1. Describe yourself in three words:  Enthusiastic, curious, and persistent.

2. What are you reading right now? Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? by Johan Harstad; translated by Deborah Dawkin. I’m also revisting A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle.

3. Describe ACRL in three words: Informational, supportive, and inspiring.

4. Why do you value most about ACRL? The availability and variety of workshops and publications ACRL offers. They inform and provoke my thinking.  ACRL provides many opportunities to meet, learn from, and share experiences with other academic librarians.

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? The rewarding ability to actively contribute to faculty and student academic successes. I like to think  I’m empowering them in their research abilities. I also value the building and fostering of collaborative relationships between the library, the rest of the university, and surrounding community.

6. In your own words: As a subject librarian for Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Translation Studies, my day can encompass a manic variety of research content. One moment I might be researching Germany’s Weimar Republic, the next, China’s Silk Road. It’s fun, keeps me on my toes, and I’m always learning. Visiting classes, going to talks, and other ways of interacting with faculty and students gives me a snapshot of what their lives are like and the kinds of library services/resources they need. It’s a job of exploration and at times, going along for the ride.

Editor’s Note: Are you an ACRL member? Would you like to be featured as ACRL Member of the Week? Nominate a colleague? Contact Mary Jane Petrowski at mpetrowski@ala.org for more information.

AUTHORS
Are you an ACRL member working on a research article? Would you like some constructive feedback? Submit a draft research paper for consultation. RPC will match new writers with experienced writers and the pairs will meet face-to-face during the ALA Annual meeting. Draft research papers must be submitted by June 15, 2012. Papers will be shared only among the designated pairs. Submission details follow:

Include on first page: Author’s name and contact information in upper left and a paragraph describing what you would like others to comment on about your paper (e.g., grammar, writing style, clarity, presentation of the research methodology).

Page limit: 25 double-spaced pages, standard 1” margins.

Preferred format: Microsoft Word. Number pages. Footers should include author’s full name and e-mail.

Draft research papers should be in complete enough form for others to read easily.

Submit by June 15, 2012 to: Cheryl Middleton.

REVIEWERS
Are you an experienced, published writer or editor? Interested in providing guidance to your colleagues who may be writing their first research article? Submit your name and a description of your areas of expertise by June 8, 2012. Reviewers are expected to review papers submitted by the writer they have been paired with in advance of the ALA Annual meeting, as well as guide the writing consultation onsite during the meeting.

Please send your current contact information, a copy of your current resume or list of publications, and a brief description of your current research interests.

Submit by June 8, 2012 to: Cheryl Middleton.

Complete information on ACRL 2013 is available on the conference website.

About the Council of Independent Colleges
CIC is the major national service organization for all small and mid-sized, independent, liberal arts colleges and universities in the U.S. CIC focuses on providing services to campus leaders through seminars, workshops, and programs that assist institutions in improving educational offerings, administrative and financial performance, and institutional visibility.

CIC’s goal is to advance independent higher education and its leadership through:

• Serving independent colleges and universities;
• Connecting the leaders of private liberal arts colleges and universities;
• Promoting high-quality education;
• Making the Case for independent higher education;
• Fostering institutional effectiveness;
• Forming collaborations to create and strengthen programs;
• Supporting independent colleges through State Fund Members;
• Listening to institutional leaders.

For information on CIC liaison activities, please contact the current CIC liaison, Susan Barnes Whyte, at swhyte@linfield.edu.

Deadline for Applications: June 15, 2012

Submission Requirements
Nominees must submit:
•   A letter of application articulating qualifications to Douglas Lehman at dlehman@wittenberg.edu
•   A current vita

Qualifications
Required:

• Current member of CLS and ACRL
• Applicant’s institution must be a member of Council of Independent Colleges
• Experience with outreach to faculty and administration members
• Experience with information literacy teaching
• Interest in coordinating activities to increase interaction between CIC and ACRL
• Financial support to attend CIC Annual events for the length of the three-year term if not funded by ACRL (Note:  ACRL can guarantee some basic funding)
• Experience with or interest in outreach and education efforts
• Excellent communication skills

Desired:
•    Record of serving CLS and/or ACRL on committees, task forces, etc.

Selection Process Timeline
•    June 15 – June 30, 2012: CLS Executive Committee reviews submitted applications.
•    July 1: CLS Executive Committee contacts successful candidate.

1. Describe yourself in three words:  Interested, curious, collaborative.

2. What are you reading right now? Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown’s A New Culture of Learning.

3. Describe ACRL in three words: Engaged, supportive, proactive.

4. Why do you value most about ACRL? There are so many ways to be involved. I really value the opportunities for distance learning through webcasts, being in a pretty geographically isolated academic community. I never miss the biennial conferences; there are so many learning opportunities and ways to connect with past colleagues and potential future collaborators. This year I’ve also enjoyed serving on the ACRL 2013 Panel Session Committee, which has been a great way to learn about committee work and what goes into making conferences happen.

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? The opportunity to make a difference in students’ lives, whether that’s through an instruction session or interacting at the reference desk. Our profession’s dedication to lifelong learning; I love that I get to learn new things every day.

6. In your own words: I’m lucky to be doing the work I love!

Editor’s Note: Are you an ACRL member? Would you like to be featured as ACRL Member of the Week? Nominate a colleague? Contact Mary Jane Petrowski at mpetrowski@ala.org for more information.

Marilyn Ochoa, assistant head of the Education Library at the University of Florida, and Julie Garrison, associate dean of research and instructional services at Grand Valley State University, have been elected to the ACRL Board of Directors as director-at-large.

Full 2012 election results will be available Monday, May 7, on the ACRL website.

Congratulations to those elected and many thanks to the dedicated members willing to stand for office.

Budget cutbacks and other economic factors can hit smaller academic libraries especially hard. In her article “Individual title requests in PDA collections,” Debbi Dinkins shares the Stetson University Library’s success in saving collections funds while providing just-in-time access to e-books relevant to faculty and student needs.

Librarians at smaller institutions are also looking to creative solutions to keep up with trends in the profession and the ways in which user access information. Christopher Chan of Hong Kong Baptist University discusses his institution’s experiences in providing an affordable solution to the increasing use of library resources via smartphone in his ACRL TechConnect article “Mobile sites made simple.”

We continue our look at art and exhibits in libraries with a discussion of mainstream and underground comic book collections and exhibits at Northwestern University. Jason Nargis and Benn Joseph outline the importance of comics to their library in their article “From the Heroic to the Depraved.” This issue’s The Way I See It essay, features Michele Santamaría and Denise Petrik discussing the concept of metacognitive awareness as it relates to libraries in “Cornering the information market.”

Make sure to check out the other features and columns this month, including Internet Resources on “Muslim Americans” by Allison A. Cowgill  and brief information about ACRL activities at the 2012 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim.

Everyone who completes the ten-minute survey will be entered into a drawing for an ACRL 2013 Conference registration, valued at $380. We will announce the winner on Friday, May 13, on ACRL Insider.

We value your feedback, so if you haven’t received your invitation to participate, please contact Mary Jane Petrowski (mpetrowski@ala.org).  Individual survey results will be kept strictly confidential, so please share your candid feedback. If you have completed the survey, thank you for helping ACRL make decisions regarding the programs and services we offer.

Assessment: Demonstrating the Educational Value of the Academic Library Track – Discover how to approach assessment from a learning-centered perspective. Participants will emerge with a broader understanding of assessment and how to use assessment as an important tool to guide evidence-based classroom, curriculum and program development.

Intentional Teaching: Reflective Teaching to Improve Student Learning Track – Find out how to become more self-aware and self-directed as a teacher.  This track is aimed at the experienced academic librarian (5+ years teaching experience, in a library or other setting) and facilitates the process of critical reflection through peer discussion, readings and personal reflection as a pathway to professional growth and renewal.

Visit the Immersion website for complete details about the program, including curriculum, learning outcomes and application instructions. Questions concerning the program or application process should be directed to Margot Conahan at (312) 280-2522 or mconahan@ala.org.

In the age of ubiquitous access to information, library special collections and archives have received renewed attention through digitization projects designed to share collections with the world at large. Yet these materials also offer opportunities for student learning though direct engagement with rare or unique items. While special collections and archives have largely been used by advanced researchers and scholars, an increasing number of undergraduate courses are taking advantage of these materials as guides in the instructional process.

Beyond “hands-on history,” courses from across the curriculum are enriched through assignments, experiences and activities that draw upon or incorporate local or unusual items, primary sources or material culture – particularly the book as art object or artifact. Through 47 detailed and compelling case studies, Past or Portal? Enhancing Undergraduate Learning through Special Collections and Archives explores a variety of successful instructional models featuring a wide range of engagement methods with special collections and archival materials. Instruction and special collections librarians will find plentiful inspiration for new collaborations in the collection. The work is also a perfect addition to professional development and library school collections.

Past or Portal? Enhancing Undergraduate Learning through Special Collections and Archives is available for purchase in print, as an e-book, and as a print/ e-book bundle through the ALA Online Store; in print and for Kindle through Amazon.com; and by telephone order at (866) 746-7252 in the U.S. or (770) 442-8633 for international customers.

1. Describe yourself in three words:  Skeptical, yet steadfast and disciplined.

2. What are you reading right now? I’m reading a few things. To satisfy my own personal interest in World War II, I’m reading Nazis on the Run by historian Gerald Steinacher, published by Oxford University Press. In connection with a potential research project, I’ve begun working on a pile of books dealing with media literacy. At the top of the pile is Marshall McLuhan‘s The Medium is the Massage (not really sure what’s at the bottom).

3. Describe ACRL in three words: Innovative, collaborative, progressive.

4. Why do you value most about ACRL? Easy: the Instruction Section. ACRL-IS is a focal point for ideas I use every day in the classroom. And ACRL is the fountainhead of information literacy, which has transformed bibliographic instruction into something identifiably pertinent to students.

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? I am challenged by my work and by my colleagues to keep developing, to keep learning, to keep improving. Ours is a symbiotic environment in which co-workers play off one another and grow in the profession as a result. We really thrive on teamwork here.

6. In your own words: When I started working toward the MLIS my goal was to work in a special library, preferably within a large corporation. Circumstances dictated otherwise.  I became an academic reference librarian out of necessity–jobless, took the first thing that came my way. As it turned out, I could not have chosen better. The campus atmosphere is stimulating, and I work with colleagues who put me to shame in terms of their accomplishments, but who have been nevertheless generous with their expertise and advice.

Editor’s Note: Are you an ACRL member? Would you like to be featured as ACRL Member of the Week? Nominate a colleague? Contact Mary Jane Petrowski at mpetrowski@ala.org for more information.

Q. Is there still time to submit a proposal?
A. Indeed!  Even if you haven’t given it much thought yet, there is still more than two weeks for you to brainstorm, discuss with your colleagues, draft your proposal and make your best presentation ideas come to life at ACRL 2013.

Q. Why would I want to submit a proposal?
A. Speaking at ACRL 2013 is a chance for you to share ideas that you are most passionate about, get feedback from your colleagues, and meet new people in order to grow your professional fan club. It is also great speaking experience and an honor to have a proposal accepted.  Being a speaker at conference is one of the best built-in networking opportunities and makes a great case for justifying your attendance to your boss. Another perk is that all contributed paper, panel, preconference and workshop presenters are invited to the VIP Chair’s Reception where we celebrate and thank speakers for their contributions. The Indy Chair’s Reception will be at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art on Thursday night.

Q. How much work is it, really?
A. The main components of the proposal form are basic contact information, the format you are applying for, your program title, two descriptions (short 75 words and long 500 words), three learning objectives, and tagging information to help us organize the content – that’s it! We really try to make it painless to submit a proposal. The proposal form lets you start and save your work and come back later to finish if you would like to.

Q. Will I get selected? How does that work anyway?
A. It is certainly an honor to get selected by an ACRL 2013 review committee of your peers. The conference tag line is “peer revered” for a reason; acceptance rates are typically about 20% – 50% for these session formats. There is a selection committee for each session type that consists of 6 – 12 members for each format type. They blind-review all the proposals (please remember that including institution or personal info in your descriptions will disqualify you!) and score them according to a rubric for each session type. The committees will meet at the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim this June and discuss the scores and make the final selections. They do their best to accept the most interesting proposals with a wide range of session topics within each format to make for a well-rounded conference.

Q. How can I increase my chances of getting selected?
ACRL proposal review committees will review hundreds of proposals, so consider how you can make yours stand out.  Creative, interesting and informative titles and descriptions are most favorably viewed by the proposal review committees and prospective program attendees.  The detailed description should outline your session’s main points, its relevance to attendees, how it is unique from others that address the same topic, and the ways you will engage the audience. Make sure to read the ACRL 2013 Program Proposal Instructions before you begin your proposal and you may also want to check out additional online resources for tips such as, Tips for improving your next conference proposal (Educause) or Developing a Conference Presentation: A Primer for New Library Professionals (Partnership: the Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research).

Q.  What if I still have questions? Is there a real person who can help me?
A.    We would be happy to assist you. You can reach me, Margot Conahan (mconahan@ala.org; 312-280-2522),  or my colleague Tory Ondrla (tondrla@ala.org; 312-280-2522) with your conference proposal questions. We look forward to seeing you at ACRL 2013.

Imagine, Innovate, Inspire!

