ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

Chapter visits

Florida. The Orlando Hyatt was the setting for the Florida Library Association Annual Conference on May 30. ACRL’s Florida Chapter convened jointly with its parent group, featuring a program on networking, a reception and presentation from ACRL Headquarters, and business meetings.

The morning program featured three speakers and an audience of 200! Jo An Segal addressed networking at the national level and presented material on the history and development of networks and a variety of trends. Dale Canelas’s paper on the Research Libraries Group described the history and activities of this networking activity, now being introduced in Florida. Marlene Heroux, of the SOLINET staff, described the services of that network—both those derived from OCLC and those originating at SOLINET. Peter Malanchuk served as moderator.

The elegant reception in the afternoon was sponsored by Ebsco Subscription Services. Chapter members and guests heard Segal talk about ACRL, its activities, staff, physical accommodations, plans, and hopes. In addition to the formal interaction, there were the hoped-for opportunities to share a moment during dinner, over a drink, or beside the pool.

Plans for future activities dominated the business meetings. With many good ideas, lots of energy, and very good leadership, the Florida ACRL Chapter is in excellent shape!—JoAn Segal.

New England. The New England Chapter convened at Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, on April 30-May 1 to consider “Politics and the Workplace.”

The theme of politics was traced in relation to the nation at large, the higher education community, the campus, and the library. ACRL Executive Director JoAn Segal brought greetings to the chapter as the sessions began on Tuesday afternoon. Featured speakers on Thursday afternoon were: Martin Nolan, editor of the Boston Globe editorial page, who highlighted the national political scene; Mortimer Appley, past president of Clark University, who took faculty members to task for their failure to appreciate the administrator’s point of view of academic politics; and Hugh Atkinson, who presented some interesting ideas about the library’s use of politics within the campus.

On Friday morning Ed Holley asserted that the academic librarian needs to have an understanding of higher education and of the politics of her own institution; an appreciation for the life of the mind and an ability to make contributions to the body of scholarly knowledge; an understanding of how knowledge is obtained in various disciplines; and an ability to evaluate research. He emphasized that the broader the training, the more likely the individual will have these characteristics.

An A.J Anderson case study dominated the remainder of the Wednesday morning program. After a panel of New England librarians offered solutions to the problem posed by Anderson, the audience participated actively in the discussion of the case. Leigh Estabrook then presented her paper on politics and the library workplace, emphasizing the stress caused by change.

Social activity was also an important part of the meeting. An elegant champagne buffet on Tuesday afternoon preceded a fine dinner, which was followed by a reception featuring coffee and liqueur, jazz and conversation.

As one of ACRL’s oldest and strongest chapters, New England continued its tradition of high quality programming and active member participation.—JoAn Segal.

Wisconsin. “High Tech/High Touch: A Librarian’s World” was the theme of the Wisconsin Association of Academic Librarians Annual Conference, April 17-19, 1985, at the Abbey on Lake Geneva. Conference participants might find it difficult to name the best session on the program planned by Mary Jane Scherdin (UW–Whitewater). On the lighter side, some might say that the “Fashion Parade from the LC Double-Take Salon of Lake Geneva” was certainly the high point of the conference. Engineered by Constance Holt (UW–LaCrosse), the fashion parade had 12 brave librarians modeling the latest in academic apparel. Another popular activity, now a tradition at WAAL programs, was the Fun Run/Walk where athletic participants were instructed to “jog, walk, ski, crawl, roll or writhe” along the exercise trail.

On the more serious side, the program was packed with sessions that could all vie for the “best” distinction. Maureen Sullivan (Yale University and ACRL CE instructor) offered a workshop on “Managing Conflict Skills for Today’s Academic Librarian” to a standing room only crowd. William Miller (Bowling Green University and ACRL/BIS chair) supplied a follow-up to his American Libraries article with “Fixing What’s Wrong With Reference.” The high tech offerings were varied with presentations and demonstrations of serials control systems, online catalog and circulation systems, end-user systems for online database searching and microcomputer software programs. John Corbin (University of Houston) focused his luncheon remarks on the “Human Side of Technology.” Rounding out the program were sessions on legislation, lobbying, library instruction, copyright and a state-wide update.

ACRL Executive Director JoAn S. Segal and I did a session on “ACRL: What’s in It for Me?” In part of our program, we involved the participants in a priority setting activity as a pilot test for the 1985 President’s Program at the Chicago ALA Annual Conference. The WAAL participants helped identify bugs in the program design and provided sample data that will be compared to data from the Chicago Conference program. An analysis of the WAAL data indicated a high level of consensus on the priorities for ACRL: publications, standards, continuing education, library education, liaison with higher education groups and fiscal and political support for academic libraries. There was also a high level of consensus among all the participants that this Spring WAAL meeting was a success.— Cathleen Bourdon.