ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


5 4 8 /C&RL News

Board of Directors’ actions, 
June/July, 1 9 9 7

Highlights o f  the ACRL B o a rd ’s 
A n n u a l Conference meetings

D
uring the 1997 ALA Annual Conference 
in San Francisco the ACRL Board of Di­
rectors took the following actions.

ACRL governance
A p p ro v ed  r e v is e d  c h a rg e fo r  th e  G o v ern ­
ment Relations Committee.

A p p ro v ed  r e v is e d  c h a rg e fo r  th e  R esearch  
Committee.

A c c e p te d  r e v is e d  ACRL B y la w s fr o m  th e  
Constitution an d  Bylaws Com mittee, com ­
m ented on the revisions and instructed the 
committee to m ake further changes for the 
Board’s review and first vote by mail ballot in 
the fall, to be followed by a second Board vote 
at the ALA Midwinter Meeting and a vote by 
the membership in the spring ALA election.

A p p ro v ed  a n a m e  c h a n g e  fo r  th e  A cad em ic 
Status Committee as recommended by the com­
mittee to: Committee on the Status of Academic 
Librarians.

A p p r o v e d  a c h a n g e  in  c o m m it t e e  n a m e  
and charge for the ACRL Leadership Center Ad­
visory Committee. The new  committee name 
is ACRL Leadership Development Committee. 
The new  charge is: “To develop leaders for the 
academic and research library profession and 
for the broader higher education community; 
to develop a coordinated array of programs and 
services sponsored by various entities which, 
collectively, would comprise an ACRL Leader­
ship Center.”

A p p ro v ed  a r e v is e d  c h a rg e a n d  c o m p o s i­
tion for the ACRL/AECT joint committee to 
broaden its representation to include all types

of libraries and librarians and expand program­
matic relationships beyond the promulgation 
and maintenance of community/junior college 
standards.

A greed  to h o ld  a Board retreat O ctob er 3 -4 , 
1997.

Professional development
M ade a s p e c i a l c o m m e n d a t io n  to  C arla 
Stoffle, chair of the 8th ACRL National Confer­
ence in Nashville, for its many successes in 
programming and financial achievements, rec­
ognizing a number of firsts for ACRL and the 
profession: use of the Web to generate discus­
sion on conference papers, extensive presence 
of teaching faculty and academic administrators 
as program presenters, presentations from mem­
bers of the profession with specific talents and 
known accomplishments by invitation, and an 
expanded “hot topics” program session.

V oted  to  a p p r o v e  th e  e s t a b lis h m e n t o f  th e  
ACRL National Information Literacy Institute, 
provide seed money for planning the institute, 
and establish an advisory committee to over­
see its planning and implementation and re­
port to the Board on its progress.

A p p r o v e d  14 p r o g r a m  t it le s  f r o m  ACRL 
units for presentation during the 1998 ALA 
Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.

A greed  to  n o t p u r su e  fu rth er th e  B oard ’s 
evaluation of national conference frequency 
cycle, but to ask staff and national conference 
planning committees to use the criteria in plan­
ning conferences and to include questions in fu­
ture membership surveys that assess members’ 
participation and satisfaction with the conference.

Financial actions
A p p r o v e d  th e  tr a n s fe r  o f  $ 4 0 0 ,0 0 0  fr o m  
the ACRL O perating Fund Balance into the 
ACRL E ndow m ent an d  $200,000 from  the



September 1 9 9 7 / 5 4 9

Choice Operating Fund Balance into the Choice 
Endowment over a two-fiscal-year period, and 
having these transfers m ade during the second 
and fourth quarters of the ALA fiscal year.

A p p r o v e d  g e n e r a l g u id e lin e s  in  r e la tio n  to  
a withdrawal policy for the ACRL and Choice 
endow m ents as follows:

“W ithdrawals from the ACRL and Choice 
endow m ents will be m ade only under limited 
circumstances, as defined and approved by the 
ACRL Board. Withdrawals will be authorized 
only in order to carry out strategic priorities or 
in order to respond to emergency situations.”

V oted  to  e s t a b lis h  s p e c ific  p o lic ie s  o n  w it h ­
drawal after the ALA BARC/Divisions Task Force 
on endow m ent policy has com pleted its work 
and recom m ended policies on division with­
drawals from endow m ent funds.

A p p r o v e d  c h a n g e s  to  th e  ACRL a n d  C h o ic e  
mandated reserves policies as follows:

“ACRL will maintain a mandated reserve fund 
equal to at least 25% of the average annual 
operating expenses over the four most recently 
com pleted years, excluding Choice."

"Choice will maintain a mandated reserve 
fund equal to 25% of the average annual o per­
ating expenses over the four most recently com­
pleted years, excluding the ALA overhead.”

A p p r o v e d  th e  r e v is e d  1 9 9 7 -9 8  ACRL F in a n ­
cial Plan.

A p p r o v e d  a $ 5 ,0 0 0  c o n t r i b u t i o n  o v e r  a 
four-year period in incremental payments of 
$1,250 to the International Federation of Librar­
ies (IFLA) Association as a library partner for 
IFLA/Boston 2001.

