sept07b.indd


conference circuit 

ACRL in Washington, D.C. 
ACRL programs at the ALA Annual Conference 

ALA’s 126th Annual Conference was held June 21–27, 2007, in Washington, D.C. 
Approximately 28,635 librarians, library 
support staff, exhibitors, writers, educators, 
publishers, and special guests attended the 
conference. Ed. note: Thanks to the ACRL 
members who summarized programs to make 
this report possible. 

Tell me something good, and no 
surprises, please 
A lively and knowledgeable panel of chief 
academic officers (CAOs) candidly informed 
and frequent­
ly delighted 
the audience 
gathered for 
t h e  A C R L  
P r e s i d e n t ’ s  
Program “The 
Art of Persua­
sion: Strate­
gies for Ef­
fective Com­
m u n i c a t i o n  
w i t h  C h i e f  
Academic Of­
ficers.” Mod­
erator James 
Honan (senior 
lecturer, Grad­
uate School 
of Education, 
Harvard University) engaged panelists Wil­
liam Destler (recent senior vice president 
for academic affairs and provost, University 
of Maryland, and now president, Rochester 
Institute of Technology), Elise Jorgens (pro­
vost and senior vice president for academic 

The 2007 President’s Program speakers (left to right): Moderator 
James P. Honan, Harvard University; 2006–07 ACRL President 
Pamela Snelson; Panelists: William W. Destler, University of 
Maryland; Elise Bickford Jorgens, College of Charleston; and 
Dominic Latorraca, County College of Morris. 

affairs, College of Charleston), and Dominic 
Latorraca (vice president of academic affairs, 
County College of Morris) in discussion of the 
“wildly successful library,” communication 
dos and don’ts for librarians, academic plan­
ning and funding, and changing roles among 
librarians and information technologists. 

The panelists shared visions of a wildly 
successful library as being lively and support­
ive of the social and self­directed aspects of 
learning, and featuring a knowledgeable and 
engaging staff ready to guide users to the best 
possible resources. When communicating 

with a CAO, 
panelists rec­
o m m e n d e d  
librarians be 
prepared to 
share: 1. What 
is working for 
the library— 
not just what is 
failing or lack­
ing; 2. How 
t h e  l i b r a r y  
h a s  s o l v e d  
and can help 
s olve p r ob­
lems and ease 
transitions— 
Latorraca rec­
o m m e n d e d  
starting a con­

versation with “Hi—I just solved this problem 
for you . . .”; 3. Who the library’s allies are 
and with whom librarians have partnered and 
collaborated. A strong recommendation from 
Jorgens—“No surprises, please”—elicited ner­
vous laughter from the audience and audible 

C&RL News September 2007  482 



sighs from the panelists. Her recommenda­
tion was to never go around the CAO to a 
higher officer—certainly not the institution’s 
president—with a request or complaint with­
out at some time informing the CAO of the 
exchange. The same information exchange 
should also occur if one is contacted directly 
by a higher­level offi cer. 

Regarding funding requests, it is always 
good to have allies on campus available to 
speak on the library’s behalf, and to provide 
information to the CAO detailing how the 
library has already worked to accommodate 
budgetary changes, e.g., through consortia 
purchasing, etc. The panelists concurred that 
librarians need to be as involved in technol­
ogy planning and management as possible, 
but that this involvement—and that of all per­
sonnel with technology responsibility—needs 
to be as clearly defined as possible. Destler 
drew hearty applause with his comment “The 
chief information officer’s job is to support 
the library, not the other way around,” which 
concluded the discussion. 

A dozen audience members asked wide­
ranging questions during an animated ques­
tion­and­answer period, and the panelists 
continued to provide frank and useful advice. 
As the program drew to a close, a half dozen 
or more questioners remained, an indication 
of how much the audience appreciated hav­
ing direct access to this generous group of 
CAOs.—Lisa Stillwell, Franklin & Marshall 
College, lisa.stillwell@fandm.edu 

The experiences of mentors and 
mentees 
The purpose of the ACRL Dr. E. J. Josey Spec­
trum Scholar Mentor Program is to increase 
diversity in college and university libraries by 
encouraging Spectrum Scholars to consider 
careers in academic librarianship. This is 
done by pairing them in a relatively structured 
formal relationship with experienced and suc­
cessful academic librarians who have agreed 
to serve as mentors. Theresa Byrd (chair of 
the committee) opened the session with a 
brief overview of the work of the committee 
in developing the program and establishing 

the policies and procedures for identifying, 
orienting, and matching volunteer mentors 
with Spectrum Scholars. 

Three teams of mentor/mentees described 
their experiences under the program. The 
teams were: 1) Aline Soules (librarian/full 
professor, California State University­East 
Bay) and Candice Anne Wing­Yee Mack 
(MLIS candidate, University of California­Los 
Angeles [UCLA]), 2) Robert B. Ridinger (chair, 
electronic information resources, Northern 
Illinois University) and Joel B. Thornton 
(intern, University of Texas, Southwestern 
Medical Center), and 3) Carolyn Henderson 
Allen (dean of libraries, University of Arkan­
sas) and Brenda Marisol Linares (MLS student, 
UCLA). Issues addressed included genders of 
mentors/mentees, ethnicity, geography, com­
munication, networking, career advice, and 
technology. All of the mentees reported gain­
ing key information about the profession and 
how to advance. All of the mentors reported 
learning to view the profession from different 
perspectives and to be more understanding 
of how young professionals, especially from 
underrepresented groups, see things. All of 
the mentors were optimistic about the next 
generation of academic librarians. Mentors 
and mentees all agreed that participation in 
the program had been a benefi cial experi­
ence. All of the mentees said that they felt an 
obligation to pass on their experience and to 
serve as mentors to those who follow them. 

The committee is still looking for expe­
rienced academic librarians to serve as E. J. 
Josey Spectrum Scholar Mentors. Check 
the ACRL Web site for contact information. 
—Stanton F. Biddle, Baruch College, City 
University of New York, e­mail: stanton_ 
biddle@baruch.cuny.edu 

Gaming, information literacy, and the 
college student 
A standing­room only audience of approxi­
mately 350 responded enthusiastically to the 
thought­provoking presentations on gaming 
by James Paul Gee (Tashia Morgridge profes­
sor of reading, University of Wisconsin­Madi­
son) and George M. Needham (vice president, 

September 2007  483 C&RL News 

mailto:biddle@baruch.cuny.edu
mailto:lisa.stillwell@fandm.edu


member services, OCLC). This Community and 
Junior College Libraries Section (CJCLS) program 
was moderated by Rebecca Schreiner. 

James Paul Gee said that with traditional 
literacy, what predicts success in the fi rst 
grade is literacy at home. What predicts 
success in the fourth grade and beyond is 
the mastery of academic language. Learning 
comes from situated meaning coming from 
play, rather than textbook reading. When the 
gamer is engaged in the game, the manual 
becomes meaningful. The learning principles 
at work in gaming include: 

• Games are designed to lower the conse­
quences of failure so that the player takes risks 
and explores and learns from failure. 

• Performance before competence. 
• Players are high on the agency tree, must 

make choices and act. 
• Problems are well ordered in a rich environ­

ment with good guidance and fruitful leads. 
• Cycles of challenge, consolidation, and 

new challenge (expertise). 
• Games stay within, but at the outer edge 

of the player’s “regime of competence” to keep 
players pleasantly frustrated. 

