ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

ACRL executive summary

The month after conference is always one where one expects a respite in the routine before the fall flurry of activity. But at ACRL Headquarters, that respite seems to elude us. Having been unable to fit in one’s vacation before the conference, staffers have until August 31 to use all but 5 vacation days or lose them, so we operate somewhat short of staff. With the fiscal year closing on August 31, we needed to be sure all our financial reports were in order: budgets, revised at conference, had to be redone and re-submitted to Fiscal Services (and distributed to division officers), and reimbursement requests, due August 15 from all committees, task forces, chapters, and sections, must be logged, compared against budgets, and forwarded to Fis- cal Services.

Projects initiated at conference require committee appointment letters and the record-keeping associated with them, and staff liaison people begin their work with members on getting new projects off the ground. Committee reports from conference need to be read so staff can be alert to what the members are thinking and doing and can notify member leaders of interesting items. Minutes of Board meetings need to be written and staff operations in response to Board actions must be planned and delegated.

In preparation for fall activities, staff has begun its planning work for:

• The division leadership conference in September, which involves the president-elect of each division in an orientation experience that grew out of an ACRL/ALA Goal Award project;

• The fall joint meeting of division executive committees, a first-ever cooperative venture;

• The fall meeting between COPES and division representatives to forge a new “Operating Agreement.”

As part of the annual ALA planning process, all senior ALA staff, including top division people, participated in the ALA Planning Committee meeting. This year the committee concentrated on evaluation of programmatic activity.

So, our “respite” is illusory, but we start the year off with our track shoes on and a head start on the crowd, we hope!

Arranged in order of ACRL’s Strategic Plan, here are some specific activities of the month:

Professional development

Planning has begun for the accreditation preconference for Historically Black College and University libraries, with Beverly Lynch as chair.

Preparations are underway for a second CJCLS CD-ROM teleconference and transmission of an ACRL continuing education course via satellite.

Information about local presentations of ACRL continuing education courses was mailed to all universities that are institutional members of ACRL and to the ACRL Personnel Administrators and Staff Development Officers Discussion Group.

Work has commenced on the fall ACRL/PLA NEH Humanities Programming Workshop, the last in the current series.

Cincinnati Conference activity heated up as multitudes of ACRL members unexpectedly submitted program ideas, leaving the committee astounded and embarrassed with riches. 135 papers have been submitted!

Enhancing service capability

ACRL has received funding from NEH for a humanities programming workshop for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. It will be held in February, and announcements will be coming soon from Sandy Donnelly.

Preliminary work commenced for statistics- gathering for non-ARL university libraries and for Historically Black College and University libraries.

Work was begun on a proposal for a new project on Sources of Revenue in Academic and Research Libraries.

Advocacy and liaison

Evan Färber has begun to seek funding for his Retired Librarians Service Corps idea.

Research and publications

Books for College Libraries, 3d edition, was shipped to those who had ordered it. The computer tape version is also available.

Strategic management directions

Cheryl Robinson-Smith joined the staff as assistant editor, C&RL News. Elaine Opalka has been promoted to a position in the ALA Executive Office as Roger Parent’s administrative assistant, effective in mid-September.—JoAnS. Segal.