ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 169 act as liaison, but not as advocate, for each com­ mittee. Action: Refer to Executive Committee. b. Establish a Public Information Committee, comprising ACRL past president, councilor, and executive director, to coordinate the communica­ tion o f Association views to the larger library community. Action: Refer to Executive Commit­ tee. c. Make Planning Committee responsible for sh ort-ran g e planning and p erio d ic rev iew of long-range goals and objectives. Action: Refer to Planning Committee. d. Encourage greater cost consciousness within the Board. Action: Refer to Board. 2. Sections and Committees. a. Hold orientation sessions for all new com­ mittee appointees. Action: Refer to Staff. b. Sponsor leadership/group dynamics work­ shops for new e lected officers and com m ittee chairs. Action: Refer to Staff. c. Encourage prompt action by, and discharge of, ad hoc com m ittees. Action: R efer to Board and Sections. d. Encourage economy in com m ittee opera­ tions ( e .g ., by r e lie v in g S ta ff o f c o m m itte e paperwork, etc.). Action: Refer to Board, S e c­ tions, Committees, Staff. 3. Headquarters. a. Commission study of work load and flow in ACRL office. Action: Refer to Executive Commit­ tee. b. Upgrade executive staff to equivalency with strong academic library directorate. Action: Refer to Executive Committee. c. E n large and seek greater perm anence in headquarters personnel in accord with these goals and objectives. Action: Refer to Executive Com­ mittee. d. Commission design of improved M anage­ m ent Inform ation System (M IS) program (re members, costs, revenues, etc.) to aid in decision making. Action: R efer to Budget and Fin an ce Committee. e. Becom e primary voice in support of these objectives in all forums (e.g ., government agen­ cies, professional circles, scholarly community, etc.). Action: Refer to Executive Director. f. Develop capability to sample membership opinion reliably and quickly (e .g ., for program evaluation, priority determination, etc.). Action: Refer to Staff. g. Study comparative costs of in-house and con­ tracted services (re M IS, conference planning, publishing, telecom m u n ication , e tc .). Action: Refer to Staff. 4. Support Services. a. Commission cost analysis of electronic mail system betw een headquarters and members, li­ braries, committees, officers, etc. Action: Refer to Executive Committee. b. C om m ission feasibility study o f utilizing teleconferencing techniques to (1) extend pro­ gram delivery capability to local, regional, and national audiences; and (2) facilitate conduct of Board, section, and committee business. Action: Refer to Executive Committee. c. Study con version o f p re s e n t A C R L data bases, and the development of future files, for on­ line remote terminal access (e.g., committee ros­ ters, research-in-progress files, skills directories, placement listings, committee histories, etc.). Ac­ tion: Refer to Executive Committee. d. S e e k fu nding for program o f in c e n tiv e awards (e.g., for best research, most innovative idea, most active chapter, etc.). Action: Refer to Planning Committee. Editor s Note: The Activity Model Committee con­ sists o f David Kaser (chair), Indiana University; Olive C. James, Library o f Congress; William J. Studer, Ohio State University; Carla J. Stoffle, University o f Wisconsin-Parkside; and Julie C ar­ roll Virgo, ACRL executive director. ■ ■ NEH Program s in the Humanities Hidden among the redwoods and Douglas fir in the coastal hills near Los Gatos, California, the Presentation C en ter run by the Sisters of the Presentation of the Child was the scene of the second NEH/ACRL workshop on humanities pro­ gramming, February 2 3 -2 5 . With clear weather, the tem p eratu re a balm y 60°, birds chirp ing, flowers blooming, and the lazy atmosphere of a placid hacienda, the center provided an ideal re­ treat for librarians and humanists to meet, com­ pare notes, and learn the fundamentals of writing grant proposals for programs to bring library ma­ terials in the humanities to people in their com­ munity. A N ational Endow m ent for the H um anities grant of $64,549 allowed for the two workshops, the first of which was held in Shrewsbury, Mas­ sachusetts, on November 3 0 -D ecem b er 2, 1981. Twenty-six teams of one librarian and one faculty humanist from each institution attended the Los Gatos workshop, and twenty-five teams met in Shrewsbury. Because of the limits on attendance, this represented only about 45% of all those who applied. Many in the group that attended the California workshop had already begun to plan humanities programs. Sonoma State University was consider­ ing a program targeted for the Indochinese popu­ lation in their area. Georgia Southern College had been studying a program on noted G eo r­ gians. Other institutions were focusing on senior citizens, Native Americans, local artists and au­ thors, and