A p p r o v e d  t h e  1 9 9 7 —9 8  ACRL a n d  C h o ic e  
budgets: ACRL budget revenues o f $1,096,983, 
expenses o f $1,468,860, and a projected deficit 
o f ($366,004); Choice b u d g e t rev e n u es of 
$1,833,915, expenses of $1,944,537, and a pro­
jected deficit of ($110,622).

Section Funding
A p p r o v e d  c h a n g e s  in  p o lic ie s  o n  fu n d in g  
to support sections as follows:

• Revised Basic Services Funding policy, 
paragraph 2 section 4.4.2 ACRL Guide to Poli­
cies and Procedures, to read: “Basic Services 
Funding exists to facilitate sections’ ability to

carry out their basic mission and strategic goals 
of ACRL. Basic Services’ Funding may not be 
used for equipm ent and software purchases, 
speaker expenses and travel honoraria for li­
brarian speakers in accordance with ALA fiscal 
policy. In addition, audio visual production 
projects including film and film developm ent 
require advance approval from ACRL.”

• Revised Basic Services Funding policy, 
paragraph 1 section 4.4.2 ACRL Guide to Poli­
cies and Procedures, to read: “All sections are 
eligible for Basic Services Funding. The level 
o f funding will be based on the size of the 
section’s m embership and will be automatically 
allotted to the section. Support for electronic 
communication and services is a basic service 
provided by the ACRL office. Basic Services 
Funding may be used for the following activi­
ties: to reimburse section committee members 
for photocopying, postage, telephone, and other 
activities and items not prohibited by ACRL policy 
in paragraph 2 section 4.4.2 of the ACRL Guide.” 
The Board endorsed the ACRL staff plan to mount 
two to three listservs and Web pages for ACRL 
sections in the coming year.

• Amended the ACRL dues fee structure, 
ACRL Bylaws, Article 1, Membership and Dues, 
Section 2 Additional Fees, to read: “Fees for 
personal and organizational members o f ACRL 
shall be $35.00 for the division and $5.00 for 
each section beyond the first 2 chosen. A mem­
b er may select any 2 free sections, with no re­
striction based u pon the type of section.” (Ed. 
note. This will be on the spring ballot.)

• Maintained the current policy of funding 
sections based u pon num ber o f members and 
the automatic allocation of these funds to sec­
tions. Approved formula for funding sections 
effective with the 1997-98 fiscal year and the

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adjustment of the formula in the initial years to 
reflect significant changes in the size of mem­
bership in ACRL and in its sections.

New section funding levels are: small sections 
(under 1,000) will receive $500; medium sections 
(1,001 to 2,499) will receive $1,000; and large sec­
tions (2,500 and over) will receive $1,500.

• Accepted the task force endorsement of 
the ACRL Executive Committee’s recommen­
dation that the Initiative Funding process be 
used by sections to submit proposals to ACRL 
for funding of projects that target activities and 
programming with specific higher education 
discipline-based organizations.

Reports
A p p ro v ed  in  c o n c e p t  a re p o r t lis tin g  w a y s 
to keep past ACRL leaders involved in the work 
of the association and referred the report to 
the ACRL Executive Committee for implemen­
tation planning.

A ccep ted  th e  rep o rt fr o m  th e Racial a n d  Eth­
nic Diversity Committee on progress toward 
implementing recommendations in the 1991 re­
port to the Board from the Task Force on 
Underrepresented Minorities to Librarianship and 
established a subcommittee of the Board to re­
view the report and consider appropriate re­
sponses for ACRL to the recommendations in 
the committee’s report and report to the Board at 
the ALA Midwinter Meeting. The Board commended 
the committee chair on a very thorough report.

A sk ed  th a t th e  A ca d em ic Library O u tco m es 
Assessment Task Force share its report with ap­
propriate groups for comment and feedback.

A sk ed  th a t C o u n c il o f  L ia iso n  in d iv id u a l 
reports of activities with other organizations be 
shared with Board, Executive Committee, and 
Government Relations Committee.

Higher education
S en t fo r th  a r e s o lu tio n  w it h  th e  A m erica n  
Library Association endorsing 16 recommen­
dations made by a coalition of 21 higher edu­
cation organizations regarding the reauthoriza­
tion of the Higher Education Act.

A p p r o v e d  t h e  ACRL H i g h e r  E d u c a t io n  
Legislative/Policy Consultant position descrip­
tion in concept and asked that further input 
from the ALA W ashington Office be sought 
and that the ACRL Executive Committee final­
ize specific details for implementation at its 
fall meeting and prepare recommendations for 
Board discussion and action at its fall confer­
ence call.

Publications
A p p r o v e d  th e  a p p o in tm e n t o f  J o h n  Budd 
as e d ito r  o f th e  ACRL P u b lic a tio n s  in 
Librarianship series. Budd will serve in an ap­
prentice role u n d er current editor Stephen 
Wiberley for one year through May 1998, w hen 
he will assume the editorship. ■

ACRL Board 1996-97 ( l to r): (backrow ) J ill Fatzer, Frances Maloy, Linda Muroi, Mary R eichel, Carol 
Pfeiffer, Victoria M ontavon, and M axine Reneker; (fron t ro w ) Bernard Fradkin, W. Lee Hisle, 
Althea Jen k in s, W illiam Miller, Patricia Sen n  Breivik, and Ray E nglish.



September 1997/ 551