ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Seattle 84

Seattle Aquarium

The underwater dome at the Seattle Aquarium. The Aquarium is also noted for its successful efforts in breeding sea otters.

As with past ACRL national conferences, the major program elements for the Third National Conference will be contributed papers and theme sessions. For the Seattle Conference, however, the Conference Executive Committee has invited proposals for alternative format sessions. Of the proposals received, four were selected. These sessions are briefly described below.

“Automating a Community College Library: An Opportunity To Be Solved” is the theme of a presentation organized by the ACRL Community and Junior College Libraries Section. Marilyn Houseman, Director, and Charity Kirkpatrick, Special Projects Librarian, Rio Hondo Community College Library, Whittier, California, will address the issues of vendor research, database conversion, MARC format, financing and consortium development for resource sharing for a total online library system.

“Public Services in Research Libraries: Today’s Realities” will examine the assisted self-study process which has been applied to public services in six research libraries in a developmental program operated by the Association of Research Libraries’s Office of Management Studies and supported by the General Electric Foundation. A panel of speakers involved in the self-studies will assess the usefulness and effectiveness of the assisted self-study format in enabling a library staff to address complex public services issues and analyze, improve and adapt library programs and facilities to new technologies, to changing economic conditions, and to users’ needs. Speakers are Paula T. Kaufman, Columbia University; Karen S. Seibert, University of North Carolina; Nancy Huling, University of California, Riverside; Clifford H. Haka, Michigan State University; and Duane Webster and Patricia K. Swanson, ARL Office of Management Studies.

“Comprehensive Access to Library Holdings: Integrating Archival Management with Library Networks” will be moderated by Barbara J. Brown, Research Libraries Group. Speakers for this session are Larry Dowler, Harvard University; H. Thomas Hickerson, Cornell University; and Alan Tucker, Research Libraries Group. In past years, archivists and manuscript curators seeking to benefit from the use of library bibliographic networks have been faced with the inapplicability of library methodology and systems. The speaker in this session will discuss the successful effort to develop a common bibliographic format for archival control, enhancements to the Research Libraries Information Network designed to facilitate the management of archival holdings, and the potential benefits of comprehensive access to library holdings.

“A House Divided: Public Service Realities in the 1980’s” will discuss the development of an integrated role model for public services librarians. Participants in the program are Charles Martell, California State University, Sacramento; Kathleen Gunning, University of Houston; Patricia Swanson, University of Chicago and ARL/OMS; and Phyllis Jaynes, Dartmouth College.

To help conference attendees become better acquainted with the Seattle area, several tours will be offered. These include a Wednesday morning general city tour and several post-conference trips on Saturday afternoon and Sunday. These trips include: a tour of Seattle’s International District followed by a tea ceremony at the Japanese Tea House in the University of Washington Arboretum, a marine life exploration cruise, a tour of the Ste. Michelle Winery and Snoqualmie Falls, and a trip to Mt. Rainier. More information on the tours and a reservation form will be included in the preregistration packet mailed to all ACRL members in early December. ■ ■