ACRL New England Chapter News Online

ISSN 1527-0106

Fall 2006, Number 109

In This Issue (Home):

President's Letter

2007 Annual Conference Planning Underway...

C & B Committee Report

Interest Group Reports and Announcements:

Board Meeting Minutes, August 9, 2006
Calendar Listings

President's Letter: The Gears are Engaged!

Christine Turner
University of Massachusetts Amherst

September 26, 2006

Since my first letter as President in May, the Board has had its annual retreat and subsequent summer meeting, I have attended the Chapters Council meeting at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans, and various ACRL/NEC committees have been planning and producing programs. A new academic year has commenced. The most direct beneficiaries of our work – faculty and students – are immediately before us. A short period of reflection and goal setting has quickly shifted to action, full-throttle forward.

Most Chapter members are well aware of the outstanding programs produced by the interest groups http://www.acrlnec.org/sigs.shtml throughout the year http://www.acrlnec.org/calendar.shtml, as well as the Annual Conference each spring. Indeed the interest groups continue their relevant, high quality, low (or no) cost offerings, and the 2007 Annual Conference Planning Committee is gaining traction under the guidance of Judith Pinnolis, ACRL/NEC Vice President and committee chair. Less obvious to most are the contributions of other Chapter committees. Beatrice Pulliam and Val Harper co-chair the Communications Committee, which touches upon and supports just about every way the Board and Chapter members interact. Louise Buckley leads the Constitution & Bylaws Committee, and her attentiveness to these matters maintains the Chapter’s good standing with ACRL National and its accountability and responsiveness to membership. Suzanne Wones leads our Legislative Action Committee, rallying people to contact representatives in the federal government, and increasingly at a state level too, to advocate for academic libraries. Colleen Anderson chairs the Nominating Committee this year. Their job is to identify and recruit candidates for elected positions (Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary, Members–at–Large – critical positions all) on the ACRL/NEC Board, thus ensuring capable leadership for the organization going forward.

The hazard in acknowledging individuals who work largely unnoticed to make this Chapter great is that I name but a few. Every one on the ACRL/NEC Board http://www.acrlnec.org/board.shtml, and many more of you working with them, share of yourselves generously with potential, new and experienced colleagues in the profession. I offer the image of gears engaged to suggest the dedication and productivity of the people at the core of this organization. What emerges from your contributions to ACRL/NEC is a panoply of academic librarianship in its most scholarly, practical, inventive and historical forms.

ACRL/NEC Past Presidents Colleen Anderson and Nancy George have written in previous issues about attending Chapters Council meetings, leaving them with special pride in our Chapter. Beyond being the largest, the New England Chapter shines in many ways. I observed this yet again at the Chapters Council meeting last June in New Orleans. To all of you who participate in this Chapter, you make us a remarkable force.