ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


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The ACRL publications 
program

By R ich ard  Hum e W erking

A v a rie d  a n d  v ib r a n t a r ra y  o f  
books, jo u r n a ls , a n d  surveys

T he ACRL publications program is exten­sive and varied. Until my tenure on the 
Publications Committee I had been 
unaware o f the program’s richness, 
even though I have been a member 
of ACRL for almost twenty years and 
served a stint on one o f its editorial 
boards. Consequently, I thought it 
might be useful to provide the mem­
bership with a brief overview o f their 
association’s considerable publishing 
activity. (Descriptions of the several 
p u blication s o r series are drawn 
chiefly from the ACRL B u sin ess P lan  f o r  P u b li­
cation s, 1994.)

A second purpose o f this piece is to invite 
all interested ACRL members to discuss these 
publications with editors and editorial board 
chairs at the ACRL booth during the ALA An­
nual Conference in Chicago in June 
(see sidebar).

Last Ju n e’s issue o f C&RL N ews 
carried an article, by ACRL execu­
tive director Althea H. Jenkins, about 
the 1993 membership survey. Accord­
ing to the members, ACRL’s two most 
valuable activities and programs are 
two publications which virtually tied 
for first place: C ollege & R esearch  Li­
b ra r ies and C olleg e & R esearch  L i­
b ra ries News. The next three most 
v alu ab le activ itie s are d ifferen t 
types o f information made available through 
ACRL publications: standards and guidelines,

jo b  opportunities information, and library sta­
tistics.

ACRL periodicals
ACRL publishes four periodicals and assists the 
sections with the publication o f fifteen section 
newsletters. O f the four periodicals, two are 

edited by full-time ACRL staff ( C&RL 
N ews and Choice') and the other two 
by volunteer editors appointed for 
fixed terms.

C ollege & R esearch  L ib raries is a bi­
monthly scholarly journal, published 
since 1939 and provided as a perqui­
site o f membership in ACRL. C&RL 
enjoys a favorable reputation in librari
anship, and it has been found repeat­
edly to be ranked among the top jour­

nals in library and information science. Its 
purpose is to provide a research forum for aca­
demic librarians and to enhance the knowledge 
base o f the profession. The editor is Gloriana 
St. Clair, associate dean for information access 
services at the Pennsylvania State University Li­

brary, e-mail: gss@psulias.psu.edu.
C ollege & R esearch  L ib raries News, 

which appears eleven months a year, 
is ACRL’s news magazine and offi­
cial journal o f record. Like C&RL‚ it 
is provided as a perquisite of mem­
bership. Until 1966 it was published 
as a section in C&RL. It disseminates 
information about events and people 
in academic librarianship and else­
where in higher education, includ­
ing job postings, appointments, and 
news stories about grants, federal 

legislation, acquisitions, and new publications. 
The short articles on successful innovations pro-

R ichard H um e Werking is c h a ir  o f  the ACRL Publications Committee a n d  librarian  a n d  associate dean, U.S. 
N aval Academ y, Annapolis; e-m ail: rwerking@nimitz.nadn.navy.mil

mailto:gss@psulias.psu.edu
mailto:rwerking@nimitz.nadn.navy.mil


May 1 9 9 5 /3 3 3

vide valuable information to practicing librar­
ians. In addition to publishing in the traditional 
print-on-paper format, ACRL is pub­
lishing C&RL N ewsN et on the Inter­
net, providing news and job ads 
through a gopher server. The edi­
tor o f C&RL N ew s is Mary Ellen K.
Davis, senior associate executive 
director o f ACRL; e-mail: mary.eilen. 
davis@ala.org.

C hoice, a book review magazine, 
also appears eleven times a year. It 
began publication in 1964 as part of 
a larger project to update B ooksf o r  
C ollege L ibraries, and it reviews more than 6,000 
books a year. The magazine also operates a 
“reviews-on-cards” subscription pro­
gram and publishes C h o ice bibliog­
raphies in the Bibliographic Essay Se­
ries and the Ethnic Studies Series. The 
acting editor o f C h o ice is Francine 
Graf; e-mail: frangraf@delphi.com.

