sept09a2.indd


September 2009 433 C&RL News

In theIn the

Welcome to the September 2009 issue of 
C&RL News. And welcome back to fall term! 
With the start of the new school year, many 
academic and research librarians are begin-
ning the process of recording their activities 
for promotion and tenure packets, along 
with the usual yearly performance reviews. 
Librarians at Grand Valley State University 
recently experimented with moving beyond 
the folders of paper portfolios and created 
their review materials using LibGuides. 
Read about the impact of technology on 
their process in “At the crossroads: Bringing 
the tenure and promotion process into the 
Digital Age” by Laura Harris, Julie Garrison, 
and Emily Frigo.

The promotion and tenure process can be 
a daunting one, even for seasoned librarians. 
Mara L. Houdyshell relates lessons learned 
from her journey to becoming tenured in “Ten 
tips towards tenure.”

Managing the research paper process can 
also be a daunting task, especially for new 

students. At California State University-Fresno, 
librarians adapted and customized the open 
source Assignment Calculator, developed at the 
University of Minnesota, to the specifi c needs of 
their student body. Monica Fusich, Jane Magee, 
and Elisabeth A. Thomas detail the process of 
developing their own “Assignment Research 
Calculator” in this month’s issue.

The debate over national health care reform 
proposals reached a fever pitch this summer. 
In this month’s Internet Resources feature, 
Shikha Sharma provides a detailed list of 
online “Health care management resources” 
to assist in researching this complex and con-
troversial issue.

Make sure to take a look at all of the other 
great articles and columns, including a look 
back at the recent 2009 ALA Annual Confer-
ence with reports on ACRL programs and 
Board of Directors’ actions.

Thanks for reading the News! 
—David Free, editor-in-chief

dfree@ala.org