• Games encourage players to think about 
systems and relationships, not just isolated 
events, facts and skills, to analyze the long­ term 
ramifi cations. 

• Games give verbal information “just in 
time”—when a player needs and can use it—or 
“on demand” when the player asks for it. 

• Games situate (show) the meanings of 
words and symbols and show how they vary 
across different actions, images, and dialogues. 
They don’t just offer words for words (defi ni­
tions). 

• In games, learning is embodied and af­
fective (emotion tied to learning); if it matters, 
people learn. 

• Games recruit smart tools, distributed 
knowledge, and cross­functional teams just like 
modern high­tech workplaces. 

• Games offer players strong identities. 
Players learn to view the virtual world through 
the eyes and values of a distinctive identity 
or one they themselves have built from the 
ground up. 

• Games encourage a distinctive view of 
intelligence: encourage players to explore 
thoroughly before moving on; to think later­
ally, not just linearly; and to use such explo­
ration and lateral thinking to rethink one’s 
goals from time to time. 

• Gamers develop empathy for a complex 
system. Simulation inside the game mimics 
scientifi c simulations. 

• In a gaming environment players not 
only use and assess information, but also 
modify it. 

George Needham said that OCLC’s envi­
ronmental scan three­and­a­half years ago 
focused on three trends: self­service, disag­
gregation, and collaboration. It used gamers 
as an example. 

Today’s students are digital natives who 
have never known a world that’s not digital. 
Digital immigrants have learned it to vary­
ing degrees, but retain a “digital accent.” In 
contrast to digital immigrants, digital natives 
are characterized by “twitch speed” rather 
than conventional speed, parallel processing 
rather than linear processing, random access 
rather than linear thinking, payoff rather than 
process, fantasy rather than reality, and tech­
nology as friend rather than uneasy partner. 

Quoting Steven Abram (Sirsi/Dynix) and 
Judy Luther, Needham described those “born 
with the chip” as format agnostic, nomadic, 
multitasking, experiential, collaborative, inte­
grated, principled, adaptive, and direct. 

John Beck describes the gamer’s view of 
life: heroes of their own games, performance 
matters, encourage people to take the lead. 
The world is a logical, human­friendly place. 
Games are basically fair. Events may be ran­
dom, but not unpredictable. Life should be 
fun. Work should not be punishment. Games 
have many potential paths to “victory” and 
the cost of failure is low. 

Gaming suggests rethinking how libraries 
deliver services: multiple paths, many formats 
and platforms, consider the nonprint learner, 
the librarian as “information priest” is as dead 
as Elvis, and what can the user contribute. 

Libraries should rethink where libraries 
serve: physical layouts of libraries; online ser­

C&RL News September 2007  484 



ACRL Content Strategist Kathryn Deiss presents her 
keynote for the CLS program on embracing change. 

vices are journeys and markers, not des­
tinations; 24/7/365 is barely enough. 

Needham suggested ways libraries 
could apply principles learned from gam­
ing: play an online game; offer services 
on instant messaging; use text messaging; 
throw a LAN party; bring digital natives 
into the planning process; respect non­
print learning. 

Needham concluded by exhorting 
that libraries not waste their existence 
in waiting, but must build as if the sand 
were stone.—Ann Coder, Brookhaven 
College Library, Dallas County Community 
College District, axc2610@dcccd.edu 

Embracing change 
More than 550 people attended the College 
Libraries Section (CLS) program entitled, 
“Embracing Change: How to Energize and 
Engage Library Staff.” 

The keynote speaker was ACRL’s Content 
Strategist Kathryn J. Deiss. Deiss used a series 
of images from nature to talk about change. 
She offered a list of suggestions to help 
deal with change. These included: “change 
your perspective frequently,” “encourage 
divergent opinions and ideas,” and “create 
new forms and structures in response to ob­
served changes in the patterns around you.” 
Deiss’s presentation provided a theoretical 
background for the practical presentations 
that followed. 

The three presentations that followed 
were chosen from 15 submissions via a blind 
peer­reviewed process. 

Tara Lynn Fulton was hired as dean of 
library and information services at Lock Ha­
ven University in 2000. When she interviewed 
she was told that the institution was looking 
for a dean who would initiate change. She 
met with the staff to make sure that they 
were on board before accepting the position. 
Upon her arrival, she made or initiated the 
following changes: remodeled the fi rst fl oor 
of the building, moved from closed to open 
periodical stacks, and created teams within 
the library (Web team, public relations team). 
Before her arrival, library staff had operated 

with the “lone ranger” model—working in 
a vacuum. She spoke about challenges she 
faced during this process of change. 

The next presentation featured two librar­
ians from Keene State College. Director Irene 
M. H. Herold led a revision of the library 
mission statement and strategic plan in 2003. 
One of the issues that surfaced during stra­
tegic planning was that the organizational 
hierarchy was confusing, so, in December 
2005, Herold presented a model for change 
that included a flattened hierarchy. In order 
to get people on board, she held an all­day 
retreat for area heads at the beginning of the 
process. The change­over was completed in 
December 2006, and seems to be well­re­
ceived by staff. However, in order to provide 
a second opinion, Keene’s Assistant Director 
Kathleen Halverson presented her side of the 
story. She said that the retreat was excellent, 
especially since it required the area heads 
to research and present. The team­building 
exercises built trust and respect, and greatly 
increased communication. She agreed that 
the change has been successful. 

The final presenter was Susan M. Campbell 
(library director at York College of Pennsyl­
vania). While presenting a slide show of be­
fore, during, and after pictures of her library 
during a massive remodeling, she described 
the changes that took place during that time. 
During the remodeling, the library also started 
teaching a required course in library research, 
restructured their reporting hierarchy, and 
launched a new Web site and ILS. To help 
people cope, she regularly brought in food, 

September 2007  485 C&RL News 

mailto:axc2610@dcccd.edu


allowed people to dress down because of the 
grime, encouraged group walks, and even 
hired a yoga teacher for the staff. Finally, 
Campbell hired an outside consultant to come 
give a two­day workshop on change. These 
considerations helped smooth the transition 
and made for a happier library staff. 

This program will be Webcast on No­
vember 15, 2007, at 3 p.m. (EST); watch the 
CLS electronic list for more details.—Ruth 
S. Connell, Valparaiso University, ruth. 
connell@valpo.edu 

Can blogs be trusted? 
Jason Zengerle, senior editor for the New Re­
public and contributor to its group blog “The 
Plank,” offered his insights into the world of 
political blogging to a full house. Liberal blogs 
were used in the 2000 election to galvanize a 
movement to broaden the political discussion 
beyond the beltway. Howard Dean’s use of 
the Internet as a messaging and fundraising 
tool has inspired countless candidates since 
then. Zengerle discussed differences between 
the NewRepublic and bloggers, such as the 
run­up to the Iraq War. He said that the Ne­
wRepublic had been wrong to support the 
war and said that their attacks on opponents 
had been “shameful.” In 2005, the NewRepub­
lic realized that the news cycle was shortening 
and that it needed to supplement its weekly 
coverage of events. “The Plank” was born. 
This format allowed them to address issues 
that might not generate a full article in the 
magazine and cover other blogs. 

Zengerle pointed out that some blogs 
were beginning to break news stories and 
keep them alive until the mainstream media 
discovered them. He cited “Talking Points 
Memo” as a source of more traditional news 
reporting that had incorporated signifi cant 
stories, such as the current investigation of 
the dismissals of several U.S. attorneys. 

