The “Multihued Palette” of Academic Librarianship

223 " The nature of oratory is such that there has always been a tendency among politicians and clergymen to oversimplify complex issues. From a pulpit or a platform even the most conscientious of speakers finds it very difficult to tell the whole truth. To Huxley's famous list of those prone to oversimplification given an appropriate platform, I fear we must add the occasional academic administrator wishing to solve a complex problem of human resource management and the journalist looking for a lead. These last two appeared as central characters in the most recent debate over faculty status for academic librarians, which played out last month around an article published in The Chronicle of Higher Education regarding the decision to eliminate faculty appointments for new librarians at the University of Virginia and a proposal to " revoke " faculty status from librarians at East Carolina University. 2 In describing the rationale behind these efforts, Karin Wittenborg, University Librarian at Virginia, noted that " libraries are in a time of dramatic and continuing change, " and Maureen Sullivan, the American Library Association President also serving as an organizational-development consultant to East Carolina, reminded Chronicle readers that " there is a difference between the work and role of the teaching faculty… and the work and role of librarians. " 3 Few would argue against either of these assertions, I The " Multihued Palette " of Academic Librarianship imagine, but it is unclear how either is related to the issue of faculty status for academic librarians, an issue that has been taken up many times in the pages of this journal. 4 As Coker, vanDuinkerken, and Bales noted in our most recent entry into this discussion, the issue of the librarian's role and status has been debated in the academy and in the profession for more than a century. 5 As anyone reading their argument must conclude, the question of faculty status for librarians (whether with or without provisions for the awarding of tenure) is a complicated one. Arguments for faculty status have been made on the basis of concerns for intellectual freedom, of the librarian's role in building collections and designing services that promote and support the teaching, learning, research, and service components of the academic mission, and of the direct contributions made to teaching and research by librarians. Arguments against faculty status have noted that the " terminal degree " recognized …