The 2012-2013 appointments  process is moving rapidly to its conclusion. With the exception of a just a few situations in which appointees declined their appointment, the majority of appointments to ACRL division-level committees have been made and accepted. The Appointments Committee, led by John Pollitz, worked efficiently in using ALA’s volunteer database to make assignments for open slots. This online system is a vast improvement as it allows all the appointments to be made and accepted electronically. The Appointments Committee tracks all the acceptances and then forwards completed committee worksheets to the ACRL staff.

The information from the worksheets is then used to (a) update the existing online committee rosters; (b) generate thank you letters to those accepting appointments; and (c) generate thank you letters to those who were unsuccessful in their bid for an appointment. I will be sending a letter to all those in the latter category, thanking them for taking the time to volunteer and encouraging them to try again in the following year. There is always the possibility that new opportunities for appointments may arise, as ACRL may create a task force or a committee vacancy opens, and in those cases I will be making additional appointments.

I want to thank the members of the Appointments Committee for several months of dedicated work to both familiarize themselves with the appointment process and volunteer database system, and for their thorough attention to detail in accomplishing their task. I also want to thank both Katie Coombes and Erin Shackelford of the ACRL staff for providing their expertise and support throughout the entire appointments process.

Thanks also to the many ACRL members who volunteer to serve on committees. I welcome those of you who have accepted appointments to your new role in helping the ACRL Board of Directors to conduct the work of the association. I will look forward to working with all of you. And to those who were not as fortunate in their bid for an appointment, on behalf of the Board I want to thank you for your commitment to ACRL, and I hope you to will have an opportunity to serve the membership in the future. Please consider all the other ways in which you can engage with ACRL as an association member.

April 26 Update:

More information on the LCA brief is available in this press release.

Time: 8:07

Environments for Student Growth and Development is available in print and a variety of ebook formats from the ALA Online Store and Amazon.

To learn more, don’t miss the ACRL e-Learning webcast Environments for Student Growth and Development: An Introduction to Libraries and Student Affairs in Collaboration on Thursday, June 14.

About the Music:
The music in ACRL Podcasts is “Don’t you,” mixed by stefsax and available on ccMixter. The music is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license.

The 2012 ACRL Legislative Agenda focuses on five priorities: public access to federally funded research, “safe harbor” provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, government information, freedom of information act, and section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act. Read the complete legislative agenda for more details.

Don’t forget to advocate for libraries today and tomorrow by calling or emailing Congress as part of ALA’s Virtual Library Legislative Day.

1. Describe yourself in three words:  Lots of enthusiasm.

2. What are you reading right now (or listening to on your iPod?)? Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable and The Book of Dead Philosophers by Simon Critchley.

3. Describe ACRL in three words: Knowing what’s happening.

4. Why do you value most about ACRL? Colleagues.

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? Everything! Faculty, students, research, buildings, collections . . .

6. In your own words: My early career as a music librarian helped instill my love of special collections and the wonders they have to offer. I am energized by the intellectual effort and variety of my work – no two days are ever the same. I also have a deep appreciation and respect for the work that librarians do to connect the library to users — faculty, students, visiting researchers, and others – and engage with them to envision new models and approaches for the future of research and scholarship.

Editor’s Note: Are you an ACRL member? Would you like to be featured as ACRL Member of the Week? Nominate a colleague? Contact Mary Jane Petrowski at mpetrowski@ala.org for more information.

The ACRL Board of Directors endorses candidates for election to a number of IFLA standing committees, with the ACRL International Relations Committee (IRC) acting in an advisory capacity to the Board in recommending approval for appointment. Complete details on the application process are available in ALA Connect. The deadline for nominations is May 7, so start the process now!

Contact International Relations Committee Chair Binh Le at bpl1@psu.edu with questions.

Next week on April 23 and 24, hundreds of library supporters from all across the country will convene in Washington DC for National Library Legislative Day. They will be briefed on legislative issues affecting libraries and will meet with their Members of Congress to discuss them.

 Even if you can’t make it to DC, you can still advocate for libraries by calling or emailing Congress as part of Virtual Library Legislative Day.  All week long (April 23-27), library supporters can let their legislators know just how important our nation’s libraries are to the communities they serve.

 This is an especially important time to speak up for libraries as Congress continues to make cuts that impact libraries. Here’s how to participate in Virtual Library Legislative Day:

 Call Congress

 To call your Members of Congress, view this alert at the Legislative Action Center. Read over the asks and then enter your zip code into the “CALL NOW” box to find phone numbers for your legislators.

 Email Congress

 Visit the Legislative Action Center home page then:

1. Enter your zip code into the “Find Your Officials” box
2. Click on your senator’s or representative’s name
3. You will see their bio page appear, click the “Contact” tab
4. Select the option to contact your legislator via “Web Form”
5. Select “Compose Your Own Letter”
6. Use the talking points from the Call Alert or the Issue Briefs to craft your message and send it off!

 To find a full listing of the issue briefs written specifically for National and Virtual Library Legislative Day, visit the NLLD home page.

• The Digital Humanities Discussion Group provides a venue for ACRL members to meet and share ideas related to Digital Humanities and the role of librarians in this emerging discipline.
• The International Perspectives on Academic and Research Libraries Discussion Group serves to promote awareness and discussion of the international, transnational, and global dimensions of issues critical to the future of academic and research libraries, to promote comparative study of academic library trends, issues, and operations, and to promote collaboration between academic and research librarians on issues benefiting from an international perspective.
• The Leadership Discussion Group provides a forum for conversation, communication and collaboration about leadership and management issues important to academic librarians.
• The Student Retention Discussion Group serves as a forum to discuss methods, best practices, and assessment for developing case-by-case and programmatic efforts related to student retention.

Complete details on ACRL discussion groups are available on the ACRL website.

1. Describe yourself in three words:  Confident, Adventurous, Involved.

2. What are you reading right now (or listening to on your iPod?)? Since I started this PhD program, I have not had a lot of time for pleasure reading, aside from listening to audiobooks when I run – currently Mockingjay, the final book in The Hunger Games trilogy, is on my iPod. Over Christmas break, however, I read (and loved) Jeffrey Eugenide’s The Marriage Plot.

3. Describe ACRL in three words: Opportunity, Connections, Guidance

4. Why do you value most about ACRL? I completed my MLIS in 2008, and immediately took a position at the American University in Cairo (AUC) as an Instruction and Reference Librarian. Living and working abroad as a new librarian, it was easy to start feeling isolated from North American librarianship, but I found that ACRL was my best resource to remain involved. In 2009, I attended the Immersion Program in the teacher track, and in 2011 I published an article with a colleague in C&RL News. Opportunities like these allowed me to maintain a connection to the librarians and information professionals outside of Egypt, and to the field in general.

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? At AUC, I spent a large portion of my time teaching, and in fact I became the Coordinator of Instruction in my second year. In addition, I enjoyed the opportunities and support to conduct my own research – and my research interests have included instruction training for new librarians, library services for non-native English speakers, and student use of library and other learning spaces. I was fortunate to have these experiences, because I discovered that this balance of teaching and research makes me feel professionally fulfilled.

6. In your own words: In August, I started a PhD program in the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  My fellowship involves developing library education in the Middle East and North Africa region, and earning a PhD in Information Science and a graduate certificate in Middle East Studies (for more information, check out elime.web.unc.edu). Eventually, I may wish to join the faculty of an LIS Master’s program. But for now, my goal is to finish my PhD and jump right back into academic librarianship. I want to teach, I want to serve, I want to lead – and I want to do all of these things in a college or university library.

Editor’s Note: Are you an ACRL member? Would you like to be featured as ACRL Member of the Week? Nominate a colleague? Contact Mary Jane Petrowski at mpetrowski@ala.org for more information.

About the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience
The National Resource Center’s mission reads: “Building upon its history of excellence as the founder and leader of the first-year experience movement, the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition serves education professionals by supporting and advancing efforts to improve student learning and transitions into and through higher education. We achieve this mission by providing opportunities for the exchange of practical and scholarly information as well as the discussion of trends and issues in our field through the convening of conferences and other professional development events such as institutes, workshops, and online learning opportunities; publication of scholarly practice books, research reports, a peer-reviewed journal, electronic newsletters, and guides; generating, supporting, and disseminating research and scholarship; hosting visiting scholars; and maintaining several online channels for resource sharing and communication, including a dynamic website, email lists, and social media outlets.”  For more information about the organization, please visit http://www.sc.edu/fye/  or contact the current Liaison Debbie Malone (Debbie.malone@desales.edu). A compilation of National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience Liaison reports (2007 – 2011) is available on ALA Connect.

Deadline for Applications: May 18, 2012

Submission Requirements
Nominees must submit:

• A letter of application articulating qualifications to Stephanie Michel, IS Chair (michel@up.edu)
• A current vita

Expectations

• Liaison attends the Annual Conference on the First Year Experience (organized by the National Resource Center), which takes place in February.
• Attendance at ALA Midwinter or Annual Conferences is optional.
• Liaisons will submit a report about their activities to the IS Advisory Council at least once per year (either in person or in writing).
• Liaison will write a short article about their activities for the IS Newsletter once per year.

Qualifications

Required:

• Current member of IS and ACRL
• Experience working with first year students
• Interest in coordinating activities to increase interaction between the National Resource Center, ACRL, and IS
• Financial support to attend the Annual Conference on the First Year Experience for the length of the three-year term if not funded by ACRL (Note:  Liaison may apply for up to $1500 in conference funding from the Liaison Grants Committee, but funding is not guaranteed)
• Experience with or interest in outreach and advocacy to campus stakeholders engaged in the first-year experience movement
• Excellent communication skills

Desired:

• Record of serving IS and/or ACRL on committees, task forces, etc.
• Advanced degree or credential in teaching
• Experience conducting research on the first-year experience

Selection Process Timeline

• May 21 – June 1: A subcommittee of the IS Executive Committee reviews submitted applications.
• June 4: IS Chair contacts successful candidate.

If you have any questions, please contact IS Chair Stephanie Michel at michel@up.edu

The ACRL 2013 program proposal is available at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/acprogramproposal.  This form requires all answers to be entered at one time.  To prepare your responses, please review the proposal questions on the ACRL website (PDF). Chapter 9 of the ACRL Guide to Policies and Procedures provide helpful guidance for the program planning process.  More details are also available in the Annual Conference Program FAQ.

The ACRL Annual Conference Programs Committee will review and select 2013 Annual Conference programs, and notifications will be issued in early June.  For those programs that are accepted, program planners must participate in a virtual planning meeting, which will take place before the 2012 ALA Annual Conference.

Questions? Please contact Megan Griffin at mgriffin@ala.org.

The 2012 ACRL Spring Virtual Institute seeks to unite all types of librarians around the mutual cause of reaching out to our constituencies. Whether they support faculty scholarship and student learning, facilitate connectedness and foster literacy in a town, or reach out online, all libraries operate in the context of a community. The institute will examine how libraries are capitalizing on community collaborations.

Keynote speaker John G. Palfrey Jr., Henry N. Ess III professor of law and vice dean for library and information resources at the Harvard Law School, will open the institute with a discussion on the Digital Public Library of America, an innovative and broad example of collaboration among many stakeholders and libraries. The institute also features live, interactive webcasts allowing for real-time interactions. The webcast schedule and program descriptions are online. Lightning talks are 5-8 minute asynchronous narrated presentations.

Registration materials, along with information on group rates, are on the ACRL website. Contact Margot Conahan at mconahan@ala.org or call 312-280-2522 with questions.

1. Describe yourself in three words:  Optimistic, inquisitive, compassionate.

2. What are you reading right now (or listening to on your iPod?)? To clear my head and start the day in a great mood, I’m listening to NPR’s “Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me” on my iPod and reading historical fiction either in print or my Kindle app.

3. Describe ACRL in three words: Supportive, instructive, fun!

4. Why do you value most about ACRL? ACRL provides many opportunities to learn new skills and interact with colleagues across the country.

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? I love working in an environment where I have the opportunity to teach as well as learn so many different things.  Last week, I listened to a Pulitzer prize winning author talk about her work and then listened to local musicians play in the campus café.

6. In your own words: For me, life as an academic librarian is all about new beginnings and new challenges.  Every semester is a new opportunity.  If it doesn’t work, you can try something new the next time around.

Editor’s Note: Are you an ACRL member? Would you like to be featured as ACRL Member of the Week? Nominate a colleague? Contact Mary Jane Petrowski at mpetrowski@ala.org for more information.

The book pairs Rollins’s visceral full-color photographs—taken in Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Northern Ireland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and elsewhere over the last few years—with writings that not only provide context and magnify the impact of the images but also lift them to the level of political commentary. Simply put, this book is a visual testimony of anger, suffering, and resilience.

Rosalind won a drawing from our Conference Updates e-mail list (sign up today in the lower left corner of the ACRL 2013 homepage) and John won best tweet with this gem:

Henry Rollins will be a keynote speaker at ACRL 2013. In other words, ACRL’s rising sexiness quotient just broke the sound barrier #acrl2013

Congrats again to both Rosalind and John!

Environments for Student Growth and Development focuses on collaborations between campus student services and libraries. Librarians and student affairs professionals share a commitment to student success and holistic development, collaborative strategies and reflective practice. The book explores how librarians and student affairs professionals partner through programming and other activities in order to create stronger campus environments for student learning, growth and development.

This lively study of campus collaboration features an introduction to student affairs and student development by Hinchliffe and Wong, followed by fourteen case studies of successful collaborations co-authored by student affairs and library professionals. Also included is a bibliography of selected publications on student affairs, strategies for collaboration and library and student affairs collaborations. Environments for Student Growth and Development is essential reading for library administrators, librarians involved in outreach and programming, student services professionals and library school collections.

