of national authorities, international assistance is often requested for the production of teaching materials. The need for teaching materials has been voiced repeatedly in many areas for some time now and many documents in the field of education and training are available in several languages from Unesco (see the list at the end of this document).

Among the activities of the General Information Programme related to education and training, the promotion of the harmonization of education and training programmes in library, information and archives services has received particular attention. Many activities have been implemented in this direction, e.g. organization of meetings and training seminars, publication of promotional or teaching materials, various conferences and communications etc… As a result, it can be said that harmonization has not only received support from many quarters, but is also an approach which is now widely used in education and training both in developed and developing countries.

Very early, management has been identified as an area which could form one of the key elements, together with technology and user studies, in the context of harmonized teaching and this area has been studied for instance during the Unesco International Symposium on the Harmonization of Education and Training Programmes in Information Science, Librarianship and Archival Studies (1984) and at seminars held in Vienna (1983) and Varna (1985), organized jointly by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), the Fédération internationale pour l'information et la documentation (FID) and the International Council on Archives (ICA).

These meetings helped to identify the main objectives and elements of a harmonized curriculum on management. Participants at the Unesco International Symposium also recommended the preparation of a Reader on Management, on the ground that a set of papers reflecting a wide variety of situations and contexts would be the best way to help teachers and students to understand concerns and find solutions to the management problems of libraries, information services and archives. The present Reader has been designed with this purpose in mind.

It must be underlined that this document has been prepared in close cooperation not only with FID, ICA and IFLA, but also with experts in information science, archives and librarianship throughout the world. It is hoped that readers will find the result worth all the efforts put into it.

The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this Reader do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of Unesco.

Any comments or suggestions for improvement or any report on the experience gained by other countries in using this Reader are welcome. Correspondence should be sent to the Division of the General Information Programme, Unesco, 7 Place de Fontenoy, 75700 PARIS, France.

<<TOC3>> Introduction

by ANTHONY VAUGHAN

This book has been compiled for the benefit of the schools of library, archive and information science, for use in their courses on the management of information services and systems. It does not seek to replace the many standard textbooks on this subject which already exist, but is intended to supplement them. In particular, the book may be able to provide a more international perspective than many of the textbooks, which are mostly written with the information services of one particular country in mind.

The work takes the form of a collection of writings on the management aspects of libraries, archives and information units, writings which, we hope, will be of interest and use to both students and teachers. Its scope is wide, partly because the reader is avowedly international, and partly because of the nature of management.

HOW THE BOOK WAS COMPILED

The present book is a collaborative work. The editor submitted an outline plan of the work to Unesco in 1985, following guidelines suggested by the General Information Programme. Unesco then furnished the editor with a list of specialists in various parts of the world who were asked to suggest material which could go in the book. The editor selected appropriate items from the lists received and filled in any gaps with additional material. The contents of the work were then sent to the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), the Fédération Internationale de Documentation (FID), and the International Council on Archives (ICA) for their comments. However the final choice of items selected for the reader was made by the editor, who takes full responsibility for the contents of the book.

The following types of material were sought in order to select items for this reader:

- books or articles addressed to an international readership (this category of material was thought to be particularly valuable, but little was available, apart from Unesco's own publications);

- authoritative works which are well regarded in the country of origin, and which talk about the subject in sufficiently general terms for it to be readily understandable to readers in another country;

- books or articles with a comparative element in them; for instance those discussing a management practice developed in one culture in terms of another;

- material which took the form of a discussion, where differing points of view were clearly presented in a lively way;

- articles or extracts from books which to the editor seemed to be clearly written, which used the language well, and which were free from allusions or other references which would mystify an international readership;

- case studies relating to a particular country, especially if it seemed that the implications were of more general interest.

A DIVERSITY OF MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE…

One of the original intentions, when Unesco commissioned this work, was to draw out the common elements in information management, and to illustrate them with authoritative and interesting writings. Underlying this aim was the assumption that there were universal principles of management, which would be valid for all places and for all times.

However, the more one goes beyond a single country, or a single cultural area, the more difficult it is to discern these common principles. Some principles, certainly, are more widespread than others, but this seems to be because they are the product of influential or powerful countries or are thought to be well-suited to a particular social or economic structure.

Even if we were to accept that such universal principles do exist, the manner of their application varies widely. It is easy to understand why this is so: management practices reflect the social, cultural and economic patterns of the country: they cannot simply be transposed without modification from one country to another and be expected to work. The literature of library and information management confirms this variety. Nearly all of it is written from the point of view of one country, or perhaps a group of countries of similar cultural tradition.

One might imagine that since libraries, archives and information centres do similar sorts of things, then their management practices should also be similar. There is some truth in this, but less than one might think. Information units, libraries and archives are rarely independent units in their own right. They are normally part of larger organizations of many different types: state bureaucracies, local or provincial governments, public and private corporations, professional firms, learned societies, schools, universities, voluntary bodies, and so on. Management practices vary greatly between these different types of institution, and the libraries and information units take on the administrative colouring of the parent organization.

…BUT MANY COMMON CONCERNS

It may be difficult to discern any universal principles of management, and management practices may vary, but there is no doubt that librarians, documentalists and archivists share common management concerns. All over the world there is the same preoccupation with finance, staff, efficiency, communication, buildings, meeting users' needs, and so on.

This book, therefore, will present a selection of writings about common management concerns. It is a book to dip into. Not all articles will be relevant to all countries, and some have been chosen to illuminate particular management concerns felt by information professionals in particular countries. But the student will, we hope, be able to find a good deal of interest and value in these pages.

It draws on material from many countries, and attempts to be truly international. However neither the distinguished panel of advisers, still less the editor can be familiar with all the world's literature on this subject. In particular, contributions in oriental languages have had to be left on one side for linguistic reasons, and the very considerable literature from a number of other countries makes only a brief appearance in this pages.

The reader will probably find it helpful to browse through the commentary which follows to see what material will be most useful for his or her purpose. For technical reasons there is no index, but the annotations in the following pages serve as a reasonable guide to the contents of the book.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The editor would like to thank the following experts, nominated by Unesco, who kindly supplied lists of suitable material or made suggestions for the reader:

Madame L. Bachr (Rabat), Mrs Vicenta Cortés Alonso (Madrid), Dr Frank B. Evans (Washington), Mr Jaime Robredo (Brasilia), Dr Robert Steuart (Boston), Ms Rosa Vallejo (Manila), Mr C.K. Wambugu (Nairobi) and Dr Paul Wasserman (College Park, Maryland).

He is also grateful to the undermentioned people who helped him in various ways: by translating or evaluating certain material, or by supplying additional items:

Madame Gladys Adda (Tunis), Dr Leopold Auer (Wien), Ms Gertrud Erbach (London), Mrs Vera Gerö (Budapest) Mrs M. Hines (London), Ms Aleksandra Horvat (Zagreb), Ms Hilda Kaune-Rivera (London), Mr Gábor Mándy (Budapest), Ms Greta Mole (Ware, England), Mrs Maria-Nieves Troubridge (London) and Mrs Eva Wade (London).

The editor would also like to thank the copyright owners of the material included in this reader for allowing the material to be reproduced and translated. Full details appear in the body of the book.

Finally, he is grateful to Monsieur Yves Courrier and Madame A. Schurek of Unesco's General Information Programme for much helpful advice.

Anthony Vaughan

London,
October 1986.

<<TOC3>> To the reader

This book contains over 50 separate contributions to the subject of library, archive and information management. In this preliminary section, some brief comments on the material will be provided, so as to make it easier for the reader to select items of particular interest. It may be helpful to look at this section first before plunging into the main part of the book.

The contents of the book are divided into 7 major sections, and subdivided into about 35 topics.

1. MANAGEMENT, INFORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT

1.1 Managing information: to what end?

"On the librarianship of poverty", by K.J. Mchombu.
"Infrastructure for the development of an information policy", by Ermelinda Acerenza and Teresa Castilla.
"The use of archive material of the countries of the socialist community for national economic purposes", by F.I. Dolgih.
"The special utility of archives for the developing world", by Guy Cangah.

Management is not an end in itself. Organizations are managed for a particular purpose. The information section of an organization, whether it be a national archive, a school library or a documentation centre, is supposed to be providing a service which will in some way benefit the organization. It is always tempting for the information manager to follow what seems to be the accepted way of doing things, the way described in professional text-books, or the way things have been done in the past.

MCHOMBU challenges this view. Information policies should not be copied from other countries, he says, but related to the social and economic conditions of the particular country. Speaking particularly of the poorer developing nations, he shows how the policies and practices of information work developed in the richer countries must not simply be taken over and accepted by the poorer ones; their value must be examined critically. A policy for information must then be devised which is relevant to the country concerned.

ACERENZA and CASTILLA start from this point and develop it. They are mainly concerned with the establishment of a national information policy. How can such a policy be established? What are the steps that must be taken to formulate it? The article goes into much useful detail and refers to a number of Unesco documents that have appeared on this subject.

DOLGIH shows how in a centrally-planned economy, information -in this case from archives - can be put to the service of the nation, giving examples from the Soviet Union and other socialist countries.

CANGAH points out that in many developing countries it is the government which is the sole organization able to plan for the development of the country, and it is in the state's own archives that invaluable material is to be found, if it is properly organized. Not simply economic or scientific data are of value, but also historical information, because for younger countries, the study of their history can be a means of creating a better sense of national identity.

1.2 Administration in developing countries

"The scope of management and administration problems in development", by Kenneth J. Rothwell.

Even when our information manager has decided upon suitable and relevant objectives for the information service, there remain problems of putting the principles into practice. Many articles later in the book will deal with this topic. However, the quality of the administration of an information service will depend upon the society of which it is a part. ROTHWELL lists some of the obstacles to efficient administration in developing countries, and is critical of the existing position. He sets out various views about management, some of which we will meet again later in the book.

1.3. Management and the information service

"Organization in general and in principle", by Sigurd Möhlenbrock.
"Management training and background", by G. Edward Evans.
"On library management", by Boleslaw Howorka.
"The library manager", by Charles K. Wambugu.

Many writers on the management of library and information services begin by setting out what they see as the general principles of management and showing how they are applied to most work organizations, including libraries. Four examples are given in this section. MÖHLENBROCK, writing with Swedish libraries in mind, looks at the principles of organization, and at various organizational structures.

EVANS also looks at management, and illustrates his points by reference to libraries. What do managers do?, he asks, and summarises the work of Fayol who tried to answer that question. Henri Fayol, a French industrialist who lived at the beginning of the twentieth century, is often regarded, along with the American Frederick Winslow Taylor, as the founder of modern management. His list of managerial activities - planning, co-ordinating and so on - is still widely quoted. HOWORKA also refers to Fayol's list of activities and he also reviews the various principles of management, but from a Polish, rather than an American viewpoint.

Finally in this section a fourth perspective on the management of information organizations comes from Kenya. WAMBUGU takes up some of the points made by the other three and adds some new ones. Together these contributions give a fair idea of the way management principles and practices can be applied to information organizations.

1.4. How scientific is management?

"Advances in archival management science", by A.P. Kurantov.
"Library administration and new management systems", by Richard De Gennaro.

Is there a best way to manage a library, a section of a library, a documentation centre, a city's archive? The answer may be yes, but there is no agreement on what exactly is the best way. Some see management as a series of techniques which, when mastered, can lead directly to good management. Others, while acknowledging that certain techniques are useful, see management as above all the use of political and personal skills, which derive from people's personality, and so cannot really be formally taught. Moreover, since no two organizations are identical, so the "ideal" form of management will vary from organization to organization.

KURANTOV writes of advances in archival management science in a paper given to a congress of archivists. According to Kurantov the proper application of systematically-acquired knowledge about work and work methods will lead ever more closely to a proper scientific management of archives. The comments which follow this article came from two other members of the conference who refer to Kurantov's paper.

DE GENNARO, a director of a large American university library, speaks of his own experience with management theories and techniques. He declares that most of them are useless for libraries and concludes that good management is much more an art than a science.

1.5. Case study: management of information in China

"Management development and its practice in Chinese library and information services", by Luo Xingyun.

To conclude the first section of the book we reprint an article which describes the evolution of library and information management in China. LUO XINGYUN, the author, reveals how the type of management advocated in China in the 20th century reflected the economic and social system of the period. He places his faith in a form of scientific management for Chinese information services. The four main principles he enunciates differ somewhat from varieties of scientific management found in other countries - it is a specifically Chinese development of the idea - but, says the author, these principles still need refinement.

2. MANAGING INFORMATION: INTRODUCTION

In the second section of the book are grouped together a small number of introductory texts which summarise the management aspects of library, archive and information services. Each one serves as an introduction to topics which will be examined in more detail later in the book.

2.1 Management of an information service

"Management and policies of an information unit”, by Claire Guinchat and Michel Menou.
"Organizing and operating an information and documentation centre", by Robert Harth.

GUINCHAT and MENOU systematically describe the management tasks of an information unit: planning, organization, the division of labour, evaluating the service, promoting the service, and so on. All of these topics will be treated in more detail in later sections. As a complement to Guinchat and Menou, HARTH summarises the work of an information unit from a slightly different perspective.

2.2 Records management

"Records management", by Michael Cook.

COOK explains the relationship between records management and the traditional archive service, he describes the basic tasks of the record manager and how these will change as automated office equipment becomes more widespread.

3. PLANNING THE SERVICE

3.1. Planning

"Specialized problems of practical librarianship: planning”, by Hanus Hemola.
"Archive planning”, by Bernhard Zittel.

Several of the preceding articles have mentioned planning. Planning is usually considered the first task of the manager. In this third section of the reader we will look at the planning process in information services. To introduce the subject we reprint a short article on library planning in general. We see that planning is, or should be, essential to all information services. HEMOLA states that one can distinguish between long and short term plans. ZITTEL, for his part, examines the planning process in archive work.

3.2 Constraints on planning: the state

"The archives of Argentina: problems and solutions", by César A. García Belsunce.
"Government policies affecting the development and growth of libraries in Southeast Asia", [panel discussion].

From Hemola's article above, it would appear that in Czechoslovakia the plans for the development of library and information services are simply a part of that country's general economic and social planning, but in many countries the state is slow to recognize the importance of information services. For all those information units which are dependent upon the state, the policies of the state are crucial. A good example is to be found in BELSUNCE's article. He states that over the last 200 years periods of vigorous efforts to conserve the nation's documentary resources have alternated with periods of stagnation or neglect. He catalogues the present problems of the archive service, his efforts to secure better legislation for archives and his other plans for the future.

In 1973 there was held a meeting of librarians from Southeast Asia. In one session, after the formal papers had been read, there was an hour's discussion, reproduced here. As we read the discussion we can see how the laws of the various countries affect the library service: one delegate cannot understand how a country which makes librarians personally responsible for their collections can have any kind of active library service at all; another is concerned about the lack of legal deposit legislation; a third speaker notes the effect on libraries when the state pay scales for librarians are set too low, and so on. We can see very clearly from this discussion how the planning of an information service is affected by the laws, decrees, regulations and policies of the state, and also how information professionals may, with persistence, succeed in changing these laws to enable a better library service to be developed.

3.3. Constraints on planning: the local administration

"The library and the political processes", by Phyllis I. Dalton.

While many library, archive and information services are directly dependent upon the state, many others, especially local archives, college libraries and public libraries may be responsible to a unit of local government, such as a city, a county or a province. DALTON begins by saying that the success of a library administrator depends upon an understanding of the political process and an ability to work with it. A city council, local library board, or even a provincial government is somewhat more accessible than a national government, and so the chances of influencing such bodies are that much greater. Dalton talks of the importance of communication with the library's governing body, of public speaking, skilled committee work, knowledge of the local power structure and of the community - all will help, she says, the information manager to obtain funds and improve the service.

3.4. Public relations

"Libraries and the world outside", by K.C. Harrison.
“Public relations in libraries: the Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon, (Lyon City Library)", by J.-L. Rocher.

In the previous article Dalton described how librarians should cultivate the people on the library's governing body. This is one aspect of public relations for information managers, the subject of the next item by HARRISON. Harrison argues that in a world where different agencies compete for funds and for public support, the library, or the archive service, must make sure that its views are known to all those who have influence over the information service.

An example of public relations is used to illustrate this point. ROCHER writes of the public relations activities of the municipal library of Lyon, France. There the initiative came at first from the mayor of the city, who used the occasion of the opening of a new library building to get not only the press, but no less than two European presidents to attend. As a result the library now has its own public relations department to continue the work.

3.5 The needs of users

"User studies in university libraries", by Rocío Herrera C., Libia Lotero M., and Iván Rúa R.

We have seen that the planning of information services will be affected by the policies of national and local governments, and library governing bodies as well as by the political, personal and administrative skills of the information manager. But the information service is above all there to be used, and so more and more in the last twenty years librarians, archivists and documentalists have tried to find out what the users - and the potential users - need from the information service. 'What exactly are their needs? How can these needs be identified? Much effort has been-expanded on trying to answer these questions. HERRERA, LOTERO and RUA examine the subject in depth and give examples from university libraries.

3.6 Marketing

"Marketing in information work", by Gladys Adda.

The final topic in this section concerns the marketing of information services. Marketing can be regarded as part of the planning process, for a newly established information service may wish to find out what services (e.g. abstracting, translating) are going to be most popular before setting them up. Marketing, like the identification of users' needs, can also be used as a regular part of the information service's operations. Marketing, as defined by Gladys ADDA includes the analysis of users' needs, but goes beyond this to devise methods of publicising the whole range of activities offered by the information service. There are therefore also elements of public relations in marketing as well.

4. ORGANIZATION MD CONTROL

All information services need to have some kind of structure and some system for the organization and control of the work. Earlier in this book Guinchat and Menou, and Harth had some brief comments about these matters, and in this section we will be looking at them in more detail.

4.1 Organization and communication

"Organizational structure and communication", by Richard Emery.
"The annual archives report", by Vicenta Cortés Alonso.

Organizational structure and control usually, though not always, assume a hierarchical form, whereby power and responsibility are concentrated at the top. The information unit, if of any size, is divided into a series of departments or sections. In each of these sections a group of people will be engaged in related tasks, or offering similar services. There is, however, much debate about the basis of this kind of sectional organization (see section 4.2 below).

In the first part of EMERY's long contribution, various organizational structures are described and commented on. He then turns to the matter of communication. A communications system is essential for any information service. Indeed the manager is sometimes seen to be primarily a communicator, and most managers, including those in information services, spend more time communicating than doing anything else. Emery describes the methods of communication which can exist in a library and information service, and points out the strengths and weaknesses of each one.

Another way of controlling the operations of an information service is by means of an annual report. CORTES describes how such a report can help the archive manager.

4.2 Specialization in information work

"Subject departments in public libraries", by Gábor Mándy.
Subject departments: summary of a debate, by Tibor Horváth and Gábor Mándy.

In his contribution above, Emery talks about the division of labour in libraries. In almost all information services, in fact, some division of labour is practiced, and the staff are to some extent specialists. There is, however, disagreement about the best ways of dividing up the work. One debate turns on whether the work should be organized according to the principal technical operations, or whether it should be organized according to the subjects in the collection, (and other types of division are possible).

To illustrate this question of the division of labour, we take the case of the public library service. In the first contribution MANDY reflects on the results of a questionnaire sent to a number of large public libraries in various parts of the world. This survey showed to what extent these libraries practiced the division of labour according to the subject matter of the material in these libraries.

The second contribution concerns a debate on this matter which took place in the pages of a Hungarian library journal. There is no space to reproduce all of the articles which appeared, but we give the first article by HORVATH, who initiated the debate, a comment by MANDY, and a short comment by HORVATH again which concluded the correspondence.

4.3 Centralized or decentralized services?

"Centralization vs. decentralization in university library administration: some reflections", by Paul W. T. Poon.

A further debate concerns the appropriate degree of administrative and geographical centralization for an information service. If users are geographically scattered, should service points be multiplied? If geographically separate departments are established, will the central administration be able to control them? If it is unable to exercise control, is this necessarily a disadvantage? POON gives the pros and cons of this debate, drawing principally upon the experiences of the older German university libraries and American academic libraries.

4.4 Self-management in the information service

"Co-operation between libraries on the basis of the law on associated labour and the library activity and libraries act", by Vera Mudri-Škunca.

The previous items in this section have assumed a traditional hierarchical structure for the information service. In Yugoslavia, however, a system of self-management has been set up in most organizations, including those concerned with information services, and other countries have shown interest in this form of organization. MUDRI-ŠKUNCA shows how the laws of the land have affected the organizational structure of library services and their relations with other organizations.

5. MANAGEMENT OF STAFF

More is written about staff management in information services than about any other aspect, and justly so, for the staff of an organization are its most important resource. This section, then, is the longest in the book.

5.1 Personnel administration

"Personnel administration in libraries", by Helen Howard.

We begin with a general account of personnel administration written from a North American viewpoint. HOWARD looks systematically at staff duties, personnel planning, job descriptions, analysis and appraisal, staff training and development, and other topics. She defines the field, and most of the topics she mentions are treated more fully in the following contributions.

5.2 Human relations in personnel administration

"Human relations in administration", by Amor C. Guerrero.

There are many different approaches to personnel administration. If we refer back to Luo Xingyun's article (section 1.5 above) we will see that at the beginning of the 20th century employees in organizations were treated in an authoritarian manner and as mere units of production. In the advanced market economies, in the course of the 20th century, pressure from trade unions and a narrowing of social divisions led to a new approach, dubbed "human relations", in which owners and managers realised that by giving some consideration to the various needs of their employees, productivity or efficiency could actually be improved.

Today in information services a large part of the staff are educated and highly skilled and would resent the cruder forms of exploitation practiced in the past. Nevertheless staff, in information organizations as elsewhere, are sensitive to promotion opportunities, to favouritism, to lack of tact by supervisors and to all those other causes of friction which make them disillusioned with their work or resentful of their status.

To illustrate how modern information management needs to be fair and tactful we reprint the article by GUERRERO who presents some interesting case studies in which human relations skills are put to the test. The case studies also illustrate a common criticism made of this approach, namely that it adopts a purely psychological view of people in organizations, so that people who do not conform to the requirements of the organization are considered to be in some way personally inadequate. By reducing conflicts to nothing more than a matter of personality, this approach may obscure the real causes of conflict.

5.3 Career opportunities

"Career developments of women librarians in New Zealand", by Jan Bierman.
"Women librarians and documentalists in Hungary", by Magda Jobórú

For information services to be successful, they must offer a proper career structure for all staff and adequate salaries. Otherwise staff will feel they are undervalued, will leave the profession and move to other kinds of work.

In some countries it would seem that men are offered an adequate career but women are not. In the last fifteen years a great deal has been written, particularly in the so-called "Anglo-Saxon" countries (United States, Great Britain, Australia, etc.) on the difficulties women face in information work. In the first example BIERMAN shows that in the Auckland area of New Zealand women occupied 80 per cent of library jobs, but only 17 per cent of the most senior librarians' posts. Conversely only 20 per cent of librarians were men but they held 83 per cent of the top jobs.

In other countries such disparities do not seem to occur to anything like the same extent, and the second example, from Hungary (JOBORU) shows that women are well represented in senior posts. Part of the reason for the better career opportunities for women in a number of European countries may lie in the provision of adequate maternity leave, protection of salary while on leave of absence and good child-caring facilities. All these, in turn, will depend upon the attitude of the state towards working women.

5.4 The job description

"Systems personnel", by Pauline Atherton.

In all but the smallest information units, there will probably be some division of labour, as we have seen. This in turn means that the tasks to be performed must be properly described. In larger information services the description and analysis of the job and of the tasks associated with it become very important, not only to ensure the efficient carrying out of tasks, but also to prevent disputes about who does what task. ATHERTON writes particularly of scientific and technical information work and sets out concisely and systematically a typical way for the organization of tasks and responsibilities.

5.5 Recruiting staff

"Recruitment: filling the gap", by Richard Proctor.

Many information services recruit their staff directly. Recruitment is an important managerial activity. The information service will normally have a specific vacancy in its team of staff which has to be filled, and it is important for the organization to get the right person for the job. PROCTOR sets out the steps to be taken when recruiting new staff.

5.6 Supervising staff

"An overview of supervision in libraries today", by Martha J. Bailey.

In an information service of any size the more senior staff are likely to exercise supervisory powers over the more junior staff. What are the best methods of supervision? What are the main difficulties? What particular skills should the supervisor possess? These and other questions are answered in BAILEY's article.

5.7 Training and developing staff

"The training function in libraries", by Mary Castelyn.

Howard, in section 5.1, has explained why staff need training: as information services change, new skills are needed; also staff may lose interest in performing the same tasks year after year and training will give them the opportunities to develop new skills and so to perform new tasks or move on to greater responsibilities. In her contribution Mary CASTELYN examines all aspects of training in libraries.

5.8 Appraisal of staff

"Another look at performance appraisal in libraries", by G. Edward Evans and Bendict Rugaas.

Most managers of information services expect the staff to work as effectively as possible. Senior managers need to know how well the staff are doing. It is often easy for them to pick up information by hearsay or gossip, but this information may be misleading, biased or quite wrong. So in some countries a formal system of appraising staff has been set up. Staff appraisal is, however, a delicate matter. Most staff do not relish their work being evaluated, especially if such evaluation may adversely affect their chances of salary increases or promotion. EVANS and RUGAAS write on staff appraisal; they compare American practice, where formal annual appraisals are very common, and Scandinavian practice, where they are rarely used. It would appear that from the data that Evans supplies, American librarians consider that performance appraisal is important but that it does not help to correct or improve their performance at work.

5.9 Technical and junior staff

"Library technicians in Australia", by Helen Smeaton.
"Training library assistants in Mauritius", by Marie Benoit.

Most of the literature on staff management of information services is concerned with the more senior staff, that is those who will often have university and professional diplomas. Much less attention has been paid to the more junior staff. Yet the latter perform many of the tasks and are often the staff that users come into contact with most often.

If these people do not consider that they have any career possibilities or any chances for training, then they may lose interest in their work and the information service will suffer. In some countries the middle-level or junior staff are termed "pare-professionals" or "library technicians", and appropriate training and career structures are provided for them; an example is given in SMEATON's paper. BENOIT, in the article which follows, describes what can be done (admittedly with bilateral aid) in a very small country.

5.10 Human problems in information work

"Stress, as experienced by some librarians", by Maurice Payette and Edith Guay.

Despite clear job descriptions, good recruitment policies, skilful supervision and proper training, staff may still have problems. The next contribution shows how staff can experience personal problems as a result of their work. PAYETTE and GUAY, who are both psychologists, identify several causes of stress, some, but not all, being beyond the power of the information service to remedy.

5.11 Participatory management

"Participative management and libraries", by Ana Maria Rezende Cabral.

Previous articles in this book have mentioned that the hierarchical structure typical of organizations in many countries concentrates power at the top. This is not to the taste of many staff in information services, who may be just as well qualified as the director of the service. One attempt to deal with this situation, popular in the United States in the late 1960s and 1970s was to set up some mechanism whereby the other professional staff in the organization had a right to be consulted and to make certain decisions collectively. The term "participatory management" was coined to describe this practice. CABRAL, drawing mainly on the American experience sets out the rationale for this type of management. It will be seen that the approach has the backing of some influential writers on management theory.

5.12 Workers' councils and trade unions

"An open forum for staff representatives", by Theo de Ruiter and Lieuwe de Vries.
"Unions and the public library", by Robert W. Schmidt.
Trade unions and automation: a case study from Denmark, by Mai-Britt Nielsen, Egon Hansen and M.N. Sørensen.

In Europe and elsewhere the inequalities of bureaucratic or hierarchical organizations have also been felt, but in Europe the response has more often been to get the state to pass laws giving certain rights of consultation to employees, or to rely on trade unions. In Western Europe employees of most organizations, including information services often have the legal right to be consulted, and a brief example is given of employees' councils in Netherlands libraries.

The trade unions can affect the management of the information service in many ways. However, the role of trade unions varies greatly round the world. In a few countries trade union activities are banned; in some others the union works very closely with the management and governing body; in the majority of countries unions are both legal and autonomous but their power and their work differ greatly from one country to another, and even within one country. We give just two examples of trade union activity in libraries. In the first the writer, SCHMIDT, presents in a lively way his attempt to form a local branch of a trade union in a New York city library service, and describes the benefits which the branch, once established, was able to secure from an unsympathetic governing body.

In the second example (NIELSEN, HANSEN and SØRENSEN) the writers argue their case about the computerizing of library services. Computerization can become a sensitive issue if information workers believe that automation will worsen their conditions of work. In extreme cases they may fear that as the computer is wheeled in, the librarians will be wheeled out. HANSEN argues for the introduction of automated operations, negotiated through national or local technology agreements. SØRENSEN, on the other hand argues that the question of working conditions is more important.

These two examples, one where a trade union branch is newly established, and one where an established union has to decide its policy on changes which will affect its members, illustrate the diverse roles that the union can play in the information service.

6. MANAGEMENT OF FINANCIAL AND PHYSICAL RESOURCES

The manager of a library, information or archive service will be concerned with both money and space. Indeed, these two types of resource are likely to occupy a good deal of the manager's time, and, very often, to be a source of worry as well.

To secure for the information service an adequate budget and adequate premises, the manager needs political and diplomatic skills on the one hand, and technical expertise on the other. The first group of skills have been touched on earlier in the book, and the technical skills required to draw up a budget, or design a building, cannot be examined in depth in this work. We give, however, a few representative examples, beginning with the calculation of costs.

6.1 Budgeting

"Principles and methods of costing", by Odile Bernardin.

If an information service needs staff, it also needs money. Most, though not all information services have a budget, and to the director of the service or the senior assistants usually falls the annual task of preparing a set of requests for money to finance the service for the following year. Whoever prepares the budget will also often have to justify their request. BERNARDIN presents a detailed account of how costs can be calculated and a budget request formulated and justified.

6.2 Security

"Security", by Edmund Berkeley; "Disasters: can we plan for them? If not, how can we proceed?", by Willman Spawn.

In archives and research libraries many valuable and often irreplaceable documents are stored. It is the responsibility of the managers of such institutions to ensure the proper conservation of this material. The techniques of conserving material are outside the scope of this reader, but the organisation of security is illustrated by BERKELEY and ways of avoiding or dealing with disasters are enumerated by SPAWN. Much useful and practical advice is given here.

6.3 The design of library and archive buildings

"Archive buildings and equipment", by Michel Duchein.
"The open-plan and flexibility", by H. Faulkner-Brown.
"What space for the library? Discussion on the library building", by Jacqueline Gascuel and Marie-Françoise Bisbrouck

For senior librarians and archivists the physical environment of their collections will be a frequent managerial concern. Although many libraries and archives do not operate in special purpose-built premises, they all take up some space, the design of which will affect the quality and efficiency of the service. The technical details of the design of library and archive buildings is a subject which cannot be treated adequately in this reader. Rather than ignore it altogether, however, we reprint three introductory contributions. DUCHEIN gives an introduction to the design of an archive building. FAULKNER-BROWN writes mainly with university libraries in mind, but his general principles can surely be applied with profit to all library buildings.

Finally GASCUEL and BISBROUCK, both of whom had written books on the subject, discuss the topic of library design with one another. Should libraries be housed with other "cultural" activities? What are the design implications of open access? How flexible should the design be? What shape is best? These and other questions will give a taste of the subject to the reader.

It is to be hoped that the three contributions in this reader will give some ideas to an information manager interested in this subject, but for fuller information more specialized works should be consulted.

7. EVALUATION AND CHANGE

In the preceding sections we have mostly looked at information services at one point in time. If, however, we were to consider our service over a number of years we would perhaps see it growing, or changing the scope of its activities, or perhaps suffering from lack of money or space. Societies change, the information needs of users change, the kinds of information required change. The information service must respond. If it is to do so, then it must evaluate its work. The final contributions to this reader discuss the whole question of evaluating the service or a particular set of operations.

7.1 Evaluating effectiveness

"Evaluating the effectiveness of a library: a theoretical and methodological framework", by André Cossette.
"On evaluating the effectiveness of school libraries", by R. Lemaire.
"Concepts of library goodness", by Michael K. Buckland.

COSSETTE reviews the principal theories underlying the techniques of evaluation. Drawing mostly on North American examples, he asserts that many of the better attempts to test a library's effectiveness have been quite successful. He considers that the managerial approach called systems analysis provides a theoretical foundation for these studies in library effectiveness.

Cossette's article aroused the interest of a French writer (LEMAIRE). He argues that the facts and statistics collected by these investigations do not necessarily mean anything because the objectives of a library are a matter of debate, not of undisputed fact. He is also critical of Cossette's systems approach, with which he has little sympathy. Lemaire's critique is illustrated by examples from school libraries, and includes, for example, a critical comment on "users' needs".

The final contribution in this section is by BUCKLAND. His short article is exploratory, though he writes as someone who has tried to evaluate systematically the value of a library service to users. The disagreements and debates surrounding this topic suggest that it is no easy matter to evaluate the worth of an information service, or rather that any attempt to evaluate the service as a whole will rest on a number of arbitrary assumptions about the objective of the service, a matter on which there is unlikely to be universal agreement.

7.2 Evaluation: specific examples

"The management study", by Richard M. Dougherty and Fred J. Heinritz.
"A cost-analysis of cataloguing at the Universiti Sains Malaysia Library for 1975", by Lim Chee Hong.
"Performance measures for public libraries", by Donald E.K. Wijasuriya.

If it is very difficult to measure the effectiveness of an information service as a whole, it is easier to study the effectiveness of a particular library operation, for here difficult questions about the purpose of the whole information service can be put on one side.

Two American exponents of scientific management (see sections 1.4 and 1.5) demonstrate in the next item how to go about a "management study" (DOUGHERTY and HEINRITZ). By management study they mean the systematic analysis of a series of operations in the information service. Their own clear description of the steps to be taken gives a good idea of how one can review the workings of the various operations and services of a library.

A still more specific example is provided by LIM CHEE HONG. The author shows how the costs of a library's cataloguing section can be measured. Though other information services may catalogue differently, the methods which he describes can be applied in any information service. We may note that in this, as in most library operations, most of the costs are staff costs, and so any increase in "productivity" per member of staff which can be achieved will have a distinct effect on the figures.

WIJASURIYA considers that there is a constant need for the assessment or reassessment of the services provided by the information service - in his case Malaysian public libraries. He shows that the traditional set of standards which have been devised in Malaysia, as in many other countries, does not measure the "performance" of an information service, and proposes the use of "output" measures. By these he means the measurement of the service's actual performance to its community. He admits, though, that these measures of output are difficult to establish.

<<TOC3>> 1. Management, information and development

<<TOC4>> 1.1 Managing information: to what end?

<<TOC5>> On the Librarianship of Poverty

K. J. MCHOMBU

This paper attempts to outline the main characteristics of Librarianship under the conditions of poverty. To the best of my knowledge and conviction, this is the base on which any meaningful discussion of Information Work in underdeveloped countries should be firmly anchored.

The goal of my paper is to set up and elaborate on four principles that, in my view, determine the social relevance of Information Work in developing countries. This is a personal testament, and I hasten to add that the views expressed hereafter do not necessarily represent the official position of my employers - the Tanzania Library Service. Similarly, criticism is not directed at any particular institution or person. Should it appear so, I offer my sincere apologies.

1.1 If their work is to be relevant to society, Information Workers must formulate terms of reference that are consistent with the needs of underdeveloped societies. At the moment, it seems to me that such terms of reference are largely nonexistent, and where they do exist they are vague and frequently irrelevant. Given below are the principles that I believe can help in formulating the appropriate terms of reference (and justify the sweeping statements above).

The principles, which are not mutually exclusive, are:

1. That the chief factor determining Information work in developing countries should be poverty rather than affluence.
2. That Information work in developing countries differs markedly from Information work in developed countries.
3. That it is possible to gather a body of knowledge on how best to meet this challenge.
4. That Information workers must play an active role in the process of socioeconomic development.

This paper was originally presented al an Experts' Conference on Teaching Materials in Library Training, Berlin (West) 1 5-20th December. 1980. The author is Training Of beer, Tanzania Library Service, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.

Libri 1982: vol.. 32, no 3. pp 241-250 0024-2667/82/030241-10 $02.50/0 © 1982 Munksgaard, Copenhagen 16	 Libri 32:3

1.2 Information work and poverty

In Stating that Information work in underdeveloped countries should be based on poverty, I am saying something that could well be embarassingly self-evident. The division of the world into a rich North, and a poor South, is not only reflected in different levels of income, and the sharp difference in most things that make life bearable, but it divides the provision of Information with equal clarity.

In underdeveloped countries the common man is poor, illiterate and concerned with the basics of survival; more than four-fifths of his income is spent on food alone. He is hungry, undernourished, and diseases such as malaria, sleeping sickness, and cholera are his constant companions. Children suffer more than adults; kwashiakor and parasitic diseases claim many of their lives before they reach the age of ten. Only about 40% of the children complete primary school.

More than 90% of the people live in rural areas where transport and communication are very difficult. Within the urban areas, outside the enclaves inhabited by the elite, the majority of people live in slums, the so-called, "Shanty towns". The dwellings are overcrowded, and the level of housing is hopeless by any standards, human or otherwise.

Under-employment and unemployment is widespread, and it is not National Income that grows steadily year by year, but human deprivation and suffering. Another growth area concerns the birth rate, at 3% per year it is the "best" in the world.

This anatomy of poverty and social reality must surely determine the nature, objectives and philosophy of Librarianship in underdeveloped countries. Poverty dictates, for example, the pattern of Information services where the amount of money available per head is less than 1 shilling (10 pence). Such poverty is responsible for a lack of trained staff, a weak publishing industry, and half-empty shelves- in short this is a distinct and different world, one ruled by poverty, ignorance and disease. The factors outlined above are a formidable challenge to the Information Worker in underdeveloped countries and give Information Work a very different quality.

At this point there are three questions that need to be asked; what fundamental knowledge and skills does an Information worker need to work efficiently in such a situation? How can this knowledge be applied to the maximum benefit of the underdeveloped society? Is it possible to gather a body of knowledge on how best to meet this challenge? I cannot pretend to have ready-made answers. Obviously, a considerable amount of interdisciplinary research to these questions is needed to provide the answers required. However, a number of observations can be made.

Conferences and journals such as the present one, create in my view, the right environment in which strategies can be developed for best meeting these problems and assembling the required knowledge and skills of optimum use to Information workers in developing countries.

1.3 A body of knowledge to meet such challenges: My firm belief that it is quite possible to gather together a body of knowledge on how this challenge is best met was stated implicitly above. Such a task requires, primarily, a particular attitude of mind, and secondarily, a suitable methodology that will give the desired results.

The attitude required is one of open-mindedness and objectivity. We must be prepared to subject every aspect of Librarianship to vigorous criticism and evalution because, like it or not, we have to start from the known before moving on to the unknown. Through this selective adaption, it is possible to produce a considerable body of knowledge suitable for the needs of underdeveloped countries. The rest of the knowledge needed will, however, have to be derived from the existing situation and unique problems.

This will be a classic case of theories evolving from practice, rather than of theories being borrowed from abroad and applied misguidedly in a very different context. I dare to suggest that it is possible to produce a distinct body of knowledge suited to the needs of underdeveloped countries using these two methods.

At first, such knowledge will lack form; clearly defined limits and the harmony between one area and another may not always be apparent. Its strong potential will, however, lie in the fact that it is theoretical knowledge that has developed out of existing social problems. It will not be knowledge imported wholesale that is abstract and frequently irrelevant. Such knowledge could well be closer to sociology and the economics of underdevelopment than to traditional librarianship, as understood and practiced in the majority of underdeveloped countries today.

The critical part of this exercise is establishing what is relevant to a particular situation at a particular moment. It is this situational relevance that will shape the new theory of the Librarianship of poverty. Using this approach it could be possible to develop a theoretical framework regarding the following fields:

1. The pattern of Information services.
2. The role of information workers.
3. Existing social factors and their implications for Information workers.
4. Relationship between information work and socio-economic development.

Before proceeding to explore these four fields, I feel it should be emphasized that our colleagues the Economists, sociologists, political scientists and educators have done much work aimed at developing a theoretical base for their professions that is relevant to underdeveloped countries. With careful interdisciplinary comparative studies, we could learn a lot that would be of great value in this undertaking - if only we could for a moment think beyond our hallowed DDC's, Sears Lists, and cataloguing rules.

1.3.1 The pattern of Information Services must reflect the resources of the country.

This statement may be thought to be self-evident if it is realised that Information infrastructure depends on an economic base for financial support. In practice, however, most "planners" of Information units are not free of preconceived notions imported from the developed countries in which they did their training. The standards suggested for libraries in underdeveloped areas are often faithfully copied from British, American or Australian handbooks.

I suggest that an objective attitude may force it upon us that a fresh set of standards more closely related to the actual situation is needed. A start must be made from the basic position that the limited resources must be stretched to provide maximum social benefit. However, social benefit is a concept not easy to measure. It is very easy to confuse means with ends. Very often we take pride in giving "Statistics" covering library buildings constructed within the past five years, the number of motor vehicles purchased, and the librarians and technicians sent for training. This emphasis is sadly misplaced. It is like a motor-car manufacturer who tries to maximise not his output of cars but the number of his workers and the size of his factory.

Given a sum of money, say four million shillings (£ 200,000), we should be able to find out which alternative programme of expenditure would be of greatest benefit. Using costbenefit, and cost-effectiveness methods, we could establish the cheapest path to our goal. We could focus on the end product rather than the means.

These conditions of poverty mean that the need to make the most of limited resources in the provision of Information services is a basic strategy. The construction of libraries, the training of e.g., librarians, and the purchase of motor-vehicles are merely means to an end - they are not the goal of an Information unit in itself. The key question is: how many more people can we serve as a result of a certain item of expenditure?

Considering the majority of information units, we find that the wage bill is around 60% and the capital costs are very high. These two items of expenditure have hampered considerably the development of Information services in most underdeveloped countries. The ridiculous situation where there are cataloguers who are without incoming documents is all too common.

High capital expenditure is the outcome of trying to construct premises modelled on those existing in Europe and North America. The buildings are splendid, but because resources are severely limited, it means that only one or two of these imposing monuments can be erected in a decade. The process of spreading an Information Infrastructure throughout a country is considerably delayed by the adoption of this expensive policy. If we use cost-benefit methods, we may yet discover that it is the cheap, small, well-maintained buildings made of inexpensive building materials that are an important key to the faster growth of our Information services.

All this leads to the conclusion that the standards of Information services must be tailored to the economic ability of a country. If the pattern of Information services is pushed ahead of general economic development, standards will be set that can only be maintained in small pockets of the country. The lucky few may have a very good service, but most people will have no service at all, or a service that is inadequate and at prohibitive distances.

The planning of Information services in developing countries needs to be deliberately related to a particular time and place. The temptation to upgrade standards, complexity, and sophistication before extending coverage needs to be checked, for this "keeping up with the Jones"' results in prestige programmes that do little to extend the coverage of Information services while absorbing large sums of money and pools of skill.

There is yet another reason why plans having a low capital output ratio are to be preferred. Most developing countries have a constantly fluctuating economy because this depends on the export of a few main crops or products - so that as world prices fluctuate the economy alternates from slump to boom and back again in bewildering succession. Government revenues that depend on such earnings reflect these cycles - expensive plans initiated during boom periods act as a painful drain on funds during periods of slump.

1.3.2 The Role of Information workers

Most of the staff holding senior positions in underdeveloped countries have been trained on a background of Information work as practiced in industrialised countries. Not unexpectedly, the prevailing attitude is that this is the way in which users should behave, and the way in which Information services operate. My belief, already stated, is that this is an erroneous view of things because the lavish standards of service that exist in a typical developed country are impossible to maintain in a poor country, unless the objective is to provide an Information service for the fortunate few rather than the majority of mankind in developing societies. Indeed, this does, sadly, appear to be the unstated objective of many an Information service in developing countries. After more than 15 years of existence, and expenditure of millions of shillings, many public Library systems have not yet succeeded in serving more than 1% of the population of their areas.

In most underdeveloped countries, the number of documents per head is low, the average sum spent annually per head of the population is low, and trained staff per head of population is low. Despite these facts, a few favoured areas enjoy a standard of service shaped to European standards. If it took 15 years to reach 1% of the population, how long will it take to reach the remaining 99%? Will it take 99x15 years to serve the whole population? If the present trend continues, I am afraid this could be the case. We could unwittingly provide a service such as that characterised by Bill (1962): 

"- a service supposedly for all, used by only a smallish minority, and found wanting by most."

In the area of manpower planning, care must be taken that the staff required are produced in sufficient quantities to keep pace with the development of the service. Because of the scarcity of resources, greater emphasis may have to be placed on technicians rather than on librarians.

In underdeveloped countries technicians play a different and more important role because of the shortage of librarians, and this situation will continue for the coming decade. The work done by technicians includes tasks such as cataloguing, indexing, readers' advisory work, bibliographic and literature searches - this is work of a more skilled nature than that done by their counterparts in developed countries - because there is no one else to do it.

The shortage of staff can be alleviated if all trained staff are made aware of their obligation to train those working under them. This approach will ensure a snowball effect, because the trained staff will themselves carry out training activities in their own Information units.

The scarcity of everything would seem to indicate that co-operation between Information units should result in economising on resources and overall benefits. Yet, as found in most underdeveloped countries, it is one thing to agree on the importance of co-operation, but a very different thing to practice it. There are some psychological barriers to co-operation that need to be overcome if libraries are to co-operate in our countries.

As already pointed out above, underdeveloped countries have very limited job and career opportunities. Attempts at initiating co-operative ventures are regarded with suspicion because the individuals concerned regard each other as potential rivals. Those with similar qualifications, working in the same field, regard anything achieved by someone else as a threat to their own position in this imaginary but fierce struggle for survival. It is very rare indeed to come across anyone prepared to subordinate his own interests to some broader social goal.

Furthermore, an exchange of fruitful ideas is sometimes very difficult because a senior person will not risk a loss of face by being seen to act on the advice or recommendation of anyone else- especially a junior- as this would seem to indicate that he acknowledges the superiority of someone else.

The conspicuous absence of union catalogues, union lists of serials and centralized cataloguing schemes, more than testifies to this psychological problem. Unless information workers come to realise that it is only by working as a group rather than against one another, that they can achieve their objectives and demonstrate to society what they are capable of doing - continued isolation and "one-up-manship" is a source of weakness and leads to overall ineffectiveness.

1.3.3. The Existing Social Factors and their Implications for Information Workers. A number of existing social factors lack of resources, plans based on Washington and London Standards, and phychological insecurity of information workers making co-operation impossible, etc., were considered in the previous sections of this paper. A further area not yet explored is education and the contradictory attitude of society towards this subject.

It has been pointed out by many a good writer that education is the main correlate of reading and library use, hence the greater the level of education, the greater the likelihood for utilising Library services. However, seen in the light of the experience of underdeveloped countries, this generalisation is not always true.

The decisive factor, is not just "education" alone; the kind of education that a person receives also determines the likelihood of his continued use of Libraries and information services in the community. To a very large extent, formal education in underdeveloped societies is dominated by cultural attitudes towards authority - be it parental, religious or political. The readily accepted attitude is to obey these sources of authority without question. The classroom is a microcosm of the larger society outside; education is largely an unquestioning acceptance of the teaching authority. Books and any reading matter play only a very minor part in the process. Lecture notes and a single textbook can see a student through his academic career. There is very little opportunity for innovation, experimentation, and objective analysis - even at university level.

It is quite plain that every aspect of our education system tends to discourage the formation of wide reading habits. Out of class, reading tasks are seldom assigned, or assigned as a mere formality. Should a student be bold enough to read widely and formulate his own ideas, or ideas in conflict with his class lectures, then he may well fail his examinations.

This narrow-mindedness is considerably reinforced by the examination system in most underdeveloped countries. Because of the limited opportunities available in secondary and high education, the purpose of examinations has now become not a test of a student's mastery of his subject, but primarily to serve as an obstacle to reduce drastically the number of those who go on to higher studies.

Having surmounted this hurdle, through fair means or foul, this tiny group assume the mental attitude of an elite - that they possess particular natural qualifications that are lacking in others. This pseudo-intellectual arrogance has often been articulated by the statement; "After graduation, the only thing I will ever read is the sports page of the daily newspapers".

This specific educational context has resulted in library services in underdeveloped countries having very limited demands - most of the stock is left permanently idle on the shelves to collect dust and mould. The social pressure to expand library services is minimal - to the majority libraries have very little social relevance. Not unexpectedly, the role of library services is still a limited one, and the status of this profession comparatively low.

Many librarians and government officials have failed to discern these underlying factors. Attempts to solve the problems have included the hiring of experts to advise on how to start information units and systems; the formulation of standards copied from Western countries, or requested for foreign aid. To date, most such efforts have not lived up to expectations. The foreign nationals leave the country and their model libraries speedily deteriorate to their former shambles, their textbook reports being filed away out of sight. The standards formulated fail to elicit any action other than temporary curiosity. Foreign aid continues to pour dollars, pounds kroner and Deutsche marks into the country. The slight impact that this aid has had proves that it is only of secondary importance in the development of Information services; money alone does not create an Information system that involves readers, premises, documents and staff. What is of primary importance for such services is local desire and initiative. Foreign aid can help but will never be decisive in the development of Information services in underdeveloped countries. In fact, its periodic availability may deceive planners into indulging in expensive plans left half finished when such aid comes to an end; or acquiring expensive gadgets for which no spare parts or software are forthcoming when the donors leave.

1.3.4 Relationship between Information work and socio-economic development. Socio-economic development concerns every organisation in underdeveloped societies. Information units cannot continue to isolate themselves from this social struggle aimed at giving people a better life. Every worker in an Information unit must study this historical process so as to determine what is expected of him. Anyone who shirks this task risks redundancy because, in the distribution of scarce resources, only those who can demonstrate that they are capable of producing a favourable cost-benefit balance will deserve the funds required. We have no right to expect anything else.

I suggest that having the right attitude is the most important factor in determining how actively Information Services will be involved in this struggle for survival. There is a need to be seen to provide Information geared to development in the fields of agriculture, industry, commerce, education and health. Unfortunately, the majority of Information workers in underdeveloped societies are timid in their approach and have a very limited vision of activities and ways in which Information services can participate in this social struggle. I strongly believe, that an Information worker devoted to national development, having a sense of mission and being committed to this social struggle, and understanding the importance and urgency of modernisation is likely to play an active and fully involved role. It is perhaps quite plain, too, that an Information Worker conditioned to view his job from European standards may come to consider his environment as backward and hopeless, and become a disillusioned misfit. On the other hand, an Information Worker who treats his environment as a positive challenge to be met and finally altered for the better, can became an involved agent of change.

It is only through such involvement in the struggle against the social enemies of poverty, ignorance, and diseases that the relevance of Information services can be firmly established. It takes hard thinking, hard work and patience.

1.4 Summary

This paper attempts to examine how Information services can be developed under conditions of poverty. Information workers must formulate terms of reference for their work consistent with the needs of underdeveloped countries. As this work has to be carried out under conditions of extreme poverty - scant resources must be streched to provide maximum benefit. Means must not be confused with ends: buildings, motor vehicles, and wages are not the objective, hence expenditure on these items can only be justified if it results in an increased number of users.

In order to develop a body of knowledge on how best to meet these challenges, an open-minded and objective attitude is needed. The methods that can be used to gather this body of knowledge include adaptation and experimentation relating to practical problems. The scarcity of resources must be reflected by: the pattern of Information services; the role of Information Workers; the way that Information Services are adapted to the locality concerned and the active participation of Information Workers in national development.

The pattern of Information services must reflect the economic ability of the country concerned rather than follow standards copied blindly from developed countries. The cost-benefit concept is vital in ensuring the optimum use of scant resources and that the cheapest alternative is followed. The pattern of Information services needs to be approached from the bottom upwards rather than from the top downwards. Small, cheap units, located close to where people actually live must come before large, sophisticated libraries.

Information workers need to develop an aggressive attitude and to participate fully in the social struggle for national development. There is also a need for cooperation in order to economise on scant resources. To achieve this, the present psychological problems must be rationalised and overcome. These are the result of the limited career opportunities available that lead people to regard others as rivals, and consider the accomplishments of others as a threat to their own positions. Another problem is a retrogressive education system that depends wholly on the teaching authority, and on a single text-book. Such a system does not lead to the formation of wide reading habits.

The conclusion is that Information Workers must look for solutions to their problems within their own societies rather than depending on foreign aid.

Selected references

1. Asheim, L. Librarianship in the Developing Countries. Urbana, Illinois 1966.

2. Bill, A. H. The Library in the Community in Proceedings of the Annual Conference. The Library Association, 1962 p. 63.

3. Ilomo, C. S. Paraprofessional Library Training in Tanzania: Mimeo.

4. Mchombu, K. I. Information studies programme for Tanzania: A proposal Loughborough, 1979. (unpublished M. A. dissertation).

5. Minder, T. and Whitten, B. Basic Undergraduate Education for Librarianship and Information Science. Journal of Edu for Libr. vol. 15 no. 4, 1975 p. 25-270.

6. Kotei, S. I.-A. Preparing Teaching Materials for Library Education in Ghana: A Historical
Account. Crit meeting, Arusha, 25-30 Nov. 1979.

<<TOC5>> Infrastructure for the development of an information policy

Ermelinda Acerenza (Director of the EUBCA)
Teresa Castilla (Lecturer in Library Organization and Administration)

1. Introduction

The developing countries are lagging behind in the establishment of national information systems because they lack the necessary infrastructures. Some countries, however - Brazil and Mexico, among others - are already making efforts to overcome this problem.

A plan for the development of an information policy may prove to be of consideral importance here.

It serves to channel general efforts towards priority sectors and also becomes an instrument for the integration of information units so as to make them more effective and functional in the future.

The situation prevailing in a given country is described by means of indicators whose preparation enables conclusions to be drawn concerning the transformations that must be made if the deadlock is to be broken and attainable development levels reached.

This strategy must be geared to relatively precise goals, and, more especially, goals that are capable of being achieved.

There is a better chance of attaining such targets with proper planning and monitoring, and this is an approach that has accordingly been adopted by the authorities in recent years.

The process of integration of the developing countries should be focused on the enhanced use of knowledge for the production of goods and services; this means that a more pragmatic approach should be adopted in appraising the course of scientific and technological development in these countries.

All of this involves a reordering of the different factors involved in the processes of creating, disseminating and using knowledge, and they should be evaluated on the basis of their contribution to technical changes in the production sector.

It is here that technical information emerges as an essential input of the innovatory process. Information constitutes a body of conceptual knowledge or data which may be transmitted and/or utilized.

The search for information, its processing, and its application constitute a type of assistance which is offered to the user.

But this is frequently not sufficient, especially when technological problems have to be identified and overcome. Supporting services accordingly come into play in order to cover the stages of the design, launching and implementation of projects.

2. Information policy

Information activities - as prerequisites for research - are essential in decision-making relating to science and technology policy and development. The transfer of information may stop certain bodies from keeping to their own narrow spheres; it may prevent the erroneous interpretation of research findings and their use in strengthening specific, elitist, technocratic positions.

The growing importance of information, in conjunction with technical assistance, constitutes an important change as a new ingredient in production; whatever divergencies there may be in economic forecasts for the coming years, the common denominator to be found in all is the fact that the service industries will probably show the highest growth rates.

Since it is the service industries, of all the economic sectors, which depend to the greatest extent on the transfer of information, it is to be hoped that there will be a parallel expansion in information as well as in the advisory services of specialists in the various branches of knowledge.

Ultimately all organizations seek gain; information services and technical assistance represent a form of investment and whoever is responsible for them is entitled to expect something in return.

The value of information and its growing cost are recognized and a market is being developed for this new consumer article with subscriptions for different types of services. Automatic communication with any part of the world is a reality today and its use is being rapidly extended. It is only a question of time and planning for these facilities to be included among the economic possibilities of information systems.

Information in conjunction with technical assistance, constitutes the basis for the progress of society, and many countries have, for this reason, studied the need for the more systematic planning of their present information infrastructures so as to enable them to make full use of the resources built up at the national level and to participate in the world information systems which exist already or which may come into being in the future.

It may be deduced from the above that planning is essential in all human activities and that information policy is no exception to this rule.

In every historical period, priority is assigned to the attainment of a certain order of things and the planning of information policies should therefore be flexible.

Planning means forecasting. In planning information policy, the form in which knowledge is growing and being systematized by culture must be borne in mind, as well as the ways and means required to transmit it to the users.

Plans should, therefore, be assessed and revised at frequent intervals.

It is also important, if an information policy plan is to have maximum effectiveness, to stress the following points: 

- its specific objectives should be defined and practical results evaluated;

- goals and corresponding stages should be established;

- the resources available (human, material, financial and technological) should be ascertained; 

- resources which are to make up the information system should be analysed, co-ordinated and integrated;

- meetings at the national level on the transfer of information should be promoted;

- an inventory of institutions should be carried out so as to identify the legal framework and the scientific and technological resources available to the country;

- information channels should be developed.

3. Objectives of the information policy and evaluation of its practical results

Objectives should be rank-ordered and an appropriate framework defined within which information needs will emerge and develop. For this purpose:

- measures should be taken to bring out the vital importance of obtaining, organizing, disseminating and utilizing information with a view to encouraging national development and integration, in the context of the production and evaluation of knowledge;

- there should be participation in the country's economic and social progress as a means of enhancing existing national resources so that information policy may be on a par with that of the developed countries;

- a legal framework should be established with provisions covering the theoretical basis of the national information system and technical assistance and also the component parts, including all the specialized units in specific areas;

- the importance of enhancing the interrelations existing between the various areas of information and their respective groups of users should be clearly established, having regard to the social danger represented by excessive fragmentation of knowledge and any monopoly over access to information;

- there should be awareness of the effectiveness of the policy being introduced, attention being given to the receptive capacity of those for whom the information is intended;

- the rapid progress of civilization should be reflected in the training of personnel on the basis of the most sophisticated techniques so that they may play a useful part in the implementation of national information policy;

- the appropriate infrastructure should be created for the purpose of introducing changes; it should be built up with a view to ensuring the full use of national resources and participation in existing information systems or those which may come into being in the future; the infrastructure should be developed in order to provide support for the functioning and continuity of the national system, consolidating theoretical bases, relations with the competent authorities and the technical and professional personnel, the aim being to ensure that the activities undertaken will produce constructive results.

All countries have political components which are bound to affect the system; efforts should accordingly be made, through appropriate strategies, to seek results in line with the objectives set, which will naturally differ from one country to another.

The methodologies, criteria and techniques of evaluation are essentially dynamic and should be geared to the strategic and technical modifications that may be involved in the development process.

A methodology applicable at all times and all places is inadvisable; on the contrary, it should be geared to the pace of the country's development in order to ensure its greater effectiveness.

The task of reconciling the micro-economic interests of the user with the macro-economic and social interests of the country constitutes, to a certain extent, the key to the forms of selection and the methodologies of evaluation of information and technical assistance.

Evaluation for what purpose? What should be evaluated? How should it be evaluated? When should it be evaluated?

Once the context has been ascertained, then the guidelines and criteria which may be used to set up an evaluation structure fall into place.

Evaluation is a rational and political process. It should be carried out at both the micro- and the macro-economic levels. At the micro-economic level, the factor of cost-effectiveness and the question of the utilization of information might be used as evaluation criteria. At the macro-economic level, the basis for evaluation is the use of information as an instrument of change in regard to the country's social and economic conditions which would subsequently enable the community to draw closer to its chosen goal.

The general features of the plan or the national programme have to be sought so as to obtain specific and practical criteria for use in evaluation. The establishment of criteria is of value only in providing a specific framework on the basis of which the evaluation itself might be made.

What is essential is to avoid a theoretical, general approach and to make the analysis as objective, feasible and practical as possible.

The cost of overall evaluation may turn out to be so expensive that it is no longer feasible. It is therefore important to evaluate services that are centralized by areas and are essential for the development of the country or for the strategy that it has established.

It is necessary to select leading sectors in which the operational bases of the nationally-organized mechanisms involved in development may be established.

Integrated evaluation should, from the initial stage of planning information policy seek to determine: the effects of the system as regards the benefits to be gained by those who will be using it; the basis for improving, justifying or giving up the system.

It is then, important to concentrate the use of the evaluation techniques, taking into account the following points:

1. formulation of national policies;

2. design of national information systems;

3. implementation of systems, considering:
- feasibility of the service,
- identification of the market,
- organization and strategy of development by stages.

The effectiveness of the evaluation of the practical results of the information policy may be gauged from:

-the quantity and quality of the activities being undertaken;
- the results of the efforts made;
- the extent to which the results obtained match up to the full needs of the service;
- the results obtained by comparing the efforts made with the means of attaining the objectives;
- research into the causes determining the desired results.

4. Goals and stages

The conceptual and philosophical framework described above constitutes the starting-point for the appropriate systematization of the stages to be covered.

The system is designed to be developed at the national level in successive stages, with distinct goals for the different periods.

In the stage to be planned first, the field of application will be confined to priorities established in national development plans. In subsequent stages the necessary steps will be taken to extend it to other sectors within the national territory.

The following points should be taken into account in implementing the system:

- identification and dissemination of its objectives;
- preparation of instruments such as will attain the objectives set;
- listing of existing information units and ensuring their co-ordination with a view to integration; 
- analysing, describing, specifying and classifying their components;
- initiating the normal functioning of the system and making it operational;
- gearing it to the needs arising from its practical application;
- adjusting and adopting, on an experimental basis, the results of evaluation, with a view to the creation of a new model;
- making the competent authorities aware of the need for the system, and of its policy and characteristics;
- providing training, as far as possible, at the operational levels of the sectors assigned priority in the country's development plan;
- drawing up the profile of users;
- listing the needs of each specialized area;
- planning and providing for redistribution where imbalances exist, according to the list drawn up; 
- preparing an appropriate policy to remedy weaknesses in information and ensure its steady growth;
- classifying the different variables which affect the problem, and designing the instruments required to establish the appropriate parameters;
- studying and putting into effect the channelling mechanisms that will lead to centralization; 
- providing advice to the component units and improving the information and analysis services.

The following methods will be employed in working towards the objectives set:

- field studies;
- meetings with technicians in the specialized areas;
- organization of seminars and training courses in specialized subjects and skills;
- use of techniques in line with the economic possibilities of the country involved.

5. Structural aspects

The strategy for developing structural aspects includes, as its first stage, the generation of a process of 'outward' growth so as to provide the foreign currency required to finance investments.

Various methods may be used, individually or jointly, in drawing up the strategy:

- increasing the number of components in the system;
- changing the techniques used, replacing traditional methods by more advanced techniques for data processing and retrieval;
- increasing effectiveness.

Use of the first two methods requires general agreement concerning their application.

In the case of the second, it should be pointed out that it has the advantage of being the development strategy which leads to the most rapid growth in information processing.

The third method, that of increasing effectiveness, should remain the fundamental basis of the strategy for developing the system.

Countries should make considerable efforts to step up the process of introducing technology and modernizing the whole of their resources.

Once all the data have been compiled, a reply can be given to all the queries concerning the technological level (use of inputs, current practices, information processing, outputs, human resources, etc.). This, in turn, calls for the effective interrelating of the various capacities so as to ensure that the technological progress achieved is turned to full account.

As a result, there should be a focal point or central unit - whose purpose is to carry out all the necessary studies and research, formulate policies and co-ordinate programme implementation - which will work with the information units in each specialized area, namely those units responsible for putting into effect the methods approved. This whole process will be carried out under the technical guidance of the central unit.

The success of the system calls for:

- institutional consolidation (central unit and units in areas of specialized information);

- official support from the highest authorities;
- active assistance of the library specialist who will be responsible for translating the goals proposed into reality;
- the replacement of manual techniques by an appropriate form, in both qualitative and quantitative terms, of advanced data processing;
- the channelling of information to the data preparation and processing centres.

In anticipation of these operations, the countries concerned should strengthen and improve:

- the master plan for computerization and its implementation aspects;
- the structure of the computer centres;
- the training of programmers, operators, systems analysts and administrators for the main computer centre;
- the training of information science specialists.

6. Professional training

This aspect should not be neglected in librarianship studies. The institutes which provide such training should come under a university or have university support, and they should also be recognized by the competent authorities.

The important thing is for the librarian to be an information specialist, trained to participate in the preparation of new structures in the developing countries, responsible for all aspects of research concerning the design, supervision and development of information systems at a high level, capable of taking decisions regarding operational, executive, technological, organizational and administrative matters in libraries and archives.

He should also be able to operate at the following levels:

- the hierarchical level - management of information systems of a high level, with responsibility for methodology and organization of information;
- the research level - documentation and information sciences;
- the technical level - implementation of systems-based operations;
- the technical auxiliary level - for routine operations in support of the higher levels.

There will be a potential for development at each level, providing bases and points of growth that will enable new practices to be implemented in order to further national development.

The decade of the 1970s took the developing countries - which were going through transitional stages - by surprise in regard to the use of new methods for information handling. Traditional methods were abandoned and replaced by more sophisticated procedures regarded as semi-automatic, including the system of co-ordinate indexing known as the uniterm method.

Since programmes should contribute to national understanding, curricula should cover two main sectors:

- studies based on traditional systems;
- studies in which emphasis is given to the information sciences and the automatization of libraries.

In the teaching of library science, the fact has to be faced that we have entered a period in which libraries are abandoning current structures and are becoming part of national systems, with a view to integration at the international level, involving mastery of advanced techniques. As the number of libraries using traditional methods decreases, so studies should be directed towards support for national information policy.

Information policy is bound to make steady progress over the next five years and the developing countries will require more efficient systems involving the use of the necessary data-processing technology. They must therefore establish appropriate forward plans so as to be able to cope with the changes that will take place.

7. Conclusions

The plan submitted must satisfy the acutely felt need for the efficient dissemination of the knowledge built up in the country and abroad; it should increase the total sum of knowledge and improve the individual capacities of each country. It is impossible to move from a complete absence of activities to full operational level in one stride. Since implementation will certainly involve considerable effort and outlay, it seems appropriate to consider the real possibilities of putting such a plan into effect. From the point of view of implementation capacity, it has to be recognized that this is one of the variables to be considered in the short term. On this basis it should be possible to attain the growth rates required, and this accordingly means that there is a greater possibility of being able to reach the goals fixed.

The financing of the plan should be ensured more especially by the generation of resources through public or private enterprises, as appropriate. This would be the best way of guaranteeing the achievement of the planned targets.

8. Bibliographical references

Libraries in factories and large firms, Maria BRAZ, Unesco Bulletin for Libraries, Vol. 22, No. 5, September-October 1968, pp. 236-240.

Ciencia e industria: un caso argentino/Alberto Araoz, Carlos Martinez Videl - Washington: OEA, 1974.

DEVSIS diseño preliminar de un sistema internacional de información para las ciencias del desarrollo/Grupo de Estudio DEVSIS, Geneva, 1975 - Ottawa: CIID, 1976.

Directrices para la evaluación de seminarios, reuniones de trabajo prácticos y cursos de formación sobre información y documentación cientificas y técnicas/ F.W. Lancaster - Montevideo Unesco Regional Office for Science and Technology for Latin America and the Caribbean, 1976.

Guidelines for the organization of training courses, workshops and seminars in scientific and technical information and documentation/Pauline Atherton; Paris, Unesco, 1975.

Information science education and development; Tefko Saracevic; Unesco Bulletin for Libraries, Vol. 31, No. 3, May-June 1977, pp. 134-141.

Final report of UNISIST/Seminar on the Education and Training of Users of Scientific Information, Rome, 1976 - Paris, Unesco, 1976. Information services in industry: the future prospects/B.C. Burrows - ASLIB Proceed.-s 25 (10): pp. 364-374, October 1973.

Information transfer in the industrial environment: the requirements of industry/David Rowe - ASLIB Proceed.-s 25 (11): pp. 425-429, November 1973.

Informe sobre servicios de información y asistencia técnica a las empresas/ Reunión del Grupo de Trabajo creado por la resolución AG/RES. 233 (VI-0/76). Washington, 1977 - Washington: OEA, 1977.

National planning of documentation and library services in Arab countries/ Expert Meeting, Cairo, 1974. Bull. Unesco Libr.-s 28 (4): pp. 182-187, July/ August 1974.

NATIS preliminary survey of education and training programmes at university level in information and library science/D.J. Foskett - Paris, Unesco, 1976.

Pay as you go: plan for satellite industrial libraries using academic facilities/James B. Dodd - Spec. Libr.-s 65 (2): pp. 66-72, February 1974.

Plan nacional de desarrollo 1973-1977/SEPLACOD (Uruguay) - Montevideo. Presidencia de la República, 1977.

Problems and prospects in information service for small industry/ K. Bhattacharyya - Jour Librarian 5 (4): pp. 264-292, October 1973.

Proposed terms of reference for the implementation phase of the Latin American Technological Information Network (RITLA): paper prepared for the Meeting of Experts, Mexico, 1977/Personal invitation, convened at the Headquarters of the Permanent Secretariat - Mexico, 1977.

Service to industry by independent research libraries/William S. Buddington Libr. Tre.-s 14 (3): pp. 288-294. January 1966.

Sistema cientifico y técnico nacional/CONYCYT - Montevideo, 1974. 

La transmisión rapida de información preliminar en ciencia y tecnologia/ T. Ohoherha-Bol. Unesco Bibl.-s 27 (4): pp. 221-224, July/August 1973.

Uruguay: sistema nacional de información científica y técnica/Betty Johnson de Vodanovic - Montevideo, Unesco Regional Office for Science and Technology for Latin America and the Caribbean, 1977.

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P043.PNG Model for a national information system (DRAFT) 

<<TOC5>> The use of archive material of the countries of the socialist community for national economic purposes

F.I. Dolgih

Retrospective documentary information is important because virtually no sector of the national economy, science or culture can advance without scrutinizing and drawing upon the lessons of the past. Such information is particularly timely at the present stage of the development of society, when the gathering pace of scientific and technological progress has become a decisive factor in raising the effectiveness of social production.

Meeting society's needs in regard to retrospective documentary information is one of the basic functions of the State archive services of the countries of the socialist community. It was therefore highly relevant to discuss, at the meeting of archivists of the countries of the socialist community, the problem of organizing the utilization of archive material for national economic purposes.

General. For the archive institutions of the countries of the socialist community, the notion of utilization of material to serve national economic interests includes primarily full utilization of the information contained in the material for the purpose of tackling present-day economic development tasks.

The utilization of material for national economic purposes is understood by archivists in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to cover reference to the documentary information of ministries and departments, research and design institutions, enterprises and other organizations in forecasting and planning the country's economic development, improving management and accounting, executing planning and experimental design work and applied research, optimizing production and technological processes, and so on.

Archive material - chiefly scientific, technological and cartographic documentation - is used in the planning, construction and reconstruction of water-management works, communications infrastructures, industrial enterprises and public buildings, in geological prospection and mining, in the restoration of historical and cultural monuments and in the further development of agricultural production, forestry and environmental protection.

Extensive use of retrospective information is made in all countries of the socialist community when preparing plans for irrigation works, constructing reservoirs and conducting operations in connection with river regulation, protecting banks from overflowing and flooding, and so on. In the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, for example, material presented by archivists was drawn upon for planning major hydraulic works on the Song Koi and projecting the exploitation of the Mekong Delta. Geographical, geological and hydrological material has been used by Vietnamese specialists in connection with the establishment of hydrological improvement schemes and the construction of hydroelectric power plants, including that on the Da Dung (the largest in South-East Asia).

Soviet archive material was used in the reconstruction of the cascade of hydrosystems on the Dnieper, in the elaboration of comprehensive water-management plans for the Zeya and Selenga, Kura and Naryn and northern rivers, in the designing of a dyke to protect Leningrad from flooding, and in other schemes.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The archives of a number of socialist countries (Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Romania, the USSR and Viet Nam) make their material available to organizations concerned with the planning, construction and reconstruction of roads, railways and bridges. In particular, archive material was used in connection with the strengthening of bridges over the Osum in Bulgaria, the reconstruction of the 'Unity' railway line between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in Viet Nam, railway electrification, construction and reconstruction of motorways and the routing of new highways in the German Democratic Republic, the rebuilding of a railway bridge over the Warta in Poland, the construction of railway lines in Slovakia, and the planning of the Baikal-Amur line in the USSR.

The study by specialists of maps, plans and other material from geological prospections of earlier years and of information on the occurrence of mineral resources has assisted the extension and intensification of their mining, renewed industrial exploitation of previously abandoned pits and mines and the reconstruction and modernization of mining and other industrial enterprises in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the USSR.

In all countries of the socialist community active recourse is had to archive material in connection with the restoration of historical and cultural monuments and the reconstruction and repair of residential and public buildings and urban communications. Some instances of this have been the reconstruction of the Higher Medical Institute building in Bulgaria; the construction of the 'Poznan' hotel and the repairing of the swimming pool at the Olympic stadium in Wroclaw and the reconstruction of a number of parks, including Srebrna Góra, in Poland; and the rehabilitation of historic centres in Bratislava, Kremze, Levoca and elsewhere in Czechoslovakia. Material from the State archives of the USSR has been made available to organizations working on the restoration of the structural complex of the Moscow Kremlin, architectural monuments in old Russian cities forming part of the 'Golden Ring', parts of the suburbs of Leningrad, the main street of Kiev - the Kreshchatik - and much else.

In recent years specialists engaged in agriculture and forestry in all the countries of the socialist community have been making increasingly frequent use of archive material. On the basis of such material, Vietnamese agronomists carried out work on such crops as tea, rice, coffee and rubber; Hungarian specialists investigated archives in order to determine the influence of Lake Balaton on agriculture; study by German scientists of data regarding the composition of forest stands in former years assisted preparation of a long-term plan for national forestry development; in Poland, information on ponds and reservoirs was of assistance in measures to develop fishing in the Dolny Slazk region; and representatives of the Higher Agricultural School of Slovakia made use of archive material in work on the improvement of agricultural crops and livestock species.

Considerable work is done by Soviet archives on organizing the utilization of material in the interests of agricultural development. In pursuance of the decision of the March 1965 Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CC/CPSU) 'on urgent measures to secure the further development of agriculture in the USSR', the 1974 decision of the CC/CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR 'on measures to secure the further development of agriculture outside the Black-Earth Zone of the RSFSR', the decisions of the 1982 May and November Plenums of the CC/CPSU and the tasks set in his speech to the November 1982 Plenum by Y.V. Andropov, General Secretary of the CC/CPSU, State archives make available to interested organizations material throwing light on the development of agriculture: on the zoning and structure of sown areas, crop pest control, the breeding of various species of livestock, the growing of experimental cereal and feed crops, irrigation and field-protection works, the utilization of reservoirs for fish breeding, and so on.

Retrospective documentary information is also used in the USSR in the preparation of State instruments and government decisions. For instance, when preparing the Land Act and the Cadastral Survey specialists studied sets of material on arable and pasture lands and soil maps; in the preparation of a number of decisions on environmental protection, use was made of control regulation documents specifying nature protection measures.

Archive material is extensively drawn upon by scientists and specialists for forecasting and forward planning of the socio-economic development of the USSR, of particular branches of the national economy and of individual regions of the country

A variable amount of working time is spent on organizing the utilization of archive material in the countries of the Socialist community for national economic purposes. While Czechoslovak archivists spend on such documentary work about 4 per cent of the time allotted to scientific information activity, the corresponding proportions in Hungary and Romania are as much as 20 per cent. Such activity accounts for over 50 per cent in the case of Vietnamese archivists, and in Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic, Poland and the USSR it averages 10 per cent.

Communist parties and governments of countries of the socialist community attach great importance to State archives as sources of information on national economic matters. Many legal instruments and guidance documents contain provisions encouraging the use of archive information. For instance, a number of decisions of the Party and Government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam point to the need to have recourse to archive material when organizing 'specialized works'. A circular signed by President do Chi Minh on 3 January 1946, the first standard-setting instrument of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam on archive administration, contains recommendations on the use of archive material in development work aiding the national economy.

A Hungarian extraordinary decree of 1969, in a section concerning the regulation of clerical work, emphasizes the need to devise such a system of organizing departmental records as will serve the interests of the national economy.

A 1976 decision of the Government of the German Democratic Republic on State archives makes it their main duty to supply information to State and national economic bodies and institutions. Legislation on specific branches of the national economy also indicates the need to make use of archive material.

The 1971 Decree on National Archives of the Socialist Republic of Romania provides for a number of measures intended to stimulate the information activity of archive institutions for national economic needs.

In the USSR, work on the utilization of material in the interests of the national economy began in the earliest years of Soviet archive construction. Lenin's decree of 1 June 1918 'on the reorganization and centralization of archives in the RSFSR', which is a basic instrument of archivists, emphasizes that archive material is centralized 'for purposes of optimum scientific utilization'.

The tasks of archives in aiding the national economy have been reflected in a number of legislative instruments of the Soviet Government on archive management. In particular, the 1980 Statute concerning the State Archives of the USSR singles out the utilization of archive material for national economic purposes as one of the main policy lines for State archives.

Work on arranging for the utilization of documentary resources for national economic purposes is organized by the archives of all countries of the socialist community, on the basis of socio-economic development targets set by Communist Party Congresses.

In the matter of utilization of archive material Soviet archivists are primarily guided by the decisions of the CPSU Congresses and the decisions of the Party and Government regarding economic, scientific and cultural development. At the present-day stage, such programme-setting material is provided by the decisions of the 26th CPSU Congress, which approved the 'Basic lines of economic and social development of the USSR for 1981-1985 and in the period to 1990', and the decisions of the May and November 1982 Plenums of the CPSU Central Committee.

Drawing upon such material, the State archives make documentary information available to ministries, departments and organizations for working out the country's practical socio-economic development tasks, thereby helping to establish the material and technical base of communism. Special impetus was given to the utilization of archive material, for national economic ends included, in the jubilee year of 1982, which was celebrated by all the peoples of the Soviet Union in commemoration of the triumph of Lenin's national policy.

Organizational bases. In all countries of the socialist community archive bodies fulfil a co-ordinating and directing role in organizing the utilization of State records for national economic purposes. This work is provided for in long-term and annual plans of archive institutions and conducted in close contact with interested establishments and organizations.

In planning scientific information activity, a particularly important factor is knowledge of the requirements of the national economy regarding retrospective information. Archives therefore study State and regional economic plans, organize joint discussions with potential users of archive material on matters of information activity and investigate the subject-matter of research conducted via reading rooms. It has become a firmly established practice for many archives in the USSR to harmonize and clarify the subject matter of record disclosure concerning national economic problems with users of documentary information.

Archives conduct theoretical elaboration of the problem of studying social requirements regarding retrospective documentary information. Great interest, for example, is aroused by the work of Bulgarian archivists on 'user demand for documentary information in agriculture', 'user demand for documentary information for social management purposes' and other themes.

In the Soviet Union, in accordance with the 1981-1985 five-year plan for the development of archive administration, a study is made of society's need for retrospective information, and the intensity of record utilization, for national economic purposes included, is investigated.

In the archives of all countries of the socialist community the provision of archival information for the national economy is free of charge. Alongside this, in order to satisfy the maximum number of applications for disclosure of requisite material, inclusive of that serving national economic needs, a number of central State archives of the USSR have established special subdivisions fulfilling the orders of institutions, organizations and enterprises on a contractual basis (for payment according to approved tariffs).

The utilization of material for national economic purposes is, as a rule. organized by trained personnel in close contact with specialists in the various branches of the national economy. For example, such co-operation is effected in connection with the disclosure of material concerning mining (Czechoslovakia and the German Democratic Republic).

The utilization of material for national economic needs in archives of all the countries of the socialist community is recorded by means of an established in-house statistical system, usually on index cards by subject of disclosed material.

Forms of information. In order to provide interested ministries, departments, institutions and organizations with retrospective documentary information, archive establishments adopt a variety of working procedures, including the preparation on their own initiative of information material (letters, reviews, lists, information sheets, etc.); the utilization of surveys on national economic topics; the issuing of material to specialists in reading rooms; the preparation of copies of material or provision of the originals for temporary use; the mounting of documentary exhibitions; the holding of meetings of archive personnel with representatives of interested organizations; and the release of information to the press, radio and television about archive material.

In view of the great importance of the utilization of archive material for national economic development, archivists of all countries of the socialist community take the initiative in providing unsolicited information to interested institutions regarding the availability of material on particular subjects to which recourse may be had when studying specific problems or tackling practical assignments in connection with national economic development.

Many examples can be cited of such exceedingly useful information prepared by archives of the countries of the socialist community. Bulgarian archivists, for instance, provided interested institutions with lists of documents on 'tobacco-growing in the Blagoevgrad area, 1934-1944', 'socialist reorganization of agriculture in the Lovech area, 1944-1958', 'industrial development in the Pleven area, 1900-1947' and other themes.

In the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam information letters were prepared on material concerning investigations of marine currents at the Hamrong Rapids and prevention of silting of the rapids, construction of a deep-water port in Along Bay, the hydrographic regime of rivers, a river-dam system and work on protection against flooding and hurricanes.

Soviet archivists regard the provision of anticipatory information as one of the most important and forward-looking forms of their work. The USSR Central State Archive of the National Economy (CGANH) has informed ministries and departments, research establishments, industrial combines, enterprises and branch scientific and technological information centres about sets of documentary material describing the development of the various branches of the national economy (power engineering, machine-building, the chemical industry, transport, agriculture, etc.). The Central State Archives of Scientific and Technological Documentation of the Byelorussian SSR made available to planners a list of documents on items located along the route of the metropolitan railway under construction. The Central State Archive of Scientific, Technological and Medical Documentation of the Azerbaidjan SSR sent the appropriate organizations information about material on the history of the oil industry, extraction of oil from the sea-bed, the development of deep drilling for oil, and the construction of oil and gas pipelines. Uzbek and Kazakh archivists have provided interested organizations with material containing information about the water resources and irrigation works of those republics.

It should be noted that in most archives of the socialist countries a system exists for the selective distribution of information prepared on the initiative of the archives. In some cases a subscription system operates whereby users can be informed of the availability in the archives of material on a particular topic. Under this system, institutions receiving such information are required to report back to the archives on how it is used.

Archivists in a number of countries (Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the USSR) prepare synoptic reports containing both information on existing material and an assessment of its importance to the user. In the Slovak Socialist Republic, for example, such reports are prepared at the request of ministries, government departments and working groups of symposia, seminars, conferences and meetings.

Romanian archives have compiled consolidated reports on 'mining maps of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries', 'prospection for and extraction of ores and other mineral resources', 'works on the study and analysis of mineral deposits', 'land-reclamation projects and plans; and other themes.

Experience has been amassed in the USSR of the preparation of analytical summaries of documents on the development of individual branches of industry that are of assistance to interested organizations in their practical work.

To provide greater opportunities for the utilization of material, archives issue various reference works containing information about material touching upon national economic problems. An example of such a publication is the directory of the holdings of the USSR Central State Archives of the National Economy concerning the history of building organizations between 1917 and 1957. Hungarian archivists have drawn up international consolidated information, the year 1980 seeing the publication of the guide 'Capitals of Europe. Sources for the history of architecture', which contains valuable information on material concerning the history of the cities and the architectural monuments of European capitals. In Bulgaria, brief information publications are brought out on individual archives providing particulars of the largest and most informative archive holdings.

In organizing information activity, archivists of the countries of the socialist community attach great importance to studying and applying the most effective methods of making archival information available to interested institutions. Thus, the Polish research collective 'Informatics and archives' concerns itself with elaborating methods of information work, and also determining advance subject-matter for the disclosure of material of national economic significance. Hungarian archivists are working on a programme for the use of computer technology in keeping a record of holdings and content of archive material, which makes for fuller satisfaction of national economic requirements. Computers are also being used to elaborate a forward-looking programme for the development of Hungarian archives up to the year 2000, one of whose basic tasks is to raise the effectiveness of archive utilization for national economic purposes.

A considerable part of the work of archive institutions is represented by organization of the consultation of material in reading rooms, where national economic specialists are given every opportunity of obtaining exhaustive information on a given subject.

In all archives researchers are able to obtain photocopies and microfilms of material. Essential technical documentation, particularly when it comes in large format, is lent to institutions.

One way in which interested institutions and enterprises are notified of material on national economic subjects is the holding of meetings between archivists and national economic specialists. Archivists now deliver reports more frequently at meetings in scientific institutions and establishments and in enterprises.

Supplying society with the necessary documentary information nowadays requires the devising of new methods of information retrieval for archives, based on modern technology. For this purpose, an automated scientific and technological information system is being established in the Soviet Union, based on the central holdings catalogue of the principle archive of the USSR, together with an automated information retrieval system for the thematic entity 'Architecture and urban development of Moscow, Leningrad and their suburbs'.

Plans for the establishment of automated information retrieval are being actively worked out by Romanian archivists.

Study of the effectiveness of utilization of material. In making documentary information available, archival institutions take great interest in how the information is used and how effective it is. In this connection, account is taken of the interest shown by users in information material as reflected by orders for subsequent thematic amplification of holdings and for copies of material, the sending of specialists for work in archive reading rooms, and the utilization of archive material for preparing national economic plans, scientific studies, and so on.

Furthermore, Romanian archivists include among the criteria of effective utilization of material the growing attention given by institutions using archive material to the organization of their own departmental records.

Archive institutions of all countries of the socialist community regard study of the effectiveness of information work as an important link in the overall system of utilization of material. To this end, they conduct a periodical collection of information from institutions regarding the economic benefit derived from using documentary information in preparing projects for the reconstruction of communication infrastructures, hydrotechnological constructions and urban communication networks, and in the restoration of monuments of history and architecture, and so forth.

Interesting work in this direction has been conducted by archivists in the German Democratic Republic, who have gathered data on the effectiveness of utilization of archive material by ministries, departments and other national institutions over a number of years. In the case of the Freiberg branch of the Dresden State Archive, it has been confirmed on documentary evidence that the annual economic benefit accruing from the utilization of material from that archive alone averages 1.2 million ostmarks.

Archives in Bulgaria and the USSR send out to institutions, together with information documents, specially prepared questionnaires - with a request to complete and return them. On the basis of the information so obtained, Bulgarian archivists prepared scientific studies on the themes: 'The economic effect of utilization of technical documents in the practical work of institutions' and 'Assessing the effectiveness of utilization of archive material'.

+ + +

Work on the utilization of material in the interests of the national economy occupies a considerable place in the activity of all archival institutions of the countries of the socialist community. Archives provide party, State and economic organs and scientific institutions with retrospective information, which is of assistance in tackling a great many important practical tasks.

The problem of organizing retrospective information in the interests of economic, cultural and scientific development is nowadays becoming an all important matter for archival institutions. When organizing the utilization of archive material in the interests of the economy - for the purposes of planning, improving organizational structure and management methods and carrying out design and restoration work - archivists make their contribution to the socio-economic development of the socialist countries.

The work of archival institutions in meeting the requirements of the national economy regarding essential retrospective information has been recognized by party and government organs and by ministries, departments, institutions and enterprises. An ongoing task of archivists is to raise the scientific standard of information work, extend anticipatory information for institutions in the economic sector and put this work on a planned footing.

The efficacy of scientific information activity depends to a great extent on knowing retrospective information requirements, which makes it possible to meet not only existing but also potential demand. An important task therefore is to extend contacts and co-operation between archives and ministries and departments, research institutions and industry, chiefly at the work planning stage.

A by no means insignificant aspect is the establishment of feedback from users such as will enable archives to obtain advice in their investigation work concerning requisite retrospective information, and also in turn to provide systematic instruction for representatives of institutions in the economic sector in methods of utilizing archive material.

Questions of improving the work of archives are in a number of countries bound up also with the establishment in State archives of special sections or groups of personnel required to deal solely with the preparation of material to be used for economic purposes, this being the case in Bulgaria and Slovakia. Vietnamese archivists are proposing to discuss the desirability of upgrading archive workers by instructing them in a specific range of skills concerned with major branches of the economy or of involving specialists from economic branches in the work and familiarizing them with archive administration methods.

Of great importance for improving the information work of archives is research connected with elaborating new forward-looking forms and trends in the utilization of material, methods for studying the formation of society's requirements regarding archival information and the trends and patterns of their development.

Archival institutions are faced with a number of tasks concerning improvement of reference arrangements in regard to holdings and the establishment of new information retrieval systems. The successful completion of all these tasks will serve the further advancement of archive administration in the countries of the socialist community, in keeping with the present-day demands made of State archive services.

<<TOC5>> The special utility of archives for tie developing world 

(Report presented to the VIIIth International Congress on Archives, Washington, D.C., 27 September-1 October 1976.)

Guy CANGAH

The subjects chosen for the International Congress on Archives: "The Special Utility of Archives in Developing Countries" has raised numerous problems.

Concerning the topic, we have asked ourselves the following questions:

1. Can we speak of the special utility of archives in developing countries?
2. Are not the ends of an archival service the same in developing countries and in developed countries?

Concerning the preparation of our study, we were given the freedom to choose our method: to give an authoritative report of our conception of the role of an archival service in developing countries, or to use a questionnaire and then make a synthesis of the results.

We preferred the first method; nevertheless we called upon our colleagues in Senegal, Upper Volta, and Niger and asked them to give us their thoughts upon the subjects.

Only Senegal sent us a reply, and we extend our deepest thanks to our colleague, Mr. Mbaye, for sending us a few lines upon the subject, enabling us not to limit ourselves to the Ivory Coast's conception of archives and their role in the struggle for development.

One of the characteristics of developing countries is that they are faced with many problems occurring at the same time. In fact, these countries must not only make up for their delay, but also must keep up with technological progress in order to attain their objectives.

This special situation leads them to make relatively greater and more numerous efforts at the economic, social, and cultural level than advanced countries.

In order to carry out activities simultaneously in all these areas, under present conditions the developing countries have only one implement: the government. In fact, in the majority of these countries, the government, often still embryonic, is the only truly organized institution. For this reason, it is responsible for programming economic, social and cultural development.

The basis of administrative work is the management of records. This must be done consistently and efficiently. In fact, it must be done not only to avoid wasting time, money, and personnel resources, but also to do everything to ensure that the choices made by the people responsible are the best possible choices. The control of records cannot be achieved unless the people responsible have a complete understanding of how records are created. For this reason, in the developing countries, the archives constitute an inexhaustible source of information upon which the government can always draw.

Therefore, the government must turn to these sources of information in order to carry out their mission. The absence of national archival systems and intermediate records management systems handicaps the administrator, whereas a consistent system of records management and archives administration allows the administrator to contribute effectively to the economic, social, and cultural development of his country. Therefore, archives are an administrative tool and a preliminary necessity for planning national development.

These findings have led certain developing countries like the Ivory Coast to embark upon the utilization of "data processing", a computerized information retrieval system whose uses are related to the economic', scientific, and cultural aspects of development.

On the economic level, these countries have inherited the structures of the colonial economy. Therefore, agriculture was oriented toward the production of raw materials for exportation, whereas industry was devoted to the manufacture of current products. Today, these countries must concentrate upon the development and maximum utilization of agriculture as well as mined resources necessary in order to obtain the currencies provided by exports, and, in addition, to base modern transformation industries upon these resources.

The government is essentially concerned with economic research. The optimum development of the material and human potentialities of developing countries can only be carried out successfully to the extent that these countries' resources are estimated at their true value. Such an estimation implies that a large number of evaluation operations have been carried out successfully, operations which-can only be envisaged if archival documents conserved in the national depositories are available.

Planning constitutes a fine illustration of the role that archives are beginning to play within the framework of economic development. Planning is, in fact, giving consideration to the broad trends in economic, social, and cultural fields. Therefore, planning in itself is a way of organizing the present through a scientific study of the future. Nevertheless, in order to be realistic, planning must be based upon an evaluation of the country's situation which is as complete and as exact as possible. Such an evaluation can be prepared using studies of earlier developments of the amount of progress accomplished over the years in the different sectors of national life.

The information that allows planners to perceive significant trends is contained in archival documents, to which they must refer continuously. For example, working out the details of an industrialization program implies that a very complete examination of raw materials, labor, methods of transportation, cost prices, and markets has been made. This information - statistics, research carried out by the different government services… - puts the planners in a position to make a Judicious choice among the different industrial projects which have been proposed a priori.

This exam-pie of analysis based upon records, especially prepared by the government services responsible for planning, illustrates clearly how important the large amount of information contained in archival documents can be for situations related to economic development. And this development is only one field in which the archives can be of use.

In fact, while very useful for defining and guiding economic development, archives have uses that are no less important in scientific and cultural fields.

In fact, archives are in a position to make a specific contribution to national scientific research in developing countries. National scientific research did not begin with these countries' accession to independence.

For example, in the Ivory Coast, long before the creation of the ministry of scientific research, many research units were in existence: 

- The Institute for research in cotton and foreign textiles
- The French Institute for research in fruits 
- The French Institute for coffee and cocoa 
- The Institute for research in oils and oil seeds, etc.

These institutes conducted various studies in the agricultural field, rightly considered as a basic element in a country's development. In many cases the new nations, when carrying out research, start from studies that were conducted during the colonial era. Conserving records of past experimentation makes it possible to avoid repeating experiments that are sometimes lengthy, difficult, and costly, and leads to appreciable savings of time and money.

On the cultural level in developing countries, it is the government's duty to give the people confidence by helping them to discover their national identity. In this case archives, containing source material indispensable for writing history, are again the privileged auxiliaries of the government.

If, in the majority of European nations, there is no problem of national consciousness, it is not the same for the majority of developing countries. Therefore, in these countries, writing history brings together and unifies seemingly disparate elements that actually arise from the same sources.

Because in many cases history makes it possible to avoid allowing ethnic problems to become an obstacle to the flowering of the country, archives, an unequalled source of materials for serial history, take part in development. The study of budgets, commerce records, and censuses is A fertile field for the statistical historian.

The history of daily life can be seen in a new light through the records of notaries and clerks which have been placed in the record centers of the developing countries.

Because archives make it possible for history to be written, they take part in development and have a special purpose in this field as well.

It is appropriate to refer to a passage from an article by Mr. Locou, Instructor at the Department of Literature of the University of Abidjan, entitled "African History in our time," in order to convince ourselves, if need be, of the special usefulness of archives, containing an unequalled source of historical materials that also take part in national development.

History cannot be simply an academic discipline, indifferent to the problems of development. Some people might be surprised to learn of the relationship between history, a study of society's past, and development, of ten understood to be the only form of material progress. We have moved away from this narrow and over-simple conception of development. Development is a global process of the transformation of society, that must be organized, directed, and maintained from within. Therefore, development implies national agents who are aware of this necessity.

Information and historical reflection are powerful factors in achieving a sense of consciousness; they develop the sense of, and the inclination for, collective action; they make it possible to understand the origin Or present problems, and not only in a concrete way through the examples they provide. Above all, in our countries that have suffered from the depersonalization brought about by colonial domination, history is the privileged instrument for countering alienation: the alienation of youth, the alienation of the people, who are able to shed the heavy burden of old prejudices and to free themselves from complexes accumulated over a long period of time through scientific enlightenment about their condition.

This effort at countering alienation must promote a sense of national consciousness, the acceleration of African unity, and the development of solidarity with other peoples. The restitution of our collective destiny must allow us to affirm our personality, and must liberate our creative initiatives. The diffusion of historical materials, and of the themes which flow from it, must enrich art, literature, and science. The economic, political, and cultural fall-out of all of these historical contributions is incalculable.

For these reasons, history and development are inseparable.

In this way, the archives in developing countries vill be encouraged to play the role of a genuine administrative documentation center, alloying both the collection of records and their management and diffusion at the national level.

So we must progress from a concept of archives, already outdated in developed countries, that has led to the perception of archives only as historically-oriented institutions of little value in development, to a more positive conception; for, henceforth, archives must play a dynamic national role through governmental documentation.

By the richness of records preserved in archives and the increased efficiency of the use of information retrieval, administrators will have an exceedingly useful tool at their disposal. But this possibility of having the archives play a more dynamic role in national development can only be effective if the administrators within the country consider the preservation of records important, as is emphasized in this passage from a speech given by the Secretary of State for the Interior of the Ivory Coast at a seminar on considerations about territorial administration (Yamoussokro, September 20 - October 20, 1974):

Another administrative activity no less important is the establishment and preservation of local archives. The struggle against underdevelopment, a mayor and legitimate concern of the government, encourages the administrator to devote all his efforts to concrete achievements, to seek tangible and visible results, to draw up tables and statistics measuring stresses and physical volumes, all preoccupations which, in many cases, lead this administrator to neglect and to forget other activities, seemingly less important, but equally necessary and important in national development. This is the case for archives.

Far from being an insignificant sector, archives can and must play a more dynamic role in development, provided that we think of them as a treasure of acquired knowledge and administrative experience, a wealth of information that is accessible for use as potential factors in administrative action in all areas of national development.

In this respect no record can better contribute to the understanding and appreciation of these possibilities than archives.

The administrator who turns to archives will grasp the problems he faces more quickly and more completely. He will save not only time but money, two things a developing country cannot allow itself to waste. Therefore, archives are far from being a luxury; they are a utilitarian means of support for a realistic development policy. For this reason, their management and maintenance in an appropriate location, by a person especially appointed for this task, must capture the attention and the interest of local officials.

This passage from the speech of the Secretary of State for the Interior of the Ivory Coast is a good illustration of the role that an archival agency can and must play in a developing country. Considered in this way, the archives becomes a means of support for national development, which is the source of its special usefulness in developing countries.

<<TOC4>> 1.2 Administration in developing countries

<<TOC5>> The Scope of Management and Administration Problems in Development

Kenneth J. Rothwell

Administration and Management in Developing Countries

The Nature of Administrative Change and Its Obstacles

Historical legacies and forces creating static economic conditions have produced in most developing countries inadequate institutions and personnel to deal with the administrative and managerial tasks in the new drives for accelerated change. Both political and administrative institutions have to be evolved which are capable of assuring and sustaining more egalitarian values and nationally accepted political norms. The functions and responsibilities entailed in these changes are of recent origin and the traditional values and institutions face irresistible pressures for modernization, which in the simplest terms implies restructuring or replacement.

The administrative organs of society reflect the political environment and derive their legitimacy, formal substance, and methods of operation from the constitutional, legal, institutional, and prevailing sources of power in society. Administrative change is hardly possible without political change of some kind although the pace of modernization may vary as between the administrative and the political.

There is no end to the weaknesses which have been attributed to economic management and public administration in developing countries. Criticisms generally related, until recently, to organizational structural aspects, to constitutional competence, to integrity and adequacy of personnel systems, and to administrative processes. More recently, however, problems of implementation and assessment of capability, of integrating planning, bud getary and operational processes, and management of public enterprises have also come to the fore.

A summary listing of administrative obstacles in developing countries is bound to include in varying proportions some of the following:

1. Organizational and structural obstacles-these range from problems in the creation of new organizations for performing emerging functions, to rationalization of existing structures for achieving better results;

2. Administrative systems suffer from confusion over functions and responsibilities of different units, duplication of work, lack of coordination, excessive centralization, and generally inadequate organizational arrangements for administration of various functions. Centralist tendencies in administrations are particularly great and hinder performance;

3. Shortcomings in personnel systems; career services based on merit have been the objective of many administrative improvement efforts;

4. Public service personnel lack knowledge and skills required for carrying out programs of economic and social development. Many continued to be governed by attitudes developed in colonial or feudal eras when development was hardly a major concern of public administration;

5. Corruption is widespread, along with favoritism, nepotism, and jobbery. Many public services are used as welfare agencies to provide employment for educated members of society, who otherwise might become a source of political trouble. These services are overstaffed with the wrong kind of functionary and hence administrative reform measures are frequently stalemated by political decisions;

6. Members of the public service suffer from lack of motivation and low morale. Administrative leadership and supervision are of poor quality, since the discipline is lacking. In many countries the concept of full-time government employment is unknown in practice. There are special problems associated with use of scientific and technical personnel in the public services;

7. Legalistic, dilatory, and complex processes and procedures are major shortcomings. Before the advent of development, the norm was a legalistic and control-minded management, whose procedures were based on limited functions of administration, and were inadequate for the new expansions. Current procedures still suffer from ambiguities, and encourage the status quo ante rather than attending to future arrangements which is the essence of management;

8. Budgetary processes and procedures such as procurement of supplies and logistics are without a sound technical foundation. As an example, the lengthy procedures involved in land acquisition for development projects can be cited as a major factor in the slow progress of such projects;

9. Interdepartmental rivalries and cumbersome committees complicate operating procedures and dilute responsibility for results.

Paramount to the administrative problem in the public sector is the realization that planning, budgeting, and operating processes must be integrated to insure the contribution of development planning to national growth. Development planning is a joint process in which every part of administration must participate effectively. There are needs for contributions from the political scientist and sociologist as well as the economist in formulating development plans. The notions that planning and implementation are separated aspects of administration and that the private sector is sharply separated from the public sector must give way to notions of participative management and administration.

Dimensions of Management in Development

The persistent gap in managerial expertise is widely claimed as a major cause for poor performance in socioeconomic development. But it must be recognized that management operates with human elements as well as with machines. Management is a significant element in business and industrial enterprise, project development, public utility concerns, and public administration of general services. Modern management techniques require special training skills, particularly under conditions of rapidly changing technology and through the reduction of isolation in administrative systems. The identification of the managerial function helps focus on the training program as well as aiding in the selection of managers and administrators for training participation.

Managerial content differs in quality and scope according to the organizational objectives. The range of its operation depends upon the framework within which the function is exercised, within which decisions are taken, and within the extent of the environmental impact. Training for management is complicated by the nature of modern organizations, especially industrial enterprises, which function in an economic, a regulatory, and a social sphere. The enterprises control workers' access to production, yet integrate the worker into a human organization upon which the productivity of the enterprise and contributions to the economy rest. The organizational and human factors in management require delicate balance; control over workers' livelihood results in a fair measure of social control so that the organization has considerable power in regulating the behavior of individuals as well as of groups.

An organization has been described as "a group of people operating in a discrete system of physical, functional, and human relationships, differentiated from the surroundings by the boundaries of explicit tasks to be performed.”28 In contrast, Seiznik has described organizations as "technical instruments, designed as means to definite goals. They are judged on engineering premises; they are expendable."29 In the long run, nevertheless, national development depends greatly on the capacity to organize human activity, the essence of organization being the coordinated efforts of many persons toward common objectives.30 All organizations require management: government organizations aim at contributing to the management of the economy; business organizations require overall managerial guidance as well as derailed management of financial, commercial, and industrial operations.

Management is normally regarded as consisting of a hierarchy of individuals anti a set of critical functions relevant to the organization. It has also been viewed from three distinctive perspectives:31

1. management as an economic resource;
2. management as a system of authority;
3. management as a class or an elite.

A still broader view of management has been summarized by Chandraknant to consist of six approaches not necessarily exclusive:32

1. Management as a method of achieving objectives by organizing human resources. The management process school sees a management element in every function embracing planning, organization, coordination, and control.
2. The behavioral science approach to management, which focuses on the interpersonal relations within organizational connections.
3. The sociological approach to management, which seeks to identify cultural relations among social groups with the aim of systematic equation.
4. Management as a study of experience, which forms the basis for generalizing on organizational activities, and constructing principles which underlie effective management.
5. The decision theory of management which focuses on rationalizing the decision-making process to embrace the selection of a particular course of action from a number of alternatives.
6. The mathematical approach to management is based on the notion of the widespread quantification of managerial factors, which can be formed into a model that can be manipulated to demonstrate optimum solutions.

Likert in dealing with styles of management in business organizations makes a simple, fourfold classification:33

1. Exploitative-Authoritative,
2. Benevolent-Authoritative,
3. Consultative,
4. Participative -(group management).

He considers the participative style likely to be more efficent in the long run.

A highly important management function in development is planning which aims to rationalize the management of societies. Ponsioen has suggested four basic models of management comparable to those of Likert, but of more relevance to developing economies:34

1. The imposition model: the manager formulates an order, or a guideline which his administrators have to translate into orders. The expectation is that these orders are obeyed and carefully executed. In the course of its transmission, however, the order is sometimes changed in content by reinterpretation, partly through the interests of the receivers. The function of planning here is to advise the manager, to propose orders or guidelines for intermediate administrators, and to collect the feedback information to reformulate the orders.

2. The convincing model: the manager produces orders or guidelines accompanied with supporting arguments. The disadvantage is that arguments provoke counter arguments and execution is delayed as long as the debate continues. The function of planning then is to produce convincing arguments for the manager and replies to the counter arguments. A more practical way of convincing people to follow policy guidelines is through distributing rewards (financial ones, prestige and power) to those who follow them in an exemplary way. In this case incentives and rewards have to be planned also.

3. The participation model: managers formulate proposals, rather than orders. Public and private reactions are solicited and taken into account when the decision is made. An advantage of this model is that future subjects of the orders are informed in advance, their knowledge and wisdom is used, future resistance’s can be identified, and, if their suggestions are accepted, they are committed. It also provides a corrective to the value orientation of the planners. Planning in this model becomes largely an instrument to a societal decision-making process. The plan in the first instance is a proposal, in the second instance a piece for negotiations, in the third instance a compromise. The need to execute the plan becomes a major issue in formulating the plan itself.

4. The interaction model: the function of management is 

a. to identify the creative individuals on all levels of the organization;
b. to make these individuals communicate among themselves;
c. to pour new ideas continuously into this communication process;
d. to have decisions taken within the frame of this communication.

Basic tacit assumptions are:

a. that the whole organization adheres firmly to its goals,
b. that on all levels individuals can be found, which are creative for these goals.

The function of the planning unit is that of a switchboard of communication within the organization; it channels all information relevant to the goals, received from outside or from inside a system, to the appropriate levels of the organization and through them into the decision-making process.

The process of modernization embraces all sections of society and has different implications and dimensions for each stratum. The introduction of scientific principles into management operations is a significant component of the process of change. Considerable problems are created by the introduction of new forms of managerial skills relevant to a particular developing country where a tradition-bound environment prevails. For the development of management much depends on the building of organizations and a body of human resources geared to dynamic modernization processes.35

As in the case of planning, perhaps the most significant advances in the application of management and administration have been in India. The government has strongly recognized the importance of sound administration and management as determinants of economic performance. When India achieved independence, the problem of national economic planning and development was given such attention. Numerous organizations, some concerned with industrial promotion and training, were established; included were the National Productivity Council, the All-lndia Management Association, the Institutes of Management, and the National Institute for Training in Industrial Engineering. The industrial policy statement of 1948 enunciated the respective roles of the public and private sectors.

The pattern of ownership in industry affects the nature of managerial and administrative growth. Because of strong foreign competition, Indian entrepreneurs were deterred from venturing into industry at the beginning of the century. The commercial class which had developed in India in the latter part of the nineteenth century were chiefly interested in banking, and money-lending activities; it was later strengthened by the commercialization of agriculture. The ability to make wise investment decisions became more ingrained and intuitive rather than being based on general administrative talent and managerial concern with planning, coordination and control. The influence of trade and business prevented a clear distinction being made between entrepreneurial functions of an enterprise and operational characteristics of management. Government intervention in industrial development was made necessary because of the absence of autonomous institutions fostering economic development. Historically, the development of education in India was geared to the supply of capable civil servants. Furthermore, Indian society is dominated by multiple loyalties, while the societal class distinctions in which the distaste for certain types of work were common in an educational system not wholly relevant to the needs of modern development, were not conducive to sound economic growth. Technological training, which systematizes and telescopes experience, is still a low priority in higher education. High prestige in the bureaucratic system acquired by long experience is frequently the basis for selection for a top managerial position in industry.

Notes

28. See L.S. Chandraknant, Management Education and Training in India (Bombay: National Institute for Training in Industrial Engineering, 1969)

29. Philip Seiznik, Leadership in Administration: A Sociological Interpretation (Evanston, Ill.: Row Peterson, 1957), p. 21, 22.

30. Herbert A. Simon, Administrative Behavior (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1945), p.17.

31. Frederick Harbison and Charles A. Myers, Management in the Industrial World (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1959).

32. Chandraknant, op. cit.

33. R. Likert, The Human Organization (New York: McGraw Hill Book Co., 1967). Ct. W.J. Reddin, Managerial Effectiveness (New York: McGraw Hill Book Co., 1970).

34. Jan A. Ponsioen, National Development: A Sociological Contribution (The Hague: Mounton & Co., 1968), pp. 163-179.

35. Included under human resources are organization builders, top administrators, middle and supervising management and trained technical and professional personnel. Harbison and Myers, op. cit., p. 117.

<<TOC4>> 1.3 Management and the information service

<<TOC5>> Organization: in general and in principle

Siqurd MÖHLENBROCK

Definitions

The term 'organization' can mean many different things. m us there is formal and informal organization, functional organization and military organization. Sometimes it means an undertaking, sometimes again it refers to organizations of interests. In what follows, the meaning of the concept of organization is restricted to its administrative sense. From this point of view, what is generally meant by organization is a system whereby work and the right of decisions are divided up among the employees and whereby they communicate with one another, as well as the work required to establish and maintain that system. In every organization, people work towards a common goal, using for this purpose the organization's three components: personnel, instructions and equipment.

Technically, the term 'organization' has two meanings. m e first sees an organization as a network of precisely defined relationships between certain individuals. This is the static definition of organization. m e second sees an organization as a process or an administrative function in which change and growth as well as the dynamics of the organization are central features. Both meanings are important in the study of administration.

It should perhaps be emphasized here that the need for organizational go-operation is not something that arises only in large undertakings but is equally important for small organizations, in fact as soon as an undertaking has more than one employee.

Types of organization

In the classical theory of organization, as represented by Henri Fayol and Frederick W. Taylor, there are three different types of organization: line organization, functional organization and line-staff organization. In practice, however, pure examples of these types are rarely encountered. In addition, the principles associated with these types have naturally been criticized by modern experts on the theory of organization. m e three types can, however, be defended from various points of view. They can be helpful in simplifying complicated organizational problems, thus bringing out certain fundamental connections.

Line organization

Essentially, line organization is based in part on the principle of the horizontal division of labour, and in part on that of the vertical division of responsibility and authority. In line organization, each employee always has only one supervisor. In a given work unit, the work is directed by a single person. In this way, the responsibilities are clear and unambiguous.

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P070.PNG Line organization

Functional organization

In functional organization, an attempt is made to exploit the advantages of specialization more effectively than in line organization. Every employee, in this type of organization, can have a number of supervisors. It could almost be said that, in functional organization, the employees can have as many immediate superiors as there are specialists. This has been seen as a weakness, leading to uncertainty and confusion as to authority and the division of responsibility. It can be a source of conflict and clashes of interest. This type of organization has seldom been used in practice.

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P071.PNG Functional organization

Line-staff organization

Finally, line-staff organization is a compromise between the two previous types. As in line organization, it is based on the principle that each employee should have only one supervisor while at the same time applying the principle of functional organization with regard to specialists. m e latter, who might almost be called consultants, nevertheless have no direct right to give orders but only advice and service. Line-staff organization is the most commonly used type of organization.

Line-staff organization can, if necessary, be divided horizontally in either a goal-oriented or method-oriented direction. m e first implies that tasks related to an independent, clearly defined goal are brought together. In turn, method-oriented division implies that tasks requiring the same approach, methods, etc., are brought together.

According to the original definition, 'organization' means that work and the power of decision are divided up among the employees, generally in terms of related functions, in accordance with the nature and content of the work. The groupings may include individuals, working groups or departments within the organization. Work may be dividied up in terms of area (horiziontally) or of levels (vertically).

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P072.PNG Line-staff organization

Horizontal division of work

When a library reaches a certain size, some degree of specialization among the staff becomes inevitable. m e commonest type of specialization relates to work in the purchasing and cataloguing departments, which may be entrusted to certain staff special!:, qualified in those fields, who are also given an opportunity to further develop their special skills. Specialization, however, has not only advantages but also certain obvious disadvantages, and particularly psychological ones. When work is felt simply to be monotonous, this can easily lead to a poorer adaptation to work and therefore also to poorer results. Specialization or organizational subdivision in accordance with a particular system must therefore not be an end in itself.

Vertical division of work

As already pointed out, the various tasks in a library can also be divided up vertically, i.e. between employees at higher and lower levels. In principle, the chief librarian may be said to be responsible for the entire library. To be able to perform this task in practice, the work is divided up between groups, each of which has its own supervisor. The number of such groups will depend on the size of the library. It is important that the supervisors operate at the correct level and that the work is divided up in accordance with their guidelines. The work can also be divided up on a purely individual basis, depending either on the library's size or the nature of the task.

In the vertical division of work, the division between the various levels is governed by the power of decision. It must also be emphasized that there are different degrees of power of decision. The employee must be able to exercise the power of decision delegated to him which, in turn, presupposes a certain degree of independence. Training and education will, of course, increase the possibility of such subdivision of the power of decision.

Decision-making

Decision-making or decision is here taken to mean all taking of decisions in the library, from those on obviously important matters to routine decisions in daily administration. It is clear, therefore, why decisions have to be taken at different levels and in principle at the lowest possible level. The decision-making process is initiated, as a rule, when a particular problem arises. The final decision, which involves a choice between the proposed alternatives, constitutes an attitude in favour of one of them.

While line-staff organization, with its division into decision levels and areas of responsibility is increasingly taking the form of a pyramidal structure, the chief librarian being ultimately responsible for the activities as a whole, modern management has nevertheless been influenced to a very high degree by the concept of decentralization. This finds its strongest expression in the ever-increasing demand and need for decisions to be taken at lower levels. Delegation of the power of decision is therefore equally important in both large and small libraries.

Delegation of the power of decision

Delegation under these conditions means a transfer of both the power of decision and of responsibility wholly or partially to the employees. There may be many reasons for such a greater or lesser degree of delegation. It may be a flexible way of subdividing the power of decision so that decisions are taken at the correct level, i.e., as close as possible to those who will be directly affected by them. It may also be a conscious attempt to take advantage of the employees' useful skills in a particular area and thereby ensure that the correct decisions are taken. In both cases, delegation, correctly carried out, can increase job satisfaction.

Delegation can be limited in time or by the nature and scope of the task. It can also be withdrawn at any time by the supervisor, if he finds it necessary to do so. One of the many pre-conditions for successful delegation is that the boundaries must be clearly defined in so-called authorization.

It must also be emphasized that the supervisor can never escape from his responsibility for the final result of the delegation of decision-making.

While it is clear that delegation as an organizational principle has many advantages, many factors nevertheless impede this attempt to achieve such an ideal division of tasks, the power of decision, etc. The most serious obstacle to delegation is usually the library management, which may be inclined to delegate responsibility only sparingly as far as the most important tasks of the chief librarian are concerned, so that responsibility is delegated only in respect of the more routine ones. In addition, the chief librarian may take far too negative a view of the employees' competence, which will stand in the way of any delegation of responsibility. Finally, it is possible that the library management may well consider that a greater degree of delegation is desirable, but it is not put into effect because of the limited possibilities of providing the necessary supervision.

As far as so-called further delegation is concerned, the Swedish Local Government Act is increasingly placing certain formal obstacles in its way. In practice, however, further delegation can be arranged in such a way that the decision takes the form of an implementation decision.

The need to delegate both the power of decision and responsibility arises, as previously pointed out, even in comparatively small units. Delegation of the power of decision and of responsibility is therefore a functional assessment which, in the long term, can be of great importance to the successful future operation of library systems and at the same time a major factor in job satisfaction. Even if it is possible, in a library, to establish, once and for all, guidelines as to how tasks, the power of decision, and responsibility shall in principle be divided up, and how supervision shall be effected, daily contact at the workplace nevertheless provides the best conditions for ensuring that this is done in the most satisfactory way possible.

The most important conditions for successful delegation can therefore be summarized as follows:

Continuous guidance i.e., inter alia, frequent co-ordinating, creative and forward-looking conferences;

On-the-job training in the daily contacts with the employees;

Confidence in the employees' ability to manage increasingly difficult tasks;

Possibilities of checking the results of delegation, whether more or less successful or unsuccessful;

Truthful information on problems and conditions at the workplace;

Concrete goals communicated to all staff members, clear organization, budgeting and good planning are other measures that facilitate successful delegation.

<<TOC5>> Management Training and Background

G. Edward EVANS

Every organization must have someone who makes things go well, which is what management is all about. Human beings have kept things going for thousands of years, of course, but schools of management and business administration are recent phenomena. These schools have developed and prospered, though, only because persons educated in them seem to succeed at keeping things going better than those who have not been exposed to principles of management.

Some years ago, Yale economist Charles Lindbloom described "the science of 'muddling' through.” You will probably always have to muddle through as a manager, regardless of your training, but the amount of muddling generally goes down as the amount of training goes up. Unfortunately, libraries and other NFP and governmental organizations have been rather slow to see the need for formal training in management.

Formal training for management in the profit sector places heavy emphasis on fiscal control. Because money and materials are more predictable variables than human beings, a person can effectively use formulas, models, and theories to successfully solve a problem (for example, increasing profits or changing a loss to a profit). Libraries deal in rather imprecisely defined services to what is most often a very heterogeneous population. Lacking precise goals and measures of achievement, then, they and a great many other service organizations have, in the past, seen little need for formal training in management.

Over the past 20 years, though, the notion that any librarian can be a manager has shifted to the recognition that a need exists for some formal background in management. Format training can provide some understanding of the basic elements of managerial activities, since, over the years, managers have accumulated a large body of literature about their activities, both successful and unsuccessful.

The remainder of this chapter explores what some writers have had to say about management, management theory, people and organizations, and what roles managers play.

WHAT DO MANAGERS DO?

Before answering the question of what mangers do, we need to distinguish between management and administration. A widely accepted distinction, and the one that this book employs, is that administrators establish fundamental patterns of operation and goals for an organization, white managers primarily carry out the directions of the administrators. In the profit sector, the board of directors is empowered to establish the overall direction of an organization (as administrators), while the officers of the company (from the president down) are the managers. Very often the top/senior officials of the company also are members of the board of directors; hence, outsiders. and lower-level employees often have difficulty making a distinction between management and administration

Practically all librarians, including library directors when they are in their librarian role, are managers rather than administrators. Since almost all libraries are part of a larger organizational unit (corporation, educational institution, or government unit), libraries must operate within a body of guidelines, goals, objectives, rules, regulations, policies, procedures, etc. that are formulated by others. Managers are not, however, without influence and a void in the establishment of these directions. Quite often a manager or a director sees the need for a change, formulates specific suggestions for that change, and passes these suggestions on to the person(s) empowered to make decisions. A properly functioning situation includes cooperation between manager(s) and an administrative body that is based on mutual respect.

Now, just what do managers do? Many answers to that question occur; however, the question can be seen from two points of view-function and behavior. Some examples of functions are planning, directing, budgeting, etc.; behavior is defined in the sense of roles filled, such as leader. Writers tend to take one side or the other. Most basic management textbooks seem to take a functional approach. Advanced level books seem to favor the behavioral approach. This book, white organized according to functions, explores behavioral aspects as well. In the next few pages I explore a few of the approaches that have been employed by some important writers in the field of management.

To gain an idea of what managers do, try this experiment. Approach a person you know to be a manager, director, or unit head, or someone who is responsible for overseeing the work of someone else (the scope of the individual's duties is not important in this context). Simply ask the person to tell you what he or she does. Do not be surprised if the response is something like "Well, I'm head of the reference department," or "I'm assistant director for technical services," or "I'm the director of the library." You must then probe further by saying "Fine, but tell me what you actually do during a typical work day." You will seldom get the answer "Oh, I direct, plan, control, delegate, budget, and hire and fire people." More often, the answer will be "I attend lots of boring meetings, write letters, reports, and memos, and listen to complaints. It seems like I never get anything done."

Presumably a manager who says something like "I never get my real work done" is referring to some of the classical concepts of the functions of a manager. One set of labels for these functions was set forth in a classic paper by Gulick and Urwick (1937). In it, they coined the acronym POSDCORB, which stands for the following functions:

Planning
Organizing
Staffing
Directing
Coordinating
Reporting
Budgeting

These seven functions (for which labels may vary) are assumed to underlie, in one form or another, all management activities. They do not describe the work of a manager; they merely identify the objectives of a manager's work. At least one writer claims that, because the labels fail to describe what is actually done, they are of little use. This seems to be too harsh a judgment, for if we do not know where we are going (that is, if we do not have objectives), how shall we know when we get there? By studying the concepts covered by labels such as POSDCORB, a student can gain an understanding of what good management attempts to accomplish.

Various writers use slightly differing labels,, but all of them draw directly or indirectly from a set of concepts described by the French industrialist, Henri Fayol. After many years of profitably managing several unreIated industrial organizations, Fayol set down principles that he had found valuable in his work. All of his principles reflect the thinking of a practical person, not of someone concerned with developing a grand philosophy or a great theory. Fayol's concepts may seem to reflect common sense, but no management text in the United States identified them until the late 1940s (although he published his observations in 1916). Today his views fit extremely well into most contemporary thinking.

Fayol divided the activities of organizations into six fundamental groups: (1) technical, or production, aspects; (2) commercial aspects (buying, selling, and exchanging goods); (3) financial aspects (the search for, securing of, and efficient use of money); (4) security (protecting the safety of employees and property alike); (5) accounting (including statistics and record keeping); and (6) managerial activities (planning, organization, and control). At the time Fayol wrote his book, the sixth group had not been adequately defined; he devoted most of his attention to the question of defining managerial activities.

Fayol reasoned that a worker's most important attribute is the technical ability to carry out a prescribed function properly. As a worker rises in the hierarchy of an organization, the importance of managerial ability increases, until, at the top level, it becomes the basic requirement. Fayol thought that managerial skill could be acquired and that the best way to acquire it was through a combination of education and practical experience. In many ways, this view reflects my philosophy. Education in the fundamentals of management must be seasoned with experience in situations entailing real responsibilities and duties. When a solid background is lacking, learning on the job can be tedious and frustrating, because the manager-in-training needs a great deal of time to become a productive staff member. As libraries have come to recognize this problem, some larger systems have attempted to provide special management training. An example of on-the-job training is the trainee fellowships offered by the Council on Library Resources for a year-long work-study management program. The program is needed, because, until very recently, library schools did not offer courses in general management, and practitioners found themselves at times lacking basic information about management.

Fayol's entire list of activities is useful in the library situation. Production is obviously an aspect in the processes of cataloging books and making them ready for use. Buying, selling, and exchanging library materials certainly represent commercial activities. There is a clear financial aspect, in that administrators, and frequently the entire staff, are concerned with locating sources of funds to support library programs. Security is an important library concern whether it involves protection of material against theft and physical deterioration or the consideration of the safety of personnel and patrons. Anyone who has had experience with an acquisitions department recognizes the significance of the accounting function. And, finally, although a profit-loss statement does not exist for the library, good managerial skills are just as critical to the library as they are to a profit-making organization.

FAYOL'S GENERAL PRINCIPLES

Fayol identified 14 principles of management.

Division of Work or Specialization It is best to assign workers to jobs fairly limited in scope, so that they can develop a high degree of skill. This promotes efficiency for the organization. Moreover, the superior has control, because only a small range of activities must be dealt with for any one person. Since division of work is necessary for efficiency; the only real question is how to handle the division. In a library, this can be by type of service or by type of material. Regardless of the method, it is important to consider a unit's direction and objectives. (See Chapter 6 for further details.)

Authority and Responsibility Authority and responsibility must go together. This may seem obvious, but very often, only responsibility is delegated, not authority. The frequency with which this principle is violated is surprising, yet the reason for this is quite evident. The person delegating authority always retains some responsibility for the accomplishment of a task; many managers are reluctant to delegate authority to subordinates, because they doubt that their subordinates can do the job. (This will be explored in more depth in Chapter 5.)

Discipline Clearly defined limits of acceptable behavior are absolutely necessary, so that everyone in an organization knows what can and cannot be done. When a rule is violated, it should be enforced equally and fairly by someone who is competent, understanding, and able to apply discipline. Often this principle is difficult for a supervisor to apply impartially, because a tendency exists, especially within the human-relations managerial style, to modify discipline in terms of non-work-related factors-a practice that may or may not benefit an organization as a whole. (See Chapter 12 for details.)

Unity of Command An employee should receive orders from only one supervisor. Yet, because of a number of interacting variables in any job situation, line and staff as authority become opposed to line and staff as function (see Chapter 6). For example, to whom should subject specialists report? Possibly to the head of technical services, because they are concerned with both the selection and the processing of acquired materials. However, subject specialists also answer specialized reference questions. Thus, their assignment to public services might seem logical. Yet most libraries with personnel of this type divide their duties between technical services and public services which clearly violates the principle of unity of command. Therefore, the specialist must satisfy the expectations and requirements of both departments. Frustration under such circumstances is easily understandable. Almost all readers have, at one time, found themselves working under two bosses simultaneously. I have experienced this situation as a nonprofessional in public and academic libraries and as a professional in academic and special libraries.

Unity of Direction There should be only one plan, and the person should be responsible for supervising it; all activities have the same objective should be supervised by one person. For example, bibliographic checking units should have one supervisor and one plan of operation, yet libraries frequently violate this principle by having a bibliographic checking unit in both the acquisitions and catalog departments. A plan to combine the units and satisfy both acquisitions and cataloging needs should be formulated. (See Chapters 7 and 8.)

Subordination of Individual to General Interest Fayol believed that the individual should subordinate self-interest to the general good. This is difficult, though. in a work situation in which employees perceive no managerial concern for individual well-being. It is incumbent upon management to reduce conflict between the individual and the general wellbeing wherever possible. (See Chapters 10 and 11.)

Remuneration Remuneration for work must be fair and accurate, affording maximum satisfaction for both employee and employer. Some libraries pay the minimum amount necessary, to hire an individual, but these systems obviously have no standards for hiring or promotion. The library manager must examine tasks, identify responsibilities, and decide upon a just level of compensation. The next step is to find someone to carry out the defined duties for the established salaries. (See Chapter 13.)

Centralization Fayol thought centralization of authority to be desirable, at least for overall control. Certainly, both formulation of policy and the generation of basic rules and procedures ought to be centralized. Managerial decisions may be made at a lower level, but only within the framework established by the central administrative authority. Many libraries adhere rather strongly to this principle, embracing the idea of centralization of authority, physical facilities, and services. (See Chapter 6.)

Lines of Command or Scalar Chain Organizations need a formalized hierarchy that reflects the flow of authority and responsibility. Fayol suggested that a chain of command is necessary most of the time, but, at times, it is best ignored. When the organization obviously will be harmed significantly by adherence to a hierarchical arrangement, the rule must be violated. (See Chapter 5.)

Order Relationships between various units must be established in a logical, rational manner, so that these units work in harmony

Equity Managers/supervisors elicit loyalty from employees only when they deal with them as individual persons. Employees must be seen as persons, not things to be manipulated. If managers hope to create a good working environment, they must treat everyone fairly and with equity (See Chapters 9, 10, and 11.)

Stability of Tenure A high turnover rate is expensive for an organization. Turnover of a high degree is both a cause and an effect of bad management, and one way of evaluating a manager/supervisor is to examine the turnover and absenteeism rate of persons working under that manager. A low turnover and absenteeism rate may or may not indicate a good manager, but a high rate indicates the existence of a problem that the manager/supervisor has failed to correct. Naturally, every time an employee leaves, the organization incurs significant costs in time and money spent recruiting, selecting, and training a new employee. Furthermore, the new employee will require time to become an integrated member of the staff. A person who is often absent can create bottlenecks in the flow of material, hindering the entire organization's efficiency (and often costing the organization far more than his or her salary). (See Chapters 12 and 13.)

Another form of absenteeism not usually reflected in statistics is that of employees who are "present but absent." These people arrive at the last possible moment, take longer than necessary to set up for work, begin coffee breaks early and drag them out, extend lunches beyond the normal schedule, and push cleanup further and further into the working period. The equivalent of one workday per week may be lost by such persons; if this happens, the supervisor (and the supervisor's supervisor) must examine the situation.

Initiative Initiative should be encouraged at all levels. and subordinates should be asked to submit plans and new ideas. All of these should be carefully reviewed, and each person who makes a suggestion should be informed as to its status. Although this principle is given lip service by many libraries, in actuality, it is often not practiced. For example, when personnel evaluation forms enquire about an employee's initiative, often the only true interest is in conformity (that is, lack of initiative). This was not Fayol's intention, and it should not be the intention of a good manager. (See Chapter 4.)

Esprit de Corps As a good Frenchman, Fayol believed in esprit de corps. He felt that all successful organizations survive only when a feeling of unity pervades the group and that viable organizations cleat with crises as a team. (See Chapters 9, 10, and 11.)

I emphasize Fayol's work because his ideas have served at the basis of most management writers since he published his book-as they do for this book.

Frequently, you will encounter articles discussing the question of whether management is an art or a science. Generally, these articles conclude that, despite many elements of science present, management is, in the final analysis, an art. Although you can learn basic concepts, principles, functions, and techniques as described by Fayol and others, each management situation is unique. Even when certain situations appear to be similar, the individuals involved will be different, whether in fact or just with the passage of time. Thus, what worked yesterday may or may not work today. Your ability to assess degrees of change is the real art of management.

As a manager, you will have to fill a number of roles in varying situations. The statement "I have to wear a number of hats" is truer than most people realize. In discussing what managers do, Henry Mintzberg identified 10 basic roles: (1) figurehead, (2) leader, (3) liaison, (4) monitor, (5) disseminator, (6) spokesman, (7) entrepeneur, (8) disturbance handler, (9) resource allocator, and (10) negotiator.

Although several of these roles have elements of the political process in them, the librarian in a publicly supported library needs to add a role to Mintzberg's list-politician. With all these roles to fill, it is not surprising to find most managers agreeing that management is an art form, not a scientific exercise. For this reason, throughout this book the behavioral aspect is tied to the functional activities.

THE NATURE OF FORMAL ORGANIZATIONS

A few words about the nature of formal organizations will help set the context in which behavioral and functional activities occur. Formal organizations are social units formed in order to accomplish certain objectives. Individuals join the organization because its objectives represent to some degree objectives that they wish to achieve personally or professionally (or both). As an organization grows and changes, its original objectives will be modified, and they may well change to such an extent that the founders might have trouble recognizing "their" old organization. Formal organizations, then, have two basic characteristics: (1) they are formed to accomplish a specific objective, and (2) that objective may well change many times during the lifetime of the organization.

As an organization becomes more complex, one objective may come into conflict with another. Society itself is composed of thousands of organizations, many of which have objectives in conflict with the objectives or other organizations. Furthermore, the personal goals of the members of organizations rarely are in total harmony with organizational objectives, especially as each person belongs to hundreds of organizations (formal and informal, voluntary and involuntary membership). As is readily apparent, another major characteristic of organizations is the widespread existence of conflict.

A number of management articles in the 1960s and early 1970s dealt with conflict control, which some people view as the central issue for management. Granted, conflict is a fact of life, but it is as naive to pretend that conflict is the only element of life as it is to assume that there is no conflict at all. What we must recognize is that a series of interactions constantly takes place:

Individuals interact with the environment
Individuals interact with one another
Individuals interact with organizations
Organizations interact with other organizations
Organizations interact with the environment

Because people and organizations are interdependent, and because every action does produce a reaction, management is clearly a complex problem.

Conflict has a great many sources; the ability to recognize the major sources can help a manager to perform more effectively. Perhaps the major source of conflict is competition for resources, as all organizational resources are limited in quantity. During any given period, some resources are more available than others, but the pattern of availability and demand fluctuates. In the 1950s, libraries were concerned about material resources, physical facilities, and funds to support intellectual freedom. In the 1960s, the big resource problem was personnel, and in the 1970s, it was financial support. The 1980s cannot be predicted.

Competition for scarce resources takes place both inside and outside an organization, and competition between similar organizations can be very strong. Because most libraries are governmental agencies, they find themselves in a yearly struggle to secure a larger portion of the tax dollar (or to hold onto their present allotment). Because each agency's request justifies the full amount of tax money that it could use, and because each request will have active supporters, the library has competition for every dollar that it seeks. The total monies requested by all agencies usually exceed the amount available; therefore, conflict (and often ill will) can arise as each agency tries to prove that it is worthy of its requests.

Competition for resources takes place within the organization as well, among the units that compose it. Perhaps the library secured only one of six new positions that it requested, and all department heads are trying to justify their receiving the new staff member. Just as with interagency conflict, the manager (decision maker) must realize that any decision may result in tension and conflict that may, last for some time. Obviously, competition for resources forces the issue. The manager must try to avoid the long-term effects of such conflicts.

Another form of conflict, line-versus-staff, is built into the organization and is sometimes deliberately encouraged. In a library, this type of conflict often arises between systems personnel and other staffers. Trying to improve the library as a whole, systems people tend to have a broader perspective than the operations staff. When a systems person recommends a change in one department. and when both the systems person and the department personnel know that it would mean less efficiency in the department (even if it would mean more efficiency for the library), vigorous objections from the department are only natural. The department staff members do not want the library to be less efficient, but they also do not want their own work to be less efficiently performed. The manager's task is to make certain that the department realizes that it will not be penalized when a decrease in efficiency does occur. The conflict that arises is encouraged here, though, because department members have forgotten the question of overall organizational performance. Yet, that overall performance and operation must remain the top priority of everyone working in the system.

Sometimes, several staff members make conflicting demands on a unit head. Because each unit has its own purpose and responsibilities, the unit head often assigns a level of importance to each request. Yet this should never be allowed to happen. lop management must assign all priorities, allowing the entire organization to benefit from staff and line specialization.

Other types of conflict arise from differences in work orientation and needs. In a library, one of the clearest examples of this can be seen in bibliographic searching. Acquisitions departments can secure books without the detailed bibliographic searching that catalog departments often need. Frequently, discussions arise concerning when, where, and how such searching should be done. If acquisitions does a complete search, it takes more time than necessary to meet that department's needs. If cataloging does the search, the cataloging work Dow will be improved, but the actual acquisitions process may be slowed down. In either case, one department is doing the work of the other, which almost inevitably leads to tension and conflict.

Whatever its source, conflict must be controlled if organizations are to operate efficiently. Persons holding management positions must have a tolerance for conflict situations. A manager must recognize the sources and nature of each conflict, must not be afraid to tackle problems and must be comfortable in dealing with problems. Methods of dealing with conflict situations range from using personal judgment to attempting bargaining to the all too popular muddling through.

PEOPLE IN ORGANIZATIONS

Accomplishing goals with and through other people is a basic human activity, and most persons are involved in working with others in some fashion. If we define an organization as two or more persons acting together to achieve a specified goal, then we can say that everyone is a member of a number of organizations. Members of organizations must interact in a structured, interdependent manner to achieve their desired objective. While the degree of structure and interdependence vary constantly, whenever two people seek a common goal, some structure and interdependence must be present in their organization.

Anthropology, archaeology, and history supply ample evidence that organization is necessary. Indeed, the findings of these disciplines reinforce the contention that both formal and informal membership in organizations marks all stages of an individual's life. As Etzioni (1964) and others have noted, an individual is not really dead until the state officially certifies the fact. A brief discussion of just a few of the many types of organizations one belongs to will illustrate the complexity and the pervasive nature of organizations.

Economic groups include not only a person's place of employment, but banks, savings and loan associations, and credit unions, among others. Owning a credit card implies membership in an economic group. In these instances, each group represents a structure created to fulfill some specific economic objective(s) that each member desires to accomplish (service or product). The organization itself desires a profit for providing the desired service or product.

Religious groups affect the individual even when a person does not belong to a formal group. Religious holidays and their observance influence the behavior of both organizations and individuals; as a result, even the non-religious person comes under the influence of formal religious bodies.

Governmental agencies of all types (including military) constantly affect the individual. Membership in such organizations is not always voluntary; one becomes a member simply by living or working in a specific area. Other organizational groups are educational, social, and political.

In several of his books, Peter Drucker has described four principles of production-unique product, rigid mass, flexible mass, and "flow" production. Although the principles were originally established through the study of industrial production, they apply equally well to producing and handling information and to what can be labeled "knowledge work." Libraries and most service organizations fall into the "unique product" category. If librarians keep the definition of this category in mind, they will be able to relate their activities to most other activities in a manner that managers and politicians outside the field of librarianship will understand.

Drucker characterized unique product work as labor intensive:

Even when highly mechanized-and it does not lend itself to automation-capital investment will be comparatively low compared to labor cost. But it has great flexibility. Costs of individual products are high, but break-even points are low. Unique product production can operate at a low volume of output or with considerable fluctuation in output. It makes high demands on skill,, but little or no judgment.

With the exception of the last phrase in the last sentence, this is an accurate picture of library work. Libraries devote well over 50% of their budgets to salaries and staff benefits. Capital investments, compared to labor costs, are low, and (when they are actually calculated) unit costs for services to individuals are high. Generally, the degree of skill and judgment required are high, contrary to Drucker in this case.

As a labor-intensive activity, even without considering the clients, the management of libraries places emphasis: on people and interpersonal relations. Because of the increasing complexity and growing numbers of organizations, though, we must be concerned with the question of whether organizations control individuals. This brings us back to the two basic aspects of management: activities and people. As long as the manager remains fully aware of the ramifications inherent in organizations and people, and as long as the manager tries to maintain a balance between the needs of the two, people are in control of organizations. When the balance tips in favor of activities, people are no longer in control. An organizational threat to individual freedom and dignity cannot exist in a balanced situation.

Saul Gellerman summed up the situation with the following:

Thus we return to the dilemma that organizations have always faced, and always will, as long as they are comprised of individuals. The organization exists, thrives. and survives by harnessing the talents of individuals. Its problem is to do so without hobbling those talents or turning them against itself This perpetual balancing act is the responsibility of management, especially those members of management in the lower echelons, whose influence upon employees is most direct.

I agree with Robert Townsend's statement about people and organizations in the preface to his book, Up the Organizations: "Solution two is non-violent guerilla warfare: start dismantling our organizations where we're serving them, leaving only the parts where they're serving us." Very few people deny that every formal organization has anti-people elements. Nevertheless, when someone threatens the entire organizational structure, many others rush to the defense of the status quo. If, however, energy is directed toward correcting the anti-people elements and developing a balance between people and things, then almost everyone in an organization will help with the process. Libraries and librarians are people-oriented, and a little more awareness of management techniques is all that is needed for libraries to become effective people-oriented organizations.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. C. Lindbolm, "The Science of Muddling Through," Public Administration Review 19 (1959): 79-88.

2. H. Mintzberg, The Nature of Managerial Work (New York: Harper, 1973). p. 11.

3. P. Drucker, Management (New York: Harper, 1974), pp. 203-216.

4. Drucker, p. 213.

5. S. Gellerman, Management of Human Resources (Hinsdale, III.: Dryden Press, 1976). p.13.

6. R. Townsend, Up the Organization (New York: Knopf, 1970), p. 11.

FURTHER READING

Alter, S., and Ginzberg, M. "Managing Uncertainty in MIS Implementation." Sloan Management Review 20 (1978): 23-31.

Anderson, R. C., and Dobyns, L. R. Time: The Irretrievable Asset. Los Gatos, Calif: Correlan
Publications, 1973.

Anthony, W. P. "Living with Managerial Incompetence." Business Horizons 21 (1978):57-64.

Anthony, W. P Management for More Effective Meetings. Personnel Journal 58 (1979): 547-550.

Bartolome, F. and Evans, A. L. Professional Lives versus Private Lives-Shifting Patterns of Managerial Commitment." Organizational Dynamics 7 (1979): 3-29.

Batten, J. D. Tough-Minded Management. 3rd ed. New York: AMACOM, 1978.

Becker, S. W.:, and Neuhauser, D. The Efficient Organization. New York:: Elsevier, 1975.

Beiswinger, G. L. " 10 Books Every Public Relations Person Should Read." Public Relations Journal 34 (1978) 38-40.

Belker, L. B. The First-Time Manager. New York: AMACOM, 1979.

