Leaner and Meaner: Special Collections, Librarians, and Humanists at the End of the Century

Abstract

The April 13. 1992. Time magazine1 described an emerging environment in higher education in which new sources of income have been exhausted and where existing means of finance and appropriation must compete with other priorities. increasingly subject to public scrutiny. At the same time campuses are renewing emphasis on undergraduate education. questioning the almost universal attention paid to faculty research. increasing their reliance on technology (through such mechanisms as interactive television and computerized library catalogues). and increasingly recognizing the needs and achievements of diverse populations.

Today’s popular culture attributes metaphorical leanness to that which is disciplined, powerful, competitive, desirable. Mean . . .