Prof. Wood speaking at his retirement party, May 22
Interviewed by Prof. Ian Beilin
IB: In our first issue of Library Liaison last spring, you talked about some of the ways that City Tech Library has changed over the last twenty-five years. On the occasion of your retirement, could you reflect on how City Tech itself has changed? What do you think are the most significant changes for the library?
DW: First the college: Forty years ago there was a greater emphasis on service at the college, usually implying significant leadership, but there was less of an emphasis on scholarship and/or distinction within one’s field. Today, I don’t think service has taken a back seat, at least not for most of us, but scholarship and professional development, aided and abetted by reductions in classroom faculty workload (not to mention adherence to CUNY standards) now takes up more of our time.
About thirty years ago the college developed its first baccalaureate degree, in hospitality management, and soon after we became officially a senior college authorized to offer such degrees once they were vetted and approved. At the time, when all we offered were associate degrees, many faculty voiced strong opposition. I’m happy to say that overall City Tech is less political today than it once was. It’s not pure as the driven snow – academics have too many small things to quarrel over!- but it’s much better than it was.
Now the library. Our new physical library, opened twenty-seven years ago, and our services generally evolved independently of new developments in academic and library technology. Many librarians, perhaps most, assumed that things would always roll along smoothly, and that our field would remain somewhat stodgy.
Soon after, CUNY Central acquired, adopted, and adapted our first integrated library system (ILS). Not so many years later the Internet and other new technologies arrived. It’s been a blur of constant change ever since. Because of this, our need for folks with technical expertise and understanding is a constant.
Among our most significant changes were: going from three full time librarian catalogers and two support cataloging staff to one librarian doing this (and cataloging is only one aspect of her job) and one COA; going from no webmasters to one, a faculty librarian; going from one full-time person providing bibliographic instruction in one-shot sessions, to a host of librarians teaching students and faculty, not only in one-shot sessions but also in our three-credit course, workshops, and elsewhere; going from one librarian who spent perhaps one quarter of his time acquiring and cataloging pamphlet materials on just about every topic imaginable to none; expanding our emphasis on books to include a significant budget for periodicals, huge databases and ebooks.
Additionally, soon after our new library opened in 1987 we began to make improvements, and they keep on coming: for example, a fully electronic classroom, a screening room, a flexible modular learning space, a small Internet lab, and the relocation of our reference desk to the middle of our lower level.
Finally, we have seen CUNY Central go from taking a largely benign or hands-off position with respect to CUNY’s loose federation of librarians to one that’s relatively hands-on. It has become more supportive but concomitantly more demanding.
IB: Inevitably, perhaps, retirees get asked about their proudest accomplishments. In a variation of this question, what do you suppose you might look back with the most satisfaction once you’ve descended the stairs from the fourth floor of the Atrium for the last time?
DW: These aren’t my accomplishments but I’m very proud that during my time as library department chair and Chief Librarian, library faculty have:
- Taken on challenging leadership positions within the library and elsewhere. Many have altered their career paths.
- Led important college-wide efforts, chairing important College Council committees including the curriculum, buildings and grounds, and personnel committees as well as serving on search, promotion, and tech fee committees. They have also assumed major leadership roles developing and administrating grants such as Title V from the U.S. Department of Education for The Living Lab and Open Lab, grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, etc.
- Led CUNY-wide efforts, often working with CUNY Office of Library Services personnel, on projects involving assessment, electronic resources, systems, circulation, and so on.
- Been involved with the Library Association of CUNY (LACUNY) holding offices including president, running the annual LACUNY Institute, editing its journal, building its website, etc.
- Been involved with the CUNY Faculty Senate, such as chairmanships of important committees.
- Received recognition for their scholarly work which ranges from a biography of a Chinese-American artist to a lengthy database on rock and roll, to work on the Civil War and Teddy Roosevelt, to an anthropological investigation of student study and library habits, to creating websites and PDAs, to working on library services to the Spanish speaking, to working on the historical mapping of commercial and other developments, and more!
In addition to these library faculty accomplishments, in terms of the college generally, I’ve tried to convince people that the best procedures, typically Robert’s Rules, produce the most democratic results, most always the best results.
Thirty-five years ago, with a small committee, I helped turn a few sheets of paper into common procedures for curriculum development at the college. This effort has been streamlined ever since and will continue to be. Thirty-three years ago, the curriculum committee held a forum on curriculum development at the college. We had an overflow audience with fifty-seven faculty attending. Afterwards, some of us actually developed curricula. As chair of the curriculum committee around 1980, I was a minor player in developing, vetting, and seeing to approval our first baccalaureate, a Bachelor of Technology in hospitality management.
I’m also happy to have worked with many faculty across the entire college, many in my last 20 years here, and I hope that I helped guide some of them down the path of meaningful college service.
IB: While your piece last year focused primarily on things that have changed in the library and libraries in general, could you identify the things that haven’t changed, and which you believe will remain for a long time to come?
DW: These things haven’t changed: Most librarians maintain a service mentality, sometimes to a fault. Our students come first. We pay close attention to building and maintaining solid book collections but now much less so than in the past. Facilities college-wide are inadequate but things are looking up!.
IB: What advice would you give to the next Chief of City Tech Library?
DW: Be prepared. Retire three months earlier: these last months have been hard! City Tech is where your bread is buttered, not the Office of Library Services or the Graduate Center. If you’re not bringing it back to City Tech, why are you doing it?
Pay most of your attention to being department chair. Keep the chief librarian part on the back burner.
Make time for your own scholarship or interests that may benefit the library only indirectly. As much as you can, credit everything good the library does to named library faculty or staff. Keep meetings brief, focused, and half-way fun!
