Posted April 15, 2005.

ACRL’s 12th National Conference Breaks Records in Minneapolis

The Minneapolis Convention Center exhibit hall and meeting rooms were packed April 7–10 for “Currents and Convergence: Navigating the Rivers of Change,” the Association of College and Research Libraries’ 12th National Conference, as a record-breaking number of academic librarians met to exchange information, catch up on issues, and bring ideas home. The final attendance figure at the closing session came to just short of 4,000—at least 400 more than the previous record set in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2003.

This year’s event also featured a first-ever virtual conference that offered live webcasts of several programs, discussion boards, blogs by several attendees, and online speaker materials. ACRL also welcomed the largest number of first-time attendees (1,059) and the most conference scholarship recipients (94). “I’m proud we were able to provide so many scholarships to attend the conference and to welcome new and diverse professionals to the field,” said ACRL President Frances Maloy. “There really was so much energy and enthusiasm throughout the conference.”

Some popular sessions included a joint talk by Google’s Adam Smith and John Wilkin from the University of Michigan on their collaboration on the Google Print project; a seven-hour preconference on making libraries relevant to the millennial generation (born 1981 or later); a keynote luncheon featuring mystery authors Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, J. A. Vance, and Valerie Wilson Wesley; and an invited paper by Superintendent of Documents Judith Russell, who explained the digitization projects of the Government Printing Office.

ACRL is a division of the American Library Association. A full report on the conference will appear in the June/July issue of American Libraries.

Posted April 15, 2005.