1997 - SRI - Lucy Steelman

Lucy Steelman
SRI

Interviewed by Doreen Cohen, February 28, 1997

This is Doreen Cohen interviewing Lucy Steelman at her home in Redwood City, February 28, 1997. Lucy, I'm just going to ask you a few questions and we want to just find out a little bit more about your experience and hope that our FaultLine readers will enjoy reading about that.

So, the first question I would ask, and I know looking at your "bio" that you have a master's in anthropology...and so from that perspective, what would you say to the person who is entering a program in library and information science today?

I think that today they would really need more work in-certainly the broad background from anthropology was very good and I had experience working in the university library since I was putting myself through for my master's degree-but I would definitely think that new librarians should be coming out with a very broad background. They need to deal with Unix systems. Know their PCs very well. Research capabilities that actually all of us learn as we get an undergraduate degree. Perhaps, if you don't go directly for a master's in library science in whatever your field or specialty was.

So, for you it turned out that you didn't really need that library science background.

It did, because when I started at SRI, I took a job in the library at a very low paying clerical position, and I was in the serials part of acquisitions. And actually opened mail and checked in serials. And then I progressively moved up to order librarian, ordering books and journals. And then I was given an opportunity to achieve professional status in the library, and it was after that that I had an interest in reference work. I went to library school for several, well-more than several years. I took one course a semester forever. And when our new director came in-"forget it-you already have all of the skills in most of the areas." So I didn't complete-I took all of the necessary coursework, but I didn't do the master's thesis.

And would you say anything different to the student who is graduating this June than you've already said?

I guess the only thing I would say is that they're going to face a very different world than if they've prepared themselves for the traditional library world. They're not going to find that. And I do believe that they're going to become more of a person doing research along with the-if they work in a special library, anyway, they will be helping in the research areas. They definitely need specialties which will mesh with the same. SRI has physical scientists and life scientists and business people, and so we needed expertise in all of these areas. I think that's going to be very important. I do not see the profession moving the way--it has even changed in the last few years.

I know you've been at SRI for 35 years, so this is an ambitious question, but can you tell me what you would consider the highlights over that period?

I think in terms of the library, I saw us move from a very manually oriented library. And when the searchers would do their searching, everything was done searching through abstracts and indexes that were in paper copy. And when we moved to Dialog, I think that was one of the highlights. And then we added other online systems to help. And although they weren't as developed as they are today, with the ability to go into for instance DialIndex and get whatever you want, they still saved a lot of time and helped in researching. The collections were larger and when we brought in...at one point, we brought in CD-ROM to the library and that was very early on when Datex, which is now OneSource, was combining databases so that you could go in and get financial information on a company as well as information about executives. That was a real high point, I think, in our career because it enabled particularly the business people to get the information quickly and get it in one spot without looking in a dozen spots without our assistance. And we were really complimented on this. And so I think that was one highlight. I think when we installed an integrated library system, which enabled people to access the library from their desk and to make requests. And just before I left we instituted the capability of someone checking an interlibrary loan. And the last thing that I really struggled for was access to three different...well, actually, we always had OneSource, but now it's available on the Internet. And so we have that access. We have Insight, Computer Insite, and the Predicast database and Newsletter database. I think those three things, three systems that we brought in are enabling the researchers to work more efficiently. I don't know what the end result will be. I consider this a highlight. The more I hear about the Internet being difficult to access, I worry about what's going to happen. But, certainly those are...even over 35 years, I think that's really a major accomplishment. And also perhaps with the downsizing, the fact that our library became more of a team and people did more different...performed different functions that they normally wouldn't have done. Before searchers would only have searched, and now they do reference and searching, and they're learning about acquisitions and interlibrary loan.

More of a variety...

Right.

What excites you most about your work?

I think it was the management. I know that I talked to a team of young librarians who came through for a visit-was that I really hated fighting for budgets and not getting the respect that the library wanted. But I think what I enjoyed the most was working with the scientists and the business people. The satisfaction that they considered me a champion. I always sat there and felt that they were our champions out there. And several of them said to me, "What are we going to do without you?" I think that was the most exciting part of the work, dealing with the people. Things happened in the library that I wanted to happen, things that we planned for.

Who has influenced you in your professional life?

At the very beginning, there was an economics librarian who eventually went on to the UN. And she was the one who said get a master's degree, you should become a librarian. She was my mentor.

Who was that?

That was Maureen Hopkins. It's a long time ago. She left SRI maybe five years after I came. Another person, I think, was Barbara Ivantcho. She's passed away now. She was responsible for awhile...assistant director...and responsible for serials. And she was a very bright woman. Articulate. Was educated, I think, at Pratt.

So, primarily, you had mentors right there...