Environments for Student Growth and Development is available for purchase in print, as an e-book, and as a print/ e-book bundle through the ALA Online Store; in print and for Kindle through Amazon.com; and by telephone order at (866) 746-7252 in the U.S. or (770) 442-8633 for international customers.

In the wake of the approval of a division-level committee restructuring plan by ACRL’s Board of Directors, an almost immediate response is the sprouting of several new Discussion Groups. In one case, the petition to start an International Perspectives on Academic and Research Libraries Discussion Group came quickly after the Board voted to approve the plan.

Discussion Groups are finding their place among the ACRL membership as a convenient and worthy mechanism to organize members with similar interests for the purpose of furthering knowledge and best practices. In recent months the ACRL Board approved the creation of a Discussion Group on Leadership in Academic Libraries.

More recently a proposal came to the Board to organize a Student Retention Discussion Group. This is an excellent opportunity to foster conversations around the Value of Academic Libraries initiative. Advancing the profession’s ability to connect the work of academic librarians to student retention would certainly boost efforts to demonstrate our value. Yet, even as we seek to build strategies for how we do that, new information about the path to graduation informs us that retention, as a goal to help students persist to graduation, may no longer be quite what we thought it was.

In his essay, Jeff Selingo shared the little used terminology, “the student swirl” to describe the erractic path to graduation that is becoming more the norm. This has implications for tracking retention, and the gist of the Chronicle’s report on graduation rates is that the current system fails to accurately track as many as 50% of college students. You can well imagine this. Consider a student who starts their path to graduation as a full-time freshmen. Then he or she has to take a full-time job and converts to part-time status. Then he or she decides to reverse transfer to a community college for the lower tuition. Then he or she transfers back to your college as a junior or possibly to the university across town. Then he or she drops out, but takes several courses with a for-profit provider of online education accredited in your state. Then he or she takes this mishmash bundle of credits somewhere else and manages to graduate after six of seven years.

Where did the retention effort happen in this scenario? Could any librarian at any of these steps along the way have contributed to the ultimate achievement of a diploma? The bottom line is that for the vast majority of our college students the traditional four-years-to-a-diploma-at-idyllic-college is no longer the norm. Going away with it is the ability to concretely establish when, where and how retention occurs – or for that matter what makes a difference when it comes to retention.

Even something as straightforward as retention is no longer so straightforward in an increasingly complex landscape of higher education. What we thought might be the academic librarian’s strategies for promoting retention, be it helping students to acquire the research skills necessary for academic success, building the relationships that students say helps them persist to graduation or embedding ourselves into their courses as a constant source of research assistance, may no longer suffice to support retention for many college students. This is the sort of general uncertainty about our role that makes an ACRL discussion group so essential.

This new Student Retention group has a great opportunity to explore what we need to know about retention in this new education “swirl”, and bring together passionate members to determine exactly what academic libraries can contribute to better rates of retention. With an easy path to start-up, limited administrative oversight and maximum potential for learning, any of ACRL’s discussion groups are an excellent option for a member seeking collegial engagement with a purpose.

Discussion groups are but one way for a member to get engaged with ACRL. Here are even more ways you can get involved.

A focus on marketing can be an important part of a successful information literacy program. Katherine O’Clair provides tips to “Sell what they’re buying” in this issue’s The Way I See It essay. With the increasing focus on accountability on campus, assessing the success of information literacy programs is becoming more and more essential. In this month’s Internet Resources column, Cheryl L. Blevens provides a list of resources for “Catching up with information literacy assessment.” This issue also features newly revised ACRL “Guidelines for instruction programs in academic libraries” to provide a model framework for information literacy programs at institutions of all types and sizes.

Stephanie Davis-Kahl outlines ways librarians can go about “Engaging undergraduates in scholarly communication” in this month’s Scholarly Communication column. In a continuation of our occasional spotlight on art and aesthetics in libraries, Courtney Seymour and Kara Jefts discuss partnering with multicultural groups to mount a juried art exhibition as part of Union College’s outreach to the campus LGBTQ community in their article “A display of tolerance.”

Make sure to check out the other features and columns this month, including part two of our spotlight on the 2012 ACRL award winners and a Job of a Lifetime feature on Leo Lo.

I am pleased to report that the process for appointing ACRL members to division-level committees is proceeding smoothly and according to the timeline mapped out by the Appointments Committee.  In a post at the beginning of March, I provided general information about the appointments process, and indicated that I would provide occasional updates to the ACRL membership.

In a recent message I received from John Pollitz, chair of the Appointments Committee, he provides an update on the work of the Committee:

The ACRL Appointments Committee spent much of March in conference call meetings. These weekly calls are used to review appointments to open committee positions with appropriate volunteers. This year the process has been slightly complicated by the need to account for the committees that will be disbanded at the end of the program year. We are making every attempt to place members of disbanded committees, where possible, on related committees.

More than 900 ACRL members volunteered to serve on committees this year, so the competition for positions is certainly elevated. By the end of March, the Appointments committee will be positioned to forward our volunteer recommendations to ACRL vice-president/president-elect Bell. He will review our recommendations and either approve or recommend changes. After final approval the Appointments Committee will begin sending out invitations via ACRL’s electronic appointment system. Volunteers selected for a committee appointment will receive a notification email approximately mid-April. We expect the entire appointments process to be completed well before the New Leader Orientation scheduled for May.

During the third week of March I received multiple appointment worksheets from the Committee members, and I will continue to receive and review the worksheets until the process is complete. Once that is accomplished, the Committee members will input all the volunteer information into the ALA electronic appointment system, which in turn generates agreement messages to those being asked to accept appointments. This part of the process can be completed fairly quickly. Where it tends to bog down is when an appointee declines the invitation to serve. Then the Appointments Committee must go back into the volunteer pool to select and appoint a new individual. This happens infrequently, and as John indicates, the appointments process should be completed in sufficient time for all the committee leaders to participate in the Orientation program.

I want to once again thank John and all the members of the Appointments Committee for their good work, and all of the ACRL members – all 900+ of them – who have expressed their interest in volunteering to do the work that makes ACRL an outstanding professional association. If you have any questions about the appointments process, please do get in touch with me. John and I will be glad to answer these questions, and keep the membership informed about the work of the Appointments Committee.

1. Describe yourself in three words:  Determined, passionate, exhausted.

2. What are you reading right now? I am currently reading Success is Not an Accident by Tommy Newberry and The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell by Oren Harari. I look forward to reading some fiction soon, including Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series and The Hunger Games.

3. Describe ACRL in three words: Interactive, cultivating, critical.

4. Why do you value most about ACRL? I value the multitude of resources available through ACRL, both in terms of people and networking, as well as online tools and literature that support my administrative duties.

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? I believe academic librarianship is the cornerstone of higher education. We provide the resources and information that students and faculty in all disciplines need to succeed; and if we do our jobs well, so do they.

6. In your own words: Prior to becoming an academic library director, I worked as an attorney and then an at-home mom. While I enjoyed those jobs (the latter much more than the former), I always longed to find my niche, and now I have. The myriad of experiences and responsibilities (from teaching to programming to budgets to collection development to committee involvement) mean that no one day is like the next. And working on a college campus, surrounded by people who are young and young at heart, keeps my enthusiasm level high. I sometimes feel as though I have won the career lottery, and I try to remember that on the more challenging days.

Editor’s Note: Are you an ACRL member? Would you like to be featured as ACRL Member of the Week? Nominate a colleague? Contact Mary Jane Petrowski at mpetrowski@ala.org for more information.

Diversity Leadership Online will include:

1.      April 18:   The Diversity Conversation: Why You Need to Have It and How To Start It

2.      April 25:   Recruiting for Diversity

3.      May 2:   Valuing Diversity

To register and learn more about upcoming series visit the OFD online learning website.  Individual webinars in this series cost $20 for ALA members, $25 for non-members and $120 for groups (all participants watch in the same location).  All webinars will be archived, and individuals who cannot attend a scheduled session should register in order to be notified when the archive is available for viewing.

Registration for all online seminars and Webcasts qualifies for the ACRL Frequent Learner Program. Register for three, get one free.

Don’t miss out on these exciting learning opportunities!

April:

Winning Library Grants (Online Seminar: April 1-20, 2012): This course will introduce you to the grant process from beginning to end with an emphasis on planning successful grant projects, funding sources for libraries, researching grant opportunities, proposal writing basics, and grant-winning tips and techniques useful for all types of librarians.

From Idea to Publication Part Three: Submitting for Publication (Webcast: April 3, 2012): Learn how to select an appropriate journal or publisher, learn how to prepare a manuscript for submission, and understand what the submission process will encompass.

A New Model for Student Learning: Using Team-based Learning in Information Literacy Courses (Webcast: April 12, 2012): Team-based learning (TBL), which uses a very structured approach to student learning in teams, has enormous potential when used in information literacy credit-bearing courses. While TBL shares some characteristics with problem-based learning and the flipped model of learning, it has unique elements that make it a particularly powerful teaching/learning approach. Learn about the four critical components of TBL, and their application in an information literacy course.

Successful Budgeting in Academic Libraries (Online Seminar: April 16-May 4, 2012): An essential skill for managers is the ability to develop and manage a budget. However, many new managers are ill-prepared for this responsibility, since they may have received little, if any, education on budgeting while in library school. Learn essential budgeting skills, including how to develop and manage a budget and how to write a persuasive budget request.

Mobile Apps: What You Need to Know (Online Seminar: April 23-May 11, 2012): Become familiar with some of the best apps for academic libraries including things like Wunderlist, Inkling, Kindle, Evernote, Instapaper, iAnnotate and many others. Learn how to evaluate and review the usefulness of individual apps, so you can make selection decisions and advise others. Through readings, video demos, discussions, and hands-on practice, you will leave the course with a good understanding of the app landscape and the knowledge and skills to offer your own workshop for staff, faculty, or students.

Pinterest and Academia (Webcast: April 24, 2012): Pinterest in a virtual pinboard for “pinning” images you discover online. It serves as a way to discover or share pictures and infographics and visually curate online resources for your own use or collaboratively. Learn about Pinterest and its usage, outline the technology trends represented by Pinterest and their impacts on libraries and information usage, explore academic and library applications, and discover projects to try at your library .

May/ June:

Embedded Librarians: Integrating Information Literacy Instruction at the Point of Need (Webcast: May 1, 2012): More and more libraries are adopting embedded librarianship as an approach to creating an integrated and sustained library instruction presence in classes across the curriculum. In this webcast, embedded librarians will describe examples of successful projects across the range of academic levels and departments, including both online and on-campus instruction.

Managing Student Assistants (Online Seminar: May 14 – June 1, 2012): Find out how to get the best performance from your student workers. Through a variety of exercises and discussions find out how to write job descriptions, “sell” your job to prospective student assistants, financial aid basics, interviewing techniques, the importance of training, coaching & counseling and staff retention strategies.

UX + VR FTW (Webcast: May 22, 2012): User experience plus virtual reference for the win!  Gain a better understanding of user experience methods and philosophies, and how these relate to library public services. Learn about practical tips for identifying opportunities to optimize virtual services, and strategies for securing buy-in from administration and staff.

Google Scholar and Institutional Repositories: Improving IR Discovery (Webcast: June 6, 2012): Kenning Arlitsch and Patrick O’Brien from the University of Utah have been conducting research on search engine optimization for digital repositories, with a special emphasis on institutional repositories (IRs). This work has revealed technical and administrative reasons many institutional repositories have a low indexing ratio in Google Scholar. Join us for a fascinating look into this complex issue and what you can do about it.

More information is available on the ACRL e-Learning website.

The Federal Research Public Works Act (FRPAA) of 2012, H.R. 4004, gained traction last week in the U.S. House of Representatives. Kicking off the week on Monday, March 19, Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) held a Congressional briefing on the issue of public access to the results of taxpayer-funded research. Two experts presented on the topic, Dr. Neil Thakur from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Elliott Maxwell from the Committee for Economic Development, and Heather Joseph of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) moderated the discussion. Additional information on the briefing is available here.

On Tuesday, March 20, FRPAA picked up a whopping 24 additional co-sponsors (yes, both democrats and republicans) – joining Rep. Mike Doyle (D- PA), Rep. Lacy Clay (D-MO) and Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-KS), the original co-sponsors who introduced the bill. Among the additional co-sponsors backing the bill was Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who was presented with the 2012 James Madison Award by the American Library Association (ALA) during the annual Freedom of Information Day event held here in Washington, DC on March 16. Rep. Lofgren was recognized for her work on supporting a wide range of library-related issues, including open access and FRPAA legislation.

Then on Thursday, March 22, the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology’s Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight added to its schedule a hearing for Thursday, March 29 at 10:00 a.m. on Examining Public Access and Scholarly Publication Interests. Additional information about the upcoming hearing, including the list of witnesses and a link to the webcast, is available here.

The ALA has a strong history of support for FRPAA legislation – as it builds on the success of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy implemented in 2008. Passage of H.R. 4004 and its companion in the Senate, S. 2096, would be big step in the right direction by expanding the amount of research made available and proving access to it without additional charge to us, the taxpayers. Background on this legislation is available on the ALA website.

Corey Williams
Associate Director, Office of Government Relations
American Library Association

1. Describe yourself in three words:  Idealistic. Inquisitive. Persistent.

2. What are you reading right now? Matthew K. Gold, Debates in the Digital Humanities.

3. Describe ACRL in three words: Ooh La La.

4. Why do you value most about ACRL? The ability to find collaborators, and also commiserate, across the multiple discussion and interest groups.

