The Academic Library: : Its Context, Its Purpose and Its Operation

Citation

Morgan, S. (1999), "The Academic Library: : Its Context, Its Purpose and Its Operation", Library Review, Vol. 48 No. 4, pp. 335-336. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.1999.48.4.335.5

This excellent textbook covering the place of the academic library in American higher education demonstrates admirably some of the major differences in emphasis between the USA and the UK. We therefore find chapters/sections devoted to “Perceptions of the academy”, “Governance” (including private versus public colleges), “Libraries and money” and the pervasive importance of “the faculty” (including the pros and cons of faculty status for academic librarians). This does not mean that the content is any less interesting for non‐US readers. In fact, I found the opposite to be true. It can sometimes be instructive to reflect on the way things are done in ones own institution with a fresh eye. For example, some of the arguments which are put forward in the chapter on faculty status provide food for thought for subject or faculty librarians in UK higher education. Similarly, the whole area of income generation has developed enormously in the USA in a culture which, admittedly, is more comfortable with the notion. Maybe it is time that we looked more seriously at the issue, particularly given the financial constraints which will be part of academic life for the foreseeable future.

There are 13 chapters which collectively provide a comprehensive account of themes in academic libraries. The first two offer an introduction to, and a history of, the institution while the last chapter is the inevitable “look ahead”. In between we encounter a somewhat eclectic set of topics with no apparent order. In addition to those sections mentioned above as being particularly US‐focussed, we read about organisational culture, scholarly communication, organisation and management, the collection, electronic information, the communities of the academic library and the academic librarian. Normally publishers exhort writers of textbooks to make sure that the content has a logical order. Refreshingly, Budd is the exception to this ‐‐ perhaps, nowadays, overly prescriptive ‐‐ rule. The result is a very readable, erudite and thoughtful collection. The third element of the subtitle ‐‐ “its operation” ‐‐ may be slightly misleading. This textbook is not about the day‐to‐day minutiae of academic library life and is much the better for it! The only minor irritation is the set of questions at the end of each chapter which are meant to spur on discussion. Each chapter contains enough thought‐provoking material without these rather unsubtle prompts. For practising academic librarians looking at their own service and the context in which it operates, this text offers some interesting new angles. For the student of academic librarianship looking for a text which discusses the important debates taking place in the profession in the late 1990s, he/she need look no further.