Labor on Campus: Academic Library Service to Labor Groups

THISPAPER EXAMINES ACADEMIC LIBRARY SERVICE TO LABOR GROUPS, particularly in the area of Internet training. An informal survey of fifty-three academic libraries in schools with labor study programs throughout the United States and Canada indicates that while many libraries provide support for labor study programs within their schools, few provide direct programming to labor unions. The paper examines libraries that are providing service to union members and details the history of one such program, the Catherwood Library Labor Outreach Program at Cornell University. INTRODUCTION Academic references services are undergoing a dramatic transformation. In light of rapid changes in technology, including the proliferation of research material readily available online, libraries are grappling with the best means of providing information to clientele. Statistics collected by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL)in the years 1995-2000 saw a significant drop in reference queries at a number of academic libraries (http:// fisher.lib.virginia.edu/arl/index.html).For example, at the Archibald S. Alexander Library, Rutgers University, reference statistics declined 21 percent during the academic year 1997-98 and 24 percent during the academic year 1998-99 (Wilson, 2002, p. 49). Though user numbers are falling, many libraries have expanded the boundaries of the traditional reference desk, offering digital reference services through the creation of online tutorials, digital reference resources, and e-mail services. While the growth of the Internet has resulted in new user patterns, it has also altered the potential client base for reference services. In particular, groups that have not been Deborah Joseph Schmidle, Bibliographer for History and Information Science, Dewey Graduate Library, University at Albany, 135Western Ave., Albany, NY 12222 LIBRARYTRENDS, Vol. 51, No. 1, Summer 2002, pp. 115-136 02002 The Board of Trustees, University of Illinois 116 LIBRARY TRENDS/SUMMER 2002 traditional patrons of academic reference services-such as labor unionsnow have a strong interest in information provision. For example, the Internet is increasingly being recognized by organized labor as an important tool in its efforts to improve the terms and conditions of employment. Labor unions are successfully using this technology to enhance organizing campaigns by reaching larger audiences more effectively. In addition, organized labor’s ability to access laws, regulations, judicial decisions, wage and market data, online news, corporate financial data, safety and health resources, and other information pertinent to union organizing, collective bargaining, and contract administration is contingent upon how well labor can marshal these disparate sources of information. As such, Internet training is a valuable investment for labor unions. This is also a very large group who need and/or could benefit from such training: labor unions in the United States have approximately 16.3million members (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2002). Though labor organizations have education departments at the national and state levels, many local unions do not have adequate access to Internet training because of resource constraints. Academic libraries, and in particular academic libraries associated with industrial relations programs, would seem like another “natural” source of such training. Over 100 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada offer a degree program or other structured study on industrial and labor relations. Academic labor studies programs are meeting some training needs, by, for example, providing noncredit extramural classes for labor union members through extension programs. University libraries, through library resource training, often support these classes. Several libraries have taken this concept a step further by offering training in online research to labor union members not affiliated with the university, often on an outreach basis. More libraries should consider such programs, which provide a positive benefit to labor unions and libraries; address the evolving need to reinvent reference services; and involve a “nontraditional” library patron group. The approach used by the Catherwood Library Labor Outreach Program (Cornell University) to provide Internet training is one possible model and will be discussed at length. Initially, evidence regarding labor union’s usage of (and need to use) the Internet will be presented. The results of a survey, conducted for this article, regarding academic libraries’ involvement with training for union members, will also be discussed. UNIONSAND THE INTERNET When addressing the benefits to unions of the Internet, noted labor author Eric Lee quoted Karl Marx, who in The Communist Manifesto stated: “This union is helped on by the improved means of communication that are created by modern industry, and that place the workers of different localiThis Page Intentionally Left Blank