1. Introduction
Thank you for that warm welcome
and introduction. I am delighted to join you at this annual convention
of the Association of Jewish Libraries.
I want to thank Nancy Sack of the
Northwestern University Library for inviting me to speak at this
luncheon. Northwestern is a special place for me. Having gone
to law school there, Nancy, your letter carried more weight then
you may have realized at the time.
I have an ulterior motive for joining
you here. Coming home to Illinois is always a joy for me, but
this Spring having a chance to leave Washington and meet with
librarians in Chicago is a special treat.
I'm sure you have all heard about
the climate of change in Washington these days. News stories
are everywhere about proposals for radical and fundamental ways
to "re-invent", "re-define", "re-position",
"re-duce", or "re-incarnate" government.
Many of these proposals involve the elimination of agencies, programs,
and functions from the Federal scene.
There is a real sense of confusion,
unease, uncertainty, and fear in the Federal sector. Washington
seems to be caught up in a feverish rush towards quick and dramatic
change - - but what seems to be missing is a sense of what these
changes will mean for the rest of the Nation.
That's why I am glad to join you here. To touch base with real people, working librarians who have a sense of tradition, history, and the profession. And who will be serving the information needs of users, scholars, and students long after the conclusion of the 104th Congress.
2. NCLIS
I understand that this is the thirtieth
annual convention of the Association of Jewish Libraries. AJL
is only five years older than the U.S. National Commission on
Libraries and Information Science. The Commission is on the eve
of its 25th anniversary. NCLIS was created by Public Law 91-345,
signed July 20, 1970, as a fifteen-member, independent agency
of the federal government.
Our Commission is a citizens' advisory
panel. Fourteen Commissioners are appointed by the President
and confirmed by the Senate for five-year terms, but only five
NCLIS members are professional librarians. The Commission membership
also includes a university administrator, a professor, a county
comptroller, a financial consultant, and the vice president of
an information company.
As members of the National Commission,
our job is to represent citizens' needs for library and information
services. We are charged to advise the President and the Congress
on national and international library and information policies
and plans.
That is, I think you will agree,
a very broad mandate, especially when you consider that we are
among the very smallest of the federal agencies. To let you know
just how small we are -- we belong to the Small Agency Council,
to which any agency with fewer than 6,000 employees can belong!
There is a subset of the Small Agency Council, called the Micro Agency Group, to which any agency with fewer than 100 employees can belong. The National Commission on Libraries and Information Science has less than ten staff members!
3. Overview
We probably feel as overwhelmed
as you sometimes do in trying to meet all the challenges and opportunities
of serving our respective communities and constituencies. You
may have seen the excellent article in the Spring 1995 issue of
SPECIAL LIBRARIES by Laura Berner Cohen, titled, "Synagogue
Libraries: Making It on Their Own."
She points out that the Association
of Jewish Libraries has two divisions: Research and Special Library,
and School, Synagogue and Center. While I don't know the proportions
of the divisional representation in our luncheon today, I do know
Ms. Cohen identified some of synagogue libraries' challenges that
I suspect all libraries share.
Indeed, I think all of us who are involved with libraries and information services, whether or not we work in libraries as such, share these concerns. I hope I am fair to Ms. Cohen in saying that some of our common challenges could be combined and summarized into two major areas. One is lifelong learning. The other is partnerships.
4. Lifelong Learning
Just as your association has two
divisions, I see two distinct parts of lifelong learning -- that
of our library users and that of ourselves. Let's look briefly
at our libraries' users. I know that the foremost concern for
many religious libraries is the provision of materials to teach,
excite and ground children and young people in their faiths.
However, if our society's rhetoric about lifelong learning is
to have meaning, we in libraries must do more to help fill adults'
needs too.
Some of you may know Paul Flexner
with the Jewish Education Services of North America. On April
12, 1995, he presented a paper titled "Community Based Adult
Jewish Learning Program: Issues and Concerns," at a conference
in Washington, D.C., on public libraries and community-based education.
A small part of Mr. Flexner's excellent
paper read as follows:
"In order to provide a substantive
adult learning program for the members of the Jewish community,
a new and innovative format should be constructed which will take
advantage of the wealth of resources that exist within the community
while not putting undue pressures on the existing infra-structure.
. . .To address this concern, we propose that a community-wide
taskforce be established with lay and professional representatives
from each of the organizations to be charged with the development
of a community based adult Jewish learning program."
There is not time today for more
than this teaser from Mr. Flexner's paper, but I hope you will
pursue his ideas and proposals in your home communities. I hope
you will see that libraries and information services are central
to whatever community-based adult learning programs already exist
or are planned for your local areas.
The second part of lifelong learning
is for ourselves. Your presence at this convention probably means
that you don't need this lecture! In any case, I encourage you
to take advantage of every opportunity possible to expand your
horizons, learn new things, and continue to improve your ability
to provide, not just access to materials in your library, but
the information itself in the ways most useful to your communities.
I know that in the last year-and-a-half,
since the President appointed me Chairperson of NCLIS, I have
my horizons expanded. I have learned more about libraries
and information science in this time than most people know in
a lifetime. I have also discovered that librarians must understand
their communities extremely well to meet their patron's information
needs. Understanding people's information needs requires that
we seek opportunities to form cooperatives and partnerships that
cross over traditional boundaries and distinctions.
5. Partnerships
The first half of my summary of
Ms. Cohen's article was lifelong learning. The second half is
partnerships. I think "partnerships" is the 1990's
version of what "networks" and "networking"
were in the 1980's. In any case, what I want to emphasize here
is the obvious point that we can do so much more together than
we can do separately!
In her article in SPECIAL LIBRARIES,
Ms. Cohen pointed out the need for more contact with other types
of libraries. I hope you are pursuing those local partnerships
to expand your resources and through which your expertise and
special holdings can also be used by the widest possible population.
Mr. Flexner would certainly have you involved in all types of
local partnerships so that your libraries are part of total community
answers to the needs for belonging and learning.
As an example of partnering, I was
delighted to read that you will have a joint session with the
American Library Association on June 22, The theme of this session
is: "Connecting Libraries: Exploring the Relationships between
'Secular' and Jewish Resources and Services."
The information I have seen about
the program says that panelists will stress what each can provide
the other in terms of expertise, collections and programs. Representatives
of public, special, academic and religious institutions will make
suggestions on sources, services and outreach, providing insights
from their own experience.
Elliot H. Gertel [Ger-tel]
of the California State University, Fullerton, is coordinating
this program. I acknowledge all his work in this cooperative
effort and thank him for sending me information about the joint
program. I hope many of you are planning to attend this important
event this Thursday.
6. Conclusion
The National Commission is in the
midst of many of the changes that are sweeping the Federal sector.
My sense of the impact of these changes on libraries is quite
clear. Our Nation must continue to maintain and strengthen
the Federal role for libraries and information services.
Libraries and librarians must find
ways to extend and continue our rich history of cooperation, collaboration,
and commitment. And we need to be alert to new opportunities
for forming partnerships and for fostering cooperation in the
age of networking and the National Information Infrastructure.
Your own conference program reflects
the influence of these priorities for strengthening partnerships
and for shaping new information technology to improve the vital
links with history, tradition, and culture.
I congratulate you for putting together
a fine conference. I hope you will learn much, enjoy your time
together and enjoy Chicago too!
If there is time I would be pleased to take a few questions. Thank you.