ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


204

The View from  HQ
B a r b a r a  M acikas Journal Article and Getting It Published,” were 

successfully offered at the ACRL National Con­
fe re n ce  in M inneapolis last year. The eight 
courses are 1-2 days long.

Overseeing the courses while they are taught 
in Philadelphia will be the end of a long series of 
events which began with the identification of the 
courses to be developed. Following course iden­
tification (and often coincident with it), qualified 
course designers and instructors from the library 
and information scien ce community must be 
identified. If they are interested in design or in­
struction of a course, are agreeable to the terms 
of the contract, and are available for the confer­
ence dates, then course preparation can begin.

As part of the design contract, course designers 
provide ACRL with a course syllabus, course ob­
jectives, a time schedule and course materials. 
When the syllabi and materials arrive at ACRL 
Headquarters, they are carefully reviewed, re­
vised if necessary , and printed. Course promotion 
then begins and a system of participant registra­
tion is implemented. Finally, the courses are of­
fered at conference.

The continuing education program at ACRL is 
relatively new and still evolving. In addition to an 
ongoing process of identification and production 
of courses for conference which address the needs 
of our members, we are considering new meth­
ods of making the courses available. In particular, 
we are examining ways to offer ACRL-sponsored 
courses at the local level. Courses could be of­
fered at the local level by ACRL regional groups, 
library schools, university extension divisions, or 
interested professional groups. These offerings 
would provide opportunities for many individuals 
who cannot schedule courses during conference 
or who are unable to attend.

The possibility of offering C E  courses at the 
local level is one development under considera­
tion. Another area being studied is the awarding 
of Continuing Education Units (CEUs) to course 
participants. At this time no formal course credit 
exists for the program. ACRL is exploring the de­
sirability of giving CEUs to course participants.

The ACRL Continuing Education Committee 
advises on this type of development within the 
program, and suggests courses which might be 
successfully implemented. I would like to take 
this opportunity to invite ACRL members who 
have suggestions for new courses or who wish to 
design or teach a course to contact me at ACRL 
Headquarters.

Developing the continuing education program 
is now my primary concern at ACRL. However, I 
am also responsible for special projects which are 
related to C E. One such project is the ACRL/ 
NEH Workshops on Humanities Programming 
for Academic Librarians. In Septem ber, 1981,

A CRL Program  Assistant

When I arrived at ACRL in November, 1981, 
my interim responsibility was to coordinate the 
first ACRL/NEH workshop on humanities pro­
gramming for academic 
librarians. As the work­
shop was only four 
weeks away, I was im­
m ed iately very busy.
My first co n ta ct with 
ACRL members was to 
inform  some of them  
that their applications 
to the workshop had 
not been accepted b e ­
cause o f the tre m e n ­
dous response we had 
received  and the lim ­ B a rb a ra  M acikas
ited  space av ailable.
Fortunately, everyone 
was very understanding and we were able to ac­
commodate some of those applicants at our sec­
ond workshop. Both workshops were well re ­
ceived by those who participated.

After a quite hectic start, things calmed down 
considerably and I was able to concentrate on my 
primary responsibility as program assistant to the 
A CRL continuing education program. I have 
spent a large amount of time briefing myself on 
what ACRL has done in the area of continuing 
education. Currently I spend most of my time on 
the CE courses which will be offered in Philadel­
phia. In this column I will discuss those courses, 
briefly describe how the program works, and con­
sider possible developments within the program 
of continuing education at ACRL.

Eight continuing education courses will be part 
of the preconference program at annual confer­
ence in Philadelphia. These courses further estab­
lish the continuing education program mandated 
by the ACRL Board of Directors in June, 1979. 
The development, promotion, and implementa­
tion of a long-range continuing education pro­
gram is my primary responsibility as a program 
assistant at ACRL.

Four of the eight courses to be offered in 
P h ilad elp h ia, “ L ibrarian s as S u p e rv iso rs,” 
“Strategies and Tactics for Enhancing the Role 
and Position of the Library within the College or 
University,” “Time Management and Conducting 
E ffe c tiv e  M e e tin g s ,” and “ Survey R esearch  
Methods,” are newly designed and are offered for 
the first time by ACRL. The other four courses, 
“Establishing the College BI Program: The D i­
rectors Role,” “An Introduction to Maps in Li­
braries: Maps as Information Tools,” “Teaching 
Methods for the BI Librarian,” and “Writing the



205

ACRL received funding from the National E n ­
dowment for the Hum anities to conduct two 
workshops on the su b ject of hum anities pro­
gramming. These workshops sought to acquaint 
librarians with the techniques of humanities pro­
gram development and proposal preparation. I 
was responsible for the administration of the 
project. The workshops were held in November, 
1981, and February, 1982, in Shrewsbury, Mas­
sachusetts, and Los Gatos, California, resp ec­
tively. Based on experiences at the workshops 
and participant program evaluations, the work­
shops were very successful. Because of this suc­
cess and the great number of applications re­
ceived, another proposal has been submitted to 
NEH for funding of another set of two work­
shops.

