ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Board of Directors’ actions, June/July, 1997

During the 1997 ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco the ACRL Board of Directors took the following actions.

ACRL governance

Approved revised charge for the Government Relations Committee.

Approved revised charge for the ResearchCommittee.

Accepted revised ACRL Bylaws from theConstitution and Bylaws Committee, commented on the revisions and instructed the committee to make further changes for the Board’s review and first vote by mail ballot in the fall, to be followed by a second Board vote at the ALA Midwinter Meeting and a vote by the membership in the spring ALA election.

Approved a name change for the AcademicStatus Committee as recommended by the committee to: Committee on the Status of Academic Librarians.

Approved a change in committee nameand charge for the ACRL Leadership Center Advisory Committee. The new committee name is ACRL Leadership Development Committee. The new charge is: “To develop leaders for the academic and research library profession and for the broader higher education community; to develop a coordinated array of programs and services sponsored by various entities which, collectively, would comprise an ACRL Leadership Center.”

Approved a revised charge and composition for the ACRL/AECT joint committee to broaden its representation to include all types of libraries and librarians and expand programmatic relationships beyond the promulgation and maintenance of community/junior college standards.

Agreed to hold a Board retreat October 3-4,1997.

Professional development

Made a special commendation to CarlaStoffle, chair of the 8th ACRL National Conference in Nashville, for its many successes in programming and financial achievements, recognizing a number of firsts for ACRL and the profession: use of the Web to generate discussion on conference papers, extensive presence of teaching faculty and academic administrators as program presenters, presentations from members of the profession with specific talents and known accomplishments by invitation, and an expanded “hot topics” program session.

Voted to approve the establishment of theACRL National Information Literacy Institute, provide seed money for planning the institute, and establish an advisory committee to oversee its planning and implementation and report to the Board on its progress.

Approved 14 program titles from ACRLunits for presentation during the 1998 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.

Agreed to not pursue further the Board’sevaluation of national conference frequency cycle, but to ask staff and national conference planning committees to use the criteria in planning conferences and to include questions in future membership surveys that assess members’ participation and satisfaction with the conference.

Financial actions

Approved the transfer of $400,000 fromthe ACRL Operating Fund Balance into the ACRL Endowment and $200,000 from the

ChoiceOperating Fund Balance into the Choice Endowment over a two-fiscal-year period, and having these transfers made during the second and fourth quarters of the ALA fiscal year.

Approved general guidelines in relation toa withdrawal policy for the ACRL and Choice endowments as follows:

“Withdrawals from the ACRL and Choice endowments will be made only under limited circumstances, as defined and approved by the ACRL Board. Withdrawals will be authorized only in order to carry out strategic priorities or in order to respond to emergency situations.”

Voted to establish specific policies on withdrawal after the ALA BARC/Divisions Task Force on endowment policy has completed its work and recommended policies on division withdrawals from endowment funds.

Approved changes to the ACRL and Choicemandated reserves policies as follows:

“ACRL will maintain a mandated reserve fund equal to at least 25% of the average annual operating expenses over the four most recently completed years, excluding Choice."

"Choicewill maintain a mandated reserve fund equal to 25% of the average annual operating expenses over the four most recently completed years, excluding the ALA overhead.”

Approved the revised 1997-98 ACRL Financial Plan.

Approved a $5,000 contribution over afour-year period in incremental payments of $1,250 to the International Federation of Libraries (IFLA) Association as a library partner for IFLA/Boston 2001.

Approved the 1997—98 ACRL and Choicebudgets: ACRL budget revenues of $1,096,983, expenses of $1,468,860, and a projected deficit of ($366,004); Choice budget revenues of $1,833,915, expenses of $1,944,537, and a projected deficit of ($110,622).

Section Funding

Approved changes in policies on fundingto support sections as follows:

• Revised Basic Services Funding policy, paragraph 2 section 4.4.2 ACRL Guide to Policies and Procedures, to read: “Basic Services Funding exists to facilitate sections’ ability to carry out their basic mission and strategic goals of ACRL. Basic Services’ Funding may not be used for equipment and software purchases, speaker expenses and travel honoraria for librarian speakers in accordance with ALA fiscal policy. In addition, audio visual production projects including film and film development require advance approval from ACRL.”

• Revised Basic Services Funding policy, paragraph 1 section 4.4.2 ACRL Guide to Policies and Procedures, to read: “All sections are eligible for Basic Services Funding. The level of funding will be based on the size of the section’s membership and will be automatically allotted to the section. Support for electronic communication and services is a basic service provided by the ACRL office. Basic Services Funding may be used for the following activities: to reimburse section committee members for photocopying, postage, telephone, and other activities and items not prohibited by ACRL policy in paragraph 2 section 4.4.2 of the ACRL Guide.” The Board endorsed the ACRL staff plan to mount two to three listservs and Web pages for ACRL sections in the coming year.

• Amended the ACRL dues fee structure, ACRL Bylaws, Article 1, Membership and Dues, Section 2 Additional Fees, to read: “Fees for personal and organizational members of ACRL shall be $35.00 for the division and $5.00 for each section beyond the first 2 chosen. A member may select any 2 free sections, with no restriction based upon the type of section.” (Ed. note. This will be on the spring ballot.)

• Maintained the current policy of funding sections based upon number of members and the automatic allocation of these funds to sections. Approved formula for funding sections effective with the 1997-98 fiscal year and the adjustment of the formula in the initial years to reflect significant changes in the size of membership in ACRL and in its sections.

New section funding levels are: small sections (under 1,000) will receive $500; medium sections (1,001 to 2,499) will receive $1,000; and large sections (2,500 and over) will receive $1,500.

• Accepted the task force endorsement of the ACRL Executive Committee’s recommendation that the Initiative Funding process be used by sections to submit proposals to ACRL for funding of projects that target activities and programming with specific higher education discipline-based organizations.

Reports

Approved in concept a report listing waysto keep past ACRL leaders involved in the work of the association and referred the report to the ACRL Executive Committee for implementation planning.

Accepted the report from the Racial and Ethnic Diversity Committee on progress toward implementing recommendations in the 1991 report to the Board from the Task Force on Underrepresented Minorities to Librarianship and established a subcommittee of the Board to review the report and consider appropriate responses for ACRL to the recommendations in the committee’s report and report to the Board at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. The Board commended the committee chair on a very thorough report.

Asked that the Academic Library OutcomesAssessment Task Force share its report with appropriate groups for comment and feedback.

Asked that Council of Liaison individualreports of activities with other organizations be shared with Board, Executive Committee, and Government Relations Committee.

Higher education

Sent forth a resolution with the AmericanLibrary Association endorsing 16 recommendations made by a coalition of 21 higher education organizations regarding the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

Approved the ACRL Higher EducationLegislative/Policy Consultant position description in concept and asked that further input from the ALA Washington Office be sought and that the ACRL Executive Committee finalize specific details for implementation at its fall meeting and prepare recommendations for Board discussion and action at its fall conference call.

Publications

Approved the appointment of John Buddas editor of the ACRL Publications in Librarianship series. Budd will serve in an apprentice role under current editor Stephen Wiberley for one year through May 1998, when he will assume the editorship. ■

ACRL Board 1996-97 (l to r): (backrow) Jill Fatzer, Frances Maloy, Linda Muroi, Mary Reichel, Carol Pfeiffer, Victoria Montavon, and Maxine Reneker; (front row) Bernard Fradkin, W. Lee Hisle, Althea Jenkins, William Miller, Patricia Senn Breivik, and Ray English.