September 1998 Newsletter
Highlights
PRESIDENT'S REPORT:
Conference
update
Board Meeting Schedule
& Membership Changes
Support Staff Interesst
Group Needs Chair
CONFERENCE AND WORKSHOP
REPORTS:
ACRL
1998 Pre-Conference on Legislation
Advocacy
OCLIS Conference
June 1998
ACRL Actions at ALA
Annual June 1998
PUBLICATIONS
SOUGHT FOR DISPLAY AT ANNUAL
CONFERENCE
LEGISLATIVE
TEAM AND ADVOCATES UPDATE
PRESIDENT'S
REPORT
Mary S. Konkel, University of Akron
1998
CONFERENCE UPDATE
Planning continues for the 1998
conference "Today's Actions, Tomorrow's
Adventures-- To Infinity and Beyond!" to
be held on November 13 at the Fawcett
Center on the Ohio State University campus
in Columbus. Our keynote speaker is Bill
Miller, former Ohioan and past president
of the Association for College &
Research Libraries (ACRL). Bill is
currently Director of Libraries at Florida
Atlantic University. Final selections have
been made for programs and poster
sessions. Conference participants will be
able to select from 6 scheduled events
within each of the 4 concurrent sessions
offered. The Bibliographic Instruction,
Collection Management, Curriculum
Materials Center, Support Staff and
Technical Services Interest Groups will be
meeting and are included in the list of
scheduled events. ALAO Interest Groups are
organized for the purpose of discussing
specific concerns and issues in the field
of academic librarianship and membership
is open to any ALAO member. Plan to attend
at least one Interest Group meeting and
find out what the latest issues of concern
are in your field. This is also a great
time to get involved as Interest Groups
begin discussion and planning for
continuing education
opportunities/workshops at this conference
and are always looking for good ideas and
able volunteers. The Program Committee is
seeking volunteers to write a brief report
for the ALAO Newsletter of a conference
session that you attend. Clark Kent or
Lois Lane wannabes should contact Shana
Fair (Ohio University-Zanesville) at
fair@ohiou.edu if interested in being a
conference reporter. Conference
registration will be forthcoming in
Fall.
1998/99 BOARD MEETING
SCHEDULE
Board meetings are open to interested
ALAO members or guests. Meetings this year
are scheduled from 10am-3pm at the OHIONET
office in Columbus. Search
http://www.ohionet.org for map and
directions. We welcome your input. Board
members may also be contacted in person;
see roster in this issue. Meeting schedule
is as follows:
September 15 (Tuesday)
December 8 (Tuesday)
February 18 (Thursday)
April 22 (Thursday)
CHANGES IN EXECUTIVE BOARD
MEMBERSHIP
Sheila Shellabarger, ALAO Treasurer
resigned from her position effective July
27, 1998 to
devote energies to her new job as
Librarian for West Carrollton High School.
Sheila's ALAO
tenure includes service as Newsletter
Editor and Membership Chair. While
submitting her resignation, Sheila
remarked "I have enjoyed serving ALAO over
the past five years and will certainly
miss the many good friends I made during
that time. Perhaps some of our paths will
still cross even though I am moving to a
different type of librarianship. I hope
that will be the case." Please join me in
wishing Sheila the very best. The
Executive Board held discussions via
e-mail and were able to entice Elys
Kettling (Wayne College, University of
Akron) from her brief respite from the
Board to fulfill Sheila's one year term as
Treasurer. Elys was the former Manual
Revision Coordinator. Elys' appointment
will be formally acknowledged at the
September Board meeting.
SUPPORT STAFF INTEREST
GROUP NEEDS A CO-CHAIR!
The Support Staff Interest Group is
seeking a Co-Chair to assist in
coordinating the Interest Group's
activities. Interest Group Chairs are
encouraged to attend meetings of the ALAO
Board and to submit brief reports of the
Interest Group's activities. Please
contact Jerome Conley, ALAO Vice President
at jconley@lib.muohio.edu if interested in
this leadership position.
I look forward to a full and exciting
year as President of ALAO and hope I will
get the opportunity to meet many of you in
person at the annual conference,
workshops, or Board meetings throughout
the year. Please feel free to contact me
directly at marykonkel@uakron.edu with
ideas or concerns. There are numerous
opportunities to become involved in your
organization and I welcome your
participation. Be sure to bookmark the
ALAO Web site at:
.. and subscribe
to the ALAO Listserv by sending a message
to:
listserver@devrycols.edu in the body of
the message, type: subscribe alao first
name last name. In addition to the ALAO
Newsletter, the Webpage and Listserv are
great sources of communication to keep
abreast of ALAO's latest activities,
announce your own library's news or job
openings or to query your colleagues about
topics of concern.
