COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES NEWS

ACRL President’s Letter

Association of College & Research Libraries

Dear Associates in the College and Research Library Vineyards:

The 1981 harvest was a good one. We can hope the crop will provide bounteous benefactions for all who participate.The Association of College and Research Libraries has, indeed, been very active and has achieved a good deal—because you as members have accomplished a lot.

David C. Weber

Quite clearly the existence and vitality oí a professional association is crucial for the collaborative efforts that can support, clarify, advance and otherwise nurture our common professional goals as they can be expressed and achieved over time through a national association, its various sections and committees, and the local chapters.

The relationship is bi-directional. We need a professional association, and ACRL serves that purpose well. An association also needs members. And it is particularly important that we and others with whom we are associated in college and research libraries maintain and add to the membership ranks. Only through a strong personal and institutional membership enrollment will the Association encompass our range of expectations and provide us this support and advocacy which maintains the vitality of the profession.

The 1981 developments and accomplishments of ACRL provide gratifying evidence of the Association’s vigor and responsiveness.

1. Chapters: The number has grown from 26 to 30. We welcome new chapters in the states of Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, and South Dakota. Activities of these chapters were particularly lively.

2. Minneapolis Conference: The second National ACRL Conference on “Options for the 80s” was held October 1 to October 4 with 1,881 in attendance. The quality of the theme papers and the contributed papers was quite exceptional. The Conference had fine professional content and provided a format for a great deal of useful discussion. The theme papers will be published in College & Research Libraries and the contributed papers will be issued in book form by next summer.

3. Continuing Education: With the addition of a Program Officer at ACRL Headquarters the course offerings at the San Francisco and Minneapolis Conferences drew hundreds. Short concentrated courses focus on the special academic and research library aspects of five areas: the academic environment, library skills, management, professional development, and technology update. A variety of courses for Philadelphia and later national or local conferences constitute one major contribution to what is a particularly important goal for the Association. Together with recruitment and placement efforts, continuing education is receiving the ACRL emphasis needed by membership.

4. Sections: The programs, committee activities, and other planned contributions of the sections for Bibliographic Instruction, Rare Books and Manuscripts, and others are providing some solid planning documents as well as conference programs of substance. Publications result selectively. There is strong practitioner interest and support in nearly every section.

5. Budget and Management: Membership approved the dues increase last summer to assure the financial health of the organization for the years immediately ahead. Sounder budgeting under a very able committee has contributed to the fiscal maturing of the Association. Julie Virgo’s title has changed from Executive Secretary to Executive Director this year, a most welcome recognition of the leadership and stature expected by a person carrying this important responsibility. But the departure of Jay Poole and Carol Marty Smith this fall will leave a hole and require careful recruitment.

6. Future Flanning: An ad hoc committee to form an Activity Model for 1990 has been at work, composed of David Kaser as Chair, with Olive James, Carla Stoffle, Bill Studer and Julie Virgo. The committee has drafted a document to present the major future influences on our libraries, the nature of a strong association to serve us well under these circumstances, and recommendations to that end. It therefore can serve to shape the directions of ACRL efforts in the years immediately ahead. This report will be published in C&RL News in advance of the Philadelphia Conference and should be a matter for wide discussion.

Your elected and appointed officers and committee members, and your staff, are keenly interested in helping ACRL serve our diverse purposes. With your continued involvement, ACRL and our profession will attain improved levels of service to us as individual librarians, to our libraries small or large, and to our professional relations with the educational and scholarly community at large.

David C. Weber President, ACRL