ACRL Board of Directors’ actions, June 2005: Highlights of the Board’s Annual Conference meetings
C&RL News, September 2005
Vol. 66, No. 8
During the 2005 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, the ACRL Board of Directors met on June 25 and 28 and took the following actions.
Strategic Area: Higher Education and Research
Goal Area: Learning—ACRL and its members are recognized as collaborative leaders in teaching lifelong learning skills, improving techniques for assessing learning outcomes, and in creating environments for discovery.
Approved a revision to the criteria and description of the Instruction Section Innovation Award to promote a broader definition of information literacy instruction.
Approved the curriculum and proposal for an ACRL Immersion “Track 3” concept (Professional Renewal Track).
Goal Area: Scholarship—ACRL and its members are recognized as authorities on knowledge management, and the creation, collection, preservation, access, and exchange of information.
Approved the “Guidelines for university library services to undergraduate students,” which supercedes “The mission of a university undergraduate library: Model statement” (1987) and “Guidelines for university undergraduate libraries” (1997).
Rescinded the “Guidelines for branch libraries in colleges and universities,” which was superceded by the “Standards for libraries in higher education” approved in 2004.
Approved a declaration encouraging institutions to explore sister libraries partnerships, to build relationships with libraries in other cultures that can help us learn, understand, and better serve our own communities.
Approved the “in name only” co-sponsorship by ACRL’s Law and Political Science Section of the Undergraduate Education Committee’s reception at the Annual Conference of the American Political Science Association.
ACRL Board 2004–05 (l to r): (back) Mary Ellen Davis,
Nancy Allen, Rita Jones, Pamela Snelson, Dorothy Ann Washington,
Susan Allen, W. Bede Mitchell, Patricia A. Kreitz, Lynne King;
(front) Elaine K. Didier, Camila Alire, Frances Maloy, Tyrone Cannon.
Not shown: Lori A. Goetsch.
Goal Area: Advocacy—ACRL has greater influence on the higher education and research environment.
Approved a number of policies for the Council of Liaisons, including a revised charge, core purpose, process for identifying organizations with which to establish a liaison relationship and criteria for selecting organizations, and criteria to be used for selecting individuals to serve as a liaison on behalf of ACRL at organizations identified by the Council of Liaisons and approved by the Board.
Approved the creation of an ACRL blog, to be overseen by a separate Blog Advisory Board chaired by the blog coordinator.
Approved a 2007 Best Practices in Marketing @ your library award, pending the identification of a sponsor.
Strategic Area: The Profession
Endorsed a REFORMA resolution in support of immigrants’ rights to free public library access and instructed the ACRL Councilor to share that endorsement with the ALA Council. The Board further instructed that the resolution be forwarded to the ACRL Advocacy Coordinating Committee so that it may be added to the ACRL advocacy agenda.
Goal Area: Continuous Learning—ACRL Goal provides continuous learning opportunities enabling members to strengthen their effectiveness and achieve recognition as valued contributors to their academic and research communities.
Approved ACRL’s cosponsorship of the 6th Living the Future Conference, to be held April 6-8, 2006, in Tucson, Arizona.
Approved workshop proposals for “Assessment in Academic Libraries: Using the ACRL Standards for Continuous Evaluation,” “Thinking Outside the Library: Building Collaborative Partnerships with Student Services,” “Assessing Information Literacy Learning Outcomes,” and “Strategic Marketing for Academic Librarians” for presentation January 20, 2006, at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio, Texas.
Approved preconference proposals for “Assessment and Beyond: Starting It Off, Pulling It All Together, and Making Decisions”; “Taking Your Library Liaison Program to the Next Level: Strategies for Outreach and Integration”; and “Federated Search: How Do We Teach It?” for presentation June 23, 2006, at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Approved a two-day virtual conference, to be offered in spring 2006.
Approved 23 conference programs for the 2006 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans.
Approved ACRL’s co-sponsorship with the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) of the Scholarly Communications Institute, to be held for the first time in summer 2006.
Goal Area: Leadership—ACRL members achieve recognition as leaders and advocates for academic and research libraries.
Approved a revision to the “Guidelines for the appointment, promotion and tenure of academic librarians.”
Goal Area: Information Technology—Academic and research librarians are leaders in using information and academic technologies to create and manage information resources and to deliver library and information services.
Approved the establishment of the Information Commons Discussion Group.
ACRL Board 2005–06 (l to r): (back) Mary Ellen Davis,
Nancy Allen, Rita Jones, Dorothy Ann Washington,
W. Bede Mitchell, Elaine K. Didier, Lynne King; (front)
Susan M. Kroll, Camila Alire, Frances Maloy, Pamela Snelson.
