ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 504 / C&RL News A C R L B o a rd a ctio n s, Ju n e 1 9 9 1 Highlights o f the Annual Conference meeting o f the ACRL Board o f Directors. T he Board of Directors o f the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) met twice during the ALA Annual Conference in Atlanta: on June 29 and July 1,1991. Highlights of their actions are as follows: Awards. Proposals for two new awards were approved. The Bibliographic Instruction Section will recognize an outstanding publication related to bibliographic instruction. The Rare Books and Manu­ scripts Section will recognize the author of the best article in Rare B ooks an d Manuscripts L ibrarian ship. Their proposals will be reviewed by the ALA Awards Committee at Midwinter. B o ard mem bership. The chair of the Planning Committee will become an ex-offìcio member (with­ out vote) of the Board. This change to the ACRL Constitution requires a second Board vote at Mid­ winter and then will be listed on the spring ALA/ ACRL ballot. Continuing education courses. The Board voted that the continuing education courses and plans for regional institutes be discontinued b e­ cause o f poor financial performance. The Board asked the Education Committee to recommend alternative ways to meet the professional develop­ ment needs o f members. Discussion groups. Two discussion groups pe­ titioned to be dissolved and one group asked to be created. The Microcomputer Services in Academic Libraries and the Extended Campus Library Ser­ vices discussion groups were dissolved. The Ex­ tended Campus Library Services discussion group was reconstituted under the auspices o f the Ex­ tended Campus Library Services Section. Present­ ing a petition to form a new group was the discussion group for Exhibits and Displays in Libraries. F B I . The Board endorsed a resolution com­ mending the F B I for its cooperation in recovering the 21,000 stolen books and manuscripts found in Stephen Blumberg’s house. The resolution was drafted by the Rare Books and Manuscripts Sec­ tion. R acial and E th n ic D iversityCom m ittee. The Board reviewed a preliminary report o f the committee’s survey on the participation of racial and ethnic groups in ACRL. Social issues. The Board held an open forum on the question, “How should A CRL respond to social issues?” After the discussion, the Board voted to establish a task force to prepare recommendations on ACRL response or non-response to social issues. Standards. Revisions to the “Standards for Fac­ uity Status for College and University Librarians” were approved. After approval by the ALA Stan­ dards Committee, the standards will be published in a springissue of C &R L News. Task forces. Two tasks forces were granted an extension of their terms and two submitted their final reports. The task force on Organizational Members and the task force on the White House Conference on Library and Information Services were both extended until June 1992. The task forces on Faculty Advisory Committee Orientation Mate­ rials and Historically Black College and University Libraries both submitted their final reports and were discharged. The Facuity Advisory Task Force’s suggestions on developing faculty advisory commit­ tee orientation materials will lie published in a future issue of C &R L News. Ed. n ote: See sidebars for president Anne Beaubien’s comments on two of the Board’s ac­ tions. ■ ■ September 1991 / 505 ACRL B oard 1990-91. Back row: Evan Ira Färber, Cathleen Bourdon, Shelley E. Phipps, Rochelle Sager‚ Larry L. Hardesty, B arbara ]. Wittkopf, Peter P. Malanchuk. Front row: Leslie A. Manning, Eileen Dubin, Anne K Beaubien, Barbara J. Ford, William A. Moffett, Karin E. Begg. Task force on social issues appointed In the last six months, the ACRL national confer­ ence has been moved from Phoenix to Salt Lake City—and other cities were considered (see C&RL News, April 1991). The issues surrounding the site selection of the ACRL National Conference have prompted a good deal of discussion. The question was raised as to how, and if, our association should respond to social issues. In order to provide an opportunity for members to discuss the issues, the ACRL Board held an open forum in Atlanta. The forum was broadened from conference site selection to the question, “Should ACRL respond to social issues?” Opinions ranged from “ACRL should respond only to issues related to libraries,” to “ACRL should take stands on im­ portant social issues.” To address the larger questions, ACRL has cre­ ated a Social Issues Task Force whose charge is to determine if ACRL should or should not respond to social issues. The Social Issues Task Force will develop a rationale for either case and report its findings to the ACRL Board for consideration at the summer conference in 1992. I f the task force feels that ACRL should respond, it will develop a set of guidelines that will guide the ACRL Board in future decisions. The guidelines might include an array of responses that are possible including, but not lim­ ited to: moving a conference, publishing position papers, inviting speakers on a topic, etc. The chair of the Social Issues Task Force is Cerise Oberman, director of libraries at SUNY Plattsburgh. Other task force members at time of writing are Betsy Hine, Carol Rudisell, Bob Martin, Bonnie Clemens, Nancy Bird Luikart, and Pam Cravey. The task force would like to have broad input and I encourage you to write to the chair, Cerise Oberman (Feinberg Library, State Univ. of New York, Plattsburgh, NY 12901; Bitnet: ober macg@snyplava) or any member of the task force with your thoughts on this topic. This is a challeng­ ing issue and one that will generate a lot of fruitful discussion and debate. It is an opportunity for us to review ACRL’s goals in the context of the world around us.