IN THE NEWS

 

Many instruction librarians are familiar with the experience of having one chance to reach out to students in a particular course each semester through an instruction session scheduled by the professor. The instruction librarians at Radford University have developed a method of improving these typically one-hour sessions by getting librarians to decide on uniform time frames for covering specific topics and helping professors to focus in on their expectations of each session. “And today we’ll be serving . . .: An instruction a la carte menu”  shows how the menu approach to preparing instruction sessions has been a helpful tool that has increased awareness among teaching faculty of what the library has to offer.

A more traditional use of menus in the library makes sense when you’re talking about a library café. In “Coffee anyone?” a librarian from Moravian College describes a unique project in which students from marketing courses submitted marketing plans  that were used to guide the creation of a proposed café in the library. The collaboration, developed through a not-quite-typical form of outreach, resulted in a thriving café that has expanded the appeal of the library.

“Educating Iraqi librarians and library and information sicence educators” provides an update on the training developed by Simmons College’s library school and Harvard University Libraries for Iraqi librarians and library school faculty. Recently approved funding from NEH will enable them to continue this program in 2006.

Cynthia Steinhoff and Julie Todaro, candidates for ACRL vice-president/president elect, share their visions for the future of ACRL. We hope that this will help you as your prepare to vote in the spring election.

—Stephanie Orphan, Editor-in-chief
sorphan@ala.org