ACRL New England

Hello from your new President!

The May 2010 conference was a great success according to the many survey comments we received. Thank you for your diligence in filling out the survey, all 168 of you. We learned much from the many positive comments, and even more from the constructive ones that told us how to improve next year’s conference. This past year the committee was challenged to expand the conference’s reach by offering access to portions of the day via webcasting. The committee always struggles with offering a location that is convenient to the greatest number of people, yet this often means we leave out our northern neighbors. Offering presentations via webcast was a technical challenge and was no small task. A group of librarians in Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts accepted the challenge and succeeded in streaming two breakout sessions and the keynote to locations in Burlington, VT and Brunswick, ME. The remote location organizers also planned their own programming during downtimes. We reached another 40 people in the north in addition to the 325 who attended in Worcester. We hope to webcast again next year. I have been encouraged by other Chapter Presidents across the US to submit a poster or virtual session proposal for ACRL 2011 in Philadelphia on our outreach efforts. Work is underway by our webcasting organizers to submit a proposal by November 1st. I will keep you posted if our efforts are recognized nationally.

The caliber of the conference was due in large part to the conference committee who worked tirelessly this year. The committee included Amy Lewontin; Barbara DeFelice; Barrie Mooney; Beth Rohloff; Bob Scheier; Carina Cournoyer; Carolyn Mills; Christine Drew; Eileen Cravedi; Eleta Exline; Janice Schuster; Joanne Doucette; Kendall Hobbs; Laura Kohl; Laura Robinson Hanlan; Leslie Button; Margaret Lourie; Mariana Lapidus; Michael Zeller; Naka Ishii; Nancy Friedrichs O'Sullivan; Phil Waterman; Talia Resendes. There were also another 30 or so volunteers who answered my call to assist with the registration desk, be hall monitors, do signage, and the list goes on. Thank you all again!

The Board’s annual retreat was held on June 11 at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. The meeting was located on the top floor of the Library giving us a spectacular view of the valley and inspiring us throughout the day. The Board identified many goals but three stood out above the rest. They are to

• Analyze the professional development needs of Chapter members
• Market ACRL-NEC to graduating MLIS students at regional library schools
• Sponsor a program at ACRL 2011

As mentioned previously, we are on our way to submitting a proposal for ACRL 2011. Board volunteers have stepped forward to tackle the other two goals for the coming year. If you are interested in serving on these committees, please contact me.

Best regards,

Carole Myles

Member Services Consultant
OCLC
mylesc@oclc.org