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? The challenge of making the impossible possible, every day.

6. In your own words: I thoroughly enjoy the collaborative journey of research, whether it involves helping a student focus a research question or assisting a faculty member in tracking down obscure newspapers from the 19th century. At the same time, with equal measure I value the ability to contribute to several academic disciplines through my own research and publications.  Effectively managing, evaluating, preserving, and questioning the evolving record of human knowledge is a challenge and a privilege.

Editor’s Note: Are you an ACRL member? Would you like to be featured as ACRL Member of the Week? Nominate a colleague? Contact Mary Jane Petrowski at mpetrowski@ala.org for more information.

Time: 15:03

Complete details on the 2012 ALA/ ACRL elections are available on the ACRL website.

About the Music:
The music in ACRL Podcasts is “Don’t you,” mixed by stefsax and available on ccMixter. The music is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license.

Adrian K. Ho is Scholarly Communication Librarian at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. Adrian has been an ACRL member since 2002 and is a 2012 candidate for the ACRL Board of Directors as Director-at-Large.

1. Describe yourself in three words:  Curious. Determined. Flexible.

2. What are you reading right now? I am reading The Digital Scholar by Martin Weller, but I usually spend more time reading CBC News and The New York Times online.  And I always check out the videos on these sites.

3. Describe ACRL in three words: Forward-thinking. Inspiring. Nurturing.

4. Why do you value most about ACRL? ACRL is a steadfast leader and advocate for academic librarianship. I appreciate its efforts to enhance people’s understanding and recognition of academic librarians’ contribution to higher education. At the personal level, I cherish the variety of continuing education avenues provided by ACRL. I also value being able to serve on committees because it offers me a chance to network with colleagues and learn from them.  It is an excellent way to support and sustain my professional growth.

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? Academic/research librarianship plays a central role in supporting research, teaching, and learning. Its significance in higher education is simply undeniable. As technology and the information landscape keep evolving, we now have endless opportunities to reinvent ourselves in order to stay connected with library users and serve their needs in innovative ways.

6. In your own words: I am meeting with library users to explore opportunities for collaboration that will support research and scholarship on campus; interacting with colleagues to move projects forward; and swimming in a sea of information to stay up-to-date with the happenings in the profession. All these activities fuel my lifelong learning. It is an interesting time to be a librarian!

The underlying premise of CLIPP is that libraries across the country are grappling with the same challenges and there is much to be gained by sharing information. With today’s shrinking budgets and staff sizes, knowing how similar institutions have handled certain problems is critical: none of us wants to spend valuable resources reinventing the wheel.

Each CLIPP volume will explore an important library issue through a comprehensive literature review, survey data, and best practices documents, which will provide actual solutions created by other colleges and small universities.

Call for Proposals

Any librarian at a college or small university can submit a publication proposal to the CLIPP committee. Any trend or subject of interest to college and small university libraries is a potential topic. Proposal ideas could include:

• The changing nature of collections (e-books, remote storage, weeding policies, etc.)
• Mobile access
• Grant writing
• Staff development
• The place of the library in campus organizational structures

For a full description of the submission and publication process, visit the CLIPP website.

To be considered for the inaugural volume of the new CLIPP series, proposals must be received by April 30, 2012, but proposals will be accepted continually for future volumes. Proposals can be emailed directly to the CLIPP Chair, Erin Smith at smithet@westminster.edu.

A Message to Library Administrators

If you receive an email with “CLIPP Survey” in the subject line, please take the time to complete the survey. We know your time is valuable; the reason the CLIP Note series was so successful is that it saved librarians’ time by providing real solutions. But the series won’t work without your participation. A few minutes of work on completing a survey could save you hours of work on drafting a new policy or practice!

Julie Garrison is Associate Dean, Research and Instructional Services at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI. Julie has been an ACRL member since 2002 and is a 2012 candidate for the ACRL Board of Directors as Director-at-Large.

1. Describe yourself in three words:  Forward-thinking, collaborative, inquisitive.

2. What are you reading right now? I recently finished reading the GVSU Community Read book Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. I am currently reading Centers for Learning: Writing Centers and Libraries in Collaboration edited by James K. Elmborg and Sheril Hook, and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette  Winterson.

3. Describe ACRL in three words: Educational, enriching, community.

4. Why do you value most about ACRL? I value the ways that ACRL connects me with my colleagues. I appreciate the ability to learn about their successes and activities through ACRL publications, programming, and association work. I also appreciate ACRL’s willingness to engage members in finding solutions to broad academic library issues.

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? Working in an environment where learning is a primary focus is the thing I value most about academic librarianship.

6. In your own words: I am privileged to be in a profession where I get to combine my own interests and learning with the work I do on a daily basis.  The ability to collaborate, problem solve, and research with fellow librarians, faculty, staff, and students across campus, and colleagues across the country, makes for a thought provoking, stimulating, and dynamic work environment. I love being in an environment where new ideas are welcomed and explored, and where informed risk is rewarded.

Time: 12:45

About the Music:
The music in ACRL Podcasts is “Don’t you,” mixed by stefsax and available on ccMixter. The music is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license.

Marilyn N. Ochoa is Assistant Head of the Education Library at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Marilyn has been an ACRL member since 2001 and is a 2012 candidate for the ACRL Board of Directors as Director-at-Large.

1. Describe yourself in three words:  Enthusiastic, focused, flexible.

2. What are you reading right now? For leisure, I am reading Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 and The Silver Linings Playbook, a novel written by a college friend, Matthew Quick.

3. Describe ACRL in three words: Supportive, community, collaborative.

4. Why do you value most about ACRL? ACRL provides members the resources to participate in advocacy and collaboration efforts aimed to support and increase our value in higher education; such opportunities and resources include the liaisons program and the annual legislative agenda.  ACRL also affords its members opportunities for professional development.

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? Academic librarians contribute to the teaching and learning process on multiple levels.  We provide access to information, but also teach how to find, evaluate and use information.  To share in the development of lifelong learning is an honor and privilege.

6. In your own words: I am continuously learning.

Charles E. Kratz is Dean of the Library and Information Fluency at the University of Scranton Weinberg Memorial Library in Scranton, PA. Charles has been an ACRL member since 1985 and is a 2012 candidate for the ACRL Board of Directors as Director-at-Large.

1. Describe yourself in three words:  Leader, Mentor, Entrepreneur.

2. What are you reading right now? Two books: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson and The Charlemagne Pursuit by Steve Berry.

3. Describe ACRL in three words: Learning, Leadership, Innovation.

4. Why do you value most about ACRL? Five things come to mind: I value the quality continuing education ACRL provides for its members.  I value ACRL’s strong commitment to developing standards for academic libraries.  I value the role that ACRL continues to play in ensuring that scholarly communication embraces wide access, fair pricing, permanence, and fair use.  I value ACRL’s promotion of diversity and inclusion within the library profession.  And I value the ACRL’s dedication to the promotion of networking among libraries and their staffs and between ACRL national and the ACRL chapters.

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? I value that as the “heart of the university,” libraries and their staffs commit strongly to supporting teaching and lifelong learning through a culture of excellence, innovation, and assessment.

6. In your own words: Throughout my career as an academic librarian, I have been dedicated to meeting the rapidly changing roles of academic libraries, to being a strong advocate for academic libraries, and to placing libraries and librarians at the top of the educational agenda.  I am passionate about changing the world of scholarly communication; promoting legislative advocacy for academic libraries; educating our users and partners about the critical roles academic libraries play in today’s society; ensuring that our staffs have the best continuing education opportunities; mentoring future library leaders of our profession; strengthening diversity within our profession; developing policies to promote information literacy, access and service; and committing to a strong defense of our users’ intellectual freedom rights.

Libraries must be seen as part of the solution not the problem. We need to emphasize strategies that highlight the successes of our libraries and bring visibility to what we do well and to our values.  Finally, for me as an academic librarian, it is critical that we advocate for public policy, legislation, and institutional change that can enhance the values and contributions we make to learning, teaching, and research.

Unable to attend? Read the white papers released leading up to the symposium:

• Orphan Works: Mapping the Possible Solution Spaces
• Orphan Works: Definitional Issues

Submit your email address to receive occasional conference updates on the ACRL 2013 homepage (see “Get Conference Updates” in the lower left corner). Then either select ACRL 2013 from the list on the next page, or confirm your profile update in the subsequent email you will receive if you are already receiving ACRL-related notices like the ACRL Update newsletter.

As an added bonus, if you join the ACRL 2013 list by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, March 16, you’ll automatically be entered to win an exciting secret giveaway related to our next keynoter.

Best of luck and we look forward to your participation at ACRL 2013 in Indianapolis!

- The ACRL 2013 Conference Team

Debbie Malone is Library Director at DeSales University in Center Valley, PA. Debbie has been an ACRL member since 1999 and is a 2012 candidate for ACRL vice-president/ president-elect.

1. Describe yourself in three words:  Curious, empathetic, persistence.

2. What are you reading right now? The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr (hard back); The Greater Journey:  American in Paris by David McCullough (on my iPad); Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich (audiobook on my MP3 player in the car).

3. Describe ACRL in three words: Collegial, innovative, essential.

4. Why do you value most about ACRL? I love the ability to meet and talk with colleagues from across the country, whether that is face-to-face or virtually. Those friendships and conversations have enriched my professional life and made me a better librarian.

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? A career as an academic librarian is never dull as we strive to provide resources in ever evolving formats and services that meet the changing needs of our students and faculty members.

6. In your own words: Daunting financial times have created opportunities for conversations with faculty members on my campus about what resources and services are essential for their teaching. That has led, surprisingly, to more faculty/librarian collaborative projects than ever before.

Trevor A. Dawes is Circulation Services Director at the Princeton University Library in Princeton, NJ. Trevor has been an ACRL member since 1991 and is a 2012 candidate for ACRL vice-president/ president-elect.

1. Describe yourself in three words:  Hard-working, social, grounded.

2. What are you reading right now (or listening to on your iPod)? I just finished reading George W. Bush’s Decision Points and am currently listening to Oleta Adams’ Circle of One.

3. Describe ACRL in three words: Innovative, committed, traditional.

4. Why did you join ACRL? I joined ACRL because it is THE association for academic libraries and librarians. The programs and opportunities offered through ACRL are unique and are designed to meet the needs of this particular group. ACRL also allows opportunity to network with fellow academic librarians. Even as ACRL grows in both its programs and offerings (e.g. now the expanded advocacy role) the focus remains on the core constituency.

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? I enjoy being in a learning environment. I think one can learn in any environment, but there is certainly something stimulating about being in the intellectual center of an academic institution – the library.

6. In your own words: I think it is important for librarians to demonstrate, or rather continue to demonstrate, their value to the academic enterprise. I have been involved recently in some discussions about the removal of the word “Library” from the doctoral degree granted from my alma mater. I find it distressing that, for a school that was founded as the Library School (though the name has now changed to include Communications and Information) it now believes it necessary to remove that very important word from the degree.

What does this say about the value placed on the library and on librarians by this institution? Have we done enough to show how relevant we are? Are we, in fact, relevant? If we believe we substantively contribute to the teaching and research missions of our institutions, then we need to be more vigilant in showing just what our contributions are. I therefore challenge each person reading this message to think of ways in which our contributions can be demonstrated and how we can communicate this value to our administrators on campus.

Time: 6:07

The interview was recorded at the IMLS grant-funded Value of Academic Libraries Summits in Chicago.

About the Music:
The music in ACRL Podcasts is “Don’t you,” mixed by stefsax and available on ccMixter. The music is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license.

There they will find more than 160,000 reviews of carefully selected scholarly titles published since September 1988, which includes the more than 600 new reviews published by Choice each month. In addition, all MLA members who register with CRO will receive a monthly e-mail bulletin alerting them to new reviews in language and literature.

Irving Rockwood, Choice editor and publisher, expressed enthusiasm for the new project. “This is an exciting endeavor we are embarking on today,” Rockwood noted. “It affords Choice the opportunity to provide quality reviews in the literature and language areas to MLA members, thereby bringing valuable content to a not-for-profit organization that does not have its own review outlet, while also raising Choice’s visibility with MLA members who may not have been previously familiar with what we offer. We are very happy to be partnering with the MLA and look forward to a mutually beneficial arrangement.”

“We’re delighted to work with Choice on this project, which will give MLA members access to a wide range of reviews of the scholarship in their fields,” added MLA Executive Director Rosemary G. Feal. “Choice’s extensive collection is sure to be an important resource for our members.”

As the leading academic and scholarly book review journal, Choice keeps up with the output of scholarly books across the entire liberal arts and sciences curriculum, publishing more than 7,000 reviews of new scholarly books and electronic resources each year. Language and literature is one of Choice’s most active areas; each year, it publishes approximately 700 reviews of new language and literature titles. All told, Choice Reviews Online currently houses approximately 16,000 reviews of language and literature titles, along with a number of language- and literature-related editorial features.

Access to the forum will be available approximately 20 minutes before the start time through iLinc (https://ala.ilinc.com/join/bfzwfrw).

More information on the 2012 ACRL election, including links to candidate statements from C&RL News and a full slate of candidates for ACRL section offices, is available on the ACRL website.

Voting in the 2012 ALA/ ACRL election begins on Monday, March 19. We strongly encourage you to help shape the future of your associations by casting a ballot for the candidates of your choice!

“Scott brings excellent credentials to the position of editing College and Research Libraries,” said 2011-12 ACRL President Joyce L. Ogburn of the University of Utah.  “Under his guidance the journal will continue to be a leading publication in our field and will likely experiment with new models of engaging its readers. Now that we are an open access journal, there are many possibilities for experimentation, and I am looking forward to seeing what develops.”