ACRL
PRECONFERENCE REPORT
Two ALAO members, Pat Walker (Wright
State University) and Carolyn Radcliff
(Kent State University) recently undertood
an exciting and rewarding trip to
Washington, D.C. to participate in the
ACRL June 24-25 preconference "Legislative
Advocacy for Academic Librarians: From
Ivory Towers to Halls of Power." The goals
of the preconference were to inform
academic librarians about legislative
issues and teach them how to effectively
convey their views to members of
Congress.
The preconference began with a homework
assignment requiring participants to
schedule visits with their Congressional
representatives or staff members. Once the
visits were scheduled, attendees
concentrated on preparing messages that
would be effective and persuasive in terms
of both content and form. Robert Oakley,
Director of the Georgetown University Law
Library, spoke to the group about a number
of current legislative issues that have an
impact on academic libraries, including
the Federal Depository Library Program,
copyright, database protection, and
licensing. His presentation was valuable,
comprehensive and candid, reflecting his
experience with testifying at
Congressional hearings on an number of
library issues. He supplied the
participants with helpful information in
preparation for the Congressional visits.
Attendees also heard from a number of
speakers on formulating a meaningful
message for Representatives and Senators.
ALA's five basic rules for effective
communication with legislators are: be
brief, appreciative, specific,
informative, and courteous. Additional
pointers from presenters include: develop
a focussed message backed up with adequate
knowledge about the issue, use stories for
illustration, flag the most important
points, and be memorable (in a positive
way).
The most interesting activity of the
preconference was the visit to Capitol
Hill. After selecting just a few issues to
talk about, the Ohio group (which included
Billie Rinehart from Cleveland State
University) met with staff in Senator Mike
DeWine's office, and we each visited the
office of our own Representative (Reps.
Hobson, Sawyer, and Stokes). Staff members
were receptive to our comments and
appeared interested (and in some cases,
surprised) to learn how libraries would be
affected by pending legislation. We were
gratified by how responsive staff were and
delighted by the whole event. To
paraphrase the preconference flyer, this
venture exemplified the quintessential
meaning of "The American Experience."
ALAO provided $300 for participation by
ALAO members. The funds were used to
partially cover associated costs of
registration, travel, and hotel. We are
grateful to ALAO for the support.
Carolyn Radcliff
Kent State University
Ohio
Council of Library and Information Service
(OCLIS) Conference Report
Report from Mary Konkel, ALAO
President
I was pleased to represent ALAO at the
OCLIS Conference "PUTTING IT ALL
TOGETHER," held June 18-19 at the Fawcett
Center on the campus of Ohio State
University. OCLIS's mission "to facilitate
communications and cooperation among
librarians and organizations in Ohio" was
carried out as representatives from many
of the OCLIS organizations came together
to report on collaborative ventures,
explore communication avenues and
articulate shared visions.
Dr. Linda Dobb, Dean of Bowling
GreenUniversity was the evening's keynote
speaker. Dr. Dobb's remarks addressed the
many faces of collaboration including
cooperation, consortia, coalition,
partnerships and mergers. We choose to
collaborate to provide better service,
gain more resources, attract new users and
leverage new support. However, Dr. Dobb
noted that collaborations may also cause a
loss of identity and control as
concessions are made in support of the
group rather than the individual members.
She encouraged us to leap into the unknown
and seek partners who 1) share a like
enthusiasm for library services and
skills, 2) are willing to learn new
things, 3) have the ability to participate
fully and reap mutual benefits, 4) have
growth potential, and 5) can compromise
when necessary.
Visions of the future were presented
the following day: technology/networks,
personnel sharing, resource sharing,
professional development, and
collaboration with government and the
private sector were all covered.
Participants chose two workgroup sessions
on the above topics. The workgroups
discussed ways in which different types of
libraries can collaborate to achieve the
visions presented in these opening
sessions.
The conference wrap-up included a
reporting session on the workgroups and a
synthesis of the conference by John N.
Berry, editor-in-chief of Library Journal,
a colorful capstone to the conference.
ACRL
Chapters Council Meeting
Highlights
ALA Annual Conference, Washington
D.C. June, 1998
Pat Walker, ACRL Representative, Wright
State University
ACRL National Conference Update
Barbara Jenkins, Chair of the ACRL
Chapters Council, welcomed the attendees
and introduced Lee Hisle, ACRL President.
After thanking members for their work and
support during his tenure, Hisle announced
that ACRL was making $25,000 available for
conference scholarships for the ninth
national conference, "Racing Toward
Tomorrow," scheduled for April 8-11, 1999,
in Detroit. The ACRL Board will award 50
scholarships, consisting of complimentary
registration and $250 for expenses, to
entry-level librarians with a special
focus on minorities. The deadline to apply
is October 15,1998. Details and
application are available at http://www.ala.org/acrl/confschl.html.
