ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


818 / C&RL News ■ September 2001

LEARNING  C O M M U N IT IE S  
FOR EXCELLENCE

ACRL: The learning community for 
excellence in academic libraries

The presidential theme for the coming year

by Mary Reichel

M
y purpose in writing this column is to 
share w hy I chose the presidential 

theme o f “ACRL: The Learning Community 
for Excellence in Academic Libraries” and to 
explain w hy I think the learning community 
concept is such a powerful one. I also hope 
to set the stage for the coming year’s col­
umns, which will share this common theme.

While looking ahead, I want to look back 
and thank immediate past-president Betsy 
Wilson for her excellent leadership, her in­
spiring column “The Lone Ranger is Dead: 
Success Today Demands Collaboration,”1 and 
the engaging series o f articles on “Commu­
nity and Collaboration” in the 2000-2001 C&RL 
News. The commonalities in presidential 
themes is intentional and based on ACRL’s 
Strategic Directions 2005 as the common de­
nominator for the primary goals o f the asso­
ciation.

P o w e r o f  the idea
For me, the idea o f learning community is a 
powerful concept. Learning community cap­
tures the shift that has occurred in the last 
decade in higher education from teaching to 
learning. Emphasizing the importance o f 
learning has done a number o f things.

First, it puts teaching into perspective in 
the sense that good teaching has to result in 
learning. It is not enough to have a finely

crafted lecture if students do not learn from 
the lecture or from activities that follow.

Second, part o f  the focus on learning rec­
ognizes that people have different learning 
styles and that good teaching takes into ac­
count learning styles and the differences 
among learners.

Third, the focus on learning provides a 
balance between learning the subject matter 
and the process o f learning. Academic librar­
ians know that learning how  to search for 
information and ideas and how  to evaluate 
the worth o f the information found is crucial 
for an educated person.2 Information literacy 
also focuses on the learner and the process 
o f learning as well as the ideas, knowledge, 
and facts to be learned. Librarians collabo­
rate with faculty in promoting information lit­
eracy to create meaningful learning experi­
ences for students.

Fourth, to tie learning with community pro­
vides meaning for the higher education ex­
perience. Learning is both an individual and 
collaborative experience. The value o f tradi­
tional colleges and universities is that they 
provide faculty, resources, and the atmo­
sphere that encourage learners to explore new 
knowledge, concepts, and their ow n beliefs 
and abilities. Learning is certainly at times a 
solitary pursuit, but to have a learning com­
munity reinforces the idea that something is

A b o u t  the autho r

Mary Reichel is president of ACRL and university librarian at Appalachian State University, e-mail: reichelml@appstate.edu

mailto:reichelml@appstate.edu


C&RL N ew s ■ Septem ber 2001 / 819

really learned when it is shared, just as we 
know that teaching is really the best way to 
learn.

In higher education, learning community 
refers to specific innovative curricular links. The 
1990 book Learning Communities defined 
them this way:

A  learning community is any one o f a 
variety o f curricular structures that link 
together several existing courses— or 
actually restructure the curricular mate­
rial entirely— so that students have op­
portunities for deeper understanding 
and integration o f the material they are 
learning, and more interaction with one 
another and their teachers as fellow par­
ticipants in the learning enterprise.3

A 1996 article in Liberal Education1 noted 
that many learning community initiatives had 
been started including Freshman Interest 
Groups (FIGs) and those geared to students in 
general education, developmental studies, hon­
ors programs, and in major or minor disciplines. 
The authors conclude that “a growing body o f 
research demonstrates that learning commu­
nities are successful because they help build a 
sense o f group identity and community.”’ 

Students and faculty w h o participate in 
learning communities benefit from the inten­
tional and coherent nature o f clustering the 
courses, as w ell as the engagement with each 
other and the learning process. Learning com­
munities have been geared to undergradu­
ates to help reform undergraduate education, 
but there is an implicit link that graduate stu­
dents as they enter programs form their own 
learning communities.

Learning community also applies to the 
whole enterprise o f higher education. I first 
began to think more deeply about learning 
communities when Appalachian State Univer­
sity used the phrase to summarize its vision 
o f the future as being a model learning com­
munity in its 1998 Strategic Plan6.