Walter will serve as editor designate from July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013, when he will assume full editorial responsibility. In the position of editor, Walter will also serve as chair of the C&RL Editorial Board. He succeeds Joseph J. Branin, director of libraries at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, as C&RL editor. Branin will work closely with Walter over the next year to ensure a smooth transition.

“I have made use of the research reported in C&RL in my work as a librarian and an LIS educator for over a decade, and I have been proud to contribute to the journal as an author, reviewer and member of the Editorial Board,” Walter said. “I am looking forward to working with my colleagues to ensure that College & Research Libraries remains at the heart of the ACRL research enterprise, maintains its reputation as the premier journal in academic librarianship and continues to promote scholarly practice in our field.”

“Scott Walter’s extensive experience in the academic research and scholarly communication processes make him the ideal person to lead C&RL further into the 21st century,” noted  Christopher Millson-Martula, chair of the ACRL Publications Coordinating Committee.

Walter currently serves as associate university librarian for services, associate dean of libraries and professor of library administration and library and information science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and as an adjunct faculty member of the San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science. On April 30, 2012, he will assume the position of university librarian at DePaul University in Chicago.

The institutions selected to host the 2012 road shows are:

• Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library. Atlanta, Ga.
• Colorado State University. Pueblo, Colo.
• James Madison University. Harrisonburg, Va.
• University of New Mexico. Albuquerque, N.M.
• University of Toronto. Toronto, Ontario

In its fourth year, when the 2012 workshops are complete, the road show will have visited 17 different states, the District of Columbia, 1 U.S. territory and 1 Canadian province. The 20 workshops offered over these years will have reached more than 1,350 participants from more than 320 different colleges and universities. New this year, hosts will share part of the costs and the curriculum is revised.

“When we first took this workshop on the road in 2009, the central goal was to raise awareness in the library community about scholarly communications issues. Now, the program has kept pace with the evolving needs of the community by emphasizing action that accelerates the transformation of the scholarly communication system,” said Jeffrey Belliston, chair of the ACRL Scholarly Communications Committee and assistant university librarian for scholarly communication, assessment and personnel at Brigham Young University.

Led by two expert presenters, this structured interactive overview of the scholarly communication system supports individual or institutional strategic planning and action.  The workshop focuses on new methods of scholarly publishing and communication, open access and openness as a principle, copyright and intellectual property and economics. It is intended to provide a foundational understanding for participants and serve as a catalyst for action.

Host sites are partnering with other institutions and organizations in their area to extend the reach to as diverse an audience as possible. Library staff, including liaison librarians, catalogers, access services and senior management from two-year, liberal arts, master’s, comprehensive and doctoral institutions will attend the workshops.

The 12 applications represented 25 schools, 6 consortia (and their members) and one ACRL chapter from 11 states and Canada.

“The five hosts selected all showed strong commitment to maintain momentum, engagement and education on their campuses after the workshop. Because the materials developed for the road show are available for reuse in the ACRL Scholarly Communication Toolkit, the workshop has a greater reach and positive impact beyond the selected sites,” noted Kevin Smith, vice chair of the ACRL Scholarly Communications Committee and director of scholarly communications at the Duke University Perkins Library.

The committee has extended the reach of the Scholarly Communication 101: Starting with the Basics workshop by adding related materials to the popular Scholarly Communication Toolkit. The materials include short videos, presentation templates and handouts. All of the materials are available with a Creative Commons share-alike license. Librarians are free to make use of these tools to enhance their own knowledge or adapt them to offer related workshops on campus.

For more information, contact ACRL Senior Strategist for Special Initiatives Kara Malenfant at kmalenfant@ala.org or (312) 280-2510. Learn more about ACRL’s scholarly communication initiatives on the ACRL website.

1. Describe yourself in three words:  Sassy. Dedicated. Planner.

2. What are you reading right now (or listening to on your i-Pod)? I just started The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman because of a growing interest in user experience. Laughing is good for you so I am also working my way through Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me. I listen to a lot of NPR. My commute is 10 hours a week and NPR is the only radio station that comes in from the beginning to the end of the drive, plus it makes me feel smarter.

3. Describe ACRL in three words: Full of awesome.

4. Why do you value most about ACRL? ACRL is an amazing place to make connections and I very much value the opportunities to serve and contribute to the profession through the organization. The promotion of knowledge sharing through all of the ACRL blogs, C&RL, and C&RL News, especially now that they are open access, is important to me, as well.

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? Playing a role in shaping the experience and learning of our students and being a part of a University community are what I value most.

6. In your own words: There are so many interesting little niches in the profession and I am proud to be working the growing niche of being a dedicated librarian for distance learners. I love having my hands in lots of different things (technology, instruction, project planning, user experience, etc.) and this profession affords me that. And as much as I crank about how hard it is to keep up sometimes, it is definitely a rush to be part of a profession that always changing and developing. It is certainly a challenge in many ways, but one worth embracing and tackling.

Editor’s Note: Are you an ACRL member? Would you like to be featured as ACRL Member of the Week? Nominate a colleague? Contact Mary Jane Petrowski at mpetrowski@ala.org for more information.

One of the primary responsibilities of the ACRL vice-president/president-elect is to oversee the appointments process for the next program year. The process begins early on in the term of the vice-president when he or she identifies a chair of the Appointments Committee that will do the bulk of the appointment work on behalf of the vice-president.

This year the Appointments Committee is being chaired by John Pollitz, Director of the McIntyre Library at  University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. John and his committee members have already been working for months to familiarize themselves with the appointments process and the ALA technology used to carry out the actual appointment work. To date the Appointments Committee has focused on identifying the incoming vice-chair for each of the division-level committees. That is a high profile committee position, so the process begins by completing this important appointment.

The Committee has also been working diligently the last few months to announce the appointment process, primarily to alert all ACRL members who wish to serve on a committee of the February 15, 2012 deadline for completing a volunteer form. Now that the deadline has passed and many of you have indicated which committees you are hoping to join, the Appointments Committee members are engaged in the important work of filling all of the available slots for each of the division-level committees.

Remember, those are the committees that the ACRL Board creates to do work on behalf of the Board. There are also many Section committees, and the leadership of each Section makes its own appointments. The ACRL vice-president also makes a limited number of direct appointments, primarily the ACRL members who will serve as representatives to different ALA committees and task forces.

At the ACRL 2011 conference in Philadelphia, ACRL conducted several focus groups about committee membership responsibilities. Members who had served or were serving on committees were generally highly favorable of the experience. Those who had never served on committees were less enthusiastic, and expressed concerns that the volunteer and appointment process was opaque. I agree that it can be frustrating when you submit your name to the volunteer database, but you have no real sense of what is happening, whether you are going to get an appointment or not, and when you’ll be finding out the final result of the journey through the process.

I will do my best, starting with this post, to keep the membership informed about the progress of the appointment process. Right now, we are only at the start of the work. I know the Appointments Committee has recently completed its training for managing the appointments process using the ALA volunteer database. Then they’ll be working during the month of March to make the actual appointments.  The deadline for members to receive appointment offers falls in early April. I’ll provide an occasional update to let you know how things are proceeding.

On behalf of the ACRL Board, I want to thank all the members who have volunteered to serve on a committee. It is a great reflection on our association that we have so many members who want to get engaged in the work of ACRL. As ACRL vice-president/president-elect, I can definitely appreciate their interest in giving back to the profession. If you have any questions about the appointments process, please do get in touch with me. John and I will be glad to answer these questions, and keep the membership informed about the work of the Appointments Committee.

Collaborations between librarians at different institutions can also be beneficial to student learning. One such collaboration is taking place between St. John’s University and the New York Public Library to introduce students to the scholarly research process. St. John’s history professor Elaine Carey, along with her former student and current NYPL librarian Raymond Pun, share their efforts in the article “Doing history.”

Providing space in library buildings for collaboration between students is an ongoing trend in many library renovations. The creation of additional collaborative space at Virginia Commonwealth University was so successful that it required the development of an online booking system. M. Teresa Doherty and Erin R. White outline the steps taken in developing “Room reservations at VCU Libraries” in this month’s ACRL TechConnect feature.

With voting in the ALA/ACRL elections scheduled to begin March 19, Gina Millsap and Barbara Stripling, the candidates for ALA vice-president/president-elect, respond to questions from the ACRL Board of Directors to help you cast an informed ballot. Help shape the future of your association by voting in this year’s election.

Make sure to check out the other features and columns this month, including Internet Resources on “Creative writing and the Web” by Hugh Burkhart, an essay on adapting approaches in the classroom by Mara Thacker, and ACRL “Standards for faculty status for academic librarians” and “Guidelines for academic librarians without faculty status.”

Time: 7:04

The interview was recorded at the IMLS grant-funded Value of Academic Libraries Summits in Chicago.

About the Music:
The music in ACRL Podcasts is “Don’t you,” mixed by stefsax and available on ccMixter. The music is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license.

• CJCLS EBSCO Community College Learning Resources Award – Sheila Afnan-Manns, Reyes Medrano, Kandice Mickelsen
• CJCLS EBSCO Community College Learning Resources Leadership Award - Mary Ann Laun
• CLS ProQuest Innovation in College Librarianship Award – Anne Burke, Adrienne Lai, Adam Rogers
• Hugh C. Atkinson Award – John F. Helmer
• IS Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year Award – Char Booth
• IS Innovation Award – Joshua Vossler, John Watts
• WGSS Career Achievement Award – Ellen Greenblatt
• WGSS Significant Achievement Award – Kirsten Canfield, Kayo Denda, Alicia Graham, Rhonda Marker, Li Sun, Lucy Vidal

A complete listing of 2012 award winners is available on the ACRL website.

In his book, Lankes articulates a new purpose for librarianship: “The mission of librarians is to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities.”  He envisions a profession based not on books and artifacts but on knowledge and learning which are created through conversations.  The innovatively structured text, graphics and accompanying website are designed to stimulate further conversation about the field of librarianship.

More information on The Atlas of New Librarianship is available on the book website and in the award press release.

Congratulations to David on this honor!

During NLLD, librarians, library staff, and library supporters from around the country converge on Capitol Hill to meet with their federal representatives to advocate for the support of libraries and library-friendly legislation. The first day is for an orientation to advocacy, issue briefings, and a reception on Capitol Hill; the second day is reserved for visits to Congressional offices. Information on NLLD registration and housing can be found on the ALA Web site.

Individuals applying for the travel grants must be ACRL Legislative Advocates (application to be an advocate will be accepted simultaneously with travel grant application), be a first-time attendee at NLLD, and apply by March 23, 2012. Grants will be awarded on a first come, first served basis. Complete details and application information are available on the ACRL Web site.

1. Describe yourself in three words:  Information-vore, fun, visionary.

2. What are you reading right now (or listening to on your i-Pod)? Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other by Sherry Turkle and  The Other Side of Innovation: Solving the Execution Challenge by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Chris Trimble. I keep Adele’s “19,”  Jamiroquai‘s “A Funk Odyssey,”  Drake’s “Thank Me Later,” Jay-Z’s “Reasonable Doubt,” and “The Ultimate Isley Brothers” in heavy rotation these days – especially while I’m writing.

3. Describe ACRL in three words: Collaborative, engaging, diverse.

4. Why do you value most about ACRL? ACRL fosters a unique fellowship among colleagues who share similar professional challenges, concerns, and interests.

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? Academic librarianship is in state of constant transformation which I find very exciting.  We are continuously developing innovative pedagogies and portals to content access that empowers today’s users for tomorrow’s global workplace.

6. In your own words: I took a leap of faith transitioning into academic librarianship after enjoying several roles in the business sector.  Beyond my expectations and wildest dreams, I am experiencing indescribable professional fulfillment.  I never grow weary of having conversations and developing projects that center around leveraging academic libraries as vital to the learning enterprise. I truly believe I have found my “calling.”

Editor’s Note: Are you an ACRL member? Would you like to be featured as ACRL Member of the Week? Nominate a colleague? Contact Mary Jane Petrowski at mpetrowski@ala.org for more information.

Time: 7:06

About the Music:
The music in ACRL Podcasts is “Don’t you,” mixed by stefsax and available on ccMixter. The music is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license.

The 53^rd RBMS Preconference will explore a multiplicity of futures for the rare book, manuscript and special collections community. How are special collections materials being discovered and used today? How will they be discovered and used tomorrow? Who will our users be and what will they need? What forms will special collections materials take? Join your colleagues to learn, discuss, share and contemplate, because the future is now.

Preconference plenary sessions will focus on three components of special collections and archives work – use, object and discovery. Sessions will explore the ways in which special collections materials are used in the digital humanities, the future of discovery and access to collections made possible with linked open data and the potential future forms the book as object might take. The programming also features smaller and more interactive sessions, including 10 seminars, four panels of short papers and seven discussion sessions. The 2012 preconference also includes three workshops held Tuesday, June 19, at the Westin San Diego. All three workshops require an additional registration fee.

Attendees will also enjoy a Booksellers’ Showcase featuring 40 Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America member exhibitors; a Book Arts Fair featuring 24 book artists; have an opportunity to try the latest in electronic tools and software applications at the first-ever RBMS Preconference Technology Petting Zoo; and celebrate the submissions and winners of the Katharine Kyes Leab & Daniel J. Leab American Book Prices Current Exhibition Awards, with displays during breaks and the evening reception.

