ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


5 1 4 /C& RL News

W hen worlds combine: 
Indiana University's INforum
By C harlotte H ess

A library a n d  computing center 
jo in t venture

L
ibrarians and information technologists at 
Indiana University have developed an in­
novative program  of professional education a

developm ent to im prove com m unication and 
build links b etw een the two groups. The Con­
tin u in g  E d u c a tio n  C o m m itte e  o f th e  IU- 
B loom ington Library Faculty Council a n d  a 
new ly form ed comm ittee from University Com­
puting Services have given the nam e “INforum” 
to their shared venture. In Septem ber 1993, 
these tw o comm ittees began to jointly sponsor 
a series of 90-minute noontim e program s of 
presentation and discussion oriented to the pro­
fessional developm ent needs of both librarians 
and inform ation technologists. These program s 
are designed to share know ledge, build better 
understandings of com m on problem s and pos­
sible solutions, and create an environm ent of 
c o lla b o ra tiv e  le a rn in g  a n d  c o m m u n ic a tio n  
am ong those involved in information access and 
technology.

This grassroots enterprise grew  out of in­
formal discussions b etw een information pro­
fessionals w h o  h a d  re tu rn e d  from  national 
m eetings w here there w ere calls for closer ties 
and increased aw areness of the growing inter­
d ep en d en ce of librarians and information tech­
nologists. They discussed the greater n e e d  for 
a better understanding b e tw e en  inform ation 
professionals on m any pressing issues. At the 
D ecem ber 1992 CAUSE (the Association for 
Managing Inform ation Technology in Higher 
Education) conference in Dallas, for instance, 
the them e of developing partnerships betw een 
libraries and com puter centers was identified

in several presentations. (See conference sum ­
mary in C&RL News, February 1993, pp- 86-87). 
At the June 1992 Board m eeting of ACRE, the 
Task Force on Professional D evelopm ent p re ­
s e n te d  its report “Professional D evelopm ent 
a n d  C o n tin u in g  E d u c a tio n  D ire c tio n s  for 
ACRL.” The report listed “developing m anage­

nmd ent w orkshops to facilitate collaboration and 
cooperation betw een librarians and com puter 
center professionals” as a priority area for pro­
fessional developm ent. In its N ovem ber 16, 
1992, program  overview, the Coalition for Net­
w o rk e d  Inform ation (CNI) identified o n e of 
its goals as “To integrate, by providing o p ­
p ortunities for senior adm inistrators of librar­
ies a n d  senior adm inistrators of inform ation 
technologies in higher e d u catio n  institutions 
to w o rk  w ith com parable adm inistrators from 
o th e r institutions a n d  organizations in a com ­
m o n  enterprise directed tow ard a shared fu­
tu re .”

Indiana University’s INforum planning com ­
mittee, com posed of 14 librarians and univer­
sity com puting professionals, began their w ork 
in April of this year. Some primary goals of this 
venture w ere identified as 1) creating opp o rtu ­
nities for ongoing com m unication b etw een li­
brarians and information technologists; 2) build­
ing b e tte r u n d e rsta n d in g  b e tw e e n  th e tw o 
cultures and diverse languages of librarianship 
and information technology (with a possible 
goal of developing a com m on language); and, 
3) identifying areas of parallel interest w here 
inform ation technologists a n d  librarians are 
w orking on the same, similar, analogous, or 
related problem s of information technology and 
inform ation management.

After agreeing on the purpose and goals of 
the INforum series, the group identified the first 
program topics to be offered in the fall semester:

Charlotte Hess is a librarian at India na  University, Bloomington, e-mail: hess@ucs.indiana.edu

mailto:hess@ucs.indiana.edu


October 1993/515

•  When Worlds Combine: How technolo­
gists and librarians communicate. The two lan­
guages and two cultures of librarianship and 
information technology.

•  Making Connections: National Issues and 
Local Initiatives in Networked Information Re­
sources. A survey and report on what’s hap­
pening in the networked information and in­
fo rm atio n  reso u rc e  field in the n a tio n a l 
organizations (e.g., ACRL, CAUSE, Internet En­
gineering Task Force [IETF], etc.), or in national 
communications of shared interests (e.g., some 
of the informal information communities that 
communicate on the Internet). Also a report on 
what’s happening, at Indiana University and in

the sta te  of In d ia n a , that c o rre sp o n d s to 
n a tio n a l issues or a d d re sse s n a tio n a l ini­
tiatives.

•  A report on the development and future 
plans of Indiana University’s Library Electronic 
Text Resource Service (LETRS), a collaborative 
project between the University Computing Ser­
vices and the Libraries to develop an innova­
tive electronic text center.

Other INforum programs planned for the 
spring 1994 semester will address such topics 
as: “Information Anarchy and Information Over­
load;” “Copyright, Intellectual Property and 
Electronic Information;” and “Issues on the In­
ternet and NREN.” ■

Letters
National Library Week fest
To the Editor:

Susan Hahn and I chaired the committee 
for NLW [National Library Week] here at W.B. 
Roberts Library. We had a very limited budget 
so we used some of the resources at hand, our 
faculty and our music department. We had a 
fine free week of course! We also planned three 
major activities. An open house Sunday after­
noon with music students singing show tunes 
and food prepared by the NLW committee. The 
next event was a poetry reading by six faculty 
members. This was very well attended; in fact 
the room we had it in was too small and we 
had to turn people away. The last event was 
jazz on the library lawn. The school jazz bands 
played for lunch hour. We invited people to 
come with a sack lunch. We followed the na­
tional theme of “Libraries Change Lives” and 
we added a sub theme “We Bring You the Arts.” 
Events were well received and we plan to re­
peat them next NLW. I enjoy your short, prac­
tical pieces of news and your articles. I can 
always find something useful in C&RL News.—  
Victoria S. Chase, circulation librarian, Delta 
State University, Cleveland, MS

Thanks from a 1993 award winner
To the Editor:

I am writing to the editor to express my 
utmost appreciation for the wonderful hospi­
tality I experienced from the ACRL BI section 
after receiving the Miriam Dudley Bibliographic 
Instruction Librarian of the Year Award. I would

like to thank the committee, particularly its 
chair, Mary Ellen Litzinger, for selecting me to 
receive the award in 1993- Likewise I would 
like to publicly state my appreciation for the 
many letters of congratulations and good wishes 
I received from friends and colleagues who are 
members of ACRL. It was indeed an honor to 
receive this award, and I will treasure it forever.

I hope that this award will inspire new li­
brarians to select bibliographic instruction/in- 
formation literacy as one of their specializa­
tions to gain the necessary skills and experience 
for future academic library leadership. I know 
that working in bibliographic instruction is one 
of the best ways to gain experience in using 
creativity and talent in the right combination 
to address the changes that must be faced and 
to prepare for and succeed in the next century.

Again, I want to express my sincere thank 
you for this great honor that ACRL and the BI 
section bestow ed upon me.—Hannelore D. 
Rader, director, University Library, Cleveland 
State University

Correction
To the Editor:

The list of instructors contributing to the Elec­
tronic Library course (C&RL News, July/August 
1993, p. 380) at the University of Oregon should 
have included Isabel Stirling, head of the Sci­
ence Library. Stirling taught access to the Inter­
net through gophers and contributed to the plan­
ning of the course.—Paid Frantz, coordinator of 
library instruction, University o f Oregon, Eugene