Brinckloe, W. D. and Coughlin, M. T. Managing Organizations. Encino. Calif.: Glencoe Press. 1977.

Brown, R. The Practical Managers Guide to Excellence in Management. New York: AMACOM, 1979.

California Department of Finance. Program Management: Achieving Purpose in Public Programs. Sacramento, Calif.: Department of Finance. 1977.

Carilsle, H. M. Management Essentials: Concepts and Applications. Chicago: Science Research Associates. Inc., 1979.

Child, J. Organization: A Guide to Problems and Practice. New York: Harper, 1977.

Cummings, P. W. Open Management. New York: AMACOM. 1980.

Dale Carnegie and Associates. Managing through People. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979.

Dale, E. Management: Theory and Practice. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978

Davis, K. Organizational Behavior: A Book of Readings. 5th ed. New York: McGraw -Hill, 1977 

Douglass, H. E., and Donne, N. Manage Your Time, Manage Your Work! Manage Your Self New York: AMACOM 1980.

Drucker, P. F. Management. New York: Harper, 1974

Drucker, P. F. Management. Tasks. Responsibilities, Practices. New York: Harper. 1974 Effective Management and the Behavioral Sciences. New York: AMACOM, 1978.

Etzioni, A. Modern Organizations. Englewood Cliffs. NJ.: Prentice-Hall, 1964.

Fayol, H. General and Industrial Administration. London: Pittman, 1949

Flippo, B., and Munsinger, M. Management. 4th ed. Boston Allyn & Bacon, 1978.

Francis, D., and Woodcock, M. Unblocking Your Organization. Rev ed. La Jolla Calif.: Univ. Associates, 1979

Fulner, M. The New Management. 2nd ed New York Macmillan 1978.

Gendron, B. Technology, and the Human Condition. New York: St Martin's, 1977.

Glueck, W. F. Management. Hinsdale. III.: Dryden Press, 1977

Gulick, L., and Urwick. L. Papers on the Science of Administration. New York: Columbia Univ Press. 1937

Haimann, T. Managing the Modern Organization. 3rd ed Boston Houghton. 1978

Handys, C. B. Understanding Organizations. Baltimore. MD: Penguin Books 1976

Hecht, M. B. What Happens in Management.. New York: AMACOM. 1980.

Huse, E. F. The Modern Manager. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Co., 1979

Johnson, T. W. and Stinson. J. E., Managing Today and Tomorrow. Heading. Mass.: Addison-Wesley. 1978.

Kantross, A. M. Why Read Peter Drucker?" Harvard Business Review 80. 1 (1980): 74-82.

Kiev, A. N., and Kohn, V. Executive Stress. New York: AMACOM. 1979.

Koontz, H., and O'Donnell, C. Management: A Systems and Contingency Analysis of Managerial Functions 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill 1976.

Lawless, David J. Organizational Behavior: The Psychology of Effective Management. 2nd ed Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1979

Leach, J. "The Notion and Nature of Careers." Personnel Administrator 22 (1977): 49-55.

Levin, R. l., and Kirkpatrick, C. A. Quantitative Approaches to Management. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1975.

Life In Organizations: Work Places as People Experience Them. New York: Basic Books. Inc., 1979

Lindbloom, C. E. “The Science of 'Muddling Through. " Public Administration Review 19 (1959): 79-88.

Lurhans, F., and Kreitner, R. Organizational Behavior Modification. Glenview III. Scott. Foresman & Co.. 1975.

McCarthy, J. Why Managers Fail and What to Do About It. 2nd ed. New York:, McGraw-Hill. 1978.

Mackintosh, D. P. Management by Exception; A Handbook with Forms. Englewood Cliffs, NJ.: Prentice-Hall. 1978.

Mahoney, T. A. "Organizational Hierarchy and Position Worth." Academy of Management Journal 22 (1979) 726-737.

Marshall, W. Meyer and Associates. Environments and Organizations. San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass, 1978.

Marston, J. E. Modern Public Relation. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1979

Miller, N. "Career Choice. Job Satisfaction and the Truth Behind the Peter Principle." Personnel 53 (1976): 58-65.

Mintzberg, H. The Nature of Managerial Work. New York: Harper 1973.

Mitchell, R. People in Organizations: Understanding Their Behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978.

Nirenburg, J. "Managing Failure." Supervisory Management 24 (1979): 17-22.

Perrow, C. Complex Organizations: A Critical Essay. 2nd ed. Glenview, III: Scott. Foresman & Co., 1979.

Quick, T. L. Understanding People at Work: A Manager's Guide to the Behavioral Sciences. New York: Executive Enterprises Publications, 1976.

Rausch, E. Balancing Needs of People and Organizations: The Linking Elements Concept. Washington, D C.: Bureau of National Affairs, 1978.

Robbins, P. "Reconciling Management Theory with Management Practice." Business Horizons 20 (1977): 38-47

Scanlan, and Keys, J. Management and Organizational Behavior. New York: Wiley 1979.

Shemetulskis, R. P. "Coming to Grips With Conflict." Management World 8 (1979): 14-16.

Stewart, R. "The Jobs of the Manager.” Management Today 11 (1976): 64-67

Terry, G. R. Principles of Management. 7th ed Homewood. III.: Richard D. Irwin. 1977.

Young, C. A Effective Management: Basic Principles and Practices. Philadelphia: Dorrance, 1977.

<<TOC5>> On library management (I)

Boleslaw HOWORKA
Poznan
Biblioteka Akademii Medycznej

(Library of the Academy of Medicine)

Introduction

This article is a continuation of the subject matter initially dealt with in "Wybrane problemy organizacji pracy w bibliotece" ("Selected problems of the organisation of library work"), Poradnik Bibliotekarza (Librarian's Guide), Nos. 10/81, 11-12/81, 1/82.

The presentation of several theoretical aspects of management science, based on examples taken from work in libraries, is intended to give interested individuals a better understanding of these important issues. They certainly deserve to be taken up, because many people still believe that management and administration are easy and do not require special training, that to be a good superior it suffices to be well versed in the domain of activities of the institution to be directed, and finally that it is quite enough to be a good professional in the particular field, so that the better the professional, the better prepared he is to occupy a managerial post.

In a large organisational unit, the post of director requires mostly managerial qualifications. On the other hand, the lower one goes down the official hierarchy, that is, the smaller the organisational unit to be directed, the greater the importance of technical qualifications in the sense of professional expertise, and the lesser the degree to which managerial qualifications are needed. Those who occupy non-supervisory working positions do not have to display any managerial abilities, except in so far as such abilities are useful for the organisation of their own work. This view has been illustrated by Fayol by means of the following diagram:

—————————————————————————
Professional EXPERTISE	People MANAGEMENT
—————————————————————————
Senior manager (e.g. chief librarian)
Middle manager (e.g. department director)
Immediate supervisor (e.g. head of section or branch)

Hence the often derided view that management is a profession does not deserve blanket condemnation in all instances. To be a professional manager is very difficult and requires extensive training. It does not work well when managerial posts are filled by people who do not have the right preparation, who are not experts in the given field (even this happens, and not infrequently!), or who do not even have the necessary education, but who "have to" occupy such a post, for some reasons that often are not even made public.

The ability to manage people is a difficult art and responsible work, requiring thorough preparation. For this purpose, many post-secondary institutions have established departments with the task of conducting research and dispensing education in the science of administration and organisation. We also have active institutes and departments devoted to the subject of work organisation and administration, but can we truly assert that we are training managers appropriately, can we pride ourselves on having the right managerial cadres trained to work and manage in various settings and in various professions? In particular, do we train managers and directors for libraries?

One last introductory remark. No worker, even one with no-one to supervise, but with a carefully specified set of tasks and responsibilities, can possibly become a good worker if he is unable to organise his work, and his own personal actions within the establishment, if these actions are not well planned, goal-oriented and economically implemented.

Management and administration

Management is the art of influencing subordinates to act as desired by the managing superior.

From this definition we see that there can be no question of management if a specific individual, the manager, is not assigned at least one worker or a team of workers as subordinates. One cannot be a manager if one does not manage people, that is, if one has no subordinates.

The encyclopaedia definition states (Encyklopedia organizacji i zarzadzania (Encyclopaedia of organisation and administration), Warsaw, 1981, pg. 207): "Manager - superior or individual directing a given team of people, which constitutes a formal organisational unit…"

J. Kurnal (Zarys teorii organizacji i zarzadzania (Outline of the theory of organisation and administration), Warsaw, 1969, pg. 259) asserts: "In the event that the object being guided is a single person or team of people, the guiding individual should be called a manager, whereas when the object being guided is neither a single person nor a team of people, the guiding individual should be viewed as a driver".

Thus the statement that someone "guides" or "steers" (in colloquial Polish) something, does not at all mean that the person in question is a manager. A bus is steered by its driver, while a book-lending outlet with a one-person staff is run by the librarian.

I have often been confronted with the view that one can manage a substance or material resources, such as a book-lending institution. This view is even held by some librarians.

It bears stressing yet again that one cannot be a manager if one is not a superior, that one cannot be a manager if one administers only material resources (resources are objects used to achieve goals: people, materials, tools, machines, energy, etc.).

Thus we see that administration pertains not only to people, but also to material objects, premises, furnishings and materials contained in such premises, including library collections. The encyclopaedic definition of this term runs as follows: "Administration - action based an exercising control over resources" (T. Pszczolowski: Mala encyklopedia prakseologii i teorii organizacji (Short encyclopaedia of the practice and theory of organisation), Wroclaw, 1978, pg. 288).

It must also be stressed that management is possible only within the framework of official relations between a superior and his subordinates. A craftsman delegated by an university's maintenance department to repair, for example, library shelves, is not a subordinate of the school's library director; he is only carrying out specific instructions. This craftsman can become a subordinate of the library director if his post is transferred to the library, and the individual placed under the authority of the director.

There is yet another concept, that of tour guide, that requires precise explanation. A mountain expedition may be led by a guide; the participants are not bound to him by any employment contract or official relationship, but rather by a specific agreement for services to be rendered by the tourism organisation employing the guide. It is characteristic of this sort of situation that the participants subordinate themselves to the guide voluntarily, through an agreement which they can themselves terminate under certain conditions.

Various styles of management are distinguished:

The paternalistic style, consisting in treating subordinates like family members, is essentially a thing of the past (although it can still be encountered in Japan); it obliges the superior to organise not only the place of work, but also the subordinates' outside lives, by making sure that they have places to live, food to eat, etc.

The autocratic style is one whereby the worker has his working method dictated from above, he is not allowed to question or discuss the instructions he receives, their implementation is carefully verified, and all the subordinate's actions are supervised. The autocratic director imposes his point of view on subordinates, requiring that his orders be followed unquestioningly.

The democratic style or integrationist style consists in the manager giving his subordinates a sense of common interest, trying to influence them so as to make them feel co-responsible for the results of the unit's operations.

A manager with a consultative style is one who acts more as an adviser than in any other role with respect to his subordinates.

A manager with a liberal style is one who gives his subordinates a free hand, not interfering in their work unless there is some particular justification for doing so.

It is difficult to indicate which course is best. The superior's actions essentially depend on the circumstances; he sometimes has to be an autocrat, although in the long run it is no doubt better to adopt a democratic style, a democratic-consultative style, or in certain situations, with respect to specific groups of workers, a liberal style. It is important to take into consideration who the subordinates are. In a library they are usually colleagues with similar professional training, who understand well their own tasks and the institution's goals. Therefore libraries should be managed primarily in a liberal fashion, in conjunction with aspects of the democratic (our common professional goal is the promotion of culture) and consultative styles.

A library director is responsible for the overall operation of his institution. The principle of one-person management consists in concentrating in the hands of a single individual full responsibility fo fulfillment of the organisation’s tasks, and for the smooth functioning of all its organisational units. It assumes that there exists one superior for each team of workers carrying out common tasks.

The principle of one-person management is closely connected with measures to promote team decision-making; the institution's director works with a specific team to resolve the difficult issues, complicated situations and important problems. He should take into consideration the opinions of experts, professional colleagues and representatives of users or clients. The team should not be encumbered with simple matters, requiring immediate reaction; such matters must be left to the one-person administration of the director. Team decision-making is justified only for matters that are important, complicated and have long-term consequences.

A library director must take into account the opinions and decisions of such teams, and he must be able to co-operate well with them. Under no circumstances is he permitted to make light of team members or their views as specialists.

Trivial matters must not be passed on to the library board, commission or council, or any other statutory consultative body acting within the library. Each library is a state institution, providing services to users as specified in the Libraries Act. Hence the director and librarians must pay attention to the opinions of the library's consultative bodies, modifying their decisions and actions on the basis of these opinions, and ensuring that users are represented on such bodies.

The superior’s authority

A superior's power is entirely dependent on the post he occupies. The extent of this power is defined in regulations or in a post description.

A library director's range of powers is usually defined in the library's statuses or by provisions of its operational regulations. In this respect, everything is clearly written down. But it is considerably more difficult to gain authority over one's subordinates. Authority does not spring from rules, decrees, statutes and regulations; authority is a human property that depends on the individual. A manager with authority is one whose instructions are carried out willingly.

Subordinates respect his professional knowledge, experience and personal qualities such as trustworthiness, fairness in the evaluation of workers, concern for the collective's interests, etc.

In a large library, the range of powers of each department director is identical, but one may win high authority among his workers, while another will never achieve such authority. In this case the decisions of the first manager are implemented willingly and without question, while those of the second are doubted, his instructions are discussed and changed, the team of workers he leads finds it very difficult to co-operate and runs into various problems.

A superior’s authority can spring from three separate sources:

1. Formal authority is acquired by the superior through the very act of appointment, for instance to the post of library director.

2. Knowledge-based authority is a function of the given individual's education or practical achievements; for example, the director of a bibliography department may impress his colleagues with an ability to process material rapidly and correctly, he may be the author or co-author of several published volumes of a respected bibliography, etc.

3. Personal authority is acquired through the superior's behaviour and personal traits. This form of authority is both the most important and the most difficult to achieve.

<<TOC5>> On library management (II)

PRINCIPLES OF MANAGING THE WORK OF SUBORDINATES

Boleslaw Howorka
Poznan
Biblioteka Akademii Medycznej
(Library of the Academy of Medicine)

Centralisation and decentralisation

These terms, usually associated with organisation on a large scale, also apply to the management of human beings. From the work organisation point of view, centralisation means setting up units based on communality of tasks. This facilitates specialisation, and ensures economy of operations as well as the development of centres of specialisation within the organisation, but at the same time it results in the formation of an unwieldy pyramidal power structure. Managerial decisions are taken mostly at the top of the pyramid, and then distorted as they percolate through lower levels of the hierarchy. Rigid decision-making, not based on consultation, make sit difficult or even impossible to adapt flexibly to special local conditions. Managers of subordinate organisational units are accountable only for precisely carrying out tasks assigned to them. This dampens their initiative and has a negative influence on the work flow.

Decentralisation provides more independence, allowing for adaptation of the organisational unit's internal structure to its character, to local conditions and operational needs. In a decentralised system, the superior determines only broad indications and guidelines, leaving it up to managers of hierarchically lower units to fill in the details of instructions.

It is difficult to imagine the Ministry of Culture and Arts deciding in detail how to allocate financial resources for library purchases to all public libraries, on an equitable basis of some mechanical indicator, such as the population of the service area, and going even further, deciding what the acquisitions should be, which would be typical of a centralised administration. In a decentralised mode of administration, individual community libraries are granted the right to fashion their own acquisition policies, building a library collection that meets user needs (and of late, unfortunately, that does not exceed budgetary limitations).

As part of the same topic, it is important to understand the principle of democratic centralism. It is based on the need to adapt each institution's activities to general planning principles, while leaving individual organisational units with as much independence as possible for the selection of their operational ways and means.

Single-source direction

The principle of single-source direction states that each subordinate receives instructions from only one superior, and is accountable for following them only to that superior. It is a violation of this principle when a library director gives instructions to a worker over the head of that worker's direct superior, such as a department or section manager. This can lead to the worker receiving two different sets of directions on the same matter, with the immediate superior not knowing what his subordinate is doing, or what tasks were assigned to him.

Differentiation

Every superior must be aware of the fact that his subordinates have varying qualifications and different character traits. A library director must treat individual department managers differently, and they too must not deal with all their subordinates the same way. The principle of differentiation applies both to evaluation of work completed, and to the manner of giving directions.

Limiting interference

The manager who wants to know and decide about everything spends too much time on details, and has too little left over for the most fundamental and important matters. Thus he has to be able to choose the problems that he ought to solve himself. Most of his interventions should be related to his supervisory function, and it is not desirable that intervention appear on his regular agenda, as an activity planned in advance. Intervention should always be used to incite workers to improve, in specific situations, such as following justified complaints by users, entries in the library's book of recommendations and complaints, information from librarians, etc.

Taking economic factors into account

This is very important for directors of autonomous organisational units, and hence for public library directors. Rational economic activity consists in taking economic factors (in a very broad sense - not just financial savings) into consideration when choosing optimal solutions. Economical activity involves, for instance, deciding to purchase expensive equipment only when it is needed and will be fully utilised. It would be uneconomical to decide to buy a machine for copying index cards for a small library that uses only two copies of the catalogue.

Economy of operations can be achieved in direct ways, through economical analysis of present and planned circumstances, and also in indirect ways, for example by appropriately influencing subordinates, by taking advantage of their individual abilities, by paying careful attention to working conditions and staff qualifications.

Striving for progress

Every institution needs progress in its activities. Regular incitement to progress is one of the responsibilities of every manager. Active efforts to achieve progress require adopting the following assumptions:

a) everything that is being done can be done better;
b) everything used in the workplace can be made more efficient;
c) everything considered worthwhile must be imposed.

One of the superior's duties is to create conditions in which new ideas will be generated, in which workers will suggest innovations. Attempts to progress and improve are often manifested by re-organisation efforts. But one must not forget that every re-organisation has some negative influence on the institution's operations ("constant re-organisation is disorganisation" - Tadeusz Kotarbinski). Only after workers become familiar with a new operational system does productivity rise back up to the previous level, and some time is needed for this level to be surpassed.

It can even happen, and not infrequently, that progress runs into worker resistance. Sometimes a great amount of energy must be devoted to overcoming such resistance, either by persuasion, or by introducing innovations gradually, following a period of experimentation and training.

The achievement of organisational and economic progress must always be one of the fundamental goals of every manager. Decisions taken in this regard must be carefully thought out, discussed with workers and implemented consistently.

Listening to subordinates' advice

To be well prepared for his supervisory functions, a library director should be a qualified professional librarian. This does not mean that he has to be the worker who best knows all the aspects and operational details of his profession and his institution, or even that he has to be an outstanding library scientist. Department managers have to know certain details better than the director, and therefore it is sensible in specific situations to hear their opinions and to take advantage of their advice. Managers on hierarchically lower levels should also listen to and take into account the opinions of their subordinates. In matters concerning workers, one should also listen to the views of representatives of political organisations, trade unions and professional associations. It is also necessary to maintain good relations with the advisory bodies associated with the library, such as library boards, commissions or councils, consisting in part or in whole of professional librarians. The wise director values independence of worker opinions, and makes appropriate use of views expressed by the "institution's opposition". Criticism stimulates his reflection, and very often shows him the way to the best solution of a difficult problem.

The correct way to approach subordinates

A superior must not undermine the authority of middle managers in the eyes of their subordinates. Any critical remarks or assessments should be made on a one-none basis, or in the course of a managerial meeting. When pointing out errors, one must never wound the personal dignity of the worker under fire. One may offend a subordinate by explaining things that are obvious to him, by expressing doubts about his ability to deal with a specific matter, by treating him as an inexperienced beginner, etc. Even a new worker, who is in fact inexperienced, should be treated correctly, with all due respect.

One expression of respect for those who work with a library director is careful preparation for meetings of the library management team, and attentively listening to its members' remarks. A director must also be able to write appropriate critical reports about the work of individual organisational units of the library, and about that of the managers of these units.

Managerial functions

Three levels of management can be distinguished:

1. overall management, which in a library is the responsibility of its director;
2. intermediate management, carried out by individuals who help the director to administer a large institution, for example deputy directors; other examples of intermediate managers are managers of large departments in a library, of large institutional libraries (such as directors of departmental libraries in post-secondary institutions employing a substantial number of people), of large public library branches. etc.
3. direct supervision of productive work, carried by managers of small organisational units, small departments, small institutional libraries, and library branches with a small staff, by individuals who combine their personal work, involving direct service to users and the institution, with managerial and supervisory functions.

The distinctions among these three levels are not clear-cut; in some libraries they become quite blurred, especially with respect to intermediate management and individuals entrusted with direct supervision of specific workers.

The activity of workers occupying managerial positions consists of the following functions:

1. setting operational goals,
2. analysis of the current situation,
3. planning,
4. organisation,
5. implementation,
6. supervision.

Setting operational goals

The range of activities of any institution is determined by some legal document. This may be a statute (e.g. 'Statute of 9 April 1968 on libraries'), an administrative directive or decree of a body of the national government (e.g. 'Directive of the Minister of Higher Education, dated 18 March 1961, in the matter of organisational structure and action guidelines for university libraries…'), a library charter (e.g. a municipal public library charter, certified by the head of the municipality, in accordance with 'Directive No. 103 of the Minister of Culture and Arts, dated 30 November 1973, in the matter of a model charter for municipal public libraries'), or organisational regulations (as issued, for instance, to a university library by the rector).

The library's operational mandate determines its permanent goals (e.g. providing access to learning aids such as textbooks and course notes for students). A particular permanent goal gives rise to specific, interim goals; for instance, the task of organising a library network within an institution of higher education gives rise to the specific goal of organising a small library in a particular institute or for a particular department.

It is the task of the overall superior to move in the direction of fulfilling his institution's basic goals. It is his responsibility to assign partial, intermediate tasks whose total realisation constitutes a basic goal. These tasks are entrusted to workers of particular organisational units, that is, managers on hierarchically lower levels; they, in turn, carry out these tasks personally, or assign them to their own subordinates.

Analysis of the current situation

In order correctly to determine intermediate tasks leading to achievement of the institution's basic goals, the person in charge must first analyse the institution's current and future situation. This situation consists of the means and resources available to the institution, and of the conditions under which the institution must function.

In analysing the means and resources available to a library, its director must determine above all:

- the number of workers, the professional levels of the librarians, and hence their potential output, the institution's organisational structure, and any other personnel considerations affecting library operations;
- the quantity and quality of the library collections, which determine the possibility of satisfying user needs;
- the technical conditions affecting library operations (premises, equipment, furnishings, etc.);
- environmental (local) conditions affecting library operations;
- expected user needs.

In drawing conclusions from this analysis, the director must determine how best to take advantage of the team of librarians, as well as other workers, employed by the institution, and of the library's known collections, while operating under specific conditions and for well-defined users, so as to fulfill the library's tasks as completely as possible.

Planning

Determination by the director of the library's way of achieving its goals makes it possible to formulate details of the institution's plan of action, aimed at systematically carrying out the library's tasks. Specific details of the plan of action constitute the basis for drawing up tasks to be entrusted to particular organisational units of the library, as well as the functions of individual librarians and other operational workers.

The document allocating tasks to the various organizational nits, as drawn up by the library director, is binding upon each team of workers for a substantial period of time, until something is reorganized, for example in connection with the institution taking on new tasks, or on the basis of new and more complete experience acquired by the library management, director, council, commission or advisory committee.

The job description, as signed by each worker, is a document containing directives that bind him for a long period, in principle for several years, and often throughout the time he spends working at a specific post in a specific department. The newly hired librarian, assigned for example to the Processing Department, will undergo some introductory training, and will then work on alphabetical processing of the library's acquisitions this will be his basic task. However, each worker, in addition to his permanent regular functions, will receive, from his superior,	occasional tasks or short-term instructions, depending on the library's current tasks and functions - for the next day, for a few days or for a week. This is usually allowed for in the job description ("Carrying out such other tasks as may be assigned to him from time to time by the department manager").

As we see from the above, the superior's function consists in planning tasks that his subordinates are to work at, and in determining the regular and occasional goals they are to achieve. In planning tasks and assigning specific functions to subordinates, the superior should apply the principle of the right man for the right job. Therefore he must have a good idea of what work his subordinates are trained for, in which fields they are specialists, and the type of work they like to do.

Acquiring such knowledge is part of the managerial function of analysis of the current situation. When deciding about assignments of workers to public library branches in a large city, it is well also to take into consideration personal relationships among co-workers, the distance from the worker's residence to his place of work, and even a seemingly unjustified desire to change one's place of work.

The library director should never underestimate the importance of informal ties among workers, taking advantage of them to improve the working atmosphere, to raise productivity, to enhance efficiency, and he should also show understanding for any particularly close friendships, drawing appropriate conclusions from such observations. A superior should alawys try to make sure that his subordinates are as satisfied as possible with their work, and he should take into account as much as possible their suggestions and recommendations, whenever there are no strong grounds for rejection.

Organisation

Work organisation consists of two groups of functions:

The first involves preparing subordinates for their work, so that they can, are able to and want to carry out their assigned tasks. Each worker must be given the tools he needs, and his working conditions must conform to prevailing safety and hygiene regulations. Each work station must be carefully designed and adequately equipped, so as to make it possible for the worker efficiently to carry out his assigned tasks. It is advisable first to test his professional capabilities; it may be necessary to give him additional training, but one must not exaggerate in this respect, for fear of demotivating, boring or even offending the worker.

Each employee must be convinced that his work is meaningful and needed, that without his contribution the institution's goals would not be fully achieved; he must be psychologically prepared and motivated for his assigned functions. At the same time, the worker should be aware of the fact that if he does not make an effort, if he does not work well, if he is negligent or commits some offence, then there will be consequences, for the superior will be obliged to mete out a condign sanction

The superior is responsible for generating a good atmosphere in the institution. He must remember that a good worker cannot be efficient under disorganised conditions, that nobody thrives in disorder and chaos. Workers should be given clear and definite instructions' and they must be treated seriously. The superior has the responsibility of showing understanding for the worker's problems and personal difficulties, and he must also express recognition for the worker's efforts. Neither is he allowed to become too close with his staff; this is necessary for the maintenance of discipline in the institution.

The second group of organisational functions of a superior involves providing material resources and working conditions. In a library, these functions include arranging premises, with appropriate furniture and equipment, and especially acquiring whatever library materials are needed, as the basic raw material for the institution's operations. Providing good working conditions includes paying attention to the hygiene, cleanliness and aesthetics of premises.

These two groups of functions are equally important for good work organisation. The superior must also be able to organise irregular operations, he must be prepared to set up an appropriate procedure for unexpected situations, emergencies, when atypical tasks have to be carried out, etc.

Implementation

Managerial functions include both organising one's own work and managing the work of subordinates.

In organising the activities of subordinates, the superior directs the institution's entire work flow, he decides to start work, he may decide to introduce changes in obsolete procedures, working methods or organisation of tasks, he directs work in progress and decides to terminate it.

The decision that an institution is to start working is not just a formality; it must be preceded by verification that the staff and materials are ready. Once commenced, work should continue smoothly, without interruption or disturbance, and under conditions conducive to careful execution. Every librarian knows that, for instance, the daily opening of a lending library must be preceded by a number of preparatory actions, that cannot be executed once the users are inside and waiting to be served; once the lending library is open, customers should be served continuously and efficiently.

In the course of the institution's everyday activities, the superior follows the progress of work, by listening to regular reports submitted by managers hierarchically below him. He should not intervene if everything is taking place in accordance with the plan and his expectations; it is his task to supervise the flow of operations, always ready to intervene, but only if the need arises.

Intervention by a library director in the work of the Processing Department, for example, should be limited to cases when he observes an excessive concentration or backlog of work, or when he obtains information suggesting that the department is not functioning smoothly. Unjustified intervention or "interference" in the work of a department is pointless and can be harmful, because it undermines the department manager's authority, and gets in the way of good, systematic completion of tasks. The role of the director is to co-ordinate work among departments, and to promote harmonious operation of the institution as a whole. The director must always be "visible" in the library, the workers must sense his presence, knowing that he pays attention to their work, that he cares about it, and that he is ready to intervene.

A good superior should not look as if he is overworked. His actions should be well organised, and he should be able to intervene, to explain or to give advice at any time.

It can happen that the work of an institution departs from the established plan because of some disturbance. In such cases the superior must take appropriate action to eliminate the disturbance, by deciding to change or re-organise something. For instance, a library director may decide that a worker dealing with acquisition processing should do duty temporarily in a reading room, in order to take up slack caused by another worker being absent for health reasons.

When deciding to stop the day's work, the superior is responsible, among other things, for making sure that the premises and collections are adequately protected. It is also very important that the library's work be organised in such a way as not to cause, as a result of library closing, unnecessary problems for readers. For instance, any library materials they are currently using in the reading room must not be sent back to storage, lent out or even temporarily made accessible to another reader; conditions must be such that each reader can continue his work on the next day with no problems or loss of time.

Library closing must also be accompanied by a number of regular activities (switching off the 1-ights, keeping the keys safe, etc.). It is the director's responsibility to hand down corresponding decisions and instructions, and then to make sure that workers carry out their assigned tasks in accordance with these instructions.

Supervision

Every superior must supervise continuously, both on a regular and on a spot-check basis. Regular supervision by a library director includes checking the list of those present every day; this will show him to what extent the various work stations are staffed, and whether it is necessary, for example, to reinforce one part of the organisation, to avoid difficulties in the form of "bottle-necks", etc. A library director also analyses regularly the employment records, reports from library branches and other such documents, as informational input for his decisions.

Spot-checks usually involve personally verifying the institution's state of operations. The library director carries out his supervisory functions during visits to individual work stations.

One of the most important forms of regular supervision in a library is stock-taking, or comparing the actual collection with listings in inventory registers or other documents. In small libraries full stock-taking is carried out at times set out in the regulations; in large ones, partial stock-taking constitutes a significant aspect of "collection control".

The results of stock-taking are very valuable for the director, giving him a good sense of the state of the library's collections, and allowing him to draw conclusions and form opinions about the work of individual departments, satellite libraries or branches.

The supervisory functions of a library director are different from those of managers of departments, sections, branches or satellite libraries. A high priority in the director's plan of work is allocated to regular supervision, through analysis of documents, reports, complaints and suggestions he receives. Any spot-checks by the director should be the result of conclusions he draws from such analysis.

Managers of organisational units are obliged to control and supervise work in progress, while at the same time personally carrying out the responsibilities flowing from their range of activities, and from the work plan of their department or section. The supervision they do is connected with the responsibility of reacting to signs of negligent work, but also of making an appropriate assessment, when they observe that one of their subordinates is particularly diligent and effective in his work. Naturally, they should also react to remarks by readers and users of the institution.

When carrying out supervisory functions, it must not be forgotten that some workers are offended by having their work checked. The most appropriate reaction to this sort of attitude is for the superior to state that the reason for the supervision is not lack of trust, but rather the great importance of the subordinate's work, a desire to become more familiar with his range of activities, recognition for his professional abilities, and the superior's own thirst for knowledge. There are also workers who like to be observed, and to hear the positive results of their work talked about; praise and recognition stimulate them to work even better.

Supervision is the superior's most important function. It is meaningful only if the results are carefully analysed, and if conclusions drawn lead to improving the institution's work.

<<TOC5>> The library manager

WHY LIBRARIES NEED MANAGEMENT

Libraries need management because they are organizations. Like other organizations libraries have certain goals to fulfil in society and they have people to enable them to accomplish those goals. To neglect the knowledge of management would be tantamount to rejecting the management theories and practices being applied in other organizations which are striving to meet the changing needs of society and to improve their performance.

Libraries are not dead or inanimate things. They are organic; the' evolve and they exist for a purpose. Because service to society is the purpose of libraries, because libraries employ people who have to be managed to provide that service, not in any manner but with design and commitment, the knowledge of management becomes a must. As libraries grow continually in size and complexity, human relations, staff consultation and participation will be a sure means of securing a more contented and co-operative staff (Jones 1971). Lack of motivation which is one of the most serious problems of management in industry is evident in libraries (Simon 1976). A look at the work of a library manager reveals that he handles responsibilities similar to those of other managers hence the need for the knowledge of management.

THE LIBRARY MANAGER'S WORK

The use of the terminology 'manager' in library administration implies that a chief librarian of a public library system, a national library system or a university library system should see his role as comparable to that of a company chief executive. Just as a company chief executive has people and other resources to manage and goals and objectives to be realized, so has a library manager. Libraries employ people who use other resources available to fulfil certain purposes. A library manager, therefore, consciously or unconsciously always wrestles with the problem of how best the resources of his library should be utilized to accomplish its mission.

The work of a manager is to set aims and objectives, organize, communicate, motivate and to develop people (Drucker 1968). These are not the only functions but it is true that a manager's main responsibilities have something to do with the organization and human aspects of management.

Setting Aims and Objectives

Any organization which is well managed will have defined aims or goals towards which all its activities and the energies of its personnel are directed. A library manager has therefore an obligation to spell out the aims of his library in relation to the aspirations or the role of the parent body in society. For a public library system, its aims must be derived from the long-term state goals particularly in education, information and culture. Its aims could be formulated as follows:

(i) to support formal education, that is, providing for the needs of those pursuing primary and secondary education
(ii) to contribute to non-formal education, that is, providing for literacy programmes, vocational training and professional education
(iii) to encourage reading for knowledge and information
(iv) to cultivate reading habits and to sustain literacy in society, etc.

The aims of a university library, a college library, a school library or a special library, should be defined on the basis of what the library must do to further the work of the organization to which it is a part. The prime goals of a university library, for instance, are to contribute to the teaching role of a university, to support learning and research activities, and to stimulate creativity and intellectual development among staff and students.

It is however not enough to define the aims of a library. The aims should be known by all the staff so that they may relate their work and devote their time to the fulfilment of those aims. Secondly, the manager must involve senior staff in setting the objectives or targets of their own departments in the light of stated aims of the entire library. The objectives of a department such as the lending department arise directly from the aims. Objectives are the basis of the day to day operations of a department and a measure of its performance.

At this juncture it is important to distinguish between "aims" and "objectives". We would define "aims" or "goals" as statements about the purpose or the mission of an organization or statements which spell out the business an organization is engaged in. "Objectives" spring from "aims" and they are the targets and tasks of an organization or its part; they are, to an extent a measure of an organization's effectiveness in the fulfilment of its aims.

For example, some of the objectives of the acquisition department of a library whose aim is to support formal education would be to acquire W books for primary level and X books for secondary level; to acquire Y books for adult literacy and Z books for vocational education. The task of the cataloguing department would be to catalogue a certain number of books within a short time and to produce catalogues useful to readers. The objectives of the lending department would be to provide reading material to the user groups of the library; to maintain efficient catalogues and stocks; to prepare statistics of usage regularly; to educate readers on the use of the library, etc.

Allowing participation of staff in setting objectives of their departments is accepting the principle of management by integration and self-control (McGregor 1960) where staff are given a chance to decide what to accomplish, by what method and within what time, in pursuit of the organizational goals. The benefits are that such staff will be more committed to the mission of the library because they will seek to achieve the objectives they have themselves set. They will also be more willing to commit and to guide their juniors to the realization of overall aims. The reverse would happen if the aims and objectives were conceived and set at the top and imposed on the departments. It is, of course, not possible to involve them in everything. The important thing is to allow a fair latitude of departmental participation. Quite often the morale of good staff is eroded where setting aims and determining policies are the preserve of the top management. If staff have little say in their work and if they have no room for initiative, they will go to work only to fill in the day.

Organizing

This involves analysing activities, classifying tasks and dividing those tasks into manageable jobs which can be allocated to people. The exercise leads to the establishment of an organization structure which facilitates division of responsibilities into departments and coordination of their activities. Organizing means fitting, people into the right places, that is ensuring that they are in jobs which they can do well and which satisfy them. It also means cultivating and sustaining the initiative and the co-operation of all the people in the organization.

When establishing a structure necessary for co-ordinating and integrating the responsibilities of various departments, it should be understood that such a structure must facilitate good communication, delegation of authority and definition of group and individual autonomy over certain responsibilities.

We can see one danger however, in organizing. It results in division of labour which may cause intergroup competition where each department or section tries to excel over the other thus defeating the unity of purpose of an organization. Although the work of a manager as a coordinator may deter the conflict, the suggestions mentioned below are worth bearing in mind.

(i) The performance of departments should he measured and rewarded on the basis of their contribution to the total effort rather than their individual effectiveness.
(ii) Interaction and frequent communication should be promoted between groups.
(iii) There should be frequent rotation of staff among departments to stimulate mutual understanding.
(iv) Any win-lose situation should be avoided and emphasis always placed on pooling resources to mazimize organizational effectiveness (Schein 1959).

Communication

The essence of communication is to foster understanding anti harmony among the people in an organization (Katz and Khan 1966). It is necessary to establish and maintain proper communication to facilitate effective exchange and transmission of information. Ideally formal communication should take place at three levels - down the hierarchy, up the hierarchy and horizontally between people on equal status.

Information flowing down the hierarchy will come from the manager to his subordinates and their juniors and it could be about new policies, directives, or routine matters. Upward communication emanates from subordinates. They could talk to their superiors about themselves, their work or seek clarification and guidance about certain directives or policies. Horizontal communication among peers is mutual exchange and sharing of information about their experiences and common problems at work. It is obvious that a fault in communication in any side can easily cause misunderstanding, friction and discontent among people and will no doubt, ruin co-operation. An example of such a situation is given below.

The chief librarian of a certain library system once disregarded the right channel of communication. He sent a letter of transfer to a library assistant in a branch, without informing the branch librarian. When the library assistant received the letter he showed it to the branch librarian who expressed great surprise because he was completely unaware of the transfer. Because the transfer was with immediate effect, the library assistant told the branch librarian that he was going to move to another branch the following day. The branch librarian replied that he could not release him until he had clarified the matter with the chief librarian. It was a serious matter because the person being transferred was an assistant to the branch librarian anti the only trained library assistant in that branch. The assistant said he could not wait. He disobeyed the branch librarian and left the branch immediately. When the branch librarian spoke to the chief librarian, there was a battle of words and total disagreement. It took months for the branch librarian to reconcile with the chief librarian and the library assistant.

Certainly the chit-f librarian was the cause of the problem which was really avoidable. His instructions were communicated in the wrong way. He should have first informed the branch librarian that he was considering transferring his assistant to another branch for certain reasons. He- should then have sent the assistant's letter of transfer through the branch librarian thus making vertical communication complete and effective

Motivating anti developing people for effectiveness

The theory of motivation and the strategies of staff development have been discussed in Studies in management with reference to libraries (Wambugu 1982). Motivation and staff development are important and obligatory functions of a manager. Whether a manager adopts McGregor's theory X that the average human kiting dislikes and avoids work and has to be coerced anti directed,, or theory V that the average human being does not inherently dislike work and exercises self-direction and self-control, a manager is duty-bound to motivate and develop staff for organizational effectiveness. An organization without motivated people and without the right capabilities cannot be effective and cannot hope to fulfil its goals in society.

What is effectiveness? We know that effectiveness has been associated with statements like - 'the organization produces high quality goods, 'it makes very good profit' or if it is a service organization people would say - 'the employees are pleasant, the service is very efficient', etc.

Effectiveness is the extent to which a manager achieves the output requirements of his position. Managerial effectiveness should be defined in terms of output rather shall input, that is, by what a manager achieves rather than by what he does (Reddin 1973). It is quite possible for a manager to work efficiently and still remain ineffective. An effective organization is the one which fulfils its purposes in society adequately and continues to meet the changing needs of that society as best as possible.

The way a library manager deals with the vital resource of human beings will, in a large measure, determine the effectiveness or the ineffectiveness of his library. Favourable attitudes and motivation to work are related to effectiveness. High producing managers do the following:

(i) They exercise control through group participation and decisions are made by groups.
(ii) They strive to satisfy the major motives of people.
(iii) They strive to create favourable attitudes.
(iv) Their subordinates are highly motivated and their activities well coordinated by proper linking of overlapping work; groups.
(v) They maintain a group pattern of working as opposed to man-to-man pattern.
(vi) They encourage communication in all sides.
(vii) They serve the interests of the employees as well as those of the organization (Likert 1971).

Because an organization could be fulfilling multiple goals hence the dilemma in judging effectiveness and because an organization may exist within an unpredictable environment, its effectiveness should be measured by its capacity to survive, adapt, maintain itself and grow (Shein 1959) An organization's capacity to grow lies mainly in its employees' ability to sense changes, and to scope with those changes by improving its services or products.

Are libraries and other public organizations coping? Is the human side of these organizations being managed to meet the existing and the changing needs of their communities effectively ?

REFERENCES

Drucker, Peter F., The practive of management. London: Plan, 1968, P 410

Jones, K. H. Management theory and the public library (in) Library Association Record 73 (1) January 1971

Katz, D. and Kahn, R. L. The Social Psychology of Organizations. N Y Wiley, 1906, P. 223.

Likert, R. The Principles of supporting Relationships (in) Pugh, D S ed Organization theory Harmondsworth Penguin, 1971

MacGregor, D. The human side of enterprise N. Y. MacGraw-Hill, 1960.

Reddin, William J. Managerial effectiveness N Y McGraw-HilI, 1970, P 3

Shcein, Edgar H. Organizational Psychology 2nd ed New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1970, P. 118

Simon, B. V. The need for administrative know-how in libraries (in) Shimmon, R ed. A reader in library management London: Bingley, 1976, P. 29.

Wambugu, Charles K. Studies m management with reference to libraries Nairobi Karfa, 1982

<<TOC4>> 1.4 How scientific is management?

<<TOC5>> Advances in archival management science

Report by Dr A.P. Kurantov

1. Introduction

Once specialized State Archive Services have been established there is a need for archives administration, and the number of countries lacking such services is gradually being reduced to a minimum.

A rational system of archives administration may be introduced most easily in countries with a single State collection: this is the case in Bulgaria, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Romania, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and many other countries.

In the USSR, the decree of 1 June 1918 submitted by the Soviet of People's Commissars 'On the reorganization and centralization of archives' was signed by V. I. Lenin, founder of the Soviet State, and was an act of revolutionary importance which marked the beginning of the socialist system of archives organization. The decree stipulated that all the archive material in the country was to be considered public property. This measure led to the establishment of a new scientific category, the 'State Archive Collection'. The General Archive Directorate, which was responsible for managing the collection, was set up at the same time. A series of laws subsequently confirmed the application of the 1918 decree, particularly the 'Status of the USSR State Archive Collection' of 1958, which reinforced the principles of centralized management and storage and consolidated the links between the State Archives and the institutions responsible for the production of documents.

By virtue of their statutes and functions the State Archives are not only repositories of documents but also scientific research establishments and institutions forming an integral part of the State's administrative services. They are responsible for managing the archives of ministries, institutions, firms and other bodies (generally known as 'current records'). Intercommunication in the functioning of these two types of archives which pursue different aims is the result of the natural continuity between the three stages of document processing: office work, current records and the State Archives.

The ultimate aim of archive services is to carry out retrospective searches as required by the public services, the national economy, culture, science, private individuals and society in general.

To be able to do this archives institutions and current records must perform five major functions: collection, organization based on scientific principles, conservation, classification and the organized use of the documentary information provided by retrospective searches. The performance of these functions taken as a whole and in their various forms makes up the task of managing the State Archive Collection.

Archives consequently conduct three fundamental types of activity, corresponding to the general classification of aspects and types used in scientific work: organization, research and information.

These three aspects of archives administration are closely linked to one another, each of them being based on the other two. They none the less differ and have varying aims, and will consequently bear individual examination as aspects of archives administration.

2. The scientific organization of archives administration

The scientific organization of archival management involves a wide range of issues which include personnel management, planning the development of archives and the archival sciences, regulations, co-ordination and accounting. The study of these problems is closely linked to archival economics, an expanding archival discipline which deals with the organization of work, efficiency, determining the grades at which archive staff are to be recruited, etc. Economic analysis is applied to all the different aspects of archival work designed to make rational use of material and human resources and ensure constant improvements in organizational methods, in order to chance the quality of such work and make it more effective.

The need to tackle the organization and division of archival work in the USSR in a scientific manner led to the compilation of a table in which all the categories of work carried out in State archives are clearly set out. This table facilitates operational studies of the work and serves as a basis for establishing model procedures.

The scientific organization of personnel calls for uniform working conditions and a series of documents setting out the functional distribution tasks, the structures of archival institutions, and the area of activity covered by each post.

The scientific bases of archives administration entail the introduction of new recruitment norms in the State Archives. Soviet archivists are researching this problem, using mathematical statistics (the multiple correlation method). These standards make it possible to determine not only recruitment levels but also the number of archivists required to carry out a given task, and to improve the monitoring methods to be applied to archival work.

Planning and accounting constitute a second group of problems connected with the administration of archives. Archives in the USSR have developed an integrated planning system based on the principles used in national economic planning.

At the basis of this planning system are the five-year development plans for the State archives, reflecting the decisions of the executive bodies, the objectives of economic planning and the need to develop and improve archives.

During the five-year period that has just begun (1976-1980), following lines laid down by the XXVth Congress of the CPSU, special attention is being paid to enhancing the scientific dimension of archives work, as well as its quality and effectiveness, to storage conditions and to the rational use of material, financial and human resources. The five-year plan for archives development is made up of several sections defining the practical tasks allocated to different projects.

The scientific research work carried out by VNIIDAD is based on annual and five-year plans. There are other plans covering co-ordination of the approach to major problems (in which the other institutions participate), the work of the Academic Council and its sections and the application of research findings. All these plans are linked and constitute a single organizatory and planning system governing the development of scientific research.

Forecasts of scientific growth are an important factor in planning and management. An outline of the forecasts concerning the basic problems in documents management archival science and archeography up until 1990 is made available to Societ archivists.

The co-ordination of scientific research has become extremely important in recent years. This is due to the complexity of the most advanced scientific work, which requires the attention of several institutions covering different areas. The Commission for the Co-ordination of Scientific and Systematic Research of the USSR General Archive Directorate has a large part to play in this process. The Commission revises the plans co-ordinating VNIIDAD's research work and that of other archival institutions, establishing the requisite contacts with the different institutions and the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. It monitors the progress of research into complex problems and assesses its findings. Co-ordination is the responsibility of VNIIDAD, which is the leading institution and prepares the methodological and organizational documents for the co-ordinating bodies (specifications, research schedules, work schedules), organizes conferences with their representatives, examines their work, etc. These are complex tasks with a high labour coefficient, and they are taking up more and more of the time of those concerned.

The plans for the implementation of completed research work provide for the establishment of methodological norms to be applied for experimental purposes, as well as the dissemination of the findings; talks given by specialists, conferences, seminars, the preparation of exhibitions and of articles, etc.

The accounting system is complemented by the planning structure. The book-keeping for each piece of scientific research work is done separately, according to a system whose structure, order and lay-out are the subject of a special State norm.

In recent times, a trend towards the constitution of scientific research groups and committees to encourage the effective use of labour in archival institutions has been observed in State archives (Poland, Croatia, Romania, Czechoslovakia). Scientific organizations of this kind mainly study the problems connected with the internal organization of archives, the development and correct grouping of the collections, and the standardization of documents dealing with archives administration.

3. The scientific bases of archives administration

Each of the branches of archival science and records management is linked in one way or another to archives administration. This link is determined above all by the nature of the scientific research, whose considerable diversity may be reduced to three essential categories: theoretical or basic research, applied research, methodological research. In the USSR, this classification is strengthened by the 'Basic guidelines for the organization of scientific research in archival institutions' (Moscow 1975).

The aim of theoretical research is to develop scientific theories and promote the acquisition of systematic knowledge concerning specific scientific problems. They contribute to the detailed development of research work.

The purpose of applied research is to use theoretical knowledge in order to solve specific practical problems.

Methodological research is the result of archivists' scientific activities, which are reflected in general and consultative methodological handbooks and in mandatory standard-setting texts.

(a) The importance of scientific archival research into archives administration

Among the effects of scientific archival research on archives administration mention should be made in the first place of the effect of such research on the most important function of archives: collection and selection. This function is supported by special theoretical research and methods of assessing the usefulness of documents.

These problems attract the attention of archivists the world over. Many countries are organizing research and devising a methodology for a low-cost system of selecting and preserving genuinely useful documents, which can be applied to a constantly expanding flow of documents. It was precisely this aspect of studies that directly influenced archives administration in several countries.

The methods used to evaluate documents are based on theoretical concepts of the informative role of documents. Generally, the role and importance of an institution in a hierarchical government system is a crucial factor when determining the content and historical value of the documents it has produced. In the USSR, documents are assessed on the basis of this principle, after drawing up a list of institutions to be taken into account. The process of selecting the institutions is carried out by means of 'sample lists', prepared for this purpose. These lists classify the institutions in groups. They are standard-setting documents which directly influence the workings of the process whereby historic documents are incorporated in archives.

The need to select the documents that are stored in archives with care because of the increasing quantities of public records has obliged archivists in several countries to formulate basic evaluation criteria. There is a noticeably tendency to make these more detailed and to have recourse to other disciplines linked to archives science. Research of this kind is connected to applied research in archives science and thanks to specific methodological texts, it has an influence on archives administration.

The need to reduce the number of documents to the minimum while maximizing their information content has led archivists in several countries to study the phenomena of the absorption and reproduction of information in contemporary documentary systems. Research is being carried out in this field in Great Britain, the USSR, the U.S.A., France, Sweden and other countries.

In the USSR documents are evaluated by the Committee of Experts of the State Archives and by institutions, organizations and business concerns. The archive services of the federated and autonomous republics and their archives departments also have committees of experts which evaluate documents. These committees are the various links in the administrative chain that controls the selection of documents. The supreme authority, the Central Committee for Expert Inspection (TsEPK) of the General Dictorate of State Archives of the USSR, is an organizational and methodological centre which directs the methodological side of document assessment at the level of the State Archive Services: it draws up model lists of documents and approves the draft lists of documents intended for the different departments.

Research and management functions are both represented on this committee, as is demonstrated by the participation of VNIIDAD representatives in the relevant studies. Not only do the findings of scientific research work influence organization and practical content, but they are themselves influenced by the administrative bodies which, by handing over their records to the State Archives, at the same time determine the direction and the intensity of this research. The TsEPK is thus an administrative mechanism governing the interaction between theory and practice in the expansion of archives. Mention should also be made of the effect of contemporary research into the reference system on archives administration. These studies are intended to facilitate the retrieval of data in retrospective searches.

The usefulness of the differential method of describing documents on the basis of their information category should be stressed. From the standpoint of archives administration, this type of classification facilitates the planning of descriptive work, reduces the time and labour required to carry it out and provides a more detailed description of the collections which contain the most information. The application of the differential method means that the acquisition of documents by archives is directly determined by their quality as sources of information (diversity of documentary data, historical importance, state of preservation, frequency of use).

In the majority of countries the need for serious scientific research into the use of archives has also been recognized. Efforts have been made to define the problem of the use of documents (Canada), to undertake a systematic examination of users' information requirements by analysing their requests (Archives of the Federal Republic of Germany), to establish links between the ways in which the documents are used and the selection of the corresponding personnel (Great Britain), to include archival information in the network of scientific/historical information and documentation (German Democratic Republic), to create a stock of data which will subsequently be translated into machine language (Poland), to develop objective criteria for assessing the effectiveness of research from the standpoint of the tasks of 'social management', the development of the national economy, science, etc. (USSR).

(b) The importance of research into records management for archives administration

From the standpoint of archives administration, the main significance of research into the creation of records is that its findings contribute to one of its most important functions of archives, i.e. the acquisition of highly informative documents.

Scientific and technical progress, together with the increase in documents on the subject and the emergence of new types of media (audiovisual, computerized and others) call for a new, universally valid approach to the problems raised by the creation of records. In most countries, archivists have joined forces with management specialists (the German Democratic Republic, Denmark, Canada, France, Great Britain, Poland, USSR, U.S.A., Sweden and others).

In the USSR studies of the procedures and principles of the handling of records in administrative systems have made it possible to create the nucleus of a new scientific discipline, the science of records management, which is an application of the science of 'social management', and is connected with archival science and contemporary studies on information.

It should be noted that a broader definition of records management has been adopted. It now covers all handling of documents in administrative systems. This is the theoretical basis on which Soviet archivists, together with legal and other specialists have built up a unified records conservation system (EGSD).

This system is a code of rules, recommendations and norms for the conservation of records at every administrative level. It has been designed as a uniform method that will have an influence on management procedures as it guides, regulates and standardizes the handling of records from their creation until the time comes to store them in archives.

The establishment of this system led Soviet archivists to give closer attention to the standardization of administrative documents. As a result, two norms concerning administrative documents have been issued: 'System of documents on organization and administration. Basic principles' and 'System of documents on organization and administrations. Model'. These certain specifications regarding the drafting and typing of documents and the optimum layout for each component of the document. A number of documents are thus based on a single model matrix and their quality as sources of management information is improved.

The idea underlying the unified system and the norms for administrative documents is the idea that at the very conception of a document, even before its creation, its value as a source of information for the future must be taken into account. The application of these norms constitutes a link between records management and the State Archive Collection. The latter thus benefits from improvements in records management.

The establishment of the unified system and of norms for administrative documents gave an impetus to the development of the administrative sciences and made it possible to consider a unified system for documents on organization and administration which could be used both in automated administrative systems and in traditional ones. A unified system of this kind (USORD) is currently being developed by VNIIDAD in conjunction with several other archival institutions in the USSR; it will give rise to a complex network of documents designed to carry out one of the basic administrative functions, i.e. the organization of administrative systems and processes.

Similar research is under way in other countries. For instance, the Central Archive Directorate and the State Archives in Bulgaria are also setting up a unified system for the conservation of the State Archives (EGSD).

(c) The importance of research in the natural sciences for archives administration

An important feature of contemporary archives administration is the wide-ranging application of discoveries in the natural sciences and of advanced techniques. The role of research in this field is constantly expanding, so that theoretical and applied research serves as a base for the preparation of norms and manuals designed to improve conservation processes and rationalize reprographic and reduction techniques.

Several countries are planning to develop their existing scientific research centres and establish new ones. Czechoslovakia is building a centre for applied research in document conservation and restoration, which will use the most up-to-date techniques. In the USSR, this type of research is carried out by VNIIDAD, which is responsible for the methodological supervision of the network of microfilm and restoration laboratories working for the State Archives. The Croatian State Archives in Zagreb are planning an archival research centre, in which research in the natural sciences will play a clearly defined part. Two further laboratories dealing with documents hygiene, conservation and restoration have been built in Bulgaria, in addition to the one already in existence. In Poland, the specialized laboratories of the conservation service of the General Directorate of State Archives play an important role. Other countries are also well advanced in this field.

Large-scale research projects generally require close co-operation with other experts who are engaged, to a greater or lesser extent, in research on paper, ink, film, their environment, biological agents which can damage documents and even the dangers inherent in documents themselves. Archivists in the United States work together with scientists specializing in restoration and reprography. They apply the findings of their work on the development of artificial aging methods, the use of laser beams, refrigeration techniques atomization with non-acid aerosols, etc.

In the USSR, the VNIIDAD laboratories work together with institutions of the Academy of Sciences and the major State libraries.

A number of countries have research programmes whose aim is to create durable media (paper, film, ink) and use them to solve the problem of document conservation (Great Britain, GDR, USSR and others).

The laboratory of W.D. Barrow (U.S.A) has studied the agents which hinder book and documents conservation, and ways of producing long-lasting paper.

In recent years, there has been a good deal of interest in synthetic paper (U.S.A and Japan). According to the information published on the subject, this type of paper is extremely stable and long-lasting but there is a problem of electrostatics to be dealt with. Great Britain has produced a type of paper called 'archival quality paper' which is guaranteed to last 500 years. The USSR has produced an experimental batch of long-lasting paper with a life of approximately 850 years. Research is being carried out into paper made from cotton fibres which would have a life of 1,000 years and could be used for particularly important documents.

However, the physical conservation of the paper does not as yet guarantee the conservation of the text. It has in fact been shown that ink often actively contributes to the destruction of a text. The interrelationship between the medium and the text thus had to be investigated with reference to conservation conditions, as did the parameters of the 'medium/text' system.

Scientific research and practical measures designed to combat infectious biogenic substances, particularly fungi, have also been given a fresh impetus. The objective is to protect not only paper documents but also films and photographic plates. The danger of placing infected documents in storage is particularly great in a tropical climate. Recent discoveries in the field of antisepsis open up major possibilities for the treatment of archival documents.

As a result of research into existing methods of mass disinfection the use of formation has gradually given way to more effective treatment with gas, using ethyl oxide, methyl bromide and other chemical products. Archivists in many countries also consider the physical method, which consists of disinfecting documents with high frequency currents, to be promising. Several countries (Bulgaria, France, Czechoslovakia) use ionizing radiation for this purpose.

Studies concerning the properties of computerized, audiovisual and other documents are a particular focus of interest at the moment. So far little is known about their durability or optimum storage conditions. The problem of the durability of the microfilms used in automatic data reduction systems (COM) is one of great urgency. The archives of several countries possess large collections of films and microfilms, and methodological guidelines for their storage and conservation are needed.

It is often necessary to reproduce the colours of documents by photographing them. It is thus essential to create new types of photographic media for the purposes of microfilming or photography, as well as optimum conditions for the chemical treatment and conservation of these materials.

The financing of means of observing certain ecological parameters should be considered in the light of the cost of protective treatment on the one hand and of the equipment of restoration laboratories on the other. Economic criteria must outweigh purely technical considerations, particularly as regards the choice of methods. Archivists require detailed information on new techniques in order to choose the most suitable materials. Several countries, particularly the USSR, have begun to draw up selection and assessment criteria for new materials intended for the State Archives and to prepare summary catalogues of these materials adapted to the specific aims of archives.

The question of what would constitute the 'ideal archives' has been discussed for some time now. Archivists in most countries associate this concept with the archives administration of the future. In countries where archives are considered to be part of the State's information potential the '"ideal archives' are seen in the context of a task to be carried out by archives either following their integration in a single national information system (Japan), or as a result of greater interdependence between the networks of archives, libraries and documentation centres (Great Britain) or finally, following the constitution of a computer 'network covering the whole country' (U.S.A.).

Archivists in the German Democratic Republic associate the definition of the 'ideal archives' with a definition of the role and functions of State Archives in a developed socialist society. In Czechoslovakia, the idea of 'ideal archives' is bound up with the project for the construction of an archives complex in Prague, of State Archives in Bratislava and of new archive buildings in other towns which would use the most up-to-date administrative techniques and information systems.

Archivists in the Federal Republic of Germany have outlined a model which the Federal Archives should, in their view, comply with by 1980. The Archives are considered as a cultural centre that stores a minimum of documents with the maximum content in a more compact form, and uses the latest techniques to satisfy the information requirements of the whole of society.

Soviet archivists believe that the traditional methods of archival storage call for improvements that go beyond changes in technological procedures and in the technical equipment used in archives. The research undertaken in this field aims to develop technological criteria for each technical operation. The specifications of projects relating to 'ideal archives' are being prepared, and studies are being carried out on recommendations concerning the equipment in archival repositories.

Great importance is now attached to the updating of technical and standard-setting documentation applicable to the construction and equipment of archives, together with the standardization of architectural design. Most countries consider it reasonable when building archives to take into account the physical constitution of the documents that are to be stored in them (paper, film, magnetic tapes) and to follow standardized plans. In Great Britain, the U.S.A., France and the Federal Republic of Germany, it is felt that documents that have not been sorted, and most of which will be destroyed after a short space of time, need only be preserved in intermediate repositories, which are built and equipped at a low cost and are clearly distinguished from archives proper. Structures of this kind already exist in a number of countries. Their main advantage is the relatively low cost of storing the documents, combined with the possibility of making maximum use of the space.

As for models of the ideal archives building and their construction, Soviet archivists take as their basis the fact that new trends in the field of archives point above all to the mechanization and complete automation of technological procedures such as data processing and collection, the conservation and use of documents, and to the introduction of new types of data carriers that make it possible to reduce archives to a very small scale and automate them.

4. The use of the computers and of microfilm in archives administration

One of the main tasks of archives administration is the establishment of automated systems which use computers to store, process and retrieve information.

In a number of countries, this has become a matter of urgency due to the rapid increase in the amount of documents that are preserved and recent advances in computer technology. The national archives in the United States are one of the main archival centres for the use of computers. There the automatic SPINDEX indexing system is used to process staff files and includes name, post, date and the document reference number.

The Public Record Office in London uses computers to store and produce data describing its collections and is thus able to publish directories using a photo-typesetter. A topographical index arranged by codes of groups of documents, by classes and by location is issued twice yearly for internal use.

The East Sussex County Record Office uses computers for cataloguing and records management (ARCAIC) and PARC systems. The Archives of the Federal

Republic of Germany are using a STAIRS system to retrieve data from stored documents and to compile indexes of names of persons, places and subjects. The Italian State Archives use an automatic indexing system to retrieve and produce summaries of notarial documents. The Canadian Federal Archives use the document indexing and monitoring system RECODEX, which was created with the assistance of the State bureau of computer services. The ALPHATEXT system has made it possible to draw up a standardized description of private archive collections (manuscripts) preserved in the Canadian Archives (30,000 items). The Belgian State Archives have introduced automatic cataloguing for the science library and printed records. Similar projects are under way in Austria, France, Japan, and in several other countries.

The Member States of COMECON are investigating the possibility of developing AIRS for archival purposes. These countries can draw on the experience of very large automated information centres. For instance, the Romanian State Archives have adopted the SARIAS descriptive system using a third generation computer. The system which uses an open thesaurus, operates on a two-pass principle, and is linked to a summary and a search facility recorded on magnetic tape. Czechoslovakia and the German Democratic Republic are using automated information systems and have computerized the whole sequence of document storage, retrieval and production (PENTAKA system in the GDR).

The USSR is working on the implementation of an automated scientific and technical information system which covers the documents of all the State Archives in the country. An automated scientific and technical documentation subsystem for the State Archives network will be established within this system. Document storage and processing will be carried out by means of a three-pass circuit designed to carry out the following functions:

- retrospective subject searches requested by an individual user or group of users;
- the selective circulation of information to a limited number of regular users;
- the statistical treatment of data.

The Central Catalogue AIRS (AIRS/CFC) will constitute a further part of the general automated documentary information system of the USSR State Archives. Its purpose is to store information on all the archive documents in the USSR, including their title, location, the amount of room they occupy in the storage units and several other factors.

The use of magnetic tape cassettes that are identical to the compact cassettes used in portable recordings opens up a wide range of possibilities. These cassettes are easy to store, transport or send by post. A mini-computer cassette can store from one to two million alphanumeric characters. Most minicomputers also have visual display units for both text and graphics.

In the major modern archive repositories effective document retrieval is based on the use of microfilms as information carriers. Microfilming reduces storage space and computer time in a rational way, and less paper is thus required.

For some time now there has been a clear tendency to use computerized data production systems employing a microphotographic medium (roll microfilm and microfiches), instead of separate microfilm units.

The AIRS/CFC is classed as a two-pass factographic documentary system. A variant of this system will use an information retrieval language of the descriptor-classification type with a position-based grammar. The two systems will be used together to assess collections of scientific and technical documents.

The development of programming systems for third generation computers has made it possible to set up effective integrated information systems bringing together the documentary collections of several archives. The exchange of data between archival centres can then be organized by location or communication networks.

AIRS specialists are showing great interest in the use of low-power computers ('mini-computers'), designed to handle relatively small numbers of documents. The mini-computers used in a number of local AIRS have already demonstrated their cost effectiveness chiefly on account of their lower price - and given satisfactory performances. Should the number of documents increase or more intensive use be made of the machines, the system's reserve of power may be supplemented by replacing certain components without incurring major expense. This adds to the system's flexibility.

The advantages of microfilm as an information carrier and of minicomputers as a means of processing this information have led to the establishment of relatively cheap specialized mini-systems for the storage, retrieval and production of copies of microfilms or of graphic documents. The application of these systems is, however, limited with regard to the number of documents that may be stored, the length of the index, the research algorithm, etc. The Miracod (Kodak, U.S.A.) Odelcod Filmdata Bank (De Oude Delft, the Netherlands) and Cezam (Cifal and Sait Data System, France) mini-systems have established their reputation. The Miracod system is used by the Canadian State Archives.

The retrieval of information on magnetic tape or in electronic memory banks direct to the user's console will become increasingly common. The automatic indexing of documents, real-time dialogue, and the establishment of a link between the computer and the communication system would make possible further significant improvements in the effectivenss of AIRS.

5. The need to develop a scientific archival terminology

Efficient archives administration is conditional upon the development of a special instrument of communication: scientific archival terminology. This will involve improvements in the definition of traditional concepts and the interpretation and assimilation of new terms adapted to the special nature of archival work.

The influence of terminology on administrative objectives is by its very nature informative; only its forms differ. In any case, a unified and unambiguous terminology encourages sound decision-making and makes it easier to carry decisions out. In addition, it makes scientific literature and informative publications less arduous reading.

The publication in the USSR of the 'Concise dictionary of archival terms' (1968) and the 'Concise dictionary of types and varieties of documents' (1974), which contain a considerable number of terms, marked a great stride forward in the unification of the theoretical aspects of archival science and records management in this country.

Several countries have established norms for archival terminology. In Sweden, this is done by the National Standardization Committee, on which sit representatives of the State Archives. In the USSR, a 1971 terminological bulletin contains 49 basic terms relating to the conservation of documents and archives whose use is compulsory in standard-setting documents and in specialized, technical and reference works.

Terminological research has repercussions beyond national frontiers, contributing to understanding among specialists on an international level and helping to surmount terminological barriers. Archivists in Poland, the GDR, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria are revising their terminological dictionaries and the latest editions already contain new terms.

The COMECON countries are at present engaged in terminological research which highlights the need for a common terminology that can only be achieved on the basis of a comparative analysis of the definitions used in the different national archival terminologies.

The compilation of an international dictionary under the aegis of the International Council on Archives, which would include archival terms in the Council's different working languages, would appear to be highly desirable, if not essential, for the future of archival science throughout the world.

<<TOC5>> Library administration & new management systems

By Richard De Gennaro
(Director of Libraries at the University of Pennsylvania)

"The real danger with… management systems is that they offer mechanistic formulas for dealing with complex realities and keep us from thinking about and solving our management problems in practical, realistic, and common sense ways”

MONSIEUR JOURDAIN, Molière's Bourgeois Gentilhomme, was surprised and pleased to learn that he had been speaking prose all his life without knowing it. I felt the same way when I finally learned that I had been a manager for 20 years without knowing it. Well, I always knew that I was a library administrator, but somehow I never thought of myself as a manager because that term connoted a kind of modern professionalism that the more familiar term administrator lacked.

Ten years ago I attended the University of Maryland's excellent two-week development program for library administrators and was deeply impressed by the introductory courses and readings which covered the full range of subjects like McGregor's Theories X and Y, Management by Objectives (MBO), Program Budgeting (PPBS), Decision Theory, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Mathematical Modelling, Management Information Systems, etc. I came away thinking, somewhat naively, that business and other managers had mastered and were routinely using that arsenal of sophisticated management systems and techniques in their daily work, and that it was only library and perhaps academic administrators that were struggling along with the traditional methods. It was clear that we librarians had a lot of catching-up to do.

It was with some hesitation that I accepted the directorship of a large library in 1970 because I believed that research libraries were becoming increasingly costly and complex organizations and that I lacked the formal management training and skills that the job required. Determined to remedy my lack of formal training, I enrolled in the Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program, a prestigious and expensive three-month program especially designed for high-level business, government, and military executives. I thought the '`B-School" would work its magic and convert me from a self-taught library administrator into a certified modern manager, but I was disappointed.

Early in its history, the Harvard Business School developed the case method of instruction and it has used it almost exclusively in its teaching ever since. The case method can be very effective, but it was overused in the executive development program. In three months, we never read anything but cases, and since the cases were all efficiently reproduced and distributed in convenient packets, we never had the need or the occasion to use the rich resources of the Baker Library. In fact, we seldom had to read from a real book or journal. The classics of management science were rarely mentioned, and with the exception of a few sessions on decision theory and computer simulation, almost no mention was made of any of the new management systems that had been developed and were presumably being used routinely everywhere but in libraries. The Harvard program was useful, but it did not give me the management knowledge and skills that I needed and wanted; so I continued to read about management and to attend management institutes and workshops. (Among the best and most useful are the short programs offered by ARL's Office of Management Studies.) This reading and supplementary training helped me to develop and sharpen my management skills over the years. At the same time, I was gaining confidence and maturity and getting a lot of practical on-the-job experience.

I was also called upon to serve on a number of boards, commissions, and committees; this gave me the opportunity to work closely with and observe a peer group of top managers and executives, not only in libraries, but in universities, business firms, and government offices. I found that most of them, like me, had no special management training or education and were struggling, each in his or her own unscientific way, to do the management jobs to which they had been appointed. Some were more competent and effective than others, but previous formal management training seemed not to make any significant difference. Indeed, it was hard to tell who had training and who didn't. I noticed that there were few trained management experts in top level management positions. Instead, they were working as specialists in staff positions or as teachers, researchers, or consultants.

I could not see any real difference in what I was doing as a library director and what my peers in other fields were doing. After a while, I began to suspect that the reality of what we managers were experiencing in our day-to-day activities had more validity than the theoretical world of management that was being described in books and articles written by management professors and social scientists.

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P140.PNG Figure 

I was confirmed in that view when I read Henry Mintzberg's The Nature of Managerial Work. Mintzberg, a McGill University management professor, had a much different view of management and the way managers worked than the conventional authors: that view checked with my own experience as a library administrator. In order to find out and describe what managers actually did, he conducted a number of studies and also scanned the literature to integrate and synthesize the findings of other studies with his own.

How do managers manage?

The studies by Mintzberg and other researchers showed that from street gang leaders to the President of the United States, managers do not spend their time planning, organizing, coordinating, and controlling as the French industrialist, Henri Fayol said they did in 1916 and as most writers on management have continued to repeat ever since. They are not like the orchestra leader who directs the component parts of his organization with ease and precision. Instead, they spend their time reacting to crises, seizing special opportunities, attending meetings, negotiating, talking on the telephone, cultivating interpersonal and political relationships, gathering and disseminating information, and fulfilling a variety of ceremonial functions. Mintzberg says:

I was struck during my study by the fact that the executives I was observing-all very competent by any standard-are fundamentally indistinguishable from their counterparts of a hundred years ago (or a thousand years ago, for that matter). The information they need differs, but they seek it in the same way-by word of mouth. Their decisions concern modern technology, but the procedures they use to make them are the same as the procedures of the 19th Century manager. Even the computer, so important for the specialized work of the organization, has apparently had no influence on the work procedures of general managers. In fact, the manager is in a kind of loop, with increasingly heavy work pressures but no aid forthcoming from management science.

The Mintzberg view is by no means unique. There is a growing number of management scholars who are questioning the conventional view of management and what managers do. In a critical review of On Management (Harper, 1976), a book of articles selected from 25 years of the Harvard Business Review, Albert Shapero, a management professor at the University of Texas, strikes a similar note:

The term management conjures up images of control, rationality, systematic: but studies of what managers actually do depict behaviors and situations that are chaotic, unplanned, and charged with improvisation. The Managerial life at every level is reflexive-responding to calls, memos, personnel problems, fire drills budget meetings, and personnel reviews. Occasionally, however, we find at managerial levels individuals who go 24 hours without being interrupted by meetings or phone calls. They are the long-range planners. the people in O.R.. E.D.P., financial or market planning, or market research. Management is really for them. The bulk of the articles in On Management are concerned with ideas from the world of the staff functionary.

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P141.PNG Meeting

Are management systems really used?

What about the claims of widespread use of new scientific management systems and techniques? Is it really true that managers in business, government, and other institutions are using them extensively while we library administrators are lagging far behind?

Let's first look at what a few of the management experts say about the use of these systems in general, and then we will look at their use in libraries.

William R. Dill. dean of the Graduate School of Business Administration at New York University, makes this sober assessment:

For all the progress we have made in developing good approaches to planning, forecasting, budgeting, and control, and for all the enthusiasm we in schools of management have helped to build for these approaches. their use has been fitful and sporadic. even in the most analytically sophisticated and goal-oriented institutions. In corporations that are pointed out as models for what can be accomplished, the outputs of planning, budgeting. and modeling staffs are often quietly ignored by operating people when times are good; these outputs often seem irrelevant in times of sudden challenge or change. Analysis and planning are still far from foolproof ways to anticipate change and potential crises.

Aaron Wildavsky, dean of the Graduate School of Public Policy at the university of California, Berkeley, has written a number of articles in which he argues convincingly, citing evidence and authorities, that the major modern information systems like PERT, MBO, PPBS. Social Indicators, and Zero Based Budgeting have not worked and cannot work. About PERT (Program Evaluation Review Technique), he says that “the few studies that exist suggest that outside of construction, where one activity tends to follow another, PERT is rarely successful."

On MBO (Management by Objectives), he says: "The trouble with MBO is that the attempt to formalize procedures for choosing objectives without considering organizational dynamics leads to the opposite of what was intended-bad management, irrational choice, and ineffective decision-making."7 “The main product of MBO, as experience in the United States federal government suggests, is, literally, a series of objectives. Aside from the unnecessary paper work, such exercises are self defeating because they become mechanisms for avoiding rather than making choices. Long lists of objectives are useless because rarely do resources remain beyond the first few."

On PPBS, Wildavsky is equally harsh. He says that "Program budgeting does not work anywhere in the world it has been tried,” and that “no one knows how to do program budgeting.” His assessments of Social Indicators and Zero Based Budgeting are in a similar vein.

These realistic assessments that we are getting from authorities like Mintzberg, Shapero, Dill, Wildavsky, and others should serve to remind us to maintain a healthy skepticism whenever we read about the effectiveness and widespread use of new management systems and techniques. We librarians should guard against the tendency we have to look for panaceas and to accept uncritically the claims and promises made on behalf of each new management theory or system that appears.

Consider the minimal impact on libraries as compared with the initial promise, for example, of PPBS, Operations Research, MBO, and even Participative Management.

To the best of my knowledge, PPBS has not been successfully implemented in a single library and I doubt that it ever will be. Interest in it is rapidly waning.

The practical application of Operations Research in libraries has been extremely limited to date. One of the earliest and best known economic analyses of library decision making was done in the MIT Libraries in 1969. The report of that study came to this sobering conclusion: “Although helpful, an economic analysis of a university (or public) library is insufficient because libraries operate as political systems and thus improving libraries requires political analysis.” In an excellent article on library decision making, Jeffrey Raffel, an economist and co-author of the MIT study begins by saying that “in general, the more important the decision, the less beneficial a cost-benefit analysis is to library decision makers,” and concludes by saying that “it is time that we all recognized the politics of libraries and acted accordingly.”

In a classic paper on Management by Objectives in academic libraries, lames Michalko, after a thorough, critical review of the literature, recommends against the use of MBO in libraries on the grounds that it is a limited approach which is costly and difficult to implement and which yields uncertain results.

Participative management is another "new” management technique that has been particularly oversold in the last decade. In fact, it is considered by many librarians to be the perfect management system. Good management has always included consultation and participation, it is just the name. the faddishness, and some of the formal structures that are new. When used properly and honestly, participative management is a useful process at all levels, and not just by top managers on major decisions as is sometimes assumed. It is essential that there be appropriate consultation and participation of interested and competent staff members on important decisions affecting them. But participative management will not bring on the management millenium in libraries.

Participative management is not decision making by committee or by staff plebiscite. Good management requires that when all the facts have been gathered and analyzed and all the advice is in, the appropriate administrator has to make the decision and take responsibility for it. Knowing when and how to seek and take advantage of consultative advice and prior approval of decisions where appropriate is one of the most important managerial skills. Decisions should be made at the lowest competent level. The library's critical strategy decisions involve a world outside the library and must usually be made by the director and his chief associates. Staff committees can give good advice on such matters, but they simply do not have the information, the knowledge, or the perspective required to make those decisions-and they cannot take responsibility for the results.

One extreme form of participative management, the collegial or faculty system of governance, was developed for academic departments; it works badly there and worse or not at all in libraries. Where it appears to work, it is because those involved have tacitly made concessions to traditional hierarchical systems and the demands of the environment while preserving the collegial form. A library is not an academic department, it is a service organization and should be so administered. A librarian by any other name is still a librarian and it is time for mature acceptance of that fact.

Perhaps the reason that participative management has been embraced so enthusiastically and uncritically by librarians in recent years is not because of its management benefits, but because it appears to be the model that best justifies faculty status. It is assumed that because faculty members participate in a collegial academic decision-making process, that model is the appropriate one to use in libraries-if librarians are to achieve faculty status. Much of the library-based management literature since 1970 is self-serving and reflects a direct or indirect preoccupation with matters of staff status and benefits frequently hidden behind arguments for participative management. It is time that we recognized this natural bias and took steps to overcome it by giving more attention and weight to the more objective management literature from outside the library field.

Two recent articles on participative management in libraries, one by James Govan and the other by Dennis Dickenson, give encouraging evidence that the library profession is beginning to take a more realistic and balanced view of the advantages and limitations of participative management and collegial governance. Govan reminds us that:

Librarians cannot afford to degrade services nor alienate their users in an effort, however enlightened or well intentioned, to make their jobs more challenging and satisfying. Participation and consultation cost time and money and often, like faculty deliberations, produce rather conservative results. In this connection, it is useful to remember Masiow's belief that Theory Y is possible only in periods of affluence. It is also healthy to recall Drucker's statement that service institutions do not operate for the people who work in them.

In his perceptive article, Dickenson tries to provide “an antidote for some of the more extreme and sometimes naive interpretations of participative management that appear from time to time in library literature”.

Peter Drucker summed up an important truth about management when he said in response to an interviewer's question about the efficacy of new management techniques: “The young people today expect to see business run by theory, knowlege, concepts, and planning. But then they find it is run like the rest of the world-by experience and expediency, by who you know, and by the hydrostatic pressure in your bladder”.

This is not just the way business is run. it is the way libraries are run as well. And it is the way they will continue to be run despite the current rhetoric about the managerial revolution that is being ushered in by the use of new quantitative and psychological management systems and theories.

Why? Because a library operates in a political environment and nearly all the really important decisions that are made at the highest levels have an overriding political component. They are rarely the product of cost benefit analysis or Operations Research where the various factors are weighed and compared and the “best” or most cost-effective course is chosen. These management techniques can be useful sometimes to implement a program or a project in the most effective manner after the political decision to proceed has been made. They can also be useful in providing a rationale to support some essentially political decision that is being proposed or advocated, or to impress higher authorities or constituents with the competence of the managers and the rationality of their decision making process. Management systems, particularly PPBS, ZBB, and PERT are used in government and military bureaucracies largely because they are mandated by law or regulation.

In the library world, as in education. business, and government. few major program decisions are made solely or even largely on the basis of careful studies of needs and costs. Consider, for example, decisions to build a new library building, to open a new departmental or branch library, to achieve excellence in some special subject discipline, or to embark on a major automation program. These program decisions are usually the result of an initiative or vision by an imaginative and powerful person, perhaps a library director. a dean. a president, a mayor, or other official. They are political, emotional. or even personal decisions-justified, rationalized, and perhaps implemented with the assistance of various kinds of analyses and studies, but seldom derived from them.

It is important that librarians understand how and why these really critical decisions are made so that they will not be disillusioned or discouraged when they discover that the “best”, the most efficient, or the least expensive solution frequently loses out to the one that is the most politically expedient or attractive.

The quantitative approach

I think it is important to make a distinction between the claims made on behalf of complex quantitative management systems such as Operations Research and Cost-Benefit Analysis. and the collection and analysis of quantitative data in libraries to assist in rational decision making. I am questioning the validity and usefulness of these complex systems, but I am not questioning the need for and use of quantitative studies for measuring and evaluating library services. Quite the contrary, we need to know more about libraries, their resources, and how they are actually used. We have relied historically upon input data, e.g., the number of books acquired. the number of serials subscribed to, the number of books circulated, the dollars spent, etc. The qualitative characteristics of these data are dubious; we desperately need reliable measures of library effectiveness.

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P143.PNG Study

Following the pioneering work by Fremont Rider in 1940 on the growth of research libraries, there has been an increasing number of extremely valuable quantitative studies like those by Fussler, Lancaster, Buckland, and other works of solid quality. The findings of such studies provide the theoretical foundations and practical knowledge that working library managers need to draw on to help them think clearly and creatively about library management and to make sound decisions based on valid data. This is especially true in this time of transition when the conventional wisdom of our profession will not suffice to see us through.

As one of the library managers for whose benefit and use such studies are presumably made, I thank the authors and urge them on to greater productivity and precision. I also urge them to try to keep their studies as simple as possible and to summarize their findings in readable English.

Unfortunately, a good deal of the quantitative research that is done in the library field is unintelligible, irrelevant, or too complicated and theoretical for any practical use in libraries. Much of it is written in the language of higher mathematics which is incomprehensible to most managers. This is particularly true of studies that are made by academics outside the library field such as statisticians, economists, psychologists, Operations Research people, etc. Their goal is not necessarily to do studies that are useful, but to demonstrate their mathematical prowess, to test theories and methodologies, to get published, and to award doctoral degrees to deserving graduate students. They select the library as their laboratory because it is convenient and because they think it is virgin territory ready for easy exploitation. They are more interested in the process than in the results.

The most useful library research is done by librarians or others with a serious long-term interest and involvement in libraries who work with librarians in a spirit of genuine collaboration. They are trying to make an impact. It is the difference between a class assignment and the real thing, between war games and war.

A notable exception to this criticism of academics is the landmark work by William J. Baumol and Matityahu Marcus, Economies of Academic Libraries (American Council on Education, Washington, D.C., 1973). These two economists went to unusual lengths to explain their statistical methods and to summarize their conclusions with refreshing brevity and clarity. As a consequence, their work is widely read and frequently cited.

Management scientists and other quantitatively oriented researchers frequently wonder why the results of quantitative research studies are not used more by practicing library managers in the decision making process. One reason is that the mathematics and the methodologies required are far too complex and difficult for operating managers to learn and apply in their busy work environments. Few senior library administrators have the kind of staff support needed to successfully carry out complex analyses. Another and equally important reason is that the quantitative approach does not and cannot take into sufficient account the complex of political, organizational, and psychological factors that characterize the real work where people are more potent than numbers or logic.

The quality of many decisions could be significantly improved if we had more and better data, but many of the more important decisions have a relatively small quantitative component. As a library director, I seldom have a critical need for more quantitative data than are available from regularly kept statistics or by having someone make a special and usually simple survey and analysis of the problem. When the data are simply not available or too difficult to assemble, I can usually find a satisfactory way to manage without them. My real problem has nearly always been to correctly assess the political rather than the economic or quantitative factors. It is fairly easy to determine the most cost-effective course of action with or without detailed data. It is much harder to map out and implement a successful strategy for achieving it, to assess how the various persons and groups affected will perceive the manager's intentions, and how they will react to the decision. Someone said that quantification is not synonymous with management. Finding the best or most cost-effective course of action is not the same as getting it accepted. Sometimes the quality of a decision is critical, other times, it is acceptance.

Effective decision making processes in large academic and public libraries involve complex sets of policies, procedures, and problems which require a variety of different kinds of information and approaches. Some decisions will be authoritarian. some will he collegial, some will be made by committees, and some will be made by combinations of the above. Library directors are not all knowing, nor are the collective judgments of library faculties and committees infallible. Different situations call for different approaches. There are no simple formulas and no easy answers.

The new management systems that I have been discussing in this article divide into two general categories. There are quantitative systems such as Operations Research, PPBS, and ZBB, end psychological or behavioral systems such as Theory Y (and its variants) and MBO. In each system. there are a number of concepts, ideas, tools, and techniques that have validity and can be used to advantage by library managers, but as comprehensive systems they are all far too theoretical, complex, and simplistic to be applied successfully by ordinary managers in the day-to-day work environment. Few managers have the time or the specialized knowledge and skills required to make these systems work, and those that do are probably astute enough to manage as well or better without them.

In the hands of amateurs-and this is most of us-the quantitative systems frequently produce misleading and wrong solutions, while the psychological or behavioral systems can lead to the manipulation and misuse of people. The real danger with both kinds of management systems is that they offer mechanistic formulas for dealing with complex realities and keep us from thinking about and solving our management problems in practical, realistic, and common sense ways.

Despite the many claims to the contrary, management is not yet a science. It is still an art, but is very much an art that can and should be mastered and practiced by librarians.

References

1. Henry Mintzberg, The Nature of Managerial Work-. Harper, 1973.

2. A very readable summary of Mintzberg's findings and views appeared in a much cited and reprinted article by him entitled. The Manager's Job: Folklore and Fact, Harvard Business Review, July-August 1975. p. 49-61.

3. Mintzberg, “The Manager's Job…" p. 54.

4. Albert Shapero, What Management Says and What Managers Do, Fortune, May 1975, p. 275.

5. William R. Dill. “When Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot… From Cyert and March to Cyert vs. March," in: Richard M. Cyen. The Management of Nonprofit Organizaitons. Heath, 1975. p. 67.

6. Aaron Wildavksy. Policy Analysis Is What Information Systems Are Not. Working Paper #53, July 1976. copy of a typescript of a paper delivered at the ASIS Conference, October 1976, p. 3.

7. Wildavsky, "Policy Analysis…" p. 5.

8. Wildavsky. Policy Analysis …'"p. 6.

9. Aaron Wildavsky, Rescuing Policy Analysis from PPBS. Public Administration Review, March/April 1969. p. 193.

10. The reasons can be found in an authoritative study by Guy Joseph De Genaro. “A Planning-Programming-Budgeting System (PPBS) in Academic Libranes: Development of Objectives and Effectiveness Measures.” Ph. D. dissertation. University of Florida, 1971.

11. Jeffrey A. Raffel. 'From Economic to Political Analysis of Library Decision Making,' College & Research Libraries. November 1974. p. 412.

12. Raffel, From Economic to Political Analysis …, p. 412, 421.

13. James Michalko. Management by Objectives and the Academic Library: a Critical Overview.' Library Quaterly. Vol. 45. No. 3. 1975. p. 235-52.

14. James F. Govan, “The Better Mousetrap: External Accountability and Staff Participation,” Library Trends Fall 1917. p. 264.

15. Dennis W. Dickenson, “Some Reflections on Participative Management in Libraries,” College & Research Libraries. July 1978. p. 261.

16. Thomas J. Murray, “Peter Drucker Attacks: Our Topheavy Corporations.” Dun's, April 1974. p. 40.

17. Fremont Rider. The Scholar and the Future of the Research Library, Hadham Pr.. 1944.

18. Herman H. Fussler & J. L. Simon. Patterns in the Use of Books in Large Research Libraries. Univ. of Chicago, Pr.. 1969.

19. F. W. Lancaster, The Measurement and Evaluation of Library Services, Washington, D.C.. Information Resources Press, 1977.

20. Michael K. Buckland Book Availability and the Library User, Pergamon, 1975.

21. See for example: A. Graham McKenzie, “Whither Our Academic Libraries”? Journal of Documentation, June 1976, p. 129.

<<TOC4>> 1.5 Case study: management of information in China

<<TOC5>> Management Development and Its Practice in Chinese Library and Information Services

LUO XINGYUN
(The Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China, Chongqing Branch)

INTRODUCTION

Management, as a human organized activity, has been in existent e in organized society throughout all civilized history, although its systematic study as a branch of science is fairly recent. It emerges and develops along with the development of social productivity and obviously the management approaches have become more advanced and progressive to correspond with the progress of human society. That is to say the management approaches have a very close relation with social productivity and the economic formation of society. The library as a part of the social fabric, has existed in all ages of organized society. Management approaches in business, industry and social administration have inevitably influenced library management, and 50 would the past approaches influence the recent grits. The influence between one part of the world and other parts is extremely evident in modern society because of the advanced means of transportation and communication.

According to some hooks on management, the development of management in western countries can be roughly divided into four periodis: the prescientific period (before 1800), the scientific period (1800 1927), the human-relations period (1927 50) and the synthesis period (1950 present). Library management practice has generally followed the same pattern of development, several years later than business and industry. A study of the development of management in China and in Chinese libraries has revealed that it by and large follows the same basic lines. Therefore, it would be beneficial to take a short look at the development of business and library management in western countries first before dealing with the management approaches in China in general and in Chinese library and information services in particular.

The prescientific management approach existed during the period of slavery and feudal society. The word for these periods would be autocratic. To become a manager throughout these periods one only needed authority, power and coercion. There were no human rights as we speak of today, no willing participation and co-operation between manager and the managed. The industrial revolution beginning with the invention of Watt's steam engine and the spinning Jenny promoted the development of modern industry in the eighteenth century and brought with it the first glimmer of understanding in terms of management skill. Many principles and methodology of modern sciences were applied to problems of administration. In this context, the scientific management approach came into being. But most of the managerial concepts of the time emphasized organizational aspects, especially those relating to the production of goods. Attention was focused on production, efficiency, and the prevention of waste. Human factors were neglected. In contrast to this, the main emphasis of the human relations approach was on the individual and the informal group in the formal organization. This approach was concerned with integrating people into a work environment. The phrase "personnel administration" came into prominence at this time, and increased efforts towards democratization and staff participation were evident. This period was a reaction against the overemphasis on productivity during the scientific management period. In order to overcome the one-sidedness of both the scientific management approach and the human relations approach, most of the effort expended in developing management thinking and concepts has, since the early 1950s, been toward refining the work started by F. W. Taylor (the scientific approach advocate) and 1,. Mayo (the human relations approach advocate) and combining elements of both with ideas from other fields such behavioural sciences. Thus management theory and practice has entered into a new stage the synthesis period. This approach pays more attention to individual ego needs besides economic and social needs for work motivation and also attaches importance to the work situation which consists of three elements: people, organization and environment. Only if all these six factors are in balance can a harmonious and pleasant work situation be achieved and increased productivity as well.

The development of library management can also be roughly divided into three basis periods, i.e. pre- 1937, the scientific (1937-1955) and the human relations (1955 present). However, these time divisions art somewhat arbitrary, as the overlap between one period and another is very great, although there is some evidence that the periods identified do represent an effort on the part of library administrators to pick up some of the ideas coming out of the disciplines of business management and public administration.

Most libraries in the period before 1937 tended to be small. As the concern was simply to keep the libraries open, there was very little need to be concerned about costs and management. The chief librarian was expected to run the library and to make the decisions in almost all stages of its operation. Libraries had been run with a rather traditional and conservative approach. In the late 1930s, a number of changes in library services took place and in some respects there were great strides forward. Studies on cost analysis, technical services, cataloguing and use of edge cards appeared about this time. Then people began to look seriously at some of the work done by Taylor and others to see whether or not there were sonic techniques applicable to the library, situation. After the Second World War, with the rapid development of science and technology, and the urgent needs for scientific information and education, the budgets of libraries increased as well as new library building and collections. To cope with this new situation, libraries began applying a combination of the scientific management approach of the Taylor school with some of the new mathematical operations research techniques developed during the War and began to emphasize, efficient operation. However, being administrators of non-profit making institutions they had little or no idea about how much it cost to carry Out various library activities during this period, until in the mid-1960s computer application and systems analysis became more feasible for the library situation. The human relations school in library management came into being about 1955 and has had a continuing influence on library administration up to present time. In most libraries, human relations management means democratic administration, participative administration and involvement in the decision-making process, although there are several difficulties and problems in its practice.

More and more evidence demonstrates that the synthesis management approach is not only a theoretical concept, but a practical method employed in many libraries in recent years. As a matter of fact, no library administrator confines himself to one definite management style or school, but usually combines several styles or schools with scientific approach as the core. The Introduction of computers and modern facilities of communication and other electronic technology into libraries has had a profound effect on library management. No doubt, library management will continue to improve. Managers or administrators of libraries will have the background to make better selections from the developments in management and related fields. As this takes place the libraries should become a more basic part of the community arid a pleasant environment in which to work.

MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA

As stated above, management development has a close relationship with social development. T. F. Mention's great contribution to social sciences is his discovery, that human society in all parts of the world has by arid large gone through the same stages of social formation. Management development in China can also be roughly divided into three basic periods as in western countries, but with some differences. The main differences are: firstly, the prescientific period is rather long in China and the approaches of that period have strong influence on the approaches which followed, because of the long history of feudal society in China and the long dominant influence of Confucianism on Chinese ideology and ethics. Secondly, China went through semi-feudal and semi-colonial society, i.e. a mixed social formation of feudalism and colonialism, in the last century, which makes the scientific approach in China during this period somewhat different from the western one. Thirdly, the new democratic and socialist revolution in China inevitably marked a new stage of management development in China.

As for the temporal divisions, the whole period of Chinese slavery and feudal societies is prescientific; the scientific period began with the first attempt at introducing techniques of capitalist production (called the -Westernization-Movement- initiated by comprador bureaucrats in the latter half of the nineteenth century) till the founding of the People's Republic in 1949. Then began a new approach of socialist scientific management which is a different concept, but somewhat similar to human relations or synthesis approaches, and is the one that still needs to be developed and perfected.

Being one of the most ancient civilized countries in the world, China was outstanding in administering state affairs, organizing military operations and managing great projects such as the Great Wall and the Grand Canal in ancient times. Administrative affairs were systematized arid regularized as early as Xia Dynasty, (21 - 16th century, BC.) according to historical recordings. During the periods called the Spring and Autumn, and Waring States (770 - 221 BC), there was a period of time called the "Contention of a Hundred Schools of Tought Of, these schools, Legalists and Confucianists were in a dominant position and had a strong influence alternatively on the approaches of state administration. Legalists advocated reform and -“ruling by law". Qin Xiao Gong, the Duke of the State of Qin appointed legalists as his senior officials and carried out reform. Very soon, his state became stronger than the other states and finally defeated all of them. In the end, the whole of China was reunited by his grandson Qin Shi Huang, the noted first emperor of the Qin Dynasty in 221. Confucianists advocated "Following the previous kings' practice" which was rather conservative. Because of the needs to consolidate the centralized feudal monarchy, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (206BC - AD220) implemented a policy of "Banning the other schools of thought and solely esteeming Confucianism". Since then, Confucianism dominated Chinese ideology for about two thousand years. The doctrine of obedience and loyalty to superiors benefited the ruling classes, but hampered people's initiative and creativity and fettered the productive forces. That is the reason why China could not move from a feudal society to a capitalist society in modern history, though the seeds of capitalism emerged long before they did in western countries, i.e. the thirteenth century, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. Autocracy in tile feudal society of China was so strong that even successive peasant uprisings could not shake its foundation until the invasion of foreign imperialism in the last century.

The repeated defeats in the wars between feudal China and foreign aggressors completely exposed the corrupt nature of the Qing Dynasty. These events on the one hand promoted the Reform Movement within the ruling classes and bourgeois democratic revolution of the people, and on the other hand introduced the ways and techniques of capitalist production and management. The rising of comprador-bureaucratic capitalism and the presence of foreign capitalism turned feudal China into a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country politically and economically. Management approaches in industry and business in this period were, in the main, scientific ones, but more autocratic. Workers had to work long hours, for low wages and in poor working conditions. Management in some enterprises during this period still relied heavily on coercion.

In discussing management in new China, two facts that make the nature of management differ from the western one must be noted. One is that China had abolished feudalism through land reform and later, capitalism through socialist transformation. All land, natural resources and means of production now belong to the people. Another fact is that the working people are politically masters of their own country. The principle of "cadre participation in collective productive labour and worker participation in management" ensures their position in production being equal to that of managers. Most of them work conscientiously and enthusiastically. This was especially true during the 1950s when planning, efficiency and economic results, in a sense, were emphasized, while labour emulation and voluntary labour were also encouraged. People were motivated mainly by spiritual reward in the early years. The participation in decision making. and the supervision over the management by workers are the striking characteristics of socialist management.

In the early 1950s, China stood politically on the side of the Soviet Union and learnt economically from the Russian. To some extent, China just copied the Soviet model in management as in other fields, which did not quite accord with China's real situation in many respects. It is wise for any country to learn from others' experiences and apply them in a creative way so as to develop her own. The "Charter of the Anshan Iron and Steel Company" was a systematic and comprehensive set of management regulations in industry stipulated by China in the early 1960s, which was then summarized into "70 Regulations" called Management Regulations for Industries, Mines and Enterprises-. Unfortunately, these regulations, influenced by left political idea had several defects. For example, while exaggerating the situation of class struggle in socialist society and overemphasizing the importance of mass movement in industry, scientific rules and methods were not respected adequately. The authorities concerned were simply after a high production quota, high output and quantity, while quality, efficiency, cost unit, economic results and the law of value were overlooked. That is what people usually called "too much enthusiasm and too little scientific consideration". However, for many years since the early 1950s, Sun Yefang, the former director of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Social Sciences and a noted economist, has established a series of socialist economic principles in management in the context of China, such as those on achieving maximum economic results with minimum labour consumption; on paying attention to the law of value and profits in a planned economy; on enlarging enterprises' rights of management; and on the correct application of economic levers and raising the position of profit in management. His theories divined correctly that the mechanical copying of the Soviet model and the "left" deviation policies would do no good to Chinese economy. Unfortunately, Sun's theories were not accepted by the former authorities, and instead, he was criticized and accused of being revisionist. just at that time, scientific laws and economic rules were not fully observed and people's socialist enthusiasm was abused, thus causing two great setbacks during 1959-61 and 1966-76 in economic construction. The penalty for that is heavy: the huge waste of time, natural resources and human energy, especially the people's enthusiasm. The most successful enterprise in the early 1960s was Daquing Oil Field which was regarded as an example of scientific management in industry by the whole of China for many years. One of its management principles, the system of personal responsibility, is still adopted by all factories.

In recent years, things have been changing a lot. Scientific management is reemphasized in addition to economic system reform and technical transformation. Efficiency and economic results are again the vital norms for evaluating the success of a unit's management. People's material interests are linked with production. They are encouraged to do more work, get more. pay and be well off before others. Since individual interests have a lot to do with the interests of the units, every one is very much concerned with what is going on in his units and has a great say in decision making. Equalitarianism is rejected in the salary system nowadays. Instead, differentials are established according to kind of work and the quantity and quality of work done, and thus the socialist principle of product distribution, i.e. "from each according to his ability, to each according to his work", is really carried out. People are thereby motivated and inspired, and the relations between the managed and managers, and among colleagues and follow workers, are thus improved. On the other hand, each production unit has more rights of self'-management. That is to say it is more independent than it was, and assumes sole responsibility for its own profits and losses, which directly concern the income of both managers and staff. Under this situation, the initiative and enthusiasm of the people are brought into full play and thereby productivity is raised and output increased.

China is now experiencing a period of transformation through which some defects in the existing system will be overcome and some new approaches suitable to China's specific condition will be found on the basis of other management approaches for her modernization. Library and information services, as part of society, are sure to apply some of the principles of industry and business management to their own management, with some modifications in order to suit their own needs.

LIBRARY MANAGEMENT IN OLD CHINA

The existence of libraries in China can be traced back as far as the Shang Dynasty (1600-1100 BC). Although China has been noted for her prosperous imperial and private libraries for thousands of years, the main function of these early libraries was to collect and keep books, as in other countries. The use of these libraries was restricted to imperial families, senior officials and noted scholars, not for the general public. However, the prosperity of Shu Yuan (academy) libraries and private libraries in the Ming (AD 1368-1644) and especially the Qing Dynasty (AD 1644-1911) played an important role in spreading literacy and knowledge and in preserving rare editions of ancient books. The former libraries were designated only for the reference use of teachers and students. Books could not be taken out of the library premises. The latter were merely for book collection, but sometimes could be consulted by friends and noted scholars. These collectors were usually bibliographers or experts on textual criticism, examination and correction and were sometimes also book publishers. Book lending was generally impossible. Because of the relatively small size of most private libraries, almost all operations could be done by one person. A few private libraries such as the Tian Yi Ge and the Xi Gu Ge which had existed for several hundred years, had very, large collections by the standards of those years. For example, the Tian Yi Ge had 70000 volumes and the Xi Gu Ge 84000 volumes. Unfortunately, war, damage and financial problems made the existence of these libraries very difficult in old China. Finally, all of them were taken over by the state.

There are few records about the management of imperial libraries, and yet the development of Chinese classification such as the Si Bu Fa (the Four Division Classification Scheme), the compilation of large encyclopaedia such as the Yong Le Da Dian, and national bibliographies such as the Si Ku Quan Shu in feudal China indicate certain success in managing these libraries.

Modern libraries in China began with the establishment of the first public library in Wuhan, Hubei Province and especially the founding of the Metropolitan Library, now the Beijing National Library, in 1910. The transition from traditional library functions to modern ones took place thereafter. The main trends during this period are as follows:

(1) The functions of the library were no longer merely for collecting and keeping but also for using books.
(2) Libraries were gradually used by everyone and not only by the privileged few.
(3) The collection of books on modern sciences and technology rather than the Chinese classics was stressed.
(4) Better service and satisfaction for users were required.
(5) Books were no longer classified by languages but by subjects.
(6) More attention was paid to the division of work and specialization as well as professional training in management.

The open shelf system was popular in many libraries. Book from catalogues were replaced by catalogue cards. Modern decimal classification, i.e. Dewey's scheme was introduced to replace the traditional Chinese Si Bu Fa, which was no longer suitable for modern scientific and technical literatures. Library science was also introduced into China and studied during this period. Many noted scholars and librarians made great contributions to the development of librarianship and library services in old China. For example, Professor LI Dazhao, one of the earliest propagators of Marxism- Leninism in China, was the former director of Beijing University Library from 1918 to 1922. He strongly advocated that the library should not be a book storage, but a place for research, and education; a librarian should not be a book keeper, but a researcher and instructor; the library should open to the laboring class free of charge. He took a lead in introducing open shelves in his library for the convenience of students. For this purpose, he changed shelving from traditional dictionary form, or alphabetical order into subject classification and organized catalogue cards of books in western languages by following Dewey's classification. He also paid great attention to statistics in order to improve the quality of service and satisfy the users needs.

Tile great contributions of the Beijing National Library to tile culture of modern China lies in its effort and success in collecting, preserving and sorting out Chinese classics, rare editions of ancient books and important documents, and in building a large collection of scientific and technical literatures in foreign languages, despite foreign aggression, civil wars, disasters and the corruption of previous governments. As for management during this period, it was mainly traditional.

LIBRARY MANAGEMENT IN NEW CHINA

Library services in new China have expanded rapidly in the last thirty years and a national network has been formed. Now, there are already about 20000 libraries of various types with more than 100000 staff. Take the public library and the university library as examples. By 1981, there were 1731 public libraries above county level with a staff of 19641 and 670 university libraries with a staff of 17000. Both types of libraries have total collections of about 190 million volumes. By comparison in 1956 there were only 96 public libraries above county level, with 3714 staff and 28-9 million volumes and 212 university libraries with 3568 staff and 37-28 million volumes. The Administrative Bureau for Library Services at the Ministry of Culture, a central agency for the planning and co-ordinating library development of all types, was set up in 1981 to suit the new situation brought about by the modernization drive in China. Furthermore, each type of library has a central unit for coordinating its activities, e.g. the Beijing National Library for public libraries. The Academy of Sciences Library for science libraries, and the Ministry of Education for university libraries. The expansion of library services in China demonstrates that libraries have played an important role in economic construction and education and are already an indispensable part of society. At the same time, Chinese librarians have gained some experience in library management and made some progress in the study of librarianship. For instance, the central authorities concerned have in the last two years sponsored a number of conferences, at which several working regulations have been formulated or revised respectively for public libraries, science libraries and university libraries in order to improve working efficiency and the quality of service. Another important event is the promulgation by the state Council in 1981 of “The Temporary Provisions of Professional Titles for Library, Archive and Information Personnel", which is of tremendous significance for improving personnel management and inspiring stair enthusiasm.

Standardization of documentation is the key link for library management. Since its founding in 1979, the National Documentation Standardization Technical Committee of China has done a lot in this field. It has sponsored several workshops in co-operation with the China Society of Library Science and the China Society of Scientific and Technical Information to examine "The National Standard Entries for Cataloguing" prepared by the Standardization Group of Beijing National Library, "The Abstract and Title-list Entry Formats for Retrieval journals" prepared by ISTIC, and suggest the use of “The Classification Scheme for Chinese Libraries" (including both the detailed version of the -Classification Scheme for Documents" and the simplified version) and of-The Chinese Thesaurus". This Committee also worked out-Tape Formats for Catalogue Information Exchange", -Name Codes for Nations and Regions", "Sex Codes for People”, “The Codes for Administrative Regions of PRC” and -The Standardized Codes of Chinese Characters for Information Exchange". The latter two, already Chinese National Standards, are being prepared for submission to ISO/TC97/SC2 for approval as international Standards.

Research in information methodology, and in the theory and practice of library science were started years ago. There is a Section for Information Methodology in ISTIC and 12 research groups under the China Society of Library Science including those for research in fundamental theory, bibliography, classification, cataloguing, reader service, staff training, rare and ancient books, standardization, information: services, children's library and foreign library work. Some progress has been made in recent years. Scientific management, efficiency. and economic results and the application of computers in libraries and information institutes are also receiving great attention and sonic initial successes have been achieved in these respects.

In summing up past experiences and lessons, library services in China have suffered setbacks twice during the last thirty years. One was in the years of so-called "Great Leap Forward", another in the "Cultural Revolution". Both were caused by the trend of neglecting scientific management as in industry and by the influence of a depressed economy as well. There is not a slightest doubt that scientific management in China is as important as in any other country. As everybody knows, the fact that the rapid advance of science and technology produces large amounts of documents, makes it more difficult for librarians to select, collect, process, store and report, and for users to access them quickly and precisely. Only scientific management and scientific methods in addition to modern facilities can solve this problem to some extent. The library itself is an integrated system consisting of different functional departments doing different jobs. The co-ordination and co-operation between departments and jobs, and the contact between the library and users are essential for a library to fulfil its social functions or to attain its objectives; and the library services or library undertaking in this country as a whole, including different types of libraries, also from an integrated system. Centralized planning with overall consideration for healthy development, rational geographic distribution, and effective cooperation among different or same types of libraries demands the introduction of scientific ways to analyse the needs and possibilities of the economic situation as important basis for allocating funds and facilities.

From a long term point of view, it is imperative for a nation like China with so large a territory and the biggest population in the world, to establish a retrieval network which includes data bases, communication systems and terminal facilities in order that a quick and precise service can be offered to users, as in the United Kingdom and the United States. This is the aim of the modernization of the Chinese library and information services. But first of all, they must be well managed. Without good management, any resource cannot be given full play, no matter how intelligent the staff, how advanced the facilities and how large the collections.

Owing to the fact that some Chinese librarians are fully aware of their weakness and the importance of scientific management in libraries, they have been vigorously committing themselves to the study of its theory and practice in recent years. A number of seminars have been held to discuss its definition and principles, especially in the Chinese situation. Here is a -definition of scientific management based on recent discussion. It is defined as "giving full play to manpower, material and financial resources in order to raise operational efficiency and the quality of services by applying the principles and methods of modern science and technology and observing the objective laws of librarianship, for the purpose of achieving optimum social results of services". This definition includes two concepts: efficiency and the social results of service. As a matter of fact the first one is the means and methods, the second is the objective of scientific management or the objective of library services. There is a controversy about the measurement of efficiency and social results. In fact, the measurement of efficiency is possible for most of library work, e.g. the repetitive and mechanical routines such as ordering, cataloguing, cards filing, binding, circulation and shelving. But social results are more difficult to measure. The satisfaction of users and the application of new technology or the improvement of education and culture in localities may be generally regarded as social results of library services. Cost and profit cannot generally be taken as criteria to measure the performance of libraries as they are for business, but these factors must be taken into consideration for good management.

As far as scientific management itself is concerned, this means good planning, rationalization and standardization of library work and documentation It also involves highly organized activities relating to administrative, professional, personnel and equipment management, such as planning, organizing, stalling, budgeting and directing.

Scientific management in Chinese libraries and information services is ideally characterized by the following principles.

(1) The Principle of Centralization and Unification

China is a country with a planned economy. The development of her industry, agriculture and all other public services is carried out in a planned way. Therefore, the expansion of library and information services in this country cannot go beyond the ability or remain behind the needs of her economy. It is necessary to give overall consideration to the priority and geographic distribution of different libraries in order to make the best use of limited resources such as funds, manpower and facilities, to organize a rational national network and technically to realize standardization and unification of library work and documentation such as classification, cataloguing and automation for sharing resources nation-wide.

(2) The Principle of Democracy

Staff and some users expect to be asked to speak their views or make suggestions in the process of policy making, decision making and planning. There are two ways to do so in practice. The authorities make the draft or outline of a plan first, and then consult staff and sometimes users. This way is called "From top to bottom". Otherwise, staff and sometimes users, are asked to discuss first. Then, the authorities concerned summarize their suggestions and ideas as a basis for drawing up their plan or making decision. This is called the "from bottom to top" method in policy making. Sometimes, these processes go through several times from top to bottom or from bottom to top before a decision is made if it is not urgent. Moreover, staff and users are encouraged to make complaints or suggestions at any time in the process of carrying out of a plan or a policy in order to correct unexpected errors and mistakes because of the changing situation or carelessness when making this plan and policy. Democratic management helps the authorities overcome subjectivism and bureaucracy and inspires staff enthusiasm, initiative and creativity because their personality and opinions are respected. In addition, problems can be found and solved in a timely way. Relations between management and stair are improved and the ties between library, users and society at large are thereby strengthened.

(3) The Principle of Economic Results

Unlike business, libraries are non-profit-making institutions. It is difficult to measure their economic results in the from of unit cost and profit. However, it is possible for libraries to use their funds as economically its possible, assign staff tasks as rationally as possible and utilize facilities as effectively as possible. It is also possible to establish a series of optimum systems fur literature collection, storage and service, and to formulate some rules and regulations that serve the needs of these systems with the aim of costing less money to get more documents that users need most, taking less people and time to process more documents and providing users with better service. The waste of human energy, money, time and material resources is incompatible with the principles of scientific management and must be lessened or totally avoided if possible.

(4) The System of Personal Responsibility

The social functions and relations of library with society were never so important as they are today. Society supports libraries, libraries serve society. The quality of library services directly affects both users and the whole of society. Conversely, social needs or users' needs also promote library services. Therefore, elaborate division of labour, and frequent contact and mutual dependence between departments are very important in order to offer a better service to society. Jobs in each department and in each link of an operation must be done well. That means that everyone must be sensible of his responsibility and get his or her job done on time, in the required quantity and quality. This responsibility system, like the one used in business provides standard to assess the performance of staff and the departments and enhances their sense of responsibility in work. A better management and service can thus be achieved in the end.

The above principles are general guides or aims to be sought for better management in library and information services. As for tire present situation so far, it is not quite the case yet. There are still a lot of things to do before reaching these aims.

SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT OF CHINESE LIBRARY SERVICES

In comparison with other countries, planning and management in Chinese library services do have some strong points, but on the whole, the managerial level is relatively low as it is in industry and for the same reasons. Some. factors which affect the efficiency of library services should be improved in order to serve the information and education needs of this country and at the same time modernized library services themselves.

(1) Geographic Distribution

For historical reasons, there are more libraries providing better services in big cities and economically developed areas than that in rural and remote areas. It is incredible that some counties even have no library services at all. Irrational distribution of libraries is of course a common problem in many other countries, and it was riot so urgent to solve this problem some years back in China because the needs for information and education in rural and remote areas were very small. Things are quite different nowadays. The new economic policies for industry and especially for agriculture, stimulate economic development in these areas. People are becoming well off and want to learn. Small rural factories need information for technical transformation and innovation in order to increase the quantity and improve the quality of products or change the line of their products to some which may be more profitable. Peasants need information and knowledge for scientific farming. Scientific and technical books and other materials are in great demand and hard to get in many rural areas. People call this situation "science fever" which could riot be seen before. It is reported that many peasants invited experts from their neighbouring areas or professors from colleges to transfer technology, or attended technical seminars and "technical fairs" themselves sponsored by local authorities. From a long term viewpoint, perhaps, the more effective and economical way to satisfy the information and education needs in rural areas is to improve library services. The general accepted LA standards for the provision of branch libraries are that: a population of under 1500 in a catchment area is usually better served by a mobile library; an isolated population of over 1500 normally needs a trailer library, sub-branch or branch library; in urban areas a branch should be provided in each major shopping centre. China is unable to reach these standards at present, but can do her best to improve the county central library service and at the same time to provide branch libraries in most districts and sub-branches, or mobile libraries or reading rooms of some sort at some town level grass roots. Agriculture is of vital importance in China's economy, arid about 80% of her population are peasants living in rural areas. No one in China can afford to neglect their demand if he wishes to see agriculture well developed and enough food to feed the 1000 million people or to tap the resources in remote areas. The provision of library services must be taken into consideration by the local leadership in those areas where there are still no such services, when planning overall development in their localities. The central library authorities, on the other hand should urge the local authorities to give enough financial arid manpower support to the establishment of library services.

(2) Regional CO-operation

Organizationally, China has already had a national library network consisting of different types of libraries. The problem is that these libraries lack close cooperation with information services, between different or even similar types of libraries, especially on a regional scale. The tasks of information services in China's situation differ from that of library services in some respects, and each type of library has its own tasks and objectives. However, their co-operation on a regional scale is very important to improve the. efficiency arid quality of services and to utilize resources in a more economical way. The United Kingdom arid some other countries have set some examples in library cooperation. Their experience is helpful for China in projecting regional networks and co-operation with Beijing National Library and ISTIC as backups like the British Library's position and functions in Britain. Regional co-operation including acquisition, cataloguing, staff training and resources sharing between libraries and information services would be organized, with provincial arid county public libraries arid local information institutes as centres. Some libraries, for instance university libraries, may have their own co-operation, like those in Changsha, Hunan Province in recent years. It should be emphasized that for a country with the biggest population in the world, regional and local networks arid co-operation in China are more important than in any other countries. Users should first rely, on their local libraries, then central libraries in this region. National centres are the last resort. Therefore, the collection of regional central libraries should be relatively large and comprehensive according to local conditions and needs, and regional union catalogues containing holdings of the participating libraries should be prepared for this purpose. and for avoiding duplication of labour. Regional co-operation is the infrastructure of national co-operation and the basis of library modernization. China should exert much effort in the establishment of regional co-operation in order to make the best use of her resources and to modernize her library services.

(3) National Referral Services

On the basis of regional library co-operation and regional information networks which already exist, two national referral centres should be established according to the actual existing situation: one mainly for monographs on social sciences and natural sciences as well in the Beijing National Library and one mainly for scientific and technical serials in ISTIC in order to improve the exploitation of existing resources nationwide. In doing that, the preparation of the national bibliography, catalogues of different types of literature and regional union catalogues should be hastened. Abstracts and indexes, other retrieval and reference books and directories published at home and abroad should be collected as comprehensively, as possible. At present, referral services are offered only, by. mail or by personal visits. It is quite possible technically and economically, now for China to carry out these services by, direct telephone and ISTI links with big libraries and local information institutes. When conditions are ripe, these two centres will be national data bases for automatic retrieval equipped with computers linked through telecommunication systems with terminals all over the country. It is recommended that the centre in ISTIC also provide a business information service for the needs of foreign trade and economic cooperation with foreign companies. Local information centres should provide local product arid market information. For tins purpose, market research reports, company cards, trade and professional directories, trade and business journals from major developed countries and business publications published at home should be collected, and specialists for guiding the use of these publications should be trained.

(4) Open Access and Opening Hours

Because of management problem and the fear of the loss of books, open access is still not popular in most libraries and information institutes except for periodicals, newspapers and children's books. Experiences have repeatedly proved that open access is the best way to facilitate users' needs and exploit literature resources. Rare books, valuable editions and manuscripts and some other materials are not suitable for open shelves. Open access to standard materials, patent literature and trade literature has been carried out in ISTIC libraries in recent years. Monographs and technical proceedings, research reports in big libraries such as Beijing National Library and ISTIC are difficult for open access, because the shelving is arranged by accession numbers or serial numbers, riot by subjects for saving the trouble of reshelving resulting from the huge daily intake of publications. Nevertheless, this call be done in medium and small size libraries, especially ill university libraries, school libraries and local public libraries.

As for opening hours, the internationally accepted standards for urban main libraries are 60 hours per week; for branch libraries 18-60 hours per week. Urban libraries and information institute libraries in China open only eight hours a day, 48 hours per week. No services are available on Sundays and national holidays. Children's libraries arid rural libraries usually open on Sundays. It is recommended that science libraries and urban public libraries with science open 10 hours a day, 60 hours per week. Opening hours for information documentation centres and university libraries may be longer depending on the users' real needs, and if' possible, board and accommodation should be provided for those who cannot get home on the day of a visit.
ISTIC Chongqing Branch Library has offered this service for several years. Other libraries should do the same if necessary and conditions permit.

(5) Publicily and Users' Survey

Besides reporting Journals, exhibitions arid lectures, guides and pamphlets about each kind of service and how to gain access to them and other information should be published in libraries and information centres. This is not only for the convenience of the users, but would also save much trouble for the staff and as a result, would save time for both users and stall'. Publicity relating to user service is a weak point ill Chinese library arid information services. Most libraries do not even have a sheet of printed material for presentation to users and foreign visitors. Compare this with some other countries where libraries, even smaller ones, provide various types of pamphlets free of charge explaining their services and holdings. The results are good. Users feel quite at home, especially fresh visitors and timid users who are not confident about what to do. Publicity is very important in user services arid each library should have someone in charge of this work.

Surveys and investigations on users' needs and the level of satisfaction by existing services should be carried out regularly by specialists ill order to improve the quality of services. Little has been done about this to date in most Chinese libraries and information centres. This kind of survey is very necessary and should he done by various means such as telephone, questionnaires, individual correspondence or even personal interview.

When this is done, library policies and plans will be built on a more realistic foundation. Better services can then be achieved.

(6) Library Education

The fact that China lacks qualified librarians is serious, especially in local libraries. This situation can perhaps be illustrated by the following statistics. Among 100000 library staff in 20000 libraries, only 3000 graduates were from the Departments of Library Science of Beijing University and Wuhan University and another 1500 persons had received correspondence courses by the end of 1980 since 1949. This figure accounts for a very small proportion of the total staff, not more than 5% on the average even in university and science libraries and public libraries above provincial level. Eighty-one percent of the stair began working in libraries just during or after the "Cultural Revolution" (1966-76). Eighty percent among them only had middle school education. On the other hand, quite a few technicians and research workers do not quite know how to use the library to search for documents. Of course, many staff can become professionals by training and working practice, and users get familiar with the use of the library by frequent visits or by the guidance of the staff. However, the lack of systematic library education and training for the stair would inevitably affect the efficiency of operation and the quality of services and for the users, the effective search for useful documents and literatures or other materials for the purpose of reference and education or entertainment.

Happily, the central authorities have done something to change this situation in recent years. For example, there are already 19 universities and colleges having departments or specialities of library and archive studies. Wuhan University even has a speciality of information science in the Department of Library Science. Correspondence courses continue to be given to some stair. On-the-job and off-the-job training in Beijing National Library, ISTIC and other big libraries has been continuous except during the. years of "Cultural Revolution". The guide for users was improved recently. This is really encouraging, but not enough for a country like China with so many libraries and staff. A radical solution to this problem would be to enhance library education. It is recommended firstly that one or two colleges of library and information science be set up for undergraduates as well as postgraduates to do research in order to supply libraries and information institutes with qualified librarians and staff and to raise the academic level of librarianship and information science. Secondly, all college and university undergraduates, science undergraduates in particular, should be given library and courses in order to make them ready to use library and information services when they become users, especially after graduation.

(7) Personnel Management

For librarians and library stair, as part of the Chinese intellectual stratum, their social position was low, and their labour was not fully understood by society sometimes in the past. Things are getting much better now, their contributions to society are generally acknowledged and appreciated by both people and government. However, present personnel management is not conducive to bringing stair initiative and creativity into full play. Most stair are not quite satisfied with the existing cadre system, promotion and salary systems. For example, officially there are four conditions for stair promotion and salary increment: education, length of service and experience, professional ability and contribution or performance. Generally speaking, it sounds good. In fact it is very complicated to implement. Most leaders used to emphasize the second one, i.e. the length of service and experience, because it is easy to measure and saves labour and argument. This "iron rice bowl" (job security) and "big pot rice" (equalitarianism) system are accepted by many people because the assessment system for stair performance is far from perfect. For quite a long time, “be red and expert" was supposed to be the lofty realm of accomplishment and the only standard for a perfect librarian, as for other intellectuals. Actually, "be red" was always overemphasized and distorted while "be expert” neglected or even criticized. Today, this slogan is given some new meanings and some more concrete standards are adopted for evaluating the performance of stair.

Following the reform in economic areas, a reform is about to be carried in libraries and information institutes. In the context of library and information services, this reform should, firstly, change step by step the life-tenure system of leadership into an election system, at least partly, so that more younger professionals may have the opportunity to play their parts and make their contributions in management positions. Non-professionals and aged leaders should conscientiously give up their posts to younger ones for the interest of the country. Secondly, the state assignment system should, at least partly, be replaced by a recruitment system so that the quality of staff can be controlled. Their specialities can thus be matched to the job and more willingness they will give to their assignments thereby. Thirdly, working regulations and the personnel assessment system should be improved and perfected. For instance, the following factors should be considered in personnel assessment: professional knowledge, professional skill, managerial ability, working attitude, service quality and achievement. Quality of service and achievement or working results would be always put into first place so as to encourage people to work hard and learn well. This assessment should be done in some cases by examinations, or by colleague appraisal with reference to work records. The appraisal of the leading person which in most cases is crucial and decisive should be. as fair and impartial as possible without personal prejudice and discrimination. Proper material and spiritual reward is necessary for those who have good performances. When this is done, staff enthusiasm will be inspired and no or less complaints will be found then.

(8) A Library Act

Many countries in the world have formulated library acts and practised them for many years. China does not yet have one. The history of library development has proved that it library act is very necessary and important for the healthy development and the perfection of library services. China should by all means have a library act to stipulate legislatively the principles, social functions, financial sources, scope of activities and the forms of services of libraries; the natures and functions of the library committee and the system of leadership and administration and their tasks so that library position and development can be guaranteed by law. For instance, library services in China were always the first ones to have their funds cut and the last ones to have their funds increased in the past. Some local governments never allocate enough funds for local libraries. This situation would not have happened if there had been a library act, or at least things would not have been so bad.

The implementation of a library act, on the other hand, reflects government concern about people's welfare and their rights to enjoy education and entertainment. It also reflects the level of the development of library services of a country.

CONCLUSION

China is very aware of her current weaknesses in management both in industry and in library and information services. The existing management systems do not quite fit the new Situation created by the modernization drive. The current reform of economic systems and technical transformation, the new economic policies at home and the open-door policies towards the outside world require it reform in management systems and a lot of managers with both theoretical background and practical experience of management. Just for this end, 1-6 out of 7 million leading cadres, managers and technicians in industrial and communication departments have received management training during the past three years, which includes economic policies, basic economic theories and fundamental techniques of business management. In addition, the China Society of Management was set up, the Journal of Management has appeared and a number of academic conferences on management were held during the same period. Considerable attention is also being devoted to foreign management techniques. While sending some people to study abroad, an industrial, scientific and technical training centre was jointly inaugurated in 1980 by China and the United States in Dalian, Northeast China. Many leading cadres of libraries and information institutes have been trained at this centre. These training programmes will help library and information services improve management techniques, raise the quality of service to society, and provide a major impetus to the modernization of library and information services as well as to the nation.

REFERENCES

Beijing Rev., no. 12, vol. 25, 1982; nos 9, 10, 20, vol. 25, 1983.

Brech, E. F. L. (1967). Management, Its Nature and Significance London.

Bull. China Soc. Libr. Sri., no. 2, 1979; no. 3, 1980; nos 1, 4, 1981.

Chin, M. F. (1929). Modern Libraries in China, Canton.

Cho-Yuan Tan (1935). The Development of Chinese Libraries Under the Ching Dynasty, 1644 - 1911, Shanghai.

Dougherty, R. M. and Heinritz, F. J. (1960). Scientific Management of Library Operation. New York.

Evans, G. E. (1976). Management Techniques for Librarians New York.

Introduction to Library Science. Beijing University and Wuhan University, Beijing, 1981. Luo, X. Y. (1983). Library and information system China, J. Inf. Sci. 2 (6).

Stueart, R. D. and Eastlick, J. T. (1977). Library Management. Littleton. Taylor, L. J. (1976). A Librarian's Handbook. The Library Association. 2nd ed. 1980. 

<<TOC3>> 2. Managing information: Introduction

<<TOC4>> 2.1 Management of an information service

<<TOC5>> Management and policies of an information unit

Management is the process of directing individual skills and energies and allocating material resources to attain an objective. It can also be regarded as a set of techniques for reaching rational decisions ensuring that all available resources are fully utilized in their implementation, and checking their effectiveness.

These techniques are based on: quantitative methods, or the use of measurements that are as objective as possible, the need for efficiency, the careful preparation of decisions in accordance with firm criteria, and teamwork and leadership.

Modern management is also a state of mind and an attitude to work centred on effectiveness and rationality. It cannot be effective unless all members of the group or organization feel involved: each individual has a vital role to play and must therefore understand its principles while accepting that the final decision at each level must be the clear responsibility of a particular person or group of persons.

Owing to their wide range of activities, their human and material resources, rapid technical progress and, above all, the many different functions they have to perform in backing up the productive activities of their users, information services must lay great stress on management.

Management

Management deals in varying degrees with: (a) all the personnel and all the material components of an organization; (b) all its activities: routine tasks (the sale of products and services), or organization of the whole (staff promotion regulations). This does not mean to say that management is concerned with all the minor details that crop up.

The purpose of management is to enable the organization to produce the best possible results under the best possible conditions. The world situation today is so difficult and changing that no organization can attain this objective by relying on habit or intuition. There must be a systematic effort: (a) to analyse situations; (b) to define objectives; (c) to select the most economic means of attaining them; (d) to organize resources in consequence; (e) to monitor results; and (f) whenever the need arises to adapt the objectives, resources and organization in the light of the results obtained, new circumstances and new tasks.

Policies are guidelines or general principles which help to express objectives in terms of actions by establishing codes for the taking and implementation of decisions.

The structures of an organization are an essential concern of management, whatever its size. Indeed, the smaller it is, and therefore the more limited its resources, the more efficiently it must be run. These structures form a complex whole and can be regarded:

- As internal (organization of the various subdivisions and assignments of tasks) and external (links with the parent or other organizations).

- As functional (arrangements for the proper execution of tasks) and relational (links between the subdivisions of the organization).

Communications are very important in the life of any information unit, yet they give rise to a great many problems. There are various types of communication:

- Vertical communication, that is, from top management down through each level of responsibility, or from the bottom up.

- Horizontal communication, between people with the same level of responsibility, or of different levels when hierarchical considerations are ignored.

- Controlled (or official) communication, from a person in authority and in the proper form, as against spontaneous communication.

- Formal communication, which uses specific predetermined channels, forms and carriers, as against informal communication.

- Communications that differ in content (administrative or technical), in target (internal or external, individual or general communications), in purpose (an instruction; the minutes of a meeting), and in form (oral, written, posters, etc.).

- Management must pay special attention to communication in order:

- To ensure as far as possible that the organization disposes of all the types of communication needed for it to function smoothly.

- To establish communication circuits that cover all needs, are as direct and short as possible, familiar to all staff and fully utilized.

- To see that the communication work smoothly, i.e. that there are no breakdowns, that people are not by-passed and that the messages fulfil their functions, come from a competent authority and are put into effect.

The management and policies of any information unit must deal with the following areas: organization of services, personnel, equipment, collections, services for users, production, relations with users, relations with the parent organization and relations with other organizations (especially other information units).

The responsibility for management lies with the head of the information unit. In most cases it is, at a certain level, shared with higher authorities outside the unit itself (the directors of the parent organization) or not involved in its daily routine (the board of governors or advisory committee of a large unit). When the unit is large enough, managerial responsibility is also shared with the heads of each section and the staff. All staff members in fact have some say in the various aspects of management, even though general supervision, evaluation of activities, and choice of policies and plans are the responsibility of senior staff.

The legal status of a unit affects its choice of policy. Some units come under public administration and must therefore respect official regulations which are not always geared to their managerial problems; moreover, they must provide the same quality of service for all users, in many cases free of charge, or respect certain general obligations (preservation of the national heritage, for instance) which can limit their freedom of action.

- Other units are private concerns and operate in a context of competition. For example, certain information searches from external sources might reveal the commercial strategy of the firm.

- Many information units have been set up to serve the information needs of a larger organization. Their problem is to know how far they can serve users from outside the parent organization and what links can be established with other units.

- Lastly, certain units from the start, or soon afterwards, depend entirely on the proceeds obtained from selling their services and are therefore restricted to profitable activities.

Policies have to be formulated, and regularly updated, for the main aspects of the unit's work. Their purpose is to provide the clearest possible guidelines on: the target clientele; priority needs; the limits and scope of the unit's field; the types of services; the creation and management of collections, the nature and organization of technical operations; relations with users; the use of material resources; personnel management; the system of administration; relations with other units and with the parent organization, etc.

The analysis on which policies are based must not be restricted to the unit alone but take into consideration all aspects of its current environment and how this is likely to develop, including the branch of activity with which the unit is concerned, the national and international information infrastructure, information technology and so forth. This will make it possible to clarify the user services to be provided and the most effective methods not only for immediate purposes but in the longer term. It should also be stressed that policies cannot be formulated unless user needs have been adequately defined.

Planning is the means whereby the unit's resources are marshalled over a given period of time in order to attain predetermined objectives.

Plans and programmes can be regarded from. two points of view:

- First, their time-span: for example, a unit might have a long-term plan to develop into a specialized national documentation centre and the hub of a full-fledged network, medium-term plans for the successive stages involved, and short-term plans for expanding each service in the context of these stages.

- Secondly, their scope: for example, a strategic plan covering the full development of a system designed to satisfy 80 per cent of potential users, operational plans for establishing a range of services (such as the selective dissemination of information), and functional plans covering particular tasks in a given stage of the unit's development (such as the intellectual processing of documents with a view to building up a minimal data base).

As all these levels are naturally interdependent, more complex and comprehensive plans must be drawn up, or at least outlined, before the others.

The plans of an information unit must be consistent both with those of the parent organization (which are in turn geared to plans for the branch of activity concerned and the national plans) and with national plans for scientific and technical information.

For large units, the planning process will probably require the assistance of specialists and special machinery such as working groups, advisory committees, a planning committee, and so on. In smaller units, it is one of the normal managerial tasks of those in charge.

The planning process itself goes through several stages: definition of objectives, analysis of the present situation and available resources, assessment of the required changes, elaboration of alternative proposals and determination of the resources needed in each case, evaluation of the various proposals and recommendation of a particular plan, its adoption, implementation and subsequent regular revision and updating.

It is advisable for the objectives of the plan to be quantified. Though it is not always possible to do this with a high degree of precision, the plan should at least contain estimates that can subsequently be compared with the actual results obtained.

Organization of an information unit

The organization of the unit is not an abstract construction reflecting a purely administrative logic; neither is it settled once and for all. It is another means of helping the unit to perform its function as well as possible. It must not, of course, be constantly altered but it should be possible to make adjustments whenever necessary.

The structure of an information unit can be envisaged in accordance with the following criteria:

- The functions of the documentary chain (acquisition, bibliographic description, retrospective searches, etc.).

- Fields covered (for example, an agricultural documentation centre would deal with crop production, animal production, rural engineering, etc.).

- Types of document (books, reports, periodicals, audio-visual documents, special collections, legal documents, regulations, patents, etc.).

- In the case of a large unit, the location of each service (central service, the services attached to the various branches of the parent organization, the computer-processing department, the central repository of documents, etc.).

- The clientele (for example, a development bank would have a general director's office, a studies division, a legal service, an industrial loans division, an agricultural loans division, etc.).

- Services (library, documentation centre, translation service, publications service, industrial information service, liaison service, etc.).

Naturally, these criteria can be and in practice usually are combined so as to meet user needs more effectively. At all events, it is always important to study, clarify and monitor the distribution of functions because this governs the smooth execution of operations.

Basing organization solely on the functions of the documentary chain facilitates standardization and control, and makes for greater homogeneity in the division of work, but tasks tend to be more fragmented, and it becomes more difficult to staff each section with people who are familiar with different types of document, subject and clientele. Other methods of organization result in more interesting tasks with staff members covering at least one of these different areas, but there is a greater risk of overlapping, and standardization and control are rendered more difficult.

The selected structure should minimize efforts; in other words, each operation should serve directly for as many subsequent operations as possible and everything needed for each service provided should be quick and easy to obtain. Each section should be given a clearly defined role that is logical and interesting. The communication circuits should be as direct as possible and avoid pointless duplication for both staff and users.

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P173.PNG FIG. 25. Organizational chart of an information unit (a theoretical example based upon an arrangement by functions).

If the unit is large (the information service of a ministry working for institutions in different places, for example), it will have to choose between centralization and decentralization. With a centralized organization, the services can be fully integrated and are simpler and cheaper to run, but the unit is often located far from its users and even runs the danger of becoming completely cut off. Decentralization presents the opposite advantages and drawbacks. In many cases a compromise is worked out in which technical operations such as cataloguing and the production of bulletins are centralized and input and output functions located close to the user.

It is useful, not to say essential, to have a sufficiently clear and detailed description of the unit's structure and mode of operation for each staff member to know where he fits in, what he has to do, and how and why. This is the point of organization charts, such as in Figure 26.

Task analysis

Task analysis and the organization of work are major concerns with a vital role in maintaining the productivity of units faced with the steadily growing mass of information.

By careful observation of all the work performed in an information unit and a detailed analysis of the processes Involved, it is possible to distinguish elementary tasks, the series of tasks that make up an operation and the set of operations that comprise a function or service.

Tasks are discrete acts which cannot be broken down any further and which have a specific location in the documentary chain or administrative procedures; they effect a single transformation (for example, marking the accession number on a document or identifying the main keyword). The degree of skill required depends on the nature of the task. Tasks are differentiated according to this degree of skill, the amount of freedom left to the performer and the responsibilities implied in regard to other members of the staff.

A work unit or job is composed of a varying number of tasks. The distribution depends on the amount of work, the size of staff and the unit's organization. They should normally involve a set of closely related tasks or consecutive operations at the same level. In principle, no task should be performed by a more qualified, or less qualified, person than the work involved calls for.

Work units can be organized in accordance with the same criteria as those mentioned above for the unit as a whole. A division on purely functional lines might well prove monotonous for the staff, but this danger can be avoided by alternating duties from time to time. On the other hand, a division based on the type of public, product or specialist field-often preferably in combination with a functional division sometimes tends, especially in smaller information units, to result in too many tasks performed by under-qualified staff. As all the functions of an information unit are interdependent, it is better for all the staff to be perfectly familiar with all the unit's work. This can be arranged in providing a thorough introduction for new staff and by job rotation. Since most information units have a small staff, it is advisable to be able to cope with any eventuality, to define jobs with some flexibility and ensure that all staff members are as polyvalent as possible.

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P175.PNG Fig. 26 Flowchart of the operations of an information unit

Information units offer many employment opportunities: (a) administrative jobs (typing, bookkeeping, legal services, personnel department, etc.); (b) technical jobs (reprography, binding, computer processing, etc.) ; (c) specialized jobs in scientific and technical information (archives, librarianship, documentation, etc.).

These jobs can be filled at different levels of execution, supervision or management (see Chapter 24). They should be accurately described so that candidates or staff members know exactly what is involved. This 'job description' covers the hierarchical level, the responsibilities, the amount and kind of work, the qualifications required, salary and administrative status.

When information specialists have an officially recognized administrative status, the job description must mention the fact.

Personnel management is of particular importance in information; in many countries, career prospects are still all too often limited. Staff must be recruited with great care and efforts made to keep up their enthusiasm by arranging meetings, discussion groups, etc., and continuing in-service training.

The salary scale and increments should reflect the general conditions of the profession, growing responsibilities, further qualifications and improved performance. Salaries are sometimes supplemented by other payments (,allowances, bonuses, etc.). It is most important that members of the staff have clear salary and career prospects.

Costing and performance evaluation is fundamental to most managerial activities. There are direct costs, which are those related to a particular documentary function (for example, the salaries paid to indexers) and indirect costs which are chargeable either to documentary functions in general (the indirect costs of the system: thesaurus maintenance, for instance) or to general overheads (the indirect costs of the organization: lighting, for instance). There are three categories of direct cost: staff costs, materials (documents, supplies) and equipment (amortization, operation and servicing). Costing calls for the analysis of transactions and the time taken. The transactions cover the quantity and cost of purchased items (for example, the number and total cost of microfiches bought in one year), intermediate products (number of documents indexed), and the products and services delivered to users (number of photocopies). The other element is the time spent on executing each task, for the measurement of which a unit of time and a nomenclature of the tasks involved are required (time spent on indexing a document of twenty pages, for example'). The time spent implies certain labour costs and the cost of using equipment.

The costs are measured on the basis of bookkeeping vouchers and records which are analysed systematically or over a given period of time. In some cases a general estimate ",ill suffice, but good management requires them to be broken down into cost units, that is, according to the functions stated in an accounting scheme. The accounting scheme is a double-entry matrix which shows the various types of cost for each function. The definition of functions depends on the organizational structure of the unit.

Another important aspect of performance is the time taken. This can be checked by recording the dates when documents or queries (individually or in sets) pass through each work place or function. These data can then be noted on a planning chart to facilitate analysis. Even though information work is of an intellectual nature, it is preferable to treat it like normal production activities and to make sure that capacity' is being full) utilized. This is done by establishing the normal work load for each job and each piece of equipment in the form of a chart which states, for a given period, the theoretical production capacity, the expected amount of activity and the actual production. This will show where performance has been good or poor, help identify the reasons and make it possible to take advantage of success or put the matter right.

The qualitative aspect of performance evaluation is more delicate to handle. If the unit has no arrangements for monitoring each task or operation, it will have to resort to sample surveys or artificial tests. With monitoring procedures- which cannot be recommended too highly-the proportion of products rejected and the reasons why (for example, 5 per cent of Indexing operations for lack of specificity) are recorded. A useful form of control, which can provide a partial and subjective indication of performance, is based on user reactions, which can and should be systematically requested. It is also possible to establish special criteria for each function. service or product and to measure performance on a regular or occasional basis. For example, the effectiveness of a question-answer service could be assessed in terms of speed, exhaustivity, precision and case of use. These data, together with the cost structure, will provide enough information to improve this service and the unit as a whole.

Budget control integrated planning data (that is, the estimated volume of activity: the number of SDI profiles planned for the Year, for example) and accounting data (the actual number profiles served, the rate of production and the cost). This will point to ways of Improving the unit's mode of operation and make it easier to foresee the consequences of decisions or other factors likely to have an influence.

Unfortunately, available data on costs and performance are at present in short supply and difficult to compare. They obviously depend on the situation and organization of each unit. and on the methods of calculation, which vary, consider ably. Disparities in the available figures are too great for the conclusions to be significant.

Budget and financing

The budget and financing of information units depend on their legal status and their type: clearly, there will be a considerable difference between a computerized national centre and the library of a small university research laboratory, but their budgets have much in common.

The main items of expenditure are as follows:

1. Staff salaries and related charges; this is the largest budget item in all units and often accounts for over half the total expenditure.
2. Purchase of documents; this is the second largest item though it occasionally-all too rarely-exceeds staff costs.
3. Expenditure on processing (use of the computer, production of bulletins, etc.).
4. Supplies.
5. Equipment (amortization, servicing and replacement).
6. Premises (only significant for large units).
7. Communications (mail, telephone, telex, transport, etc.).
8. General overheads (electricity, cleaning, etc.).
9. Expenditure on sub-contracting. This item can be quite important if certain functions (computer processing) are performed by other organizations or if certain jobs (elaboration of a thesaurus) are contracted out.

