Circularity, Practicality and Philosophy of Librarianship, or

The Making of "The Nitecki Trilogy"
by joanne twining, Publishing Librarian

The forward-thinking librarian must be concerned beyond managing digital texts, and confront whether to publish them. The new technologies offer a publishing opportunity long ago enjoyed by librarianship, but more recently abandoned for the job of keepers and guides. Once again librarianship finds itself an able contributor to the collection as publishing intermediaries. This article looks at one such opportunity, and presents the rationale and logistics behind the decision to stake the 511 and 245c MARC fields as a new frontier for the profession.

The profit imperative of print publishing has no doubt caused a great loss of potential knowledge. Ranganathan’s Laws rely on the production of the book, and while neither the laws nor the artifacts are obsolete, they are no longer absolute. The opportunity to publish and circulate online cheaply, quickly and widely, forces librarianship to consider the rights of knowledge itself, and whether we should re-rise to the rank of publisher, not for profit’s sake, but for knowledge’s. A modern day Ranganathan might well suggest: "every librarian her book," and mean not just the keeping, the reading, or even the writing, but the virtual publishing of it.

The goddess of the obscure citation visited upon me just such an opportunity last year when she nudged my curiosity about a work, "Metalibrarianship: A Model for the Intellectual Foundation of Library Information Science" by J.Z. Nitecki. My library held the work in ERIC microform, but microform is not a reading medium. After a cursory scan of the film, I knew I wanted to give the work a more thorough read, so I visited my favorite access librarian and begged his help in locating a paper copy. He performed his magic and located the only print copy in circulation, held by a University library half way across the continent, and arranged for it to be delivered to me by the miracle of Interlibrary Loan.

I must confess: as time passed between the need and its satisfaction, I lost some of my thirst for the work. I had all but settled for an understanding that no definitive work on philosophy of librarianship existed; that I was in no position to tackle the correction. I had been advised that it would be logistically prudent to move on to what I was better equipped to contribute: something wired, perhaps? Five weeks later, however, Nitecki’s book appeared at my library: three big green hardback volumes of 8-1/2x11," single-sided, double-spaced pages, dissertation style, nine inches thick. I was enthusiastic in my gratitude, but was secretly cringing at the thought of lugging these heavy volumes up the mountain to my reading retreat, and, for a brief moment I cursed the goddess and felt a twinge of embarrassment for having wasted precious resources.

The work had been self-published by J.Z. Nitecki, a fact, sadly, that rings of unworthiness. Metalibrarianship sat on the table in front of my chair for three weeks but I was unable to crack the cover. The guilt of wasting precious library resources was compounded by the nagging prod of imperative, but all I could do was put off the read. As a test of their worthiness, I searched for other works by the author and discovered he had a long and productive publishing career, spanning 40 years and was the author of books about librarianship as well as many scholarly articles and presentations. So, I took a precious Saturday, resolved to make worth of the time, effort, and expense of their borrowing, and began my read.

I was the first to crack the cover and release the sigh of the fresh-pressed pages of Nitecki's volumes. Forty-two hours later I rose bleary-eyed and exhilarated by the multiple intellectual orgasms Nitecki's literal translation of librarianship's reality brought. I was embarrassed to have been reading a dissertation-style work with a passion normally reserved for the best novels. My head swam with potential and possibility, my mind was satiated: now I "saw" librarianship, the whole of what we do: why we do it, from where we’ve come, and what it is that drives our minds. Nitecki's words came alive in my mind.

Why had no one MADE me read this book in library school?

Why wasn’t every librarian lapping up its pages and shouting its praises?

Why was I the first, and ONLY person to have ever checked out this book?

I'd been turning pages like a mad woman, ejaculating: "Yes!!...but Spirals...there has to be spirals in the model...else what sparks the drive to know?"

I’d been taken from the days of Alexandria to the edge of our frontier, and guided through the multidimensional, intertwining aspects of what makes us HAVE to be librarians. This book was about us: metalibrarianship! I searched among the trees for someone, anyone, to tell: "Come! You must read this book! This is important stuff!" But I was alone. And there was but one copy for all of librarianship.

I was in a daze for days. I had found my answer...and been given a new problem...librarianship’s ultimate problem: how was I to make sure this work was available for anyone who would come to know it? I was determined, at least, to acquire a copy for my own library, and one for my university library’s collection.

I called the author, introduced myself, and allowed my enthusiasm and excitement to bubble up, unchecked, "Every librarian in the world needs to read your book!" Why is it not published?"

Nitecki explained he had submitted it for publication, but it had been turned down, unread...because of the limited circulation value of the work, because of the profit imperative...because of the problems of print. He had published a few copies himself, but alas, had no copies to spare. I asked if he would allow me to publish it on the web, and without hesitation he agreed, and promised to send me his disks. Librarianship had once again offered it’s own solution!

The disks arrived and I spent the next year pulling them through four generations of software from an old version of Note Bene for html-izing: removing errant code tailings, constructing a logical chunking of chapters, scanning the models and illustrations, and making the links within and between the three volumes and 178 files that eventually became "The Nitecki Trilogy."

Along the way, I learned to negotiate with the "channel people" for precious space in my student account on the university’s web server; I learned to negotiate copyright; I came to a sensitive understanding of the position of author in the scholarly publishing endeavor; and I established a precious relationship with one of the greatest living minds in librarianship. I also learned more than I ever expected about librarianship, and how it thinks.

