The Chronicle: Colloquy: Responses

This article and its related colloquy speaks to an important matter in higher education. Unfortunately, I believe, many of us tend to look too closely at a limited set of issues, when, in fact, the primary concern should be: how do we learn and what is the role of the library in that process?

Perhaps the coffee bar can be the Pied Piper for uncertain or unwilling students, but the larger question revolves around the learning process.

I am distressed to see, for example, compilations of searches done by librarians for students. This is not what learning, and certainly active learning, is about. I think of the librarian and the faculty member, as well as sherpas in the information age: guides and mentors through the maze of information.

I also believe that strategies for selecting the form of information are more complex than the either/or approach that some suggest. We still buy books, and we will continue to do so, even as we make massive investments in technology-based materials. Both are vital to learning.

The library continues to play an essential role in access to and dissemination of knowledge. Properly prepared library staff can be vital links in the process, and our job as administrators is to insure that they have the tools to accomplish this primary tasks.

: -- William R. Haden, President, West Virginia Wesleyan College (posted 11/13, 10:10 a.m., U.S. Eastern time)

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