Not shown: Janis M. Bandelin, Lori A. Goetsch, Karen Williams.
Strategic Area: The Association
Goal Area: Membership—ACRL’s membership growth builds on retaining core membership while recruiting from new and diverse communities.
Approved a revised mission statement and goals for Chapters Council.
Goal Area: Sustainability—ACRL will have the fiscal resources, staff expertise, and organizational structure to advance the association’s strategic plan.
Approved the minutes of the ACRL Board of Directors 2005 Midwinter Meeting.
Approved a revised composition for the Institute for Information Literacy Executive Committee.
Approved a revision to chapter 8.4 of the ACRL Guide to Policies and Procedures to bring the policy regarding the scheduling of meetings at times other than at ALA conferences in line with ALA policy.
Approved a revised charge for the Budget and Finance Committee to include review of all ACRL revenues (including Friends of ACRL donations and the long-term investment fund) and expenses and to make recommendations as to how resources can best be allocated to support the strategic plan.
Approved the dissolution of the Friends Fund Committee as a standing committee of the Board and moved its work to a subcommittee of the Budget and Finance Committee. Current members of the Friends Fund Committee will be added to the Budget and Finance Committee as members of the Friends Subcommittee.
Approved the transitions of the Professional Development Committee to a Professional Development Coordinating Committee and of the Publications Committee to a Publications Coordinating Committee and established a new Advocacy Coordinating Committee.
Note: As part of the current ACRL strategic planning process, the Board identified structural changes to the association intended to coordinate the work of units throughout the organization, reduce duplicative efforts, and allow the organization to conduct work more quickly and effectively. One such change to the association’s structure is to link committees that have similar or related missions under the umbrella of a Coordinating Committee. It is the intention of these actions to create Coordinating Committees with organization-wide responsibilities to coordinate a broadly defined range of efforts in each committee’s respective area throughout ACRL and organize the efforts into a coherent and effectively implemented set of programs and initiatives that more closely align to the strategic plan. The Advocacy Coordinating Committee includes the Copyright, Council of Liaisons, Government Relations, Intellectual Freedom, International Relations, Marketing Academic and Research Libraries, Standard and Accreditation, and Status of Academic Librarians committees. The Professional Development Coordinating Committee includes the ACRL/Harvard Leadership Institute Advisory, Conference Program Planning, Effective Practices, and President’s Program Planning committees. The Publication Coordinating Committee includes the Blog, C&RL, C&RL News, CHOICE, CLIP Notes, New Publications, Publications in Libarianship, RBM, and Resources for College Libraries editorial and advisory boards.
Approved criteria for the appointment of Coordinating Committee chairs and members.
Approved the concept of a meeting timeslot for each Coordinating Committee to hold its meetings in conjunction with that of all of its component committees.
Approved a revision to the name, charge, and composition of the Leadership Recruitment and Nomination Committee (formerly the Nominations Committee) to provide a framework for aligning the leadership selection process with the strategic plan.
Approved the recommendations of the Long-Term Investment (LTI) Fund Task Force, including:
• Designate a specific sum for addition to the long-term investment fund, to be communicated to ALA, and consider actual transfer of that sum or a portion of that amount within the reality of both the current fiscal and future budgets and the near and long- term strategic initiatives of the association. The task force recommends $100,000 as the minimal amount. Actual transfer of this sum or a lesser amount would be linked to the current financial situation.
• Since ALA policy requires a two-year advance notification of sums to be transferred to the LTI, it is recommended that the maximum amount possible always be shown in the budget; the amount to transfer can always be reduced by a Board action at the Annual Conference as ALA makes the transfers at the end of the fiscal year (i.e., August).
• A growth plan linked to an historical milestone of the organization provides a framework for articulating a specific LTI target amount. Consideration of the 75th anniversary as that historical marker should be reviewed. A targeted amount of $2 million is suggested
• Continue spending interest earned from the general LTI fund on strategic initiatives as identified by the ACRL Board. Returning funds to the operating budget to support current initiatives gives credence to its importance to members and the association.
• Once the desired principal level ($2 million) is achieved, also spend 50 percent of the five-year moving average of the appreciation of the LTI fund on strategic initiatives.
Approved the FY 2006 budget.
Approved guidelines for external communication to guide the Executive Director and President when they are asked to make official statements or send official letters to external groups.
Approved a policy stating that the Board will inform ACRL committees, sections, and chapters that are in full compliance with ACRL policies that they are eligible to submit strategic initiative action plans.
Chapters are limited to submitting action plans addressing the ACRL strategic objectives in the goal area of membership:
• Increase the number of academic and research librarian members.
• Increase ACRL’s membership of underrepresented ethnic and racial academic and research librarians.
• Increase the appeal of ACRL membership to broader communities.