other special interest groups or re- 170 Peggy O’Donnell (beneath crucifix) acts as facilitator fo r one o f the NEH librarian-humanist study groups at the NE H workshop. sources in their community. ACRL’s program assistant for the NEH work­ shops, Barbara Macikas, opened the program by explaining the Association’s interest in encourag­ ing h u m an ities program m ing. T h en Peggy O’Donnell, Chicago library consultant and con­ ference director, introduced program moderators Thomas C. Phelps and Abbie Cutter, representa­ tives from the NEH Division of Public Programs. Phelps explained that the purpose of the NEH grant program was basically to promote a con­ tinued public awareness of the humanities in the out-of-school, adult public by making library re­ sources available to them with added interpreta­ tion and in sig h t provided by local faculty humanists. A bbie C u tte r w ent into some detail about specific grant ideas and the application process it­ self. “Every successful program should have four elem ents,” she explained. “First, there must be a well-defined idea or theme to be conveyed to a well-defined public audience. Second, both li­ brarians and scholars should be involved equally in the program ’s design and im plem entation. Third, every element of the program should be consistent with the overall theme and target au­ dience. Finally, the program should demonstrate an excellent use of local library resources.” Applications for an N EH grant usually take about five months to process. The first stage is to contact the NEH Washington staff prior to sub­ mitting a proposal so that they can offer sugges­ tions for changes in focus or in specific program elements that might have a greater chance for approval. Completed proposals are then sent to a selected panel of independent evaluators includ­ ing scholars, professionals, and other individuals with a wide range of expertise. Applications are also reviewed by subject area specialists who look closely at a program ’s con ten t and its use of humanities resources. The recommendations of panels and reviewers are considered by the Na­ tional Council on the Humanities, a 26-member board appointed by the President to advise the chair of NEH on policy and programming. The council then recommends the award, rejection, modification, or deferral of each grant proposal that has been through the review process and al­ locates funds accordingly. In order to give workshop participants an idea of what designing a successful program is like, everyone split into five groups which were given case studies to contemplate. Each case study de­ scribed a m ythical library, its hum anities r e ­ sources, and its community setting. The groups then prepared brief reports that summarized pos­ sible audiences for programming, the library’s us­ able resources, themes or topics suitable for pro­ gramming, and one concept for a program series that incorporated the library’s humanities hold­ ings. Providing the teams with some nuts-and-bolts experience with humanities programs in the field, speaker Gregory Stevens described the Capital District Humanities Program which he directs at SUNY-Albany. Stevens’ program, which is funded by NEH, is a collaborative effort involving educa­ tion and cultural organizations and community groups in the Albany-Schenectady-Troy area of east central New York. Included in the Spring 171 Capital District Humanities Program director Gregory Stevens (left) discusses humanities programming with librarian Jack M iddendorf Wayne State College. 1982 C D H P prospectus are programs on old houses of the Upper Hudson Valley, an apprecia­ tion of the Black playwright, and an excursion to classical Rome. Comments about the NEH/ACRL California workshop w ere very favorable. M elissa Cain, English librarian at the University of Illinois, Ur­ bana, said th at th e workshop provided a “humanization of the NEH which makes creating and w ritin g grant proposals much e a s ie r .” Richard Van Wye, director of library services at M ayville S ta te C o lle g e , N orth D akota, ap ­ preciated the “information exchange among li­ brarians and humanists during informal meetings after the sessions. Already we’ve found some new ideas for our college’s programs,’’ he said. ACRL has re-submitted its proposal to NEH for two additional workshops in 1982-83. I f funds Abbie Cutter and Thomas Phelps, from the NEH Washington Office. 