Zengerle commented that the conserva­
tive political movement had been applying 
pressure to the mainstream media for several 
years. Reporters and editors have changed the 
emphasis of their stories to accommodate this 
pressure. The development of liberal blogs 

is now applying pressure from the opposite 
side of the spectrum, so Zengerle said he’s 
now getting attacked from both sides. He 
feels that this will lead to better balance in 
reporting in the future. 

Zengerle concluded by stating that he 
thought of blogs as early warning systems 
that foreshadow the development of upcom­
ing trends, such as the Ned Lamont senate 
campaign in Connecticut or the Tommy 
Thompson presidential run. Most political 
blogs are written to advocate a position and 
are subject to all the normal biases found in 
political campaigns and should be evaluated 
with care.—Catherine Doyle, Westfi eld State 
College, cdoyle@wsc.ma.edu 

Native American heritage in the 
nation’s capital 
The 2007 Anthropology and Sociology Sec­
tion (ANSS) program, “Native American Heri­
tage in the Nation’s Capital: Representation, 
Repatriation and Resilience,” featured an 
interdisciplinary panel of four scholars. 

Candace Greene (ethnologist at the 
National Museum of Natural History) is a 
specialist in Plains Indian pictorial art and 
senior editor of The Year the Stars Fell: La­
kota Winter Counts. Green explained that 
winter counts are calendrical documents, 
often kept on buffalo robes, where each 
year is denoted by a pictogram. The Year the 
Stars Fell refers to the Leonid meteor storm 
of November 1833, an event depicted on all 
known Lakota winter counts. Green worked 
with Lakota people to curate a Web exhibit 
(wintercounts.si.edu) that was honored with 
a World Summit Award in 2005. 

Emil Her Many Horses (associate curator at 
the National Museum of the American Indian) 
is a member of the Oglala Lakota nation. He 
was lead curator for the inaugural permanent 
exhibition “Our Universes: Traditional Knowl­
edge Shapes Our World,” which focuses on 
indigenous cosmologies—worldviews and 
philosophies related to the creation and the 
order of the universe. During his presentation 
about the development of “Our Universes,” 
Her Many Horses highlighted his collabo­

C&RL News September 2007  486 

http:wintercounts.si.edu
mailto:cdoyle@wsc.ma.edu
mailto:connell@valpo.edu


rations with the Quechua of Peru and the 
Yup’ik people of Alaska. 

Dorothy Lippert (archaeologist at the Na­
tional Museum of Natural History) discussed 
the contradictions and complexities arising 
from her multiple identities as a Choctaw, 
an archaeologist, and a repatriation case 
officer. She discussed how the 1990 Native 
American Graves Protection and Repatriation 
Act (NAGPRA) is ameliorating long­standing 
tensions between archaeologists, museums, 
and native peoples. 

Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne and Hod­
ulgee Muscogee) is president and executive 
director of the Morning Star Institute. She is 
a poet, writer, lecturer, curator, and policy 
advocate, who has helped native peoples 
recover more than 1 million acres of land and 
numerous sacred places. Harjo gave a moving 
personal account of her role in the passage 
of important federal legislation, including 
NAGPRA and the National Museum of the 
American Indian Act.—Terry Epperson, Col­
lege of New Jersey, epperson@tcnj.edu 

Federal documents in African 
American genealogical and historical 
research 
ACRL’s African American Studies Librar­
ians Section (AFAS) presented a two­hour 
workshop to help librarians to bridge the 
information gap about the legacy of Africans 
in America. Reginald Washington (National 
Archives and Records Administration) led the 
highly successful workshop and provided the 
standing­room­only crowd with loads of de­
tailed information and advice for uncovering 
African American genealogy in government 
resources. 

Many of the standard sources for the his­
tory and genealogy of European people in 
the United States cannot be used to chronicle 
the history of African Americans. Washington 
explained that those of African descent were 
considered three­fifths of a human by the 
federal government and were listed with 
livestock and other chattel, so they would 
not be listed in genealogy sections of county 
histories or the census until some time later. 

For example, federal census records for 
many years only listed the few free persons 
of African descent and not the many who 
were enslaved. 

Washington also informed participants that 
the Record of the Commissioners of Claims 
(Southern Claims Office, M87) is a treasure­
trove of information about the lives of 19th­
century African Americans. This collection 
includes many long narratives of former 
slaves; each claimant was asked 80 questions 
about his or her lives, providing information 
that is not available anywhere else. 

The AFAS two­hour workshop organized 
by cochairs, Akilah Nosakhere and Vivian 
Fisher, proved extremely popular among 
conference attendees. Fisher presented 
Reginald Washington with a Crystal Book 
Award in recognition of his advocacy for the 
preservation of federal documents chronicling 
the experience of Africans and African Ameri­
cans in the United States. Washington gave 
congressional testimony in support of the 
Freedman’s Bureau Preservation Act of 2000 
that authorized $3 million for the preservation 
of more than 1,000 linear feet of fi eld offi ce 
records at the Freedman’s Bureau. 

Participants of the workshop received 
an extensive packet of handouts that was 
put together by AFAS volunteers. Some of 
Washington’s work is available on the Web 
site he maintains at the National Archives and 
Records Administration, see www.archives. 
gov/research/alic/reference/black­history 
­topical.html. 

Pictures of the AFAS program are avail­
able on Flickr at www.fl ickr.com/photos 
/12682543@N00/sets/72157600530982134/. 
—Isabel Espinal, University of Massachusetts­
Amherst, iespinal@library.umass.edu 

Empowering data: Persuasion through 
presentation 
Three lively and informative talks were given 
at the ACRL Education and Behavioral Sci­
ences Section (EBSS) program “Empowering 
Data: Persuasion Through Presentation.” The 
featured speakers were Robert Molyneux 
(SIRSI/DYNIX), Steve Hiller (University of 

September 2007  487 C&RL News 

mailto:iespinal@library.umass.edu
www.archives
mailto:epperson@tcnj.edu


Washington), and Maribeth Manoff (Univer­
sity of Tennessee.) 

Molyneux, the first speaker, provided an 
overview of library aggregate data collected 
by organizations, e.g., ARL and ACRL, and 
agencies such as NCES. He noted we use data 
for funding justification and decision support, 
not for research ascertaining cause. Although 
this data is primarily collected annually, the 
compilers do not generally create longitudinal 
files, and this severely limits our ability to 
study trends. Documentation and data selec­
tion can also be a problem. Data collected by 
others, such as NCES, is well documented, but 
doesn’t necessarily answer librarians’ ques­
tions. Conversely, data collected to answer 
our questions when available is often poorly 
documented. This latter weakness makes 
compilation even more diffi cult. 

These structural weaknesses in the data, 
however, will be addressed in the near future 
with the release of the Academic Libraries 
Statistical Longitudinal File (and its derivative 
products) by the National Commission on 
Libraries and Information Science. Molyneux 
concluded by encouraging us to consider 
exploring this data more fully and to “jump 
in …there are many questions that need 
answers.” 

The second speaker, Steven Hiller, fo­
cused on how we can make data meaningful 
and actionable, using a detailed assessment 
project at the University of Washington as a 
case study. 

Hiller suggests we must first select the 
appropriate method(s) and/or data sets, and 
then compile, summarize, and analyze the re­
sults in ways that increase understanding. For 
example, using descriptive statistics, one can 
highlight themes or patterns. Comparisons 
(chronological, within and between groups, 
institutions, and norms) can also provide 
context. The findings presented should be 
key results that are usable or actionable; of­
ten the most effective way to provide these 
findings is graphically. 

