designed to be food for thought. Requested resources
are then circulated through campus mail.

Since the services of the Reading Room have been in
place for several years now, it is possible to take a look
at the progress we have made, some of which has been
unexpected. For instance, we do seem to have
provided space and solitude. Most of the activities
encouraged through the Reading Room are solitary, at
least to begin with. People read alone and listen alone
in their own space at work or home. Another unantici-
pated way we have promoted these qualities has
hinged on our professionals’ use of the automobile.
Since we are a commuter institution and leaders are
often on the road, a good number have begun to listen
to Reading Room audiotapes in their cars—one of the
few places where there may be an absence of demand
and few intrusions. Specifications for institutional cars
include a cassette deck as a standard feature, in part to
encourage leaders to take advantage of this learning
method.

Often after their perusal of Reading Room materials,
these leaders will then talk to one another about what
they have read or heard. Since they all have access to
the same materials, common reference points seem to
encourage the dialogue that is a necessary part of
community. And as for rituals—well, we have begun
some: back to school, holiday and summer Reading
Room Bulletins, for example. We regularly showcase
the “just published” writings of our own professionals.
But more important, the materials provided through
the Reading Room stress the importance of attending
to our organization’s culture. They suggest ways for
our DCCCD professionals to develop their own rituals
and promote community.

We continue to explore the ways in which the
Reading Room can provide help—simply and volun-
tarily. Currently, some 200 of DCCCD employees
receive our bulletins. Any staff member is added to
our routing list upon request, and a number routinely
route their copy to friends and associates. A typical
issue describes perhaps 30 resources (books, tapes,
articles) and, over a month or so, generates an average
of 100 requests for resources. The majority of our
resources fall in the following general categories:
teaching and learning, creativity and innovation, and
personal and professional growth.

Under these general headings, there is help with the
nitty gritty—how to write, speak, save time, get
organized, become more or less assertive. There is help
with the difficult—how to supervise and evaluate more
effectively, how to interview prospective employees,

how to deal with personnel problems. But the most
popular selections deal with the profound—how to
engender trust which builds community, how to
structure and encourage organizational alignment,
how to provide an undergirding vision and the neces-
sary supporting values for a healthy organizational
culture, how to maintain ethics and integrity, how to
blend professional and personal goals.

This year we have freed up a niche in our district
offices and have dubbed it the Reading Room Library,
if you will. Now anyone so inclined can drop by,
browse, think and write. On a very small scale, it’s my
original image come to life. You can sit in a comfort-
able chair—not leather—and enjoy indirect lighting, an
uncluttered telephone-free work space, soft music, if
you choose. This space will hopefully offer a place to
get away from the day-to-day, even for an hour.

Although the Reading Room is only one effort to
provide different rhythms and structures in the work
environment through the sharing of resources, it
appears to be effective and comparatively inexpensive.
Through a “Readers’ Survey” and frequent, informal
encounters, we have received much encouragement, as
well as good suggestions. I suspect this success is not
an aberration, but simply gives testimony to our
collective hunger to establish more organizational
processes that encourage different tempos, different
dynamics—rhythms that seem more humane. The
Reading Room buffers and encourages the occasionally
overwhelming, always hectic process of working ina
community college. It is an innovation designed to
encourage the renewing inclinations within us.

Nancy Armes, Consultant to the Chancellor
For further information, contact the author at Dallas

County Community College District, 701 Elm, Suite
518, Dallas, TX 75202-3299.

 

Suanne D. Roueche, Editor

February 17, 1989, Vol. Xl, No. 6

©The University of Texas at Austin, 1989
Further depacenen 1s permitted by MEMBER
institutions for their own personnel.

 

Issued weekly when ci

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