ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


976 /  C&RL News ■ N ovem ber 2001

n e w sI n  t h e
In this issue, Donald Frank, Sarah Beasley, 

and Susan Kroll take up the ACRL presiden­
tial theme o f learning com munities (page 

1008), defined in terms o f integration with 
the curriculum and interaction among stu­
dents. The examples they provide are par­
ticularly valuable in illustrating effectiveness 

and benefits for students. Library participa­
tion in learning communities is critical.

Imaginative ways to achieve integration with 
teaching programs in a variety o f disciplines 
are described by Katherine Furlong and Janelle 
Wertzberger (page 1004). Another sort of inte­
gration in pursuit of academic goals is discussed 
in Robert Renaud’s account of the merging of 
libraries and computing centers (page 987). The 
desirability of collaboration is not in question, 
but how best to achieve it certainly is.

Information literacy must be part o f the 
learning community, as has been recognized 
by ACRL in adopting the “Information Literacy 

Competency Standards for Higher Education”

in January 2001. Gabriela Sonntag reports on 
a survey conducted in May 2001, which docu­
mented the nature, extent, and success of 
information literacy programs at 664 institu­
tions (page 996). Compare the situation in 
your institution with the findings.

We revisit online resources for U.S. his­

tory in Paul Frisch’s article (page 991), espe­
cially useful since the last such survey in C&RL 
N e w s was in 1996, when the resources were 
mostly gopher sites.

The library presents itself through its pub­
lications, print and online, ephemeral and of 
permanent value. Hope Barton and Michael 
Levine-Clark describe the University of Iowa’s 
program to rationalize its publication program 

without stifling creativity (page 982). Like the 
other articles, it is a source of ideas that may 
well bear fruit in our own libraries’ efforts to 
become a vital part o f a learning community.

—Maureen Gleason, acting editor 
mgleason@ala.org

mailto:mgleason@ala.org