The final speaker, Maribeth Manoff, used a 
more narrow focus on e­resource usage to il­
lustrate the iterative process of using data. She 

first discussed the MaxData Project, funded by 
IMLS, which seeks to evaluate and compare 
methods of usage of data collection and to 
analyze and develop a cost/benefit model to 
help the selection of methods for electronic 
resource usage assessments. Manoff then 
turned specifically to the University of Ten­
nessee Libraries usage data, and, as Hiller 
previously discussed, she emphasized the 
importance of evaluating what data is avail­
able, identifying the questions we are trying 
to answer with the data, and analyzing and 
reviewing what makes the data useful and 
may lead to new questions that start the 
process over again. 

Presentation slides from this program are 
available at www.ala.org/ebss/empoweringdata. 
—Karen A. Hartman, Rutgers University, 
khartman@rci.rutgers.edu 

Rare books and special collections in 
public libraries 
Rare and antiquarian collections are most 
often associated with academic institutions, 
historical societies, and museums; however, 
special collections are also found right around 
the corner within your local public library. 
ACRL’s Rare Books and Manuscript Section 
(RBMS) partnered with the Public Library As­
sociation (PLA) to highlight these signifi cant 
collections and the libraries that house them, 
during the program entitled “Rare Books 
and Special Collections in Public Libraries: 
Collections and Locations, Old and New.” 
A sampling of three public libraries—each 
varying in size, scope, and mission—were 
represented. 

Elaine Barone (manager of the humanities 
division of the Buffalo Public Library [BPL]), 
detailed examples of modern fi ne printing— 
Kelmscott Press publications, Shakespeare’s 
first folio, incunabula, the Federalist Papers, 
and Mark Twain’s manuscripts—as some of 
the 40,000 titles found in their catalog. These 
collections reflect the glory days of BPL; as it 
was one of the country’s 11 largest libraries up 
until the 1950s. Discussing fi nancial cutbacks, 
reduced staffing and hours, and the diffi culty 
of making collection development decisions 

C&RL News September 2007  488 

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www.ala.org/ebss/empoweringdata


with fewer funds, Barone spoke to the role 
and impact of community pride in maintain­
ing these treasures. 

During the formative years of the collec­
tions, the 1920s–1930s, the people of Buffalo 
contributed their own hard earned funds to 
ensure that the rare materials of the science 
collection would be fully represented in 
their library. According to Barone, a sense 
of ownership and pride in the materials 
has developed because of key library initia­
tives. She mentioned the use of exhibitions, 
publicity, advocacy within the community, 
and the development of a treasure’s pre­
sentation, as some successful methods for 
growing community support, involvement, 
and investment. 

Gladys Mahoney (rare book librarian at 
the Phoenix Public Library) provided back­
ground and details of the Arizona Room’s 
local history collection, the Rare Book Room’s 
community book art collection, Washington 
Press, and the Alfred Knight Collection of 
Rare Books. She stated that three components 
sustain and enhance collections: public ac­
cess, marketing and programming, and sup­
port and advocacy. Phoenix Public Library 
(PPL) creatively implemented activities and 
policies surrounding these three components 
to build its patron base, increase support, and 
maintain funding levels: a relationship with 
the Arizona University Book Arts Program 
was forged in 1981, access to the collections 
was increased via the online catalog, a regular 
presentation schedule was instituted for all 
ages, and the printing press was opened to 
the public under Mahoney’s guidance and 
skill. Patronage is PPL’s focus, which keeps 
the staff ever mindful of their mission no mat­
ter how numerous the challenges. 

Francine Henderson (head of the Auburn 
Avenue Research Library on African­American 
Culture and History) described her current 
role as the culmination of a lifelong, fantas­
tic journey and the melding of experiences. 
As the leader of the nation’s second largest 
archives specializing in the history of African 
Americans, Henderson asserted that libraries 
need to develop a public awareness of col­

lecting and maintaining historical information 
and materials; assess potential collections, 
donors, and topics of signifi cance within the 
community; provide information that will 
help to demystify the process of collection 
building; and to promote advocacy for better 
preservation and access of African American 
culture and history at research institutions. 
Henderson also spoke to the public distrust 
of majority institutions. In summation, she 
said, “You don’t have to die in order to do­
nate your papers, give them now, and go to 
your own party!” 

The program ended with a question­and­
answer session. One member of the audi­
ence thanked the speakers heartily, as they 
offered practical advice. Another attendee 
raised the issue of a local donor base and 
whether it competes with other regional, 
cultural institutions. According to Hender­
son, a community has many needs, and 
your institution is fulfilling a specifi c need, 
not competing.—Eileen M. Heeran, Cornell 
University, emh57@cornell.edu 

The European Union today 
Significantly for libraries, the European Union 
(EU) has an ever­stronger impact in the arenas 
of global publishing, scholarly communica­
tion, and information services even beyond 
contemporary Europe. Members of three 
ACRL sections gathered to hear three different 
perspectives on the enlarged EU and on Euro­
pean identity issues. Planned by the Western 
European Studies Section (WESS), the program 
was cosponsored by the ACRL Law and Politi­
cal Science Section (LPSS) and the Slavic and 
East European Studies Section (SEES). 

John Bruton (ambassador of EU to the 
United States and former prime minister 
of Ireland) was one of three distinguished 
speakers. Bruton addressed several transat­
lantic issues, including environmental policy; 
attendees praised his insight and dry humor. 
His participation was a welcome affi rmation 
for librarians, as it coincided with news of the 
transfer of the print library of EU’s Washing­
ton Delegation to the University of Pittsburgh, 
where it will be digitized. That library and its 

September 2007  489 C&RL News 

mailto:emh57@cornell.edu


staff have been a greatly appreciated resource 
for EU research and general inquiries for 
more than two decades. 

European identity and the social construc­
tion of political authority within the EU are 
research areas for Georgetown University 
Professor Kathleen McNamara. Her history of 
the development of European nation states 
and the EU provided essential context for 
the substantive discussion following these 
presentations, which she moderated. 

Arend Kuester (director for Europe of 
Publishers Communications Group (PCG), 
Inc.) offered a rich presentation, providing 
both the facts and the flavor of the Eastern 
European information infrastructure and 
some EU publishing issues. Photographs from 
his travels to all major libraries in all Eastern 
European EU members and candidate coun­
tries enlivened his presentation. 

Attendees praised the quality and creden­
tials of the speakers, their varied and engag­
ing presentation styles, and the breadth of 
information provided about EU history and 
some of the contemporary identity issues. 
We look forward to more WESS forums and 
discussions on this area. 

Additional information about this program 
can be found on the WESS Web site at wess. 
lib.byu.edu.—Sarah How, Cornell University, 
seh4@cornell.edu 

The compleat leader 
The question posed in the University Librar­
ies Section (ULS) program “Leadership or 
Management: Which is It?” has an admittedly 
obvious answer: both; yet the implications 
of this response are far more complex than 
this single­syllable response would suggest. 
The program title served as the starting point 
for an expansive discussion of the skills em­
ployed by the individuals who stand at the 
helm of our organizations, and of the need 
for a conscious awareness of when we draw 
from leadership skills and when we draw 
from management skills for the betterment 
of our libraries. 

