ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries ACRL President’s Letter D ear Colleagues: W e have just entered a new year w ith all its in­ herent sense of passage and freshness. I ask you to apply the same perspec­ tiv e of ren ew al as you c o n sid e r th e ro le of ACRL in your profes­ sional life fo r th e u p ­ coming year. Effective professiona l associations offer their mem bers unique oppor­ tu n ities—opportunities for personal grow th, for skill d ev elo p m en t, for influence on the devel­ o p m e n t of th e p ro fe s­ sion, for stim ulation and Carla J. Stoffle p ro b in g of values, for contact w ith role models, for exposure to new ideas and peer review of personal ideas, and for legitim a­ tion and recognition from colleagues throughout th e country. As the fifth largest library association in th e w orld and the largest ALA division, ACRL offers its m em bers all of th e ab o v e an d m ore through its publications, conferences, committees, sections, discussion groups, chapters, continuing education programs, inform ation and referral ser­ vices, and special projects. To help you judge th e effectiveness of ACRL as your professional Association, the following review of major activities and program s during 1982 is provided. 1. Planning. To position itself to be able to serve m ore effectively th e needs of its members in this and th e next decade, the ACRL Board at the Phila­ delphia Conference adopted a new mission state­ m ent and goals and objectives. These w ere devel­ oped by th e Ad Hoc C om m ittee on an Activity Model for 1990 and w ere accom panied by a recom­ m ended list of new activities needed by the Associa­ tion. These recom mendations w ere referred to the Planning Com m ittee for an item by item review and recom m endations for im plem entation. The charge and m em bership of the Planning C om m it­ tee also was revised to make the C om m ittee respon­ sible for both short range planning and for the peri­ odic review of the long range goals and objectives of the Association. 2. Budget. In 1981 ACRL members feared for the fiscal health of the Association and approved, as a co n seq u en ce, a dues increase an d a new $30,000 o p e ra tin g reserve b u d g et policy. The happy result for the Association is th a t there was a $459,048 fund balance ($270,158 excluding re­ stricted funds) at the end of 1982. The Association revenues for 1982/83 are projected at $1,390,186 and expenses are projected at $1,429,912. 3. Publications. This year the Association’s jour­ nal publishing program included the refereed jour­ nal, College & Research Libraries, the news m aga­ zine, College & Research Libraries News, and the highly respected and frequently used review m e­ dium , Choice. ACRL monographs included The Spirit o f Inquiry by John Richardson, Jr., and L i­ brary Statistics o f Colleges and Universities: Sum ­ m ary Data 1979, published for the N ational Center for E ducational Statistics. Options fo r the 80’s, the proceedings of the Minneapolis ACRL N ational Conference, w as also published this spring by J AI Press, m aking available to all members th e many significant papers presented a t the conference. M anagem ent and S ta ff D evelopm ent, the proceed­ ings of the California C h ap ter’s conference, was also issued. 4. C ontinuing E ducation. To meet the educa­ tional needs of our complex and rapidly changing profession, ACRL has created a continuing educa­ tion program w hich is unique am ong ALA’s divi­ sions. E ight courses were offered at the Philadel­ phia Conference and are now available for delivery at national conferences and at the chapter level. 5. B ibliographic Instruction Liaison Project. The three-year liaison project, created to increase awareness am ong college and university teaching faculty and adm inistrators, was contracted out in Septem ber to Carolyn Kirkendall, director of Pro­ ject LOEX at E astern M ichigan University. D u r­ ing the year the goals of the project and specific ac­ tivities to be accom plished w ere clarified, files were organized, and librarians made presentations at the meetings of the American Sociological Asso­ ciation, the Modern Language Association, and the O rganization of American Historians. 6. Awards. The seventh Academic/Research L i­ b rarian of th e Year A w ard, established by ACRL and the Baker and Taylor Com pany, was aw arded to W illiam Budington, director of the John C rerar L ibrary. Tw o new aw ards m ade possible by the In ­ stitute for Scientific Inform ation were announced in 1982: the Samuel Lazerow Fellowship for O u t­ standing C ontributions to Acquisitions or T echni­ cal Services in an Academic or Research Library and the ACRL Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship for a doctoral student w orking on a dissertation in academic librarianship. 7. Conferences. Under th e leadership of Gary Menges, University of W ashington, planning pro­ gressed for the T hird N ational ACRL Conference scheduled for 1984 in Seattle. ACRL continued to offer a full menu of opportunities for learning, ex­ change of inform ation, and celebration at the m id­ w inter and annual conferences, and plans are u n ­ derw ay for our 1983 conferences. 8. C h a p te rs . T h irty -tw o s ta te an d reg io n al chapters served 7,000 ACRL members in 36 states 6 / C &R L News and one province of C anada. These organizations enabled greater participation in ACRL, provided programs of significance w ithin reasonable travel­ ing distance of members, and offered a focus and voice for the local, state, and regional concerns of academ ic librarians. T his year ACRL strength­ e n e d th e c h a p te r s ’ a b ility to serve m em b ers through a provision allowing them to offer ACRL continuing education courses and share revenue w ith th e national Association. 9. Three special projects. The Association also underw rote or received outside funding for three special projects. 1) The N ational E ndow m ent for th e Hum anities aw arded ACRL $62,423 for a sec­ ond series of workshops to encourage humanities program m ing in academic libraries and the devel­ opm ent of grant proposals to fund such programs. Two workshops will be held during the spring of 1983. 2) ACRL also received th e 1982 J. Morris Jones A ward of $5,000 for a project designed by the Bibliographic Instruction Section to duplicate at eight state and regional library association m eet­ ings portions of the highly successful 1979 BIS D al­ las Preconference. This project, called Bringing W orkshops to M embers, aims at increasing the knowledge and skills of librarians involved in user education as well as strengthening state and re­ gional educational program m ing. 3) To fill one gap in academic library statistics, ACRL head­ quarters staff is repeating the statistical survey of non-ARL university libraries. Questionnaires were distributed to 91 U.S. and ten C anadian university libraries in late 1982 w ith publication of the data projected for spring, 1983. I hope th a t, after review ing the accom plish­ ments and commitments of ACRL, you will agree th a t ACRL has much to contribute to your own personal development and the development of aca- demic/research libraries. In addition, if you have not already done so, I hope you will choose to re­ new your mem bership and resolve to be an active participant in Association activities. Carla J. Stoffle President, A C R L ACRL 1982/83 Budget At the direction of the Executive C omm ittee, the budget for 1982/83 is being presented w ith the Choice budget included in the overall ACRL budget instead of being presented separately as in previous years. This more accurately reflects ACRL’s fiscal responsibilities and liabilities. A general overview of the 1982/83 budget is shown in pie-chart form on page 9. Subsequent articles in C &R L News will discuss each of the program areas in more detail. A table showing specific dollar amounts is provided on the following page for your interest. The base dollar amounts for revenues and expenses include funds approved by the Board in previous years for pro­ jects extending over more than one fiscal year. The figures are therefore slightly higher than those indi­ cated in the sum m ary table above. Highlights of the 1982/83 budget include the funding of a statistics project to collect d ata on non-ARL university libraries, the continuation of the bibliographic instruction liaison project, the funding of a task force to explore the usefulness, feasibility, and form at for a third edition of Books fo r College Libraries, and increased support for chapters and sections. January 1983 / 7