San Jose State Breaks with California Library Association Over Drexel Agreement
No longer to host mailing list; dispute over whether CLA promised to consult SJSU first
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 11/5/2009
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- CALIX, hosted since 1995, will move
- Drexel has partnered with 25+ library groups
- SJSU's Haycock says Drexel's reduced fees still higher than at public universities
- Haycock: "This was really the last straw" in deteriorating relationship
“We feel betrayed,” wrote Ken Haycock, professor and director of SLIS, in an open letter. “We had thought that we were all committed to public institutions, public libraries, and public education.” He stated that the CLA board earlier this year “rightly rejected the ‘offer’ due to its commitment to the state and its public institutions as well as the longstanding relationship with San Jose.”
“I was personally assured that the matter was closed,” said Haycock. New CLA president Kim Bui-Burton, however, told LJ that board members she’s spoken to do not recall making any promises that the offer would not be looked at again.
[Updated 11/6: See bottom for Haycock's comments that the Drexel issue was "really the last straw" in a deteriorating relationship and that the role of students in CLA was most important.]
CLA response
In a response to Haycock posted on CLA’s web site, she said she was “shocked and deeply saddened” to learn of SJSU’s decision. “The CLA Board is committed to building bridges and strengthening relationships with all providers and supporters of library services across California, and engaging new leaders in the future of CLA,” she added. “As the 2009-2010 CLA President (and a proud alumnus of SJSU School of LIS), I look forward to finding ways to work with SJSU administrators, faculty and students to re-establish effective relations.”
Within a day, the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles agreed to host CALIX.
And what of the archives, given that SJSU has hosted CALIX since 1995? “As far as I know, we have not approached SJSU to get the release of the archive,” Bui-Burton told LJ, though she expects discussions will begin. “Our organization is grateful to San Jose State University for hosting CALIX since 1995,” she wrote.
Drexel deal
Drexel’s iSchool, based in Philadelphia and the ninth-ranked LIS program according to U.S. News & World Report (SJSU is #22), in January opened the Center for Graduate Studies in Sacramento, blending online and in-class approaches. It also has an online-only program, competing with SJSU and others.
A potential arrangement between CLA and Drexel sufaced in a draft letter of understanding from November 2008, in which Drexel University Online agreed to offer a 20% discount for LIS and post-master’s certificate programs in exchange for CLA’s agreement to promote the programs through various CLA advertising and promotional outlets.
Drexel has partnered with more than 25 library associations, including the Metropolitan Cooperative Library System Southern California Library Cooperative, which represents more than one-third of all public libraries in California.
Haycock pointed out that Drexel's reduced fee “would still be significantly higher than our public universities,” and noted that SJSU also supported CLA via “open lectures and events at annual conferences; two special classes of students at this conference alone; trade exhibits, paid advertising, and a CLA business membership for the School.”
Relationship between CLA and SJSU
Haycock also expressed dismay about CLA’s treatment of LIS students:
Throughout this time we requested that products and services be developed for newer members (indeed, for all members) similar to other associations, to no avail. We asked that our students be engaged as committee members for their fresh perspective and as mentors for their technological expertise, to limited success. We asked that we be consulted and involved to leverage our resources for the Association's advantage. This seemed to fall on deaf ears.
Bui-Burton acknowledged that CLA could have been more responsive. She noted that CLA has been through significant change in the past year, as former president Barbara Roberts pointed out last month. CLA’s governance structure has changed; the executive director has left; the CLA building was sold; and CLA went through a process to select an association management company—all in the midst of a nationwide economic recession.
Regarding the issues Haycock raised, Bui-Burton said, “Probably there wasn’t as much progress as CLA had hoped to make in the last year. Really and truly, the future of our profession is in these young professionals.”
She said board members are discussing how to broaden the role of library schools and students in CLA. “My hope is CLA is going to partner with every institution,” she said. “I’m committed to keeping the door open.”
Bui-Burton said she still considered SJSU to be a strong CLA partner and was committed to rebuilding the relationship. All the current student memberships will be continued, she said. (The rate is $20 a year.)
Haycock's comments
Haycock added, "I think it's unfortunate that this is being portrayed as an issue between California Library Association, Drexel, and us. I think that the letter of agreement with Drexel was really just the last straw for us. We have joined up hundreds of students each year, almost a thousand in each of the last two or three years, and we're getting concerns from students that there aren't products and services relevant to them, they don't feel engaged, there's really no effort to involve them in the association."
"We've raised these questions before and they really seem to fall on deaf ears," he added. "We've also found we've invested a lot of money in the CLA, and we're not sure we're getting a return on the investment. We are a business member of CLA and, when Drexel said they'd join as a business member, provided that these services were being provided, we just felt that there wasn't a level playing field. We started to look at our whole relationship with CLA and realized it really wasn't serving our students or our school, and as a consequence felt we should withdraw. We've got a lot of support from people in the field. There's issues with the association they need to reexamine."
