Successful Partnering to Transform the College Library: An Interview with Richard Ekman

Introduction

In recent years academic librarians have sought to partner with other organizations of higher education to establish areas of mutual interest and to work together to further these areas. Richard Ekman, as president of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), has involved librarians in various CIC programs. This past year, under Richard's leadership and through his fundraising ability, CIC offered three "Transformation of the College Library" workshops, as part of an initiative in cooperation with the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), to strengthen the contribution of libraries to teaching and learning. CIC offered the workshops to assist libraries in addressing such critical issues as advancing information literacy as an element of liberal education, the role of the library in teaching and learning through collaboration between librarians and faculty members, the changing use and conception of the physical space of the library, the challenges of using technology in improving students' learning, setting institutional priorities for library-related costs when they increasingly exceed standard budget guidelines, implementing institutional change, and assessing the institution-wide impact of changes in library services. The purpose was to create opportunities for provosts, directors of academic technology, library directors, faculty leaders, and the faculty development directors at independent colleges and universities to stay in step with the rapid change occurring in the world of academic libraries.

Before being appointed president of CIC in September 2000, Richard Ekman served as vice president for programs of the Atlantic Philanthropies. He served from 1991 to 1999 as secretary of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, where, in addition to his overall administrative responsibilities, he focused especially on issues in higher education, technology, libraries, area studies, and faculty development. Richard earlier served as director of the division of education programs and of the division of research programs at the National Endowment for the Humanities. His other academic experiences include appointments as vice president and dean of Hiram College, where he was also a tenured member of the faculty in history. Prior to Hiram College, Ekman served as assistant to the provost of the University of Massachusetts at Boston.

Hardesty: Please describe the nature and purpose of the Council of Independent Colleges.

Ekman: The Council of Independent Colleges is the national service organization for the small and mid-sized private colleges and universities. Presently, membership is about 530 colleges and universities (out of a universe of about 600). Membership has been growing rapidlyin the last few years.

CIC does things that most membership organizations do—using conferences, workshops, publications, dedicated Web sites, newsletters, and so forth. All are oriented toward the practicalissues that loom largest in the mind of senior administrators—presidents andchief academic officers—as they think about more effective operations in their institutions.

Hardesty: When did you first become interested in academic libraries—not so much as a research resource in your education as a historian but as a teaching-learning resource? You have expressed interest in how students use information and in information literacy, and—in so doing—you are somewhat distinctive in your position as the head of a major association. When and how did this interest develop?

Ekman: It has gone in stages. When I was at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, I worked a lot with research libraries and began to be aware of some of the issues that confront librarians everyday. We all thought problems could be addressed by the uses of technology.

I came to CIC predisposed to see libraries as an important issue. The topic is so genuinely at the heart of what is going on in allcolleges and universities these days that I hope others will get involved. We have tried to cooperate with other organizations. For example, CIC recently endorsed the ACRL's "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education." This is one of the rare occasions when CIC has ever endorsed something—in any field. It seemed to us that this set of standards would be useful to a wide variety of colleges and universities. An...