The program featured a panel of individu­
als at different points in their careers: Julie 

Todaro (dean of library services at Austin 
Community College and ACRL president­
elect), representing those more established 
in librarianship; Karen Williams (associate 
university librarian for academic programs at 
the University of Minnesota Library), speak­
ing as a mid­career librarian; and Adam 
Benitez (recent graduate of the University 
of California­Los Angeles’ MLIS program), 
as a brand new librarian with many years 
of paraprofessional experience. Moderating 
the panel was Shelley Phipps (assistant dean 
for team and organizational development at 
the University of Arizona Libraries). A panel 
with such diversity in the participants’ career 
stages offered insight into the ways leader­
ship and management are viewed from these 
different points. 

Todaro set the stage by describing the 
“versus” theory of leadership vs. manage­
ment, in which the former is considered 
an art and the latter a science, the former 
about people and the latter about resources. 
Historically these have been considered 
separate schools of thought about how to run 
an organization, but in recent years there is 
more reflection on ways to blend the two in 
scholarship and training. 

Karen Williams responded by emphasizing 
the importance of “making every librarian a 
leader,” as per Walter Minkel’s 2002 article 
in School Library Journal. Positional leaders 
need to take advantage of both leadership 
and management skills, Williams agreed, but 
she added that this is not enough, and the 
same skills are important to those in all library 
positions across the board. She asserted that 
leadership can be learned; we just need the 
training, education, practice, and refl ection to 
make those skills our own. And, above all, 
leaders must be intentional in their employ­
ment of leadership and management skills 
in their work. 

In contrast to Todaro’s and Williams’ 
polished presentations, Adam Benitez took 
the stage with endearing, acknowledged 
nervousness. He described being surprised 
when he was asked to join the panel. “I was 
just doing my job,” he said, adding that he 

C&RL News September 2007  490 

mailto:seh4@cornell.edu


did not consider himself a leader. In his view, 
mentors are the key to training new leaders, 
and he cited encouragement he received from 
colleagues as a motivating factor that helped 
him get through library school. The most 
important role of a leader, he suggested, is 
to create new leaders by helping others see 
themselves that way. In short, new leaders 
are created by those around them, through 
mentoring and shared enthusiasm. 

To round out the session, Julie Todaro 
returned with an effort to weave together 
the topical threads provided by Williams 
and Benitez. She provided a handout (avail­
able at www.acrl.org/ala/acrl/aboutacrl 
/acrlsections/universitylib/ULSMeetings.htm) 
that elaborates on the differences between 
leadership and management and offers some 
explanation about the importance of each, as 
well as ideas for training future leaders and 
managers. Reviewing the handout, Todaro 
detailed ways in which current leaders can be 
intentional in providing for succession plan­
ning by deliberately hiring individuals who 
complement their own skills and weaknesses 
and have the potential to step up to the next 
level. Further, she described a combined lead­
ership/management approach in which the 
managers take the facts and add the human 
element as leaders, with the result being a 
more complete and effective perspective. 

As an example, Todaro recounted a memo 
she wrote to tell her staff about construction 
that would take place in the library. As a 
manager, she was concerned with conveying 
the dates, locations, and contingencies of the 
construction (such as noise, closed areas, 
etc.). However, as a leader she made sure to 
offer those facts in a greater context; provid­
ing a sense of purpose for the project, an offer 
for those affected by noise to work alternative 
hours, and thanking staff for their fl exibility. 
As she described this experience, Todaro 
explained how leaders should consciously 
draw from leadership and management skills 
by reviewing a list (such as the one in her 
handout) and deciding which of those skills 
are appropriate and when. 

Overall, the ULS program was an engag­

ing foray into the question of how to create 
stronger leaders through a conscious blend 
of leadership and management skills, with a 
side trip into the question of how to recruit, 
train, and advance future leaders in a profes­
sion that is sure to need them—and soon. 
The session, which took place in a sizeable 
auditorium, was well attended and (to gauge 
from the number of seats still occupied by 
the end of the session) clearly well received. 
The session was followed by a social hour 
with representatives from nine national library 
leadership programs, as an opportunity for 
attendees to network and learn about new 
leadership opportunities.—Kim Leeder, Boise 
State University, kimleeder@boisestate.edu 

Once upon a Furl in a podcast long 
ago 
This year’s annual conference program of the 
ACRL’s Women Studies Section (WSS), entitled 
“Once Upon a Furl in a Podcast Long Ago: 
Using New Technologies to Support Library 
Instruction,” was standing­room only and 
offered up a well­rounded panel of guests 
who have firsthand experience with imple­
menting new technologies in the classroom 
and beyond. The panelists were, respectively, 
Joan K. Lippincott (Coalition for Networked 
Information), Kathleen Burnett (Florida State 
University’s Information Studies Program), 
Kathryn Shaughnessy (St. John’s University), 
and Heather Tompkins (Carleton College). 

Although this program emphasized library 
instruction as its subject, it became clear that 
the focus was primarily on the programmatic 
uses of new technologies; the last acknowl­
edging that at the moment in which teaching 
happens, that particular moment has been 
filtered through administrative acceptance, 
faculty and student input, engagement with 
new material, and programmatic policies 
requiring and providing opportunities for 
change. It is becoming more acceptable in 
academic libraries to use technology in an 
experimental fashion. Yet, just as in any 
scientific lab, these experiments occur in 
an environment of controlled sustainability. 
Projects conducted before to the Web, social 

September 2007  491 C&RL News 

mailto:kimleeder@boisestate.edu
www.acrl.org/ala/acrl/aboutacrl


or otherwise, have left terrific paper tiger trails 
but much to be desired in terms of fl exibility. 
In comparison, the experiments shared by our 
panelists seem to have regenerative proper­
ties, able to adapt to shifting administrative 
landscapes and student preferences. As pan­
elist Kathryn Shaughnessy stated, “Library 2.0 
is always in beta.” 

True to its word, “Once Upon a Furl” 
highlighted many creative new technologies 
and projects. Many of these technologies have 
familiar names, such as Skype, Blogger, RSS, 
PennTags, Captivate, RefWorks, and del.icio. 
us. However, the overarching theme of the 
program was not to simply showcase technol­
ogy­rich projects, but to emphasize the use of 
technology as a vehicle for communication, 
collaboration, and curricular enrichment. 
Joan K. Lippincott shared examples of how 
some institutions are handling multimedia on 
their campuses. Projects such as TeamSpot at 
Stanford and Georgia Tech’s Practice Presen­
tation Room have led the way by providing 
students unfettered opportunities to become 
savvy information producers, something 
they are already working on in their per­
sonal lives. These collaborative workspaces 
empower students to make an important 
transition from, according to Lippincott, the 
“recreational use of technology to academic 
use of technology.” 

Communication 
Increasingly, it has become a priority for 
academic librarians to create multi­channel 
avenues of communication with both students 
and faculty. In an effort to provide resources 
and services to a generation that, as Lippincott 
states, “never were tethered to communica­
tion in a place,” librarians have built new 
outposts of communication that extend the 
building, the classroom, and our defi nition 
of ourselves. By building social networks, 
using technologies that students have already 
embraced, librarians can ensure more timely 
delivery of resources and services. Addition­
ally, these technologies provide the fl exibility 
to repackage and restructure resources and 
services in order to meet, as they say in the 

corporate world, client specification. As pan­
elist Heather Tompkins aptly states, these new 
technologies are ideally suited “social Web 
applications as a tool for organizing research.” 
Tompkins also points out that meeting stu­
dents where they are comfortable is an op­
portunity to teach concepts about academic 
research in a non­threatening environ. In ad­
dition, by sharing resources and project goals 
with other academic departments, librarians 
can more closely examine their success in 
teaching many of the core skills needed to 
transform information literacy. According to 
Lippincott, these core skills, as extrapolated 
from Henry Jenkins’ work Confronting the 
Challenges of Participatory Culture, include 
the ability to multitask, simulate, and mean­
ingfully appropriate. 

