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SENATE (FOR INFORMATION) 

?

From ?

B. G. WILSON 

VICE-PRESIDENT, ACADEMIC 

Subject ? 

LIBRARY COURSE 

?

Date ? 

NOVEMBER 18, 1971 

The attached is provided for the information of 

Senate. 

.

SIL.JJN FRASI1{ UN1VERS.IY

/( ?

MEMORANDUM

P

RESIDEHJ'S OFFICE

OH FUSE WHVE1SIT(

From

B.C. Wilson ? 

Ici Z

19

P11 '71

Vice - 

President, Academic 

Date. October 26, 1971 

isTo

I.:ury tiomas 

Assistant University Librarian 

Librarian for Collections 

Subect

The Academic Planning Committee has reviewed the proposal 

for a credit course in General. Studies relating to your area, as 

referred by Senate at its last meeting. Since its initial 

discussion, your letter was received and I have been directed to 

write to you about the following points. 

Members of the Academic Planning Committee expressed concern 

about such a course being offered by members of the Library staff 

aparently without consultation with departments. Apart from 

consultation over details of the course it would seem appropriate 

that members of the department might participate in elements of 

the course if it were offered. Concern was also expressed that 

the course carried little discernible intellectual content 

appropriate to its recognition for academic credit; 

?

if indeed 

the course should be assessed for credit, there was concern that 3 

hours was excessive. Your letter indicates that you feel the 

3 credits are justified but have not provided any evidence other 

than stating that there is enough subject content to justify it. 

Many of us feel that the items to be encompassed within each 

lecture should be reconsidered since the present proposal conveys 

the impression that far too many items will be covered than could 

effectively be taken care of in the time allocated. 

Although it is stated that the course would not require 

additional funds or resources, the actual cost of the course has 

not been identified. ? 

It would be helpful to have some elaboration 

of the actual costs to the Library in providing this course as 

set out without assuming that these costs will be met by a reduction 

in other times spent by librarians in similar types of work. 

I am personally not convinced that this kind of course could 

not be given without credit since, if it is clearly advantageous 

for students to take it, they will do so and no similar experiments 

in the past have been tried. Reading and Study courses are, for 

instance, quite well enrolled even though they are not given for 

credit. ? 

I would like to suggest that you offer this course as a 

non-credit course in the Spring semester of 1972 so that we will 

have some additional information on prospective enrollment before 

Senate reconsiders the course. I would also like to have some 

understanding of the mechanism for evaluation of grades in the 

course if it is to be offered for credit in 

B:G. Wilson 

:ams 

c.c. D. Baird, University Librarian 

Members of Academic Planning 

Conipttee 

Dr. Strand, Chairman, Senate. 

SiMON FRASER UMVE!SITY

MEMORANDUM

From .....

...............

Larr

Thom.

Assistant University Librarian

............................................................................................................

£or.Coile.ctions

....................................................

Subject ......... Library C.oursePrOpOsal

.Date......................October

The intent of this memorandum is to provide a fuller statement

of the Library point-of-view on its proposal for a credit course which

Senate debated at the meeting of October 4, 1971.

The course is proposed as an "experimental course" in General

Studies. As such it is the first proposal of its kind to come before Senate;

to date only "programmes" have been considered and approved. It was

put forward in the spirit of enlarged receptivity for course experimentation

that was explicitly stated as one reason for the creation of the General

Studies Division. However when the proposal reached the Senate it was

not recognized as a precedent in this context, and it certainly was not

discussed in terms of the new out-look that is supposedly part of the

General Studies rationale.

Should it be a credit course? The Library is asking only for

permission to experiment with a credit course; it is not requesting that

the course be established as a permanent calendar entry. We feel it

should be a credit course to have any value as an experiment because,

as a new kind of course, its content cannot be known and appreciated

before the fact. Students cannot be expected to volunteer valuable hours

to a non-credit course when they have never heard of such a course

before and have not experienced its practical value. Even courses

with established validity, but no credits, attract small attendance because

of the competition for a student's time from credit offerings. Besides

this, the Library has used every avenue of approach open to it to teach

people how to make better use of its resources. This has been only

minimally effective as the daily experience of Reference Librarians and

Faculty in their work with students has shown.