I had mentors at SRI and I did a lot of reading. I don't know that nationally there was anyone that really was someone I wanted to follow. Early on before the chapter split, and I participated in a lot of...they weren't professional development committees then...I think they were called educational committees...and we put on a lot of different workshops. I thought that was very exciting-some of the people I worked with. I can't remember names...

The Chapter, then...

The chapter was there, and whether it was San Andreas or the previous San Francisco. There were a lot of people who worked very hard. It was the skills you had from working in a library that were important. Probably the most rewarding experience was to receive a letter after I retired. And one of my staff said to me that of all the librarians before me who directed the library, that I was the most human of the group. And, although I had my faults...it was a very nice letter...that the thing she appreciated was that I acted as a mentor and I also made an effort to understand all things. And that's important. It's hard to be a manager.

Do you see today's challenges as being different from those when you began the profession?

Well, before we were concentrating on collection development. In fact, one of my positions in the library was the Resource Coordinator. I was responsible for developing the collection. Although we're still responsible for developing the collection, it's an electronic approach to this. And you have to weigh...I think we're being challenged by how much money you have available now for electronic access, because if you rely upon what's free on the Internet, you're not going to get much of anything. And you're going to pay very high prices for Internet access to things like ProQuest Direct and OneSource. All of these things cost a lot of money and they don't...at SRI they didn't serve just one person. I know that that's different organization, and many organizations are very focused. But, we had to serve three masters and to supply information. I think the costs of information are going up. The changes are occurring more rapidly now. Before, when I started, each time we focussed, as I said, collection development and then bringing in online resources. The periodicals crisis and costs of science journals. But now you're focussed on how you bring the money in or bring the resources in or the money that you have. How do you get the information out to everybody. Before they could come to the library and you could send it out to them. Now you've got to get your information to people who are on Macs and IBMs and on Sun workstations, and some of their computers aren't up to date, which is one of SRI's problems-that some of the groups don't invest in getting computers that are state of the art. So, I think the challenges are different. We were focussed on functions, and now we have to focus on just bringing electronic information into an infrastructure that may not be the same throughout the company.

And when you said that in the past it was collection development, do you mean that the object was to own what you needed as opposed to....

Yes, rather to have access. So, the decisions that people are having to make now-you have a number of different ways to obtain your articles on interlibrary loan. And if you don't mind paying large amounts of money, if you have the money available to do this, then-yes-you can access many of the systems to get what you want. But you do have to pay for your information. I think that's probably going to go out of sight. So, that's going to be one of the major problems. How do we pay for what we're getting. We've always been faced with this money problem, but I think it's very different now.

If you were going to trade places with me, and interview someone in Silicon Valley in our profession, who would you choose and why?

I guess Monica Ertel is somebody I would choose. She's had a very different experience and I'm sure she's facing a lot of challenges now. I think that before it's been easier at Apple for Monica and anyone in the library.

If you'd gone down a different path, what would you be doing?

Probably would have been teaching in anthropology, and I would have gotten a PhD, and doing research in Mexico.

I did see that you spent two years in India, was it?

That was with the State Department. When I'd gotten my Master's degree, and I went to Cal for a year...and then I decided, well, how was I going to use my Master's degree in anthropology. Because without the PhD, you can't teach. And there weren't any junior colleges [with anthropology courses] in the late fifties. So, I decided I'd join the State Department and maybe I could do a little field work and then use that field work as a way to get a job. Everything changed in my life. So, maybe I was destined to be a librarian. I know a number of people, women, with a master's degree in anthropology and then went on to become librarians.

Was the library always valued in your organization?

No...and that's...valued by the people who use it, but not valued by management, and I think that's been the basic problem at SRI. It's a research institute, and it's a place where you need to value your library and for many, many studies, and always the decision has been that they need it. I don't know what will happen to it in the future. If management doesn't see the value of the library, what will happen...

How do you go about changing with changing times?

I don't know that there's any real way to go about changing, because I just always enjoyed change. And when the first IBMs appeared around...and when some of the IBMs first appeared at the Institute, that's the first thing I wanted. I made sure that I told my supervisor that I wanted to put in a request. I wanted to learn about computers. And I thought one computer in the library wasn't enough. We had a lot of the acoustic couplers. I think we started with one computer. So, I've always been excited about change. I think that change will help the library. Then, I'd go about trying to initiate that change. I don't think there've ever been people on the staff that weren't willing to change. There are people in the Institute that were afraid to learn and change things, but we always tried to institute change. And I guess when I talked to management about bringing in the Internet, I just prepared a presentation and did the overheads and said, "this is where it's going to save you money!...This is where you're going to be ahead of your competition...and so on." But, I never thought of any real way that I tried to initiate the changes. I was always eager to move into...

Just stepped forward, embraced it and figured out what to do...

I became an expert for awhile on how to install CD-ROMs because I was the only one. Now, if you asked me to do some installation and play around with the computer, I couldn't do it. But, at the time, I was responsible...

Strange question...you may or may not have an answer to it...what would be the most important elements of your epitaph?