R a re B o o k s a n d  M an u scripts L i
b r a r ia n s h ip , begun in 1986, is a 
scholarly journal which publishes 
articles on rare books, special col­
lections, and archives. The editor is 
Sidney Berger, head o f special col­
lections and university archivist at the Univer­
sity o f California, Riverside, Library; e-mail: 
spcolseb@ucracl.ucr.edu.

ACRL books
In addition to periodicals, ACRL publishes books 
in three different series. Since 1952 ACRL Pub­
lications in Librarianship, formerly the ACRL 
Monographs Series, has produced research 
monographs and edited volumes o f scholarly 
essays in academic librarianship. The most re­
cent titles are A bstracting, In form ation  R etrieval, 
a n d  th e H u m an ities, by Helen R. Tibbo, and 
A ca d em ic L ib ra ries: R esearch  P erspectives, ed­
ited by Mary J o  Lynch and Arthur P. Young. 
ACRL edits this series, which is published by 
ALA Editions. The editor o f the series is Stephen 
Wiberley, bibliographer for the social sciences 
at the University o f Illinois at Chicago Library; 
e-mail: u30959@uicvm.uic.edu.

The CLIP Notes series (College Library In­
formation Packet) resembles ARL’s SPEC Kits, 
with each publication containing information 
resulting from a survey o f libraries on a par­
ticular topic, as well as a few exemplary docu­
ments provided by responding libraries. Some 
re ce n t titles are L ib r a r y  S er v ic es f o r  N on ­

a ffilia t e d  P atron s, CLIP N ote #2 1 , by Eugene S. 
Mitchell, and M an ag in g  S tu d en t W orkers in  

C olleg e L ib raries, CLIP N ote #20, by 
Michael Kathman and Jane McGurn 
Kathman. This series is produced 
by the CLIP Notes Committee of 
ACRL’s College Libraries Section, 
w hose chair is Patricia Butcher; 
e-mail: butcher@tscvm.trenton.edu. 
O ther nonresearch m onographs 
reach publication through the New 
Publications Advisory Board, which 
reviews manuscripts on a variety of 
topics. Many o f the manuscripts, 

though by no means all, originate with one of 
the sections or other units o f ACRL. Among 

recent titles are D iscoverin g L ib ra r­
ia n s: P rofiles o f  a  P rofession , by Mary 
Jan e Scherdin; V o cation a l a n d  T ech­
n ic a l R esou rces f o r  C om m u n ity C ol­
leg e L ibraries, by Mary Ann Laun; and 
S cien ce a n d  E n g in eerin g  C o n feren ce 
P roceed in g s, by Barbara DeFelice. 
Editing this series is ACRL program 
o ffice r Hugh Thom pson; e-m ail: 
hugh.thompson@ala.org.

ACRL surveys
In addition to periodicals and books, ACRL also 
publishes statistical surveys. These, too, are 
guided through to publication by Hugh Thomp­
son. The most recent title is ACRL U niversity 
L ib rary  S tatistics, 1992– 9 3 .

Meet the editors
ACRL members who would like to dis­

cuss their association’s publications program 
are invited to com e by the ACRL booth at 
ALA’s Annual Conference and meet the edi­
tors and chairs o f the editorial boards. Their 
hours will be: Sunday, Ju ne 25, 3:00–4:00 
p.m.: Norma Kobzina ( C h oice editorial board, 
at the C h o ice booth), Pamela Snelson ( C&RL 
N ew s editorial board), Mary Ellen Davis 
( C&RL N ews editor), and Hugh Thompson 
(n e w  p u b lic a tio n s ); Sun day, Ju n e  25, 
4 :00-5:00 p.m.: Francine Graf (acting editor 
o f C h o ic e , at the C h o ic e  b o o th ), Paula 
Muφhy (new publications), Gloriana St. Clair 
( C&RL editor), Richard Werking (ACRL Pub­
lications Committee chair), and Stephen 
Wiberley (Publications in Librarianship).

mailto:davis@ala.org
mailto:frangraf@delphi.com
mailto:spcolseb@ucracl.ucr.edu
mailto:u30959@uicvm.uic.edu
mailto:butcher@tscvm.trenton.edu
mailto:hugh.thompson@ala.org


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