In normal circumstances, Items 1 to 9 account for only a small proportion of the total budget, two-thirds of which is devoted to 1, 2 and 3. In most cases, the unit's resources are in the form of budgetary allocations from the parent organization. The amount generally depends on needs and possibilities but there also exist certain standards and ratios for determining the desirable level of a unit's resources in relation to its clientele and the overall budget of the parent organization. Unfortunately, the actual allocation is sometimes simply what is left over after the requirements of other departments have been met. This explains the need for accurate accounting and efficient financial administration to help the unit defend its requests more effectively, and for high-quality management in general to provide a clear justification for the sums involved.

For some units, especially those which benefit from legal deposit, the various types of free acquisitions can make a significant contribution. Lastly, many units are deriving more and more resources from the sale of products and services.

It should be observed that the separate items of the budget are relatively inflexible: it is not easy to make much change in the distribution of expenditure or to increase overall resources. At the same time production costs, in particular for staff and acquisitions, are rising steadily. This obliges units to pay special attention to management, and in particular to policy formulation and increased productivity.

The budget is prepared in conjunction with the plan and takes the financial data and results into account. It can either start with available resources, distribute them among the items of expenditure and it' necessary try to make cuts or find additional resources, or it can work in the other direction. In many cases the two approaches are combined.

Payment of services: here a frequent problem is that many information units are in one way or another public services expected to function free of charge or come under the general services of their parent organization. Another difficulty with charging is the widespread view that information should be freely available to everyone, or that it is a right. This is perfectly true, but health is also a right and this does not exclude medical fees. Even where no actual charge is made, however, payment can be used as an administrative technique for the unit and its partners, since it is a simple and effective way of measuring the usefulness and utilization of services. In this case, the payments would be fictitious or returned at the end of the financial year.

When information services which have been free begin to make charges, even a very small fee will at first lead to a drop in the number of users. Even services that were free only for a trial period and whose users are perfectly aware that the time will come when they will have to pay experience this. Nevertheless, if the service proves its worth, it should quickly make up the lost ground and then find the number of users rising. The fact is that users are read),, at least those in productive activities, to pay a fair and even a high price-and often do so-for really useful information that reaches them in time and in acceptable form. Often the refusal to pay is simply a sign that the service is being rejected because of low quality or unsuitability.

Information units can charge for admission to the unit, for their various products and services (publications, SDI profiles, answers to questions, translation, etc.), for photocopies or microcopies, for postage, or to help defray the cost of meetings, visits or other activities that they organize.

Payments can take the form of dues, subscriptions or a charge for each service rendered. Regular users would have an account and pay the bill at fixed intervals.

The charges made can cover all the direct and indirect costs of each product or service, but this system is still only practised by a few commercial units, whose prices also include a profit margin. Another approach is for the charge to cover all production costs but not the initial cost of setting up and running in the system and its products. Sometimes only direct production costs or a varying proportion of them will be demanded, while other units require payment only for certain products or services, particularly those which involve extra work in addition to what they regard as normal services: for example, they might make no charge for a retrospective search but demand payment for a selective bibliography.

In each case, once the production cost is known, the price should be set bearing in mind that if it is too high it will be out of the reach of the user however much he is interested in the product or service. The prices of similar products and services available elsewhere should also be taken into account, the aim being to make the unit's activities as profitable as possible or at least to obtain the maximum amount of income.

Promotion and market research

All information units, even those whose usefulness seems self-evident, must pay careful attention to these if they do not want to go into a gradual decline.

Market research involves an integrated set of activities whose purpose is to determine:

- The potential clientele of the various products and services, together with their characteristics, needs and motivations.

- The characteristics of the products: nature, content, presentation, quality, availability and possibly price.

- The standing of a product in relation to other similar products (for example, the advantages of a national abstracts bulletin in relation to equivalent foreign publications).

- The possibilities of a broader clientele (,attracting new groups of potential users) or of consolidating the clientele (taking action to convert as many potential users as possible into actual users).

- Strategies for the promotion and dissemination of the products.

In business concerns, for example, the library is often regarded as a possibly useful luxury. By studying the various categories of potential users it is possible to find out the reasons for this image., what the people would like the library to contain and how they would like to utilize it. This will suggest how the library should be laid out, how it should be run and what documents it should acquire. The next step could be to see what other libraries offer the same services and whether they have any particular advantages. An attempt would then be made to discover how many potential users could be attracted to the library and the best way of going about it, and whether the library should be opened up to outside users and, if so, how to attract them. The reorganized library would then be promoted along lines that the preceding research had indicated.

The promotion of' an information unit is represented by an interrelated set of activities whose aim is:

- To publicize the unit, its products and its services among potential users.

- To encourage them to utilize the unit; to make its products and services attractive.

- To show potential users how to make use of' the various products and services and what advantages they offer.

- To maintain contact with the users with a view to keeping them informed about the unit and obtaining their reactions.

A wide range of methods is used: advertisements in newspapers, leaflets given or sent to potential users, the organization of visits to the unit, demonstrations and open days, posters, offers of products and services on a trial basis, and personal contacts with individual users and their superiors.

Though personal contact is the most effective approach, a unit will in practice often find it worth while combining several of these methods to form a promotion programme.

Efforts to promote the unit should not be restricted in time, for instance, to when the unit is created or a new product introduced, but should be kept up at a high level. The aim should be to put the dialogue with users on a permanent footing, one possibility being to organize a club or association so that users can be directly or indirectly associated in the management of the unit as actively as possible.

A natural part of promotion activities is user training, with the unit providing appropriate instruction by means of documents or theoretical and practical training sessions to show how the unit's products and services can be employed to the best advantage.

The unit's links with the parent organization often have a decisive influence on the way it is run. They can be seen from two points of view: the unit's official place in the hierarchy and organization chart of the parent organization as a whole, and its informal working relations with other departments and individuals.

For its official standing, a number of requirements have to be taken into consideration. There is the need for it to be close to the users and especially the most important ones, which explains, for instance, why information units are frequently' attached to research departments; to have fairly direct and effective links with all the other departments; to be of central importance or at least highly respected, especially if the unit's task is to collect the documents produced by the organization; to offer satisfactory conditions of employment for the staff, particularly in regard to status, and to be able to count on stable resources over a long period. Clearly, there exists no ready-made solution to these problems. In practice every possible kind of approach is encountered: units attached to research and development services, to technical services, to administrative services or to general management; units regarded as less important than or as the equal of the other departments. Each organization makes its own arrangements and its decision in this respect has to take into consideration the objectives, policies and resources of the unit and the structure, policies, operation and general life of the organization. These last two aspects can make the situation appear highly satisfactory on paper but much less so in practice, for example, when the unit comes under general management and other departments are kept strictly separate from each other and jealously watch over their privileges. In many cases the unit itself has little say in the arrangements made on its behalf.

These decisions are taken either when the unit is set up, which clearly has important consequences, or in the course of a subsequent general reorganization if the unit wants its position to be changed.

The relative position of the unit in the organization's hierarchy has a pervasive but not decisive influence on its informal relations with the other departments. Owing to the nature of its work, it functions in parallel with production and administrative activities. It has to make sure that it has links with all parts of the organization at all levels and find ways to getting round any reluctance to co-operate on the part of certain sectors or at a particular level. Through paying systematic attention to these links the unit could become the unofficial hub of the organization, a standing that could well make up for its possibly unsatisfactory position in the hierarchy.

Links with the outside: the unit can establish relations with, as the case may be, users not belonging to the parent organization, the authorities responsible for national information policy and the development of information infrastructure, other units, and the profession.

There is no problem with external users unless it is desired to give internal users special advantages. This would make it necessary to restrict the former's access (special opening times, limited borrowing privileges, certain services excluded) or to charge more (a small charge or entirely free to internal users with a varying charge for the others). Such discrimination is only worth considering if the unit is unable to extend its clientele. However, every effort should be made to associate external users with the running of the unit in the same way as internal users.

The purpose of establishing relations with the national authorities responsible for national information policy is to ensure that the unit has a recognized role in the information infrastructure, is invited to take part in policy formulation and the preparation of programmes, particularly through the working groups and commissions of the national plan, and is thus enabled to base its own policies and development on these national actions.

Links with other units can serve a number of purposes: first, to establish friendly relations that will allow the units to exchange information and back each other up; secondly, in case of need, to exchange services, perhaps under preferential conditions; and thirdly, to promote co-operation, which can range from task sharing or a simple division of labour in the field concerned to the setting up of joint services or even a network. Whatever the arrangement, it is essential for the senior staff of units working in the same field or located in the same area to keep in close touch with one another. More often than not co-operation proves indispensable, if only to avoid pointless overlapping (for example, the purchase of rarely requested costly books which can be borrowed from another unit). Even in the absence of a national programme, information units are increasingly tending to share out tasks (in regard to acquisitions, their clientele, and the provision of joint services such as bibliographic bulletins or data bases) and to form networks involving adoption of the same techniques and methods of operation.

When it is only a matter of helping each other, the relations can be kept informal, but joint initiatives should preferably be based on a formal agreement stating the rights and duties of each party. Sometimes, however, the unit's official status rules this out, and it is also possible for the conditions on which the co-operation was based to change quite quickly,. When the situation is favourable, two units can develop very close relations without a formal agreement and thus avoid temporary legal or political obstacles. For example, two information units belonging to organizations which themselves are reluctant to co-operate could quite easily adopt the same documentation system and the same equipment and thus in actual practice work together.

It is just as essential to establish and maintain relations with the profession. Contacts through professional organizations will enable the unit to exchange technical information, join in cooperative research on methodology, and so forth. Conversely, the unit's active participation will strengthen these organizations and contribute to the general progress of the profession itself.

Evaluation of activities

This is not a theoretical and purposeless exercise but one of management's essential instruments, which should be applied to all aspects of a unit's work.

One method is to check a unit's operations and functions by regularly monitoring some of their essential aspects. The number would depend on the type of operation or function: for example, 5 per cent of the queries processed each month could be taken to ascertain whether the time needed for the answers, their precision and exhaustivity and the procedure followed were in accordance with the standards fixed. From time to time however, particularly, when a medium- or long-teem plan is being prepared, it is a good idea to undertake a systematic evaluation.

There are three levels of evaluation: the evaluation of effectiveness, of the cost-effectiveness ratio and of the cost-benefit ratio. The first level attempts to assess how far the unit is meeting its objectives or, in short, how far it satisfies its users. The second attempts to determine the cheapest and most efficient way of running the unit while the third is focused on the benefits derived by, users of the service or services and whether they justify, the cost.

Evaluation is a form of research	states its hypotheses and objectives, defines the objects to be examined, collects the necessary data (by means of documents, observation, measurement and interviews), analyses them and draws conclusions. Each operation or function has its own special methods of evaluation, which can be adapted as necessary. It is also possible to employ advanced techniques such as models, simulation or operational research. The evaluation can be centred on some or all of the functions of an information unit, and each function calls for special evaluation techniques and criteria. The sectors with which evaluation is most often concerned are the holdings. the provision of primary. documents, question- answer services, information retrieval, data bases and documentary products, catalogues, technical services computerization, and management.

The most usual criteria include standards. costs. effort (,amount and complexity of the work involved for staff and users), response time, qualitative criteria such as exhaustivity precision, recall, novelty and relevance and the various signs of user satisfaction.

When these studies are carried out by or for information units, they have a very specific and practical purpose: either to detect and put right any weaknesses or to help select and organize new activities, and in many cases both. Clearly, the cost of an evaluation and the effort involved must be commensurate with the advantages to be derived from its conclusions; it would hardly be reasonable to allocate resources at the expense of production itself. But this argument is no reason for the systematic refusal to undertake evaluations, which is often in reality a refusal to change. Without evaluation, arty information unit is likely to take the wrong direction, lose its adaptability or become obsolete.

Check questionnaire

What is 'management’?
What are the advantages of organizing an information unit by functions?
What are the two main items of expenditure for an information unit?
What are the different levels of planning?
Is it possible to define a policy that takes only the information unit into consideration?
What is the function of a campaign to promote an information unit?
What is the purpose of evaluation?

Bibliography

BUCKLAND, M. K. The Management of Libraries and Information Centres. In C. A. Cuadra (ed.), Annual Review of Information Science and Technology. Vol. 9, 1974, pp. 335- 79.

DRUCKER, P. F. The Practice of Management. New York, Harper, 1954.

DUTTON, B. G. Staff Management and Staff Participation. Aslib proceedings. Vol. 25, No. 3, 1973, pp. 11125.

LICKERT, R. The Human Organization. New York, McGraw-Hill, 1967.

MURDOCK, J.; SHERROD, J. Library and Information Center Management. In: E. Williams (ed.), Annual Review of Information Science and Technology. Vol. 11, 1976, pp. 381 -402.

REES, A. M. (ed.). Contemporary Problems in Technical Library and Information Center Management. A State of the Art. Washington, D. C., Asis, 1974.

SLATER, F. (ed.). Cost Reduction for Special Libraries and Information Centers. Washington, D. C., Asis, 1973.

VEAZIE, W. H., Jr.; CONOLLY, T. F. The Marketing of Information Analysis Center Products and Services. Washington, D. C., Asis, 1971.

VICKERS, P. H. A Cost Survey of Mechanized Information Systems. Journal of Documentation. Vol. 29, No. 3, 1973, pp. 258-80.

WASSERMAN, P.; BUNDY, M. L. (ed.), Reader in Library Administration, 5th ed, Washington D. C., Microcard Editions, 1974.

WEISMAN, H. M. Management of Information Services, Centers Operational Administration. Information Systems, Services and Centers, pp, 107 -25. New York, Wiley, 1972.

<<TOC5>> Organizing and operating an information and documentation centre

Robert Harth

General organizational aspects

As in all tasks involving organization, the purpose of an IaD centre must be the decisive factor in determining the most rational form of organization. The IaD centre is a business concern which provides services. In organizational terms, it regulates and directs relations between the highly varied 'market' of information sources and the equally varied 'market' of Information needs. This applies equally to public and private IaD centres, but we shall concentrate here on the requirements of IaD centres In the private economy.

The 'market' concept Is used in this context to make it easier to draw parallels with other economic activities, for example trade. In commercial concerns, familiarity with the producer market and with consumer needs determine turnover and hence economic success. Optimum organization helps to keep a business's costs as low as possible.

Similarly, in the case of an IaD centre familiarity with information needs and information sources is the most important factor in ensuring an efficient information supply service. Proper organization will also ensure that the costs of this service are kept at an economically rational level.

In practice, many different approaches are now adopted to the organization of IaD centres, depending on the function they perform. Specialized libraries are frequently linked with IaD centres whose services include the provision of information and literature.

However, only IaD centres engaged essentially in providing information are dealt with below.

Activities and functions

Users expect an IaD centre to provide the following services:

A. Information through the supply of original documents, e.g.:

Newspaper circulation

- supply of research papers, reports on meetings, etc.;
- book lending;

B. Information on specific subjects, e.g.:

- bibliographical research;
- data inventories;
- product and producer listings;

C. Current information on the state of the art through Information services, e.g. :

- in-house bibliographical information services;
- profile services;
- abstract sources;
- information on application techniques;
- market data.

The activities of central specialized information establishments as independent service enterprises are on a far larger scale than those of subsidiary establishments.

The range of services required by users has a decisive influence on the various procedures that need to be efficiently combined in the work routine of an IaD centre.

Each IaD centre may be said to perform three broad functions related to the flow of information from the producer (information profile) to the user (profile of interests):

(a) acquisition;
(b) documentation;
(c) information.

An additional field 'word processing and reprography' is usually superimposed on these basic functions.

The information system as a simple feedback control system

Information systems can be represented as a simple feedback control systems (diagram 65) operating between the producer of information and the user. The feedback control system is made up of the following functions: acquisition, documentation, information and management.

The purpose of the system Is to select from a wide-ranging supply of Information the elements that match the user's profile of interests. The information system is controlled by the regulator (management) by means of constant adjustment. Changes In user requirements, for example, lead to corresponding changes in individual functions. Each and every change in and addition to the IaD task necessarily calls for an Investigation of the consequences for the entire system. A really smooth flow of information can only be achieved on the basis of an overall review of the system.

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P187A.PNG Diagram 65: Information system as a simple feedback control system

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P187B.PNG Diagram 66: Organization chart of an IaD centre

Organization chart

On the basis of the sequence of steps involved in providing an information service, an IaD centre may be divided up into the following fields:

1. Functions
1.1 source collection (specialized library)
1.2 documentation
1.3 Information

2. Management and related fields
2.1 management
2.2 central services
2.3 co-ordination and systems development

A detailed organization chart is shown in diagram 66. It is applicable to almost every kind of enterprise, with possible variations in the prominence assigned to individual fields.

Provision of services (dissemination of information): The problems

The services provided by IaD centres have hitherto been based essentially on primary publications. They have played a decidedly secondary role In the normal process of disseminating information through the mass media, the specialized press, specialized literature, etc. They concentrate instead on processing and organizing information in the light of users' interests. However, an IaD centre's supply of services Is in competition to some extent with the acquisition of information by users themselves. It is therefore essential, if the supply is to be accepted by the user, to ensure that an IaD centre's information potential is greater than the user's information stock. An efficient system is expected to be able to supply information from virtually all relevant sources, shedding light on the particular problem concerned. Users also expect the supply of information to adapt itself to changes in interests without entailing major expense.

The resulting qualitative expectations of a more or less anonymous 'user market' exert an important influence on the planning and efficiency of an information system.

Planning and organization

Planning is a prerequisite for organization. Analysis of interests, identification of service expectations and selection of the sources to be consulted for that purpose (information profile) provide the basic data needed for the efficient organization of an IaD centre.

The establishment and organization of this kind of operational field may be divided into the following three stages:

(a) planning;
(b) systems development;
(c) testing of the system and attainment of 'maturity'.

Planning

In the planning stage, guidelines are drawn up for the actual design of the system. An attempt is made to illustrate the interdependence of system components and user-dependent factors in the form of a matrix.

User-dependent factors		System components	
scope	influence	user	
level of information		storage	
type of service desired	on	documentation	
user frequency		sources	

exercise consists in identifying the specialized field for which documentation is required. It is important to know (field - user relationship) whether the subject to be dealt with is narrow (plastics in motor vehicles) or wide ranging (car manufacturing). This will have an influence (field - source relationship) an the selection of sources to be consulted (important: existing stock and growth rate).

The next set of questions concerns the level of information for which services are to be provided. If it is exclusively for research and development purposes, this will affect the structure of the publications to be covered by the documentation (patents, research reports, scientific journals, legislation, etc.), the factual content and the detail of cataloguing. If the service is to cover a more general field of information, this will have a qualitative effect (structure of sources) and an effect on data selection (factual content, cataloguing).

In this connection, it is also useful to know the number of persons to be informed:

A further aspect to be taken into account in designing a system is, broadly speaking, the type of services desired. This influences the type of storage facilities to be provided and has implications for the factual content and detail of cataloguing.

A final question concerns expected frequency of user recourse to the services. This may have implications for storage design and search strategies.

The planning stage concludes with a rough preliminary estimate of staff needs for setting up an IaD centre in the following two stages: development and testing. A rough estimate of financial needs is also made at this stage.

Systems development

The system must in any case be designed in such a way as to be expandable in any desired direction. It must be possible, therefore, to make the transition from manual documentation to mechanical procedures with the minimum disruption. The sequence is more or less as follows: selection of the optimum organizational procedure (classification, thesaurus, etc.):

- preliminary design of the storgage system;
- design of a data-gathering sheet for recording data and reports;
- drawing-up of guidelines for formal data collection and cataloguing;
- decisions regarding the installation of technical equipment;
- revision of staff needs.

Testing of system

During the test period, the system must be tested to ensure that it is providing users with a largely satisfactory service and developed until it reaches 'maturity'. The steps in the process may be as follows:

- documentation - formal compiling and cataloguing;
- building up a storage system;
- use of forms to direct and control the work process;
- training of documentation staff;
- training of users;
- research work;
- supply of periodically produced information services;
- analysis of relevance;
- improvements to the system;
- establishment of cost indicators for evaluation of the system.

A mature information system?

The steps in setting up an information system set out chronologically above are very difficult to carry out in practice in the same sequence. There is heavy overlapping of the individual phases during the development process. User needs should be the overriding consideration in all cases during the development and testing stages.

As user needs always evolve in the light of progress, information systems are also subject to structural fluctuations. A system's 'maturity' is therefore limited in time.

Internal documentation work or reliance on outside services

As information and documentation are highly labour-intensive activities, it is advisable in designing the system to consider what kind of outside services might be used by the new information system. This calls for market analysis to determine whether IaD work is already being wholly or partially executed elsewhere. It should prove less costly to purchase required services from outside suppliers and concentrate on internal aspects of the documentation project (e.g. Independent research, etc.). Indeed the expected increase in specialized information centres, providing services ranging from print services to magnetic tape services and linking up terminals to the ADP store, will make it possible to reduce the scale of independent documentation work.

General observations on the low-cost organization of IaD centres

The following 'maxims' are key considerations to be borne In mind in organizing an IaD centre. They are Intended as a 'summary' of the preceding sections.

1.  Necessary personal services are to be organized in terms of the expertise required.
2. Considerable division of labour, with the possible use of temporary staff or outside services where they prove cheaper.
3. Control of steps in the work process through form-filling.
4. Development of storage and information supply, making substantial use of external services.
5. Full use of all opportunities for co-operative agreements with other IaD centres operating in the same field.
6. Constant reappraisal of the work process with a view to simplification.
7. Development of indicators through cost-benefit analysis with a view to controlling costs and evaluating performance.

Staff costs are the main component In the overall cost of running an IaD centre, accounting for about 75 to 80 per cent of the total in the case of small- and medium-scale enterprises. In the interests of low-cost organization, therefore, all measures required to fulfil users' requests must be critically investigated from the standpoint of their impact on staff costs.

<<TOC4>> 2.2 Records management

Not all archives services carry out a records management programme, though in principle most would have the possibility of introducing one to cover the records created by their governing authority. Where an archive service has the primary duty of serving an employing authority or institution, the records management aspect is of major importance, and affects all the processes which come after it. Records management can also be considered as a function exercised independently of archival management, but the two logically go together and either may suffer from the absence of the other.

Records management is a field which has attracted increasing attention in recent times. The growing sophistication of administrative practices, and the increasing complexity of organisations, together with the enormous expansion of the quantity of records produced, has made it necessary to introduce conscious management into this area, and to develop it as a set of techniques or as a discipline.1

Historically, interest in records management has arisen from different points of origin. In some cases the initiative has come from archivists, whose main concern is the control of material passing out of current record systems into archival care. Records management in this tradition is concerned mainly with retirement of records from currency and their appraisal. In other cases the initiative has come from organisation and methods or management advisory units, whose main concern has been the reduction of administrative costs. In other cases again the records management system may have originated in central secretariat departments, whose main concern has been to regulate the flow of information and documentary media within the central offices. There may also be cases where records management has begun with legal advisers, whose concern has been to preserve and retrieve official documents. Finance departments have also had to develop systems to serve the needs of audit.

The historical point of origin impresses its character on the resulting programme, and it may determine where the main thrust of management effort is placed. The present study takes as its starting point the view that records management is a branch of information management. The quality of the information it supplies is the main criterion for an RM programme, and this information supply is radically affected by its relationship with in archives service.

RM is a field of management whose material is the data, media and systems used in the record-making and record-storing processes in any organisation. Its aim is to achieve the best retrieval and exploitation of the data held in these media and systems, and incidentally to reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of record-making and keeping processes.

The relationship between archives and records management can be illustrated by two models: Figures 1 and 2.

Two recent developments reinforce the validity of an information-centred approach to RM. One is the advent (more gradual thin at one time foreseen) of office automation; the other is the increasing tendency of legislators to introduce specific legal requirements for record retention and access.

Office automation

A useful recent summary of developments in the automation of administrative processes has been published by a working party of the Records Management Group, headed by S.C. Newton.2

This investigation divides the automation of office processes into four groups: electronic data processing; word processing; micrographics; and telecommunications. Each has a distinct influence on record processing.

Electronic data processing usually involves using a machine-readable data base. From the archivist's point of view, there are two kinds of these, the accumulated and the regenerative. Accumulated data banks consist of collections of data used as a whole at one time. Regenerative data bases are constantly, or at least periodically, updated with new information, so that there is never a moment when the information is in a definitive state. Data base management systems are in frequent use today. The Newton study gives examples of integrated ledger systems, personnel records systems, automated pensions programmes, and documentation systems containing textual records. When an organisation introduces any form of data base management, it is necessarily involved in some form of administrative restructuring, aimed at assimilating the newly necessary data processors, but also taking into account the consequences of the central data base being shared by various sections or departments.

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P195A.PNG Figure 1 Records management as a front-end system

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P195B.PNG Figure 2 Records and archives management as parallel systems

Word processors are rapidly replacing typewriters as the main means of storing words on paper. They are inherently more efficient and flexible. When an organisation introduces word processing, it inevitably finds that it has begun a process which leads, once again, to change in its administrative structures. This is because word processors are only a small step away, technologically, from integrated electronic office communication systems. In the first stage, manually generated pieces of writing are translated into formal shapes by typing them on a word processor. In the second stage, the administrators write directly on to the word processor, which is capable of transmitting their words to colleagues or addressees, and also, if required, storing them electronically. Thus a system originally thought of as meant for formalising text ends as one for transmitting it. It will be noticed that writing and transmitting messages has always constituted a large proportion of all administrative work.

Micrographics have now developed far from their origin as storage media, into technological components of information systems. Automated retrieval of data from microforms is now advanced, either by electro-mechanical means or by using computers. Computer output is also often in microform. Recent applications include pensions records, insurance claims, purchase invoice control, and incoming correspondence.

Telecommunications is likely to be important in combination with the data transmission processes mentioned with word processors. It is already technically possible to extend these automated communication systems by means of telephone lines, and this extends into the transmission of visually read data (view-data). Together with document facsimile transmission and teleconferencing, these are developments which are likely to change the whole work environment of administrators.

All four sectors of automated recording interrelate, and all are rapidly advancing. It is interesting to notice that all concern the management of information, and the media which retains it. Whether or not we are to see the advent of a 'paperless office' (and this has been questioned), it is clear that the advance of information technology has reinforced the importance of RM as central to management planning. An extreme view might be that in high-level administration only two kinds of managers are needed at the centre: the decision-makers, who rely on the data provided for them by the service; and the records managers, who devise and maintain it.

The design and retention of automated data bases is subject to statutory control much more closely than similar records kept in hard-copy form. Many governments, including the British, have appointed officials to supervise them, and have instituted legal codes to protect the individual. Data protection legislation is based to a great extent on international accords, and supplements the increasingly detailed requirements of law over other forms of record. Records managers must of course be equipped to observe the law in these respects, and to design their systems in accordance with relevant codes of practice.

All this shows that RM has an increasingly important role in an automated administration, and that the design of the records series to be generated, stored and accessed is a central concern of management.

Newton's study concludes with a model for the positioning of an RM service within an automated organisation: see Figure 3.

Legal control

The second recent development is that in all countries, but especially in North America and in the European Community, the law is taking an increasing interest in specifying the retention of records and in allowing litigation to be based upon record evidence over longer periods of time.

There is no comprehensive summary of these legislative requirements, which would indeed be difficult to assemble from a wide variety of statutes and legal decisions. A recent brief survey, also by S.C. Newton,3 covering recent changes to the law of criminal and civil evidence, and of contract, is a useful guide. J. Smith's study of the law covering records of drug manufacture illustrates the importance and the complexity of the subject as it extends into technical areas.4 Health and safety legislation has tended to specify the retention of personnel records, and to dictate the creation of records of accidents and hazards, all with long periods of currency5. As mentioned above, machine-readable data bases are specially regulated.

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P198.PNG Figure 3 Possible organisation of a Records and Information Division

Source: S.C. Newton, Office Automation and Records Management, Society of Archivists, Records Management Group, Occasional Paper No. 2, 1981

The structure of an RM service

Records are information media which are generated by an administrative system. They include data which originated outside the organisation (for example in incoming letters), but are essentially an internal information source. Most organisations need also to provide and manage information services which seek for and use information of external origin: books and documents. No single source of information will by itself satisfy the total information requirement of any organisation, so that the RM service depends for its success on building up a workable relationship with four other facets of the organisation:

- the administration (financial, legal, general and specialist) in which the records originate;
- the special library service;
- the technical documentation centre; and
- the archives.

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P199.PNG Figure 

Source. Cook6

The administration generates records which carry the information it acquires and uses in the course of business. It arranges these records in systems which are the stock-in-trade of administrative departments. The RM unit must be able to build up a relationship with these administrative units which will allow the records manager a degree of responsibility for the design and maintenance of record systems, and for the disposition of particular series. The relationship should also allow the administrative departments to become accustomed to using the RM system and to call on it for information.

It is often difficult to define the concept of administration. Most organisations have a central office, the headquarters of overall management. It is common to find that there are also important administrative centres outside this. Some will be specialist or technical departments or units; others will be branches or sub-organisations, often situated away from the main administrative centre. Processing or manufacturing units also generate records, and may be administratively distinct. If it is to deal with all these, the RM programme has to be able to enter into relationships with all the different kinds of administrative entity.

The internationally accepted model for RM within government and business administrations proposes that it should be responsible for the design and maintenance of what have traditionally been the three main types of record created.7 Under this model RM should include mail, reports and forms 'management. Mail management covers not only systems for receiving, distributing and storing incoming mail, matching it with mail sent out in reply, but also extends into the design of form letters and even into campaigns for improving the language used in official letters.

It is clear that mad management also involves the design of systems for filing. A filing system is essentially a practical application of a classification scheme covering the organisation's area of interest; but it also has another dimension. This is the control of movement of documents round the office, plotting a lifecycle for each letter. Incoming documents are filed, the file placed before the official who is to take action, and the resulting outgoing document takes its place next on the file. In this way a full and retrievable record is available on the whole transaction: but to set it out in this way involves a good deal of structural organisation in the office.

Reports should of course be succinct and accurately expressed, should conform to established standards, and be available to any proper user for reference. Forms must be well designed, must make the data they carry easily usable, and (as is often remarked today) should be understood by those who have to fill them up.

The special library service assembles books, journals and published materials, including non-book materials, on subjects relevant to the information needs of the organisation and its staff, and runs a service based upon these. The documentation centre assembles published and unpublished technical papers of relevance to the organisation and its staff, obtaining these from sources outside the organisation itself, and running a service based upon these materials. An automated documentation service, common today, provides the organisation's access to international, local or specialised data bases. Clearly, reports generated from within the organisation should also be dealt with in a documentation system.

All these services may have a similar structure, consisting of input, store, and user services. The arrangements for input differ between the different services, but it is easy to suggest that store and output could be combined. In particular finding aids, systems for disseminating information, and the arrangements for communicating data have no theoretical need to be separate.

The archives service receives all or some of its material from the RM programme, as a result of the process of appraisal. which is the interface between them. It shares with the RM programme a concern over the completeness of the documentation assembled by the system, because in the end this is what determines the value of the archive. Looked at from the other direction, the RM service uses the archives for the storage and use of its most valuable materials, over long periods.

In view of the closeness of the relationships suggested above, one could hardly suggest an RM system which does not incorporate them as an essential feature. RM systems ought to function hand in hand with the other information services.

Surveys and registers of classes

The first important job of a records manager is to find out what records are being produced by his employing organisation, and what systems are being used for their deployment.

Previous writing on RM has sometimes neglected the second half of this statement. Walk-through surveys are often recommended,8 as an alternative to, or backed by, surveys by questionnaire. These surveys identify classes of records, and note details of thew on field work sheets. This is a good way of doing a survey which notes the existence of particular records series, but it is not sufficient if the objective is to evaluate systems.

It is possible, therefore, that an RM survey should be carried out in two parts, one to establish what classes of record are being produced, and the other to determine the production processes used. The normal method in the first case would be for the survey team to use worksheets which can later be turned into a register of classes. In the second case. the survey might use flowcharts, indicating the contributory flows of manpower which lead to the production of record classes. Figures 4 and 5 refer.

Figure 4: A records survey worksheet

Records Survey Worksheet	
Department	Division Unit	Location	
Record Class
Title / Description
Format		Date Span	
Storage Accommodation	
Equipment	Shelving
(lin. m.)	Volume
(cub. m.)	
Floor Space
(sq. m.)	Total Office Space
(sq. m.)	Spare/Unused Space
(equipment)	
Frequency of Reference Proportion %	
Active	Semi-Active	Dormant	
Retention Period Proportion %	
Short Term	Medium Term	Permanent	
Accrual Rate (lin. m. Per annum)	
Legal Requirements	Staff Involvement	Value of Equipment	
Notes			

Source: Cheshire Record Office

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P203.PNG Figure 5: Data capture processes in PROSPEC

References

1. The principal study of RM in a government context is Schellenberg, T.R., Modern archives, principles and techniques, Chicago, 1956. In a business context it is Benedon, W., Records management, California, 1969. No recent synthesis is available, but see Records management 1-9, published by the Records Management Group, Society of Archivists, 1977-date; also Cook, M., Archives administration, Dawson, 1977, pp. 25-94, and Couture, C. and Rousseau, J.Y., Les archives au XXe siècle, University of Montreal, 1982.

2. Society of Archivists, RMG, Office automation and records management, 1981.

3. Newton, S.C., 'Selection and disposal: legal requirements', Records Management 1, Society of Archivists, RMG, 1977.

4. Smith, J.G., 'Archives and the food and drug industries: a preliminary notice of proposed US legislation', Business Archives 44 (1978), pp. 31-43.

5. Miller, D., Health and safety in the conservation workshop, an information leaflet to be issued by the Society of Archivists, may start a compilation of relevant statutes.

6. Cook, M., op. cit., 1977, p. 27.

7. Cook, M., Guidelines for curriculum development in records management and the administration of modern archives: a RAMP study, Unesco, Paris, 1982.

8. Cook, M., op. cit., 1977, p. 30. Benedon, W., op. cit., Chapter 2.

<<TOC3>> 3. Planning the service

<<TOC4>> 3.1 Planning

<<TOC5>> Specialized problems of practical librarianship: planning

Management in socialist society is inconceivable without planning. The principle of the planned development of the new society and of its economy, science, technology and culture was emphasized even in the works of the classical authors of Marxism-Leninism, and in their resolutions the party and government pay much attention to improving the planning system. Librarianship in Czechoslovakia forms an integral part of - and is an active factor in - the political, economic and cultural development of the advanced socialist society on the basis of planning, i.e. pursuing a given course and a long-term objective.

The work of libraries must be so organized that it is geared as closely as possible to the implementation of the party programmes and influences effectively, by means of its specific forms and methods, further development of our society. With a view to improving the quality Of Planning in the library sector, both the Ministry of Culture and lower administrative echelons issue directives, methodological guidelines and principles as to what should be planned, when and how.

Let us take a look at how we are coping with these essentially simple questions in practice.

First, a little theory. Planning is a systematic balancing of the aims and resources of the object of planning in accordance with the directives and decisions of the agent of management. The result of planning, or rather of the planning process, is a plan in the shape of a system of binding organizational measures, procedures and stipulations which lead to the achievement of the set aim. Thus the plan is a binding directive, a specifically approved norm which applies at all levels of management entrusted with the plan's implementation, which organizes the object of planning and its activity and which prompts it to achieve a socially desirable aim. The object of planning is in our case the entire library sector, a library network or an individual library, while the agent of management might be the Ministry of Culture as the central management authority, or a national committee, etc. By activity we mean the services offered by libraries and by socially desirable aim the fullest possible satisfaction of library users' information requirements. This is a rather simplified way of looking at things, but it is quite adequate for our purpose here.

Librarianship in Czechoslovakia draws on long-term and short-term plans. Long-term plans (outline plans) are mostly compiled for a term of five years and are based on studies and forecasts that look 10-20 years ahead. The source of information about the object of planning is the forecast, which takes a broad view of the object's possible future and establishes basic development trends and the emergence, growth or decline of environmental influences affecting the object of the forecast, such as education, publishing and so forth. On the basis of the forecast development concepts are elaborated which then find their concrete expression in the plan. The forecast sets out a number of alternatives for the future and different ways of reaching them, while the concept, which stems from the forecast, sets out the optimal alternative for the future; and the plan, which stems from the concept, specifies the most effective way of implementing the optimal alternative. The characteristic feature of the plan, as distinct from the forecast, it is feasibility, which, however, depends on the realism with which it was drafted, on an objective assessment of the material, manpower and other potential of the object of planning. Long-range studies and forecasts ensure the continuity of the planning process, while the five-year plan provides more precise data for the given five-year period and in turn provides the point of departure for executive plans. While long-term studies are concerned with general formulations, the five-year plan specifies concrete tasks and quantified indicators to be achieved by the object of planning during the set period, and it indicates the resources by which this is to be done.

The prerequisite for systematic and planned management is the short-term plan (executive plan), which specifies the aims and resources of the object's activity for the set period and helps to tap unused potential to provide opportunities for further development. The most important plan in library management is the annual plan, which, through its highly concrete specification of aims, resources and forms of work, provides every opportunity for subsequent strict verification of its implementation. The annual plan as a rule specifies a library's main tasks for the set period as well as other concrete tasks, depending on its size and organizational structure. The plan's basic structure is as follows: the plan of main tasks; the executive plan, including special tasks; and the organizational and material backup plan. (For further information see bibliography.)

After our excursion into the realm of theory, let us return to our initial questions, which, having learned our lesson, we shall be able to answer with no difficulty. When do we plan? We plan at the end of the year for the next year and at the end of the five-year plan for the next five-year plan. How do we plan? Responsibly, of course, compiling long- or short-term plans depending on our position and seniority. What do we plan? We plan the work of a library, a network, or the entire sector. Essentially very simple answers to very simple questions, but ... that is exactly where the problem lies. Plans are indeed drawn up by libraries within the set deadlines and, what is more, dispatched to superior organs or institutions on time; and they comply with the directives of the higher authority in respect of set indicators and percentages. However, let us ask again: when is it done? At the last minute so as not to miss the deadline! How? At fast as possible so as to have done with it! What is planned? What is asked and required of us and no more! Does this not call to mind a paraphrase of Hamlet: To plan or not to plan, that is the question! Of course, we must plan. If our thoughts and actions are to be meaningful, we must have a certain long-term objective against which we can measure our results and assess the success or failure of our work. Why, then, do librarians view the plan as a necessary evil, why do they not exploit its indisputable managerial advantages and why do they frequently attent to the plan only when verification is due? Verification that the plan has been compiled, I hasten to add, not verification of its execution. Probably because we do not plan the right indicators, or do not plan them correctly.

In addition to general formulations on the lines of 'we will fully satisfy users' information needs during the target period', or 'we will actively contribute to the development and enhancement of the population's cultural and educational standards', indicators whose implementation is very difficult for a higher authority to verify (polling users, perhaps), the plans contain indicators that refer to library statistics - library stock in quantitative terms and its content structure, the number of readers, loans, visits, exhibitions, discussions, staffing and financial provision and so forth. These indicators are quantifiable: hence they are easy to plan and, naturally, their implementation is subsequently not difficult to verify either. At the end of the year we can compare the results achieved with the plan, tick off the relevant sections and consider the job done and finished. Finished? Yes, of course, done and finished, what else? Sometimes we manage to forget that verification is part and parcel of management and that due attention must therefore be paid to it.

However, let us digress a little and pay an imaginary visit to XY - a small town with a small library. There is not much industry, it is more of a recreational area where people have their weekend houses and cottages. A nice library with a devoted librarian, good premises and a good structure and range of library stock, very good working conditions - yet the number of readers has again declined. Loans have been 'bumped up', it is true, by lending magazines, but where are we to find people? There are none. The library organizes talks and exhibitions, it invites citizens to visit the library, yet the growth indicator is completely out of reach. People come here to relax and do not give much thought to the library, either in summer or in winter. You may say that the librarian should have considered external circumstances when compiling the plan. Yes, she should have done, but this is not only a purely fictitious example but also a greatly simplified one. The library's efforts to attract readers may be frustrated not only by a natural decrease in population or a change in the locality's functions, but also by a change in potential readers' interests. The decline in cinema audiences can be cited as an example. No, I am not trying to claim that our people are giving up reading, but they are less prepared to make an effort, they are spoilt by their own libraries or even by other forms of entertainment. To attract a reader today, a library must expend considerably more energy than, say, 10 or 20 years ago, and these efforts, this energy are not revealed by a mere figure, which gives the numerical information and nothing else. It is not my intention to militate against planning and statistics as to the number of readers, loans, library visits, or exhibitions, but it is my humble opinion that they give virtually no indication of the value and quality of librarians' work.

The Package of Measures to Improve the System of Planned Management of the National Economy after 1980, approved by the Czechoslovak Government in its Resolution No. 42 of 31 January 1980, considerably changed the situation in our economy, science and technology. Its purpose is, on the basis of an improved planning system, to make maximum use of all intensive factors for economic growth and to enhance the effectiveness and quality of all work. Throughout our society utmost emphasis is placed on the intensive development both of the economy and of science and technology, yet in the library sector the trend towards extensive development has still not been halted. The constant pursuit of the biggest possible number of loans and readers is, alas, characteristic of us. True, according to Unesco statistics our country holds the world record for per capita number of loans. However, the question is: are our readers really satisfied with the service we offer. The statistically-proven quantitative indicators specified in the plan currently tell us virtually nothing about the quality of library services, thus depriving our plans of their incentive function. Our library sector must react promptly to the new situation. We face the difficult task of establishing new indicators or of retaining the old ones but enhancing their ability to reflect quality. This would result, of course, in greater demands being made not just on the librarians themselves but also, and above all, on library management. Without the appropriate management we cannot expect high-quality results.

Let us imagine that the indicator specifying the number of readers for a given year was further broken down into fully satisfied readers, partially satisfied readers and those dissatisfied with the library's services: and the indicator for exhibitions and discussions organized by the library not only indicated the number of events held and the number of people they attracted but also reflected the extent to which they were satisfied with these events. It would, of course, be a very demanding task to ascertain the level of reader and library user satisfaction, but it would undoubtedly furnish valuable information about libraries' performance which could subsequently be used during the verification and assessment of the institution's fulfilment of its tasks, besides producing an overall improvement in the quality of the services offered, which is our main aim. The relevant scientific and methodological institutions should engage in a quest for qualitative indicators and methods of ascertaining and interpreting them.

By improving our planning system, giving it a new content, enhancing its ability to reflect more information and thus ensuring more effective management, we shall promote a more intensive development of our library sector and a greater contribution on its part to the development of the advanced socialist society. We must not forget that the plan is the basic instrument of management, but also no more than that. There still are 'executives' among us who invoke Pythia's counsel when drawing up plans, 'executives' who during the verification of plan fulfilment pull out of their sleeve a trump card in the shape of objective difficulties. If we fail to objectively assess our potential and decide our priorities, then, naturally, we must bear the consequences.

When do we plan? At the end of the year for the next year and at the end of the five-year plan for the next five year- plan.

How do we plan? Responsibility, of course.

When do we plan? The work of a library, a network of libraries, or the entire library sector.

And so we are back where we started. Or are we?

Bibliography

(1) RIHA, L. Dlouhodobé prognózy a plány (Long-term forecasts and plans). Prague, Prace Publishers, 1974, 347 pp.

(2) PROCHAZKA, B. Plánovanie - základny nastroj riadenia (Planning - the basic instrument of management). CITATEL, Vol. 28, 1979, No. 9, pp. 310-311.

(3) Zásady pro sestaveni petiletých územních plánu rozvoje jednotné soustavy knihoven v CSR na leta 1976-1980. (Basic guidelines for the compilation of five-year territorial plans for the development of the integrated library system in the Czech Socialist Republic in 1976-1980). Prague, Czech Ministry of Culture, 1974, 19 pp.

(4) JAKUBICEK, M. Plány a plánování v knihovnách (Plans and planning in libraries). Brno, SVK, 1978, 19 pp.

(5) MICOVSJÝ, J. 0. plánování a knizniciach (About planning and libraries). Martin, Matica slovenská, 1962, 88 pp.

(6) KUSHTANINA, L.I. Bibliotecnoe delo kak zveno narodnohozjajstvennogo planirovanija (Librarianship as a component of economic planning). Sovetskoe Bibliotekovedenie, 1979, No. I pp. 35-47.

(7) KUSHTANINA, L.I. Perspektivnoje planirovanije - vaznaja zadaca bibliotekovedenija (Long-term planning - an important task in library management). Sovetskoja Bibliotekovenije, 1981, No. 2 pp. 63-74.

(8) HEMOLA, H. Komplexni prognosticky model knihovnického systému (Integrated forecasting model for the library system). (Thesis). Prague, 1980, 103pp. typescript. Charles University, Philosophical Faculty, Department of scientific information and librarianship.

(9) Soubor opatreni ke zdokonaleni soustavy plánoviteho rizení narodniho hospodaistvi po roce 1980 (Package of measures to improve the system of planned management of the national economy after 1980). Plzen, CSVTS regional council, 1980, 59 pp.

<<TOC5>> Archive planning

by Bernhard Zittel

The peaceful idyll once enjoyed by the archivist and Court Counsellor Grillparzer(1) has been thoroughly destroyed. The archivists of today and tomorrow have to work in an environment in which science and technology impose their law and their rhythm. It is no accident that in recent years the question of the archivist's job, his status and career prospects and the problem of delimitation from others, such as the documentalist, has been posed with ever greater insistence. But a satisfactory answer can be worked out only with difficulty. The aim and function of this profession and the associated problem of a training pattern to meet the needs of the time have become permanent features of conferences and international congresses on archives.(2) The job definition has become hazy and in need of clarification and amendment in two dimensions, depth and breadth.(3)

The archivist's present list of worries does not end here, however. Going through the annual reports of national and foreign archives quickly reveals three problem areas common to all archive administrations:

1. The discrepancy between staffing levels and constantly growing tasks.
2. The discrepancy between the available storage space and the overwhelming inflow of archive material.
3. The difficulty of convincing budget experts, and in the final analysis elected representatives, of the need to provide an adequate archive budget, which would make it possible not simply to cover operating costs and the staff and infrastructure expenditure required to deal with the virtually chronic backlog in archives, but also provide for the tasks of tomorrow.

We do not deny that there are many factors contributing to this state of affairs that the archivist can do nothing about and is not responsible for, but we are not convinced that archivists have really done everything within their powers to create a sound basis for mastering the problems and tasks facing them.

INADEQUATE CULTIVATION OF THE IMAGE

On closer examination, one of these sins of omission is seen to be archivists' failure to cultivate their image. In general, they sell themselves and their 'wares' short. In this respect their colleagues in the libraries are ahead of them. It is small wonder, then, that archives are not infrequently confused with libraries or thought to belong to them. We are well aware that in saying this we are challenging the traditional view of the nature and purpose of archives - justifiably, in our opinion. Archives have long since emerged from their aura of mystery and have instead joined the ranks of service enterprises. The XVth Round Table,. held in Ottawa on 7-10 October 1974, had taken this shift in emphasis into account when, under the general heading of Archives and the public, it dealt with the relevant subtopics: Publications, exhibitions and educational services. The lively debate, in particular over whether the main obligation of archives was to the public or to the client services assigned to them, left no doubt as to where their main task lies, especially in the view of colleagues from the younger countries. In this connection the citizen's right to information was set against the archives' obligation to provide information.(4) This desideratum, or obligation even, was clearly underlined in the background paper of the conference, whose authors argue on the basis that many people in many parts of the world have just no idea of the numerous sources of information available to them as potential users, sources lying dormant in the form of documentation, libraries and archives, and that society as a whole suffers from this lack of knowledge. It is therefore necessary to stimulate the awareness of the citizen as a future user, and in particular make him aware of his right to information. At every step in the educational system, the Unesco paper insists, pupils and students ought to be shown the way to the information sources. In the first place this concerns the universities. Conversely, the training of documentalists, librarians and archivists should be geared more towards their basic obligation to provide information.(5)

Archives are thus very important stores of information. In addition to the traditional task of collecting information, storing It and making it available. there is now that of offering this information to interested parties. Many archivists go even further and include in this task also the obligation to make the treasures of the archive 'palatable', i.e. assimilable for the intellectual level of the user group concerned and, where necessary, to equip the 'customer' for profitable use of the archive, for example through reading courses on the Dutch model.(6) Here the advocates of a 'market-oriented' supply of information not infrequently tacitly assume that archives actually do succeed in awakening a general and specific interest in archive information - somewhat on the lines of the subliminal advertising techniques derived from the findings of depth psychology. They try to convince the citizen that the treasure-house of empirical knowledge stored in the archives can help him not only to solve his everyday problems but also to profitably use his leisure time, for example in research into the family and home.

Let us summarize: Whatever the reason may be, archivists harm themselves through neglecting to cultivate their image. As first rank custodians and providers of information, archives have to open up to modern society. This willingness to provide a service for every citizen - the central idea behind the discussion at the latest Round Table in Ottawa may be rendered thus presupposes increased concern for contact with the public. Without doubt this new task, or rather this newly perceived and interpreted task, provides a chance for archivists to create a positive public image, especially if the archive management understands how to develop this service to the public into a real partnership of give and take through co-operation with the media: press, radio and television. The Ottawa meeting and the media-oriented exhibition of the local state archive happily allowed a glimpse of some fruitful approaches.

We are well aware that we have described the ideal situation here. Everyday reality falls far short of this, not least because the archives suffer from the above-mentioned twofold discrepancy between staffing levels and space availability and the expectations of modern society. This 'deficiency disease' can be remedied only if the necessary financial basis can be created in the archive service. This presupposes, however, that the responsible authorities, parliaments and town councils are convinced of the importance of archives in the context of modern society and for the state and local authorities themselves. But if we take an honest look around us, this conviction Is to a large extent lacking. The fault is to be found in the first place with the archivists themselves, because out of quite understandable self-interest they concern themselves too little or not at all with fulfilling their information obligation and concentrate on their obligations to the official authorities or responsible ministry. Thus the vicious circle is completed.

The archives can break out of this vicious circle only if they examine themselves critically, draw up a realistic balance of the actual and target situations and can produce convincing arguments to justify their demands and objectives. This brings us right to the heart of our subject: archive planning. Two examples will show just how seriously our observations are to be taken. In order to stress the importance and future role of archives, Unesco and the International Council on Archives, 'in a historical role', are proposing an 'International Archive Year'.(7) In a draft law on archives of June 1972, proposed by the French Ministry for Cultural Affairs, it is considered a characteristic of archives that they should be open to the public (Article 22). The importance attached to public archives by the French Government is emphasized by the fact that it intends to attach the archives 'directly to the highest authority in the state' (Article 2).(8) Lastly, we could easily cite a number of conclusive examples of how it was possible to win over the mayors and local councils of a number of medium-sized Bavarian towns to an ambitious and forward-looking solution to the archive problem through using the procedures recommended here and illustrated below in the fields of staff and infrastructure planning.

Staff planning

Even at the risk of uttering what will be truisms for many colleagues we would like to pass on from the knowledge and experience gained in everyday archive practice some observations that serve the objective of better archive staffing and infrastructures. The methodology for determining requirements involves both inductive and deductive procedures. Both methods can run in parallel, but they also overlap. The basis for the investigation should be a well thought out organization and function plan. It may be limited to a single archive, but should cover the whole field of all the establishments in a single archive administration district. Here the preliminary investigation will reveal already that a standardized outline plan certainly includes all archives, but on the other hand a number of functions of an interregional nature have to be performed by only one archive, but benefit all the archives in the network. This already leads to the first conclusions regarding staffing needs and professional qualifications. After this preliminary investigation, which can at the same time be oriented towards and checked against existing and already well-organized typical archives or one of the many available models,(9) a systematic stock-taking of the present situation is called for, taking into account all factors such as volume of documents to be looked after, interests and social stratification of user groups. The sum total of all these observations constitutes the foundation on which all further work, right up to the final item in the drafting of the budget, will be built. An overall plan, well thought out and at the same time based on experience, should proceed in three stages and its methodology should be based on four preconditions. For the three stages, short, medium and long-term planning, Delmas proposes three, five and ten to 15 years.(10) The four pre-conditions can be fulfilled through:

(a) a comprehensive, sound and critically compiled stock-taking(11) based on carefully compiled annual reports;
(b) the exchange of draft plans and budget proposals between the individual archive administrations;
(c) a thorough study of all available annual reports, building reports and already developed model plans;
(d) a critical examination and final comparison of all documents.(12)

An examination on this basis of the staffing levels in individual archives and over the whole archive area will generally reveal a more or less substantial gap between actual and target numbers.(13) What is more, it will become clear that the planning field has expanded at an above-average rate, with the inflow of archive material doubling in ever decreasing periods of time. The initial provisional stock-taking results in two major Implications for budget planning: catching up and rates of increase. The budget experts almost invariably respond to this request by asking how this budget proposal can be justified. The more thoroughly the staffing and later infrastructure proposals can be backed up by facts, comparative analyses and compelling conclusions. the greater the chances of achieving the objective.

Is there a general standard of fixed scales and classifications and universally applicable yardsticks? We think there is. Research over many years, in particular that carried out by Dr C. Haase, Head of the Lower Saxony archive administration, (14) has, like our own series of tests, demonstrated that there is a certain relationship between the number of employees in an archive and the size of the archive stock and the variety and specific characteristics of the area of responsibility. With all the reservations called for in the case of straight comparisons, undifferentiated for example with regard to the relative weightings to be attributed to different categories of records, it is possible to determine certain figures for the relationship between the total linear metres of archives and total staff and also the individual categories of staff. Thus, disregarding cleaning staff, there is one staff post for every 500 m of records, and for every 2.5 km there is one senior post, two professional and four intermediate.(15) The ratio between the three grades of the archive service is thus 1: 2: 4. At least this provides a useful indicator for present and future staffing requirements. Obviously we have given only a rule of thumb that can be further refined and thus be given a higher degree of credibility, especially if the key figures calculated are confirmed by those of other comparable branches of the administration.(16) It should be pointed out straight away that the planning figures thus determined have to be constantly checked and extrapolated. This means taking account of shifts in emphasis that may take place on various levels, for example In the field of educational services, the extension of the contemporary history department, or the introduction of new technical procedures. In the libraries in particular it has turned out that any step to reduce staff through the introduction of computers as a rule at first involves additional budget expenditure on personnel, often to the displeasure of the higher authorities, before any noticeable staff savings are achieved. Though we would not wish to swear by Parkinson's Law, the truth is that since 1945, staffing requirements have risen rather than fallen virtually everywhere in the field of archives too. Manpower requirements necessarily have to increase when an archive is built or extended, especially where the greater part of the new capacity is in the storage area. In parallel to this increase in storage space - here we are disregarding whether and to what extent the range of tasks and hence the manpower requirements of an archive can grow in other ways - the additional staffing requirement, in particular for the storage block, has to be calculated on the basis of the above criteria and included in the budget proposals at the appropriate time. In this connection it is also necessary to examine to what extent the location and facilities of a new building and modern technical installations, such as air-conditioning, security devices, transport equipment, vehicle maintenance facilities, and surveillance create additional manpower needs.(17) Surveillance of the new complex at the Bavarian State Archive exclusively by an outside security company has proved excessively costly and not always effective, so that a cost comparison between surveillance by own or outside staff or solely by means of technical 'spies' (alarm systems, television cameras) is called for. This analysis will often turn out In favour of directly employing security staff, whose posts must therefore be included in the budget, as is the case with the Bavarian State Library (Munich).(18)

The need for storage space will be determined by 'supply', the constant increase in archive material. Thus the question of the increase in the inflow of documents to the archive also becomes the key to calculating the increase in staff. This brings us back to the problem mentioned above in Point 2, the discrepancy between storage space and the growing volume of documents.

Infrastructure planning

We have indicated that forecasting archives' requirements for staff, actually one of the few groups of civil servants whose occupation Is to keep, manage and issue documents, depends essentially on the present and future 'document situation'. At the same time we could easily demonstrate that archivists have nowhere been so mistaken in their planning - simply because they were overwhelmed by the force of events - as in calculating the future growth rate of the document inflow.

Two recent examples are representative of the general situation. At the suggestion of the Basel State Archive, the cantonal government carried out a survey of all the relevant departments, to find out:

(a) the volume of documents at present stored;
(b) additional file storage space requirements; and
(c) the volume of files to be transferred to the State Archive during the next ten years'.

Our Basel colleagues rightly worked on the basis that, not least because of new tasks being entrusted to the State, 'the administration's production of documents has had to increase by leaps and bounds since 1940, so that in the next few decades an avalanche of thousands of linear metres of files, mainly personal files, will flow into the archives'. The findings of the survey, the responses to which had not been completely analysed when the annual report went to press, were that:

'Our worst fears have been confirmed: the volume of files at present stored in the various branches of the Basel city administration amounts to no less than 14,063 linear metres, i.e. about twice the total held by the State Archive. Within the next ten years, the administration will hand over 2,700 linear metres of files to the Archive'.(19)

A second example:

'The State Archive is full to overflowing. Not even for 20 years have the two giant storage blocks of the Lower Saxony State Archive at Wolfenbüttel, built in 1955, managed to cope with the inflow of valuable documents from yesterday and today that must be kept for the future. An acute shortage of space is forcing the Lower Saxony archive administration to build a third storage block, as was planned from the beginning'.(20)

The conclusion is that the increase in the volume of archivable documents doubles in an ever shorter time. In East and West,, in all regional and international meetings, the complaints over the flood of files and discussions about stricter selection guidelines and practical yardsticks just will not stop. The fact remains that we will have to continue to live with and cope with the document mountain in the future. To this extent Delmas' recommendation that in archive construction storage space for the next ten years only should be planned completely disregards the harsh reality.(21) All our colleagues probably know of similar examples of misplanning in their own fields.

As shown by these few examples, planning for storage blocks is not as a rule done on a sufficiently long-term basis. In the calculation of present and future space requirements in storage blocks and, using the same logic, in the library and associated areas, we should not be satisfied with half-measures, which are more expensive in the longer term than a more ambitious solution. We consider it to be a half-measure when new, modern archive buildings - we shall refrain from naming the 'guilty' archives here - will reach the limit of their capacity within 10 to 15 years and, what is even worse, are not capable of further extension. It is embarrassing for archivists as well as architects, if - and here again recent examples could be named - the storage space could in principle be extended, either through building upwards from two to four stories, or through replacing fixed shelving by compact systems, but this possibility is excluded because it was not taken into account at the structural design stage. This would have been a way of creating a potential reserve capacity relatively easily and at a justifiable extra cost, which in fact given the present price surge can be paid off in a few years, if not completely amortized. There is only one sensible conclusion to be drawn from these verifiable failures: in planning a new archive, and similarly in extension projects, the objective must be to provide for the greatest possible reserve storage. In this respect the calculation of future space requirements becomes the key issue. The reserve space should amount to 100 per cent, however, i.e. on moving into the new storage block, there should be a ratio of 1:1 between occupied and spare shelf space. This ratio is neither Utopian, nor does it lead to runaway costs. On the contrary, It helps to cut costs. Here we are assuming that the entire building is constructed immediately, i.e. as the home for the future reserve space. In this way the costs of construction equipment, scaffolding, etc., are incurred only once. The installation of shelving can then be spread over several budget years, according to requirements and budget situation, if the financing for the internal installations is not Immediately available. In order to be able to take advantage later of all possibilities of the available space - including the subsequent replacement of fixed shelving by a space-saving compact system - two preconditions need to be met at the initial construction stage: (1) The load-bearing capacity of the floors must be calculated for compact systems, even where at first fixed shelving is to be installed. Depending on the height of the storey this means a bearing capacity of 1,000 to 1,250 kg/m2, according to experience in German archives. On the other hand Duchein, working on the basis of metal racking with five tiers of 50-60 kg recommends a capacity of 1,500 to 2,000 kg/m2. (2) At relatively little expenditure of time, work and money, the rails for a possible future compact system should be installed at the same time as the floor surface. An example here is the new Upper Austrian Land archive at Linz. We recommend this procedure all the more because for a few years now the technical possibility has existed of transferring from fixed shelving to shelving mounted on rollers. This thus provides the possibility of an extra reserve, and if the rails are installed at the right time this avoids the danger of dust and dirt problems as experienced by our colleagues of the Aarau cantonal archive, where they were laid afterwards.

Shortly before completing this contribution, we received form our much burdened colleague Dr Helfenstein of Zurich the 'Decision of the cantonal government on the approval of credits for the building of a State Archive in Zurich', of 18 September 1984. This fully confirms the argument outlined above.

Seldom has the planning of an archive building been so much in the crossfire of public criticism as in Zurich, where urban planners, environmentalists and conservationists all stirred up opinion. It is all the more satisfying to note that in this struggle on several fronts, the archive storage space programme 'examined and approved by the commission' never came under fire from this criticism for a moment, so far as we are aware. At the same time, our colleagues in Zurich have striven for the highest objectives, such as a 100 per cent reserve space, 50 places in the reading room instead of the former 30. They clearly built a sound case, convincingly presented, on the basis of the arguments outlined by us. The space programme of the new State Archive provides for an annual average increase of 150 linear metres of documents, and 'at the time of coming into service, the documents at present spread over three storage blocks can be brought together and it will be possible to about double this volume of material. According to the experience of recent years, this will provide for at least the next 50 years'. With regard to the more distant future, the decision remarks critically, 'If we consider, however, a longer period, and take into account that sooner or later sizeable special archives ... and the older holdings of the district authorities since 1831 will have to be taken over by the State Archive, growth will proceed at a rather faster pace. It should be remembered that of the present material, accumulated over a period of about 1,100 years, only about one-third dates from the first thousand years of this period, while the last hundred years have contributed two-thirds'.(23)

The findings of our Zurich colleagues reproduced here necessarily raise the question of just how the annual increase in archive material can be calculated. As a model, we would like to describe the procedure we used in calculating the space requirements for the new archives in Augsburg and Ravensburg. It basically consists of determining the type of empirical figures that were used by the Zurich archive to justify its storage space programme.

The basis for determining the average figure was file movements over the years 1900 to 1970, i.e. a period of 70 years. The parameters examined were: (1) The rate of increase of archive documents; (2) The number of source departments; (3) Population changes in the administrative divisions of Swabia and the Upper Palatinate; (4) Special circumstances that might increase or decrease the flow of files, such as wars or boundary reforms. The total stock of the Amberg State Archive increased over the period 1900 to 1970 by a factor of about seven (6.48) and from 1930 to 1970 by about four (4.61). The 1900 stock had doubled by 1935, i.e. in 35 years. The next doubling took only 21 years (1936-1957), while after the mass inflow after 1945 the volume of new material settled at a more normal level. Between 1957 and 1970, i.e. in 13 years it increased by a factor of 1.4. If these figures are combined with other parameters, such as the number of source departments, which amounted to 285 in the present example, a sound basis for extrapolation can be laid. In this way the future storage space of the approximately equal sized and in virtually all respects comparable Augsburg and Ravensburg State Archives was planned to be 30 km of shelving. This was calculated from the present space occupied (13 km), a reserve of 100 per cent (13 km) and an additional 4 km to allow for the increase in material between now and moving into the new building.

We are well aware that our suggestions have not touched on all possibilities that may contribute to realistic future planning. However, we believe we have at least given some pointers to the right direction, in the spirit of the leitmotiv of the Unesco Conference, 'We have to plan to prepare the future'.(24)

Notes and references

1. As enshrined in his quatrain:

'Here 'neath a heap of files I sit
You think I'm lonely and at odds
And yet perhaps you won't believe it -
I'm here with the eternal gods.'

2. Thus the XVIth Round Table, held in Kiev in 1975, dealt with the general theme of education and further training for archivists. At the Intergovernmental Conference on the Planning of National Documentation, Library and Archives Infrastructures (Paris, 23-27 September 1974), in which we participated as representatives of the German Federal Archive, one working group was concerned solely with the specific training of archivists and librarians as key figures in the information centres of the future. A few years earlier this subject had already been handled by Frank B. Evans, Modem concepts of archive administration and records management, in Unesco bulletin for libraries Vol. XXIV, No. 5, September-October (Paris 1970) 242 ff and Robert Henri Bautier La mission des archives et les tâches des archives in the Proceedings of the XIIth Round Table (Jerusalem 1970). Klaus Laissipien and Ernst Lutterbeck attempt to delineate the tasks of the archivist, librarian and documentalist in Grundlagen der praktischen Information und Dokumentation (München-Pullach 1972) 17. Incidentally, we only have to think of the broad-ranging discussion, constantly enriched by our colleague Herr Goldinger, over whether and to what extent the budding archivist should be introduced to the problems and practice of data processing. In a conversation I was privileged to have with Professor Santifaller in Kastelruth shortly before his death, I was impressed by the commitment and expertise with which Professor Santifaller tackled this question from the Austrian standpoint.

3. This change in the approach to the problem can easily be seen in archive manuals, for example Adolph Brennecke and Wolfgang Leesch Archivkunde (Leipzig 1953) and the French Manuel d'archivistique (Paris 1973) or as reflected in the background papers for the Unesco Conference in Paris by P. Harvard-Williams and E.G. Franz, Planning Information Manpower (Paris 1974) and J.H. d'Olier and B. Delmas, Planning national infrastructures for documentation, libraries and archives (Unesco, Paris 1974). A cross-section of the relevant problems is also to be found in the contributions Archivarausbildung im Wandel in the festschrift Der Archivar 26 (1973) Heft 2 offered to Dr Kurt Dülfer, Head of the Marburg Archivschule, on his 65th birthday.

4. The working paper was drafted by Christian Gut (Paris). The range of contrasting views is revealed by comparing the analysis of survey responses by Christian Gut and the 'classical' view of the doyen of English archivists, Sir Hilary Jenkinson Roots in Society of Archivists in Journal of the Society of Archivists 2 No. 4 (October 1961) 131-132, who, like Sir Thomas Hardy, saw the main task of the archivist as preserving the archive stock.

5. The purpose and aims of the Unesco Conference were programmed in the form of 15 objectives. Objective 2 was concerned with the citizen's right to information and the obligation of libraries, archives and other information sources to provide information - 'Objective 2 - Stimulation of user awareness - In order to increase user awareness, appropriate bodies, including universities and other educational institutions, should include in their programmes systematic instruction in the use of the information resources available in all the elements of NATIS' (= National Information Systems). The justification sounds rather pathetic: 'In many parts of the world, even though information is available in the collections of documentation, library and archives services, the potential users of these facilities are unaware of their existence and the advantages they offer, or the information remains unused because it does not meet the special needs of specific sectors of the community. The voluntary co-operation and understanding of all members of the community is needed if NATIS is to reach its optimal efficiency. Within the framework of users' education, every citizen should therefore be aware of his right to the information he seeks - and of its importance - whether it be for professional advancement, performance of his social duties, or recreational reading... I in National Information Systems (NATIS) Objectives for national and international action (Unesco, Paris 1984), p. 11.

6. In Ottawa Pirenne (Netherlands) reported on paleographic exercises of this type in Geldern, attracting 80 to 200 participants.

7. See Delmas Planning .... op. cit. p. 233.

8. Ibid 307-309. Article 22 states: 'Documents, according to their nature, shall be open to consultation by the public on the expiry of a variable closure period'; Article 2: 'The responsible archives authority. As the archives have an interministerial mission,, they should be placed under an authority situated at the highest level of the State (president of the republic, offices of the prime minister or secretariat-general ... of the government).'

9. Here we would mention four recent examples of descriptions of functions and staff posts: B.G. Franz Planning Information Manpower (Paris 1974) and Liban. Formation archivistique. Création d'un centre de formation des archivistes, des bibliothécaires et des documentalistes (Paris 1974); Delmas, Planning ..., pp. 272 and FF, in particular the chapter: 'Machinery for formulating a national archives plan and procedures for its implementation. An excellent basis for staff and infrastructure planning is provided by Harald Jorgensen Report on the cost of archive service (Copenhagen 1973), based on international comparisons and produced for the XIIIth Round Table in Luxembourg.

10. Delmas Planning.... op. cit. pp. 284 and ff.

11. The accurate findings that should be aimed at cannot as a rule be achieved without a survey and a systematically designed questionnaire; good examples are to be found in the annexes to Jorgensen Report and Delmas Planning. With the help of annual reports prepared in this way the Bavarian archive administration is provided with very accurate data concerning the entire archive stock (at present 130 km) which proves very valuable in infrastructure planning.

12. A comparison of the annual reports of all Bavarian state archives over several years gave very accurate data after about five years on the occupied and free shelf space in the individual archives, as well as about the issue of documents.

13. An examination of the staffing of the Bavarian archive administration carried out in 1955 revealed that staff numbers had not only failed to keep pace with the rapid increase in the volume of documents, but had remained at the 1914 level. The present annual rate of increase in documents in the Bavarian state archives is between 1000 and 1500 linear metres.

14. Carl Haase Kostenfaktoren bei der Entstehung behördlichen Schriftgutes sowie bei einer archivischen Bearbeitung und Aufbewahrung in Der Archivar 25 (February 1972) Heft 1 col. FF 49.

15. Bavaria recently became the first German Land to introduce an intermediate level career path in the archive service - as already exists in the general administration. See Bernhard Zittel Neue Wege der Archivarausbildung in Bayern in Der Archivar 26 (May 1973) Heft 2 col. 191-198 and Günter v. Roden Die Notwendigkeit eines mittleren Archivdienstes ibid 26 (July 1973) Heft 3 col. 471-474.

16. The comparable figures for the Munich district financial administration including the land survey service for the (technical) officers of the senior, professional and intermediate grades 1: 2.4: 4.2. 1 am indebted to my colleagues Oberarchivdirektor Dr Nusser for this data.

17. Using this procedure it was possible to keep the number of posts substantially in line with the increase in space and functions in the extension of the main Bavarian State Archive.

18. The surveillance of the exterior and interior of the first two new sections of the main Bavarian State Archive amounted to a five-figure sum per year and per guard.

19. Jahresbericht des Staatsarchivs Basel-Stadt (1973) 3-4.

20. Wolfenbütteler Zeitung 20 August 1974

21. All our own experience and what we know of other archives speaks against the recommendation by Delmas La planification 312, who in his 'Standards for the construction of an average national archive store' writes 'It Is recommended to have storage space sufficient to meet the needs of the next 10 years.

22. Michel Duchein Archive Buildings and Equipment (Unesco Paris 1966) 36. The new storage block of the Würzburg State Archive in Marienberg Castle is able to support a weight of 1800 Kg/m². Unlike Delmas, Duchein recommends as a minimum requirement an area 'enough for the foreseeable transfers of the next 20 years', and furthermore considers 'a (storage) building large enough to meet the needs of the next 50 to 100 years' to be desirable. Ibid 24.

23. It says much for the far-sightedness of the Zurich examining authorities and the expert reasoning of the archivists in the debate, in which the press also frequently Intervened, that the space requirements of the state archive were never disputed.

24. Delmas La planification 239.

<<TOC4>> 3.2 Constraints on planning: the state

<<TOC5>> The Archives of Argentina: Problems and Solutions

CESAR A. GARCÍA BELSUNCE

In the two centuries of Argentina's existence as a political entity, first as a viceroyalty of the Spanish Empire and then as an independent republic, periods of vigorous efforts to save the documentary resources of the government have alternated with periods of almost complete inattention to the preservation of valuable public records. A movement is in progress to restore the usefulness of government archives after half a century of neglect. As a participant in this movement along with other archivists and government officials, I occasionally ask myself whether our work will have a permanent effect or whether it will vanish at some future time when Argentina's archival heritage will again be forgotten. I may be premature in giving a positive answer to my own question. but I have reason to believe that we are about to make basic, long-lasting improvements in the administration of our government archives.

The vagaries that the public archives of Argentina have been subjected to over the years are largely the result of changes in the nation's polity. The good condition of eighteenth-century government documents that have survived to the present indicates that records-keeping officials of the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata handled the manuscripts in their custody with care and maintained well-organized archives. In contrast to the efficient archival administration of the records of the colonial regime, the preservation of government documents produced during the first seventy years of the Republic (1810-80) was haphazard. Officials of the central government began in 1821 to deposit their records in the repository of the city of Buenos Aires, and administrators of each provincial government designated a local repository for their records. but the nation's leaders did not establish a policy on the preservation of public documents. The absence of any government-wide regulations on the maintenance of non-current records reflects the fact that the central and provincial governments were preoccupied with expanding their authority and with developing distinctively republican institutions to replace the monarchical instruments of rule.

During the period 1880-1916, when Argentina rose to the status of a world power the National Archives came into existence and prospered. The growth of national pride prompted public officials to take action to preserve the most important documents relating to the history of Argentina, and in 1884 the government named the Buenos Aires repository as the National Archives (Archivo General de la Nación). Two eminent scholars, Carlos Guido y Spano and Juan J. Biedma amassed a substantial body of government documents in the National Archives and organized the records to serve the interests of historical research.

Regrettably, Argentina's political fortunes went into a gradual decline from 1916 until 1960. and both the National Archives and the archives of the provincial administrations suffered in consequence. As the public agencies atrophied, the flow of documents from government offices to the central and provincial archives either diminished or ceased altogether. Some of the more conscientious directors of the repositories continued to solicit records from agencies and to improve facilities for storing documents. Their commendable work failed to produce a government-wide policy on the preservation of valuable records, however, and most public officials remained ignorant of the reason for the existence of the National Archives or the provincial repositories.

We who are attempting to revivify the public archives of Argentina are pleased at the steps that the government has taken in recent years to improve the archives of the central administration. An executive decree issued in 1979 requires any agency seeking to destroy, transfer, or microfilm a portion of its records to draw up a plan in collaboration with the National Archives and to submit it to the Executive Office of the President for final approval. Not only has the decree abolished the arbitrary destruction of records by agency officials; it has also enabled the National Archives staff to show the officials which of their agency's records are of sufficient worth to be maintained in an archives. In the wake of the issuance of the executive decree, two agencies have announced their support of a thorough reform of the central archival system. The Ministry of the Interior, which has general supervision of the various archives of the national government, has pledged to take sustained action to preserve Argentina's documentary heritage and to promote the National Archives as the leading institution of its kind in the country. As part of a scheme to reorder the entire central administration, the Office of the Under Secretary of Public Functions has declared that it will have the agency archives reorganized in such a way as to facilitate the retrieval of information for officials presently carrying on public business.

These measures have given the movement to revitalize the government's archives a noteworthy start, and the movement appears to be growing. Increasing numbers of administrators are acknowledging the importance of preserving public records. Newsmen are writing and broadcasting more stories about Argentina's archival treasures. The Office of the Under Secretary of Public Functions has expressed its intention of eventually bringing the central and provincial government archives together into a nationwide archival system, and a project for a law to establish and regulate such a system is now being discussed among interested legislators and administrators.

Despite such hopeful signs, we still have years of neglect to overcome before we can restore to our public archives their rightful functions. The accomplishment of that goal depends upon our having a clear idea of the problems affecting Argentina's archives: our devising a plan of action: and our carrying out the plan according to the available means. I will discuss each of these three points in turn.

The most serious problem that we face is the general lack of awareness of the nature of archives and the purpose of maintaining them. Most members of the public do not know how records are preserved or in what ways records are used once they cease to be of value in the conduct of current business. Even for the best-informed people of Argentinian society, the mention of documents stored in an archival repository calls to mind the image of old and dusty objects tucked into the dark crannies of a household attic, awaiting the day on which they will be hauled away as rubbish so as to make room in the attic for more recently discarded things. We often find that people are unreceptive to our arguments in behalf of the central and provincial archives not because they object to the public expense of preserving significant government records, but because they have never even thought about the process of recordkeeping.

Another problem - one that affects provincial and other public archives more severely than it does the National Archives - is an insufficient operating budget. Most of the public archives of Argentina have funds to cover no more than the maintenance of existing equipment. the provision of essential conservation and reference services, and the payment of employees’ salaries. Only in response to specific and usually urgent appeals have legislative bodies appropriated funds for archival institutions to purchase new equipment or to expand services. Repositories also lack the means to provide for the advance professional education of their employees, either by hiring instructors to give on-the-job training to archivists, or by giving the archivists scholarships to take appropriate courses at universities. Moreover, some of the directors of archival institutions find it difficult to accept as a professional responsibility the duty to draft a budget and to enlist support for it among key legislators. The inevitable result is that these directors have little or no influence upon the final determination of their operating budget by their respective legislatures.

A third difficulty facing the public archives of Argentina is the inadequacy of the buildings used as repositories. Although some government agencies, such as the Treasury Department, do have buildings constructed specifically to hold their non-current records, most government archives are housed either in a building constructed for other purposes or in some part of a building designed for multiple uses. The National Archives Building was constructed in 1904 as a bank; the archives of the Immigration Service are on a floor of the Hotel de Inmigrantes, constructed at the end of the nineteenth century; and the archives of the Province of Buenos Aires are housed in a multi-purpose structure. An embarrassingly large number of public records are stored in old family residences, acquired by the central and provincial governments, that are falling into ruin because of the lack of proper maintenance. A survey of twenty-six provincial archives, taken in 1979, revealed that ten were in their own buildings. three were in rented structures, and four were in buildings "borrowed" from other agencies. The other nine provincial archives did not even reply to the question on buildings!.

In addition to suffering from a lack of public recognition and from low budgets and poor building facilities, the public archives of Argentina are deficient in professionally trained personnel. People who have been specifically trained as archivists are scarce, and people with legal or historical educational backgrounds who have acquired archival skills on the job are not abundant either. The fact that archival organizations are not highly ranked in the administrative hierarchy means that suitable personnel are hard to recruit. Certainly, many employees have worked faithfully for long years in archives and have by their care saved innumerable valuable records from destruction. Nevertheless, the intellectual devaluation of archives over the past years has resulted in an archival workforce many of whose members do not think of themselves as professionals and have no ambition to progress in their professional education.

The National Archives of Argentina, which as of the beginning of 1980 %%,as authorized to have a staff of 77 (excluding maintenance and cleaning personnel), actually had only 32 staff members. Some had been eliminated because they were unprepared for archival work and some had voluntarily retired; vacancies were being filled only with people qualified to perform archival tasks. Of that staff of 32, 11 were archivists (8 with university degrees); 12 were archives aides (I with a university degree and 5 who were studying for degrees): 7 were technical personnel (2 with university degrees); and 2 were administrative employees (both with diplomas from secondary schools). Thus, again excluding maintenance and cleaning personnel, thirty-five percent of the employees of the National Archives had a university degree or its equivalent as of the beginning of 1980. None of those university-educated people had a degree in archival administration, however.

As of 1979, a total of 253 employees of the provincial archives of Argentina were classified as follows 16 archivists (5 with university degrees). 33 technical personnel (31 with university degrees), and 204 administrative employees (9 with university degrees and 72 with diplomas from secondary institutions). The personnel was very unevenly distributed from institution to institution: 1 repository had more than 20 employees; 11 had between 11 and 20 employees, 10 had between 5 and 10 employees, and 4 had less than 5 employees. The extremes were represented by one institution that had 44 employees, 41 of whom had only a primary education; and one institution whose sole employee - its director - was an archivist with a university degree,

In order to remedy the situation that I have just described, we have prepared a coherent plan of action and are standing firm in our intention of carrying it out. Our first aim is the creation in law of a nationwide system that will encompass the archives of the central government as well as those of the provincial and local administrations. Such a law will replace the old law of 1961, which did not provide for, or even permit, the organization of a nationwide archival system. Our legislators will have to decide whether to enact a rather brief law couched in broad terms. or a longer law whose provisions go into considerable detail. Although a general law has many advantages over a detailed law, I believe that the lack of professional expertise among the people who will have to apply the new archives legislation calls for a law whose terms are quite specific.

The law must clearly define the documentary heritage of the nation; the characteristics of public documents, and the attributes of private documents of interest to the public. It must describe the life cycle of documents from their creation by government offices, to their temporary storage in records centers. and then either to their permanent preservation or else to their destruction. Steps by which archival institutions acquire records from government agencies have to be set forth in the law. In establishing the procedures for gaining access to public records, the law must protect the interests of the State at the same time that it makes the information available to researchers. Finally, the law must set minimum professional standards for archivists, differentiating them from other government employees and from other types of employees who work in archives.

Our second goal, which we think should be worked for at the same time that we strive for the first, is to convey the principles of sound records management to agency officials. We want them to learn the techniques of records appraisal and the scheduling of records for retention or destruction. We also want them to understand the purpose of records centers -- "intermediate archives," as we call them - for the temporary storage of non-current documents.

Our third goal is to make the various archives into sources of information not only for historical researchers, but also for present government officials. We want administrators and legislators to consult archival records in order to make the most knowledgeable decisions possible on matters affecting our citizens.

As our fourth goal. we want to Provide archives with adequate buildings to enable them to receive the records that they are entitled to accession. We want those buildings. furthermore. to be equipped to preserve records for an indefinite period of time.

Our fifth aim is to provide our public archives with an adequate number of qualified personnel. On the basis of the professional standards set in the new archives law, we want to develop courses to train existing archival personnel in basic archival skills and to establish centers for the advanced instruction of archivists.

We realize that we will have to use whatever means are available in order to attain these five objectives. Once a new archives law is passed, for example, we will make a concerted effort to explain its terms to the archival personnel who will be putting the legislation into effect. The same attempts at explanation will be made with government officials whose records we want eventually to bring into the public archives. With regard to the records management part of our program, we will pursue experiments already being conducted in the Intermediate Archives Department of the National Archives in developing principles for the appraisal of current records and in devising general schedules for records retention and destruction.

Our aim of making the archives sources of information for both historical researchers and government officials will probably require the revision of our present system of arrangement, description, and reference. Even as we change those procedures, we will also strive for some degree of uniformity from archival institution to archival institution.

The provision of better buildings for our archives will present difficulties, because of budgetary constraints. Nevertheless, the central government has already decided to furnish the National Archives with a budding specifically designed as a records repository. That decision solves a problem of major importance, and it will no doubt have a favorable effect on our efforts to obtain new archival facilities in the provinces,

Finally, we will do something about our present training for archivists. There is an archival school at the National University of Cordoba, but it is located some 800 kilometers from Buenos Aires, where almost all of the central government's archives are deposited. Students of the archival school at Cordoba do not usually take jobs in Buenos Aires after they have graduated rather, they go to archival institutions in the north and center of the country. Like most of the people of Argentina, these new archivists are not inclined to move away from their families. They are especially deterred from settling in Buenos Aires because it is the most expensive city in South America to live in. On the other hand, agencies of the central government are reluctant to allow any of their employees to take long leaves of absence in order to enroll for training in archival administration in Cordoba. As possible solutions to this situation, we will propose intensive training courses conducted in Buenos Aires by archival experts who live there and by professors of the Cordoba archival school who will be paid to stay for some time in Buenos Aires; basic archival training by correspondence under the supervision of the archival school at Cordoba; and internships at the National Archives for students of the archival school at Cordoba. The best way to solve the problem is to create a second archival school, this one in Buenos Aires - and we will work for that objective, too.

<<TOC5>> Government policies affecting the development and growth of libraries in Southeast Asia - a discussion

OPEN FORUM

First session:	Government Policies Affecting the Development and Growth of Libraries in Southeast Asia	
Chairman	Mr. A.S. Nasution, Head, Indonesian Delegation	
Speakers	Miss Mastini Hardjo-Prakoso, Indonesia
Mr. D.E.K. Wijasuriya, Malaysia
Mr. Koh Thong Ngee, Singapore
Mrs. Amporn Punsri, Thailand
Mr. Rufo Q. Buenviaje, Philippines	
Rapporteur	Miss Leonor B. Gregorio	

Mr. Nasution: We will start exactly at five o'clock so that we can end the session at six o'clock.

Ladies and gentlemen, I think I may appeal to your sense of cooperation to make our conference a success by agreeing to a readjustment of schedule. On this program it is 4:30-5:30 open forum. We have to make it now 5:00-6:00 open forum.

The rules by which I'll try to conduct the session depends on the number of questions raised. If there are more than ten questions, the questions should be written on slips of paper and passed on to me so that I can distribute them to the various speakers. If there are less than ten, I think we will ask the honorable delegates to do it orally. Will that be all right?

May I now ask who would like to ask questions on the papers that were just presented?

Or, should we do it otherwise? Would you please write on a piece of paper the questions that you would like to ask, taking into account that you please write your name on the piece of paper and the addressee of the question--I mean to which delegate is it addressed?

We will allow five minutes for you to please write it down on this note paper?

Miss Sunio: May I direct this question to the Singapore speaker: are all libraries in Singapore under the National Library? You said you have a National Library system in Singapore. I would like to know if all the libraries in Singapore are under the National Library.

Mr. Nasution: Would the delegate from Singapore answer the question? You have three minutes.

Mr. Koh: As I recall a national library system is a system providing public library services as well as national library services to the people. We call it a system because it has got a number of libraries suitably located in the various housing estates and also it has mobile libraries serving the whole nation. The other libraries such as the libraries attached to the institutes of higher learning are not under the National Library system.

Miss Kline: I want to know how does it come that librarians in the Philippines accept without rebellion the idea-not only the idea-the practice that is in this paper, the old idea of accountability, that the librarian is financially accountable for all the books that are lost and as I understand they don't get their salary if the books are not returned. How come librarians in the Philippines are willing to work under that kind of system?

Mr. Nasution: Fortunately, this question is not addressed to me. I'll pass it on to Mr. Buenviaje.

Mr. Buenviaje: Well actually, first, it is a policy. It is a policy that involves not only librarians but all employees who are responsible for government property. And so, in so far as clearing property accountability I think it is applied uniformly whether you are a librarian, whether you are a division chief, whether as a matter of fact you are a commissioner or in whatever position in the organization. So you will have to be subject to clearance. Subjecting yourself to clearance involves certain procedures. We have to follow these procedures because without following procedures and regulations, we may not be properly cleared. If the regulations are applied, then you've got to pay, because anybody who is responsible for property must be responsible for the money value of it if he is not cleared. Clearance is given only when you have complied with the requirements. Although you have lost almost everything so long as you can justify the loss, you will be cleared. It is the Auditor-General who clears you. His decision is final and it is a decision, it is not a mere opinion. He belongs to a separate commission of the government.

Miss Kline: Does this not then bring about a condition in which librarians chain the books to the shelves, lock the glass doors and don't let the children take books home?

Mr. Buenviaje: This should not lead to a situation like that. I think all librarians are responsible enough. When you are given that responsibility, you see to it that books will not be lost. In other words you exercise some diligence and care. Now when after exercising such diligence and care you still find that you lost something then you say, "I hereby apply for relief of loss because of these reasons...." There must be a reason because without it you will be accountable.

Miss Hagger: What is the situation with regards the universities and colleges? I did not get that point in the paper. Is the situation in the universities and colleges the same in this matter of accountability?

Mr. Buenviaje: Actually I have not touched on accountability of state colleges and universities because I am not really aware of the situations therein. Still there are some regulations I think which govern property or property accountability in state-owned colleges and universities.

Mr. Nasution: Miss Feliciano?

Miss Feliciano: Property accountability only pertains to government librarians and those which are financed by government money. It does not pertain to any private or corporation library or private business library. Secondly, property accountability depends upon the book value and book value depreciates year after year. There is a pending bill which may be incorporated in the Revised Administrative Code wherein accountability will be reduced up to 15 per cent only of the book value. Does that answer your question? Thank you.

Miss Hagger: Does it cost the treasury more to implement this compulsory system than it would to write off the few hundred boots without going through all this procedure?

Mr. Buenviaje: These things cannot just be written off. There should be a good reason why this should be done. Procedure is followed to put some kind of order to the system. Understand that although we are exempted from this we cannot just be exempted. You've got to fill some forms and say, "I am exempted from this because of this regulation." Then you sign. It is just trying to put things in order. As you know the government is run on paper. Transactions must be recorded.

Mr. Nasution: May I announce that the Secretariat requests that all open forum discussants identify themselves? I agree with that.

Miss Sunio: I would like to comment on property responsibility in the state colleges. In our college we have an inventory of library books every year and we make a list of all our losses. We have not paid a single cent although we have lost many books. The President recommends to the Auditor that our reasons for losing the books are very reasonable. The Auditor goes to the Auditor-General and we are not requested to pay. So we are free from paying any losses in our library. This is the Philippine Normal College. Also when I was with the high school library we also did not pay a single cent although we lost so many books. We had so many students; our principal went to the Auditor and we were excused. It depends upon the Auditor of the office where the librarian is working.

Mr. Buenviaje: I would like to comment further on that. Of course librarians are not always asked to pay. If you go through all these formalities of exempting yourself from payment then you don't pay anything. It is just a matter of following procedures. That's why I say that even if you lose the whole library, if you can justify the loss and if they approve of it, you don't have to pay.

Mr. Hafenrichter: I would like, Mr. Chairman, if you were able to perhaps make a very rapid consensus of the speakers at Your side on this one point which touches on property accountability. I think this has relevance to the comments given by the Honorable Minister this morning when he was stating that we've got to change our methods of thinking. Our ancient methods must give way to new and renovated methods. The procedures which have this binding impact tend to hamper the end utilization which is service. If there were any discussions within any of the nations within the Southeast Asian area regarding an acceptable annual percentage of loss as revealed in an inventory, it would probably then be possible to put this forward to the government in order that government can change the regulations and convert-towards some kind of annual percentage of reasonable loss. This would do away with our picture of a librarian with keys in hand, opening the cases, putting a few books out, letting people get acquainted. And that's how we solve that, isn't it? I'd appreciate if any discussion has come to the knowledge of the delegates offering papers as they view the legal history that they've been tracing for us. Has there been any discussion, any mention, has anybody ever raised the issue? Can we convert towards some kind of acceptable, reasonable, percentage of acceptable fair wear and tear?

Mr. Nasution: Marina?

Miss Dayrit: In the University of the Philippines, we have convinced the authorities that 3 per cent of the' circulation figures are acceptable losses. So we have never paid for any lost books in the University, although we go through the process of inventory as required by the Administrative Code. I think that 3 per cent of the circulation figures which amounts to around two million in our library is a big percentage.

Mr. Nasution: I think that we have discussed this matter from all aspects. The honorable delegate from the United States has put forward a very useful proposal to collect an annual percentage of lost books--acceptable losses--so that it can be put forward to the government to change the regulations. I think that is good. In our country, in Indonesia, it is almost the same as the Philippines in regard to old books, torn-out and worn-out books.

Mr. Chan: May I make further comment regarding this accountability. I think this patient has been looked at by each country itself. For example, in the National Library of Singapore, we are not required to do stock taking every year. It is not a procedure of our library system. And certainly I think if you are going to put a percentage you are going to restrict the library.

Mrs. Lim: Can Miss Mastini please tell us about her concept proposal for a future National Library of Indonesia?

Miss Mastini: It's a long story. I have a concept proposal to the government and the government has already nominated in 1961 the three libraries--I have it in my paper--that will be the nucleus of the National Library. Those are the Central Museum Library, the Library of Social and Political History, and the Office of the National Bibliography. The three nucleus fortunately are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Education, but in my proposal it would be ideal if the National Library will be directly under the State Secretariat like the National Archives of Indonesia, because if it is under the Department of Education and Culture the budget will be very restricted. So in my proposal, if the government agrees, the coming National Library of Indonesia will be under the State Secretariat. My concept proposal is firstly on the status of the national library. The second concept proposal is concerning the structure of the national library. I am doing this.

Mr. Nasution: This paper has no identification. "To any speaker: is there a need for Coordinated action on legal provisions for libraries in Southeast Asia?"

Mr. Wijasuriya: In my own view, no, simply because legal provision is essentially a national consideration, not regional.

Mr. Nasution: "To each speaker: are you satisfied with legal provisions you described? Mention the most important provisions still needed." Unidentified. Because it is to each speaker, I will ask you to answer.

Miss Mastini: Indonesia doesn't have a legal deposit law. And are you satisfied with legal provisions you described? I didn't describe it yet. (LAUGHTER)

Mr. Wijasuriya: I wish I could handle it in the same way., No, I don't think we are satisfied with the legal provisions we described. I think there is very much more to be done. But I hesitate to make any clever announcements at this stage.

Mr. Koh: In Singapore we have the provision for the deposit of books to the printers and publishers. The law requires that the publishers deposit five copies. Sometimes this could be very expensive for the publishers of multivolume works, but I still think that for the National Library and the two university libraries--of course, from the point of view of the libraries-.I think we are satisfied with it.
Now as for the most important provisions still needed, as I mentioned in my paper, we have a national library law but the law is not so enacted as to make it compulsory. It only regulates the activities and responsibilities of the National Library, but it does not make it compulsory for the other libraries to be brought under this national library act. But at the moment I cannot feel too strongly about whether we should bring all the libraries under this act. That is kind of difficult.

Mrs. Amporn: No, we don't have the legal provision, but we need to have, too.

Mr. Buenviaje: Well, actually the question here is, "Are you satisfied with the legal provisions that you described? Mention the most important provision still needed." Actually there are so many, I think. For one, the accountability of property. I think there should be more explicit regulations. So probably we have to make a study of what the practice is, say, in state universities which should be applied to all state universities; probably those that are now in force may have to be modified. For example, prices stated here are way back in 1958 so some sort of adjustment should be made. And also policies on government publications, for example. In this country we do not yet have a unified system of publication of government publications. There is a central government printer but actually this printer cannot print all government publications. We probably should have some kind of an office which deals with selling government publications aside and apart from the printing and publishing process. I think also there are some--these are of course personal opinions. There must, I think, be a more coordinated program for libraries in at least the government sector. As I have described, each of these libraries are under each different office so the only seeming tie-up between all of these government offices is the submission Of requisitions to the National Library, which is sometimes not enforced strictly, so probably this has to be more strictly enforced. Those are some of the things I have at the moment.

Mr. Nasution: This question is addressed to Mrs. Amporn Punsri from Thailand. "Table on Page 3: the class of positions is attractive. Is it successfully applied and give reasonable benefit to the librarian? Please tell us frankly." From Mrs. Hadian of Indonesia.

Mrs. Amporn: For the table on page 3, you ask about the benefit of the librarian. But I think as for the cost of living in Thailand--the salary scale here is all in baht, about 3 baht for 1 peso. I think it is not successful because the salary is so low. We need more salary than this for the cost of living now.

Mrs. Hadian: It is not successfully applied yet?

Mrs. Amporn: No.

Mrs. Hadian: Thank you.

Mr. Nasution: This is not a question, but a message from Mr. Rompas of Indonesia: "I wonder if all speakers have already the same definition and interpretation about the National Library. What does it mean, how is it organized, and how does it function. If we don't have the same meaning, I think we have to make it clear first." And then follows a message from Miss Yolanda Beh, SEAMEO Regional English Language Centre. Would you please come forward and read the message?

Miss Beh: I thought you didn't want us to do that. (LAUGHTER) It is simply this: this report where we mention the RELC Library and Information Centre.

Mr. Nasution: So far we have run out of written questions. Any oral question? Mr. Ward from Unesco?

Mr. Ward: I typed this for CONSAL. I submitted this a long time ago.

Mr. Nasution: This is another tough question to be answered and unfortunately to me English is always without tears.

Recently the President has decreed that 66,000 primary schools throughout the country will get each a set of a hundred books. That project has to be finished in actually three months, but we managed to make it six months. Now, there are these problems to that very good decree of the President. No single title of Indonesian books has been published in copies of more than 5,000. To be frank about that, no division of the Department of Education and Culture has yet managed to collect an exact statistics of the number of primary schools. That is because the local populations always manage to establish primary schools on their own. The average number--they put it at 66,000 - - but I am more inclined to say that it is close to 80,000. Because as in the case of Central Borneo and Central Kalimantan, the statistics say 950, reality says 1,500 or a difference of 550. The third main problem, where can we get the paper in order to be able to print a hundred titles of 66,000 copies. I think we need about 700-800 tons of printing paper.

If you manage to overcome all these difficulties there is still the problem of how to distribute them. Where will be the terminal point of distribution? If the books are not in sets and we ask the publishers to publish the books and then send them on to the district heads in the provinces, do the district heads have the mechanism to put all the titles into sets and then send them on to schools? Because if we have to put the books into sets in Jakarta, there will arise the problem of go-downs, personnel, and then shipment. Fortunately or unfortunately, I may say I have been assigned to make the project a success. I have already told them frankly if we succeed only 50 per cent, we may be lucky. It will be my first job once I am back in Jakarta, to collect the team and then discuss the problems that will surely arise. Not that they may arise, but that surely will arise. In this case I ask for your prayers, not for your congratulations. Thank you very much, Mr. Ward.

Mr. Ward: Will you tell me how much money is involved?

Mr. Nasution: Actually that is one aspect that I haven't mentioned yet. It is 150 rupiahs per book which is about half the average price of books in Indonesia. Also that side has to be solved first. How to get an average price of 150 rupiahs for each book for this project. Maybe by lowering the number of average pages or by lowering the physical standard--I mean--not the standard printing paper, but we call it in Indonesia hahai-I don't know how it is called in English, it's Dutch, hahai--maybe Mr. Van Kuyk can translate that to me.

Mr. Van Kuyk: I don't know myself. I've not met the word.

Mr. Nasution: Huitfrei. Newsprint--I think that's it. Because I'm not a technician to know all the details, I'm sorry.

Father Suchan: Mr. Chairman, I've been working in the Philippines trying to promote children's books for a home library. I find that I think that although you have a big job you have a blessing in that the government is behind the program of distributing books to schools. We have 40,000 elementary schools in the Philippines and by law each one of them is to have a library. And in fact--we are not quite sure of the facts--but we know a great majority of them, at least a majority, do not have a library. And so when we put our heads together and try to solve this problem, it often seems that the government would do something very good if they would put out a decree such as this. But we don't know how you got that decree. Tell us please, what did you tell them to get that decree? To my mind it's wonderful and I'd like to work on one like it.

Mr. Nasution: I think I have to answer that modestly because I didn't do it. All we did was to get the President make a speech during International Book Year and he did it and we managed some way because of the cooperation of the State Secretariat to include books for the common man". And then another division of the department put a proposal forward so there was some money left out of the last year of International Book Year. It was money from the State Oil Company, I think. I am not sure. The President decided that it be used to build 6,000 schools and establish a library of 100 books in all primary schools, private- and government-owned without any discrimination, which number around 70,000 or 75,000 schools. All I can say once more is we hope we manage because if we don't manage we will not get the same sympathy again next year. Because the idea is once we start with 100 books and go on each year for maintenance and growth, and I am sure too of course as Miss Mastini said just now in number of titles produced annually, I may say without hesitation that according to the statistics we may be one of the lowest countries in the world, but this decision of the government will I hope improve the position of the private printing enterprises, because we have decided that all the books to be bought from this money should be books published by private enterprises. This time we will not include government publications.

Miss Luwarsih: This gathering seems to love to discuss about law so I put one more question about that. One read with interest the paper of Mr. Wijasuriya which said here, on page 3, that in Sarawak and Sabah, even without the back-up of law, the service seems to go much better than in the other provinces provided or backed with law. Would you please try to tell us, Mr. Wijasuriya, the reasons or probable historical background why it works better there in Sabah and Sarawak?

Mr. Wijasuriya: Yes, thank you, Miss Luwarsih. It is really a question that is rather difficult to answer. This is the fact of the situation, true, that libraries in Sabah and Sarawak seem to have got ahead despite the fact that there is no legislative provision and as far as I am able to determine at this stage, they have no intention of considering any such legislation for some time. Now, this does not necessarily imply that we should abandon our efforts towards legislation in the other states. I have really not been able to determine at this stage what has been the real reason for this. I think it is clearly an area of far more detailed investigation before any kind of pronouncements can be made. I think what I would like to stress here despite this illogicality is that we need not just to go into legislation to give us the legislative base before we start our endeavours in this sector, but to go far beyond that, and not to assume that merely with the passing of legislative enactments we have completed the exercise. Really we have only begun. And this is really the point I was trying to make out. And this seeming illogicality should not be seen as a reason to abandon the legislative provision and forge ahead with library development. I would rather not advise that.

I know I didn't answer your question, but I don't know the answer myself.

Miss Luwarsih: Thank you.

Miss Sharifah: Mr. Chairman, I think it was more or less an historical reason why they are now where they are, because while they were under the British they were very much more well established than when the British left Peninsula Malaysia for instance. So we are just starting when they have gone that far on their own before they got their independence.

Mr. Wijasuriya: Well, the historical background certainly plays a part, but I of course don't wish to discuss this issue myself, because I feel that it is an area that needs to be studied in greater detail. Certainly the historical background Counts, and the British have done a lot in Sabah and Sarawak and the same did not take place in Peninsula Malaysia. This is a factor quite definitely, but I would hesitate to put this as the total situation.

Mr. Nasution: The lady from Malaysia, please?

Mrs. Nadarajah: I would like to pose a question to the delegate from Thailand. I refer to page 3, the second table on page 3 and the last column-which is indicated as ,remarks", where you state there are two categories of university librarians and the university librarian in fact is an instructor gets a salary scale which is well and above a university librarian who is purely a university librarian without teaching responsibility. It appears to me that there are tremendous benefits to be derived if a university librarian decides to establish a library school within the university and by that gain a tremendous increase in salary scale. I would like to ask not only from you but also from the other Thai delegates here to what extent is this really desirable?

Mrs. Amporn: Miss Suthilak, will you please answer the question?

Miss Suthilak: Could you repeat your question?

Mrs. Nadarajah: (Repeats the question.)

Miss Suthilak: So you mean, if we are satisfied with the salary scale here if we are lecturers and librarians? We are not satisfied with it. We do not want to hold both positions.

Mr. Nasution: The chief delegate from Thailand.

Mrs. Maenmas: Mr. Chairman, may I answer this rather awkward situation. We are not satisfied. And I think we are somehow, in trying to improve the status and get satisfactory, we get caught in our own trap and we are now trying to find out how we are going to get out of it. It's really a very long story and I think perhaps within these--I think perhaps that because teaching status, teaching staff is considered a little bit higher than regular civil servant and this just happened not so many years ago. Of course this creates some rather difficult situations. In many university libraries there is no such position as a librarian proper. Usually the teaching staff will carry both functions. It is only with some new universities now that they start separating and in starting to separate the teaching staff of the library school will carry academic status with some benefits also. The librarians would be under civil service. You see the teaching staff would be under university authority. There are two authorities. Many of the librarians would rather 'be in the teaching staff and carry the teaching load as well. So I think in actual practice as far as I remember there is not even one librarian under civil service. Most of them are teaching staff, carrying two functions. This, as said here, I don't think satisfied anybody.

Do I answer your question? Thank you very much.

Mr. Nasution: I think it is now six o'clock. We have accomplished our mission so far as the	hour is concerned. May I thank you for your tolerance and may I ask your excuse for any shortcomings in the way I chaired this session. Thank you very much.

<<TOC4>> 3.3 Constraints on planning: the local administration

<<TOC5>> The Library and the Political Processes

PHYLLIS I. DALTON

The success of a library administrator depends largely upon an understanding of and an ability to operate within the context of the political process. Library administrators have, in many instances, held themselves aloof from politics, ignoring political reality and thus allowing the political aspects of library service to be handled elsewhere. In the second half of this century, and especially within the last decade, it has become evident that this attitude has cost public libraries severely, in both status and financial capability. A failure to understand and utilize political processes has resulted in the lack of needed legislation and adequate tax support for public libraries.

Because political processes are not restricted to any particular size of jurisdiction, type of library, organizational structure, economic situation, or thrust of library service, all library administrators will be successful to the extent that they can cope within the political milieu. Politics involves influence and the influential. A major skill in working in the political process is advocacy. But first there must be an understanding of the political process itself-how libraries are organized in terms of other governmental functions, relationships of library administrators with government leaders, responsibility for policy making, and intergovernment relations.

Governmental Organizations

Nationwide, many types of governmental organizations exist at the local library level, Regardless of the type of organization in which the public library functions, its administrator is involved in policy making, problem solving, and coping with hard decisions involving substantive issues of policy and programs. All of these responsibilities can be successfully carried out through whatever governmental organization exists. Libraries are subject to different systems of governance, One system is the board. There may be an appointed administrative or advisory board at one level. At another level there are elected or appointed boards such as the city council, the public library district boards or school district public library boards, all of which represent political jurisdictions. At a third level, the librarian's responsibility is to an administrator in a larger department or to the city manager. The most common organizational patterns at the local level are described below.

Administrative Boards

Administrative boards are groups responsible for managing departments and agencies within a local jurisdiction. They have the authority to set policy, The members (trustees) are appointed, usually by either the local legislative body or the chief elected official. The board is directly responsible to the appointing authority for the administration of the library and advises that body or person on matters of library policy as defined by the appointing authority. The board submits an annual budget to the appointing authority but usually does not have the authority to set tax rates. Most boards have the authority to employ and to dismiss the library administrator, to whom it delegates such authority and responsibility as it considers appropriate. Other library employees may be responsible to the board or to a separate personnel board with responsibility for the library or for several agencies. The administrative board controls library use, regulations, and, generally, book-selection policy. In most cases the administrative board's powers are established in state library law, in the municipal charter, or in some other "constitution" that establishes and regulates the local government agency. A general stability is provided as these laws and charters are not readily changed.

Advisory Boards

The members of an advisory board have lesser powers than those of an administrative board. Usually advisory boards are established by ordinance or resolution, with the consequence that the authority and even the existence of such advisory boards can be challenged with ease The method of selecting members of advisory boards is usually similar to that for administrative boards. Often the responsibility of advisory boards is limited to acting in an advisory capacity to the legislative body, to the library administrator, to the chief administrative officer, or to any combination of these groups, and on any matter that the legislative body may direct. The library is administered in a manner similar to that of any other local department, with the library administrator directly responsible to the legislative body or an appointed official for administrative matters.

Public Library District Boards

These special districts may or may not have boundaries identical with other political jurisdictions. The members of public library district boards are often elected but sometimes are appointed. If elected, the board members usually have an administrative responsibility. In this case, they generally can levy a tax for the support of the library. If the members are appointed, the board prepares the budget and has general advisory powers regarding library service but does not have a tax-levying power.

School District Public Library Boards

The school board, elected to manage a school district may also be empowered to administer public libraries. In some cases school board members are also the public library board members for the district. In other instances, the elected school board members appoint a public library board for the district The elected officials can levy a tax for the support of the public library. The public library board is responsible for the library operation and appoints the public library director.

City Council or County Board

In some instances, the public library may be controlled more or less directly by the city council or county board. In this form of organization, the elected members usually divide the responsibility for the various municipal or county departments among themselves. Thus, one member will serve as a liaison with the library and the library administrator. The council maintains tax-levying authority and budgeting control and is responsible for making policies and regulations pertaining to the public library, often on the recommendation of the public library administrator.

City Manager

The city manager is the chief administrator for all municipal departments under the council-manager form of government. In this form of government, the library administrator is responsible to the city manager, an official employed by the city council. The public library administrator has direct access to the city manager, as do the other department heads. The library operates directly under the city manager or a delegated deputy.

Library as a Subdivision of Another Department

A variation of the pattern of governance in which the library director is responsible to another administrator occurs when the library is a subdivision of another department. Examples include those in which the library is combined with a city department such as parks and recreation or cultural affairs. A public library administrator can operate an effective library service as a subdivision of a larger department, but such a governmental structure complicates the political process. The public library administrator must compete with other programs within the department for priority and funds. Resistance to such combinations of departments is common because the disadvantages usually seem to outweigh the advantages. It must be noted, however, that various combinations do seem to operate with comparative success as long as the public library administrator is adept both as a manager and as a developer,

Regional Jurisdictions, Library Systems, and Networks

The broadening roles of state and federal governments have given encouragement to the creation of regional jurisdictions for planning, and service. Many types of regional libraries, library systems, and networks have developed as a result of this trend. There are even cases of interstate cooperation. The regional cooperative or regional library may operate under its own board or may be a part of the multipurpose planning agencies that have been formed in the Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas throughout the several states. Some of the libraries have a strongly structured regional organization with a board of trustees and/ or a professional library board. The governing board appoints the administrator and operates the library organization, but it usually does not have tax-levying power. In other library systems, the chairman of the professional board acts in an administrative capacity.

The Legal Basis for Library Administration

Charters, statutes, ordinances, resolutions, and,' or other acts of legislative bodies establish the legal basis for most libraries. Executive orders and judicial decisions often serve to interpret and/or modify these legal provisions. Awareness of the "basis in law" under which the library operates is of high priority for administrators. They must determine the source and nature of authority provided, It may be that the administrator will find that the authority is based as much in tradition as in law. In many instances, much authority, or lack thereof, is the result of the use of the delegatory powers of superiors in the hierarchy

It is important to understand that the legal basis for administration Is not static. Rather it is continually evolving as a result of many forces. Social stresses, environmental changes, political forces, economic conditions, and legal interpretations create pressures that result in news laws, regulations, and judicial decisions. In most cases, however, change of laws lags behind rather than precedes needed changes in our social institutions. Knowledge of the law and accompanying regulations that concern public libraries in any given circumstance need not inhibit the development of creative programs of service designed to meet current needs. Legal provisions should be interpreted in terms of what they allow the library administrator to do rather than being used and viewed as limiting. Should the laws appear to be restrictive, the library administrator has the obligation of bringing this to the attention of the proper officials and seeking remedial legislation.

Role of the Administrator in Government

For any public library administrator to be on the edge of the political processes in our special-interest society is never really a safe position. Library administrators, like other public administrators, are forced to play the role of politician effectively. To a large degree, success for the library will be determined by the relationships its administrator maintains with the local political power structure.

Active participation in the political processes has not been a characteristic of public library administrators in many instances. The paucity of services and facilities. the poverty of library resources that stifle progress in many communities now are the results of the isolation of the public library administrator within the government Participation in governmental affairs does have its hazards as well as its rewards. For this reason, many administrators have preferred to remain on the edge of the political process rather than risk public crisicism, pressure from other government officials, adverse publicity including critical "letters to the editor," and the possible loss of position.

While no library administrator should pursue a cause without good mason, it is doubtful that most communities are best served by such timidity By avoiding action that might bring criticism or pressure from certain factions, the library administrator may be missing a crucial opportunity to increase public support by better acquainting the community with the library's objectives and programs. By taking advantage of such opportunities, the administrator's counterparts in government frequently gain additional leverage for their departmental programs. Sound library management directed to supplying services and resources needed by the community requires participation in the political processes regardless of the risks involved.

It must be recognized that the public library administrator is both a political manager in the governmental structure and a creative developer of library services. To facilitate these responsibilities, a substantial portion of time must be spent in developing effective relations with superiors and coworkers in government. The actions of all department heads, including planners, finance directors, personnel administrators, intergovernmental representatives, city and county administrators, and others, both elected and appointed, have a direct effect upon the library as an agency in the total organizational pattern. For example, land use becomes important in planning services, in shifting the emphasis of kinds of service being provided, and in planning buildings, A good public transportation system facilitates the use of public library services. Public Order and safety are related to both the planning and the operation of the building. Both the public health and personnel departments are important to the well-being and development of staff and, as a result, have a definite effect on library service to the community.

Disinterest in interagency and departmental jealousies and a freedom from fear of loss of power and prestige will follow the realization that personal emotions do not have a place in the political processes. A public administrator will know that success is gained through accurate communications that flow from top levels of governmental organization to the lower-level members of the agencey to obtain effective delivery of library services, commitment to organizational goals, and objectives of the library service.

Within the political processes, the public library administrator realizes and communicates the capacity for choice that exists within the overall government for the delivery of library service. There must be an ability to cope effectively with the problems at all levels, as well as interpersonal trust for assisting the library in developing an effective and built-in capacity to change.

As part of a political sense, the chief administrator must develop a sensitivity to which role-that of manager or developer-is foremost at any given time. Although both roles are compatible, at times as manager the administrator will be required to modify plans that are desirable from the perspective of a developer. For example, even though a proposed service is needed, wanted, and practical such a service may not be economical from a cost-benefit point of view. It will be necessary for the director to make the hard decision concerning which course should be followed. In the process of considering working with other libraries on a cooperative basis, a conflict can easily occur between the manager and the developer roles. As a manager of a successful library operation, the administrator may see risk in cooperation with its attendant problems. On the other hand, cooperating would probably promote development of improved services.

Constant changes will occur, and the public library director must never be caught unaware of any information pertinent to the roles of manager and developer. The chief librarian must keep up to date on such diverse subjects as copyright, revenue sharing, appropriations prospects for any level of government, and should also acquire an ability to identify the trends that will prove most helpful. Probably the most important aspect of current knowledge is an ability to forecast trends. With this ability, the administrator can plan for financial stability for services, take advantage of new funding for experimental programs, and respond positively to the library needs of the people before they are formally expressed. If the administrator is secure in a position that has favorable status in relation to other department heads-for example, the director of finance, the director of public works, and the planning director--effective communications about present needs and future requirements will flow freely among departments.

Intergovernmental Relations

Intergovernmental relationships (regional, state, or federal) are probably more significant than city, county, or local-regional relations, if less well understood. Intergovernmental relationships require the administrator to provide operations and services that function on a broader geographical and organizational base, since state and federal governments may decentralize programs through regional and local outlets. Since few public library directors have had the training or experience to design and manage systems and networks involving all levels of government, there is a need to understand the significance of such involvement. While library administrators may be responsive to the needs of intergovernmental structures, questions remain about whether they are ready to respond.

Depending on the particular library involved, the administrator must anticipate a growing involvement with all levels of government. An appreciation of the roles of each and of the nuances of the political processes involved is necessary. Moreover, the head librarian must be aware of the relationship of the local library with each of these levels of government.

The library administrator should explore and participate in intergovernmental relationships at whatever level is desirable and practical. The decision to participate will be made on the basis of what is best for the library and its services to the community, and on the nature of the larger unit that will result from the new involvement. Community involvement is a means of overcoming obstacles to change and to intergovernmental relations. Without community involvement, shortcomings in budget and staff may keep the administrator so preoccupied with daily operations that keeping pace with needed changes and anticipating change is impossible.

Justification for local control rests on a belief in divided political powers. In the melding of libraries into intergovernmental organization, the local units must first be very strong, well organized, and effective. If such is not the case, an intergovernmental organization will be made up of weak and ineffective library units. It is essential in the urban areas of the nation that coordinated planning of facilities and activities by local governments become a joint program of comprehensive planning.

Councils of regional government are now found in most urban areas of the United States. Although they differ significantly in organization and activities, there are common characteristics: (1) they are voluntary associations of local government organized to deal with problems that are regional in scope and require regional solutions; (2) most have a degree of comprehensive planning responsibility (3) many were formed when the federal government made such coordinated planning a condition for receipt of grant funds; and (4) some may be strengthened by state participation in council membership.

Regionalization of libraries may be an idea whose time has come. A regionalism of local governments-including libraries-divides responsibilities for local and regional functions, assigns these to appropriate governmental levels, and shares functions that are logically (or practically) cooperative. The public library director should be aware of the politics of regional organization, for any form of regional planning will have an effect on library services. Regional government, in many political and administrative forms, already exists. The critical question is, Who shall control regional library activities: local, regional, state, or federal government?

Regional library services have become realities, with or without formal regional councils. Public libraries have handled federal, state, and local library funds to set up integrated cooperative library systems, Some have moved toward regional systems of multitype libraries, to interstate library cooperation, and on to the national network of the future. But even without regional applications there must be a broader outcome.

Few local library administrators are adequately sensitive to the intergovernmental process to manage within this larger and more diverse system, Lacking educational background in and formal experience with the problems of interjurisidictional political processes, the director will need formal education in these processes. In any event, the director must keep abreast of intergovernmental relationships at the various levels.

In so doing the director may learn that other agency departments have already developed useful ties with related urban departments and to their counterparts in city, county, federal, and state departments. For example, it may be more beneficial to use resources developed by local planning agencies for a library community study than to use the less-helpful upper-level agencies listed in more general handbooks or directories. Elected officials in most local governments maintain regular contacts with representatives at the state and national levels and frequently hold informal meetings with such representatives to express local concerns and interests. The library administrator should seek to be included in such meetings, stressing the role of the public library as a line of communication externally, with the public, and internally, as a legislative and executive reference bureau.

With increasing frequency, the local library director is called upon to assist in state and federal legislative efforts affecting libraries. It is, therefore, imperative that the local administrator make every effort to understand the viewpoints and positions of state and federal officials elected to represent his area and to cultivate communications on a first-name basis when suitable.

To be effective in dealing with state and federal official;. the administrator must ensure that partisan politics does not enter into the relationship unless, because of funding or special rules regarding partisan political activities, such a restraint applies only to the work-oriented situation. The library administrator will, of course, vote at the polls according to desires and beliefs. Judgment should govern the personal activities of the library administrator in partisan politics and in nonpolitical civil rights activities. The realities of the political processes require the chief librarian on the local level to retain an impartial stance regardless of the whims and vagaries of partisan politics and the elections that climax their activities. For the local library administrator, the right to exercise partisan and civil rights beliefs remains an essential right of civil liberty. It must, however, continue to be tempered by political reality.

Policy Making

A clear understanding of how the library administrator participates in policy making is prerequisite to successful management of library services. Some of the most serious instances of maladministration have occurred because of failure to understand and/or to observe the relationship of the administrator to policy making. The library administrator is an appointed official and, like those in most other appointed positions, is directly responsible for carrying out the policies established by elected officials. Confusion sometimes results because elected officials delegate the power of policy making to those they have appointed to membership on boards and commissions.

The theory of the separation of powers established in the Constitution and reaffirmed in state constitutions and the charters and statutes providing for local government is clear. The legislative prerogative-the power to create policies--is reserved for those who are elected to legislative offices. While they may delegate the responsibility for policy in certain instances to appointive bodies, the latter retain a legislative rather than an executive or administrative function.

The public library administrator is empowered to implement policies established by the legislative body to which the library is responsible, but not to create those policies. Such a separation of powers would appear to be clear-cut and unmistakable In practice such is not the case. Local public administrators do become involved in policy matters unavoidably. This occurs for at least two reasons: (1) legislative bodies require accurate information from administrators, which often requires those administrators to submit solutions to current problems in the form of proposed policies or amendments to existing policies and (2) policies approved by the legislative bodies are often so broad or open to interpretation that implementation by the administrator necessitates the formulation of regulations that in effect may actually be policies.

There should be no question that legislative bodies have sole authority to create policies, and executives or administrators to determine regulations for implementation; but in practice clear distinctions can not always be drawn. An interpretation of a policy that an administrator must make may itself be a new policy. As administrators must sometimes make decisions rapidly, it is inevitable that they sometimes must create a policy and justify it later on. However, administrative policy making is caused by a lack of understanding as to what constitutes a policy and what is a regulation. Policy is often involved when a question of direction or purpose arises. A policy may be defined as a settled course that is adopted and followed by government, an organization, or informed individuals. Such a definition, however. does not take into account the new policies that must be formed to accommodate the changing situations. A regulation is a rule developed by the administration to carry out the policy that has been established. Its authority rests in the policy decision and in the library administrator's full administrative control within the library to carry out policy decisions through rules and regulations.

Because most legislators have limited time and little expertise in library matters, library administrators are often asked to formulate policies or amendments to existing policies for legislative consideration. This responsibility must never be construed to be a delegation of authority to approve policy, however. A recommended policy should be carefully written to embody philosophical concepts in clear terminology that later can be translated into workable regulations. Suggested statements may be solicited directly by a member of the local legislative body or by an executive responsible to such a group. Channels of communication should be carefully observed during this process to maintain good relations between the executive and the legislative branches.

In preparing regulations by which policies are to be implemented, the public library administrator must observe the philosophic concepts and intent of the policy to avoid misinterpretation. Also, the administrator should make sure that the regulations do not exceed the scope of the policy and thereby create ipso facto new policy. At this point, many grievous errors could occur to plague the library administrator. If an effort to implement policy turns up deficiencies in the legislation, the administrator has the obligation to request revision of the provisions by the legislative body.

There is, of course, another side to policy making and implementation. This is the more informal side and applies to day-to-day administration. The chief librarian is recognized as a capable individual who has been employed to lead the development of library service--one who is knowledgeable about present programs and policies in library service and who has the capacity to institute change. The service that the library delivers to the public will have an impact on society, so the administrator has a social as well as managerial responsibility. As a manager, the public library administrator works with counterparts in the larger organization, with elected and appointed officials, as well as with the library staff. The administrator should not rely solely on external criteria such as statutes and regulations to guide action but rather must resolve issues on a person-to-person level. The library administrator will by experience acquire and provide continuity, as elected officials move in and out, and the ability to manage with enlightened intelligence.

Administrative Procedures and Techniques

The ability of the public library administrator to communicate accurately and effectively with all is essential to the performance of duties and responsibilities. Timely feedback to others who are responsible for any segment of the service program is vital. It is advantageous for an administrator to provide for simultaneous observation and presentation. Such a program of communications, which involves aggressive planning and delegation of responsibilities, is vital to successful management. In communications, especially to those unfamiliar with the terminology of librarians, care should be taken by the library administrator to relate unfamiliar concepts and terminology to the context of the personal and professional lives of the participants. Time in communication is as important as every other aspect of the administrator's work.

Communications form an intrinsic part of meetings. In some instances the public library administrator will be an observing member of a meeting; in others, a participating member or the leader of the group. Although adherence to a program should be maintained during a meeting, occasions will arise when the administrator will realize that associated objectives will allow sufficient flexibility to permit the participants to consider particular needs as they emerge in discussion. The public library administrator serving as a group leader should know the goal of the meeting and be committed to the objectives stated in the call for the meeting.

The public library administrator also serves in a resource capacity to elected policy makers. The administrator should be prepared to provide the answers to questions concerning library services and their relationships to resources and economics involved in funding, The administrator should be well-versed in national library policies and programs and be able to interpret the need for library service policies as determined by the governing board, The library manager can then develop them along with the staff, who function as technical assistants and managerial advisors. In the political processes, the public library director will assume the resource role with service clubs and other community groups participating in informal discussions when new plans are being proposed either by the library administration or by the community. It is incumbent upon the library administrator to institute change and to keep pace with change through continuing education.

Position Papers

One of the most useful techniques the administrator can master is that of preparing position papers. Clear, concise, and well-reasoned statements that set forth the reasons for a particular viewpoint on a course of action are often required so as to encourage movement in a given direction, Such a statement should begin with a carefully worded declaration of the matter at hand, followed by a succinct analysis of various alternatives. The alternative or alternatives chosen for support are then stated, with advantages appropriately detailed.

Position papers, when properly prepared, often carry much weight among those who must make policy decisions because the issues involved are worked out and a solution is presented with the supporting evidence. The preparation of a position paper provides the administrator the opportunity to study a given problem in depth, to explore various alternatives, and to arrive at a solution that can be supported by substantial data. In addition, the administrator can detail facts and utilize language in a more accurate manner than may be possible in a simple discussion or debate when time is a limiting factor.

Reports

As a part of participation in the political processes. the library administrator may be required to submit reports on a variety of subjects. Regardless of content, certain rules apply that result in clear and concise exposition. The purpose of a report should be clearly stated at the beginning, with a well-defined statement of scope and any other limiting or explanatory factors. Data should be developed in a logical and progressive manner; frequently such a presentation is made more orderly through the use of headings and subheadings. Conclusions and recommendations derived from the data must be stated in language that is free of ambiguity. Where a plan of implementation is required, it should be designed around a framework that is logical and precise. A lengthy report may begin with an abstract and conclusions and/ or recommendations. While the length of many reports exceeds that justified by the subject matter, others by their unnecessary brevity fail to provide a sufficient data base and/or explanation of conclusions and recommendations. Reports frequently fail to hold the attention of the reader because the writer has not mastered the elements of word usage, sentence structure, and syntax. Accuracy in word usage can be improved dramatically by courses in report writing and through practice.

Reports of group meetings are also a necessary part of the work of the administrator. Minutes of the meeting should be handled by recordings, stenotypists, taping, or shorthand notes. The duty of the administrator should be that of preparing a report that summarizes the action taken by the group. Extreme care should be taken to include the sense of the discussion and decisions. Motions passed by the organization should be conveyed with absolute accuracy. Words chosen must express the meaning of the participants. Failure to accurately reflect the viewpoints of the speaker or the intent of the motions and actions is not only a disservice but also may precipitate complaints of bias.

Agendas

Just as the political processes inevitably involve meetings, so the orderly conduct of meetings requires agendas. Political bodies and many other organizations have a predetermined format for their agendas established by law or tradition. Less formally organized groups-particularly those that represent citizen action groups, special interest committees, and the like-are apt to be more informal in the conduct of meetings.

The library administrator should have the opportunity to construct an agenda or to develop its design. It is important, therefore, to recognize the fact that an agenda plays an important part in the political process. Agenda items should reflect logical progression from one subject to another. If the items bear no such relationship, then care should be taken to place Items where they are most apt to receive considered discussion. For example, placing an item with high public interest at the end of a long agenda may be a disservice to those with deep concern for the item.

Great care should be taken in wording agenda items. The wording should be concise and yet carry the full sense of the intended presentation or discussion. For instance, listing as an agenda item "Library plans" has much less merit than a slightly longer but more explanatory "Plans for a library outlet to be located in the southeastern portion of the city."

In many cases, when submitting an item to a body for inclusion on a forthcoming agenda, the library administrator should indicate a preference for the position of the item on the agenda. Like-wise, it is often wise to submit in advance copies of any position paper, report or other supporting data that may be useful in the consideration of the item. An inquiry to the official responsible will indicate the procedure to be used and the number of copies required. Many political bodies close their agendas to new items several days before their meetings, and it behooves the library director to know and abide by such deadlines. Attempts to force items onto agendas after the deadline sometimes are construed as moves to push decisions through without proper consideration, thus creating resentment on the part of public officials.

Parliamentary Procedure

The library director must have a thorough grasp of parliamentary procedure in terms of principles as well as actual rules. Contrary to the belief that such rules impose limitations and impede action, parliamentary procedure, when properly understood and employed, provides the logical structure within which the discussion leading to action can best be directed. Many local library administrators will be working with organizations that con duct meetings in accordance with a particular system of parliamentary law. An administrator who understands this procedure can be much more effective in the deliberations than one who does not.

Public Speaking

The library administrator must be active in the political processes as an effective speaker and discussion participant. The ability to express ideas and data convincingly in an oral presentation or as a part of a discussion is often paramount to success in the political processes..

The director will frequently be in a position to serve as a discussion leader. This role requires some of the skills of the presiding officer. The ability to encourage participation, to lead without dominating, to keep discussion focused on a particular issue, and to summarize and interrelate discussion can be acquired through training and experience.

The Power Structure

A power structure exists in every community regardless of size. The library administrator must become thoroughly acquainted with the power structure of the community if success in the political processes is to be attained. Administrators who are not politically aware often assume that those in authority in the community-most often those elected to office or appointed to the most prestigious positions-compose this elite group. But this is not necessarily true. Many of the most powerful people in any community have never held an elective or appointive office and have seldom had their names appear in the press. Sometimes they are very wealthy citizens; often, but not always, they represent families of long standing in the community. Not all, of course, maintain such anonymity, but the attainment of a highly visible role in community affairs does not necessarily denote one who possesses great political power. The reason that it is important for administrators and policy makers alike to become acquainted with the most influential members of a community is that some of them will prove supportive. The power structure in a community is seldom monolithic. The larger the community, the less likely will influentials have a single outlook. For the influentials will tend to organize around issues and a larger community must resolve issues that are more complicated.

The library director must learn the power structure through attendance at meetings, perceptive observations, and conversations with informed leaders. In large communities, it is not uncommon to find that more than one such group exists. By tacit arrangement, each group maintains its position in a particular field of interest Usually there is sufficient multiplicity of interests to prevent the groups from being mutually exclusive.

The power structure is a dynamic arrangement of individuals and is, therefore, subject to continuous change. The most influential member may, for a variety of reasons, be replaced by another. The administrator must develop a sensitivity to such change. More often than not, a few individuals hold the key to the support required for approval of a new library program and the increase in funding required. While working with the power structure does not necessarily guarantee success, failure is much more frequent when this simple fact of the political processes is ignored.

The Community

A complaint is frequently voiced about the communications gap between community residents and the local government. A similar problem can exist between the residents and the public library administrator as well. Residents may believe that problems of major concern are not explicitly stated by those who attempt to solve them, or that their concerns are inadequately acted upon.

To bridge this gap the administrator must involve people in the community to gain support for library programs and services. Reacting to expressed community needs is commendable, but planning ahead for future communities and their services really makes the difference between an administrator who is only reactive instead of proactive.

It is important, therefore, that the public library director work with the people of the community. Some types of contacts seem particularly productive-for example, coffee hours, round-table discussions. and casual conversations with people within and outside the library.

A truly involved advisory committee that represents all of the community is the administrator's key to the constructive expression of community opinion in revitalizing the library program. If the community, via groups, individuals. or organizations, becomes involved in studying community needs, it may become aware that the library has inadequacies in such areas as mobile library service, reference and research, and shut-in service. If members of a community group are then involved in discovering the solution to those problems, they become committed to pursuing the plan they devise also, the planning and the service can be more effective, realistic, and vital than if they had been done primarily by the library administrator and staff. Almost any library that has actively involved the community as advisors, as artists, as teachers, as story tellers, and as planners has a success story.

Only in rare instances do community representatives initiate involvement in the library. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the library director to draw people from the community by organizing voluntary programs, establishing councils, and seeking out persons to help with educational programs, counseling, and other activities. The administrator has the further duty to educate the people of the community concerning the library system, its goals, and its policies. Once community involvement and education have begun, the library has a powerful and self-perpetuating ally in the struggle to reach its objectives.

To work effectively with both the governmental bodies and the community, the public library administrator must:

1. Diligently and consistently make intelligent and creative use of library standards
2. Employ persons of vision to work on library programs and activities
3. Inform the governing bodies of the new plans and accomplishments of libraries
4. Plan, develop, and implement public relations presentations and programs and include the political leaders, labor, business services, and other groups in the presentations
5. Be available and ready any time or place to speak on libraries
6. Create interest and pride in library programs
7. Work hard on programs at the administrative level because it is only through such diligent work that the other six developments can take place.

If all seven of the above activities are carried out, community involvement will be assured. These activities provide the administrator with a built-in correction system that will automatically change the pro-gram according to the needs of the community. The administrator knows the people, resources, and services and is constantly listening to governmental officials, to the staff, to the residents of the community, and to their representatives. Through these processes, political knowledge, the perception of the community, and the delegation of authority, the public library administrator will succeed in developing a delivery system of public library service capable of changing as changes are required.

<<TOC4>> 3.4 Public relations

<<TOC5>> Libraries and the world outside

When librarians think of public relations in a superficial manner and they think superficially on this topic all too often - it is nearly always considered in the simple light of relations between libraries and their users, or their potential users. But this is an oversimplification of the problem. Of course it is a fact that the ultimate objective of library public relations is to ensure that the maximum number of people know of the existence of our libraries, where they are located, what they contain, what they do, and how they can help users to acquire more information and generally become more literate and better-educated members of the community. Yet any public relations programme which begins and ends by concentrating solely upon readers and other library users, actual or potential, can never hope to be more than a partial success.

When writing a public relations programme, the librarian should face the brutal fact that users, present and future, must come near the bottom of the list of PR targets. This may sound ridiculous, but a little thought should convince the librarian of its cogency. Of course users are important to us, they are the last vital link in the chain of library provision, but there are other links which merit prior consideration in the PR plan.

The fact is that libraries, if they are to continue to develop, must be projected in many directions and to many different targets, not merely to individual users or groups of potential users. They must be projected internationally, nationally, regionally, locally, and sectionally with such related activities as central government, the Civil Service, education, local government, vocational training, the social services, the book trade and, by no means least important, the library staffs themselves.

It is not until one becomes a senior librarian that realisation comes of the vital importance of this aspect of public relations for libraries vis-à-vis the world outside. As a junior member of the profession it is perhaps all too easy to confine library public relations in the mind to a programme concerned only with users of our services. But as one gains more professional experience, the wider aspects of PR for libraries become more obvious and more important. Perhaps it is only when one becomes a chief librarian or a director of library services that the fullest appreciation of PR and its range and influence is attained.

Unfortunately, just as this full appreciation is attained, the director finds himself without the necessary time to devote to guiding personally the PR programme. If he attempts such personal direction he will find himself neglecting other aspects of his job. Ideally, every library needs a public relations officer working closely with the director of the service. The latter should certainly devote lime to planning, encouraging and initiating a PR programme for the service but, like a good military commander in the field, he should not become too bogged down in administrative detail. He should make time to sit down and plan the broad lines of strategy and development, and to do this effectively he must be capable of seeing the library service in its international, national and regional context, as well as in its purely local and domestic role.

Sitting back, however, does not mean becoming office-bound. On the contrary, the director should endeavour to take part in the activities of' international and national library associations; for only in this way will he have the opportunities of keeping abreast of library progress throughout the world. There are those who belittle the idea of international and comparative librarianship, but this is an attitude to be regretted and indeed to be avoided. There are many facets of librarianship which have a universal application, and public relations is one of these. In whatever country we operate, in whatever type of library we serve, public relations is one aspect of our work in which we can learn from each other. That is the justification for not ignoring library PR work in countries other than our own.

Coming to more local aspects, it must be emphasised that the library director must be the 'front man' for his service. His governing body, and his public, must be able to turn to him with confidence whenever the topics of libraries, books and other information media and technology crop up. He must be able to write and speak fluently on behalf of his calling, and nowhere will this fluency be more taxed, or more important, than in the board and committee rooms of his governing authority.

Possibly the most crucial aspect of the work of a director of libraries is to persuade his governing body to supply adequate and continuing financial resources for the efficient operation and development of the service. Good operation, or day-to-day running of libraries, cannot be properly maintained without a healthy revenue budget. Each year, therefore, or however frequently the authority plans Its revenue budget, it is necessary for the director to prepare detailed estimates and to pilot them through his board, committee or council. To do this successfully, he must be adept at report writing, he must anticipate possible questions with pinpoint accuracy, he must be convincing in his replies to those questions and, in short, he must have the most complete and detailed knowledge of the service at his fingertips.

Such a librarian will impress members of his governing body, and they in turn are much more likely to support the service if they feel that the person in command is someone who is dedicated to the service, someone in fact who knows his job from A to Z. If the director possesses these qualities, then he or she is a definite PR asset for the service.

I have referred just now to the revenue or yearly budget. There is, of course, another type of budget, that relating to long-term development. This calls for such qualities as foresight, imagination, and the capability of being able to think big and for many years ahead. In preparing a capital budget for future development, vision is needed and in fact is a most essential commodity in the personality of a director of libraries.

A good library is, or should be, its own advertisement, and it ought not to be necessary to have to persuade authorities to devote adequate finances for library buildings, staff, books and other essential materials. Unfortunately we are not living in an ideal world, and it is regrettably very essential to use every persuasion to convince our lords and masters of library needs. In this exercise of persuasion it is a proven fact that a director who can write a compelling report, and can speak on it convincingly, is much more likely to be successful than one who presents a scrappy and incomplete report, speaks confusedly on it, and answers questions in a sloppy, unconvincing manner. It may be wrong that important public issues should be decided against such backgrounds, but it is one of the undeniable facts of life. For this reason, an efficient, enthusiastic and convincing director is possibly the best PR asset any library can have.

This theme will be developed later, but it is important to make the point now that the most vital factor in a good PR programme for libraries is a knowledgeable director with an astute appreciation of the value of PR in its widest applications.

Libraries and governments

Almost every type of library, apart from special and industrial libraries and privately owned collections, stems in some way from the powers of national governments. In most countries public libraries derive their existence and development from central government. So, of course, do national libraries, as well as university, college and school libraries. In addition, national governments are themselves owners of many libraries, be they national, parliamentary, legislative or departmental in scope. How vitally important it is therefore to ensure that ministers, members of Parliament, and senior civil servants are adequately briefed about the scope and objectives of libraries of all kinds!

PR and library governing bodies

It is incredible, but one of the major failures of librarians in the past has been in the matter of communication between them and members of their own governing bodies. Surely it should be a first essential for any librarian to keep his governing body fully informed on all aspects of his library's services, achievements and developments. He has various means at his disposal for maintaining this necessary communication.

The first is by regular written reports to his board or committee, but it must always be borne in mind that the presentation of such reports can make or mar the communication between officers and members. There has been a tendency in the past for officers to produce too many written reports, but this has been checked in many countries, especially in the United Kingdom by the publication of official reports on local government organisation, administration and staffing. The combined effects of these reports has been to widen the powers of chief officers and to reduce the number of committees so that they concern themselves with broad outlines of policy rather than with the minutiae of departmental housekeeping. This means fewer written reports, but those which are presented are necessarily important, and it is vital that they should be well written and carefully presented.

The elements of a good report are fairness of presentation, clarity and brevity - and the greatest of these is brevity. Members of governing bodies are extremely busy men and women, and it is not unnatural that they become impatient when they have to cope with many lengthy, complex and verbose reports. Granted that good report writing is a fine art which may not be commanded by everybody, but it ought to be perfectly possible to present members with all the facts fairly, clearly and briefly, and if possible with a straightforward and uncomplicated recommendation. Prime Minister Winston Churchill was not being unreasonable when he asked that reports to him should be confined to one side of a sheet of paper. Of course it is not always possible to do this, or even desirable if the matter under report is of signal importance, but there is a very valid point here that should be taken by readers.

To aid brevity there should be little need for adjectives and adverbs. George Rylands, the critic whose studies of Shakespeare are so perceptive, once said that no adjective is above suspicion. Although he was writing about words and poetry, his comment applies equally to prose, and he might have included adverbs as well. So keep your reports brief, clear and unadorned. Paragraphs should be kept short and should be serially numbered for ease of reference. A summing-up paragraph at the end should lead to a clear recommendation, with reasons given if thought necessary. Finally, do not forget the elementary needs of signing and dating your report. It is amazing how often this is forgotten, particularly the date. Future readers will not thank you for that omission.

The reports referred to are, of course, often confidential, though the recent opening of committee meetings to members of the public means that the reports have to be available for public consumption as well. The librarian's annual report comes into quite a different category. This can be made, indeed it must be made into a major PR document for the library, affording communication between the librarian and his governing body, and between the librarian and his users, or his potential users. As most annual reports are, or ought to be, printed and published, further comment on its presentation and production is deferred to a subsequent chapter devoted to printed publicity for the library. However it should be said here that the recent tendency to replace annual reports by biennial or triennial ones, even to abandon such reports entirely is to be deplored. While lack of* finance may have contributed to this trend, too many librarians have lazily accepted this as an excuse not to produce annual reports. Apart from the potential PR value of such documents, librarians have a duty to give the paying public regular statistical and progress reports on the service.

Personal relations between the librarian and members of his council and board are extremely important, but especially so between the librarian and his chairman. The chairman of the governing body of the library should be a key figure in the library's progress, since he is the person who has to explain and interpret its policy and needs to those who ultimately control the purse-strings. He cannot do this effectively if he is not fully informed, and it is the librarian's job to keep in constant touch with his chairman and to brief him as fully as possible.

This is not an easy task. The chairman, when wanted, may be unavailable. Then, when you do see or speak to him, you may inadvertently forget a salient point you wished to make. Selection of' information is important too. The chairman often needs to have a certain amount of detail without being overloaded with trivia. What the librarian should try to do is to put himself in the position of the chairman, and satisfy himself in this way that the latter is in possession of all the relevant information.

Libraries and the book trade

There was a time when libraries operated in apparent isolation so far as the rest of the book world was concerned, but this was never really the whole truth and it has become increasingly clear that the librarian is just one cog, though a vital one, in a wheel which also includes author, publisher, bookseller and reader. So here again a PR exercise on behalf of libraries is necessary if our co-producers of' the information media are fully to appreciate librarians' problems and objectives.

