|
ACRL/NY Connections is published quarterly by The Greater New York Metropolitan Area Chapter of the Association of College and Research Libraries P.O. Box 8331, New York, NY 10116-4652 The newsletter is designed and edited by: Jayne B. Johnsen-Seeberger Dowling College Phone/Fax: 516-331-3804 Submissions - E-Mail: jbjs214@ibm.net or johnsenj@dowling.edu The newsletter can be read at: http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/acrlny/acrlny.html or by subscribing to the Chapter's listserv; Listserv instructions can be found at the website at http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/acrlny/list.htm We welcome comments, suggestions, news items, and brief reviews
*** Learning Organizations," will take place on November 13, 1998 *** *** at the Fashion Institute of Technology - See Story Below. ***
Contents:
Incorporation Update This year we have looked closely at non-profit incorporation process and should complete the process by the end of 1999. Our web site has received a face-lift; our by-laws, membership information and more are now included, thanks to the efforts of Ree DeDonato, our dedicated technical advisor, and Constantia Constantinou, our talented organizational webmaster. Successful Symposiums Such as Ours Depend Upon Continued
Leadership
President, ACRL/NY
Lots to Listen to at the Upcoming Symposium The 1998 ACRL/NY Annual Symposium, "Changing Course: Libraries as Learning Organizations," will take place on November 13, 1998 at the Fashion Institute of Technology. The Symposium will focus on the proactive role librarians must take in light of organizational issues that include faculty status, team management, total quality management, and outsourcing. Speakers chosen for this program represent libraries that have undergone substantial changes structure and our keynote speaker is a nationally known organizational consultant consultant. Our keynote speaker will be Dr. Deanna H. Berg, President of Innovation Strategies International and an expert in strategies for creative change, the learning organization team building, total quality management, and leadership. Dr. Berg has worked as a consultant for Ford Motor Company, Lucent Technologies, AT & T, and Xerox, among other major corporations. She has written numerous articles for professional journals and contributed to books including, Break Out Creativity: Bringing Creativity to the Workplace (1998, Select Press). Dr. Berg has presented workshops and keynote addresses to various organizations, including the American Library Association (Miami, 1994). The afternoon panelists will present actual case studies and offer their expertise and insights into library organization. These panelists will be: Dr. Barbara Buckner Higginbotham (Chief Librarian, Brooklyn College); Jane Hutchison (Associate Director of Instruction and Research Technology, William Patterson University); Joseph Branin (Dean of Libraries, State University of New York at Stony Brook); and Shelley Phipps (Assistant Dean for Team and Organizational Development, University of Arizona). At this time, there is a possibility of the addition of a fourth panelist, to be announced. Please mark your calendars for November 13 and what promises to be an informative and thought provoking program.
St. John's University
An "Advocacy Workshop for Academic Librarians" is planned for Friday, February 26, 1999. The all day program is being co-sponsored by ACRL/NY and METRO. Our featured speaker is Lunne Bradley, from the ALA Washington, D.C. office. Lynne chaired the highly successful ACRL Advocacy Preconference in Washington this past summer. Other speakers include Shelley Warwick, of Queen's College Library Graduate School. We are also waiting for confirmation from several additional speakers. This all day event will be valuable to all academic librarians interested in becoming library advocates in either Albany or Washington. A $25 registration fee will cover morning and afternoon refreshments. Lunch is on your own. Hands-on Internet connections will be provided throughout the workshop. Look for details and registration forms in early January. For more information or if you are interested in being on the planning committee, contact:
cherepol@stjohns.edu 718-390-4521 Hope to see you in February!
It Takes a Whole Chapter to Make this Book By Patricia O'Brien Libutti, Editor, Librarians as Learners, Librarians as Teachers: The Diffusion of Internet Expertise in Academic Libraries The ACRL/NY Chapter has worked on an historic endeavor: producing a book from the diverse studies, reflections, and observations of librarians on Internet learning and teaching. The proposal, prepared by Patricia Libutti from the contributions of ACRL/NY members, was accepted for publication by ACRL in March, 1998. The work includes varied contributions by chapter members who have acted as editors, reviewers, chapter authors; have written introductions, reflections and opinions; and prepared manuscripts and checked citations. The first section of the book examines the foundations of Internet learning and teaching. The foreword is by Anne Woodsworth, and the overview is by Patricia Libutti. A reprint from the 1988 LOEX Proceedings by David W. Carr begins the consideration of the learner in the library. A literature review by Laurie Lopatin is cross-disciplinary, and prepares the reader for the complex array of factors that come further in the book. The second section focuses on who is "First to Learn Internet." Jana Varleges writes an excerpt from her dissertation with her chapter on the "Academic Librarian as Self-directed Learner." Her dissertation covers all types of librarians. Rona Ostrow and Debra Randorf did a qualitative analysis of the respondents to an e-mail survey for the ACRL/NY program: "Six Degrees of Connectedness," held at NYU on May 25, 1994. Rona's work includes a review of such surveys before and after the 1994 one. David Magier concludes this section with his reflection of an early explorer. (He has been involved in Internet use since 1978.) The third section examines the enlargement of the "Internet-literate". Patricia Libutti follows Rona's qualitative analysis with one that used a computer program to analyze the data from a fifteen-week participant observation of the Internet Training Program at Columbia. Reflections from Cathy Thomas and Dan Caldano, director and instructor, respectively, of the ITP program. The METRO experience is described from the vantage points of Betty Kulleseid (on the METRO Board), David Magier (instructor, METRO Training), Roger Harris (student in a recent METRO session), and Dottie Hiebing (Executive Director, METRO). The fourth section, titled "The Present Tense," includes an up-to-date survey of factors involved in librarians' learning and teaching Internet by Marilyn Rosenthal and Marcia Spiegelman. Nancy Becker focuses on library schools' involvement in mid-career librarians' training. Reflections by practitioners include observations by Heather Blenkinsopp, Charlotte Moslander, Pat Carroll-Mathes, and Jayne Johnsen-Seeberger. Harriet Hagenbruch and Irina Pozansky compiled an annotated listing of Web sites to help the mid-career librarian stay current with Internet technology. New MLS librarians' reflections are by Emily Contrada Anderson and David J. Franz. Theresa Maylone concludes with "AfterWords." Biographical information about the authors and about the reviewers (Julie Cunningham, Dona McDermott, Sarah Burns, Evelyn Ehrlich, John Edwards, Cecile Hastie, Lucy Heckman, Virginia Hill, Mary Kopala) is included in an appendix. Introductions were done by Pat Libutti and Bellinda Wise. As of this writing (October 26, 1998), approximately 80% of the work is finished. I am hopeful that we can make the November 15 deadline expected by the ACRL Publications Office for midwinter publication.
