ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

BI Liaison Update

Carolyn Kirkendall Project LOEX

There is good news to report! The ACRL Bibliographic Instruction Liaison Project has been extended another year, as initial designated funding for the Project has not yet completely expired. Efforts that the Project will continue to emphasize will include expanding the exhibit opportunities for our ACRL BI Liaison display, “Integrating Libraries into Higher Education,” at the conventions of other groups, and the continuing publication of our press kits. The ongoing effort to publish articles on the instructional role of the library in higher education journals and to schedule presentations by librarians at other organizations’ conventions remains our Project’s top priority.

Several opportunities exist for interested librarians to attend forthcoming meetings of other associations. ACRL members who plan to attend any of the following should contact me: the National Adult Education Conference in Philadelphia and the 73d Annual Convention of the National Council of Teachers of English in Denver, both in November; the March 1984 meeting of AAHE; the February session in Boulder of the Fifth International Conference on Contemporary Issues in Academic and Research Libraries; a seminar on Improving University Teaching next July; the January National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology to Undergraduates; the Improving College Teaching workshops sponsored by Kansas State University; or the University of Delaware’s seminar in November on Developing Skills in Working with International Students.

All these topics have implications for academic library involvement, and first-hand information on the formats and content of these programs would be valuable for the BI Liaison Project to collect.

Sessions relating to the library conventions of other associations this past year have included Tom Patterson of the University of Maine Library, who spoke on library use of Canadian studies bibliography at the Conference of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States; presentations on library instruction by librarians from the Universities of Toledo and Cincinnati at the Ohio Academy of Science; and programs at the meetings of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education, and the South Central Regional Group of the Medical Library Association in Dallas.

The College Board has mounted a grassroots project, the “Educational Equality Project,” focusing on the need to re-define the overall learnings expected of high school students, especially those going on to college. At the ALA/LIRT program in Los Angeles last June, Katherine Jordan, head of library instructional services at Northern Virginia Community College’s Alexandria Campus, deplored the fact that no professional library organization has been involved in the development of these College Board competencies. Library skills are not included as a separate category among the basics.

Forthcoming library-related programs at the meetings of other organizations include a panel on “The Impact of Online Databases on Teaching Political Science,” by Mary Reichel of Georgia State University and others, at the March 1984 meeting of the International Studies Association; two special sessions at December’s New York meeting of the Modern Language Association—“Today’s Academic Libraries and University Presses: Their Role in Modern Language Studies,” with Danielle Mihram of New York University, and “Literature Collections in Academic Libraries: A Crisis Situation,” with William Miller of Michigan State University, William Wortman of Miami University, and Connie Thorson and Jeanne Sohn of the University of New Mexico.

A proposal for the March 1984 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science has been submitted: “Course-Related Library and Library Use Instruction in Undergraduate Science Education.” The American Sociological Association has formed a new interest group named the Sociologists Interested in Library User Skills that hopes to work with this Project to sponsor workshops.

Many good articles about the role of the academic library and implications for instruction have been published recently in professional higher education journals. Pertinent articles include:

Roger S. Bagnall & John B. Hench, “Man Versus Machine: Are We Prepared for the Technological Revolution in Scholarly Research?” Change 15 (July/August 1983):38-42.

Richard DeGennaro, “Libraries, Technology, and the Information Marketplace,” National Forum 63 (Summer 1983):30-31.

John Diebold, “Managing the Information Resources: The Changing Role of Librarians,” National Forum 63 (Summer 1983): 6-7.

Judith Eannarino, “The Information Connection: Library Literacy and the Business Curriculum,” Journal of Business Education 58 (March 1983):212-13.

John F. Kozlowicz, “Teaching Legal Research Methods,” News for Teachers of Political Science, no.37 (Spring 1983):7-8.

Stacy E. Palmer, “Teaching Students to do Research: Professors Get Help from Librarians,” Chronicle of Higher Education, 18 May 1983, pp.27-28.

Joseph Raben, “Advent of the Post-Gutenburg University,” Academe 69 (March-April 1983):21-27.

Readers are encouraged to contact me with news of other articles that relate to the academic library’s instructional role. One of the charges of this Project is to encourage and promote the publication of these kinds of articles. One opportunity: the newly-consolidated American Association for Adult and Continuing Education will begin publishing a new periodical, Lifelong Learning: An Omnibus of Practice and Research, this fall. Guidelines for authors may be obtained by writing to me. The AAACE sponsored a Lifelong Learning Leaders Retreat last year and ALA was represented. Also, starting with the 1983 series, the ERIC/Higher Education Research Reports are cosponsored by the Association for the Study of Higher Education. One of the manuscripts in preparation is The Future of Academic Libraries: Preparing Today for Tomorrow’s Needs.

A regular column on library resources and research methods will be featured in the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences’ newsletter as a result of a roundtable of interested BI librarians at the ACJS conference last March. Agreement has also been reached to schedule a half-day seminar on library research at the annual ACJS Conference next year.

Sale of the press kits, developed by this Project to distribute to offices and staff members of professional associations and offered for purchase to offset this cost, has been brisk. Additional kits in the areas of Women’s Studies, Philosophy, and Health Sciences are now available with pre-payment of $10. We hope you will be interested in contributing sample copies of library handouts you have developed in any of the 12 subject areas. Your donations will be greatly appreciated.—Carolyn Kirkendall, LOEX Clearinghouse, Center of Educational Resources, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI 48197. ■ ■