Booksellers need to know the urgent needs of libraries to supply their readers with books as quickly as possible, and of our requirements in the way of accurate invoicing. Publishers may seek our opinions on gaps in the subject provision of books, or on library editions, or on out of print books. A lot of this interplay and exchange of opinion should be done between the various national associations, but individual librarians must play their parts as well.

The growth of National Library Weeks and similar co-operative ventures in the USA, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Canada, Australia and other countries has undoubtedly improved the collaboration between libraries and other sections of the book world, and this will be enlarged in a later chapter on co-operative library publicity. In the United Kingdom another encouraging step has .been taken in the last few years in the shape of the annual conferences between librarians and members of the book trade. These have been organised by Brian Baumfield, the City Librarian of Birmingham, and have taken the form of intensive one day meetings attended often by 200 or so librarians, publishers, booksellers, library suppliers, authors and others connected with library/book trade relations. Not the least important spin-off of these has been the subsequent printed and published reports.

The basic aim is the common one of working to improve the literacy and general educational and cultural level of the community. This is too important to be interrupted by petty sectional differences, but unless the PR of all the bodies concerned are altered and improved there remains the likelihood that all the component parts of' the book world will remain apart, instead of drawing closer together.

Libraries and educationists

One would hardly expect educationists to be included among the lukewarm supporters of' librarians, but some instances have occurred, as most librarians would agree. Only a small minority of educationists have fallen into this category, but they have existed, and still exist. One contributory cause is sometimes jealousy, a feeling that libraries may have taken a larger slice of the financial cake to the detriment of schools, colleges, universities, and educational programmes generally. Few librarians could agree with this, since it is so far from the truth as to he ridiculous. No! - the real reason ('or this attitude, where it exists, can only lie in the ineffective PR programmes of the library profession.

Happily the situation is improving. Most new universities have started from the premise that the library is the first and basic requirement of' the institution. The development of college and school libraries continues, and co-operation between lecturers, teachers and librarians gets slowly closer to the desired ideal.

Librarians and library associations cannot, however, afford to relax their PR efforts in the direction of the people concerned with formal education, for there are still vice-chancellors who appear reluctant to grant the university library its proper place, there are still education officers and committees who are satisfied with substandard school libraries, and there are still headteachers who do not fully appreciate the value of public library services to the children under their care.

Only a constant and carefully planned PR programme will improve these situations. One thing, however, must be underlined. Of all sections of the community those concerned with education are perhaps the quickest to appreciate a good library service when they experience it. The moral then should be that when librarians are serving educationists they should gear themselves to produce the best possible service.

Internal PR

Although this chapter deals primarily with libraries and the world outside them, it ends on an internal note with some remarks about communication between the librarian and his staff, largely because this is a topic which is basic to the whole of this book. Unfortunately this aspect of communication is something which many librarians tend to overlook. Adequate arrangements are often made for staff training and welfare, but never a thought is given to keeping staffs informed about the progress of the library as a whole, or about the short-term and long-term intentions of the library authority.

During the past decade library services in a number of countries have been affected by the redrawing of the boundaries of local authorities, and this reorganisation has led to fewer, larger and more viable local authorities, with a consequent reduction in the number of separate public library systems. Such moves have taken place in the Scandinavian countries and in the United Kingdom, reorganisation in Greater London coming in 1965, in Northern Ireland in 1973, in England and Wales in 1974, and in Scotland in 1975. For public libraries this has meant larger staffs spread over wider areas.

In turn, this has increased the need for better communication between the director and the many members of his staff, yet at the same time it has increased the difficulties of achieving better such communication. How many directors can put their hands on their hearts and say with confidence that they are satisfied with the level of communication between themselves and their staffs? To get a more realistic picture of the situation, one should perhaps ask the staffs at the perimeter what they feel about the flow (or otherwise) of information coming to them from the top echelon. Most senior librarians would get a rude shock if this were done!

This problem of communication with staff is one which will never be solved to the satisfaction of either the sender or the recipient of information. In the outside world of today we have become accustomed to having instant information on tap. A disaster, a sports result from the other side of the world can be conveyed to us as soon as it happens, and perhaps we have become too conditioned to this way of life. Whatever methods are adopted to improve the transmission of information between the library director and his staff, there will always be those who remain in ignorance of developments, and there will always be complaints that the system is abysmally inadequate.

These shortcomings must not, however, prevent efforts to improve the position and to adopt a variety of methods. One obvious way is for the director to have meetings with his senior staff, and the question arises as to whether these should be on a regular basis, or whether they should be held as and when thought necessary?

Experience suggests that it is better to hold meetings as and when it is thought necessary, rather than on a regular basis. When regular senior staff meetings are held there is certainly a tendency to invent items for discussion if there is nothing of an urgent nature to bring up. It is much better to arrange such meetings whenever they are deemed essential, with two provisos. First, the director must give plenty of notice of the meeting beforehand, and secondly, a minimum number of meetings must be held each year. Another point to be stressed is that each senior librarian who attends a director's meeting should hold a meeting of his own subordinates soon afterwards. It is of no value to staff communication if the information gleaned from a director's meeting is not passed quickly down the line.

Another medium of communication in large library staff situations is the regular issue of a newsletter or bulletin from the director, and ideally this should be distributed on an individual basis so that every member of the staff is given a personal copy. Not enough libraries do this, but there are some notable exceptions. Toledo Public Libraries, in the United States, for some years produced a chatty newsletter, written in journalistic style, complete with line drawings. Some critics said this lacked dignity, but it was probably read by recipients more avidly than a more staid production might have been.

There are examples of staff newsletters in the United Kingdom as well. Cheshire County Libraries and Westminster City Libraries may be quoted: both aim to keep their staffs as fully informed as possible on intended developments, budgetary news, and personalia relating to past and present staff. These productions are more sober than the Toledo newsletter, but they endeavour to be well presented and readable. Since the last edition of this book came out there have been drastic alterations in the library world. Then, it was common to find staff newsletters full of details about new or projected buildings; now such details are sadly lacking, and in an era of recession the information being passed on is more likely to he concerned with economies and reductions in services. During periods like this it is vital to keep staff informed of the latest developments in the library budgeting process, since library staff at all levels are naturally sensitive about the future.

Differentiation should be made here between the staff newsletter produced under the aegis of the director, which is the kind of' publication being referred to earlier and the staff journal produced by library personnel themselves as the organ of the staff association. Examples occur to show that these two kinds of publication can he combined into one, but really it is preferable for the staff association to run its own publication, leaving the director of libraries with the responsibility for producing a regular medium of intercommunication between himself and his personnel.

In Sweden, Stockholm City Libraries have a part-time public relations librarian, some of whose duties include reporting to the staff journal. This leads one on to end this chapter by posing a question. Should large libraries employ a PR librarian or should they utilise a PR officer (PRO)? There is a distinction, as the observant reader will have noticed. Stockholm is not the only large library to employ a public relations librarian, other examples coming to mind in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada and, especially, in the United States. Excellent results have been achieved by these professional librarians who have acquired a modicum of PR expertise, but PR is a profession in its own right, and would it not be better to employ a PRO either full-time or part-time, or it) utilise the services of thc PRO of the local authority or the university, or even to hand out PR responsibilities to outside experts'

In the United States, which must he regarded as the home of' PR, many libraries employ people specially trained in PR work, Seattle Public Libraries being a case in point. In that country it Is generally accepted that whenever possible the PRO is to be preferred to the I-R librarian. There is no doubt that when a library service reaches a certain size it should employ its own PR personnel, and ideally this should include a trained PRO rather than a trained librarian converted into a PRO.

It often happens that the governing body of the library will not agree to the library having its own PRO, because it already has a section with trained PR people to cope with all aspects of the authority's activities. A great deal of useful publicity can be gained for the library by the trained PRO, because he has close contacts with press, TV and radio which the library could never hope to equal. But the disadvantage of this arrangement is that such an officer is concerned with so many other sevices that he can give only a small proportion of his time to the library's PR needs. In these circumstances, it still remains for the director of libraries and his senior staff to be aware of all publicity possibilities and to acquaint the authority's PRO with library news and developments on a regular basis.

<<TOC5>> Public relations in libraries: the Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon (Lyons City Library)

J.-L. ROCHER

Bibliothèque de la Ville de Lyon

The fact that our association has chosen this year to deal with the question of public relations in research libraries shows how important this has become in library management. This does not imply that libraries, which have long been issuing readers, guides and setting up information services, have been unconcerned about their relations with their readers in the past.

But the term 'public relations' has an overall application and refers to a function. It comes to us from the United States, and often stands for 'all the methods used to gain the sympathy and goodwill of the outside world' (M. Crozier). According to the International Public Relations Association, public relations is a management function whereby a public or private body seeks to secure and keep the understanding, sympathy and co-operation of those with whom it has, or may have, dealings. This definition includes action taken vis-à-vis the members of that body, as well as external relations; which is a debatable point.

The problem of public relations can be approached on the same lines but from a different angle. We all have an idea, an 'image' of what a library is, depending on the particular emphasis that we place on individual aspects (reception service, information, size of collections ' speed of delivery). This is a subjective image which varies from one observer to another and does not necessarily match reality. What is needed is therefore a policy to create an image which is consistent and which does reflect reality; a reality which will sometimes require adjustments in the light of observers' reactions.

A public relations policy thus implies mutual understanding and communication.

A policy also implies 'follow-up action', which means that there should be a person or a team whose special job this is, especially in a large library.

As relations with the press often symbolize public relations, the task is sometimes entrusted to a 'press attaché'. The disadvantage of this title is its restrictive character, for the work entails more than relations with the press.

Indeed, I do not propose to define the scope of this job, which varies from one establishment to the next. I shall only try to describe its characteristics in Lyons and the way in which it is developing.

'Public relations' in the Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon (Lyons City Library) developed out of practical experience. Its initiator was the Mayor of Lyons, Mr Louis Pradel, who ordered the Library to be built. He did not hesitate to issue invitations to the press to view the work-site of the Library under construction, and, later, the completed Library. He accompanied distinguished French and foreign visitors to Lyons (including the German President Walter Scheel and the Polish President Edward Gierek) to see the Library, encouraged television reports, organized Open Days, and insisted on exhibitions and activities which gave publicity to the Library that he wished to portray as one of the largest and most modern in Europe, if not in the world. His methods did not necessarily meet with the approval of 'relationists', who were wary of the 'propaganda' aspect. What is certain is that he drew much attention to the Library.

As a result, it became necessary to appoint someone to guide the visitors who came to see the monument just as people visit the Eiffel Tower or Beaubourg in Paris.

Visits were thus a first stage in our public relations, which subsequently had to be subdivided into visits by distinguished persons, 'tours' by professionals in the building trade or professionals in library science, and school visits. This classification is incomplete as it does not include groups of potential library users. Visits by schools have increased in number and now require scheduling.

Reception of the public was thus the first duty which the service had to perform, and besides visits included the information in the entrance hall, the directions to enable readers and visitors to find their way about in the Library and the signposts outside showing the way to the entrance. Reception of exhibits and mounting of exhibitions proposed by outside bodies were additional responsibilities.

The establishment of relations with the press was a gradual process. It was necessary, first, to welcome journalists who came in search of information about the new Library; second, to answer inquiries from the journalists of the region concerning the organization of services and projects, and to advertise the exhibitions both in the press and on radio or television (it should be added that the regional radio and television premises are near the Library).

In short, the opening of the new Library in Lyons gave rise to unfamiliar problems of external relations which were gradually solved by the introduction of a new function to suit the circumstances.

At present we are trying to work out a better public relations formula for a library such as ours; we wish to clarify our policy on the sharing of duties and responsibilities.

Subscribing to the idea of securing and keeping 'the understanding, sympathy and co-operation of those with whom (the library) has, or may have, dealings', we shall apply it to external relations.

External relations are very varied: the government officials, and local councilors who decide on funds for the Library are in direct contact with the Chief Librarian and are kept informed by means of meetings, reports and commissions (not forgetting the remarks and observations of library users).

A number of outside bodies maintain professional relations with the Library. The Centre de documentation régionale (Regional Documentation Centre), for instance, corresponds and has personal contacts with many public and private organizations in the region (and works in close co-operation with several of them).

This combination of professional relations and public relations is found again in dealings with cultural and academic bodies.

Public relations is in fact concerned with several sectors of the public:

1. Those who already use the Library, and who oust be met, given directions and informed, and whose observations (even if harsh) and suggestions must be duly received.

We think it preferable to separate relations with these members of the public from public relations proper and to place them in the charge of a librarian who is fully conversant with the functioning of the Library and able to negotiate with his colleagues who head the various services.

This librarian takes care of reception, distribution of leaflets to readers and the suggestions book.

The readers' service is thus independent of the external relations service.

2. School groups, which have to be shown around at the request of teachers or encouraged to come and discover the facilities available at the Library. The aim in this case is to encourage potential readers by providing a friendly welcome at the Library.

Liaison with secondary schools is the responsibility of the external relations service, which often maintains contact with the school librarians. This service establishes the timetable of visits and determines which documents are useful for these groups. It has also been given responsibility for supervising the production of an audiovisual montage on the Library.

The staff in charge of the children's section and the Regional Documentation Centre also help to cater for school visits.

3. The associations with which the Library most often has dealings are those which request visits.

The external relations service adapts each visit to suit the special interest of the association in question, in one case placing more emphasis on the 'building' aspect, and in another on the collections or the services available.

Relations with the executive officials of associations are often strengthened by sending invitations to attend inaugural ceremonies and information sheets produced by the Association des Amis de la Bibliothèque (Association of Friends of the Library).

4. The Association des Amis de la Bibliothèque has a special role to play. Its purpose is to provide a network for all who are interested in the doings of the Library, and especially in its exhibitions and other types of organized activity. The person in charge of external relations is also responsible for its secretariat.

The Library Committee enlists the co-operation and support of various people by establishing links both with the press and television and with public and private bodies and teachers.

The members of the Association receive the programme of events planned for the quarter, and, later, individual invitations to inaugural ceremonies and notes on the author of the month. Each quarter, the Library also organizes lectures for them on the Library's ancient manuscripts and printed works.

5. The general public outside the Library. It is equally important to reach members of the general public, both to ensure that they come to the Library and thus increase our user statistics and to convey a favourable impression of the Library so that they are willing to pay the taxes which enable it to function.

(1) Advertising

Many people, at least those living in France's large towns, are unaware of the services that libraries have to offer, whether public or research libraries. This calls for much advertising work and opinion polls which, in Lyons, are the responsibility of the external relations service.

It is the task of the latter to reach agreement with the municipal authorities and advertisers concerning the information which is to appear either in the municipal review or in poster form. It is also the responsibility of this service to employ an organization specializing in public opinion polls to monitor the public image of the Library.

(2) Organized events

The attention of the general public is often drawn to a particular subject by an out-of-the-ordinary occurrence. In the case of the Library, this may be a series of Open Days when public interest is aroused as much by 'behind the scenes' activities, which ordinarily take place out of sight, as by information about user services.

Inaugural ceremonies also arouse interest through press coverage.

Exhibitions, lectures followed by discussions and slide or film shows attract members of the-public who are not habitual library users.

But the success of these events greatly depends on how they are publicized, not only by posters but also by press reports. The usual practice is therefore to notify monthly journals two months in advance and to place announcements in weekly and daily newspapers, and also to try to secure the presence of television cameras and to give journalists a preview of the exhibition, if possible shortly before the opening. And this brings us to the crucial question of relations with the press.

(3) Relations with the press

The importance of relations with the press in public relations is apparent from the fact that the person in charge of public relations is very often known as the 'press attaché'.

To reach the general public, the media - print, radio and television are necessary. And this is one reason why the Association des bibliothécaires français (Association of French Librarians) placed press relations on the agenda of its annual meeting this year (1981).

These relations are not always trouble-free: librarians believe in their superior competence and disclaim responsibility for the serious 'blunders' which sometimes appear in articles, while journalists consider that professionals are too absorbed In their occupation and bore their listeners or the general public, always supposing that they are not actually hiding things that are going wrong.

Press relations require:

(a) Familiarity with the world of journalism and good personal contacts with journalists.

As is true of all professions, journalists have their own habits, patterns of behaviour, and language - in short, their code.

It is important that one member of the library staff has regular dealings with journalists and is well known to them.

In Lyons, the person in charge of public relations is a member of the Association des attachés de presse (Association of Press Attachés), and is an active member of the press club of Lyons journalists. In short, she has become fully accepted in journalistic circles.

Bearing past experience in mind, when I myself have to talk to a journalist, I always do so in the presence and with the assistance of this person, who can, in the course of the conversation, assess the risk of a negative interpretation by the journalist and counteract it.

(b) Relations with the press also entail knowing journalists' working methods and gearing the information supplied by the Library to these.

It is well known that journalists are people in a hurry; not only are they unable to fit in with your list of appointments (you will have to find the time to see them), but they also have no time to go into details and read a long dossier. Their writing must be done quickly and without many subsequent revisions. Putting themselves in their readers' place, they will seek to communicate a piece of information which is simple, or at any rate simplified so that it can be grasped, by the greatest number: this is to them a prime consideration, and they will seek to hold the reader's interest by supplying graphic details.

If we wish the journalist to take account of the information that the Library gives him, we must prepare a dossier for him which presents him with what he expects and nothing else; a text which he can use as a blueprint if he is in a great hurry.

Thus, for each exhibition and ceremony to inaugurate a new building or service, the public relations officer prepares a dossier for each journalist. That dossier will comprise a text of a page or more, photographs and some figures (but no detailed statistics that the journalist will not have time to use). Every time, therefore, there is preparatory work to be done for meetings with the press (not to mention the preparation of some refreshments so that the talks can take place in a relaxed atmosphere).

The fruits of these relations with the press are to be found in the published articles which are collected and produced in the form of a booklet of press reports.

(c) Use of radio and television is more difficult, as air time is limited. None the less, these channels are used to announce exhibitions (regional news on the radio) and sometimes to broadcast an interview with an author or a lecturer or a preview of an exhibition, in a 15-minute slot on the radio, or in a few minutes on television.

It goes without saying that, as for the written press, the public relations officer will make preparations for the arrival of radio and television journalists, and will maintain a high level of personal contact with them.

The result of these broadcasts is particularly obvious in the case of television: even a short announcement, lasting two or three minutes after the news broadcast, has an immediate influence on the number of visitors to an exhibition.

The Public Relations Service thus has a specific role and specific activities: making arrangements for school visits, relations with associations, organizing the Association des Amis de la Bibliothèque, advertising in town, enhancing the impact of special events, relations with the press - all these are tasks which require follow-up action on the part of a person or a team.

The team at the Bibliothèque Municipale comprises two persons, the officer and a secretary. Their main working tool is the file containing the names and addresses of the private individuals and bodies with which the Library has relations. Classification by category makes it possible to gear the dispatch of invitations to the type of event organized by the Library. This file requires regular updating.

As we have seen, public relations are not merely friendly contacts; they require sound preparation.

This work can be carried out successfully only if the various Library services share in it by keeping up a continuous supply of detailed information. This entails that all the heads of Library sections must be conscious of the role played by public relations.

This question of co-operation by members of the Library staff brings me to a problem that I have not touched upon here, namely, that of keeping the staff of a large library informed about what takes place in it. I do not think that this task should be the responsibility of the public relations service, but I believe that the latter's experience and co-operation can prove useful in attaining that end.

To conclude, I shall confine myself to one point on which we are all agreed. There can be no good public relations policy unless the Library provides services to a high standard.

A public relations policy can publicize to advantage what actually exists, but is not designed to be misleading or to mask what is lacking; if it were, it would lose all credibility.

<<TOC4>> 3.5 The needs of users

<<TOC5>> User studies in university libraries

by (Professors at the Inter-American School of Librarianship.)

Rocio Herrera C. (Professor of Research Methodology, Head of the Department of Library. Research, Inter-American School of Librarianship, University of Antioquia, Colombia.)

Libia Lotero M. (Professor of Cataloguing and Classification II, Inter-American School of Librarianship, U. of A.)

Ivan Rua R. (MLS. Professor of Cataloguing and Classification I and Administration, Inter-American School of Librarianship, U, of A.)

Beginning with an analysis of the role of the university library in the education system and in the information transfer process, and emphasizing the total interaction of the community with the library system and hence library-user interaction, the authors define what a user study is and traces its development in recent decades.

The concluding section of the paper outlines the considerations to be taken into account in preparing user studies on the basis of a predetermined methodology and bearing in mind the need to identify basic factors such as user information needs, both actual and potential, facilities for meeting those needs, the promotion of library resources and services, user response to those services, the use of information sources, the assessment and justification of existing services, and the role of the library within the library system.

Having identified these factors, the authors conclude that user studies are vitally important for library development since they are a means of determining user needs, the extent to which they are met, user response to library services and the effectiveness of the system; also because they are an effective way for the library to introduce user feedback.

INTRODUCTION

A library is an open system, a subsystem of the wider education system, whose objectives and functions are determined by the community concerned. It follows that, in defining the objectives of the education system, one is specifying the objectives of university libraries, which should contribute to the goals of the system as a whole and respond to changing social needs.

Since university libraries are an integral part of the education system, they should provide support services not only for courses of formal and informal education but also for those geared to research and the generation of new knowledge in the universities to which they belong.

The aims and structure of a university library are influenced by the philosophy of the university, just as the quality of the library service within an institution is related to the quality of the education provided by that institution.

If the library is to fulfil its proper role within the education system, there must be continual interaction between it and the users it exists to serve. Interaction can be influenced both by factors directly related to the library, such as how efficiently and effectively it is run, the relevance of the information it provides and the communication channels it employs, and by others directly related to the user, including his personality, motivation, pursuits and specialized interests. Library-user interaction should be studied on the basis of a communication model, which is to be understood as an information transfer process involving a source, a means or method of transmission and one or more receivers. The source should emit the information clearly, the means should transmit it efficiently and the receiver should comprehend it completely. This process implies responsibilities on the part of both the communicator and the receiver of information, hence the need to take account of the feedback factor. However, the role and responsibilities of users have tended to be imprecise, and users have sometimes been reluctant to play an active role in the information acquisition process. As a result, there is a broad range of 'passive' information held by libraries whose value is ignored and which is under-utilized.

The under-utilization of library holdings and facilities is undoubtedly due as much to the fact that users are unaware of the facilities offered by libraries as to the fact that libraries do not have a precise knowledge of user needs.

In order to plan information activities that include provision for system development, it is therefore necessary to have a precise knowledge of the needs of potential as well as actual users and to understand adequately, recognize and identify in appropriate form their information requirements.

The best way of getting to know about users and their information needs is to carry out periodic user studies, which enable libraries to determine exactly how and in what direction they should develop in order to meet those requirements.

1. GENERAL SURVEY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF USER STUDIES

A library user study may be defined as any study relating to library use, in any or all of its aspects. In this connection, the following categories of user studies may be distinguished: studies aimed at determining the overall pattern of interaction with the user community, without reference to any particular mode of information reception by users; secondly, studies to assess the use of a given information source, such as books and periodical publications - generally known as use studies; and thirdly, studies to determine the information flow pattern in the system of communicating knowledge.

This paper will be specifically concerned with the first category, since the completion of a study showing the overall interaction of the community with the library system is a prerequisite for carrying out the other kinds of study.

The purpose of user studies is to improve existing conditions in a given library. This can only be achieved through user studies, which make it possible to identify users and their specific information requirements.

Before the Second World War, such studies were sporadic and unrelated to library development; it was only after 1949 that the term USE started to be employed independently in the literature on the subject rather than as a constituent of other headings, as was the case previously. One also finds in the library literature for the period 1960-1973, 477 entries under the heading. 'User studies', 293 relating to publications in the United States and 184 to publications in other countries (60 per cent and 40 per cent respectively). Analysis of the literature subsequent to this period reveals an increase in these figures, showing the growing interest that such studies have aroused among librarians throughout the world.

Analysis of the studies carried out by type of library shows that most were carried out in specialized libraries, followed by public libraries and lastly university libraries, studies on school libraries being almost nonexistent. The proportions are not the same in all countries: in Colombia, for example, as libraries have developed the limited number of user studies carried out have been mainly focused on specialized and university libraries.

Since this paper was prepared in the context of a higher education library seminar, an attempt was made to ascertain the number and scope of user studies carried out in this kind of library, taking Medellín as a case-study. The results were as follows:

Questionnaires sent out 18
Questionnaires completed 13
User studies carried out 0
Studies and/or evaluations of collections 9
2 of these included user studies
Period covered by the survey 1974-1980

The studies and evaluations carried out regarded the user only as a statistical factor. It should be mentioned that two of the studies carried out in one of the libraries surveyed were intended to study the use of particular collections with a view to determining user satisfaction or otherwise.

A survey was also carried out in other regions of the country, either directly or through institutions concerned with library planning and development, such as the schools of librarianship ICFES and COLCIENCIAS. This revealed that there have been few attempts to carry out user studies in university libraries, although studies and evaluations of collections have been made in various parts of the country, employing a similar methodology and yielding similar results to those carried out in Medellín.

1.1 Importance

User studies, which have often been criticized for appearing to produce little in the way of useful results, are of great importance since they provide a substantial body of specific knowledge, facts and conclusions that are of great value for the development of new facilities.

A user study yields conclusions that can be used in improving the administrative process since they can be converted into indicators of successes and shortcomings in the planning and development of services.

User studies show the different channels employed by users in the information acquisition process and also the different types of information sources and the frequency with which they are used.

Another indication of the importance of user studies is the fact that they clearly reveal that the flow of information is not a simple process and that a whole range of factors help to determine the nature of the individual information collection process. They are also a way of identifying user needs and behaviour, which leads to greater efficiency in the information transfer process.

In general, it can be said that there are good grounds for carrying out user studies since they are the most effective way of determining user needs and therefore of being able to establish the facilities to meet them properly; they also enable continuous evaluation of the system to take place.

1.2 Scope

The scope of most of the user studies so far carried out may be said to have been very limited and to have yielded little benefit, the reason being that they were not preceded by a definition of specific objectives and because they were not based on adequate methodologies, the methods employed having generally been indirect, as in the case of statistics, which are known not to provide very reliable data for determining user needs and behaviour.

The result was that these studies were mainly concerned with the quantitative analysis of library use, disregarding the important role of the user in the information retrieval process and the need for continuity in carrying out such studies, which have consequently not been turned into useful basic tools for improving and restructuring library services.

This is why librarians who are aware of the real aim of user studies should tackle the problem of carrying out those studies in the correct manner, defining their scope in advance. Only in this way will user studies enable the library properly to fulfil its active role in the information transfer process through the identification of certain basic factors to be analysed in this paper, such as user information needs, both actual and potential, the facilities for meeting those needs, the promotion of library resources and services, user response to those services, the use of information sources, the evaluation and justification of existing services, the need to provide new services, and the need to participate in the information structure as a whole, i.e. not regarding the library as an object of study, as an isolated element, but as a component of a system.

2. FACTORS TO BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT IN PREPARING A USER STUDY

2.1 Terminology

The first step in carrying out a user study should be to define the terminology relating to information needs. Definitions should be borne in mind at all stages of the study.

The need for information is a concept that is dependent on changing social values. It is a psychological state associated with uncertainty and the desire to fill a gap in knowledge. Although the concept of information need has been much debated in the information sciences, it is now agreed that the concept is restricted to distinguishing between a state of mind and its subsequent representation in the form of a question.

Potential total demand may be defined, in a formal sense, as the totality of potential individual or group demands relating to library materials, services and staff. This potential demand may or may not be expressed.

The total potential demand facing a library at a given moment depends on a number of factors such as the type of work carried out by the user, the level of user expectation and the level of services provided by the library, all of which factors influence or determine potential individual demand.

Potential demand at whatever level expresses to some degree the limitations in the provision of services and resources, and is probably viewed differently by the user and the librarian. This explains unfulfilled or misunderstood expectations and dissatisfaction on both sides. For this reason, it is necessary to establish priorities that can be used to identify all the forms of demand.

Potential total demand is converted in the course of time into expressed and unexpressed demand. Expressed demand may be defined as an action by the user to obtain data, information or documents from or through libraries and may be understood not only in terms of what the user requests but also in terms of those forms of demand that he satisfies directly.

It should be noted that not every expressed demand is satisfied, and the difference between a satisfied and an unsatisfied demand is a key indicator of the effectiveness of the system.

Expressed and satisfied demand leads to use; in other words, use is a function of the satisfaction of demand. There are differences between what the librarian and the user regard as use.

The relationship between these terms is illustrated in the following diagram:

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P273.PNG Figure 

2.2 Objectives

The first step in any user study is to determine clearly and precisely what it is intended to achieve. The logical development and scope of the study will depend on the precision with which the objectives have been initially defined.

The objectives must necessarily be defined in relation to the specific characteristics of the library and the users to be covered by the study; one should therefore bear in mind the objectives of a university library.

The objectives should be formulated in such a way that the results of the study can be quantified so as to be analysed and evaluated in relation to those objectives, thereby yielding information enabling the strong or weak points in the system to be identified.

In general terms, a user study in university libraries attempts to determine the use made of university libraries as an aid in the education and research processes, the main difficulties affecting the information-retrieval process, whether effective interaction exists between the library and its users, and the form in which information is transmitted to them.

Specifically, the objectives of a user study should be:

- to determine types of users;
- to identify their information needs;
- to establish priorities in relation to these needs;
- to establish the level of satisfaction of needs;
- to determine user behaviour in relation to information,
- to evaluate the services provided for the restructuring of information and/or the establishment of new services if necessary.

In the last analysis, the results of a study of this kind will show whether the service provided to users by the library meets their needs or not, and what could be done to make it more efficient, hence the emphasis that should be placed on properly defining the objectives of each study.

2.3 Library-user interaction

A user study should not be approached in unilateral fashion, that is to say, it should always involve the active participation of the users as an integral part of the interaction process that should exist between them and the library. As mentioned previously, this process is only possible through communication, in which feedback plays a basic role. Such a study should therefore be based not on a quantification of existing resources and services but on qualitative factors such as the identification of types of users, their information needs, their response to information and the use they make of library resources. This is the only way to achieve a greater level of satisfaction in the information retrieval process.

It is vital in this respect to clarify beforehand each of the qualitative elements:

2.3.1 Types of users

The successful transfer of information depends to a large extent on correctly identifying users in order to study their response to information.

A community is usually defined by geographical areas, the institutions consulted by users, areas of interests or a combination of all three. An initial classification of users distinguishes two categories:

2.3.1.1 Actual users, or those who effectively make use of the library and its resources.

2.3.1.2 Potential users, or those whose profile conforms to that for which the system was designed but who for various reasons do not make use of its resources. This group has been virtually disregarded in the various user studies; yet it should be a focus of interest, since one of the reasons why the library and its resources are not being used by this group might be that the library is not sufficiently geared to the needs of all its users; also, in order to establish information activities one has to identify potential users and to have a proper understanding of their information requirements.

Generally speaking, actual users may be divided into the following categories:

- those who seek information sporadically to meet needs as they arise, who constitute the majority;
- those who use information services frequently.

Within this latter category we may distinguish:

- those who know precisely what they need and therefore come looking for relevant and precise information;
- those who come to the library in search of general rather than specific information, that is to say, they are more interested in the quantity than in the relevance and precision of the information;
- those who use services directly, which does not necessarily mean that they always satisfy their information needs.

Although a university library caters for a variety of users, four categories may be clearly identified: teachers, undergraduates, postgraduates and research workers.

On the basis of this classification it is possible to determine the differences between the groups and their information needs.

2.3.2 Information needs

The service provided by libraries should be governed mainly by the needs of the users, which calls for continual assessment of information needs and priorities.

Need is a concept that depends on the values of a society and on professional, social and economic factors; one of the characteristics of needs is therefore transitoriness, and this is one of the most neglected factors in evaluating user needs.

Another related problem is that of trying to determine needs unilaterally: the user thinks that the library is going to satisfy what he deems to be his needs and similarly, librarians suppose that they know user needs in advance and that it is sufficient to provide them with what they think will satisfy those needs.

The main information needs of users fall into two categories:

2.3.2.1 The need to locate specific documents of which the bibliographical references are known - referred to as a need for a 'known item'.

2.3.2.2 The need to locate documents relating to a particular theme - known as a thematic need. This need can in turn be divided into two categories, namely:

2.3.2.2.1 The need for information to solve a particular problem.

2.3.2.2.2 The need for information on the latest developments in a specialized field.

These two needs are different not only in their origin but also in the form in which information is sought in order to solve that need. But in the first case it is the user who initiates the search, and in the second case the initiative may lie with the library system.

Needs for problem-solving information may be of various kinds, but it is right to group them, as Lancaster does, in the following categories:

- the need for a single document of a factual type, for example, rapid reference queries commonly handled by libraries;
- the need to consult one or more documents on a particular subject;
- the need for a comprehensive search, Involving the retrieval of the maximum number of published documents on a particular subject in a given period of time.

The problem facing libraries is that users generally do not know their precise information needs and therefore do not express those needs completely.

Generally speaking, the various types of university library users think that their Information needs simply involve supplementary reading in their subjects of study, in the case of undergraduates; supplementary reading in their studies and research, in the case of postgraduates; the updating of their professional knowledge, the planning and preparation of new courses and supplementary reading as guidance for their students in the courses for which they are responsible, in the case of lecturers; and obtaining information for their everyday work, updating their knowledge in their specialized field and related fields and tackling new problems or projects, in the case of research workers.

In order to determine the information needs of the user of a university library, as of any other kind of library, it is necessary to establish continuous communication between all those involved in the education process and thus achieve satisfactory interaction. This interaction should not be disregarded, since the user is an active participant in the information system and it must be borne in mind that his needs should determine the shape of that system.

In some instances users may be unaware of many of the information sources and services available or potentially available, given that their information needs may be directed towards solving a limited number of problems whereas the system Is geared to very broad disciplines.

The staff of university libraries is responsible for the efficiency of the system and should direct users to the relevant sources and services, adapting their services to user demands. In addition, an information source should anticipate the requirements of users and gear itself to them; this can only be done through continuous communication, making it possible not only to establish current needs but also to discern trends which will lead to the system being faced with new information demands.

2.3.3 User behaviour

The work habits of users in any activity requiring information, the importance they attach to obtaining it and the facilities at their disposal, their knowledge of these facilities, their assessment of their value and the possibility of their obtaining what they are looking for are the factors that affect user behaviour in the quest for information.

The behaviour of the users of university libraries specifically is affected, in addition to the above factors, by others directly related to the university environment, such as teaching methods and the type of education provided. The country's education system is a teaching-learning process largly consisting in an essentially repetitive pattern in which the student consumes and reproduces the concepts transmitted by the teacher. This model is mainly based on the university lecture system, in which the teacher simply gives a course of study and provides the pupil with a brief bibliography consisting basically of texts. The result has been that education has not become a critical and creative process and library resources have accordingly been under-utilized.

As regards the response to the information services provided by university libraries, it can be said that research workers do not use the services properly since the role of the library as an agent for the transfer of information has been disregarded in the research process, this type of user tending to acquire information through informal channels of communication, such as personal contacts with other colleagues. In its turn, the library has neglected its task as a constituent part of the research enterprise, forgetting that one of the priorities of the university, in addition to its teaching role, is that of research, which is the source of much knowledge of benefit not only to the university but also to the community in general.

The university library should pay special attention to ascertaining not only the specific information needs of each type of user but also user behaviour patterns in the information retrieval process, in order that these needs may be met and the factors responsible for the non-use of the library restricted to a minimum.

This will be achieved through an appropriate methodology for conducting user studies, which will then provide guidelines for the organization of user training or instruction courses aimed at the various groups. These courses will influence the future response of users to information services.

Since user behaviour in the information retrieval process determines the level of library-user interaction, continual monitoring by the librarian of changes in that behaviour is necessary. These changes are dependent not only on information needs but also on the possible impact of the introduction of new services. This shows that, over and above the matter of training in the use of library resources, user behaviour presents a number of special features, largely reflecting the fact that the information needs of those concerned are not well defined and that their request for information are consequently vague and very general. It follows that library staff should bear in mind their active role in promoting and publicizing their services and resources since, despite the continual emphasis placed on the role of information in development, it has been shown that users tend to dispense with non-essential information, the usual practice being to rely on memory, to evade the problem or to solve it with vague or incomplete information.

However, it should not be overlooked that there is another group of users who consult libraries actively and effectively in order to satisfy their information needs; although accessibility influences the use that they make of resources, the most important thing for this group is their confidence and faith in the information system.

2.4 Methodology

User information needs cannot be determined solely on the basis of questionnaires containing questions such as: What are your information needs? or What should be done to satisfy your information needs?. It is necessary to develop appropriate techniques and methodologies for such studies. Although they are aware of the value of the user studies, most libraries hitherto have not been fully conversant with the problems and techniques associated with such studies. In this connection, Maurice Line in his work Library Survey writes that the results of such studies are often an indigestible mass of poorly interpreted data collected from inadequate and badly chosen samples, by means of unsuitable and unreliable methods and on the basis of an ill-designed approach.

We analyse below the steps that should be taken in carrying out a user study.

The first step is to plan the study - a fundamental step, since the decisions taken at this stage will affect the subsequent stages. The first thing is to define clearly what one wishes to find out, with a view to determining the scope of the study - , the methodology to be employed, the timetable for the study and the type of information to be collected. It is worth noting that the study should begin with a review of existing literature on the subject, which will be useful in both the planning and execution of the study and in the analysis of the data.

An important decision has to be taken during the planning stage, namely establishing the duration and timetable for each of the activities to be carried out under the study.

It is also necessary to decide the most appropriate times at which to carry out the study; for example, it is not advisable to carry out studies during exam periods, nor should they be carried out when new services are being introduced, since the results obtained before and after the introduction of such services may not be comparable.

The second stage is to choose the target group and the sample for the study. Because of the difficulty of targeting the study on the population as a whole, it is necessary to choose a sample. For the results to be meaningful, the sample must be as representative as possible of the population as a whole. The most effective method is a random sample. Sometimes it is necessary to stratify the sample if the population is not homogeneous, and the size of the sample will depend on the degree of precision required and the size of the population.

The third stage involves selecting and designing the data collection tools. Although user studies to date have been based on social research techniques, it has been observed that the best results are obtained when the questionnaire is supplemented with an interview.

The advantage of the questionnaire is that it can be applied to a large population, including one that is geographically dispersed. To be fully effective, It should be drawn up with regard to the need for such features as objective, clear and precise questions, preferably of the closed variety since the answers to open questions are more difficult to analyse, and employing terminology familiar to the user.

Once the questions to be included have been selected, they should be arranged in a logical order, bearing in mind that they should not take more than 30 minutes to complete.

To facilitate the analysis of the information gathered, the questions should be pre-coded.

It is also recommended that the questionnaire should be sent directly and accompanied by a note or letter in which its aims and importance are explained. The questionnaire should be tested before finally being distributed so as to identify any weaknesses in it.

As said above, an interview should supplement the information obtained from the questionnaire. A small sub-sample should be interviewed with the aim of checking the validity of the answers given to the questionnaire.

The fourth stage is the collection and analysis of the information. A proper analysis of the data will show whether the study carried out has been successful in identifying the specific information needs of users and their response to existing services and will also show if there is a need for overhauling services or establishing new ones.

Data analysis should be carried out carefully, since it is not possible to arrive at valid conclusions on the basis of the results alone if the predetermined aims have not been kept in mind throughout all stages of the study. The conclusions can be invalidated by an ill-chosen sample, the interpretation given to the questionnaires, badly conducted interviews or the method of data analysis.

3. CONCLUSIONS

3.1 The university library plays an active role in the information transfer process and, if it is to fulfil this role effectively, it should begin by making a study of needs. A systematic study of information needs, yielding a thorough knowledge of their nature, can be regarded as one of the most important outcomes of user studies.

3.2 For services to be properly planned, it is first necessary to identify the information needs of users and the degree to which these needs are met; the latter is a factor that should not be taken for granted but should be checked through user studies.

3.3 The library will be unable to satisfy users' information needs completely if there is no user feedback. Library staff should not expect that feedback will always be initiated by users, but should rather take the lead by introducing new policies and procedures when an unsatisfied need is perceived. User studies are extremely useful in this process.

3.4 The users' skill or ability in the use of information sources or resources affects their response to the library system in the information retrieval process. It is therefore important that the university library should provide user instruction courses geared to the different types of users. Reliable guidelines for carrying out such courses effectively can only be obtained from the studies described in this paper.

3.5 In general, it can be said that user studies are a valuable and necessary activity; however, to be useful they should be carried out using an appropriate methodology to ensure proper data collection and analysis. The results of such studies should be examined objectively and critically.

3.6 As we have seen throughout this paper, user studies are of great importance and are necessary for the development of the library system and, consequently, the education system. Library staff in Colombia have understood this, and a number of efforts have been made in this direction which, in association with a proper methodology, should be instrumental in achieving very valuable results.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

ALEKSANDROVICZ, I.A. Contribution to Research on Information User Needs. In: A.I. Mikhailow (ed.) Problems of Information User Needs, pp. 148-162. Moscow, International Federation for Documentation. Study Research on Theoretical Basis of Information (FID/Rl), 1973.

CONFERENCIA IBEROAMERICANA SOBRE INFORMACION Y DOCUMENTACION CIENTIFICA Y TECHNOLOGICA (Madrid, 1978). Actas/Reuneber 1978. Madrid, Instituto de Información y Documentación en Ciencia y Technología, 1979. 339 pp.

CORBETT, Edmund V. Fundamentals of Library Organization and Administration: A Practical Guide. London, Library Association, c. 1978. 291 pp.

CUBA, B. Documentation and Information: Services, Techniques and Systems. Calcutta, World Press Private Limited, 1978. 369 pp.

EVANS, A.J.; RHODES, R.G.; KEENAN, S. Education and Training of Users of Scientific and Technical Information. UNISIST Guide for Teachers. Paris, Unesco, 1977. 113 pp.

KNHITACHEL, F. Information Requirements as a Basis for the Planning of Information Activities. In: A.I. Mikhailov (ed.), Problems of Information User Needs, pp. 43-61. Moscow, International Federation for Documentation, Study Research on Theoretical Basis of Information (FID/RI), 1973.

REGENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. Library Services: A Statement of Policy and Proposed Action. Albany, The State Education Department, 1970. 34 pp.

RODRIGUEZ, Fernando. Las Necesidades de información y el conocimiento de su uso, entre docentes y alumnos de la Universidad de Concepción de Chile. In: Memoria/3 Congreso Regional sobre Documentacao e IIa. Reuniao de FID/CLA, pp. 216-244. Lima, El Congreso, 1971.

VIDOVIC, D. Reflections on the Relationship Between User and Information Workers. In: A.I. Mikhailov (ed.), Problems of Information User Needs, pp. 3242. Moscow, International Federation for Documentation, Study Research on Theoretical Basis of Information (FID/RI), 1973.

Articles in periodical publications

CARVALHO, Abigail de Oliveira. Biblioteca universitaria: estudo de usuario. Revista Escola Biblioteconomía de UIMG, 5(2), September 1976, pp. 117-137.

FORD, Geoffrey. Research in User Behaviour in University Libraries. Journal of Documentation (London), 29(l), May 1973, pp. 85-106.

LANCASTER, H.W. User Education: The Next Major Thrust in Information Science. Journal of Documentation for Librarianship (Philadelphia), 11, Summer 1970, pp. 55-63.

MANN, Peter H. Communication about Books to Undergraduates. Aslib Proceedings (London), 26(6), June 1974, pp. 250-256.

MASTERSON, A.J. User of Libraries: A comparative Study. -Journal of Librarianship (London), 6(2), April 1974, pp. 63-79.

ROBERTS, Norman. Draft Definitions. Information on Library Needs, Wants, Demand and Uses: A Comment. Aslib Proceedings, 27(7), July 1975, pp. 308-313.

ROTH, Dana L. Las necesidades de los usuarios de las bibliotecas. Boletín de la Unesco para las Bibliotecas (Paris), 28(2), March-April 1974, pp. 99-102.

RZASA, Philip V. and MORIARTY, John H. The Types and Needs of Academic Library Users. A Case-study of 6,568 Responses. College and Research Libraries (Chicago), 31(6), 1970, pp. 403-409.

TOBIN, Jaine Culver. A Study of Library 'Use Studies'. Information Storage and Retrieval, 10(3-4), March-April 1974, pp. 101-113.

TURNER, Stephen J.A. Formula for Stimulating Collection Use. College and Research Libraries (Chicago), 38(3), November 1977, pp. 509-513.

WOOD, D.N. User Studies: A Review of the Literature from 1966-1970. Aslib Proceedings (London), 23(1), 1971, pp. 11-23.

Discovering the User and His Information Needs, Aslib Proceedings (London), 21(7), July 1969, pp. 262-270.

<<TOC4>> 3.6 Marketing

<<TOC5>> Marketing in information work

by Gladys ADDA

'Information is a perishable product which can be costed and marketed.

It can be bought, sold, produces a yield and is subject to economic laws.'

A. David

Definition

The concept of marketing is relatively new. In former times of scarcity, firms were chiefly concerned with improving production techniques and solving supply problems. In today's society of plenty, the vital concern is demand, the consumer, the final user.

Marketing covers a wider field than market research, with which it is often confused.

There is however nothing extraordinary about it; the caravan route traders and Venetian merchants of the thirteenth century had an instinctive sense of marketing, for which our contemporaries have provided a theoretical basis.

1. THE MARKETING FUNCTION IN AN INFORMATION AND DOCUMENTATION SERVICE

The purpose of a SID  is to manufacture products and/or create services designed for a given user population.

The marketing function of a SID is in fact its commercial function. It is not enough to manufacture products; they must also find a buyer, and to do this they must satisfy an expressed or latent need.

In this respect professional documentalists, librarians and archivists have developed on the same lines as business managers. Preoccupied, not to say obsessed, by technological progress, they have lost sight of the user; yet it is the user who is the raison d'être of documentation services, libraries and archives. The result, even in countries with limited resources, is the paradoxical situation that despite the existence of expensive and often sophisticated facilities, users' needs are far from being met.

It is a dialogue of the deaf.

During the past few years there has thus been increasingly acute awareness of the need to maximize the return on the investments required for the creation, expansion and operation of a SID, in other words:

1.1 Optimal efficiency.
1.2 High use and consultation rates.
1.3 The highest possible rate of user satisfaction.

Well-planned marketing can contribute to some extent to the attainment of these three vital goals.

2. THE SCOPE OF A SID'S MARKETING FUNCTION

2.1 In advance of production:

2.1.1 The fullest possible knowledge of the parent institution (ministry, firm, research department, research centre, university, etc.). The data concerning the institution should be constantly updated (nature of activity, objectives, structure, staffing, budget, etc.). Using all the information gathered, an initial outline can be made of the documentary field to be covered.

2.1.2 Knowledge of the user population to be served and their needs.

This involves analysing needs, both quantitatively - how many? and qualitatively - who? (situation, function) - what? (focus of interest, form) when? (frequency) - where? (in the case of decentralized institutions). Needs should be analysed with respect not only to individuals but also, above all, to groups (decision-makers, specialized departments, research teams, students, teachers, etc.). Account should be taken of both expressed and latent, both present and potential needs. Demand should be anticipated, and forward plans made for the future service to be provided.

USERS

Quantitative and qualitative analysis of their needs

WHO	?	
HOW MANY	?	
WHERE	?	
WHAT	?	
HOW	?	
WHEN	?	

A knowledge of users also implies knowledge of their behaviour in respect of information, documentalists, and generally speaking, the SID in question:

- How do they gain information?
- Do they know that the SID exists and are they aware of the services it can make available to them?

The capacity to absorb information is limited, and varies from individual to individual (depending for example on the level of education, situation, and type of occupation). A knowledge of users will help to achieve a clearer definition and better demarcation of the documentary field. It will condition the establishment of interest profiles which will guide the activity of the documentalist at all levels of the documentary chain (acquisitions, abstracts, indexing, etc.). Profiles should, however, never be permanent, especially in countries where the mobility of executive staff brings about changes in their focus of interest, hence in their information needs.

Profiles should therefore be constantly updated. This will only be possible with the introduction of a continuing dialogue between documentalists and users, which will bring the former out from their ivory tower and end the latters' lack of confidence and misgivings in respect of documentation services, creating new habits and behaviour which will be irreversible.

USERS
ANALYSIS OF THEIR NEEDS
QUANTITATIVE	
Present  Potential	
QUALITATIVE
ANALYSIS OF THEIR BEHAVIOUR	
in respect of	(information
(documentalist
(the SID	

2.1.3 A knowledge of the documentary environment, whether at the sectoral, national, regional or international level.

This means knowing who does what, how and at what cost. This will reveal what part of the documentary field is already covered elsewhere.

This approach will make it possible to define a policy of co-operation and exchange with other SIDs: nothing should be done which is being done, and better done, elsewhere. It will also govern any decision to become part of a network at any level.

2.2 After production.

2.2.1 Promotion of the SID by a publicity campaign:

Countless documentation services are unknown to the public or even to colleagues working in the same institution. Documentalists should have no false modesty. If they are confined to a 'ghetto' because others fail to appreciate their activity, it is for them to break out of the ghetto. They should seize every opportunity to make themselves known and publicize the services they can render. They must advertise their services, and do it in an intelligent way to create a user-friendly image of their activity.

Publicity may take the form of brochures, notices placed where they will be seen by the most people, personalized letters, specially organized meetings between documentalists and users, and so on.

2.2.2 Selling the product. As noted above, it is not enough to manufacture products or create services; they must also be 'sold' to the consumer.

The analyses described above have as their first objective that of producing the goods and creating the services which meet the needs of the SID's 'customers'.

The second objective is to establish distribution procedures which are adapted to these customers:

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P286.PNG Figure 

What will be for general distribution? For distribution by profile?

Will the service be open to the public or reserve to particular customers? In the latter case, which customers? Will it be paid for or free? What will be the rules of access, for loans?, etc.

The answers to all these questions come under the marketing function.

3. INVESTIGATION METHODS

In the analysis of needs different techniques can be used.

3.1 Questionnaires may be sent to users (actual or potential), but it is preferable to proceed by interview and direct contact, with a questionnaire used as background material for discussion.

3.2 Through the activity of the service.

The statistics collected are merely an indication, as they reflect only the demand which has been expressed, and only that expressed by the users of the service. Moreover, they do not reveal the degree to which the need is satisfied.

3.3 Through a dialogue between the SID and the users, which should be a continuing one.

The documentalist should seize every opportunity for dialogue, for example when a request is made for documentation, a new periodical published or new material launched.

Conclusion

While it is important to 'produce' in response to a need, the cost is also important. Even if services are free, the cost of operating them, and their cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit must be a constant concern of documentalists, in both private and public institutions.

It will thus be seen that the marketing function is far from being a minor or easy one. On the contrary, it is a complex function in that it simultaneously takes into account factors which are endogenous to the institution for which the documentalists work and factors which are exogenous to it. It is multidisciplinary, involving psychology, sociology, and economics and so on.

We cannot conclude this paper without warning documentalists of the dangers inherent in some forms of market research. Their findings may be frustrating in cases where they reveal needs which cannot possibly be satisfied for lack of human and/or financial resources.

Yet these findings will provide sound arguments for stating one's case, negotiating, and obtaining the desired resources. The problem for any official responsible for a SID is how to strike the right balance between needs and resources.

We hope we have convinced documentalists of the importance of the marketing function. Even if they lack the means of carrying out or commissioning market research, in the true sense of the term, they should instinctively have 'marketing reflexes' if they are to perform their work satisfactorily, and they should be able to review the situation continually in the light of changing environmental or user trends.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

COMPILED BY JALILA AYARI

A.D.B.S. Manuel du Bibliothécaire - Documentaliste, 1977.

ALLEN (T.J.). Organisational aspects of information flow in technology, Aslib Proceedings, 11, 1968, November.

ATHERTON (P.) UNESCO. Handbook for information systems and services, 1977.

BENEST (B.J.) La promotion du service de documentation d'entreprise, in: Documentaliste, Vol. 13, No. 2, March-April 1976.

BOUILLUT (Jean), BRETEAU (Claude). Psycho-Sociologie expérimentale de la consultation: étude sur une miniature de l'expression des demandes en documentation. Paris, 1963. Laboratoire de psychologie sociale. 230 pp. Mimeograph.

Colloque International sur l'information documentaire dans les chemins de fer, Paris du 11 au 13 Décembre 1968 (compte rendu publié par l'Union Internationale des Chemins de fer). [voir notamment: AMERIO (M.), SPRING (M.), PAILLARD (M.)] Rapport traitant du thème No 1 'les besoins en information des Administrations ferroviaires; les différents niveaux de l'information'.

CRANE (D.). The Nature of Scientific Communication and Influence, International Social Science Journal, XXII, etc., 1970, No. 1, pp. 30-45.

DAVID (A.). Recherche des besoins des utilisateurs de l'information. Communication présentée au colloque franco-polonais '1’ Information pour l'Industrie'. Warsaw, 11-13 March 1967.

DAVID (A.). Barrières au transfert efficace de l'information pour les besoins de l'industrie. Communication to the Conference on Engineering Information in Developing Countries. Cairo, 22-26 April 1974.

DAVID (A.). Organisation d'un centre de documentation. E.N.A., Tunis, 1977.

DUGAS (M.). Le problème de la communication entre services de documentation spécialisés et utilisateurs. Communication to the 32nd Conference of the F.I.D., The Hague, 19-24 September 1966.

DUGAS (M.). Un modèle de réflexion sur les communications entre utilisateurs et unité de documentation (communication présentée au 2ème colloque franco-polonais (Paris du 15 au 17 Octobre 1968), ANRT, Information et Documentation, 1970, No. 2, Juin 1977-1987.

DUGAS (M.). La science de l'information et l'administration de la recherche, Chimie et Industrie Génie Chimique, 103 (1970), No. 5, 1-8 March.

DUGAS (M.). Information et documentation dans le cadre de la formation permanente. Exposé fait dans le cadre des journées ADER 1971. ANRT, Recherche technique, 1972, No. 100 27-31 January-February.

DUGAS (M.). Innovation et transfert des connaissances, CBI information, 1973, No. 4, Janvier. Lettre de la compagnie des conseils en brevets d'invention.

FISHENDEN (R.M.). Information use studies. Part 1. Past results and future needs. Journal of Documentation, September 1965, pp. 163-169.

FISHENDEN (R.M.). Methods by which research workers find information. Communication to the International conference on scientific information. Washington, 16-21 November 1958.

FLAMENT (C.) Réseaux de communication et structures de groupe. - Paris: Dunod, 1965. - 196 pp.

GETSBERGER (P.G.); ALLEN (T.J.). Criteria used by research and development engineers in the selection of an information source. Journal of Applied Psychology, 52, 1978, No. 4, pp. 272-9.

JUSTEAU (J-J). Objectifs et méthodes de marketing. - Dunod. Paris, 1974.

MALLEN (Marie Christine). Une méthode pour l'étude des besoins des utilisateurs: l'enquète par questionnaire in Documentaliste, Vol. 11, No. 4, December 1974.

MENOU (M.); GUINCHAT (C.). UNESCO. Teaching package for a general introduction to information and documentation, draft outline, 1978.

MYERS (J.M.). Industrial Communications: theory and practice, proceedings of the Sheffield Conference of the Institute of Information Scientists, 23-25 July 1978.

SANLAVILLE (J.). Chef du service gestion et coordination documentaire. Pechiney Ugine K. Adaptation de la documentation aux besoins des utilisateurs. ANRT Information et documentation, December 1975, No. 4.

SCHWOB (R.). De la Science à l'industrie par la recherche technique, transfert et diffusion des connaissances, Note de Synthèse de la journée Annuelle d'information de l'ANRT, 4 December 1968. ANRT, Recherche Technique, 1970, No. 89, March-April, pp. 21-7.

VALLET-GARDELLE (M.C.). Les Besoins et comportements documentaires des usagers d'un service de documentation de recherche spécialisé en psychologie sociale, Bulletin des Bibliothèques de France, 1970, No. 6, pp. 287-302.

YATES (B.). The Pilkington technical communication system, a formalisation of the role of the 'Technological Gatekeeper'. Aslib Proceedings, 22, 1970, No. 10, October, pp. 507-10.

<<TOC3>> 4. Organization and control

<<TOC4>> 4.1 Organization and communication

<<TOC5>> Organisational structure and communication

THE TERM 'organisation' relates to a system by which departments and units are controlled and coordinated, resulting in an administrative structure, through which authority is delegated and control is exercised, and the performance of tasks (eg elements of library service). All libraries, in fact, have a formal system of administration, that is a set of rules regulating such matters as the division of labour, responsibility and power between members, the use of defined channels and procedures of communication, the selection, promotion, discharge and payment of staff. Parallel with this runs an informal system of behaviour and organisation, sometimes extending, sometimes modifying, the formal system.

The importance of organisation as a subject for study and control by the administrative librarian can be seen from a statement, issued by the Association of Research Libraries, in which the organisation of the library is seen as the 'librarian's primary management tool for focussing and directing the talents and energies of staff to deliver services to fulfil programme objectives. It is also a means of balancing and coordinating work effort and for channelling internal and external communications and relationships' (ARL 31).

Two basic elements are implicitly contained in definitions of 'organisation' presented in the above paragraphs. One is the basis of organisation, or departmentalisation - the division of work for production or service purposes. The other is the form of organisation which establishes lines of authority for supervision, in other words the structure of control mechanisms. Both elements require attention and analysis before relating them to considerations of communication.

Bases of organisation

Divisionalisation is a means of dividing up a library into small and flexible units so as to facilitate its administration and to accommodate peculiarities relating to stock (eg a large donated collection which has to be maintained as a separate unit). Admittedly, the ideal or logical method of division does not always prevail. Other factors affecting the departmentalisation of a library include size, ability of staff, accident and relation to other neighbouring libraries. The ways in which library stock and services have been divided up are, however, basically six in number:

1 function (acquisitions, lending, etc)
2 activity or process (orders, repairs, etc)
3 form of material (serials, rare books, etc)
4 clientele (adult, children, etc)
5 geography (branches, outlying sections)
6 subject.

It seems apparent that departmentalisation will continue to be the basis of organisation for libraries, although change is likely to alter the relative grouping and importance of the patterns of specialisation. Thus it is possible to envisage the grouping of subject departments with reader service sub-divisions to form a public service department, as is recommended for large public libraries by INTAMEL. The latter body lists library services under three general headings: administrative services, technical services and public services (Intamel 259). Such a listing could, of course, be applied to other types of libraries, such as academic and national libraries, where an important addition to 'public services' would be a research unit or research/information officer.

It is possible to argue the advantages of various bases of organisational division. Thus the arrangement recommended by INTAMEL might be said to provide better coordination of departments, reduce costs and allow the work of the three main divisions to proceed more smoothly than with an alternative form of arrangement. However, all libraries are unique in so far as they provide or develop organisational peculiarities and varying characteristics. Furthermore, various bases of organisation or combinations of divisions are probably most practically applicable to individual libraries, to accommodate local differences relating to stock, required services and available staff. Irrespective of the bases on which libraries are divided and subdivided, effective organisation and service requires not only a grouping that provides for homogeneity of one or more types but also a suitable form of administrative structure and the realistic and flexible utilisation of this structure in all forms of staff relations.

Form of organisation

The organisational division of stock and services, necessary for the manageable workings of a library, creates the problem of coordinating and controlling these activities or divisions so as to establish uniformities in service and the achievement of library goals. Out of the attempt to solve such problems of divisionalisation and integration develop the structure and formal relationships among persons of varying administrative levels. This administrative structure, relating to staff and positions and establishing lines of authority for supervision and control, can vary just as much as the bases of organisation or departmentalisation

In relation to companies it is usual to identify four principal types of administrative structure:

1 Line organisation

This is basically a simple structure, a pyramid of several horizontal levels. Responsibility and control stem directly from general manager to superintendent to foreman to workers. Staff at each level report to supervisors at the next level above and each level of supervisors pass down instructions to the next level below. It is closely linked to the concept of central administration, which emphasises concentration of directive processes in the hands of very few people, and clearly defined patterns of activity. Such a form of organisation may be suitable for an organisation performing basically routine production functions but in an organisation such as a library, employing numerous professional persons, it could stifle initiative and creativity, especially in the face of changes or unique emergency situations, involving as it does limited participation by most employees in the formulation of service goals and coordination of effort.

2 Line and staff organisation

As companies become larger they become more complex and top executives can no longer be responsible for such different functions as research, engineering, planning, distribution and other activities requiring training and experience. Accordingly, executives and supervisors retain authority and control over activities in their particular departments but this line function is aided by staff assistance from engineers, personnel officers and other specialists. This development has been witnessed in libraries. Division or department heads have in the past normally combined line duties with staff duties. The tendency in large libraries is to split off auxiliary staff functions and assign them to staff of a comparable or lesser status responsible directly to the chief librarian (possibly through the deputy). Examples relate to personnel officers; administrative assistants; supervisory office staff in charge of general accounting, supplies, salaries and so on (eg University of Michigan Library); and display or exhibitions assistants (eg Luton Public Library— responsible to the chief assistant). Such persons do not form part of the authority structure in the sense of being responsible for a number of other staff (except where, as in the case of the University of Michigan Library, he heads a department of his own), although of course they are themselves responsible to a person above them. Largely they assist the line executive in the performance of his function, their authority being an extension of their superior's.

3 Functional organisation

This structure is an extension of the line and staff organisation. More attention is given to specialised skills, mainly at the supervisory level. One foreman may serve as the production boss to meet quotas, another as inspector and a third may be responsible for maintenance. In libraries this type of organisation is sometimes known as 'service' organisation and is usually linked to line and staff organisation. Thus in Britain many county libraries have county or area librarians responsible for services such as work with children and young people, music, and so on. A similar type of organisation exists in Camden Public Libraries where services include reference, bibliographical, music and children. The disadvantage of the functional system of organisation is that it mars the clear-cut lines of authority and responsibility of the line organisation, be they rigid or flexible. In the libraries referred to service staff intercede in the traditional pattern of librarian-deputy-branch superintendent/regional librarian-branch librarian, having responsibility for, say, music services in the branches as well as at hq. The advantage of such an organisation, of course, is that gains are made in terms of facilitating more specialised work performance and supervision.

4 Group or committee organisation

Some large companies, such as DuPont and General Motors, construct a network of committees to work with the line and staff organisation in order to facilitate communication involving decision making. A similar arrangement is evident in the academic administration of universities. Here committees or groups may be permanent and meet regularly or they may be organised to serve a temporary function only. This type of organisation has not generally been adopted by libraries, save in so far as it is possible to designate temporary working groups (eg Luton Public Libraries - service to teenagers) and regular staff meetings as this type of organisation.

As with bases of organisation, the form of organisation most prevalent in libraries is a combination of different elements, largely a combination of line (flexible) and staff plus elements of functional organisation. The latter combined form of organisation and any single form of organisation, such as group or committee, can be applied to any of the bases of organisation or departmentalisation such as function or clientele, or a combined form of such bases. Thus it can be said that Luton Public Library exhibits the following organisational characteristics:

Base of organisation or departmentalisation - function, plus clientele, plus geography, plus subject.

Form of organisation - line and staff, plus group or committee.

Just as there is no right or best base of organisation for all libraries, so is there no right or best form of organisation to march a particular base. One evident tendency in libraries is for larger ones to adopt the more flexible and expansive bases and forms, namely function regrouped into technical services and reader services divisions, or subject, and line and staff combined with functional and group. In this limited sense it is possible to say that a combination appears to be correct, or the most advantageous organisation for large libraries employing numbers of professional staff, but to go further would necessitate introducing rather meaningless generalisations relating to organisation and libraries.

Similarly, it cannot be said that any one organisation (base plus form) is conducive to good stall communication and other elements of administration, although certain qualifications can be introduced to amend this statement. Thus the geographic base of organisation is probably less conducive to good staff communication than other bases. Due to physical separation of library units over a wide area, communication between the individual units will most likely be less than communication between hq departments. This is not to say that library services in such a system will be less efficient than in a library with a functional organisational base, since much depends on the quality and enthusiasm of administrative staff, but certainly communication will be more difficult and hence perhaps less effective.

So far as form of organisation is concerned, it can be said that the line is efficient in terms of communication within certain limits. Such a system traditionally witnesses information going up the hierarchical structure and orders going down it. Rigidly organised, such communications would pass up and down in an efficient manner. However, the rigid line would stifle communication outside the formally accepted or specified limits and this could be disadvantageous to work involving creative thought and effort. Designed to be rational and logical, and to keep the human factor to a minimum, the rigid line organisation is liable to fail when faced with the irrational and emotional aspects of organisational life; designed to deal with the predictable, the routine, the typical, it is weak when confronted by the unforeseeable, the unusual and the illogical.

Many libraries and other professional organisations have a noticeable horizontal structure for communication and all administrative purposes. Hence it might be said that a line and staff form of organisation is more suited to libraries than is a rigid line form and that such a form is more conducive to general staff communication necessary in an organisation such as a library. There are elements of truth, in this. But it would be much harder to differentiate between line and staff, functional and group forms or organisation, or various combinations of them, in terms of communication and administrative effectiveness. Similar considerations apply to judgements between bases of organisation (excluding geography) and to links between individual forms and bases.

Considering libraries in general, a more realistic statement relating to communication and organisational base and form would appear to be as follows:

Communications flourish and work most effectively in libraries with flexible forms of organisation, not handicapped by difficult bases of organisation such as geographic division, where the form of organisational or administrative structure is utilised through conscious effort by good administrative staff dealing with personnel arranged in reasonably sized groupings.

Since libraries are not generally organised for optimal communication but for other purposes or due to other forces, such as the desire to maintain an authority structure and the demands of specialisation. and service, attention must obviously be paid to organisational base and form in any study of communication. The basic elements in the statement presented above will now be examined.

Flexible form of organisation

Some form of compromise is necessary between excessive rigidity, which can stifle creative communication and excessive flexibility, which can result in disorganisation and ineffective administrative efforts. Some authority and control structure is needed in any library or other type of organisation Some system of formal structure is necessary in a library to provide direction of staff work, in the performance of library services, and general control during occasions of dispute or difficulty. Without some authority structure and rules work may be impeded due to lack of understanding relating to individual responsibilities and lack of directional control.

Such an authority structure does not necessarily stifle initiative or creative work. Indeed, some formal structure is necessary to encourage the display of initiative and direct and utilise its occurrence. Furthermore, since libraries employ non-professional as well as professional staff, a certain pyramidal structure is necessary to regulate such staff whose activities are not based on professional consultation but rather the issue and receipt of orders. Thus, lo facilitate the work performance of varying groups in a library, the administrative structure, incorporating levels of authority and communication channels, should be designed so as to seek a balance between a too rigid and a too flexible system.

Flexible systems of communication must, as was indicated by Fayol (Fayol 34-5), be formal in the sense that they are provided for and recognised in statements or understandings of communication policy and practice. Two preconditions or prerequisites for intercommunication are 1 a relationship and 2 mutually understood rules and/or roles for enabling and regulating the transaction (Thayer, 1968 - 95). In a formal communication system such relationships and understood rules and/or roles should be administratively recognised and outlined, preferably in written statements, and not solely established and utilised by individuals according to their abilities and interests. This is not to argue that channels of communication should strictly adhere to lines of authority in a formal and rigid administrative structure but that departures from such adherence should be recognised by administrators and some effort made to define and approve the directions and degrees of departure from the basic lines of authority that are thought to be justified and reasonable. Hence the wider, more flexible, system of communication channels can still be thought of as adhering to lines of authority and responsibility in the administrative structure, even though not all links are shown on the library's basic organisation chart.

The process of communication involves the flow of material, information, perceptions and understanding between various parts and members of an organisation The major channels of formal communication will be determined by the organisational structure of the library. If, however, communication channels depart too far from the organisational channels provided, authority and responsibility in the library may be impaired and certain persons with established positions in the formal structure may find themselves bypassed, thus reducing their information flows and possibly affecting their abilities to perform their jobs adequately. It is true that communication channels are in part deliberately planned, growing through usage, and in part develop in response to the social functions of communication. Formal communication, however, should not depart in undue degree from established channels. Provided that the structure of such channels does indeed develop through usage in a realistic manner for the needs of the library staff, this formal structure should prove adequate and not be subverted by spontaneous arrangements between groups of staff.

Good administrative staff

The subject of good senior staff, that is staff responsive to the requirements of the library, enthusiastic and cooperative, is more fully dealt with in a later chapter on aids and hindrances to communication. Here attention is drawn to the necessity of administrative staff possessing the ability to provide the library with a sound formal structure and to encourage the utilisation of communication channels by patient attention and example. An attitude of cooperation library staff requires that each person have a sense of responsibility towards his work and that of the library in general. This in turn requires adequate levels of information and advice relating to functions and everyday tasks. To encourage each staff member to experience this feeling of awareness and responsibility obviously requires effort on the part of those whose jobs include the communication of information to groups of staff.

Continuous attention to communication, providing staff with examples of the administrator's interest in communication and related facets of personnel regulation and his own belief in communication, will help convince staff of that person's sincerity and the importance of communication. It can be disastrous to simply pay lip service to communication. Should staff become aware of this, it could have more damaging effects on attitudes and morale than the mere non-existence of communication channels or the non-utilisation of provided channels. Attention to communication can on occasions be reflected in an attitude of concern and demonstrations of opinion that all is not as it should be. This in turn will help focus staff attention on problems and indicate that communication and the library administrative structure to which it is linked is not perfect but a growing system, adaptable to new requirements and changing circumstances.

Other attitudes that are conducive to effective communication include a friendly disposition, an interested attitude displaying knowledge and concern with staff problems, a helpful attitude attempting to deal creatively with slat! requests or difficulties, a questioning attitude that indicates a willingness to learn as well as direct and an approachable attitude making it easy for people to reach and communicate directly with the administrator.

Whether the chief librarian retains specific responsibilities in relation to staff' selection, job descriptions, staff training and so on, or has delegated such areas of' administrative activity to other senior staff, it is certain that his communicative pattern is likely to affect the communication pattern of the whole library, irrespective of' the mere existence of channels of communication. Although he may have delegated prime responsibility for communication study and control to his deputy or personnel officer, it is probably true to say that his effect on the communication pattern will still be greater than that of any other person. This is because he is the head of the library hierarchy whose administrative structure and workings take form and directions from his office. In a large library, that is one with a staff of over one hundred, it is desirable for a senior member of the administrative staff, say, the chief assistant to have clearly identifiable personnel duties and that part of that person's stated responsibilities lie in the field of staff communication. Whether such an arrangement is or is not made, however, the attitudes and efforts of other senior staff, not the least the librarian, condition the effectiveness of communication.

Reasonably sized groupings

The question of personnel arrangement in reasonably sized groupings focuses attention on the number of people or links in a particular hierarchical level (say, the level of departmental heads) and on the numbers of persons in particular departments. The first aspect has already been touched on. Considerations of the span of control relate to the immediate command of an administrator or supervisor (ie the group of staff he makes immediately accountable to him) and the extended command (ie all the employees under his control - in the case of the chief librarian, all staff; in the case of, say, the head of technical services. all staff in the accessions, cataloguing, circulation and photographic departments).

The size of the immediate command is a more important consideration, size of the extended command usually being dependent upon the former. A restricted span of control inevitably produces excessive red tape for each contact between library members must be carried upward until a common superior is found. If the organisation is large this will involve carrying all such matters upward through several levels of officials for decision and then downward again in the form of orders and instructions. The alternative is to increase the number of persons who are under the command of each supervisor, so that the pyramid will come to a peak more rapidly, there being fewer intervening levels. This too can lead to difficulty, however, for if a superior or head of department is required to supervise too many employees his control over them is weakened.

The span of command is a relatively unimportant consideration in small libraries, even those employing up to fifty persons, since the services required (eg reference, children) will usually be instrumental in breaking up the staff into small groups under professional librarians responsible for the various staff groupings. Secondly, the span can vary from organisation to organisation Thus in industry, where comparatively routine tasks are geared to mass production, spans larger than twenty are common and realistic. Libraries, geared to more creative and intellectual work and service, will correspondingly demand small spans. Thirdly, even if it is possible to enunciate ideal spans, the practicality of such sizes would be affected by the individuals in charge; individuals' knowledge and energies vary as well as their set duties and time available. Fourthly, a supervisor will find it more difficult to control a large number of departments or services performing different functions than a corresponding number performing similar functions. Thus a librarian might find it possible to supervise fifteen branch libraries whereas it would prove impossible to. supervise such a number of hq departments with different functions.

Much discussion has surrounded the size of the span of control as related to industry (see McAnally 454-5). In 1943 E W and John McDiarmid reported the span of control in thirty two public libraries. In twenty seven of the thirty two libraries from fifteen to sixty four branches reported directly to the administrator (McDiarmid 105). In 1959 G E Gscheidle surveyed sixteen American public libraries and found most spans over fifteen (Gscheidle 440-1) and identified a trend of decreasing the span of control for top administrators through the creation of major divisions and/or coordinative positions under the direction of top level personnel.

The most prevalent span of control in libraries examined for this study ranges from six to ten. The span of thirteen professional heads reporting to the deputy at University College, Cardiff, Library seems an unusually high number. Luton Public Library has eight professional heads reporting to the deputy through the chief assistant and this number seems more typical. The trend toward decrease in America reported by G E Gscheidle has been mirrored in Britain. An example of this trend is to be seen in Nottingham Public Libraries. As part of a re-organisation programme begun in 1969. eighteen branch libraries have been divided into four groups on a topographical basis, each under the authority of a group librarian.

Optimum sizes of groups, persons working in a particular department under one head, vary according to the considerations given to span of control over supervisors at a particular hierarchical level. C I Barnard stipulated that the effective optimum size of a group should not be over fifteen; for many types of cooperation five or six persons is the practical limit (Barnard 106). In libraries similar figures apply as to the more general question of span of control. The number of persons working in each department of a library is often quite small. In University College, Cardiff, Library, for example, numbers range from one to six only. In Luton Public Library numbers range from one to eighteen. Two additional departments at Luton display higher numbers but are subject to particular considerations. The lending library has a staff of thirty nine, but sixteen of these are nonprofessional staff serving the circulation area and come under the immediate control of a circulation supervisor. The branch libraries department has forty four staff but here the staff is split between branch, mobile and hospital library sections, each with sectional heads.

The figures quoted in relation to span of control and groupings of staff in individual departments indicate that communications in libraries are not inhibited by large departments or unworkable extensions of command as is sometimes the case in industry. On the contrary, staff groupings appear to be geared to effective communication and this condition of effective communication may result if administrators direct their attention to forms of organisation, the communication channels which are closely linked to such forms and the actual performance of communication within the library.

Direction

The remaining sections of this chapter will be devoted to further description and analysis of the actual directions in which formal communication flows. If a library's distribution of staff authority and responsibility is not to be subverted, formal communication, relating to library work and less frequently library policy, should follow channels established in practice as being reasonable and consistent with library activities and authority distribution. The actual amount of communication flowing through such channels will depend on a number of factors.

Most communication, save an indeterminate amount of mass communication, is exchanged between persons grouped in relatively stable units. Applying this statement to staff communication, it can be said that much communication. motivated by work requirements, will take place within a department in which a person works, since the other people in the department are within easy physical access and purpose-related work activities. A qualifying factor, of course, is that we tend to communicate with people who are most likely to help us to satisfy our needs and that we may turn more readily to a friend or superior who displays a 'helpful attitude' than to someone who may be better qualified to help but who is personally less attractive and less cooperative.

Communication between departments will tend to be affected by similar considerations of physical distance, related activities and personal attitudes. Large departments, such as a cataloguing department, will tend to be self-sufficient so far as work is concerned and hence its staff will engage in less interdepartmental communication than members of smaller departments or sections. The flow and volume of communication implied in such a statement will, however, be modified by other factors such as geographic separation and personal feelings.

Direction: Down

The term 'down' should really be taken to imply downward and outward' because in most libraries there is a dimension of geographic separation between hq and branches or outlying departments, just as there is a hierarchical distance below staff at various administrative levels. The concept of orders passing down and -information passing up the administrative structure, which is linked to rigid line systems, can be discounted in libraries. Administrative structures in libraries are usually more flexible, much more contact between staff and departments being in the form of professional consultation rather than the direct issuing of orders or transmission of information.

Communication directly stemming from the librarian deserves emphasis because of its volume and because he is top of the chain of communication links, setting the pattern for what occurs below him. Yet if they are to be of value to the library staff, in the sense of providing useful information and direction for the pursuit of library activities, the librarian's communications will obviously be related to upward communication. He must receive adequate information and impressions himself about physical resources and his staff's capabilities and progress. He may tend to communicate more with his deputy and senior administrative staff than the rest of the library staff, especially so far as oral communication is concerned. Nevertheless, he should attempt to keep in personal contact. say, through staff meetings, with all sections of his staff. In this manner he will, it is true, be communicating with groups rather than randomly chosen individuals but by employing such methods he is still coming into contact with individual members of his staff. A senior member of staff in one British university library remarked to the author that ‘the librarian himself deals only with his deputy and sub-librarians, unless forced to come into contact with lesser mortals'. In a large system much responsibility for communication will be delegated to the deputy and senior staff but in such a case as that quoted, the librarian is obviously ignoring his own communication responsibilities.

Much responsibility for communication will be delegated to senior staff or heads of departments. They will, or should, be passing on to their own staff information and ideas passed to them by the librarian or other members of staff superior in rank to themselves In this way they will be facilitating the downward flow of communication throughout the system, supplementing direct contacts that the librarian has with groups of staff or individuals at various levels. Sometimes the head of a department may merely be required to distribute duplicated memoranda or copies of a staff news sheet to his staff. On other occasions he will be reporting to them more directly, not only on matters of which he has been asked to inform his staff but also on library and departmental affairs which he thinks would interest his staff or be of particular use to them in their work. In Leeds City Libraries, for example, formal matters such as closing for public holidays and changes in internal routines and regulations are communicated to all staff by means of duplicated memoranda. So far as other matters are concerned, heads of departments and branch librarians are expected to keep their staff informed of interesting developments on a day-to-day basis. Such communication helps to inculcate a sense of participation in library service into all staff.

Downward communication can be scheduled regularly (eg staff meetings) or arise according to daily needs. The most usual types of contents are instructions to perform particular tasks and information (eg concerning staff changes). The sharing of opinions and ideas usually occurs within departments, between the librarian and senior staff or at staff meetings, rather than throughout the library structure as a whole starting from the librarian and reaching down to the junior staff. Finally, formal communication (eg the issuing of orders) is normally done through departmental heads, thus adhering to the authority structure of the library, or to groups of staff following consultation with the department or group head.

Direction: Horizontal

The literature on organisations has traditionally reflected a preoccupation with vertical relations, problems of leadership, authority and control, and a relative neglect of horizontal or lateral relations. In libraries, however, horizontal relations are important since the form of administrative structure in professional organisations is far from being a rigid line hierarchy. In an organisation whose routine work on production functions is suited to a line structure, horizontal communication could be disadvantageous to the system. Routine situations for which there are standard work instructions and well-specified decision points could be disrupted by irrelevant stimuli, such as bits of information transmitted horizontally. Wilfred Brown argues that communication and decision making should be made at the 'cross over' point between two units -  the point at which one man has authority over both units - rather than below it. Otherwise people without sufficient grasp of the total situation and awareness of all the implications will be making decisions or will communicate incomplete and possibly misleading information (W B P Brown).

Such a system, however, would involve delay and a heavy load on vertical communication lines. In addition, it could stifle initiative and shared authority at lower levels. In situations where it is difficult to devise standardised instructions and decisions must be made by people close to the operation, regardless of their rank, horizontal communication is essential. Such situations occur in libraries in, for example, the answering of reference enquiries where certain procedures of method may be laid down but where initiative in, say, contacting other library departments or individuals for assistance, is to be encouraged.

The basic advantage of horizontal communication in a library situation is that it aids coordination of decision making and work among individuals and departments, horizontal communication taking place within a department or organisational unit and between these departments or units. Sometimes coordination in these areas is accomplished or enforced by a common superior (eg a reader services librarian coordinating and controlling lending, reference and interlibrary loan departments) but often a library will rely upon the members of the related units to assume at least some responsibility for this coordination. Such a situation could arise where an administrative librarian or coordinator was alloted too many departments to supervise, ie his span of control was too large. Such is the case in University College, Cardiff, Library where much decision making is made by departmental heads and then reported to the deputy.

Administrative developments in libraries that have encouraged or necessitated an emphasis on horizontal, as opposed to vertical, communication include the development of subject departments, leading to a greater horizontal array of departments than a base developed around the technical services/reader services concept, and the appointment of staff (ie in the 'line and staff' sense) functionally employed. The person functionally employed (eg a display assistant or stock editor) could be responsible to a lending librarian or to the chief himself; there is in theory no clear or obvious line position for him. The appointment of such persons tends to extend the administrative framework horizontally and the type of work performed by such persons obviously involves contacts with numerous departments and individual members of staff. A person functionally employed may be designated administrative responsibilities and his primary function may even be that of communication itself. This type of position has not, however, been common in libraries as it has in industry, where the manager might be assisted by an information assistant, whose tasks are to gather data, issue reports, prepare directives, advise persons and similar communicative functions.

Apart from facilitating the coordination of work and decision making processes, the provision and utilisation of horizontal communication channels in a library has other positive and advantageous effects. It can help to overcome departmental differences or jealousies. This would be particularly advantageous where two or more departments perform related or similar overlapping functions, as for instance at Columbia University, Illinois University and a number of other United States university libraries, where units of the acquisitions department share in the cataloguing function, completely processing added volumes of continuations and serials and doing some simple cataloguing of non-serial works.

Initial disinterested or hostile attitudes between departments could, it is true, tend to perpetuate themselves because they lead to a breakdown of communication. On the other hand, frequent and extensive interaction, flexible interdepartmental contacts and organisational procedures tend to result in favourable attitudes in the working relationship. A work situation which requires extensive horizontal contacts, and an organisational structure that facilitates this, will tend indirectly to create positive attitudes of helpful cooperation. This can be of immediate benefit to individual departments cooperating with each other or to more extensive library cooperation, as may be involved in book selection procedures among all or many departmental heads.

Organisational structure is important. So far as horizontal contacts are concerned the structure should, where possible, incorporate clear-cut definitions of departmental responsibility so as to avoid unnecessary and time-consuming consultations and possibly the development of hostilities. Secondly, the channels of horizontal communication should be established and linked to the administrative structure between all departments. It may be as necessary to link departments with independent functions (eg lending library and reference library) as it is to link those with closely related or overlapping functions. The importance of these considerations was indicated by Joan Woodward who found that in industry, relationships between departments could be complicated by lack of any clear-cut definition of responsibilities, and independence of functions meant that end results did not depend on the establishment of a close relationship between the people responsible for particular departments: this situation tended to encourage sectional interests and exaggerate departmental loyalties (Woodward 137).

The facilities of horizontal communication channels will, of course, be used by individuals other than heads of departments. For example, an assistant in a branch library, required by his branch librarian to prepare a list of reference works suitable for addition to the branch's stock, could well consult the library's reference librarian, children's librarian or other staff in those departments without having to exercise such contacts through the branch librarian. Furthermore, many horizontal contacts will be between colleagues in the same or different departments. Such contacts will be occasioned by work requirements and colleague consultation, as opposed to consultation of more senior supervisors, and may be motivated by personal friendship or the desire to settle a problem, seemingly by oneself or on one's own initiative, without referring the difficulty upwards. These contacts will facilitate the completion of work and indirectly aid the individual's identification with general interdepartmental and library goals.

The content of horizontal communication includes a greater proportion of information, advice and ideas than does vertical communication, which is more preoccupied with instructions and decisions. Information might relate to details of a trainee leaving one department to go to another. Advice and ideas could relate to knowledge and impressions gained by one member of staff at an external course and passed on to some of his colleagues. Horizontal communication contains a good proportion of attitudes; in the case of this category it is obvious that the boundary line between formal communication and informal discussion is considerably blurred. In so far as horizontal communication contains orders these are usually phrased in terms of requests, such as a request to provide materials for a library display or to deal with a reader's enquiry.

It would seem to be a logical observation that the consultative nature of much horizontal communication takes place orally rather than in written form. This is so, but the volume of written horizontal communication certainly increases with the size and geographic dispersal of the library. Written communications in a horizontal direction are normally of a routine, somewhat non-urgent nature, such as the circulation of request or reservation lists or requirements. In large systems telex communications provide an important supplementary form of written communication between library units. These may relate to stock and reservations (eg Buckinghamshire County Library) or reference enquiries and information.

The timing and frequency of horizontal communications depends on the requirements of circumstances and individual personality. They may be occasioned by definite administrative arrangements, planned to facilitate departmental and individual cooperation and information awareness, or may simply arise through work situations. An example of communication provided by administrative arrangements may be seen in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. Here a third copy of outgoing correspondence (ie non-routine, excluding for example overdue notices or query letters relating to book orders) on pink paper is filed and made available for consultation by all senior staff. These copies are referred to by the staff as ‘the pinks'. They obviously provide a useful source of information on the decisions and activities of the chief librarian (thus forming part of downward communication), fellow departmental heads and other senior staff. A similar arrangement is in evidence at Bradford University Library where third copies of non-routine and non-confidential outgoing letters and memos are circulated to all senior staff.

More widespread examples of 'occasioned' communication relate to meetings of, say, departmental heads or senior staff in one department. Such meetings may be convened to arrive at decisions or formulate work programmes (eg forthcoming library displays and exhibitions) and consequently help to establish a sense of teamwork and diminish any status and personal differences among various jobs and their incumbent persons. Sometimes the meetings are convened simply to allow members to express opinions, not necessarily to arrive at any decision. Such meetings should have advantageous results relating to staff relationships and morale.

One noticeable element in horizontal contacts as outlined above is the preponderance of contact between senior, as opposed to junior, staff. This is because attention has been largely focused on interdepartmental communication as an aid to cooperation and coordination. Junior staff tend to perform work in one department, under the direction of one or more senior staff also in that department, and thus have less need to consult junior staff in other departments on formal library matters. This fact in no way diminishes the importance of horizontal communication. It is senior staff who set administrative patterns, encourage work performance and help establish staff morale. Hence their cooperation in the interests of library service, on a wider scale than that of the individual department, is valuable and should be encouraged.

Direction: Up

The flow of upward communication depends, as does the flow of downward and horizontal communication, upon the existence of opportunities for this kind of communication and encouragement to the staff to use such opportunities or channels that exist. The provision of opportunities and the encouragement of their use can be a time-consuming and difficult business for an administrative librarian. The librarian who finds that his 'open door policy’ leads to frequent interruption of his own activities by extrovert members of staff may conclude that such encouragement to his staff is unnecessary and set a pattern of library management in which considerations of administrative convenience dictate a reliance on centrally formulated policies and directives. Consultations with subordinates by the librarians in administrative positions may be viewed as irrelevant and perhaps even disruptive: hence emphasis is placed on the formulation and issue of orders.

Such an attitude is misguided, however, since it ignores the vital link between downward and upward communication. The formulation and issue of orders needs to be linked to considerations of the receipt and implementation of such orders. These considerations involve discussion and consultation with staff to iron out difficulties and offer explanations and the feedback of information relating to the success of actions taken in response to the directives. Furthermore, the formulation of orders itself, if these orders are to be framed realistically as fitting the library's resources and staff capabilities, should depend upon an adequate flow of upward information and impressions. Information from longserving subordinates as to local conditions and past experience can be invaluable; opinions from new staff can be refreshing and of equal worth. Thus the process of upward and downward communication is a continuous and linked process. Information flowing upward facilitates the formulation of orders; their issue downwards is in turn followed by upward data relating to the implementation of these orders; this data is taken into account in formulating further additional or supplementary orders.

The opportunities for upward communication are conditioned by organisational features and structures. John Brewer has remarked that the upward flow of communication is greater in units in which superiors 'and subordinates' work roles are differentiated professionally rather than bureaucratically (Brewer 481). Such a statement has obvious relevance to libraries, comprising as they do professionally dominated organisations in which many work relationships are of a consultative, as opposed to a directive. nature. Brewer goes on to say that 'The need for upward communication appears to be high only where there is a high differentiation of superior and subordinate roles which removes the superior from first hand contact with operating problems and close contact with his subordinates' (Ibid 483). Such a view, however, evidences a somewhat narrow conception of 'upward communication' and appears to contradict his first statement. Upward communication should not be thought of solely in terms of information in the form of, say, written reports or oral interview statements, passing up a rigid hierarchical chain of authority levels. Equally important is less formal consultation between persons separated by one hierarchical level of status and between a departmental head and his staff. Both types of contact result in a volume of upward communication probably exceeding that of communication passing up formally from a low level to the top of the administrative hierarchy, since people feel more comfortable communicating with their equals or persons not too far removed from their own status level. This gives an indication of the fact that upward communication is conditioned by organisational structure as well as organisational features such as professional dominance.

Upward departmental communication is encouraged by sensible limitations in the size of departments relative to the work to be performed. A public lending librarian, for example, in charge of a reader services and circulation staff of more than twenty five persons may find his personal contacts with staff, especially with those working different shifts, rather infrequent. Furthermore, the value of staff consultation and upward communication tends to be lost unless the lending librarian delegates sectional authority as well as work responsibility to, say, a readers' adviser, interlibrary loans assistant and circulation supervisor.

Looking beyond individual departments, similar considerations apply to the administrative structure as a whole. Reasonable spans of control and adequate coordination of departmental activities aid the flow of upward communication by increasing time available for direct contact and consultations between relevant staff. The exploitation of such, organisational features which facilitate upward communication will increase progressively once staff realise that their ideas and information are valued by their seniors. This in turn contributes to professional morale and to the function of communication in facilitating the provision of library services in the light of library goals.

A chief librarian or other senior member of staff could, of course, feel overburdened with routine communications. Such a situation was revealed by Millicent Abell in a study of a medium-sized American public library (Abell 95). It may well be necessary for the librarian to set limits to his contacts with staff. Thus he may stipulate he is available for consultation by staff on any matter during certain times. In general, however, the overburdening of a librarian by upward communications (as opposed to his overburdening with work) is probably due to an unclear definition of his specific responsibilities and inadequate delegation of responsibility to his subordinate senior staff. Unless he makes it clear, for example, that personnel problems and records and matters relating to public relations are to be referred to his deputy, he will himself receive many communications relating to these matters. Such definition and delegation of responsibility have additional advantages which a general ' open door ' and ' open in-tray ' lacks. It encourages staff to direct their communications to the proper persons, through the proper channels and not by-pass their immediate supervisors. The latter situation is undesirable since it reduces the status of senior staff and makes their task of commanding the respect of their staff difficult.

Most libraries encourage staff to report or discuss problems with their immediate supervisor, while allowing the right of direct access to the librarian especially on personal matters. A Notes for staff booklet produced by Reading University Library seeks to make staff aware of lines of authority and communication:

- ' Channels of communication.

It is important that the staff should be aware of the interrelationship of the work of different departments of the library. The established lateral channels of communication between departments of the library and with other departments of the university should be used for the conduct of library business. The approval of the departmental head who may be concerned should be sought before varying these arrangements. Within the library the normal channel of communication is through the department head, but direct access to the deputy librarian or the librarian is available by arrangement with the librarian's secretary to all members of the library staff who wish to discuss career and other personal matters' (item 15).

Staff at New York Public library are invited to discuss a considerable range of matters with their immediate supervisor, since often these are the most obvious and relevant persons, and such procedure does not weaken the authority of the supervisor as does bypassing them for higher officials. Such matters or problems, outlined in the Handbook for new staff members, include specific work problems, preparation for promotion, request for transfer, suggestions for developing public services or improving methods and techniques and so on (New York Public Library 17-18).

More flexible arrangements may exist in smaller systems with a heavy concentration of senior professional staff and hence fewer levels of authority to by-pass. Such a situation applies at Exeter University Library:

'While we respect the chain and order of authority, and certainly that of the librarian and deputy librarian, this is not hard and fast and in certain circumstances about certain matters we feel free to enjoy a more fluid approach. Any member of staff can come to see the librarian or deputy when either is free to discuss any matter. This principle we value though the individual may then be referred to the departmental head' (Exeter University Library).

Even when staff are not required to first discuss a matter with a departmental head they usually will do so through considerations of relevance and convenience. Should a member of staff require direct access to the chief or deputy it is often advisable for him to make an appointment to do so through the librarian's secretary (eg Flintshire County Library). Many chief librarians and deputies prefer to arrange set times for staff consultations. This particularly applies to meetings with departmental or service heads. Archibald McLeish at the Library of Congress used to see divisional heads daily. The librarian of Bolton Public Library has an appointment to see each departmental head on the morning of each day. In the West Riding of Yorkshire the deputy librarian has fixed times for all fourteen principal officers. Such meetings present opportunities for both formal reporting and the raising of problems or more general departmental matters. Staff or group meetings are, of course, another instance of such fixed timing of meetings. New York Public Library has two staff committees, one for the circulation department and one for the reference department. These committees are composed of representatives from all grades or classes of service. Their main function is seen as acting as clearing houses for departmental suggestions and, jointly, for ideas relating to the library as a whole. Such arrangements have the advantage of scheduling the availability of the librarian or deputy at certain fixed times. Should such persons merely pursue a general 'open door' policy their actual availability could be considerably less. As one county librarian realistically remarked to the author 'Like every other chief I like to think that I pursue an ' open door ' policy. In practice my door is seldom opened '.

One advantage of scheduled arrangements is that they provide opportunities for upward communication within established channels of communication, linked to channels of authority and responsibility. Methods of upward communication, such as attitude surveys and suggestion boxes, admittedly more widely used in industry than in libraries, may be viewed as detours of normal communication channels in the sense that they by-pass established lines of authority. Surveys of staff attitudes or opinions may be worthwhile if the librarian is seeking data on a particular matter and is concerned with improving a particular aspect of staff policy or library service, or instituting a new programme relating to such a factor. Such a survey, in the form of a staff questionnaire, could form part of a communication programme (see a later chapter on A communication programme). In 1966 Luton Public Library undertook, again by means of a questionnaire, a training needs survey, which resulted in improvements to the staff training programme and certain forms of communications such as the staff news sheet. Just before he took office in 1967 the librarian of Liverpool University Library, D H Varley, invited all senior members of the library staff to set down, in confidence, their ideas on how they would improve the existing organisation Many useful suggestions were made and practical results included the inauguration of staff meetings and establishment of working parties, plus the institution of a staff news letter.

Used at all regularly, however, methods of promoting upward communication such as attitude surveys are in themselves indications of the inadequacies of the more normal channels of communication and their use should not be encouraged. Attitudes of staff may change over periods of time, thus presenting widely contrasting data, and frequent investigations of their attitudes may be disadvantageous rather than conducive to morale and work flows. They may be means of uncovering specific sources of irritation among staff, especially if replies to surveys are anonymous, but should not supersede everyday discussion with immediate supervisors or group meetings at which grievances may be aired. Irritations may be symptoms of a problem not the real cause, hence expression of grievances in written form with no provision for adequate discussion with members of staff concerned may lead to misinterpretation. Attitude surveys may be undertaken by interview and discussion, as alternative or supplementary means to written statements, but here again they are best related to specific problems or schedules so as to fit into established communication procedures.

Information relevant to areas of responsibility of other senior staff may be of interest to a librarian, as indeed will general information on the library culled from such sources as staff news sheets and library committee minutes. However, the data that he actually requests or requires from specific individuals, as opposed to that which interest him from various sources, should be related to matters on which he can make decisions. W J Reddin presents four criteria for assessing the usefulness and therefore the effectiveness of the data a manager receives

1 relevance - on matters on which he can make a decision
2 timeliness - regular data should come at the right frequency, eg weekly or monthly
3 accuracy - to be useful, data need not be one hundred percent accurate but it should be accurate enough so that correct decisions are more likely to be made
4 presentation - managers should decide not only what data they want, but also how these data should be presented (Reddin 137-8).

While such considerations are most easily applied to regular written data (eg monthly departmental reports), the senior librarian should attempt to specify his requirements based on some such list of criteria. Such a specification will facilitate not only the accuracy and clear presentation of regular data but also the relevance of the irregular type of information passed to a supervisor by his subordinates. Awareness by subordinate staff of the supervisor's requirements in this manner will encourage them to pay attention to the relevance and clarity of presentation of their communications upwards. It will help overcome one main blockage of upward communication, which is that subordinates fail to transmit' information simply because they cannot visualise accurately what information their supervisors need and require. Some upward communication will, of course, be irrelevant under any imposed conditions. Such communication may be of value, not necessarily to the receiver as a basis for his decision making. but to the sender, as a form of cartharsis or escape - release from tension and emotion. Guidelines should, however. be established for the more normal everyday types of communication.

Reddin's first criteria, relevance, can be amplified under a consideration of the content of upward communication. If a department or a library is to function adequately certain types of data should be passing upwards to departmental heads and administrative staff. These types relate to:

1 matters in which the supervisor may be held accountable by those senior to himself. This really includes all basic accountability for performance of one's assigned job but may be more clearly indicated by highlighting an example, such as a junior's friction with a member of the public who may later approach the librarian directly with a complaint

2 matters of disagreement between staff in one department or between members of staff in different departments

3 matters needing a supervisor's approval - such as the performance of a task in a different manner from the established one. Also recommendations for changes in, or variations from, established policies and practices in general

4 progress reports on work undertaken.

Such reporting may be used to measure individual efficiency and performance but in general exists primarily to help a librarian control immediate matters and improve the quality of his planning.

Most routine reporting is accomplished in written form. Most libraries require periodic written reports from departmental or sectional heads and branch librarians, if only to aid the librarian in the compilation of his annual report; plus reports on any irregular occurrences such as accidents and thefts. Bootle Public Library requires the submission of reports on accidents, damage, theft, vandalism, break-ins, public complaints and problems. In addition, each branch has an annual diary in which events are entered daily, this diary being inspected and signed by the director and deputy on the occasions of their visits. Sheffield's City Librarian requires the following written reports:

- quarterly statistical reports from heads of departments
- annual narrative reports from heads of departments
- annual report on extension activities
- annual report on the use of periodicals
- quarterly report on children's libraries
- annual report on staff from heads of departments
- reports on staff when being transferred or resigning
- reports on special occurrences (eg theft, accidents, complaints etc)
- reports on developments recommended by staff, local and general.

Much of the communication relating to the categories of content listed under 1 to 4 above, however, is performed orally, this method being more conducive to day-to-day reporting, casual remarks and discussion. Millicent Abell in her survey of a medium-sized American public library reported that over 93 percent of the librarian's contacts with his staff were in face-to-face conversations. This may be a rather high figure to apply to all libraries and to all supervisory staff but certainly it may be said that at least 70 percent of a supervisor's contact with staff, and thus of upward communication, will be by word of mouth. It is important to emphasise that such figures relate to upward communication within one department or from departmental heads to the librarian and should not be taken to imply a large volume of upward communication. Most libraries witness few unsolicited comments of a formal nature passing in an upward direction between departments, save in response to requests or at arranged meetings. Most upward communication takes place on a day-to-day basis within individual departments or branches; its volume will vary and it will tend to merge with informal communication.

Whatever channels of upward communication are provided in a library and whatever encouragement is given to staff to use them, there will still remain a number of hindrances or deterrents to the flow of such communication. The individual may feel that, although information and opinions are welcome, no practical results ensue. Hence it is important that senior librarians accord due appreciation to information and opinions received and, where possible, display a use of information and implementation of ideas or, alternatively, an indication to the relevant member of staff as to why his suggestions are impracticable or his opinions unsound.

Information and opinions should always be received objectively with an attentive attitude and appropriate action taken on what is received. Pursuit of such policies should help to lessen a dilemma attached to the superior person in a work situation. On the one hand his decisionmaking responsibilities require that he be adequately and correctly informed by his subordinates. On the other hand his responsibility for evaluating the performance of subordinates creates the condition whereby he will most likely get less than adequate and correct information from his subordinates. Under such conditions the subordinate tends to tell his superior what the latter is interested in, does not disclose what he does not want to hear and covers up problems and mistakes which may reflect adversely on the subordinate. Such a situation is not conducive to good work relationships and work performance and may also create a distortion in the downward flow of communication, since in his efforts to maintain the status differences the superior is less than candid in his relationships with subordinates.

The individual may be personally deterred from communicating upward through fear of displaying ignorance or unsound views or through fear that if he displays enthusiasm his work load might be increased. Both these difficulties may in part be overcome by helpful attitudes and sound organisation Administrative staff and departmental heads may seek to eliminate the first apprehension through adequate consultation and discussion with their staff. The second factor will probably remain in any library whatever the pattern of management set by the librarian. In part this is desirable since it may deter needless or unwarranted criticism and may help to quieten the more vocal members of staff. So far as the majority of staff are concerned, however, it is probably true to say that often a person's enthusiasm will be related to a desire to take on new responsibilities or workloads, hence these fears will not apply. Such communication upward may in fact be a substitute for a person's lack of advancement from a low status position to one of greater responsibility and authority.

This is not to deny that such fears do act as a deterrent to other members of staff. A survey of university libraries in the north east United States of America by K H Plate revealed that 80 percent of the middle managers (ie departmental and sectional heads) felt that they could only 'sometimes' or 'rarely' be frank with their supervisors in matters of library management. This attitude was explained in one of two ways: 1 certain 'problems' were not considered worthy of taking up the time and attention of superiors and 2 frankness was not always desirable when dealing with superiors in an organisational context. The middle managers were aware that organisational rewards accrue to those supervisors who 'don't make moves' (Plate 37). However, if such fears do act as a deterrent the position may be eased or overcome in part by adequate definition of job responsibilities and lines of authority. In such a situation a member of stall will know that his suggestions relating to matters outside his own present areas of work and responsibility will be channeled in the direction and to persons suitable and amenable to additional work. As a result. his motivations to participate in library work and decision making may well be enhanced and his personal professional growth and development aided.

In a sense, of course, rules, definitions of responsibility and tasks may discourage new suggestions or patterns of behaviour, not only because of the possibility of getting into trouble, but because they discourage the search for better ways of performing the same tasks and allocating responsibility. An ambiguously defined job may actually encourage people to look for new methods and clearer lines of responsibility; yet such a situation can also lead to uncertainty and unproductive effort. Rules are necessary and desirable provided that they are not inflexible and applied too rigidly. Such a consideration emphasises the main theme of this chapter, namely the close links between: 1 communication, staff capabilities and attitudes, and management style and 2 communication and organisational structure and administrative arrangements.

Bibliography

Abell, M. D. "Aspects of upward communications in a public library", in M.L. Bundy & R. Aronsen, eds, Social and political aspects of librarianship: student contributions to library science. Albany: State University of New York at Albany, School of Librarianship, 1965, pp. 91-99.

[ARL] Problems in university library management. Washington, D.C.: Association of Research Libraries, 1970.

Barnard, C. The functions of the executive. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1938.

Brewer, J. "Flow of communications, expert qualifications and organizinational authority structures". American sociological review, vol. 36 (3), June 1971, pp. 475-484.

Brown, W.P.B. Explorations in management. London: Heinemann, 1960.

Exeter University Library. Private communication from C.F. Scott, Deputy Librarian, Feb. 1972.

Fayol, H. General and industrial management, trans. by C. Storrs. London: Pitman, 1946.

Gscheidle, G.E. "Departments in public libraries". Library trends, vol. 42 (1), Jan. 1959, pp. 437-447.

[INTAMEL]. "INTAMEL: review of the three-year research and exchange programme approved at the 4th annual meeting in Baltimore in 1971". International library review, vol. 4 (2), April 1972, pp. 251-262.

McAnally, A.M. "Departments in university libraries". Library trends, vol. 7 (3), Jan. 1959, pp. 448-464.

McDiarmid, E.W. and McDiarmid, J. The administration of the American public library. Chicago: American Library Association, 1943.

New York Public Library. A handbook for new staff members. 1954.

Plate, K.H. Management personnel in libraries: a theoretical model for analysis. Rockaway, N.J.: American Faculty Press, 1970.

Reading University Library. Notes for the staff. July 1970.

Reddin, W.J. Effective MBO. London: Management Publications, 1971.

Thayer, L.O. Communication and communication systems in organization, management and interpersonal relations. Homewood, I11.: Irwin, 1968.

Woodward, J. Industrial organization: theory and practice. London: Oxford University Press, 1965.

<<TOC5>> Annual archives report

Archives comprise, at every level, a range of offices, departments and agencies which are responsible for receiving, safeguarding and making available for use documents produced by the government, institutions or private individuals. This being the case, information on the archival materials received, stored and handled by them will be particularly useful for the originating agencies.

When the archival materials in question are documents issued by the government departments themselves as part of their official business, it is only natural that they should wish to be informed of their quantity, quality, state of preservation and the use made of them, and that there should be government regulations for collecting the information and making it available periodically. Government documents stand in their own right as the central, though not the only, source of the nation's official records, and information must consequently be provided periodically by the archivists - who are the custodians of the records - on the documents' life cycle from the time they leave the office which produces them until they reach the central files, then the central archives and ultimately, after being appropriately weeded and selected, the final or historical archives.

Two types of information document are produced to fulfil this important function: memoranda, in which developments relating to the record centres, staff and holdings are listed periodically in concise, numerical form, and annual reports, in which the same information is set out in detail, giving a follow-up account of the data contained in the memoranda and also including any comments and plans which the archivists feel should be brought to the notice of the authorities so as to improve the documentation services and the documents themselves. The use of both these channels of communication is a very old tradition in the Spanish archives system and has been the basis for all the reports, census returns, plans, etc. which have regularly been passed on to the competent authorities to facilitate the smooth functioning of the operations entrusted to them.

The archivists' tasks are extremely varied, as are the activities that they carry out in the performance of their specific duties. They also vary according to the type of centre concerned; in the case of record offices attached to the agencies which produce the documents, the archivist will provide a service directly geared to those agencies, whereas in the case of historical archives the archivist's work will focus more on research. Broadly speaking, however, they will all have to consider certain common factors, namely, funds and personnel, buildings, facilities and services, holdings, and scientific services and activities, which must be included in the reports. Requirements must be set forth by way of an assessment of the actual situation, which is very often inadequate, and work plans must be made to ensure continuity with the following financial period. These, in broad outline, are the points usually included in the reports, but the order in which they are presented and the chapter headings under which they fall are at the discretion of the report-writer. The result is that, with over a hundred reports to consult, processing can be slow, for not all the items are to be found in the same place and some are combined under a single heading. Moreover, when a report of this kind is drafted, there must be a logical thematic sequence for purposes of coherence and practicality. These considerations have prompted the following comments

1. Funds

Any record office is an administrative unit which incurs expenditure, receives funds and is required to manage its resources in order to operate. The unit occupies premises which have to be properly maintained, repaired, cleaned and fitted out. Communication must be maintained with the department to which it is attached and with the outside world; equipment, documentation and bibliographic information are also needed. When the records are kept as part of the producing unit, funding and the allocation and distribution of funds for these purposes may be the responsibility of the unit itself, but it is important to know the amounts involved, because the volume of business of a record office, as an active, operational unit, may increase or decrease, or remain stable; hence a yearly assessment of its financial resources is advisable. The obvious, acknowledged fact that the output of documentary information has grown in all sectors of the government, the establishment of new units and the diversification of those which already exist have meant that record offices have seen a massive influx of acquisitions which will call for a steady increase in funds in order to collect and process them and provide the necessary services. If there is no paper planning then, collection, storage and services will suffer from a lack of continuity and this in turn will result in a falling short in the information and services which the country's official records should supply to the government, to researchers and to users in general.

2. Personnel

Document handling at the various stages referred to in the above paragraph, namely collecting information, keeping records and providing user services, is a task which goes well beyond the administrative function of receiving documents and storing them in an orderly manner, since it means making them available for use and accounting for them. There must therefore be various categories of personnel working together who run the office, file and describe the information so that it can be made accessible, and actually deliver the information to the user. The government employs the specialized personnel qualified to perform these duties and will recruit the temporary staff required for special duties as and when necessary.

At the top of the staff pyramid are the professional archivists, helped by assistant archivists and librarians, both categories being specially trained in handling documentary information.] The administrative business of the record offices is carried out by civil servants of various categories, including subaltern officials. In cases where the record offices have special restoration, bookbinding and reprography services, persons specially qualified in these fields will be recruited. Finally, supervisory and maintenance duties must not be overlooked, since archives are part of the country's documentary heritage which must be safeguarded.

The pyramidal staffing structure must be well balanced, since it is largely upon this that efficiency will depend; a non-existent or inadequate base and consequent concentration of duties at one level of authority would not only impose an excessive work-load on the staff but would be an inefficient way of utilizing them, since some categories would be required to perform duties for which they were not qualified.

3. Buildings, facilities and services

It can be seen from the foregoing that archival work comprises two distinct areas of concern: the archives themselves and the work of the archives staff. Both must be attended to on their own terms so as to ensure both that no harm comes to the documents and that the personnel are not treated as a mere commodity. Furthermore, because of the records' value, the utmost care must be taken in choosing the premises, including their size and equipment, so as to avoid anything that might prejudice their maintenance and effective utilization. In addition, as the archives, which are cultural property, are continually expanding, it is also extremely important to ensure that there is enough space. It is therefore useful for these questions to be covered in a report describing in detail the circumstances in which each centre operates.

The main object with which we are concerned is in fact the archival materials, which may be acquired by transfer, purchase, donation or deposit; any documents transferred elsewhere, disposed of or destroyed fall outside the scope of this study.

In order to have an idea of the full range of documentary information in the possession of an individual, an institution, a department or a nation, or, indeed in that of all the countries of the world, it is necessary to know the quantity of documents, their category, type, state of conservation and processing requirements. Security copies will have to be made of particularly important, fragile or valuable documents, which must be annotated and published.

4. User service

Ever since ancient times when documents were first drafted, records have been of vital interest, and their primary function is therefore to provide user service. This calls for administrative management to make them accessible to users, who, whether they be the producing entity, researchers or private individuals, will require loans, consultation, information, certifications, copies and reproductions. At this stage the productivity of the record office comes into play measured in terms of the society in which it operates. For its own work and for the purposes of the users, the record office will have a specialized library to facilitate user service.

The service provided will vary according to whether the record offices in question are those directly attached to the parent organs or those containing archival materials of the non-current type - i.e. those known as historical archives. In the former the emphasis will be on loans and certifications, and in the latter on consultation and reprography. Every year hundreds of papers will be transferred from one category of archives to the other - on reaching 'retirement age', so to speak, forgoing their active status to be filed away in archives from which they will be retrieved for research purposes. Figures relating to services, users and the categories into which they fall will highlight the crucial evidential value of official documents as well as fashions in research and the value of historical records in the everyday lives of individuals.

5. Scientific activities of the record office

For these services to operate smoothly, the archivists and those who work with them must previously have completed a series of operations which will enable them at any time to perform the simple act of finding the right document at the right time. First, acquisitions have to be collected and registered, put in order, described and filed. This entails collating the documents without losing any papers in the process, recording acquisitions in accordance with a formalized system, incorporating accessions into the archives' existing holdings and giving each unit a specific reference system to set it apart from the other; this is done by means of lists, registers, inventories, indexes and catalogues, and requires special training. The archivist is the person best acquainted with the archival materials in his or her care and is therefore in a position to provide guidance and assistance in selecting what is needed. The archivist's role is therefore essential when it comes to deciding whether or not a document is useful and whether it should be discarded.

A substantial part of archivists' work will therefore be to develop the information aids which they will use to ensure the safe and speedy handling of the hundreds of files, plans, legal documents, reports, etc. which go to make up the documentary resources of a record centre. There will also be the subsidiary task of informing the government, researchers and the public at large about these aids, through publications.

Part of the archives cultural activities - for they are dealing with cultural property - will be to publicize their work through exhibitions, visits, lectures and meetings. The archivists themselves, as specialists in their field, may teach courses or seminars, and take part in congresses or meetings to which they can contribute their expertise. Their training and their work place them mid-way between management and research and, with their experience, they can make an effective contribution to both.

6. Requirements

By taking stock of the work accomplished in the course of a year, the report shows in what ways this has fallen short of its goals. Shortcomings may be revealed in the first three areas outlined in the plan, namely, funds, staff and buildings, facilities and services. It should state the areas where improvement, expansion or updating is required so that the authorities, taking into account both the present situation and possibilities for the future, can raise the necessary funds to meet those requirements.

7. Work plans

An important aspect of archives work is the time factor involved in any human undertaking, for if the work is interrupted the momentum will be lost. If the flow of documentation is checked, the papers will pile up, with disastrous consequences. Nothing could be more remote from the archivist's work than the common misconception of the archivist as a scholar buried in his own papers, oblivious to what is going on around him. The archivist is dealing with a store of information that grows by the day, as fast and as steadily as the human race itself, since it is people who generate documents. Every live birth signifies an entry in some register, a statistical entity and a quantity to be reckoned with in a budget, all of which are reflected in documents.

All these incoming and outgoing documents must be passed on from offices to their own records, from there to the central files and, via the intermediate record centres, on to the final repositories. This means that every year plans must be made for collecting and receiving acquisitions which, in accordance with the process described in Section 6, must be ordered, described and culled. As a result, every year archivists must draw up a plan of these various stages in their work, so that the records can be properly channelled. The situation of the archives' holdings will determine the services offered and the scientific activities that can be carried out. As requirements are met, the plans will gradually become more comprehensive and the archivist's work more gratifying and administratively more productive.

The work plans may set the tone for the vitality of the centres, providing a broad outline of how they should function ideally, in the light of the criteria set out above.

The reports of the country's record offices, taken together, give an overview of the many different aspects of the prevailing situation and reflect a conscious effort and renewed enthusiasm for collecting, safeguarding and handling the documentary records of the nation over a given period. This information gives an idea of the magnitude of the task to be accomplished with the resources available as a basis for future plans.

Plan for an annual report

1. General expenses

1.1 Preservation and repair
1.2 Cleaning, lighting and heating
1.3 Communications (correspondence, telephone, etc.)

2. Staff

2.1 Professional
2.2 A and B auxiliary
2.3 Administrative
2.4 Subaltern
2.5 Temporary

3. Buildings, facilities and services

3.1 Premises, condition and capacity
3.2 Facilities, condition and capacity
3.3 Archives services

4. Holdings

4.1 Acquisitions received by transfer, purchase, gift or deposit
4.2 Records disposed of by transfer, weeding or destruction
4.3 Present state of holdings: quantity, state of preservation and restoration
4.4 Security copies

5. Services

5.1 Administrative management
5.2 Loans
5.3 Consultation
5.3.1 Written and oral information. Searches
5.3.2 Consultation at the record centre. List of researchers
5.4 Certification
5.5 Direct copying
5.6 Reproduction
5.7 Auxiliary library: holdings, acquisitions and services
5.8 Total services and users

6. Scientific activities of the record office

6.1 Collection and reception
6.2 Ordering
6.3 Description: listing, inventorying, indexing, cataloguing
6.4 Weeding
6.5 Publications
6.6 Exhibitions
6.7 Congresses, meetings
6.8 Courses, seminars, lectures
6.9 Visits

7. Requirements

7.1 Funds
7.2 Staff
7.3 Buildings, facilities, services
8. Work plans
8.1 Collection and reception
8.2 Ordering
8.3 Description
8.4 Transfer, weeding
8.5 Services
8.6 Publications
8.7 Cultural activities: exhibitions, competitions, meetings, courses, seminars, lectures, visits.

<<TOC4>> 4.2 Specialization in information work

<<TOC5>> Subject departments in public libraries

An international survey by Gábor Mándy

The amount of literature on subject departments in public libraries is rather small. American public libraries raised and solved the key questions of subject departmentalization in the years from the turn of the century up to the 1940s, on the basis of the American conditions of that time. /Current publications mostly refer to the articles of that period./ Their holdings were grouped by subjects, and all books and periodicals dealing with the same subjects were put in the same place. Specialists with a thorough knowledge of the subjects were employed for developing the holdings and informing the readers. The growth of central city libraries during the '60s and '70s began to surpass the dimensions which earlier seemed to be controllable by subject departments; even giving up open access and retrieving the holdings of many million items through a computerized system seems like becoming the question of the day soon. /Theoritically, this trend does not work against subject departmental organization, since there will always remain a "core" of the holdings on a given subject, which is worth keeping at hand for students and other groups of users. The role of the subject specialist will not decrease, either./ The current literature barely deals with subject departments and subject-oriented services of large central libraries with millions of books. As for smaller libraries, the problem seems to be considered solved.

Subject departmentalization spread to Western Europe slowly, with great delay. Although European adaptations produced a second wave of publications /mainly in international periodicals/, this soon calmed down, perhaps because there was nothing to say in the theory. This was even the case when subject reading rooms /for reference-only materials/ were given preference in some eastern European countries over complex departmentalization; that is when the policy of development diverging from the western pattern should have been reasoned. /It must be mentioned here that our survey covers both kinds of subject-oriented services./

Library literature, both in America and Europe, devotes very little space to the practical and technical details in connection with the development and maintenance of subject departments, in spite of the fact that most problems arise in this very field. Experiences here would be of the greatest value. Missing are the case studies on the subject departmentalization of individual libraries, on organizational work, and on ways of overcoming departmental difficulties. Similarly, methodological studies analysing individual questions are rather rare.

So far the history of subject departmentalization in Hungary does not provide a satisfactory basis for contributing to international experience. The first libraries which combined the systematic development of stock-groups with the arrangement of materials on a given subject in the same place, with subject reference /in Szombathely and Tatabánya/, were reluctant to call themselves subject departmentalized libraries, realizing that they could not completely meet the requirements of the name. The large county libraries of the late sixties /in Miskolc and Nyiregyháza/ were already built in the spirit of subject departmentalization. However, the systematization and "self-respect" of this type of service, as well as the prospect of a systematic improvement of the quality of holdings seem to be missing from them so far. The latest attempts /in Kaposvár and in "external" departments of the Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library in Budapest/ have not resulted in a real breakthrough.

We found it necessary to turn directly to the subject departmentalized libraries to ask the information needed.

When preparing the survey, we had the following problems in view.

- What are the perspectives of subject departmentalization in the large public libraries in the eighties? Is this out look still up-to-date? What are the advantages or drawbacks presented by "subject departmentalization" or "modernization within a traditional structure" for those who have already faced these alternatives?

- How much does subject departmentalization depend on the size of the building? Do different sizes correspond to different subject departmental structures? Can the "limit", under which subject departments should not be established, be determined in some way /from the point of view of space or budget/?

- What are the stages and ways of developing the new structure?
Did the subject departmentalized libraries switch over to this arrangement in one step, linking it to the introduction of a vertical scheme of works, or did this take place gradually, step-by-step, depending on the readers' demand and the library staff?

- How did the subject departmental structure change in these libraries following its introduction? What departments were merged and which ones divided? How did the profile of the departments change? What factors account for the changes?

- How many staff work in one subject department? What are their qualifications? Is subject reference work carried out by generalists or specialists? Is the library well arranged for colleagues arriving from other service points or for specialists without library qualifications /teachers, scientists etc./? How long does it take for a subject specialist of this kind to become familiar with the arrangement?

- What kinds of task do the staff of subject departments have to fulfil? What further division of labour develops in the subject departments? What relationship do the subject departments have with the departments organized on a technical basis /processing department, circulation centre, reading room etc./?

- What is the position of the subject specialists within the library? Do they receive more money for their expertise? Are there wage gaps between specialists and generalists?

- Are the subject specialists easily available to the users? Are they in the reader's' area or in separate rooms? What part do they play in answering telephone reference enquiries? Do they keep a list of enquiries answered previously? Do they return to specialists /outside the library/ for information?

- How do the retrieval possibilities on hand in the subject departments fit into the retrieval system /catalogues, indexes, bibliographies etc./ of the library as a whole? Does the library have a central catalogue after subject departmentalization, and if so, does it continue to undertake the task of subject information, or are the subject cataloques decentralized by departments? What catalogues and other records are kept by the libraries involved? Do the subject departments give information only about their own holdings, or do they also keep records of multi-subject works, concerning the given subject but placed in other departments? To what extent can the library provide information on literature not purchased by the library? /In other words, what bibliographical reference can it provide?/ How does the direct arrangement offered by the open shelves complement the catalogue system? To what degree and in which fields have the possibilities of printed catalogues and microform catalogues been utilized?

- To what extent do the libraries involved meet the requirement of placing all the material on a given subject in one place? What materials other than books are housed in the subject departments? If audio-visual materials are also housed there, how are they stored? What cooperation or division of labour exists in connection with these types of materials between the departments organized by subject and those organized on a technical basis?

- To what degree are the opinions and wishes of the users taken into consideration when making decisions concerning the library's structure? What assistance is provided to the readers for improving their orientation? Is there general department /popular library/ within the library and, if so, with what tasks?

- Are the holdings further articulated within the subject departments? What practice has been developed concerning the arrangement and division of multi-subject works /e.g. inter-disciplinary literature, collections of mixed contents, genera; handbooks etc./? Is duplication allowed, and if so, to what extent? What organizational solutions exist for reducing it?

- What are the special management and directional problems generated by the maintenance of subject departments? What kinds of functional conflicts arise from the duality of operating subject/vertical and formal/horizontal departments?

We also had the intention of examining these problems from the point of view of population, the size and the financial means of the central libraries of the communities. Therefore we also asked the libraries a number of general questions. many libraries. We would have liked also to have learnt the library directors' personal views of some strategic problems of subject departmentalization. Unfortunately, only a few of then answered.

The size of responding libraries was defined by 3 factors: city population, the basic area of the library as well as the size of the holdings. The metropolitan central libraries which answered our questionnaire are more strongly represented than in our sample, and we have found that establishing full subject departments in the libraries of smaller cities is relatively rare. /In Slovak and Bulgarian libraries, the maintenance of subject reading rooms was indicated as generally being typical./

The survey also confirmed our expectation that moving into a new, more suitable building, or expanding the basic area has an encouraging effect on establishing subject departments. As regards the application of a subject departmental structure in connection with the basic area available, we can set the lower limit, according to our data, at about 3,000 square metres. /Under this size we generally found one or two departments or reading rooms./

We could not make a comparison between the financial conditions of libraries, nor could we study alternative ways of subject departmentalisation according to budget. However, it became apparent from several replies that the librarians themselves look upon subject departmentalization primarily as a financial question. /Extra costs come from duplication, a larger and more qualified staff, as well as larger buildings and their maintenance./

Judging by the opinion of librarians, we cannot consider establishing subject departments to be an outdated organizational system in the eighties. The main advantages are: a higher level of services, better competence, a more skilled staff and a more rational use of space. On the other hand, the drawbacks are: higher costs, over-specialization /for example, one subject specialist would have difficulty in standing in for a specialist in another subject/, an uneconomical use of staff in connection with this, as well as a too sophisticated structure which results in the readers not easily finding their way around.

In our sample the number of libraries which established their subject departments in one step was small: a gradual, step-by-step development /often over decades/ of the new structure has been indicated as being more typical. Similarly, instead of a reduction in the number of subject departments we have found a tendency towards cautious expansion /also in the case of reading rooms in Bulgaria and Slovakia/.

The demarcation of subject departments showed extreme differences according to libraries, None of them run more than 13 subject departments, although no fewer than 65 distinct subjects appear on the departmental labels. The most common types of subject departments are fine arts, music, the natural and social sciences, technical studies, language, literature, history and, not surprisingly, local studies/history. In certain cases /business, commerce, genealogy, religion, politics etc./, different social backgrounds and divergent practices in the classification and organization of sciences were significantly apparent. Almost inexhaustible combinations occured concerning the actual departmental labels among the above-mentioned 65 subjects. The most frequent combinations, however, are not surprisingly: literature + language, fine arts + music, social science + history, technology + science. In many cases in the respective arrangements, subjective or practical factors seem to dominate over theoretical considerations or characteristics of the users./

It was in relatively few libraries that we found the general library functioning as an independent unit. Where there is one, it undertakes, first of all, the circulation of fiction /often supplemented with some popular non-fiction/.

Housing subject periodicals within subject departments /mostly restricted to current files/ can be considered quite common. Besides, some larger libraries /San Diego, Seattle etc./ also maintain separate periodical rooms, mainly on the base of general, multi-subject periodicals or duplicates.

The arrangement of audio-visual materials in the subject departments presents a more mixed picture. The practice of placing them all in subject departments is fairly wide-spread /with A/V materials generally on separate shelves and stands/, but we can gather from many replies a consistent exclusion of audio-visual materials, with the creation of departments organized on a formal basis /film library, record library, microforms room, etc./. There also exist variations where audiovisual materials are all placed in subject departments, except for 16 mm. films, others likewise except for microforms, as well as those where the music department is turned into a general record library. A similar situation exists with regard to fine arts or picture collections.

A surprising result of the survey was that the libraries involved preferred to employ general librarians, even generalists without special qualifications, for specialized information work, as opposed to professionals with non-librarian qualifications /engineers, subject teachers, physicists etc./ Other libraries simply do not employ such staff. If such specialists do work in the library, they generally earn less than graduate general librarians. Thus the deeper knowledge of the subject specialists, which is usually referred to as an advantage by those answering the questionnaire' may be derived from subjective interest and the daily routine of many years, rather than from university or college qualifications.

The responsibility of subject specialists focuses on reference work, bibliography and indexing, as well as an intellectual contribution to the development of holdings /selection and proposals for acquisition/. " In-depth" information is typically supported by special catalogues and files, pamphlet collections and newspaper-clippings. The unified catalogue system of the library is rarely broken up by departments, even in the case of the classified catalogue. These collections of data are everywhere controlled by departmental staff, while also at many places make catalogues of certain materials /pictures, records and 16 mm films/. The catalogues of books are made by the processing departments, while the subject specialists at the most, only have to file the catalogue cards.

Subject specialists mostly work in the readers' area, and in many cases they also have rooms of their own to retire to when off-duty. A fairly large part of their duties lies in answering telephone reference enquiries.

We have discovered characteristic differences between North America and West Europe as well as between West and East Europe in user habits over telephone reference enquiries, as well as in the readiness of libraries to answer such enquiries. /In 1978, not fewer than 600,000 reference enquiries were asked by telephone in Dallas /central library/, while there were none in Haskovo, Bulgaria. Answering telephone enquiries is common in most North Americal libraries, while in Sofia, for instance, only technical information is given./

Subject departments are capable of providing higher-than-average information. If, in spite of this, the library receives a question which is beyond its knowledge or competence, it forwards the question, on the model of inter-library lending, to the appropriate information centre which possesses the necessary competence. /Availability of terminals linked to normal telephone networks in the West, especially in North America, also makes possible a direct, on-line use of the data base of the information centre./ In addition, many libraries have files of special institutions or even private "source persons. in the given town. /As expected, the reader, not the question, was also often sent on./

It is said that one basic drawback of subject departmentalization is an inevitable duplication of general reference books as well as of inter-disciplinary works. The libraries participating in our survey make efforts to reduce duplication to a minimum, but in various degree", depending on their various financial conditions, actually do tolerate it. The main ways of controlling duplication are: the distribution of books by their dominant Dewey number, using co-ordinators, and decision-making by an acquisition committee.

All in all, our survey can only be a preliminary approach: a consideration of the practical questions raised. We had limited possibilities for international comparison because of the low responding rate. We have acquired, however, a fair amount of factual data. A considerable part of this is being published here, in a descriptive way. Also, on the basis of the replies, exploring and understanding the libraries' characteristic situations and their various policies over their holdings, acquisitions, staffing and service, has become rather easier.

<<TOC5>> Subject departments: summary of a debate

Problematic Aspects of Subject Departmentalisation
by
Tibor Horvath

This article, penned at the end of the Seventies, was prompted by a debate among librarians. It is now published by the Editorial Board, seeing that the subject has caught the attention of a wider public. The author, while still holding the views expressed, asks the reader, however, not to look upon this paper as a treatise, but rather as a contribution to the on-going professional debate, made with a view to stimulating further discussion among his colleagues.

It is a natural concomitant of our libraries' development that every 15 to 20 years the principles governing future progress should need redefining. Society changes, people's expectations vary, institutions become modified, professional knowledge accumulates, and. our perceptions alter. So, once again, our large public libraries face a crucial juncture: we must elaborate the concept of the library of the future so that its basic principles might be incorporated. even in present-day library projects

In choosing a favoured direction for the future, many people have gone for "subject departmentalisation", or, to be exact, the subject departmentalisation of the larger public libraries. By that they do not mean the setting up of independent units of organisation within a library, say, to look after documents requiring special treatment, or to discharge duties beyond the librarian's normal call, but envisage the establishment in each library of four to six new organisational structures, each representing a wide sector of knowledge, and influencing the library's total development. We are, therefore, talking of an organisational concept determining the life of the library as a whole. Within the library, subject departments would. enjoy a fair measure of autonomy: they would coordinate their holdings, would., in the extreme view, adopt their own catalogues (although a "common" system of cataloguing would be permitted), they would be allowed - because of overlapping in their departmental subject matter - to hold. duplicates, and possess other characteristic features of their own. These envisaged subject departments would. be kept together by a rather ill-defined "general" department, in addition to their having a common directorate, administration, etc. m e advocates of the scheme cite examples from abroad where subject departments have been in existence now for several decades. Let one thing be clear however: subject departmentalisation is not synonymous with putting subject specialists in charge of collections, and generally, has very little to do with the, incidentally, crucial question of how the expertise required by the specialised collections is to be integrated in the library. Now, whereas this question of the integration of expertise is of fundamental import, that of the subject departments themselves remains an organisational matter, irrespective of whether such expertise is present or not.

According to Istvan Papp, subject departmentalisation might well provide the means for the establishment of the "omni-functional" library, first elaborated in the Sixties. The professional consensus is - and that is indisputable - that this would constitute a more advance version of the open-shelf library. Here the discussion can become both awkward and. heated because the advocates of subject departmentalisation argue from hard-won, politically and professionally unobjectionable premisses. Who wouldn't subscribe to the ideal of a more skilful and competent library, of an all-purpose public institution capable of satisfying even the most exacting demands of scholarship? The introduction and spread of the open-shelf system, though originally an innovation of the American public library system, marked the demise of our reactionary library traditions and the triumph of a democratic library policy. The real question, however, remains: does subject departmentalisation genuinely represent the embodiment of the above. jealously guarded principles of librarianship, or wouldn't a different concept do better ? What is more, the question even arises as to whether departmentalisation might not work in the opposite way, i.e. whether it might not actually curtail and impede the ability of libraries to respond to a variety of exacting demands ? The question might well be unanswerable; however, in trying to clarify the tasks, our discussion might just isolate the principles that will sharpen our perceptions of the problem.

None of the various pronouncements on the subject here at home has still made it any clearer why departmentalisation is really necessary. Is it that because of larger holdings our libraries have outgrown their physical limits ? Or is it because they wish to devote more attention to providing specialised scientific information ? Or both ? Are there perhaps other factors involved ? It is really hard. to accept a concept for which no case has been made out, at least not in a proper analytical manner, and which confines itself simply to prescribing a new organisational solution. Organisation should always be the hand-maiden of problems, tasks, and activities. To start out with an organisational framework and try and fill it with content inevitably conjures up the spectre of formalism. What needs to be considered first and foremost is the welter of tasks the public libraries of the future will confront. Only thereafter can organisational solutions be addressed.

The weakest point in subject departmentalisation is the premise that individual public libraries must carry out their information tasks all on their own. Autonomy - is that the idea? When subject departments first emerged abroad, that was indeed the prevailing practice. In consequence, and amid a quite different set of circumstances, subject departmentalisation represented a proper solution to a specific problem. By now the number of such autonomous libraries has shrunk and in future they will cease to exist altogether. Libraries feeling utterly abandoned to their own devices still exist over here, with genuine inter-library co-operation so far remaining a pipe-dream chiefly because of our technologically underdeveloped state. But the technological shortcomings of today must not be extrapolated into the future and tomorrow's relations between libraries must not be taken to be necessarily on the present level. The development of the autonomous library led to subject departmentalisation Even the work that goes into the question of subject departmentalisation in Hungary most thoroughly - Gábor Mándy's compilation Some Problems of Departmentalisation: Principles, Lessons, Alternatives - notwithstanding all its thoroughness, is flawed by the assumption that the features characterising present-day libraries - and not just those relating to information transmission, data processing and interlibrary relations - will all stay unchanged in the future, the sole exception being the subject departmental set-up. Inevitably, and without the author admitting it, there emerges a picture of the libraries as restricted entities devoid of outside contacts. By way of illustration, let us examine some specific issues:

As regards the actual data carriers, library holdings of the future will substantially differ from those of today. Special documentation, steadily gaining in importance already, will attain parity with periodicals and books. Microforms will become indispensable. Many publications have already become accessible only in this mode. Audio recordings will not stay confined to music. Film, video recording and other visual documentation will be commonplace. User equipment for these technologies will somehow have to be accommodated on library premises. How can microfilm and cassettes be filed on open shelves? If libraries want to keep in touch with scientific and cultural life, they, too, will have to follow the prevailing trends in information techniques. The contents of documents can equally be expected to undergo modification: the over-quoted interdisciplinary publications are just one instance. Human knowledge is being restructured. in the light of the new sciences that have sprung up in the last 20 to 30 years. m e attitude underlying the proposals for subject departmentalisation being essentially rooted in the crude notions of 19th century scientific methodology, is calculated to create an anachronism in the libraries. Is there not a likelihood of ever-growing tension developing between the complex demands of library users on the one hand., and. the philosophy at the bottom of the subject department idea and. thus the future of the library system, on the other ?

When it comes to information retrieval, one's misgivings multiply. One suspects that whenever the proposals talk about the subject departments' catalogues, they refer to catalogues in the accepted present-day sense. now, the current cataloguing systems - and with the matter having now been long and noisily debated, this has become a commonplace in the profession are just about capable of rendering a minimum service where information retrieval is concerned. Present cataloguing methods are simply miles removed from an optimised retrieval system, created by metriculous research and development. How can the various functions of the library be expected to be perfected unless we include more effective processing methods in our plans ? Isn't it there that, before our very eyes, the greatest changes are taking place ? Nowadays effective information retrieval is universally seen as being a matter of international co-operation via technologically advanced data transmission networks whose organisational framework already exists. Why should a large public library wish to exclude itself from the benefits and services - even to its own holding - of an efficient processing system, when it can easily obtain them, as it were, ready-made ? Effective processing methods will mean the retrieval of documentation deeply buried in individual sources of information. Why is it necessary to cast information back into the bowels of thematically divided. disciplines ? A library, linked to information networks by up-to-date visual display units and computer terminals, will have at its disposal bibliographic research facilities which the proposed departmental set-up would. only slow down to walking pace. Besides, it is problematical whether retrieval equipment using modern procedures can be properly married to a subject department's open-shelf holding. Particularly when it comes to documentation of a non-traditional kind.. In this respect it would be no use adding and adding to the insertions in the reference catalogues if they cannot provide individual source data. Masses of cross-references cannot be a satisfactory solution. Moreover, it must be borne in mind that the more discerning the library user, the more unlikely will he be to resort for information to a catalogue. Much rather will he seek the wanted literature in bibliographies, indexes, periodicals, individual reference works, and official publications, thereafter looking for specific titles in his library, which will either have it in stock or will get it for him. Generally speaking, the problem boils down to this: what connection should there be between library research equipment and. the subject department's collection. In markedly polarised professional discussions, such a situation was dubbed as one where information has been torn from the documentary base. Even Gesner no longer treated of "a collection" but of "literature", from which he arrived at the concept of bibliography. Just as from a point of view of library policy one is bound to disapprove of some people's proposal, made on the strength of such arguments, to organise information without documentation, so one must equally deplore the opposite idea, i.e. of a set-up where the connection between library holdings and information equipment has been unduly loosened. through poor stock control and imprecise classification of documents. A good library will be capable of producing both information and source material, it being quite immaterial to the user whether it manages to do so purely from its own resources or by drawing on somebody else's.

The need to rehearse these arguments does not stem from the general tasks of the public libraries, but from the subject departments' hightened interest in specialised professional information. In essence, it was considerations like these that led M.V. Rovelstadt - author of one of the best studies on the subject - to consider this type of library procedure, though satisfactory for the general reader and undergraduate student, to be inadequate for a higher level of readership. Of course, the arguments advanced must be correctly interpreted.: they do not mean that subject departments as such are unnecessary, only that they do not help to meet professional and scholarly requirements, and are in some respects even a hindrance to them.

Similarly, it could be shown that the postulates of subject departments envisage the library services essentially to remain on a present level, i.e. confined. to lending and. local use. How narrow a vision! It needs no elaborate explanation to perceive that even this matter cannot be properly planned with today's means, partly because the use of special documentation requires different treatment - just remember our experiences with audio collections' - and partly because photo copying and facsimile transmission techniques are creating a new situation. This again is something to be considered not so much in the context of the public library's general tasks - lending and reading room will always be important functions - as in that of subject departmentalisation.

The provision of specialised professional information is not among the primary concerns of public libraries, this problem being tackled on another level. However, the network of institutions supplying users with such professional and specialist information also includes the public libraries, the large public libraries in fact representing important constituents thereof. This information system, planned with new technologies in mind, processing technical literature with novel techniques, also places interlibrary co-operation on a new footing, one that embraces modern information and data transmission equipment, facsimile facilities, etc. m e national network maintains many links with its opposite numbers abroad. In the national network every library takes on the character of a transmission agency. This is the proper context in which public libraries must be seen to operate, and which imposes the conditions whence the libraries' tasks and organisation derive. To advocate, in isolation from all this, a new, sterile organisation seems at this juncture to be mistaken, to say the least. The outlines of the emergent professional information systems are probably still too vague to permit the planning of the public libraries of the future. Yet completely to ignore them must cast grave doubts upon the seriousness of any proposals.

In the developed. countries, the large Public Libraries rank as equal partners in the community of libraries and. information agencies, maintaining close, multilateral contacts with each other - closer relations, in fact, than those envisaged over here between subject departments in one and the same library. These contacts are not just notions, but a physical reality made up of cable lines, computer terminals, visual display units, etc. If a public library must function within such a system, it will be a matter of relatively minor importance what its internal organisation is and whether or not it has any subject departments. However, this internal structure is bound. to be influenced by the library's membership of the larger unit. It is, therefore, not a matter of whether subject departments are really necessary, but one of which internal set-up is the most appropriate to a public library, given the circumstances described. Possibly, subject departmentalisation will indeed turn out to be the most suitable - though this seems unlikely - but this must first be properly justified by genuine function analysis. The whole point of a library system based on co-operation is that the individual libraries' autonomy becomes absorbed in the whole, that every library becomes equally engaged in the retrieval and transmission of information, and in directing and regulating its flow. Like the little demon in Maxwell's noted analogy in physics, regulating the flow of molecules between gas-filled flasks by opening and shutting tiny imaginary gates, so each library becomes a gatekeeper, controlling the stream of information.

It might seem that the discussion of the problematic aspects of subject departmentalisation is focusing far too much on the libraries' organisation technologies and. techniques of the distant future. True, but then the proposed wholesale introduction of subject departments is equally remote in time.

Finally, I wish to emphasise that airing the problems does not imply rejection of subject departmentalisation as such. It merely serves to clarify two schools of thought: The first cannot conceive of a library development proceeding simultaneously along two, independent and totally unconnected paths. It takes full account not only of developments in the library and information system, but also includes in its calculations the library scene as a whole, not forgetting progress in the level of services, technology, procedures, and relations between institutions. The second view represents a development of an internal, inward-looking library organisation which is characterised by departmentalisation a disregard of the other side, of its own environment and connections, and a refusal to accept modern practices.

