ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


770 / C&RL News ■ D ecem ber 2002

I n t h e sw en

In this issue y o u ’ll find ACRL’s A nnual R eport 
fo r 2001-2002. It w as a p ro d u ctiv e year, d u r­
ing w hich new  initiatives and m em ber services 
w ere im plem ented. If you com pare the Annual 
R eport to  so m e o f th e articles a p p e a rin g  this 
m o n th , y o u ’ll n o tice h o w  quickly things can 
m ove o n ce the ball gets rolling.

A m ajor goal o f ACRL’s Scholarly C om m u­
nicatio n  Initiative w as to h ire a co n su ltan t to 
serve as a part-tim e staff p e rs o n  d e d ic a te d  to 
w o rk in g  o n  scholarly com m unication issues. 
S usan K. M artin ste p p e d  into th e  ro le o f p ro ­
gram  officer for scholarly com m unication this 
fall a n d  flew  in to  a c tio n . O n  p a g e  786, sh e 
outlines th e areas sh e ’s beg u n  w orking o n  and 
o u r goals for the fu tu re in th e  scholarly com ­
m unication arena.

Last month, W. Lee Hisle presented the work 
o f th e  2 0 0 1 -2002 F o cu s o n  th e  F u tu re  T ask 
Force in the article “Top issues facing academ ic 
libraries.” T he task force ask ed  o u r readers to

re s p o n d  to  th e  item s p u t fo rth . T his m o n th  
S hirley K. B a k e r to o k  th e  le a d  to  c o m m e n t 
o n  th e  is su e  o f c re a tio n , c o n tro l, a n d  p r e s ­
e rv a tio n  o f d ig ital re s o u rc e s  (p . 789). Y our 
c o n tin u e d  re s p o n s e s  to  th e s e  issu es are  e n ­
couraged.

The changing nature o f reference service is 
th e topic o f this m o n th s’s “N ew  Realities, N ew  
Relationships” colum n. Jam es Rettig addresses 
th e  n e e d  to  cultivate re la tio n sh ip s to  b rid g e 
th e gap b e tw e e n  the library an d  its users in an 
increasingly “w ired” environment and serve our 
institutional missions o f teaching, learning, and 
research (p. 790).

Also c o g n iz a n t o f th e  im p act o f th e  W eb 
o n  s tu d e n t re s e a rc h  a n d  lib rary  serv ices, 
Virginia M assey-Burzio offers h e r o p in io n  on 
th e “critical issues o f reference service” in “The 
Way I See It” (p. 774).

— Stephanie O rphan, E ditor-in-chief 
sorphan@ ala.org

mailto:sorphan@ala.org