ALA Annual Part 2

Saturday

On Saturday I went to 4 programs, ACRL 101, ACRL New Members Discussion Group on Publishing, Job Hunting in a Recession, and Collection Development 2.0.

ACRL 101 was interesting and informative, but I don't know that I really needed to go to it because I am familiar with ACRL and its sections from my last conference. I did meet some fellow young librarians which was valuable. And I asked some questions about the ACRL Immersion program, which I would love to participate in soon. The one big tip I got from this program was to volunteer to do instruction. I don't know why it never occurred to me to volunteer to teach, but it seems so obvious now. So I plan on e-mailing some former co-workers to see if I can assist in their instruction classes for a time, to get experience. I also plan on volunteering for some ACRL committees next year.

The new members discussion group was next. This program had 3 mini presentations on getting published in peer-reviewed literature. A lot of what was covered had been covered in a presentation that I saw at UCR, but there were several tidbits that were useful. One was that you have to write to get ideas and to help you get used to the process of writing. Another great tip was about collaborating. Look around and find other, more experienced librarians or faculty that will co-author an article with you. This makes the whole process a bit less intimidating. So for now I have a couple of good ideas that need to be fleshed out, and I just may have the makings of an article.

Job Hunting during a recession was okay, but a lot of the tips were either common sense or things I'd heard before. I did pick up a couple of new job search sites that I had not heard of, and I discovered that there is a recruiting service for librarians, because the founder of the service was one of the presenters. I left this one a little early so I could make it all the way south to McCormick Place. Things were really spread out in Chicago. I hope they are closer together in DC, especially because DC is unbearably hot and humid in July.

Collection Development 2.0 was by far my favorite program of the conference. There were 3 presenters, one from the University of Utah, one from a public library in Georgia, I think, and one from another university (I'll fill in the details when I have my notes near by). The first speaker talked about how they had moved to a centralized collection development department, with the liaisons having only recommendation responsibilities. CD handled all of the selection. They did this in order to save money and build a more balance collection. The speaker said that in the traditional arrangement of liaisons with selection responsibilities, some liaisons were better selectors than others, so some areas of the collection would be better developed than others. With a centralized CD team, each area of the collection will receive equal attention, so the collection will become more balanced over time. The speaker did mention some difficulties with centralized selection, such as the very high work loads that the CD librarians would have to take on. Not only would they be responsible for building the entire collection, but they also must complete all the evaluation and weeding tasks.

The second speaker, from the public library, talked about making the collection more accessible to the patrons by making it more visible. If people know what is in a collection, they are more likely to use it. She suggested having walls of books set up like book stores, with some books placed cover out. This type of presentation encourages browsing and circulation. She did say that librarians and clerks had to be prepared to rearrange these shelves several times during a day because the turnover would be higher.

The final speaker, from the University of Utah, I think. Had some really interesting things to say about going out of your way to get the patron the book or journal that they want. He started off by saying that CD is all a guess, and a staggering percentage of books that are purchased are never used. We can improve that percentage by buying books that patrons will actually use. One way to go about this is to actually buy the books that people request on ILL and get them to the patrons as quickly as possible. With an ILL request, you know that at least one person wants the book, which is more than you know about many of the books that you might select for the collection. So CD and ILL should work much closer together. I don't know why I had never thought of this before, but it makes perfect sense. Also, it goes along with my interest in how CD departments interact with other departments in the library. The speaker also suggested limiting cataloging and processing on requested books, so that they could be used by the patron as quickly as possible. Full cataloging records can always be added when the book is returned after use. Finally he mentioned that they were purchasing an Expresso print-on-demand machine that they will use to fulfill patron requests even faster. They plan on either selling the book to the patron or adding it to the collection when the patron returns it. It is interesting to me that some libraries are in the enviable position of being able to purchase or lease? very expensive equipment, while other are fighting just to keep staff. But it is nifty to see a library so driven to meet patron needs. Patron driven academic libraries are exciting to me, I like it when the needs of students get as much attention as the needs of faculty, staff, and librarians.

I will probably add more to this, or make it more coherent when I have my conference notes.