Faculty culture and bibliographic instruction: an exploratory analysis - The Library and Undergraduate Education

Library Trends, Fall, 1995 by Larry Hardesty

The 1980s have witnessed a proliferation of literature on higher education. Reflecting both change in society and higher education, much of this literature is highly critical. Major works include: Bowen and Schuster's (1986) American Professors: A National Resource Imperiled, Boyer's (1987) College: The Undergraduate Experience in America, Clark's (1987a) The Academic Life, and Bergquist's (1992) The Four Cultures of the Academy. Other useful literature of the period includes Shulman's (1979) Old Expectations, New Realities: The Academic Profession Revisited, Austin and Gamson's (1983) Academic Workplace: New Demands, Heightened Tensions, Finkelstein's (1984) The American Academic Profession, Kuh and Whitt's (1988) The Invisible Tapestry: Culture in American Colleges and Universities, Boyer's (1990) Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate, and Tierney and Rhoads's (1994) Faculty Socialization as Cultural Process: A Mirror of institutional Commitment.

Despite this seemingly impressive list of publications, the literature on the attitudes, norms, and mores of faculty in higher education is characterized by its sparsity. In general, three types of studies exist: (1) historical commentaries (largely based on observation), (2) national census-type studies, and (3) a few empirical studies. These are only loosely connected and lack a common conceptual framework, which may stem from a reluctance of faculty to be studied and to study each other.

Historical Development

While there may be several subcultures in the academy, Bergquist's (1992) concept of the "collegial culture" is most useful in understanding "faculty culture." This culture is a result of the influence of American colonial, British, and German traditions. The British tradition is characterized by the dominance of the liberal arts, development of the total person beyond the formal curriculum, and the emphasis on complexity of thought and of the educational process rather than a particular body of knowledge (Bergquist, 1992, pp. 18-19). The German tradition is characterized by more emphasis on the sciences and the individual pursuit of knowledge for knowledge's sake. Much more emphasis is placed on the discipline and work of the faculty members. Education of undergraduates is de-emphasized, with the faculty being more interested in the education of upper-level and graduate-level students as researchers and scholars in their own particular field of study (Bergquist, 1992, p. 23). Brubacher and Rudy (1958) concluded: "The impact of German university scholarship upon nineteenth-century American higher education is one of the most significant themes in modern intellectual history" (p.171).

Taken together, according to Bergquist (1992), these three traditions produced a collegial faculty culture:

in which faculty are oriented primarily toward their disciplines. As

in the British tradition, this orientation may be reflected in the content

and scope of the undergraduate curriculum, or, as in the German