ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


838 / C&RL News ■  December 1998

LEADERSHIP AND LEARNING

The President’s Program
O ’Donnell and Wheatley— dynamic speakers you shouldn’t miss

by Maureen Sullivan and Mary Beth Clack

T he President’s Program Discussion Group at the ALA Midwinter meeting in Philadel­
phia will be led by James J. O ’Donnell, profes­
sor of Classical Studies and vice provost for 
Information Systems and Computing at the Uni­
versity of Pennsylvania. O’Donnell is also the 
author of the recently published Avatars o f  the 
Word: From  Papyrus to Cyberspace. The Dis­
cussion Group will meet on February 1,1999, 
from 9:30-11:30 a.m., and all ACRL members 
are encouraged to attend what promises to be 
a lively and provocative discussion.

An energetic and committed classics scholar 
who founded the Bryn M awr  Classical Review, 
O ’Donnell has a deep understanding of teach­
ing, learning, and the challenges of integrating 
technology in campus environments.

This promises to be a lively discussion of 
the variegated issues involved in how leader­
ship and learning influence the processes of 
strategy formulation, decision-making, assess­
ing user needs, and navigating the complexity 
of the electronic marketplace. It also will give 
us an opportunity to explore how librarians 
and our business partners can contribute to 
the collective thinking that-shapes these pro­
cesses. We hope that our members from both 
the academic and business sectors will join us 
at this thought-provoking discussion.

The President’s Program Committee has also 
signed Margaret J. Wheatley as the keynote 
speaker for the ACRL President’s Program at 
the 1999 ALA Annual Conference in New Or­
leans. Author of Leadership a n d  the New Sci­

en ce and co-author with Myron-Kellner Rogers 
of A Simpler Way, Wheatley is president and 
co-founder of the Berkana Institute, a princi­
pal in KRW, Inc., and a former professor of 
management at Brigham Young University.

Several members of the President’s Program 
Committee had the opportunity to hear 
Wheatley deliver a keynote speech at the Uni­
versity of Arizona’s Living the Future II Con­
ferences last April and found her to be a com­
pelling speaker who is as eloquent in person 
as she is in her writing.

Many o f her comments on organizational 
change, learning, and collaboration were very 
relevant to the experience of academic li­
brarians. Wheatley’s exploration of new sci­
ence principles and metaphors as they re­
late to leadership and management offer her 
audiences a new lens through which to view 
organizational life and development. Not yet 
widely known to library audiences, Wheatley 
will offer us fresh insights into how we un­
derstand, design, lead, and manage change 
in our organizations. Her wholistic view of 
organizational and societal change will help 
us grapple with the paradoxes of autonomy 
and control, order amidst change, and ad­
aptation and structure and flexibility.

We hope that you will encourage your col­
leagues to attend this final President’s Program 
and that it will provide a foundation for re­
newed conversations in your library about how 
to create the most supportive culture for con­
structive leadership in the future. ■

About the authors

Maureen Sullivan is ACRL President and an organizational developm ent consultant, e-mail: maureen@arl.org; and 
M ary Beth Clack chairs A C R L 's P re sid e n t's Program  P la n n in g  Com m ittee an d  is s t a ff d e v e lo p m e n t ch a ir at 
Harvard, e-m ail: m clack@ fas.harvard.edu

mailto:maureen@arl.org
mailto:mclack@fas.harvard.edu


C&RL News ■ Decem ber 1998 / 839