In this Issue:

President's Annual Report 1999-2000

Board Members 2000-2001

ACRL/NEC 2000 Spring Conference Report
   Breakout Sessions

Women's Studies Spring 2000
Program Report

New Co-Chairs for the Preservation SIG

ITIG Launches Technology Column

Massachusetts Special Collections Directory

Continuing Education Committee
Welcoming New Members

ACRL/NEC Listserv - Special Thanks

Updating Member Information

Announcements

NEBIC & Simmons College Present
"Information Literacy into the Curriculum"

Business Librarians' Interest Group Announces
Spring 2000 Program


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ACRL New England Chapter News Online
Spring 2000, No. 90





ACRL/NEC 2000 Spring Conference Report
Doing What Matters! Library Services, Educating Students, and the Role of Assessment

Peter Deekle
Wheaton College

On Friday, March 10, more than 200 academic librarians gathered at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts for the Chapter's Spring Conference. The program theme and title, Doing What Matters! Library Services, Educating Students, and the Role of Assessment, attracted a greater than capacity registration from our professional community.
The morning speakers were Peggy Maki, Associate Director of the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education, New England Association of Schools and Colleges, and Paul H. Mosher, Vice Provost and Director of Libraries at the University of Pennsylvania. Peggy Maki opened the conference by citing the Association's review of its current standards for institutional evaluation. She began her remarks by defining assessment as an organic component of institutional purpose. She asserted that it was in an institution's interest to ascertain the effectiveness of student learning. Maki acknowledged that assessment may seem like an unnatural behavior and may take several years to become an integral part of institutional operations. But regional accrediting agencies help colleges and universities substantively assess their success in response to the pervasive concerns from constituents about institutional accountability. She suggested that our primary focus should be on the teaching and learning experience.
After defining an overall context, Maki focused her remarks on how libraries contribute to student learning. She asked the audience to identify one or two student learning outcomes associated with libraries. Some core student abilities (expressed as actions) were mentioned: the ability to create, apply, design, analyze, translate, define, recognize, evaluate, and construct knowledge. She cautioned everyone not to evaluate a library service or instructional activity only at its end; it is important, Maki said, to assess the progress toward learning and the effectiveness of the instruction or service toward that end along the way. Libraries must confirm their effectiveness in new environments, not just in face-to-face encounters with users.
Maki recognized libraries as important academic contributors to instruction. The presentation ended with some suggested methods for providing direct evidence of student learning outcomes. These included collecting and examining samples of student work or portfolios, products resulting from capstone projects, and course-embedded assessments of progress.
Paul Mosher's address articulated a new vision for academic libraries and librarians. He discussed the importance of knowledge, "an inexhaustible resource," and its differentiation from "information" and "technology." Mosher reported that the pervasive use of the term "information" has helped to confuse and confound the meaning of the other two terms. He quoted James Duderstadt (president emeritus of the University of Michigan), who defined the future institution of higher education by the characteristics associated with a "society of learning." The institution of the future would be learner-centered, affordable, focused on lifelong learning, interactive and collaborative, diverse, and adaptive. How, Mosher questioned, would the successful attainment of such characteristics be assessed?
Like Maki, he reported on a current review of standards for accreditation, in this case by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. The particular standard on libraries has, in draft form, adapted the principles of information literacy recently formulated by the Association of College and Research Libraries. Mosher cited the UPenn Libraries' participation with ten other ARL libraries in ServQual pilot assessments that attempt to measure, among other elements, the reliability, responsiveness, and quality assurance of services and the effectiveness of collections. Several quotes helped to illustrate his comments, including H.L. Menken's wry observation, applicable in our complex times: "For every complex problem, there is always a simple solution and it's always wrong!" Mosher concluded his presentation with specific examples of the UPenn Libraries' efforts to measure and assess the use of library services and resources.