ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

In the news

Although spring officially arrived well over a month ago, in much of the country we are just now beginning to feel its effects. This month’s Internet Resources column on horticulture, with information on numerous gardening and botany sites, will help you take full advantage of the season and get your garden growing.

Some growing things are less attractive than others, however, and when it comes to mold in the library, an unpleasant crisis is at hand. In “Mold in the stacks” (p. 304), Doris Brown describes how DePaul University dealt with a mold problem in the library of a college with which it merged. DePaul’s plan of action allowed the school to rescue a good part of the collection and can serve as a guideline for others.

The New Realities, New Relationships column in this issue (p. 308) focuses on diversity initiatives within libraries and across campuses. Three librarians compare the diversity programs at three universities and weigh in on the merits and drawbacks of different approaches.

In The Way I See It, Sandra Marcus comes out in support of “Multilingualism at the reference desk” (p. 322), citing that it helps international students feel connected while facilitating librarians’ ability to meet their information needs.

Also in this issue is a draft of “Standards for libraries in higher education” from ACRL’s College & Research Libraries Standards Task Force. These standards mark a departure from the tradition of creating separate standards for community and junior college, college, and university libraries and represent a common standard for all academic library types. A hearing on the standards will be held at the ALA Annual Conference, June 21, 2-A p.m.

For a complete listing of ACRL preconferences, programs, meetings, and special events at Annual Conference, see the preliminary program (p. AC-1 to AC-16). Don’t forget to take this pull-out guide to conference for easy reference.

—Stephanie Orphan, Editor-in-chief sorphan@ala.org