ACRL Chapters Council Report

CULD is one of forty-two chapters of ACRL.  The ACRL Chapters Council meets during the Annual and Midwinter meetings of ALA.  At the Midwinter meeting in Seattle this year, the hot topic was the need for Chapters (but not vendors) to be able to get more complete lists of State ACRL members.  Because of choices ALA has given members to set their individual communication preference with ALA, some members do not get included in these lists.  Mary Ellen Davis, Executive Director of ACRL worked with ALA Staff to find a solution to help with this problem.  ALA has agreed to provide a new category that can be checked.  It is called Communications from ALA and not-for-profit library related organizations and examples of not-for-profit library related organizations are provided (e.g. ALA affiliates, chapters, etc.).  The next time you renew your membership to ALA and ACRL, we hope you will choose this option, as it will help enhance the ability of CULD officers to conduct Division business.

Strong Libraries, Strong Communities!...and Strong Programming for Academic Librarians!

April 11-14, 2007 Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center, San Antonio

Come hear internationally renowned author Isabel Allende speak at the First General Session!  Then be sure to hear Lynn Sherr, ABC’s 20/20 correspondent at the Second General Session!  Choose from over 230 programs and events to attend as well. 

The conference schedule is available online at http://www.txla.org/conference/conf.html.  There you will find the President’s Letter, the Conference Overview, the schedule of events, and volunteer forms for Conference.  The pre-registration postmark deadline is March 23, 2007. 

The CULD Executive Board Meeting is on Wednesday afternoon, 2:00 pm – 3:50 pm.  The CULD membership meeting will be immediately following the program “Applying the Power of Personal Persuasion to Market Academic Libraries with Julie Todaro”, which is 10:00 – 11:50 am on Saturday morning.

The CULD Community and Junior College Discussion Group business meeting will take place Friday morning, April 13, 2007 from 8:00-9:50 a.m.  Community and junior college librarians are encouraged to submit ideas for discussion topics by March 23^rd to Fran Cotton (fcotton@southplainscollege.edu).  Along with your topic suggestion, include a brief background of experiences with and questions on the topic area.  We will have all the topic information put together in a handout ready for discussion at the business meeting

CULD Sponsored Programs at the Conference:

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

8:30 am – 12:00 pm

Serving the Distance Learning Population: Where to Start

1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Serving the Distance Learning Population: Expanding the Basics

A pre-conference in two parts; attendees may sign up for one or both parts.

Part One: Learn the basics on how to serve the distance learners of your institution to ensure that students develop academic research skills.  Explore available tools for providing services.  Learn how to design a service program based on identified needs.

Part Two:  You know the basics.  Now learn how to develop strategies to market the library services to distant users.  Explore how to produce user-centered, web-based tools to support course requirements.  Create your strategic plan to meet the needs of Distance Learning students. 

Frances May, University of North Texas Libraries

Leora Kemp, University of North Texas, Dallas Campus

9:00 am – 4:30 pm

Establishing an Institutional Repository: A LITA Regional Institute 

The Institute provides a realistic picture of the costs, benefits, and complexities involved in establishing an institutional repository (IR). Discussion topics include definition and reasons for IR, stakeholders, policy decisions, cost factors, overview of available IR systems, and content recruitment strategies.

(CULD is a co-sponsor for this pre-conference)

Thursday, April 12, 2007

10:15 – 11:50 am

Gaming in the Library - Play to Learn! 

Develop an understanding of how computer-based games are "playing" in library instruction. Teaching the millennial student is different from teaching baby boomers. Hear information on learning styles and their relationship to the virtual world of educational gaming.  Seminal video games will be identified as examples of gaming categories.

Tina Buck, Instructional Specialist, Austin Community College

Cynthia Yates, Multimedia Developer, Austin Community College

 Friday, April 13, 2007

10:00 – 11:20 am

Geeks Bearing Gifts: Unwrapping New Technology Trends 

A fun, fast-paced and informative introduction to today's hottest technology trends.  Learn how to identify technology trends and how they will impact or can be integrated into traditional library services.  Demonstrations of a wide variety of technologies including instant messaging, podcasting, open source software, blogs, and wikis will be shown.

