ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Continuing Education IV—Cooperative Style in Illinois

Small to medium-sized academic libraries have particular problems in providing quality continuing education for their librarians. Often the staffs are not large enough to provide for much in- house training, and the distance and expenses involved in attending workshops and seminars sponsored by library schools or in connection with national conferences are largely prohibitive.

Two solutions seem particularly promising. First, as more and more state academic library associations form continuing education committees, these groups can sponsor two- to three-day in-depth workshops and follow-up on these at regular conferences. The Illinois Association of College and Research Libraries was able to receive funding during 1977-78 to hold a two- and-a-half-day workshop on objective setting with a follow-up session that was open to the general membership at the annual meeting of the Illinois Library Association. IACRL continuing education efforts the following year are planned to focus on evaluation.

Changes

William Weiss

Ellen Huyler

William Weiss, associate news editor, has resigned his position at State University College, Oneonta, New York, to become head of cataloging, Russell Sage College, Troy, New York. His replacement on the News is Ellen Huyler, an assistant librarian in the Acquisitions Department at Milne Library, State University College, Oneonta. We wish Bill well in his future endeavors and thank him for his contribution to College and Research Libraries News. We also welcome Ellen to the staff of the News.

Another solution to this problem may well be in cooperative endeavors by established library consortia and/or simply libraries located near each other. The advantage to this solution is that it is particularly easy to initiate and implement. Given the interest of a handful of libraries and a minimum amount of planning, a series of quality continuing education experiences can be made available conveniently and at little or no cost.

The Sangamon Valley Library Consortium in central Illinois agreed upon such a project in the spring of 1977. The group had been meeting for several years to share mutual concerns and to facilitate borrowing and interlibrary loans for their faculty and students. In reassessing the goals of the consortium that year, it was decided that one of the best ways the libraries could strengthen each other was to cooperate in offering a series of continuing education workshops for members’ staffs. Four were planned for the 1977-78 year: two on the acquisition, organization, and housing of nonprint materials, one on basic reference techniques for paraprofessionals, and one on library instruction. Different institutions assumed responsibility for each topic in keeping with their particular expertise. The first year has proved that we have a lot to gain by sharing not only our resources but our personal strengths as well.—Patricia Senn Breivik, Dean of Library Services‚ Sangamon State University.