Spring 2022
Studying the Eugene McDermott Library at UTD - May 9, 2022
The major project that we did in INFO 5400 was creating a mock collections development policy for a real library of our choice. We were asked to choose traditional libraries rather than special collections libraries though, which meant that we were pretty much limited to either public libraries or academic libraries. Surreptitiously, I was also doing my practicum this past semester as well and I was actually going to be working at an academic library, the Eugene McDermott Library at the University of Texas at Dallas. In truth, I would not be working in the main library, but in the special collections and archives department of the library. So, I did not end up getting that much inside knowledge about how the library functioned.
To get back on track, before we could create our own collections development policy we had to study the library that we were creating our policy for. We had to study its history, target population, how it was governed, what kind of budget it had, and also what kind of collections development policy it already had in place. We could then use this information to create a profile of the library that we could in turn use to inform the creation of our own collections development policy. Throughout this process, I really did learn about the library and also the university itself.
1. The Library Being Built in 1975.
I learned that the university started out as a private graduate research center in the 60s and was actually established by the founders and executives of Texas Instruments. This group included the library's titular Eugene McDermott. In the late 60s, the university was bequeathed to the state of Texas and became part of the University of Texas system. It was not until the mid-seventies, however, that ground was finally broken on what would become the Eugene McDermott Library. The university only accepted Masters and PhD students for the first two decades of its existence though. As a result, the new library's collections were heavily focused on supporting the needs of those types of students and thus were very specialized. When the university finally started accepting undergraduate students in the 90s, the library had to expand its collections to make them more generalized to support a more diverse curriculum at the university.
2. The Eugene McDermott Library Today.
Nowadays, the library is a very typical university library and has wide range of collections that cross into both fiction and non-fiction categories. It has come a long way since the 70s and its very specialized collections. The current collection development policy of the library represents this. It is very comparable to one you might find in any public library, if a bit more focused on academic works. It was interesting to study this shift in focus and I think it really helped me understand how libraries can and should adapt to the needs of their patrons.
Image sources:
1. University of Texas at Dallas. (1975). Eugene McDermott Library. https://fed.utdallas.edu/timeline/1964-1975/#year1975.
2. University of Texas at Dallas. (n.d.). Untitled. https://library.utdallas.edu/about-the-library/visitors/.
Processing the Polykarp Kusch Collection for the University Archives at UTD - May 14, 2022
This spring I finally got to do my practicum. Back in the fall, I was going through the process of actually applying to places. During that process, I had contacted the Frontiers of Flight Museum to see if they would be interested in hosting me, but sadly they turned me away because they did not have enough work for me to do. Luckily, however, my contact at the museum pointed me in the direction of UTD because a lot of the museums archival materials had been bequeathed to the university's special collection and archives division. I ended up emailing some people over at UTD and, after a bit of back and forth, I was put in contact with Dr. Thomas Allen, who was (and still is) the curator of the university archives. Dr. Allen said he would be able to host me for my practicum and I happily accepted his offer.
I was quite anxious going into the practicum for a number of reasons. For one, I had never done any real archival work, so I was still not sure what to expect nor whether I would actually enjoy work or at least find it intellectually stimulating. That being said, I tried to go into the practicum with an open mind and an eager heart. I ended up primarily working on one big project for the practicum. That project ended up being to process the collected materials of a former professor of the university, one Dr. Polykarp Kusch.
Dr. Kusch was more than just any professor, however. He was a Nobel Laureate. He received a Nobel Prize for Physics in 1955 for measuring the magnetic moment of the electron and finding it to be greater than its theoretical value. Dr. Kusch joined the faculty at UTD in 1972. He had previously taught at Columbia University and he was huge get for what was a very young university at the time. UTD had only existed as an official part of the UT System since 1969. Before that it was a private graduate research center and had been around since 1961. Dr. Kusch played a huge role in molding the physics department at the university and was famous for his very stimulating lecture style. Following his retirement in 1982, the university began an annual lecture series in honor of him that focused on "concerns of the lively mind." In 1983, the university also renamed the principle natural sciences and mathematics lecture hall in Founders North building after the retired professor and it still holds that name today.