Michelle Malizia, National Network of Libraries of Medicine, South Central Region (NN/LM SCR)

2:00 – 3:50 pm

Assessment, Outcomes, and ACRL Standards: Preparing for SACS Accreditation 

How do you decide what to assess or measure in your academic librry that will help you with strategic planning and to meet accreditation standards?  Explore ways to use the ACRL Standards to guide your planning and to determine how to assess programs within the library and measure outcomes.

Robert Fernekes, Georgia Southern University

Saturday, April 14, 2007

10:00 – 11:50 am

Applying the Power of Personal Persuasion to Market Academic Libraries with Julie    

Academic libraries are marketing, reassessing, re-branding, and re-marketing their environment into 21st teaching and learning centers. This program introduces techniques and strategies for all levels of professionals to use in advocating for the library’s mission in the academic library community. Attendees will receive a copy of ACRL’s new toolkit on personal persuasion.

Dr. Julie Todaro, Dean of Library Services, Austin Community College

NOTE: the CULD Membership Meeting follows Dr. Todaro’s presentation.

This should be a very informative and exciting conference.  Come to San Antonio and join your colleagues to participate in TLA and CULD.  Use this great opportunity to network with your colleagues, and rejuvenate your zest for librarianship.

Program Planning for TLA 2008

Even though the Spring 2007 conference is yet to come, it is already time to start planning for the programs for TLA 2008 in Dallas.  Linda Bixler, chair-elect of CULD and Mark Dolive, chair- elect of the CULD Community and Junior College Discussion Group solicit your input.  If you have ideas for programs for 2008, please email one or both of them by March 23.  Linda’s email is  lbixler@mail.twu.edu, and Mark’s email is mdolive@wc.edu

The Nominating Committee consisted of Bobbie Long from Collin County Community College, Janet Key from Tarrant County College SE, and Martha Tarleton from University of North Texas.  The following candidates have agreed to run for the positions of Vice Chair/Chair Elect, Secretary/Treasurer and Councilor.  The order they are placed in under each office was chosen by lot.

Candidates for Vice Chair/Chair Elect:

Janice Lange

Janice Lange has served as the Assistant Director and Head of Collections and Technical Services at Sam Houston State University since 1990.   After beginning her library career as a school librarian, she taught children’s literature classes in the SHSU School of Library Science before becoming an academic librarian, where she has worn many hats (serials, government documents, acquisitions, reference, and interlibrary loan).  She earned the M.S. in Library Science from the University of Texas at Austin, the M.A. in Sociology from Sam Houston State University, and she holds a B.S. in Education from the University of Texas at Austin. 

Janice has served as Secretary-Treasurer of CULD, and she has been an active member of TLA Round Tables, serving in various capacities as Chair, Vice-Chair, and Secretary-Treasurer of the Serials Round Table, the Acquisitions and Collection Development Round Table, and the E-SMART Round Table.  She is also a member of NASIG, ALCTS, and ALA.

Statement of Issues:  Academic librarians serve on a rapidly changing front, with many priorities clamoring for attention.  I believe that Texas academic librarians benefit from having a strong state organization such as TLA provides with CULD, but the benefits are proportional to the participation of academic librarians.  Texas academic librarians need to present a strong front, and CULD can provide the best opportunities for this to happen.

Diane Bruxvoort

Diane has worked in both public and academic libraries in the Houston area for over twenty years.  She received her MLIS at UT Austin in 1982 and began her career at the Harris County Public Library.  She moved to Houston Public in 1992 and then to the University of Houston in 2000 where she currently serves as the Head of Access Services and is the subject selector for Anthropology and Women’s Studies, and works and chairs a wide variety of committees.   Diane is active in ALA and TLA, with her most recent major responsibility being Program Co-Chair for the 2005 conference in Austin. 