The ACRL/NEH workshops afforded me with 
an excellent opportunity to m eet some of the 
ACRL membership and I appreciated the cooper­
ation I received from the members who partici­
pated. I look forward to the opportunity that the 
Philadelphia conference will provide to m eet 
more of you. ■ ■

EXCHANGE LIBRARIANS

T he July/August issue o f C & R L  N ew s an­
nounced that ACRL would be maintaining a file 
of American libraries that might be interested in 
providing the opportunity for a visiting foreign li­
brarian to work on their staff, either in an ex­
change arrangem ent, as a temporary replace­
ment, or as a non-salaried visitor. At the same 
time ACRL asked several foreign library journals 
to publish this announcement and to ask librar­
ians interested in such an exchange to write to 
us.

The following institutions have responded to 
our query. ACRL members interested in an ex­
change program should write directly to these in­
stitutions. Any American libraries willing to par­
ticipate in an exchange should contact Sandy 
W h iteley , ACRL/ALA, 50 E . Huron S t ., 
Chicago, IL  60611.

H .J. Heaney, University Librarian, Glasgow 
University Library, Hillhead Street, Glasgow, 
Scotland G12 8QE.

D.H. Revill, Librarian, Liverpool Polytechnic 
Library, Walton House, Tithebarn Street, Liver­
pool, England L2 2NG: “Happy to receive visit­
ing librarians for short periods. Our preference is 
for librarians from polytechnic-like institutions. 
We would be interested in placing people in 
similar institutions— 4-year colleges or smaller 
university libraries.”

N.S. Macartney, Deputy County Technical Li­
brarian, Hertis College Library and Information 
Service, The Hatfield Polytechnic, Hatfield, Eng­
land A L 10 9AD: “H ertis is a county-w ide 
cooperative organization and consists of a large

academic library at Hatfield Polytechnic and a 
number of smaller college libraries. ”

J.L . Bate, Chief Librarian, Napier College of 
C om m erce and T echnology, C olinton Road, 
Edinburgh, Scotland EH 10 5DT: “We are in­
terested in the exchanges you propose, certainly 
as a non-salaried visitor, and perhaps by a full ex­
change arrangement.”

Michael Breaks, Deputy Librarian, University 
College Dublin, Belfìeld, Dublin 4, Ireland: “Our 
main interest would be in an exchange arrange­
ment but we would judge each inquiry on its 
merits.”

R. Mathys, V ice-D irector, Zentralbibliothek 
Zürich, Zähringerplatz 6, Postfach, 8025 Zürich, 
Switzerland: “This library functions as a canton, 
city, and university library. We are interested in 
discussing possibilities which would allow con­
tacts of this kind with university libraries. As a 
temporary replacem ent we think of contracts 
from 3 -6  months; for periods of more than 12 
months it is nearly impossible to get work per­
mits.”

Jose Orozco Tenorio, Jefe de la Unidad de 
Documentacion Cientifica, Universidad Nacional 
Autonoma de Mexico, Escuela Nacional de Es- 
tudios Profesionales-Iztacala, Apdo. Postal 314, 
Tlanepantla, Edo. de Mexico. ■ ■

ESPO RESIGNS

Hal Espo, deputy executive director of ACRL, 
has resigned his position effective May 7. Espo 
has been with ACRL for the past four years, in 
which tim e A C R L 
greatly expanded its ac­
tivities. He worked on 
A C R L ’s first national 
conference in 1978 and 
had major responsibility 
for the second national 
conference last year in 
Minneapolis. A search 
for his replacement will 
begin later in the year.

M eanw hile, Donna 
Harlan has taken leave 
from Indiana University Hal Espo
at South Bend to fill the 
position on an interim 
basis for one year. Harlan is currently archivist/ 
reference librarian at South Bend. In 1978 she 
served as the interim executive director of ALA’s 
Resources and Technical Services Division. She 
joins ACRL on June 15. ■ ■