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College and Research Libraries
September 1998, Vol. 59, No. 5

Book Review

Budd, John M. The Academic Library: Its Context, Its Purpose, and Its Operation. Englewood, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1998. 372p. $58 cloth (ISBN 156308614X); $35 paper (ISBN 1563084570). LC 97-35962.

The percentage of the total university budget allocated to the library has been dropping in recent years. At its highest level, the library’s share at most schools never exceeded five or six percent. In the late 1990s, it is closer to three percent. In The Academic Library, John Budd devotes an entire chapter to “Libraries and Money.” He does an excellent job in couching this discussion of library funding in its larger institutional context. Budd does the profession, and particularly SLIS students, a distinct service by presenting the academic library in this perspective—one that is not often expressed, much less emphasized.

The various “cultures” of higher education, including those of students, administrators, faculty, and trustees, are each examined by Budd. He explores their impact on each other and their effects on the library. In addition, he discusses the various forces currently shaping the university within the context of the forces that have changed higher education in the past. Using a familiar example, he reflects on the arguments of Allan Bloom in The Closing of the American Mind: What in the academy prompts this kind of work? What effect does such thinking have on the academic library and the role of the library in shaping the canon in higher education?

A number of pages are devoted to the manner in which decisions, at all levels of the university and which affect the library, are made. Budd first addresses the culture of complex organizations and the principles of their management. The university, of which the library is a functional unit, is composed of multiple unequal “subcultures.” Naturally, the faculty and the administration are major players here and Budd looks at the interplay of these parties in his analysis. The library—structurally analogous to a department or college—is itself a subculture affected by the interactions of the various parts within the institution.

This work scrutinizes the evolution of management and governance of the university and the library. In attempting to understand the structure of decision-making, Budd is able to add detail to the models he discusses in the preceding chapter on organizational structure. He considers the respective roles of the president, board, and faculty, and how campus finances influence their interrelations. Budd lays open, for the student, the processes of policy-making in the university and explains how they affect the library.

There follow chapters on the collection itself, electronic resources, library instruction, and the roles librarians play. The Academic Library is designed to be a textbook, with potential discussion questions included at the end of each chapter. Also included with each chapter are extensive bibliographies, facilitating further exploration of the topics presented. The sole appendix is the LSU Library Faculty Policy Statement.

Budd does a superb job of walking the line between theory and practice; the reader who worries that a library school professor would have difficulty describing the way things are done in the field will be comforted by this book. He has produced a work seemingly without prejudice toward a particular type of academic library, for he considers issues affecting the full spectrum of academic libraries from those at community colleges to those of research institutions. In fact, it is difficult to identify his personal biases on many difficult and controversial topics. Budd has a good command of his subject matter and presents it in a cohesive manner. He is to be commended and his book recommended.—Clay Williams, Ferris State University, Big Rapids, Michigan.