Complete program details and housing information are available on the RBMS website. Contact ACRL Conference Supervisor Tory Ondrla at (312) 280-2515 or tondrla@ala.org with questions about the preconference.

1. Describe yourself in three words:  Passionate. Values-driven. Leader.

2. What are you reading right now? The Book of Negroes (Lawrence Hill), How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School (National Research Council), and The Leadership Challenge (Kouzes and Posner, 4th edition.)

3. Describe ACRL in three words: Advocate. Educational. Engaging.

4. Why do you value most about ACRL? The research and publication program to explore the many and varied aspects of academic and research librarianship. The advocacy role played to support the vital role that research libraries play in the teaching, learning and research mission of our respective institutions. The conference and program offerings for professional development and intellectual stimulation.

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? The almost infinite range of initiatives and activities in which libraries can participate, collaborate and lead in the academy to support students, faculty and staff, and to add value to the academic mission. Increasingly we are integrating into the fabric of the academy, working in partnership to support student success and faculty research.

6. In your own words: Life as an academic librarian administrator is multifaceted, exciting, rich with learning, fast-paced, humbling, rewarding and full of opportunities. The most rewarding aspect is to lead and support a talented library team who continue to astound me with their creativity and innovation.

Editor’s Note: Are you an ACRL member? Would you like to be featured as ACRL Member of the Week? Nominate a colleague? Contact Mary Jane Petrowski at mpetrowski@ala.org for more information.

The interview was recorded at the IMLS grant-funded Value of Academic Libraries Summits in Chicago.

About the Music:
The music in ACRL Podcasts is “Don’t you,” mixed by stefsax and available on ccMixter. The music is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license.

Anyone who remembers Schoolhouse Rock’s “How a Bill Becomes a Law”  knows that the process is long, arduous and frustrating.  That’s the bad  news.  The good news is that library advocates have opportunities to  make a difference at every step of the way.  In this webinar Stephanie  Vance will give you the insider secrets on using the legislative process  to your advantage.  She’ll show you how to be engaged at every point —  from introduction and referral to conference committee — as well as the  key things you should know about any legislative arena before diving  in.  Participants will come away from the session with a checklist and  work plan to implement these ideas right away – and make a positive  difference for libraries!

Title: The Legislative Process and You: How it Works and How to Make a Difference
 Date: February 27, 2012
Time: 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM EST

Space is limited, sign up today! There is no charge, so reserve your webinar seat now.

Assessment: Demonstrating the Educational Value of the Academic Library Track – This track will approach assessment from a learning-centered perspective; participants will emerge with a broader understanding of assessment and how to use assessment as an important tool to guide evidence-based classroom, curriculum and program development.

Intentional Teaching: Reflective Teaching to Improve Student Learning Track – This track is aimed at the experienced academic librarian (5+ years teaching experience, in a library or other setting) who wants to become more self-aware and self-directed as a teacher.  This program facilitates the process of critical reflection through peer discussion, readings and personal reflection as a pathway to professional growth and renewal.

Visit the Immersion website for complete details about the program, including curriculum, learning outcomes and application instructions.  Questions concerning the program or application process should be directed to Margot Conahan at (312) 280-2522 or mconahan@ala.org.

Comprised of four sections, Outlining Current Boundaries, Frontiers of Self, Fortifying Institutional Partnerships and Charting Next Steps, Transforming Information Literacy Programs offers fresh perspectives on the present and future of information literacy instruction from diverse points of view. The twelve in-depth chapters include “Ethnographic Study of Information Literacy Librarians’ Work Experience” by Celene Seymour, ”Hitching Your Wagon to Institutional Goals” by Anne E. Zald and Michelle Millet, “Crossing the Instructional Divide: Supporting K-20 Information Literacy Initiatives” by Jo Ann Carr and “Settling Uncharted Territory: Documenting & Rewarding Librarians’ Teaching Role in the Academy” by April D. Cunningham and Carrie Donovan. The work brings together information on a broad array of issues and themes that academic instruction librarians must navigate in today’s higher education environment.

Armed with the new understanding of the complex frontiers of self, library culture and community presented in Transforming Information Literacy Programs, instruction librarians can engage in deeper campus conversations about the issues they face as well as begin vital and exciting new initiatives to shape the future of their programs. The work is essential reading for all practicing information literacy librarians and program coordinators as well as library school students.

Transforming Information Literacy Programs is available for purchase in print, as an e-book, and as a print/ e-book bundle through the ALA Online Store; in print and for Kindle through Amazon.com; and by telephone order at (866) 746-7252 in the U.S. or (770) 442-8633 for international customers.

Details for accessing the online forum will be available on the ACRL Insider blog  in early March. An archive of the forum will be also available on ACRL Insider following the conclusion of the event.

More information on the 2012 ACRL election, including links to candidate statements from C&RL News and a full slate of candidates for ACRL section offices, is available on the ACRL website. Contact ACRL Program Officer Megan Griffin at mgriffin@ala.org or (312) 280-2514 with questions about the forum or the ACRL elections.

The ACRL Board acknowledges that it is always difficult to eliminate long-standing committees and wishes to thank all of its members who volunteered their time and energy to serve on ACRL committees.  We are in debt to their service on behalf of the Board and the ACRL membership.

Joyce L. Ogburn
2011-12 ACRL President

The 2012 ACRL Spring Virtual Institute seeks to unite all types of librarians around the mutual cause of reaching out to our constituencies. Whether they support faculty scholarship and student learning, facilitate connectedness and foster literacy in a town, or reach out online, all libraries operate in the context of a community. The institute will examine how libraries are capitalizing on community collaborations.

Keynote speaker John G. Palfrey Jr., Henry N. Ess III professor of law and vice dean for library and information resources at the Harvard Law School, will open the institute with a discussion on the Digital Public Library of America, an innovative and broad example of collaboration among many stakeholders and libraries. The institute also features live, interactive webcasts allowing for real-time interactions. The webcast schedule and program descriptions are online. Lightning talks are 5-8 minute asynchronous narrated presentations.

Registration materials, along with information on group rates, are on the ACRL website. Contact Margot Conahan at mconahan@ala.org or call 312-280-2522 with questions about the institute.

1. Describe yourself in three words:  Connector, marketer, discoverer.

2. What are you reading right now? I’m reading College Libraries and Student Culture: What We Now Know by Lynda M. Duke and Andrew D. Asher.

3. Describe ACRL in three words: Central, necessary, friends.

4. Why do you value most about ACRL? ACRL’s conferences are the place where I get to connect with “my people,” rejuvenate, learn, brainstorm, step outside my boundaries, bring fresh ideas home. I look forward to these conferences so much. I also rely on ACRL’s publications to keep me informed and fresh on topics of importance to my job and profession.

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? The chance to always be exploring new topics and to work collaboratively with others.

6. In your own words: My life is busy! One hour I’m helping a student find primary sources for her thesis, the next I’m in a website redesign meeting, the next I’m having lunch with my student advisory group, then updating our Facebook page, then teaching a class on library resources for Chemical Engineering design, then editing newsletter content for our faculty newsletter, then meeting with a student advisee, then teaching a RefWorks workshop, and on and on. I wouldn’t trade it for anything!

Editor’s Note: Are you an ACRL member? Would you like to be featured as ACRL Member of the Week? Nominate a colleague? Contact Mary Jane Petrowski at mpetrowski@ala.org for more information.

Since transitioning into my role as ACRL vice-president/president-elect I’ve received some interesting questions from colleagues. The “So when do you actually start doing something” question was easy to answer: “Months ago.” Another common question reveals a misunderstanding about the role of ACRL president. I’ve been asked multiple times about my big initiative as president.  Let’s clear this one up. The ACRL president no longer initiates a big new venture for the association or champions a self-selected cause. The ACRL president doesn’t even choose a theme for his or her term. That is an anachronism from days of old when presidents were encouraged to take on some sort of individualized project that would define his or her presidency (which, by the way, is still the case for the ALA president). For example, when Larry Hardesty was ACRL President a major initiative was the Excellence in Academic Libraries award. It was an innovative project that turned into a great, sustainable program.

Today’s ACRL president needs to be focused on the ACRL strategic plan (PDF) and leading the Board of Directors in implementing the plan, fulfilling its goals and engaging the committees and membership in doing so – that is the highest priority for my term. Have no doubt that there are some interesting projects I’d like to explore, but starting some completely new endeavor that may not synch with the Plan for Excellence – and which may leave a program with no leadership when my time with ACRL’s Board is over – that’s unacceptable – and that’s not even considering the potential economic implications of embarking on a new program. The Value of Academic Libraries report laid the groundwork for a whole range of new possibilities, and there is much work to do to help ACRL members communicate about value to their communities.

A strategic plan-focused president still has plenty of opportunities for new possibilities, a challenging program or a creative way to engage members. For one thing, ACRL presidents continue to have at their disposal a forum in C&RL News for sharing new ideas and inviting guest columnists to focus on a theme related to the topic of a President’s Program. I’m eagerly looking forward to ACRL president Joyce Ogburn’s 2012 President’s Program. As a believer in the power of design, I’m a fan of IDEO, one of the world’s premier design firms. The keynote speaker for the program is Duane Bray, an IDEO partner who heads up their Global Digital Business. Bray will offer some great inspiration to encourage innovation at our libraries, and I am looking forward to hearing his presentation. This program is being jointly planned by ACRL and ALCTS. If you are planning to head to Anaheim for ALA Annual, I hope to see you at the 2012 ACRL President’s Program.

Work to begin the planning for a President’s Program for ALA 2013 is already underway. Yes, there is plenty of time between now and June 2013 but a successful program benefits from sufficient advance planning. For now I can tell you that it will be a joint President’s Program with LLAMA, and the focus will be on leadership. I’ll be sharing more details with you in future posts.

• Education and Behavioral Sciences Section (EBSS) Distinguished Education and Behavioral Sciences Librarian Award – Scott Walter
• Instruction Section (IS) Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award – Barbara J. Mann
• Law and Political Science Section (LPSS) Marta Lange/CQ Press Award – John Eaton
• Routledge Distance Learning Librarianship Conference Sponsorship Award – Johanna Ruth Tuñón
• Western European Studies Section (WESS) De Gruyter European Librarianship Study Grant – Liladhar R. Pendse

Watch ACRL Insider, social media, and ACRL Update for more award announcements in the coming weeks.

1. Describe yourself in three words:  Caring, Confident, Diplomatic.

2. What are you reading right now? Switch: How to Change When Change Is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath.  It was a suggested book from the Women’s Leadership Institute.

3. Describe ACRL in three words: The Coolest Librarians.

4. Why do you value most about ACRL? ACRL gives me the ability to connect with other people who are as excited about their jobs as I am about mine.  Enthusiasm is contagious!

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? I love that I’m in a helping profession that challenges me intellectually.  I love to learn, and in this job, I learn every day.

6. In your own words: I simply have the best job in the world.  There is a photo on my desk of me and two dear colleagues in Philadelphia for the last ACRL Conference.  We are outside the Mutter Museum under a large banner that says “Disturbingly Informative.”  I love that I have the power to be disturbingly informative – and I have promised to only use that power for good!

Editor’s Note: Are you an ACRL member? Would you like to be featured as ACRL Member of the Week? Nominate a colleague? Contact Mary Jane Petrowski at mpetrowski@ala.org for more information.

The increase in digital items such as archival photographs can mean a boon for special collections departments. But making items searchable for users can be a major undertaking. In their article “MetaWHAT?” Kristy L. Dixon and Lisa T. Nickel of the University of North Carolina-Charlotte describe a collaborative project to train access services staff in the creation of metadata for special collections materials. Archival images and collections can play a role in improving physical spaces, as well. The University of the Pacific used their unique collections to improve library aesthetics, as Shan C. Sutton and Robin Imhof outline in their article “John Muir in the study commons.”

In this months’ Scholarly Communication column, Heather Joseph of SPARC provides reflections on the recent Berlin 9 Open Access Conference and examines “The impact of open access on research and scholarship.” With voting in the ALA/ACRL elections scheduled to begin March 19, Trevor A. Dawes and Debbie Malone, the candidates for ACRL vice-president/president-elect, share their plans for the association to help you cast an informed ballot.

Make sure to check out the other features and columns this month, including Internet Resources on financial literacy, an essay on the connections between working as a reference librarian and in a 911 call center, and the new ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education.

Please note: ACRL Vice President Steven Bell and the Appointments Committee oversee divisional committee appointments and section Vice -Chairs are in charge of section appointments.

Volunteer for ACRL committees and contribute to your association and profession!

The workshop “Scholarly Communication: From Understanding to Engagement,” has evolved from a central goal of building awareness to action that accelerates the transformation of the scholarly communication system. The program now supports in-depth training as institutions are developing scholarly communications programming. Applicants must explain what they will do to maintain momentum, engagement, and education on their campuses after the workshop.

WHAT YOU CAN WIN: 1 free hotel night at an official ACRL hotel during your stay at ACRL 2013.

EASY TO ENTER: Submit your email address to receive occasional conference updates on the ACRL 2013 homepage (see “Get Conference Updates” in the lower left corner). Then either select ACRL 2013 from the list on the next page, or confirm your profile update in the subsequent email you will receive if you are already receiving ACRL-related notices like the ACRL Update newsletter.

DEADLINE: Enter by Kickoff time (6:30p.m. ET) on Sunday, February 5 for a chance to win.

Best of luck and we look forward to your participation at ACRL 2013 in Indianapolis!