As a member o f  the Strategic Planning 
Commission that drafted the vision and the 
plan, I realized how  the vision aligned the 
library in the very best sense w ith the 
university’s goals. Appalachian State seeks to 
function as a community o f learners empha­
sizing that students, faculty, and staff are all 
learners.

W h o  h a s le arn ed  m ore  o r ch a n ge d  

m ore  th a n  a cad e m ic lib ra ria n s in 

th e  la st 25 y e a rs? Lib raria n s have 

led c a m p u se s in n e w  w a y s  o f 

a p p r o a c h in g  a n d  u sin g  te ch n o logy .

A ca de m ic lib rarian s a s prem ier 
learners
Academic librarians have been in the forefront 
o f being learners on campus, and interested in 
Learning Communities. The Coalition for Net­
worked Information (CNI), with ACRL, the 
American Association for Higher Education, and 
the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative 
sponsored a number o f conferences on “New  
Learning Communities” in the mid-1990s.7

For me, one o f the joys o f being a librarian 
is that I can count on learning something new 
every day. Academic librarians are constantly 
working with students in the learning mode, 
and they also work with faculty as faculty rec­
ognize that they need to learn new literature 
for interdisciplinary work or new technologies 
to be effective in communicating with students.

In the area o f technology, academic librar­
ians have been the premier learners in apply­
ing technological advances to information pro­
cesses and to the whole enterprise o f the li­
brary as central to teaching, learning, and re­
search. Who has learned more or changed more 
than academic librarians in the last 25 years? 
Librarians have led campuses in new ways o f 
approaching and using technology.

One o f my own learning experiences in 
this past year has been enriched by the com­
munity o f academic librarians willing and ready 
to share their knowledge and experiences. At 
Appalachian State, w e have the privilege o f 
building a new library and information com­
mons.

Visiting more than a dozen libraries in this 
past year has reaffirmed and strengthened my 
belief in academic librarians. N ew or expanded 
buildings offer the opportunity to articulate 
what makes the library valuable for students 
and faculty, and I have listened with admira­
tion as librarians align the realities and poten­
tial o f their buildings with the goals and needs 
o f their institutions.

I have also marveled at the dedication and 
hard work o f all these academic librarians who



820 / C&RL News ■ September 2001

have carried on with their normal work load 
as well as overseeing major building projects.

Inspiration was found at every institution, 
but let me mention just a few, including the 
Tennessee college where the librarian literally 
could see the building project from her high- 
rise apartment and would dash to the scene if 
she questioned anything that the builders were 
doing; the California university where the build­
ing was used to improve campus and school 
relationships; and the Pennsylvania university 
where the building and services truly match 
the vision o f the 21st-century library. This ex­
perience has reaffirmed my belief in the in­
vigorating effect o f learning something new 
and learning with others.

Learning an d  profession al 
developm en t
The learning community concept serves well 
as a backdrop for the values academic librar­
ians use as they work with students and fac­
ulty. It serves equally well to represent the best 
o f what w e do for ourselves within ACRL as a 
learning community to develop, share, improve, 
and apply ideas that each o f us brings to the 
profession. W e use ACRL and its many activi­
ties to provide excellence in our own libraries. 
The whole concept o f continual learning8 can 
be promoted through ACRL and through indi­
vidual academic libraries.

ACRL’s 2000 Membership Survey confirmed 
that members really value ACRL for its profes­
sional development activities. In addressing 
which programs ACRL should continue, respon­
dents ranked publications first and professional 
development second, and in truth publications 
can be viewed as the most regular means o f 
professional development. As Melissa Cast and 
Shannon Cary wrote:

Our members see ACRL publications as 
an invaluable service. An overwhelming 
92.7% o f respondents indicated that they 
read College and Research Libraries News 
regularly, with 90.3% reading College and 
Research Libraries regularly.9

The survey continued “the second program 
. . .  that members feel ACRL should continue is 
professional development/continuing educa­
tion opportunities . . .  [and] the ACRL National 
Conference stood out as an exemplary pro­
gram.”10 From the membership survey, and

from my own impressions, it is clear that aca­
demic librarians value ACRL as a forum in which 
to find new learning experiences.

