ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

COMMITTEE ON BIBLIOGRAPHIC INSTRUCTION

The ACRL Ad Hoc Committee on Bibliographic Instruction, formed at ALA in Dallas, is working with the ERIC Clearinghouse for Information and Library Science to provide academic librarians with information on current programs of bibliographic instruction (instruction in use of libraries, and the information they contain). In order to serve this clearinghouse function, we must have reports on current programs. The committee has prepared guidelines for the report which will be sent immediately upon request to the chairman of the committee, Thomas Kirk, Box E-72, Earlham College, Richmond, IN 47374. The guidelines consist of a series of standard questions which can be answered in relation to any program. In addition, the reporter is asked to briefly explain the nature of the program and to describe the methods and results of any evaluation.

Since the clearinghouse will not be effective unless all academic librarians report their instructional programs, any librarian who has anything to report is urged to request a form and return it as soon as possible. The reports will form the basis for a series of state-of-the- art type reviews of various kinds of instructional programs. The content of these reviews will depend upon the reports we receive. The committee is also working on mechanisms for updating these state-of-the-art reviews. It is our hope that a continual process of reporting and reviewing through the ERIC indexes and retrieval system will provide the academic librarian with current information on instructional programs.

The committee hopes to have a preliminary report on how the clearinghouse is performing at the Audio-Visual Clinic sponsored by the ALA Instruction in the Use of Libraries Committee at ALA 1972, which is scheduled for Wednesday evening and Thursday morning of convention week.