eastern new york acrl chapter

ACRL Chapter Annual Report 2005

ACRL Strategic Plan Implementation

Units' Activities Summary Form

Date: 05/12/2006

Unit Name: Eastern New York chapter [http://www.enyacrl.org/]

Contact Person: Mary Anne Waltz

Phone : 518/276-8345 Email: waltzm@rpi.edu

Use the space below to identify programs and activities your unit is currently engaged in or is planning to carry out in support of the goals of the strategic plan.

Strategic Goal Support

Strategic Area: Higher Education and Research

Goal Area: Learning

ACRL and its members are recognized as collaborative leaders in teaching lifelong learning skills, improving techniques for assessing learning outcomes, and in creating environments for discovery.

Activities:

  • Offered a session at fall conference, From Blogging to Web Design: Collaborative Technology in the Digital Classroom, by Tom Mackey, Assistant Professor, Department of Information Studies, University at Albany.

Goal Area: Scholarship

ACRL and its members are recognized as authorities on knowledge management; and the creation, collection, preservation, access, and exchange of information.

Activities:

  • The University Libraries at the University at Albany, a member institution, sponsor an annual Symposium on Issues in Scholarly Communication. This event is actively promoted to our membership. Beginning in 2006, our chapter will co-sponsor the event.
  • Through the first half of this year, the chapter offered research grants (Newkirk Award) to members to support research leading to a scholarly publication.

Goal Area: Advocacy

ACRL has greater influence on the higher education and research environment.

Activities:

  • Offered keynote session at fall conference, Champaign Tastes and Beer Budgets: The Effort by Academic Libraries to Reinvigorate, Reposition and Transform in a Period of Economy, by Frank D’Andraia, Dean and Director of Libraries, University at Albany.
  • Investigated opportunities for collaboration with the New York Library Association (NYLA), including increased visibility for academic libraries at its annual conference, and joining in lobbying efforts at the state level.

Strategic Area: The Profession

Goal Area: Continuous Learning

ACRL provides continuous learning opportunities enabling members to strengthen their effectiveness and achieve recognition as valued contributors to their academic and research communities.

Activities:

  • The chapter recognizes and awards a Librarian of the Year, for “dedication to fulfilling the ACRL mission and furthering the goals and objectives of ACRL and ENY/ACRL.”
  • The chapter offers two conferences each year, spring and fall. This year, these were “Transitions: New Directions in Librarianship” (Fall 2005) and “Data are the Answer. What is the Question?” (Spring 2006). Conference themes are chosen to be broad enough to interest a wide spectrum of our members. Input is also actively solicited from the membership: topics, speakers, format, location. As much information from presenters as possible is posted to the conference web site (handouts, scripts of talks, copies of PowerPoint presentations, etc.).
  • Each conference includes a poster session, and members are encouraged to participate as poster presenters.
  • The possibility of offering smaller regional “brown bag” workshops will be considered this coming year.

Goal Area: Leadership

ACRL members achieve recognition as leaders and advocates for academic and research libraries.

Activities:

  • This year the chapter’s (Newkirk) funds that had been offered as small research grants was instead allocated as a scholarship fund to support graduate students in the library/information science programs at Syracuse University and the University at Albany who intend to enter academic librarianship. This spring we awarded three $3000 scholarships.

Goal Area: Information Technology

Academic and research librarians are leaders in using information and academic technologies to create and manage information resources and to deliver library and information services.

Activities:

  • Offered a presentation at the fall conference, Staying Ahead and Keeping Current with Blogs and RSS, by Steve Cohen, creator of LibraryStuff, a blog dedicated to resources for keeping current and professional development.
  • Offered the following presentations at the Spring 2006 conference:
    • Awash in Numbers: New directions for managing electronic resources and their usage statistics, by Nancy Turner, Head, Digital & Electronic Resource Management Services, Syracuse University Library.
    • Balancing Evidence-Based Librarianship and Protecting Patron Privacy through the Bibliomining Process", by Scott Nicholson, Assistant Professor, School of Information Studies, Syracuse University (keynote).
    • Freedom of Information by Bob Freeman, Executive Director, New York State Committee on Open Government.

Strategic Area: The Association

Goal Area: Membership

ACRL's membership growth builds on retaining core membership while recruiting from new and diverse communities.

Activities:

  • Membership Committee reviewed and updated the membership database, established more institutional liaisons, and successfully recruited committee members to represent each region within the chapter. New members have joined, and the chapter now stands at almost 2250 members.

Goal Area: Sustainability

ACRL will have the fiscal resources, staff expertise, and organizational structure to advance the association's strategic plan.

Activities:

  • The chapter continues to have a very healthy budget. This is used to fund the conferences, including paying honoraria to keynote speakers and subsidizing part of the registration costs for members.
  • In addition, the chapter subsidizes the costs for at least one officer (preferably president or president-elect) to attend the ALA annual conferences and midwinter meetings.