It is imperative that subject departmentalisation should not turn into a kind of dogma, one deriving its principles from library set-ups the operating under the totally different social conditions of the last turn of the century, and liable - decades later and. in vastly different domestic circumstances to stifle development, seeing how easily what was once "progress" can become a hothouse of conservatism.

Maybe subject departmentalisation will become the chosen way forward. for our large public libraries. But if it does, it will be on the strength of an entirely different set of arguments.

[In the following issues of the journal there appeared several further articles about subject organization of libraries, and a vigorous debate took place on the advantages and disadvantages of this pattern. In this reader we do not have space to include all the material that was written on this subject, but we give below the summary of the opinions of one of the more prolific contributors to the debate, Gábor Mándy].

Subject departments in public libraries: a proposal

In the public library, for an organizational unit to be considered as a subject department, it must have the following characteristics:

i) its collections comprise material which forms a well-defined subject field;
ii) the material is properly organized according to the internal logic of the subject by specialist staff with a knowledge of that subject;
iii) these subject specialists provide bibliographical and factual information about that subject to users;
iv) both circulating and reference materials are usually housed in the same area;
v) different types of library materials on the same subject (such as microforms, periodicals, gramophone records, pictures) are brought together.

Depending on how many of these features are present, we can label the subject department either "initial" or "advanced". Sometimes the staff may be full subject specialists, responsible for both the collections and the reference services, or they may be responsible only for organizing materials on the shelves, handling reservations, etc.

The elements cited above could also exist independently. So one could imagine a system of "departmental services", where a specialized subject department provided specialized information to people in all parts of the country. Such specialists could be contacted by telephone, and would perhaps have direct access to international bibliographic databases.

These specialists could also provide information about collection development to other librarians. They could compile lists of core material in the subject, lists of obsolete material to be withdrawn, lists of out-of-print material available on microfiche and so on.

The holdings in a particular subject field can be rationalized between large and medium-size public libraries (type "A" and type "B" in Hungarian terminology), and books, periodicals, and other media, both circulating and reference, can be brought together. As far as money allows, literature on the borders of two subjects, and handbooks covering several subjects should be purchased in duplicate. (Though at first, a policy of no duplication would still be acceptable, as it would not be any worse than the traditional arrangements).

Depending again on the amount of -money available, the library with subject specialists departments should seek to employ sufficient numbers of specialist staff, or failing that, of general librarians who are deeply interested in the given subject. In the large libraries specialist staff should certainly be employed: in the medium-sized libraries the staff would be in charge of the specialist collections but may not have expert knowledge.

A national and more or less uniform system should be developed for the main subject fields: social sciences, natural sciences and applications, literature and language, music and arts and local history. Each library would also have its "popular department", with a general reference service. A uniform system would make it easier to train the subject specialists, and professional direction and supervision would be simpler. Local interests could be met by the establishment of sub-departments in fields such as education, management, politics, agriculture, do-it-yourself activities, etc. Neither the main subject departments nor the sub-departments need to be of a uniform size; they would differ according to the needs of their users. They would be professionally supervised by their respective national specialist library. They would also establish links with special libraries in their field, with information agencies, with other agencies and even with private experts.

The full development of subject departmental services would take time. However the Hungarian National Council of Libraries could organize plans to put this system into effect. Such plans would influence the design of new, purpose-built library buildings, the adapting of old buildings, the rearrangement of the collections, the modernization of library routines, and the development of central services.

The training of subject specialists should be continuous. By the year 2000, from eight to twelve large public libraries could operate according to the subject-departmental structure described above, and an additional ten to fifteen would have some elements of the system. By that date almost half the library-using population could enjoy the benefits of subject departmental services, and almost all of them would feel the secondary effects: improved collections, subject experts available by "direct dialling" and so on. A key technical condition for developing subject-departmental services is an improvement in the communication facilities available to public libraries: telephones, telex, telefacsimile, computer terminals.

Gábor MÁNDY

Returning to Some Doubtful Propositions
by
Tibor Horváth

In the wake of my article - and unintentionally on my part - subject departmentalisation became the centre of a major controversy. Before anything else, I must critically assess my own role in this matter. My language was indeed blunt, maybe fortunately so, because that might have caused my colleagues to be equally frank and outspoken in their rejoinders. In my own defence I can only plead that my original dispute was with but one specific paper, Gábor Mándy's. Subsequently, however, arguments emerged in the debate, and needed answering, which went beyond the confines of the original dialogue. My genuine misgivings were perhaps best expressed by Jenó Kiss, his level-headed study contributing most to clarifying my own ideas. In my present reply I do not intend to cross swords with every contributor to the debate lest I lose myself in detail. I shall rather concentrate on some general issues.

The discussion is complicated by what Miklós Takács called a terminological muddle. This variation in usage, changing from author to author, manifested itself also in the various contributions to the debate. I feel obliged to make it clears, therefore, that subject departmentalisation is not synonymous with'

- the classification of the stock or of sections thereof;
- the system of putting subject specialists in charge of collections;
- one special collection (or more) operating in a library, with the rest of it remaining un-departmentalised.

Though some correspondents may have disputed it, a subject-departmentalised library represents an organisational model for a library as a whole. It arranges its stock thematically, some fervent advocates of the idea even saying not just its stock but also all the facilities for handling and processing it. In the extreme view it means the division into subject departments of all library activities (such as stock it ion, introduction of information facilities, etc.), in other words, fundamentally the breaking-up of a large library into a number of smaller ones.

Fortunately, the latter view was no longer present in the debate. In this sense then, subject departmentalisation of A-type libraries emerged as a genuine matter of organisation And to me that no longer holds any attraction. Organisation should always follow function: the task comes first, the organisation flows from it. That, to my mind, is where the weakness of the argument lies: we sought a new organisation that would provide the solution, instead of focusing on the analysis of the changes in the tasks from which the solution would then be derived. (István Papp is perhaps least guilty of this charge.) If function analysts-' is excluded from the debate, subject departmentalisation cannot be pronounced to be either a good thing or a bad one - all you can say is that no discussion of it is possible.

Every contribution to the debate states - or implies - that the reason for introducing subject departments is the numerical increase in the stocks of the large public libraries. With these libraries bursting at their seams, it appears that new models for both their functional and organisational framework must be sought. Now, with subject departmentalisation however, the whole point is not the library's size, but the size of the document base upon which the individual subject department can be erected. The stock of a subject department must be representative; it is no use calling any given part of a collection a "subject department" if its stock (and reference resources) is inadequate in size - it simply isn't a subject department. Standard works, essential periodicals, certain facilities cannot be dispensed with. In this respect Ferenc Szita's precise data and the examples of Tatabánya and Miskolc are utterly unconvincing. It would seem that these establishments have not yet attained the dimensions required for a subject department. Of course, it is again a matter of definition - or at least partly one - as to what standards of quality we chose to attach to subject departments. In connection with this attribution of standards to subject departments, I have two points to make:

Since the document and reference base is often slender, many people hold that the subject departments' thematic boundaries ought to be more widely drawn. So it came about that we find among the examples given "sociology', " natural sciences", or even more comprehensive departments. But can there really be, from a library service point of view, a single "subject" such as " sociology" requiring a stock of tens of thousands of volumes? Such a stock would have to comprise masses of things, just as if it were not a "subject department" at all. In truth, Hindu folklore is as far removed. from constitutional law as it is from sulphuric acid production; optics are as remote from shipbuilding as they are from Finno-Ugrian phonetics. But looked at in the way suggested, Hindu folklore would be as much entitled to be included with sulphuric acid in a common "subject department" as would constitutional law, and optics could. lay a claim to be bracketed with phonetics with as much justification as it could do with shipbuilding. Which merely goes to show that in such cases there is no sense in just tying some label to a subject departments instead of "sociology" or "natural sciences", we might as well name it "Abracadabra Department"! There are exceptions, of course. The examples cited by Jenó Kiss could indeed. be tackled thematically. However, in my opinion, if this were to happen in A-type libraries, the subject departments would be characterised by row upon row of empty shelves for lack of suitable literature - a depressing sight.

The second quality condition might be summed up in the question - put by a number of people - as to what the level of the expected services would be. Who would be the users? The prevailing view seems to suggest that public libraries would forever have to satisfy professional and research demands in some makeshift manner. Behind. this question lie decades of controversy, due to the divergent interpretations of the role public libraries are meant to play. Our most distinguished. forbears always opposed make-do standards - in vain, it would. seem. To avoid tendentious misrepresentation, let me make it clears makeshift expedients have their proper place, nor should their value be underrated. The trouble only arises when such standards are taken as being the ultimate attainable and accepted as such for evermore. In essence this is not a professional issue but a political one. In a democratic society, e-quality of the citizens' rights also extends to an equal entitlement to library services, be the user an academician or a milkmaid, a bishop or woodworker, Cabinet minister or hallporter, town-dweller or countryman, old. person or young. That is how the "everyman's library" - the Public Libraries came into being, i.e. libraries safeguarding equality of treatment and giving access to knowledge and an opportunity for education to all, libraries that did not promote the education of ordinary men and women by offering inferior, depleted stocks, but by aiming for the highest standards of service and ensuring availability of any document and every source of information. In time they came to rival the largest collections, not only in size but also in the range and depth of their stocks and services.(Just think of the great public libraries of Liverpool, Glasgow or Manchester.) And anybody holding the view that ordinary men and women only merit collections that are limited to the "spread of information" is treating ordinary people as inferior citizens.

So much for the political aspect. Whether such an exacting level of services is attainable in actual practice is a professional problem. Fifty years ago the idea of a general-purpose library capable of providing a representative selection of all the major works in the arts and sciences might still have been feasible; today, because of the sheer size of stock involved, this would be a daydream. No such library is possible. How, then, can exacting demands still be met? The answer is' not by the individual library's shouldering the task on its own, but by the entire library system taking on the responsibility, with every member-library becoming an entry point and giving access to the system as a whole. Any public library's subject department would also represent such a point of entry. It is by thinking about these inter-connections and pursuing the idea to its logical conclusion that we shall arrive at the proper concept of an up-to-date public library system.

At present we are still some way off such an approach. This is partly the librarians' own fault, because, considering our circumstances, we could indeed be much farther ahead by now. It happens in many cases that we are unwilling to take certain steps and prefer sticking to the present state of affairs; we then blame "conservatism" (of our own creation) when, in reality, we simply do not want to know about progressive development.

In this case the situation - our own doing - is being made the basis of our excuse. Of course, evidence of some development or other has eventually got to be produced - that is something both paymasters and society expect so eager refuge is taken in some second-rate problems, thus enabling the required tick to be placed in the appropriate "development" column. In my estimation, subject departmentalisation has not yet become a topical issue in Hungarian libraries, though it might do at a later date; if and when it does, I believe it will form only a small portion of a far wider concept. Until that time, let us continue to base our ideas about the foremost institutions of public education on our traditions of progressive librarianship and our best present-day knowledge. It would be tragic if we had already forgotten what these ideas are.

<<TOC4>> 4.3 Centralized or decentralized service?

<<TOC5>> Centralization vs decentralization in university library administration: some reflections

Paul W.T. Poon

Sub-Librarian, New Asia College Library, the Chinese University of Hong Kong

Dichotomy seems to be prevalent in academic library structure. Vertically and by function, academic libraries have traditionally been divided into technical and public services. Horizontally and by organization, they are composed of main (or, sometimes referred to as general) and branch libraries.

Branch libraries cover a wide variety of library units ranging from not more than one hundred volumes deposited in a laboratory to almost a million volumes stocked in the law library at Harvard University.1 Therefore, it seems, as Lawrence Thompson points out, that "no one definition [for branch libraries] can adequately cover the widely variant situations in the different institutions."2 However, based upon the aims and nature of branch libraries, perhaps we can safely define branch libraries as a generic name to describe those library collections which are not integrated with the general book stocks in the main library, either housed within the main library premises or without, and either administered centrally or separately.

There are several "species" of branch libraries, as Robert Walsh terms it.3 The first is a collection-oriented pattern based on the kinds and format of the materials. Examples of this type of branch library are map collections, rare books collections, government documents, audio-visual materials, non-Western languages collections, etc. The second is a user oriented pattern which exists to serve different categories of clientele. A notable example is the undergraduate library. Thirdly, there is a subject-oriented pattern which encompasses collections of different subject matter. Based on this pattern, a fairly large variety of subject departmental libraries exist on many campuses. Examples of this type which have often been quoted are departmental libraries in the professional schools such as law and medicine. These three patterns of branch libraries have also, by and large, been accepted by the library community. For instance, Library literature lists branch libraries under three separate sections: "Departmental and Divisional Libraries", "Special Collections", and "Undergraduate Libraries". Of these three "species", this paper will attempt to focus on the departmental libraries only, looking at their history, and their advantages and disadvantages, and will try to work out the best possible mode of departmental libraries for the academic libraries of the present day to adopt.

The formation of departmental libraries has often been attributed to the influence of the German seminar, or what some people would call "institute" libraries.4 The beginning of the seminar teaching method in the universities may be traced back to eighteenth century Germany. As Lawrence Thompson points out, "the first seminar of practical significance was that of August Bockh, a pupil of F.A. Wolf and a protege of the great Prussian minister of education, Karl Altenstein,"5 although there had been people experimenting with seminar methods before Bockh. In order to satisfy the peculiar requirements of seminar instruction, most essential books had to be made immediately available. At the beginning, the books so used were from the professors' private libraries. But, it was not long before the university libraries began to receive requests for books from the seminars. By the latter half of the nineteenth century, the seminar and the seminar library were well-established in the German universities, and assumed a definite form. The German seminar libraries constantly grew over the years. By the nineties, many of them were dignified with the name of Institutsbibliotheken.6 Because of the convenience of accessibility to the books, many professors and students did their research in these libraries without using the university libraries at all. Even today, these libraries are not only housed separately from the main library, but are also administered as separate units. They have their own budget which collectively is sometimes larger than the one allocated to the main libraries. One source discloses, when discussing library budgets in the German university libraries, that "the ratio of the share of the institute libraries to that of the university library can range from 1:1 to 4: 1, so that institute libraries as a whole can receive four times as much as the university library."7

The seminar method of teaching and the seminar libraries which originated in the German universities were introduced in other countries, including the U.S.A. Part of the reason was that scholars who later became influential educational leaders in various countries were trained in nineteenth century German universities. No doubt, they all brought their German educational experience back to their home countries. The concept of seminar libraries was so deep-rooted in America that when Johns Hopkins University was founded in 1867, there was no main library but a series of independent departmental libraries, and sixteen years later essentially the same pattern was adopted at the University of Chicago.8 While perhaps there are other factors which may have contributed to mould the departmental libraries in American universities and it may be difficult to conclude that American departmental libraries owe their origins exclusively to the early seminar libraries, it would be safe to say, as Lawrence Thompson suggested, that "the German seminar library had considerable influence in this country [U.S.A.]."9

Having briefly described the origin and history of the departmental libraries, we should now examine the advantages and disadvantages of having these libraries on campus.

There has been a substantial amount of literature written on the merits and demerits of departmental libraries, or what is generally referred to as the issue of centralization versus decentralization. However, there does not seem to have been an overwhelming victory on either side. Keyes Metcalf has remarked: "As long as there are universities with large libraries, the question of centralization or decentralization will be a live topic for discussion; and, if I am not mistaken, the question will never be settled permanently one way or the other."10 The following is therefore a synthesis of arguments on both sides, and then, based on these arguments and bearing in mind the present situation in the academic world, an attempt to offer some solutions for the whole involved issue.

To begin with, we may have to examine why departmental libraries exist, or alternatively, what the advantages offered by these libraries are.

(I) Accessibility

The first and foremost argument which has been put forward in favour of a departmental library is the convenience of accessibility. Books are acquired and processed for the ultimate means of having them available to the readers. Libraries and books will be of benefit to nobody if they remain unused. To encourage usage of books, easy accessibility is a great incentive. This is essentially why seminar libraries in the nineteenth century German universities were preferred to the main library by professors and students.

In the universities, or, as some people may call them, "multiversities" of modern days, the campus is usually huge, and spread out, resulting in the geographic remoteness of individual units from the main library. This "renders use of the main university library comparatively difficult.”11 A great deal of time is wasted if professors and students have to travel to the main library to consult or to borrow a book. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that faculty members, for this and other reasons which will be detailed later on, usually support the establishment of departmental libraries. A report reveals that "in the small ones [universities and colleges] the teachers questioned were two to one... in favor of maintaining departmental or faculty collections in addition to the main university or college library. In the larger ones they were nearly six to one in favor... They gave a variety of reasons for their preference, but one that was often mentioned was the distance of their department from the central library."12

Departmental libraries save time directly, and money indirectly. If a scientist has to travel, say, two miles to obtain information for his experiment from a laboratory manual stocked in the main library, the experiment is then held up. Therefore, toing and froing between the department and the main library does incur a great loss to teaching and research work.

Therefore, even those who may not favour the idea of departmental libraries, would concede that the geographic spread of the campus makes it justifiable. As Frederick Wagman comments: "the only possible justification is remoteness of campus units from the main university library building.”13

(II) Ease of use

A small collection consisting of books and periodicals in the same subject field is easier to use than a gigantic library. Parenthetically, this is the major reason for the establishment of undergraduate libraries where undergraduates will not be daunted by a massive and complex collection.

In a general library, due to the classification scheme used, many facets of a discipline will be separated and books on these facets scattered. This creates great difficulty for the user. For example, according to the Library of Congress Classification, "Journalism" is located under PN4700-5650. Faculty members and students of journalism would like related subjects such as communication, radio broadcasting, television, advertising, etc also to be placed at this point in the schedules, but they are astonished, and sometimes frustrated, to find that communication is located at P90, radio broadcasting at TK6570 B7, television at HE8690-8699, and advertising at HF5801-6191.

In a departmental library, however, a custom-built classification scheme is frequently devised and used and this scheme would almost certainly be oriented to the way the researchers and students use their special collection.

(III) Special services

A departmental library is like a special library in which readers benefit from special services. In a departmental library, librarians frequently have a fair amount of relevant subject knowledge. For example, librarians working in a medical library may have a degree in a science subject which helps them understand the special terminology used, and how the medical literature is organized.

Being familiar with the collection, special librarians are in a better position to select and acquire materials. They are more responsive to the research and instructional needs of the faculty and students, and are therefore able to develop the collection most satisfactorily. Moreover, they are well acquainted with the publishers and book-sellers in their particular subject field, which very often helps in speeding up the acquisition of materials.

Being familiar with the clientele and their individual research areas, the special librarians are well-placed to provide a more effective and personalized service. Features available to the users of special libraries such as current. awareness bulletins and selective dissemination of information can be provided for the faculty and students in that particular discipline.

(IV) Relief for the main library

There are instances where the physical facilities of the main library are strained to such an extent that siphoning off part of its collection and some of its services to a branch becomes necessary. In these circumstances, separating the materials relating to a certain subject, which should ideally be a distinct entity from the main collection, and putting it elsewhere appears to be a sensible thing to do.

In this connection, it is interesting to note what Robert Walsh calls "the pattern of pulsation in academic library growth."14 At one point, before the early twenties, owing to the inadequacy of university library buildings in the United States, the tendency was to divert books away from crowded central libraries.15 Than, following the construction of larger American university library buildings, books could be moved back to the main library. An example quoted by Walsh is that of the construction of the Widener Library at Harvard which permitted a number of collections, including the Business School Library, to be brought together.16 However, as years go by, the main library becomes crowded again and the forces toward decentralization begin to work.

There are other advantages in having departmental libraries, apart from the above-mentioned four points. One is that there is more active participation in, and involvement with, the operation of departmental libraries on the part of faculty members, because they feel that the libraries are their own. The other is that departmental libraries such as an Asia library, fine arts library, etc. can more easily attract donations, either money or books, because donors tend to donate to what they are most interested in.

On the other side of the coin, there are a number of disadvantages in establishing departmental libraries.

(I) Cost

Cost is undoubtedly the greatest disadvantage. As far back as 1901, William Bishop stated that the one unanswerable argument against departmental libraries was the great cost of purchasing duplicates and of maintaining many libraries instead of one.17 Rogers and Weber estimated in 1971 that "at present level of cost, a full-fledged departmental library can easily require [U.S.] $50,000 annually for books, processing, and staff, plus extraordinary costs for creating basic collections and providing suitable space.”18 Nine years have gone by, and the cost required has no doubt spiralled. The budget for libraries is usually tight, and if a substantial part of it has to be diverted to building up a departmental library, then the main library which caters to the majority of the university community will suffer.

Duplication of materials is bound to take place. Essential bibliographical and reference tools have to be provided in both the main and departmental libraries. Moreover, teaching has gradually become more and more cross-disciplinary and it is impossible to withdraw books from the main library without depriving members of some departments of their use. Therefore, duplicates have to be purchased. This cost of procuring duplicates can be very considerable. "For example, with the decentralized facilities at Rutgers nearly 35 percent of the total book fund is used to purchase duplicate materials for its various libraries."19 Consequently, the breadth and depth of the main collection suffers at the expense of maintaining departmental libraries.

Further, there is cost for extra staff. In order to provide an equal standard of service for both the main and departmental libraries (although it should be pointed out here that it is difficult to exactly replicate the standard of service in the main library for the departmental library adequate numbers of staff have to be employed. The minimum opening hours for a departmental library are cited by the Standards of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in the U.S.A. as sixty.20

Providing staff to work in the departmental libraries represents a considerable drain on the main library's budget. Frederick Wagman has emarked that "fully 30% of the personnel budget of my library system [at Michigan] is spent in staffing the many branches in less than adequate fashion."21 If acquisition and processing of materials is done separately in the departmental libraries which maintain separate catalogues this means a duplication of effort adding to the costs of the libraries.

In the face of increases in book prices, staff salaries, and in many cases a shrinking budget in recent years, the question of cost should be seriously considered before one sets up departmental libraries.

(II) Handicap to university-wide research

As remarked previously, interdisciplinary studies and research have emerged in recent years to such an extent that there is scarcely any discipline which has no relation to other disciplines. Even back in the thirties, books were rarely written for the exclusive use of a well-defined group of readers. A case is quoted by Lawrence Thompson to the effect that "a book formerly shelved in the old Veterinary Library at Iowa State College has been used in the last twenty years by a bacteriologist, a botanist, a nutritional chemist, a geneticist, several entomologists, and members of nearly all departments in the present Division of Veterinary Medicine."22

Today, the interdisciplinary nature of knowledge is even more pronounced and widespread. For example, we now have such combinations as bio-chemistry, bio-physics, bio-psychology, chemical engineering. The field of business administration must draw heavily on materials in the disciplines of sociology, economics, psychology, mathematics, statistics, English, and other fields.

Therefore, if books and periodicals of a certain discipline are diverted to a departmental library which might be located one or two miles from the central campus, users from other disciplines will be greatly inconvenienced. The only solution to this problem is to purchase duplicates, but the question of cost often prohibits this practice.

Another factor which might stand in the way of other segments of the university community using the materials in a departmental library is the parochial attitude developed among faculty members and graduate students of that department. They might think that the departmental library is their own and disallow or discourage other people from using it.

(llI)Unsatisfactory standard of service

Although it has been pointed out as one of the advantages of the branch library that special services can be provided, in practice it is not always the case. There does not seem to be a shortage of professional librarians nowadays, yet to employ them to run each and every single departmental library often proves economically impossible. Instead, part-time library assistants and students are employed to man these libraries in some cases. In general, they are incapable of providing a professional service to the clientele.

The hours of service are often shorter than those in the main library, thus hampering the utilization of the library facilities. This can be very frustrating to those in other departments who may have travelled one or two miles, and yet find the library closed.

(IV) Administrative difficulties

Problems of coordination, cooperation, and communication among the main and the many scattered departmental libraries very often arise. It may be difficult for the main library to transmit instructions on, say, revised cataloguing practice, or new circulation procedures to its branches promptly, because of the geographic distance. Further, due to the parochial attitude on the part of departmental libraries, they may sometimes refuse to accept or implement these instructions, thus creating non-uniformity of service in university libraries.

There are other disadvantages, perhaps of a less serious nature than the above-mentioned ones, in having departmental libraries. Students should ideally be exposed to a comprehensive collection and should be told that reliance upon the departmental library will not make them successful researchers or scholars in their later lives. They should also be taught the various techniques of using the main collection in the university library. However, students will not have these benefits if they merely depend on the departmental collections.

Space utilization is less effective in the departmental library than in the main library. Ten separate departmental libraries may need ten lobbies, ten elevators, twenty rest rooms and so on, whereas one main library ten times as large may need only two elevators, one large lobby, etc. Moreover, expansion always poses a great problem to the departmental library. As Robert Walsh comments, "a small library of 20,000 volumes with space for an additional 25 percent is less prepared to accommodate the sudden influx of 7,00 volumes because of a gift or new collection demands than is a library of 200,000 volumes, even if the latter had space for only a 15 percent increase."23

Security is another problem for the departmental library. Probably due to the shortage of staff resulting in less strict supervision, the percentage of missing books in departmental libraries tends to be high.

The foregoing has shown that departmental libraries have both advantages and disadvantages. The focus of the debate is between accessibility on the one hand (it is worth pointing out, though, that the advantage of departmental libraries benefits only a limited number of other sectors of the university community), and economy and efficiency on the other. Both sides have merits and should be taken into consideration before establishing or dismantling a departmental library. Indeed, centralization or decentralization is "one of the most persistent and difficult organizational issues for academic libraries."24

Library administration is essentially based on the principle of compromise. Perhaps, this principle could also be applied to the issue now under examination. On the one hand materials should be placed as close to the users as possible; on the other, less fragmentation of resources (including books, periodicals, and staff) is desirable, and greater central control should be exercised. Consolidating departmental libraries, some of which are sometimes too minutely fragmented, into larger divisional libraries seems to be a good compromise - representing partial centralization and partial decentralization. Examples of such consolidation abound in recent years. During the late 1930s, Brown University combined its science departmental libraries into two large divisions - a biological science library, and a physical science library. Cornell's reorganization was completed in the 1960s with a relocation of all science and technological material into three large divisions with separate facilities: agriculture, engineering, and the physical sciences. In Canada, Dalhousie University has two divisional libraries for its science departments, one covering the physical sciences and the other the biological sciences.

To make this system effective, a greater measure of central control should be adopted. All libraries in the university should come under the administration of the director of libraries who, in consultation with a university-wide library committee, would be responsible for their operation.

Central acquisition should be practiced if it is practical, because it can cut down duplication of expensive general reference works such as bibliographies, and avoid too many copies of individual periodical titles being bought. If central acquisition proves impractical, coordination among various units should be put into effect so that every unit knows what is available in the general pool.

A union catalogue of the holdings of all the libraries in a university should be compiled and made available for use by all sectors of the university community. One of the greatest disadvantages of departmental libraries is the lack of information about their holdings. Consequently, many valuable items are unknown and therefore test to other segments of the university community. With the establishment of a union catalogue this deficiency can be remedied.

To help establish and maintain the union catalogue, cataloguing should be carried out in the main library if possible. This can maximize the expertise of the professional staff in the main library. The staff in the departmental libraries, having been relieved of this duty, can devote more time to readers' services.

To conclude, some departmental libraries (especially law and medicine), just like necessary evils, will remain a permanent feature of the academic library scene despite their faults. Other departmental libraries may be consolidated according to their nature into divisional libraries to provide a more economical and yet a more effective service.

References

1. Bryant, D.W. "Centralization and decentralization at Harvard." In Centralization and decentralization in academic libraries: a symposium. College and research libraries, v. 22, 1961, p. 333.

2. Thompson, L.S. "The historical background of departmental and collegiate libraries." Library quarterly, v. 12, 1942, p.50.

3. Walsh, R. "Branch library planning in universities." Library trends, v. 18, 1969/70, p. 211.

4. This is well documented in the following:

(a) Thompson, L.S. Op. cit., p. 49-74.

(b) Vosper, R. (ed.) "European university libraries: current status and development" Library trends, v. 12,1963/64, p.475-633.

(c) Great Britain. University Grants Committee. Report of the Committee on Libraries. London, HMSO, 1967, p. 93-94.

5. Thompson, L.S. Op. Cit., p. 60.

6. Ibid.,p.61.

7. Great Britain. University Grants Committee. Op. Cit. p. 94.

8. Thompson, L S. Op. Cit., p. 64.

9. Ibid., p. 59.

10. Rutgers University. Graduate School of Library Service. Studies in library administrative problems. New Brunswick, NJ., Graduate School of Library Service, Rutgers University, 1960. p.133.

11. Davinson, D. Academic and legal deposit libraries. London, Clive Bingley, 1969. p. 74.

12. Great Britain. University Grants Committee. Op. Cit.. p. I 01.

13. Quoted by Rush, O. "Central vs departmental libraries.'' Mountain Plains library quarterly, v.7,1962,p.7.

14. Walsh, R. Op. Cit., p. 213.

15. Thompson, L.S. Op. Cit., p. 66.

16. Walsh, R. Op. Cit., p. 213.

17. Bishop, W.W. 'the problem of the departmental system in university libraries." Library journal, v. 26,1901, p. 15.

18. Rogers, R.D. and Weber, D.C. University library administration. New York, H.W. Wilson, 1971. p.76.

19. Bruno, J.M. "Decentralization in academic libraries: Library trends, v. 19, 1970/71, p. 315.'

20. Russell, R.E. "Branch Iibrary policy statement." Library scene, v. 3,1974, p. 28.

21. Quoted by Rush, O. Op. Cit., p. 7.

22. Thompson, L.S. Op. Cit.. p.54.

23. Walsh, R. Op. Cit.. p. 214.

24. American Library Association. Association of College and Research Libraries. "Draft: Guidlines for branch libraries in colleges and universities." College and research library news, Y. 11, 1974, p. 281.

<<TOC4>> 4.4 Self-management in the information service

<<TOC5>> Co-operation between libraries on the basis of the law on associated labour and the library activity and libraries act

Vera Mudri-Skunca

Senior Librarian, Director of Zagreb Municipal Library

The subject which we have chosen for this plenary session is of exceptional importance to our work. We have already referred on other occasions and in other contexts to the need for organized co-operation between libraries. What is exceptional about our present discussion on the subject is that it is taking place in a new and distinctive climate. Previously, our discussions and debates on various problems have been greatly affected by numerous factors which lay outside our field of work; consequently the solutions adopted were similarly affected by factors which sometimes failed to give due weight to points that were essential to the successful work and development of the library service. These extraneous factors have now lessened in importance and a correspondingly greater role is now also played by the people who work in the libraries as they, together with people working in other fields, jointly plan both the development of the library network and ways of meeting the demand for books by individual and group users. Thus we are now involved as an equal and a key element in the evolution of the library network, with a consequent growth in responsibility. In this context we shall briefly describe the new social conditions in which we now work and the main social and professional tasks which we face. We shall cite specific examples with a view to illustrating the need for and the feasibility of working together when analysing and resolving a number of problems. This should by no means be interpreted as suggesting that these are our only problems nor that they are the most important or the most urgent ones. We mention them to emphasize the need to resolve them through the process of seeking agreement with one another on the basis of self-management.

I

The basic law on the management of State industrial enterprises and the larger economic associations by workers' collectives was passed in 1950. This law proclaimed the principle of direct participation by the workers in the running of industrial working organizations. Following the adoption of this law, self-management developed and was consolidated in industrial working organizations; it also gradually split over into other areas of social relations and non-industrial working organizations.

Our Republic's first Libraries Act, which contained very important provisions on library administration based on self-management principles, was adopted in 1960. Under this Act, library work was defined as work of special importance to society and this was also reflected in the besting of self-management-based decision-making powers in external representatives on library board.

The establishment of the funds for the promotion of cultural activities in 1968 changed society's attitude to library activities. However, despite such developments in social relations, the control of expenditure on the expansion of production and other activities remained largely in the hands of the State. The State also retained a very important function as intermediary between various spheres of associated labour, especially in meeting society's educational, scientific, cultural and health needs and other social functions. These were obstacles which prevented the development of these activities from keeping pace with the real needs of the working people and other citizens. The new constitution of the SFRY and the new republican constitutions, which were promulgated in 1974 after several years of intense public debate, eliminated the last vestiges of State control over national capital formation. They also based every aspect of social relations on self-management. The new constitutions established the principle that working people in all areas of society, that is those engaged in material production and those in other kinds of work, exchange their labour with one another on an equal footing in a joint endeavour to produce new material and spiritual wealth. To this end, they enter into mutual relations based on self-management and they evolve various forms of social contract with one another on the basis of self-management. The new vital relationships and the exchange of labour based on self-management, as provided for in these constitutions, received statutory form in the law on Associated Labour, passed at the end of 1976.

For us it is important to note at this point that libraries, which had formerly been financed from a variety of State and social sources, now found themselves in a situation which obliged them to establish relations with associated labour in a new way, by preparing, both directly and through self-managing communities with shared interests, adequate programmes to be dealt with by the process of agreement-seeking and by taking into account, in the course of the adoption of these programmes, the real needs of their own areas and those of associated labour.

Apart from the Law on Associated Labour and other acts and statutory instruments regulating the activity of working organizations, libraries also have an Act of their own, as well as a number of other normative instruments to regulate their functions and organization and the mutual relations between them in conformity with the Libraries Act.

The Libraries Act was passed in Croatia in 1960. It was thoroughly revised and brought textually into line with the new Constitution of 1965, while a number of minor additions and amendments were made to it in 1966. A new Library Activity and Libraries Act was passed in 1973. The Act contains, inter alia, a number of basic formulations concerning the need for libraries to pool their resources and for their joint activity, and it is this aspect which most interests us at the moment. The Act states:

'Library activity is a social activity based on the principles of self-management, whose purpose is to use books as a means of promoting the general education of the people, to satisfy the cultural needs of working and other people on a lasting basis and to promote scientific work and research, thereby influencing the development of the economy, of education, science, culture and other activities'.

'In order to achieve the aims of library activity, people working in that sphere shall co-operate, seek agreement and discuss problems with each other and also with working and other people in other spheres of associated labour and with the users of the library service; they shall also use self-management agreements and social contracts to establish and maintain direct self-management relations and shall pool resources with them in order to realize and harmonize their mutual interests and in order to agree programmes for the development and promotion of library activities'.

'In order to promote mutual co-operation and resolve questions of mutual interest, independent libraries and libraries incorporated in other bodies may form library communities or enter into other kinds of partnership.'

The Act pays particular attention to the definition and formulation of the tasks of the central services and central libraries as representing a very important form of co-operation between libraries, aimed at ensuring a high professional standard and equal level for all in the work and development of the library network both in the narrow and in the wider spheres of their activity.

'In order to carry out constant, organized and systematic work aimed at promoting library activities, a number of libraries will also provide central services for other libraries in a particular area and for a particular category of libraries'.

Central library services comprise in particular: the organized and ongoing study of questions of interest to library activities as a whole; the study of questions of mutual interest to library activities in a particular area or a particular category of libraries; improved organization and methods of work in library activities and librarianship as a profession; the preparation of expert proposals to expand the library network; expert assistance and instructions to libraries; the professional supervision of library activities; the monitoring and co-ordination of the way libraries work and promotion of mutual co-operation between them; and professional training of library staff.

On the basis of the Library Activity and Libraries Act, the Council for Libraries of the Socialist Republic of Croatia adopted a set of rules on central library services in the Socialist Republic of Croatia at a session held on 19 April 1977. These rules provide expert advice on how to organize the central services in any particular area.

At its annual meeting in 1973 the Federation of Library Associations of Yugoslavia adopted 'Minimum Yugoslav Standards for Community Libraries' and 'Minimum Yugoslav Standards for School Libraries'. These laid down minimum standards for all circumstances, while it was left to the Republics and the Provinces to set higher library standards appropriate to their own particular conditions and possibilities.

We in Croatia face the complex task of producing our own library standards on the basis of preparatory work to date and of our own conditions, with further reference to Yugoslav and international standards in addition to Unesco's manifesto on public libraries. Adoption of the standards laid down in this important normative document will help establish the necessary mutual ties between libraries within the unified library system in our Republic.

What should be clearly understood and borne in mind is the fact that in our relationships in society the lead given by those who actually work in the libraries is of decisive importance, and that whether our activities develop faster or slower depends on this lead and on the establishment of the appropriate self-management relations with associated labour. For us the Law on Associated Labour constitutes the legislative and social foundations from which we proceed in our efforts to ensure for the library services the status and treatment in associated labour which they deserve by virtue of their social importance and the way in which they meet social needs. This cannot and will not be done for us by anyone else, nor shall we ourselves be able to offer appropriate solutions, unless the library services as a whole and every library unit individually establish mutual ties through the process of self-management-based agreement-seeking, and can organize themselves into a unified library and information system. Within any particular region, or within one municipality or more, it is possible to reach agreement with associated labour on ways of exchanging labour either directly or through the self-managing communities with shared interests by offering to every user the potential services of all the libraries within or even outside its area, as long as the libraries concerned can reach agreement among themselves on how they will jointly provide the services offered. In this way the unified library network, about which we often speak and whose importance we constantly reiterate, would be created in practice, gradually and without legislative norms on a basis of real needs and at a rate dictated by those needs and on foundations afforded by self-management. Initial experiences in establishing associated labour either directly or through self-managing communities with ties with/shared interest indicate that assembly delegates representing associated labour have shown great interest in and extended their support for the library service. Consequently one may expect a considerable improvement in conditions of work in the library service in the coming period; but at the same time the library service may also be expected to shoulder considerably greater obligations in conceiving and planning its own development.

When we remember that the Library Activity and Libraries Act, the Rules on Central Library Services and even the future standards are Acts which regulate relationships and tasks within the library service in principle only, without providing for any forms of sanction or means of enforcement, it will be apparent that their implementation can be ensured only through direct agreements reached between the libraries and the users of library services on the basis of the existing conditions, needs and possibilities of the areas concerned.

Proceeding from the principle that in every area users should be able to enjoy a library service through the library located in their own area, it follows that such a library will not by itself suffice for all the needs of its current and potential users. Consequently, whenever we speak of a library we should in fact be thinking of the library system as a whole in which the library concerned is but a link in a chain, giving access to the services of the whole library network. Everything that contributes to the development of this concept of libraries must of necessity also contribute to the development of every individual library, because its potential can only be enhanced through the library system. We have spoken on several occasions of the library system as the fundamental prerequisite for the successful work of individual kinds of library and individual libraries, but we have not worked hard enough to build up such a system in practice and make sure that it works.

The Law on Associated Labour and the Library Activity and Libraries Act bind all the libraries to pool their resources on a self-managing basis so that by exchanging labour they will he able to realize optimum long-term development programmes for the library system as a whole.

II

In the light of the fundamental attitudes outlined above, a number of questions also arise which should be borne in mind in speaking about relations between libraries and their self-management-based agreement-seeking and joint

(1) It is necessary to regulate the activity of the central service by self-management-based agreement in keeping with actual conditions in the area concerned. In this way the general provisions of the Library Activity and Libraries Act in the Socialist Republic of Croatia which relate to the central service would begin to be implemented more successfully and yield the hoped-for results. Using self-management-based agreements, the central service could be organized as a service set up on the general and shared interests of all to meet their joint needs. This service would be given real tasks in accordance with the actual situation and be provided with the necessary funds with which to carry them out.

(2) It is very important to ensure the uniform functioning of the library network within a given area. It is impossible for a small library to function successfully unless it has been functionally incorporated into an appropriate wider network of libraries with the support of which it can provide its users with all the library services they need. Nearly every library still tries to meet the needs of the library users in its area on its own by relying on its own staff and library stocks, a practice which leads to uneconomical financing and a waste of trained staff.

The appropriate consultation instruments and signed self-management-based agreements would clearly agree and define the library network in a specific area and the mutual relations, activity, and the rights and obligations arising therefrom for every single library.

(3) At this moment the mobile library service is perhaps the most convenient and economical way relatively speedily and successfully to meet the need for books in areas where there are no permanent libraries. inter-municipal and inter-library self-management-agreements on the purchase and use of library vans would make possible a more rational use of the funds available for the setting up of a modern mobile library service and would replace the independent and inadequate attempts made by individual municipalities or libraries to resolve the problems of those of their areas which have no

(4) The activity of school and what are known as trade union libraries and of a variety of library services for schools and working organizations is also an important area within our sphere of interest. In this area are to be found various forms of partnership, pooling and agreement-seeking mechanisms. If able to rely on a central community library, a factory of school library could by itself achieve a higher professional level and function more rationally, as well as widening the extent and range of its library services.

(5) Faculties possess departmental libraries which comprise very valuable and extensive stocks of books. These libraries as a rule employ one or two specialists. There is no reason why the specialists who work in these libraries should not form an association on the basis of agreement reached between individual groups at a faculty in order to be able to discuss and propose solutions to a series of questions of common interest to improve the functioning of libraries, ranging from ways of using the existing stocks of books and restocking and resolving technical problems to the status of librarians in such libraries and the question of broader functional links between university libraries.

(6) A large number of municipal community libraries operate within the framework of workers' and adult education centres, and this has considerably slowed down the development of these libraries as regards the building up and expansion of the library network, the size and contents of their stocks of books and the number and qualifications of the members of the staff and as regards the way they perform their work and duties as municipal records services. These libraries often lack the necessary machinery to organize and set themselves up as basic organizations of associated labour and consequently do not possess the status of legal entities which would enable them to exchange labour directly and hold self-management-based consultations with other libraries and working organizations. It is necessary in the normative instruments of their working organizations to ensure that they he given the kind of status which will enable them to establish professional, staff and similar ties with other libraries in the municipality, region or republic to weld into a unified library and information system.

(7) Information services play an exceptionally important part in every library. However, it is a fact that the smaller libraries are not in a position to draw on sources of information in various technical fields and that their services accordingly fall unavoidably short of the level of users' potential needs. This alienates such would-be users from the libraries which they perceive as inadequate information sources. The question of the use of and access to information within the widest possible library system should be resolved by means of a self-management-based agreement enabling every library unit to provide any technical information which may be needed to any users within the shortest period of time.

(8) Inter-library loans are a field of co-operation which should also be regulated between individual categories of libraries and between libraries within an area. A self-management-based agreement should define mutual rights and obligations and the mechanism of inter-library loans, because inter-library loans are a way of developing a library system in which the entire stock of books of a given smaller or wider area is available to every user through the library in his own area.

(9) Qualified library staff are of exceptional importance for the successful functioning of the library service. Despite this, we have so far not yet found a successful solution to the question of the regular training of library staff from various levels and categories of library work and duties. Instead they have been trained with more or less success by practical work, attending seminars, preparing for and sitting vocational examinations, pursuing postgraduate studies, and so forth.

The founding of a Chair of librarianship at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb and the introduction of library specialization in reformed secondary schools in several of the Republic's centres are the fruit of decisions and approaches adopted at several assemblies and plenary sessions of the Croatian Library Association.

The results of the newly initiated systematic training of library staff call for continuous assessment, as does the work being done to harmonize the programmers for graduate and postgraduate studies and to standardize curricula in secondary school centres with a library specialization.

Library staff to be trained within the framework of the regular school system should be trained for an updated library service and this goal should be reflected both in the curricula and in the way teaching is organized and carried out.

Long-term planning concerning staffing requirements, including their level and skill, must become a permanent practice in our libraries.

Library staff need to adopt agreed joint approaches to all these questions if they are to be fit to be factors in and protagonists of self-management-based relations within a system based on the free exchange of labour.

(10) The need to modernize libraries by gradually introducing electronic and other technology can equally not be met rationally in isolation for each library, town or even region. Only by mutual agreement on the strictly rationalized purchase and use of modern, compatible equipment can the services be made available to the greatest possible number of users.

If resources are to be used correctly, it is necessary to standardize and systematize technical tasks. This too calls for across-the-board technical activity and agreed solutions.

(11) Recent initiatives have taken place in a number of quarters to deal with the problem of the role of books in our society and to make books more accessible to working people, but librarians have been insufficiently represented at the relevant discussions and have not had enough say in decision-making. One possible result is that some of the solutions proposed will prove expensive and unsuitable while, on the other hand, libraries will not be given the opportunities or support they need to fit themselves for systematic, varied, continuous and flexible activity both in organizations of associated labour and in local communities.

The social agreement on books should resolve the question of publishing, distribution and the use of books, while libraries must become equal participants in the system of self-management-based agreement-seeking.

(12) Society is investing considerable public money in books and libraries and yet there is no specialized body or institution systematically concerning itself with the various sociological, cultural and economic aspects of the production, distribution and use of books and with the work of libraries as the main intermediary between books and their readers. The very volume of the resources invested in books and libraries argues the need to pay long-term expert attention to some of the problems associated with them and to see that individual problems are thoroughly analysed and expertly presented to the public. Some of these questions should be singled out for consideration not later than in the next medium-term period, and self-management-based discussion should be used to set in motion the effort to resolve them or at least to ensure through agreements that the appropriate cadre and material prerequisites are available to study and evaluate them and even to solve some of their attendant aspects.

(13) The possibilities and conditions for specialized work at the National and University Library in Zagreb, the main central library of our Republic, are of great importance for the successful development of our whole library network. It would be useful to discuss the question of the concept of the future development of the National and University Library and to agree on how to deal with the urgent problem of staffing to enable this library to perform its exceptionally important, social and specialized functions as required by the Library Activity and Libraries Act as soon as practicable.

A further series of very complex and important questions could with advantage be dealt with within the library network and they, too, should be the subject of self-management-based agreement-seeking and co-operation between libraries. Such questions are: the co-ordinated provision and centralized study of library material, the unification and rationalization of other specialized, technical and administrative duties, and so forth.

The implementation of the Law on Associated Labour and the preparation of self-management-based agreements and normative provisions in the basic organizations of associated labour call for very complex activity by all the. libraries over relatively short periods of time. Here, too, the libraries could, by co-operating, organize joint elaboration of material, exchange experience, exchange specialized papers and so forth. The implementation of the Law on Associated Labour could, then, be a topic for self-management-based discussions among libraries.

***

This account does not comprise the modalities of the internal self-managing organization of libraries because that is not the subject under discussion at this plenary session and also because solutions for that type of organizational question were provided in a clear form in the Law on Associated Labour. They are to be implementated in the light of actual conditions and of the principles of a unified and rational library service organized on modern lines.

Some perplexity at the moment hangs over the question of determining the minimum number of workers needed to form a basic organization of associated labour. The Law on Associated Labour fixes no number, but makes it a condition that the number of workers should be such as to enable the basic organization realize of associated labour to realize self-management-based relations within it and to participate on a self-managing basis through its delegates in various parts of the wider self-management system. The social agreement will establish, among further criteria, the minimum number of workers in a basic organization of associated labour. The majority of the Republic's libraries have relatively small staffs and this is especially true of the municipal community libraries within the framework of the workers' and adult education centres, hence the exceptional importance of this question for the further development of libraries in our country.

Since library activity is of particular social importance, the self-management-based constituting of libraries should be based on uniform socially agreed attitudes. The functional linking together of the libraries of one or more municipalities or regions would create the basic prerequisites for the creation of a unified library and information service and combine optimum results with a considerably more rational use of the resources created by libraries through a free exchange of labour.

The central services of the National and University Library and of the regional and municipal libraries should bear the main brunt of the work of preparing specialized and other kinds of groundwork on which to elaborate self-management-based agreements to deal with these and with other questions.

By developing and promoting co-operation between libraries and the basis of the Law of Associated Labour and the Library Activity and Libraries Act, and by means of self-management-based agreement-seeking and joint consultations, the associated libraries will become, through their concept of development in partnership, an important factor in the free exchange of labour and the mainstay of the Republic's unified library and information service.

DOCUMENTS

(1) Law on Associated Labour 1976, Official Gazetter of the SFRY, Issue 49/60.

(2) Libraries Act 1960, National Gazette, Issue 49/60.

(3) Library Activity and Libraries Act 1973, National Gazette, Issue 25/73.

(4) Act on Public Funds for the Promotion of Cultural Activities 1968, National Gazette, Issue 7/68.

(5) Rules on Central Library Services in the Socialist Republic of Croatia, 1977, Croatian Council for Libraries, 1977.

(6) Standards for Public Libraries, IFLA, 1972, IFLA Verlag Dokumentation, Pullach/Munich, 1973.

(7) Minimum Yugoslav Standards for Community Libraries, 1973. Published in ‘The Fifth Assembly of the Federation of Library Associations of Yugoslavia', Belgrade, Federation of Library Associations of Yugoslavia, 1974, pp. 148-152.

(8) Minimum Yugoslav Standards for School Libraries, 1973. Published in 'The Fifth Assembly of the Federation of Library Associations of Yugoslavia', Belgrade, Federation of Library Associations of Yugoslavia, 1974, pp. 153-157.

<<TOC3>> 5. The management of staff

<<TOC4>> 5.1 Personnel administration

<<TOC5>> Personnel administration in libraries

By Helen Howard

A number of key issues in library personnel administration in the Canadian context are covered including staffing, duties, human resources planning, job analysis, job evaluation, performance appraisal, laws against discrimination, staff training and development, and quality of working life.

L'auteur passe en revue les principaux aspects de la gestion du personnel de bibliothèque en milieu canadien: dotation en personnel, tâches professionnelles, planification des ressources humaines, analyse des emplois, évaluation des postes appréciation du rendement, lois contre la discrimination, formation du personnel, qualité de vie au travail.

Personnel administration can be defined as “the recruitment, selection, development, utilization of, and accomodation to human resources by organizations."1 The human resources of an organization consist of all individuals engaged in any of the organization's activities. Libraries employ not only large numbers of people, but also very diverse kinds of people. It is not unusual for sixty to eighty percent of a library's budget to be devoted to salaries. Thus effective personnel administration is critical to a library's achieving its goals and objectives. In times of extreme financial constraint, the very survival of a library may be highly dependent upon the quality of personnel administration.

This paper has been organized around some of the key issues in library personnel administration in the Canadian context. The intent in the space available is to provide a flavour of the issues and challenges and to stimulate librarians to examine their own personnel policies and practices, management style, working conditions etc. with a view to providing an improved level of personnel administration.

Personnel administration as practiced in libraries is of a very uneven nature. Size is often a controlling factor with the result that personnel officers or departments tend to be found only in medium and large-size libraries. Personnel functions for staff in special libraries, school libraries, and small academic libraries may be carried out by the personnel (now often termed "human resource") offices of the parent organization. However, personnel administration is inherent in all organizations. It is an integral part of every administrative, managerial, and supervisory position. Techniques may help in specific instances, but the important consideration is the systematic overall approach to managing human resources.

Martin believes libraries have tended to rely on rather primitive methods of personnel administration and have lacked sophistication in the handling of newer techniques. "This has in turn led to a kind of applied-faddism as one tool after another has been used as the key to salvation... and too much has been expected of them."2 This paper is approached with a general systems view of organizations and the application of contemporary behavioral science theory, research, and practice.

The impact of financial constraint, a competitive job market, new technologies, rapid change in the environment, more involvement of staff in decision making, new legislation, and an increased demand for accountability have increased the importance of the effective use of human resources.

There is some evidence that greater emphasis is being placed on improved personnel administration. For example, in December 1973 The Systems and Procedures Exchange Center of the Association of Research Libraries Office of University Library Management Studies reported that 30 ARL libraries had appointed or were planning to appoint personnel officers. By November 1977 some 80 ARL libraries had personnel officers.3 Also, the amount of literature on specific aspects of library personnel administration as well as on the broad topic has increased in the last five years. This is reflected in the variety of sources used as background for this paper.

A number of factors have been part of an increased and specialized attention to personnel administration. These include an increase in the size and complexity of libraries, a growing number of governmental regulations and guidelines; a need for orientation, career counseling, training, and performance appraisal; unionization; attempts to implement a system involving job analysis and evaluation which involve detailed task analysis; new selection practices including the use of search committees; more sophisticated systems for promotion and tenure decisions; changing types and quantity of work to be done; changing ratios of professional to other staff; and general concern about the quality of working life. A selection of these topics which appear to be key issues for personnel administration and for professionals in the 1980's is reviewed in the remainder of this paper.

Staffing

"Staffing" should be thought of as an integrated system which includes all methods of matching skills available with the tasks to be performed, through hiring, placement, promotion, transfer, job restructuring, and training.4 Library staffing patterns have been shifting as a result of changes such as those in technology and especially automation, financial constraints, attempts to utilize staff more effectively, and changing forms of governance.

The staffing of libraries is becoming more differentiated. Enlightened library administrators are recognizing that several kinds of staff are needed and that the tasks each type of staff performs should be appropriate to the jobs for which they were hired. Library staff may be distributed into three groups:

a) professional: including librarians and other specialists with a graduate level degree

b) supportive: including library technicians with a two-or three-year college degree, and library assistants with a bachelor's degree

c) clerical: including office staff with high school education5

The ALA policy statement, "Library Education and Personnel Utilization" recommends categories of library personnel and levels of training and education appropriate to preparing personnel for these categories:

To meet the goals of library service, both professional and supportive staff are needed in libraries. Thus the library occupation is much broader than that segment of it which is the library profession, but the library profession has responsibility for defining the training and education required for the preparation of personnel who work in libraries at any level, supportive or professional.

Skills other than those of librarianship may also have an important contribution to make to the achievement of superior library service. There should be equal recognition in both the professional and supportive ranks for those individuals whose expertise contributes to the effective performance of the library.6

There is no comprehensive study to show how many librarians, other professionals, library technicians, library assistants, and clerical staff are currently employed in Canadian libraries and what their interrelationships are in the work place. However, some scattered data can be assimilated.

The ratio of professionals to other library staff has varied through the years. For instance, Canadian academic libraries showed a ratio of one professional to 2.85 other staff in 1969.7 The latest data from Statistics Canada for 1978, although not wholly comparable since part-time equivalents are not included, show a ratio of one to slightly more than three.8 Informal sources indicate that currently the ratio is closer to 1:4 in large Canadian university libraries. However, staffing ratios seem to be considerably different in public libraries. A recent survey of Canadian public libraries showed a ratio of 1:1.65 for librarians to other library workers.9

The basic academic qualification for a librarian is an M.L.S. degree from an accredited library school. There is a trend, however, for employers to seek staff with a second masters in a subject area. Priorities of programs and the' nature of work in libraries are changing. Thus a staff establishment which was appropriate in the 1970's needs review. The pressure from funding sources to justify programs and staffing has accelerated this activity and is forcing all administrators to look carefully at who is doing what and who could do what. It appears that fewer individuals are doing professional work than previously and there is a proportionately increasing number of library technicians, library assistants, and clerical staff.

Except in Quebec the library technician programs require two years of post-secondary education with a recommended 40-50 percent of academic courses, and 50-60 percent of technical courses and required field work.10 In Quebec, library technicians are trained mainly in the three-year program "Techniques de la documentation/Document Technology" in the Collèges d'enseignement général et professionnel (CEGEP's). This program, which began to replace in 1975 the former Library Technology Program, prepares the student for work not only in libraries but also in archives, records centres, bookstores, and documentation centres.

Although the first two-year program for library technicians in Canada was launched in 1966 and there are now some twenty-two programs, data are incomplete for the number of graduates and their placement. A survey conducted in 1981 showed that of the 409 graduates reported, the largest number, 122, had found employment in special libraries. Of the remainder, 55 were in academic and public libraries respectively, and nine in non-library jobs but using library skills.11 It appears that the technicians are having considerable success in finding positions, especially in special libraries. Indeed, many businesses and industries which feel that they can not afford or justify the hiring of a librarian, are turning to library technicians to organize their collections and develop services. A serious problem faced by library technicians, however, is that of gaining recognition as a group with specific academic and experiential training. Most large libraries do not have a separate classification for library technicians. Rather they tend to include them in a general category of "library assistants." This is an obvious problem for personnel administrators to tackle.

Library assistant positions are usually - but not always - similar to the "library associate" advocated in the ALA "Library Education and Personnel Utilization" policy. This group of personnel is described as having

supportive responsibilities at high level, normally working within established procedures and techniques, and with some supervision by a professional, but requiring judgment, and subject knowledge such as represented by a full, four-year college education culminating in the/a bachelor's degree.12

The third group of library employees, the clerical staff, needs a knowledge of office practices and a capacity to follow repetitive procedures within specified guidelines.

Duties

The issue of what duties should be carried out by professionals and those by other staff is receiving increased attention because of the need to make the most efficient use of staff and also to meet the expectations of young, ambitious professionals. Numerous efforts have been made to distinguish between professional and other tasks. For example, the American Library Association published a list of professional and nonprofessional duties in 1948.13 The Library Association undertook to distinguish professional from nonprofessional duties in 1964 and published a second edition in 1974.14

A different approach - that of applying the techniques of functional job analysis to libraries - was begun in 1969 by the Illinois Task Analysis Project (ILTAP). The objective of Phase I of the project was to provide a realistic description of work actually being done in public, school, special, and academic libraries. This phase identified 1,615 tasks performed by eighteen libraries. The project culminated in phase III with the publication of a synthesis of the preceding phases and a list of library tasks arranged by eight major subsystems and three performance levels - professional, technical, and clerical.15

Most recently, the consultants for Project Progress used as a starting point the Illinois tasks and functional groupings to find out who does what in a selection of public libraries. The task list they developed contained 787 tasks. An analysis of the task survey shows considerable overlap in performance of tasks by various categories of library workers. The researchers state that "We can identify no norms or patterns by which libraries could assess their own task/personnel assignments... Only 9.5 percent of the tasks listed were carried out exclusively by librarians."16 The consultants conclude that task analysis is not a tool that can enable libraries to rationalize and account for their effectiveness in personnel administration. In addition they conclude that "extrapolating 'who should do what' in libraries from 'who is doing what' is neither feasible nor desirable."17 Rather, they recommend that model job descriptions should be developed to provide guidelines for appropriate task assignment within public libraries.

The most recent attempt to identify professional duties has been undertaken by a committee of the Corporation des bibliothécaires professionnels du Québec. They re-worked a list published in 197418 and in April 1982 sent a revised list to the Corporation members for comment. The committee provides a selected list of duties expected to be performed by professionals in four functional areas - administration, collection management, organization and cataloguing of materials, and dissemination of materials - and a fifth section connected with teaching, research, and professional development.

Support staff, as defined earlier, includes graduates of a library technician program and library assistants with a bachelor's degree. Because of the variability of library size and working conditions and the lack of clarification of what constitutes professional work, it is impossible to state the specific duties which should be assigned to support staff. As far as library technicians are concerned, the Canadian Library Association's Guidelines for the Education of Library Technicians does include a list of minimum skills a graduate library technician possesses in both public and technical services procedures.19 The Ontario Association of Library Technicians issued a policy statement in 1977 which identifies a library technician as one who has acquired through a two-year program of study "specialized knowledge of library systems and methods to assist in developing, organizing, and maintaining a collection of library material."20 This document also includes a list of duties in public and technical services.

Library assistants are a diverse group whose duties vary considerably. The main research done on this group is by Mugnier who investigated "library associates" in large public libraries. She found that they not only carried out a wide variety of tasks but also filled jobs which overlapped into the beginning professional level.21

The duties of clerical employees also vary considerably from library to library. Typical duties are the preparation of materials, basic circulation routines, and typing.

Human Resources Planning

Employment planning is an essential part of managing the staffing process. It should be responsive to general environmental conditions with which the library and its parent organization must cope and reflect the organization's goals and objectives. According to French, it includes a skills inventory, an analysis of current and expected vacancies, an analysis of expected expansions or reductions in operating units, and a systematic plan for recruitment and promotion. It is a comprehensive, on-going process which includes, but is broader than, making projections.22

Since most libraries are now subject to severe budget constraints and sometimes a freeze on filling vacancies, human resources planning is more critical than ever. It is also more difficult than ever because of rapid change in the environment, factors such as government regulations and unionization, and the need to create innovative staffing arrangements not only to provide needed services, but also to ensure that librarians continue to develop professionally in spite of being caught in a "zero growth" economic situation.

Job Analysis

A major component for effective employment planning is job analysis. Strauss and Sayles state that detailed knowledge is required for every job in an organization in order to know how to recruit and whom to hire, to carry out job evaluation, to design promotional ladders, to set sensible workloads, and to evaluate staff development programs.23 Job analysis is a major undertaking requiring the specialized knowledge of the personnel administrator and a considerable input of other staff time. An alternative means for carrying out job analysis is using the services of consultants. Consultants do have the advantage of experience and expertise and can approach a study objectively. However, they may have little understanding of library work which can result in misinterpretations and/or strained relations with library staff.

Job analysis is a very complex undertaking and often uses a variety of methods. These may include using job descriptions, questionnaires, interviews, observation, and task analysis. Strauss and Sayles state that "job analysis should go beyond simply recording existing job practices: it should also question whether these practices are appropriate."24

Job descriptions or position descriptions are summaries of basic tasks performed on a job. They may contribute significantly to a job analysis study but often they are not updated frequently enough and there may be a big difference between what the job is supposed to consist of and the actual duties carried out by the encumbent.

There is ample literature on creating and using job descriptions and so they will not be treated further here. However, the difference between job descriptions and position classifications should be noted. Position classifications may be referred to as generic descriptions. They group jobs into a number of levels or classes and these are then described to feature gradations of job responsibility, skills required, etc. An example of position classification descriptions are those for general librarian, senior librarian, and principal librarian developed by the Canadian Association of College and University Libraries.25

Job Evaluation

Job evaluation is the process of determining the relative worth of the various jobs within an organization. There are many methods which may be used to enable management to determine how much one job should pay relative to others. The point system is the most widely used though ranking, job classification, and factor-comparison are also widely used. These methods are well described in personnel texts such as French26 and Strauss and Sayles,27 and are discussed in relation to libraries, for example, by Creth.28

There are many difficult problems related to job analysis and evaluation, not the least of which are human problems. Excellent communication is needed and it is essential that staff understand that it is the jobs which are being analyzed and evaluated and not the individuals performing the jobs.

Performance Appraisal

Performance appraisal may be regarded as "referring to a comparatively formal, systematic program of the evaluation of employee performance, developed to improve the quality of judgment applied to that performance and to insure frequent and timely assessments."29 The importance of an effective appraisal system can not be overemphasized. However, the difficulty of designing such a system, training supervisors, and implementing the system is immense.

The subject has been and continues to be discussed at such length in the personnel administration and library literature that no attempt will be made to cover its various facets here. The student of performance appraisal in libraries would benefit especially from reading Reneker,30 McGregor,31 Rizzo,32 the ARL Spec kit on performance appraisal,33 the Guide issued by the Library Administration and Management Association,34 and either French35 or Strauss and Sayles.36 Suffice it to say that new approaches to performance appraisal rather than being judgmental are oriented toward contributing to organizational goals, opening the lines of communication between supervisors and employees, and developing staff members.

Laws Against Discrimination

Personnel administrators must be familiar with an increasing number of laws and regulations affecting the work force. Among the newest legislation is that dealing specifically with discrimination. The Canadian Human Rights Act, which came into force on March 1, 1978, applies to all federal government departments, agencies, and crown corporations, and to business and industry under federal jurisdiction.37 In areas not under federal jurisdiction protection is given by provincial human rights laws. Each of the ten provinces has its own anti-discrimination laws which are broadly similar to the federal law. The main points of the federal law will be outlined here.

The Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, marital status, the fact that a person was convicted for an offence for which a pardon has been issued, and the fact that a person has a physical handicap. The Act also protects the privacy of personal information stored in government files. It ensures that any person may find out if there is personal information on those files, check its accuracy and the use to which it is being put, and request that inaccurate information be corrected.

Section 11 of the Act deals with equal wages:

(1) It is a discriminatory practice for an employer to establish or maintain differences in wages between male and female employees employed in the same establishment who are performing work of an equal value.
(2) In assessing the value of work performed by employees employed in the same establishment, the criterion to be applied is the composite of the skill, effort and responsibility required in the performance of the work and the conditions under which the work is performed."

Librarians have particular interest in this section because data continue to indicate that on the average, female librarians' salaries are lower than those for male librarians. A landmark decision was handed down by the Human Rights Commission in December 1980 as a result of a complaint from the Library Science Group of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. They complained that their occupational group, which was composed of more than 66 percent women, was paid less than historical researchers - a predominately male group whose job duties the librarians alleged were of equal value. The Canadian Human Rights Commission concluded that the librarians' complaint was justified and awarded some 470 federal government librarians equalization adjustments ranging from $500 to $2,500 annually, plus back pay of up to $5,900 each. This is the first settlement of a complaint comparing occupational groups whose members perform dissimilar jobs.

In Quebec the Charte des droits et libertés de la personne, which became law in June 1976, spells out fundamental rights and freedoms. It prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, colour, sex, civil status, religion, political convictions, language, ethnic or national origin, or social conditions.39 Another document, Equal Opportunities in Employment. Guide for Interpreting the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms With Respect to job Offers, Application Forms and Interviews with Candidates40 lists and explains which questions are or are not permissible.

Anti-discriminatory legislation is also embedded in various other taws such as labour codes. These will not be discussed here but one new piece of legislation which may have an impact on personnel practices should be noted. This is Quebec Bill 15, "An Act Respecting the Abolition of Compulsory Retirement and Providing Amendments to Certain Legislation", which was passed in April, 1982. This is the first act of its kind in Canada, but it is likely similar legislation will follow in other jurisdictions. Although one may sympathize with the intent of this legislation, it could be another factor inhibiting the opportunities for younger librarians to advance and achieve more responsibility in senior Positions.

Staff Training and Development

As staffing patterns change, new technologies are introduced, and new societal needs are expressed, library staff have an increased need for opportunities for training and development. Dunlap points out that for libraries faced with staff cuts a greater proportion of time will have to be devoted to basic tasks and this leaves less opportunity for extra programs and for staff movement, such as staff rotation. She argues convincingly for making a special effort to provide opportunities for growth for all staff and believes that as a result they will be more receptive to change because they will not feel threatened.41 Although training is time-consuming and costly, cutting the budget for it is short-sighted in the extreme. On the other hand, staff, especially professionals, have as much obligation to assume responsibility for development and continuing education as management has for encouraging it.

The needs and opportunities for training and development are amply documented in the literature. Creth provides a good overview of the factors to be considered as well as sources of additional information.42

Programs that support the development of the library's human resources are the most rewarding of any activity - for the individual, the library, and the public that the library serves - and they provide the library with an insurance policy on the largest investment it has, its people.43

Quality of Working Life

Staff development encompasses aspects of a "Quality of Working Life" program. This has become an increasingly familiar term that means different things to different people. Explicit in the concept and its application is a system of thought that stresses the humanizing and self-fulfilling potential of work.44 Job design and sociotechnical systems are sub-sets of the key issues in the quality of working life.

Job design represents an approach to designing specific jobs to make them more interesting and rewarding for the individual job holder and more productive for the organization. Sociotechnical systems represents (sic) a more comprehensive approach to designing total work systems as well as individual jobs.45

Martell provides an excellent review of the topic which has been evolving during the seventies but has only recently appeared in the literature of librarianship.46, 47, 48 His view is that "The tendency to look at tasks and jobs rather than organizational roles is a major factor that constrains efforts to develop more effective organization structures for libraries." He acknowledges that the implementation of work system design is very difficult and speculates that "the perceptual and technical skills required to develop and implement contemporary work system design may not yet exist within librarianship."49

Redesigning work is a broad undertaking which requires a holistic approach to change. It is a long and difficult task which challenges the ingenuity of all professionals and, in particular, those directly responsible for personnel administration.

Summary and Conclusion

This paper has covered a selected number of key issues in library personnel administration in the Canadian context. Some topics which are very important, such as unionization, have not been dealt with because it is expected that they will be treated in other papers. The importance of the personnel process has been stressed, including the need for expertise to enable the profession to make good use of technology and research in the behavioral sciences in adapting to change. Library managers are faced with the difficult problem of improving the effectiveness of their staffs while at the same time providing an opportunity for staff development in times of zero growth or retrenchment. There is a real danger of unfulfilled expectations leading to lowered morale and its attendant problems. Some suggestions have been made for improved personnel practices. However, there is no "one right way." Each library must devise its own strategy for maximizing the potential of its human resources.

1. Wendell L. French, The Personnel Management Process: Human Resources Administration and Development. 4th ed. (Boston, Houghton-Mifflin, 1978), p. 3.

2. Murray S. Martin, Issues in Personnel Management in Academic Libraries (Greenwich. Conn., JAI Press, 1981), p. 4.

3. Association of Research Libraries. Systems and Procedures Exchange Center, The Changing Role of Personnel Officers (Washington, D.C., 1978), p. 1.

4. Margaret Myers, «Staffing Patterns in Libraries» In Sheila Creth and Frederick Duda, Personnel Administration in Libraries (New York, Neal-Schuman, 1981), p. 33.

5. Canadian Association of College and University Libraries. Second University Library Standards Committee, Trends for the Seventies: Guidelines for Canadian University Libraries (Montreal and Toronto, 1971), p. 26.

6. American Library Association, «Library Education and Personnel Utilization: a Statement of Policy Adopted by the Council of the ALA, June 30, 1970» (Chicago, ALA, 1970), p. 1.

7. «Salary and Budget Survey», CACUL Newsletter, vol. 2, no. 1 (January 1969), p. 50.

8. Statistics Canada. Education, Science and Culture Division, University and Colleges in Canada 1978-79 (Ottawa, Ministry of Supply, 1981), p. 40.

9. Project Progress: a Study of Canadian Public Libraries, prepared for the Canadian Library Association and its division The Canadian Association of Public Libraries by Urban Dimensions Group, Inc., Toronto, Canada (Ottawa, Canadian Library Association, 1981). p. 37.

10. Jean Weihs, «Survey of Library Technician Programs in Canada,» Canadian Library journal, Vol. 36, no. 6 (December 1979), pp. 354-63, 365-8.

11. Jean Weihs, «Committee Polls Technician Programs Across Canada in 1981,» Feliciter, vol. 28, no. 4 (April 1982), pp. 10-11.

12. American Library Association, «Library Education and Personnel Utilization.» p. 2.

13. American Library Association. Board on Personnel Administration, Professional and Non-Professional Duties in Libraries (Chicago, ALA, 1948).

14. Library Association Research and Development Committee. Professional and Non-Professional Duties in Libraries. 2nd ed. (London, Library Association, 1974).

15. Meryl Ricking and Robert E. Booth, Personnel Utilization in Libraries: a Systems Approach (Chicago, ALA, 1974).

16. Project Progress, pp. 72-73.

17. Ibid., p. 75.

18. Corporation des bibliothécaires professionnels du Québec, «Liste des tâches professionnelles du bibliothécaire,» Argus, Vol. 3, no. 6 (novembre-décembre 1974), pp. 70-73.

19. Canadian Library Association. Committee on Library Technicians (Role and Education), Guidelines for the Education of Library Technicians (Ottawa, CLA, 1981).

20. Ontario Association of Library Technicians. Standards Committee, «Statement of the Standards Committee» (Toronto, 1977), p. 1.

21. Charlotte Mugnier, Paraprofessionals and the Professional job Structure (Chicago, ALA, 1980).

22. French, p. 199.

23. George Strauss and Leonard Sayles, Personnel: the Human Problems of Management. 4th ed. (Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall, 1980), p. 344.

24. Ibid., p. 346.

25. Canadian Association of College and University Libraries, Positions Classification and Principles of Academic Status in Canadian University Libraries (Ottawa, Canadian Library Association, 1969).

26. French, pp. 391-6.

27. Strauss and Sayles, pp. 565-73.

28. Sheila Creth, «Personnel Planning and Utilization» In Sheila Creth and Frederick Duda, Personnel Administration in Libraries (New York, Neal-Schuman, 1981), pp. 73-86.

29. Maxime Reneker, «Performance Appraisal in Libraries: Purposes and Techniques» In Sheila Creth and Frederick Duda, Personnel Administration in Libraries (New York, Neal Schuman, 1981), p. 228.

30. Ibid., pp. 227-89.

31. Douglas McGregor, «An Uneasy Look at Performance Appraisal,» Harvard Business Review, Vol. 35, no. 3 (May-June 1957), pp. 89-94.

32. John R. Rizzo, Management for Librarians: Fundamentals and Issues (Westport, Conn., Greenwood Press, 1980), pp. 226-57.

33. Association for Research Libraries. Systems and Procedures Exchange Center, Performance Appraisal (Washington, D.C., 1978). (Spec kit 53).

34. American Library Association. Library Administration and Management Association. Personnel Administration Section, Personnel Performance Appraisal - a Guide for Libraries (Chicago, ALA, 1979).

35. French, pp. 299-334.

36. Strauss and Sayles, pp. 519-37.

37. Canada. Laws, statutes, etc., Canadian Human Rights Act (Ottawa, July 1977).

38. Ibid., p. 4.

39. Quebec. Laws, statutes, etc. Charte des droits et libertés de la personne, C-12 (with amendments) Quebec, Editeur officiel, 1981.

40. Québec. Commission des droits de la personne du Québec, Equal Opportunities in Employment: Guide for Interpreting the Charter of Human Rights and Freedom With Respect to Job Offers, Application Forms and Interviews With Candidates (Quebec. 1977).

41. Connie Dunlap, «New Objectives for Library Management» In Chih-Chih Chen, Library Management Without Bias (Greenwich, Conn., JAI Press, 1980), pp. 169-73.

42. Sheila Creth, «Staff Development and Continuing Education» In Sheila Creth and Frederick Duda, Personnel Administration in Libraries (New York, Neal Schuman, 1981), pp. 189-225.

43. Ibid., p. 222.

4-4. Charles Martell, «Improving the Effectiveness of Libraries Through Improvements in the Quality of Working Life» College and Research Libraries, vol. 42, no. 5 (September 1981), p. 435.

45. Labour Canada. Quality of Working Life Unit, Quality of Working Life: Job Design and Sociotechnical Systems (Ottawa, Minister of Supply and Services, 1980), p. 1.

46. Klaus Musmann, «Socio-Technical Theory and job Design in Libraries,» College and Research Libraries, vol. 30, no. 1 (January 1978), pp. 20-28.

47. Thomas W. Shaughnessy, «Technology and job Design in Libraries: A Sociotechnical Systems Approach», Journal of Academic Librarianship, vol. 3, no. 5 (November 1977), pp. 269-72.

48. Thomas W. Shaughnessy, «Redesigning Library jobs» Journal of the American Society for Information Science, vol. 29, no. 4, July 1978), pp. 187-90.

49. Martell, p. 441.

<<TOC4>> 5.2 Human relations in personnel administration

<<TOC5>> Human relations in administration

by Amor C. GUERRERO

Librarian, College of Education, University of the Phillippines

Human relations in administration simply means accomplishing the goals of the organization without friction. It presupposes a knowledge of the goals and the needs of individuals belonging to the group. In a library set-up the official responsible for accomplishing the goals of the library revolves on the librarian and the personnel officer, if any. Usually in the Phillippine setting the librarian is the personnel officer at the same time.

It is easier to administer a small library than a big one because there are fewer people to know and deal with and there is more chance of knowing the people better in a small group. However, in bigger libraries there are division chiefs and section heads who will help the librarian in administration. On the choice, therefore, of these heads rests the success of the function of coordination and cooperation.

An administrator who can be democratic and fair, and who can meet the emotional needs of his staff will surely be a success. If he is democratic he will make rules in cooperation with the staff and will treat them as equals (1). He will not be judgemental (2) in his relations but rather helpful by seeing the other fellow's point of view. He will open all channels of communication freely. He will try to meet the emotional needs of his men by accepting each one as he really is; knowing his problems and ambitions he can coordinate them with the goals of the library; he provides affection by showing interest in everyone's welfare; and lastly he provides room for achievement. He sets a good example for them to follow.

I think that all of you must have read books and articles on administration and personnel work. You more or less know the principles and the do's and don'ts of administration. I presume that our difficulty lies in the interpretation of these principles in actual practice. We are all human and we all commit mistakes. Sometimes we are not aware of our mistakes because we have to attend to so many things and we are but human in thinking that we try to do the right things. Therefore, I will confine myself to cases so that when we get into a parallel situation we will know whether we fared badly or well. All these cases are made up only.

As the leader of the organization the librarian sets the tone of the administration, whether it is democratic or authoritarian. He may formulate democratic rules but in practice he might deviate from them without his being aware of it. The littlest act, a word uttered at the wrong moment may give him away. The staff can feel his sincerity and fairness in many little ways. No matter how the best policies are written if the administrator deviates in his actions, the staff will always take note. They are most sensitive to faults. For instance, see case 1.

CASE I

In the Northern Hills Library it is customary to give monetary contributions to a colleague who has lost a parent. A memo is passed around announcing the death and voluntary contributions are collected. So when the father of one of the assistants, Miss Gan, died a certain amount of money was collected from the staff members, and was given to her. The librarian in his short note stated "Herewith are the contributions of the Library Staff on the death of your father".

In moments of great import to a person, the administrator should be careful in representing the sentiments of the staff so that the recipient would feel the concern of his colleagues. In this instance money appeared to be the most important thing when it is not, although it is a necessary thing. This is one of the little ways by which an administrator is evaluated by his staff without benefit of formal scale. It should have been a good occasion to show affection and concern; to make the bereaved feel that the whole library sympathizes with her, that she belonged to the group. The attitude of the recipient who may have felt that the leader does not care for the employee has been formed by the leadership climate or tone of the administration.

CASE II

Librarian A: Do you know that Zeny has been made Librarian I?

Librarian B: I thought our boss said that one without an M.A. cannot be promoted to Librarian I?

Librarian A: Well, it happens. And do you know that the starting salary of Jose is P305.00 while that of Luz is P280.00?

Librarian B: No, but I know that both are B.S. degree holders. How come?

Librarian A: Well, by their looks the bosses know who have greater potential.

Conversations like these are typical in any organization and it is most likely that these are kept in the grape vine and never elevated to the authorities concerned. This would happen even if the administrator has announced that anybody may ask the administrators questions regarding administrative policies and practices. Incidents like these happening in a group show lack of cohesiveness and are evidence of low morale. Yerkovich (3) defines morale thus:

"Morale refers to the condition of a group where there are clear and fixed goals that are felt to be important and integrated with individual goals; where there is confidence in the attainment, in the leaders, associates and finally in oneself; where group actions are integrated and cooperative and where aggression and hostility are expressed against forces frustrating the group rather than towards the individuals within the group".

In Case 2 there is an implied lack of confidence in the leader because of favoritism.

CASE III

Mrs. Cruz is a senior assistant librarian who has just come from a maternity leave for her sixth child who followed a five-year old boy. She and her husband live and work in Quezon City, so that she goes to the Library with her husband who drives the car. Then the husband goes to his office after conducting her to hers. There is a temporary vacancy in Manila where a more mature librarian is needed. The library administrator, Miss Bee, called Mrs. Cruz to talk to her about assigning her in Manila for the meantime. Miss Bee told Mrs. Cruz about the need and her qualifications which suit the position. When Mrs. Cruz said something about the distance of the library, Miss Bee replied "The trouble with us is that we want promotions but when we are called upon to help in a place where we are needed, we decline". In order to please Miss Bee, Mrs. Cruz accepted the new assignment. That same afternoon Mrs. Cruz had to go to a hospital because her blood pressure went up.

This is a case wherein the needs of the library alone were considered without considering those of the individual so that the welfare of the staff member has been adversely affected. This shows lack of understanding of the employee's personal problems. We judge people when we are not aware of their specific needs. "An understanding supervisor must discover the way employees think and the values they live by" (4) by listening sympathetically to them. In this case the administrator has failed to listen and to coordinate the needs of the individual with those of the library.

CASE IV

Mr. Dee is a librarian of a large university. He takes care of administering the main library and thirty other units. He assigned one librarian to take care of technical processes and another for readers' services. Of course the units have head librarians who help him administer the libraries. These heads of sections and units are called to a meeting monthly to discuss problems. Sometimes committees are formed to study certain problems and presented to the general meeting for discussion.

The library is well organized. It maintains a union catalog of all library holdings that included all the units. It has a salary scale where stages in the professional ladder are quite clear. It has a staff manual which apprises the members of their rights and privileges and has a written set of rules for the whole system. The librarians are hard working and congenial but they are not happy. There is a frequent turnover of personnel. those who oppose the ideas of Mr. Dee do not get frequent increases. Only the yes men do. Mr. Jay, one of the head librarians tried to do something by making a questionnaire to gauge the morale of the group but when Mr. Dee learned that they were distributed, he gathered all he could and confronted Mr. Jay as to why he did not secure his permission first. Mr. Jay thought that as an academic man he had the freedom to study any subject that interested him. Mr. Dee made it plain that he should have secured permission, but when Mr. Jay wrote to ask permission he was told that a survey was not deemed necessary and that if and when he deems it necessary the library will appoint a committee for the purpose. The librarian further stated that it is the duty of unit heads merely to attend to their units. In reply, Mr. Jay expressed that it is his duty as a university man to suggest whatever he thinks is good for the system.

Personally, Mr. Dee believes in "bawling out" his staff members once in a while, to teach them a lesson. When mistakes are repeated once too often he will castigate the staff members in front of other staff members and readers.

Mr. Dee also believes in motivating the members by means of fines and threats of non-reappointment. He thinks that since they need their jobs they will do their best to keep them.

Mr. Dee supervises through the spy system. The grape vine knows that there are men in the system that snoop on the others and that reports are made to the librarian.

Whenever there is a brave soul who will spearhead a petition, Mr. Dee and his favorites will interview the petitioners to discourage them from pursuing their project and pretty soon their appointments are terminated or not renewed the following year if they are temporary. If they are permanent, they do not get recommended for a salary increase.

Mr. Dee sometimes suggests to non-favorites, about transferring to another library whenever he knows of a vacancy outside.

This a case that shows some ideal situations but also some faulty administration. The library is well organized with good personnel. It has some democratic practices like monthly meetings and committee work. But communication is being stifled; the manner of supervision does not consider the worth of the human person. Thomas (5) defined supervision as "the art of treating others as you yourself would be treated" and includes among the administrator's duties the training of subordinates for promotion and giving of opportunities to grow in the job. The motivation in Case IV does not cater for personal achievement. The leadership is in a way democratic but also autocratic and suppresses initiative. It is insensitive to employees' needs. It caters for favoritism. This case illustrates that although a library is well organized, or well provided with manuals, rules and plans, its staff will not necessarily be happy. It takes more than manuals, plans, rules and organizations, to have good human relations. It takes a sincere person who loves people, to achieve good human relations.

When employees do not trust the supervisor and vice-versa, misunderstandings will occur. "When mutual trust is present grievances are rare and when they appear, remedies can easily be found"(6). Trust is an attitude that must be developed if it is to become mutual.

Punishment is an ineffective tool for disciplining employees because it is not constructive, it is an attack on the one who is punished and may cause resentment and frustration. "Bawling out" an employee causes resentment and does not consider the worth of the individual. It works toward the opposite of the desired goal of the administrator. "The practice of good human relations is an integration of a number of skills and attitudes" (7). Besides having the following qualities of leadership: democratic, knows needs of group and individuals, loves and trusts people and therefore is fair and will provide their emotional needs; knows psychology and group dynamics, cam communicate, can act as consultant, sensitive to problems and hardworking, he must possess certain skills such as the following:

1. sociometric techniques which he can use to gauge social relations of the group,
2. discussion methods so as to discover constructive techniques to motivate,
3. role playing so that the employee can see himself acting in a realistic situation,
4. interviewing so that he can get and give information and cause motivation,
5. conseling so that he can listen and remove frustration,
6. case study approach so that through examples realization of the situation may come about,
7. questionnaire techniques to gather information as a basis for action,
8. group dynamics so that he can manipulate work situations and motivation,
9. devising measuring scales to aid him in evaluating his administration (a sample scale is attached as Appendix A) and the performance of employees so that fairness will prevail in promotions.

It behooves the administrator, therefore, to make sure that his administration is all right by devising an evaluation form to gauge it because even if we try to do our best in our work we are only human and can make mistakes. The academic librarian should approach library administration scientifically if he would deserve the term academic. He should be constantly making cost studies and be constantly trying to improve ways of doing things all throughout the system. He should devise and refine evaluation instruments for measuring individual performance until they become objective and workable. He should devise other indexes to compare different services of different units. In other words he should continue studying how to improve the system.

In closing may I quote the ten commandments for good human relations since human relations highly depends on the administrator who sets the tone of the administration: (8)

1. Speak to people - there is nothing as nice as a cheerful word of greeting.
2. Smile at people - it takes 72 muscles to frown, only 14 to smile.
3. Call people by name - the sweetest music to anyone's ear is the sound of his own name.
4. Be friendly and helpful - if you would have friends, be friendly.
5. Be cordial - speak and act as if everything you do were a genuine pleasure.
6. Be genuinely interested in people - you can like everybody if you try.
7. Be generous with praise - cautious with criticism.
8. Be considerate with the feelings of others - it will be appreciated.
9. Be thoughtful of the opinion of others - there are three sides to a controversy: Yours - the other fellow's - and the right one.
10. Be alert to give service - what counts most in life is what we do for others.

References

1. Yerkovich, Raymond J. "Rx: human relations". New York state education, vol. 56, March 1969, p.24.

2. Ibid.

3. Op. cit.

4. Griffiths, D.E. Human relations in administration. New York: Apple ton-Century Crofts, 1956.

5. Thomas, C. "Human relations in the library: supervision at all levels". Wilson library bulletin, vol. 33, February 1969, p. 16.

6. Griffiths, op.cit.

7. Ibid.

8. "Ten commandments of human relations", School activities, vol. 34, March 1963, p.206.

Other sources

BOOKS

American Association of School Administrators. Thirty-third yearbook. Washington D.C.: National Education Association, 1955.

Sargent, Cyril G. and Belisle, E. Educational administration: cases and concepts. Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 1955.

Savage, W.W. Inter-personal and group relations in educational administration. Glenview, III.: Scott, Foresman and Co., 1968.

PERIODICALS

Berkovitz, I.H. "Varieties of mental health consultation for school personnel." Journal of secondary education. 45 (March 1970),113-117

Houts, Paul L. "Humanism and Mr. Mates," [Editorial] National elementary principal, 49 (January, 1970), 2-4.

White, Lillian. "Human relations begin in the school office", The instructor, 78 (February, 1969), 16.

Appendix A

SAMPLE EVALUATION FOR ADMINISTRATORS

Note to personnel:

Please check your honest answers. Don't sign your name and rest assured this will be treated confidentially and used only to help improve the system without mentioning names. Thank you.

The Administrator	
	YES	NO	
1. Do you feel that you have been doing an important job?			
2. Do you enjoy your work?			
3. Do you know how your job relates to the rest of the work in the Library?			
4. Does your job assignment encourage initiative and originality?			
5. Can you discuss grievances freely with the administration?			
6. Does the administration protect your interests and improve your status?			
7. Does the administration attend to ypour health and welfare?			
8. Are mistakes pointed out in a tactful manner?			
9. Are changes in policies and plans carefully explained to all employees?			
10. Do you feel that the administration has faith and confidence in your ability to do the job assigned to you?			
11. Is there good team work and cooperation in your unit?			
12. Do you think that the administration enforces the same rules for all staff members?			
13. Do you have a chance to formulate plans and policies which affect you?			
14. Have you been given the chance to appraise your success or failure in the work you do?			
15. Do you like your co-workers in the Library?			
16. Is the work assigned to you well defined such that you know what's expected of you?			
17. Is vital information shared with the staff in reaching group decisions?			
18. Are you free to make suggestions to your superior?			
19. Do you have enough opportunities to experience success with the resulting stimulating effects?			
20. Is there evidence of mutual respect between staff members in their relationship with one another?			
21. Do you feel free to exercise initiative in your job?			
22. Do you feel reasonably secure in your job?			
23. Do you feel that you belong to the library staff?			
24. Do you feel that the administration is fair?			
25. Do you have confidence and faith in the leadership and integrity of the administration?			
NOTE: Kindly type below your remarks and suggestion for improvement:

A case study for library administrators

Let's call this case of B, a Librarian I, working as assistant to Librarian III who in turn is under Librarian V, a stickler for proper procedures. Librarian III is a non-conformist who frankly disagrees with any one including Librarian V, a superior officer, when necessary. B is a very reserved girl, hardly able to make a dissenting opinion, usually quiet, hard-working and has gotten along well with fellow workers for three years. On the third year she became the girl friend of a student assistant under her supervision.

Friction with a co-worker D ensued when the boyfriend would not allow B to go with D to places as they used to. One such friction occurred when a reader requested B and D to wait for her because her class will be dismissed at 5:00, the same time that the library closes and it will take some time to come down to the library. Both agreed to wait. At 5:00 the boyfriend came, hurrying B to go home because he said "She also needed rest". Due to repeated statements on the part of the boyfriend, D let B go ahead grudgingly. This was later patched up. As a matter of fact they ate a potluck lunch together. The very next day, however, B sent a letter addressed to Librarian V asking for transfer specifying that she cannot get along with her colleagues, her work is boring because she does nothing but charging and recording serials. She wrote: "Maximum amount of work and services can be accomplished in any unit of the library if there is harmony of the staff, if the treatment of subordinates by supervisor is equal and if work is properly distributed to everyone. Given these conditions, I believe that any library unit will be a place worth working in".

Librarian III found the letter on her desk and called B. She asked her why she had to write directly to Librarian V, a higher official, when communication channels were wide open with her immediate -supervisor. This is done only by people who are suppressed but she is not. Just three months ago she evaluated the Library and Librarian I with a grade of 1.17 and just a month ago she did not give any suggestion or hint in the staff meeting that she was unhappy in her job. Librarian III further explained to her that her public relations will suffer by doing this and so she was asked to sleep over it and give her decision the next day. She kept mum on the questions laid before her and just said she had decided the matter. She was even arrogant in the manner she answered her immediate superior, a trait quite foreign to her. Librarian III asked her to take all her time to write down why she thinks there is unequal distribution of work load, what unequal treatment she received under her, and why the library is not a place worth working in. All she could write about was merely her desire to be transferred. Nevertheless, Librarian III insisted that she sleep over it.

The next day B had the same decision and so Librarian III endorsed the letter with pertinent remarks.

Librarian V called Librarian III and B separately and after eight days rotated B to the Main Library to do mere charging work.

Five or six months later, B got a P15-00 monthly increase. Librarian III suggested in a memo to Librarian V that the increase be retrieved and given to somebody more deserving, otherwise B might think she did right. The increase was not retrieved.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

What administrative implications can be gathered from this case?

1. Relation of staff to immediate chief

a) Is it right for B to address the letter to Librarian V when communication channels are open?
b) Is it right for a subordinate to answer arrogantly his superior officer?
c) Is it right for a well treated employee to complain without grounds?
d) Is it right for the student assistant to court his superior and for the superior to accept such attentions from a subordinate? If it is, to what extent could the student assistant have a say in the relationships with colleagues? If not should the complainant be given some punishment?

2. Relation of Chief to Supervisor

a) Is it proper for a subordinate to go direct to the highest official for alleged redress of grievance without exhausting remedies with her immediate supervisor?
b) Is it proper for the highest official to give due course to a subordinate's complaints without first refering her back to her immediate supervisor? In so doing is Librarian V not encouraging the staff to be conspirators?

3. Relation of staff to fellow staff

a) Is it bad for a colleague to warn a fellow staff member about the intentions of a suitor especially if he is a subordinate of the object of attention?
b) Is it right for a colleague to break bread with a fellow worker and then write a letter of complaint soon after the fellow worker has been made to think that everything is all right between them?

4. If a worker is bored is it right to transfer her to another library doing charging work? Will the change of place be enough to remove boredom? Would not doing just one kind of work be more boring?

5. Political and psychological implications
a) Is it possible that B became brave all of a sudden because somebody prompted her to do this?
b) If so, does the one prompting such a thing deserve dismissal or demotion? If this is not true, should not B be referred to a psychiatrist for a test in schizophrenic personality to avoid mental sickness?

6. In the paper presented by Mrs. Guerrero, the following factors of good human relations are noted:

a. democratic
b. fairness
c. free communication

emotional needs to be met:

d. acceptance
e. affection
f. achievement

Discuss the presence or absence of these factors and their bearing on good human relations in the case of B.

II. Another suggested activity for the workshop: writing case studies by delegates and compiling all these cases in book form for use by librarians.

<<TOC4>> 5.3 Career opportunities

<<TOC5>> Career development of women librarians in New Zealand

JAN BIERMAN

Librarianship is a female stereotyped occupation and 82 per cent of New Zealand librarians are women (Who's Who in New Zealand Libraries, 1980). However, women are disproportionately represented in senior managerial positions. Women librarians hold only 17 per cent of the 'top' jobs which include City Librarians of major cities with a population of 100,000 plus, University Librarians, National Librarian and deputy, and Director/ Professor of the 'Library Schools. By far the largest proportion of women managers come at the intermediate level of management which includes deputies of the above, City Librarians of cities with a population of 50,000 plus, Technical Institute and Teachers College Librarians, heads of Government Department libraries, and National Library Directors.

Women, on the whole, make up the proletariat of the library profession. In order to determine what factors might account for the under-representation of women in senior managerial ranks, Auckland librarians were surveyed by means of a questionnaire and the literature was reviewed for variables that might be related to the career development of women.

Methodology

During May 1984, questionnaires were circulated to librarians in three Auckland libraries - Auckland University, Manukau Public Libraries and School Library Service. These were distributed and collected by colleagues in these institutions. There was a return rate of 66 per cent. The method of distribution resulted in a lower return rate than expected because of the possibility of violation of confidentiality by the distributors. Of the surveys returned 82.8 per cent were from women librarians and 17.2 per cent from men. This roughly equates with the national ratios in librarianship.

The chief source of information, Who's Who in New Zealand Libraries, 1980, was found to be both out-of-date and unreliable. Data compiled in this publication were supplied by individual librarians and it was an impossible task to compile accurate statistics on current positions and status as many respondents failed to use job titles or terminology that could be equated with a specific level or position. Therefore the basis of the report had to be compiled from the statistics and information gathered from the questionnaires and related to relevant research.

Survey results

Work experience in libraries

The research indicates that women tend to enter the library profession straight from school or university, while men tend to have had other work (non-library related) experience. Half of the women in the survey (two-thirds of the men) had previous work (non-library related) experience.

Men typically enter the profession later than women (average age 26 years for men, 19 years for women). Women tend to hold the same position for longer periods than men.1 The survey shows that a third of the women (but only a sixth of the men) have held the same position for eight years or more. Women tend to have a longer period 'in rank', while men generally tend to move quickly through the ranks, either through promotion within the same library or by moving to another library.

Education

Studies of the educational background of librarians reveal that men tend to have more education, especially more advanced qualifications, than women.2 83 per cent of the men surveyed had as their highest educational qualification a Bachelors degree or above (50 per cent had a Masters degree). Only 44 per cent of the women had as their highest educational qualification a Bachelors degree or above (14 per cent had a Masters degree). 50 per cent of the women held University Entrance as their highest educational qualification.

In the area of library qualifications the anomalies were further illustrated. 83 per cent of the men had the postgraduate Diplomas or equivalent overseas qualifications. 34 per cent of the women held the postgraduate qualification while 66 per cent held library certificates.

Recent statistics for library graduates in New Zealand libraries indicate the following division by sex:

Diploma level	Males: 33% 	Females: 67%	
Certificate level	Males: 5% 	Females: 95%3	

Age

Male librarians tend to reach higher positions at a younger age than do women. Male librarians in managerial positions, in the survey, assumed their first managerial positions at an average age of 31 years. Women assumed their first managerial positions at an average age of 35 years.

72.4 per cent of the women were under 25 years when they received their library qualifications whereas all the men in the survey were over 25 years.

Marital status and/or children

41 per cent of the women surveyed were married; 59 per cent classed themselves as single or other. It is interesting to note that the percentage of married women represented in the survey is significantly below the national average for women. 50 per cent of the married women were main income earners (secondary 25 per cent, equal 25 per cent). 50 per cent of the males surveyed were married, and 67 per cent were main income earners (equal 33 per cent). 31 per cent of the women and 66 per cent of the men had children.

Many authors have noted the difficulties experienced in trying to combine marriage and family with a career. Women who attempt to combine home and career evidently do experience very real problems in creating a balance between them. In addition, no matter how much in control a woman may be concerning the responsibilities of running a home, her colleagues and supervisors are likely to assume she will not be as effective in her career as those who do not have such obligations. Whereas for men, being married seems to have a positive effect on their careers. Marital status and children also affect women's mobility and work continuity. The traditional barriers of society and workplace continue to affect women and expectation of role.4

Much of the research carried out on marital status in librarianship does not correlate with the data compiled from the survey. Studies of career patterns in various occupations have found a correlation between occupational achievement and marital status. Studies find a greater proportion of male librarians married than female, and marriage, if viewed in light of the higher status of male librarians as a group, seems to enhance career advancement.5

Mobility

Geographic mobility in library work, as in other professions, is very important for professional advancement. 31 per cent of the women (66 per cent of the men) claimed that they would apply for a library position in another geographic locality. Career advancement was stated as the major objective in all cases. 69 per cent of the women claimed they would not seek a position in another geographical locality. Reasons given for this choice were family, preference for living where they did, own home, social reasons, age and climate. Family reasons were stated as the chief reason by 65 per cent of the women respondents. Reasons men stated for not moving were nearness to retirement and satisfaction with present position.

Work continuity

The traditional attitude towards women employees is that they are not as stable in terms of employment patterns as men, and thus do not provide as much return on investment in terms of education and training.6 75 per cent of the women (83 per cent of the men) respondents had been in the library profession for ten years or more.

65 per cent of the women (50 per cent of the men) stated there had been breaks in their library careers. The length of the breaks averaged 4.8 years (men averaged 7 months). 47 per cent stated travel as the chief reason for this break; 36 per cent stated marriage and child rearing.

Attitudes towards sex roles

Several authors have suggested that traditional attitudes of both men and women towards masculine and feminine roles are a big obstacle preventing women from attaining managerial positions. Women are expected, and are often content, to play a supportive role. Women have internalised norms that are formidable obstacles to their entering managerial ranks; these norms often disqualify them from competitive, challenging jobs and they generally grow up thinking of a career as a contingency plan.7 Thus women promoted to senior positions often experience inner conflict and ambivalence.

Sex-role stereotypes tend to influence choice of career for many women. One may speculate whether perhaps female librarians who are attracted to the library profession have in fact traditional sex-role attitudes, and if so, whether this factor contributes to the problems of inequity in managerial positions filled by women.

65 per cent of the women in the survey (50 per cent of the men) stated that librarianship was their first career choice. The choices are listed in order of deciding factors: interest in reading and literature, no career alternatives, chance, enjoyment derived from working with people (service), good career prospects, direction by school or family, library environment. Significantly, no career alternatives and chance were listed by a great number of respondents, often qualified by 'not wishing to teach', which illustrates the limited career opportunities within traditional sex-stereotyped professions for women of certain socio-economic and educational backgrounds.

The choice of Librarianship because of its service component, work which is seen as an extension of the family role (sharing and caring), is a decisive factor for many women in career choice. Women who enter librarianship because they see it as a service occupation frequently become involved in the service aspect rather than the development of a high level of knowledge and expertise, which is the intrinsic requirement of the profession and for building management skills.8

Men are often selected as candidates for promotion for their 'leadership' qualities. Generally, men, some women and the public find men more readily acceptable as leaders (in-charge) than females.9

Professional development

Whilst no information has been gathered on publications and research carried out by librarians in New Zealand, an attempt has been made to identify attitudes towards continuing education and membership of professional associations. 34 per cent of the women and 16 per cent of the men in the survey were undertaking further education courses. These courses were, on the whole, personal interest courses, including data processing, horticulture and Maori language. 30 per cent were management courses and 40 per cent university education.

As far as membership of professional associations is concerned, 72 per cent of the women surveyed and 100 per cent of the men were members of the New Zealand Library Association.

Career commitment

Some observers have commented that women are less committed to a career in librarianship than men. However, the women respondents in the survey generally considered themselves committed to librarianship (80 per cent of the women, 100 per cent of the men). Those who did not consider themselves committed to librarianship listed such reasons as other future career interests, lack of job satisfaction and lack of ambition.

Being a qualified librarian has meant 'getting a good job' for many women; it has been the job and not the career that they have sought. Research shows that whereas men relate their jobs to their career, women separate the two. Men find it difficult to separate career goals from personal goals-, again, women tend to separate the two.10

Personal achievement motivation

Male librarians traditionally have higher personal achievement motivation than female librarians. Achievement needs of women may be satisfied, while at the same time reducing sex-role conflicts, by entering a female occupation or by remaining in a low status position in another occupation of their choosing.11

To ascertain the amount of career planning or goal setting that had been undertaken by the women respondents, they were asked about their career aspirations. Most respondents expressed very limited career goals. Some aspired to middle management positions; 41 per cent left this question unanswered.

Summary

In summary, these are the significant factors pertaining to the Auckland survey:

- Women tend to hold the same positions for longer periods and have a longer waiting period 'in rank' than men.
- Men tend to reach higher positions at a younger age than do women.
- Women generally enter the profession at a younger age than do men.
- Men generally attain higher educational and vocational qualifications than women.
- Women tend to receive their library qualifications at an earlier age than men.
- A significant number of married women surveyed were main income earners.
- Family responsibilities are stated as the chief reason for the immobility of women.
- Women's work continuity is more severely affected than men's; travel, and marriage and child rearing are stated as the chief reasons for this.
- Sex-role stereotyping has tended to influence choice of librarianship as a career for women.
- Continuing professional development tends to have a low priority amongst all respondents.
- The majority of respondents considered themselves committed to librarianship as a career.
- Librarianship as a career choice was a first choice by a substantial number of women. However, no career alternatives and chance were significant factors in this choice.
- Women respondents expressed very limited career goals/motivation.

Acknowledgement: This article is based on a research report compiled in 1984 as a component of a Massey University Diploma in Business and Administration course.

References

1. Anita R. Schiller, Characteristics of Professional Personnel in College and University Libraries (Springfield: Illinois State Library, 1969).

2. Perry D. Morrison, The Career of the Academic Librarian: A Study of the Social Origins, Educational Attainments, Vocational Experience, and Personality Characteristics of a Group of American Academic Librarians (Chicago: American Library Association, 1969).

3. W. J. McEldowney, 'Qualified staff in New Zealand libraries 1951-1980', New Zealand Libraries, v. 43, no. 10 (June 1982), pp. 153-157.

4. The Status of Women in Librarianship: Historical, Sociological, and Economic Issues, ed. Kathleen M. Heim (New York: Neal-Schuman, 1983).

5. Kathleen M. Heim and Leigh S. Estabrook, Career Profiles and Sex Discrimination in the Library Profession (Chicago: American Library Association, 1983).

6. Eleanor Schwartz, The Sex Barrier in Business (Atlanta: Georgia State University, 1971). Douglas Basil, Women, in Management (New York: Dunellen, 1972).

7. N. R. Hooyman and J. S. Kaplan, New Roles for Professional Women in Libraries in Post-industrial Society, ed. Leigh Estabrook (Phoenix, Ariz.: Oryx Press, 1977), pp. 107-113.

8. S. Encel, C. G. Bullard and F. M. B. Cass, Librarians: A Survey (Sydney: New South Wales University Press, 1972).

9. Carol L. Kronus and James W. Grimm, 'Women in librarianship', Protean, 9 (Dec. 1971), pp. 4-9.

10. Margaret Hennig and Anne Jardim, The Managerial Woman (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1977).

11. J. Stephen Heinen et al., 'Developing the woman manager', Personnel Journal, v. 54, no. 5 (May 1975), pp. 282-286. Judith M. Bardwick, Psychology of Women: A Study of Bio-cultural Conflicts (New York: Harper & Row, 1971).

<<TOC5>> Women librarians and documentalists in Hungary

by Magda Jobórú,
Director-General
of the Széchényi National Library and Chairman of the National Hungarian Commission for Unesco

In Hungary, 70 per cent of librarians and documentalists are women. The author outlines the training that is given in this field. She shows that, while the predominance of women in this profession Presents a problem on account of the social benefits accruing to women with family responsibilities, it has in no way resulted in a lowering of standards. In this field, women show that they are no less endowed than men with a capacity for innovation and an ability to adapt to new techniques and methods, and they successfully occupy most of the top positions.

Women in Hungary account for around 70 per cent of the total staff of libraries and documentation centres. This profession is thus seen to hold a considerably greater attraction for women than others, in which they represent only about 40 per cent of the personnel. Of all the intellectual occupations, teaching alone employs a greater percentage of women than libraries. Taking all categories into account, there is not much difference from one library to another as regards the proportion of female to male staff. In the National Library, which is the largest library in the country and where I am in charge, 60 per cent of the persons performing the duties of librarian are women, and in Hungary's eight university libraries the proportion is 70 per cent. The figures are about the same in the special libraries, with the exception, however, of technological and agricultural libraries and documentation centres where the number of men is in some cases equal to and in others greater than the number of women. This is explained by the fact that, in these special libraries, the librarians are specialists in the relevant fields which, according to university and employment statistics, attract men more than women. In public libraries, which are by far the most numerous, there are likewise more women than men.

The predominance of women librarians and documentalists is regarded as a striking and thought-provoking phenomenon by heads of libraries and documentation centres as well as sociologists. However, I have never heard or read anything to the effect that the profession has suffered as a result of its penetration by women or that men would be any better at performing the tasks now carried out by women. Nevertheless, the fact that women are in a majority, does raise a problem because there are always a number of women who, for family reasons, have to interrupt their work for some length of time. The resulting difficulties at the place of work are not easy to overcome. The problem has become particularly acute since the government decided, a few years ago, to provide new facilities for working mothers (extended maternity leave, special family allowance during the three years following confinement). From this angle alone, the question arises as to whether it would not be desirable to appoint a higher percentage of men to posts in libraries and documentation centres in order to obviate the difficulties caused when several women are absent simultaneously for a period of from one to three years. However, although these facts cannot be denied, no one has yet found a way of solving the problem. On the contrary, it is to be expected that the number of women in this field will continue to increase, for women have a real predilection for this type of work, in contrast to men who prefer professions concerned with technology.

In Hungary, librarians and documentalists receive their training in universities and other institutions of higher education. In the universities, courses in librarianship are followed concurrently with courses in one or even two other disciplines and, in most cases, a language (the mother tongue or a foreign language) or social science is also studied. Training lasts five years at the end of which successful candidates are awarded a degree entitling them to work as librarians or as teachers in secondary schools. If they choose to go into a library or a documentation service, they will have the opportunity to turn their specialized knowledge to account; if they take up teaching, they can also do useful service in the school libraries provided for pupils and teachers. Primary teacher training colleges offer their students a course which qualifies them to teach and serve as librarians in upper primary schools. The total course lasts from three to four years. In Hungary, compulsory education covers eight classes, divided into two primary cycles. University graduates are employed in scientific and special libraries, documentation services or public libraries. Generally speaking, graduates qualified to teach a discipline in secondary or higher education, can be appointed as librarians, to posts carrying considerable responsibilities such as the management of one of the country's municipal or district public libraries. Universities and other institutions of higher education also run evening classes and correspondence courses and award a degree in librarianship to students who pass the final examinations. The predominance of women to which I have referred is irrefutably demonstrated by statistics relating to institutions of higher education. In the universities, twice as many female students as male students follow librarianship courses; in other establishments of higher education, the proportion of women is even higher.

Libraries and documentation centres also employ librarians and documentalists who have not received special training in this field. For instance, in specialized technological and agricultural libraries, engineers and agronomists serve as librarians, but do not acquire special qualifications for this work until later. The National Library, whose main task is to collect and preserve national documents, has great need of linguists, philologists and historians. While they are working in libraries, these specialists are to be given opportunities for in-service training in librarianship like those afforded to students who follow University correspondence courses. However, this method is too slow and it is doubtful whether it will prove effective. In practice, it seems better for the National Library to organize, with the help of the university a course specifically designed for specialists qualified in other fields, during which they can learn what they need to know about librarianship in order to meet the needs of the National Library. Other courses, instituted by the National Library for middle-grade personnel, may be attended by persons holding secondary-school leaving certificates. It should be noted that most of the lecturers in charge of these courses are women. The latest enrolment figures for the courses for middle-grade personnel show that women accounted for 86 per cent of the number of participants.

In Hungary, the social status of women is governed by laws. However, there are social problems specifically concerning women to which the solution cannot be found in statutory provisions but lies rather in the hands of an organization or local authority. Particular attention is, therefore, given to these problems by the governing bodies of all the institutions in the country, including libraries and documentation centres, trade unions and youth organizations. In the National Library, as indeed in other establishments, it is not unusual for women to apply for unpaid leave for family reasons. The granting of such leave, in addition to the statutory holidays with pay, is often a cause of serious inconvenience to the library. All well-founded- requests are granted and the resulting difficulties have to be overcome by bringing in temporary replacements or by other means. In addition, arrangements must be made every year to allow families with several children to benefit from a reduced-rate holiday in a vacation home. Furthermore, young women librarians who are granted three years' maternity leave receive a family allowance during that period and, on resuming work, they benefit from the same salary increment as if they had never been absent.

Despite the assistance provided for women by the law and by local measures, their family responsibilities are often too heavy for them. Surveys carried out by librarians and sociologists have shown that the family responsibilities of women, which vary, of course, from one individual to another, generally have an adverse effect on their vocational and intellectual training. An 'inquiry recently conducted in university libraries gave the following result: 73 per cent of qualified librarians are women, while 53 per cent of all women employees have received advanced training. In the case of men, go per cent of all qualified male employees have received advanced training. This fact is bound to have some effect on the posting and promotion of men; it is also reflected in their knowledge of languages and, frequently, in the results obtained in the field of research work in librarianship or related disciplines. A good many women can meet all these demands only by virtue of great sacrifice, if at all. Women who find it impossible to do so have no prospects of promotion beyond a certain stage in their career and have to resign themselves to the resulting material and intellectual disadvantages. In Hungary, 'equal work, equal pay' is the rule in all spheres of activity. Consequently, a woman employed in a library to perform the same duties as a man cannot be paid less than he is. However, since the level of remuneration is basically determined by academic attainments and diplomas, women who are prevented by their family responsibilities from obtaining formal qualifications and further training, are necessarily handicapped by their material circumstances.

In Hungarian libraries and documentation centres, the number of women holding posts of responsibility is very high. The senior staff of the National Library, which consists of a director-general, two assistant directors-general, five chief librarians and thirty-six librarians, comprises twenty-four women, including the director-general, three chief librarians and twenty librarians.

It is also worth mentioning in this connexion that the network of sixty-three public libraries attached to the Budapest Municipal Library includes fifty-four which are managed by women. The examples quoted show that a large number of women are capable of overcoming the difficulties inherent in their family responsibilities. It must be added that, in certain types of libraries, such as those established at the provincial or district level, there are only a few instances of women in charge. On the other hand, in the case of libraries and documentation centres, by contrast with other occupational fields, it is rare to hear complaints about any form of discrimination against women. Women appear to have succeeded, by their intelligence, their aptitude for the work and their efficiency, in earning universal respect in this profession. This does not mean that, if there are two equally qualified candidates for a library post, of whom one is a woman and the other a man, the final decision never happens to go in favour of the man when the position to be filled is an important one. However, this is certainly not the rule.

As I have already said, owing to their responsibilities as mothers and wives, women often have to contend with almost insurmountable difficulties in order to obtain advanced professional qualifications. Despite this fact, they are always ready to experiment with new methods and learn about the results obtained by other libraries; they attend in-service training courses and very often participate in missions abroad in order to familiarize themselves with new techniques. In scientific libraries, it is essential that some of the staff should carry out scientific research on an appropriate aspect of the field in which they have specialized. In order to encourage such research, libraries grant one 'study day' a week to all those working on a theme accepted by a special board, while those reading for a science degree are allowed study leave. In the National library, out of a staff Of 500, 300 persons are employed on librarian duties and fifty-nine of these, including thirty-seven women, are granted one study day every week. Some publish their work at regular intervals and some teach in universities or elsewhere.

It is customary, in the most varied occupations, to ask whether women are as receptive to innovation as men. Are they not more conservative? In our time of scientific and technological revolution, when every day brings new discoveries and it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up to date with the progress of knowledge, this question is of particular importance and it is more than ever necessary to take it into account.

The scientific and technological revolution has of course invaded libraries and documentation centres as well as other spheres. Where the process of computerization has not already started, it is at the planning stage. As the National Library is responsible for establishing the current national bibliography, together with the annual cumulated volumes covering the previous decade, it was there that a study was undertaken, a few years ago, to see how information science could be used for the preparation of these publications. Finally, it was decided to adopt the MARC system. The decision was based on thorough exploratory studies carried out by women. The project was also planned by women. It was the same women who, after long years of experience of the traditional methods of cataloguing and editing this bibliography, learned the theory of the modern system and put it into practice. They dig not feel bound by tradition and gave no sign of a conservative turn of mind. In the Institute for the Co-ordination of Data Processing, with which the National Library is co-operating in the computerization operations concerning the national bibliography, the head of the working group responsible for those operations is again a woman. Within a few years, the cumulated volumes covering publications of the previous decade will be produced by means of the computer. At the same time, measures have been taken to computerize other library operations, such as the accessioning of deposit copies.

The women responsible for these tasks have made great efforts to acquire the necessary knowledge. Besides undertaking study tours abroad and the systematic reading of specialized foreign literature, they have followed a course specially organized for this purpose. Of the twenty-four people who attended this course, seventeen were women. They are very conscious of the need for constant self-improvement. Some of them use their weekly study day to carry out research on the computerized processing of bibliographical data and thereby to render assistance to Hungarian libraries.

The National Library also participates in the common endeavour to establish international information systems for the purpose of identifying the publications of the various countries. It is responsible for providing machine-readable bibliographic data on documents which have appeared in Hungary. At the present time, the recording of periodicals and works published in parts is becoming important at the international level and this task is carried out exclusively by women.

The above-mentioned examples afford evidence of the fact that women, as librarians and documentalists, are far from conservative in their attitudes but are, on the contrary, highly receptive to innovation. They are tireless in their efforts to acquire the necessary knowledge to ensure that libraries and documentation centres are run efficiently, and, to this end, they seize all the opportunities afforded by the scientific revolution in general and take advantage of the instruction and vocational training facilities available to all who desire to improve their qualifications.

<<TOC4>> 5.4 The job description

<<TOC5>> Systems personnel

Pauline Atherton

Job analysis and job description

Those who administer scientific-technical information services must be well suited to the work both in temperament and in training because the degree of success is directly dependent upon staff abilities and attitudes. Good service should be efficient and flexible, rendered in a dignified and pleasant manner. It may be thought unnecessary to state these apparently obvious injunctions, but in any situation where work must sometimes be done under stress, personalities should not be in conflict. The importance of having staff members who are well-adjusted and whose intellectual capacities are of high caliber cannot be overemphasized.

The manager of an information service is the most influential member in determining the character of the centre, but all assistants share the responsibility.

One of the first decisions to be made is the number of staff members required for the level of service wanted. The situation under consideration may be either the staffing of a new service or an assessment of an already established one in order to increase its effectiveness.

Job analysis helps to find out what is to be done, and determines the best method of doing it and the qualifications required of the worker who does it.

Careful analysis often shows duplication and overlapping with other jobs. By analysing the work load involved and the qualities necessary to carry on such activities, suitable job descriptions can be prepared.

Although job analyses and job descriptions are highly specialized activities requiring training and experience, there are a few guidelines for gathering information. First, accuracy is fundamental in every step of job analysis. Second, data should be obtained concerning specific activities, responsibilities, special information needed by the worker, how work is performed, and working conditions.

Job descriptions provide the requirements of the various operations and duties, equipment, methods, working conditions, responsibilities, and other essential factors concerned in the job. By using job descriptions, prepared after thorough analyses, it is possible to improve the selection and training of staff. The workers selected know what is expected of them, and with training, soon show whether they are able to perform the duties satisfactorily.

The job description should:

- identify the job,
- provide an identifiable descriptive title,
- explain the type and degree of supervision,
- explain the supervision or direction given and to whom,
- give a clear description of duties,
- indicate the frequency of duties carried out.

Several job descriptions follow in the next sections.

Manager

The administrative head of a scientific-technical information service may be given any one of several titles. Frequently a definitive designation is preferred. If the heads of comparable departments are called "manager" or "supervisor" it is advantageous in considering personnel policy to use such a title. Some of the commonly used titles are:

- Manager of Technical Information Service
- Technical Librarian
- Chief Information Officer
- Supervisor of Information Services
- Director
- Head.

Responsibilities. The administrative head must be capable of carrying on and supervising highly diversified operations. Where the staff is very small, he executes many operations, and directs all the main functions of the service, interpreting needs as they develop and also anticipating them. The operations reflect the policies of the organization and should fulfill the information requirements effectively. The broad operations for which the manager is responsible were itemized and described in the previous section. They are repeated here in an abbreviated form in order to emphasize the importance of certain tasks and the possibility of delegating tasks to other staff members.

Duties of Manager

- Planning the physical arrangement of allotted space and selecting furniture and equipment

- Preparing, budget

- Selecting personnel and assigning duties - staff organization

· Selecting and purchasing procedures for books, periodicals and other information sources
· Supervising classification, cataloguing and indexing of materials
· Supervising services to users
· Supervising requests for information
· Executing literature searches
· Reviewing and abstracting from current publications and preparing a bulletin or other current awareness service

- Attending organization meetings, research conferences and seminars

- Preparing annual reports to management outlining activities and future plans

- Maintaining professional relations

Some duties can be performed by other staff members if they are available and qualified. The starred functions are functional duties of the manager upon which the entire operation depends and which cannot be delegated. The following tasks should certainly be delegated:

Delegated duties

- Translating from other languages
- Contributing to, and rendering editorial assistance with, organizational publications
- Supervising files of special materials - laboratory notebooks, research reports, and organization archives.
- Circulating procedures, including statistics
- Filing cards, pamphlets, loose-leaf service
- Recording and filing periodicals
- Binding procedures
- Requisitioning of supplies
- Making inventories of collections
- Processing inter-library loans

These main responsibilities are required in almost every situation. Others may be considered appropriate by some organizations, and these should be worked into a flexible framework.

Qualifications and training. Certain qualifications for the manager in an information service can be stated, but they cannot be described as mandatory because existing services so vary in the emphasis of their activities. Those managers who are the most effective in these positions do not fit a pattern, and therefore do not provide data from which to draw conclusions.

In addition to the more readily measured qualifications - education, subject expertise, and management experience - there is the elusive one of personality. Ideally the individual should be personable, well-adjusted, poised in manner, and able to deal pleasantly with people. Not only it is necessary to establish a dignified relationship with the clientele and maintain good staff co-operation, but it is also expedient to develop cordial dealings with professional associates. (See Chapter 8 for additional discussion of education and training for information work and for descriptions of personnel in the field).

Assistant Manager/Department Head

The assistant manager or department head is responsible for those functions of the information service that are delegated to him, usually in areas in which he has special competence. Additionally, this person may be required to take charge of the whole service(s) in the absence of the manager.

Qualifications and training. Qualifications are determined by the particular requirements of the situation. In general, they should not fall far short of those indicated for the top managerial position. An academic degree with a major in the appropriate science is almost mandatory. Professional training relevant to information work ensures the best preparation. Any of these qualifications may be lacking in some measure, but this can be remedied by guided working experience or courses while employed. In developing a staff it is possible, and certainly desirable, to select individuals whose qualifications complement one another, rather than duplicate too closely. If the manager is a subject specialist, for example, it may be beneficial to have an assistant whose aptitudes are in developing routines related to information work, such as classification, indexing or abstracting.

Professional staff

If a staff requires more than two professionally trained members, the additional ones are employed to perform specific functions. The more common professional positions are outlined in the following sections. others are described in sections of Chapter 8. Acquisitions Specialist. This person is in charge of placing orders for all publications, including books, periodicals, pamphlets, patents and reports, Equipment and supplies may come under his jurisdiction.

To discharge his duties effectively, the acquisitions specialist must know how to locate and deal with vendors and agencies if he is to be certain that they supply needed publications quickly and accurately. If he has not had prior experience he must learn how to develop the requisite procedures. The best preparation includes a bachelor's and a library-science degree, the latter including a course in acquisitions processes. Literature Searcher or Abstractor. A literature searcher systematically investigates the pertinent publications to locate specific information or to compile bibliographies on assigned subjects. He may also abstract information if required. The searcher may work primarily with the book and periodical literature, with patents, or sometimes with both. Searching assignments that involve reviews of the literature of a particular subject require expertise in the use of reference sources and also a knowledge of the subject. A searcher must possess a special mental flexibility to cope with various approaches to indexing, especially if he is to use computerized sources effectively. He must also be capable of organizing his results in the most comprehensible form for users. He may be required to evaluate and summarize information in a formal report.

The first requirement for a literature searcher is knowledge of the subjects involved and the ways of the literature in which they are recorded. A bachelor's degree is required as a minimum, with major courses in science. Graduate study, of course, increases potential capabilities. Reading knowledge of other languages may be a necessity.

This work with the literature demands ability to visualize research problems, patience with detail, and, to be truly effective, intellectual aggressiveness. The only way to acquire proficiency in literature searching is by experience, especially by working with others who can offer guidance. An expedient approach to the literature can be devious, and much can be learned from in-service training. The ability to write in a clear, direct style is imperative.

Cataloguer and indexer. A cataloguer is responsible for preparing all the information resources in the information centre for use. He must also prepare effective guides to these resources in the form of catalogue, files, lists, etc. This requires, in a scientific-technical information centre, the adaptation of standard cataloguing procedures and classification schedules to the special needs of the centre.

The indexing of articles in periodicals, patents and data files may be done by a cataloguer or, where large numbers of documents must be handled, staff members employed for this purpose. It is advisable to have all indexing done under the direction of, or in consultation with, the cataloguing staff in order to achieve uniformity. Non-conventional methods of indexing for information retrieval are also in this area of operation. Filing of special materials, such as complicated loose-leaf services, may also be assigned to the cataloguer.

Knowledge of cataloguing procedures and their underlying philosophy is essential for a cataloguer. A bachelor's degree, for which some courses in science have been included, and advanced study in library science are usually necessary. The cataloguer should have a specific aptitude for the work, be particularly patient with details, and have a high regard for accuracy.

The person who does the indexing should have mental qualities similar to those of a cataloguer, and his education should include a bachelor's degree as a minimum.

Systems analyst. In a very large centre or one in which activities must be organized and controlled in several locations this highly specialized professional is needed, possibly as a consultant. Duties include a major role in analyzing all procedures, introducing coordination where appropriate, and determining haw to increase overall efficiency. An analyst should know how to utilize computer and other equipment that can save time or money.

Ideally, a systems analyst who would be most effective in working with information centre and scientific literature problems would have training in both areas. A bachelor's degree with major courses in mathematics, logic, and computer science supplemented by certain courses in information science is suggested.

Sub-professional assistants

The sub-professional assistant or technician performs assigned duties such as circulation routines, preparation of periodicals for binding and keeping of systematic records -anything that does not require the background of a fully trained professional. His work will have to be supervised because of the exceptions that occur in scientific publications.

There has been much debate concerning the employment of sub-professional assistants in information science centres, especially libraries. Special training in office skills should be adequate for the work required. Intellectual background must be fairly good to handle the complicated details of the materials involved.

Typist-Clerk. The duties of a typist-clerk depend largely upon the number of other staff members. With a small staff the assignments are varied and may include such tasks as card filing, which is done by library assistants or sub-professional assistants in larger centres. All typing, shelving of books, checking-in of periodicals, and any miscellaneous jobs such as these may be assigned to this person.

Special training in office skills should be adequate for the work required. Higher than average intelligence is necessary because of the complicated details of the materials involved.

These job descriptions are presented as illustrations and cover only a few of the specialized personnel needed in an organization which performs special information services. The functions of the organization will dictate whether or not these staff positions are needed.

Staff recruitment and orientation

Ideally, the staff should have broad interests and be capable of developing competence in a number of functional areas. Day-to-day challenges require them to be adept at answering a broad range of scientific and technical enquiries even if they are improperly phrased, incomplete or ambiguous.

It is obvious the information professional must be a "jack-of-all-trades". This is especially true of the service manager, who must be good not only as an administrator, but also in several professional areas of activity; he must be at least knowledgeable in the technical specialities of information transfer. Information service activities should be made as routine as possible, so that non-professionals can be trained to perform many of the tasks.

One obvious place to recruit staff capable of performing information service activities is the university, especially where there are courses in information science, documentation and library science. Present academic efforts may be inadequate to meet needs, which means recruiting personnel from other educational backgrounds or from other activities and giving them ad hoc, in-house training for the information work required. Often a competent subject specialist who happens to have an interest in information can be selected and assigned responsibility for an information service. His orientation will come from visits to centres and programmes in other organizations, attendence at symposia and workshops at professional meetings, reading and personal study.

While more and more formally educated graduates are entering the field, systems and information services still find that they need to develop orientation and training programmes for their staffs. Preparation varies from rudimentary and often primitive on-the-job training to contracted seminars and tutorial courses especially developed for a particular requirement. Seminars, colloquia, workshops, and training courses and programmes in professional societies and at universities are helpful. Another approach is to grant a staff member educational leave for study at a university. (Chapter 8 gives more details about such training.)

How are subject specialists with the necessary skills and personality for information work detected and recruited? Where the subject matter lies within the range defined, the university is the logical place to start. Where the subject matter of the information service is interdisciplinary, it may be well to seek persons in research institutes or industry. In the practical situation, technically trained persons are often called upon to analyze information and data outside their field. An inclination to do this is evidence of a possible candidate for information work.

Senior technical specialists are difficult to find. Among the most competent in the information field have been those who, while successful in their narrow speciality, have grown restive in the confines of their field and have wanted to broaden their own knowledge and understanding. Intellectual curiosity and the desire to know and stay on top of a field of interest is a healthy requisite in the technical information specialist. Many theoreticians and bench scientists enjoy this intellectual activity on a part-time basis and can mix it easily with their research or development duties.

<<TOC4>> 5.5 Recruiting staff

<<TOC5>> Recruitment: filling the gap

When a vacancy occurs the amount of warning varies depending upon the circumstances of the departing post holder. Some vacancies such as those caused by retirement or college attendance may be foreseen months ahead. In other cases, such as an employee moving to another job, the warning will be the minimum period of notice specified by the contract of employment. In no case can a vacancy be assumed until formal written notice has been received; and the recruiting librarian who tries to jump the gun is asking for trouble. Both minds and circumstances can change between statement of intent and official resignation. The recruiting librarian, therefore, often tends to be under pressure from line management to appoint as quickly as possible so as to avoid that awful "gap" at the end of the month which, it is implied, will bring the service grinding to a halt. As a consequence there is a severe temptation to prove your efficiency by trying to meet this deadline.

Although it may be good management to keep the gap as short as possible, it is not good management to cut crucial corners in order to do so. It is essential to remember that the measure of effective recruitment is precision, not speed, and this can only be achieved by thinking carefully about the requirements of the specific vacancy before the hunt for a suitable candidate begins.

The three steps which should precede the search process are:

(1) determining what the job involves (job description);
(2) assessing the need for the post to be filled on its present basis;
(3) preparing a list of requirements to be fulfilled by the successful candidate (personnel specification).

A quick look at these procedures will show that there is nothing to prevent much of the work being done before the vacancy arises. Advantage can therefore be taken of any prior warning of a likely vacancy so that by the time formal notice is given you are ready to begin looking for suitable applicants. For the same reason it is also good management to identify beforehand the posts which turn over regularly or where immediate replacement in the event of a vacancy is considered essential.

The preparation of a job description and personnel specification is very often neglected particularly when the pressure is on to appoint quickly. In addition there are special factors which tend to lull the recruiting librarian into thinking that the whole process is unnecessary. First, many posts in libraries have broadly similar functions, e.g., library assistants in public departments are all likely to be responsible for counter service and stock maintenance. Professionals in the lending sector of a large public library will all tend to be responsible for the standard of service, stock revision and selection and staff supervision. These factors, common to a number of posts, tend to make any real differences seem less significant and the preparation of a job description therefore seems less essential.

Secondly, because the recruiting librarian is operating within his own profession there is a tendency for him to believe that he knows sufficient about the post and the kind of candidate required to make a satisfactory appointment without the bother of a formal job description or personnel specification. Professional pride is at stake and few of us would be prepared to admit that we are not really sure what a library assistant or branch librarian does. However, the truth is that there are very few senior librarians who can write an accurate job description for any post without consulting staff whose noses are nearer to the grindstone.

What are we trying to fill?

The temptation to skimp on the preparation of a job description should be resisted. If you want the best possible candidate, an analysis of the job is vital. A job description enables us:

(a) to assess whether the post is still fulfilling a useful function and role;
(b) to assess the skills and experience required to fill the post successfully;
(c) to gain an understanding of the problems and working conditions the post holder is likely to face;
(d) to make any advertisement more succinct and accurate and information for candidates more comprehensive and relevant;
(e) to suggest relevant questions for the interview;
(f) to reveal requirements which the interview might not be able to cover satisfactorily;
(g) to make sure that everyone involved in the selection process is selecting for the same job.

The kind of job description required for recruitment and selection is more than a simple list of duties and responsibilities. Although these are important to assess the experience, skills and qualifications required, just as important is an understanding of the nature of the post. This includes an assessment of the kind of difficulties the post holder is likely to face, conditions of work, prospects, relationships with colleagues and where the main areas of job satisfaction/dissatisfaction are likely to be. This allows us to assess what kind of a person we need in terms of personality, temperament, initiative, ambitions, etc.

This "fitability" of the post holder into the post and into the library service itself is crucial. Upon it depends their commitment, enthusiasm, job satisfaction and how long they are likely to stay in the post.

There are a number of sources of information which can be used to write a recruitment job description.

(a) Previous job description and advertisement

Beware of assuming that things are still the same. Posts change over a period of time. The exact duties of the post will depend upon the length of service and experience of the departing post holder and the precise context of the post. A post holder with several years' experience will have accumulated responsibilities beyond the original job description. A library assistant in a large and busy library may have a very closely defined set of duties with a specific level of responsibility. A library assistant in a much smaller library, although ostensibly with the same job will tend to have a far more flexible work pattern, being required to "fill in" on the many occasions when more senior staff are not available.

(b) The outgoing post holder

Exit interviews are useful not only to discover the real reason for leaving but to gain an understanding of the problems the next occupant of the post will face. Questions to ask are:

(1) What were your main duties and responsibilities? (2) What did you enjoy most about your work?
(3) What did you like least?
(4) What did you find most difficult?
(5) What do you think is the most important function of the post?

(c) The post's supervisor

He will be useful in identifying tasks, responsibilities and priorities, will give an idea of the status of the post, and how it fits into the team.

(d) Someone else doing the same job

It is useful to find out whether the post holder's opinion of the post is representative.

A combination of the above methods should provide a reasonably accurate picture of the post. Although the process takes time it is useful to remember that once the job has been analysed, if it becomes vacant again or if a similar vacancy arises, a check against the information already collected will be all that is necessary. To make the assessment systematic and the collection of information easier, it is best to use a Job Description Form. The following headings are useful, allowing appropriate space for completion and comment.

(1) Job title	Location	Date of description	

(2) Duties of the post
Duties should be listed in logical sequence if possible, e.g., order of importance. What will the post holder spend most time doing? Which tasks have previous post holders found difficult, boring or enjoyable? How much freedom for initiative is there? Will the post holder be working under pressure or doing several jobs at once?

(3) Responsibilities
How much responsibility has the post holder? Is the work supervised? Does it involve decision making; responsibility for others? Will the post holder regularly be expected to undertake responsibilities above the grade of the post, e.g., being left in charge, locking up at night?

(4) Social factors
How far does the post holder need to fit into a team? What is the make up and size of the team? Are there common duties, e.g., processing, book repair, shelving? What is the attitude of the supervisor? What percentage of time is spent with the public'?

(5) Physical aspects
Candidates often underestimate how physically tiring library work is. The amount of standing, lifting and carrying should be identified. How dirty is the job? Work in book stacks and stores might deter the fastidious. How suitable is it for a disabled person?

(6) Conditions of employment
Candidates often think of library work as an alternative to an office job. How many evening and Saturday duties are worked? How flexible are the working arrangements? Is a rota worked or will the candidate always have to work on Friday evenings? Is there enhanced pay for unsocial hours or Saturday work? General conditions of service such as holidays, trade union membership agreements, probationary periods and compulsory medical examinations may be listed either here or separately.

(7) Training and promotion opportunities
These will probably not be specific to any individual post but follow library policy. If there are special opportunities or requirements, or if the job is considered "dead end", i.e., the post holder will have to leave a particular specialisation to achieve promotion, this should be noted.

Do we need to recruit?

Whilst the job description is being completed an eye should be kept open for any factors which may indicate that recruitment is not appropriate. Questions to ask are:

(a) What is the function of the post?
(b) Is the post really necessary considering the workload, demand etc?
(c) Could the post be better used elsewhere?
(d) Could it be better filled by transfer or promotion?

Who are we looking for?

Once the job description has been completed and a decision made to fill the post, the next step is to translate the information from the job description into a list of the minimum requirements which it would be essential or desirable for the successful candidate to have. This is not easy since the complexity of a particular task may be judged to require different qualifications or attributes by different assessors.

To help identify the basic requirements various writers have proposed lists of points against which the demands of the job and the attributes of candidates can be checked. The best known of these is the "Seven-point plan" proposed by Alec Rodger[16]:

The Seven-Point Plan

(1) Physical make-up
(2) Attainments
(3) General intelligence
(4) Special aptitudes
(5) Interests
(6) Disposition
(7) Circumstances

This kind of plan can be used not only to identify the requirements of a particular post but also to act as a framework for the selection interview. In general, the more specific the plan the more helpful it is and Rodger's plan can be usefully extended. The following eleven points cover all the specific requirements which it will be necessary to bring up at the interview later.

Eleven-Point Plan

(1) Motivation and commitment
(a) Where should the post holder find most job satisfaction?
(b) What professional or work interests should the candidate have?

(2) Qualifications

What are the minimum qualifications needed:
(a) for the candidate to be eligible for the post?
(b) to do the job satisfactorily?

(3) Experience

What does the job require in terms of:
(a) relevant experience, e.g., the same kind of work elsewhere?
(b) related experience, e.g., work with the public?

(4) Skills and proficiencies

What does the job require in terms of specific skills, e.g.,
(a) fluency in a foreign language?
(b) ability to type?
(c) understanding a particular classification scheme?

(5) Aptitudes (i.e., the innate ability to become proficient at a task)

What does the job require in terms of:
(a) numeracy?
(b) manual dexterity?
(c) artistic ability?

(6) Intelligence and mental capacity

What does the job require in terms of:
(a) initiative?
(b) problem solving?
(c) ability to "think on your feet"?
(d) concentration and memory?
(e) imagination?

(7) Personality

What does the job require in terms of:
(a) working as part of a team?
(b) influencing people?
(c) self reliance?
(d) communicating with people?
(e) helping people?
(f) exercising responsibility, leadership?
(g) being extrovert, enthusiastic, lively?
(h) being steady, methodical and accurate?

(8) Interests and personal achievements

How far does the job require an interest in:
(a) physical activity?
(b) artistic pursuits?
(c) being of service or helping others e.g., Sunday School teacher, voluntary social worker?
(d) practical things?
(e) current affairs, general knowledge?

(9) Ambitions

To what extent does the library require:
(a) a "high flyer"?
(b) a stayer?
(c) an ambitious/unambitious person?

(10) Health and physical make up

To what extent does the job require:
(a) an active person?
(b) strength and stamina?
(c) freedom from physical disability?

(11) Circumstances

How far will the post, holder be required:
(a) to travel?
(b) to work unsocial hours?
(c) to work irregular hours?
(d) to live locally?

Note that so far the use of the plan is only to identify requirements in relation to the nature of the post to be filled. The use of the plan as a framework for the interview will be covered in a later chapter.

When listing requirements there is a temptation to over specify. Only the minimum acceptable requirements should be noted. When it comes to the interview and you are trying to find a candidate that fits all eleven points perfectly, you will see why. Seldom is a candidate "perfect" for the job. Somewhere there will have to be a compromise and the more rigorous the requirements you list, the more compromises there will have to be. The noting of minimum requirements gives the selector more flexibility to choose a candidate with a balanced set of attributes. It is a good idea to underline these attributes considered essential as opposed to desirable to avoid making the mistake of appointing a candidate who is right in every respect except for the one crucial requirement.

Even when you think you have identified the minimum requirements there are dangers. Minimum qualifications, for instance, are often over-specified. Does a catalogue card typist really need formal typing qualifications? Does the part-time processing assistant really need the organisational minimum of four GCE "O" levels? There is also a tendency to specify qualifications when what you really want are maturity and experience. A graduate might be more suitable than a school leaver on the information desk but it may be the maturity of the candidate that makes the appointment successful, not the qualification. Many older candidates will have had less opportunity to take the qualifications you now treat as essential. There are many potential candidates over the age of 40 who have no academic qualifications at all, and any personnel specification should allow for such applicants to be considered, where it is appropriate.

References

1. Drake, J., Corporate planning and libraries - where are we now?, Library Management Series, Bradford, MCB Publications, 1979.

2. Estabrook, L., "Job seekers in the buyers' market: How library employers judge candidates", Library Journal, 1.2.73, pp. 385-387.

3. Tunley, M., Library structures and staffing systems, London, Library Association, 1979.

4. Bryant, D. J., "New evils, without new remedies: management innovations in libraries", in Proceedings, papers and summaries of discussions at the Public Libraries Conference, Douglas, Isle of Man, 1973, London, Library Association, 1973, pp. 9-18.

5. Library Association, Sub-Committee on Training, Guidelines for training in libraries, London, LA, 1980.

6. Wood, K., "Professional qualifications: what will happen in 1981?", Library Association Record, Vol. 81, December 1979, pp. 577, 579, 581.

7. Equal Opportunities Commission, Guidance on equal opportunity policies and practices in employment, Manchester, EOC, 1981.

8. Selwyn, N. M., Law of employment, 3rd edition, London, Butterworth, 1980.

9. Institute of Personnel Management, Towards fairer selection: A code for non-discrimination, London, IPM, 1978.

10. Library Association, Guidelines for reference and information services to public libraries in England and Wales, London, LA, 1981.

11. Library Association, Library resource provision in schools: guidelines and recommendations, London, LA, 1977.

12. Library Association, Standards for university extra-mural libraries, London, LA, 1978.

13. Slater, M., Ratio of staff to users: implications for library-information work and the potential for automation, London, Aslib, 1981.

14. Department of Education and Science, Staffing of public libraries... research undertaken by the Local Authorities Management Services and Computer Committee, 3 vols., Library Information series no. 7, London, HMSO, 1976.

15. Equal Opportunities Commission, Job sharing: Improving the quality and availability of part-time work, Manchester, EOC, 1981.

16. Rodger, A., The seven-point plan, London, National Institute of Industrial Psychology, 1952.

17. Fleeman, R., A guide to the IPM recruitment code, London, Institute of Personnel Management, 1978.

18. Janner, G., Janner's employment forms, London, Business Books, 1979.

19. Marting, E. (ed.), AMA book of employment forms, New York, American Management Association, 1967.

20. Morgan, T., "Recent insights into the selection interview", Personnel Review, Winter 1973, pp. 5-13.

21. Vernon, P. E., "The validation of Civil Service Selection Board procedures", Occupational Psychology, Vol. 24, 1950, pp. 75-95.

22. Macrae, A., Group selection procedures, London, National Institute of Industrial Psychology, 1967.

23. National Foundation for Educational Research, Test agency catalogue, Windsor, NFER, 1980.

24. Buros, O. K. (ed.), Mental measurement yearbook, 7th edition, 2 vols., Lincoln NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1972.

25. Educational and Industrial Test Services, Clerical Test 1: Clerical Speed and Accuracy, Hemel Hempstead, EITS, 1971.

26. Independent Assessment and Research Centre, Index Filing Test, London, IARC, 1969.

27. Holdsworth, R. F., Personnel selection testing - a guide for managers, London, British Institute. of Management, 1972.

