ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


3 8 4  / C & R L  N e w s  ■  M a y  2 0 0 0

Community College Focus Group: Comment! 
from the 2000 ALA Midwinter Meeting

IU  staff w ill c o n v e r t 800,000 m icro film  
p a g e  im ages to text files using optical char­
acter recogn ition softw are and create a search­
able database o f  the texts. Participating li­
braries w ill edit, e n c o d e , and p ro o fre a d  the 
text files.

T h e  nine libraries w o r k in g  o n  this project 
are m em b ers o f  the C om m ittee o n  Institu­

tional C o o p e ra tio n  (C IC ), an a cad em ic c o n ­
sortium o f  the B ig  T en  universities and the 
University o f  C hicago. Participating libraries 
are: Indiana, M ich igan  State, and O h io  State 
Universities, and the U niversities o f  Illinois 
at C hicago, o f  Illinois at U rbana-C ham paign, 
o f  Io w a , o f  M ichigan, o f  M innesota, and o f  
W isconsin-M adison. ■

Dem onstrating dedication to their profes­
sion, 12 m em b ers o f  A C R L ’s C om m u n ity 
and Junior C o lle g e  Libraries Section (CJCLS) 
a g re e d  to m ee t v e ry  early Saturday, Janu­
ary 15, 2000, (as part o f  a focus gro u p  s p o n ­
sored  b y  the AC R L B oard o f  D irectors) dur­
ing the A L A  M id w in te r M eetin g  to discuss 
their m em b ersh ip  in AC RL and w h a t c o n ­
cerns th em  m ost as com m u n ity c o lle g e  li­
brarians.

Past AC R L President W illiam  M iller g e n ­
erou sly a g re e d  to facilitate the active dis­
cu ssion a n d  the participants e lo q u e n t ly  
s p o k e  o f  their concerns. W h ile  the discus­
sion b e g a n  w ith  lo o k in g  at w h y  c o m m u ­
nity c o lle g e  librarians join ACRL, certain 
issues and matters w e r e  clearly u p p e rm o s t 
in the m e m b e rs ’ minds. P rofession al d e ­
v e lo p m e n t  an d a d v o c a c y  w ith in  h ig h e r  
edu cation a p p e a re d  to b e  strong con cern s, 
as w e ll as c o lla b o ra tio n  w ith  o th e r c o m ­
m unity c o lle g e  associations.

B e lo w  are a fe w  o f  the c o m m e n ts  m a d e 
du ring the discussion.

M em bership
“I jo in ed  AC R L after attending a National 

C onference. T h e  AC R L N ational C o n feren ce 
is m o re  fo c u s e d  and releva n t to  m y  w o r k .” 

“ Initially, I jo in e d  fo r  th e journals. 1 
w a n te d  m y o w n  c o p y . ”

“ CJCLS w a s the o n ly  g r o u p  I c o u ld  find 
sp ecifica lly  fo r  c o m m u n ity  c o lle g e  librar­

ians. It’s im portant fo r  c o m m u n ity  c o lle g e  
librarians to n e tw o r k  w ith  e a c h  oth er and 
to k e e p  in tou ch  w ith  librarians at four- 

y ea r sch oo ls.”
“T h e  Im m ersio n  p ro g ra m  [ACRL Insti­

tute fo r In fo rm a tio n  Literacy O IL ) Im m er­
sion Program s] attracted m e  to ACRL. ”

“M any o f  m y  colleagu es d o n ’t b e lo n g  
to AC R L because o f  lim ited travel funds 
w ith in  com m u n ity c o lle g e s  and a lot o f  
c o m p etitio n  w ith  other con feren ces, such 
as Leagu e o f  In n ovation .”

Programs and activities
“ I ’d like to see m ore w o rk s h o p s  and 

not just in conjunction w ith  con feren ces. 
R egio n a l con feren ces w o u ld  b e  great, es­
p ecia lly  o n  hot topics like accreditation.” 

“A  speakers bureau w ith  p re p la n n e d  
w o rk sh o p s w o u ld  be h elp fu l.”

“T h e  Im m ersion p rogram  is great— run 

w ith  it!”
“ACRL needs to continue collab oratin g 

w ith  other organizations and state associa­
tions. T h ese collaborations cou ld  d e v e lo p  
into joint programs for d e v e lo p in g  the m an­
agem en t and administrative skills o f  c o m ­
munity c o lle g e  librarians, as w e ll as m ak­
in g administrators m o re  a w a re o f  libraries 
and getting librarians o n  accreditation teams 
and in administrative positions on cam pus.” 

“ Com m unity c o lle g e s  d o n ’t h a ve a hi­
erarchy that allo w s com m u n ity c o lle g e  li­
brarians to learn adm inistration until th ey  

are th row n into it.”
“With IPEDS no longer requiring libraries 

to report their statistics, the ACRL 1998 Aca­
demic Library Trends and Statistics is even more 
important. And I love being able to set up m y  
o w n  peer group with the CD-ROM.”

ACRL w o u ld  like to thank all o f  the f o ­
cus gro u p  participants and W illia m  M iller 

fo r their tim e and ideas. T h e  com m en ts 
and suggestions are greatly appreciated and 
w ill b e  used to im p r o v e  A C R L  services and 
a c t i v i t i e s .— M e lis sa  C ast, A C R L, e -m a il: 
m cast@ ala.ojg m

mailto:mcast@ala.ojg