ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 556 / C&RL News A C R L P r e s i d e n t ’s r e p o r t By Joseph A. Boissé A C R L ’s 50th President A C R L ’s past year in perspective. T he ACRL year was dom inated by the Fifth National Conference. Held in April in Cincinnati, the conference celebrated the Association’s past and looked to the future. The celebrations included the 100th anniversary of the establishment by ALA of a College L ib ra ry Section which was the forerunner of ACRL; the establishm ent of th e division itself; th e launching of College & Research Libraries fifty years ago; and finally, the 25th anniversary of Choice. Joseph A. Boissé As p a r t of this celebration of the past, the Association conferred D istinguished C areer C ita tio n s on te n a c a d e m ic lib r a r ia n s w hose retirement precluded their being considered for the Academ ic or R esearch L ib ra r ia n of th e Year Award. The individuals who received the citations collectively represented m ore th a n 350 years of d ed icated service to academ ic lib ra rie s. T he honorees were: Page Ackerman, G ertrude Annan, Jack D alton, H erm an Fussier, G uy Lyle, A.P. M a rsh a ll, L a w re n c e P o w ell, Joseph R eason, E ileen T h o rn to n , Jam es O. W a llac e . A larg e num ber of past presidents and p ast executive directors of th e Association a tte n d ed a special luncheon which was held to honor them. Although m uch energy and effort was devoted to planning th e conference, A CRL m em bers and officers did not neglect other Association objectives during the year. In the area of standards, the Board approved the rev ised “ A C R L S ta n d a rd s for U n iv e rsity L ib raries.” These standards, w hich represent a departure from past approaches, w ere the result of an enormous am ount of work by the Standards and Accreditation Committee. This spring, the ARL E x e c u tiv e B oard e n d o rse d th e s ta n d a rd s as developed by ACRL. C h a p te r a c tiv ity c o n tin u e d th ro u g h o u t th e country. The state or regional organizations hosted a num ber of visits by board members. It is clear t h a t th e e ffo rt t h a t A C R L p u ts in to c h a p te r activities is one of the major contributions th a t the Association makes to the advancem ent of academic librarianship. W ith the establishment of a chapter in Arkansas, there are now 40 ACRL chapters nationwide. T h e a w a rd s c o n fe rre d b y A C R L serve to recognize the achievements and the dedication of members. This year, the Com m unity and Junior College Libraries Section, with the approval of the Executive Board, established tw o new awards. These are to be called th e C om m unity College L earning Resources Achievement Awards. The a w a rd s w ill be given a n n u a lly to reco g n ize significant achievement in the areas of: 1) program developm ent, and 2) leadership or com m unity service. W hen I was elected Vice-President of ACRL, I asked the membership of the organization to write to me about their concerns for the profession and for our libraries. From the m any suggestions which I received, three issues in particular seemed to be of July/August 1989 / 557 interest to the membership. These are: 1) various issues related to the use of paraprofessionals in academ ic libraries; 2) education for academ ic lib ra ria n s h ip ; a n d 3) th e r e c ru itm e n t of underrepresented minorities to the profession and to work in academic libraries. Task forces have been appointed to study each of these topics and to bring recommendations to the Board of Directors during the coming Association year. ACRL’s activities in the publications arena continued to thrive. During the past year, the third e d itio n of Books fo r C ollege L ibraries was published in both p rin t and digital form . The journal Rare Books & Manuscripts Librarianship became a regular publication of the division after successfully completing a trial period. Many other specialized publications made their debut during the past year as well. Two years ago, ACRL President H annelore Rader devoted a portion of her report to discussions betw een ALA and its divisions concerning the revision of the O perating Agreement. At that time she stated that, with any luck, the m atter would be resolved and a new agreement would be voted on by ALA Council at the January 1988 meeting in San Antonio. During the past year, I have spent more time working on the revision of the Operating Agreement than on any other ACRL activity. It is probably more accurate to speak of a totally new agreement than it is to speak of a revision of the previous agreement. Leaders of the divisions met on more than one occasion to develop a common position. This spring, we met w ith ALA COPES in C hicago and began th e final negotiations. A document will be brought to Council, during the Dallas conference, for its approval. My year as President of ACRL has been very stimulating and personally rewarding. It has been an honor to lead the Association, especially during th is year w h e n w e c e le b ra te d so m any anniversaries. D u rin g the year I have worked closely w ith a large num ber of members of the A ssociation a n d I have com e to know m any colleagues whom I did not previously know. It has been a pleasure to work with so many outstanding members of my sections and discussion groups. The A ssociation is fo rtu n a te to have a su p erb headquarters staff. Based on my experience of this past year, there is no doubt in my mind that ACRL will continue to be a vital organization and that it will continue to provide professional leadership to academic librarians. I w ant to thank all of you for giving me the opportunity to serve you and our Association. ■ ■ Ten librarians awarded for distinguished careers at ACRL’s Fifth National Conference Ten librarians, all of whom made major contri­ butions to the profession before the establishment of the Academic or Research Librarian of the Year Aw ard and whose careers exemplify the ideals which that aw ard was established to recognize, were presented with a Distinguished Career Cita­ tion and a plaque at ACRL’s Fifth National Con­ ference in Cincinnati, April 5-8. The librarians selected were: Page Ackerman, Gertrude Annan, Jack Dalton, Herman Fussier, Guy Lyle, A .P.Marshall, Lawrence Powell, Jo­ seph Reason, Eileen Thornton, and James O. W al­ lace. Page Ackerman served as university librarian at UCLA until her retirem ent in 1977. She was one of the first to establish a library planning office and to involve her staff in an organized way in the li­ brary’s forward planning. Ackerman now resides in Santa Monica, California. G ertrude Annan retired from the New York Academy of Medicine in 1970, after 14 years as