ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Executive Director’s Report

Julie Carroll Virgo Executive Director, ACRL

Although the climate for many academic libraries has remained a difficult one during the past year, the range of activities of our members continues to demonstrate a commitment to, and enthusiasm about, our chosen profession.

The activities of the ACRL committees, sections, and discussion groups have been outlined in the Association’s report handed out at the ACRL Program Meeting in Los Angeles.

(Members unable to attend the meeting may obtain copies of the report by writing the

ACRL office.) President Stoffle in her report has described specific ACRL activities that reflect the values of this organization. My report focuses on the operational aspects of the Association and provides a glimpse of the challenges I see facing us in the year ahead.

Julie Virgo

Membership

ACRL membership has been maintained at a constant level. If we continue to follow last year’s pattern we can expect to have approximately 8,700 members at year’s end (August 31). Personal memberships are up, but organizational memberships are falling.

Budget

Both ACRL and Choice finished the 1982 year in a strong fiscal position. ACRL had revenues of $478,000 and expenses of $391,000, for a net income of $87,000. Choice achieved revenues of $870,000 and expenses of $822,000, for a net income of $48,000.

Balanced against these encouraging results has been the decision by the ALA auditors that money must be set aside for deferred subscription and accrued vacation liabilities for Choice, and deferred membership dues and accrued vacation time for ACRL. In short, during 1982 we built a healthier funds balance, but a significant portion of it must be set aside for these deferred liabilities.

The 1983 fiscal year, with projections based on the first eight months performance, looks as though revenues and expenses will both be about $50,000 below budget, with the net income remaining as budgeted—a negative $20,000.

ALA Indirect Cost Study

ALA has just completed its most recent indirect cost study. Indirect costs for ALA to support divisions range from a low of 54 % (ACRL) to a high of

105 % (LAMA) with a median of 84 % for all divisions. This means that for every dollar that ACRL spends, ALA provides 54¢ in additional services. Divisions are not actually charged that amount as it is recognized that divisions contribute to many members joining ALA (which they must do before they can join a division) and that divisions provide services to ALA members who may not necessarily join the division. The indirect cost figure for Choice fell from 6.4% to 5.3% ‚ which translates into actual savings for Choice of almost $10,000 a year. Choice does pay ALA for its indirect costs.

Staffing

Several important staff changes have taken place. In August Rebecca Dixon assumed the position of editor and publisher at Choice. Claire Dudley joined the Choice staff as assistant editor for non-print materials. Cathleen Krzyminski was appointed deputy executive director in April (her first week on the job was at Annual Conference) and Anne Garvey has been promoted to program assistant, working with all ACRL units and assisting with chapter and member relations. We have appreciated the warmth and enthusiasm Donna Harlan brought to her position as the acting deputy executive director and wish her well as she leaves ACRL and returns to her home institution this summer.

Annual Operating Plan

The Planning Committee and the Budget and Finance Committee have begun work on developing a mechanism for tying the planning and budgeting processes together in a more coordinated and systematic way. Such an approach should be of assistance to the Board in implementing the Association’s priorities.

Publications

New ACRL publications appearing in the past year have included:

•Management and Staff Development;

•Back to the Books: Bibliographic Instruction and the Theory of Information Sources;

•ACRL University Library Statistics, 1981-82;

•Building a Children’s Literature Collection,3rd edition (published by Choice);

•Library Statistics of Colleges and Universities: Summary Data 1979(published courtesy of NCES).

An ACRL standing order program has been established to assist libraries in maintaining full coverage of ACRL materials.

Continuing Education

Courses were held for the first time at an ALA Midwinter Meeting and by two ACRL chapters. Seven courses were scheduled for presentation in Los Angeles. Continuing education units (CEUs), Certificates of Attendance, and credit towards recertification by MLA are now available for all ACRL courses. Most ACRL courses have associated workbooks which are available for purchase at $10 for ACRL members and $15 for nonmembers.

As library travel budgets become increasingly slimmer, we are looking towards other costeffective delivery mechanisms. We are studying audio and video teleconferencing and working with the Public Service Satellite Consortium to explore other teleconferencing applications within ACRL.

NEH Grants

ACRL received a second NEH grant to conduct workshops aimed at assisting librarians and humanists to work together to produce public programs that would utilize the people and collection resources of academic institutions. Workshops were organized by Barbara Macikas in New Orleans in February and in Madison, Wisconsin, in April of 1983.

A similar proposal, jointly sponsored with the Public Library Association, is currently under consideration by the Endowment.

Librarians’ Exchange Program

As a result of requests received from the profession, the ACRL office has initiated a modest exchange program. We have on file the names of libraries and librarians in English-speaking countries who will host or exchange positions with librarians in the U.S. In a time of decreasing job mobility, a job exchange program may offer a new perspective on a familiar job. For further information, contact Sandy Whiteley at the ACRL office.

New Awards

Two new awards have been announced this year. The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) is sponsoring with ACRL the Samuel Lazerow Fellowship for outstanding contributions to acquisitions or technical services in an academic or research library. The award, presented for the first time at Annual Conference in Los Angeles, will provide practicing librarians a fellowship for research, travel, or writing.

A second award co-sponsored by ISI is the ACRL Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. The purpose of this fellowship is to foster research in academic librarianship by encouraging and assisting doctoral students with their dissertation research. It too was awarded for the first time in Los Angeles.

What Lies Ahead

It should not require an accurate psychic to foresee our immediate future. The economy might be rebounding, but it is going very slowly, and higher education is not one of the growth areas in that economy. As a profession we will have to find better and more compelling ways to articulate our contributions to our parent institutions and to the public at large. We need to identify and delete those activities done by tradition alone, and focus on and communicate those that have the highest payoff to our profession. Librarians cannot be all things to all people; we must use our resources judiciously. Most importantly, we need to be sure that the choices we have made are relevant to the perceived needs of our users and our funding agencies.

The Association of College and Research Libraries needs to make those same decisions, so that we can continue to serve and advance our profession wherever the economy may lead. ■ ■