Collaboration 
Selective and successful appropriation, or 
sampling, of different media sources means 
that students and faculty alike are more likely 
to, as Kathleen Burnett suggests, “bring other 
voices and faces into the discussion.” And, by 
expanding our concept of acceptable forms 
of scholarly communication, we create new 
opportunities for interdisciplinary collabora­
tion. Collaboration flattens the learning en­
vironment, coaxing it into one more akin to 
mutual aid. Kathryn Shaughnessy points to 
this in her discussion of social justice con­
cerns for instruction, where she emphasizes 
learning from students, in “recognition of 
experience/expertise in their own area.” The 
benefits of collaboration and teamwork were 
threaded through each panelist’s presenta­
tion. As Burnett emphasized in her discus­
sion of digital natives, this is especially true 
of library and information science students, 
who come to the profession from diverse 
backgrounds and have much to gain from 
an increase in “peer­to peer (collaborative) 
learning” strategies. 

Curricular enrichment 
Burnett and others also note that new tech­
nologies have made a variety of experiential 
learning activities possible, such as gaming 

C&RL News September 2007  492 



and simulation. These types of learning 
strategies match the learning preferences of 
digital natives, or millenials, which include a 
desire for active engagement and construc­
tive versus theoretical learning experiences. 
They want to do rather than discuss, and 
they want the unadulterated version of what 
they are learning. In short, new technologies 
give students and faculty more fl exibility in 
the types of material being presented, how 
that material is presented, and the ways in 
which it is delivered. This means a change in 
expectations, not only as to what constitutes 
scholarly communication, but in how faculty 
and students interact. 

As we move forward with these and other 
new technologies, it seems important to rec­
ognize that this is ever­shifting terrain. What 
seemed anathema to learning 20 years ago 
(studying via podcast while driving?) or struc­
turally impossible 10 years ago (transnational 
synchronous distance learning?) is now part 
of our learning culture. The best piece of all 
of this is that through technology, academic 
librarians have developed into a new breed 
of professor, one capable of providing guid­
ance as to the hidden pedagogical potential of 
technology and teasing out the ever sought­
after student wow factor.—Jennifer Nace, 
Pennsylvania State­Worthington Scracton, 
jxn19@psu.edu 

Librarians and fundraisers: More in 
common than you might suppose 
The ACRL Ethics Committee sponsored 
“Ethics and Fundraising: Challenges and 
Opportunities,” a presentation featuring two 
experienced library fundraisers who pro­
vided the audience with an informative and 
thought­provoking session that stressed the 
ethical foundation of fundraising activity. 

Bill Myers (former director of library de­
velopment and current director of assessment 
and outreach within the Office for Informa­
tion Services at the University of Kansas) 
set the stage for the presentation by asking 
audience members to consider the Ethical Di­
lemma Test, from the National Institute of Eth­
ics. which poses questions like “What would 

I do if I were being videotaped?” and “Would 
I do it if my family was standing beside me?” 
Myers also asked the audience to think about 
three words that describe effective librar­
ians and three words that describe effective 
fundraisers. The lists contained several words 
in common, such as honest, integrity, and 
hardworking. This exercise reinforced Myer’s 
conclusion that the two professions have a 
great deal in common. 

One major distinction between the two is 
in terms of practice: people ask librarians for 
something, while fundraisers ask people for 
something. The integrity of both transactions 
depends upon the integrity of the individuals 
conducting them and adherence to a well 
articulated set of professional principles. Li­
brarians have the Library Bills of Rights and 
the ALA Code of Ethics; fundraisers have the 
Donor’s Bill of Rights and the Association 
of Fundraising Professionals Code of Ethical 
Principles. 

Dwain Teague (director of development 
for the University of Central Florida Librar­
ies) identified three challenges to fundraisers 
working in the library environment: identify­
ing potential donors, educating constituents 
as to how they can show their support, and 
overcoming the idea that a library is simply a 
building that houses books. Teague stressed 
that education and communication are key 
factors in establishing and maintaining good 
relationships with donors and prospective 
donors. The audience enjoyed his “tales from 
the trenches” as he highlighted potentially 
tricky situations involving gifts of books and 
nonbook material that were resolved effec­
tively by the library being forthright about 
its priorities while respecting the intentions 
of the donor for the gift. 

Both speakers agreed that it is essential 
for libraries to have a clearly defined set of 
polices and procedures in place. Library staff 
and donors alike should be familiar with these 
documents. Myers suggested including ethics 
as part of a formal program of orientation or 
staff development. 

The program is best summed up in the 
words of Douglas E. White, a writer who 

September 2007  493 C&RL News 

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has made significant contributions to the 
literature of professional fundraising: “The 
trick is not only to want to do the right thing, 
but to have done the work to understand 
and defend what the right thing is.”—Lori 
Phillips, University of Wyoming Libraries, 
lphil@uwyo.edu 

Conquer your peer fear 
ACRL’s Distance Learning Section (DLS) 
presented a program about the peer­review 
process, “Conquer Your Peer Fear: A Mock 
Peer­Review Workshop.” The program was 
aimed at new authors who have not been 
published in peer­reviewed journals. The pro­
gram began with a brief award ceremony. 

Sandra Hawes (DLS conference planning 
chair) introduced the participants. Connie 
Hildebrand (DLS award chair) presented 
the 2007 ACRL DLS Haworth Press Distance 
Learning Librarian Conference Sponsorship 
Award to Anne Marie Casey (associate dean of 
libraries at Central Michigan University). This 
award includes a plaque and $1,200 to assist 
with the expenses of attending ALA’s Annual 
Conference. 

Alan Karass (music librarian at College of 
the Holy Cross and coeditor of Music Reference 
Services Quarterly) and Stephen Dew (past edi­
tor of Journal of Library & Information Services 
in Distance Learning) offered advice about 
preparing and submitting articles for publi­
cation in peer­reviewed journals. Both pre­
senters provided handouts with peer­review 
publishing tips. The DLS Research Committee 
provided a two­sided handout with detailed 
information (in table format) about presenta­
tion opportunities at forthcoming conferences 
of interest to distance learning librarians. 

Karass showed excerpts from drafts of 
papers that had been solicited prior to the 
conference. With these excerpts, he dem­
onstrated common problems of fi rst­time 
authors and suggested solutions. He also 
provided general advice for writers, such as 
staying focused on the topic, using a formal 
writing style, considering time sensitivity 
when deciding where to submit an article, 
and submitting the article with an abstract and 

author­provided keywords. Dew suggested 
that hesitant writers start with something 
small, such as a newsletter article or book 
review. When writing an article for publica­
tion, Dew advised authors to follow carefully 
the journal’s instructions for authors, organize 
the paper in a logical manner, be consistent 
with acronyms and job titles, avoid fi rst­per­
son writing except for an editorial or opinion 
piece, and welcome criticism and suggestions 
from peers. 