28. Sneath, F., Thakur, M. and Medjudk, B., Testing people at work, London, Institute of Personnel Management, 1976.

29. Training Services Agency, Trainability testing: a practical approach to selection, London, HMSO, 1977.

30. Hunt, W. A., Watson, C. L. and Harris, H. L., "The screen test in military selection", Psychological Review, Vol. 51, 1944, pp. 37-46.

<<TOC4>> 5.6 Supervising staff

<<TOC5>> An Overview of Supervision in Libraries Today

MARTHA J. BAILEY

Physics Librarian
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana

The literature of library and information management is often of little assistance to the professional who supervises. Interactions with departments and services of the parent organization, such as conforming to policies on personnel, purchasing or accounting, are seldom clarified. Some of the literature reports management theories which were developed for business organizations. However, these theories may not be applicable to libraries, since libraries do not have the same types or levels of personnel, are not organized in the same way, and cannot amortize equipment or take advantage of other tax features which companies utilize. The authors of literature on management theory warn that, because of differences in the way companies are organized and operated, it can be dangerous to borrow concepts or ideas that worked in one company and apply them to another. In fact, even the designations "top management," "middle management" and "supervisory management" signify different concepts in different companies and libraries.1

The area of supervisory management requires particular caution. In any organization, it is at this level that policies are implemented. This paper uses the rather broad definition of supervision as the face-to-face interaction of a library professional, who has administrative responsibility, with another employee, usually a subordinate. This applies at all levels of management with all types of employees: to the director interacting with assistant directors, to the department head with his or her professionals, or to the professional with clerical employees.

Both management literature and the library literature are written as if management were pure, pristine, and conducted in a leisurely manner. One author recently discussed the "managerial mystique," claiming that management is mathematical in rationale, steeped in business jargon, male in orientation, and predicated on assumptions about power relationships.2 The literature acknowledges little of the rush, conflict or indecision of the actual job situation. One branch librarian in a public library recently told me that he had difficulty remembering theory X or Y when two employees were coming to blows. In libraries, as in industry, decisions are not always logical, clear-cut and accepted by all concerned.

Why is there concern about supervision? The answer is economics. Fry and White stated that in 1973, salaries accounted for 59 percent of academic libraries' budgets, 68 percent of public libraries' budgets, and 60-65 percent of special libraries' budgets.3 The University of Illinois's 1977 annual survey of public libraries indicated that 67 percent of budgeted funds were for salaries.4

The topic of supervision is a particularly sensitive one for those in the library and information field. The supervisor may feel that he or she is an example of the Peter Principle, viz., that people rise in an organization to their maximum level of incompetence. In supervision, it is more likely that Murphy's Law operates: anything that can go wrong will. Studies indicate that librarians have poor leadership qualities, exhibit little interest in administration, and are poor managers.5 In a session on middle management at ALA's 1978 conference in Chicago, the first question from the floor was, "Why are librarians such poor managers and supervisors?" It has only been in recent years that "bad news" stories have begun to appear,6 but today almost every issue of Library Journal contains at least one news story about a library's administrative problems.7

However, despite obvious major differences between industrial and library management, there are similarities:

1. In both the company and the library, supervisors must learn to supervise. This skill is not intuitive, but can be developed through study, observation and practice.

2. Both companies and libraries are haunted by the phantom of the "happy employee." For years sociologists and psychologists have said that people must enjoy their jobs. Now some writers are providing contrary views.8

3. Both companies and libraries use different styles of supervisory management for different work settings and types of employees. Corporations use different techniques and styles for employees in production, research and sales; for professional and nonprofessional employees; and for various combinations of classifications. In libraries there are professional, nonprofessional, student, public service, library faculty, processing, and branch library employees, all of which are treated in a slightly different manner.

4. Both companies and libraries have employees who are considered to be problems for one reason or another. These "problem employees" may be found at all levels of the organization.

This paper outlines some of the components of library supervisory management today. In 1977 I prepared a review on the special librarian as a supervisor and middle manager.9 The present paper will touch a few of the same points, but will include new material, partly based on a survey of recent library school graduates.

THE LIBRARY ENVIRONMENT

In order to gain some perspective on the milieu in which supervisory management takes place, one must look at the library environment. In this regard, Echelman cites factors such as the "structure, personnel, products, policies, plans, and the political interaction of people and departments" of the parent organization.10 Librarians are classified as supervisors or middle managers according to the academic, administrative or public civil service classifications. Library faculty members may be expected to meet the same requirements for research and publication that teaching faculty members are.

The review on the special librarian as supervisor includes detailed descriptions of academic, public, institutional, government, special, and other library environments.11 Academic libraries have provosts, boards of trustees and influential alumni. Their library committees for the system and for the individual branch libraries are composed of faculty. These tax-supported libraries are also governed by the state legislature and sometimes by a board of regents or commission on higher education. In addition to reporting to a local official, public libraries usually have boards of trustees which represent the citizens. Some public libraries also receive funds from state legislatures.

There are also library/information services for state and federal agencies and for companies and corporations. There are libraries in hospitals, museums, prisons and nursing homes, and library/media centers in the schools. A new type of library is the administrative headquarters of networks or consortia. Each of these has its own separate “environment."

INTERACTIONS OF LIBRARY PERSONNEL

In the library environment, interactions between library personnel take place on many different levels. Often one thinks of the above-mentioned groups interacting with the library director or assistant director, but generally interactions originate at lower levels in the organization. For example, the interlibrary loan librarian at the public library may be asked by a local company representative to use the library teletype, the only one in the community. An influential alumnus may request the branch librarian to provide him or her with a receipt for books donated to the library for tax credit purposes. The irate citizen who objects to materials in the collection usually approaches the circulation supervisor first. These examples indicate the need for guidelines, particularly written guidelines, that will enable supervisors to cope with situations as they arise.

There are positive interactions to consider as well. Circulation supervisors are often requested to attend a library board meeting when circulation is to be discussed. Supervisors may give presentations at budget reviews and other key meetings. The branch heads perform a great many liaison activities, with the community in a public library or with the subject departments in a university.

Whether they are in public, government agency, academic or company situations, library managers have similar relationships with other departments in the parent organization which affect their decisions. For example, the parent organization may insist that all purchasing be processed by the central purchasing department rather than permit the library acquisitions supervisor to send orders directly to the vendors. This sometimes causes delays without any appreciable financial benefits since some types of book and subscription orders allow very little discount. Many tax-supported agencies must solicit bids for orders; this sometimes impedes the development of continuing services with vendors. Other complications arise when the central purchasing department specifies the manufacturers from which equipment such as typewriters or photocopiers may be purchased.

Other departments in the parent organization with which library supervisory personnel must interact include personnel departments, central business offices, computer service centers, subject departments, and building and maintenance services. The central business office is also usually involved in issuing paychecks and budgeting for expenditures, and large library systems often have a staff accountant to deal with the central business office. Library supervisors must also interact with the central computer service, e.g., the systems librarian sometimes must consult with the computer center on selection of software programs, and library management's needs for data must be scheduled at the computer center. Even the building and maintenance service sometimes affects decisions of library managers. Staff changes and clientele services may be delayed until custodial staff move furniture or electricians install equipment. Smoking or eating may be prohibited in some areas by building regulations.

An important issue in supervisory management is the amounts of time which should be devoted to supervision and to serving the clientele. This is an especially difficult problem in libraries which are open long hours, as the administration may not be able to provide professional assistance during the entire time that the public service areas are open. Supervisors of branch or departmental libraries often do not have sufficient professional help to provide reference service at all hours, which is particularly unfortunate in a specialized subject department. However, supervisors must be available between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., the standard workday of many organizations.

Some administrators solve these dilemmas by having the department head assume all supervision, freeing other professionals to interact with clientele. Another solution is for the department head to assign one professional to supervise clerks. Such responsibilities may also be rotated in order to give all the professionals supervisory experience.

There are sometimes auxiliary or even competing library and information services on the same property, or funded by the same organization. University and public libraries are involved with research institutes, independent laboratories, instructional centers, or computer-based instruction centers, all of which may employ parent organization personnel or draw extensively on the collections.

The new free-lance service, offered on a fee basis, often utilizes the collections of nearby university or public libraries.12 These services include online computer searches, document delivery, consultation, and others which parallel or supplement standard library services.

The network or consortium authority is now beginning to influence the work of supervisory managers in its member libraries. The interlibrary loan supervisor who depended on personal contacts in neighboring libraries to obtain fast service must now conform to formulas established by the consortium. The chief cataloger has the original cataloging of his department scrutinized by all members of the on-line computer cataloging network.13 All administrators are involved in motivating employees to adapt to innovations associated with joining a network or consortium.14

MANAGEMENT OF LIBRARIES AND INFORMATION SERVICES

The primary reason that interest in library management has been gathering momentum in recent years is due to the problems of providing services to all types of clientele in the face of increased inflation and reduced budgets. The emphasis on the functional form of organization has been spurred by Association of Research Libraries studies and the development of its Management Review and Analysis Program.15

Large, multicampus systems, such as those in Indiana, California and New York, must adapt to: (1) the prevailing wages in each community; (2) the number and abilities of people available to fill the positions; (3) the number of hours the library is open, which is based on the commuting patterns of students, faculty and employees; (4) the types of courses taught; and (5) the amount and types of research conducted. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of subject fields and the cost of maintaining separate facilities, there has been a trend away from multibranch, specialized or departmental systems in universities. In the public library, costs are halting the trend toward specialized branches for subject and clientele.

Libraries are complex organizations, and the larger the library, the greater its complexity. As part of the trend toward scientific management and the use of on-line computer systems, new professional positions - which are sometimes not held by professional librarians - have arisen. These include accountants, personnel people, systems analysts and subject specialists who work with collection development or on-line searches. Many librarians believe the only "true" librarian is one with background in the humanities or social sciences; they even exclude those trained in life sciences, physical sciences and mathematics. These conflicting definitions of "professional" may interfere with daily working relationships.

LIMITATIONS ON LIBRARY MANAGEMENT

Many factors can adversely affect the supervisor's authority. Sometimes library employees are assigned responsibilities without the authority to take appropriate action. For example, the branch head may have several levels of the hierarchy to which he or she must report:

An academic library may have many physically separate service points, but little decentralization, if the branch librarians are not delegated authority to undertake meaningful independent actions. … Scientific management… demands that the degree of decentralization ... be decided on the basis of… such factors as the need for uniform policies, the relative economics of library size and location, the availability of personnel with managerial ability or potential, and the effectiveness of the control techniques available to the delegating manager.16

As mentioned above, the library's membership in networks and consortia may also limit the decisions of the individual supervisor; a recent article notes some of the tension networks can create for the participating libraries.17 Referring to the business management literature, Petit states that the industrial supervisor must operate in a highly intradependent organization and interact with many different individuals who, directly or indirectly, affect his or her job. The supervisor must make five major accommodations:

1. ideological (the supervisor is no longer "boss");
2. engineering (in industry, the engineering department tells the foreman what products to make and how to make them);
3. personnel (staff departments have taken over functions such as hiring, placement, training, transferring, awarding merit increases, and firing);
4. organization-systems (other staff members establish procedures and techniques such as planning, operations research, finance and accounting); and
5. labor-relations (the supervisor must contend with a union steward who represents his subordinates).18

There are many parallels in the library. The personnel function seems to be changing most rapidly. Ruth Jackson reports that prior to 1970, academic libraries lagged in the areas of job analysis, job evaluation and personnel testing.19 The complexities of hiring in accordance with equal opportunity strictures and the emphasis on staff development will possibly bring even greater attention to this area. In the organization-systems accommodation, as the operations become more mechanized, the services are adapted to the system. For example, use of OCLC tapes to produce accessions lists for the branch libraries may limit the amount and kinds of individualized material that can be included in these lists. A problem inherent in the shift from the hierarchical organization in the library is that professionals must consider whether they should give priority to obeying the administrators or to fulfilling responsibility (i.e., providing service to clientele).20

Another pervasive problem is enforcing directives. Rules state that students cannot work unless they have an employment form on file; however, in emergencies supervisors may hire a temporary substitute just to keep a branch open. During the winter storms of 1978, Purdue University issued directives that employees who did not report for work had to take vacation time or other accrued leave in order to be paid; however, many supervisors unofficially permitted employees to make up the time.

The literature concerning the leadership qualities of librarians and information specialists is extremely negative. Binder has studied the supervisory behavior of librarians in academic libraries and found that there was little difference between professional and nonprofessional employees' abilities for and attitudes toward supervision.21 In a study of middle managers in medium-sized public libraries, Gamaluddin found that professionals were unwilling to make decisions even when they were given the opportunity to do so.22

Kay's analysis of industrial managers closely parallels the situation for middle managers in libraries and information services. Many persons who entered middle management in the 1960s now find they are boxed in by their jobs; they are too specialized for lateral transfer or they lack the varied work experiences and formal education required for advancement. They suffer from job insecurity, lack of authority, career inflexibility, and threat of obsolescence. As with supervisors, increased interest in scientific management only creates more tensions. Although controls and systems provide middle managers with information on which to base decisions, these same controls have the effect of increasing the visibility of all successes and failures and thus may increase pressures to perform better.23

There has been much discussion about faculty status for academic librarians but little substantive material on how the librarian is to devote adequate time to publication and research as well as perform administrative responsibilities. When a teaching faculty member takes a sabbatical, the department does not offer his or her courses in the interim. If a library faculty member takes a sabbatical, however, someone must assume those responsibilities during that period.24 Another implication of faculty status is that the library faculty forms a "collegial body" and should select its own head, who may not necessarily be the library director.25 Bailey points out questions that arise when a collegial organization is superimposed over a library organization.26

PROBLEMS FACING THE LIBRARY SUPERVISOR

In the following sections some items concerning the direct supervision of employees are considered: the composition of the work force, the question of motivation and staff development, and some implications of collective bargaining and equal opportunity for employment.

Nonprofessional Personnel

The advent of technical assistants and aides in libraries has raised the 2-fold problem of "career ladders": (1) years of experience substitute for a master's degree in library science in the case of the nonprofessional,27 and (2) auxiliary employees, such as nonsupervisory professionals and research systems and personnel staff, have pay scales and status equated with those of library supervisors.

In some organizations, flexible scheduling or flex-time is used.28 This takes two principal forms: (1) staff may work any hours they choose for a total of thirty-five to forty hours per week, or (2) they may work ten hours per day, four days per week with three days off. An inherent problem with this innovation is ensuring that sufficient personnel to handle the daily work load are present. Schemes such as this have arisen in order to staff computer operations or attract personnel who would normally be unable to work a standard day due to family commitments, class schedules or other personal reasons. Although public service units have always had some scheduling flexibility due to the long hours they are open, these schemes provide even greater flexibility.

Many areas of the country are experiencing a severe shortage of clerical and secretarial people. Reasons for this are varied: women are seeking jobs in other fields, and companies are giving professional assignments to women in order to fulfill affirmative action programs; also, universities with declining enrollments no longer have a steady supply of student spouses to work in offices and libraries. As a result, many clerical jobs are being designed to allow for the constant turnover in personnel, and supervisors are hiring people with borderline qualifications. With the increasing emphasis on hiring permanent employees from the local community, people with physical disabilities, and retaining employees with alcohol- or drug-related problems, many job descriptions and assignments must be reevaluated and revised.

Family considerations often restrict people to a specific geographical area. The question of hiring people who hold master's degrees in library science as clerical staff is one of interest to many libraries.29 The supervisor of such individuals is responsible for providing them with meaningful work without exploiting their advanced skills at a low salary. Also, requiring a degree from an ALA-accredited institution for professional staff bars from library employment available persons with degrees in media science or other related fields.

Student and other part-time employees are utilized in many types of libraries. They are often eligible for minimum wage. The employment of both full- and part-time employees is sometimes complicated when salaries are subsidized by nonlibrary funds, such as grants, work-study programs or CETA. If these funds expire, affected employees must be transferred to the library payroll or the services they performed must be eliminated.

Occupational Safety and Health

Another outside force affecting personnel is the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act.30 Although universities are exempt from this federal law, some states have similar laws which apply to state agencies. Under current OSHA legislation, an employee dissatisfied with action taken on any complaint can report the incident to the state agency.

Motivation and Staff Development

Much is written on the supervisor's responsibility to motivate, but little on proven methods of accomplishing it. The idea of participative management in libraries has attracted a great deal of attention.31 Under this method, all staff members concerned discuss a problem and suggest possible solutions. There is some disagreement whether the group should actually make the decision or simply provide input to the supervisor who then makes the decision. Tarr suggests that decisions should be reached through committees.32 Mason has presented some ideas in opposition and warns that much time can be expended on "making employees happy" without improving services to users.33

Another area of supervisory management on which little information has appeared is the supervisor's responsibility for career development of subordinates. A study by Edwards found that supervisors viewed the first year or two of a librarian's career as a closely supervised training period.34 Others felt that the beginning librarian should be able to assume specific responsibilities on the "first day" of employment.35 The Office for Library Personnel Resources of ALA currently has a project entitled "Minimum Qualifications for Librarians." However, the extent of the supervisor's responsibility for the employee's failure to perform acceptably is not clear.

Collective Bargaining

It is at the supervisory level that collective bargaining has the most impact. Union contracts are negotiated with an organization's top management. Supervisors are then responsible for the performance of daily work within the constraints of the contract. Depending on contract provisions, decisions of hiring, training, promotion, salary schedules and terminations may be removed from the domain of the immediate supervisor, thus reducing his or her authority. Also, questions concerning changes, vacation assignments and filling vacancies may have to be negotiated with the union steward rather than directly with employees.

Equal Employment Opportunity

It is only recently that the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) guidelines have been applied to universities and other groups which receive grant money or other federal funds. It is the library administration's responsibility to see that supervisory management personnel have the information they need to conform to the regulations, such as those concerning interviewing and hiring procedures.

WHAT SUPERVISORS DO

Since supervisory management positions in libraries require a complex mixture of subject expertise, supervisory responsibilities and professional activities, there can be no simple description of what supervisors do. In previous studies this author looked at middle managers in academic and public libraries.36 A new study examines supervisors and middle managers in corporation libraries.37 In 1970, the Illinois State Library sponsored a comprehensive study entitled "A Task Analysis of Library Jobs in the State of Illinois";38 other studies on this subject include those conducted by Canelas on academic libraries,39 Ricking on public libraries,40 and Wiese on school library media systems.41

I have investigated the extent to which people employed for two or four years would reach consensus regarding fourteen specific responsibilities. Two hundred questionnaires were sent to graduates of the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library Science for the years 1974-76; 104 usable replies were received. Of the respondents, 55 percent were employed in academic libraries, 22 percent in public libraries, 8 percent in schools, and 17 percent in other types of libraries. These respondents represent a higher proportion of academic librarians and lower proportion of public and school librarians than was reported in the placement statistics for 1974-76.42

Shera said library research can be described as "breaking down open doors.”43 Much of the following material falls in this category. Involvement in collective bargaining has led some library administrations to prepare guidelines distinguishing the duties of professional and clerical supervisors. For example, a Purdue University administrative memorandum states that hiring, dismissing, evaluating, disciplining, and administering wages must be handled by a professional supervisor, while the clerical supervisor is responsible for directing the activities of a work group or unit, may participate in employee evaluation, and may hire students for the work unit.

The literature has accorded little attention to the difference in supervisory techniques according to type of work performed and number and type of employees. The appropriate method of supervision depends on such factors as: (1) whether departmental people have face-to-face contact with clientele, (2) number of hours the unit is open, (3) number and classification of employees in the unit, (4) educational background of employees, and (5) whether it is a multibranch system and/or multilocation system. For instance, changing the hours of operation from forty to ninety-three per week may require greater reliance on written procedures, policies and regulations. Delegation of tasks increases and each person must know his or her exact responsibilities. Evaluation becomes a problem because the supervisor is not always present; he or she must observe job performance without seeming to spy or making informants of fellow employees.

In response to the author's survey, 98 percent of the respondents agreed that a supervisor evaluates the performance of employees, and 95 percent that the supervisor oversees the training of employees (see Table 1). Ninety-four percent agreed that supervisors recommend employees for discharge, and 91 percent indicated that they were responsible for overseeing work scheduling and recommending employees for promotion. Ninety percent agreed that supervisors must have detailed knowledge of the work performed in the unit, oversee the writing of job descriptions, and discipline employees.

Table 1. Attitudes of library school graduates toward supervisory responsibilities

Responsibilities of Supervisors	Percentage in Agreement	
Evaluate employee performance	98.1	
Oversee employee training	95.2	
Recommend employee discharge	94.2	
Oversee work scheduling	91.3	
Recommend employee promotions	91.3	
Have detailed knowledge of work performed in unit	90.4	
Oversee writing of job descriptions of subordinates	90.4	
Discipline employees	90.4	
Decide how work should be performed in conjunction with employees	87.5	
Have knowledge of conducting interviews to fill vacancies	87.4	
Provide procedures manual	82.7	
Have knowledge of grievance- handling	78.8	
Have knowledge of EEO guidelines	74.0	
Have knowledge of OSHA regulations	62.5	

It is interesting to note that only 87 percent of the respondents felt that a supervisor should know how to conduct an interview to fill a vacancy. Since employee selection and evaluation are perhaps a supervisor's most important tasks, it seems that this should have been ranked higher. However, most employees are perhaps selected by department heads and assistant directors rather than by supervisors. Only 82 percent of the respondents believed supervisors should provide procedure manuals with detailed instructions on how to perform tasks; in industrial settings, instructing employees is one of the most frequently performed supervisory tasks.44 That only 78 percent of the respondents recognized the handling of grievances as a supervisory responsibility is probably due to the fact that this is a local responsibility primarily involving libraries engaged in collective bargaining or those whose employees belong to unions.

Although ALA and other professional groups have been quite active in dispensing information about equal opportunity in employment, only 74 percent of the respondents viewed this knowledge as a responsibility of the supervisor. It is probably in the area of interviewing, selection, promotion, transfer and discharge - all areas of concern to supervisors - that most EEO violations occur.

The least amount of agreement among respondents concerned the area of occupational health and safety regulations. In interviewing middle managers and administrators two years ago, I found little concern about this topic. Safety receives a great deal of attention in the industrial setting. Most texts on supervision contain at least one chapter on the safety responsibilities of the industrial supervisor, and a recent thesis lists seventy-four such responsibilities.45 Many unions are adding health and environmental specialists to their staffs to assist in evaluating working conditions. Although the library may not itself be governed by these or similar regulations, branch libraries located in departmental buildings where research is conducted may be affected. The regulations on providing access for the handicapped to all buildings require new layouts and designs for libraries. Most libraries housed in older buildings may discover potential safety hazards in flammable building materials, inaccessible nooks and crannies, improperly anchored shelving, overcrowded shelves, etc. Purely from the standpoint of human relations, library administrators should be concerned about safety precautions.

CONCLUSION

This overview of supervisory management has surveyed the library environment, the management "style" of the library, the demands for professionalism, and concern for employees. The trend is toward increased emphasis on personnel practices, especially those involving equal opportunity for employment, collective bargaining, occupational safety and health, and affirmative action.

REFERENCES

1. Heyel, Carl, ed. "Management Levels: Definitions," The Encyclopedia of Management. 2d ed. New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1973, p. 503; and Gamaluddin, Ahmad F. "Decision-making at the Level of Middle Management: A Survey of Medium Sized Public Libraries." Ph.D. thesis, University of Pittsburgh, 1973, p. 66.

2. Dee, Joan M. "The Managerial Mystique: Obstacle or Opportunity?" Arlington, Va., ERIC Reproduction Service, 1977. (ED 149 457)

3. Fry, Bernard M., and White, Herbert S. Publishers and Libraries: A Study of Scholarly and Research Journals. Lexington, Mass., Lexington Books, 1976, pp. 19-28.

4. "Public Library Spending Still Climbing," American Libraries 9:483, Sept. 1978.

5. Morrison, Perry D. The Career of the Academic Librarian (ACRL Monograph No. 29). Chicago, ALA, 1969, pp. 83, 86; and Finks, Lee W. "Measuring the Attitudes of Library School Students Toward Intellectual Freedom, Innovation and Change, Service, Research and Administration and Management." Ph.D. thesis, Rutgers University, 1973.

6. Berry, John N. -Reporting the 'Bad News,' " Library Journal 103:915, May 1, 1978.

7. See, for example, "Georgia University Ousts Its Director," Library Journal 103:921-22, May 1, 1978.

8. Terkel, Studs. Working. New York, Pantheon, 1974; and Schrank, Robert. Ten Thousand Working Days. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press, 1978.

9. Bailey, Martha J. The Special Librarian as a Supervisor or Middle Manager (State-of-the-Art Review No. 6). New York, Special Libraries Association, 1977.

10. Echelman, Shirley. "Libraries Are Businesses, Too!" Special Libraries 65:409-14, Oct./Nov. 1974.

11. Bailey, op. cit., pp. 5-15.

12. Minor, Barbara B., ed. "Proceedings of the Information Broker/Free Lance Librarian - New Careers - New Library Services Workshop Held at Drumlins, Syracuse, New York" (Miscellaneous Studies No. 3). Syracuse, N.Y., Syracuse University School of Information Studies, Aug. 1976.

13. Reynolds, Maryan E. "Challenges of Modern Network Development," Journal of Academic Librarianship 1: 19-22, May 1975.

14. Parker, Thomas F. "Models and Methods: The Tools of Library Networking," College & Research Libraries 36:482, Nov. 1975.

15. See Booz, Allen and Hamilton, Inc. Organization and Staffing of the Libraries of Columbia University: A Summary of the Case Study. Westport, Conn., Redgrave Information Resources, 1973; and Webster, Duane E. "The Management Review and Analysis Program: An Assisted Self-Study to Secure Constructive Change in the Management of Research Libraries," College & Research Libraries 35:114-25, March 1974.

16. Heinritz, Fred J. "Modem Scientific Management in the Academic Library," Journal of Academic Librarianship 1:20, July 1975.

17. Parker, op. cit., pp. 480-86.

18. Petit, Thomas A. Fundamentals of Management Coordination: Supervisors, Middle Managers, and Executives. New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1975, p. 237.

19. Jackson, Ruth L. "Origin and Development of Selected Personnel Management Functions in the Field of American Librarianship, 1876-1969." Ph.D. thesis, Indiana University, 1976.

20. “ 'Insubordination' Issue Taken Up by Calif. SRRT," Library Journal 100:1280-81, July 1975.

21. Binder, Michael B. "The Supervisory Behavior of Academic Library Cataloging and Processing Personnel: An Inquiry into Relationships with Certain Situational Factors." Ph.D. thesis, University of Pittsburgh, 1973, p. 80.

22. Gamaluddin, op. cit., p. 145.

23. Kay, Emanuel. The Crisis in Middle Management. New York, AMACOM, 1974, pp. 10, 13-19, 127, 143.

24. Gavryck, Jacquelyn A. "The SUNY Librarians' Faculty Status Game," Journal of Academic Librarianship 1: 11-13, July 1975.

25. Tallau, Adeline, and Beede, Benjamin R. "Faculty Status and Library Governance," Library Journal 99:1521-23, June 1, 1974.

26. Bailey, Martha J. "Some Effects of Faculty Status on Supervision in Academic Libraries," College & Research Libraries 37:48-52, Jan. 1976.

27. "New Career 'Ladders' Pose Status Threat to Librarians," Library Journal 99:1746, July 1974, and Huston, Esther. " 'Alternate' Career Ladders" (letter to the editor), Library, Journal 99:2558, Oct. 15, 1974.

28. Nollen, Stanley D., and Martin, Virginia H. Alternative Work Schedules, Part P Flexitime. New York, AMACOM, 1978.

29. Dagnese, Joseph, ed. "The Employment of Professionals in Support Positions: A Symposium," Journal of Academic Librarianship 3:320-27, Jan. 1978.

30. See Eckles, Robert W., et al. "Safety and Health Responsibilities Under OSHA." In Essentials of Management for First-Line Supervision. New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1974, pp. 542-72; and Locke, John H. "Provision of Information and Advice for the Protection of Health and Safety at Work," Aslib Proceedings 28:8-16, Jan. 1976.

31. Marchant, Maurice P. Participative Management in Academic Libraries. Westport, Conn., Greenwood Press, 1976.

32. Tarr, Susan A. "Effective Group Process for Libraries: A Focus on Committees," College & Research Libraries 35:444-52, Nov. 1974.

33. Mason, Ellsworth. "Decisions! Decisions!" Journal of Academic Librarianship 1:48, March 1975.

34. Edwards, Ralph M. Die Role of the Beginning Librarian in University Libraries (ACRL Publications in Librarianship, no. 37). Chicago, ALA, 1975.

35. "Californians Peg Entry Level Librarian I 'Tasks,' " Library, Journal 102:2298-300, Nov. 15, 1977.

36. Bailey, Martha J. "The Position of the Middle Manager in the Academic Library Organization; Report on Council on Library Resources Fellowship 1975-76." West Lafayette, Ind., Purdue University, Physics Library, Sept. 1976. (ED 129 327); and _____. "The Qualifications of Middle Managers in Public Libraries." (in process.)

37. _____. "Middle and Supervisory Management in Corporation Libraries." (In process.)

38. "A Task Analysis of Library Jobs in the State of Illinois," Silver Springs, Md., Social and Educational Research and Development, Inc., May 1970. (ED 040 723)

39. Canelas, Dale B. "Task Analysis of Library Jobs in the State of Illinois: A Working Paper on the Relevance of the Study to Academic Libraries." Arlington, Va., ERIC Reproduction Service, Sept. 1971. (ED 067 113)

40. Ricking, Myrl. "Illinois Task Analysis Project: Phase II, A Study." Arlington, Va., ERIC Reproduction Service, Sept. 1971. (ED 067 111) See also _____, and Booth, Robert E. Personnel Utilization in Libraries: A Systems Approach. Chicago, ALA and Illinois State Library, 1974.

41. Wiese, Bernice M. "Proposals for an Organization Model, Job Descriptions, and Training Programs for the Supporting Staff of School Library Media Systems." Arlington, Va., ERIC Reproduction Service, 1971. (ED 067 112)

42. Learmont, Carol L., and Darling, Richard L. "Placements and Salaries 1976: A Year of Adjustment," Library Journal 102:1345-51, June 15, 1977; _____. "Placements and Salaries 1975: A Difficult Year," Library Journal 101:1487-93, July 1976; and Frarey, Carlyle J., and Learmont, Carol L. "Placements and Salaries 1974: Promise or Illusion?" Library Journal 100: 1767-74, Oct. 1, 1975.

43. Shera, Jesse H. "Failure and Success: Assessing a Century," Library Journal 101:284, Jan. 1. 1976.

44. Sartain, Aaron Q., and Baker, Alton W. The Supervisor and His Job. 2d ed. New York, McGraw-Hill, 1972.

45. Goberni, Joseph M. "Safety Program Responsibilities of Supervisory Personnel." Ph.D. thesis, West Virginia University, 1977.

<<TOC4>> 5.7 Training and developing staff

<<TOC5>> The training function in libraries

WHY TRAIN?

Training is defined in the Concise Oxford Dictionary as bringing a person to a desired state of efficiency by instruction and practice. All libraries aim to have efficient staff in order to provide a good library service to the public they hope to serve, whether that readership is using a public, university, school or private library. Training, therefore, is of the utmost importance in the library field, although each library organization must decide for itself what it means by a desired state of efficiency, as requirements will alter from library to library and country to country. However, the training should be designed to ensure efficient performance to the dual benefit of the library system and the users. Training of staff is crucial both in developed and developing countries. It is appropriate in an extremely sophisticated library system using the most up-to-date computer methods and equally appropriate in a library system that may only recently have been established. Both kinds of library need to get value for monies expended on staff salaries and it is clearly more advantageous to employ well-instructed and trained staff regardless of the location of the library. An effective and informed staff will mean an efficient service to the public and will also promote a good library image. When considering training in libraries there are two factors to take into consideration. The first is the need of the organization to provide a good service and the second the needs of the individual member of staff.

Taking the first point, it must be recognized that libraries are labour-intensive and that staff are an expensive commodity, usually taking up to 60% of the budget in the form of salaries, which represents a sizeable amount of public or private expenditure. The motivation of staff and the efficient organization of a library system are two of the primary functions of a good library manager and should involve the proper use of training. It Is also an economic necessity to have staff fully operational as soon as possible. Staff training should therefore be orientated towards the libraries' needs and services but should not ignore the requirements of the individual member of staff, either for the present or the future.

A trained staff able to exploit the book stock means a more satisfied readership at all levels. The readers must be able to feel confidence in the member of staff who may be dealing with them. This confidence means that readers will return again to borrow books and to ask for information from the library staff. Here the knowledge of the individual staff member plays an important part, for the staff, even if they have only a basic education, must be knowledgeable about the tasks they perform on a daily basis and must have a sound understanding of the organization in which they are working. Training will enable them to participate more intelligently in the work of the library. They must know why they are asked to operate certain procedures and what will happen if they make mistakes.

Libraries must continually strive to- improve usage and readership levels and this will not happen when staff themselves appear disinterested or uninformed. Library surveys carried out over a period of years have illustrated that after the book stock one of the most critical factors that can affect library usage is the attitude of the library staff. In effect the staff, by their attitudes, can be a critical feature in either encouraging or discouraging library users. Those responsible for training library staff should be aware of the low percentage of the public using libraries and be constantly on their guard in case readers are discouraged by unthinking and badly trained members of staff. Staff need to be trained not only in library techniques but also in public relations. The reception and handling of the individual member of the public is of the utmost importance and library staff should not forget that they are there to serve the public readership.

Good, well-trained staff, at whatever level, will only serve to enhance the reputation of the library service. Training, therefore, must be an integral part of the library management's plans. It is no good whatsoever to have a marvellously stocked library that remains underexploited because of poorly trained staff.

WHO SHOULD BE TRAINED?

Training is equally important for all library staff from senior management to the newest junior. It is essential to remember that in a good library system, training of one kind or another will never stop. It should be a continual process if it is to keep staff up to date and aware of innovations and changes in the library world. Library systems do not remain static, new ideas and policy changes are mooted and adopted. Training, therefore, should be aimed at keeping all staff aware of whatever is happening in the library.

Manual staff may well need some kind of basic instruction about the library that they work for, the geography of buildings and locations of offices. This is often a group of employees that tends to be overlooked as they are not professionals or potential professionals. This can be a mistake, for their contribution to the library service is of enormous importance and as a group of people they should not be ignored or forgotten. It is almost impossible to think about running a library system without the invaluable assistance of the library porters, attendants or pages. One would obviously be at a great disadvantage without them, and a basic introductory course to the system will help assimilate them that much more quickly than otherwise.

All new staff will need some kind of induction training, its length and content being dependent on the level of new staff recruited, Staff involved in on-the-job training of new recruits may well need training in how to explain routine tasks to their staff. It is a well-known fact that although someone may be excellent at their job it does not necessarily mean that they will be able to communicate the basic details of it to another person, let alone give clear instructions. These people will need help in imparting their knowledge. However, training for long-standing members of staff should not be aimed at making them feel inadequate and needs tactful handling.

Newly qualified staff will need to be trained in the house style of the library for which they work. They may well have learnt all the new library techniques at library school but in most cases will have had very little experience or opportunity to put theory into practice. Many young people are now entering librarianship without much idea of what the job is like on the shop floor and no amount of book learning can replace the real thing. In these circumstances education and training become complementary as new librarians are trained to maximize their library education on a daily basis.

They will certainly need management training to enable them to adapt as quickly as possible to their new role of being in charge of other staff and of being a manager themselves. The earlier this kind of training starts, the better it is, both for the library and the member of staff. In-service training is part of the management function and it is important to get these new librarians participating in in-service training courses for more junior staff, as this not only helps them to assume the role of manager but also involves them as part of the management team from the start.

Training is not just the prerogative of the professional librarian. Library assistants will also need to be drawn into the training net, whether or not they hope to eventually qualify. These are the people who are in close contact with the public and whose daily dealings can make or break the reputation of the service.

Training is also needed for pre-library school trainees who may be sponsored by the library during their time at library school. It is clearly more advantageous to give them a good basic grounding in the practicalities of librarianship prior to going to library school, as this will enable them to perform better as students, and to derive more benefit from their course of study.

Training should also be made available to professional librarians who may need refresher courses; these can be of enormous value in brushing away some of the cobwebs that might have accumulated over the years. Finally, the training officer will need to go on training courses too, In order to keep up to date with new moves in the profession and to learn about training methods and personnel work.

WHEN SHOULD THEY BE TRAINED?

Training should be a continual process and even a chief librarian will wish to be trained in new ideas and practices throughout his career. Generally speaking though, training is taken to mean fitting a person into a new job and making sure he understands the work he has to do or the role he has to play.

In large library systems training should be used to assimilate as quickly and effectively as possible the large number of candidates that are employed at certain times of the year, for example, Autumn and New Year. Authorities which employ staff on a short-term basis will also have to consider training and although here the training will not need to be so complex or lengthy as for the staff that are employed on a permanent basis, It Is in the interests of the library user, as well as to the employer's benefit, that some kind of training should be organized. In the interest of efficiency, assimilating one new member of staff can be as important and crucial to a small system as assimilating twenty will be to a large system. In both cases it is Important to get those staff into the libraries and fully functional as quickly as possible. Therefore, staff need to be inducted and given basic training as soon as they join the library system on their first day. The amount of induction will vary from library to library. There is certainly no ideal Induction course as each library must determine for itself what information it wishes to impart during induction. Certain basic guidelines are given later in this book, but they are only guidelines and each library will want to change and modify them according to its own requirements and the requirements of the readers.

Training is not only necessary for the new member of staff but also for longstanding members of staff moving from one section to another, who will need instruction in the new tasks they may be asked to perform. It is never sale to assume that because people have been on the staff for years they will automatically know everything about the other sections. They won't and will need just as much instruction on these occasions as a new person. The difficulty with longstanding members of staff is that they themselves may assume they know all there is to know and might resent being told. In the interests of getting it right they will need careful and sympathetic handling. I am sure we have all encountered the member of staff who knows everything and cannot be told anything.

Staff must be trained to a consistent standard. This is not the responsibility of the training officer alone; it is also the responsibility of all senior staff, who must be encouraged to regard training with a positive attitude. After all, training attitudes start at the top and work their way down.

THE ADVANTAGES OF A WELL-TRAINED AND HIGHLY MOTIVATED STAFF

The reputation of each library service will be made or broken by the reception of the individual reader by the individual member of staff. In these days of highly complex and diverse services it becomes more essential than ever to ensure that staff are well trained to provide a more than competent service to the public. Encouraging the staff to feel involved in the running of the library, to feel responsible for their job and to feel part of the organization, however small that part may be, is the job of a good manager and trainer. The advantages are various: to the employer there is improved efficiency, accurate but difficult-to-measure output, and a skilled workforce. To the employee there is job satisfaction, greater opportunity and also personal development, all of which result in an improved service to the public. Well-motivated and interested staff are less likely to become disenchanted with their jobs, less likely to make mistakes and more likely to take pride in what they are undertaking. The staff will be less dissatisfied if they feel part and parcel of the organization and the tendency towards absenteeism will be reduced. The person who takes the odd day off here and there without really being ill is a person who is basically dissatisfied with his Job. I am not suggesting that training will always provide a solution, but proper training carried out to integrate the staff and involve them in the work of the library, will in the long run help to alleviate these problems. A high staff turnover at any library costs that library a lot of money in recruitment and interviewing time. This is a large investment in library terms and a good employer should not only aim to realize the full potential of his staff but should also aim at making this investment in staff a successful enterprise.

In libraries where staff turnover is high it may well be worth while looking at the staff training programmes to see if they can be used to help reduce the number of resignations. Of course there are always factors affecting the number of resignations which are quite beyond the scope of any training course to resolve: factors ranging from difficulties in finding accommodation to the high cost of fares to and from work. Conversely, one should never aim at having a completely static staff as this could result in a stagnation of ideas and enthusiasm, but the reader will certainly feel more confidence in the library if there is at least a steady core of familiar faces behind the counter.

JOB SATISFACTION

Any good library manager should endeavour to ensure that his staff derive some satisfaction from the job they are asked to do. It stands to reason that if staff are enthusiastic and responsive about their Job then they will perform better and therefore give an improved service to the readership. How can one make sure that one's staff receive some job satisfaction? There are many things that will affect staff morale, such as salaries and conditions of service, that may be well beyond the direct responsibilities of the immediate library supervisor. As far as these factors are concerned, training can play no remedial role other than that of explanation. But there is a more positive approach to staff motivation, and that is to use training to ensure that every member of staff, at each service point, becomes involved in the activities of the library and becomes part of the library team.

Being shown how to do a particular task, being told why it Is necessary and being told or 'rewarded' when a job is well done, all contribute towards a member of staff taking pride in his job and working conscientiously. His work and efforts should be recognized by the supervisor and he should be told when his work has helped and been appreciated. In other words, a member of staff should never be taken for granted.

The supervising librarian will need instruction in managing personnel as well as the ability to impart on-the-job training clearly and succinctly. Knowing how to manage people and staff and how to encourage them to give a good performance by being appreciative and thanking them for a job well done, is a talent that does not come naturally to all supervisors. All this may sound like common sense or common courtesy but it is quite amazing how often these points can be forgotten or overlooked in a day to day work situation.

If a member of staff knows why he has been asked to do a certain job, and has been shown how to do it efficiently, he is more likely to do the job willingly and effectively than a person who has had a task badly explained and doesn't understand why it is necessary anyway. Making sure that a member of staff understands the job he is doing is therefore very important for job satisfaction. Systematic training of staff will help to ensure this, and at the same time will benefit the readers using the library, who will be served by a knowledgeable and helpful staff.

In the long term job satisfaction may help reduce staff turnover and therefore help reduce staff advertising costs and the amount of senior time taken up with interviewing and staff selection.

IMPROVED SERVICE TO THE USERS

Having training courses in any library ensures that the staff who are participating in the courses, teaching or talking about their jobs, have actually to think positively about the job they are doing and what their aims and objectives are or should be. The training officer who organizes these training courses can not do all the training or give all the instruction himself. He must use specialist librarians to instruct in their own subjects. The specialist librarian cannot give instruction about his job unless he has sat down and written a job specification with written procedures, written routines, and clear, easily understandable statements of policy. Having done this and crystallized his own ideas, it becomes easier to teach the subject or to train someone else in that speciality.

Training should not be undertaken solely for training's sake. It should meet a specific need, either of a member of staff or of the library system. Training courses must have aims and objectives. Increasing staff involvement is only one side of the coin, and it is important to remember that the ultimate objective must be to maintain a library service of a reasonably high standard and constantly to try to improve that standard. This small but vital point should not be forgotten, The library exists to make information and materials available to the public; it does not exist simply for the pleasure or otherwise of the librarian. Bearing this in mind, training courses must be run to teach staff not only how to exploit the stock but also how to deal with the great variety of people who will be using the library.

TRAINING RESPONSIBILITIES IN LIBRARIES

It is important to develop a training mentality in the library system. Any training officer appointed to a new post may have an uphill Job, for initially he must prove the value of his training courses to the rest of the senior staff, some of whom will be extremely sceptical about the value of training and may, for example, try to prevent their staff attending training courses or refuse to attend themselves. A training attitude or mentality must be nurtured and developed until training is acknowledged as being beneficial to the library and the staff. However, most good library systems now recognize the need for internal as well as external courses, and certainly most recognize their responsibility to accept students on fieldwork attachments.

Libraries in the developed world have this responsibility to receive students on fieldwork attachments for practical work, either from their own country or from abroad. These attachments can be of the utmost value to students in giving them some practical experience of library and information work and by giving them an opportunity to discuss library problems with a wide variety of practising librarians. The benefits of these attachments are not entirely one-way. There is bound to be some interchange of ideas between the librarian and the visitor which can only be a good thing, but in addition the host librarian must have made some effort to present the visitor with a short synopsis of his job. He may even have worked out some kind of brief training programme for the student to follow, rather like programmed learning, and to have done this that member of staff must have sat down and thought clearly about his own job before attempting to describe it to a third party.

Training of staff must be accepted as part and parcel of the library routine. It should never be regarded as an optional extra which is vulnerable to be cut back in times of economic stringencies or when the work load is particularly heavy. Training is a service-enhancing necessity. Its benefits must be made obvious and training must be valued by the organization. Therefore training courses themselves must be viable, important and relevant to the organization.

In times of economic stress it becomes more desirable and essential to have well-trained staff as more pressures may be put upon them. In developing countries, with limited library resources, it is even more important to have well-trained staff. In both situations few staff may be available, vacancies may be difficult to fill or left unfilled, and a greater interchange of staff between departments or general mobility may be required. At times like this, unless there is a real commitment to train, it becomes very tempting to refrain from organizing training courses altogether, since this tends to take the staff temporarily away from work or service points. In fact this is a time when training becomes more crucial than ever, as the staff must be able to continue to give a good service to the readers. Training officers, or those librarians with training responsibilities, must be very wary of this situation developing and insist on people being spared from service points to attend relevant training sessions.

Many well-organized library systems have a responsibility to prepare young people before they attend library school. This can either be through some formal trainee scheme or informally, by encouraging staff to qualify. In this context no library can afford to ignore its training responsibilities and must accept that it has a duty to help these young people prior to their attendance at library school. This help can take various forms depending on the facilities available. Visits can be arranged to other libraries, specialist librarians can talk to them about their jobs or, more simply, a well-stocked staff library can be made available to them.

IDENTIFYING TRAINING NEEDS

Identifying training requirements need not be a difficult task and there are two simple ways of looking at the problem. These are the needs of the organization and the related needs of the individual. The requirements of both can sometimes be met by the one training course and need not be diametrically opposed. For example, all new staff should undergo an induction course to introduce them to their new job. They will need certain basic instruction ranging from knowing the opening hours of the library to knowing when pay day is. The library needs to get these new recruits operational as soon as possible, as effective members of staff, so this type of course can serve both types of need.

The librarian or training officer should know the standard of work required by the organization and a training need is immediately apparent if not everyone is of the required proficiency level. Training can be of all types and the training officer should look at all staff levels to ascertain training needs. There are, as mentioned above, induction courses for all staff regardless of the level at which they enter the library service. Then there is operational training, or on-the-job training to teach and improve job performance. One can look further ahead and consider development training, which means not training staff to do a particular job but preparing them for possible future promotion. Whilst not wishing to encourage people to have aspirations above their abilities, it is good managerial planning to have a pool of people who are capable and trained to take on a job at a higher level.

The introduction of a new technique or a new service will highlight the need for training to ensure that all staff know about the new event, and it must be obvious that staff will need training and instruction in the use of new techniques. The need for both induction and this sort of training is fairly simple to identify.

New legislation or a new policy decision by the governing authority, will necessitate further training for library personnel. Again, in cases like these staff will need to be trained to meet new statutory requirements, whilst new policy decisions may often create a change in the system, underlining the need for retraining. Here it will not be adequate to explain a change, but one must explain the scheme, indicate how it will work, and how it will affect the service, in a clear and concise way, allowing plenty of time for questions.

If a library has a high staff turnover, the training officer may well consider it worthwhile to institute a system of exit interviews to find out if there is a problem and if training could help resolve it and so reduce the turnover. Resignations may be coming in for a variety of external reasons, but if staff are leaving because of low staff morale, or disenchantment with the job, these may well be problems that reveal a training need. Staff may, for example, be resigning from one particular branch library and the cause could well be the individual in charge of that library, who may not be managing it effectively, or who does not have the ability to motivate his staff. This highlights a very pertinent training need for that senior member of staff. Other training needs will be brought to light by complaints from readers. If one has a well-trained staff these should not be all that common, but a genuine complaint should be investigated and efforts made, through training if necessary, to rectify the situation and to make sure it will not happen again.

Much of the training will not be undertaken by the training officer, who may simply be responsible for the more formal organization of the courses. On-the-job training is undertaken by the senior staff at each library, who may therefore encounter more day to day problems and training needs than the training officer. Communication must be regular between supervisors and the training officer, who ideally must maintain close contact with these supervisory staff. Training needs may also become apparent on talking to the senior and junior members of staff. This may be in the form of feedback on courses already held or just by a chance comment in a conversation. The training officer needs to be sensitive to the moods of the staff and their implications, in case they reveal a hidden training need. Training cannot be static. It must be capable of change and alteration to meet new situations and therefore training itself becomes a continuing process.

Some libraries operate a Career Progression Scheme, which automatically means that each member of staff is assessed annually by his supervisor and also given an assessment interview by a more senior member of staff. These interviews will prove invaluable for assessing individuals' work performance abilities and will also highlight any personal training need, as well as becoming a forum for discussing training needs of individual members of staff.

Identifying training needs is a fairly straightforward process. But one must take into account the various human differences of age, ability, experience, educational background and so on. There are different levels of training to suit different abilities and the training officer has a responsibility to assess the level of training required by each individual or group of individuals. On the practical side, the training officer should never go cold into a training session. He should allow himself time to become susceptible to atmosphere, modify his training course around the needs of the moment and adapt himself to the needs of his trainees.

There is, then, training for those within the library system, those new to the system and library workers at all levels. There is also the organization of training courses for visitors from overseas, for students, and for the training of library users, plus organization of possible training modules for committee members, governing bodies or visitors from other library authorities.

IN-SERVICE TRAINING COURSES VERSUS EXTERNAL COURSES

The obvious and immediate advantage of internal training courses is that they can be directly related to the libraries' needs. Other advantages are that library experts and lecturers are already on site and courses can be run reasonably cheaply, as accommodation and equipment, heating, lighting and stationery do not have to be paid for directly. The cost of these items will be absorbed in the general library budget. There are other hidden costs, such as the amount of staff time taken up by the training course, but items like these will be difficult to charge to the training budget. So on the face of it internal training costs are relatively low.

In-service training is most beneficial as the trainers know the library and the organization and know exactly what is expected from the course. An outside lecturer will not automatically have this knowledge and may spend precious time trying to assess the requirements. If he has not been properly briefed the course could misfire completely. Internal training courses must never be allowed to become stereotyped and dull as they will lose their impact and fail in their objectives. Here external lecturers provide that extra bit of stimulus to an internally organized couse and, with some careful planning, it need not be expensive to arrange for an outside speaker. For example, one's own authority, school, college, university or organization must have some experts who could be asked to lecture, perhaps on management, finance or computers. The choice can be wide. It is especially beneficial to use an outside expert to address more senior members of the staff as they are more likely to listen with an unbiased ear to whatever he is lecturing about. He may well be saying exactly the same thing as the training officer or another member of the staff would have said, but he will perhaps hold their interest just that little bit more and give more impetus to the programme for the very reason that he is the 'outside expert'.

Internal training courses held in situ in the working environment are liable to all kinds of interruptions, from either the telephone or the general public. For this reason it is essential for all internal training modules to be held in a separate room away from the hustle and bustle of the library, which can be distracting. This will help the staff to have a chance to think objectively about the job rather than subjectively.

Externally organized courses score here as they are held well away from the work place and the staff are not subjected to endless interruptions. Sometimes, because of the subject content, an external course may be the only answer if there is no one on the staff who can help. External courses can indeed be very stimulating, not only because of the course contents, but also because they enable the staff to mix socially with other professionals working in similar libraries and to discuss joint problems informally. Therefore, these professional external courses have a hidden value in encouraging professional communication, After all, we are in the business of communication.

The main problem is that external courses must be paid for in hard cash, and this factor can limit the number of staff that can be trained in this way. In addition to the cost of the course itself, there will be further expenditure on travel, accommodation, and subsistence, which can make the whole thing prohibitively expensive. In certain cases it might be cheaper to hire the outside expert to come in to the library, especially if there are many staff who need to attend the course. In this way one will have the advantages of an on-site training course, plus external expertise and will still only be paying one person's travelling expenses, hotel and subsistence, as lecturing accommodation, lighting etc., will be provided by the library. If even the cost of this looks prohibitive, the training officer should look around at neighbouring libraries, as they might well have the same training needs and might be willing to share the cost of an on-site course.

Whether an internal or external course is finally decided upon, the trainee should be properly briefed as to why he has been selected, what is expected of him and whether he will be required to write a short report.

Suggested further reading

ANDERSON, Ursula. Management Training for Librarians: a report. London: Library Association, 1977.

COMMONWEALTH LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. Training Modules. (Published by the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation in 1981.)

CONROY, Barbara. Library Staff Development and Continuing Education. Littleton, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1978.

COVENTRY City Council, Libraries, Arts and Museum Department. Training and Development Programmes (some accompanied by tape cassette). Coventry: CCC, 1977.

DAVIES, Ivor, (ed) The Organization of Training. New York: McGraw Hill, 1973.

DEAN, John. Planning Library Education Programmes. London: André Deutsch, 1972.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE, Library and Information Series, No. 7. The Staffing of Public Libraries. Vol. 1. London: HMSO, 1976.

EDWARDS, Ronald J. In-Service Training in British Libraries. London: Library Association, 1977.

FINN, David, ASHBY, Margaret and Dimity, Susan. A Teaching Manual for Tutor Librarians. London: Library Association, 1978.

JONES, Noragh. Continuing Education for Librarians. Leeds: Leeds Polytechnic School of Librarianship, 1977,

LEICESTERSHIRE LIBRARIES AND INFORMATION SERVICE. Training Packages. Basic enquiry work.- a training package for library assistants; Work programming.- a training package for Senior Library Group Assistants; The effective use of team time: a training package compiled for Principal Librarians. Leicester: LLIS, 1977.

LIBRARY ASSOCIATION Subcommittee on Training. Guidelines for Training in Libraries, London: Library Association, 1980.

LIBRARY, ASSOCIATION. Training in Libraries - Report of the Library Association Working Party on Training 1977. London: Library Association, 1978.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT TRAINING BOARD. Training Recommendations 4 Administrative and Clerical Staff. 8 The Arndale Centre, Luton, Beds. 1970.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT TRAINING BOARD. Training Topics 3 - Induction Training by Peter Riley. Luton: Local Government Training Board, 1971.

MACK, Elizabeth. In-Training in Information and Special Library Units. London: ASLIB, 1974.

SHELDON, Brooke E. (ed) The Continuing Library Education Network and Exchange (CLENE) Concept Paper No 3. Planning and Evaluating Library Training Programmes. Washington DC: CLENE, 1973.

SLATER, Margaret. Short Course Assessment and Evaluation in the Library/Information Field, Aslib Occasional Publication No 15. London: ASLIB, 1974.

STOWE, Elizabeth W. (ed) New Directions in Staff Development: papers of a one-day conference held in Detroit, Michigan, 28 June 1970. Chicago: American Library Association: Library Administration Division, 1971.

TOTTERDELL, Barry and BIRD, Jean. The Effective Library: Report of the Hillingdon Project on Public Library Effectiveness.- edited by Margaret Redfern. London: Library Association, 1978.

UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION (UNISIST). Guidelines for the organization of training courses, workshops and seminars in scientific and technical information and documentation. Paris: UNISIST, 1975.

VIRGO, Julie A, MCCONACHEY DUNKEL, Patricia and ANGIONE, Pauline V. The Continuing Library Education Network and Exchange, Concept Paper No. 5. Continuing Library Education, Needs, Assessments and Model Programmes. Washington DC: CLENE, nd.

WARNCKE, Ruth. Planning Library Workshops and Institutes (Public library reporter No 17). Chicago: American Library Association, 1976.

WASHTIEN Joe. The Continuing Library Education Network and Exchange, Concept Paper. A Guide FOR Planning and Teaching Continuing Education Courses. Washington DC: CLENE, 1975.

<<TOC4>> 5.8 Appraisal of staff

<<TOC5>> Another look at performance appraisal in libraries

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

G. Edward Evans, BS, MS, MA, PhD Bendict Rugaas, Cand. Real, Bibliotekareksamen

Libraries around the world share many similarities in spite of different cultural and institutional settings. One similarity that many of them share today is the need to function in an environment of limited resources, both human and physical. Certainly, the cause of this problem is the world economic condition, and libraries, like other institutions and individuals, must attempt to make their limited financial resources stretch further and further. As a result, libraries have had to set priorities, cut back on a number of activities and/or stop or slow expansion programs. However, effort is devoted to at least maintaining, if not improving, the quality and types of services available to library patrons.

One method of maintaining quality and quantity of service in the face of diminishing purchasing power is to have more efficient and productive staff. Even without pressure to increase overall productivity, many libraries establish a base line for assessing individual staff member's performance. American libraries-in fact the majority of academic libraries1-employ a highly formalized system, with annual or semi-annual appraisal forms being filled out by supervisors to assess the performance of each staff member they supervise. Although no solid data are published on the number of public and school libraries using a formal appraisal process, probably all of those that are a part of a merit system are involved in annual appraisals.

One concern of administrators, supervisors, employees, management consultants, and teachers of management is and has been performance appraisal and what to do about it. Indeed, performance appraisal is assumed to be a fact of administrative and supervisory life. Management and personnel administration textbooks all make at least some reference to the process, while most of them devote one or two chapters to the topic, and entire books have been devoted to the theory and practice of conducting performance appraisals.2,3 Both ALA4 and ARL5 have issued collections of performance appraisal forms and guidelines in the last few years, and literally dozens of journal articles appear each year on the subject (for example, in 1979, some 93 articles were listed under the heading of performance appraisal in just Business Index and Library Literature). The following quotations typify statements about performance appraisal:

- The productivity of all individuals is measurable to some extent. If an objective measurement is impossible, a subjective measurement is attempted, perhaps comparing one individual with another. The measurement of individuals is vital to good personnel administration and management and it must be accepted as part of employment.6 (Emphasis added)

- The rating or evaluation of one person by another is as old as mankind itself. It is a natural phenomenon in the sense that individuals continually judge others by what they say, what they do, and how they affect other people. This process applies not only to work situations, but also to all facets of life.7

- All libraries should have some formal plan for regularly appraising each employee. Each individual wants to know just how he is evaluated by his supervisor. He may have had a few words of praise for some above average activity or criticism for a mistake, but he must have an objective measurement of his overall performance.8

- Appraisal questions are generally avoided. The superiors may tend to hold back until the employee is due for a regular performance appraisal. They then fill out the required forms and schedule appraisal interviews with their subordinates. During the interview, past performance is reviewed. The superior justifies the evaluation. Often the employee is surprised about how he or she is characterized and rated. The meeting is tense and emotional, often fraught with explanations and defensiveness. Frequently developmental objectives are never discussed.9

According to theory, what should performance appraisal do for the supervisor, the employee, and the organization? Based on an extensive review of the literature, it is possible to identify the following beliefs about the nature and function of formal performance appraisal systems in American organizations:

1. The process is essential to good management.
2. The process is natural or normal.
3. The process is the only reasonable method available for assuring at least minimal performance.
4. The process is the only valid basis for granting or withdrawing employee economic benefits.
5. The process is the primary means of maintaining control of staff productivity.
6. The process is essential for the growth and well-being of the individual employee.
7. The process is an important element in an effective system of motivation.
8. The process is essential in work orientation programs.
9. The process is or can be an objective assessment of an individual's strengths and weaknesses.
10. The process is primarily directed toward the subordinate.
11. The process is continuous and reflects a careful analysis of the individual's daily performance.
12. The process is equally effective whether carried out by a supervisor or the employee's peers.
13. The process is concerned with all aspects of an individual's work, not just the performance of the assigned duties.
14. The process is useful in assessing an employee's future and potential progress in the organization.
15. The process is essential in planning organizational personnel needs for the present and the immediate future.
16. The process is important in counseling and suggesting areas of improvement that the individual should achieve if the individual hopes to gain more responsible positions either in the organization or outside it.

This is a long and impressive list of functions for one process to accomplish. And if the process is conducted by a supervisor in terms of an individual, and if this is the normal procedure, it is inevitable that personalities will enter the picture and probably color the evaluations. Should this happen, the performance and productivity aspects may be lost in a maze of personality issues irrelevant to the work situation.

Although the literature review indicates a complex set of beliefs about the value and nature of personnel appraisal activities, it is possible to identify two general goals that can be achieved by means of performance appraisal: administrative and behavioral. On the administrative side, the process can supply the documentation on which to base decisions regarding individual employees (promotions, salary increases, transfers, and in extreme cases" demotions or dismissals). Behavioral goals relate to the question of how well the individual performs assigned tasks, and what can be done to improve performance. Although it is possible to make a case that the two goals are really the same, such an approach merely compounds an already highly complex situation. In theory, one process should be able to accomplish both goals. Also according to theory, formal performance appraisals should have a direct positive relationship to productivity: the closer the monitoring and greater the feedback on performance, the higher the productivity should be. Such does not seem to be the case. In fact, it might be argued that the process has just the opposite effect.

A comprehensive review of the literature attempting to locate answers to the question "do productivity measures pay off for employee performance?'' concluded that the data available were insufficient to answer the question, even in a tentative manner. 'Me report indicated a fairly large body of literature about the process of conducting an appraisal, comparison of different techniques, use of forms and their content, and so forth. However, very few studies addressed the question of the result of conducting the process? "Applications of productivity measurement to personnel management are beginning to be made as a consequence of more emphasis on organizational development and MBO, but we found no evaluation of such personnel practices. Nor are there scientific experimental studies of the impact on productivity of existing personnel practices."10 In essence, the emphasis has been on administrative goals rather than on the behavioral goal of increased productivity. My own literature search confirms the report's finding-to date, no article, book, or report has been found that provides data about the effect of performance appraisal on productivity. The closest that one comes to finding such data is in studies of employee attitudes about the appraisal process.

A 1953 study about worker attitudes toward performance appraisal as well as how it was conducted found that 74% of the 340 persons questioned felt the process had little or no effect as far as improving their performance (35% little value, 39% no value).11 More recently, 1980, an article entitled "Do Public Servants Welcome or Fear Merit Evaluation of Their Performance?" appeared in Public Administration Review.12 The researchers were concerned with determining "whether public employees consider the creation of a 'good' performance appraisal system to be both laudable and practical undertaking."13 They noted that many of the respondents indicated that an appraisal system was in existence in their agency and that it did not promote better performance. Even with the word "good" modifying the word "performance," only 82% of respondents agreed with the question "many people believe a good performance appraisal system can improve individual performance. Would you agree?" One interesting note is a sharp drop in support of the question as the length of service in the agency increased: 91% agreement from those employed less than a year to 76% for those with more than 10 years service.14 It is important to note that none of the questions asked related to personal performance but were about an abstract "individual" appraised by a "good" system.

We believe that two points are important about the above discussion. First, we have no direct evidence about the performance outcome of conducting performance appraisals. Second, in the United States there is an assumption that the process, in particular a "good" one, will lead to better performance. Perhaps we do not need the process at all.

Our interest in performance appraisal and the questioning of the need for the process started seven years ago. In 1973, Evans received a Council on Library Resources fellowship to study the training of librarians and library paraprofessionals in the Scandinavian countries. He used a highly structured interview schedule asking a variety of question (or as one Dane said, 10,000 questions) about the educational programs and their "value." Several of the questions related to evaluating a person's performance as a student, as a professional on the job, or as a teacher in a library school. After the second week of interviewing he spent some time tabulating the responses. A disturbing pattern, or rather a lack of pattern, became apparent for all questions relating to performance appraisal. Some people did not answer the questions, or people in the same organization gave almost opposite answers to questions about how performance appraisals were done. The cause of this outcome was unclear; Evans thought perhaps it was a language problem. Fortunately, not long after that, he interviewed a Danish librarian who had worked in an American library for over five years. She responded to the first question about performance appraisal with "I know what you are asking, but we don't do that." After further questioning, she made it clear that "we" referred to Scandinavians, not simply the library where she worked.

With this idea in mind, as impossible as it seemed to be, Evans added several questions that modified the original items. At the end of the three months of interviewing, it appeared that none of the Scandinavian libraries used a formal appraisal process. In discussing the issue with Rugaas, Evans and Rugaas decided to investigate the role of performance appraisals and work performance. Over the next six years they did this with the basic finding that performance appraisal, as we know it in the United States, does not exist in Scandinavian libraries. Another finding is that Scandinavians think it strange that we do this "thing," just as Americans find it incredible that Scandinavians don't.

As a result of these experiences, whenever Evans is asked to speak to a group of American librarians about a management topic of his choosing, he selects performance appraisal. He has two purposes in selecting this topic: (a) to let people know about alternatives to conducting formal appraisals and it is not inevitable; and, (b) to collect some data about librarian's attitudes about the process. Since 1975, he has discussed the subject at nine different meetings with 407 persons. At each meeting, each person is asked to answer 5 questions:

1. Is formal performance appraisal necessary for good supervision?
2. Do you feel confident and "comfortable" in conducting a performance appraisal?
3. Do you think the system provides a factual assessment of the employee's performance?
4. Do you think the process has a positive influence on the employee's job performance?
5. Do you think the process can help improve or correct an employee's job performance?

Percentage	YES	NO	
Question 1	90.6	9.4	
Question 2	16.7	83.3	
Question 3	47.1	52.9	
Question 4	13.0	87.0	
Question 5	2.7	97.3	

It appears that this group of 407 persons, although predominantly feeling that performance appraisal is important, seems to have little or no confidence in the ultimate value of the process. Certainly the fact that less than 3% felt that the process can help improve or correct an employee's job performance indicates doubts about how well the process achieves the behavioral goals, That, combined with the low affirmative response (13%) to the question about positive influence may be why only 16.7% of the people said they felt confident in conducting appraisals.

As noted, one cannot make too much out of these data since the samples were self-selected- the survey was done as an aside to a presentation/discussion at regional meetings of special interest groups or staff meetings, and the process was not designed as a structured research project. These data seem to reveal: librarians may have very deep concern about the value of performance appraisal, they were surprised to learn that libraries in some countries achieve very high performance from staff members without engaging in performance appraisals, and, perhaps having two goals for performance appraisal may be one too many. Several other writers,15,16 on this subject have suggested that one goal for the process would be a more realistic approach. However, no one seems to question the need for such a system, yet it may not be necessary-if the Scandinavian pattern is a model of what happens without such appraisals.

The data collected in the above informal manner are not that far removed from those reported by Van Zelst and Kerr. They are close enough, given the differences in the approach to collecting the data to warrant a formal study of the attitudes of librarians about the value of performance appraisal in terms of behavioral goals. There is an opportunity to conduct a cross-cultural study of attitudes of librarians (in this case, academic librarians) about performance appraisal in the United States and Scandinavia. (A study is being planned as a joint project by the University of Denver, Graduate School of Librarianship and Information Management and the Norwegian State Library School.)

Saul Gellerman made a suggestion about behavioral aspects of performance appraisal that seems especially sound in light of data collected in the informal survey.

Unless a 'weakness' is perceived by a consensus of observers to be easily correctable by relatively minor conscious effort, little is to be gained by pointing it out. The manager may vent displeasure, the subordinate may be mortified, and the weakness will probably persist. The wiser course is to say nothing, and either to tolerate the weakness or, if it seriously impairs job performance, redesign the job or transfer the employee. (Remember, we are considering persons whose overall performance is satisfactory and for whom our primary goal is development.)17

To some degree, this may be what is done in Scandinavian libraries, although this is yet to be determined. It is not an accepted common practice in United States libraries, where formal appraisal systems existed. Based on the information collected, our guess is that it is a common practice of supervisors, but because the practice is not "accepted" or given formal approval by top management they feel somewhat guilty about not pointing out weaknesses. In part, the practice, if it is common, arises because of the potential for conflict between supervisor and employee, thus making it easier to "tolerate small weaknesses. "

According to David Peele,18 the British have still another approach to performance appraisal. Drawing on E.V. Corbett's19 work and his own experience in both countries, he shows what the differences are, and suggests that Americans use some elements of the British system that would result in a less formalized system. The British system appears to be halfway between the highly structured American system and the very informal Scandinavian approach. Although Peele does not directly question the need for an appraisal, he does show that variations exist, and each seems to work equally well. Or, perhaps it is more accurate to say that no clear evidence exists that any system helps improve staff performance.

No matter what the goal(s) may be for the process, staff members need a clear explanation of what those goals are and how to accomplish them. Anyone with experience in examining a large number of performance evaluation forms is struck by the fact that the vast majority of the staff are rated "average" or above average-a rather interesting phenomenon (where is the lower half of the statistical curve?). Some academic libraries state in their personnel policies that a person must be excellent to be hired and outstanding to move up to the next rank; later advancements in rank require the person to be rated as superior, exceptional, and distinguished.20 With such a system, is it a wonder that few people ever get rated less than excellent, or that people begin to doubt the value of such an appraisal system as a true assessment of ability or a means of promoting greater productivity? All too often, only the administrative goal is achieved because the staff sees this as the sole purpose of the process and really have no training in using the system to achieve the behavioral goals such as improvement of an individual's performance or for growth and development.

In summary, a review of the literature and the informal data collection indicates that a formal performance appraisal is considered essential for good management in the United States-essential because it provides a means of control over employee job performance and, thus, over individual and organizational productivity (behavior goals). It also carries with it what many managers and supervisors believe to be a powerful sanction for failing to achieve a satisfactory performance and level of productivity (administrative goals). That sanction is the granting or withholding of economic rewards, opportunities for advancement and promotion, and in the case of totally unsatisfactory performance, dismissal from the organization. What is assumed is there is a direct relationship between conducting performance appraisals and maintaining or improving 'an 'individual's contribution to the organization (productivity). One does not find in the literature any articles that supply evidence that the assumption is valid. Nor does one find, other than indirectly, any questioning of the need for such a system. Yet, as we have seen, at least one working alternative exists to the highly structured American system in Scandinavia and possibly a less structured approach in use in Great Britain.

Thus there is a need for extensive research in this area. This article is filled with "it seems," "it appears," "perhaps," which reflects the current lack of evidence about the following areas: (a) the effectiveness of performance appraisal practices; (b) influence of performance appraisal on work relationship (superior/subordinate and peer); (c) relationship between performance appraisal and productivity; and, (d) the cost benefit of conducting performance appraisals. Each of the areas could be further subdivided into a number of smaller more manageable research topics. We hope a number of persons will begin to investigate these areas in general and specifically in terms of libraries. As noted before, the Graduate School of Librarianship and Information Management at the University of Denver, and the Norwegian Library School hope to secure funding to examine one very small portion of this highly complex subject.

NOTES

1. M. Johnson. "Performance Appraisal of Librarians-A Survey." College and Research Libraries 33(September 1972):359-67.

2. R.G. Johnson. Appraisal Interview Guide (New York: AMACOM, 1979).

3. J. Budde. Measuring Performance in Human Services Systems (New York: AMACOM, 1980).

4. College Libraries Section (Association of College and Research Libraries, American Library Association), Performance Appraisal - #1-80. CUP Notes: College Library Information Packets (Chicago: ALA, 1980).

5. Association of Research Libraries Office of Management Studies, SPEC Kit #53 - Performance Appraisal in ARL Libraries (Washington, DC: ARL, 1979).

6. E. Chapman. Supervisors' Survival Kit: A Mid-Management Primer. 2nd ed. (Palo Alto, CA: Science Research Associates, 1975) p. 94.

7. R.D. Steuart and J.T. Eastlick. Library Management, 2nd ed. (Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1980), p. 97.

8. K. Stebbins and F. Mohrhardt. Personnel Administration in Libraries. (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1966), p. 121.

9. J. Rizzo. Management for Librarians: Fundamentals and Issues (Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 1980), p. 228.

10. Georgetown University Public Services Laboratory, Do Productivity Measures Pay Off for Employee Performance? (Washington, DC: Public Services Laboratory, 1975), p. 46.

11. R.H. Van Zelst and W.A. Kerr. "Working Attitudes toward Merit Rating." Personnel Psychology 6(October 1953):159-72.

12. N.P. Lovrich, P.I. Shaffer, R.H. Hopkins and D.A. Yale. "Do Public Servants Welcome or Fear Merit Evaluation of Their Performance?- Public Administration Review XX (May-June 1980): 214-22.

13. Ibid., p. 216.

14. Ibid., p. 217.

15. S. Gellerman. The Management of Human Resources (New York: Holt Rinehart, 1976).

16, D. McGregor. "An Uneasy Look at Performance Appraisal," Harvard Business Review 35(May-June 1957):89-94.

17. Gellerman, Management of Human Resources, p. 173,

18. D. Peele. "Evaluating Library Employees," Library Journal 97 (Sept. 15, 1972):2803-2807.

19. E. Corbett. "Staffing of Large Municipal Libraries in England and the United States: A Comparative Survey," Journal of Librarianship 3 (April 1971):81 - 100.

20. University of California. Los Angeles. Promotion in the Librarian Series. Los Angeles, University Research Library, 1979.

<<TOC4>> 5.9 Technical and junior staff

<<TOC5>> Library technicians in Australia: past, present and future

Helen Smeaton
Footscray College of Technical and Further Education

Received February 1983

Abstract The history of library technicians in the workforce in Australia is described. Some of the problems confronting technicians and their employers now, and in the future, are outlined. Library technicians should be seen as equals in the workforce but it is necessary to better define what technicians do and what librarians do. Industrial conflict in libraries is otherwise inevitable.

‘The Library Technician has now entered the Australian library world and is consolidating his or her position.’1 The editorial of the Australian library journal in March 1975, from which this comment was taken, saw the emergence of the technician in the workforce as an indication of trends developing in librarianship. In considering the current and future situation of technicians in Australian libraries it is useful to summarise the history of the emergence of the paraprofessional as a recognised and accepted category of library worker.

Past

Activities directed towards the setting up of a course to train library technicians originated with the Victorian Branch of the Library Association of Australia (LAA) in the late 1960's. These activities culminated in the establishment of the first course at the then Box Hill Girls' Technical School (now Whitehorse College of Technical and Further Education), in Victoria, with Wes Young as head of the course. The pilot course began with 'twenty full time, and thirty-seven part time students on 23 February 1970'.2 The success of this course is now history.

The subsequent development of similar courses in other states is documented in the professional literature. It is sufficient to say that in 1983 all states and the Australian Capital Territory have operational courses. With only one exception the courses are all conducted by Colleges of Technical and Further Education (Tafe). The involvement of Tafe in these programs has been supported by the LAA, officially because 'technical colleges have an established role in the training of technicians in all fields and a clear distinction should be made between these courses and those at professional level taught at universities and colleges of advanced education.'3

The intent of the courses and the nature of the training offered to students has also been documented in detail in the professional literature. The training was intended to produce paraprofessional staff who support professional librarians in the provision of information services. It was to be generalist, vocational, and terminal, rather than a preprofessional program. The introduction of these courses, then, was based on the assumption that a level in the staffing structures in libraries existed, or ought to be created, between the professional and clerical assistant levels. The LAA Task List for Library Technicians was a reflection of both the assumption and the training programs.

Early in the history of the establishment of courses throughout Australia there was concern on the part of employers and educators about variations in such aspects of the programs as entry requirements, work experience and course content. These regional differences made difficult reciprocal acceptance of qualifications between states, and reduced technician mobility. They were also an impediment to standardisation of salary scales and awards across the nation. Two national seminars were held, one in Melbourne in 1976 and the other in Sydney in 1979. These involved educators, employers and students. Out of these seminars the existing guidelines for courses and the LAA Task List evolved.

Accreditation of technician courses by the LAA Board of Education has been another vital factor in obtaining portability of qualifications between states, and the maintenance of common standards. The current status of accreditation for each course is listed in the LAA Handbook.

Present

In 1983 library technicians constitute an established category of library worker. Accredited technician courses are operating across Australia. Entry levels and work experience requirements still vary considerably from state to state, though course content is very similar. The observations in Margery Ramsay's excellent paper on the 1976 seminar regarding standardisation of entry level and work experience still apply:

Standard of duration and entry level seemed out of the question. In any case, standardisation on this basis conflicts with the emphasis which Tafe and other educational authorities are now placing on flexibility. For these reasons course requirements were defined in the Guidelines in terms of exit level and performance, and ‘an exit level at least equivalent to that of a final year exit level high school student' is specified4.

Technicians are more evident, across the various types of libraries, in some states than others, but the concept of the trained paraprofessional worker is recognised and accepted nationwide. What is arguably less well recognised and accepted is what a library technician should do and how he or she can best be employed. There is still great divergence of opinion among professional librarians about the division of labour between professional, paraprofessional and clerical staff. This is particularly evident in areas like reference work at one end of the spectrum and covering books at the other.

Factors such as the size and scope of a library, the clientele it server, and constraints of funding, all influence what the technician does in practice, as indeed they influence what the librarian does. Nonetheless, the young professional graduate is likely to have much more clearly defined ideas about his or her future role than the new technician graduate. One of the most difficult tasks for the technician educator is to satisfactorily define the respective roles of professional and paraprofessional in 'grey' areas like reference work.

There are also difficulties for technician educators in deciding on levels of complexity taught in areas like classification and cataloguing. One sure method of stimulating a flagging conversation between librarians is the introduction of this topic. You can be certain of any number of passionate responses. This is more than a personal grievance from a teacher. The divergence of opinion is a reflection of the lack of a sharp definition of professional and paraprofessional areas of responsibility in work. It is a problem fraught with difficulty. There are all sorts of conflicting interests involved, but it is a problem that needs to be solved in the interests of efficient and economic library service.

The author would argue, perhaps wrongly, that the problem of definition of appropriate areas of work reflects confusion about the role of the librarian. Bourne, Hill and Mitcheson observe:

In recent years there have been significant changes in the role of professional librarians in the workplace. This development is not solely due to the greater sophistication of library and information services but also the increasing utilisation of paraprofessional library technicians. As in the case of technological change, this has freed professional librarians from many of the unskilled duties associated with library operations, to allow them to concentrate on the more professional aspects of librarianship5.

In a profession which is relatively new, and subject to such rapid change as librarianship, the skills which are required of the professional need to be constantly reviewed and updated, both in general and in specific areas of information work.

A problem which is everpresent is that of the place of the technician in the staffing structure of libraries. Flowers referred to this as long ago as 1978. He said then:

In a paper given 16 years ago, 'Objectives of training for library service', I harped on the same theme:

'The library tasks must be sorted out, rearranged and staff trained to do them efficiently’.

'As there are variations in the level of service expected from librarians, there will be variations in the training required.'

'I have argued for a two-level staff, each with its own objectives of training for library service, each section with its own training systems. As the library service required of each will be different, the training system for each will be different' and so on.

Although there must have been considerable agreement with that we did not do anything about it, even though each succeeding year accentuated the need for a thorough overhaul of library staffing structures. The elimination of the LAA Registration Certificate and the emergence of library education in the colleges and universities clearly meant the disappearance of our middle staffing, standby professional librarians in training.

If, as I believe, it is true to say that librarians increasingly are concerned not so much with books as with the records of books, the introduction of the computer to library operation made massive staff restructuring not only inevitable but imminent6.

We currently have reached the objectives of different training systems for professional and paraprofessional workers, but in most instances the staffing restructures have not taken place. Library technicians have been grafted on to existing staffing structures, and this has led to the variations in their salary, levels and titles which exist presently across institutions in Australia. It also means that defined career paths in various types of libraries barely exist for technicians. This must have a detrimental effect, for many technicians, on motivation and identification with the employing institution.

It is a particularly difficult problem to address at a time when employment and promotion prospects for all library staff are shrinking. It is, nonetheless, a pressing problem since it is in just such a time of economic constraint that the best possible value needs to be obtained from staff, and the most economic use of skills employed. At present many technicians are underutilised, while some instances exist where they are employed in areas of work which, while they may not be beyond the capacities of individual technicians, are beyond what they are trained, as a group, to do. A recognised place in the staffing structure based on the recognition of differential training and skills, would go a long way to sorting out the current discrepancies in employment, salaries and promotion opportunities.

Future

Bourne, Hill and Mitcheson comment in their report on the future possibility of competition between technicians and librarians for work if the current number of librarians graduating each year is maintained. If this oversupply continues, as quantitative evidence available at present seems to indicate, it is likely that professional librarians will begin to compete for paraprofessional positions. This will possibly lead to a deterioration in the employment prospects for paraprofessionals.7

This is one interpretation of the possible outcome of such competition, and the reverse is equally possible.

The implications of the Bourne, Hill and Mitcheson study for future employment in the profession have yet to be fully analysed and considered by librarians and library educators. It does, however, seem clear that technicians face the same constricting employment market as other categories of library workers, and employers and educators must plan for the future accordingly.

The Library Workforce National Conference, Melbourne 22-24 November 1982, highlighted the need to come to grips with the present problems mentioned, in order to ensure a reasonable future for employment in libraries. One of the recommendations of the Conference to the LAA was that a Library Workforce Committee be established which would, among other things, regularly monitor the supply of and demand for library technicians in Australia. This would seem to be a step in the right direction.

The problems of job classification and the need to reorganise staffing structures in order to ensure the appropriate employment of technicians was discussed. When the keynote speaker, Nick Moore, presented his masterly summation of the issues discussed, he made some points about technicians in the workforce which are worth considering as major issues for the future.

Library technicians should be seen as equals in the workforce. Their training equips them with skills which are as valid at the middle level of library work, as the skills of the professional librarians at their level. We need to better define what the technicians do and what the professional librarians do. We need to ensure that role differentiation is marked by pay differentials. Employers need to have a more flexible approach to organisational structures.

It is difficult to make predictions about the effect of technological change in libraries on the technician role. There are two conflicting schools of thought. One sees the upgrading of technician courses, and the movement of technicians into areas formerly occupied by librarians, as an economic inevitability. The other sees the gradual phasing out of the technician level of work as a consequence of technological innovation, and the eventual demise of the technician. It is difficult, without extensive research data, to make an educated guess one way or the other.

What is inevitable, however, is industrial conflict in libraries, unless the current problems mentioned, are solved. This would be detrimental, not only to working relationships between categories of staff, but also to the service libraries offer the community.

References

1 DATAR, C and SCOTT, P Editorial comment Australian library journal 24 (2) March 1975 p43

2 PIVEC, C Middle-level library education in Victoria Australian library journal 24 (2) March 1975 pp 48-53

3 FLOWERS, E The library technician in the workforce: the educational framework Australian library journal 28 (20) December 7, 1979, p372

4 RAMSAY, M Education of library technicians in Australia Australian library journal 24 (9) June 1978 pp 134-138

5 BOURNE, V; HILL, M and MITCHESON, B Library and information work: the employment market. Vol. 1 Sydney, Library Association of Australia 1982 p1

6 FLOWERS The library technician in the workforce p372

7 BOURNE, HILL and MITCHESON Library and information work p1

Helen Smeaton BA, ALAA, TSTC is Head of the Library Studies Department at Footcray College of Technical and Further Education. Before taking up this position she had worked in special libraries, a public library and a variety of school and college libraries. Her professional interests include children's literature, education for librarianship and the study of Australian literature. Address: 6 Wattle Grove HAWTHORN VIC 3122

<<TOC5>> Training library assistants in Mauritius

Marie Benoit
University of Mauritius
School of Administration

The University of Mauritius, with the financial help of the International Development Research Centre of Canada (IDRC) embarked on a fifteen-month experimental course in 1978 for the training of library assistants who were already working in libraries. The main aim of the experiment was to evolve a course of approximately one year taking three afternoons weekly, geared to local conditions and using available resources. The experiment was a success and the course, after minor alterations, will be repeated for the fourth time in 1981.

The need for short-term courses

In developing countries short-term courses for library assistants, held locally, are necessary to bring the working staff of libraries, information and documentation centres up to a higher level of efficiency. Even the smaller nations of the developing world, such as Mauritius, are affected by the information explosion. The need for storing and retrieving this flow of information and disseminating it to the relevant decision-makers, research workers, educators, students, etc., has become a necessary task to support national development efforts.

In Mauritius many government ministries and departments, the national broadcasting system and newspapers have, if not libraries, at least reading-rooms for the use of in-house researchers and decision-makers as well as the general interested public. These libraries and information centres usually began with a shelf of books and a few files of documents in the charge of a clerk, typist or messenger. As the nation develops these governmental and quasi-governmental bodies are expanding and their need for information is growing proportionately. The clerk who administered the original shelf of books has moved with the collection, which is now housed in its own room or building, and has actually become if not a 'librarian' at least an 'officer-in-charge of a library'. By virtue of seniority and tenacity, he finds himself having to serve a clientele and sometimes to administer a budget and perhaps a support staff, in spite of the fact that he has had little or no professional guidance or training. Although most of these libraries do function, offering minimal services based upon fragments of expertise acquired by observation or simply through serendipity, the need for more formal training is obvious.

Apart from the training needs of library assistants in the smaller libraries, in the larger libraries also (which are often run by professional librarians) there is usually a need for trained assistants to relieve professionals from routine duties and thus enable them to do more creative work. Most library assistants, because of inadequate educational background, economic limitations or geographic isolation are unable to follow professional courses abroad or at home, where these are available. Short-term courses held locally are therefore needed to solve some of these training problems.

IDRC aid

In 1978, with these and other problems in mind, the University of Mauritius set up an experimental fifteen-month course in library studies at certificate level. This Library Assistants' Training Experiment was funded by both the International Development Research Centre of Canada (IDRC) and the Government of Mauritius. Under an agreement between the University and the IDRC a course director was recruited abroad by IDRC while a deputy course director (the present author) was recruited locally by the university. IDRC provided the sum of C $94,700 while government's financial support was a local equivalent of C $14,600.

The main aim of the experiment was to evolve a course of approximately one year taking three afternoons weekly, geared to local conditions and using available resources.

The aim of the course itself was to provide training in routine library techniques and methods to enable students to become more proficient in the performance of their duties. The course also endeavoured to create in the students an awareness of information potential in national development. The emphasis was on the practical aspects of librarianship and the course did not lead to full professional status. It was offered only to those already employed in the field and receiving practice during their daily work. Mauritius has an unemployment problem and the university did not want to flood the market with library assistants with no job prospects. Thus, priority was given to those who had some form of practical experience. Those recruited also had to possess at least the School Certificate in five subjects with credits in English and another language.

We started with twenty-four students. Three dropped out, one of them to follow a degree course in librarianship in India. Their jobs ranged from a municipal librarian, who ran the library for a town of about 50,000 inhabitants, to those working in 'cupboard' libraries.

Although the course was intended for library assistants, we were obliged to give priority to those of a higher grade, who were already working in libraries but who had no hope of going abroad for professional training in the near future.

The course had to be compatible with the busy, complex lives of the students involved. Three of the women students were pregnant. In addition to their professional duties, which often included shift work, most students had families to take care of once they arrived home. They also had to find time for the preparation of their written course work, of which there was a substantial amount, and for the assessment of reference materials scattered in different libraries.

Course content

The following parts of the syllabus were largely based on the course content of the British City and Guilds Library Assistants' Certificate: Library and Society, Elements of Library Management, Classification, Cataloguing and Indexing, Bibliographical Control and Reference Work. We also included General Studies. Here the students were given an introduction to the social economic, political and administrative structure of Mauritius, high-lighting the problems of a plural society, of a small plantation economy and of public administration for development. They were also given a brief introduction to Mauritian literature and an introduction to science and technology in society. This part of the syllabus also included an introduction to the use of statistics. In addition, a project had to be undertaken by the students either on an individual basis or, if the work involved was substantial, as a team.

The total number of contact hours was 400, broken down as follows: Library and Society, 40 hours; Elements of Library Management, 80; Classification, Cataloguing and Indexing, 100; Bibliographical Control and Reference Work, 100; Project Work, 30; and General Studies, 50 hours.

Assessment

Fifty per cent of the marks were awarded for course work, i.e. essays, notes in preparation for seminars, practical exercises in cataloguing, reference and so on. The remaining 50 per cent were awarded for written examinations.

Learning by doing

Lectures on sultry sub-tropical afternoons after half a day's work and a long uncomfortable bus-ride had to be delivered with great enthusiasm if they were not to induce sleep. We encouraged the students to participate and lectures usually evolved into lively class discussions with everyone exchanging experiences and problems. Seminars were held once a week.

As often as we could we carried our class off campus for observation visits and guided tours to different kinds of libraries, the national archives and related institutions. Because Mauritius is small most libraries are easily accessible and often students gave us guided tours of their own libraries. In some cases reports had to be submitted on what they had observed. We trailed behind the French Embassy's van seeing how their library book-box drops in rural areas function and how much one group of handicapped readers depended on these books for their recreation. All this added a new perspective particularly to those who had never before ventured beyond the confines of their own libraries.

A large empty room at the university was equipped with tables, chairs and shelving. The 'lab' ended up looking and sounding Eke the processing room of most overcrowded libraries in the Third World. There the students made accessories for the Browne circulation system using locally available paper and card. They practised using a card duplicator, filing publisher's catalogues in locally made pamphlet boxes, checking in periodicals and preparing them for binding. The British Council kindly let us borrow, on a long-term basis, about 500 books and pamphlets which had been part of a travelling exhibition of books on librarianship. While half the students were taught the basic principles of cataloguing and classification, using these books with one member of the staff, the other half did practical work on reference books in the university library with the other member. In fact the 'lab' idea was not a great success. It needed better organization and at least two other persons to supervise the students.

Teaching aids

An adequate flow of audio-visual materials was made available by the French and American embassies but mostly the British Council (alas, it closed its doors in March 1980). Through their local offices we were able to borrow slide presentations, films, video cassettes and tapes of lectures and interviews by eminent librarians. This helped to give the students a good idea of what libraries and their services were like in Europe and the United States and enabled them to form objectives, set standards and draw comparisons.

In spite of the fact that textbooks had been ordered a year before the course started, only a few had arrived. So this was a problem which had to be overcome. When we were not teaching and doing administrative work we were preparing handouts to supplement the curriculum. Eventually we realized that to some extent the lack of books had not been such a handicap. First of all, few appropriate books are available at this level. None relate to the realities of library operation in the Third World. With students who were practising in the field and very much aware of local conditions, it was difficult to talk only of ideal and sophisticated methods. Our feet were kept firmly and constantly on the ground and ivory towers quickly abandoned. Secondly, we realised that working students would have had to make an almost supreme effort to find the time and energy to cope with long reading lists. Some developed an interest in a particular subject in which case time was found to nurture this interest through reading. However official reading lists only seemed to induce a sense of guilt. But handouts were read, and proved to be a helpful adjunct to lectures and seminars.

We kept our eyes and ears open for any appropriate person who came to Mauritius and who might accept an invitation to talk to the students, give them the benefit of their experience and thus make the course more interesting and alive. Our vigilance paid off and most visitors proved to be easily approachable and willingly volunteered their services. Among our speakers was the regional representative of the Library of Congress, a well-known French library educator who had been lecturing in the neighbouring island of Réunion, the managing director of a well-known British firm of library suppliers and the wife of a World Bank consultant, an expert on book preservation. Fortunately our students are bilingual (some speak an oriental language as well) which gave us a wider choice of speakers.

For the General Studies component of the course we utilized the regular university staff. Lectures on the local political and economic set-up and local writers were particularly appreciated.

Although most of the teaching was done by the. Director and his deputy some practising librarians were invited to give lectures on the state of the art and their own experiences in the field.

Projects

As part of the final assessment each student had to submit a project at the end of the last term. Initially a short proposal was submitted to the teachers and each student was given an opportunity to discuss his or her idea with one of the teachers. Some ideas turned out to be too ambitious and had to be abandoned. The emphasis was on producing something useful but with which Certificate-level students could cope. Many students decided to produce a guide to the library in which they were working. All students submitted a draft of their project to one of the teachers. This was discussed and, where necessary, amended. Most students took enormous pride in their project and went to great lengths (and often expense) to produce a presentable piece of work.

Perhaps the most useful project of all was a Bibliography of Mauritian Government Publications, 1955-1978, which has a total of 549 entries. The materials recorded are based on the holdings of the Mauritius National Archives which enjoy legal deposit and are one of the repositories of government official publications. In their Bibliography of Mauritius (1502-1954) covering the Printed Record Manuscripts, Archivalia and Cartographic Material (Port Louis, 1956), A. Toussaint and H. Adolphe list government publications in Group B (periodicals, newspapers and serials 1769-1954). This project therefore updates part of this section of Toussaint and Adolphe's bibliography and contains a comprehensive index of authors and corporate bodies.

It is hoped that this useful work will eventually find a publisher. This would encourage the compiler to devise some method of keeping it up to date.

Among the worthwhile projects completed by students in subsequent years is A List of Projects and Dissertations Submitted by Students of the School of Administration, University of Mauritius, from the setting up of the University in 1970 to 1979. It is hoped that another project, A List of Publications of Members of the Teaching Staff of the School of Administration of the University of Mauritius is only the beginning of a list which will include the publications of all members of the teaching staff of the university.

The city Library of Port Louis is one of the oldest libraries in Mauritius, having been established in the 1850s. The project on French Literature in Mauritius (1800-1979): a Select Bibliography of French Literature with a Mauritian Imprint in the City Library of Port Louis is therefore an almost complete guide to Mauritian literature in French and a very useful bibliographical tool.

Mauritius has a multilingual and multiracial society. A Bibliography of the Literature of Mauritius (Hindi and Bhojpuri) 1909-1980 is another project that deserves publication. Its compiler devoted a great deal of time and energy to it. She had to track down publications in the collections of individual bibliophiles. Although the Archives enjoy legal deposit the preservation of oriental materials has not been taken seriously enough. Therefore the collection of the Archives could not be relied upon.

Most of these projects involved far more work and were of a far higher standard than was needed at certificate level.

Conclusion

It can be said with satisfaction that the experiment was successful and attained its objectives. Forty-seven students have successfully completed the courses since they began. The author now acts as the course supervisor and the course will be run for the fourth time in 1981. Its length has been reduced from fifteen months to one academic year in line with other certificate courses at the university.

There is no doubt that most developing countries are in a position to set up such a certificate course attuned to the needs of the country concerned, without too much difficulty.

It is unfortunate that in the case of Mauritius no survey of the existing libraries has been conducted so far. This makes it difficult to estimate the number of library personnel required for various kinds of libraries in the country. Nevertheless there is little doubt that a diploma course is needed and should be introduced in the near future.

<<TOC4>> 5.10 Human problems in information work

<<TOC5>> Stress, as experienced by some librarians

by Maurice Payette and Edith Guay

Results of a study identifying the parameters of stress experienced by librarians. Four elements were highlighted to evaluate the influence of external factors: life events, working environment, educational background and bureaucratic aspects of work. Personal factors result in different styles of behaviour in the work situation. Advice is offered on how to avoid stress or its dangerous effects.

Résultats d'une recherche visant à identifier les différents paramètres du stress chez le bibliothécaire. Quatre éléments ont été retenus pour évaluer l'influence des facteurs externes: événements de la vie, milieu de travail, formation reçue, aspect bureaucratique de travail. Les facteurs personnels se traduisent par des styles de comportement dans des situations d'activités. On conclut par quelques conseils destinés à prévenir le stress ou ses effets nocifs.

It is paradoxical that librarians, who are generally looked on as calm people living in a peaceful environment, should be so keen to study the problems of stress encountered in their work as to raise this subject at their Annual Congress. No one would be surprised to see a gathering of air traffic controllers talking about stress, but can it be that librarians are subjected in their work to pressures that create a high degree of tension?

Invited to speak on stress at the Annual Congress of Professional Librarians, a momentarily taken aback professor of psychology decided to look into this reality more closely and felt the need to find out from those who were going to be his audience how the problem was actually experienced. The decision was thus taken, in co-operation with the organizers of the Congress, to conduct a brief and limited study identifying the various parameters of stress among librarians and to make the findings known to the participants in the Congress. The interest aroused by the main findings of this study was such that it was thought appropriate to pass on the information to a wider public, which shows that librarians take more than a mere passing interest in stress.

The purpose of this article therefore is to report on the data gathered by means of a short questionnaire distributed to the 90 librarians who agreed to take part in the study.

It must be said straight away that this study, carried out in three weeks or so and hampered by postal delays, has no pretentions to being exhaustive or representative. Not all aspects of stress could be covered and the findings, in view of the sampling method and response rate, cannot be treated as generally applicable to the population of librarians belonging to Quebec's Corporation of Professional Librarians. Our conclusions apply only to the 90 librarians who agreed to answer our questionnaire. It is nevertheless true that our respondents as a group constitute a population that is diversified and heterogeneous in several respects; and that quite possibly, they therefore are fairly representative of the thinking of members of the Corporation, though there is no way we can be positive about this.

WORKING METHOD

In gathering our information we took a number of precautions for the sake of maximum objectivity. Before constructing the study tool, the questionnaire, we carried out a preliminary survey by means of interviews with eight librarians from libraries of a variety of municipal, college and university institutions. The aim of this first stage was to pinpoint the factors contributing to stress in librarians by inviting the respondents to express themselves freely and spontaneously on how they experienced stress in their work. This initial information-gathering made it possible to devise a questionnaire reflecting the preoccupations of those to be surveyed rather than the theorizing of researchers. The librarians invited to take part in this preliminary survey were very co-operative and supplied an impressive array of material for analysis. Among other things, the interviews yielded a list of a great many sources of stress in work and a number of variables were identified which may affect the way in which librarians cope with these sources of stress. An initial questionnaire was compiled and submitted as a preliminary test to six potential respondents in order to check the relevance and clarity of the questions, the comprehensibility of the instructions, and also the reactions prompted by the questions. After filling in the questionnaire, each respondent was invited to make the comments he deemed appropriate. Taken together, the observations gathered enabled us to make a great many corrections before finalizing the questionnaire for the study.

THEORETICAL MODEL USED

Although we attempted when constructing our instrument to get as close up as possible to the problems of the target population, we nevertheless drew upon a theoretical model or particular conception of stress. For the past 40 years, researchers in several disciplines have been trying to identify the mysterious phenomenon of stress and arrive at some definitions of what is meant by it. From its many variations three main approaches may be distinguished:

- the environmental approach which regards stress as a stimulus generating various organic or psychological reactions;

- the biopsychological approach, which considers that stress is primarily a reaction, a response of body and mind in certain situations. An example is the work of Hans Selye, a pioneer in this field;

- the transactional approach, which describes stress as a process of interaction between the individual and the environment. The point then is to discover the various rules governing the stimulus-and-response relationship.

We were guided mainly by this third approach, recently put forward by a team of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, under Professor Richard Lazarus. This involves rejecting separate consideration of individual and environmental variables in favour of the view that there exist constant transactions between the resources of the individual and the demands of the environment, or the individual's psychical needs. Stress arises when the balance of power is upset, namely when the transactions break down because the internal or external demands exceed the individual's adaptive resources. This conception of stress offered by Lazarus has the great advantage of taking account of the two-way causal link between the individual and the environment, and of enabling a whole variety of stress-prevention strategies to be devised.

THE SURVEY FINDINGS

1. The population surveyed

Of the 220 questionnaires sent out to the future participants in the Congress and a sample of the membership of the Corporation, 90 were completed and returned. The respondents' ages range from 24 to 64 years and average 42. Of those replying, 51 were women and 39 men. The number of years of experience varies between one and 40, averaging 12.10. The respondents work in various institutions:

	No.	
Municipal	13	
College	13	
University	29	
Specialized	11	
Other	23	

As regards the work sector, we offered too limited a choice of replies, since over a quarter of them came under 'Other', 14 of them being engaged in referencing and nine in processing. All these data suggest that the persons consenting to reply constitute a very mixed group. It would be interesting to compare these characteristics with those of the members of the Corporation.

2. Perception of stress

Three questions were designed to see how the persons questioned viewed stress and its presence in work from a list of ten words, we first asked which three were immediately evoked by the idea of stress. The five most frequently mentioned are, in order: tension (79), pressure (56), anxiety (42), fatigue (30) and nervousness (24). It is interesting to note that terms with a more positive connotation such as stimulation, surpassing of oneself, health, efficiency and work came very much less into the picture. These findings suggest that the common image of stress is negative.

To the question 'Do you often feel under stress at work?', replies were requested on a scale from 1-6. Here are the results:

Scale	No	
1 (very seldom)	5	
2	22	
3	26	
4	21	
5	12	
6 (very often)	4	

The average is slightly to the 'seldom' side, with 3.28 on a scale of 16. By adding the replies to questions 1-3 and 4-6 on the scale we find that 53 (59 per cent) of the librarians taking part in the survey feel stress infrequently in their work, as against 37 (41 per cent) who consider they experience it fairly often.

How is the effect of stress on work perceived?

	No.	%	
- stimulates output	33	37	
- decreases output	37	41	
- has no effect on output	16	18	
- no reply	4	4	

3. Influence of external factors

To assess the importance of external factors in generating stress among the respondents, we asked four questions on the following factors:

- life events;
- working environment;
- educational background;
- bureaucratic aspects of work.

Two United States researchers, Holmes and Rahe, carried out a survey of a very broad population to identify and weigh the main stressful life events. From the findings they were able to construct a scale often used for assessing the importance of situational demands in a person's life. These events, which are usually important changes such as losing a spouse, taking on a new job, moving home, or having a baby, are potential sources of stress since they generally require mental resilience and are liable, if numerous, to dig deep into resources that naturally vary from one person to another. To go back to the Lazarus model, these situations call for transactions which may either release new energy or cause a setback engendering stress.

We considered it would be helpful to use the scale to gauge the magnitude of the demands of life events in the case of the librarians invited to answer the questionnaire. The scale is very simple, since it merely requires indicating from a list of 30 events those that have occurred in the respondent's life in the past twelve months. From the sum of the weighted indices for individual items in the scale, a score can be assigned to each person. With our 90 respondents we found a very wide variety of situations, with scores ranging from 23-447 and averaging 118.34. A close look at the distribution curve shows that 73 per cent of those answering scored less than 150, which is regarded by Holmes and Rahe as a moderately stressful situation; 21 persons scoring between 150 and 300 experienced events demanding a great deal of resilience while two others, with scores in excess of 300, lived highly stress-prone lives. To carry this investigation further, it would now be interesting to cross-check the score with age, sex, years of experience, function and other variables.

Following our preliminary survey, we identified a series of 15 factors which may give rise to stress in the course of the librarian's work. We asked the respondents to indicate on a scale of 1-6 the extent to which each factor is liable to engender stress. The findings are given in the following table, where the factors have been placed in order of significance according to the replies. The average for each factor is that of all those listing it, the question not applying to some respondents. We also show the numbers and percentages of those considering the factor to be relatively significant as a source of stress (4, 5 and 6 on the scale), the percentages being based on the number of those for whom the factor applies.

Importance of sources of stress

		Relatively significant	
Factor	Average	Number	%	
1. Employer-employee relations	3.96	62	73	
2. Structure of services	3.78	48	59	
3. Staff relations	3.77	52	63	
4. Work-load/staff ratio	3.73	49	58	
5. Noise	3.67	43	52	
6. Union conflicts	3.52	28	46	
7. Keeping discipline	3.40	35	46	
8. Ambient temperature	3.38	36	45	
9. Customer demands	3.34	35	47	
10. Budgetary limitations	3.26	36	42	
11. Value conflicts	2.96	28	37	
12. Lighting	2.89	24	36	
13. Lack of space	2.84	24	34	
14. Sexist behaviour	2.40	15	25	
15. Furnishing	2.33	14	19	

This table could be analysed and commented on at some length, and it reveals some very distinct trends. We confine ourselves to noting that the main sources of stress for our respondents are both interpersonal and organizational. The physical environment seems less important, with the exception of noise, which 52 per cent of the librarians replying regard as a significant factor. A good 30 of them consider noise to be highly stress-creating. It may be paradoxical to think that, in a library, noise can give rise to tension. But this finding bears out the transactional approach to stress, i.e. the belief that the reaction to a stimulus depends to a great extent on the individual's cognitive interpretation of the stimulus.

Our preliminary survey seems to indicate that some librarians feel that the training they have received is no longer adequate, and that they are therefore ill at ease in their work. This prompted us to formulate a question on perception of educational background.

Compared with the present requirements of your work, do you find your educational background

	No.	%	
very adequate	18	20	
more or less adequate	45	50	
more or less inadequate	21	23	
very inadequate	2	2	
no reply	4	4	

The total of the respondents who consider their training to have been adequate is 70 per cent. As formulated, the question did not attempt to establish any link between training and stress; but certain correlations could be used to examine how those who are frequently under stress view the training they have received.

A final factor we examined was the bureaucratic aspects of work. Using on a scale of 1-6 to gauge the perceived influence of this factor we obtained the following replies:

Scale	No.	
1 (little influence)	16	
2	12	
3	27	
4	18	
5	11	
6 (great influence)	4	
No reply	2	

A 61 per cent majority of respondents therefore considered the bureaucratic aspects of their work to have relatively little influence.

4. Influence of personal factors

According to the model we used, the emergence of stress depends not only on the external or internal factors that require a reaction or response but also, and just as importantly, on the individual's faculty of adaptation, that is to say the available energy and the ability to come to terms with the demands. Transactional ability comprises both coping skills and the ability to make use of adaptation strategies or techniques. These personal factors are concretized by styles of behaviour in the work situation. Research by Jenkins, a United States doctor seeking to identify persons more prone to heart disease, has produced a scale of behaviour patterns within a continuum ranging from 'easy-going' to 'hard-driving'. A set of indicators makes it possible to infer the various components of the different types of behaviour. In our study we used a simplified form of the Jenkins scale, with ten questions establishing a score for each respondent with a possible range from ten (easy-going) to 30 (hard-driving). We obtained a fairly even distribution, as can be seen from the graph below:

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P481.PNG A fairly even distribution

The average is 20.37. Of the 90 respondents, 34 score less than 20 and may be regarded as tending to the easy-going side, 43 tend to be hard-driving with a score of over 20, and the remaining 14 are located at 20, in mid-scale.

There can be no question here of comparing librarians with people in other jobs, since our study is neither generally applicable nor comparative. The data accumulated nevertheless prompt a number of questions. Does this style of behaviour vary with age? Do men have the same tendencies as women? For the hard-driving, what is the influence of stress on output at work? And so on.

How do the respondents attempt to cope with working and environmental demands? For a clear majority (52 out of 83), the answer is learning to achieve inner relaxation. Only 19 of them try to obtain from the administrative authorities better working or environmental conditions. This suggests that in the transactional process of maintaining a balance between inner resources and external demands, the librarians surveyed display a marked tendency to turn to their inner resources.

A final question attempted to gauge the degree of success in coping with the environment. On the basis of a supposed work situation, respondents were asked to situate themselves on a six-point scale.

When you feel overwhelmed at work by the demands of the public, to what extent do you manage to respond adequately, without feeling that things get beyond you?

Scale	No.	
1 (to a very limited extent)	1	
2	1	
3	13	
4	20	
5	40	
6 (to a very great extent)	14	
No reply	1	

The vast majority of the persons questioned therefore feel that they cope relatively well with potentially stressful situations.

We could conclude with some considerations on preventing stress or its dangerous effects. To take the approach used in our study, i.e. the Lazarus transactional model, success in coping can be prepared through a variety of strategies, some centred on personal resources and others on the demands to be faced. To begin with the environment, we can prevent stress by developing skills to ensure better control of it even changes in it. We can avoid overtaxing our inner resources to the point of depletion. We have no sway over some life events or some changes, but in other cases we do have a choice as to whether or not to initiate them. When we feel near the critical threshold of the balance between inner capacities and external pressures, it would be unwise to accede to certain expectations or demands. Individual or collective action upon the physical, social or institutional environment may prove an excellent way of reducing the number of sources of stress and their importance.

As to inner resources, we can learn to develop them by building up and making better use of coping skills. The various adaptation strategies, including defence mechanisms, must be learnt and used. These strategies include cognitive interpretation of external demands. Lazarus most appositely explains that the difference between a challenge and a threat largely depends on the way in which we perceive a stimulus. The same event may be highly threatening for one person and represent a challenge for another; a threat is liable to engender stress while a challenge may become a source of new energy. We can learn to transform threats into challenges and in so doing improve one's psychological health. One's life-style is also a prevention strategy. Clearly, hard-driving behaviour patterns should be avoided in order to ensure mental and physical health. More profoundly, however, we are touching upon a value issue: a healthy life that maintains a harmonious balance between work and leisure and is sustained by simple joys and pleasures, is still an excellent way of preventing stress.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

HOLMES, T.H.; Rahe, R.H., 'The Social Readjustment Scale', Journal of Psychosomatic Research, Vol. 11 (1967), pp. 213-218.

JENKINS, C.D., et al., 'Coronary heart disease in the western collaborative group study: a follow-up of two years' Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 196 (1966) pp. 130-136.

LAZARUS, Richard S., 'Patterns of Adjustment', (New York, McGraw-Hill, 1977).

LAZARUS, Richard S., Launier, Raymond, 'Stress-Related Transactions between Person and Environment' in Pervin, L.H., Lewis, M. Prospectives in Interactional Psychology (New York, Plenum Press, 1977).

SELYE, Hans, 'Stress sans détresse' (Montreal, Editions La Presse, 1974).

<<TOC4>> 5.11 Participatory management

<<TOC5>> Participative management and libraries

Ana Maria Rezende Cabral

1. INTRODUCTION

A type of social system that predominates in modern society is the bureaucracy, whose main characteristics are a hierarchy of command and subordination, highly centralized authority and control and the need to possess specialized technical knowledge in order to discharge one's duties.

With the increasing bureaucratization of the various areas of social life, including culture and leisure, even libraries could not escape the bureaucratic model of organization and automatically adopt it, without much deliberation, in the middle of the twentieth century.

With the proliferation of publication and the ever-growing importance accorded to information nowadays, many libraries have increased in size and complexity. In view of the library's function as a social institution and the sort of activities it undertakes, the adopted model which often produces an authoritarian style of management, impedes the attainment of its objectives, which requires more flexible management methods.

This paper attempts to examine the theory of participative management as an alternative form of administration, which might facilitate the settlement of problems and conflicts created in libraries because of the non-involvement of staff in decision-making.

However, a more democratic type of management would necessitate a change of attitude on the part of those library administrators and librarians who have already grown accustomed to the bureaucratic style of management.

2. BUREAUCRATIC PATTERNS OF MANAGEMENT

Bureaucratic organizations or bureaucracies are structured in the form of a pyramid with several levels, in which each employee has his or her own clearly-defined functions, rights and duties, and is accountable to an immediate superior.

This model admits of greater concentration of power, authority and control. However, while more or less democratic management systems can exist within such a structure, this depends on the manager's personality and his or her willingness to share authority and responsibility.

Libraries have by and large adopted the bureaucratic style of management, which means that decisions are handed down vertically, without prior consultation of staff at the lower levels.

According to Fischer, 'A bureaucracy maximizes security for individuals within the structure, but is often felt to be oppressive and unresponsive to those at the bottom of the organization'(4).

The typical bureaucratic structure is an inflexible hierarchy that inhibits the flow of innovative ideas and ignores informal groupings within the organization. In fact, every attempt is made to develop a conformist spirit in individuals in order to make them more susceptible and amenable to organization.

Furthermore, bureaucracies give rise to two forms of alienation: firstly, that of the employee in relation to the job, which involves an activity that is not innate to the person; social alienation which describes a situation where people do not speak for themselves, do not control their own destiny and are excluded from decision-making while those in authority speak on their behalf (14).

The type of professional occupation that predominates nowadays, is by its very nature hostile to bureaucratic authority. Whereas professionalism calls for autonomy and places emphasis on individual responsibility and the need for individuals to relate to their work, bureaucracy requires compliance with the organization's rules and regulations.

As far as libraries and librarians are concerned, this model has frequently imposed serious constraints on professionals within the institution. Whereas librarians should enjoy a considerable degree of autonomy in taking decisions regarding the library's policies and directives, and in setting objectives, targets, priorities and so on, more often than not they are merely expected to carry out orders and report to their superiors.

It may well be the role of staff associations to settle the conflicts and tensions caused in libraries by the prevalence of that very style of management. But the increasingly bureaucratic natures of those very bodies often stands in the way of more effective action of that kind.

A new approach to the problem is emerging among librarians, who are beginning to press for changes and demand greater autonomy and participation in decision-making and more freedom of action.

In Smith's opinion 'The only answer is significant organizational change in our libraries'(19), which, in his view, may be achieved through a more democratic type of management involving extensive staff participation.

In our view such a change can only be achieved by the adoption of a decentralized organizational structure or some other alternative arrangement as far as the vertical hierarchical structure goes, whereby the staff can play a greater role in decision-making in an atmosphere of trust and co-operation.

3. BEHAVIOURAL THEORIES AND THE PARTICIPATIVE SCHOOL

Behavioural scientists consider that, in order to attain emotional maturity, the individual must satisfy his or her basic needs as well as those imposed by society. Maslow has established a hierarchy of human needs, ranging from the most basic (sex, hunger, etc.) to those of self -actualization. Herzberg, another behavioural scientist, identified factors of job satisfaction and frustration, placing the former at the top of Maslow's hierarchy and the latter much lower down.

Shaughnessy states that to a certain extent all employees hold in common certain objectives and needs. But professionals are best distinguished from other workers by the intensity with which they seek to satisfy certain of these needs (18). He quotes Kleingartner, who distinguishes between two levels of goals:

(a) Level I: short-term job rewards such as wages or salaries, working conditions, fair treatment, fringe benefits, job security, etc.

(b) Level II: longer-term goals related to the content and mission of the functions performed by the various professions. These goals rarely become concrete issues or objectives until Level I goals are adequately met.

These goals can only be attained if professionals enjoy autonomy and are given a real voice in determining the policies of the organizations in which they work, through greater participation and involvement in administrative matters.

But what exactly does participation mean?

According to Kaplan 'participation can be conceived as a process in which power or influence is shared'(8). This is accomplished through the making of decisions in which both management and employees engage. Participation is not incompatible with a hierarchical structure, as is generally assumed. There is merely a shift in the focus of decisions in the organizational segment, and a 'diffusion' of authority in which everybody plays a part, but each according to his or her capacity. Basically it will depend on the management's willingness to modify its style with the existing structural constraints.

In Dutton's view, 'participation is essentially an active co-operation between manager and subordinates in the setting up and pursuit of agreed job-related objectives… Participation is not synonymous with downward consultation. Downward consultation is motivational only to the manager who is trying to make the right decision and get it accepted by the group… Participation demands real commitment by everyone involved'(3).

The concept of participation can be traced back to the eighteenth-century social philosophers and political. thinkers, especially Rousseau, who developed the basic concepts of democratic participation. Subsequently, John Stuart Mill and, later, G.D.H. Cole applied Rousseau's ideas to a modern industrial slate and extended democratic decision-making to the work place.

Likert, proponent of the new theory of participative management, maintains that staff involvement in decision-making yields a high degree of professional commitment, high morale, job satisfaction and increased productivity(10).

Participation can also take the form of management by objectives, 'the process whereby both the higher and lower echelons of an organization identify common objectives, define areas of responsibility and use those yardsticks as guidelines for making the various services work'(17).

The participative school believes that every organization should be a storehouse of ideas and talents that can only be reorganized if employees are allowed to participate In decisions directly affecting their own future, which means that communication must expand in all directions; this can be achieved by the setting up of committees or boards with clearly defined powers.

In participative management the methods of control employed in bureaucratic organizations are replaced by a self-evaluation system in which each group establishes and periodically reviews its own performance criteria.

4. GROUP DECISION-MAKING

As organizations grow in size and complexity, the need for co-operation increases proportionately, since It is difficult for directors to take the best decisions when they are not fully aware of the various factors and the views of others. If managers realize that their subordinates possess valuable and useful information, they will very probably adopt the participative style of management, in which better decisions can be reached though group discussion with specialists.

In Likert's opinion 'better results are obtained when an organization uses its manpower as members of… effectively-functioning work groups with high performance goals than when its members are supervised on an individual basis'(10).

Bennis, quoted by Smith, says that professionally-dominated organizations must shift from the individual to co-operative effort, from delegated to shared responsibility, from centralized to decentralized authority, from obedience to confidence, from antagonistic arbitration to problem-solving [and] groups will be conducted on organic rather than mechanical models'(19).

The advocates of the participative school claim several advantages for group-decision-making; for example:

(a) it allows all group members to air their views, thereby stimulating original and creative ideas;

(b) the decisions are of a higher quality since the group includes specialists in different fields;

(c) the decisions are more readily accepted by the group, since they were worked out by the group itself with a common objective in view;

(d) mediocre ideas can be weeded out and suggestions and criticism used to help correct mistakes;

(e) collective sharing of rewards for good work, in which co-operation replaces competition;

(f) it provides staff with opportunities for professional growth, encourages individuals to develop the capacity to take decisions and so on.

In addition to these advantages, well-integrated groups make for a feeling of esprit de corps; recent studies have shown that the more cohesive the group, the greater the incentive for genuine communication. As a result, there is a perfect flow of both vertical and horizontal. communication in integrated groups.

In Fischer's view, 'Because of the importance of status in a bureaucracy, social interaction among different levels is usually minimal and individuals easily adopt the practice of listening to those in higher positions [and] telling superiors what they want to hear, which usually means minimizing problems and emphasizing success'(4).

Libraries' first concern must be to improve communications since information must be available if interaction between departments is to be perfect. Participative management can make a positive contribution here because it encourages greater staff integration which, in turn, leads to the smooth flow of information when decisions are being taken and to the most effective solutions to existing problems.

5. THE LEADER'S ROLE

Likert stresses the fact that freedom for groups to set their own work pace produces a high degree of professional commitment, so long as there is a great deal of interaction between the individual, his colleagues, and his superior. He states that 'the individual must be part of an active social system where there is frequent contact and interaction. This interaction motivates the individual'(10).

This is why participative management requires a 'linking pin' function whereby the group's attitudes are represented and communicated in both directions within the hierarchy. This 'link pin' assumes a leadership role and helps to create an atmosphere of co-operation among group members, prompting them to interact with one another and with other groups.

Likert describes the leader's role as follows: 'The leader fully reflects and effectively represents the views, goals, values and decisions of his group in those other groups where he is performing the function of linking his group to the rest of the organization. He brings to the group of which he is the leader the views, goals and decisions of those other groups'(10).

However, it is worth while noting that the qualities essential to leadership in participative management are quite different from those required in a bureaucracy; the leader, instead of taking decisions for his or her subordinates, expresses and communicates one group's view to the other.

Library directors generally adopt an authoritarian attitude, appropriate to their own bureaucratic organization, but totally unsuited to the aspirations of those librarians who are more and more eager to enjoy responsible participation.

When this is the case, their influence and leadership skills should be used in the role of library representative to other institutions and for mobilizing the resources required for meeting the targets set by the staff. Their leadership should take the form of 'co-ordinating' or 'linking', while delegating some of their authority and putting their leadership skills to different uses.

6. PARTICIPATIVE MANAGEMENT AND LIBRARIES

Participative library management calls for a change in the manager's style and personality and for greater dynamism on the part of staff. In an atmosphere that is conducive to dialogue and democratic participation new leaders will emerge naturally.

Attempts to introduce participative management in organizations in which the bureaucratic style of management is firmly established usually have to face a series of problems.

Participative management is expensive to introduce in libraries particularly, because it requires a certain amount of training to equip the staff for group work, an uncommon practice among librarians. Although they may be bursting with the competitiveness appropriate to bureaucratic organizations, this attitude can be altered by the use of certain techniques, e.g. group problem-solving, inter-group relations, settlement of conflicts and so on.

At the same time, managers are not over-enthusiastic about the idea of participation, believing that much time is wasted in training the inexperienced when there are already others more qualified to make better and more rapid decisions.

In addition to all these problems, the introduction of a system of participative management confronts the challenge of generating a climate and system of communication that would encourage the staff to play an effective part and to voice the contributions they have to make.

Despite all these difficulties, it should be said that librarians especially the younger ones - are increasingly keen to participate. They believe that contact and interaction with experienced librarians constitute the most likely route to professional growth and the development of their decision-making capacities.

Several authors have identified areas that are particularly suitable for the participation of library staff; they include planning, co-ordination, job organization, budget preparation, drafting of reports, public relations and so on.

In the specific case of planning, it is vital for librarians at all levels of the process to be involved not only in discussing the implementation of future library policies, but also in assessing the services rendered and suggesting the setting-up and/or maintenance of services for library users.

7. CONCLUSIONS

Participative management has been considered as an alternative method of administration in which the central authority, characteristic of bureaucratic organizations, is replaced by staff involvement in decision-making.

Management in which power and authority are vested in a single individual no longer has a place, especially in libraries, whose function in society has expanded considerably. On the contrary, what is needed is that librarians who enjoy sufficient freedom of action and are willing to collaborate should work together and exchange ideas and experience with a view to recommending appropriate solutions to problems in the area and improving the services provided for library users.

The staff's desire to participate calls for a radical change in existing management patterns, whose bureaucratic structure sustains the status quo and inhibits innovation and change.

One possible obstacle to change might be the conformist spirit of some librarians who have reconciled themselves to routine jobs; this is when the rejected technique takes over and precludes originality, innovation and inventiveness.

On the other hand, one encouraging feature is that the emphasis that librarians previously placed on technology is gradually giving way to a critical attitude that focuses more on the political and social aspects of the profession.

Schools of librarianship should be producing librarians with a capacity for decision-making and criticism and a democratic approach to management and planning operations. Sound academic training and the opportunity for self-expression will naturally produce leaders who are ready to oversee significant changes in the field of library administration. In this way, the conditions will be created for staff involvement and participation in decision-making.

If democracy and participation are the watchwords of politics today, let us use them to democratize our libraries while there is still time!

BIBLIOGRAPHY

(1) BLAU, Peter, & SCOTT, Richard. Formal Organizations, A Comparative Approach, London, RKP, 1963.

(2) CASTAGNA, Edwin, Democratic administration. Lib. Journal, 82 (22):3138-44, December 1957.

(3) DUTTON, B.G. Staff management and staff participation. Aslib Proc., 25 (3):111-25, March 1973.

(4) FISCHER, Russel G. Worker's self-management and libraries. Can Lib Journal, 34 (4): 165-73, June 1977.

(5) FLENER, Jane G. Staff participation in management in large university libraries. Coll. & Res. Lib., 34 (4):275-9, July 1973.

(6) HICKS, Herbert G. The Participative School. In …… The Management of organizations: a system and human resources approach. 2 ed. McGraw Hill. 1972. Ch. 24, p. 380.

(7) KAPLAN, Louis. On decision sharing in libraries: how much do we know? Coll. & Res. Lib., 38 (1):25-31, November 1975.

(8) ______, The literature of participation: from optimism to realism. Coll. & Res. Lib., 36 (6):473-9, November 1975.

(9) ______, Participation. Some basic considerations on the theme of academe. Coll. & Res. Lib., 34 (5):235-41, September 1973.

(10) LIKERT, Rensis, New patterns of management, New York, McGraw Hill, 1961, 239 p.

(11) LYNCH, Beverly. Participative management in relation to library effectiveness. Coll. & Res. Lib., 33(5): 382-90, September 1972.

(12) McANALLY, Arthur & DOWNS, Robert B. The changing role of directors of university library. Coll. & Res. Lib., 34(2): 103-25, March 1973.

(13) MARCHANT, Maurice. Participative management as related to personnel development. Lib. Trends 20(1): 48-59, July 1971.

(14) MOTTA, Fernando C.P.O. que e burocracie. Sao Paulo, Brasiliense, 1981.

(15) ______& BRESSER PEREIRA, L.C. Introducao a organizacao burocratica. 2. ed. Sao Paulo Brasiliense, 1981.

(16) NYREN, Karl. Participatory management in libraries: what is its future. Lib. Journal, 101 (10): 1186-7, May 1976.

(17) ODIORNE, George. La direccion por objetivos. Barcelona, Labor, 1972.

(18) SHAUGHNESSY. Thomas W. Participative management, collective bargaining and professionalism. Coll. & Res. Lib., 38(2): 140-6, March 1977.

(19) SMITH, Eldred. Do libraries need managers? Lib. Journal, 94(3): 502-6, February 1969.

<<TOC4>> 5.12 Workers' councils and trade unions

<<TOC5>> An open forum for staff representatives

The National Association of Works Councils and Co-management Committees in Public 
Libraries

Theo de Ruiter
Lieuwe de Vries

The National Association of Works Councils and Co-management Committees in Public Libraries was established in May 1983. This article describes how and why it developed, what it has concerned itself with up to now, and what the aims and methods of work are. An attempt is also made to formulate a few ideas as to the future of the Association.

Background to the Association

Works councils or co-management committees were set up from 1979 onwards in most large libraries. The early days of most works councils were characterized by a number of infantile disorders such as:

- the drawing up of rules and regulations;
- learning to deal with the Law on works councils;
- the establishment of mechanisms for consultation with the rank and file;
- obtaining (fighting for) facilities within the undertaking to enable the works councils to operate properly;
- learning to deal with managements that, until independent works councils were set up, were not used to dealing with consultative bodies of this kind.

In most cases, these difficulties have since been overcome.

In its third year of existence, the works council of the PBC-Noord (North Holland provincial interlibrary lending centre) reached a number of important conclusions during the annual training course:

(1) As a works council, you will be confronted by your management with a number of policy proposals on which your advice or agreement is requested. These matters are often very complicated and concerned not with your profession alone but with the library as a whole, e.g., automation or arrangements in the field of social policy within the establishment. Works council members often lack expertise in such fields.

(2) As an individual works council you are confronted by national developments such as the Enabling Law on Individual Welfare (then still in force!) and cuts - developments affecting not only the staff in your own organization but which, because they were initiated by the authorities, will undoubtedly affect libraries throughout the country. Of course there are differences as between different local authorities and different provinces, but the majority of staff come under a single collective agreement, a single library law, a single system of subsidies. All managements and works councils are bound by the rules of one and the same collective agreement. In this type of national question, as an individual works council, you can do no more than take up parts of the problem and consider ad hoc solutions.

(3) Works councils operate within undertakings and rarely, if ever, outside them. There is no single consultation mechanism for works councils in public libraries in which common problems can be discussed, but such mechanisms do exist for managements - Werkgeversvereniging Openbare Bibliotheken (WOB) (Employers' Association for Public Libraries), Regionale Steun Bibliotheek (RSB) (Regional Support Library), Direktie-Overleg Stedelijke Bibliotheken (DOS) (Consultative Body for Municipal Libraries), etc. - and e.g. for personnel officers, who can exchange ideas with one another, improve their skills, and take up positions within the Nederlands Bibliotheek en Lektuur Centrum (NBLC) (Dutch Centre for Public Libraries and Literature).

The only thing that works councils can do, through a trade union member, is to consult a trade union on certain problems and questions relating to labour legislation. Nothing else is possible. 

Establishment of the Association

On the basis of the foregoing, the works council of the PBC-Noord Holland reached the final conclusion that it was necessary to establish some type of consultation mechanism for works councils and co-management committees in public libraries so as to try and provide common answers to a number of questions. An attempt to set up such a mechanism was made some years ago but never got beyond a single meeting.

This time the works council of the PBC-Noord Holland first put forward its idea to a few other works councils in the province, which were immediately enthusiastic about it. At the beginning of 1983, therefore, a circular was sent out by the works councils of the PBC-Noord Holland and the Amsterdam Public Library to all the works councils and co-management committees in the country.

This appeal (published, inter alia, in Infobulletin) aroused a great deal of interest and was therefore not an unnecessary luxury. The result was an initial meeting on 2-4 May 1983 in the Oisterwijk People's College, attended by 18 works councils and co-management committees. It became clear at this meeting that a great need existed for regular national consultations among works councils, independently of trade unions and the NBLC. It was therefore decided to establish a National Association of Works Councils and Co-management Committees in Public Libraries, with the following aims:

(1) to exchange information and experience;
(2) to provide mutual support;
(3) to provide training and collect information;
(4) to develop common ideas, standpoints and initiatives.

Since this first meeting, two further meetings have been held (the fourth is scheduled for May 1984), and 30 works councils and co-management committees have joined so far.

Achieving the Association's aims

How can we support one another?

If we take the cuts as an example, we can easily see how works councils can help one another. One the basis of an inventory of bottlenecks encountered by a works council (co-management committee), a list of questions, ambiguities, uncertainties, etc., can be drawn up, which vary widely in both nature and scope, and which arise everywhere in the work of the council and are linked directly with the way you, as a works council, can and must concern yourself in the best and most appropriate way with the demands of the staff. This is after all the one thing that you have in common. After such a list has been drawn up, the role that the Association can play in looking for answers and solutions to the problems reported is then clear. This is how we worked at the last study day of the Association at the beginning of October. A small group from the Association first drew up a comprehensive inventory of the precise situation of each works council or co-management committee with regard to plans for cuts and reorganization. From this inventory, the following subjects emerged as the most important:

(1) There is a great lack of clarity as to the application and interpretation of the article in the collective agreement governing the procedure for redundancies (Article 28).

(2) How should plans for cuts and reorganization be co-ordinated with one another in terms of content; how and when must you, as a works council, intervene; how can you, as a works council, assess them?

We then decided that we would have to refer the first question to the trade union, and the second one therefore became the subject of the study day. On the basis of the inventory, a number of key questions in this field had emerged, which we first tried to answer in smaller groups, in which a wide variety of experience was presented. From these discussions and experiences, a number of agreed joint conclusions were reached as to the way in which you, as a works council, should be able to take a stand against management plans, which criteria you can apply in assessing those plans, how you can react to secrecy., and how you can involve your rank and file in this.

A study day of this type can be an important back-up for an individual works council or co-management committee in assessing management plans or in taking up its own positions. Mutual support is anyway not provided solely in the official part of a meeting. The informal part ('the lobby') is also of great importance in this connection. Mutual support within the Association has been rapidly put into practice and been seen to be useful, not least because of the problem of the cuts, as also shown by the fact that there are already plans and agreements to keep one another better informed and, within the Association, to hold a separate meeting of works councils of PBCs on the complicated problems of PBCs with regard to the cuts.

How can we obtain information from one another and learn from each other's experience?

Works councils appear to have all kinds of experience with regard to various matters coming within the competence of works councils and co-management committees in public libraries. We are thinking in this connection of matters such as the structure of the organization, automation, part-time work, social policy, government policy documents, contacts between works councils and management, contacts between works councils and the rank and file, works consultations, etc. A number of these matters will be suitable for future Association study days, but works councils are often faced by concrete questions that have to be answered quickly. A works council information bank would be a possible solution here, in which know-how in the form of reports and the like would be collected and be directly available to works councils throughout the country. Such a solution, however, will not be easy to achieve as long as facilities (e.g. official support) are not available in public libraries for such an activity on the part of the Association. However, a beginning has been made in meeting this need by drawing up a list of problems with which works councils have been deeply involved. This means that one works council can consult another one on the telephone (or in some other way) as to its experience or the arrangements made. By systematically keeping the list and the problems up to date, subjects/matters will emerge in the future that call for a common approach. How and when can we formulate common points of view and put them forward?

In certain cases, the Association can also put forward common points of view. Thus the cuts provided an occasion for the immediate formulation of a common point of view and for putting it forward. This was done by means of a letter to the Committee for Welfare and Culture of the Second Chamber and in the speech made by Judith Kortland at the initial meeting of the NBLC action at Amersfoort. In both cases, acting together as works councils and co-management committees, we emphasized the personnel aspects of the cuts problem and drew them to the attention of politicians, the press and all those connected with libraries. As we did so by stressing that, apart from the particularly serious consequences for users and for the quality of the services provided, the personnel were faced by a whole range of problems affecting them alone. We made it possible for everyone to hear and read about this.

So much for the aims and methods of work of the Association.

The Association is independent of other organizations, such as the NBLC and the trade unions

The relationship of the Association to the trade unions in question, the Union of Public Employees AbvaKabo, and to the NBLC was exhaustively discussed at the meeting at which the Association was established. It was finally decided to set up an independent association of works councils and co-management committees, for the reasons discussed below.

What is the attitude of the Association towards trade unions?

First of all, it is in no way the intention of the Association to take the place of the trade union. On the contrary, the Association, wherever possible, will co-operate with the trade union, and this was communicated to it, by letter, after the meeting at which the Association was set up.

Why, then, is the Association nevertheless independent? Trade unions are primarily concerned with working conditions, wages and negotiations about collective agreements (as became clear at the time of the numerous industrial actions, strikes, etc., in November). All matters in this field will be referred by the Association to the trade union.

But, as already pointed out in this article (with reference to the problems of the cuts) the problems confronting works councils are not concerned solely with matters of pure labour legislation and problems of collective agreements. As a works council, you have to deal with the policy of the undertaking, in which choices are made and priorities assigned. Take, for example, a subject such as automation.

The majority of works councils will not reject automation on principle, but will hardly be satisfied in the only condition made is that there should be no redundancies (this is the condition laid down by AbvaKabo in its policy plan). For, once you have said yes, a whole range of other changes will be introduced (even if there are no redundancies) in which people will be involved who see their tasks and functions, in a word, their work, being fundamentally changed.

What is your attitude, as a works council, towards automation and in the negotiations about automation with the management (e.g. what conditions you make, what guarantees you demand, how you follow up the implementation) is an obvious example of a matter that is not solely a question of working conditions and negotiations about collective agreements, and will undoubtedly be considered as one to be given further consideration by the Association.

A second reason for wanting the Association to function independently is the regrettably low level of union membership among library staff. Practically every works council or co-management committee will be aware that a number of staff do not belong to a union. The trade union - correctly - refuses to talk to and consult non-members, while the Association can consult all works councils and co-management committees, knowing that it represents all the staff, both union members and non-members.

Independent status for the Association then, but as much co-operation as possible. It is thus particularly gratifying that, in recent months, within the trade union, there have been a number of meaningful conversations with trade union members of works councils on the implementation and interpretation of the collection agreement (inter alia, in the depressing light of the cuts).

What is the relationship between the Association and the NBLC?

In the discussion on the relationship with the NBLC (as a union), the conclusion was rapidly reached that the NBLC's status is more that of an association of employers. The informal groups and the close links with the WOB (the official employers' organization) are examples of this. In addition, within the NBLC, there are various kinds of consultative mechanism (e.g. working groups) having quality control and improvement as their aim. There is no such consultative link or anything like it in the field of works council activities. (You may wonder whether this was considered to be undesirably or was simply overlooked).

Method of work of the Association

Thus the Association has independent status at present but will, where possible, gladly co-operate both with trade unions and/or the NBLC. The Association will meet, in principle, two to three times a year, the meetings lasting one to three days. The meetings will be prepared, secretarial duties, etc., undertaken by a group of volunteers under the aegis of their own works council. The secretariat is located at the works council of the Amsterdam Public Library. For the meetings, use will often be made of the Oisterwijk People's College, where support will also be provided in the person of Clemens Gilberts.

The future of the Association

The Association has quickly demonstrated its usefulness, as shown by the large number of works councils and co-management committees that have joined up to the present and taken part in the meetings. This rapid growth is unfortunately probably due not I-east to the problem of the cuts, but at the same time experience shows that you, as works councils and co-management committees, can teach and support one another a great deal in other matters as well.

The Association also represents a welcome combination of forces which, at national level, can constitute a power base to serve as a counterbalance to an already old established national management mechanism. The opposing demands of management and staff within a particular undertaking thus take on a national character, provided that the staff's demands are expressed through the intermediary of the works council. Through the Association, works councils and co-management committees can adopt common standpoints, put them forward, and oppose managements at the national level. The importance of the Association may be obvious but its continued existence and functioning will depend in the future above all on whether every participating works council finds that the subjects which are dealt with and which we are ready to study and discuss together fully reflect its concerns. This condition is of decisive importance in view of the fact that many works councils are already very short of time and will therefore have very little time and energy left to devote to anything that is not absolutely essential - and rightly so. Thus the Association will have repeatedly to demonstrate its value to every member co-management committee and works council. The Association is the instrument of and for works councils and co-management committees, supported by works councils and co-management committees. The first steps have been taken.

<<TOC5>> Unions and the public library

By Robert W. Schmidt,
President, Queens Borough Library Guild,
Local 1321, AFSCME

When I was asked to write an article on "The Importance of Collective Bargaining for Public Librarians," to be published in The Bookmark, no less, I had to laugh. Of course I was delighted with the offer of such a forum for a cause close to my heart, but the irony was inescapable. Memories came flooding back from the years when we were organizing our union in the teeth of bitter opposition. I remember an ALA convention in Atlantic City in the late 1960's when a small group of us from the New York City library systems rented a hospitality suite in the headquarters hotel. We distributed invitations to delegates and visitors to come and discuss unionism. The convention officials, not content with forbidding us to put our invitations in the lobby, actually called the police to come and arrest us. Against my judgment we left quietly before they came. I thought then, and I think now, that the union cause would have been advanced more quickly and effectively if we had been arrested with all due publicity.

In those days, only 15 years ago, we could expect to read articles in professional publications on the dangers of unions for librarians, or the threat of unionism, but favorable comments were pretty much confined to the letters-to-the-editor sections. That is all In the past now. The union is part of the ordinary structure of many libraries and there are thousands of librarians who have never known what it was to work without a union. There are many more, however, who remember very well. Ours is one of the few milieus in which it is possible for 46 year-olds to remember the "dark ages." Before getting into the "meat" of the subject, I think we should clarify our terms. "Collective bargaining" properly describes a method or process of negotiating, contracts. While it is certainly one of the most important activities undertaken by unions, it is far from synonymous with unionism, so I shall broaden the scope and talk about the importance of unions to public librarians.

There are different kinds of unions in American libraries. Some are strictly professional and others strictly nonprofessional in membership. There are also "company unions" or staff associations which are not really unions at all but sometimes try to play that role. My own experience has been with the Queens Borough Library Guild, Local 1321, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and we are an "industrial union" as distinct from a "trade union." That is to say, the one Local represents all titles in the library. We have professional, clerical, and blue-collar staff all happily (more or less) enrolled together. It is from this background that I draw my material.

STAFF ASSOCIATION BECOMES UNION

When I began working for Queens Borough Public Library in 1956 we, like most other libraries, had a staff association. We elected officers, had meetings, passed resolutions, and made collective suggestions to management. There was an interchange of ideas that was sometimes fruitful and management looked upon us with a patronizing tolerance. There came a fateful moment when the Staff Association drew up a series of questions for the director that were mildly critical of some Library policies. Some of them even went so far as to question

“ … the union belonged to the members who had built it … “

the director's judgment in certain matters. The response was immediate and pointed. We were told that if this sort of thing was repeated, the Library would seriously question the need to continue the Association. We existed by management's permission and would be continued at management's pleasure. It was eminently clear that, should we ever again exceed our servility quotient, we would become one with yesterday's dreams. I cite this anecdote to point up the unique quality of a real union that distinguishes it from a company union. Our union, like most, was born in struggle. We were resisted at every level of management. The director issued releases warning the staff of the perils of unionism; middle-management personnel were sent to the branches to confiscate union publicity. We were seen as the adversary, come to disrupt and destroy the library family, to pit colleague against colleague.

When we at last prevailed and the staff voted for union, there was no question of owing anything to management, no doubt in anybody's mind that the union belonged to the members who had built it and to nobody else. That is the first, last, and most important fact of unionism; all of its unique advantages derive from that fact. So long as the members do not abdicate their right to their union, so long as they exercise their franchise to elect responsible officers, so long as they make their voices heard in meetings, it will continue to belong to them and to express their will.

ADVANTAGES OF UNION

Let us examine some of the advantages that come with unionization. Some of them are pretty well known. Collective bargaining, conducted by a strong union, will certainly bring higher wages than one could hope to get by any other means. That is a truism acknowledged by even the most reactionary segments of the media. The conservative press never tires of complaining of the greedy unions with their extortionate wage demands. That is a litany that many recite, though never about their own wages. If we really believed that a union could get us extortionate wages, who would not be a member? It is true, nonetheless, that you will do a good deal better with collective bargaining than without.

