ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Highlights of the Annual Conference Meetings of the ACRL Board of Directors

The Board of Directors of the Association of College and Research Libraries met twice during the ALA Annual Conference: on Sunday, June 24, 1979, and Wednesday, June 27, 1979.

ACRL Board Restructuring

The ACRL board gave its final approval to the recommendations of the Planning Committee for reshaping the structure of the board. The recommendations must now be submitted to a vote of the membership. A mail ballot with explanatory material will be sent to all ACRL members. The purpose of the proposed restructuring, which will reduce the size of the board from thirty-one to thirteen members, is to strengthen the board by giving it a more workable size.

Budget and Finance

Acting upon the advice of the Budget and Finance Committee, the board decided to appoint a study group to come up with a program breakdown of the current ACRL budget and staff time and to report back at Midwinter with recommendations for a more effective planning cycle for ACRL activities.

Chapters

The board endorsed the recommendation of the Chapters Committee that ACRL should promote the development of state and regional ACRL chapters without regard to whether members of the chapters are members of national ACRL. The board also approved petitions submitted by librarians in Northern California and New Jersey asking for recognition of a Northern California Chapter and a New Jersey Chapter.

Choice

Acting on the recommendation of the Search Committee for Choice editor, the board approved the appointment of Jay Martin Poole of the University of Texas at Austin as the new editor of Choice and thanked Louis A. Sasso for his service as Choice editor.

College & Research Libraries News

The board endorsed a Publications Committee recommendation that College & Research Libraries and College & Research Libraries News be recognized as separate publications, that an ACRL staff member be delegated responsibility for editing C&RL News, and that a separate C&RL News editorial board be appointed. This board would be similar in composition and function to the Choice Editorial Board.

Community and Junior College Libraries

The board endorsed the “Statement on Quantitative Standards for Two-Year Learning Resources Programs” prepared by the Ad Hoc Subcommittee to develop quantitative standards for the “Guidelines for Two-Year College Learning Resources Programs.”

Continuing Education

Acting on a plan developed by the Continuing Education Committee, the board authorized the creation of a half-time position in the ACRL office to plan and implement a long-range program of continuing education for ACRL members and to design a model program for staff development in academic libraries.

The board also expressed its support for a planning conference on ALA s role in continuing education and indicated its willingness to provide funds to send an ACRL representative to such a conference if other funding were unavailable.

ERIC Preconference

The board approved a request submitted by the ERIC Regional Clearinghouse at Syracuse University for ACRL sponsorship of an ERIC Users Preconference at the 1980 ALA Annual Conference in New York.

Rare Books and Manuscripts

The board voted to endorse the “Joint Statement on Access to Original Research Materials” prepared by the Committee on Manuscripts Collections of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section and the Committee on Reference and Access Policies of the Society of American Archivists.

Membership Dues

The board put itself on record as opposing an ALA dues increase. The sense of the board was that such an increase would be inappropriate and counterproductive until efforts have been made to contain and reduce costs. The ACRL president and executive secretary were directed to communicate the board’s position to the appropriate ALA officials and bodies.

Membership Promotion

The board gave its approval to a report on membership promotion submitted by the Membership Committee. The report included recommendations for an ACRL poster, a membership campaign brochure, a renewal letter, a mailing to prospective members, and a new member meeting at Annual Conference.

Second ACRL National Conference

Virgil F. Massman, chair of the steering committee that is planning ACRL’s Second National Conference, informed the board that the conference would take place September 30-0ctober 3, 1981, in Minneapolis, and that the committee was thinking of a format of contributed papers similar to the one used at the Boston conference.

Sections

The Anthropology Section recommended that ACRL create a council of representatives of

"types of activity” sections. This council would nominate persons for election at large to one of the seats on the ACRL Board of Directors. The board gave its preliminary approval to the Anthropology Section’s proposal and will consider it again at the Midwinter Meeting.

Standards

The board endorsed the recommendation of the Standards and Accreditation Committee that “An Evaluative Checklist for Reviewing a College Library Program’’ be adopted as a supplement to “Standards for College Libraries.”

Western European Language Specialists Section

The board approved the request of the Western European Language Specialists Discussion Group for section status. ■■