Audience members actively participated 
in the question­and­answer session that 
followed the editors’ presentations. DLS 
collaborated with the ACRL’s Education 
and Behavioral Sciences Section (EBSS) by 
mutually promoting their programs.—Liz 
Richardson, Edinboro University of Pennsyl­
vania, erichardson@edinboro.edu 

Issues and trends in digital 
repositories of nontextual information 

Catherine Soehner (University of Michi­
gan, Science and Technology Section [STS] 
chair) welcomed more than 200 participants 
to the session and presented the Oberlin 
Award for Bibliography in the Agricultural 
Sciences to Louise Letnes, Patricia Rodke­
wich, and Julie Kelly (all of the University of 
Minnesota) for their database AgEcon Search 
agecon.lib.umn.edu/. 

Information on the Oberly Award is 
found at www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlawards 
/oberlyaward.cfm. 

Program committee member Katherine 
O’Clair (Arizona State University) introduced the 
speakers: Thomas Dowling (OhioLINK), speak­
ing on “Building OhioLINK’s Digital Resource 
Commons: A MultiMedia, Multi­Institution 
(And Sometimes Even Open Access) Research 
Repository”; D. Scott Brandt (Purdue Univer­
sity), whose talk was titled “Data, Research, 
Metadata, Metaresearch”; and H. Frank Cervone 
(Northwestern University), who focused on “The 
University Library and its Role in Facilitating 
Campus­wide Streaming Media.” 

Thomas Dowling (assistant director of 
library systems, client/server applications at 
OhioLINK), began with a brief history and 

C&RL News September 2007  494 

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mailto:erichardson@edinboro.edu
mailto:lphil@uwyo.edu


timeline of development of the OhioLINK 
Digital Media Center (dmc.ohiolink.edu/). Its 
first collection became accessible in 1999 and 
will be just one component of the planned 
Digital Resource Commons (DRC), a state­
wide institutional repository. The vision for 
DRC includes: 

• statewide institutional repository: re­
search portfolios such as preprints, postprints 
or working papers, 

• Web­mediated peer review electronic 
journals: supporting open access self­ar­
chiving and publishing, 

• electronic theses and dissertations: Web­
mediated submission, tracking, acceptance, 
and publication of student works, 

• learning object repository: connected 
to a campus’ Collaborative Learning Environ­
ment (CLE) for storage and retrieval of course 
content, and 

• online exhibition system: digital library 
platform for libraries, archives, and special 
collections and more than 10,000 electronic 
dissertations from 17 institutions in Ohio. 

Dowling spoke candidly of the diffi culties 
encountered due to the complexity of work­
ing with 85 different institutions statewide, 
the “vertical diversification” of the content, 
and the need to move seamlessly from a 
single institution’s repository to the state­
wide repository. Initial plans to work with 
Fedora are being re­evaluated; installing 
“several silos” of content using DSpace and 
building connections between those is under 
consideration. The challenges of integrating 
perhaps 100 repositories around the state 
(including branch campuses), compatible 
with Open Archives Initiative Protocol for 
Metadata Harvesting, are not insignifi cant. 
Current progress toward DRC can be followed 
at drc­dev.ohiolink.edu/ 

Scott Brandt (associate dean for research, 
Purdue University) emphasized the role 
of academic librarians in the “research 
stream”—not simply interacting with pub­
lished data, but as partners who capture 
data and unpublished materials for a data 
repository. Brandt gave as an example the 
Journal of Molecular Biology. This scientifi c 

journal requires deposit of data to support a 
manuscript, and librarians are well qualifi ed 
to collaborate with scientists so these data are 
captured, described, and made accessible to 
an appropriate audience. Purdue is exploring 
how to work with more faculty, respond to 
researchers who desire a broader audience, 
and use automated methods for capturing 
and processing data. 

Brandt offered this practical advice to 
librarians: ask researchers “What are you 
working on? How do you share data? Do you 
need to share data? Can we work with you 
to describe and house data?” These questions 
will facilitate problem solving, not simply 
building a repository. Librarians can help 
with ontologies, hierarchical structures, and 
interactive thesauri, and are well positioned 
to balance service with research. Building 
strong relationships with researchers is key 
to creating repositories that serve the needs 
of researchers and users. 

Frank Cervone (assistant university librar­
ian for technology, Northwestern University) 
described an ambitious project to bring 
streaming media to 18,000 FTE students on 
a widely distributed network. At the outset 
of the project, the video infrastructure badly 
needed an overhaul, and technology­en­
abled classrooms were just beginning to 
be installed. The new system requirements 
featured a standard, integrated method for 
ingesting, storing, and accessing digital ob­
jects and the ability to streamline workfl ow of 
processing digital media (including metadata 
creation). 

Cervone provided technical details on 
streaming media protocols considered at 
Northwestern during the project planning 
phase, including stateful protocols vs. 
nonstateful protocols (the latter is better 
for streaming video, with less overhead in 
error correction, and minimizes dropped 
data), and variable protocols (such as MMS, 
UDP, TCP, HTTP), as well as considerations 
related to unicast or multicast. An academic 
environment often requires a unicast (for 
example, one student watching a lecture 
from the previous day), but many unicasts 

September 2007  495 C&RL News 

http:drc-dev.ohiolink.edu
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simultaneously can overwhelm a system in 
a manner unlike the multicast protocol. The 
Web site AllStreamingMedia.com maintains 
a helpful FAQ at all­streaming­media.com 
/articles/Streaming­Media­Intro_Streaming 
­protocols.htm. 

VideoFurnace is installed at Northwestern, 
offering secure video distribution compatible 
with MPEG standards. It is not a repository 
system, but it is ideal for streaming and allows 
conversion of old analog video to digital for 
archiving. Fedora is used at Northwestern for 
the repository currently under construction. 
Cervone also described the role of VideoFur­
nace in the production of NUTV, Northwest­
ern television at www.it.northwestern.edu/tv 
/index.html. 

Questions for the three speakers ranged from 
the feasibility of the Open Archives Initiative 
(OAI) for metadata harvesting to the long­term 
cost (in staff and technology) for data curation 
and the observed allegiance of researchers to 
disciplinary archives vs. institutional archives. 
Regarding OAI, the speakers emphasized that 
metadata cannot be limited to simple Dublin 
core, ignoring how the data will “look out in 
the wide world” and specifically to OAI har­
vester. Cost issues may be addressed to some 
extent by partnering with other institutions to 
realize economy of scale within a consortia or 
regional repository. With pressure growing for 
open access to government­funded research, 
academic communities will have to be prepared 
to allocate funds for data preservation, with links 
to published research. 

Finally, managers of repositories need 
“fl uid policies” so that researchers can readily 
deposit materials in the repository that make 
sense for them, and for their colleagues and 
students. Dictating policy across disciplines 
and a wide range of users will not guarantee 
compliance. Success will be measured by 
how well faculty, library, and information 
technology professionals collaborate to make 
the connections functional, and the systems 
intuitive and accessible to the widest com­
munity possible. 

Program information is available at 
www.ala.org/ala/acrl/aboutacrl/acrlsections 

/sciencetech/stsconferences/program07. 
cfm—Alison Ricker, Oberlin College Science 
Center Library, alison.ricker@oberlin.edu 

Shakespeare in libraries 
The Literatures in English Section (LES) and 
the Theater Library Association cosponsored 
a well­attended program entitled “Shake­
speare in Libraries: On Stage, Online, Off 
the Shelves.” 

Georgianna Ziegler (Folger Shakespeare 
Library) began by describing the Folger’s 
history and collections. The library serves 
a broad community beyond the academic 
world, and its e­mail reference service is 
used by theater professionals, book dealers, 
librarians, and students of all ages from all 
over the world. The Folger is putting more of 
its material online to better serve this global 
constituency. 

