ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

ACRL executive summary

Professional development

The Western European Specialists Section (WESS) held ACRL’s first overseas conference in Florence, Italy, on April 4-8. The conference attracted 170 participants from 20 countries; almost half were from outside the United States. The sessions featured speakers and panelist from the North American and European library and book publishing communities. Social events were spectacularly held in one Renaissance setting after another. For more details, see Claire Dudley’s report on pp. 355-57.

The Community and Junior College Libraries Section (CJCLS) held ACRL’s first teleconference, and it too was a great success. Beamed by satellite to more than 320 sites in 47 states, the program, which focused on CD-ROM technology, reached more than 4,000 individuals (see photo next page). The section is now planning a sequel.

Donald Simpson‚ President of the Center for Research Libraries‚ and ACRL President Joanne Euster, at the NLW reception.

President Joanne Euster addressed a group of ACRL members in the Chicago area at a National Library Week reception held at ALA headquarters on April 18. Her talk, “Creative Leadership in Academic Libraries: Everyone’s Responsibility,” gave the audience much to talk about as they mingled with ALA staff at the reception.

Joanne also led a workshop on academic status at the ACRL Mississippi Chapter meeting and addressed a five-state conference in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, at the end of April on “Creative Leadership in Academic Libraries: Everyone’s Responsibility.”

Enhancing service capability

ACRL signed a contract with Nancy Van House (UC-Berkeley) for the writing of an Output Measures Manual. Work has begun on the pilot testing of these measures. A fact sheet on the project is available from the ALA Public Information Office.

Beverly Lynch, chair of the ACRL Historically Black College and University Library Project Planning Committee, appeared before the ALA Executive Board to present the National Endowment for the Humanities funding proposal. It had been submitted contingent upon their approval, which they granted.

Advocacy and liaison

Legislative Day, April 19, included a large delegation of academic librarians, thanks to the work of Legislative Committee chair, Hal Shill.

Satellite uplink dish, CD-ROM teleconference, (l-r) Joseph Borowski (Oakland CC), Thomas Zymansl (CCAIT), Diana Fitzwater (College of DnPage), Carol Morrison (DuPage Library System), and Bernard Fradkin (College of DuPage).

Research and publications

Delivery of Books for College Libraries, 3d edition, to ALA Publishing is now complete. The work will be published this summer. The prepublication price has been set at $375; after publication the six-volume set will cost $500.

The success of R.R. Bowker’s CD-ROM product, Books in Print Plus‚ which includes book reviews that have appeared in Choice‚ has been very great.

Management directions

The ACRL Executive Committee met on April 18 and adopted the Operating Plan for 1989. This historic act marks the first annual operating plan officially adopted under the strategic planning process, and moves ACRL ahead in achieving the desires of the membership.

The Committee also discussed the first draft of a Financial Plan for ACRL, which when adopted will be another first for ACRL. Designed to fit in with ALA’s Business Plan, the process will define the financial resources needed to carry out the Strategic Plan over the next five years, identify sources of funds, consider areas of financial concern, and suggest strategies for dealing with them.

The ALA Executive Board and COPES met in Chicago on April 24-28. They approved a budgetary ceiling of over $14 million for ALA. All division budgets were approved on a preliminary basis, recognizing that final budgets will be on the agenda in New Orleans. Divisions have been asked to begin working on financial plans.

COPES set November 12-13, 1988, as the date for a meeting of division representatives and COPES to negotiate and prepare a final draft of the Operating Agreement. Joe Boissé and Jo An Segal will attend.

The ALA President’s Special Committee on Information Literacy is working with a committee of the Information Industry Association on a project to assess the need for people in the workforce that know how to identify information needs and how to locate, use, and evaluate information.