Statement of Issues: As I consider the current state of higher education, the role of the academic library and my endeavors as a leader in these institutions I see considerable challenges – real problems – and great opportunities.   I came to the University of Houston seven years ago after spending 17 years in public libraries.  My primary goal as a professional librarian is to work within the higher education community to develop the lifelong learner in our students.  In order to meet this challenge we must go beyond teaching students course content and help them develop a hunger for knowledge and the skills needed to seek it out. 

Candidates for Secretary/Treasurer:

Steven Ring

Steven has been the Reference and Web Content Librarian at the University of Houston-Downtown since 2003. He previously worked as Reference Librarian at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he also chaired the Bayou Bijou International Film Series. In 2005 Mr. Ring attended the Tall Texans Leadership Development Institute as a CULD member. Within TLA, he currently serves as Treasurer of District 8 (2006-2008), as a member of the CULD Information and Membership Committee (2005-2007), and as a member of the Professional Recruitment and Retention Committee (2006-2009). He has also presented on technology topics at the Annual Conference and the District 8 Meeting.

Statement of Issues: I believe college and university librarians need strong professional networks at the local and regional level in order to have an effective voice in policy making, to define new programs that can effectively take root in our local communities, and to more widely disseminate ideas that come from our national and international networks. If elected, I will work with CULD to strengthen the division and to facilitate active participation.

Lea Worcester

Lea is currently Public Services Librarian in University of Texas at Arlington Library’s Special Collections.  She came to UTA from Texas Woman’s University as a doctoral student focusing on staff development issues in today’s libraries.  She has worked as adjunct faculty at TWU and Electronic Resource Coordinator for the Arlington Public Library.  Recent publications include “Podcasting: Exploring the possibilities for academic libraries” in College and Undergraduate Libraries with Evelyn Barker and “Ways of Knowing: Community information-needs analysis” in Texas Library Journal with Dr. Lynn Westbrook.  An active member since 1998, her experience in TLA and CULD includes: Newsletter Editor for CULD, 2005-2007; member TLA-NMRT Bag Check Booth Committee, 2002; and TLA-NMRT Orientation Program Chair for 2000 and 2001 Conferences.

Statement of Issues: While there is no single solution to the challenges of limited budgets and today’s highly complex digital information environment, CULD offers a supportive infrastructure for members to unite and work together through conferences, discussion lists, and committees.  I welcome the opportunity to support the efforts of both TLA and CULD to find ways to promote librarians and the populations they serve.  To achieve those goals, I pledge full participation as Secretary/Treasurer.

Candidates for Councilor/Alternate:

Karen Nichols

Karen is currently Instruction Coordinator at the Mary & John Gray Library of Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.  She has served in a variety of faculty positions at Lamar including ILL Librarian, Electronic Reference Services Librarian, and Interim Coordinator of Reference Services.  She has been involved in TLA since becoming a librarian.  She is a Tall Texan (1996)!  She also served as a member of the original TexShare Courier Working Group.  She was selected to participate in the Regional Immersion this past summer at the University of Houston and has also volunteered for six years at the Texas Book Festival in Austin.

Statement of Issues: TLA is the librarian’s organization in our state and academic librarians should be a vital part of that organization.  Representing CULD at council will ensure that our voice is heard and that we will be able to offer feedback to TLA about what our needs are.  Council is the opportunity to direct the organization to provide the information, services, and support that academic librarians will need for the future.

Christine Godin

Christine is currently Director of Learning Resources at Northwest Vista College, one of the Alamo Community Colleges, in San Antonio. She came to NVC after serving many years as head of Public Services at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, KS.  She has been an active member of TLA since 1998. She has served as chair of the Exhibitor Registration area for three TLA annual conferences; as part of the program planning committee for District 10; and has presented (2001) and will present (2007) for the annual conference. Christine is the immediate past chair of the Community and Junior College Section of ACRL.

Statement of Issues: Our academic libraries are in a continual state of flux with the rapidly changing technologies available to us. We should be able to count on our state and other professional associations to assist and support us in assuring that we offer our patrons the very best of services and resources. Just as important is the need for appropriate instruction and technological support so that our users can maximize access to all our resources. CULD can be effective if it can help us lobby to expand state support for online resources and continue to provide professional development opportunities for our staff members at all levels.