ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

ACRL executive summary

Since June 1986, when the ACRL Board adopted the Strategic Plan developed by the Strategic Planning Task Force, the goals and objectives in the Plan have given us a way of looking at what we actually do in relation to what our members have said they wanted the Association to do.

The Plan has become, not just a paper document, but a lively guide reminding us of the directions ACRL members have given us. The major goals (professional development, capacitybuilding, advocacy, and research and publication) will probably not be accomplished within the plan’s 5-year time frame. But specific objectives like “holding a national conference in 1989,” will be.

Each month in this column I report to you ACRL’s accomplishments, particularly in the goal areas of the Plan. As we move through the second year of the Plan, the Planning Committee will be formally soliciting from you the members, ideas for future directions. But even before you receive a formal invitation, please get in touch with them, to let them know where you want ACRL to move ahead in 1992, 1993, and after.

We have seen that a Plan can make a difference in how we place our emphasis and deploy our resources. Making the Plan is only half the fun. Carrying it out is really exciting.

For instance, in January at the Midwinter Meeting ACRL passed some important milestones.

Goal I: Professional development

Planning for the 5th ACRL National Conference in Cincinnati moved in exciting new directions:

•There will be programs as well as papers. The call for papers and programs is out; the deadline is

July 31,1988. See C&RL News, January 1988, p.4.

• There will be a 100th Birthday Party for academic library representation in ALA at the exhibits opening on Wednesday, April 5, 1989.

• A conference-wide event at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, on Friday night, April 7, will be included in the registration fee.

• A ticketed luncheon will highlight ACRL’s contributions to academic librarianship over its 50- year history. Guests will include past presidents and executive directors of ACRL.

Goal II: Enhancing library service capability

The Board agreed to contract with Nancy Van House to prepare a Manual for Output Measures. The ACRL staff was instructed to seek additional outside funding and to modify the 1989 budget to accommodate the expense. Expenditures in Fiscal Year 1988 have reduced ACRL’s fund balance.

Further discussions were held with the National Endowment for the Humanities on possible funding for a proposal to involve Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU’s) and their community public libraries in a project to provide good humanities programming for the public.

Goal III: Advocacy and liaison

The Board passed a resolution supporting the reauthorization of the Library Services and Construction Act.

Strategic Management Directions

Finances.The Board had previously decided to place in reserve an amount equal to half a year’s average operating expenses. At the Midwinter Meeting they allocated $20,000 in FY1989 for a competitive Special Grants Fund and approved guidelines for applications and criteria for awards. This is specifically designed to put back into program activities funds the Board had been holding in reserve for various contingencies. Even after accruals and deferrals have been removed from fund balances, ACRL has a balance that exceeds the mandated reserve. The Board also voted to give $5,000 to the Hugh Atkinson Memorial Award and to use $22,000 toward the Output Measures Manual in the current fiscal year. These three decisions will reduce the fund balance, but the mandated reserve is still intact.

At the end of the first quarter, preliminary reports indicate that ACRL has received 22% of budgeted revenues and has spent 22 % of budgeted expenses.

Staffing.Joe Boissé and JoAn Segal attended a seminar for chief elected and chief staff officers in

San Francisco, January 21-22. The seminar stressed the nature of associations, roles and responsibilities of officers and staff, association infrastructure, and competencies for association management.

Membership.ACRL membership as of November 30, 1987, was 10,385 (down 1.5% from last year at the same time).

Leadership assistance.A leadership training session designed by ACRL President Joanne Euster involved the ACRL Board, key committee chairs, and staff for half a day on January 8. Hosted by Richard Werking, director of the Trinity University Library and chair of ACRL’s College Libraries Section, the session provided excellent material for orientation as well as for Board work. The facilitators were Board members themselves, and the results were obvious in the creative and cooperative problem-solving that Board members carried out during the Midwinter Meeting.

Board members and staff visited committees and section executive meetings to familiarize themselves with the work of many ACRL units.

ALA cooperation.Before and during the Midwinter Meeting, the ACRL Executive Director participated heavily in preparing ALA planning materials and the Financial Seminar on January 8.

At the meeting the ACRL Board spent 90 minutes reviewing the ALA planning materials; President Euster will send a report of that review to Bill de John, chair of the ALA Planning Committee.

You will be pleased to learn that Sharon Hogan has been elected to the ALA Executive Board for a four-year term beginning this July. That makes 2 ACRL Past Presidents on the ALA governing body (Carla Stoffle is the other) and gives academic librarians as well as those interested in divisions in general another Board representative.—JoAn S. Segal, ACRL Executive Director. ■ ■

Guidelines/criteria for special grant funds

The following guidelines/criteria were passed by the ACRL Board at the January 1988 Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio.

Grant proposals may be submitted by any section, chapter, or committee of ACRL. However, each ACRL unit can participate in submitting only one (1) proposal in each funding period.

Grant proposals shall:

1. Be consistent with the ACRL Strategic Plan and Priorities identified by the ACRL Board for any given year.

2. Be used to fund only one-time projects. Funds cannot be used for ongoing projects.

3. Not be used to fund ongoing or routine operating costs, e.g., newsletters, annual directories, etc.

4. Promote ACRL visibility.

5. Stimulate ACRL membership.

6. Not be used for re-grant purposes or for redistribution to other recipients; e.g., Chapters Council cannot get a grant to enlarge a pool of money available for chapters competition.

Preferences for ranking:

1. Projects which demonstrate wide impact on membership.

2. Unique and innovative projects.

3. Complete, concise, well-developed proposals.

Bear in mind, the Review/Rating Committee (not in priority order):

1. Will consider impact of proposal on ACRL Headquarters staff.

2. Is not obligated, nor is the ACRL Board, to fund proposals in their entirety.

3. Neither encourages nor discourages joint proposals.

4. Encourages proposal writers to be complete, yet concise, in explaining their projects.

5. Requires four (4) copies of each proposal to be at ACRL Headquarters by the deadline (N.B.: FY1989 proposals must be received at ACRL Headquarters by June 1, 1988).

6. Requires all proposals to have a fiscal administrator.

7. Insists that all funds be expended according to existing ACRL policies and procedures. ■ ■