The membership survey also substantiated 
what I have found to be true in ACRL in that 
members are very loyal to their original home 
within the association, be it a section, chapter, 
discussion group, or committee. These units 
provide a learning community o f like-minded 
individuals where the conversations among 
members provide support and impetus to reach 
beyond what one is already doing.

En cou ragem en t t o  take risks
The willingness to take risks and allow others 
to take risks is fundamental to the values pro­
moted by the learning community concept. 
Learning, in the sense o f going beyond what 
w e already know, will involve mistakes and 
missteps. ACRL has a time-honored role o f pro­
viding professional support for individuals to 
test risky ideas and ventures before they are 
proposed or implemented at the local library. 
Realization that w e are all learners allows for a 
safety net when mistakes occur.

Excellence
Another value inherent in the learning com­
munity concept is that the process o f learning 
can be approached in an intentional way. In 
this coming year, I hope w e can use the learn­
ing community and excellence approach to 
ensure that w e keep our sights on ACRL as an 
organization that can and must help academic 
librarians reach their full potential in providing 
quality services, collections, and facilities. En­
suring that the academic library is a fundamental 
part o f the institution’s learning community will 
ensure the library’s relevance to the institution’s 
educational and research programs.

ACRL, as an intentional learning commu­
nity, can help academic libraries stay ahead o f 
the ever accelerating rate o f change while keep­
ing our vision informed with the best o f our 
values.

N otes
1. Betsy Wilson, “The Lone Ranger is dead: 

Success today demands collaboration,” College and 
Research Libraries News 61, no. 9 (September 2000): 
698-701.

2. Patricia Senn Breivik and E. Gordon Gee, 
Information Literacy: Revolution in the Library 
(New York: American Council on Education/ 
Macmillan Publishing Company, 1989).



C&RL N ew s ■ Septem ber 2001 / 821

3. Faith Gabelnick, Jean MacGregor, Roberta S. 
Matthews, and Barbara Leigh Smith, Learning Com­
munities: Creating Connections Among Students, 
Faculty, and Disciplines ( New Directions fo r Teach­
ing and Learning, no. 41 Spring 1990, San Fran­
cisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc., 1990): 19.

4. Roberta Matthews, Barbara Leigh Smith, Jean 
MacGregor, and Faith Gabelnick, “Learning Com­
munities: A Structure for Educational Coherence,” 
Liberal Education 82, no. 3 (Summer 1996): 4-9.

5. Ibid., 9.
6. Appalachian State University’s Strategic Plan 

can be found at http://www.appstate. 
e d u / w w w _ d o c s / d e p a rt/ irp / p la n n in g /  
plancont.html.

7. “New Learning Communities Conference” at 
http://www.arl.org/newsltr/184/newlearn.html.

8. Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The art 
and practice o f the learning organization (New 
York: Doubleday, 1990).

9. Melissa Cast and Shannon Cary, “Members 
assess ACRL,” College and Research Libraries News 
62, no. 6 (June 2001): 627.

10. Ibid., 627. ■

( “Resources fo r  news . . . ” cont. from  page 
816)

• Veronis Suhler. Media industry mer­
chant bank Veronis Suhler is a provider o f 
communications industry financial and merger 
and acquisition advisory services. Veronis 
Suhler is research oriented and provides a 
good  source o f  information on the media, 
communications, and information industries. 
Each year, the firm publishes tw o media and 
communications industry research publica­
tions— The Communications Industry Fore­
cast and The Communications Industry Re­
port. Veronis Suhler’s Internet Research Li­
brary contains links to W eb sites that are 
sources for industry and financial informa­
tion for various segments o f  the communica­
tions industry. The site includes a section on 
industry associations and information pro­
viders for the professional and educational 
publishing industry, which contains links to 
many o f the sites referenced earlier in this ar­
ticle. Access:- http://www.veronissuhler.com/.

• BPi Communications. BPi Communi­
cations is a leading information provider in 
the entertainment, media, marketing, literary, 
and visual arts communities. It publishes top 
publications in these fields such as Adweek, 
Billboard, and Editor & Publisher. Access: 
http://www.bpicomm.com/. ■

http://www.appstate
http://www.arl.org/newsltr/184/newlearn.html
http://www.veronissuhler.com/
http://www.bpicomm.com/