ACRL College & Researc Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Checklist for development of faculty advisory committee orientation materials

Prepared by the ACRL Task Force on Faculty Advisory Committee Orientation Material

Florence Doksansky, Chair

Make sure your advisory committee gets a good orientation to the library.

At this time of financial uncertainty and change in higher education, librarians face a critical need to educate faculty on library and information policy issues of both local and national significance. An open exchange of information about the library should be established with faculty and administrators, since the understanding and sup- port of library needs within the academic commu- nity is essential to the well-being of libraries. This goal can be met most effectively through the estab- lishment of formal, open channels of communica- tion.

One means of enhancing campus communication is the establishment of a Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC) to the library. This group acts as an informed body of library users to support and assist the library. It should be made of faculty representing the major academic subject areas: humanities, social sciences, life and physical sciences, and others as appropriate. Students should also be represented.

The following general guidelines are designed to assist individual libraries in effectively working with Faculty Advisory Committees, by establishing guidelines that are appropriate within their own institutions.

Development and implementation

When developing guidelines and materials to orient FACs, each library will want to consider:

• the mission of the parent institution

• the type of committee structure that exists

• who appoints the committee

• the reporting structure of the committee

• the amount of authority vested in the committee

• the relationship the committee has had with the library and the institution.

Orientation guidelines

Materials. Information packets should be developed by the library staff and sent to the members of the FAC in advance of its first meeting. Materials in these orientation packets should include general information about the library’s mission, services, and collections, including (but not limited to) organization charts, strategic planning documents, budgetary requests or reports produced during the past two years, library newsletters, policy statements, library guides, etc.

Orientation. The committee members should be given a thorough orientation to the library as an organization, to its key personnel, and to the role of the library within the institution. The committee should receive an introduction to the budget of the library and how it meets the needs of the academic community. Since a thorough knowledge of the library's physical plant is necessary for an understanding of space, planning, and service issues, it may be useful for the committee to tour the library and its various satellite facilities.

Issues.The FAC should be informed of the library’s plans and concerns as well as of library and information policy issues that are of both local and national significance. Suggested agenda items include: technology, budgetary issues such as serial commitments and prices, access to government information, electronic information products, shared resources agreements, building renovation plans and space needs, technical processing issues and retrospective conversion plans, collection development issues, library use instruction programs, online catalog plans, staffing levels, preservation programs, fundraising and developing activities, and library friends groups.

In summary, the major goal of any orientation program for FACs should be made to make committee members feel that they have an important role in celebrating library successes as well as addressing library concerns. This can be accomplished by educating committee members about the library as an organization. Only through the free flow of information about the library will members of the FAC “buy in” to the tasks at hand, and remain “friends of the library” after their term is complete.

Ed. note: The task force submitted its final report to the ACRL Board at the 1991 Annual Conference. Members of the task force were David Ferriero, Massachusetts Istitute of Technology; Brigid Welch, Association of Research Libraries; and Florence Doksansky, Brown University, chair.