Caleen Sinnette Jennings (American 
University) emphasized the importance of 
faculty and librarians working together as 
coeducators, drawing from her own positive 
experience working with a reference librarian 
in support of a theater seminar she taught. 
She urged librarians to reach out to faculty 
members and to promote “the cultural and 
ethnic diversity of literature in general and 
Shakespeare in particular.” 

James Harner (Texas A & M University) 
lamented the poor quality of many online 
Shakespeare resources, claiming that “the 
Bard is not well served by the brave new 
electronic world.” He advocated for the 
creation of an electronic Shakespeare clear­
inghouse, organized and maintained by 
librarians, which would be rigorously selec­
tive and evaluative, serve both K–12 students 
and advanced researchers, and include “the 
scholarly as well as the fun stuff.” 

Carole Levin (University of Nebraska­
Lincoln) described her involvement with the 
“Elizabeth I: Ruler and Legend” exhibit, for 
which she served as senior historical consul­
tant. Originally on display at the Newberry 
Library, the exhibit later traveled to 40 public 
and academic libraries across the country. 
Levin described the creative public program­

C&RL News September 2007  496 

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http:AllStreamingMedia.com


ming that the hosting libraries developed 
to supplement the exhibit and engage the 
public. 

The discussion after the presentations 
touched on hot topics in current Shakespeare 
scholarship, including cognitive theory, glo­
balization, ecocriticism, and performance­
based approaches to teaching. All of the 
panelists stressed the scholarly importance of 
engagement with physical books and manu­
scripts, despite the increasing availability of 
digital surrogates, and the important role 
of libraries in fostering scholarly commu­
nity.—Chris Ruotolo, University of Virginia, 
ruotolo@virginia.edu 

Visual literacy meets information 
literacy 
The Arts Section and Instruction Section (IS) 
cosponsored “Eye to I: Visual Literacy Meets 
Information Literacy” to a capacity crowd of 
more than 400 attendees. The afternoon be­
gan with the presentation of the IS awards. 

The Miriam Dudley Instruction Librar­
ian Award (sponsored by Elsevier) went to 
Debra L. Gilchrist (dean of library and media 
services of the Pierce College District) for her 
significant contributions in the area of assess­
ment of information literacy. 

The University of North Carolina­Chapel 
Hill Library’s Instructional Services Depart­
ment was awarded the IS Innovation Award 
(sponsored by Lexis­Nexis) for its “Com­
munity Workshop Series.” Rounding out 
the awards, James K. Elmborg (University 
of Iowa) and Sheril Hook (University of 
Toronto­Mississauga) were given the Ilene 
F. Rockman Instruction Publication of the 
Year Award (sponsored by Emerald Group 
Publishing) for their collaboration on Centers 
for Learning: Writing Centers and Libraries 
in Collaboration, Publications in Librarian­
ship #58. 

The dynamic program that followed 
focused on forging connections between 
visual and information literacy, and included 
looking at legal aspects, access issues, and 
teaching strategies in an environment where 
images and words are increasingly interwo­

ven to make meaning. This point was pow­
erfully illustrated at the program’s opening 
when images of historical events, including 
John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the levee 
breaches in New Orleans after Hurricane 
Katrina, were juxtaposed with headlines of 
those same events. 

Three dynamic speakers then explored 
the topic in­depth. Danuta Nitecki (associ­
ate university librarian of Yale University) 
set the stage by discussing how images are 
an increasingly important way people com­
municate, and visual literacy consisted, at its 
most basic of an understanding of how this 
communication worked. 

Loanne Snavely (head of instructional 
programs at Pennsylvania State University 
Libraries) then explored the complexity of 
ownership issues related to images, illus­
trating her point by presenting images of 
artwork and photographs to the audience 
whose credits and copyrights were anything 
but obvious. 

Introducing yet another layer of complex­
ity to working with visual information, Cindy 
Cunningham (director of media metadata and 
cataloging at Corbis Corporation) presented 
a series of images and asked the audience 
to consider what keywords they would use 
to catalog the images. The audience favored 
simple descriptors over more complex emo­
tional or conceptual ideas, but the catalogers 
at Corbis included both, and Cunningham 
explained why it was important to accom­
modate users searching in a visual mode. 

Nitecki then returned to the podium 
to present an approach to creating teach­
ing objectives for visual and information 
literacy. She offered an assessment rubric 
(developed with colleagues at Yale) that 
measured the level of visual literacy a learner 
had achieved. Snavely went on to present 
specific techniques for teaching visual and 
information literacy during instruction ses­
sions. Cunningham closed by emphasizing 
the coexistence of words and images in our 
information­rich world and the need for an 

(continues on page 517) 

September 2007  497 C&RL News 

mailto:ruotolo@virginia.edu


as possible. (We added two units midway 
through the conversation.) 

3. Don’t get bogged down about what is 
not possible. 

4. Encourage free association outside of 
the meeting times by setting up a virtual place 
where conversation continues or by setting up 
a fast­response e­mail network. 

5. Realize that while collaboration is chal­
lenging, it is needed and people all the way 
up to the chancellor will be happy with the 
results! 

Notes 
1. Service providers: The library, the Center 

for Teaching and Learning (CTL), the bookstore, 
faculty themselves (do­it­yourself Web sites), 
webCentral (the student portal), University 
Technology Services (UTS), multimedia services 
within UTS. 

Services provided: Checking copyright 
and paying permission fees; and identifying, 
obtaining, delivering, maintaining, reformatting 
(including digitizing), creating, and supporting 
course­related materials. 

Venues for distribution of  course-related 
content to students: DU VAGA (a visual mate­
rial viewer created and managed by CTL), Black­
board, Portfolio (student and faculty assessment 
and document­posting environment created by 
CTL), course packs and textbooks provided by 
the bookstore, faculty personal Web pages, in­
class handouts, the library e­reserve software, 
webCentral, and the library circulation desk. 

P r o d u c t s  a v a i l a b l e  e l e c t r o n i c a l l y :  
library tutorials, reference guides, journal 
articles, assessment materials (forms, tests, 
bluebooks), book chapters, calendars, com­
munication forums (e­mail, discussion board, 
chat), electronic books, forms, images, video 
recordings, presentations, PowerPoint, lecture 
notes, sound recordings, student work, syl­
labi, Web links. 

Products available physically: journal 
articles, assessment materials (forms, tests, 
bluebooks), book chapters, books, forms, 
images, presentations, PowerPoint, lecture 
notes, student work, syllabi, video record­
ings, Web links. 

2. Visit the One­Stop Course Materials 
Guide at ctl.du.edu/resources/course.cfm. 

3. DU VAGA is a courseware tool for or­
ganizing and presenting high­quality images 
and videos to course participants. Instructors 
have access to more than 20,000 art and world 
history images and more than 200 library 
reserve videos. 

4. The video search guide can be found 
at library.du.edu/FindIt/ResearchGuides 
/rg_main.cfm?rg_id=187. 

(“ACRL in Washington, D.C. continued 
from page 497) 

increased focus on how we organize and 
teach visual information. 

A virtual poster session focusing on “prac­
tical applications of the intersection of visual 
and information literacy” was developed in 
conjunction with the program, and is available 
at eye2i.wordpress.com/.—Kevin Unrath, 
Western Carolina University, Unrath@email. 
wcu.edu 

September 2007  517 C&RL News