Oh, dear! The most important elements...I really...I guess that I made a contribution to the library in many different areas as I worked my way up through the hierarchy. Best of all, a lot of friends. And that's the most important thing to me-a lot of interesting people.

Imagine a library historian a hundred years from now reading the transcript of this interview, what would you want that person to know about this period?

It was a period of great change. And one of the most important periods of change. And I can't remember all of my library history, but I certainly think at least through the nineties that some great strides...when you think of the online systems that have come about and the CD-ROMs and all the changes that have occurred within the library profession. That's what I'd like somebody to look at-to see the information age has really affected the field.

Comparing to, say, previous generations, we have had more change...

I think we have. And I think it's moved so much faster in the last ten years. It's just been incredible. When I was sitting and reading my last year-because I'd made my plans to retire when I became 65-I was sitting there trying to accomplish as much as I could-and the more I read, the more I saw all of these changes coming at me. And, actually, I was rather grateful that I wasn't going to have to make some of the really critical decisions that are facing the profession.

Do you think that this rate of change will continue?

That I don't know. But it just seems like we're going through the...it's the same sort of thing that happened at the beginning of the online era, I think. A lot of companies starting to develop. But it's even more complicated because there are other industries that are involved in this. The online industry itself. I guess it's other types of companies. Before, you had a couple of...you had SDC and Quadra, Dialog, Chem Abs-but now you have people-you have AT&T, you have all of these different companies trying to make a dime off the information age. And everyone presenting you with a different combination of resources that are available through your company. Or, how your public libraries are doing with this-trying to find all the resources. No-I think it's moving much, much faster than we did in the past. And it's far more complicated.

So it's a significant period...

Definitely.

Let's switch gears a little bit and talk about your involvement in the Chapter. And you mentioned that you were with the San Francisco Chapter and it split and you went with the San Andreas. Can you tell me about some of the things-again, you mentioned...

Oh, I was...I did participate in some of the teaching in the San Francisco Chapter when we had the educational courses because I started out in acquisitions and I taught a number of courses that we had for paraprofessionals. Actually, it was a number of-they'd have a full-day course and maybe five or six speakers each touching on a different part of acquisitions. A number of those programs at the beginning. And then after the split, oh, I worked with professional development and I was head of the professional development committee and I was chair of hospitality and consultation (although we haven't done much in the way of consultation).

Have you always been what you would consider active?

I've always helped on different committees. Yes. I have been fairly active. Not as active as some, but I've tried to be active in the chapter. I've gone to the meetings, some years more than others. Last year, when we had the TelTech problem at SRI and we were facing that, I didn't do very much in the way of going to meetings. Once that was over...

What has been the benefit of participation?

I think meeting so many people and listening to their experiences in the library, you don't feel as alone. I know that some libraries are certainly supportive in their companies, and definitely I don't think there's a question in universities, but it's good to make the contact with different people. One of the things I really appreciated is meeting some university librarians and getting ideas from them in their special libraries. I met the head of the Chemistry Library at Stanford, and she had some very good ideas for training the end user.

Is this more of an informal exchange of information then, or was it more in connection with...

It was just meeting her in an informal way. The programs, I think, are very good. They're informative, but I think the contact with the other librarians is primarily-similar problems.

Would you have any suggestions for the Chapter at this point. Things that you think would be good for them to do that maybe they're not doing.

This is, as I said, this year has been a very strange year even though I'm head of consultation, or last year, I should say. I didn't seem to be participating as much. I didn't attend as many meetings because there were so many tasks to accomplish in the library. I think that the meetings should definitely focus on the problems today, and certainly professional development, I think, has done very well with their Internet training. And the program the Mary Walsh and Pam Jayko participated in...Perhaps what's needed is to help some of the people who run libraries-to give them more moral support. I don't think I'm telling any tales out of school, but when Pam was going through the problem with TelTek, she called me and talked to me, because she said she heard that I managed to turn our management around. And, actually, it was TelTek had done such a terrible job in trying to present their case-we did the job better and cheaper. But, I was there for her when she needed somebody to talk with. And I think that certainly we need to do more on all levels, it doesn't have to be just for directors, everyone who holds a position in a library needs some sort of support. And certainly with the changes that are occurring-some way to deal with that.

Some kind of a forum for different groupings within the chapter to get together and discuss their problems...

That's right. I think it's important.

Well, I have one last question for you. Is there a question that I should have asked that I didn't?

I can't think of anything. I think it's hard to pinpoint the different people that I was talking with in the chapter . I think they've done very well. I think that certainly nothing prepares a person for their special library if it's a very diverse library, and that was one of the things I loved about my company. That the challenge was there. That we had so many people to serve. And your library is certainly very focussed. And the problem I've found over the years is that we've never been able to find a similar library. I can't think of any questions. I think you've covered everything.

Thank you.