"Fringe benefits" differ in different places, but those offered by our Union are fairly typical, if rather more comprehensive than in smaller jurisdictions. Some benefits are administered directly by the Union with funds provided by the City pursuant to collective bargaining agreements. These include such things as dental insurance up to $1,000 per year, a drug plan under which one pays only 75 cents for any prescription, a disability plan that offers $125 per week for 28 weeks when sick leave is exhausted, death and dismemberment insurance, free eye glasses, and legal aid by a full-time staff of lawyers for the most commonly needed legal services.

The Union's Education Division offers to both workers and retirees, self-improvement and job-related courses including coaching for civil service exams. Many of these are applicable for college credits and there is a college tuition refund program as well.

The Personal Services Unit offers professional counseling and referrals on individual and family problems such as alcoholism, drugs, wayward children, and psychiatric problems. it offers individual and group counseling to prepare members for retirement and helps those whose mental or physical condition may limit their ability to help themselves when they need disability benefits but cannot find their way through the thicket of red tape raised by officialdom. All these things are handled confidentially, and many of our members have been helped through very tough spots.

"Over and above these are the health insurance and pension plans…”

These are some of the "fringes" that a large union can offer directly. Over and above these are the health insurance and pension plans which are usually not administered by the unions, but in which unions play a major role. The amount paid into medical plans is usually negotiable and subject to improvement through collective bargaining. Until the recent fiscal crisis in New York the pension plans were also negotiable. From 1937-1969, Queens Borough employees lived with the State Retirement Plan's cheapest option, one-one hundred and twentieth of one's final salary multiplied by the years worked. In 1969, shortly after we organized, the Union called upon the City to negotiate an improvement, and in two days of bargaining the City agreed to pay the cost of the one-sixtieth plan, effectively doubling the value of every member's pension.

"WORKING CONDITIONS CONTRACT"

All of the above are "cost items." That is, they are products of bargaining between the Union and the funding authority, in our case the City of New York, as part of the "money package." Besides these there is the whole spectrum of working conditions which are embodied in what is usually called the "working conditions contract." This is negotiated with the Library and the process Is often much more complex and protracted than that for the cost items. Here we get to the every-day operation of the individual library. Our current Working Conditions Contract fills 54 typed sheets and an additional 10 pages of addenda. In these pages are included all the rules governing the payment of overtime, the use of annual leave and sick leave, operation of the library in adverse weather conditions, transfers between work locations, bereavement leave, and countless other matters which impact directly upon the employees. An of these are subjects which are defined in law as "mandatory subjects of collective bargaining." That means that once there is a union, management must negotiate on all these matters. It cannot impose its own rules with regard to them.

Firmly implanted in the middle of this contract is the grievance procedure, the most important single item of all. Grievance is the method by which disputes are resolved. I cannot do better than to quote the definition of a grievance from our own contract:

1. A dispute concerning the inequitable application or interpretation of the terms of this collective bargaining agreement.

2. A claimed violation, misinterpretation or misapplication of the rides, regulations, policies or orders of the … Library.

3. Claimed wrongful disciplinary action against an employee.

4. Claimed assignment of an employee to duties substantially different from those stated in the job description.

To describe the actual processing of a grievance, going through three levels of management with differing rights of union representation at each level, would needlessly burden the reader. What is important to note is that the member has a right to "grieve" not only a violation of the contract, but the Library's misuse of its own rides and policies as well. This does not preclude the management's changing such rules and policies as are not mandatory subjects of collective bargaining from time to time, but it does preclude their applying them inequitably. Should the Library and the grievant fail to resolve the problem "in house," the Union may submit the issue to binding arbitration. The cost is borne equally by the Library and the Union, and the decision of the arbitrator is binding on both parties and enforceable in law.

In this grievance procedure, culminating in binding arbitration, we have the embodiment of due process of law in the work place. Here we are dealing with an issue of such fundamental importance as cannot be overstated. Libraries and librarians have stood at the forefront in many human rights and civil liberties disputes. The voice of our profession has been loud and clear on the side of individual rights. I am sure we will never hear a voice from our ranks calling for the repeal of the Fifth Amendment clause guaranteeing that we may not be "deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law." And yet an employer in a non-union business retains that power which is denied to the State, at least as regards property. The power to suspend and discharge an employee, to actually deprive one of a livelihood, is a power to impose a heavier penalty than a court of law could do for anything less than a major felony. Only a union, through its grievance procedure, can interpose due process in the form of binding arbitration between a worker and the unbridled exercise of the employer's power, however whimsically applied.

All of the foregoing, written as it is from the viewpoint of a union president, may be suspect as painting a picture too rosy to be credited. To be sure, I have described accomplishments of a big union in a big city. Our parent union speaks with the voice of 100,000 in New York City alone and many of its benefits would not be attainable in a smaller jurisdiction. Let us try then to focus on the essentials, those things which public librarians everywhere can hope to gain by unionization. In the course of negotiating contracts for public library employees over the past 14 years I have found some issues to be of paramount importance to our members and others of lesser importance. While wages are always the most important single issue, the greatest heat is generated in negotiations for improvements in working conditions.

ESSENTIAL CONTRACT ITEMS

The items which have dominated our bargaining and which are seen by our members as essential are: job security, transfers (a major problem in Queens Borough because of its large area and poor transportation), operation of the Library In extreme conditions of heat or cold, out-of-title work, equitable promotion policies, and vacation scheduling. Every library will have its own particular needs, but most of us share all or some of these.

Whatever the special needs of any library, the sine qua non of all contracts must be a grievance procedure with provision for union representation and binding arbitration. It will need to go beyond contract enforcement. It must also check the unfair or inequitable application of management's own rules. Beyond this, any new union, drawing up its first set of contract demands should study contracts of other library unions and poll its own membership for suggested inclusions. With the demands in hand, collective bargaining can begin.

BARGAINING TACTICS

Members have asked me how agreements are reached in collective bargaining when both parties are determined not to yield. It is a question that does not lend itself to simple answers, but we may begin by observing that both sides know a contract must be the eventual product of their endeavors. Many of the demands of both sides are not particularly controversial and will be resolved easily. Some will be seen to be relatively unimportant and will be withdrawn in a mutual give-and-take. But finally the crunch comes when certain demands remain on the table which one side finds unacceptable and the other believes essential. From this point forward the negotiations become a contest of strength.

"The second source of a union's strength. is political power…”

Where then does a union derive its strength? Why should management yield? The answer is two-fold; a union's strength derives first from the unity of its members and, second, from its political power. Management must know that the union spokespersons really represent the will of the employees. Sometimes that unity will be expressed in membership polls, sometimes in public demonstrations, sometimes simply by the numbers who vote in the union elections and the percentage of votes polled by the elected officers, and sometimes it is expressed in the form of a strike.

Now I have said the fateful word. Strike is the one word that many otherwise sensible persons think of when they think of unions. Of course, the reality is that a strike for most unions is a desperate last resort, to be used only when all else has failed. In a sense a strike is an admission of failure at the bargaining table. It is true that the possibility of a strike is implicit in any contest of strength between union and management, but most unions are reluctant to use the strike weapon, first, because of the economic impact it has on its own members, and, second, because of the loss of members' confidence if it fails in its objectives. A "busted strike" is little short of a disaster for a union. In New York State, of course, the Taylor Law imposes draconian penalties on strikers and their unions in public employment. It has not stopped strikes, but it has greatly embittered them and probably lengthened them as well. When a striker knows s/he will be doubly penalized, s/he will be the more determined to stay out until s/he has won.

Our local has never struck in the 14 years of its existence. Twice the membership has authorized a strike, but in both cases management retreated and there was none. The media-fostered image of union bosses "calling" strikes bears little relation to reality. All a union leader can do is to recommend a strike; only the membership can authorize it by their votes.

The second source of a union's strength is political power. Unions endorse candidates for office who support labor and social issues that favor the interests of their members. While such an endorsement is in no sense binding on individual members, it does have a very real impact at the polls. It also means volunteer help in the campaign: canvassing, leafleting, telephoning, and making contributions. This political "clout" underlies all union bargaining power in the public sector.

It is an endless source of amazement to me that members still come forward from time to time 'to say they do not think unions should meddle in politics. Every appropriation of public monies for libraries and the funding of every public employee pension plan is a political decision. The very existence of public libraries is dependent on political decisions at some level. Every elected official depends on voluntary help and contributions for his/her campaign, and most are anxious to repay supporters with compatible legislation if elected. That is how the system works.' It's called "the American way," and it probably is as good as any other. Public employees should ask themselves if they believe their interests and those of their profession are better tended by politicians who owe allegiance to General Motors, I.T.&T., Consolidated Edison, and other corporate giants, or by those who owe allegiance to their own union.

Of course, every citizen should be politically active in some way, but a public employee has a special stake in his or her own ability to influence the political process. When we speak of union political power it takes us far beyond the bargaining table into the realm of social legislation, labor laws, and, in our own field, LSCA, State aid to libraries, and other library-related legislation at Federal, State, and municipal levels. Nothing can so magnify one single voice as to have it channeled through the political action committee of a union.

What, then, can we conclude about the importance of unions for public librarians? A union can certainly put money in your pocket in the form of better salaries, overtime pay, health insurance, pensions, or in some combination of these. But perhaps more importantly, the union guarantees rights which simply do not exist without it. With no contract one has no rights as an employee. It is as simple as that. An employer may be very generous, understanding, and fair, but the hand that giveth may also take away, and when this paragon moves on to greater rewards, who will take his or her place? What one has as a gift from on high is not truly yours, as many have discovered when an old boss was replaced by a new one.

The day you elect a union as your bargaining agent, you are endowed with the first essential right the right to bargain collectively. With that fundamental right in hand you can bring the strength of your union to bear on acquiring such other rights as the collective voice of your membership chooses. When, at last, the negotiations are complete and you have a contract, the members will have their rights as employees before them in black and white. Every provision set forth in the contract is of the members making and is theirs to keep. Without a contract you may be assigned any work your employer sees fit. You may be transferred, suspended, disciplined, laid-off or discharged at the employer's whim. You may see new favorites promoted over your head and you have no recourse. Only when your rights are embodied in a contract and enforced by binding arbitration do they become rights in the full sense of the word. A job without rights is a job without dignity; a job without dignity is not a profession.

<<TOC5>> Trade unions and automation: a case study from Denmark

Mai-Britt Nielsen,
Egon Hansen and M.N. Sørensen

Search modules and technology agreements

Biblioteksdata's offer of a search module to libraries is the beginning of a rational and useful application of electronic data processing in public libraries, according to Mai-Britt Nielsen, who is a member of the Librarians' Association's edp committee. That does not mean, however, that all the problems have been solved, and the demand for a technology agreement between the local authority and the staff cannot be dropped either. This is the only way of ensuring that the agreements concluded will be observed.

Following the final collapse of the negotiations for a central technology agreement with the local authorities, the Librarians' Association (Bibliotekarforbundet) (BF) instructed its members not to co-operate in the introduction of edp systems until a (local) technology agreement had been concluded with the authority concerned. We hope that this action to ensure that our members have some influence over the introduction and use of edp in public libraries will be understood both by politicians and by workers in libraries.

Biblioteksdata will be offering a search module to libraries in the very near future. This search module, originally developed as a tool for use in cataloguing and the recording of stock (since the possible requirements of public libraries with regard to edp systems have never been worked out), is now offered as a method of carrying out literature searches, with access to the database of the Danish Library Bureau (Bibliotekscentralen) (BC) (the common database of the public libraries).

It is good to see that Biblioteksdata has at last realized the correctness of the view put forward, inter alia, by BF for many years, namely that what libraries need above all is a better method of carrying out literature searches, and that there is no urgent need to transfer routine administrative procedures to edp - particularly at the prices charged by Kommunedata up to the present.

It is unfortunate, therefore, that the introduction of an edp search system should come up against difficulties over agreements. For BF's instructions to its members also obviously apply to the search module.

But is that necessary now? Why should we continue to demand technology agreements just because on-line searches in the Danish National Bibliography are beginning? Is there any difference in principle between consulting BC's database on microfiche and an on-line search? Isn't the search module nothing more than a new, time-saving reference tool - and isn't it merely hysterical to demand technology agreements just because a microfiche reader has been replaced by a terminal?

No, it isn't!

The work involved in a literature search isn't very different, whether you search hard copy catalogues or on line - apart from the fact that an online catalogue has a large number of entry points and is drawn up only after the search has been completed and the result shown on the screen or printed out, while hard copy catalogues are not changed after they have been bought and put on the shelf.

But the method has certain characteristics such as that an on-line catalogue cannot be regarded as just a new edition of the corresponding hard copy catalogue.

Edp is associated with certain conditions that make it an entirely new technology that must therefore be covered by an agreement on its introduction and use, and whose effects must be evaluated, since they involve decisions on purchasing. Some of these conditions are briefly discussed below.

Changes in working conditions

Even if the task itself - finding a title - remains unchanged, the way in which it is carried out is completely different with the new technology.

Some of the key-words are: physical and mental work environment, division of labour and organization of work, variety of work, boundaries between professions. A terminal Is a major investment, and it is not to be expected that large numbers will be available. And a terminal stays put wherever it has been placed.

Several people can use a card index at the same time. Several copies of the Danish National Bibliography will be available, and people can move about with hard copy catalogues, take them with them to their desks, etc.

A large number of work procedures will therefore have to be changed in order to ensure that search terminals are used sensibly and rationally. But what will the physical characteristics of a terminal work-station be? Are we going to become Involved in the side-effects already familiar from other terminal work-stations: disturbances of vision, headache, back injuries?

How do we avoid a situation in which staff have to queue at terminals at certain times while they remain unused at others? Shall we make lists of searches and operate the terminals only at certain times? What category of staff should then do this? And for how long should anyone use a terminal at any one time?

Training

It can be assumed that Kommunedata will provide an introduction to the operation of the terminals that are installed. But that does not solve the training problem. Anybody who knows the alphabet can search the literature in a hard copy catalogue's alphabetical section, and most library workers have learnt, in varying degrees, to use the classification system for a systematic search.

But the advantage of the on-line technique is precisely the many other possible ways of searching that are available. An on-line search calls for a new search technique, other approaches to searching, and is in part a technique that has to be learned, and in part a question of adequate knowledge of the search possibilities, both technical and from the point of view of content.

We cannot assume that the curriculum of the School of Librarianship can immediately meet the need for the training of the staff of those libraries that take out a subscription to the search system. And there is also the question of who, and how many, are to be trained.

Commitments

In addition to the economic commitments that result from subscribing to an edp module, and which we shall come back to, there is a marked change as compared with the relationship with the existing catalogues, since the individual library has no influence on the content of the on-line catalogue, or on the changes or corrections made in it. Nothing is easier than to correct a card index, to write another card when a cross-reference or the like is missing. And with a catalogue in book form, you know what is in it - it doesn't change after the book has been printed and purchased.

It is different with an on-line catalogue - you can never have an overall view of it and the general rules for corrections can be adjusted and individual corrections made while it is in use. That can undoubtedly be an advantage, but it also means that you are, so to speak, committed to a product whose precise nature is unknown and which can change while you are using it.

The search module - an incomplete system

It must not be forgotten that, even if the search module is found to be applicable to literature searches of BC's database, it was developed for purposes of cataloguing and stock recording. There is much evidence to show that Biblioteksdata has definitely changed its strategy, but strategy for what? For the rate at which the module is introduced, I would imagine, as libraries' incomprehensible lack of interest in stock recording and control of borrowing are mentioned from time to time in those circles.

That means, in part, that we can expect the conflict that is inherent in the disagreement as to what a library needs in the technical department and in loans will sooner or later be clearly expressed. An example of this may be the retrospective enlargement of the database. Everybody will want to have a large number of titles in the database. If the intention is to use it for literature searches, that requires (at least) the titles in the Danish National Bibliography, but recorded retrospectively; but if the intention is to make stock recording by individual libraries easier, so that they can introduce control of borrowing more quickly, it would make more sense to record the titles actually on the shelves in some public libraries and, for example, begin by recording the complete holdings of some large county library. Ultimately, this conflict is more of a power struggle between BC and Kommunedata, which we are happy to leave to those concerned.

In any case, Biblioteksdata., once it is complete, will be interested in selling its complete product: the fully computerized public library.

And what do the libraries want? If you have taken out a subscription to the search module, you can, even in the tiniest hamlet, discover the most incredibly interesting and relevant titles when a borrower asks for something. And how nice it would be, immediately and in the same operation, to be able to establish whether the library/branch/department itself has the title, or whether it is on loan or due back from the binder.

For this reason, it must be clear to everyone that the 'new, time-saving reference tool' is, with a high degree of probability, the beginning of stock recording which, as is known, is the beginning of the control of borrowing.

We can conclude that that is not what is wanted at this precise moment but, with the material contained in Biblioteksdata's modules and with the background to the development of the search module in mind, we must try and foresee future developments.

Economics

You buy the property rights to a hard copy catalogue. You own it, until it is scrapped, and can use it when and how you like.

You subscribe to a search system, i.e., you pay for the right to use it and, moreover, also for how much you use it. That means, in the first place, that we are talking about a recurring annual payment, whose magnitude is unknown until the following year. If you want to continue to use the on-line catalogue, therefore, you cannot decide to skip an edition or stop the subscription and make do with the edition that you already have, if you want to economize. In reality, this means that we are talking about a long-term economic commitment, whose magnitude, moreover, cannot be known with certainty in advance.

Payment for use takes the form of connection charges. This is an item of expenditure that, by its nature, cannot be specified precisely by Kommunedata, since no-one apparently has any idea of how much a search system will be used. Investigations might perhaps be carried out, but it can, of course, be left until the first courageous libraries try it out and see how much it costs.

The connection charges are the only variable costs in the system, and also the only ones on which savings can be made, if that should prove necessary. How savings on connection charges will be made can perhaps be guessed: permission to search will not be given to anybody at any time, searches will have to be as short as possible - which, in part, will have the unexpected effect that the quality of literature searches will become a matter of immediate cash payment, and, in part, can lead to an interest being taken in which staff member takes longest to carry out a search. The possibility of such a check on individual staff members is, in fact, built into the system.

Therefore

All these unfortunate side-effects and gloomy prospects in connection with the search module do not change our view that we are dealing here with (the beginning of) a rational and useful application of edp in public libraries. And what is more important: the adverse effects do not necessarily have to become a reality. But to avoid this, a series of agreements must be concluded on the introduction and subsequent use of the system. And the only way of ensuring that such agreements are observed is for a technology agreement to be concluded between the local authority and the staff.

We had hoped until recently that such an agreement could be reached centrally, so that all local authorities would be covered. As things have worked out, we must instead wait for local negotiations with the individual authorities. There may, as a result, be a move on the part of the member organizations of the Kommunale Tjenestemaendsudvalg (KTU) (Committee of Local Authority Staff) during February/March - and, in view of the fact that we have now been waiting for a literature search system for over ten years, we cannot very well say that a couple of months one way or the other will make much difference.

A THOROUGH REVISION OF THE LIBRARIANS ASSOCIATION'S POLICY ON ELECTRONIC DATA PROCESSING IS NECESSARY

Bibliotek 70, 1983(4) 13-14

The attitude of the bibliotekarforbund (BF) (Librarians Association) towards the use of edp in routine administrative is incomprehensible and can have serious consequences for the future of public libraries, abnd therefore for jobs for librarians and office staff, according to chief librarian, Egon Hansen, Egvad, in a comment on the article by Mai-Britt Nielsen on search modules and technology agreements in the last issue of

Bibliotek 70.

An initially slight astonishment at BF's attitude towards the use of edp in public libraries was gradually transformed until, with the provisional conclusion of Mai-Britt Nielsen's otherwise reasonable article in B.70 for March 1983, 'Search modules and technology agreements', one could only say 'That's enough! '.

Expertise in edp sought

BF's uncompromising attitude towards technology agreements and the rejection of edp for routine administration can have serious consequences for the future of public libraries and therefore for jobs for librarians and office staff. We need to have an effective tool for using the materials held by the public libraries, and for maintaining and preferably extending the central role of the librarian as the provider of materials and information. It must be possible, at each stage of the public library system, not only to inform someone that certain material or information exists, but also to see how that material or information can be supplied to the user as quickly as possible.

It is clear that this quite natural and increased access to the use of the librarian's materials makes hitherto unknown demands, not only on the use of the librarian's am stock of materials but also on the interurban loan system. If this system is not to break down under the pressure of that increased access and because of limited resources, the interurban loan system must be converted from the existing vertical system into a combination with a horizontal system. Such a combination implies access to, and better use of, the collected stock of materials. If this possibility existed today, a whole range of serious problems of resources would be, if not solved, then at least reduced, while at the same time there would be a major improvement in the service provided to the libraries' users. Edp must be used to solve this problem, and it is also necessary to see administrative routines as a part of this task.

For this reason, BF must thoroughly revise its edp policy. First and foremost, BF must acquire expertise in edp, and must also be able to see the job possibilities arising from the sensible application of new technology. The areas to be covered by such a revision are technology agreements and the importance of administrative routines in the use of libraries.

Staff increased

First, the technology agreements. There can be no doubt that it will be a good thing to conclude good technology agreements, both centrally and locally. Without making too much fuss about it, there are good grounds for believing that central negotiations will be resumed in the spring with, it is to be hoped, satisfactory results. Local agreements will be possible only if a central agreement is concluded, inter alia in view of the refusal of Kommunernes Landsforening (KL) (the Federation of Local Authorities) to allow local authorities to conclude local agreements in the absence of a central agreement. A technology agreement will include: (1) protection against dismissal as a result of the introduction of new technology; (2) information on, and staff participation in, the introduction of new technology. With regard to the first requirement, it may be said that edp has been introduced into almost all the other areas with which local authorities are concerned without technology agreements and with increases in staff in line with the increased duties. It is simply impossible to perform these duties without edp and without an increase in staff. The same thing will happen in libraries. If there axe redundancies in our area this will be because we refuse to use the tools necessary for carrying out our work. With regard to the demand for information and participation, all that can be said is that they are obviously necessary, even without technology agreements, and it is natural that BF should take action in those few places where they are not thought to be so.

Emphasis on improved services

We should be clear that edp will be introduced in libraries only because there are technical reasons for doing so. Politicians will be quite indifferent if we do not tell them about the possibilities of improved services that edp can offer. We can therefore say that BF's uncompromising attitude is to the detriment of librarians and especially of chief librarians, who can see the possibilities opened up by the use of edp and who have tried to do the work that needs to be done in order to take advantage of this tool. To avoid any misunderstanding, it will be of great benefit to conclude a technology agreement, but the negotiations must not stand in the way of the introduction of edp as a useful and necessary tool in libraries.

Frank and critical co-operation

BF's attitude towards the use of edp in routine administration is incomprehensible, and Mai-Britt Nielsen's article 'Search modules and technology agreements' puts forward the best argument for the taking over of such routine work by edp.

And what about librarians? If you are connected to the search module, you can, even in the tiniest hamlet, discover the most incredibly Interesting and relevant titles when a borrower asks for something. And how nice it would be, immediately and in the same operation, to be able to establish whether the library/branch/department itself has the title, or whether it is on loan or due back from the binder. It must therefore be clear to everyone that, with a high degree of probability, the 'new, time-saving reference tool' is the beginning of stock recording which, as is known, is the beginning of borrowing control (end of quotation).

Yes, quite so. But that does not mean that we can just lean back in our chairs and let Biblioteksdata do it all for us. We must critically examine the content of the modules in the smallest detail and compare the modules so as to define their technical and economic applicability in individual libraries. We must encourage one another and Biblioteksdata to make technical improvements and at the same time to reduce costs in line with the new technological developments. We must take an interest in Biblioteksdata's cost and price policy. We must, in general, acquire influence over, and insight into the developments taking place in the field of edp. We must do this as part of a frank, constructive, but also critical co-operation. Will BF join in?

EMPTY VESSELS MAKE ME MOST NOISE

A comment on BF's policy on edp

This article is a comment on the one by Egon Hansen, Egvad, in the March 1983 issue of B.70, in which he criticised BF's policy on edp, but in particular a comment on the Executive Committee, which has given a higher priority to the negotiations on technology agreements than to other work on edp policy in the edp committees of individual libraries.

As a result of the EC's decision, the problem of implementing the conditions laid down in the agreement is seen as more important than ensuring satisfactory working conditions with edp.

Egon Hansen and the majority of the EC both rely, however different their conclusions may be, on a simplistic understanding of edp, technology. In Egon Hansen's case, it seems that it is all right. In the case of the majority on the EC, it is all right as long as there is an agreement! Just to make the position clear, I am not a member of the majority on the EC in this matter.

In contrast to the above-mentioned parties, I do not believe that edp is either 'good' or 'bad'. It depends entirely on how the technology is developed and how it is used, What is essential, therefore, is the influence that we can exert over its development and application.

Wandering in the desert?

BF's policy on edp, since the protests against FAUST in the mid-1970s, has been a kind of wandering in the desert, while repeatedly calling attention to the fact that the main technical gains and improvements in services would come in bibliographical routines, subject searches, literature searches, etc., and not from the automation of routine administration. This year we were presented with the search module, at the same time as other bases have been made available to public libraries. The problem that will doubtless arise for many is whether we should now be satisfied or whether we should pursue the matter. The General Assembly most recently confirmed in 1980 that what was wanted to edp for literature searches, but at the same time we pointed out that there should be no undesirable consequences, i.e., no staff reductions, no change in economic priorities, no changes in work or organization for individual employees such that status or working conditions were adversely affected.

At the same time, the manufacturer or the library management must provide the fullest possible answers to the following questions. Will the introduction of the product concerned lead to technical advances? How much does the product cost and, if it is purchased, what changes in economic priorities will result? What will be the effect of introducing the product in question on work, organization and jobs. Formally, this should be covered by the technology agreements, since they usually make the employer responsible for providing information and for investigating the effects, etc. But this must not prevent us from ourselves thoroughly and carefully checking the information provided and the contribution made by the employer.

Adverse effects

An investigation of the effects has already been carried out as far as routine administration is concerned; this drew attention, inter alia, to the great danger associated with the use of edp, namely that work will be deskilled, that the job content and the work environment will be adversely affected, that jobs will be fewer, etc. But the investigation also showed, as other investigations have also done, that systems can be constructed and applied in such a way that adverse effects are wholly or partially avoided.

Influencing developments

For us as wage earners, what is of decisive importance, especially since we live in a society in which technology is not subject to social control, evaluation and guidance, is to ensure that we have the greatest possible influence on developments. From experience, we know a great deal about the kind of factors that make it possible for us to be able to do so: the strength of the trade unions, the members' awareness and understanding of technology and of its effects and possibilities, the level of information of the trade union and its members, and a long-term goal for the application of technology. It is clear, at the same time, that only with the greatest care and attention will it be possible to take part in the development of edp systems, since edp personnel need us precisely in order to understand what the work actually consists of and how it is planned, in order to be able to automate it. Edp, among other things, acts by taking over from us the control of all the work processes, a control that we have by virtue of our professional. qualifications.

Critical co-operation

BF's policy has always been to co-operate in the development of edp products for libraries. This policy has meant that BF members have helped to specify requirements, attended the Nyborg Conference, participated in library edp committees, etc. Without this, admittedly at times critical co-operation, it would not have been possible to automate our work. Without the librarians and other library staff and their thorough understanding of work processes, etc., automation, in the 'best' case, would have been a much bigger undertaking and the result would have been much worse. BF and BF members have, inter alia, because of the trade union's inadequate work with edp and instructions as to members' contributions in the committees, etc., participated in the development on the wrong basis from our point of view, with unfortunate consequences.

The local edp committees

Now that the central committees are slowly doing their job, and the introduction of edp is getting under way in the individual libraries, the local edp committees, where the staff are fighting for a reasonable work environment against the employer's interests in this matter, have become more important than ever. In the development of edp plans, job descriptions, work plans, etc., our interests must be taken into account in such a way that adverse effects are as few as possible. At the General Assembly in 1982, an edp working group was set up, which took into account the fact that developments in the edp field were a local matter and that general decisions were no longer of any great value. Confidence in the Kommunale Tjenestemaendsudvalg (KTU) (Committee of Local Authority Staff).

Of course, in the introduction of edp, we shall not be able to get 100 per cent acceptance of our points of view, since many are in direct conflict with the employers' interests. In this kind of struggle for influence there are many tools that we can use: the Law on the work environment, agreements on cooperation committees, etc. In this connection also, technology agreements dealing with the introduction of, and changes in, technology, and safety agreements dealing with the use of technology, can be of use. No technology or safety agreements so far exist in the local authority field. The central negotiations broke down in the autumn, and the KTU organizations have decided to negotiate local agreements. KTU co-operation is the co-operation which, if anyone perhaps remembers, failed in a number of cases of collective bargaining, most recently in this year's negotiations. Why the remainder of the EC should believe that co-operation will give results this time is beyond me, but the reason appears to be a belief in miracles.

The time for influencing developments is past

The EC's tactics for getting technology and safety agreements are not based on a total cessation of BF's participation in central and local committees working on the introduction of edp, but solely on the principle that BF members of local edp committees shall withdraw at precisely that time in the introduction of edp when it is most important to exercise an influence, namely around the time when the edp equipment is installed and work plans are being drawn up. Other times, e.g., the explanatory or the introductory phases, are not so vulnerable and could be better used; they would also be more reasonable, since technology agreements deal, after all, with the introduction of technology. It also means that local edp committees are forced, irrespective of local needs and resources, to give the highest priority to the negotiations on agreements.

Of course we must have technology and safety agreements, but on any realistic assessment the local agreements, in particular are not of any great value, since we are unable to influence the central development of the system. At the same time, any real influence on the local application of technology will come into conflict with the employer's right to manage and allocate work, and anyone can judge for himself bow likely any such influence is at the present time.

Tactical reaction

As everyone knows, empty vessels make the most noise, and the majority on the EC are not far behind the empty vessels. What one would like to know is how long they will go on doing so. The reduction in the status of work, working conditions and the work environment that is the consequence of the tactics adopted can very easily lead to poorer working conditions and a poorer work environment even if a good technology agreement is concluded, because it would be too late. We could easily end up in a situation such that, when we should have been fighting for the work environment and working conditions, we fought for technology agreements and had withdrawn from the edp committees.

<<TOC3>> 6. Management of financial and physical resources

<<TOC4>> 6.1 Budgeting

<<TOC5>> Principles and methods of costing

1. Why calculate costs?

Managers of documentation centres are confronted with costs in several ways. They have to:

Make decisions or have them made in full knowledge of the costs involved

The manager's role is to ensure that objectives are attained at the lowest possible cost. If each cost-item involved in processing the raw material (unprocessed data) Into an intermediate product (data bank or base) and then into a finished product (bibliographic or information retrieval, bulletins, magnetic tapes), is known, then action can be taken on those items of cost: selection of staff, choice of procedure for processing, purchasing or producing records or products, incorporation in a network, etc.

The solution chosen to attain the objectives will not necessarily be the least expensive, but the manager must know how much that chosen solution will cost.

Balance, or strive to balance, income and expenditure

With a view to the gradual establishment of a pricing policy and a fair price for goods and services, account must be taken of:

- the real production costs;
- a proportion of the amortization of the cost of establishing the data base;
- a profit margin;
- the size of the market.

The cost of each operation must be known in order to determine the cost of generating a product or a service.

Draw up and manage a budget

The budget drawn up informs the administrative authority of the cost of the services offered by the documentation centre. Budget management implies monitoring throughout the year to ensure that successive stages match the initial objectives.

2. Why use a costing method?
Generally speaking, a costing method can be used to:

- study how a documentation centre might be set up;
- monitor the way in which it operates.

A. Prior to the establishment of the documentation centre

When the general management of a firm, the heads of a private or semipublic organization, senior civil servants, etc. decide to set up a documentation system (modest documentation unit, information or documentation centre, data bank etc.), such a decision implies at least very general objectives to be attained, such as:

- making available information that has been processed, and thus has added value, to a well-defined category of users;
- setting up of a pool of data which will be public property;
- reliable knowledge that the information available in a given scientific or technological field is covered as exhaustively as possible, etc.

The costing method may be of help in:

- setting precise objectives;
- determining the cost of achieving those objectives and the extent to which they are realistic.

A1. Setting precise objectives

Who are the target customers?

Which field of information is covered?

In what form will the processed data be used:

- in periodicals?
- in monographs?
- at congresses? etc.

What should the nature and volume of goods and services be?

A2. Determining the cost of attaining the objectives set

How should the time needed for each operation be calculated?

What staff should be used?

- what training should they have?
- what experience?
- what will their status be?
- how much will they be paid?

How should the share of the administrative department's overheads allocated to the documentation system be estimated?

What premises should be provided?

What should the annual budget be?
What processing methods should be selected?

Should the system be immediately linked to others engaged in a similar or complementary field to form a 'network'?

A preliminary reply to these questions is needed when a documentation centre is started up, but these answers will obviously be very theoretical and must be reviewed once the centre begins operating and over a period as it develops.

For example, it is up to each centre to make its own measurements of unit time. The examples given in the summary are merely preliminary indications.

In addition, some factors cannot be foreseen before the centre actually starts to function: the staff's attitude to certain items of equipment (in some cases, adverse reactions to computers, for example), user satisfaction or lack of satisfaction which may alter initial choices of processing methods, staff, provision of services and even initial objectives.

B. While a documentation centre is operating

One of our prime objectives is to facilitate comparisons between documentation centres by proposing a costing method that can be used for any documentation centre. Comparison is of interest to both documentalists and documentation managers.

Furthermore, in many other respects, the method is useful:

- to the head of the documentation system;
- to the head of the administrative department;
- to the 'grass-roots' documentalist.

Each of these functions will be discussed in turn.

1. Use of the costing method by the head of the documentation system

Objectives must be set:

- which products are to be generated?
- for whom?

and it is the role of the head of the documentation system to ensure that these objectives are attained at the lowest possible cost.

Using the costing method makes it possible to monitor continuously the cost of each input operation and the cost of producing each product and to readjust resources in the light of the initial objectives. Here are a few examples:

To complete the 'Staff' column of the cost-item schedule, the head of the documentation centre must obtain the unit times for each operation. The entire staff must be requested to:

- time their ad hoc operations;
- organize tests to work out the mean unit time for recurrent operations.

These measurements may reveal that one person is overworked while another is underworked, thus leading to a decline in the quality of the work done in one case and to an abnormal increase in the costs of an operation in the other.

When completing the table of cost-items, the head of the system will accordingly be able to pick up management errors and improve work distribution.

Overheads

The administrative department often attributes a portion of its overheads to the documentation unit. The head of the documentation unit may find it expedient to calculate that share personally, so as to be able to discuss the amount involved with the management if necessary.

Cost of a product-specific input or production operation

The schedule sets forth the cost-items of each operation; hence it is possible to find the cost of each input operation or production operation and to determine which can be influenced in order to bring about a variation in costs.

Examination of those cost-items may then prompt the head of the documentation centre to change:

- deployment of staff;
- working habits;
- the processing methods chosen, etc.;

in order to bring down the cost of an operation. This also enables him or her to monitor objectives continuously.

Are initial objectives adhered to?

By establishing ratios such as:

input costs
total cost of centre

cost of the current awareness publication
total cost of centre

cost of retrospective search
total cost of centre

it is possible to check whether the initial goals of the centre are being pursued (forming a 'pool' of data, producing the current awareness bulletin, servicing inquiries, directing users to sources of information, public service or centre within a firm, etc.).

Is it more profitable for work to be done in-house or contracted out?

Should all or part of the data base be purchased?

Should the preparation of index bulletins, for example, be subcontracted to a data processing service?

Should translations be contracted out or done by the unit?

The head of the documentation centre may raise all these questions and many others with a view to attaining the objectives set at the lowest cost.

The costing method makes it possible to enter all the foreseeable cost-items for each possible solution and thus to make comparisons and decisions.

When the costing method is used with a view to making a choice from a range of possible solutions, there is no need to work out highly accurate cost estimates, for the aim is Rot to determine exact costs but to arrive at a decision. Once the decision has been made, an attempt can then be made to work out the exact cost of each operation.

Are input costs (acquisition and the processing of raw materials) amortized?

The objective of the head of a documentation centre as far as management is concerned is generally to bring income and costs into balance. One question is of prime importance in this context, viz. how to amortize input costs, i.e. the cost of establishing the data base, which is an intermediate fixed product, against the cost of the products.

We suggest an amortization rule: to break down the input costs according to the products which match the stated objectives, in proportion to the cost of each product.

Another question follows logically from the foregoing: what is the profitability threshold of each product, taking into account:

- the number of documents processed yearly;
- the number of potential and actual users of that product;
- the number of annual services derived from the product (frequency of a current awareness publication or periodic monitoring of literature in the field).

How should the budget be prepared and presented?

Many documentation centres do not yet have any income, and their budget amounts to their total annual expenditure.

The costing method proposed makes it possible to calculate all the cost-items and thus the total annual cost of the documentation centre.

The breakdown of cost-items can be used in preparing and presenting the centre's budget.

Towards a pricing policy

Information is a product that must be paid for at the right price, since the price acts as:

- a financial indicator which compels the user to make a choice and to specify his motives and fields of interest;
- an economic regulator, channelling resources into meeting the real needs of the economy.

A pricing policy obviously takes account of the existing market and not only of the cost price, but it is necessary to know the cost price before drawing up a price list.

In a documentation centre, price rates are worked out in two stages:

- at the first stage, account is taken only of the costs of generating the service or product, for example:
= the production cost (time spent and physical processing) of the current awareness bulletin;
= time spent on research or on preparing a synoptic study;
= cost of processing documents for the periodical monitoring of literature in the field;

- at the second stage, an attempt is made to amortize input costs for each product (acquisition and processing of raw materials resulting in an intermediate product, i.e. the data base).

The cost of each product will then be considered as:

- its production cost proper, plus
- a proportion of the cost of establishing the data base (see proposed amortization rule).

The costing method makes it possible to determine the cost of each operation and thus the cost price of a product or service, which is obviously a prerequisite for setting a charge, even if it is market based.

2. Use of the costing method by the management of the administrative department

The costing method makes it possible to:

- work out and justify the expenditure of the documentation unit;
- prepare the unit's budget;
- attribute a share of the department's overheads to the documentation unit;
- monitor policies in full knowledge of the cost of achieving the objectives set;
- engage in discussion of a tool which is shared by the heads of the administrative department and the documentation centre.

3. Use of the costing method by 'grass-roots' documentalists

If the staff of documentation centres are to be motivated and efficient, they must:

- be aware that they are performing a task in keeping with their experience and training;

- be responsible for their work; and responsibility is meaningless unless one has an idea of the costs of:
= one's time;
= the hardware used;
= the non-re-usable materials used;

- be able to assess whether the 'value' of a project of service justifies its cost, that value being defined in terms of the initial objectives of the documentation centre.

In short, the aim is to give the documentalist a sense of profitability and a seller's attitude. This costing method can help towards that end.

3. What are the principles of costing?

Our first question was: why calculate costs? The second question was: why use a costing method? Let us now define the principles and methods of costing. The presentation and explanation of the schedule of cost-items will be the subject of the next question.

The principle is to provide a list of the operations involved in preparing the 'information' product and a table of the cost-items that correspond to those operations.

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P531.PNG Table of the cost-items

The costing method consists of considering in turn all the operations listed, each broken down into three components:

- staff;
- equipment;
- non-reusable materials.

This breakdown of costs is compatible with the principles of cost accounting: breakdown of costs by category (staff, equipment, non-re-usable materials) and purpose (operations are grouped together under the final product).

A double entry table will therefore be used with horizontal lines and vertical columns.

Input operations	Staff	Equipment	Non-re-usable materials	
1. Acquisition				
2. Processing of raw data				
3. Production operations				
4. Running operations				

The horizontal lines represent the schedule of operations involved in this sequence of documentary processing. The choice of these operations and the details of the breakdown of each operation must be determined for each documentation centre according to its characteristics. In particular, this schedule can be adapted according to whether the centre uses a computer or not: for all operations that can be automated, first 'manual processing' and then 'computerized processing' are listed.

The vertical columns correspond to the breakdown of costs by category, i.e. staff, equipment and non-re-usable materials.

The frame of reference is one year: certain operations such as the renewal of subscriptions are performed only once a year in most centres; it is therefore the minimum time-frame, which is also the same as the budget period.

When cost components are set out in a double entry table it is immediately apparent that, where necessary, items in a column can be added together to determine total costs in terms of staff, equipment or non-re-usable materials; alternatively, these three components can be totalled in order to obtain the cost of an operation or operations resulting in a product, or to compare staff costs for input, production, running and other operations.

(a) Staff

The calculation of staff costs covers, on the one hand, the time spent on a given operation, and, on the other, wages, inclusive of all welfare benefits, which will vary according to the qualifications of the staff. It will be useful to bear in mind the questions:

How should unit time be measured? and

What should the staff qualifications for each post be?

when completing this column.

Breakdown of the 'Staff' cost-item	
C11	Production staff	
C12	Lower-level management staff	
C13	External collaborators	
C14	Consultants	
C15	Others (including temporary staff)	

(b) Equipment

This covers the annual cost of using computers, peripheral equipment, typewriters, photocopiers, etc., whether they have been rented or purchased. In the latter case, the purchase prices is amortized on a five-year straight line basis, that is, 20 per cent per year. If equipment is used for several purposes or by several units, which is usually the case, the annual cost estimates for that equipment should be apportioned to match user distribution.

Breakdown of the 'Equipment' cost-item	
C31	Computer (rental or amortization over 5 years)	
	C311 Auxiliary services	
	C312 Repairs and maintenance	
C32	Equipment for data entering	
	C321 Repairs and maintenance	
C33	Remote accessing devices	
	C331 Terminals	
	C332 Communication equipment	
C34	Office equipment (typewriters, photocopiers, etc.)	
	C341 Repairs and maintenance	
C35	External services	
C36	Other	

(c) Non-re-usable materials

Annual total expenditure on non-re-usable materials with specific uses (printing paper, punched cards, periodicals, monographs, etc.), and also on telecommunication costs for on-line retrieval, etc.

Breakdown of 'non-re-usable' cost-item	
C21	Primary documents	
	C211 Copyright	
C22	Data base on magnetic tape	
	C221 Royalities	
C23	Computer supplies	
C24	Office supplies	
C26 	Other	

C21 covers all documents that come into the centre, whether purchased or on exchange. To evaluate the cost of exchanges, see the explanatory note on the cost-item schedule.

4. What are the cost-items?

The purpose of the first two questions was to justify costing and define its principles. We now come to the schedule of cost-items.

Schedule of cost-items of cost

Against each operation are shown the work units that are required to calculate its cost. These work units come into play when the costing method is used to assist decision-making.

The schedule of cost-items is followed by an explanatory note on those items which seem to call for definition or additional explanations.

SCHEDULE OF COST-ITEMS

(Summary)

	Staff	Equipment	Expendable materials	
1. Acquisition				
1.1 Tracing of documentary sources				
1.2 Acquisition of primary documents				
1.3 Acquisition of secondary documents				
2. Processing of raw data				
2.1 Intellectual processing of documents				
2.2 Storage				
2.3 Storage of automated records				
3. Production operations				
3.1 Periodical monitoring of literature in the field				
3.2 Bibliographic retrospective search				
3.3 Information retrieval				
3.4 Source retrieval				
3.5 Current awareness publications				
3.6 Magnetic tape				
3.7 Synoptic study				
3.8 Other products and services				
4. Running operations				
4.1 Systems administration				
4.2 Systems maintenance				
4.3 Systems development				
4.4 Departmental administration				
4.5 Premises				
4.6 Overheads				

COST-ITEMS

SCHEDULE		EVALUATION OF ANNUAL VOLUME	
Input operations	
1. Acquisition			
1.1 Tracing of documentary sources			
	1.11 Study, collection, identification		
	1.12 Memory storage and updating of source files		
1.2 Acquisition of primary documents			
	1.21 Selection of documents		
	1.22 Ordering and reception of documents	- number of periodicals received
- number of non-periodicals received
- number of periodicals retained 
- number of non-periodicals retained
- number of technical brochures and technical dossiers received
- number of abstracts used	
	1.23 Copyright		
1.3 Acquisition of secondary documents			
	1.31 Acquisition of card indexes	- number of indexes received	
	1.32 Acquisition of magnetic tapes	- number of tapes received	
	1.321 purchase or subscription		
	1.322 medium		
	1.323 user rights		
	1.33 On-line access to external files		
	1.331 subscription or user rights		
	1.332 fees for documents printed off-line	- number of documents printed off-line	
1.4 Movement		- number of documents by category	
2. Processing of raw data			
2.1 Intellectual processing of documents			
	2.11 Preparation of documents		
	2.111 sorting and selection of documents	- number of documents selected 
- distribution by type and by language	
	2.112 clerical processing of document	- number of documents photocopied 
- number of photocopies 
- number of documents on microfiche	
	2.113 Cataloguing	- number of documents catalogued 
- number of cataloguing areas 
- number of titles translated	
			
	2.12 Processing of the content of documents		
	2.121 indexing - classification coding	- number of documents indexed 
- average number of indexing terms per document 
- number of classification headings	
	2.122 abstracts	- number of abstracts 
- number of author's abstracts 
- average length of abstracts in (words)	
	2.123 translation of abstracts and titles	- number of abstracts translated 
- average length of abstracts (in words) 
- number of abstracts by original language	
	2.124 translation of keywords	- average number of keywords translated per document	
2.2 Storage			
	2.21 Preparation of data		
	2.211 entering, checking monitoring, correction	- number of references entered 
- average number of characters per reference	
	2.212 Conversion of files acquired externally	- number of references converted	
	2.22 Storage	- number of errors detected 
- number of references 
- introduced into the system	
2.3 Storage of automated files		- size of files managed 
- number of tapes stored 
- number of tapes handled	
3. Production operations			
3.1 Periodical monitoring of literature (selective dissemination of information)			
	3.11 Intellectual processing		
	3.111 formating and updating of profiles (individual or group)	- number of individual profiles 
- number of group profiles 
- average number of terms per profile 
- pre-editing time per profile	
	3.112 formating of standard profiles	- number of standard profiles 
- average number of terms per profile	
	3.12 Computerized processing	- number of individual profiles 
- number of group profiles 
- number of standard profiles 
- average computer time: 
 = search 
 = print-out 
- number of deliveries per year 
- average size of file scanned in each run 
- average number of replies per profile 
- content of replies: number of fields and characters	
	3.13 Manual processing	- same work units as for 3.12	
	3.14 Clerical processing		
	3.141 monitoring of the reproduction of replies	- print-run, for each profile 
- total number of references reproduced	
	3.142 distribution and sale	- number of dispatches 
- number of users	
3.2 Bibliographic retrospective search			
	3.21 Formulation of questions	- number of questions formulated per year 
- average number of terms per question 
- pre-editing time per question	
	3.22 Manual processing		
			
	3.221 file search	- average search time	
	3.222 preparation of replies	- average editing time 
- average number of references per search	
	3.223 production of reply in concrete form (typing)	- average typing time per search	
	3.23 Computerized processing		
	3.231 processing by computer	- number of questions processed per year 
- average computer time: 
= retrieval 
= print-out 
- average size of files scanned 
- average number of references per retrieval 
- content of replies: number of fields and characters 
- average number of references printed out	
	3.232 monitoring and validation of replies	- number of reproductions per retrieval 
- total number of references reproduced	
	3.233 communications (on-line systems)	- number of dispatches	
	3.24 Dissemination and sale	- number of users	
3.3 Data retrieval			
	3.31 Question formulation	- number of questions formulated per year 
- average number of terms per question 
- pre-editing time per question	
	3.32 Manual processing		
	3.321 file search	- average search time	
	3.322 retrieval of information from documents	- average editing time	
	3.323 typing	- average typing time	
			
	3.33 Computerized processing		
	3.331 processing by computer	- number of questions processed per year 
- average computer time: 
= retrieval 
= print-out 
- average size of files scanned	
	3.332 monitoring and validation of replies	- number of reproductions per search	
	3.333 retrieval of information from documents		
	3.34 Dissemination and sale	- number of dispatches 
- number of users	
3.4 Source retrieval			
	3.41 Question formulation	- number of questions formulated per year 
- average number of terms per question 
- pre-editing time per question	
	3.42 Manual processing		
	3.421 search	- average search time	
	3.422 editing of reply	- average editing time	
	3.423 typing	- average typing time	
	3.43 Computerized processing		
	3.431 processing by computer	- number of questions processed per year 
- average computer time: 
= retrieval 
= print-out 
- average size of files scanned	
	3.432 monitoring and validation of replies	- number of reproductions per search	
	3.44 Dissemination and sale	- number of dispatches 
- number of users	
3.5 Current awareness publications			
	3.51 Intellectual processing prior to computerized processing	- number of categories managed	
	3.52 Computerized processing		
	3.521 Processing by computer and/or programmed typesetting	- number of references edited 
- number of characters edited 
- computer time 
- photocomposition time 
- frequency 
- content of references edited	
	3.522 reproduction and printing	- print-run 
- number of pages printed per year 
- number of characters and/or lines printed	
	3.53 Manual processing		
	3.531 choice of references to be indicated	- number of references per issue 
- average time per issue 
- frequency 
- content of references published	
	3.532 organization and preparation of publications	- same work units as in 3.531	
	3.533 preparation of indexes	- number of keywords per issue 
- average number of keywords per reference 
- average time per issue	
	3.534 publication	- print-run 
- number of pages printed per year 
- number of characters and/or lines printed	
	3.54 Clerical processing		
	3.541 Distribution and sale	- number of dispatches 
- number of subscribers to each type of publication	
3.6 Magnetic tapes			
	3.61 Mechanical processing		
	3.62 Clerical processing	- number of references per year 
- frequency	
	3.621 Distribution and sale	- number of tapes dispatched 
- number of users	
3.7 Synoptic studies			
	3.71 Subject definition	- number of studies per year	
	3.72 Collection of information	- number of references per study	
	3.73 Examination of documents		
	3.74 Consultation of specialists	- number of documents analysed per study	
	3.75 Editing	- average print-run per study	
	3.76 Publication and sale		
	3.8 Other products and services		
	3.81 Bibliographies		
	3.811 Choice of references to be indicated	- number of bibliographies per year 
- number of references per bibliography 
- average print-run per bibliography	
	3.812 Publication and sale		
	3.82 Dossiers		
	3.83 Reports		
	3.831 Preparation	- number of reports per year 
- average preparation time	
	3.832 Publication and sale	- average print-run per report	
	3.84 Translations	- number of words translated in each language 
- average translation time per word 
- time spent on oral translation	
	3.85 Provision of data (data bank)	- number of retrievals per year 
- average search time	
	3.86 Provision of photocopies and microfiches	- average time per photocopy 
- total number of photocopies per year 
- total number of documents photocopied 
- average document handling time 
- total number of microfiches per year 
- total number of documents on microfiche	
	3.87 Communication of documents	- total number of loans per year 
- number of users	
	3.88 Periodical circulation of documents	- number of users receiving circulating documents 
- average number of documents received per user per year	
4. Running operations			
4.1 Systems administration			
	4.11 Average number of supervisory staff		
	4.12 Staff training	- number of persons concerned 
- number of users concerned	
	4.13 Instruction of users		
	4.14 Consultation		
	4.15 Marketing and promotion		
	4.16 Participation in a network		
	4.17 other (including travel)		
4.2	Systems maintenance		
	4.21 Maintenance of the documentary language	- number of references entered in the system per year	
	4.22 Documentation on the system		
	4.23 Software maintenance		
	4.24 Other		
4.3 Systems development			
	4.31 Initial design and development		
	4.32 New developments		
4.4 Departmental administration			
	4.41 Systems management and administration		
	4.42 Administration of the network		
4.5 Premises			
	4.51 Premises allocated to the system		
	4.52 General premises (share)		
4.6 Overheads			

Explanatory note

The purpose of the following remarks is to:

- define certain documentary operations whose appelation may cover situations that differ significantly from one centre to another (for example, tracing of documentary sources, synoptic studies, etc.)

- specify the work units required to fill in the 'staff', 'equipment' and 'non-re-usable materials' columns, when this is not self-evident.

1.11 Study, collection, identification of sources

- information on the sector of activity

- consultation of reference works

- contact with information or documentation bodies working in the same sector

- consultation of specialists within and outside the firm

- contact with hardware manufacturers.

1.22 Ordering and reception of documents

Nearly all centres take part in exchanges, generally involving the current awareness bulletin. It is therefore necessary to specify the nature and the number of documents acquired through exchanges and to compare the volume of exchanges with the total number of acquisitions. To evaluate the cost of exchanges, account must be taken, not of the documents actually acquired through exchanges, but of publications for which they have been exchanged. It is also necessary to take into account the cost of the medium on which the documents acquired are recorded: microfiches, microfilms, photocopies, etc.

1.23 Copyright

For the reproduction of authors' texts.

1.4 Movement

Physical transport of documents

1.342 Copyright

Fees paid for the use made of lists received. If the lists are received in exchange for documentary services, the value of those services must be shown.

1.4 Movement

Physical transport of documents

2.112 Clerical processing

- registration of documents;

- decision-making and operations of conservation and reproduction: microcopying, photocopying;

- allocation and marking of a reference number on each document.

2.113 Cataloguing

If the catalogue is automated, two possibilities exist;

- cataloguing in deferred time (batch processing): cost-items: operator's wages, amortization of hardware, necessary supplies (cards, tapes, etc.);

- cataloguing in real time (on-line processing): cost-items: operator's wages, amortization of terminal., use of computer, transmission costs.

2.3 Storage of automated files

Protection and memory maintenance of files. Operations involving:

- duplication of tapes or disks in order to protect a copy from wear and tear;

- periodical file checks;

- possible transfer to another means of archive storage for direct access.

3.12 Periodical monitoring of literature - processing by computer

Processing: from the entering of questions through to the print-out of replies.

3.2 Bibliographic retrospective search

Production of bibliographic references from a file of bibliographic references.

3.222 Preparation of replies

Sorting, classification and presentation of references.

3.231 Bibliographic retrospective search - processing by computer

- noting of the call number on a summary sheet;

- processing from the entering of questions through to print-out or display on console (including formating for on-line systems).

3.3 Data retrieval

Production of information from a file of bibliographic references.

3.4 Source retrieval

Production of a list of bodies or specialists capable of providing the desired information, for example, S.O.S.-D.O.C., C.O.D.A.T.A.

3.611 Magnetic tapes - preparation of data

Retrieval, formating and duplication of data, including the staff and hardware required for the production of tools used with tapes (lists of keywords, frequency, etc.).

3.621 Magnetic tapes - distribution and sale

Dispatch of tapes and management of the customer file.

3.7 Synoptic study

The breakdown of this cost-item shows that it comprises a set of information followed by intellectual operations of critical examination and formating of that information.

3.81 Bibliography

Bibliographies are produced on the initiative of the documentalists often at regular intervals, to meet demand from users.

3.82 Dossier

Dossiers containing various documents (bibliographical cards, manufacturers' brochures, technical broadsheets, magazine articles, etc.) on the same subject; for example, files on:

- hardware manufacturers;
- specific topics (of constant concern to the user or group of users).

3.83 Report

Basic information is not taken from bibliographical cards but may be oral or visual (reports of congresses, travel reports, etc.).

3.84 Translation

Oral or written translations, on request.

3.85 Provision of data (data bank)

Provision of data from a data file.

Example: Thermodata, C.A.T.E.D.

3.86 Provision of photocopies and microfiches

This service, of course, comes under the communication of documents, but the work units are very different for the provision of a photocopy or microfiche of a document and for the administration of loans of the documents themselves; the communication of documents has therefore been divided into two cost-items, 3.86 and 3.87.

3.87 Communication of documents

- choice of communication conditions and procedures;
- choice of necessary channels;
- contact with users; assistance and provision of channels of consultation;
- management of loans;
- purchase orders for the replacement of missing documents.

4.11 Systems administration - average number of supervisory staff

Officers appointed not to perform specific tasks but to work for a department which has a range of responsibilities.

4.22 Systems maintenance - documentation on the system

Updating and distribution of the handbook.

4.31 Systems development - initial design and development

The cost of operations that are subscontracted to an outside body, is amortized on a five-year straight line basis; the cost of operations carried out by the system's own staff is not amortized, but is charged to the current year.

4.41 Departmental administration - systems management and administration

Officers appointed to perform general duties within the system in the case of an independent organization and outside the system if it is connected with a body that uses it.

4.42 Departmental - administration of the network

Central administration and a secretariat

4.51 Premises allocated to the system

Rent, lighting, heating, cleaning, repairs

4.52 Overall premises (quota)

Quota of costs for the premises of the organization with authority over the documentation system.

4.6 Overheads

Quota of the overheads of the organization with authority over the documentation system.

<<TOC4>> 6.2 Security

<<TOC5>> Security

By Edmund Berkeley, Jr.

Security is a primary concern of archivists because they are charged with the preservation of those manuscript collections or institutional records that are of enduring value to their employers, whether those employers are large state archives, small private historical societies, business archives, or any of the many other types of modern archival institutions. Allowing valuable holdings to deteriorate - or to be stolen - violates the canon of preservation with which archivists are charged. In recent years, theft has become a major problem for archivists; many institutions, large and small, have suffered thefts, and it seems likely that this trend will continue unless archivists take appropriate steps to reduce the possibilities.

Archival theft has existed as long as man has kept records; in ancient times, one of the spoils of war was frequently the records of the defeated. Dr. Joseph Fields has written:

Ptolemy Philadelphus is supposed to have refused to supply wheat to the starving Athenians, caught in the ravages of a famine, unless he was permitted to borrow the manuscripts of the Greek literary and philosophical giants so that he might have copies made. He is said to have retained the originals and sent the copies back to Athens.

The great library of Alexandria, one of the wonders of the ancient world, was the private library of the ptolemies, and most of its contents had been captured from defeated enemies. Nineteenth-century manuscripts collectors apparently learned from Ptolemy Philadelphus. Many of the great manuscripts collectors of that period simply "borrowed" manuscripts and "forgot" to return them. A number of famous collections now in well-known institutions have very questionable provenances for this reason.

During the past four decades theft from archival institutions has accelerated. Clippings in the files of the Manuscripts Department of the University of Virginia Library tell of many incidents. Philip P. Mason, the archivist most knowledgeable about archival theft, summarized the statistics in an article entitled, "Archival Security: New Solutions to an Old Problem," published in the October, 1975, American Archivist:

During the past decade several hundred archives and libraries have been victimized and many others have been and did not report it. The recent loss of the Felix Frankfurter diaries and papers from the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress capped a series of thefts from that institution and led to a complete revamping of its security regulations. The thefts of valuable archival materials from the University of Virginia, the Detroit Public Library, North Carolina State Archives, Texas State Archives, Wayne State University, Yale University, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Indiana State Library, Ohio Historical Society, Virginia State Archives, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and the National Archives demonstrate the dimensions of the problem.

Mason also summarizes the reasons for archival theft. He notes that some persons have a strong desire to gain possession of certain manuscripts because they feel that the institution and its employees cannot appreciate the manuscripts as much as they do. Kleptomania and the challenge of beating the security systems figure in other cases. Some thieves want to "borrow" records "temporarily" because having them in their possession will "facilitate" their research. Other thieves desire to purge records by removing them because they contain something damaging to them or their families. And still others remove records because they have some connection with an ancestor.

There are other reasons for archival theft. There is today a large number of highly educated persons who have little or no respect for personal or public property, and who have or know how to acquire the specialized knowledge necessary to steal from archives. Certain thefts are committed by persons who have grievances against the institution or against its employees. And there are a certain number of thefts for which there is no obvious reason, since the material does not appear on the market and is not recovered.

Perhaps the most important reason for archival theft is profit. Philip P. Mason firmly believes that profit is the basic reason for most archival theft, and he has assembled much evidence to support his contention. The thefts in recent years from the North Carolina, Georgia, Texas and California archives were all committed in order to market the stolen documents. Dealer -auctioneer Charles Hamilton has written most engagingly of his own experiences with forgers and thieves in Scribblers and Scoundrels; he has been instrumental in apprehending a number of each.

All collectible items -stamps, silver, gold, art, rare books, manuscripts, and so on-enjoy rising prices in times of prosperity, such as the 1970s. When materials in a field of collecting, such as manuscripts, begin to show a spectacular rate of appreciation, many persons with excess cash enter the collecting field, and some are not ethical. If such speculators learn of items that they want to acquire for their collections and find that they cannot acquire these items legally, they will take other steps to acquire them. The thieves convicted of the theft from the North Carolina archives told state bureau of investigation personnel that manuscripts could be stolen to order.

Prominent manuscripts dealer Kenneth W. Rendell believes that profit is not a major reason for archival theft. He has stated publicly that "only a very small percentage of the stolen material eventually comes onto the market." He is referring to the major market for manuscripts in which he and perhaps five other firms handle about ninety per cent of the business. Stolen manuscripts move in small local markets; the material stolen from the Georgia archives was recovered from an Atlanta flea market. Rendell is critical of archivists for failing to take sufficient steps to protect their holdings from theft, particularly by marking holdings to show ownership. He also faults those archivists and others who will not admit and publicize a theft, for he believes that publicity makes it more difficult for a thief to sell stolen property. Publicity also alerts dealers who might otherwise quite innocently purchase stolen property.

Whatever the reasons, archival theft is flourishing. Every archivist must take steps to protect the holdings of his or her institution and must plan what must be done if a theft is suspected or discovered.

Appended to this article is a lengthy security checklist (Appendix IV). Using such a list is a good way to assess the security of an institution and its archivists' awareness of security problems that it may have. Not all of the questions on the checklist will apply to every institution, but many of them are basic to any archives or manuscripts repository and its operation.

In thinking about the security of an institution, the archivist should remember that its staff is the institution's best security system. Convincing the staff of the necessity for constant awareness of security will do more to improve the level of security provided its records or collections than any amount of money spent on electronic security systems. A good level of security has been achieved when the staff questions everything out of the ordinary, from the furtive patron to the mysterious "buzzing" of a light switch that may mean a loose electrical connection - a potential fire hazard. The staff member who notices a peculiar smell in a stack area, investigates, and finds that the janitor has left a pile of oily rags that are beginning to smoulder will have more than repaid the archivist for the time and effort spent on a security program.

Unfortunately, staff members also pose a considerable security risk to the institution. The staff has access to most security areas in the institution and it is usually easy for its members to remove materials from the building or archives area of the building. Ultimately, considerable faith must be placed in the staff; however, make as many basic checks on new staff members as possible, and establish certain rules that will give a minimum level of security against theft by staff members. Credentials of all new staff members should be checked carefully. Do not permit staff members to collect materials in the same areas in which the institution specializes, as collecting is a mysterious disease that can cause a person to lose normal restraints and can, through conflicts of interest, cause problems for a staff member involved in collecting work for the institution. If possible and affordable, it is a good idea to bond staff members both for performance and surety. A surety bond requires a thorough background check by the bonding agency, and the mere mention in interviews of such a background check has brought forth useful information to interviewers. If possible, archives staff members should be paid adequately and all staff grievances handled promptly and thoroughly. Avoid student and volunteer help unless these persons are closely supervised and are forbidden access to the high-security areas of the institution.

The patrons of an archives probably pose the greatest threat. There have been after-hours burglaries in archives, but the number is much smaller than the number of thefts committed by patrons in archives reading rooms. The North Carolina, Georgia and Texas state archives all suffered thefts from well-staffed reading rooms. The reality of the situation is that any institution is running a considerable risk when a non-staff member uses its holdings. Because archivists want the holdings in their institutions to be used by the public-or whatever their constituency is-they must compromise security to a degree when holdings are used. Perhaps if archivists required patrons to strip and wear pocketless coveralls into the reading room and subjected them to a complete body search before returning their clothes, the risk of theft from reading rooms might be reduced considerably. Given the conventions of today's society, archivists must meet the threat without such Draconian measures.

The archivist must obtain basic information about the patrons who use his holdings by requiring each one to complete a comprehensive registration form. A staff member should interview each new patron to serve the dual purposes of security and good reference service.

Basic reading-room security demands that the room never be left unattended while patrons are using holdings. Limit the amount of material each patron may have at any one time. Do not allow patrons to take brief cases, handbags or similar containers to research tables, and search all note paper used by patrons before they leave the reading room. Use a collection request form that has at least two parts: file one by the date the collection was used, and the second by the name or accession number of the collection. These two files will enable you to determine quickly who used a specific collection on a given date, or who last used the collection. Both pieces of information may be vital should you discover something missing. Train staff members assigned to the reading room to provide both good service and good security. Do not require so much regular work of reading-room staff that they must neglect these vital functions. Establish a definite procedure to be followed by a staff member who observes a patron concealing a document under clothing.

To prepare a procedure for the staff to follow in the case of suspected or observed theft, it is best to have the advice of an attorney. If legal services are not available, the local law enforcement agency may be helpful as many police departments have outreach programs, and it may also be able to consult the local district attorney for advice about recommended procedures. If the law enforcement agency sends an officer or team to inspect the archives to make recommendations about security, it will prove mutually beneficial as few police officers have any knowledge of archives and their special security problems.

Increasing security in a reading room usually requires no outlay of funds. Researchers who object to new and tighter security regulations should be informed of the rash of archival thefts and that the duty of the archives staff is to safeguard the archives' holdings. Usually, patrons are quite interested in the steps taken to ensure that the holdings will be there for future consultation. Improvements in perimeter security for after-hours protection should certainly be made if possible. Some perimeter electronic security systems are inexpensive if the archives has staff members with the technical knowledge and skills necessary to install them, for the major cost of such systems is in the labor.

Because of the threat to archives posed by the large number of thefts in recent years, the Society of American Archivists (SAA) applied for and was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to fund a four-phase program on archival theft. First, SAA established a register of stolen and missing archival materials; it is updated several times a year and mailed to over twelve hundred manuscripts dealers and to many archivists in the United States and abroad. This register makes it much more difficult to market stolen archival materials because most dealers will check it before purchasing materials from persons unknown to them. The register has also been useful in the recovery of some stolen manuscripts. Registration forms may be obtained from the SAA Archival Security Program, 330 South Wells Street, Suite 810, Chicago, Illinois 60606.

The second phase of the NEH grant program finances an archival security newsletter, published bi-monthly as part of the SAA Newsletter. It carries timely notices of interest to persons concerned with archival security. A third phase of the grant program was the preparation of an archival-security manual as one in the SAA basic archival manuals series. This manual should be acquired from SAA by any security-conscious archives or archivist. A consultants' program was established by the grant that allows an institution desiring the services of an archival -security expert to obtain one through SAA. Normally, the institution pays the consultant's travel and other expenses while the SAA program pays the honorarium. Archivists interested in a visit by a consultant should also consult the archival-security program director at the address above. Consultants from all types of archival agencies, from the large public to the smallest private, are available. The results of this phase of the program have been quite satisfactory.

A fifth area of interest for the SAA archival -security program evolved from the program itself. This is a model-laws program. One of the most difficult situations faced by an archivist in protecting holdings is that created when a patron is observed or suspected of having concealed a document that he or she has been using. A confrontation over this concealment involves several controversial areas of modern law, such as search and seizure and privacy. The SAA model law, if adapted to fit a state's legal code, and passed by its legislature, provides the archivist-and the librarian - the protection offered in a number of states to a merchant who confronts a shopper suspected of shoplifting; that is, if the archivist or librarian acts on the best information available and proceeds in a proper and prescribed fashion so as not to violate any of the rights of the suspect, he or she cannot be the subject of a civil suit arising from a false accusation. This law. first passed in Virginia through the efforts of the University of Virginia Library, has been adopted by six other states, and is before legislative committees in several others. As Pennsylvania law does not presently provide such protection for its archivists, it would certainly be a good idea for Pennsylvania archivists to consider working for passage of this law in their state. A copy of the model law may be obtained from the SAA archival-security office, that also can advise anyone about the best procedure to follow in dealing with a legislature.

Security for the holdings of any archives is an important responsibility of the archivists of its staff. No institution may consider itself immune to the threat of theft. Every archivist must familiarize himself or herself with the security procedures of the institution for which he or she works, and must improve them if necessary and if possible. Archivists must be ever-vigilant to preserve the records and collections of their institutions for future generations.

<<TOC5>> Disasters: Can we plan for them? If not, how can we proceed?

By Willman Spawn

Between 1955 and 1965, approximately 340 accidents to libraries involving damage by fire. water, hurricanes and internal plumbing have been recorded in the United States alone." This startling figure comes from an unpublished report by Peter Waters of the Library of Congress Preservation Office. In 1966 this figure was eclipsed by a single event, the floods of Florence, when a million and a half books and newspapers in the National Library of Italy were damaged by water, mud and oil, and eight hundred thousand vellum and paper manuscripts were damaged in the National Archives. The financial loss was staggering, the intellectual loss no less so; however. the floods provided an unexpected opportunity when conservators convened from around the world to work, to exchange information and ideas, and ultimately to improve the methods of handling water-damaged materials.

The knowledge thus gained has been put to good use since 1966. In Pennsylvania alone, during the past dozen years there have been many cases of water damage, some involving whole libraries. It is obvious that water damage is not an isolated or unusual phenomenon, and that preventive measures are well worth the cost, which in the long run is less than the cost of the cure.

Two printed manuals -mark the progress made in the last few years in dealing with disasters. The first, a pamphlet which appeared in 1972, is entitled Procedures for Salvage of Water-damaged Library Materials, by Peter Waters. The second, published in April, 1978, is Disaster Prevention and Disaster Preparedness, by Hilda Bohem, associate librarian of the University of California, Los Angeles, and a member of the University of California Task Group on the Preservation of Library Materials. These two manuals should be read and heeded by anyone with even a passing interest in their subjects, for each packs a great deal of essential advice into a clear, concise format. Mrs. Bohem's manual, in particular, is a pioneering effort in an untravelled field. If every librarian made a serious effort to follow her recommendations. the "disaster business" would diminish considerably.

In order to keep the subject of disaster prevention to a manageable size, I will ask you to assume that the disaster could or did occur to a single library building and not to an entire system or locality. We are speculating about a fire, a leaky roof, a clogged drain, and not about an earthquake or a tidal wave. After all. the difference between a localized and a general disaster is only one of complexity; the basic rules remain the same.

RULE NUMBER ONE in disaster prevention is "know your building" know its history, its flaws, its potential problems. The following checklist is divided into subject areas; while it may be incomplete, it provides a good start in getting to know your physical plant.

History
How old is your building? Has it ever had a fire or a case of water damage? If so, were the causes of the disaster removed or only patched over? Could it happen again in the same place, in the same way?

Layout
Do you have a set of plans for the building, showing not only its design but the placement of plumbing and mechanical and electrical systems? Is it up to date?

Water
Flow old is the roof? Are there any signs of leaks, new or old? Are the drains and the downspouts regularly checked for clogging or breaks? Is there a skylight that might leak?

Are the windows tight? Are windows ever left open for ventilation, so that a hard rain could, come in and damage nearby material?

Are you vulnerable to rising water at ground level? Could a flash flood or flooding river water enter the building? Are there ever signs of seepage in the basement after a heavy or prolonged rain? Have you ever needed to use a pump to remove moisture from the basement? Is there a smell of mildew anywhere in the building in humid weather?

Do you have steam heat or an old hot-water system? If the answer is yes, do the pipes pass above the book stacks? Do your plumbing lines run near the book stacks? If a pipe breaks or a toilet over flows, do you know where to cut off the water supply?

Power
Where is your fuse box or master panel? Is it locked, and if so where is the key kept? Does more than one person know the key's location? Are there electrical outlets in the stacks? Are the power lines heavy duty where needed, or is the system possibly overloaded by today's demands?

If the power fails due to a disaster, even a minor one. do you have an alternate power source? Where would you get one if needed? How much power (i.e., how many amps) would you need from a portable generator? Remember, wet books and papers need to be kept cold to inhibit mold growth; how much power would you need for this?

Fire
Do you have the appropriate fire extinguishers located conveniently throughout the library? Have staff members ever actually used an extinguisher, or have they only read the directions? Have you ever had a fire drill with emphasis on saving books as well as people? Does the Fire Marshal inspect the building regularly, and if he finds violations, are they corrected or only white washed?

RULE NUMBER TWO in disaster prevention relates to your storage arrangements. Do you have an up-to-date diagram of each stack level, showing the location of major subject areas and indicating the inclusive call numbers? Where is your most valuable material stored? Do you have your art books, your films, photographs, microfilms and microfiches stored in the basement or up under the roof? Both these locations are especially vulnerable to water damage. If you have a locked storage area, are the keys readily available and their location known to all the staff? If this storage area is seldom entered and contains its own air conditioning unit, is the area checked daily to make sure the unit is operating correctly?

Finally, RULE NUMBER THREE. deals with staff participation in disaster prevention. Can all off-duty staff members be alerted quickly in case of an emergency? Has one person been designated as an emergency coordinator? (This person need not be the library director, but it should be someone known for common sense, a calm manner and a flexible mind.) Is the coordinator prepared to deal with a disaster, and does he or she have a group of staff members prepared to assist? In Bohem's terminology, this group would be called the disaster action team, or DAT, with responsibility for preparedness, salvage and post-mortem operations.

Before the discussion turns from prevention to preparedness, I would like to stress that "an ounce of prevention is [still] worth a pound of cure." In only twenty years, Pennsylvania libraries have sustained water damage fromvkeat variety of causes -a clogged roof drain, a broken steam pipe, overflow from a washroom sink, condensation inside a building from excessive humidity, flooding after a hurricane, the extinguishing of a fire. One or two of these causes, the hurricane for example, could be considered as "acts of God" and not preventable, but there is no doubt that adequate prevention could have reduced their impact and saved hundreds of hours of staff time and thousands of dollars spent on salvage.

Yet, one must be realistic, especially in this world of shrinking budgets and galloping inflation. There are only a few libraries that will be able to set up a prevention and preparedness program of any size. Consequently, certain simple and inexpensive procedures that can case the impact of a disaster should be examined and recommended as a start.

First of all, obtain a number of copies of the Bohem and Waters manuals, and make sure that the entire staff reads and digests them. Then discuss the" Bohem recommendations for prevention and preparedness at one or more staff meetings, inviting criticisms and suggestions. The Bohem recommendations may seem over-elaborate for a small library, but personal experience suggests that they can be adapted to a library of almost any size.

Second, set up a disaster action team, which should include staff members with knowledge of the building, the collections and outside resources. It may well be that the staff people who demonstrated the quickest comprehension of the Bohem recommendations and the need for them will be the initial members of your disaster action team.

Third, select one staff member as recovery director or emergency coordinator, whichever title suits your circumstances better. In the past, this person usually has been the outside expert brought in to supervise the salvage operation. As the expert in the field, the outsider has a distinct advantage: his decisions are treated as gospel - at least as long as lie is on the spot! However. such an expert is not always available, and his services usually require a fee. Therefore, it seems advantageous to train a staff member as a resident specialist. or at least as a person capable of recognizing the problems and arranging for the appropriate solutions.

This selection will put a great deal of responsibility on the shoulders of an already overburdened staff member. But the resident specialist starts with some advantages of his Or her own: knowledge of the building and its history, awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of the staff, contacts with possible resources in the surrounding area. The specialist can expand these advantages by reading the literature, attending workshops and conferences on prevention and salvage, and adapting the knowledge gained to his or her specific situation. In the words of Bohem,

If the Recovery Director is a staff member. it shall be his responsibility to keep thoroughly informed and up to date on disaster recovery techniques and to make an annual report to the DAT so that they will have a general familiarity with the latest procedures. It shall also be the Director's responsibility to assemble a reference library of disaster literature to be available to the DAT for their further education and as reference during a crisis. An updated list of persons who may be contacted for expert advice in an emergency… should be part of this reference material.

The following items are essential in preparing to deal with the results of a disaster:

1) up-to-date copies of a telephone list of the disaster action team, designating their functions (i.e., director, cataloguer, cleaner);

2) a "telephone tree" of library staff members so that the entire staff can be alerted quickly to a crisis;

3) a list of resources, including the police and fire officials, who could authorize emergency parking, pumping, etc.; suppliers of such items as plastic crates, deep-freeze facilities, portable pumps, generators and fans;

4) a list of possible volunteer helpers from other libraries, community groups, library organizations, past staff members and others;

5) an arrangement for paying the bills for emergency needs which bypasses the usual library routine; this arrangement can be vital when quick decisions and instant availability can determine the success or failure of a salvage operation.

The salvage operation will gain nothing by hasty action or by riding roughshod over staff members who may be in a state of shock, For a dedicated librarian there can be no shock comparable to finding two feet of water in the basement on Monday morning, or watching water drip from the ceiling onto the rare-book collection below. Planning will help you and your staff regain the confidence to cope with the unexpected crisis. People suddenly faced with an overwhelming burden can find unsuspected strength when given time to pull themselves together. This will be especially true if they can rely on knowledge previously gained.

A nucleus of reference books on disaster management already exists. These include the pamphlets cited above by Waters and Bohem. and the author's "After the Water Comes," which appeared in the 1973 issue of the Pennsylvania Library Association Bulletin, devoted to preservation of library materials. (Other items are listed in the appended bibliography.) The specific procedures, cautions and recommendations included in these printed statements are easily read and comprehended, and need not be restated here. However, there are some general rules that are always worth repetition.

When disaster strikes, most individuals feel a tremendous urge to "do something." By the law of averages, the right thing is often done but not always. In fact, hasty or uninformed action may complicate the very situation it sets out to save. There is little to be gained by haste and everything to be gained by establishing the dimensions of the problem, Has the cause of the disaster been determined and has it been dealt with adequately? What types of materials are involved? How many books will need to be handled? Who will coordinate the arrival of the packing crates, the volunteers, the refrigerated van? If it is a holiday, a weekend, or a summer vacation time, can the expected resources be relied upon?

An aspect of salvage that is often overlooked is the need to record the operation from the very beginning: the circumstances, the decisions, the staff involved and so on. It is unwise to rely on memory for these factors during a crisis, especially if insurance claims are to be made. Most salvage operations stretch over many months, and careful records will prove their worth many times over. Meticulous records must be kept of the handling of the books; therefore. a cataloguer is included on the disaster action team from its inception. A diary will help to avoid duplication of effort; it will provide the basis for judging what parts of the operation were well handled, and which need improvement for the future; it can serve as the foundation for reports to be made to trustees, library groups and other agencies. In Bohem's words.

Publication should be considered because the more we learn about other people's methods of coping with disaster, the better prepared we can be for our own. It behooves us to share our experience.

If you lived to call in an outside consultant to act as the recovery director or to advise your staff specialist. lie or she will need plenty of hard facts in order to make tile right decisions. (Here the diary will be invaluable.) The consultant cannot begin to know your collection as well as you do, viz., which items can be replaced and which are irreplaceable; which items get limited use and can wait for care while others must receive priority attention; which items can be discarded immediately. Teamwork, combining your local knowledge with his technical knowledge, usually produces a successful result at the lowest possible cost.

A final word. The recovery director must be the authority whether lie is an outside consultant or a resident specialist. As Bohem writes, "It is essential… that Final decision making be centered in one authoritative person." An extraordinary situation calls for all extraordinary solution: individual rights and conflicts may have to be submerged for it time in order for the director and his team to function for the common good. The ultimate success of the salvage operation will depend oil tile cooperation they receive.

<<TOC4>> 6.3 The design of library and archive buildings

<<TOC5>> Archive Buildings and Equipment

Michel Duchein

Definitions - Brief to the Architect. Overall Plan.

1. Definition of an archive service

Before embarking on a study of the construction and equipping of an archive repository, it may be useful to begin with some definitions.

Whilst the definition of archives is almost everywhere the same - the whole of the documents produced by an organisation, administrative unit, firm, establishment, even a family or a person, in the course of the exercise of their activities and preserved for reference purposes - the same cannot be said of the definition of an archive repository.

In some countries, the public archives are organised under a separate and independent administrative body, with its own buildings, staff and regulations; whilst in others they are, to greater or lesser degree, linked to libraries, museums or documentation services. Sometimes they are closely tied to the bodies producing them (as, for example, in England where some major administrative units retain responsibility for their own archives); more frequently they come under a separate and independent administration once they cease to be in current use (as in France, where the Directorate of the Archives of France is responsible for the whole of the public archives with rare exceptions).

There is yet another difference. Some countries recognise two types of archive repository: repositories solely concerned with preservation ("historical archives"), intended solely for documents of historical interest, marked for permanent preservation; and intermediate repositories ("records centres": in French "dépôts de préarchivage"), where documents destined to be destroyed after shorter or longer periods are housed. This distinction does not exist everywhere, and indeed it is not always necessary when the archive repository is closely linked to the body where the archives originated.

All these differences in ideas, organisation and operation are reflected in the differences between archival buildings. For example, a budding intended to house exclusively the archives of a province will be different in many particulars from one in which are gathered together, under one direction, the archives, library, museum and headquarters of the learned society of this province. Equally the small budding housing the archives of some local administration will have little in common with the enormous one housing the central archives of a modern state with all its ancillary services.

The differences in ideas about the rôle of an archive service also have a bearing on the construction and equipment of repositories. Some countries still adhere, more or less, to the traditional idea of a complete separation between "historical archives" and "current administration". Here, the archive service only has contact with historians and, to a much lesser degree, with the general public by way of historical exhibitions. Elsewhere, there will be a close connection between the archive service and archive-producing departments, which may result in the transformation of the repository into an administrative documentation service. The budding will then reflect this function by the different evolution of some of the working areas.

Whatever the type and size of an archive service, every repository must meet certain basic requirements, which are the same in each case and are well known. They are: a) preservation of documents in complete security, hence the need for safe storage areas, protected against fire, humidity, excessive sunlight, insects, rodents, burglars, etc.; b) production of documents to those requiring them, hence the need for space for listing, packing, labelling, catalogues and inventories, search room; c) repair of damaged documents; d) documentary reproduction - microfilm, photocopying, etc.

To these basic needs will be added, in varying degrees, secondary needs: public exhibition of documents; production of documents for educational purposes; moulding and repair of seals-, administrative documentation, etc.

Thus, it will be seen how pointless it would be to speak of budding and equipping an archive repository without first of all defining the kind of archive service it is intended to house; in other words, without drawing up a brief for the architect.

2. Drawing up the brief

Whether the question is one of planning a new budding or of adapting an existing budding, nothing useful will be achieved without a precise brief. It would be wrong for the archivist to expect the architect to draw up the brief: it is essentially the user's job to do this. If the brief has been well thought out and set down, any errors in its execution will be the architect's fault and it will be a simple matter to compare his results with the brief which was before him when he drew up his plans. If on the other hand, the brief has been negligently or imprecisely drawn up, the architect cannot be blamed for imperfections for which he was not responsible.

The care with which this essential document should be drawn up is, therefore, self-evident. The role of this Manual is to help archivists in this task but not to take their place. Only the head of an archive service knows exactly its needs (quantitative importance of the documents in his care, importance of future transfers, number of searchers, etc.). Many factors enter into the reckoning. First among these is the amount of money at the architect's disposal for carrying out the job. There would be little point in drawing up an ideal brief including all the most up to date technical improvements - unfortunately always the most expensive - if the budget for construction is a modest one. The first mark of good sense is to know how to equate the brief with the real possibilities of carrying it out.

The archivist's theoretical brief must be set against the practical facts of the problem. It is then for the architect to say what is and what is not practicable. Once he has advised on and agreed to the draft brief which has been submitted to him, the document is finalised and will serve as a basis for drawing up plans.

3. Archivist and architect

Everyone to his own job. The archivist knows the needs of his service; the architect knows the solutions which will satisfy these needs. It would be as presumptuous for the archivist to claim the right to draw up the plans for his future repository as it would be for the architect to ignore the suggestions and the possible criticisms of his client. Ideally then, close collaboration between architect and archivist is indispensable for the satisfactory completion of an archival building.

However, in practice things do not always fall out this way: sometimes the archivist has requirements which cannot be met, or, has only vague ideas about the equipment he wants; the architect, for his part, sometimes has set ideas which he seeks to impose despite the archivist's advice, or, through excess of work on hand neglects to keep in touch with the archivist and draws up his plans without consultation.

What should one do in such circumstances? It is clear that the archivist cannot force his way into the architect's office and make a scene. On the other hand, the architect cannot seek the archivist's advice every five minutes. In cases of sharp conflict, recourse can be had to arbitration by higher authority, usually whoever is financing the work. But such extreme measures, happily, are rare. More usually, in these matters, good manners win the day, the more so since both sides recognise that, in their different spheres, each is equally competent.

Whether it is a question of building or adapting, once the preliminary consultations have taken place the matter is now one for the architect. He knows the latest technical developments and is responsible for the actual works. He is in a position to suggest new solutions and draw the archivist's attention to difficulties created by the brief. Only for the most weighty reasons, connected with the proper functioning of an archive service, should the archivist oppose the adoption of the architect's plans, although necessary modifications and improvements may be incorporated as they are being drawn up by mutual agreement.

Later on another problem, often a source of conflict may arise, that of supervision of the work. It is essential for the archivist to follow the course of the work closely, since at this point he may detect minor errors or omissions which can easily be remedied as they occur, but which become irremediable once the job is finished. Unfortunately, the architect rarely voluntarily invites the archivist to inspect progress and the archivist must take the initiative in visiting the site, where his welcome may not always be as friendly as he could wish. However, he must persevere: an archivist who has not closely and minutely followed the course of the work will have forfeited the right of blaming the architect if anything goes wrong once the job is finished. A weekly visit should be part of the archivist's professional duty.

4. The basic choice: anew building or the adaptation of an existing one?

For at least fifty years there has been much argument as to whether it is better to build new premises or adapt existing ones to house archives.

A brief summary of the arguments in favour of each point of view follows:

a) In favour of old buildings

The cost is usually lower since there are normally no major works to be carried out on the main structure of the building. The advances of the last thirty years in the internal renovation of buildings have made it possible to re-use old repositories by modernising their interiors. There may also be an opportunity of saving ancient monuments (palaces, monasteries, churches…) threatened with destruction by converting them into archive repositories (see plate 22, b). Lastly, an argument of a sentimental kind, not without its value when it is a question of preserving part of a cultural heritage, the atmosphere of an historic building may seem to be more attuned to the nature of archives than a new, impersonal, characterless budding.

Against these arguments, it can always be argued that, with rare exceptions, buildings erected for purposes other than the preservation of archives only lend themselves to the necessary functional adaptation with difficulty and imperfectly. Also, if, as is almost always the case, the whole interior must be re-adapted and fitted out as a preliminary, then the cost is often the same as, if not more than, that of a new budding.

b) In favour of new buildings

The obvious advantage is the greater convenience and flexibility: all the requirements of the brief to the architect can be transferred more easily on to the plans for a new budding than to those for an adaptation of an old budding. The architect will also have the advantage of the choice of budding materials, etc.

As to the sentimental argument, as with all such arguments, it can neither be countered nor supported by logical argument. It is true that, in certain cases, the use of an historic budding in which to preserve archives may be desirable from a psychological viewpoint: the prestige of the budding may reflect on the archive service (as is the case in Paris, for example, where the beauty of the Palais Soubise and the Palais Rohan has contributed notably in bringing the National Archives to the attention of the general public). On the other hand, such a solution is frequently chosen solely on the more or less valid grounds of economy, with all the drawbacks this brings to the functioning and future of the service.

Indeed, the types of building which lend themselves to adaptation as an archive repository without costly and complicated internal work are rare. Usually, adaptations of this kind are inconvenient and defective (the experience of the National Archives in Paris, referred to above, is instructive in this respect).

A compromise solution, which may prove satisfactory when sufficient space is available, is to put the working areas of an archive service in an old building and to build a new repository block immediately next to it; or to convert the nave of an old church into strongrooms and to build a new aisle for the working areas.

To return to the psychological arguments, it should be added that the use of an old building conveys little prestige on an archive service unless it is a stately building of character and artistic merit; this is not the case of old factories or warehouses, or even prisons, which are too often offered for conversion into archive repositories.

The argument against conversion does not apply to records centres for which, contrary to archive repositories properly called, accommodation which is both economical and improvised will suffice.

Finally, one decisive argument in favour of a new budding should not be ignored: in the world of today, it is in the archivist's best interests not to turn his back on his own times. The general public - and administrators - are only too ready to regard archives as a collection of dirty, useless old papers, A new and attractive building can greatly contribute to overcoming such prejudices. To insist too strongly on the occupation of an old budding, however "historical" it may be, will only give firmer roots to the notion that archivists are incurably wedded to the past. The consequences of such an opinion on the future of an archive service are only too obvious.

5. Second choice: single building or multiple buildings?

In most countries, it is usual to concentrate all the archives under the control of one archivist in one single building. The advantages of this are self-evident: economies in construction, equipment, staff and time, since everything is in the same place and thus fetching and carrying is reduced to a minimum. However, there are drawbacks especially if the archives are important: there is a risk that the building will become excessively big, occupying a large surface area, which is expensive if it is in the centre of a town. On the other hand, in case of disaster all the documents will be destroyed together.

For this reason, some countries have adopted the system of splitting their archives between several buildings, separated to a greater or lesser extent one from the other. Thus the risks arising from a disaster can be spread and too great a concentration in one place, with its effect on site costs, avoided. But one immediately runs up against other drawbacks: increases in staff needed for running these dispersed repositories; complications in internal relations; a growing risk of disorder and bad administration.

We have also to consider the question whether "historical archives" and "intermediate records" should be kept in the same budding or in distinct buildings (archive repositories versus records centres), a question which has already been alluded to above.

While no strict rule can be defined for all cases, it is nevertheless clear that it would be absurd to disperse archives throughout several buildings when their total bulk is of a moderate size. If, taken together, the whole of archives and intermediate records do not exceed 15,000 to 20,000 linear metres (for the meaning of this expression, see below, p. 139), one single budding should suffice to hold them. But once the figure of about 25,000 lin.m. is reached, it is almost invariably better to separate archives and intermediate records.

Of course this discussion about the advisability of a single building or multiple buildings for archives is entirely independent of the fact that, in important archive buildings, the strongrooms often have to be divided into two or more blocks; and also that working areas often are in a distinct block from the strongrooms.

6. Third choice: choice of site

Whether it is a caw of a new budding or an old one, of a single repository budding or multiple buildings, the proper choice of site is vital. Many mistakes can subsequently be corrected, but not the choice of a bad site: the whole future of an archive service can be jeopardised by such a mistake.

Unfortunately, the "ideal site" is very difficult to define. Many factors enter into the reckoning, some of them contradicting others.

a) Sites to be avoided: at least it is possible to define without any hesitation sites which should be completely avoided:

i) sites with intrinsic dangers: land liable to flooding; unstable sites (e.g. hillsides, where the sub-soil is of clay and liable to land slides); damp, swampy sites; land liable to the effects of heavy seas; land subject to termite infestation, etc.
ii) sites with dangerous surroundings: sites near factories with a high degree of air pollution, or near installations of high fire or explosive risk (gasometers, petrol tanks, explosive depots, etc.), or near possible strategic targets (airfields, major railway centres, etc.). Such sites should be rigorously avoided. Under no circumstances should an archivist agree to build a repository on a site with these major disadvantages.

There are other types of site which should as far as possible be avoided, but to which the same categorical prohibitions do not apply: sites near sources of noise (busy main road, railway station, factory); sites which would preclude future extensions to the repository either by reason of their limited area or because of town planning restrictions on the height of buildings. Sites which are difficult of access by reason of steep slopes or bad roads should, as far as possible, be avoided.

In any case, before deciding on any site whatsoever, the soil should be carefully surveyed and trial bored so as to avoid unpleasant surprises when digging of the foundations begins.

b) Definition of the best sites. If a repository principally intended for the preservation of historical archives is being built, it will be desirable to site it in the university quarter of the town; even more so if libraries and museums are intended to be near the archives, as is the practice in many countries.

If, on the other hand, the repository is for departmental records, it will be preferable to keep them near the centre of administration, which is usually in the heart of a town. Such a site is a prime essential if an administrative documentation centre is linked with the archives, to which officials of the administration must have easy access at all times.

This all seems very straightforward. Unfortunately, it most often happens that:

i) the same budding must house both historical archives and departmental records;
ii) available sites in town centres are scarce, very expensive and thus unsuitable for large archive repositories;
iii) university quarters are situated well away from city centres. To these considerations should be added the facts that students studying in different university departments, colleges and secondary schools must be able to attend the sessions of the educational service in the repository with ease; and that the frequent handling arising from the transfer and destruction of departmental records in administrative archive repositories is hardly practicable in the centre of a town.

The "ideal solution" then seems to vary, depending on whether one is talking of a small archive service or one on a vastly bigger scale.

In the first case, (repositories of between 15,000 and 20,000 linear metres run) every endeavour should be made to find a site in or reasonably near a town centre, easily accessible but sufficiently isolated to allow vans carrying records to turn round on the site with ease. A surface area of 800- 1000 sq.m. should suffice for this size of building and it should not be hard to find a suitably located site of this kind.

If, however, it is a question of a large and important archive service, it would be wisest - as has been said before - to distinguish clearly between:

i) current or very recent departmental records, which will either remain in the offices where they were produced or very near them;
ii) "intermediate" records, for which a records centre would be built or fitted out with fumigating facilities, large accession and weeding rooms etc. on the outskirts of a town;
iii) archive repositories properly so called, or "historical archives", situated near other buildings devoted to cultural activities (such as libraries, museums, universities, etc.) in a well equipped budding, where the headquarters of the service are located.

It is extremely important that if buildings to which the public has access are situated away from the centre of a town, they should be easily accessible by public transport; this should be a prime consideration in the choice of a site.

c) Is it satisfactory to house archives outside towns? Since, in the opinion of many people, archives are dead things, it is often suggested that they can be kept in the country, e.g. in an old castle or ecclesiastical building, far from a town, where land is cheap. The supporters of this point of view add that maximum isolation is thus ensured and as a result archives are protected, especially from wartime dangers.

Such a solution should be rigorously avoided. It can only end in the suffocation of the archive service, which will be cut off from contact with administration, historians and the learned public. Except in the case of services of the greatest importance (such as the Spanish national historical archive, whose presence in Simancas alone justifies the existence of a hostel in this small country town lost amid the plain of Old Castille), archives, in general, tend to be under-utilised if they are situated outside a town.

Of course, the establishment of "security" repositories in isolated places far from centres of population, intended solely for the storage of archives in wartime, may be envisaged. But such repositories should not be confused with permanent peacetime repositories; no one would think of exiling the Mona Lisa to the heart of the Auvergne mountains, or the pictures of the Metropolitan Museum in New York to the Rocky Mountains, or Tutenkamen's treasures to the middle of the Nubian Desert, under pretext of safety or security. Archives, like paintings, sculptures, and books are a part of a living culture; their place is amongst the people who create and use them.

It is always possible to leave the heart of an archive service in a town centre (offices, search rooms, catalogue rooms, etc., i.e. those parts of direct service to the public) and to spread the storage accommodation which is the most cumbersome part, out around the edges of the town. Such a solution is both practicable and acceptable, subject always to two essential conditions: -

a) that very regular and rapid communication between the various buildings is ensured by a service vehicle;
b) that in the strongroom block, along with accession, weeding and listing rooms and various workshops, there is an officer exclusively concerned with producing documents required in the other budding. It must be stressed that the division of the service between two widely separated buildings raises delicate operational problems and requires numerous staff.

Finally, specialised types of repositories, e.g. for security microfilm, are normally found on isolated sites, offering the maximum guarantee of safety against all foreseeable means of destruction.

d) Orientation of the buildings. Once the site has been chosen, thought must be given to the possible orientation of the budding (in so far as a choice is possible, which will depend on the shape and layout of the site).

Because of the dangers to documents from excessive sunlight, it is better to avoid giving strongrooms a direct southern aspect in the northern hemisphere or a direct northern aspect in the southern hemisphere.

In areas exposed to winds from the sea carrying humidity and salt or to hot, dry winds, it is undesirable to site strongrooms facing these winds, although their damaging effects can be lessened by good insulation against heat and humidity.

For search rooms and other working areas in general, that orientation which gives the best natural light should be sought.

7. Fourth choice: a building above or below ground?

The principal attribute of an archive repository is security, and it is tempting to ensure this to the maximum by burying the strongrooms below ground. Moreover, this solution has another attraction in that it is an economical use of a site, especially in a large town. Finally, protection against the hazards of war is inseparable from the idea of underground shelters.

These various reasons explain why, over the past three decades, many countries have either excavated new or adapted existing underground repositories. This solution merits close attention but it is only fair to point out that, despite the advantages mentioned above, there are two very considerable disadvantages:

i) the safe storage of archives underground requires constant ventilation and air-conditioning, which may very well be extremely expensive unless the land is dry, because of the danger of the infiltration of water and stagnation of air in subterranean areas;
ii) the possible dangers of electricity failures, negligible in the case of a repository above ground, are likely to be serious in an underground repository.

Again, unless an existing underground tunnel is used, the cost of an underground budding with the extensive excavations, lining and digging which will be involved, may well be greater than that for budding on the surface of the ground: economies in site costs will be largely counterbalanced by this expenditure.

If the primary consideration is to provide protection against the hazards of conventional warfare, normal underground construction will suffice (beginning some 3-4 in. under the surface, provided there is a satisfactory protective ceiling); if, however, protection against nuclear weapons is what is wanted, then, all available evidence suggests that extremely deep tunnels will be needed, well away from military targets; consequently, the problem here is very different.

In practice, such underground installations as tunnels excavated as wartime air-raid shelters, disused railway tunnels, mine galleries driven into the rock may be considered for use as archive stores, provided that all the necessary air-conditioning, emergency pumps, ventilation etc., have been installed and are in continuous operation: but such installations are usually at some distance from a town and their use will have the undesirable result of separating the archives from their users, which, as has previously been mentioned, should be avoided.

The location of archive repositories below ground, With a few exceptions, therefore, tends to be unsatisfactory, both from an operational and a financial point of view. It is quite usual, however, even desirable for an archive budding to have two or three underground floors, fitted out as strongrooms or areas of special security. Mobile shelving can be used here. In practically all modern office buildings (e.g. banks, headquarters of large undertakings, etc.) archives are stored underground in a perfectly satisfactory manner; but it should always be remembered that if this solution is to work properly, an air-conditioning plant is essential and this is expensive.

As to wartime security repositories, which have been alluded to earlier, they fall rather outside the scope of this present Manual. Every important archive service must have access to one of these in case of serious danger, situated well away from centres of population and military targets and built - or better excavated - to withstand modern weapons of war. The construction of such repositories should be gone into in conjunction with civil defence services in the general context of the protection of cultural property in time of war. Here the matter can be but briefly referred to.

8. Fifth choice: a horizontal or vertical building?

It has, for a long time, been traditional to build archive repositories at ground level. This is obviously the simplest solution with the fewest constructional problems.

However, the size to which major archive services have grown means that the surface area required is now considerable. To take an example: a repository with some 20,000 lin.m. of shelving of the conventional (non-mobile) type will have some 2,600 m. of gangways and passageways, a figure corresponding to the shelving of a medium sized repository. For a larger service, the figure would soon be 6,000 m., 8,000 m. or more.

It can thus be seen that it will be in the interests of the service to reduce gangways, and thereby surface area as much as possible, thus ensuring economical use of the site, which will almost always be costly in a town.

For these reasons, one is led more and more to think of constructing high-rise buildings. With modem architectural techniques these no longer present any difficulties and repositories of 20, 30 and even 40 stories are perfectly feasible. Here, most internal traffic is vertical, by way of lifts, thus eliminating the difficulties of manoeuvring trolleys along apparently interminable gangways.

It should, however, be noted that high-rise buildings need special foundations, which are generally very expensive. There is, therefore, no point in building "archive towers" as a matter of course; the solution to the problem depends on the price of land, the importance of the archives to be stored, the nature of the soil (a tower costs less to erect on rocky ground than on soft), etc. The working of the lifts should also be borne in mind: in the event of power cuts or break downs, the situation can become catastrophic; and it is by no means easy, outside a big town, to maintain and repair such sensitive lifts as those in a 20 or 30 storey building.

9. Sixth choice.- traditional framework or framework incorporating the load bearing uprights of the shelving as an integral part of the structure?

The use of metal shelving makes it possible for the architect to link together closely the framework of the shelving and that of the building itself, by using a building structure suitable for load bearing shelving.

The respective advantages of a traditional framework and one able to accomodate load bearing shelving are studied below. But it should be emphasised that it is at the stage of drawing up the plans that this choice will have to be made.

In effect, a framework to accomodate load bearing shelving requires, at all levels, a network of metal uprights in more or less close-set ranks, which governs the whole internal arrangement of the building. If working areas and strongrooms are placed one above the other, these uprights can cause serious functional problems, and, as a result, the whole plan of the building requires careful thought.

10. General plan of the building

A multi-purpose archive budding is composed of three (or four) basic elements:

1) Storage areas (strongrooms);
2) working areas for the staff;
3) areas open to the public (the offices of the director and his assistants fall between these two categories);
4) (possibly) official residence.

There is one fundamental principle to be observed in linking these different elements and drawing up the plan of the buildings: the strongrooms must be isolated from the rest of the building to ensure their protection against fire. This can be achieved either horizontally or vertically; put another way, the strongrooms can be built either physically separated from the other areas or separated from them by thick walls or placed above or below each other with fire resisting floors and ceilings.

The problems posed by such walls, floors and fireproof doors will be seen below. Here we need only consider the effects of this necessary isolation on the plan and general idea of the buildings.

The most simple way to ensure the separation of strongrooms from other areas is of course to build the strongrooms block on one side and on the other the administrative and technical block, connected only by corridors with fire resisting doors.

However, this solution is not always practical if only because of the large surface area it requires. The isolation of strongrooms can be equally well achieved by means of fire resisting walls within the same block of buildings (see plates 9b-d and 10a-b). It can also be achieved in vertical buildings by the use of fire resisting floors or ceilings.

Should strongrooms occupy upper or lower floors? It seems logical to place the heavier elements (strongrooms) in the lower parts of a budding; provided the lifts are adequate, working areas can then be on upper stories. This solution has the added advantage, in larger towns, of ensuring that offices, search rooms, etc. are furthest removed from street noises and polluted atmosphere. At street level or below would be areas for the reception and weeding of documents and certain workshops (see plate 11 b).

The other solution, which puts strongrooms above working areas, is technically feasible through the use of thick reinforced concrete floors supported by stout pillars. This allows working areas to remain at street level and avoids constant use of lifts.

The overall plan of the budding, then, depends on the shape and dimensions of the site and on the method adopted to separate the strongrooms from the other areas.

A traditional layout is L-shaped, with the strongroom block perpendicular or at right angles to the administrative and technical block. It is very satisfactory, as is the T-shaped layout which is similar (see plate 9c-d).

Using fire resisting walls where necessary, concentric, square or rectangular layouts can also be adopted, the centre or one side or one angle of a quadrilateral being occupied by strongrooms (see plate 9b).

If the budding consists of two blocks of strongrooms the most rational layout is either H-shaped or in the shape of a square U in which the median bar will represent the working areas (plate 10a).

If there are to be several strongroom blocks, a star shaped building will ensure the best operation of the service (plate 10b).

11. Provision for the future

No archivist can claim to have done his job properly, when building or adapting a budding for his service, if he has not provided for extensions sufficient for the foreseeable future.

It is impossible to forecast the need for such extensions in the abstract; it obviously depends on the rate and extent of accessions, Careful statistics should be kept, to ascertain:

1) volume of transfers received during the decade preceding construction or adaptation;
2) size of transfers refused in recent years through lack of space;
3) yearly rate of population growth of the town or province (this rate, more or less, will have its repercussions on the number of files dealt with by offices);
4) approximate quantity of documents to be destroyed each year.

Ideally, an archive budding should, from the time of its construction or adaptation be designed to meet the needs of at least the next 10 years; in addition to the racking needed to store holdings at the time of building or adaptation, enough for the foreseeable transfers of the next 20 years should be installed, allowance being made for the corresponding destruction. But twenty years is a short time in the future of an archive service; one must think even further ahead. Failing the initial construction of a building large enough to meet the needs of the next 50 to 100 years (and this would be excessively ambitious), provision for possible enlargement of both strongrooms and working areas should be made. This enlargement can be at ground level or vertically; in the latter case, provision should be made when the foundations are dug for future extra floors and weight to be placed on them.

In the absence of precise and detailed figures (a risky business anyway), it would be agreed, as a rule of thumb, that the potentiality of doubling the capacity of a repository would be looked upon as satisfactory.

<<TOC5>> The open plan and flexibility

H. Faulkner-Brown

Faulkner-Brown, Hendy, Watkinson, Stonor - Architects Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

Flexibility is one of the qualities in the requirements of a library building which has high priority in the hierarchy of its disiderata. Library planning requirements and qualities have changed during this century, slowly at first but more rapidly recently with the changing needs of libraries and library users. Although internal arrangements and library services vary from place to place, and from one type of library to another, recent libraries of all sizes have many common factors, which have been crystalised into the following ten desirable qualities - Faulkner-Brown's ten commandments. A library should be:

1 flexible	with a layout, structure and services which are easy to adapt;	
2 compact	for ease of movement of readers, staff and books;	
3 accessible	from the exterior into the building and from the entrance to all parts of the building, with an easy comprehensible plan needing minimum supplementary directions;	
4 extendible	to permit future growth with minimum disruption;	
5 varied	in its provision of book accommodation and of reader services to give wide freedom of choice;	
6 organised	to impose appropriate confrontation between books and readers;	
7 comfortable	to promote efficiency of use;	
8 constant in environment	for the preservation of library materials;	
9 secure	to control user behaviour and loss of books;	
10 economic	to be built and maintained with minimum resources both in finance and staff.	

These are the broad outlines of ten important qualities. Irrespective of size, these qualities can be applied in varying degrees. It is worth examining them in more detail.

FLEXIBLE

Flexibility of course does not mean that the structure is flexible and will bend or move under stress (that is reserved for the librarian). A flexible library building is one which permits flexibility in the layout of its planning arrangements, with structure, heating, ventilation and lighting arranged to facilitate adaptability. By arranging columns at regular spacing, or reducing the number of columns with long span beams, and by designing the floors to carry a superimposed live load of 150 lbs/ft² or 7.2 Kn/m² for bookshelf loading, it is easy to move departments, issue desks, bookshelves, reader places or other library functions to any part of the building. Better flexibility is achieved when floors are level, without steps, and when the heating, ventilation and lighting allow rearrangement without the need for any alterations and yet maintain an adequate environment. The planning arrangements can also be seen to be much more flexible if the number of walls in the building are reduced to a minimum, with the permanent walls concentrated in certain areas to form 'cores', containing the permanent features - stairs, lifts, toilets and ducts. Other walls, where security and privacy are absolutely essential, are not structural, and are designed to be demounted and erected elsewhere. The building and its components are designed to facilitate this. All other areas can be left open and by applying the well tried (but not universally accepted) experience of offices designed on 'burolandschaft' principles, visual and aural privacy are achieved very simply, with the bonus of much improved communications and supervision. The necessary visual privacy is achieved by varied furniture arrangements with bookshelves providing indigenous screening, and movable indoor planting additionally providing colour, a variety of forms and life to the interior.

Surprisingly, aural privacy is achieved by acoustic material on both the floors and ceiling, plus the introduction of an even level of ambient noise in the ventilation system. These factors ensure that noise levels of normal conversations are absorbed in a satisfactory manner, and are not distinguishable at distances of beyond 4 metres from source.

In an open-planned building designed flexible to cater to adaptations, relocation of departments and activities are achieved without having to resort to expensive contractual alterations, and the librarian is not inhibited from making changes or instituting experiments - they are achieved merely by moving furniture and bookshelves. If however the furniture is fixed or is built-in or built of brick, steel or reinforced concrete then it does present a more difficult problem. The furniture is immovable for all time, which assumes that needs will not change.

Furthermore it can be demonstrated that the open-plan flexible library can be economical in staff resources, since overseeing and informal control are faciliated by the openness rather than by dividing up the building into rooms or halls, thereby requiring less staff.

It has been demonstrated in many libraries that when shortage of recurring finance has resulted in severe inadequacies in staff numbers, whole departments of some libraries are unable to open because of lack of funds to employ staff (music departments are sometimes victims). In the case of open plan libraries, real economies in staff numbers can be made, without substantial reduction in library service. If the layout is planned so that staff are beneficially located to supervise and service more than one department, then the distressing conclusion to perhaps close, or in the case of a new library, not to open a particular department can be avoided. This will be assisted in an open plan library if, depending on size, the departments can be arranged contiguous with each other on the same level floor.

It can be seen therefore that the open plan has many advantages, that enclosed rooms disappear, or are drastically reduced in number, and that departments are in loosely defined areas, informally arranged in relationship to each other.

COMPACT

A compact building will assist the librarian in many ways. Theoretically travel distances will be reduced to a minimum if the building is a cube and on entry users are brought to the centre of gravity. Books, staff and readers will need to move shorter distances in a cubic building than in a linear building or one extended by moving away from a deep plan. There is also a bonus in economy of consumption of fuel and energy. This diagram compares deep and linear buildings of large floor area to demonstrate the difference in travel distance.

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P580.PNG Storey

ACCESSIBLE

The quality of lease of access' to the building and to the books is one to which much attention needs to be paid. An easy and inviting route to the entrance should also be unamibiguously defined. Once inside, the user should be aware of the location of the principal elements of the building - enquiries, the circulation desk, catalogues, tools for information retrieval, stairs, etc and the routes should be strongly stated without an over- proliferation of signs and direction.

EXTENDIBLE

Until recently all librarians and some architects have maintained that library buildings, especially academic libraries, are not finite. They should be capable of extension and land should be reserved for future expansion.

A most significant development in British academic libraries is the recent report of a working party on Capital Provision for University Libraries - the Atkinson Report. Among other things it recommends the adoption of the principle of a 'self renewing library of limited growth', and establishes new norms. This means that academic library buildings are to be finite with no provision for extension.

It is a commonly held view that every library building should be capable of extension, that the construction of the building will facilitate extension, and that at each stage of development the building should appear to be a complete entity. Naturally the choice of exterior materials and construction will be heavily influenced by this latter factor. The exterior wall of a library building can consist of a series of simple repetitive units which can be removed from the facade and re-used in an extended building. If the library is not extended it can stand in its present state as a finite, and apparently complete building. If the needs of the library change, the building can be changed reasonably easily. Some of the ten commandments can be bent, some diluted, but this one should not be abandoned.

VARIED

The variety of book and of user accommodation in a library adds interest to the interior but also provides for the many needs and preferences of the users. This will vary considerably depending on size, function and location.

ORGANISED

A principal quality or function of a library building is to organise the display of its library materials so that they are accessible and easily available. Simplicity in layout, arranged in an easily understood and inviting way is vital in both small and large libraries.

COMFORTABLE

Before beginning the design of a library, the librarian and the architect together should visit a large number of libraries of all types. It is important to observe how libraries are actually used. Photographs and notes should diligently record this, and will probably include many cherished photographs of sleeping users. Almost without exception they will have occurred in large libraries with antiquated or inadequate ventilation without air-conditioning. A fresh, constant temperature and humidity not only promote efficiency of use, it encourages use. In some climates discomfort is caused if windows in a large library are opened - heat, cold, dirt and noise are offered 'open-access' from the external environment.

In other climates, to achieve the desirable comfort conditions it is important and economic to use the free facility nature offers from the external environment and induce it into the building with controls to regulate it according to need. Generally speaking this applies to large library buildings, especially those with a deep plan, and to those where study conditions can be offered with a secure aural environment. In smaller library buildings and in those without a critical acoustic need or a book preservation problem, the normal local custom of building can produce acceptable comfort conditions.

Nevertheless, in all libraries a good standard of lighting is necessary - there is a lot to be said for an evenly maintained level of about 400 lux at the working plane throughout the public areas. This will be adequate for most needs, including the illumination of the book title on the lowest shelf.

CONSTANT IN ENVIRONMENT

Reserach into the preservation of library materials indicates that a constant environment is necessary, and when this requirement is linked to the former - comfort of the users, an unvarying level of illumination, heating, cooling, ventilation and acoustics will give the type of environment needed in a library. The wall should be considered to be an environmental filter or regulator. It should reduce heat loss in winter and solar gain in summer. It should keep out intrusive external noises yet provide windows for prospect.

SECURE

Security of the collections has always been of prime importance in libraries. The reduction of public access and egress to a single point well controlled by electronic or other means, the openness of planning to assist automatic overseeing of most areas goes some way to reduce the loss of books and to control the behaviour of users in many instances.

ECONOMIC

The energy crisis has hit all of us. Libraries can be expensive buildings to build and they can be expensive to run; in fact running costs have become a major financial consideration to librarians. In large libraries the deep compact plan requires long hours of artificial illumination and air-conditioning to create an even and constant environment. Every acceptable method must be examined to minimise cost without impairing service.

In the first instance, when designing a building, economy in running costs can be effected by reducing the surface of the exterior skin of the building (walls and roof) as much as possible, so that the ratio of wall area to floor area is low. A building form with a cube shape is the ideal, but may not suit the library planning needs. However it is important that the building shape is as close to a cube as possible.

Secondly, windows allow heat to pass out of the building in winter and to pass into the building in summer from solar penetration. Window openings should be as small as possible and as a guide the recommended total area of window should not exceed 25% of the total wall area. Shaping the exterior of the building. to provide shading for the windows can keep out solar penetration at the hottest part of the year, thereby reducing the cooling load in summer. There is no need to stress the importance of wall and roof thermal insulation.

Contrary to widely held belief, the great consumer of energy in a deep plan building in temperate climates is not the heating requirement in cold weather. Well insulated walls of minimum area are the only substantial source of heat loss. The centre part of the deep plan is not losing heat, since it is surrounded by a cocoon of warm air in the perimeter bay. In addition to the lighting the major consumers of energy are the fans to circulate air through the building and the refrigeration equipment to reduce the temperature in warm weather. The period when maximum energy is required is in hot weather with a full library, when the air-conditioning plant has to deal with high outside temperature, and with permanent artificial lighting to a high even standard.

If real economies in running cost are sought, then I suggest that a much closer look needs to be taken at the way in which our libraries are used. Some investigations on use carried out in three British University Libraries - Edinburgh, Newcastle and Nottingham - show the total weekly exit numbers recorded at the check-out points and give some indication of the intensity of use. The pre-examination revision period is highlighted in November and particularly in May. The most noteworthy factor is the understandable similarity of low use from June to October. This is the period when the air-conditioning has to work hardest to cope with high outside air temperature and solar gains on and through the building fabric.

The first question to ask librarians to consider is - when briefing the architect it is possible roughly to quantify the anticipated average occupation of the building during the hottest part of the year. If the occupancy is low the size of the refrigeration plant in most libraries can be modest.

The second question is - in a deep plan building do all the lights throughout the building have to be left on during the summer, or can there be some logical means of switching arranged so that maximum economy can be effected?

The third is that if librarians can arrange most of the reading space near the perimeter might it be possible to depend on daylight, and therefore, in open plan flexible buildings, could seating be rearranged accordingly?

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, it can be seen that many of the advantages of an open plan library building, designed to give a high degree of flexibility, is a requirement of modern library planning and needs no justification. This strong requirement should be balanced with the other requirements and qualities of a library building.

It is hoped that economies in initial capital and recurring annual running costs resulting from open plan library buildings will be an additional beneficial factor.

<<TOC5>> What space for the library? A discussion on the library building

Jacqueline GASCUEL and Marie-Françoise BISBROUCK

From now on, one can fairly say to all those wishing to be involved in library construction, 'Don't forget your Bisbrouck and Gascuel!' Two handbooks by these authors, published in spring 1984, have filled what had in recent years been a notable gap on the bookshelf.

The Bulletin des Bibliothèques de France (BBF) asked authors Jacqueline Gascuel and Marie-Françoise Bisbrouck to go further and compare their viewpoints on the problems of library construction. For example, how are free access and activities in the library actually organized? How should a library network be constructed? At a more general level, what makes up the service of which the building must be the embodiment? Questions of viewpoint will play as large a part in the discussion as questions of construction. And if a number of questions are left open at the end, this is because the debate over what a public library should be has not reached any final conclusion.

BBF: Today's debate has been occasioned by the publication of two books on public library construction.(1)

There had been virtually no literature available on the subject for years, and now two books have been published within a few weeks of each other! They are two very different books: Un espace pour le livre is presented as a handbook and as a stimulus for debate on the question while La Bibliothèque dans la Ville, published by the Direction du Livre et de la Lecture, is a coffee-table edition (large format, glossy laminated cover, with a wealth of very varied illustrations). Why two such different contributions? Could you explain your respective approaches? What kind of book was each of you trying to produce?

Marie-Françoise Bisbrouck: The origins of La Bibliothèque dans la Ville go back a long way, to discussions in the working group on municipal library construction which the national public library service set up in 1973-1974. One of the first results of the working group was the publication of guideline standards in 1975. A further factor was that over the past 12 years, 400,000 m² of municipal library space has been brought into use, three quarters of it in new buildings. It was important to take stock of these recent developments. It was the intention of the Direction du Livre for the book to be of interest to librarians, architects and local councillors alike, these, indeed, being the three groups you encounter in working meetings. We therefore wanted to produce a technical book which would provide them with a certain number of ideas we were constantly having to repeat, but without the book being too dry. We have therefore tried to make it an attractive book as well as a work of reference, and we have thus taken particular care over the general presentation and the indexes.

One part of the book is more 'political' and is aimed mainly at local government representatives. This is a statement of what a library is, how it works, who uses it, the necessity of providing adequate numbers of adequately qualified staff, etc. Another part of the book is aimed more directly at architects and provides technical information on such problems as lighting, floor coverings, working loads on floors, etc. We have also provided a certain number of reference points, giving complete data on 20 recent central and branch libraries which can be compared with each other in terms of completion time, building costs, etc. For each project we have listed the initial schedule, the technical solutions chosen, staff numbers and their respective qualifications; and of course we have included all the plans. Finally, all the factors that may have a part to play both prior to and after any library building scheme have been examined, viz. technical factors (furniture; mobile library), administrative factors (building regulations, grants), political factors (guideline standards and programmes per population group).

We were particularly keen to make this book a genuine instrument for library planning. Planning here means detailed consideration of the function of a library within the town and what one hopes to do, not merely to keep in line with official standards but also to mould the library as closely as possible to local conditions, as they are now and as they may develop in the future. I must say that on this point I have often been very disappointed. Tripartite teams (local councillors, librarians and architects) rarely manage to think up original projects taking account of each situation's specific features, and they hardly stray from the schemes suggested by the Direction du Livre. But libraries have changed over the past ten years and they will continue to change considerably in coming years.

Our book is, of course, a stock-taking of the present state of library development and it will one day be outdated. In view of current decentralization, in particular, I think it will need updating every three or four years; and other material should also be published which will show how the buildings have evolved, how the users have made the buildings their own and how and why, over time, they have changed the interiors.

Jacqueline Gascuel: It is no accident that our two books came out at the same time. Both are the result of joint discussion by the 1973-1974 working group, of which I too was a member. When I saw nothing had been published I set to work; I made a plan and submitted it to Jean-Pierre Vivet and Françoise Bony, who gave my project immediate encouragement and agreed to publish the book. In fact the book had been brewing for a long time, ever since the opening of Massy public library in 1971. At the time, this was one of the first purpose-built public libraries. It represented a particular view of reading by the general public and it was much visited by local councillors, librarians and architects. It was from these conversations in 1972-1974 that the book was born. The actual writing was done much later, and was spread over several years. Writing this kind of book on your own is like ploughing a field - you plough half a furrow a day, and then three years later when the last furrow is ploughed, you can see the weeds growing again in the first one!

The book is aimed at a many-sided type of readership. Firstly it is aimed at local councillors and all those involved with them in library building. But above all I was writing for librarians and architects. For librarians, the approach is more subtle. I have tried to make the book educational. It's a guide for librarians faced with a building problem and it also pleads a cause. It may constitute an argument that will make local authorities decide to build. That is why the tone of the book is in parts somewhat impassioned. Given the practical objectives adopted, it was hard for me to do much with the presentation. There are photos, obviously, and there are also diagrams and drawings that say more than lots of words. I have staked most on readability and humour, with eye-catching chapter titles and headings and an amusing choice of illustrations.

New and different

BBF: In a word then, one book is a work of reference and the other a guide. But despite this difference, both have been equally successful and their first editions will soon be out of print. What we find particularly interesting is the 'new look' that comes out of both books - free-access layout, organized activities, a children's service and record libraries. These all make up a fairly original pattern of organization. In most cases they are departments which are compartmentalized and sharply differentiated. Can one speak of French library design as being different from design in Scandinavia or the English-speaking countries, where all these different parts are generally brought together in one area?

JG: I wouldn't put the question in those terms. What counts first of all is the size of the library - you do not treat 500 m² of floor space in the same way as 5,000 m². The first stage in arranging the departments is obvious. You begin by separating the child and the adult reader. The next step is to divide according to the type of material - a record library for example or, more and more often, an audio-visual library. This is basically for ease of management. I know, of course, that some people argue for a multi-media classification, but let's not deceive ourselves all the same. In the Pompidou Centre library, records are classified under 780, which is music. There may be a few in other places - records of birdsong under Zoology for instance - but there are very few like that. But we shouldn't be talking about the Pompidou Centre library. It doesn't lend and is really more of a documentation centre than a library. At Cambrai, which is organized along similar lines, I don't think the multi-media classification has fundamentally changed things.

MFB: I agree absolutely. I'd like to add one thing, though. In the guideline programmes proposed by the Direction du Livre there are indeed these three sections, but no-one has ever said they should be separated or compartmentalized. In point of fact in most cases they are, but this has never been a point of doctrine or in any way compulsory. On the contrary, I have often put up a fight on the problem of the adults, section, to get rid of this paralysing separation between lending and reading.

But while there is no doctrine, there is a certain logic. To bring the adults' library, the children's library and the record library together in the same area, you have to spend a lot on the acoustics and sound absorption devices (ceilings, flooring and wall coverings). If you just slap on a coat of paint, you create a vast echo-chamber and you head straight for disaster. Personally, rather than have all three sections in a single area I think you should create a visual unity between them. You should create a building that is very easy to interpret and consider the signposting question in detail. This is because the different readers have their own different ways of using the library.

Free access v. reserve stacks

BBF: What is clear from your two books is that free access is now the key concept where public libraries are concerned. Could you give us your views on what type of organization of free access follows logically from your approach? To begin with, do you think there is a quantitative limit to free access?

JG: I am sure there is. It isn't possible to have free access to everything. You have to watch how many books and how much other material you offer the public, how relevant they are and how you can help the readers to find their way. That, incidentally, is why I am not against setting up young people's sections which would have lively easily-accessible books certain to attract them. When you provide free access to your collections you have to provide a certain number of reference-points. And once free access reaches a certain scale, it becomes necessary to distinguish different levels of accessibility. At the Pompidou Centre, new publications are all together in a separate 'Salle d'actualité'; the Part-Dieu library in Lyon does the same, though its selection is different. Big English libraries I have visited are often split up into departments given over to one subject or a group of related subjects. I have also seen paperback corners there, and what are called the near stacks - a store-room open to the public where less frequently-consulted books are kept. Different levels of access, then, and not an undifferentiated mass of books, which some readers would find baffling.

MFB: I am not sure there is an upper limit to the amount of reading matter you can have freely available. I think it is more a question of architecture and interior layout and design. Within the free-access area there must be varied zones and areas and they must be clearly signposted. I have always been struck by the poor presentation of the collections in English libraries I have visited. They have an enormous amount of material, but they really are like walk-in warehouses - miserable places.

BBF: So how do you see periodicals and information services being handled?

JG: No magazine room! I'm against that.

MFB: So am I. I've never seen them as necessary.

BBF: What do you do with periodicals then?

Newspapers, journals, magazines, etc.?

JG: To put it simply, let's say there are three categories of periodicals. There are the dailies, which are a way of bringing people into a library. Then there are the magazines, which I would include under the lending section, and then you have the scientific journals, etc. Not to mention the children's comics. This doesn't all necessarily have to be in the same place.

MFB: Yes, that's true. You have to look carefully at the different kinds of periodicals. The daily press and light magazines I would tend to put at the library entrance. The more serious periodicals, on the other hand, can be kept with the books under the same subject. In my view, the information service ought also to be near the entrance, but that said, I think a distinction must be made between quick-reference material - telephone directories, railway timetables, etc. - and access to reference books like bibliographies, dictionaries of all kinds, catalogues, etc. An appropriate location also has to be found for old stock and specialized reference material.

JG: I think in fact you have to make an assessment of the different kinds of reading matter and find a point of balance where they intersect. Documentary research requires a modicum of quiet, the information service is by definition noisier and more animated, and the reserve stacks where press files and a variety of instalment publications are kept are different again. In fact there is an increasing tendency for libraries to become documentation centres which search periodicals and build up files. This was an aspect that was barely taken into account at all before the early 1970s. In my opinion, it is no coincidence that in 1975, the Direction du Livre had to re-assess the amount of room allotted to the stacks in its suggested library plans, and that amount will have to be increased again!

BBF: In a word, what is happening is a rehabilitation of the stacks?

JG: Yes, of course. That's how history works! In the 1970s we started off with such a catastrophic situation for the public libraries that we had to proclaim the free-access principle loud and clear. Many of the libraries opened at that time had no reserve stacks, or only very small ones. Since then they have increased their collections and filled all the shelves in their public-access areas. It's only now that the question of bringing the free-access stocks up to date is becoming acute - hence the resurgence of interest in reserve stacks. For my own part, I think there is a future for intermediate-access 'near stacks' - even if very few have been scheduled to date - and for reserve stacks in general!

MBF: Yes. In the 1970s it was essential to change the image of the library and you have to remember that in the preceding period it was not unusual to schedule a stack capacity of 400,000 books, not including old stock, for a town with a population of 50,000! Obviously, there has been quite an abrupt change of course!

Taking the long view, a library clearly cannot be geared purely to consumption, like the Pompidou Centre where the collections are disposed of after five or six years. On the other hand, so long as there is no concerted national or regional policy on disposal and conservation, the libraries at the bottom of the system still have to face the problem in its entirety. It must not be forgotten that their tasks nevertheless include conservation.

BBF: The corollary to free access is often theft. Do you think anti-theft arrangements must be provided for right from the planning stage of a new library?

MBF: We never make it compulsory. We inform the decision-makers - the local authorities - and they are the ones who decide. This type of decision does have to be taken very early on. A surveillance system affects the whole organization of the areas open to the public and means they have to converge on one point near the entrance. One thing must be said. When detection systems began to be discussed a few years ago, librarians were quite against the idea. They thought the introduction of these systems could only tarnish the image of their libraries, which was based on attractiveness, openness and the welcome extended to the public. Now, with anti-theft systems a commonplace in many shops and stores, I think these objections only come up occasionally. You can mention the idea of installing these systems now without the idea being rejected.

JG: Personally I don't think anti-theft systems are very effective, although I have at times recommended them. I think they only have a limited effect, on a few irresponsible people. I doubt if they ever stopped any real thief.

MFB: That's a bit sweeping! These systems must be effective to some extent; the best proof of that is how widespread they are. And after all there are fewer determined thieves than you think!

JG: They exist, though… and for them there are a thousand and one ways of getting round these systems! Personally I have great faith in the compulsory cloakroom on the way in, where bags must be left. There are other possible dissuasive measures, it seems to me, such as having a photocopier available to the public; having the toilets accessible only from the entrance hall and not from the reading rooms - a position which can make it easier to cut books up. In any case, with or without a detection system, theft prevention is quite a complex issue and must be considered right from the planning stage. In addition, that is the stage at which it could get subsidies!

The shift towards a variety of purposes.

BBF: Along with free access, the other feature that has come out on top is organized activities, with a whole range of areas given over to them: multipurpose rooms, rooms for group work, auditoriums, children's areas, entrance halls, etc. But this multiplicity of areas perhaps hides a degree of uncertainty as to their use, especially where the multipurpose rooms are concerned, which are far less multipurpose than their name suggests if we are to believe Jacqueline Gascuel.

JG: The organization of areas for wider activities depends first and foremost on the size of the building. That said, I don't have much faith trying to house a varied range of activities such as lectures, film shows, exhibitions, music and drama in the same area. They all have different technical requirements in terms of natural or artificial lighting, acoustics and equipment, not to mention arrangements to allow for movements of the public. Furthermore, when there is a lecture and an exhibition, they often happen at the same time on the same topic. They can hardly be accommodated in the same area, however multipurpose it may be. Whenever I discuss variety of purpose with a colleague I am aware of the problems it raises. The outcome is that multipurpose rooms are under-used or else converted to one specific use. This applies to the group-work rooms as well. They are included in the plans because they are in the Direction du Livre programmes, but once the building is up, nobody knows what to do with them. I know of a number of cases where rooms have been converted to other uses.

MBF: Converted from what to what?

JG: In one case a group-work room was converted into an office, in another into a periodicals store-room, although that meant using the storeroom for group work! I have also seen children's workshops turned into offices. Many changes occur which we do not know about. There really ought to be some surveys carried out to assess the use of new library buildings after five years.

BBF: One thing is striking there. The conversions you describe were to meet the library's internal needs. Is that symbolic in some way?

MBF: Of course these changes of use should be studied more closely, but I'd like to stress one obvious but little-noticed basic point. Given the time lag between the planning of a building and its public opening - four or five years at least - it is rare for the same team to follow the operation through from start to finish. Only too often there is no librarian at all involved in the first phase, the planning and design. Hence the hesitations, misunderstandings and inadequate discussion and dialogue at this stage. In the final stage, the team then in place assesses what has been done. Inevitably, it has different ideas as regards organization of work, office layout, activities policy. And imagine how things are when there's a change of team at the town hall!

JG: That observation has far-reaching implications. When a new team takes over a building, it wants to make its mark. Every change in management means a change in use patterns.

MBF: A partial change, I hope! But there is another point I would like to emphasize. Libraries are often planned by local authorities with completely unrealistic estimates of the staff numbers required to run them. Completely unrealistic. To mention just one example. One day I was told that things had been done on too big a scale in building an 850 m² branch library for a district of 20,000 people. I then discovered, however, that there were only three people to run the branch whereas at least twice that number were really needed. In cases like that, even if there was no planning error at the outset, assessment errors can only lead to poor functioning - especially in those departments the local authority has least understood: record library, multipurpose rooms, children's activity rooms, etc.

JG: I am even more pessimistic. I think that of all local authority amenities, the library is the one the most acutely understaffed. I often notice that small communes manage by some miracle to find the money for community activities organizers, but never for librarians!

BBF: Perhaps that's symbolic too…

JG: Yes, no doubt it is. It has to be admitted that the librarian is a distributor first, an activities organizer only second. We generally have no training in organizing collective activities. We do not have the time and we are not always attracted by it. This is certainly another reason for the under-use of areas allocated for activities. The first thing to do is to organize activities jointly with other teams in the cultural field, break out of the isolation of the library and create integrated cultural centres.

Isolation in integration

BBF: In that case, a solution to the problem is on its way, since a quarter of new libraries are already installed in integrated facilities. You can find arrangements of all kinds: facilities simply sited next to each other; juxtaposition, with the different facilities opening off a common entrance hall; or certain shared and jointly run areas. In your view, what degree of integration is most desirable? Should a brake be put on the fashion for integration or should it be encouraged?

MBF: It's true, there is a lot of talk about integrated facilities and a large number are being created. As a rule this means a cultural centre with library, theatre, exhibition halls, a museum, and perhaps even a music school or workshops. You can also find examples of integration with administrative offices or shopping centres. At the end of the day, I suspect each facility is in fact run more or less autonomously. There are no doubt opportunities to exchange halls or organize exhibitions jointly, but I don't think there is any systematic organization, several times a year, of major collective events.

On the other hand, integration with a school seems to me a far more difficult issue. Whether it involves working more closely with a middle school library or the documentation/information centre of a technical school or high school, it's generally the public library that loses out. Unfortunately there have been a number of examples where, bit by bit, one lot of readers has driven out the other until the library has become completely integrated into the running of the school and is closed to the public during school hours.

JG: Yes, integration with schools can lead to problems. You just have to think of the experiment at Yerres, for example. That said, I'm still in favour of integration. First of all, it is a way of resolving the under-use of collective activity areas. Secondly, collaboration with other facilities is necessary if you want to renew and diversify the libraries' clientèle. Some people claim that every major organized event brings a new and different clientèle to the library and that's quite possible, after all.

Certainly integration poses a human problem since it's much easier to manage your own establishment in your own corner than to take part in collective management. One of the effects of decentralization on schemes for the provision of facilities might in fact be to create the conditions for collective debate about what constitutes cultural policy, and to foster innovative experiments. In fact, the success of integration very largely depends on local government policy and the personality of the person in charge - who must not at the same time be the director of any of the facilities concerned,- so not the librarian. Collective management on a day-to-day basis can be difficult to live with. Plans and schedules have to be drawn up far in advance to avoid conflicts. And of course the library and the music school will both need the shared auditorium at the same time - on Saturdays, in the evening, or on Wednesdays if you are working with children. It's true there have not been many convincingly successful experiments.

BBF: There are the people, of course, but there are also the premises, and more and more integrated facilities are being built. It's time to express a point of view.

JG: Mine is quite clear. In spite of everything, I am still in favour of integrated solutions and I would add one very simple reason to those I have already put forward. An integrated facility often means a whole army of activity organizers with whom It Is Interesting to work. To quote just one example, the Pierre Bayle Cultural Centre in Besançon has created a whole documentation centre with searches of periodicals. If something like that could be put alongside the library, it would be of enormous value!

MFB: But you say 'put it alongside'. In fact, it's no longer a question of integration here but of juxtaposition, with, of course, the possibility of collaboration between departments. I have far more faith in that, finally, than in the physical integration of different areas. And in my opinion, being neighbours is all the more neighbourly if you can shut the door whenever you choose! Really and truly, the most effective collaboration does not necessarily stem from bringing the facilities together. It depends first and foremost on the personalities of those involved.

JG: Juxtaposition makes it possible to do without certain things such as the children's workshop. If there is an art and crafts workshop next to the children's book section, run by an activities organizer, that organizer will do much more effective work than a librarian could. Every time I take part in some group activity I have to acknowledge the activity organizer's technical skills - or, only too often, I have to regret that we have no activities organizer. Where organized activities are concerned, integration seems to me a good way of providing for the future.

Development: from theory to practice

BBF: Providing for the future when you are putting up a building also means ensuring a degree of flexibility, a real possibility of converting areas at a later date. After what we have already said, I think this is vital.

JG: But don't be misled - flexibility is never total. The Pompidou Centre library planned for absolute flexibility - but it's never really the case. Too much flexibility produces very unwelcoming areas of space. One can, however, plan for limited flexibility e.g. recovering part of the stack space if it is not self-contained, increasing or reducing the different sections by a unit here or there.

I have spoken of developments due to changes of team. There are also time-related developments. Collections grow, there are more shelves and more people working in the library, and so on. You have to bear that in mind and avoid setting up over-specialized areas that will make the library inflexible right from the planning stage. It seems to me this aspect has been grasped better in municipal cultural centres, where the facilities offer greater possibilities for adaptation.

MBF: I think we simply must go for maximum flexibility, but I also think this is only possible if you are building from scratch. Converting existing or old buildings raises a problem we have already seen and will see again, of libraries that cannot be adapted because two-thirds of their walls are load-bearing walls. It has to be realized that this kind of inflexibility is one of the main limitations on conversion schemes.

Sometimes there are other reasons why a conversion scheme cannot be carried out. For example, it may not be possible to convert the stacks to public-access space because it would mean making doors and windows and would create visibility problems. So there is a whole series of external restraints limiting the opportunities for development or extension. They are complex factors involving both 'internal' elements connected with the construction (layout, communications between floors, ceiling height, floor load, stacks) and external elements concerning the site (site configuration, town planning restrictions, the architectural choices made). All this needs to be closely examined from the start of the scheme.

BBF: Do you think systematic provision should be made for future extension?

MFB: I wouldn't put the question in those terms. Of course there are times when you plan a scheme in two stages, but the question seems to me to arise primarily in terms of land. It's rare, especially with central libraries, for there to be any real possibility of extending the site since libraries of this kind are sited in the busiest part of the town. There is also the architectural side; the architecture of some buildings does not allow of any extension.

I know few libraries which have been planned on a two-stage basis and still fewer in which the second stage has actually been carried out. There may be perfectly good reasons for this - demographic reasons for instance - but the basic question is a political one. The deciding factor is the political will in the town hall at the outset.

JG: There is another problem that has to be solved. Is it better to extend an existing library or, once a certain threshold has been reached, is it not better to build a new one somewhere else?

Library networks: myth and reality

BBF: Exactly. We would very much like your viewpoint on the library network, its organization and the role of branch libraries. Which service, in your view, should be closest to the public? How can a genuine network be created? At the present time there are many different kinds of branch library.

MBF: Because they have all been planned according to their context. There are cases like Charleville-Mézières where functions normally carried out by the central library, such as the mobile library service, the technical management of the collections, and the storage of some of the old stock, were devolved to the Ronde-Couture branch, although in the initial plan this was intended as a temporary arrangement due to the present operating conditions at the central library.

JG: That is a perfectly satisfactory type of arrangement. It's the Grenoble pattern, and it seems to me an excellent one when the central library premises are old or unsuitable but are well-sited and have a certain prestige. Personally I do not see any drawback to running the mobile library or organizing purchasing away from the town centre.

MBF: Yes,, it is possible, but that doubling up can have considerable repercussions! I am thinking in particular of the book processing sequence choice, ordering, recording, cataloguing, indexing, distribution - it is far more economical and rational to centralize all these operations in one place. Bringing all these technical jobs together is vital when you are organizing a network and is one of the prime reasons for doing so. Which does not mean that the branch library staff should have no say in the technical jobs.

JG: Yes, you're right in an absolute sense. But in practice, centralized purchasing is something of a trap. At the present time it is far easier, and can be cheaper, to go and buy the current best seller from your local bookshop and make out a quick card for it than to fill in order forms, check in different files whether it has not already been ordered, purchased or catalogued elsewhere, and then wait for the group purchase and processing to go through. I think the service to the public benefits by local purchase and is more reliable at the end of the day. Of course, I am looking at things only from the point of view of day-to-day purchases, not of establishing a starting stock and still less of real-time automated management. In the future, such management should be able to change things.

MFB: It certainly will change things. I'm thinking particularly of the possibility of sharing cataloguing jobs among different points in the network. But in the immediate future, the autonomy you speak of can still only lead to wate. I'm against it.

JG: But I think centralization right across the board is a bit of an illusion; not can I see very clearly how it could work for the very large networks.

BBF: What about the service to the public? Which aspects should be given priority? Do you see branch libraries mainly as distribution points, meeting places or places for organized activities? Or must they provide all the services a central library provides, but on a neighbourhood scale?

MFB: I would say all three. There is no reason for restricting a branch library to lending activities. It should offer reading space, a record library and even a multipurpose room. In a word, a branch library should be a small version of a central library, on the same scale as its local community.

JG: In my view, this depends primarily on the neighbourhood, the town plans and cultural policy. You cannot have a theory about this.

BBF: But there is a theory! It's reflected in the Direction du Livre standards, even if these are not compulsory. We have already said that the two principles of the library network are decentralization of services to the public and centralization of technical tasks. The whole problem is to identify which of the library's functions should be closest to the public: lending of books, lending of records, an information service, or organized activities? Also, for example, many new branch libraries are much smaller than the models suggested in the standards. In Grenoble and Paris, the children's and adults' departments are separate. Fully independent record libraries have been built.

JG: Personally I am not against setting up small branch libraries of 100 or 150 m² focusing on book lending and organized activities. It is also quite feasible to have a branch for children only. Obviously it is not a very good idea to isolate the children's service, as the librarians in charge will complain they are being kept in a ghetto. But, in spite of everything, it may be the best solution for neighbourhood branches in some cases. Children up to about ten have only very limited autonomy and mobility.

