ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


702 / C8RL News ■ N ovem ber 2002

news

In  t h e

It has b ecom e all but impossible n ot to n o ­
tice th e  in cre asin g ly  ch an g in g  n a tu re  o f the 
library p rofession. W hile academ ic librarians 
continue to be dedicated to serving faculty a nd 
students a n d  e n su rin g  the integrity o f collec­
tions and catalogs, they are faced w ith the a d ­
ditional challenges o f m anaging shifting e lec­
tronic collections, serving rem ote users, ensur­
ing the inform ation literacy o f a g e n eration o f 
lea rn ers, a n d  attracting a n e w  g e n e ra tio n  of 
librarians to the profession, am ong m any other 
things.

To b e tte r p re p a re  u s fo r de alin g  w ith the 
larger issues o n  the horizon, the ACRL Focus 
o n  th e  F uture Task Force w as fo rm e d  in fall 
2001. After conducting research for m ore than 
a y ear across the academ ic library spectrum , 
the task force has com e u p  w ith a list of seven 
top issues facing academic librarians. Task force 
chair W. Lee H isle’s article o n  p a g e  714 p uts 
forth the issues a nd encourages your response.

As th e  n a tu re  o f  c o lle c tio n s a n d  stu d e n t 
populations continue to evolve, so do the types 
of positions available to academ ic librarians. 
To sp o tlight som e o f these n e w  positions, as 
w ell as som e b u ried  treasures, C&RL N ew s is 
h a p p y  to be lau n c h in g  its “Jo b  o f a Lifetime” 
colum n. In the first installm ent (p. 716), y o u ’ll 
get a p e e k  into the w orld of a Sem ester at Sea 
lib ra rian . If y o u  k n o w  o f a n  in n o v a tiv e  or 
u n u s u a l a c a d e m ic  library p o s itio n  th at y o u  
th in k  w o u ld  m ak e  a g o o d  to p ic  for th e  c o l­
umn, send your ideas to column editor Danianne 
Mizzy, danianne+@ p itt.e d u .

W ant a b re ak  from  thinking a b o u t all the 
changes swirling around you? Why not focus on 
ways to change pace for a while during the ACRL 
National Conference? Barbara Tierney highlights 
tours a nd activities in Charlotte, “Q u een  City of 
the Southeast,” o n  page 728.

— Stephanie Orphan, editor-in-chief 
sorphan@ala.org

pitt.edu
mailto:soiphan@ala.org