ACRL/NY is planning a Joint Symposium with ACRL/NJ, to be held at FIT on May 14, 1999. Karen Venturella, Past President of our Chapter, has been instrumental in envisioning and organizing the Joint Symposium. The theme will center upon "The Role of Librarians in Higher Education." Discussion topics will likely include librarians as teachers, curriculum planners, advocates and facilitators; outreach to faculty; assessment and accountability issues; satellite libraries; and more.
The ACRL/NY chapter webpage has been redesigned and reorganized to include more extensive information on the chapter such as our mission and the organizational structure, as well as more timely updating. It will list upcoming and recent past events of professional interest, as well the organization's newsletters. Users may access the latest job announcements posted in the ACRL/NY listserv, can link to sites of other professional organizations, and follow instructions for subscribing to the ACRL/NY Listserv. ACRLNYWeb will serve to keep all members better informed of the chapter's activities while it facilitates the sharing of information. The ACRL/NY webpage is located at: http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/acrlny/acrlny.html If you would like to volunteer to work on the website or to make added suggestions or comments, please contact either Constantia Constantinou (Organizational Webmaster) at cconstantinou@iona.edu or Ree DeDonato (Technical Advisor) at rd94@columbia.edu Your input and support are much appreciated!
Coordinator of Information Access/Library Technology Helen Arrigoni Library/Technology Center Iona College, 715 North Ave, New Rochelle, NY 10801 e-mail: cconstantinou@iona.edu voice: (914) 633-2000 ext. 4248 fax: (914) 633-2136
Education Curriculum Materials Center Interest Group Active and Growing At the present time, the Education/Curriculum Materials Center Librarians are the only active Interest Group of ACRL/NY. For a while, even this group appeared in jeopardy as membership dwindled but, in recent months, there has been a turnaround as several new curriculum and/or education librarians have joined this committee. On May 27, a meeting took place at Hofstra University in the Axinn Library's Curriculum Materials Center. As it turned out, there were several items on the agenda of particular interest. Among these was a report from Patricia Libutti about the National Library of Education, Washington, DC (http://www.ed.gov/NLE/) concerning its initiative to develop a number of web based tools that would greatly expand education students' ability to access a whole host of materials including lesson plans, curriculum guides, etc. via the Internet. These tools include a Virtual Reference Desk as well as the Gateway to Educational Materials, a database searchable by both keyword and subject. Pat, an education librarian at Fordham as well as a member of the Education/CMC Librarians, is Chair of the newly formed Web Committee, Working Group of the National Education Network (NEN). This group is composed of textbook publishers, organizational leaders, education librarians and ERIC Clearinghouse leaders. Pat has always been extremely active on the national level and will, hopefully, continue to keep us informed of upcoming developments. I then reported on the development of a proposal at Hofstra for a model CMC that would serve the needs of education students and faculty in the years to come. This proposal was the result of a joint effort on the part of a committee composed of faculty from the School of Education and the Axinn Library that was charged to come up with a plan for a technology enriched Curriculum Materials Center. The final proposal included a rationale for the need for such a center as well as budgetary, personnel and space recommendations. A very tentative floor plan was included as well. Since the proposed center is quite large in terms of overall space one of the issues addressed was the ideal location for such a center - within the Library or as part of the School of Education building. A lively discussion ensued during which the advantages and disadvantage of both locations were considered. Other issues touched on during the meeting included searching the ERIC database using First Search as opposed to Silver Platter and the need to evaluate various Web sites for accuracy of information. Plans for future meetings were considered including a session on trends in K-12 textbooks. Finally, a tour of the Curriculum Materials Center was provided to those members of the group who had not previously visited Hofstra. It would seem that our group has much to think about, particularly in terms of the technology that continues to impact on so much of our profession. Clearly, meetings such as these provide a valuable forum for the discussion of many different issues as well as the sharing of common concerns.
Hofstra University |