- The ACRL 2013 Conference Team

1. Describe yourself in three words:  Funny, ambitious, creative.

2. What are you reading right now? Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman by Gail Evans.

3. Describe ACRL in three words: Professional, network, opportunity.

4. Why do you value most about ACRL? Career support through peer mentors.

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? The shared goal of helping students.

6. In your own words: I have been reflecting on how libraries can become more visible to academic communities.

Editor’s Note: Are you an ACRL member? Would you like to be featured as ACRL Member of the Week? Nominate a colleague? Contact Mary Jane Petrowski at mpetrowski@ala.org for more information.

Registration for all online seminars and Webcasts qualifies for the ACRL Frequent Learner Program. Register for three ACRL e-Learning events and receive one free registration. Visit the ACRL e-Learning website for more information on the Frequent Learner Program.

ACRL online seminars are asynchronous, multi-week courses delivered through Moodle. Online seminars scheduled for winter 2012 include:

Developing a Comprehensive Critical Thinking Curriculum: From Goal-Setting to Assessment (February 6 – March 2, 2012): Even professional educators have a tough time designing learning experiences that help students develop authentic critical thinking skills. Learn to do more than just pay lip service to critical thinking by planning, developing, implementing and assessing a library instructional unit that fosters higher-order thinking.

Deciding with Data (February 13 – March 9, 2012): Learn about the lifecycle of library data from setting up its collection to making decisions using this information. Topics covered include plotting commonly-gathered statistics over time and on the same chart in order to visualize trends; an introduction to e-resources use statistics; in introduction to using Google Analytics in libraries; and an introduction to the analysis of library collections using ILS data.

Fundamentals of Management: Practical Approaches for Successful Managers (March 5-23, 2012): This course provides a practical approach to becoming a successful library manager, including strategies for planning, organizing, staffing and evaluating library departments and programs. Through a series of readings, discussions and exercises, gain real-world tools for improving your management skills and develop confidence in your ability to supervise and manage.

Humanities on the Map: Discovering Spatial Humanities (March 12 – 30, 2012): Because Humanities librarians are beginning to encounter students and faculty who want to include such geographic components to their papers and research they need to be aware of the different approaches to introducing geography and the study of space into other disciplines. Through a variety of readings, resource assignments, and project evaluations this course will provide an overview/awareness of, discussions on the role of the librarian in and useful resources for assisting students and faculty in the Spatial Humanities

ACRL also offers a variety of timely live Webcasts addressing hot topics in academic librarianship. Webcasts last from an hour and a half to two hours and take place in an interactive online classroom. Group discounts are available for all ACRL e-Learning Webcasts. Winter 2012 Webcasts include:

Say What You Mean: Professional Communication Skills for Librarians (January 31, 2012): Learn how to use different communication styles to interact effectively with people across several library settings.

From Idea to Publication Part One: Understanding the Research Question (February 7, 2012): Learn to formulate and define good research questions, select appropriate research methodologies and design the research study. Specific topics will include developing useful questionnaires, techniques used in conducting telephone interviews, working with focus groups and constructing surveys to get the information you need.

From Idea to Publication Part Two: Analysis and Writing (March 7, 2012): Quantitative methods necessitate certain kinds of analyses, while qualitative methods operate on different assumptions and different kinds of data.  It is essential to have an understanding of the appropriate forms of analyses (along with their possibilities and limitations).  Learn to express research in publishable form in the second part of this three part series.

The Library’s Role in Ensuring the Success of International Efforts on Campus (March 13, 2012): Libraries can play a critical role in connecting these foreign students, not only to our universities and colleges, but also to the information literacy skills they will need to succeed.  This webcast will explore who are international students and what makes them unique learners; best practices for outreach, orientation, and information literacy instruction to all international students and specifically to graduate students; and how can the library get international students themselves involved as partners in services, resources and peer mentors?

Shifting Sands: How Small Changes in Policy, Culture and Technology are Determining the Future of Libraries (March 27, 2012): Discover how changes in national and international policy, the growth of the free culture movement, and the rapid evolution of technology are having big impacts on libraries, and what you can do to help turn the tide.

Complete details and registration information for all winter 2012 e-Learning opportunities are available online. Contact Margot Conahan at mconahan@ala.org or (312) 280-2522 for more information.

“This year’s award recipients exemplify the commitment of today’s academic and research librarians to providing quality, innovative student learning experiences,” said ACRL Executive Director Mary Ellen K. Davis. “Receiving an Excellence in Academic Libraries Award is a national tribute to each library and its staff for outstanding services, programs and leadership.”

The Seattle Central Community College Library, winner in the community college category, was chosen for its team support for student learning through innovative information literacy offerings.

“The award committee was impressed with SCCC’s online course, Research for the 21st Century, which is now part of the state’s online learning consortium, Washington Online,” said Lori Goetsch chair of the 2012 Excellence in Academic Libraries Committee and dean of libraries at Kansas State University. “Recognizing that community college students are often juggling busy schedules between school and work, they are making innovative use of the campus courseware system to provide ‘Info in Action’ one-credit courses that allow students to take advantage of information literacy instruction in smaller segments.”

“SCCC librarians have employed creative marketing and communication techniques such as posters and bookmarks that reflect their ‘Reflect-Learn-Connect’ research model that has been used by other libraries locally and nationally,” Goetsch continued.  “Through these initiatives and others, they have built a shared, collaborative culture with teaching faculty for student learning.”

“We are surprised and thrilled to receive this honor,” said Wai-Fong Lee, executive dean for instructional resources at SCCC. “Our library is a key resource to the college and our staff is passionate about providing the best library possible. Although we don’t have an excellent library facility, we make up for it with quality service, strong support for innovative teaching and learning and promotion of information literacy across the curriculum. We’ve also benefited from working closely with other libraries in the Washington state community and technical college system. We are humbled to share company with the great academic libraries that have received this award.”

The Champlain College Library, winner of this year’s award in the college category, impressed the selection committee with its nontraditional approach to instruction and positive student-driven environment.

“The library’s small but mighty staff  have a big impact on campus, and they have fun as well, fostering community through inventive social and cultural events,” Goetsch noted. “The campus has adopted technology and information literacy as a core competency, and the library provides leadership through an information literacy program that is incremental, inquiry-based, embedded in the core curriculum and assessed through established rubrics. Surveys indicate that students have come to recognize the technology and information literacy core competency as most important to their academic success. It is clear that these librarians love what they do and spark creativity by working as team.”

“The Champlain College Library is deeply honored to receive this award,” said Janet Cottrell, director of the library at Champlain College. “This recognition from ACRL is a tribute to the enthusiasm, creativity and hard work of everyone in the library, and to the collaborative spirit of our campus. Our work is — and will remain — challenging, and this honor is a testament to what a small group of people can accomplish through innovation and dedication as we aspire to embody Champlain College’s motto:  ‘Audeamus  — Let us dare!’ We are deeply grateful to ACRL and YBP.”

Grand Valley State University Libraries, winner in the university category, was selected for the collaborative and effective approach taken to restructuring the library organization and build an innovative, agile and flexible team-based organization that is responsive to changing user needs.

“Rather than succumbing to the very difficult economic conditions in Michigan, this ‘reinvented’ library has been successful in garnering the strong support of university administration for a $70 million project to build a new library and information commons that will open in 2013,” Goetsch noted. “Reorganization has also enabled librarians to focus on information literacy initiatives that have led to the development of core competencies and scalable rubrics for assessment. One of these rubrics, ‘Research Guidance Rubric,’ is directed at faculty to assist them in developing effective research assignments for their students. Based in its success at GVSU, this rubric has been adopted by other libraries.”

“When we first began to talk about applying for the ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Award, we considered whether to wait until our new building opens in 2013,” said Lee VanOrsdel, GVSU dean of university libraries. “But we didn’t want our application to be about a building—as fabulous as that is going to be. We wanted it to be about our organization and our staff and the ways we have learned to work together to serve our university in exceptional ways. We are honored to be recognized by our academic library colleagues for the work we are doing here at GVSU. We are proud to bring this award to the university that gave us the support and resources to dream big.”

Each winning library will receive $3,000 and a plaque, to be presented at an award ceremony held on each recipient’s campus.

Additional information on the award, along with a list of past winners, is available online at http://www.ala.org/acrl/awards/achievementawards/excellenceacademic.

About ACRL
ACRL is a division of the American Library Association (ALA), representing more than 12,000 academic and research librarians and interested individuals. ACRL is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products and services to meet the unique needs of academic and research librarians. Its initiatives enable the higher education community to understand the role that academic libraries play in the teaching, learning and research environments. ACRL is on the Web at http://www.acrl.org/, Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ala.acrl and Twitter at @ala_acrl.

About YBP Library Services
YBP Library Services, a Baker & Taylor company, provides books and supporting collection management and technical services to academic, research and special libraries in the Americas, Asia, Middle East, Australia and the Pacific Rim. GOBI, YBP Library Services’ online, interactive bibliographic information service, provides access to 4 million titles in an English language database. YBP is located in Contoocook, NH, USA. For more on the company, visit http://www.ybp.com.

Are students learning? Colleges and universities should expect to hear this question more often and more forcefully. They must act to ensure that their college degrees reflect a high level of student achievement — and to reaffirm the quality of these credentials. They can do so by gathering, using, and publicly reporting evidence of student learning. Committing to Quality: Guidelines for Assessment and Accountability gives colleges strategies they can use to take these critical steps. It has been endorsed by endorsed by 27 national higher education organizations, including ACRL.

The New Leadership Alliance, an advocacy-focused organization, has a mission of leading and supporting voluntary and cooperative efforts to move the higher education community towards gathering, reporting on, and using evidence to improve student learning in American undergraduate education.

Previously, ACRL was invited by the New Leadership Alliance to author an article for their December e-newsletter. The article “Exploring the Contributions of the Academic Library to Student Learning” highlights ACRL’s initiatives in this area.

Kaufman will receive a $5,000 award at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, June 25, 2012, during the joint ACRL/ALCTS President’s Program at the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim.

“Paula Kaufman’s record of accomplishments is exemplary in many ways,” said John M. Budd, chair of the ACRL Academic/Research Librarian of the Year Award Committee and professor

in the University of Missouri School of Information Science and Learning Technologies. “She has been a distinct leader at several organizations and has been influential in every venue in which she has worked. Nominees and supporters uniformly extol her abilities to build consensus, to develop multi-institutional groups and to work with diverse and sometimes opposing bodies. She also has an outstanding record of publications and presentations through which she clearly communicated managerial, organizational and development topics.”

“News of having won this award came as a total surprise,” said Kaufman. “Being recognized by my colleagues is the greatest honor I can imagine. In turn, I must recognize that any success I have achieved is due to the privilege I’ve had to work with talented and caring people. I am very humbled to be joining the list of my many outstanding colleagues who have received this prestigious award in the past.”

Over the course of her career, Kaufman has made a significant impact on the profession through her extraordinary leadership abilities, vision and strategic thinking for the future of libraries, along with the generosity with which she shares her inspirations and insights. Her leadership of some of the largest academic research libraries in the United States has positioned her to engage directly with a wide range of issues facing libraries of all sizes and missions. Her positive and energetic approach to problem solving has benefited not only the libraries in which she has worked, but also the larger library community.

Kaufman’s distinguished record of service to the profession includes serving as a member of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Board of Directors from 1997-2003, including a term as president from 2001-02; a founding board member of the Consortium of Academic Libraries in Illinois (CARLI) since 2005; a member of the Center for Research Libraries Board of Directors from 1994-2000, including a term as chair in 1996; and as a member of the HATHI Trust executive committee since 2008. She has additionally been honored with the Illinois Library Association Illinois Academic Librarian of the Year Award (2011) and the Hugh C. Atkinson Award (2010), which is jointly sponsored by ACRL/ALCTS/LLAMA/LITA.

Her publications include seminal articles such as  “Library Value (Return on Investment, ROI) and the Challenge of Placing a Value on Public Services” in Reference Services Review (with Sarah Watstein, 2008); “The Library as Strategic Investment: Results of the Illinois Return on Investment Study” in LIBER Quarterly (2008); “It’s Not Your Parent’s Library Anymore: Challenges and Opportunities in the New Webs of Complexity” in the Journal of Library Administration (2007) and “Professional Diversity in Libraries” in Library Trends (1992). She has served on the Journal of Library Administration editorial board since 1995. Kaufman has additionally presented on topics including management, scholarly communication and library value at library and higher education conferences around the world.

Prior to joining Illinois as university librarian in 1999, Kaufman served as dean of libraries at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (1988-99) and in a variety of positions including director of the Academic Information Services Group, acting head of the East Asian Library and business and economics librarian at Columbia University from 1979 to 1988.

Kaufman received her A.B. in Economics from Smith College in 1968, her M.S. in Library Science from Columbia University in 1969 and an M.B.A. in management from the University of New Haven in 1979.

The award dates back to 1978, and recent award winners include Janice Welburn (2011); Maureen Sullivan (2010); Gloriana St. Clair (2009); Peter Hernon (2008); Lizabeth (Betsy) Wilson (2007); Ray English (2006); Ravindra Nath (R. N.) Sharma (2005); Tom Kirk (2004); Ross Atkinson, (2003); Shelley Phipps, (2002) and Larry Hardesty (2001).

For more information regarding the ACRL Academic/Research Librarian of the Year award, or a complete list of past recipients, please visit http://www.ala.org/acrl/awards/achievementawards/acrllibrarian.

