ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

ACRL executive summary

May was the month in which a lot of activities began to reach closure, or when people suddenly realized that conference was only a few weeks away!

Professional development

ACRL staff is investigating the use of teleconferencing for continuing education activities, on the heels of the highly successful CJCLS CD-ROM teleconference.

JoAn Segal addressed the Illinois ACRL Chapter on the role of chapters, as the Illinois Library Association wrestled with the question of reorganization.

Booth sales for Cincinnati are ahead of schedule; BIS and RBMS Preconference registrations are high; those for continuing education courses at New Orleans are too, and there were three local presentations during the month.

The first Hugh Atkinson Memorial awardee is Richard M. Dougherty. The Award, jointly sponsored by ACRL, LAMA, LITA, and RTSD, will be presented at a reception in New Orleans on Monday afternoon, July 11, from 5:00-6:00 p.m. in the Plimsoll Club at the World Trade Center.

Enhancing service capability

ACRL staff assisted the University Library Standards Committee in getting the draft standards edited; they appeared in the June issue of C&RL News.

Nancy Van House and crew continue their work on the Output Measures project and will report on progress in New Orleans.

A flowchart has been designed on how standards and guidelines are developed. Entitled “ACRL Procedures for Developing and Approving Standards and Guidelines,” it was produced using electronic publishing software and is available on request from ACRL.

Advocacy

RBMS members and ACRL staff helped prepare a letter outlining librarians’ concerns about the seriousness of the Charles Mount library theft case in hopes of avoiding the possibility that Mount might receive a light sentence, thus signalling other thieves that this crime is not serious.

JoAn Segal attended the regular briefing of the Office for Educational Research and Improvement. Staff there was excited about passage of the new education bill, which carried along with it an elevation in the position of the National (again!) Center for Education Statistics. The Center will continue to be involved in library statistics collection and is in contact with ALA staff on a regular basis. We are hoping to have an influence on the frequency with which academic library statistics are collected. Also highlighted during this visit was the administration’s Library Improvement Act, but it doesn’t look like it will be introduced into the Congress.

ACRL President Joanne Euster and Executive Director JoAn Segal attended the ARL membership meeting in Oakland, California, May 4-6. The Association’s new Executive Director Duane Webster (ACRL’s Academic or Research Librarian of the Year for 1987) starts out with a planning process, actively involving the members. The Office of Management Services (formerly Studies) has a new head: Jeff Gardner.

Segal also participated in the joint meeting of the ALA President’s Special Committee on Information Literacy and a committee of the Information Industry Association. The committees happily found a common ground for their two associations, who often find themselves on opposite sides of issues. They plan to identify information needs of employers and the role libraries may play in helping employees become more information literate.

Research and publication

JoAn Segal visited the Choice offices May 19. The project to automate the magazine is moving along, with H. W. Wilson acting as the service bureau. Staff are learning the Wilson system, inputting reviews for the first time, and finding out about the trials and tribulations of technology!

The section newsletter Spring cycle is in full swing, or, according to George Eberhart and Gus Friedlander, “In the spring a young man’s [make that person’s] fancy/Lightly turns to thoughts of Section News.” All twelve have been published: SEES, WESS, RBMS, CJCLS, LPSS, ARTS, CLS, EBSS, BIS, WSS, ANSS, and STS. Good news for section revenue is that CLS has two ads for its newsletter (Choice and ALA Publishing).

Non-periodical publications are coming out briskly, too. ALA Graphics has published “Your Old Books,” a brochure developed under the auspices of RBMS and authored by Peter Van Wingen to answer frequently asked questions about rare books and book values.

Academic Status: Statements & Resources,compiled by the Academic Status Committee, was designed and produced at ACRL using electronic publishing software.

A new CLIP Note is out: Annual Reports for College Libraries, CLIP Note #10, compiled by- Kenneth Oberembt.

Strategic management directions

Appointments for committee positions are moving along well; almost all of the appointment letters have been mailed and responses are being received. We would like to have most of the work on this done before New Orleans, so the Handbook can be prepared on time, with copy due just a week after our return!

Staff professional development activities included the annual convention of the Chicago Society of Association Executives. ACRL staff held its first “Computer Etiquette” session, as our desire for automation outstrips our equipment. We will have frequent follow-ups.

Thirteen proposals were received for the Special Grants Fund; over $43,000 was requested; the fund has $20,000, which means the committee has some tough work ahead.—JoAn S. Segal.

Richard M. Dougherty named first Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award recipient

Richard M. Dougherty, professor of information and library studies at the University of Michigan, has been selected as the first recipient of the Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award.

Richard M. Dougherty

The new award hon- ors the life and accom- plishments of Hugh C. Atkinson, one of the ma- jor innovators in mod- ern librarianship, and recognizes outstanding achievement (including risk taking) by academic librarians that has con- tributed significantly to improvements in the area of library automa- tion, library management, and/or library development or research.

“A review of his career demonstrates beyond doubt that Dr. Dougherty met and surpassed all the criteria set up for this award,” said Michael Gorman, chair of the Hugh Atkinson Memorial Award Committee.

Dougherty will receive the $2,000 unrestricted cash award and a plaque at a reception in his honor during ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans. The reception, sponsored by Faxon, OCLC, and Blackwell’s, will take place from 5:00-6:00 p.m. on Monday, July 11, 1988, at the Plimsoll Club in the World Trade Center.

Dougherty’s long career has been characterized by innovative ventures. He established the first campus-wide document delivery system at the University of Colorado in 1968 and later introduced similar systems at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Michigan. Dougherty founded the very successful Journal of Academic Librarianship.

A leader in providing professional development and mentoring to new librarians, Dougherty established a resident program at the University of Michigan designed to provide recent MLS graduates with a supportive environment to learn about their new profession.

“He is formidable in his willingness to assume risks in library management while developing library services and he creates a climate of risk- taking in the libraries he directs,” said Barbara von Wahlde, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, in her nomination letter.

Dougherty served as director of the University Library at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, from 1978 until May 31, 1988. He is the author of several books, most notably Scientific Management of Library Operations (2nd ed.) and Improving Access to Library Resources. In 1983 Dougherty was chosen Academic or Research Librarian of the Year by the Association of College and Research Libraries.

The Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award is jointly sponsored by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), the Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA), the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA), and the Resources and Technical Services Division (RTSD), four divisions of the American Library Association.

The award in funded by an endowment created by individual and vendor contributions given in memory of Hugh C. Atkinson. Additional funds are sought to bring the endowment to at least $100,000. Send your tax deductible contributions to Hugh Atkinson Memorial Award, ACRL/ALA, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611.

Nominations for next year’s award should be sent to Mary Ellen Davis, ACRL program officer, ACRL/ALA, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611; (800) 545-2433.