ACRL New England Chapter News Online

ISSN 1527-0106

Spring 2003, Number 99

In This Issue (Home):

President's Letter

ACRL/NEC Spring Conference Report

Board Meeting Minutes, March 7, 2003

Serials Interest Group Spring 2003 Program Summary

Announcements:
Access Services Interest Group Spring Event

New England Library Instruction Group Annual Program

New England Library Association Annual Conference

PRESIDENT'S LETTER

Assessing ACRL/NEC

Helena Rodrigues
Johnson & Wales University

As I approach my final weeks as President of ACRL/NEC, I would like to perform an assessment of the recent activities of our organization. My first thought was to present a quantitative report. What is our current membership? How many workshops did our Committees and Special Interest Groups (SIGs) offer? How many people attended these events? In other words, numbers, numbers, numbers.

While numbers are important and are useful for evaluating some of our activities, none serves to meet the expectations or achievements of our membership. Numbers do not explain if we are reaching the goal of ACRL: to enhance the effectiveness of our academic and research librarians to advance learning, teaching and research in higher education.

With this in mind, I am proud to report that all Committees and SIGs were very active and offered outstanding events on timely and professional topics within four major categories. The first category was library instruction. Web-based instruction and "one-shot" instruction sessions were areas that attracted good numbers of attendees. The second category was technology. Committees focused their efforts on teaching, such as creating information literacy tutorials, and the implementation of course management software. Technical service was the theme of the third category and presentations emphasized assessment. Finally, the fourth category was leadership. It was the highlight of our annual conference in March and included different aspects of this subject from demographic trends to coping with change.

In another attempt to meet the ACRL goals by enhancing and advancing, the New England Chapter will inaugurate the Outstanding Librarian of the Year Award. Proposed by Member-at-Large, Mary MacDonald, the purpose of the award is to recognize an outstanding member who has exhibited a dedication to fulfilling the ACRL/NEC mission.

So while we continue to count our users, our books, and our online searches, only to name a few, let us remember to become accountable for the satisfaction of our students and faculty. More importantly, let us become more accountable for the satisfaction of our profession.

Thank you, ACRL/NEC, for a wonderful year!