MFB: I'm rather against both solutions myself! If both adults and children are being accommodated in a very small branch library, there is inevitably competition between them and neither is satisfied. Sooner or later a second branch has to be opened, and this dispersal leads to staff wastage and too restricted a choice of books in both branches.

The bookshop model: emulate or avoid?

BBF: Let's consider what the public have to say. The survey on the image of municipal libraries in France(2) shows that 32 per cent of those asked thought the ideal library should be laid out like a bookshop, 26 per cent thought it should be laid out as a place for study and 39 per cent as a place to relax in. What is your view? What is the image you would most like to see projected?

MFB: I don't really know. The basic thing to my mind Is that it should be welcoming, and simultaneously but separately a place to relax in. But you have to provide different areas to suit the different users, motivations: study, information seeking, leisure, recreation, discussion.

In any case, a bookshop design is not what I would think of first! That suggests either the traditional bookshop, which is worse than a nineteenth century reference library, or some very big modern bookstores like FNAC where books and people alike are so crowded it is impossible to find anything without asking a sales assistant, and there are practically no sales assistants. In a word, sheer chaos!

JG: I don't agree with you. Of course you have to draw on all three models, but I think there is much to be learnt from bookshops including FNAC. FNAC's enormous stock is an invitation to be a consumer, and this is done with the simplest of means: dense but varied furniture, the general layout, with those compartments that successfully give a sense of being both open and private; lighting built into the shelving; good signposting. All these are points we should be thinking about. You say FNAC can't be a model for a library. Perhaps it can't, but many people regard it as an ideal place to read in. Crowds draw crowds. Look at the Pompidou Centre too!

MFB: Yes, of course you can pick up ideas like the compartmented structure, but really I don't think FNAC or any other bookshop can be seen as a model for any library! I would almost say it is a contradiction in terms!

JG: At any rate, there is food for thought there.

BBF: In practical terms, what lessons can you learn from it for interior design, signposting, furniture?

JG: A lot. The first is the relationship between furniture and lighting. The lighting system build into the bookshelves, in my view, is a wonderful asset. Obviously it's costly and reduces flexibility.

MFB: It's the only way of providing high lighting quality, though. There ought to be more of it.

JG: As regards interior design - signposting, lighting, colour-schemes, furniture - I think an interior designer counts for a lot. You can tell at once if a designer has worked on a building! In many libraries, the components that make up an interior are not all really under control. The whole thing needs to be thought about by the architectural team.

BBF: Should the choice of furniture be an interior designer's job then? Are there examples where furniture designed by the architect is a success from both aesthetic and functional points of view?

MFB: I don't think the interior designer should be given the job of designing the specific furniture. Obviously both architect and interior designer must be involved in the choice of furniture. They should be consulted repeatedly on all aspects of colour-scheme, flooring, wall coverings, lighting, etc., but you must not ignore the special library furniture that exists on the market and properly fulfils the functions it was designed for.

To have furniture (shelving, record racks, lending desks, filing cabinets) specially designed and made by an architect or interior designer seems to me both expensive - it works out at twice the cost - and dangerous. Incredible catastrophes have been concocted in the name of design harmony, not only on the functional level but aesthetically as well. I know architects who have literally ruined their own building designs with furniture they have designed themselves. I personally know of no example that has been a success both functionally and aesthetically.

JG: I do: the Joie par les livres library in Clamart. The furniture there is functional and well suited to the building. The whole thing forms an integrated whole. Clamart is an exception of course, but I'm convinced there is still work to be done on the furniture question. In children's libraries especially, research has produced results that are amusing but not very functional. Bookshops have furniture that is both.

MFB: Generally speaking, I think present-day library furniture is fairly well suited to its use. It is perhaps on the layout side that a revolution is needed.

Squaring the circle

BBF: Your opinions seem to diverge on that point. The standards recommend 3 metres between shelves, whereas Jacqueline Gascuel prefers 2.10 metres, for example. This is not just a question of centimetres. It also involves the kind of library that you are putting stress on - a place of relaxation on the one hand or the bookshop, model on the other. Could you tell me what you think about the relationship between the architectural layout and the working layout? I imagine floor area is affected first and foremost, since the basic working layout determines the architectural layout.

MFB: Not really. We decided on that spacing in order to have space at last to display our collections - it wasn't connected with the architectural layout. We started out from the principle that the book display we see in French free-access libraries is always cramped. We hoped to make possible an arrangement of space that would allow people to find what they were looking for without trampling on each other.

JG: I don't quite agree there. It is difficult to increase, and still less to double shelving density when you start with 3-metre spacing. But this is what happens sooner or later in all the buildings arranged in-that way, as I know very well. It is difficult when the placing of the light fittings, windows, gangways and pillars has been designed in terms of the shelving density decided at the outset, and this implies a poor use of floor space. It's a waste of floor space and volume which you have to try and put right afterwards.

MFB: But that has nothing to do with the layout. It's only a means of calculation.

JG: Even so, the positioning of the furniture has to take the pillars into account! St Quentin-en-Yvelines has quite a small hexagonal layout and a veritable forest of pillars. This required a whole research exercise, resulting in a very interesting star-shaped layout. The same thing with the Ronde-Couture branch library in Charleville-Mézières where things are arranged in a fan shape in harmony with the structure of the building. On the other hand, if you reproduce this kind of layout in a rectangular building you waste no end of space.

MFB: There is one point I would like to make. Buildings whose layout is circular or polygonal (hexagonal, triangular or whatever) may be very interesting from an architectural standpoint but they call for a greater floor area than a square or rectangular building would need to provide the same amount of shelf space, seating and reception space.

JG: Do you think so? I would have thought the circle was the ideal form for storage space.

MFB: Oh no! It's obvious. A triangle by definition produces a mass of acute angles where you can put nothing but potted plants!

The library as a beacon

BBF: In any case, it's very fashionable. A whole field of architectural research has developed around libraries. There are ambitious, original buildings that really announce the library's presence in the town. What do you think of this trend? Should it continue or would it be better to integrate the library more into its environment? I think discussion is already going on this issue.

MFB: It must be said that for decades, libraries were never housed in purpose-designed buildings. They were set up in town halls, schools, former municipal baths, churches - never in buildings designed as libraries. Once you do begin to build libraries as such, it seems to me the building ought to have a certain style, it ought to play some kind of role as a cultural beacon. There is no reason to treat it shall we say in a common way, putting up a mere cube or a soap box. I get a real pleasure seeing libraries like Cholet or Belfort. They are buildings that provoke a reaction in everyone.

JG: Those are both libraries that I like too, but that doesn't stop me admiring a good renovation like Nevers. That said, while Nevers is very attractive, I am not sure it is completely functional. That will have to be assessed in a year or two.

MFB: I'm in favour of the beacon library, but on one precise condition. You must not have architecture for architecture's sake, regardless. Unfortunately I know several cases of new libraries which are very eye-catching indeed but have taken absolutely no account of the functions of a library, so that these have to be fitted as best one can into the shell of the building, split up between six floors or even more! Now, of course, I don't agree with that at all.

BBF: What can you do in a case like that, then? It must be fairly common for a local authority to give the architect free rein, with the librarian either absent or bypassed.

JG: Especially in small towns, I've often noticed. Now that the Director of the Bibliothèque centrale de prêt is able to provide subsidies, he can take advantage of this to give some advice as well. The regional authorities can also give advice.

MFB: Provided there is a competent librarian. Central government departments have often acted both as a driving force and as a restraining influence, and I think that, within the framework of decentralization, a study group on libraries ought to be kept at central State level.

JG: But the advisory role must at all costs be decentralized and made a reality. Libraries are being built in masses, with or without government aid.

MFB: Practically no big ones have been built without government aid over the past ten years.

A hazy future

BBF: Since you are both of the view that its architecture must confer a certain prestige on the library, I would like to know what you think of the Pompidou Centre, the most prestigious library of all? What do you think of the way that library is arranged?

MFB: To my mind the Pompidou Centre library plays a thoroughly ambiguous role in that it does not lend and its readers are 60 per cent university people. But oddly enough, local government representatives who visit it don't notice this ambiguity. They notice the free-access aspect, the audiovisuals, the masses of users. In all these spheres it has led the way, but its role is an ambiguous one.

JG: It has also contributed a great deal to upgrading the image of the public library, which until then had been seen as dim and boring. We should thank it for that!

BBF: But as regards the premises and the amenities it offers? It is surely a reference point - for good or ill - for the installation of video services and for a multimedia classification split up entirely among the different subjects.

JG: I'm not against multimedia classification myself. I just say it is not very different from the rest. If libraries want to go multimedia, let them do so. Why not? That won't prevent the Pompidou Centre from being the first to show how a library can fail!

BBF: That's a gloomy view!

JG: The books are never in the right order, it's impossible to find a place to sit and I believe the rate of disappearance for periodicals reaches 50 per cent after a few months. The only solutions to these problems are technological - microforms or videodisks, remote transmission, etc.

MFB: For my part I think that experiments with the new technologies will now be even more interesting and conclusive at the Media Library at La Villette.

BBF: Let's close on this question of new technology. In your view, what impact will the new technologies have on tomorrow's libraries, and how do you see the libraries of the future?

JG: Ask Nostradamus! Seriously, I think it is difficult to answer that question. In the very short term, obviously, library furniture will have to undergo some changes. I'm thinking of racks for compact disks, for example.

MFB: The day we can consult all the world's data banks from home, we will obviously no longer need libraries for information searches. But we shall still be reading novels, and we shall still need places to meet people and for organized activities. I like architecture and I hope there will always be libraries to inspire good architecture.

JG: In any event, architects will inevitably have to build the monuments of their time.

Bibliography

1. Marie-Françoise Bisbrouck, La Bibliothèque dans la Ville, Ed. Direction du Livre et de la Lecture, Paris. Editions du Moniteur, 1984, 294 pp.

Jacqueline Gascuel, Un Espace pour le Livre, Paris Cercle de la Librairie/Promodis, 1984, 332 pp.

2. Cf. ‘L’expérience et l’image des bibliothèques municipales’, in Bulletin des Bibliothèques de France Vol. 25, No. 6, 1980, pp. 265-299.

<<TOC3>> 7. Evaluation and change

<<TOC4>> 7.1 Evaluating effectiveness

<<TOC5>> Evaluating the effectiveness of a library: a theoretical and methodological framework

André Cossette
Collège de Trois-Rivières Library
Quebec Province
Canada

The author proposes a theoretical and methodological. framework for studies to evaluate the effectiveness of libraries. Systems analysis, the principles of which are explained, is the most frequently adopted approach in studies of this kind in the information sciences. There follows a definition of microevaluation, which employs indicators of effectiveness as the basis for a rigorous self-evaluation by a library of its results and the quality of its products and services. The author concludes with a critical analysis of the philosophies of the 'library-college' and 'media centre', which do not identify the teaching library with a documentation system.

One of the current priorities of organization management is to evaluate and control the quality of the products and services supplied to customers. In the education sector particularly, evaluating the various components of the education system is a major concern. Librarians and other documentation specialists have not therefore been bypassed by the universal phenomenon of evaluation. Over the past 15 years or so a considerable body of theoretical studies and empirical research work on the evaluation of libraries and documentation centres (information retrieval systems) has been produced, making this one of the most highly developed sub-branches of the information sciences.

De Prospo notes that libraries are the most advanced of all public-sector institutions in the evaluation and measurement field and that all such institutions would do well to follow the models developed by documentation-science specialists with regard to controlling the quality of their services. The recent work by Lancaster, which examines a fair number of evaluation projects undertaken in libraries up to 1974, includes a substantial biography testifying to the wide range of studies in the library-science field on the measurement of effectiveness.

An evaluation project presupposes a conception of the nature of the library in question and of the procedure to be employed. Since any conception of reality implies a particular framework of interpretation, an evaluation study must necessarily be based on a more or less systematic scheme of thought. Before evaluating a documentation service the evaluators should adopt and make explicit a frame of reference. The purpose of this article is to propose such a framework by putting forward a logical set of basic concepts and methodological principles that could serve as the theoretical foundation for future evaluations of the effectiveness of documentation centres in Quebec. We believe that the development of a meaningful theoretical and methodological framework is a vital prerequisite for the application of particular evaluation models.

Why evaluate?

Before undertaking an evaluation project librarians must be convinced of the need for such an enterprise and of its importance. It is therefore logical to begin by asking why documentation-science specialists should evaluate libraries.

The first reason is that, since quality control Is one of the four major functions (planning, organization, administration and control) of sound management, librarians, who nearly all occupy posts to some degree administrative in nature, are professionally responsible for evaluating the quality of the services provided to the public.

To check whether the library is achieving its objectives or, in other words, to make sure that it adequately meets the needs of its users, the librarian must assemble relevant and objective information on the quality of the services provided. The purpose of an evaluation project is to provide the administrator with the systematic information he requires to assess the quality of services objectively and take a rational decision.

When the library staff has adequate knowledge of a situation they are then in a position to decide on judicious corrective measures to improve the quality of services. The ultimate aim of any evaluation project is not., then, to monitor with the purpose of rewarding or punishing but rather to improve the performance of a documentation service. The essential aim of a library-evaluation project should therefore be to evaluate in order to evolve.

Viewed from this standpoint, an evaluation study becomes a management tool enabling the staff of a particular library to determine how far it is meeting user requirements and to identify the shortcomings and gaps in its services with a view to making the necessary improvements.

Another reason that should prompt librarians to evaluate documentation services systematically is the restricted nature of financial resources. Given the ever-rising costs of public services and the scarcity of financial resources, all public institutions - including teaching establishments and libraries - have become accountable to taxpayers and their representatives. Librarians must justify financial allocations to documentation services in terms of target results and must show that the products and services financed by these allocations match up to the expected results (objectives set). Libraries in Quebec and elsewhere will increasingly live in such a world. Library authorities will have to prove the effectiveness of library activities and will have to demonstrate, by means of meticulous studies, the quality of documentation services provided to the public.

Types of evaluation

There are three distinct types of evaluation a documentation service: evaluation of its effectiveness, evaluation of its cost-effectiveness ratio, and evaluation of its value.

Evaluation of effectiveness involves determining the extent to which the objectives pursued by a library are achieved. The results of a documentation system are analysed to see how far they match the objectives set (expected results). An evaluation of effectiveness is designed to monitor the quality of a library's results and to check how far its products and services effectively satisfy user needs.

A cost-effectiveness evaluation seeks to calculate what it costs a library in terms of resources to achieve its objectives. A documentation service is 'efficient' when it achieves its objectives at the lowest possible cost. A valid indicator in this area is the unit cost of each volume loaned or of each relevant biographical reference supplied.

Measuring value or cost benefit involves determining the consequences of a library's effectiveness and defining its impact on user behaviour. The value of a documentation centre is equal to its contribution to the achievement of the general objectives of the organization to which it belongs. For example, the value of a school or university library corresponds to its contribution to the achievement of the general educational goals of the teaching establishment it serves. The value of a multimedia documentation centre should be worked out objectively by measuring its real impact on the outcome of the learning process.

The value of a library should be determined not solely on the basis of economic factors but also with reference to intangible benefits, in the educational and cultural spheres for example. It goes without saying that assessing the value of a library is an extremely complex operation. At the present time there is no model enabling us to determine objectively the value or benefits of a documentation centre.

A conceptual framework for the evaluation of effectiveness

We shall confine ourselves to discussing evaluation of a library's effectiveness, since we believe that the first need is for the profession to prove the quality of the documentation services provided to the public. As stated above, evaluating effectiveness involves determining the extent to which the objectives pursued by a library are achieved. Since, under a valid planning system, the objectives should reflect the needs of the environment (users) in terms of meaningful results to be achieved, it follows that evaluating the effectiveness of a library involves checking how far it satisfies the requirements of its users.

To be valid, evaluation of a library's effectiveness should be user-oriented; it should therefore consider the library in relation to its environment. There is at the present time a consensus among evaluation specialists to the effect that a genuine evaluation project should be focused on the user and should employ user requirements as the criteria for assessing the quality of the services provided.

Macroevaluation and microevaluation

Lancaster establishes an important distinction between two types of evaluation of the effectiveness of a library: macroevaluation and microevaluation. Macroevaluation seeks to determine how far the objectives of a documentation service are achieved. It simply measures the performance level, without specifying why such results have been achieved and without indicating what could be done to improve performance in the future.

In contrast, microevaluation is a much more detailed study of the effectiveness of a documentation centre. It analyses the performance level and identifies the factors affecting it. Microevaluation is, in fact, a diagnostic tool that relies on analytical models to distinguish high performance from mediocre performance, to identify the main factors that affect performance for good or ill and to pinpoint the gaps in the services provided and the causes of them.

By pinpointing the major factors that diminish the effectiveness of a given library a microevaluation provides the librarian with the objective information required to remedy current shortcomings and improve future results. As the ultimate goal of the evaluation project is to improve the quality of services it is clear that a microevaluation is, in the end, the only true evaluation of a library's effectiveness.

Measures of the quality of services

In order to arrive at a valid diagnosis of the results achieved by a particular library, a microevaluation should undertake an objective analysis of its performance. A study of this kind seeks to measure the results of a documentation service so as to determine how far the objectives have been achieved. In order to check whether the quality of services matches the objectives, there is a prior requirement: the library's objectives must be operational and measurable.

Unfortunately, few of those in charge of documentation systems currently frame service objectives in operational terms, which makes it impossible to evaluate performance in terms of how far the chosen objectives have been realized. Once they have worked out the goals (philosophy) of their service, librarians should therefore translate these goals into measurable operational objectives. The effectiveness of the library, i.e. the degree to which it achieves its objectives, can subsequently be demonstrated through the use of measures of quality.

Measuring the results of a library implies the use of quantitative methods. By the use of statistical techniques it is possible to analyse objectively the quality of a library's services. Unless it is backed up by statistics, an evaluation study amounts to no more than a statement of opinion and is devoid of any scientific value. A methodical analysis of the results of a documentation service calls for valid models and instruments of measurement. The use of analytic models in library science will make the scientific management of libraries a possibility.

Systems analysis

Systems analysis is currently one of the preferred methods used by administrators to measure the performance of their organizations. In the information sciences likewise, most models for evaluating the effectiveness of libraries or documentation centres are based on systems-analysis techniques. Before examining the systems approach applied to librarianship we shall attempt to define the nature of systems analysis.

A system is a network of organically interrelated parts (objects, men, processes) geared to the achievement of a common ultimate goal through the intermediary of specialized functions. These specialized functions are fulfilled by functional services (subsystems) of the organization. Each functional service or subsystem therefore has a specific mission to accomplish, a particular function to perform.

The purpose of systems analysis is to investigate systematically the meaningful interactions between the various components of a system. It is based on the principle that altering one of the components in an organized system influences the effectiveness of all the other components and consequently has an impact on the overall performance of the organization. The systems approach measures the overall quality of the system and analyses the contribution of each of the components to the effectiveness of the organization as a whole.

Systems analysis uses mathematical models incorporating the main elements (variables) of an organization to measure their combined effect on the overall effectiveness of the system. To undertake an analysis of this kind, the main variables of the subsystem or system concerned must be properly quantified. Systems analysis always yields objective data - reproducible by other researchers - and makes it possible to predict the effectiveness of a given system.

Indicators of a service's quality

With systems analysis, the quality of a service or a system is not determined by the impressions of the person in charge as to the results achieved, nor by the subjective opinions of users, but by indicators of quality. An indicator of quality is a quantifiable datum obtained through observation and systematic analysis of a system's results, products and services (output). This quantifiable datum indicates how far the results achieved match up to the objectives (expected results) and thereby satisfy the needs of the environment.

An indicator of quality is a sign that shows the quality of a system's products and services (results); it also represents an indicator of effectiveness, since it shows how far an operational objective is being achieved.

Indicators of quality are indicators of results (output) rather than resources (input). Indeed, measurement of resources tells us nothing about the effectiveness of a system. The material, financial and human resources (input) of a system express no more than its capacity to produce results and not the results, products and services (output) actually achieved. To evaluate the effectiveness of a service, the systems approach uses indicators to measure the results achieved and to check how far they conform to the objectives set (expected results). It will be seen that operational objectives and indicators of results are essential elements in systems analysis.

As Paul-Emile Gingras rightly points out, indicators are used nowadays in most activities involving planning, analysis and evaluation. Today, the credibility of an evaluator is no longer based on subjective opinions or perceptions but on objective evidence derived from indicators. Administrators who employ techniques of management by objectives often use quality indicators to compare the results achieved with the objectives set. Similarly, a department head who bases his planning on systems analysis will frequently use the technique of management by objectives to obtain adequate financial resources by justifying them in terms of operational objectives to be achieved and products and services (results) to be provided.

Systems analysis in libraries

The principles of systems analysis briefly outlined above are obviously applicable to a library, which clearly constitutes an organized system. To evaluate a library's effectiveness, quality indicators must be used to interpret in rigorous and systematic fashion its results, products and services (output) in order to establish whether its performance corresponds to the predetermined operational objectives. Indicators of a library's results reveal the quality of services provided and show to what extent those services are meeting users' varied needs. As models for evaluating the effectiveness of documentation services are almost all based on relatively complex techniques of systems analysis, we propose to describe the theoretical principles underlying this approach as adopted in most library-evaluation studies.

Orr has expounded more clearly than anyone the implications of systems analysis as applied to libraries. The systems approach in library science is essentially user-oriented, since it sets out to measure the effectiveness of a library by means of criteria based on user requirements. For the user, the library is a black box. What goes on inside the box - the operations that take place there and the methods by which they are carried out - are of no interest to him. He is concerned solely with the results, products and services (output) he gets from the library.

It is for this reason that systems analysis measures only the results of library operations. Irrespective of whether the operations are performed by humans or by machines, the effectiveness of a library needs to be evaluated in terms of the results achieved by means of a rigorous and systematic analysis of the products and services provided to users.

Are we to conclude that systems analysis is not concerned with resources and with technical service operations (input)? By no means. Since the documentation chain consists of a logical succession of activities, technical service operations (input) have an impact on the quality of library products and services (output). In a complex documentation system, such as a library, there is a causal relationship between technical service policies and operations and the results achieved, between input and output.

Direct evaluation of technical service policies and operations is not meaningful since it is not focused on user needs and does not reveal the extent to which they satisfy those needs. It is only through a microevaluation of a library's products and services that the impact of technical-service policies and operations on the quality of its results can be measured. Poor performance by a documentation centre is due largely to shortcomings in technical-service policies or operations. A diagnostic evaluation of the indifferent results achieved by a particular library is the only way of identifying the causes of its weaknesses and of detecting the flaws in its technical services.

The indicators of quality used in the information sciences to measure the results achieved by a library and to assess the quality of its services are user-oriented indicators. They are a means of assessing the quality of documentation services in quantitative terms. The systems approach applied to librarianship is firmly scientific, since it seeks to quantify library products and services, i.e. to express their quality in terms of quantities by means of mathematical units.

Methodological principles

The systems approach to the evaluation of a library's effectiveness consists in using scientifically valid models to obtain an objective and rigorous measure of its results (output) and of the major variables significantly affecting its performance. An evaluation project of this kind calls for a valid conceptual framework and a rigorous methodology. Although the methodology - which determines how measurement will be made - is important, the conceptual framework remains the key element, since it specifies what will be measured and why.

The conceptual framework defines the variables relevant to the evaluation project and specifies the relationship between them. As well as identifying the problem area, the conceptual framework specifies the objectives of the evaluation and the approach to be adopted, in the present case systems analysis.

Orr recommends that the method of measurement should be capable of yielding valid and objective data. The method chosen should be cheap and easy to apply so as not to interfere seriously with the library's regular operations. It should also be applicable in all types of libraries. Finally, the method selected should be applied by the staff of the library being evaluated rather than by outside 'experts' and should be capable of measuring the effects of changes in policies and operations on the quality of services.

However, the essential characteristic of an adequate methodology is that it should be rigorous. Those responsible for an evaluation project should take particular care to select samples that are representatives of the library's clientele.

A rigorous methodology will ensure that the results of the study are valid. An evaluation project that strictly measures up to all the requirements of validity and soundness will be able to stand up to critical examination based on the criteria of scientific research and will thereby gain the approval of users, administrators and other members of the profession.

On the other hand, an evaluation project that embodies many methodological shortcomings will cast doubt on the validity of the results obtained. The authors of an evaluation study should supply methodological details, which are vital to those who wish to analyse critically the procedure employed.

Fortunately, librarians and documentalists have become aware of the need for methodological rigour in studies on the effectiveness of libraries and documentation centres. Nowadays, the authors of empirical research on the evaluation of the effectiveness of information systems are careful to control the main variables so as to measure their real effects on the quality of the service concerned.

Swanson has defined as follows the essential components of a valid methodology as applied to an evaluation of the effectiveness of an information system:

1. Definition of the information system studied, its components, their characteristics and the objectives of the evaluation.

This first stage consists in identifying the elements in the library that are to be measured.

2. Specification of the evaluation criteria, the measures of quality and the units of measure.

This involves defining in what way the elements to be considered will be measured, identifying the standards against which the results (indicators) of the measurement will be compared and clarifying the presuppositions underlying the procedure used.

3. Identification of the variables that influence the performance of the system.

These variables are the technical-service policies and operations (input) together with elements of the service provided to the public (output) and the interaction between the user and the information system.

4. Construction of an evaluation model that yields a measure of the effectiveness of the system as a function of the relationships among the variables involved.

The variables incorporated in the analytic model need to be properly conceptualized and quantified.

5. Comparison of performance (the results of the measurement) with the evaluation criteria, and identification of the variables that produce the best results and those responsible for mediocre results; conclusion and recommendations.

This last stage entails analysing and interpreting the results of the study, determining the reasons for successes and failures in specific sectors and proposing, in the light of the results of the evaluation, changes to the system to improve its future quality.

To avoid any confusion among readers, those responsible for an evaluation project should be careful to define in terms comprehensible to other specialists in the information sciences the concepts employed in the study. Saracevic points out that there is a certain ambiguity at the present time in the use of concepts relating to measurements and criteria of quality. He draws a distinction between a measurement (e.g. time), a unit of measurement (e.g. an hour), an instrument of measurement (e.g. a watch) and an indicator of effectiveness (e.g. the time taken to carry out an operation: six hours). A criterion of effectiveness corresponds to a standard (e.g. a maximum time of five hours). An evaluation model is a set of logical, formalized and explicit relationships between the variables affecting the performance of the information system under consideration.

The systems approach in library management sets out to express the quality of a library's services by means of quantitative methods. To accomplish this very complex task, care must be taken to establish clearly the relationship between the quantitative data collected and the quality of the library services. As Daniel notes, it is easy to reach agreement on the result of a measurement, but the significance to be ascribed to that measurement in terms of quality of service may be the subject of heated discussion. A quantifiable datum has no significance by itself, yields no direct information regarding the quality of information products and services. It must, then, be interpreted by means of explicit criteria. Before carrying out measurements of quality, it is necessary to clarify the criteria that render those measurements meaningful and to specify which quantitative data correspond to a higher quality of service.

Critique of other types of evaluation

A microevaluation is an objective analysis of a particular library's results, products and services to see how far they match up to the objectives pursued (expected results). It measures the results achieved by a documentation system and identifies the factors affecting those results; it is a diagnostic tool that employs the systems approach to evaluate quantitatively the quality of products and services through measurements of effectiveness.

As a diagnostic analysis, microevaluation is the most valid type of evaluation for identifying a library's shortcomings and improving its future performance. There exist other types of evaluation, which we shall examine briefly.

Evaluation by traditional standards and statistics

Library standards are essentially quantitative rules defining the minimal resources in terms of documents, staff and material facilities necessary for the functioning of a library. The main disadvantage of using standards to evaluate the effectiveness of an information service lies in the fact that standards are not user-oriented but are focused mainly on resources (input) rather than on results, products and services (output).

Moreover, the general propositions that currently serve as standards for libraries are not genuine standards since, contrary to the standards applicable in engineering for example, they are not the outcome of scientific research and do not measure factors directly related to the objectives (expected results) of documentation centres. As pointed out by Lancaster, current standards are too vague and imprecise to serve as the basis for a meaningful evaluation of a library's services.

The traditional statistics compiled by libraries are likewise inadequate as a way of evaluating the effectiveness of a documentation service because, just like the standards, they focus almost exclusively on resources (input) rather than on results (output). Library statistics deal mainly with such matters as the budget, the number of documents in a collection, the number of new accessions annually and staff numbers. They consequently measure resources, which do no more than express the potential capacity of the library to provide a certain quality of service, but which do not evaluate directly the quality of service currently provided to users.

Subjective evaluation by means of a questionnaire

A subjective evaluation of the quality of a library's services involves asking the users by means of a questionnaire or interview how far they are satisfied with the products and services provided. This purely subjective evaluation procedure has limited validity since it merely reveals how users perceive the quality of the library's services. As pointed out by Kantor, an opinion survey analyses customers' perceptions of the service provided rather than analysing objectively the service itself.

An opinion survey is not very useful in diagnosing shortcomings in the products and services provided by a particular library. Users are not always capable of identifying gaps in the services provided, and still less of identifying their causes (e.g. indexing errors). A subjective procedure such as a questionnaire can be valid in identifying the attitudes or perceptions of library users but remains much too superficial to serve as a basis for a valid diagnosis of the effectiveness of a documentary centre or to lead to significant improvements.

A user survey or non-user survey of a library should not be confused with an evaluation study. Such surveys, very popular at the present time, employ a questionnaire to establish a profile of users or non-users and to discover the reasons why they use or do not use a documentation centre. The purpose of this kind of research, conducted mainly in the education sector, is to identify the perceptions and attitudes of teachers and students with regard to the library.

However, a temptation lies in wait for the authors of opinion surveys that of identifying such surveys with evaluation studies. In asking teachers who teach a specific subject and use a particular learning method the reasons why they do not urge their students to use the library, it may be tempting to make a judgement about the 'value' of the documentation centre and to conclude that it has no role to play in achieving the learning objectives in a given subject or in the context of a given teaching method.

To prevent the drawing of such inferences it is necessary to specify from the start that teachers who do not encourage use of the library are expressing a merely subjective view when they say that the consultation of library documents by their students would have no impact on the learning process. Teachers' replies are thus no more than the reflection of their opinions and should not be identified with objective truth. The value of a teaching library should be determined objectively rather than subjectively, by measuring its real impact (not its perceived or imagined impact) on the achievement of learning objectives.

Evaluation by means of a check-list

The check-list is a procedure for evaluating a library's effectiveness used mainly in school libraries, although Orr has devised a detailed checklist of the services provided to users of a medical library enabling the' policies adopted in each of its services to be evaluated. The check-list most frequently used to evaluate a school library's programmes is that devised by Mary Gaver. This evaluation tool makes it possible to measure the quantity of services provided to the users of a school library.

The check-list as a method of evaluation has been strongly criticized by Daniel, who argues that the check-list lacks rigour and tends to be a trivial evaluation procedure since it focuses exclusively on the variety and quantity of services provided to users without concerning itself with their scope or quantity.

The popularity of check-lists is explained by the fact that they are easy to draw up and use. The analytic models used in microevaluation are more difficult to construct and make operational, but they permit a much more thorough evaluation of the effectiveness of a library. Whereas the check-list simply reveals the quantity of services provided to users, the microevaluation identifies the quality of services through statistical techniques and quantitative methods of measurement.

Our colleagues responsible for audiovisual media in the colleges of general and professional education (cégeps) recently developed An instrument for self-evaluation of their department.' This instrument is in fact a checklist of the activities related to the audiovisual sector's major functions. It enables the head of an audiovisual department to compare the policies relating to its various tasks with the policies of an ideal sector defined by the authors of the evaluation instrument.

Some librarians might contemplate drawing up a similar check-list to evaluate their library. Unfortunately, this type of instrument does not seem to us a very adequate way of assessing the effectiveness of a documentation service. Contrary to the check-lists devised in the school library context, which are focused on user needs and take into account the policies governing the services provided to customers (output), this type of instrument is almost exclusively concerned with evaluating policies for the activities and operations (input) of the service under consideration.

Moreover an ideal service is a concept devoid of meaning. As Orr has shown, an ideal service is not a meaningful frame of reference. A documentation service that did not have to cope with any constraints of finance, staffing or space could easily achieve perfection; but such an ideal situation has never existed and probably never will. This is why a much more meaningful frame of reference for evaluating a library is the criterion of 'optimal service'. A service is 'optimal' when it achieves a maximum level of effectiveness, having regard to all the constraints (financial and other) with which it has to contend.

Definition of a library

Any evaluation project presupposes a view of the nature and objectives of a library. This author sees the library as a documentation system that gathers, organizes, retrieves and disseminates recorded information with the aim of communicating knowledge to its users. Such a system pursues objectives in the documentation field proper corresponding to its customers' priority information needs.

Any library has two distinct aspects: a passive or reactive aspect centred on satisfying requests for information; and an active or dynamic aspect centred on promoting and extending the use of information resources.

At the present time, librarians place more stress on the dynamic than on the passive aspect of their service. A number of theoreticians belonging to the school, college or university library field have developed new philosophies (the 'library-college' and 'teaching resource centre' philosophies) essentially centred on a dynamic interaction between the library and the world of education.

Although these new conceptions initially played a useful role by drawing attention to the important and indispensable contribution - previously underestimated or disregarded - of the teaching library to the achievement of educational aims, the time has come for a critical analysis of the-basic theses being advanced. These philosophies, which from the very start were not devoid of ambiguity, have been transformed by exegetes indifferent to fine distinctions into theories that are not merely debatable but, in their most extreme form, frankly erroneous.

The two philosophies currently in fashion assert as a basic principle that the library is the centre of a school, college or university. This principle seems to us unacceptable. It is not the library (one of a number of functional services) that is the centre of a teaching institution but rather the main agents of education, i.e. the teachers and students. We agree entirely with the great American librarian Robert S. Taylor, who says that such a principle is simply a metaphoric platitude. Together with the student-learner, the most important agent in a teaching establishment is the teacher. Taylor's comments on the library-college approach are also worth quoting:

One recent and growing idea, the library college, though bold and challenging, is not the answer at this time(…). It represents a basically naive and early - too early - attempt to solve a very large and complicated problem. It is a rhetorical rather than empirical approach.

One of the contemporary theoreticians of the library-college movement, E. Youngblood, argues strongly in an interview published in his movement's official review that the application of the library-college approach implies the abolition of existing distinctions between the roles of the librarian, the teacher, the audiovisual specialist and the administrator. I hope this extreme stance will temper the enthusiasm of certain Quebecois documentation - science specialists who maintain that the library-college theory does not imply any change in the role of the librarian and does not therefore jeopardize in the immediate future the documentation function of librarians working in teaching establishments.

A teaching library obviously represents a teaching resource centre, but what is unacceptable in the 'media centre' philosophy is the interpretation placed upon it by the many theoreticians who incline towards a totalitarian view of education. They regard educational tasks as the only truly professional tasks carried out in a teaching establishment and therefore seek to replace the documentation function by more 'prestigious' functions.

To take one example from hundreds of similar ones, Leslie Gottardi states categorically that the school librarian is not a reference librarian but a master teacher and that the effectiveness of a library's programmes - the library being designated a 'learning centre' - should be evaluated on the basis of the teaching effectiveness of such centres.

The presuppositions at the root of the philosophies of the 'library-college' and the 'teaching resource centre', seen as an 'educational centre' rather than as a documentation service, should logically lead to the statement that the effectiveness of a teaching library should be evaluated on the basis of educational criteria. If that statement is true it means that all the evaluation models constructed by documentation-science specialists are invalid, that Lancaster's volume on the evaluation of libraries should be passed over because the author refers only to documentation criteria and that, similarly, this article should be ignored since it analyses models for evaluating the effectiveness of a library based on measures of performance in the documentation rather than the educational sphere. Clearly, these educational conceptions of a teaching library have far-reaching implications when one examines the logic of their postulates.

There is an urgent need in our view to debunk the more extreme theses of certain theoreticians who deny documentation-science specialists a place in the education sector. Such a debunking exercise has become a priority task for the profession since certain administrators and teachers in academic establishments in Quebec have espoused these theses completely and wish to transform librarians into educational experts whose function would be to 'help individual teachers, groups of teachers or departments to shape the objectives and possible content of a course, syllabus or curriculum'.

The essence of the problem, in our view, lies in demonstrating that the teaching library does not need to transform itself in order to fulfil a dynamic role in the educational environment, since, by its very nature as a documentation service, it already interacts dynamically with the educational environment. In order to demonstrate this, we will use the systems-analysis approach to identify the organic links between a library and the educational environment.

The dynamic interaction between the library and the education environment is illustrated in the following diagram.

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P617.PNG Systems-based diagram, showing the dynamic interaction between the library and educational practices

* The symbols P.O.M.C. correspond to the main management functions: planning, organization, administration and control.

This diagram shows the way in which a documentation service is effectively integrated in the teaching environment. A school or academic library is a functional service, a subsystem concerned within recorded information within a teaching establishment. This functional service requires human, financial and material resources to produce, through a variety of processes (documentation-science methods and techniques) library products and services (results) that are subsequently used as (teaching) resources in the 'education' system and represent the library's specific and original contribution to the fulfilment of educational objectives.

We hope to have gone some way towards demolishing those philosophies that do not identify the teaching library with a system concerned with recorded information or - depending on the standpoint adopted - with a subsystem pursuing objectives in the documentation sphere. The subject-matter of library science is recorded information, and the professional and social responsibility of librarians and other documentation-science specialists is to acquire an objective and ever more adequate knowledge of the very complex phenomena of recorded information so as to optimize decision-making within their functional service (subsystem) and thereby improve the quality of documentation services provided to the public.

The philosophy of the library-college and that of the 'teaching resource centre', identified with a 'learning centre' rather than a 'system of recorded information', presupposes the reductive assimilation of library science to the education sciences. This presupposition does not correspond to reality. Library science (the science of recorded information) is essentially irreducible to the educational sciences (the science of learning processes).

These two theories rest on the fundamental postulate that the replacement of the library's objectives in the documentation sphere of educational objectives and, consequently, the replacement of its functions in the information chain by educational tasks will enable teaching establishments to become more effective. Such a hypothesis has not been validated by any empirical scientific research. We therefore feel it is wise to set aside these purely speculative theories, which have never passed the test of empirical verification, in the interests of the students, who should not have to suffer as guinea-pigs for 'theories' whose relevance has never been strictly verified. The systems approach - not to say simple common sense - leads me to conclude that documentation-science specialists will always be needed to perform the complex operations that make up the documentation chain, irrespective of whether the library serves an educational, medical or some other kind of environment.

Some go-ahead teachers in colleges of general and professional education employ avant-garde teaching methods that make maximum use of library materials in learning activities. These experiments are sometimes described as partial applications of the philosophy of the library-college. But is the library-college approach an educational method? I think not. It rather involves a philosophy of education that divests teachers of their fundamental responsibility as planners of the learning process which becomes the concern of the college community as a whole.

I am very much in favour of the educational methods employed by certain teachers (unfortunately too few and far between) who encourage their students to make the maximum possible use of the library, but I do not believe that to speak of the library-college educational method in that context can do anything but spread confusion in people's minds. What is involved here is rather an individualized form of education using either the tutorial or the self-instruction teaching method. Readers wishing to familiarize themselves with the essentials of these two methods would do well to consult the work by R.M. Gagné, one of the few learning theory specialists to have developed a theory of teaching.

A systems analysis of the interaction between a library (documentation system) and educational practices (teaching system) has enabled us to show the specific role of libraries as documentation centres in the education sector. The latter naturally have a part to play in shaping the general educational aims of teaching establishments; but forcing them to become involved in the educational field, to devote their energy at the expense of their specific documentation functions to defining the educational objectives of specific courses is to charge them with a task that far exceeds their professional responsibilities.

As rightly stated by Lancaster, the assimilation of a document by a user, once it has been supplied, is outside the library's sphere of influence: libraries exist essentially to communicate documents to users. The responsibility of librarians is to ensure that the user gains access to publications that are pertinent to his interests and comprehensible to him (i.e. written in a language he can read and at a level he can understand). A library can be evaluated only on its capacity to provide the materials sought by users at the time they are needed. What the user actually does with these materials is completely outside the library's control (and, some users might say, none of the library's business).

Conclusion

In a forthcoming article we shall analyse the evaluation models currently available for measuring the capacity of libraries to achieve their objectives in the documentation sphere. Most of these models are based on the systems-analysis approach and seek to evaluate a library's performance in terms of the information needs of users. Such a systems approach has been adopted by the members of the Committee of the Guide d'auto-évaluation des bibliothèques de collège set up by the Committee of Library Heads of the Fédération des cégeps. The Committee has received a generous grant from the Direction générale de l'enseignement collégial (DGEC) to carry out its research project. We are convinced that systems-analysis techniques will enable the Committee to work out one or more scientifically valid evaluation models. These models will be able to be used subsequently by the professional staff of college libraries to undertake, by means of indicators of effectiveness, microevaluations and diagnostic analyses of the quality of products and services provided to users.

A microevaluation of the products and services (output) of a college library or another kind of library corresponds to a scientific self-evaluation of its results. It is therefore akin to an institution analysis, which is one of the current priorities of the college education sector. An institution analysis seeks, employing a specifically local approach, to investigate the life of a college rigorously and systematically through scientifically valid models and instruments.

<<TOC5>> On evaluating the effectiveness of school libraries

by R. Lemaire

The journal Médiathèques publiques has performed a useful service in publishing our colleague Cossette's article, but a better introduction might perhaps have been found to the problems involved. Does his analysis represent anything more than a highly tendentious defence of the corporate rights of school librarians in Quebec - so much so indeed that it begs the main issues? The title of the article announces 'a theoretical and methodological framework', but it would also have been useful to have given thought to a practical assessment of libraries and their effectiveness, for instance by transposing to the school context the remarks contained in the essays of Barry Totterdall and Jean Bird, thereby ensuring that the substantive issues would not be so easily sidestepped. Michel Bouvy is right in saying that in the French literature devoted to the library science these questions are seldom dealt with. But-it is indisputable that in France they do not arise in the same way as in the English-speaking countries, where libraries have the good fortune to be viewed as institutions in their own right. I wish here to consider two points with reference to the article in question: firstly, the systems approach employed by Cossette to evaluate the effectiveness of school libraries, and, secondly, relations between the librarian and the teacher.

But, first of all, why is so little attention given to these matters in France? The question of the effectiveness of work, whatever the type of work involved, does not arise much in a bureaucratic society: when the creative scope open to the executant is limited he puts the responsibility on the shoulders of those who give the orders. For instance - and this runs counter to what Cossette says - without a minimum of inputs the librarian will do nothing; such is the position of school libraries in France. In a centralized education system like the French, in the absence of official instructions formally issued from above by higher authority, based on educational studies and justified by recognized objectives, the very idea of a school library cannot emerge. When the financial administration system imposes its own viewpoint in the teeth of real, everyday experience, the librarian (any librarian, particularly a municipal one) is made to feel that he is above all an administrator who is expected to toe the line rather than be effective. To aggravate (and explain) the situation, the librarian's education, itself provided in a form that affords little scope for creativity, critical ability or innovation, leads him, moreover, to see the be all and end all of his work as compliance with the thoughts (or rather, in many cases, the habits) of his superiors, highly anonymous though they are. In a word, he bows down under the weight of history without being aware of it. In this context, would there not be a risk, in measuring the effectiveness of a practice, of upsetting the applecart? Thus it is that absurb situations remain institutionalized: for instance, the fact that, not counting six experiments for the whole of France, there is no evidence of any official concern about libraries at the primary-school level. Is it in order to justify this state of affairs that in the research conducted by the INRP (National Institute for Educational Research), especially in the social sciences, education visits are treated as the 'cornerstone of educational methodology', as though children learned only through their senses, through physical activity and through getting out and about (within a limited radius). Is it reasonable thus to reduce documentary research, if not to naught, at least to a secondary role? More of this anon.

If teachers do not feel themselves to be documentalists it is because they too reproduce the education they have received: an education not dependent on books, consisting in the reproduction of a form of oral communication that alone is considered to be effective by traditional educationists. Cossette puts the problems well, but in a social and administrative context that is not ours. One might go so far as to say that the question of the evaluation of the effectiveness of libraries does not arise at the primary level in France as there are no school libraries in France! All is not lost, however: underdeveloped areas have been known to skip a stage and to go straight on to achieve modernization. Consequently, it is not a waste of time to talk about it, but we can do so only if we first accept the premise that a library, a documentation centre, is essential in a school for the development of knowledge. What may seem self-evident is not recognized by teachers for the simple reason that, in my experience, they themselves do not frequent libraries for their own research. Thus the process described by Bourdieu has long been perpetuated.

Why does Cossette make use of systems analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of a library? Evaluation belongs to an order - that of values in which the method used has nothing to tell us, whether it be that of systems analysis or of Cartesianism, whereas systems analysis is concerned with form but say nothing about the normative order. It does, however, have the merit of recalling the existence of goals that other methods have all too easily disregarded. Systems analysis meets the desire for a total analysis of the object under consideration and to that end builds upon the basic hypotheses that provide bearings for establishing the main lines of investigation (what Kuhn calls paradigms). It goes beyond the paradigm of mechanics, for which structure, endowed with permanence, provided an explanation, produced causes and effects and was linked to function. It adds the temporal dimension, observing that structure does not remain permanent, constant, but that time and history modify it through change (evolution). Systems analysis also seeks to take in the dialectic between function and evolution, which was the task of structuralism, but it feels that the latter neglects the two dimensions of the teleological hypothesis and responsiveness to the environment. This brief summary shows that systems analysis does not deny the merits of other methods but finds them inadequate in that they provide an incomplete analysis of the variables involved. Cossette rightly disregards the problem raised by the application of a scientific method to what is known as the 'human sciences' It is indeed true that the human sciences are marked by the same formal logic as physics or astronomy. If a comprehensive analysis is to be made of libraries, attention needs to be given to causes and effects in a school library, in other words a study of how it works and how it develops with each operation, and a study of both together. But what interests the present writer is to being out, more clearly than Cossette, or so at least I hope, the practical aspect of the use of systems theory.

The originality of that theory lies, first and foremost, in its emphasizing the fact that the structure of the library reflects neither what it does nor its history but the dictates of its planned goal. Let us say that its 'course' has been set and that we can judge its effectiveness only in relation to its end-purpose. Goals have always been a problem in scientific thinking. Systems analysis starts out by affirming, however, that to perceive an object is to assign goals to it, to turn it into a plan. Hence the extreme importance attached by systems analysis to the question 'Why a school library?' Cossette replies clearly and repeatedly to this question, but he does not take a critical look at his own reply. For him it is self-evident (by definition unproved), a postulate, that the school library must cater to 'the requirements of the users'. I shall come back to this explicit value that systems analysis brings out into the open but whose quality it cannot tell us anything about, being incapable of creating justificatory values.

To this teleological hypothesis systems analysis adds a second dimension: responsiveness to the environment. The library is not a closed system, neither as regards its premises nor as regards the school and the education system. In actual fact, at the present time it does not constitute an organized subsystem: its functions and objectives are too watered down and all too often lacking. Were it to come into being in institutional form systems analysis would refuse to circumscribe it within stable boundaries (as structuralism would do) or within corporative ones, as Cossette does. The object under consideration is a plan or ultimate design that is introduced into a surrounding system and has relations with all the components of the system, which in the case of the school library includes the teachers, the pupils, the financial services, the parents and the school inspectors. All these variable components need to be seen in relation to one another before its effectiveness can be measured. As they differ with time and place no standard of effectiveness can be defined as a universal yardstick. It might even be said that a system existing at a specific time and place can be analysed only by way of self-evaluation against standards that the analyst has consciously adopted beforehand. Cossette says nothing of this aspect, but it reveals the difficulties that will be encountered in France by champions of systems analysis who have to work in an institution as hypercentralized as is that of our national education system, in which any exception is regarded as abnormal (illegal). Systems analysis proceeds from a desire for rationality in action (praxeology, which has produced PPBS - or its French equivalent, RCB - etc.), but it is silent about goal determination, which has to do with values, intentions and policy. A modern version of the pursuit of effectiveness, it reveals the importance of what is left unstated in implicit choices.

Cossette is not very clear about 'object analysis'. Systems analysis is directed towards modelling, in other words towards a particular way of organizing concepts that is an artificial product of the mind intended not so much to explain - which would affect decision-making and encroach upon the decision-maker's freedom - as to represent a dynamic situation. Cossette, on the other hand, falls back on the most uninspired kind of behaviorism in the form of a submission to visible forms of behaviour and to the 'operational and measurable nature' of objectives, as though 'facts' or 'findings' were established once and for all and were not answers shaped by the questions that elicit them. This is to deny the decisive contribution of the information theories that contend that a datum is but an available peg on which to hang the information that brings it to life. Recorded observations are to be seen as traces pregnant with meaning, allowing of 'revisionist interpretations' in accordance with the time, place and context. The phenomenological absolutism dear to positivism has had its day; it cannot be combined with Systems analysis.

It does, however, fit in with Cossette's oft-repeated postulate that the library is 'user-oriented', that it must 'satisfy the requirements of users' (p.29), that the librarian must 'see to it that the library adequately meets the needs of its users' (p.28). These recommendations, says Cossette, are rooted in 'a consensus among evaluation specialists'. One could wish that those who make them were the people who define the library's planned objectives rather than technicians, for it is not the latter's business to determine the normative thrust of the choice. Viewed in this light, effectiveness would appear to be evidenced through success. This is not to be denied, but it is not of any interest unless one has judged the nature of the success and can exercise some control over it. The reader in the library is like a customer in a supermarket; does that mean that the librarian should take a leaf from the book of the advertising agent to attend to these 'needs'? If 'the quality of the services provided' in response to the 'requirements of users' is adopted as a criterion of effectiveness librarians and teachers alike become purveyors of a culture whose standards - but whence do they spring? - are alien to them. In pedagogy, however, - and not only etymologically - the aim is to guide children somewhere. Is it unreasonable to ask that the teacher be given some idea as to their destination? The postulate put forward by Cossette cannot be disputed, since it is a decision based on a choice. How many French librarians are prepared to embrace it wholeheartedly? Personally, I find this attitude rather hypocritical and so engineered as to allow the 'mass' of the people to think that they are 'free in freely subscribing to the only dominant values proposed'. This is ideology in action. To refer to the comforting myth of a natural state, regarded as the original, pristine reality and served up as a necessary starting-point, in a way of relegating to the background any form of construction and cultural, social organization. If Cossette, for his part, does not dwell on this and does not impugn such a principle, it is be- cause it would in fact entail an unwonted social effort to see things as they really are - an effort that teachers, more perhaps than other members of society, might achieve. The flaw in behaviourism is that it conceals values under the cloak of 'the natural'. Although they carry weight with the common man, tangible, perceived realities are deceptive. The whole of science goes against the grain of common sense. Cossette is wrong in thinking that there exist 'objective truths' (p.31). If there were, there would be no historical development of science. Bringing in statistics does not contribute anything to the argument, no matter how 'strict and systematic' (p.31) the interpretation given of them. An indicator of quality cannot be transformed into an indicator of quantity. Evaluation, whether of effectiveness or of anything else, must start off by establishing its qualitative standards. For instance, librarians must find their own answer to the question 'Why, to what end, do you spend your working life acquiring certain books and conveniently placing them at the disposal of other people?' Only when they have answered this question will it be possible to establish an 'evaluation model'. From objectives and what determines them he goes on to inputs (p.31), about which he says that they are not exclusively material (but unfortunately, librarians, like many others, are not exposed in their work to any ideological considerations), and then to outputs, enumerating them as fully as possible.

This criticism directed at methodological formulation is in no way original today (except perhaps where education is concerned). It is levelled in this particular instance at an over-conventional approach to the school library, but it possesses a general value. It must be seen as a reaction against a scientistic positivism that, it is true, 'worked' but refused to entertain philosophical questions concerning the foundations of scientific praxis. The librarian, especially if he avails himself of systems theory, must recognize the wherefore of his acts, in other words their ultimate goal. Rather than put into practice what has been learnt, he must adapt his acts to a future design. Cossette ends up by throwing up his hands, not because the method is ineffective but because the normative content has not been mastered: 'At the present time no model exists that makes it possible to determine objectively the value or benefits of a documentation centre' (p.29).

In fact, advertising creates the consumer; the 'paths of persuasion' are clearly marked out now, 'needs' are neither spontaneous nor natural. Sociocultural dynamics cannot disregard the constant pressure brought to bear on the public's choices. Similarly, and conversely, the teacher's (and the librarian's) entire life is marked by a series of moral acts: the choice of books and their content, the adoption of methods and types of classification and the degree of control exercised over the children correspond to so many decisions prior to any direct intervention that encroach upon the freedom that Cossette would have us believe is total. Children, without knowing it, go into the library as into a constructed world, already highly goal-oriented; they are caught in a net of determinations to which they are exposed without being aware of it and to which they adapt. Extremely well-meaning librarians, heedful of the requirements of the users, perceive them, it is true, but translated into their own personal terms, and when they endeavour to be wholly 'objective' it is often too late. They do not escape the fate of the educator, whose task is to attain objectives, in other words to direct the child towards goals. For the librarian and the educator alike, living means complying with a series of moral prescriptions. Systems analysis calls into question the myth of scientific neutrality: effectiveness is evaluated through the agency of an evaluator. The analysis advocated by Cossette makes it necessary to specify from whose point of view a particular way of proceeding may be considered to be the best - the librarian's? the child's? future society's? Consequently, it will never be able to say what is the most effective way, as there are no beneficial results that do not, for other people or at another time, have baneful consequences.

Systems analysis, an aid to investigation and the most powerful at present available leaves us alone with our problems, with those for which we must take responsibility. I am referring to the documentary function of a children's library at primary school.

X X X

Cossette considers libraries to be documentation units that collect, organize, locate and disseminate recorded information for the purpose of communicating knowledge to their users. This is a fair organic definition, but it rests on values that are not shared by everyone.

For instance: experience has shown me that the school library can be regarded by teachers as a place of banishment (there are some where a life of ease can be led) for pupils who are undesirable, cantankerous, under punishment or too far ahead because they are too quick for the so-called 'normal' pace of the others; or an Illichean place of solitude, a societal safety valve. Admittedly, reference books of a 'serious' kind must necessarily be found there, but to encourage users to browse. I have also encountered this attitude among librarians keen on comics and apt to brood on the post-1968 persistent memory of the boredom they suffered at school. Such an attitude can be condemned, but ignoring it will not make it go away. It probably derives from a fear of the library viewed as a colossal accumulation of knowledge, constantly reminding teachers of their shortcomings in relation to the quantitative conception of teaching founded essentially on memorization that the school, like the media, puts forward as a model.

Conversely, the librarian or the teacher will not make the documentation centre into a place without works of 'fiction'. Hence it will contain books of tales, albums and novels; they will not be there because of their possible contribution to the development of the life of the imagination, however, but because the continuous reading of a book, any book, from cover to cover is considered to be an excellent way of developing concentration. Our educational institutions are frequently obsessed with the idea that books are not ends in themselves but means of developing an ability, such as the ability to read (in the sense of spelling out words). Accordingly, reading, writing and arithmetic (the 'three Rs') are regarded as the fundamentals of education although they are but tools, without any thought being given to the most important matter of content, of that which confers 'meaning'. What we have here is a narrowly functionalist way of thinking into which values do not enter, making it possible to work with bland examples in the supposedly inane - or indeed 'infantile' - world of the child, who is thought to be more interested in daddy's pipe than in fear, justice or death. Many teachers think that in the final analysis children do not 'learn' much from reading stories or novels but that the activity is useful for the technical exercise of reading. They believe neither in the value of books specifically for children nor in the role played by books in the process of socialization. Why otherwise would they so often display such indifference towards new publications, justifying themselves by the memory of their own exemplary schooldays (viewed through rose-coloured glasses) or by the conformism of literature textbooks transposed from adults to children, resulting in both cases in a misassessment of the interests and motivations of children in their search for reading matter.

How could it be thought that children 'learn' nothing from the descriptions of feats of valour, acts of courage or villainy and attitudes to life portrayed to them? It is the whole problem of the child's socialization that is neglected or denied, that of the child's integration into adult society, his status and the social and intellectual equipment with which he should be provided in order to create the society in which he will be an adult. For this reason, the task of selecting works of literature to be placed in a library is far from being of minor importance. It is closely connected with pedagogical objectives, identified here with educational and cultural objectives. Is it not one of the school's tasks to play a part in charting the way to the society of tomorrow? And why should responsibility here rest more with teachers than with librarians? However, it is certain that, in France especially, cultural other than educational objectives are implicitly inflated, not to mention that they are formulated in such grandiloquent terms that they have hardly any relationship with reality. What is remote from life is not the school, which is part and parcel of the social fabric, but the excessively vague aims assigned to it by those who should be expressing those aims more forcefully and in precise terms. It is as though no one wanted openly to recognize the moral dimension, all-important though it is in the lives of educators. This is what lies behind the overindulgent, uncommitted comments made by critics about literature for the young, and this is also what lies behind a type of literature in which there is a thriving trade but which is lifeless or demagogic (of the 'Famous Five' variety). Selecting a collection of works of fiction and regularly renewing it is tantamount to provoking moral attitudes and moral behaviour; it means taking on educational responsibilities. It is hard to see any reason why the teacher should assume them with more competence than the librarian. But this is only part of it. There is work to be done on the subject of and in connection with books, not to promote reading but as a critical follow-up to the ideas expressed, and here both must participate. But to what ends? It is here that the vagueness gives cause for concern, if neither of them knows where he is going. Hence any improvement in the effectiveness of the education system (and a fortiori of the school library) will necessitate greater awareness on the part of teachers of the values for whose sake a society takes the trouble to maintain and reproduce itself, for, as will be seen, it is society that generates the 'requirements of the users'. But this will be possible only if the whole of society - and not just the isolated little moral world of education, no matter how well-intentioned - resolves to awaken that awareness. We seem to have a long way to go!

A far simpler issue, because it lies outside the normative sphere, would seem to be that of reference books, which, according to Cossette, give the documentation centre its distinctive and indeed specific character. The ground is well marked out here by the fact that the classification of school subjects is in line with that used by librarians (Dewey or UDC). Is there a particularly sharp division here between the specific work of the librarian, whose job is to cater to needs, and that of the teacher, who is responsible for or reveals the 'requirements of the users', in this case pupils? This division of labour seems to be a true reflection of accepted practice, not that it actually happens, since, in my experience, there are not many qualified librarians in primary schools, but it is evidenced in the behaviour of teachers who, either in their class or in a library outside the school, call on the services of a librarian - not that they do so very often. Generally they stand aside and remain silent while the librarian is speaking, as though the class had been taken over by another form of knowledge (or power) represented by the librarian and his books. This has always seemed to me to be an invidious situation, and, unlike Cossette, I do not think it makes for effectiveness. My ideal would be an organic approach such that every primary-school teacher would be capable of running his library both as a librarian and as a teacher. Versatility seems to me to be particularly necessary in libraries, and specialization a dangerous limitation.

How does the problem present itself? In terms of having access to didactic learning, to that which is provided by the teaching not of English or arithmetic but of those subjects now known as 'general cultural subjects', whether they be of a biological or technological nature or related to the acquisition of social knowledge (human sciences). Through them, teachers seek to encourage discovery, understanding and expression. This last-mentioned faculty is certainly very indicative of success and is an important factor in the evaluation of effectiveness. But the starting-point is no less decisive: what is the nature of the pupils' requirements? The most 'modern' type of teaching, that based on activity methods, is designed to ensure that 'the child's interests are catered for'. Cossette makes this a criterion of effectiveness, but what is the unit of measurement? It has of course become a commonplace in the literature that the study of general cultural subjects should always begin with a 'phase of self-directed activity' in which the lines of approach are identified by the children themselves as a matter of free choice. But has the socio-political aspect of the matter been properly identified? What determines the tastes, choices and needs of children? Not, to any significant extent, their individual psychology, so psychologists assure us, since desires, impulses and aspirations are in only a very small degree predirected towards specific objects and derive far more from the social structures in which the children find themselves. It is for this reason that needs appear to be very relative and to vary according to time and social context. It is well known that the need for a particular piece of information makes itself felt only in so far as there is some chance of its being met fairly rapidly. In our time, in our societies, Galbraith has asserted that production generates need. This is also true of information. The numerous messages put out through every channel including advertising, inspire our children's demands and dictate their questions. 'However, this advertising is strongly conditioned by the society that produces it. Our children's questions do not fall from the (pedagogically) pure heaven of childhood innocence; they are subject to social, or more precisely political, pressures that at the present time reflect no interest in needs connected with the community, the environment or working conditions but are the logical expression of a system that is primarily productive, that is to say economic. It is certain that the school should be a system that is fully open to its surroundings, but what if those surroundings block the way by insidiously imposing a welter of information such that the ideological wood cannot be seen for the trees? The truth of the matter is that the 'real' questions, those bound up with man's existence and destiny - and they are questions that children do worry about (at their own level - do not admit of an answer as far as the teacher is concerned. They will not be raised in class, where only questions that can be satisfactorily answered within the framework of formal education will be taken up. Children are aware of this and toe the line, learning very early on to avoid social taboos in response to the teacher's wishes. Although the latter thinks he is being anti-authoritarian in refusing to lay down pre-ordained channels for the subjects the children are to study and in creating the impression that the work of (re)construction is to be performed by them he merely consolidates, within a preconceived ideological framework, the standard answers to imposed questions. In view of the quantity of information provided, we can be sure that the bidding will go up and up, but the coinage will be counterfeit. The individual - the child - is alone against proliferating society. Is it not the teacher's educational responsibility to be at his side as he enters those perplexing areas whence tomorrow's history and innovations will necessarily spring?

In French educational literature not many works have been devoted to the motivation of the child. Are we to believe, along with P. Gruson, that a State that assumes responsibility for education cannot create a system capable of dispensing it? But the teacher gets on with his work. His means are two-fold: work may be done in the classroom, for instance finding ways of tackling a subject by means of research and making a partial round-up of what the pupils already know, or the class may go out to a place where they can see the real thing they are studying - such as a workshop, lake, forest or shop - or to the library, the latter being regarded as a representation of reality. The question of the relative merits of these two methods does not seem to have been even broached, either by Cossette or by the educationists, which is not right. Official recommendations themselves, under the sway of an activistic way of looking at so-called modern methods, tend to glorify and assign the highest priority to concrete reality, perhaps without taking stock of all the epistemological difficulties involved. For the social sciences INRP advocates educational visits as the 'cornerstone' of general cultural subjects. The source of knowledge is considered to lie in what the child sees, touches and personally observes, through 'concrete' experience, at the baker's, the grocer's, the supermarket or the petrol station, regarded as true schools of learning. Within such a conception the library clearly has a secondary role (either as a means of going further ('extension') or as a means of verification) but is never felt to be of central importance, continuing to be seen as a tool for completing what has already been started, never for initiating; in a word, an 'abstract' substitute. There are two possible objections that can be raised to this emphasis on the 'concrete'. In practice, it is commonly to be seen that the teacher, in his day-to-day work, does not fully base his instruction on this way of acquiring knowledge; he generally regards the educational visit as an exceptional teaching method. If asked to explain this, he might plead not only material problems (if the information he wishes to communicate is not available in the immediate environment) but also problems of method. Epistemologically, he could point out that observed reality, even in vivo, is never anything more than a representation and is shaped and coloured by previous theories; he could dispute the assertion that an observation can be 'objective' when it takes the form of a datum dispensed in a standardized package. Without wishing to go too deeply into the subject, which is vast and entails a long chain of philosophical transformations, I would hold that the teacher must not refuse himself the right to subscribe to a philosophy that rejects positivism while accepting that the observer himself influences his observation and his interpretations of phenomena. Leaving aside the philosophical standpoint that I have done no more than suggest here, what is important is that the library too, through its books and documents, offers an accessible reality no less real or significant than so-called 'concrete' reality and that, consequently, it may be considered to possess the same degree of potential effectiveness. The librarian is a custodian of knowledge like the teacher; he can lead children to books, just as the teacher leads them out on a study visit. In reality, each is as much an educator as the other. This remark may appear surprising, considering how entrenched is the commonsensical idea that nothing separates linguistic signs from extra-linguistic reality - whereas the linking of them (the referential function) 'brings the sign into relationship not directly with the world of real things but with the world as perceived through the ideological formations of a given culture' - an idea based on the belief that there exists an unchanging truth, that it is in no way dependent on social values and that representations are not ultimately always shaped by social, mental and ideological conceptions.

It would be wise not to regard the two forms of out-of-class learning as mutually exclusive. This, unfortunately, is how they are seen by the 'concrete reality' fanatics, who forget the language is itself a conceptualization, that visible reality is often trivial and misleading and that the purpose of education is not to itemize the tangible world but to develop abstract reasoning. Without dismissing the educational value of the study visit, let us turn our attention to what, pedagogically speaking, can be achieved in a library.

For the teacher, three purposes are to be served by the acquisition of knowledge. First, he wants the child to be capable of reaching accurate conclusions; secondly, he wants accuracy to go hand in hand with creative potential so that, ideally, the subject of study may be viewed as comprehensively as possible; and, thirdly, he wishes the child to be capable of giving an account of his or her conclusions, which presupposes the ability to organize them. To achieve these ends the teacher makes use of the resources of the library. There he encounters the librarian, to whom Cossette assigns a neutral, back-up or supporting role. In the opinion of the present writer, the teacher's work continues in the library, and if the librarian does not possess organic knowledge of the teacher's aims he is not likely to be very effective. Let us take a close look at what happens.

The research topic is either devised by the pupil or laid down, proposed, by the teacher, as we have seen. The research is carried out collectively, in groups, or individually. The teacher may suggest a visit to the baker's bake-house, but the child may be interested in observing owls, which, of course, being active at night, can hardly be seen during the daytime (nor, for that matter, can the baker). Then again, the child may want to study the metamorphosis of the chrysalis, which can easily be seen in certain circumstances, or to hear from small children to whose plight attention has been drawn by a television programme the previous evening, but they may not be near at hand. Arousing in children a desire to undertake a study visit may be neither easy nor natural for the teacher and may present problems for the champions of ?concrete reality'. In contrast, the library, organized for the purpose, will always respond to the call of curiosity - if at least it is well-stocked and well-arranged.

The choosing of books would tend to be the responsibility of the teacher rather than the librarian. Who, if not the teacher, is familiar with the motivations of children, with the 'requirements of the users'? Unless, that is, the librarians themselves lend a hand in class.

Classification, on the other hand, would tend to be more the responsibility of librarians. But will this be acceptable to teachers influenced by Piaget, who is an authority on the genetic development of the child? At what age will a child in a library understand (not 'learn') decimal classification (Dewey or UDC? The first step is to translate (traduce) scientific abstraction and to speak of 'stones' where the classification is 'geology', of 'animals' in the place of 'zoology' and of 'stars' in that of 'astronomy'. At what age can a child without too much difficulty classify bees and elephants as animals, the earth and the sun as belonging to the solar system? It will of course be said that it is the teacher's job to teach the principles of such classifications (which apparently he seldom does). Unfortunately, Piaget shows that nature cannot be forced and that certain logical connections can be made only at certain stages. It is then discovered that in this regard the teacher and the librarian are but in the infancy of their art and that, properly, what they should do is devise classifications according to level of psychological ability, without such classifications being an obstacle to future work, to the inevitable learning process, or to the developing capacity for abstraction. The ultimate objective here would be to understand and memorize the Dewey decimal classification or UDC and, if possible, at the same time to subject it to a critical appraisal. This question is little studied, either by librarians or by teachers, although it needs to be approached jointly by them.

What is the nature of the operation of classification? The human mind has an innate tendency to classify. Classification is an essential manifestation of intellectual activity, a means for man of introducing order into his perception of the universe. An inventory of perceived objects is not a mere labelling or an enumeration but a putting in order effected by the power of language. This cataloguing of nature, this science and labour of arrangement, involves a search for similarities, an attempt to reduce what is perceived to resemblances such that what is essential can be identified and singled out. Classifying means eliminating 'egocentric particulars' and removing the nonce element from present perception, from immediate sensory experience, in order to arrive at universal concepts, the first tentative forms of concepts that can later be integrated into a scientific construct. Classifying means, ultimately, seeking in diversity the simplicity and unity of 'permanent objects', identifiable through the recognition of relationships within the perceptual world.

Classes are sets of objects sharing common attributes. Their nature lies at the origin of the problems before us here: what separates the adult from the child in this sphere is that the former, librarian or teacher, possesses a ready-made, universal, independent system of classification, whereas the latter, the pupil, conducts his thinking (which, as has already been noted, proceeds essentially by way of comparison) without taking account of the adult's instrument, which is inaccessible to him. The problem to be tackled, that of classification, is not the sole responsibility of the librarian: the solution found to it will define the work of the teacher too.

The adult's system of classification appears to be the outcome of a logical exercise. It claims to be rationally justified, on the basis of the validity of the criteria employed. However, history, when it reveals the changes undergone throughout the centuries by the different types of classification, also reveals that they are linked to the state of science at the time, which imposes the paradigm accepted by the scientific community, making it socially necessary, while its scientific validity depends solely on a dated, historical consensus. The adult pits (the superior weight of) his fully developed logic against the developing logic of the child: this is the pedagogical act through which individual meaning and the social order meet. Classification, although universal, is only relative.

Psychologists have studied ways of measuring the child's ability to perceive resemblances, and many of their tests require the subject to look for similarities. The conclusion they have reached is that at the age of ten the capacity for classification undergoes considerable change (is this evidence that socialization is almost complete?). Before that age children seem to perceive differences more easily than resemblances, to recognize first colour, then form, and then, later, function. Children learn to classify by bringing into play organizing activity to operate on the raw data of experience. If a teacher wishes to enable a child to use a library effectively he must aim at making the child's thinking increasingly independent of concrete images through the discovery of relationships that will make it possible to create practical, usable categories.

The librarian does not receive a fully trained pupil in his library. On the contrary, as new 'users' go searching for information they slowly develop the ability to classify, and the librarian needs to keep track of the children's new or emerging skills so that he can help them on to the next stage, the goal being to master the classification system to one decimal place by fifth grade.

Three sources of information thus complement one another in subtle ways: the alphabetical list of entry-words, the list of subjects covered, and the hierarchical classification. The first is documentary, the second pedagogic, the third social. The librarian and the teacher both use them in two ways: inductively, by moving up to increasingly general designations (from 'money' to the category 'economics'), or deductively, from the general category 'animals' down to species, by way of the phylum, family and genus. This to-and-for movement between units of classification is a source of both creativity and guidance. It would therefore be a mistake for the school librarian to confine himself to a technical approach that he might consider to be a specific feature of his work. The tools he places at children's disposal cannot yet be used by them: the goal is to link together two extremes informal classification and decimal classification. Conceivably, this work of classification, which is that of generalization and imaginative creativity, will be more readily accomplished in class or in the library, if there is one, than on a study visit outside. It represents an eminently intellectual task that disregards trivia and superficiality, going on to reveal the shaping ideas that explain reality.

Let us consider a child who has come to a library to find out what he can about 'the owl'. While browsing, rummaging through the 'Bibliothèque de travail' (B.T.) series, he comes across a booklet on the subject. Should he copy from it? And what? The teacher has specified the subject of the paper to be prepared - 'The life of the owl' - but what the child finds difficult is making his essay relevant to that subject. The book mixes up all kinds of different information about the appearance of the owl, its constitution, its usefulness, etc. The role of the teacher and the librarian is to teach the child to read in such a way that he can communicate what he has read, which means starting off by noting what is relevant. The B.T. series is well produced and, through its lay-out, lends itself to rapid reading. The child can read through the titles to pick out the 'useful' ones: 'Hunting, rearing its young, nesting, etc.'. While learning, the child simultaneously develops a method. The teacher first checks that the child is singling out what is useful and then provides assistance in going from the particular to the general. He easily gets a 9-year old to understand that nesting is a particular way of building a home, that hunting is a particular way of working, and that the rearing of young birds is a particular way of reproducing. This access to generality provides a methodological framework that has other applications, serving as a source of patterns of interpretation for the preparation of other essays. This search for common formal structures, these isomorphisms, applicable in different forms to situations that do not at first seem comparable and to different kinds of phenomena, is an essential factor in measuring effectiveness. It would be difficult, however, to provide an evaluation of it. Lack of success is not tantamount to an admission of failure The school is a place of learning whose practical effects can be measured only in the long term, when the child has become an adult.

Successfully evaluating the effectiveness of a school library depends only to a small extent on the librarian's efforts and more on the precision of the educational objectives the team of educators, including the librarian, wishes to pursue. In no case are librarians passive tools in schools, at the service of the teachers. They too are educators, and, through their efforts to develop the child's ability to classify, they play a central part in building up the child's thinking. It is true, however, that they must beware of the danger of bibliolatry. Life is not learnt in books., but it is in books that it is conceptualized.

<<TOC5>> Concepts of library goodness

Michael K. Buckland

The study of "library goodness" is an underdeveloped area. There has been some speculation that there might be some general universal measure of library goodness. The idea is appealing. Imagine a Monday morning in the office as a university president, mayor or corporation chief executive officer arrives and the secretary says: "Good morning! The financial crisis is looking even worse but you'll be pleased to know that the librarian reports that the library's performance went up half a point on the library goodness scale last week." It is a nice thought but not very probable.

Single measures. of library goodness1 can be concocted but their Credibility is undermined by the number of arbitrary assumptions that have to be made to piece the parts together. Nor should this be surprising. When choosing an automobile, a variety of different factors: safety, appearance, economy, speed, comfort and so on, are considered. The problem is to relate this battery of factors to resources, intentions and personal set of values.

Although the quest for the Grail of Library Goodness has not (yet) been successful, there has been no lack of measures of performance proposed nor lack of people proposing them. The principal guide is Lancaster's Measurement and Evaluation of Library Services.2 There have been plenty of suggestions: What is lacking is coherence, a sense of the whole. It is not that there has not been progress. Lancaster's work is rather complete through about 1973, with some later work. A comparable volume written in 1963 would have been a lot thinner. Yet there is a long way to go, and it is noticeable that the numerous empirical efforts need to be counterbalanced by a greater attention to theory and to context.

Three paradoxes

There are plenty of gaps and intellectual problems in librarianship and it can be stimulating to attempt to resolve apparent contradictions. In approaching library goodness, consider three paradoxes.

The evaluation of catalogues. Books are catalogued and, therefore, retrieved by their attributes. Usually these attributes reduce to what they are "about," who their authors were, what their titles are and where and when they were published. A narrow definition of evaluation would be concerned with whether or not the catalogue (or any retrieval system) does in practice yield the items with the desired attributes.

On the other hand, it has been argued that the proper criterion for evaluation of the items retrieved should be their utility to the user, rather than their "aboutness" or other attribute used for retrieval. This sounds plausible but the utility depends on the user's state of ignorance and motivation at that particular time. So, in a sense, the catalogue would be evaluated not on its own characteristics but in terms of matters (ignorance, personal values) that are extraneous to it. This seems a little unfair, albeit desirable.

Optimal library size. In many areas of manufacturing, commerce and engineering, matters of size and scale are of central interest. The same could reasonably be expected to be true in librarianship. After all, every increment in size costs money. Yet that is not the case. The literature of librarianship is almost silent on the topic and what little there is does not get one very far and, I suspect, is little read. In brief, the literature is very limited on what might be a central concern.3

Lenin's view of public libraries in the U.S. The third paradox is quite different again. Many people connected with U.S. public libraries do not realize that a great admirer of the American public library scene was Lenin. Lenin was quite knowledgeable about libraries: His wife, Krupskaia, was a librarian.4

——————————————————————————————————————————
Library services are paternalistic in the sense that they are ordinarily provided by some for others. The appropriateness of the provision for the context in which it is provided deserves recurring consideration.
——————————————————————————————————————————

In the U.S. public libraries are viewed as a bastion of western liberal democracy and are seen as playing a significant role in free access to information, in establishing a well-informed electorate and so on. Since these are not goals generally attributed to the Soviet Union (or to Lenin), it seems paradoxical that he should have been so enthusiastic.

Orr's schema

A discussion that can be helpful in trying to grapple with concepts of library goodness was published by Orr in the "Progress in Documentation" series of the Journal of Documentation in 1973.5

Orr points out that there is a fundamental ambiguity in discussions of library goodness because there are two quite different sorts of goodness:
• How good is it? - a measure of quality.

• What good does it do? - a measure of value.

Suppose that a collection of Persian prayer books was amassed and that, through assiduous purchasing and photocopying, this collection came to be the most complete collection of its kind in the world. Unquestionably this would be a good collection. If good cataloguing and knowledgeable staff were added, then we would have a good library. It would be good in the sense of quality. We can, in fact, say more than this. Quality in this sense implies capability. Such a library collection is of good quality because it is highly capable of meeting the needs of persons seeking to learn about Persian prayer books.

On the other hand, it does not necessarily follow that even the highest quality library would have beneficial effects. Let us imagine that this collection of Persian prayer books were to be in Bella Bella, B.C., or some other relatively inaccessible and sparsely populated area. What good would it do? In the absence of civilization it is difficult to imagine any beneficial effects.

Measurement

Unfortunately both quality (capability) and value (beneficial effects) are difficult to measure, especially the latter. In practice we tend to fall back on surrogate measures. See Fig. 1. In particular income or resources are assumed to indicate capability: "With a book budget that low they can't do much!" or "That should be a good library, just look at the resources they have!". There is an implied causal connection. So there should be in the sense that a skilled librarian ought to be able to improve the quality of a library given improved resources. However, the improvement is not automatic any more than buying expensive ingredients guarantees a good meal if the chef cannot cook. Similarly, it is assumed if utilization is increasing, then beneficial effects are increasing. "The children's library is packed, it must be doing a good job."

<<I>> D:\IMAGES\UNESCO\R8722E\P636.PNG Figure 1: A scheme for considering library goodness (Based on Orr.5)

These assumed connections, which are depicted by dotted lines in Fig. 1, are not unreasonable so long as it is remembered that the tightness of the connection can vary. Several things can go wrong. In particular the capability being offered may be more or less appropriate for the pattern of demand in the context where the library service is provided. We can imagine library collections more appropriate to probable demand in Bella Bella than Persian prayer books. Similarly relocating the latter in Vancouver or, better yet, Teheran would increase utilization and hence, beneficial effects.

Appropriateness

Library services are paternalistic in the sense that they are ordinarily provided by some for others. The appropriateness of the provision for the context in which it is provided deserves recurring consideration. In this regard there is more theoretical work to be done on the demand for library services. What are the crucial attributes of demand such that the detailed profile of services provided is appropriate?

Let us imagine a situation in which the dominant form of demand is for identified documents and in which promptness of service is desirable but not critical. What profile of library service, what capability would be most appropriate? Since the emphasis is on obtaining specific, known documents, a premium should be placed on author and title catalogues. Tools of subject access play a minor, auxiliary role. Reliable document delivery is important because requests are for specific documents and, by implication, substitution of alternative titles is likely to be inappropriate. A high level of immediate availability on open-access shelves would seem desirable for convenience but, in fact, open access does not seem essential. Lengthy loan periods are tolerable if a particular item can be recalled from loan on request. Good service would be possible from closed stacks (even with shelving by size and accession number in compact storage) if documents are to be kept secure and in good order. Urgency permitting, interlibrary loan could serve this demand better than any other kind of demand. This sort of demand calls for investment in union catalogues and finding lists. The need for expert reference staff would appear to be at a minimum. ("I know what I want, please get it!")

——————————————————————————————————————————
The restraint lies outside of the library. At some point the marginal increase in the benefit to be derived from the next dollar to be spent on books is less than the benefit to the city of the next dollar to be spent on road repairs, or the benefit to the university of increasing the number of teaching assistants or whatever. 
——————————————————————————————————————————

Let us now imagine what an appropriate profile of library provision might be like if we were dealing with a demand pattern characterized by specific subject inquiries and urgency. In this situation there would appear to be a premium on subject access, including both a subject arrangement of documents and subject indexes that provide additional points of access to them. The indexes might be purchased bibliographical tools or locally produced. A special emphasis on computer-based reference services and on local indexes, because of the additional power each can bring, might be expected. Indepth indexing of parts of documents would seem, in general, to be desirable, though not necessarily affordable. Experienced subject specialist reference staff or information officers can play a substantial role. To the extent that one document may be substitutable for another, low levels of immediate availability and lengthy loan periods become tolerable. Large but not necessarily exhaustive local collections within the subject area concerned are desirable to provide for browsing. Access to large holdings is also likely to be needed because the result of a subject search might become a search for one or more particular documents. In that case interlibrary loan would suffice for providing access to documents unless urgency is a major concern. The collection, even if large, ought to be on open access and arranged by subject in order to facilitate browsing even though one can also browse in subject indexes.

The two profiles of library provision that just imagined represent quite different patterns of library provision: the former resembles a traditional university library and the latter a typical special library. Other scenarios are possible. The recognizable difference between the two profiles illustrates the extent to which a library's "capability" may need to be made appropriate to the pattern of the demand to be served.6

Paradoxes revisited

Let us reconsider the three paradoxes in relation to. library goodness and preceding discussion.

The paradoxical situation with respect to the evaluation of catalogues ran be resolved by reference to Orr's schema in Fig. 1. Retrieval evaluation in the narrow sense is a matter of quality and capability. A retrieval system that consistently and reliably retrieves just those items that have the specified attributes is, unquestionably, a good retrieval system, whether it is used or not.

The extended definition of catalogue effectiveness is concerned with the utility of what is retrieved. This approach differs from the narrow definition in two ways: Firstly, it is an evaluation of the combination of a retrieval system and its users; secondly, it corresponds to Orr's second type of goodness - what good does it do? It is concerned with value and beneficial effects. It is, therefore, different in kind from the narrow definition.7

The question of optimal library size has an explanation of a different sort. There may be circumstances in which library books ought to be relegated to less accessible storage, and there may be circumstances in which staffing ought to be increased relative to acquisitions. A change in size is a change in kind and some restructuring of the pattern of provision, such as decentralization or automation, becomes desirable. However, after all appropriate restructuring, the acquisition of one more book would seem to continue to be advantageous, even though, with diminishing returns, the advantage might become small. In other words, the marginal benefit of increased size appears to remain positive, however slight. Bigger, from this perspective, remains better.

The restraint lies outside of the library. At some point the marginal increase in the benefit to be derived from the next dollar to be spent on books is less than the benefit to the city of the next dollar to be spent on road repairs, or the benefit to the university of increasing the number of teaching assistants or whatever. We should expect the literature of librarianship to be rich in dealing with the problems of handling increases in size. However, we cannot expect it to be other than impotent in relation to optimal library size because the problem is in large measure external to librarianship and can only be resolved in relation to the context of library services.

The paradox of Lenin and American public libraries becomes less paradoxical if we review it in terms of Orr's schema and also ask about social values to define what constitute beneficial effects. It is perfectly reasonable for Lenin or anybody else to respect and admire public libraries for the capability they have to inform, educate and amuse.

The precise tuning of the capability through, for example, book selection and censorship will depend on the social values defining what beneficial effects are being sought. It is these social values that constitute the difference. Lenin was not seeking to achieve a western liberal democracy. This paradox is only a paradox so long as we fail to distinguish between the two sorts of goodness with respect to public libraries.

Conclusion

The concept of library goodness is ambiguous: "How good is it?" and "What good does it do?" are valid but quite different questions. Orr suggests another goodness. the goodness of library management, that would be reflected in tighter connections between the elements in his schema: more capability for any given increase in resources, more utilization for every increase in capability and so on.

Such improvement in the effectiveness of library management and in our ability to grapple with concepts of library goodness call for a greater emphasis on the theory and context of library service.

Footnotes

1. Hamburg. M. and others. Library Planning and Decision-Making Systems. MIT Press. Cambridge. Mass., 1974.

2. Lancaster, F. W. Measurement and Evaluation of Library Services. Information Resources Press, Washington. D.C., 1977.

3. A noteworthy exception to this neglect is Gore. D. ed. Farewell to Alexandria: Solutions to Space. Growth. and Performance Problems of Libraries. Greenwood Press, Westport. Conn., 1976.

4. Raymond, B. Krupskaia and Soviet Russian Librarianship, 1917-1939. The Scarecrow Press. Metuchen, N.J., 1979.

5. Orr. R.M. "Measuring the Goodness of Library Services: A General Framework for Considering Quantitative Measures, " Journal of Documentation. 29, 3, Sept., 1973. p. 315-332.

6. For a fuller discussion of the appropriateness of provision in relation to the sorts of inquiries served see Buckland, M.K., "Types or Search and the Allocation of Library Resources," Journal of the American Society for Information Science. 30, 3, May, 1979. p. 143-147.

7. For further discussion of uses of the term 'relevance' see Wilson, P. Two Kinds of Power: An Essay on Bibliographical Control. University of California Press, 1968, especially chapters II "Describing and Exploring" and III, "Relevance." Wilson is concerned primarily with the extended definition of relevance and utility: "textual means to an end,” (p.50). In Wilson's terms the narrow definition of relevance should not be called relevance but "fitting a description, " (p. 46); "To say of something that it fits a certain description is not to employ the concept of relevance," (p.47). Michael K. Buckland is dean. School of Library and Information Studies, University of California, Berkeley. This article is based on a lecture presented at the UBC School of Librarianship under the auspices of the Universities Council of British Columbia. It was received Jan. 6 and accepted for publication on Feb. 11.

<<TOC4>> 7.2 Evaluation: specific examples

<<TOC5>> The management study

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew)
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.

- Rudyard Kipling

Most librarians participate in a number of management or system studies in the course of their careers. Some conduct the studies, others are subjects, most implement the recommendations or use the findings in decision making. Even if one's involvement is limited, every professional should understand the principles and objectives of a scientifically conducted management study and know when a study is worth undertaking, who is most qualified to do it, and how best to act on its recommendations.

Who Should Make the Study

Until recently, few librarians had a sufficient knowledge of scientific management to feel comfortable in the role of systems analyst. For many years it was customary to import consultants from business and industry. Although these consultants were usually proficient in the use of analytic tools, they often did not understand library operations. They approached problems as though in an industrial setting, with a tendency to view activities solely in terms of cost. The importance of service objectives were minimized, misunderstood, or ignored.

This situation has changed somewhat in recent years as several management firms have strived to overcome these shortcomings. At the same time, more librarians have become competent in the use of analytical tools. It is now common for a large library to retain systems analysts as full-time staff members. Smaller libraries may rely on the skills of staff who also perform other responsibilities-for example, a children's librarian, cataloger, or department head who may be asked to double as an analyst whenever the need arises. Some libraries, however, still prefer to employ outside consultants.

There are advantages and disadvantages to each alternative. Regular staff members can harbor personal biases or be so caught up in internal politics that their objectivity is imperiled. Outside consultants can speak more candidly on controversial issues since they can leave the scene once the project is completed. On the other hand, staff analysts will be available to assist in the implementation of a study's recommendations after the outsiders have departed, and the ability of an organization to follow through is vital.

The ideal combination of talents is a librarian well versed in the fundamentals of systems analysis. Trained librarians are best prepared to understand what scientific-management techniques can accomplish and to recognize the limitations of these techniques in a library setting.

The Steps of a Management Study

The strategy one employs in making a management study is basically the same whatever the level of complexity. There are six steps: 1) defining the problem; 2) gathering the data; 3) analyzing the present system; 4) designing an improved system; 5) implementing the new system; and 6) evaluating the new system. The first four are discussed in this chapter, the last two in Chapter 3,

Defining the Problem

An organization usually does not contemplate a management study until it has identified a problem or deemed a change in the system necessary. It may be a member of the library staff, such as a library assistant, a department head, or the director, who brings the situation to light. In many cases the systems staff member points out the problem, often before it becomes apparent to other employees. Regardless of who first identifies the need for a study, someone in a position of authority must authorize it.

The analysis must have clearly defined boundaries: the operations (people, tasks, processes) to be studied must be clearly distinguished from those to be excluded. One should define the problem in the context of the library's overall objectives, otherwise one is liable to diagnose the problem incorrectly, For example, in recent years the profession has gradually shifted its emphasis from acquisition and organization of collections to exploitation of a library's resources. A library that is apparently able to acquire anti organize its collections efficiently may not achieve its primary objective if those materials are not also readily accessible to its readers. Incidents of such imbalances are common in libraries.

SELECTING AN AREA FOR STUDY There are several guides that an analyst can use to identify problem areas most likely to produce worthwhile results. Special attention should be given to: 1) production bottlenecks; 2) jobs that are frequently performed; 3) jobs that require frequent movement of people, forms, or equipment; and 4) jobs that require large budget expenditures.

Production bottlenecks Bottlenecks in any procedure should always receive prompt attention. A breakdown in even a seemingly minor link in a work-flow chain can be a serious matter. For example, adhering call number labels to book spines is a mechanical task; nonetheless, it is a necessary prerequisite to circulating a book. From the point of view of a user it is just as serious if a delay occurs in labeling as in cataloging, for in either case the book is delayed and the user must wait. A bottleneck can be symptomatic of several problems-staffing shortages, poor supervision, cumbersome procedures, and so on.

Jobs that are frequently performed The more often an operation is performed, the better a candidate it becomes for analysis. Even a small savings could be significant because of the high frequency. For example, suppose a public library orders 10,000 books a year; suppose further that by introducing a simple work-flow improvement one were able to reduce the average time needed for ordering by one minute per book. This seemingly insignificant adjustment would produce an annual savings of 10,000 minutes, 167 hours, or a month's labor by a full-time employee. Searching, typing book orders, classifying and cuttering books, reproducing catalog cards, filing cards, charging and discharging books, and shelving are obvious examples of high-frequency processes. In contrast, a project such as expanding a card catalog is not undertaken very often. Even though a systems study would no doubt save some time and expense for any process, a study of more frequently performed processes would produce more tangible benefits.

Jobs that require frequent movement of people, forms, equipment "Movement" is not necessarily limited to movement between two distant points. Short distances multiplied by high frequency equal long distances. Materials, forms, and equipment should be placed in the area where they will be used. Related library routines should be located so as to reflect the natural flow of the work and thereby minimize the total steps. The increase of a few steps for one person might save thousands of steps for others. This analysis of movement is inextricably tied to the study of functional library architecture. What is the optimum physical arrangement between acquisitions, cataloging, reference, the public catalog, and the major bibliographical tools? One must analyze such factors as who on the library staff uses the public catalog? How often? I low far do they have to travel to consult it? Flow long does each trip to and from it take? And so on.

Jobs that involve large budget expenditures A job that is expensive is an obvious candidate for study. High cost alone is insufficient reason for elimination or even partial curtailment. Reference service in a large library is expensive, yet who would suggest not offering it? It is reasonable, however, to seek ways to reduce a high-cost center if savings can be made without reduction in the service. For example, some libraries, upon analyzing the nature of reference questions, have concluded that many are directional and need not be answered by a professionally trained librarian. Less-costly personnel would not necessarily lower the quality of service. In today's library, computer-based systems are prime candidates for study because of their sizable operating costs.

DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN SYMPTOMS AND PROBLEMS In defining a problem an analyst should take care not to mistake a symptom for the problem. To illustrate this point, consider how people from different levels of the organization can view a problem from different perspectives. Two examples:

A Case of Uneven Work Flow

Division Head's perspective: The work flow in the department is uneven and there is a need to redesign jobs.

Section Head's perspective: The people in this section do not work at the same speed; some are very fast while others barely work up to minimum. These individuals are not carrying their share of the load.

Worker Number 1's perspective: Some of my co-workers just do not care.

Worker Number 2's perspective: All was going well until Joe started cutting out. You know, Joe doesn't give a damn about the rest of us.

The Departmental Bottleneck

Division Head's perspective: This section is not as productive as one has a right to expect; I wonder if a procedural bottleneck has developed somewhere within the unit.

Section Head's perspective: The staff do not take time to check the accuracy of their own work, so I must cover for their carelessness.

Workers' perspective: The Section Head has a compulsion to check all our work. The Section Head is a real [expletive deleted]; we are all fast, careful workers.

The manager who authorizes an investigation, on the advice of an analyst or colleagues, may decide to redefine the problem in light of additional information or terminate the investigation altogether once the problem is identified. An analyst, tot), may also recommend a change in or termination of a study as a result of learning that what was first believed to be the problem was in reality only a symptom.

Gathering the Data

One must gather data in order to document a procedure or a system. Moreover, it is this information, organized and analyzed, that will expose deficiencies and help one design, develop, implement, and evaluate an improved system. The nature of the data to be collected will vary depending upon the problem: in technical services many tasks can be described in quantifiable terms; that which is performed at a reference desk will be more difficult to measure.

What vexes an analyst is not scarcity but rather overabundance of facts, facts that must be sifted through, evaluated, anti arranged. Often the crucial task is to develop a methodology that discriminates between needed and unneeded information. There is a limit to how much can be derived from a given body, of data, and one should resist the temptation to generalize beyond its usefulness. One must also consider the costs in time anti effort to collect the data. More than one analyst has been chagrined to learn that it had cost more to gather the facts than was saved by adopting the recommended system.

One should consider the following points:

1) Time-how much time is available to complete the study;
2) Money-what is the size of the budget available to the analyst; and
3) Current records-what data are already available.

An analyst will learn from experience to judge when enough facts have been collected and the time has arrived to begin analyzing the present system.

Analyzing the Present System

Once the data are gathered an analyst should be able to model the process, problem, or system under investigation-that is, describe it precisely and understand the interrelationships among its elements. The analyst should he so familiar with the system that it could be replicated elsewhere given sufficient time and money,

The data collected Will Usually describe the work that each staff member performs or the flow of forms or materials as they proceed from one work station to another. One should become accustomed to asking questions beginning with the words why, what, where, when, who, and how.

1) Why. Why is a process formed? Is it necessary to achieve the unit's objectives?

2) What. What is the purpose of the process in relation to the objectives of the library? What does it contribute to the overall system?

The what and why questions can sometimes be combined. For example, why is a given set of files maintained and in what way are these files employed?

3) Where. Where is the jot) performed? Where else could it be done? If work stations involving related jobs Could be grouped together, time-consuming problems of transportation might be reduced or eliminated.

4) When. When should a job be done? Could a jot) be performed at a different time to better advantage? For example, circulation-discharge routines might be performed during slack periods rather than during rush hours.

5) Who. Who should perform a job? Who possesses the best combination of qualifications? Can the work be performed by a person with less training? The who question involves the separation of duties among personnel classifications and between people and machines.

6) How. flow is a job performed? How might it be done better?

One can use these questions to examine almost any managerial problem. A checklist (Figure 2-1) will buttress this simple approach. The analysis of data allows the manager to better understand the Current situation. Questioning assumptions and traditional practices may spark one's creative processes. Some libraries, in order to facilitate creativity, appoint task forces of qualified staff members to review the data collected during the course of a study. This provides staff with an opportunity to contribute, particularly those who may not have been directly involved in the study and who may not harbor unusual biases, but who do possess an understanding of the present system.

OPERATION CHECKLIST

1) Can any steps be eliminated?
2) Can any steps be subdivided?
3) Can any of the operations be combined?
4) Can the sequence of steps be altered?
5) Is there any unnecessary transportation?
6) Can part of the operation be performed more effectively as a separate operation?
7) Could a lower-paid employee do the operation?
8) Can another person do the job better?
9) Can a machine do the job better?
10) Are work loads balanced?
11) Can peak loads (if activity be eliminated?
12) Can delays be eliminated or used for other operations?
13) Can "bottleneck" operations be eliminated, rescheduled, etc.?
14) Can the operation be done in another department to save time?
15) If the operation is changed, what effect will it have on other operations in the system?
16) Can spot checks (or inspections based on sampling techniques) be employed instead of 100-percent inspections?
17) Is work being unnecessarily duplicated?
18) Can a patron, vendor, etc., be consulted to make operations easier and more economical?

Figure 2-1 OPERATION CHECKLIST 

PROBLEMS

1) What are the pros and cons of hiring an outside management consultant?

2) Give some examples of frequently performed library tasks. Why are they good candidates for management study?

3) Describe some typical library work situations that may require frequent movement of people, forms, or equipment.

4) Give some examples of typical procedural bottlenecks in libraries.

5) Management, professional, and clerical personnel often see a given work situation from differing points of view. Illustrate this with a typical library- example.

6) What are the six key words to use in analyzing a procedure?

7) Describe some common examples of government and professional constraints upon library systems.

8) Why is a clear understanding of organizational objectives a necessary prerequisite for successful management studies?

9) State three or more appropriate objectives for a given library circulation department.

10) What specific approaches are suggested for developing an improved system?

11) Describe typical peak and slack periods of activity for various types of libraries. For each case explain how the library might or does try to accommodate this variation.

12) To avoid overcomplexity library systems should be designed to accommodate the normal transaction. Special subroutines should be designed to handle the exceptions. Illustrate this principle in terms of some typical library procedures.

ADDITIONAL READINGS

General

Barnes, Ralph M. Motion and Time Study: Design and Measurement of Work. 6th ed. New York: Wiley, 1968. Chapters 3-6.

Johnson, Stanley, and Ogilvie, Grant. Work Analysis. London: Butterworth, 1972. Chapters 1 -3.

Mundel, Marvin E. Motion and Time Study. 5th ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1978. Part One (Chapters 1-6), "introduction to Motion and Time Study."

Libraries

Burkhalter, Barton R. Case Studies in Systems Analysis in a University Library. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1968.

Burns, Robert W., Jr. "A Generalized Methodology for Library Systems Analysis." College and Research Libraries 32, 4 (July 1971): 295-303.

Chapman, Edward A. "Planning for Systems Study and Systems Development." Library Trends 21, 4 (April 1973): 479-492.

Chapman, Edward A.; St. Pierre, Paul L.; and Lubans, John, Jr. Library Systems Analysis Guidelines. New York: Wiley-Interscience, 1970.

Corey, James F., and Bellamy, Fred L. "Determining Requirements for a New System." Library Trends, 21, 4 (April 1973): 533-552.

Gough, Chester R., and Srikantaiah, Taverekere. Systems Analysis in Libraries; A Question and Answer Approach. Hamden, Conn.: Linnet, © 1978. Chapters 3-5.

Hayes, Robert M., and Becker, Joseph. Handbook of Data Processing for Libraries. 2d ed. Los Angeles: Melville, 1974. Chapter 6, "Methods of System Description

Heinritz, Fred J. "Analysis anti Evaluation of Current Library Procedures." Library Trends 21, 4 (April 1973): 522-532.

Minder, Thomas. "Applications of Systems Analysis in Designing a New System." Library Trends 21, 4 (April 1973): 553-564.

<<TOC5>> A cost-analysis of cataloguing at the Universiti Sains Malaysia library for 1975 

by
Lim Chee Hong
Assistant Librarian
Perpustakaan Universiti Sains Malaysia

There have been studies on the cost of cataloguing in the developed countries, but these have been done more than a decade ago (1, 2). In recent times, reports tend to be comparative studies of the manual cost of cataloguing to the cost of automated cataloguing for the purpose of the library automation (3, 4). In the case of Malaysia, no cost-analysis of cataloguing has been reported in the literature. It is therefore in this context that this study will primarily provide a guide to cataloguing cost in university libraries, with special reference to the Universiti Sains Malaysia Library. Secondly, in view of the fact that computerised cataloguing may be a distant possibility, this cost-analysis will provide a basis of comparison of the cost of manual and automated systems.

The Universiti Sains Malaysia Library was established in June 1969 with fifty books. At the end of December, 1975, the number of accessioned items stood at 139, 440, indicating an average annual intake of 21,500 volumes. Daily cataloguing statistics have been kept on various aspects of the cataloguing process, such as number of titles catalogued, number of preliminary checking of catalogue entries, number of catalogue cards filed, etc., by all categories of staff in the Technical Processing Division since April 1971. In 1975, the cataloguing output was most encouraging. This is attributable to the fact that most of the new Library Officers, namely, the professional staff, having received sufficient experience and training in cataloguing began to show increasing competence in their work. Moreover, at this time, the number of staff members in the Division had almost reached the optimum level, comprising one Assistant Librarian, six Library Officers, six clerks, four typists, two junior technicians and two attendants. It was thought, therefore, that this would be an opportune time to study the cost of cataloguing in a newly-established institution and compare it with the cost of cataloguing in a more established institution.

Before attempting to provide an analysis of the cost of cataloguing, it is necessary to describe briefly the process of cataloguing in this Library, namely, the functions of the various levels of staff and the workflow in the Division. This is essential to the understanding of how the cataloguing cost is derived.

As in most university libraries in Malaysia the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 1967, the Library of Congress Classification and the Library of Congress Subject Headings are used as tools in cataloguing. In this Library, the provisions of AACR are adhered to quite closely. With respect to the classification process, changes are automatically made to topical, name and geographic subdivisions of the class number, and the book number according to the Cutter-Sanborn table. Classification changes are also made in certain well-defined areas to suit local needs. However, these are kept to a minimum.

In the cost of cataloguing, it is realised that a major cost is attributable to the salaries of professional staff and any reduction in their clerical chores would reduce the cost of cataloguing. There is also the need to avoid duplication in the preliminary checking process and cooperation with the Acquisitions Division of the Library has enabled us to eliminate one step in the cataloguing process. It is also essential to have a systems analysis of the work procedure and flow in order to eliminate duplicative and non-productive work.

The workflow in cataloguing involves the transcription of catalogue entries found in the L.C. National Union Catalog onto workslips by clerical staff. The transcribed entries are then edited by the Library Officers who would make classification and subject heading changes where necessary and Cutter the book number. This is followed by the assigning of the number of catalogue cards to be printed. The main entry and added entries are verified by the clerical staff in the main catalogue to ensure consistency in the form of heading. Subject to the checking by the Head of the Technical Processing, the catalogue entries are sent for typing of the catalogue masters, after the book cards, book pockets and call numbers for the spine of the books have been typed. After the typing of the catalogue masters and proofreading by the Library Officers, they are sent for offset printing. The main entries for the two dictionary catalogues of the Library, one serving the Main Library at Minden and the other the Branch Library at Gelugor, are extracted from the printed cards. The balance of the catalogue cards is sent for overtyping of the added entries and the adding of the accessions number onto the shelflist. The catalogue cards are then sorted, arranged in filing order and filed by clerks. In the meantime, the book pocket with the inserted book cards and the date due slip are pasted and the processed books sent for recent acquisitions display or to the bookstacks for shelving.

In the case of original cataloguing, the process of descriptive and subject cataloguing are done by the Library Officers while the rest of the procedures are somewhat similar.

Two main aspects of cataloguing cost will be analysed, viz. the cost of cataloguing per title and the cost per added copy for items already catalogued. In analysing the personnel cost of cataloguing, the cost of each cataloguing activity is apportioned according to the percentage of time spent in each particular function. As for the cost of materials, the costing is based mostly on actual 1974 prices. However, any increase in price for 1975 would not significantly alter the overall cost of cataloguing. Other cataloguing-related costs, such as time spent in supervision and training of staff, solving of cataloguing problems, and meeting on cataloguing and classification changes, have been taken into consideration although these costs would vary from institution to institution and would also be dependent on the stage of development of a particular institution. No overhead charges have been taken into account as these are not easily computable.

The total number of volumes catalogued in 1975 was 29,951, comprising 14,999 titles and 14,952 added copies, including 4956 bound periodicals. Of the 14,999 titles catalogued, an analysis of the preliminary checking of catalogue entries record indicated that 78.1% of entries were from the L.C. National Union Catalog whilst the remaining 21.9% consisted of original cataloguing.

CATALOGUING COST PER TITLE

In the analysis of the cost of cataloguing by title, it is useful to know the cost attributable to each specific group of cataloguing activities. The various cataloguing activities will therefore be grouped under the following headings: Preliminary checking and cataloguing, Card preparation and production, Book processing, and Filing. The following is an analysis of the cost of cataloguing per title based on 14,999 items:

(i) Preliminary Checking and Cataloguing

Personnel costs	$	$	
	(a) Cost of checking by Head of Technical Processing and cataloguing-related activities	17,000		
	(b) Cost of cataloguing by Library Officers 	45,675		
	(c) Cost of preliminary checking by clerks	10,116	72,891	
Materials			
	(a) Cost of 30 IBM cartridge film ribbons @ $20/- per ribbon	600		
	(b) Cost of 14,999 catalogue work slips @ 0.0454 per slip	7	607	
			73,498	

The cost of this aspect of cataloguing is $4.90¢.

(ii) Card Preparation and Production

Personnel costs	$	$	
	(a) Cost of proof-reading by Library Officers	6,694		
	(b) Cost of typing catalogue masters by typist	4,938		
	(c) Cost of offset printing by junior technicians	2,491	14,123	
Materials			
	(a) Cost of 196,935 catalogue cards @ 1.5¢ per card	2,954		
	(b) Printing cost of 196,935 catalogue cards at 0.045¢ per card	89		
	(c) Cost of 20,600 offset catalogue masters @ 4.2¢ per master	865	3,908	
			18,031	

The cost of this aspect of cataloguing is $1.20 per title.

(iii) Book Processing

Personnel costs	$	$	
	(a) Cost of checking of typing of book cards, book pockets and spine labels by clerks	1,527		
	(b) Cost of typing book cards, book pockets and spine labels by typists	1,397		
	(c) Cost of pasting book pockets, date due slips by attendants	1,498	4,422	
Materials			
	(a) Cost of 29,998 book cards @ 0.9¢ per card	270		
	(b) Cost of 14,999 book pockets @ 0.75¢ per pocket	112		
	(c) Cost of 14,999 date due slips @ 0.4¢ per slip	60		
	(d) Cost of 4 cotton ribbons @ $3.35¢ per ribbon	13		
	(e) Cost of 14,999 Permaseal labels @ 1.7¢ per label	255 	710	
			5,132	

The cost of this aspect of cataloguing is 34¢ per title.

(iv) Filing

Personnel costs	$	$	
	(a) Cost of filing 196,935 catalogue cards by clerks	7,190		
	(b) Cost of overtyping added entries and accession numbers on shelflists	3,688	10,878	
Materials			
	(a) Cost of 60 IBM typewriter film ribbons @ $3.90 per ribbon	234	234	
			11,112	

The cost of this aspect of cataloguing is 74¢.

Therefore the cost of cataloguing per title is the total of the above processes, that is, $7.18¢ per title.

CATALOGUING COST PER ADDED COPY

In view of the fact that the title has already been catalogued, the cost of adding a copy is significantly lower.

The following is an analysis of the cost of cataloguing per added copy based on 14,952 items:

Personnel costs	$ 	$	
	(a) Cost of checking by Library Officers	1,196		
	(b) Cost of adding accession numbers to shelflists by clerk	3,209		
	(c) Cost of typing book cards, book pockets and spine labels by typists	1,397		
	(d) Cost of pasting book pockets, date due slips by attendants	1,498	7,300	
Materials			
	(a) Cost of 29,904 book cards @ 0.9¢ per card	269		
	(b) Cost of 14,952 date due slips @ 0.4¢ per slip	60		
	(c) Cost of 14,952 book pockets @ 0.75¢ per pocket	112		
	(d) Cost of 4 cotton ribbons @ $3.35¢ per ribbon	13		
	(e) Cost of 9,996 Permaseal labels @ 1.7¢ per label (less labels for bound periodicals)	170		
	(f) Cost of 14,952 workslips @ 0.045¢ per slip	7	631	
			7,931	

The cost of cataloguing per added copy is 53¢.

CATALOGUING COST PER VOLUME

Overall, the cost of cataloguing per volume based on 29,951 is derived as follows:

Cost per title + Cost per added copy

From the above cost-analysis, it is apparent that the following are pertinent factors in considering the cost of cataloguing:

1. Personnel cost is the single most important cost in cataloguing, especially the cost of professional staff.

2. With the yearly increment of staff salaries, the cost of cataloguing would increase.

3. Although cataloguing productivity would increase with newer professional staff, the cost of cataloguing would be offset by the salary increase of these staff until a stage of optimum output has been reached, whereby the cost of cataloguing would rise again.

4. The cost of cataloguing is directly related to the work productivity of the staff.

5. The rate of original cataloguing and non-original cataloguing would affect the cost of cataloguing. Generally, original cataloguing would cost very much more than non-original cataloguing.

6. The cost of materials should not alter significantly the cost of cataloguing unless abnormal price fluctuation of materials takes place.

CONCLUSION

It is concluded, therefore, that the cost of cataloguing per title at the Universiti Sains Malaysia Library during 1975 was $7.18¢, the cost of adding an already catalogued item to stock was 53¢ and the overall cost of cataloguing on volume basis was $3.86¢.

REFERENCES

1. MacQuarrie, C. "Cost survey: cost of ordering, cataloguing and preparations in Southern California libraries." Lib. resour. 6(4): 337-350, Fall 1962.

2. "The cost of data processing in university libraries." Coll. res. libr. 24(6): 487-495, Nov., 1963.

3. Birmingham Libraries Cooperative Mechanisation Project. Costing catalogue systems in three libraries. Birmingham, BLCMP, 1972.

4. Woods, R.G. The cost of cataloguing: three systems compared. Southampton, University of Southampton, 1972. (University of Southampton. Library. Automation project report, no.3)

<<TOC5>> Performance measures for public libraries

Dr Donald E K Wijasuriya
Deputy Director-General
National Library of Malaysia

INTRODUCTION

This chapter is intended primarily to suggest the need for a greater degree of performance measurement and assessment in respect of the services provided by public libraries. It is written with specific reference to the public library sector in Malaysia although it may have wider applications both within the country as well as the region. Public library services are now provided in all states in Malaysia to a greater or lesser degree. Services are still very much urban oriented although the extension of services to the rural areas is receiving increasing emphasis.

In all eleven states in Peninsular Malaysia, public library legislation has now been enacted; State Public Library Corporations have been established and are functioning. In Sarawak and Sabah, public library services are provided by state and local government authorities without the benefit of supporting legislation. In Sabah, draft legislation is under consideration but no change is envisaged in the public library authority. In other words, public library services will continue to be provided by a State Government Department (viz., the Sabah State Library). The Statutory Corporation authority pattern in Peninsular Malaysia will not be adopted. For a more detailed account, reference should be made to the paper by Zainab Abdul Kadir and Adeline Leong presented at CONSAL V.1

THE 'STANDARDS' SYNDROME

In assessing the development of public library services in Malaysia since the Blueprint2 was first adopted in 1968, there has been a tendency to judge performance on the basis of the extent to which the 'standards' have been achieved. The 'standards' in this instance refer to the Blueprints' Interim Standards for Public Libraries, 1969-70 and Minimum Standards for Public Libraries, 1971-75. These 'standards' included statements of desirable conditions or provisions (qualitative and quantitative) and were to be implemented within a certain time frame, i.e. 1971-75. In reviewing achievements or performance nearly a decade later, the Persatuan Perpustakaan Malaysia prepared its revised Standards for Public Libraries in Malaysia and subjected them to review by a wider audience at the Joint Conference of the Persatuan Perpustakaan Malaysia (PPM) and the Library Association of Singapore (LAS) in March 1977.3

Following a period of further review by a Committee of the PPM Council, the Piawaian untuk Perpustakaan Awam di Malaysia (Standards for Public Libraries in Malaysia) were issued. Once again, the standards tended to take the form of statements of principle (e.g. 'Each State should have only a single library authority') or of provision (e.g. 'if satisfactory services are to be provided, a minimum of one librarian for every 25,000 of population served should be provided'). If the standards were used as a checklist, each clause or provision, to a greater or lesser extent could be said to have been attained. Shortfalls tend to be more evident in those areas where quantitative provisions are specified - for example in size of initial collections in central or branch libraries, rate of book acquisition per annum or ratio of professional staff to population served.

To complete the picture, in 1981, the Persatuan Perpustakaan Malaysia issued its Library Building Standards for Malaysia4 which contained provisions for public libraries as well. These standards too were reviewed by a wider audience at a Seminar on Library Buildings in 1981.5 The major difference between Piawaian untuk Perpustakaan Awam di Malaysia and the Library Building Standards for Malaysia is that the former was never formally adopted or endorsed by any library, administrative or financial authority while the latter was adopted 'in principle' by the Costs and Standards Committee of the Government's Economic Planning Unit. Although some of the standards are relatively recent (those pertaining to library buildings for instance) there have been standards for public libraries for nearly fifteen years. Yet it must be frankly admitted that despite attainment or near attainment of the standards, there is little meaningful development. Public library services have not permeated all strata of society and they do not seem to have made a significant contribution to overall national development.

This does not necessarily imply that the standards are without value. In many fields standards are in fact indispensable - particularly in industry and engineering. In some instances they are also enforceable by legislation, especially when failure to meet a standard may endanger human life. In the world of libraries, standards have applications but they mostly constitute guidelines or models to follow. Failure to follow or adhere to a given standard does not result in major catastrophes. Standards for libraries have been useful, among other reasons, to set preliminary targets, provide for adequate staff, or provide for adequate book collection.

But it is quite clearly short sighted to assess or evaluate development on the basis of the degree of attainment of the standards alone. The standards, by and large, place emphasis on inputs - whether qualitative or quantitative (e.g. how many books per head of population; how many professional librarians for a given concentration of population; how many reader seats per thousand of population, etc.). Inputs are important simply because without adequate inputs - especially of staff and materials - little can be expected in the way of outputs. However to assess or measure development on the basis of assessing the degree to which input standards have been attained can only result in false readings. Hence the concern during the 1970s with the attainment of standards, in other words with the investment of inputs must be supplemented with an equal, if not greater emphasis in the 1980s on the outputs and the measurement of performance.

PERFORMANCE MEASURES

Output/performance measurement (hereafter, the term performance only will be used) of libraries is not in any way a new phenomenon. De Prospo, in analyzing studies which have been completed on performance measurement of library services in the United States draws the following conclusions:

1. Most studies were done on individual libraries - primarily academic institutions which may or may not be similar to public libraries.

2. The research has not been cumulative. Some aspects of library operations like weeding, storage, duplication and unsatisfied demand have been done over and over again by different researchers. Yet, other critical areas have virtually been ignored - reference service, the library's impact on its community, optimum utilization of staff.

3. Most of these studies offer models which are essentially theoretical. The models are mathematically sound but are extremely difficult if not impossible to implement in a real situation.

4. The principal researchers involved in most of the mathematically-oriented studies have no library training or experience. Consequently some of the concepts presented and the approaches tried show a naivete about the complex nature of library activities.

5. Most of these reports describe the library as though the library staff did not exist. One wonders about the level, of staff involvement in these studies. If staff involvement was minimal, it might be hypothesized that the studies had little impact on subsequent operations or service. Only the University of Lancaster has written on the actual implementation of the models prepared for that library.

6. Most of these studies, in order to be comprehended, require more knowledge of mathematics than the average librarian is likely to possess. Their impact on librarianship thus far appears to be minimal since no follow-up reports have appeared in the literature showing that these models have been adopted and/or adapted by other libraries.

The results of the literature search are clear. Few antecedent approaches exist which the public library can utilize fruitfully in developing innovative approaches to measuring the performance of the services it offers its public. Most earlier writings in the pre- 1960s stress the need for evaluation but no concrete explanations of how to proceed. The truth of this statement is verified by the fact that the profession is still searching for a 'method'. On the other hand, few of the newer approaches cited lend themselves to implementation and interpretation by the practising librarian because of their reliance on highly sophisticated and complex methodologies.6

It is clear therefore that performance measurement for libraries is still tentative and experimental. For the developing countries still grappling with the tasks of establishing public library services, performance measurement may appear to be premature simply because the rate of development in many of these countries is so slow that performance, if any, may not be worth measuring. However the fact that performance measures is the subject of a working paper at CONSAL VI is indicative that some progress has been achieved in public library development in the Southeast Asian countries that might be worth measuring.

However in undertaking performance measurement, there are a number of objective standpoints from which performance can be measured. These include:

1. Effectiveness - how well a service satisfies the demand placed upon it and is meeting the objectives of the organization

2. Cost-effectiveness - how effectively a service meets its objectives in relation to the costs of maintaining that service

3. Cost-benefit - whether the value (worth or benefit) of a service is more or less than the cost of providing it. This is more an exercise to determine whether the cost of providing a service is justified by the value or benefits derived from it.

It is useful to bear in mind here that the distinction between cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit is somewhat tenuous, while the ultimate benefits of library services are very difficult to measure. The application of performance measures to libraries, including public libraries is not widespread even in the developed countries. In the developing countries, Malaysia, for example, we are taking our first tentative steps and could benefit much from interaction and involvement of public administrators, statisticians, management consultants and others in the performance measurement of libraries. In measuring the performance of the public library service, it is possible to measure the effectiveness, the cost-effectiveness or the cost-benefit aspect of the overall service, specific components of it (e.g. the lending, reference, document copying service etc.)

For reasons of expediency and economy, it would be desirable as a first step, to measure performance on the basis of the overall service. This is best done on a state by state basis by individual public library authorities. In embarking on such an exercise, it is useful to delimit, depending on resources and time available whether an evaluation in macro or micro is envisaged. The effectiveness of a system or a service can be evaluated by either method. Macroevaluation measures how well a system operates and is usually expressed quantitatively while microevaluation is diagnostic in that it probes into how a system operates and why it operates at a particular level. Obviously, microevaluation cannot be avoided if the ultimate object is to use the results of such evaluation or measurement to further improve, upgrade or extend the service. Based on the foregoing, microevaluation of the overall service in terms of its effectiveness would attempt to establish how well the service satisfies the demands placed upon it and how well the service meets the objectives of the organization.

In assessing how well the service satisfies demand, user participation is especially important. Essential tasks involved will include:

1. The identification of the various services provided, such as the following:

(a) Lending Services:
Home lending
Interlibrary lending
Bulk lending
Special Loans to hospitals, prisons, physically handicapped (blind, deaf, crippled, spastic)
Postal lending
Mobile lending

(b) Reference services:
Reference enquiry (telephone, telex, in person)
Literature search
Bibliographic compilation
Readers advisory
Data base search
Commercial information

(c) Exhibitions, talks, story telling, drama, etc.

2. The formulation of questionnaires based on the above, designed to gauge over a given period the user patronage of the service and user satisfaction.

Care however must be taken to ensure that the questionnaires are formulated meaningfully in order to elicit meaningful responses from users. Decisions will also have to be made whether:

(a) to distribute questionnaires to all patrons (registered and non-registered users)
(b) to distribute to a carefully selected sample of users
(c) to supplement (a) or (b) above with personal interviewing.

Whatever method is adopted, there are bound to be major weaknesses in trying to assess how well the service satisfies demand. Generally, users are likely to assess the service on the basis of their most recent experiences of using the service. Performance measurement implies that the measuring device used is standard and can be reapplied at various points in time in order to give 'readings' which can then be compared. to assess whether performance has in fact improved. A library assistant may be able to letter 100 books in a normal working day; a cataloguer may catalogue twenty-five books in the same period. Both performances constitute a unit of measurement which can be applied at different points in time to give a performance 'reading'. In the case of a service provided, it is doubtful whether a standard measuring device can be reapplied at different points in time to give meaningful readings. In quantitative terms, how well the service is used or patronized can be measured to give a performance reading at different points in time. But in qualitative terms, how well the service satisfies demand is likely to be difficult to measure, and it may also be difficult to reapply the same measure at a different point in time in order to gauge performance.

Possibly a more realistic alternative would be to measure effectiveness in terms of how well the service meets the objectives of the organization. This of course presupposes that clear-cut and tangible objectives have in fact been established. It is simply not possible to evaluate a service unless there are set objectives, the attainment of which can be measured. Libraries in general tend to lack clearly defined objectives. Often, library statements of objectives tend to be vague generalizations. Examples of objectives given by Hamburg7 relating to libraries include the following:

- to aid in the creative use of leisure time
- to assist people to become better members of their families and communities by promoting national democratic attitudes and values
- to assist people in their daily occupations, thereby sustaining economic growth
- to develop creative and spiritual capacities
- to assist people to discharge political and social obligations, thereby establishing an enlightened citizenship.

Objectives such as these may provide a broad framework for operations but they certainly provide no specific goals - whether long or short term - which can be measured. Service institutions must set short term objectives against which performance can be measured.

Drucker8 states very clearly that:

Achievement is never possible except against specific, limited, clearly defined targets, in business as well as in a service institution. Only if targets are defined can resources be allocated to their attainment, priorities and deadlines be set, and somebody be held accountable for results. But the starting point for effective work is a definition of the purpose and mission of the institution - which is almost always 'intangible' but nevertheless need not be vacuous.

To illustrate further the idea of clear-cut objectives or targets, it could be said, for example, that the objective of the public library 'to provide facilities for the life-long education of the individual' would be considered imprecise and difficult to measure. So also would be the objective or target to provide services to the rural areas.' On the other hand 'to increase membership of the public library service by people in the rural areas by 30%' is quantifiable and can be subject to performance measurement. In other words, while lofty ideals and statements of intent may be incorporated in legislative acts or enactments or in statements of policy in order to provide a broad framework for operations, the setting of short term, clear cut targets or objectives cannot be avoided if some degree of accuracy in performance measurement is desired. The setting of short term targets or objectives should normally constitute an essential aspect of annual budget proposals so that appropriate resource allocation can be considered.

In the absence of clear-cut objectives or targets, it should be borne in mind that the major objective of all library activity - and public libraries are no exception - is to maximize exposure to library materials. But what exactly constitute exposure? Generally it could be said that exposure takes place:

1. when a book or other form of library material is borrowed (by an individual or another library [interlibrary loan])

2. when a book or other form of library material is consulted, referred to, used or copied (photocopied, micro copied, copied in audio or video cassette)

3. when members of the general public, children, etc. listen to a talk in the library, take part in drama or story telling sessions, attend exhibitions in the library

4. when library staff respond to requests for information, data, etc. which may be received by letter, telephone, telex, direct computer link or personal enquiry

5. when an individual is registered as a member.

In each instance there has been exposure (interface between the library/librarian and the user). How effective the exposure has been, however, is not known. Exposure effectiveness could in fact be dependent on a whole range of other factors such as the nature of the collections (subject range, language, audience level), physical accessibility and the degree of satisfaction of user need. In a simplistic sense, exposure can quite easily be quantified. Each loan, each consultation (reference use), each item of library material copied (photo copied, microcopied or copied in audio or video cassette), each enquiry (by telephone, telex, etc.) could constitute a unit for measurement. For example, consultation of the Malaysian Population and Housing Census, 1980 (a single consultation lasting twenty minutes) would be scored as one unit of measurement, just as the Ioan (for two weeks' home reading) of Alvin Toffler's Third Wave or a telephone enquiry for the address of an import-export agency, would each be scored as one unit for measurement.

Whether exposure of the same magnitude has taken place is difficult to determine. A book may be borrowed for two weeks, but this does not mean that the book was read continuously over the two weeks or for that matter read at all. The telephone enquiry (assuming immediate response) may not have taken more than six minutes. The effectiveness of exposure, however, should not be dependent on economic benefit. In other words the six-minute telephone enquiry for the address of an import-export agency which may have led to some economic benefit should not be deemed to be more effective exposure than the twenty-minute consultation of the Population and Housing Census for a term paper or a child's adventure into fantasy, reading the Wizard of Oz. In the ultimate analysis, the effectiveness of exposure must be measured by the degree of user satisfaction - whatever the level of use or purpose.

Devising quantitative measures of exposure and incorporating into library housekeeping routines the necessary statistical recording of each occurrence of exposure should not be too difficult. Macroevaluation of exposure here would merely quantify and enable comparisons of exposure within given time periods. If represented graphically, it could reveal the peak and slack periods and could reveal some interesting associations. It will not however indicate why exposure is what it is nor will it indicate how exposure could be improved or the degree of satisfaction further upgraded.

As stated earlier, microevaluation is diagnostic in nature. It attempts to probe deeper and since the overall service (to the public) is being evaluated, it is the degree of user satisfaction that is measured. This could be compared with data obtained in macroevaluation. It must be pointed out that a high incidence of use does not necessarily point to a high degree of user satisfaction. The microevaluation of user' satisfaction or effectiveness of exposure cannot be undertaken without staff and user participation. Time, quality and benefit considerations or criteria would normally be applied. Data will have to be obtained through questionnaire or personal interview and this is not so easily done.

Quite apart from the difficulty of grading satisfaction levels or establishing the degree of satisfaction attained, individual users will have to be interviewed or they will have to complete a questionnaire each time they return a book or other library material borrowed. The same will have to apply in respect of books or other library material consulted within the library. The enquiry service (with requests received by telephone, telex etc.) will present even greater difficulties. In fact each occurrence of use will have to be evaluated. Performance measurement implying a standard measuring device would appear to be inapplicable in the above situations.

It may well be that only quantitative aspects in a macroevaluation situation can be subject to performance measurement while qualitative aspects in a microevaluation situation can only be subject to assessment from time to time since the I measuring' device used (the reader, patron or user of the service) will not only be subjective in his approach, but is not likely to be the same individual who may be used in a subsequent qualitative assessment exercise.

It could conceivably be argued that performance measures of demand satisfaction (how well the service satisfies the demands placed upon it) or performance measures to assess how well a service meets the objectives of an organization are but varying expressions of the same idea, considering that the objectives of a service organization would usually relate very closely to the demand for the services of that organization. In the case of the public library service, the major objective may be to maximize exposure to library materials, but the measurement of actual exposure (through loans, reference use of materials, enquiries, etc.) is simply a measurement of the demand for the service as expressed through loans, reference use of materials, etc. Microevaluation, whether of demand satisfaction or exposure effectiveness may not be sufficient, especially in a situation where the degree of 'demand' or 'exposure' is largely conditioned by a situation in which

(a) the total number of registered members of the library system (state library, branch libraries and mobiles)
(b) the total number of non-members who use the materials or services of the library

represents a relatively small proportion of the total population of the state concerned. This fact is quite evident in the following table showing the state population and the registered library membership.

As will be observed, on average less than 3.7% of the population of each state are registered members of the library service and largely constitute the 'demand' for the service or provide the objective for exposure. Even this may be an exaggeration of the true situation, taking note of the fact that the registered membership includes inactive and possibly defunct members. It is perhaps more realistic to express the total registered membership of the state public library service as a percentage of the potential user population (PUP) of the state rather than as a percentage of the total state population. The PUP is considered to include the total population of a state aged six-nine, and the literate population aged ten and above.9 Unfortunately, however, at the time of writing, literacy figures in respect of the Population and Housing Census, 1980 had not been published and hence were not available. Even without the exact figures, however, it is reasonable to assume that the percentage of public library membership to the PUP is likely to be higher than that depicted in the table. The overall position, however, has not changed. The total user group in relation to the PUP of each state is definitely quite small.

Table 1. Public Library Membership, Malaysia, 1980

State	Population*	Public Library Membership**	
		Total	%	
Johore	1,600,946	37,174	1.94	
Kedah	1,102,639	44,675	4.05	
Kelantan	888.831	2,771	.31	
Malacca	453,163	4,975	1.09	
Negri Sembilan	563,799	6,544	1.16	
Pahang	790,537	5,831	.73	
Penang	911,668	27,474	3.01	
Perak	1,773,644	30,788	1.73	
Perlis	147,376	6,235	4.23	
Sabah	1,003,487	172,941	17.23	
Sarawak	1,294,846	56,934	4.39	
Selangor	1,475,400	110,909	7.51	
Trengganu	542,280	2,970	.54	
Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur	937,817	37,508	3.99	

Source:
* Malaysia Population and Housing Census, 1980 
** Statistics maintained at the National Library of Malaysia

Note:
Statistics of library users (non-members) not available. 

Despite this, it must be accepted that since the actual registered membership, as depicted in the earlier table, ranges from a low of 0.31 % to a relative high of 17.23%, it would be highly illuminating if surveys could be undertaken by individual State Public Library authorities to find out why the majority of the potential user population of the state are not making use of public library facilities. Bearing in mind the fact that the bulk of the population in most states is in the rural areas, it would be highly instructive to isolate the factors causing this low level of usage. Questionnaire surveys, however, would be quite impractical in the rural areas. Instead it may be necessary to interview an appropriate sample of the potential user population of the state in order to obtain the necessary information. What is envisaged here is not a user survey for that would be an expression of existing demand, but a survey of nonusers or an opinion poll.

It is quite possible that the data so obtained would confirm and quantify some of the following as the major reasons why public library services are so little used:

1. shortage of reading materials in Bahasa Malaysia both in the Romanized [Romi] and in the Jawi script

2. inadequate number of service outlets - branch and mobile libraries

3. poor public transport facilities

4. poor telecommunications facilities

5. inconvenient opening hours

6. existence of strong oral tradition

7. distrust of print sources

8. little need for book based information

9. library collections badly located, poorly signposted

10. catalogues confusing to use, staff not available to assist

11. library materials out of sequence/ missing

12. poor parking facilities

13. emphasis on rules and regulations

14. information available from other agencies/officials e.g. Information Officer, District Officer, Agricultural Extension Officer

15. information available from other sources which are more interesting and in forms more easily assimilated (TV, radio)

16. Not interested in reading and have not acquired reading habit.

CONCLUSION

If public libraries are to improve their ranking in the scale of national priorities, they must be able to demonstrate a more positive contribution to national development efforts. Providing a more congenial atmosphere for school children to do their homework or prepare for terminal examinations is unlikely to move decisionmakers to improve or maintain funding in the face of dwindling resources and competing demands. There is a constant and continuing need, therefore, for assessment and reassessment of the services provided by public libraries. Quantitative measurement and qualitative assessment must become an integral and essential part of public library management. If staffing limitations within a public library system preclude this, then other agencies such as the National Library, the Library Association or the Library School should initiate or undertake the necessary evaluative studies, surveys or research and help to channel effort in the right direction. In the long term, the survival of the public library may depend on it.

REFERENCES

Daiute, Robert J and Kenneth A Gorman. Library operations research. New York, Oceans Publications, 1974.

Do Prospo, Ernest R at al. Performance measures for public libraries. Ernest R Do Prospo Ellen Altman, Kenneth E Beasley with the assistance of Ellen C Clark. (Chicago) American Library Association Malaysian Population Census is only applied to the population aged ton and above, whereas the age groups five-nine years, who attend pro-school or primary school would also be potential library users.

Getz, Malcolm. Public Libraries: An economic view. Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press [1980].

Goldhor, Herbert ad. Measurement and evaluation; papers presented at a Conference conducted by the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library Science, 10-13 September 1967. Champaign, Illinois, University of Illinois Graduate School of Library Science. [1968].

Lancaster, IF W. The measurement and evaluation of Library Services. F W. Lancaster with the assistance of M J Joncich. [Washington] Information Resources Press [1978].

Lancaster, F W and C W Cleverdon. Evaluation and scientific management of libraries and information contras. Leyden, Nordhoff, 1977.

NOTES

1Zainab Abdul Kadir and Adeline Leong. Access to information: Malaysia in Access to information; proceedings of the 5th Congress of Southeast Asian Librarians, Kuala Lumpur, 25-29 May 1981. Edited by D E K Wijasuriya, Yip Seong Chun and Syed Salim Agha. Kuala Lumpur, CONSAL V, 1982.

2Hedwig Anuar. Blueprint for Public Library Development in Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur, Persatuan Perpustakeen Malaysia, 1968.

3Shahaneem Mustafa and Neil Wilkinson. Standards for Public Libraries in Malaysia in Keperluan mengetahui: Perkembangan perkhidmatan perpustaakaan awam bagi masyarakat; the need to know: Developing public library services for the community. Proceedings of a Joint Conference of the Persatuan Perpustakaan Malaysia and the Library Association of Singapore, Petaling Jaya 3-5 March 1977. Edited by D E K Wijasuriya in collaboration with Ch'ng Kim See, Khoo Slow Mun, Shahaneem Mustafa. Kuala Lumpur Persatuan Perpustakaan Malaysia, Library Association of Singapore, 1977.

4Library Building Standards for Malaysia: A guide with recommendations. Report of the Adhoc Committee on Standards for Library Buildings of the Persatuan Perpustakaan Malaysia. Serdang, Selangor, (PPM), 1981.

5The PPM has also issued standards for special libraries and School Libraries:
(a) Guidelines for Special Librarians. PPM, 1977
(b) Blueprint for school library development in Malaysia. Edited by D E K Wijasuriya based on a draft report by B A J Winslade. Kuala Lumpur, PPM, 1979.

6Ernest R de Prospo at al. Performance Measures for public libraries. (Chicago), American Library Association, (1973), p 11.

7M Hamburg at al. Library planning and decision making systems. Cambridge, Mess., MIT Press, 1974.

8Peter F Drucker. Managing the public service institution. The Public interest. 3, 1973, pp 43-W

9The reason for this is that literacy, according to the [1973].

PGI STUDIES AND DOCUMENTS IN THE FIELD OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

ATHERTON, P. - Guidelines for the organization of training courses, workshops and seminars in scientific and technical information and documentation. Paris : Unesco, 1975. - 88 p. - (SC-75/WS/29). Also available in French and Spanish

ATHERTON, P. - Handbook for information systems and services. - Paris: Unesco, 1977. - 259 p. (ISBN 92-3-101457-9). Also available in French, Russian and Spanish

COCHRANE, P. - User based information services. A slide-tape presentation. Paris : Unesco, 1987. - (PGI-86/WS/27). Only limited number of copies available

COOK, M. - Guidelines on curriculum development in information technology for librarians, documentalists and archivists. - Paris : Unesco, 1986. - 123 p. (PGI-86/WS/26). Spanish and French versions in preparation

COOK, M. - Guidelines for curriculum development in records management and the administration of modern archives : a RAMP study. - Paris : Unesco, 1982. - 74 p. (PGI-82/WS/16). Also available in French and Spanish

EVANS, A.J., RHODES, R.G., KEENAN, S. Education and training of users of scientific and technical information UNISIST Guide for teachers. - Paris : Unesco, 1977. - 143 p. (ISBN 92-3-101452-5). Also available in French, Russian and Spanish

FISHBEIN, M.H. - A Model curriculum for the education and training of archivists in automation : a RAMP study. - Paris : Unesco, 1985. - 33 p. (PGI-85/WS/27). Includes a bibliography. Also available in Spanish

GUINCHAT, C., MENOU, M. - Introduction générale aux sciences et techniques de l'information et de la documentation. - Paris : Les Presses de l'Unesco, 1981. - 402 p. (ISBN 92-3-201860-80). Also available in English and Spanish. Arab and Chinese versions in preparation. Price: 90 FF

HALL, N. - Teachers, information and school libraries. - Paris : Unesco, 1986. - 110 p. (PGI-86/WS/17). Also available in Spanish. French version in preparation

HARMONIZATION of training in librarianship, information science and archives. Paris : Unesco, 1987. - 13 p. - (PGI-87/WS/2). Also available in French and Spanish

HARRIS, C. - Training package on information and documentation. - Paris: Unesco, 1987. - (PGI-86/WS/28). Only limited number of copies available

INTERNATIONAL Symposium on harmonization of education and training programmes in information science, librarianship and archival studies. Unesco House, Paris, 8-12 October 1984. Final Report. - Paris : Unesco, 1984. - 13 p. (PGI/E.T./HARM. 11/80). Also available in French

KATHPALIA, Y.P. - A Model curriculum for the training of specialists in document preservation and restoration : a RAMP study with guidelines. Paris: Unesco, 1984. - vi, 31 p. (PGI-84/WS/2). Also available in French and Spanish

LANCASTER, F.W. - Guidelines for the evaluation of training courses, workshops and seminars in scientific and technical information and documentation. - Paris: Unesco, 1975. - 102 p. (SC-75/WS/44). Also available in French and Spanish

LANCASTER, F.W. - Guidelines for the evaluation of training courses, workshops and seminars (second edition). - Paris: Unesco, 1983. - 129 D. (BEP/83/III). English only

LARGE J.A. A Modular curriculum in information studies. - Paris: Unesco, 1987. 89 p. (PGI-87/WS/5). Also available in French. Spanish version in preparation

MODERN archives administration and records management: a RAMP reader compiled by Peter Walne with the assistance of a working group of the International Council on Archives. - Paris: Unesco, 1985. - 587 p. (PGI-85/WS/32). Also available in French and Spanish

MOORE, N. - Guidelines for conducting information manpower surveys; Vol. I The Manual; Vol. II Questionnaires and accompanying documents. - Paris: Unesco, 1986. - 88, 34 p. (PGI-86/WS/3). Also available in French and Spanish

NEELAMEGHAN, A. - Guidelines for formulating policy on education, training and development of library and information personnel. - Paris: Unesco, 1978. - 38 p. (PGI-78/WS/29). Also available in French and Spanish

NEWSLETTER on education and training programmes for information personnel. Published by FID under Unesco contract. - The Hague: FID, 1979

PARKER, J.S. - Library and information science and archive administration: a guide to building up a basic collection for library schools. - Paris: Unesco, 1984. - 148 p. (PGI-84/WS/11). English only

REGISTER of short-term education and training activities in librarianship, information science and archives / Inventaire des activités de formation de brève durée dans le domaine de la bibliothéconomie, des sciences de l'information et de l'archivistique / Inventario de las actividades de formacion de breva duracion en la esfera de la bibliotecologia, las ciencias de la informacion y la archivologia / Second edition. Compiled and edited by M.L. DOSA and J. COLLIN. - The Hague, Paris: FID and Unesco, 1984, 187 p.

SARACEVIC, T. - A course in information consolidation. A Handbook for education and training in analysis, synthesis and repackaging of information (preliminary version). - Paris: Unesco, 1986. - 128 p. (PGI86/WS/14). English only

SAUNDERS, W.L. - Guidelines for curriculum development in information studies. - Paris: Unesco, 1978. - 38 p. (PGI-78/WS/27). Also available in French and Spanish

SIMMONS, P. - Teaching package on the use of information handling standards: computer aspects of bibliographic records, computer hardware, computer software (Preliminary version). - Paris: Unesco, 1986. (PGI-86/WS/4). Various pagings. Further modules to be issued later.

THOMPSON, A.H. - Guide to the production and use of audio-visual aids in library and information science teaching. - Paris: Unesco, 1983. - 125 p. (PGI-83/WS/17). Also available in French and Spanish

VAN PATTEN DE OCAMPO, E.M.. - La integracion de la biblioteca escolar/centro de recursos de aprendizaje al curriculum de las escuelas. Programa de capacitacion para su uso en las escuelas formadoras de maestros. - ocho Modulos. 27, 19, 18, 40, 34, 33, 40, 23 p. - Unesco: Caracas, 1987. (PGI/LAC-87/WS/2). Available from Unesco Caracas office. Spanish only

VAUGHAN, A. - Reader on management. To be issued in 1987. French and Spanish versions in 1988

WASSERMAN, P., RIZZO, J.R. - A Course in administration for managers of information services: design, implementation and topical outline. - Paris: Unesco, 1977. - 79 p. (SC-76/WS/110). Also available in French

WATSON, D.G. - Guidelines for the organization of short courses and workshops on the dissemination of data in science and technology. - Paris: Unesco, 1986. - 73 p. (PGI-86/WS/11). French and Spanish versions in preparation. Also available in French and Spanish

WHITE, B. - Directory of audio-visual materials for use in records management and archives administration training. - Paris: Unesco, 1982. 71 p. (PGI-82/WS/8). English only

WILSON, T.D. - Guidelines for developing and implementing a national plan for training and education in information use. - Paris: Unesco, 1980. 50 p. (PGI-80/WS/28). Also available in French and Spanish

WORLD Guide to library schools and training courses in documentation Guide mondial des écoles de bibliothécaires et de documentalistes. Second edition. - London: Clive Bingley; Paris: The Unesco Press, 1981. 549 p. (ISBN 0-85157-309-6). Out of print

Copies of the above studies and documents are available from:

Division of the General
Information Programme
UNESCO
7, Place de Fontenoy
75007 PARIS
France