COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES NEWS

The View from HQ

Hal Espo ACRL Deputy Executive Director

Editor’s Note: This month s column is continued from the December issue in which some of the duties of the ACRL Deputy Executive Director were outlined.

4) Management of office administrative functions. Now that the staff numbers nine and one half FTE, there is a great deal of coordination of administrative services required to allow the office to function effectively and efficiently. Nearly 100 pieces of mail are received daily which must be opened, sorted, date stamped and distributed. This process alone takes over an hour each day. Telephones must be answered. Filing our correspondence from the previous day at times takes over an hour. Though ACRL has just moved into the new ALA Huron Plaza building, we have already nearly outgrown the space ALA has provided. Locating adequate space is an ongoing problem. With the addition of our word processing capabilities has come the responsibilities of making certain that the equipment is used efficiently and that the staff is adequately trained in its operation. Supplies must be requisitioned, maintenance must be arranged and staff schedules kept. The detail of keeping an office functioning smoothly requires a great deal of time and patience. Because we are no longer a two or three person staff, more of my time must be spent coordinating staff and their activities than was the case in the past.

5) Coordination of activities vis á vis ALA. Because ACRL is an organization within an organization one must take note of the relationship between the two. ACRL is not simply a 10,000 member association. If it were, its operation would be less complex than it is. Because ACRL is part of a 35,000 member organization, the division’s procedures are a part of the larger ALA picture. ALA’s involvement within ACRL is extensive and vice versa. Such involvement works to the mutual benefit of both parties, yet in order to maintain the flow of information and services time and energy must be expended coordinating functions. Membership, Subscriptions and Order Department, Conference Arrangements Office, Public Information Office, Reprographics, Data Processing, International Relations, Fiscal Services, Administrative Services, other divisions, etc., are all ALA units with which ACRL has an active and mutually beneficial relationship. Coordination of the activities among these offices demands a great deal of time, patience, and political skill. Without its involvement with ALA, however, ACRL would be less effective in meeting the needs of our members and realizing the goals and objectives adopted by the Board of Directors.

6) Coordination of national conference and section preconferences. ACRL has sponsored at least one preconference in each of the past twenty-two years. This past summer in San Francisco three sections held preconferences. Along with the increasing number of preconferences naturally comes an increasing responsibility at headquarters. Making arrangements for adequate hotel sleeping and meeting facilities and meals, handling registration and requests for information, assisting the section committee with program planning, and paying bills are some of the many functions which the office staff undertakes.

Similarly, now that ACRL has begun holding national conferences, headquarters staff has assumed a great deal of the administrative function of budget preparation, exhibit planning, sales promotion, and layout, site selection, contractual negotiations with hotels and suppliers, printing, registration, publicity and promotion, etc. Planning for a national conference is a five year commitment from the time a site is first located.

For both preconferences and national conferences staff coordination is necessary for the program planners to be able to arrange for the best program possible. The program committee must be able to feel that it can rely upon the staff to assist in all areas as necessary. Anticipating these unexpected needs and assisting with preparations is an important ongoing staff responsibility.

I have outlined some of my major responsibilities. Naturally, I do not perform all of these tasks by myself. I have been assigned a number of staff positions to help carry them out. Yet, as anyone in a managerial position knows, one can spend one’s entire day coordinating the work of others, preparing for and attending meetings, answering telephone inquiries, dealing with personnel problems, and handling moments of crisis, and on the train home at night feel that none of one’s “own’’ work has been accomplished that day. To be sure, it is both frustrating and exciting.

Even if I were the best of writers an article such as this would be unable to identify completely what I do each day at headquarters. There is no way to fully describe to someone what association work involves. I welcome the opportunity to speak with any and all of you at an ALA meeting to further describe how your association works and what role I play in it. I encourage you to visit the office to see what is involved in keeping it and the association functioning. Finally, I encourage all of you who have ideas of how the executive director and I might better inform the membership of what the office is doing to write, call or approach us at conference. We need your help in keeping you informed. ■ ■

N.J. BLACK CAUCUS SPONSORS PROGRAMS

In May 1981 black librarians in New Jersey organized as a caucus and adopted the name of The New Jersey Black Librarians Network (NJBLN). Doreitha Madden, outreach services librarian for Trenton State Library and chairperson of ALA’s Black Caucus, met with the membership at that time and formulated Interim Guidelines for Operation.

Since then the NJBLN has sponsored two programs. The first was a membership meeting program on October 24 at which a behavioral psychologist, John Cosby, conducted a workshop on “Belief Systems and Time Management’’ at the Shiloh Baptist Church in Trenton. On November 14 an awards/membership luncheon was held at Rutgers University Commons, New Brunswick. Following the theme address (“Black Librarians: A Legacy of Service”), awards for distinguished service to librarianship in New Jersey were presented to: Dorothy Jones, director of the East Orange Public Library; and Reginald Smith, associate director of the New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry Library, Newark.

Vivian D. Hewitt, librarian at the Shotwell Library, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, was the keynote speaker for the awards luncheon.

For more information on the NJBLN, contact Cheryl McCoy, 50 S. Fullerton Ave., Montclair, NJ 07042; (201) 744-0500. ■■