ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


484 / C&RL News ■ July/August 1998

I n t h e

The summer usually brings with it a hope 
for less hectic days and time for quiet reflec­
tion and planning.

In this issue, we have provided some ideas 
that you may be able to use as you continue 
planning the fall semester.

Most academic libraries are dependent on 
student assistants for filling staffing needs. 
An affordable way of getting more help is to 
get a federal work-study student, but some­
times these students are ill-prepared for the 
rigors of the library’s tasks. Sherry Young 
shares her ideas for improving both the hir­
ing and training process and for making sure 
that the work is interesting enough to hold 
the students’ attention (page 490).

Planning a move? Joanna Burkhardt gives 
us the benefit of her recent experience and 
offers 14 tips for making the process go 
smoothly (page 499).

I am sure that the evaluation of resources 
is a critical part of all instruction programs. 
The chart of criteria used to assess Web sites 
that Jim  Kapoun developed for undergradu­

ates (page 522) may help you prepare your 
next instruction presentation.

More and more libraries are letting stu­
dents borrow computers. Monty McAdoo and 
Joan  Tease give us a practical procedure for 
checking in laptops that have been loaned 
by their library to students (page 507).

While you may not have time to imple­
ment this idea in the fall, Barbara Holmes 
and Art Lichtenstein describe the collabora­
tive effort by faculty and librarians to improve 
retention rates through a special freshmen 
program (page 496). A worthy project that 
you may want to undertake for the 1999 fall 
semester.

Finally, use some of your reflection time 
to posit the challenges W. Lee Hisle offers in 
his final essay of the “Values for the Elec­
tronic Information Age” (page 504). Just how 
does a librarian balance his/her role between 
intellectual freedom and qualitative collec­
tion development?

— Mary Ellen K. Davis 
E d ito r -in -c h ief 

medavis@ala. org