—Anne Beaubien, ACRL President 506 / C &RL News ACRL investigates new professional development opportunities During our meetings in Atlanta, the ACRL Board decided to investigate new methods o f meeting the professional development needs of academic li­ brarians. I have created a Task Force on Profes­ sional Development to take a fresh look at the methods forproviding continuing education. ACRL has offered various formats for professional devel­ opment in the past decade. It’s time to take stock of what we’ve done and start planning the best methods for delivery in the 1990s. I f you have ideas about the best ways to do this, please contact the chair of the task force, Meredith Butler, director o f University Libraries at SUNY-Albany, 1400 Washington Ave., Albany, NY 12222-0001. While this investigation is underway, the continuing education courses will not be offered by ACRL in conjunctionwith Annual Conference. ACRL has developed a list of courses and instructors who can be contacted directly by state chapters, library associations, and institu­ tions. Call Cynthia Taylor, (800) 545-2433 ext. 2521 to receive a copy o f the list.—Anne Beaubien, A CRL President A C R L B o a rd 1991-92. B ack row : Ray E. Metz, Evan Ira F ärb er, Shelley E. Phipps, R ochelle Sager, B arb a ra J. W ittk op f L in da L. Phillips, Karin E. Begg. Front row: L eslie A. Manning, E ileen Dubin, Ja cqu elyn M cCoy, Anne K B eaubien , B a rb a ra J. F ord, Althea H. Jenkins. Multi-year diversity program within ALA staff announced Linda F . Crismond, ALA executive director, an­ nounced a multi-year program to enhance and ap­ preciate diversity within the ALA staff. A Diversity in the Work Place Committee has been established to advise on affirmative action recruitment and retention efforts, to provide leader­ ship to the staff in diversity issues, to serve as a mod­ el working across racial and cultural lines, and to participate in identifying and planning training, awareness and celebratory activities at ALA. “Ourdecision-makingprocess will b e enhancedif we encourage input from people with different points o f view and perspective,” said Crismond. "Job satis­ faction and initiative in the work environment will be improved if respect, trust, appreciation and del­ egation o f responsibility are achieved.” THEIR ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS, CORRESPONDENCE AND RARE PRINTED WORKS CAN NOW BE AVAILABLE IN YOUR LIBRARY ON MICROFILM! With the addition of this major collection, your library can offer patrons in-depth examination of the original manuscripts of Darwin's landmark treatise, “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection" and Huxley's shipboard notebooks from the years he sailed on the H.M.S. Rattlesnake studying hydrogoa, oceanic plants and mammals, and performing additional extensive scientific research. Prior to Research Publications’ release of these distin­ guished papers on microfilm, a scholarly researcher desir­ ing to trace the epochal debate that followed the 1859 publication of "Origin of Species” and Huxley's valiant defense of it, would have had to travel between the Impe­ rial College in London, the University Library, and the Dar­ win Library at Cambridge University, where this material is located. This collection of the manuscripts, diaries, lecture note­ books, letters, drawings and personal papers of the two most pre-eminent minds of the 19th century British scien­ tific community is not available from t any other single source. The Single Most Important Research Collection Document­ ing Evolutionary Theory The Charles Darwin Papers include original manuscript versions of "Origin of Species", “The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants", “The Descent of Man”, his H.M.S. Beagle notebooks, correspondence, contemporary articles and other printed materials substantially anno­ tated by Darwin himself. The Thomas Henry Huxley Papers are an impressive body of material for the study of science during the Victo­ rian era. He was the most resounding defender of Dar­ win's theories and perhaps the man most responsible for leading Britain's scientific community to embrace the the­ ory of evolution. His papers give a full, living insight into the many activities in which he took part, provide intrigu­ ing details into the personalities of his contemporaries and the affairs of the Royal and learned societies of his time. Also contained are significant correspondence with Tyndall, Hooker, Michael Foster, Darwin, Lyell, Agassiz, Jowett, and Spencer. Open th e Door to a School of Classic Scientific Reasoning "Darwin, Huxley and the Natural Sciences” not only explores evolutionary theory, botany, geology and zool­ ogy, but also the historical understanding of the physical world, religion, politics, philosophy and the dawning of the terms "survival of the fittest" and "Social Darwinism". The addition of this remarkable collection of resource mate­ rials to your library will indeed be a prodigious acquisition. Now available only from research publications 12 Lunar Drive/Drawer AB Woodbridge, CT 06525 (203) 397-2600 C a l l T o ll- F r e e 1-800-444-0799 e x t 136 F a x 2 0 3 -397-3893 American Natural History Scientific and Technical Periodicals American Naturalist 17th & 18th Century Scientific Periodicals