Once the major work of file conversion was complete, I faced the problem of permanence, and the imperative to find a safe, solid "forever" home for the files in a digital library collection. I wanted that the world would always have access, and that I could rest knowing I had made a significant contribution to the body of knowledge: not by writing something original, but by doing something significant about existing knowledge. Or, as the author put it, for having saved the work "...from certain obscurity in the remote stacks in a single library."

My library school, and particularly my doctoral committee, gave full support for the work, and encouraged my announcements on the department listserv as the Nitecki chapters went online. I gained the nickname "The Metalibrarian" from my fellow students, and was delighted when "Metalibrarianship" became required reading in several classes, at several library schools. As the result of a message I posted to a library education list mentioning Nitecki's work, I was invited to moderate a two-week discussion of the "The Nitecki Trilogy" on the University of Michigan's library education Cristal-ed listserv, and used the opportunity to unabashedly promote the work among our greatest working minds. Afterward, I gladly graduated with the discussion into the more leisurely virtual conference space on Howard Rheingold's "electric minds" website.

Administrative files on my university web server show there have been over 500 international "hits" on "The Nitecki Trilogy" in the last year, a circulation record the print copy I had hoped to obtain for my university’s collection would have never achieved...and this before the files were even complete, and permanently placed, cataloged and indexed!

The final stage of my "publishing librarian" project was to find the appropriate permanent home for the Trilogy. My library school agreed to allow me to "give" them the Trilogy for the department website, but wisely advised that it would be more prudent if I gave the work to the university library instead. Making these final placement arrangements has been an adventure in itself, and after six months negotiating with and between the university librarians and technology people, arranging for legal permissions, and participating in the structural design of the university library’s virtual collection, which "The Nitecki Trilogy" founds, this adventure in librarianship, and my first project as publishing librarian, is almost over. I'm sure it won't be my last. Nitecki’s capstone work is now online, free for the taking, by all who will come to know, and I have facilitated global and future access to what I am confident is the most significant, most comprehensive content ever written about philosophy of librarianship.

The job now became one of facilitating the finding of the files: the indexing and cataloging of the virtual volume. I'd doggedly prevented the premature indexing of the online files to avert the possibility of creating a "broken trail" of links and "404 file not found" error messages from the temporary location in my student web account. A few hours online "notifying" the search engines and requesting attention of their indexing ‘bots would be an easy task. The proper cataloging, however, was a more immediate challenge.

As a presentation project for one of my library school classes, I decided to address the cataloging of computer files, and returned to the OCLC database that arranged my first meeting with the Metalibrarianship, the book. My plan was to retrieve the book's MARC record and demonstrated how it could be modified to reflect the virtual volume. I was shocked to discover that another library school's university library had already cataloged my computer files! The new OCLC record did not provide an actual location for the file, rather only indicated that it was available via the Internet, and listed itself as a "holding library." A check of that university’s online webbed catalog delivered a record that linked to the table of contents page of the first volume in the three volume Trilogy: to the temporary file residing in my student computer account, an account that will disappear when I graduate. I snagged a copy of both records and visited my university’s cataloging librarian for advise.

We devised a plan to catalog the work properly, including the permanent URL of the "front page" of the Trilogy in the 856 field; a complete 505 field indicating the work comprises three separate volumes; 740 fields for each volume arising therefrom; a 511 field, a 245c, "production by" field, and a 700 added entry field listing me as the producer of the online work; and finally, the code indicating IWU as the only legal "holding library" of "The Nitecki Trilogy."

As a doctoral student in library and information studies, my imperative is to conduct original research which adds to the body of knowledge, to discover what has come to be known and to interpret and add to it. As a librarian, my imperative is to facilitate access to existing knowledge. The debate between the philosophical and theoretical aspects of research and practical applications by librarianship is a sticky one. My work on "The Nitecki Trilogy" crosses and blurs the line. While not either, in any singular sense, it is both, intertwined. The role of the scholar, and the role of the librarian are in flux. Both face new opportunities and new challenges, not the least of which is a new shot at the very old opportunity for publishing. It is not difficult to imagine the library as a place where the scholar presents work for publication and preservation, and the "new" librarian as the content professional who accepts the responsibility for preserving those precious chunks of knowledge that have no commercial value but are critically important to society’s intellectual growth. If each librarian "finds" but one neglected and deserving work, and preserves and presents it virtually, Ranganathan’s "living organism" will have found yet another way to serve, and survive.

My thanks to the goddess of the obscure citation, to the faculty and students of the Library School at Texas Woman's University, and particularly my doctoral committee, and to the technology people and librarians at Texas Woman's University for encouraging and supporting this work. My everlasting gratitude and appreciation to J.Z. Nitecki, for writing so well what needed to be written, for generously allowing me to give it to the world for him, and for becoming a treasured mentor and friend.

The Nitecki Trilogy is available online at http://twu.edu/library/Nitecki and includes:

Metalibrarianship: A Model for Intellectual Foundations of Library Information Science;

Philosophical Aspects of Library Information Science in Retrospect; and

Philosophical Ancestry of American Library Information Science.

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joanne twining williams is a doctoral fellow at Texas Woman’s University School of Library and Information Studies where she studies philosophy of librarianship, researches the question, and pursues a scholarly career.

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