ACRL College & Researc Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Library Development—Promoted through Continuing Education

Continuing Education

Academic libraries in a time of transition from traditionally passive storehouses of knowledge to dynamic research, information and learning centers are faced with numerous problems and opportunities. The focus of the eighties will be on attempts to maintain quality and achieve costeffectiveness in the face of double-digit price increases in library materials, a declining economy and shrinking enrollments. The success of academic libraries in meeting these challenges will be largely determined by the commitment and competence of their staffs. These are changing times and dramatic changes in assumptions and attitudes will often be required. It becomes increasingly necessary for staff to stay abreast of a rapidly changing field to be in a position to effectively implement technological developments and applications of new concepts. Improved libraries can result from increased emphasis being placed on promoting the development of services and programs through continuing education. Two kinds of activities supported at my institution are cited to illustrate specific applications of promoting library development through continuing education.

First, staff meetings will frequently include individuals’ reports on continuing education programs attended. These reports are used as springboards for institutional concerns, thereby providing individuals with the opportunity to express themselves and apply what was learned at the outside program to our setting. Then we have discussion which often leads to an appraisal of our situation vis à vis the content of the continuing education program. Thus mixed together in this kind of activity are continuing education, staff development, and organizational development. Task forces will occasionally be formed to study and make recommendations on important areas discussed.

Staff are encouraged to attend relevant conferences, workshops and other substantive programs within the framework of the library’s short and long-range development. In this context, recent groups have investigated and submitted detailed written reports on closing the catalog, conversion to AACR 2 and implementing online reference services that have been extremely valuable in reaching decisions on those subjects.

The role of the professional association also receives major attention—from the view that active involvement can have meaning and value for both the individual and the library, aid in the individual’s own leadership and professional development and simultaneously promote the library’s development. Staff are therefore encouraged to actively participate in such professional association activities as editing and writing for publications, serving as committee members or officers, lobbying for library legislation and programs, organizing conference programs and giving conference talks. Staff involvement of this nature is seen as an important means of maintaining up-todate knowledge of professional trends and developments.

The most effective libraries are those whose staff are continuously motivated, stimulated and professionally challenged. Continuing education is essential for the establishment of this environment. Frequently there is more gain to the library—especially long-range—from a person attending a continuing education program than working in the library on that day. While all too often this is not recognized, meaningful and quality continuing education related to library needs and objectives will become especially critical in the light of the difficult issues now facing academic libraries.

—Michael B. Binder.

Editors Note: Michael Binder is director of the Fairleigh Dickinson University Library, Rutherford, New Jersey. His contribution is excerpted from an address at the spring, 1979 conference of the New Jersey Library Association.

CE PAPERS SOLICITED

The first annual Continuing Education Institute, sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Extension Communication Programs/Library and Information Science, will be held in Madison, Wisconsin, at the Concourse Hotel, January 31- February 2, 1982.

The focus of the 1982 institute will be “Marketing for Libraries: Promotion and Performance.” There will be three major themes addressed by speakers and mini-sessions: “Creating That Demand,” “Satisfying the Consumer,” and “Grading Your Performance.”

A major feature of the institute will be the presentation of contributing papers. These papers may address any topic relevant to the broad definition of marketing. Possible topics are:

•Excellence—Vision or Standard?

•Using Evaluation Techniques to Plan

•Data Collection

•Performance Measures

•Promotional Techniques

•Selling a Service

•Cooperation

•Networking

•Role of Librarians

•Interpersonal Relations

•The Extra Mile: Inter-Library Loan

All submitted papers will be refereed. The following deadlines will be strictly observed: notice of intent to submit, June 1, 1981; submission of completed manuscript, September 1, 1981; notification of acceptance, November 1, 1981. Forms for indicating your notice of intent to submit may be obtained from the Continuing Education Institute, UW-Extension Communication Programs/Library and Information Science, 220 Lowell Hall, 610 Langdon St., Madison, WI 53706.

ACRL COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS, 1981-82

ACRL members may be interested in the outcome of new committee appointments. For the eleven divisional committees to which appointments could be made, there were 65 appointments. This included 10 reappointments, 31 new appointees, and 24 who were appointed as committee interns for a one-year period. Thus it can be seen that about 75% of the committee vacancies were given to new appointments while 25% were continuations through reappointment.

An interesting result stems from the use of committee internships. Of about 125 persons whose names had been received by recommendation or by personal application, about 55 of these were used as appointments of one type or the other. This means that about 44% of all such persons are being used on a committee, and it strikes me that this must be a very high percentage when one considers the relatively few committees at the divisional level.

Members of ACRL will understand that the opportunities for committee service are quite limited. Committees generally need a fair number of persons carrying forward from one year to another in order to provide continuity. The use of one-year internships is intended to provide some of the newer or younger members of ACRL with the experience of sharing in the discussion, preparing working papers, contributing solutions, learning from the process, and demonstrating their capacities for further service to ACRL. It is hoped that a number of these may be reappointed or advanced to regular appointment within the next year.—David C. Weber, Vice-President/ President-Elect, ACRL.

ACRL ACTIVITY MODEL

ACRL Vice President David Weber has appointed a Committee to Draft an Activity Model for 1990. Its charge is to conceptualize an activity program to help shape the directions of Association efforts in the years immediately ahead; to raise thereby the sights of ACRĹ members, sections, and officers for ACRL achievement; and to stimulate membership interest and involvement in the advancement of the Association.

M embers of the committee are Olive James, David Kaser, Carla Stofile, William Studer, and Julie Virgo.

For purposes of this assignment the committee perceives the Mission and Goals of ACRL to be as follows:

Mission

To foster the profession of academic and research librarianship.

Goals

1) To contribute to the total professional development of academic and research librarians;

2) To improve service capabilities of academic and research libraries;

3) To promote the interests of the academic and research library profession;

4) To speak for the academic and research library profession on relevant issues;

5) To promote study and research relevant to academic and research librarianship.

The committee invites comment on this statement of Mission and Goals, on appropriate content of an ACRL activity model for 1990, and on means of fulfilling its aforestated charge. In order to be considered at the San Francisco Conference, such comments should be sent before June 20 to David Kaser, School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405.

DATABASE SURVEY

Three major vendors of online search services have agreed to assist the American Library Association in conducting a survey on how these services are financed in publicly supported libraries and libraries in nonprofit organizations or institutions. Bibliographic Retrieval Services (BRS), DIALOG Information Retrieval Service (Lockheed), and SDS Search Service (ORBIT) will send ALA’s questionnaire to managers of online search services in all such libraries sometime during May, 1981. Responses will be returned to the ALA Office for Research for analysis.

Results will be reported as soon as possible and will be useful in at least three different ways; 1) helping libraries not yet offering these services to make intelligent decisions regarding their introduction; 2) helping libraries already offering these services to improve or expand what they do offer; and 3) helping libraries to plan the introduction of other technology-intensive services.

ACRL urges all recipients to respond to the questionnaire.

ROBERT B. DOWNS AWARD

Nominations for the 1981 Robert B. Downs Award are invited by the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science. The award is given each year for outstanding contributions to the cause of intellectual freedom in libraries, in honor of Dean Emeritus Robert B. Downs. In 1980 the award went to Jeanne Layton, director of the Davis County Library, Farmington, Utah, and in 1979 to Ralph E. McCoy, dean emeritus of library affairs, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.

Nominees will be reviewed by the library school faculty, and the award will be presented at the school’s 1981 Alumni Homecoming Day. Nominations should be submitted before August 15, 1981, to; Charles H. Davis, Dean, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois, 410 David Kinley Hall, 1407 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801.