its chief librarian. She combined a commitment to scholarship with a commitment to service and was a leader in developing the concept of cooperative planning and networking long before it was fash­ ionable to do so. Annan now resides in Highstown, New Jersey. Jack Dalton retired from his position as dean of the School of Library Service at Columbia Univer­ sity in 1970. While at Columbia he was especially noted for reestablishing Columbia’s reputation as one of the country’s great library schools, and pro­ viding a model for the relationship between a li­ brary school faculty and the administration of the university library. Dalton currently resides in New York City. Herman Fussier directed the University of Chi­ cago Library for more than a quarter of a century and was responsible for the planning, design, and building of the Regenstein Library. Fussier simul­ taneously pursued a career of research and teach­ ing in the University’s G raduate Library School, a career that continued after he left the directorship, and conducted the classic investigation, Patterns in the Use of Books in Large Research Libraries. Fussier now resides in Chapel Hill, North Caro­ lina. Guy Lyle’s professional career began in 1929 when he was appointed librarian of Antioch Col­ lege. He then served successively as director of the library at W omen’s College of the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, at Louisiana State University, and until his retirem ent in 1972 at Emory University. His book, Administration o f the 558 / C&RL News College Library, first published in 1944, soon be­ came the vade mecum for all college librarians; its fourth edition came out in 1974. Lyle now resides in Decatur, Georgia. A. P. Marshall pioneered library instruction in the 1960s and 1970s, obtained one of the first pres­ tigious five-year grants from the Council on Li­ brary Resources and the National Endowment for the Humanities for a library outreach program at Eastern Michigan University, and in 1971 assisted in the foundation of the national clearinghouse for library orientation and instruction, Project LOEX, which continues as the national center for informa­ tion about library orientation and instruction. Marshall was named professor emeritus at the time of his retirement from Eastern Michigan Univer­ sity. He still resides in Ypsilanti, Michigan. L aw rence C lark Pow ell— a u th o r, bib lio g ra­ pher, bookman, essayist, librarian, teacher, dean, and adm inistrator—played a major role in turning the UCLA library into one of world caliber. He was also instrumental in launching the UCLA li­ brary school. Upon his retirement from UCLA, Po­ well served for 15 years as professor in residence at the library and library school of the University of Arizona. Powell resides in Tucson, Arizona. Joseph Reason spent 33 years at H ow ard Univer­ sity, including 24 years as director of libraries, and was responsible for turning it into a major research library adm itted to the Association of Research Li­ braries (the first and only predominantly black in­ stitution to have been honored with this member­ ship). Reason is the only person to have served as both president (1971-1972) and acting executive director (1962-1963) of ACRL. He has remained active in his retirem ent, serving as vice-chair of the Legislative Task Force of th e Florida State Li­ brary, as a member of the Leon City, Florida, Pub­ lic Library Roard, as a trustee of Eckerd College, and as a visiting professor at the School of Library and Information Science at Florida State Univer­ sity. He currently resides in Tallahassee, Florida. Eileen Thornton directed both the Vassar Col­ lege Library, the Oberlin College Library, and Oberlin Public Library. She was the first woman director of Oberlin’s library despite the school’s dis­ tinction of being the first coeducational college in America. Thornton served as president of two ALA divisions: ACRL in 1957-1958 and the Library Ad­ ministration Division (now LAMA) in 1967-1968. Thornton still resides in Oberlin, Ohio. James O . W allace directed the library of his alma m ater, San Antonio College, for 35 years un­ til his retirement in 1985, when he was named di­ rector of learning resources emeritus. Wallace was extraordinarily active in professional organiza­ tions. He served as president of the Texas Library Association in 1983-1984 and was named Texas Li­ b ra ria n of the Year in 1969. He served on the ACRL Board of Directors for nine years, chaired the Community and Junior College Libraries Sec­ tion for two separate terms, and served on th at sec­ tion’s Executive Committee for 16 years. He con­ tr ib u te d s ig n ific a n tly to th e d e v e lo p m en t of standards for two-year learning resources pro­ grams and currently serves as chair of the commit­ tee that is revising those standards. He continues to reside in San Antonio, Texas, where he is just com­ pleting a two-year term as president of the Friends of the San Antonio Public Library. These ten individuals were selected by an ACRL committee chaired by Carla Stoffle, University of Michigan. Other members of the committee in­ cluded: Evan Ira Farber (Earlham College), Rose­ mary Henderson (Coffeyville Community College) and P. Grady Morein (University of West Flor­ ida). ■ ■ ACRL executive summary At the Dallas Conference, we hope, the O perat­ ing Agreement issue will have been settled for a while. The manifold revisions have been distilled into something division leaders and staff and the COPES can live with. The negotiations have been alternately hot and cold, but in the end we have a r­ rived at a document th at is acceptable to all. Nei­ ther ALA nor the divisions are “w inners,” yet in coming to agreement, we all win. ALA will recoup more of its indirect costs than in the past, but will still have major overhead expenses that are not re­ covered. Divisions will pay much more in overhead to ALA, but will have some phase-in time to plan for implementation. A delicate balance has been achieved as we go to Dallas; we are all hoping for the best at the Conference. Professional development Once again, CJCLS will be holding a telecon­ ference. This one, scheduled for November 15, 1989, will address CD-ROM technology but will be at a more advanced level than the previous ses­ sion, which attracted an audience of about 11,000. ACRL began preparation for next year’s RBMS Preconference, “Issues Facing Special Collections in the ’90s.” We received an additional contribution from Katharine K. and Daniel J. Leab for their Ameri­ can Book Prices C urrent Exhibition Catalogue Awards. We also received additional support from K. G. Saur to allow multiple authors each to receive $500 when there is more than one author of the winning