Hisle also announced that the location for
2001 annual conference will be Denver.
Chapters Relations Task Force
Ray English, Task Force Co-Chair,
reported that the recommendations of the
ACRL Chapters Relations Task Force were
approved by the ACRL Board of Directors on
June 27,1998. Highlights include an
increase in chapter funding from ACRL for
national members and new recruits residing
in the chapter's region, the requirement
of a brief annual report from each
chapter, the requirement of chapter
incorporation by 2000, and better
communication between chapters and ACRL,
chiefly through regular meetings of
Chapter Council officers and the Board.
The funding changes are effective for
1998-99, with chapters receiving the
increase in August , 1999.
Initiative Fund Awards
Althea Jenkins, Executive Director of
ACRL, reported that three chapters
received awards this year. Louisiana
received funds to support librarians'
attendance at non-library, professional
conferences. The award to the Illinois
chapter provided librarian participation
in virtual and in-person information
literacy programs, and Minnesota received
an award to fund a program on legislative
basics for librarians.
Legislative Activities
Lee Marie Wisel, ACRL Legislative
Network Coordinator, announced that all 42
chapters are now represented in the
network. With the number of complex
copyright issues breaking recently, the
network has been busy with updates and
action alerts. This traffic has been ably
coordinated by Michael Godow from the ACRL
office. Wisel also reported that the ACRL
pre-conference program on legislative
advocacy was attended by 50 librarians,
many with chapter support. Attendees were
generally very pleased with the
program.
Incoming ACRL President
Maureen Sullivan, 1998-99
President-Elect, greeted the group and
spoke briefly about plans for the upcoming
year. Sullivan will focus on a key part of
the ACRL Strategic Plan that calls for
enhancing development opportunities for
members. She is especially concerned about
members who cannot attend national
programs and wants to work closely with
chapters to support efforts at the local
level. She asked the Council for their
ideas for facilitating discussion of
leadership and learning issues in chapter
programs. Sullivan also took the
opportunity to introduce recently-elected
1999-00 ACRL President-Elect, Larry
Hardesty, who briefly greeted the
group.
Council Officer Election
Incoming Chapters Council Chair, Lois
Cherepon, conducted the election of new
officers. Lynne King from The Sage
Colleges was chosen
Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, and Mary McInroy,
University of Iowa, was re-elected as
Secretary. Cherepon also announced that
outgoing chair, Barbara Jenkins, had been
elected to the ACRL Board of
Directors.
Chapter Topics and Chapter Web Site
Connection
Jill Holman, Chapters Topics Editor,
announced that the newsletter is now
available online (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~holman/ct/)
and that links from the ACRL
website to individual chapter websites
are now in place. To subscribe to the
ACRL's discussion listserv, ACRL Forum
(list name: ACRL-FRM), send an e-mail
message to listproc@ala.org with the text
subscribe ACRL-FRM <Your Name>.
Display
Your Publications at the Annual Conference
The Research & Publications
Committee is looking for publications of
ALAO members, both books and journal
articles, for a display at the Annual
Conference on November 13, 1998. We will
display your book if you could lend us a
copy for the day. The committee will
compile a bibliography of journal
articles. We need your help in finding
members who have been published!
If you have published an article within
the last 3 years, send a copy (if
possible) and the complete citation to
Patti Rothermich, Otterbein College
Library, One Otterbein College,
Westerville, OH 43081. For more
information, contact any member of the
Research & Publications Committee:
John
Burke
Ruth
Fenske
Meri
Meredith
Kevin
Risner
Patricia
Rothermich
Edward
Weilant
Legislative
Team and Advocates Make a
Difference!
Susan Kay Phillips
During the past year, your library
association has been actively working to
advocate for academic libraries on the
state and national front and has exciting
plans for the coming year. The ALAO
Legislative Team (Pat Walker, Connie
Salyers, Susan Phillips) is leading the
way by maintaining the link with ACRL's
legislative liaison, by continuing the
growth of ALAO's statewide advocate
network, and through active participation
in ALA's Legislative Day. Over the past
few months during the copyright fight over
fair use, we saw how even just a few
voices can turn the tide. The ALAO
advocate network, 21 strong members, made
a real difference on several votes and we
look forward to maintaining this momentum
when Congress resumes.
We would like for you to join us. It
only takes a minute to send an email
message, fax or make a phone call and this
small effort does pay off! Watch for us at
the ALAO Annual Conference. Team members
will have information on our legislative
agenda for the coming year: Internet 2,
Next Generation; copyright; and
GPO/Government information. We will also
be recruiting new members and are planning
some surprises for those who sign up. If
you would like to volunteer before the
conference, contact Susan Phillips
(susan.phillips.1@ohiou.edu)
Web site maintained by
ALAO Web Committee.
Please
send comments to
us.
updated 9/9/99
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