ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Chapter visits

The ACRL President-Elect reports on two recent chapter meetings.

Missouri, April25. ACRL’s Missouri Chapter asked me to give the keynote address at their Spring Conference at Maryville. The conference theme was “Library Automation: Realities and Rewards.” It was appropriately held at Northwest Missouri State University, which has a beautiful new electronic library utilizing a number of the latest library technologies, including the LS 2000 system.

The conference included sessions on indexing for the online catalog, on system planning, on electronic mail, on barcoding, user training, and patron access and identification. The 70 participants were provided with very practical and much- needed information on planning and implementing a library automation system, including positive and negative aspects.

It was indeed a privilege to visit a new library facility built for technology and to experience various automated library services, including a video teaching system. Nancy Hanks, the director of the B.D. Owens Library, can be proud of her and her staff’s accomplishment. I also appreciated the fine Missouri hospitality, especially the dinner with Madonna and Tom Kennedy at the Apple Tree.

Montana, May 1–3. Iarrived at Kalispell on an absolutely beautiful, clear and sunny afternoon and received a warm welcome from members of the Montana Library Association who were meeting jointly with ACRL’s Montana Chapter. My first view of the Glacier Park mountains was breathtaking and I could not get enough of it.

This was the first program meeting for the Montana Chapter, which also includes the Special Libraries Division members. The meeting, which included an ACRL Continuing Education course taught by Maureen Sullivan, was entitled “Librarians—An Endangered Species? Challenges for Librarians in the 1990s.” Gail Schlachter, president of Reference Services Press, and I shared the platform in addressing this intriguing theme. After our presentation the audience (approximately 50 participants) broke into small groups to discuss the “negative and positive forces” that librarians would have to deal with in the 1990s. A summary of the discussions concluded the program.

In the morning I also addressed the joint meeting of the Montana Academic and Special Libraries Divisions and spoke about the importance of

ACRL and its chapters. In the evening I talked briefly about the importance of being an ALA and ACRL member at a dinner for Montana ALA members.

All in all my visit to the Montana ACRL chapter was a most enjoyable and educational one. Montana librarians are few in number and spread over an enormously large territory, but they are eager to encompass new technologies and new ideas and they certainly exhibit much cooperation and the warmest hospitality. While there I could not help but feel that I was experiencing the spirit of pioneer and frontier hospitality, aptly demonstrated by the never-ending supply of homemade cookies at the exhibits’ hospitality table, as well as the warmth and assistance provided by my hostesses, Barbara DeFelice and Janice Brandon.—Hannelore B. Rader.