Should it be a 3 credit course? Simply, there is enough subject

content to justify a 3 credit course. Traditionally there has been a bias

in the academic community against the suggestion that knowledge of lib-

raries is complicated enough to require a formal course. The work

experience of librarians has contradicted this general belief consistently

over the years. It is a notion that is now anachronistic because of the

Academic Planning Committee

Page 2

October 6, 1971

rapid growth of libraries in the last decade. With growth has come

unIorseen complexity, and libraries, though originally organized to be

self-evident systems from a researcher's point-of-view, have become

harder to use, placing the burden of a greater need for knowledge on

the reader.

Will the course require additional funds or resources? No,

not in the sense that the total Library budget would have to be increased;

and, no, not in the sense that it would cause the Library to spend less

on collections or other services. The Library already has a staff of 12

people who lecture a large number of hours per semester. Many of

these talks are on an elementary level. We hope, by the introduction

of the course, to reduce the number of non-specialized lectures now

being given. Though we don't want the staff to cease being available

to lecture by faculty, invitation, we expect to shift enough hours now

being used in this way to the course so that the total number of hours

will not increase.

The Library already has all the book and media materials it

requires for the course, as well as rooms for the classes to meet.

A small audio-visual services budget is available to pay for the oc-

casional showing of a film, or use of an overhead projector.

Is this an attempt to insinuate a programme of librarianship

at S. F. U.? No. Professional librarians in B. C. are keenly aware

that the Library School at U. B. C. is currently producing more lib-

rarians than the local market can absorb. Also, the librarians of the

three universities, through their informal organization, TRIUL, have

been urging that the universities do abetter job of making curricula

complementary rather than competitive. Librarians would, in fact,

lead the opposition if another school of librarianship were seriously

proposed.

Is this a back door attempt to gain faculty status? No. Only

one name, that of the Assistant University Librarian for Collections,

would be put forward to the President for a semester appointment as

lecturer and course coordinator. Though other librarians would

participate in teaching the course, they would have a relationship to the

coordinator that is similar to that of a T.A. in other departments.

Though, in a very limited and controlled way, a temporary

appointment of a librarian to the faculty would set a precedent at

S. F. U., a distinction must be made between the precedent and the

. . . . 3

Academic Planning Committee

Page 3

October 6, 1971

intention behind it. In this case the intention is simply to have the

mechanical means to offer a course experiment for which there

seems to be a need, and which we feel would benefit students.

Increasingly, at universities on the North American con-

tinent, librarians are being given faculty status, and many S. F. U.

librarians are in sympathy with this trend. However, if it ever would

become our intention to apply for faculty status, this we would do

directly and openly as a separate issue presented to Senate. Nobody,

to my knowledge, is naive enough to believe that an approach by

subterfuge is a better course to follow.

7. The detailed schedule for the course, in terms of vector hours,

is as follows:

Weeks

1-5:

general lectures, three times a week (sample outlines

for lectures in the proposal are not conceived as out-

lines for hour-long lectures; but the total of ten lectures

will be completed in 15 hours.)

. Weeks 6-13: two hours of seminar and one hour of laboratory-like

work in the Reference Collections per week; time di-

vided approximately equally between two specialized

literatures.

Evaluation: students will be graded on their performance in the

seminars and two bibliographical research projects.

Physical facilities: (1) the Board Room, now being turned over

to the Library will be used for the general

lectures.

(2)

seminars (max. of 9 hours per week is

possible) will meet in the Board Room and

the Archives /Special Collection Reading Room.

(3)

laboratory-like work will be done in the

Reference Areas and in the offices of indi-

vidual librarians.

8. Brief history of the proposal:

felt that after working in the Library such a course

would be useful. First discussed in mid-1970.

S ?

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Academic Planning Committee

Page 4

October 6, 1971

Small committee of librarians drafted proposa1.

Final draft was presented to Senate Library Committee

on June 28, 1971 and was unanimously endorsed.

Moved by L. Druehi, seconded by C. Hamilton

"that the Senate Library Committee

recommends to the Dean of General

Studies that this course be implemented

as soon as possible."

Endorsed by the Canadian Studies Programme Com-

mittee, the Mid-East and African Studies Committee,

and Latin American Studies Committee as an acceptable

elective for these respective programmes.

Approved with modifications and sent to Senate by the

Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies.

f) Referred to Academic Planning Committee by Senate at

its meeting of October 4, 1971.

LET /dap