Most of the information that I just provided, I learned while working on Dr. Kusch's collection. When you process a collection, you inevitably and unavoidably learn about the topic of the collection. I learned a lot about Dr. Kusch's life through what he left behind, his letters and writings. You might be surprised how many of his private letters ended up in the hands of the university. All of the materials in the collection were things that were left behind in Dr. Kusch's office when he died in 1993. They were put in storage and were not really gone through until I began processing them for my practicum. I felt very privileged to be working on the professor's materials. I almost felt like I came to know the professor personally even though I had never met him and he died before I was even born. That is what I love about archiving. It allows to you connect so closely with the past. I hope that I was respectful to the memory of Dr. Kusch and that the collection there in the university archives allows other to people to get to know what a fascinating man Dr. Kusch was.
Image sources:
1. Nobel Foundation. (1955). Polykarp Kusch. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1955/kusch/facts/.
2. University of Texas at Dallas. (n.d.). Nobel Laureate on campus. https://www.utdallas.edu/1970s/.
Learning about collections development - May 16, 2022
As I have discussed in my previous post, we were tasked with creating a mock collections development policy for INFO 5400. This project was something that we slowly worked on throughout the course of the semester. We did smaller assignments here and there that taught us the various aspects of collections development. Eventually, parts of these assignments built up to be our final collections development policy.
We started by doing a library profile, which I have already talked about in my earlier post. After we did the profile, we worked on a needs assessment assignment. For that assignment, we had to think of a service or resource that the library might need and create an assessment tool that could be used to gauge the target population's interest in said service or resource. We learned about different assessment and evaluation tools, like focus groups and surveys, and we learned what situations would best call for each type of tool. The next assignment we did was a gap assignment, which as the name implies involved us identifying a gap in the library's collection and creating a list of resources that the library could acquire to fill that gap. This assignment also allowed us to learn more about acquisitions and selecting appropriate materials for the library. The last of these smaller assignments was a research paper about how privacy, censorship, and government legislation affects libraries. This assignment was particularly poignant given the current calls for censorship that is plaguing the US library system currently.
For the final collections development policy, we took little sections from each assignment and sort of glued them together to create our final product. We also had to add few new pieces, too. This included creating a request for reconsideration form that interested parties could use to challenge an acquisition choice by the library. We had discussed these types of forms when we wrote our privacy, censorship, and government legislation research paper. I was quite happy with the my collections development policy. At the start of the semester, I was very nervous about the assignment because it seemed like so much work, but having it essentially be broken down into smaller pieces made it much more digestible.
My thoughts about censorship in public libraries - May 17, 2022
This piece by CBS News highlights part of the current problem.
Some may call me partisan for speaking about this subject in this manner, but I simply must share my true and honest feelings on this matter. The recent attempts by a certain subset of the population to ban books and defund libraries that carry materials they find objectionable is ridiculous. Public libraries, in particular, are meant to serve the interest of the public at large, not just the narrow and dogmatic views of one side of the political spectrum. If someone finds a certain piece of material in a library's collection objectionable, they do not have to engage with that material. Simple as that. That being said, I do believe that we can have discussions about what kinds of materials are included in library collections, but I draw the line at what basically amounts to extortion in an attempt to force a certain point of view.
My biggest problem is that much of this outrage comes from a places of ignorance and fear. People refuse to be level-headed and reasonable. Instead, they hear about the evil library and its horrible books and immediately fly into a tizzy about it. Instead of researching these materials and maybe even reading them for themselves, these groups of people immediately resort to calls for bannings, firings, and defundings. They threaten the libraries and even the workers at the libraries because they are afraid that these books are corrupting or scaring people. They are particularly concerned with how these books might be impacting young adults and children. We must ask ourselves though, what are these objectionable books? What is so scary about them? In many cases, they are about groups that have been historically marginalized in the US. They tell the stories of POC and LGBTQIA+ people. They are about inclusivity, acceptance, and diversity. This is what is scaring these people and it is so disappointing and sad.
Unfortunately, I do not see this trend slowing down or going away in the near future. The US is seemingly becoming more and more politically divided and I believe these challenges and threats to our public library systems will continue. Librarians must stay strong in the face of this, even if it may be scary, because we are the last line of defence. We must protect our collections in every way we can and we must fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. If your or a colleague's institution has received a censorship challenge do not hesitate to seek assistance from the ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom. The ALA has lots of resources and information on how to deal with these matters. And just remember, we are all in this together.