About ACRL
ACRL is a division of the American Library Association (ALA), representing more than 12,000 academic and research librarians and interested individuals. ACRL is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products and services to meet the unique needs of academic and research librarians. Its initiatives enable the higher education community to understand the role that academic libraries play in the teaching, learning and research environments. ACRL is on the Web at http://www.acrl.org/, Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ala.acrl and Twitter at @ala_acrl.

About YBP Library Services
YBP Library Services, a Baker & Taylor company, provides books and supporting collection management and technical services to academic, research and special libraries in the Americas, Asia, Middle East, Australia and the Pacific Rim. GOBI, YBP Library Services’ online, interactive bibliographic information service, provides access to 4 million titles in an English language database. YBP is located in Contoocook, NH, USA. For more on the company, visit http://www.ybp.com.

1. Describe yourself in three words:  Learning, connecting, appreciating.

2. What are you reading right now? As a participant in the APSU Faculty Leadership Program this fall, I read Seth Godin‘s Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? and Strengths Based Leadership by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie. For fun, I just finished Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks and Anne Patchett‘s State of Wonder.

3. Describe ACRL in three words: Librarians, scholarship, service.

4. Why do you value most about ACRL? The professional development opportunities such as the Women’s Leadership Institute that I just attended, as well as the many opportunities to network with other academic librarians that ACRL sponsors are greatly valued.

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? Making connections with faculty and students that enhance the teaching and learning process is what it’s all about.

6. In your own words: Working on a university campus affords me a myriad of opportunities to learn something new every day as I strive to contribute to the teaching and learning process. I enjoy being a part of shared governance on my campus, serving on Faculty Senate and various university committees. There are many ways that librarians can and should step up and lead.

Becoming knowledgeable about what’s going on around campus helps me to make connections which enable the library to play a larger role in various campus initiatives.  I can’t imagine any other career bringing me greater joy and I’m very appreciative of the Duke University reference and law librarians who first mentored me in pursuing this profession.

Editor’s Note: Are you an ACRL member? Would you like to be featured as ACRL Member of the Week? Nominate a colleague? Contact Mary Jane Petrowski at mpetrowski@ala.org for more information.

What’s Involved?
Mentors will serve as role models in academic librarianship and provide career guidance as well as helping mentees find opportunities for leadership in the profession. Because many of the Spectrum Scholars are part-time library school students, a mentor must make a commitment for a minimum of one year beyond the degree, or a maximum of three years.  Mentors must be academic librarians, have a minimum of ten years of professional library experience, and be active in ACRL.

Mentors will receive Web-based training from ACRL to assist them in building a successful mentoring relationship. Mentor responsibilities include:

• Agreeing to contact the mentee monthly or on a regular basis.
• Agreeing to attend a Dutch-treat lunch or dinner meeting with other Spectrum Scholars and mentors to promote networking when at ALA/ACRL conferences.
• Agreeing to spend time with the scholar at library conferences when both are in attendance.
• Submitting brief status reports and an annual report (one page form).

How to Apply
If you are interested in becoming a mentor for an ALA Spectrum Scholar through the ACRL Dr. E.J. Josey Spectrum Scholar Mentor program, please complete the application (PDF).

What Happens Next?
The ACRL Dr. E.J. Josey Spectrum Scholar Mentor Committee is developing a pool of ready and trained mentors, so that the best possible matches can quickly be made as Spectrum Scholars express their interest in participating in the program. If we are unable to assign you a scholar immediately, you will be notified and your paperwork will be kept on file.

Please apply today (PDF) to be an ACRL Spectrum Scholar Mentor! The profession needs you.

If you have additional questions about the ACRL Dr. E. J. Josey Spectrum Scholar Mentor Program please contact Committee Chair Nancy Allen at nancy.allen@du.edu or ACRL staff member Kathryn Deiss at kdeiss@ala.org.

We encourage ACRL members to attend a free webcast, offered by ARL, to learn more about the code on Thursday, January 26, 3:00–4:00 p.m. Eastern time. The Code facilitators—Patricia Aufderheide of the Center for Social Media at American University, Brandon Butler of ARL, and Peter Jaszi of the American University Law School—will deliver a brief presentation on the contents of the code, followed by a question-and-answer session. Find out more and register online in advance.

Capturing the evolution of the education collections and services integral to teacher preparation, initial chapters focus on the foundations of place CMCs within theoretical and historical contexts—their original goals, purposes and services. Succeeding chapters discuss how curriculum centers are evolving to meet current and future changes in teacher preparation. Among the notable contributors are Nancy O’Brien, Penny Beile and JoAnn Carr, all recipients of the ACRL/EBSS Distinguished Education and Behavioral Sciences Librarian Award. Carr is also editor of the ACRL publication A Guide to the Management of Curriculum Materials Centers for the 21st Century. Additional chapters are written by other distinguished practitioners and leaders in the fields of education and curriculum centers librarianship. This volume is essential reading for education liaison librarians, curriculum materials center collections and librarians, library schools and general professional collections.

Curriculum Materials Collections and Centers: Legacies from the Past, Visions of the Future is available for purchase in print, as an e-book, and as a print/ e-book bundle through the ALA Online Store; in print and for Kindle at Amazon.com; and by telephone order at (866) 746-7252 in the U.S. or (770) 442-8633 for international customers. The title will also be available in the ALA Store at the upcoming ALA Midwinter Meeting in Dallas.

In this month’s ACRL TechConnect feature, Harry Glazer revisits his 2009 C&RL News article on library Facebook pages and poses the question “‘Likes’ are lovely, but do they lead to more logins?” The article discusses possible metrics for gauging Facebook page success. The trends of the mobile Web and apps continue to grow, especially as more smart devices become available. Stefanie Havelka and Alevtina Verbovetskaya present a call to arms for “Mobile information literacy” in their The Way I See It essay.

The new year means another round of ALA/ACRL elections. We take a look at this year’s candidates for ACRL vice-president/ president-elect, Board of Directors, and section officers in this month’s issue. Review the full statements by the vice-presidential candidates forthcoming in the February issue and vote in the election beginning March 19.

Make sure to check out the other features and columns this month, including Internet Resources on the bicentennial of the War of 1812 by Susan M. Frey, the newly revised ACRL Standards for Libraries in Higher Education, the index for last year’s volume of C&RL News, and our usual slate of departments including Internet Reviews and New Publications.

Thanks as always for reading the News!

1. Describe yourself in three words:  Resourceful, efficient, driven.

2. What are you reading right now? I’m reading Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I just finished reading Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown’s A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change. And I’ve just started Dorothy Wickenden’s Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West.

3. Describe ACRL in three words: Community, excellence, collaboration.

4. Why did you join ACRL? I joined ACRL because I wanted to stay in contact with people who are doing the same kinds of work that I’m doing and facing the same kinds of challenges. I also wanted to stay current with the latest theories and trends in academic libraries, and I love the way that ACRL continually promotes excellence within the profession.

5. What do you value about academic or research librarianship? My job takes so many different paths – teaching, outreach, collection development, helping others do research, and doing my own research. I find it very invigorating to have the chance to work on so many interesting projects and to make so many connections with people. I thrive on the energy that comes from working in many different areas.

6. In your own words: Before joining the world of libraries, I worked in both K-12 education and scholarly publishing. As an academic librarian, I’ve been able to draw upon my past experiences when trying to excite students about learning and when assisting faculty with their teaching and research. I truly enjoy working as a librarian, and I’m excited about the ways that our profession is changing. The library world presents many opportunities for experimentation, collaboration, and play – and that’s really energizing.

Editor’s Note: Are you an ACRL member? Would you like to be featured as ACRL Member of the Week? Nominate a colleague? Contact Mary Jane Petrowski at mpetrowski@ala.org for more information.

We listened carefully to your views about the values inherent in several committees and have revised the proposal to move the organization and the proposal forward in a responsive way.  The Board’s revised proposal updates the original document and is organized by each committee (http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/REV_Proposal.pdf), and we have revised the chart that summarizes the changes (http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/comparision_chart_REV.pdf). We know the committee document is lengthy, but it is structured so that you can refer easily to the outcomes suggested for each committee.

At Midwinter, the ACRL Leadership Council will receive a briefing on the revised proposal and where we go next. The Leadership Council agenda and documents can be found at:  http://connect.ala.org/node/165560. The Board has the updated Proposed Committee Structure on its agenda for its Saturday and Monday meetings at Midwinter (http://connect.ala.org/node/162913). The FAQ Regarding the Division-level Committee Structure Proposal is also available online (http://www.ala.org/acrl/aboutacrl/strategicplan/CommitteeFAQ).

On behalf of the Board let me thank you for your input and advice. I feel very positive about the Board’s response and thoughtful engagement with the process.

See you very soon in Dallas.

Joyce L. Ogburn
ACRL President

The Information Literacy Web Site Committee will share results from a preliminary needs analysis survey conducted last summer before turning to the main purpose of the forum –fostering conversations on how to improve our site to best serve your needs.

Mark your calendars for:

Saturday, January 21
1:30-3:30
Sheraton (SHER) San Antonio Ballroom B

The potential for using the digital environment to accelerate scholarship depends not only on unfettered access to publications and data, but also – equally – on having the clearly stated rights to use and re-use the materials. Only with full re-use rights are we able to realize the true potential of Open Access to create new knowledge, build on earlier findings, and translate research for educational and commercial use.

This SPARC/ACRL forum will explore the troubles of getting the rights piece wrong and how we can unlock the future of scholarship and scholarly communication if we get the rights piece right. With brief presentations and plenty of opportunity for discussion, speakers will share the latest in rights-related developments and highlight ideas for libraries to help reshape this crucial piece in the scholarly communication puzzle and make sure the future is open. Presenters will include:

• David Prosser, Executive Director, Research Libraries UK, on recent purchase negotiations. 
• Lisa Macklin, Director, Intellectual Property Rights Office of the Emory University Libraries, on the Georgia State University e-reserve case.
• Jon Voss, Historypin Strategic Partnerships Director, on linked data.
• Greg Grossmeier, Education Technology and Policy Coordinator, Creative Commons, on the importance and potential of open licensing.
• Wim Van der Stelt, Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy for Springer, on changing practices within the commercial publishing sector.

Other publishers and forum participants will also be invited to share related updates and join in this engaging and informative discussion.

The forum will be held Saturday, January 21, 2012 from 4:00 to 6:00 PM at the Dallas Convention Center, A201/202. 

The ACRL Scholarly Communications Discussion Group, which offers a more intimate setting to explore issues that surface at the forum, will explore some of the ethical issues with getting rights right and Open Access and be held Sunday, January 22, 2012 from 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM in the Sheraton Dallas Hotel, Majestic 05.

Best,
Mary Ellen
________________________________________________

Dear Colleagues,
Carl Harvey, 2011-2012 AASL president, has initiated a White House petition on school libraries, which specifically petitions the Obama administration to “ensure that every child in America has access to an effective school library program.” 25,000 signatures are required in order for this petition to be viewed by White House staff, no later than February 4, 2012.

Please take a few seconds to sign this petition, spread the word to your member groups, ask your colleagues and library supporters in your circles to sign on, and spread the word via Facebook, Twitter and other channels!  The url is: http://wh.gov/Wgd.

A few things of note:

* We’ve heard that the petition software is temperamental. If you cannot sign in on your  first attempt, please log out and log back in. Or, try a different web browser, or as a last resort, try a different computer.
* This petition should not be confused with a petition begun in 2011.
* White House petitions must be authored by individuals, not any association.

Therefore, Carl has introduced this petition as an individual, not as a representative of AASL or ALA.

Thank you,

Marci Merola, Director
Office for Library Advocacy
American Library Association
50 E. Huron Street, Chicago, IL, 60611
312.280.2431; 800.545.2433, x2431
mmerola@ala.org
Visit www.ilovelibraries.org

The last month or so has seen a flurry of anti-piracy, online infringing, copyright-related bills.  The latest newcomer is the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act or OPEN Act (S. 2029).  Introduced on December 17, 2011 by Sen. Wyden (D-OR), along with Senators Moran (R-KS) and Cantwell (D-WA), the OPEN Act is being heralded as a more palatable alternative to existing anti-piracy bills – The Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011 or PIPA (S. 968), and The Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA (H.R. 3261). 

All three bills take aim at any website beyond U.S. borders that distribute counterfeit or copyright infringing products.   To capture how all three bills compare and contrast, I’ve constructed the PIPA, SOPA and OPEN Act Quick Reference Guide (pdf).  Not meant to be comprehensive (it would be pages and pages), nor too legalese (I’m a librarian, not a lawyer – although I did consult our legal consultant), the chart helps depict the nuanced and not-so-nuanced differences among the bills.

What you’ll see (hopefully at a glance), is unlike PIPA or SOPA, the OPEN Act focuses solely on curbing online infringement by cutting off websites’ payment processing and ad networks. In contrast, PIPA and SOPA go further in that they also incentivize internet companies to cut off access to websites.  The tactics the latter two bills employ have a potential chilling effect on 1st Amendment free speech rights and intellectual freedom, as well as weaken cyber security, and threaten privacy.
 
Also, the guide captures the status of the bills as of today, January 10.  It is worth noting that the bills are in the midst of the legislative process – the U.S. House Judiciary committee will resume markup of SOPA on January 17th and the U.S. Senate has scheduled a cloture vote on PIPA for January 24th.  In addition, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Rep. Issa (R-Calif.) announced a hearing has been scheduled for January 18th on the potential impact of Domain Name Service (DNS) and search engine blocking.
 
The ALA will continue to voice strong opposition to PIPA and SOPA, while further analysis of the OPEN Act is needed.
 
Corey Williams
Associate Director, Office of Government Relations
American Library Association