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Reflections: an interview with F. W. Lancaster.

Article Excerpt
ABSTRACT

This article is an interview with F. W. Lancaster that explores his recollections of his life and career, including his accomplishments and the individuals who had significant influence on him.

INTRODUCTION

In 1986 I became dean of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois, thrilled at the number of distinguished faculty members, but terrified the school was so small. About a year later, Professor E W. Lancaster (Wilf) told me he had an excellent job offer from Texas--one that would, as I recall, increase his salary by more than 50 percent. When he left my office, I picked up the telephone to the Provost and said, "We are going to lose Professor Lancaster--it will be a tragedy for the School--you have to help." Then I promptly broke down in tears. Probably not a good thing for deans to do, but the university, too, recognized how important he was not only to GSLIS, but to the wider community, and they matched the Texas salary offer and later recognized him with the prestigious University Scholar award.

Wilf's contributions to his students and to the field have been numerous. In recent years one of the greatest was his editorship of Library Trends. The journal has reflected his deep understanding both of the breadth and dynamic changes in this field, and he recruited some of its best scholars as contributors. It is fitting that this issue provides a tribute to him.

On November 27, 2007, I had the good fortune to interview Wilf about his life and career. This transcript of the conversation has been minimally edited. (LSE)

THE INTERVIEW

LSE: Wilf, tell me how you became a librarian.

FWL: Well, actually it was one of those stupid things. You think that being a librarian has something to do with reading books because as a teenager and a preteenager I was an avid reader so I thought being an avid reader means you should work in a bookstore or a library. The local public library had a vacancy and I applied and got this job as a library assistant in England, in Newcastle. It went from there.

LSE: What were you reading? What did you love to read?

FWL: Oh, I read all kinds of literature. I read Robert Louis Stevenson and John Buchan and Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Dickens.

LSE: So you became a librarian...

FWL: Well I got a job as a library assistant which was kind of ... There's no real equivalent in this country because you do menial things like shelving books and things, but you also come into contact with the public and check books out and eventually help on the [more professional tasks]. We had a readers' advisory desk. You got good experience. Then I started studying. I started going to library school part time and then for a year full time and then more part time. I took national examinations so that's basically what happened.

LSE: What can you say about the people who influenced you? You talk about books, but what about the people?

FWL: Well there were two influences. One was family influence. The other was professional influence. The big family influence was my eldest sister, Alma, who was the most educated member of the family, and she was at one time head mistress of the school I was...