172 are available the workshops will be held in loca­ tions in the Southeast and the Midwest. C &RL News will report on the status of the NEH/ACRL program as details become available. ■ ■ VIRGO CHALLENGES THE CALIFORNIA GRASSROOTS On February 11, Julie Carroll Virgo, executive director of ACRL, completed a four-day whistle stop tour o f California. The successful six-city tour, sponsored by the California Academic and Research Librarians (CARL), was itself an histori­ cal occasion which introduced librarians in met­ ropolitan areas in the northern and southern parts of this large state, as well as librarians nationwide through tapes of her talks, to the provocative and well-articulated ideas of this energetic academic library leader and educator. Virgo tied her talks together with two impor­ tant and timely themes: 1) the challenge to the profession from the proposed reclassification of the federal librarian positions by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and, 2) the value of the new article by Allen Veaner, “Continuity or Discontinuity: A Persistent Personnel Issue in Academic Librarianship,” Advances in Library Administration and Organization 1 (1982): 1, where he “incisively delineates the role of the li­ brarian and the role of the support staff in the academic environment.” In San Diego and Berkeley, Virgo addressed “The Role of the Librarian as M anager.” With this topic she explored “the larger role of the li­ brarian in the academic or research community, the educational preparation necessary to build that role, how the environment impacts on that role, and how we reconcile the array of roles that would be placed upon us: librarian, manager, educator, faculty member, scholar, researcher.” She supported h er prem ise that lib rarian s’ “primary responsibilities are as practitioners of our profession” as she discussed faculty status and the implications of technological change in rela­ tion to the proposed revised federal standards and Veaner’s article. In “Certification, ” the topic of her talks in both W hittier and Sacramento, Virgo addressed the problem of credibility and the role of the library schools in the education process. She summarized the complexities of developing a certification program, basing her talk on her experiences as director of education for the Med­ ical Library Association where she was instru­ mental in the developm ent o f a com petency- based certification program. Her answer to the question, “Is the possession of a set of stated competencies a viable alternative for an MLS in academic libraries?” was yes and no. “Yes,” she said, “if we have resources to develop excellent competency-based examinations, but the answer is no at the moment because I don’t think that we have that capability.” Northridge and Stanford hosted presentations on “C urrent Issues in H igher Education and Academic Librarianship.” Seven current issues in higher education: financing, demographics, cur­ riculum, faculty, societal and political changes, technology, and economics, were woven into Vir­ go’s fifteen su ggested solu tions. H er w ell- reasoned and substantial text discussed why li­ brarians have to respond to these issues and what actions libraries could take to soften the impact, and to survive these nationwide trends. Several of her many suggestions were to “in­ crease productivity of library staffs, be prepared to terminate employment of the less productive, look for ways to cut personnel costs through ap­ propriate technology, challenge assumptions on the extent to which collections and services are used, conduct fund raising, and be consumer- oriented, not product-oriented.” The value of bright, strong, knowledgeable library leaders was implicit in her tough and practical suggestions. The state-wide tour was the first of this mag­ nitude attempted by the CARL librarians. Her published stops were complemented by a series of coffees, wine receptions, lunches, and dinners where she had the opportunity to informally meet the California librarians and gather their con­ cerns. These grassroots, or local, concerns, fac­ tored into her own thinking, she said, provided her with greater insight as she represented us on the ACRL Board, a function she feels is vital to her role as an academic library leader. The tour was noteworthy also as it set a prece­ dent for academic library cooperation and for par­ ticipation in professional activities at the local level, one of ACRL’s goals for the state chapters. Too, it allowed timely and consistent information to be personally delivered to the California librar­ ians by a nationally respected figure in academic librarianship. Tapes of Virgo’s three presentations are being offered by CARL as a fund raising effort. With this offer librarians can add Virgo’s speeches to their library’s collection and concurrently help support this large ACRL state chapter. “Certification,” “The Role of the Librarian as Manager,” and “Current Issues in Higher Educa­ tion and Academic Librarianship” are each ap­ proximately one hour long and consist of Virgo’s speech and her answers to questions following it. Tapes are available for $10 each. Please indi­ cate the titles you wish, make your check out to CARL, and send both by August 1 to Julie Virgo Tapes, C SU LB Library, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90840, Attn: Wendy Culotta. P l ease allow 30 days for d e liv e r y .— W endy Culotta, Science-Technology Librarian, Califor­ nia State University‚ Long Beach. ■ ■