ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

In the news

About the cover

This is the frontispiece depicting an islander from John Millington Synge’s, The Aran Islands (Dublin: Mausel, 1906) in the Rare Book Collection at the Department of Special Collections of University of Notre Dame. The Aran Islands are a group of three islands in Galway Bay on the west coast of Ireland. With the encouragement of William Butler Yeats, the author visited the islands and wrote about the primitive life and language of the inhabitants. The illustrations in this limited edition printing were hand-colored by William Yeats’ brother, the noted painter Jack Butler Yates.

Acting editor:Maureen Gleason

Production editor:Ann-Christe Young

Classified ads manager:Elise Parker

Product sales manager:Stu Foster

C&RL NewsEditorial Board:Brian Coutts (chair), Peter Deckle, Steven Hiller, Joan Lippincott, Carolyn Sheehy, Michael Walker; James Kapoun (ACRL Publications Committee Chair), Betsy Wilson (ACRL past-president).

Editorial offices: (312) 280-2511

E-mail:mgleason@ala.org

Web page:http://www.ala.org/acrl/c&rlnew2.html

C&RL Newsadvertising fax:(312) 280-7663

ACRL fax:(312) 280-2520

Product advertising:Contact Stu Foster, ACRL Advertising, c/o Choice, 100 Riverview Center, Middletown, CT 06457; (860) 347-1387. Classified advertising: Contact Elise Parker, C&RL News, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611-2795; (312) 280-2513; e-mail: c&rlnewsads@ala.org.

Production office:50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611-2795.

Circulation office:Change of address and subscription orders should be addressed to C&RL News, c/o CHOICE/'ACRL Subscriptions, P.O. Box 141, Annapolis Junction, MD 20701-0141. Phone: (240) 646-7027; fax: (301) 206-9789; e-mail: choicesubscriptions@ pmds.com. Allow eight weeks for new subscriptions.

Submission guidelinesare published in January and on the Web.

College & Research Libraries News (ISSN 0099-0086) is published by the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, as 11 monthly (combining July/Au- gust) issues, at 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611-2795. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, IL and at additional mailing offices. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, Illinois, and at additional mailing offices. Inclusion of an article or an advertisement in C&RL News does not constitute official endorsement by ACRL or ALA.

Indexedin Current Contents: Social & Behavioral Sciences; Current Index to Journals in Education; Information Science Abstracts; Library & Information Science Abstracts; Library Literature; and Social Sciences Citation Index.

Annual subscription:For members of ACRL, $12.50 per year, included in membership dues; for nonmembers, $40.00 per year in U.S., $45.00 per year in Canada and other PUAS countries, $50.00 in other foreign countries. Single copies and back issues: $6.50 each. Periodicals postage paid for at Chicago, Illinois, and at additional mailing offices.

TO THE POSTMASTER:Send address changes to College & Research Libraries News, c/o CIJOICE/ÀCRL Subscriptions, P.O. Box 141, Annapolis Junction, MD 20701-0141. Phone: (240) 646-7027; fax: (301) 206-9789; e-mail: choicesubscriptions@pmds.com.

© American Library Association 2001. All material in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be photocopied for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement.

C&RL News is published on recycled, acid-free paper, t›‹r

ACRL Board of Directors:President—Mary Reichel, reiclielml@appstate.edu; vice-president/president-elect—Helen H. Spalding, spaldingh@umkc.edu; past-president—Lizabeth (Betsy) Wilson, betsyw@u.washington.edu; councilor—Patricia A. Wand, patwand@american.edu; Budget & Finance Com. rep.—Erika Linke, erika.linke@cmu.edu; directors—Theresa S. Byrd, tsbyrd@cc.owu.edu; Patricia Kreitz, pkreitz@slac.stanford.edu; Lois Cherepon, cherepol@stjohns.edu; Deborah Dancik, deborah.dancik@ualberta.ca; Paul E. Dumont, pdumont@dcccd.edu; Barbara Baxter Jenkins, jenkins@oregon.uoregon.edu; Robert F. Rose, roserf@uwec.edu; Pamela Snelson, p_snelson@fandm.edu; ACRL Executive Director— Mary Ellen K. Davis, medavis@ala.org.

In this issue, Donald Frank, Sarah Beasley, and Susan Kroll take up the ACRL presidential theme of learning communities (page 1008), defined in terms of integration with the curriculum and interaction among students. The examples they provide are particularly valuable in illustrating effectiveness and benefits for students. Library participation in learning communities is critical.

Imaginative ways to achieve integration with teaching programs in a variety of disciplines are described by Katherine Furlong and Janelle Wertzberger (page 1004). Another sort of integration in pursuit of academic goals is discussed in Robert Renaud’s account of the merging of libraries and computing centers (page 987). The desirability of collaboration is not in question, but how best to achieve it certainly is.

Information literacy must be part of the learning community, as has been recognized by ACRL in adopting the “Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education” in January 2001. Gabriela Sonntag reports on a survey conducted in May 2001, which documented the nature, extent, and success of information literacy programs at 664 institutions (page 996). Compare the situation in your institution with the findings.

We revisit online resources for U.S. history in Paul Frisch’s article (page 991), especially useful since the last such survey in C&RL News was in 1996, when the resources were mostly gopher sites.

The library presents itself through its publications, print and online, ephemeral and of permanent value. Hope Barton and Michael Levine-Clark describe the University of Iowa’s program to rationalize its publication program without stifling creativity (page 982). Like the other articles, it is a source of ideas that may well bear fruit in our own libraries’ efforts to become a vital part of a learning community.

—Maureen Gleason, acting editor mgleason@ala.org