ACRL announces the release of “Achieving Racial and Ethnic Diversity among Academic and Research Librarians: The Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement of Librarians of Color,” a white paper commissioned by the ACRL Board of Directors working group on diversity. Building on the 2002 ACRL white paper, “Recruitment, Retention & Restructuring: Human Resource in Academic Libraries,” the white paper discusses efforts to promote, develop and foster workplaces that are representative of a diverse population, along with addressing the development of a workplace climate that supports and encourages the advancement of librarians from underrepresented groups. The paper stresses empirically supported and assessable solutions to increasing the diversity of the academic library workforce, drawing inspiration from the broader recruitment, retention and advancement literatures. The white paper and a companion piece authored by ACRL President Julie Todaro, of the Austin Community College in Austin, Texas. Click to view all ACRL White Papers and Reports.

ACRL and Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA) are now accepting proposals for their Joint Spring Virtual Institute, “Leading from the Middle: Managing in All Directions.” Taking place from April 29-30, 2008, the ACRL/LAMA Joint Virtual Institute offers a forum for the exploration of issues and challenges facing middle managers and leaders. The institute is held in an online conference community, providing an environment in which groups of participants, both small and large, can gather electronically to learn, collaborate and network. The institute offers both synchronous and asynchronous sessions, which will be archived after the institute for viewing on-demand. Full text of the Call for Participation is available online at the link in header. Proposals must be submitted via the online proposal form at https://marvin.foresightint.com/surveys/Tier1Survey/ACRL/212/. The submission deadline is December 10, 2007.

Making a Visual Impact: A Former Graphic Designer's Guide to Creating Library Publications, by Ligaya Ganster

From LIScareer.com--The Librarian & Information Professional's Career Development Center

ACRL 13th National Conference--Call for Participation in Baltimore

Chart your course to Baltimore! It's not too late to submit! Deadlines you can still make: Poster sessions (October 20, 2006) & Roundtable discussions (January 10, 2007) ...

Library of Congress User Survey

In an effort to better serve the needs of its patrons, the Library of Congress wants to hear from users about the effectiveness of its services, resources, and programs...

Virtual Reference in the Age of Pop-Up Blockers, Firewalls, and Service Pack 2, by Pascal Lupien

Real-time virtual reference (VR) has been around for several years. Although it has become standard in our libraries and widely discussed in the professional literature, the evidence indicates that libraries are not satisfied with the service...

Virtual Reference in the Age of Pop-Up Blockers, Firewalls, and Service Pack 2, by Pascal Lupien

Real-time virtual reference (VR) has been around for several years. Although it has become standard in our libraries and widely discussed in the professional literature, the evidence indicates that libraries are not satisfied with the service...

Social Networking for Bookworms, by Aaron Rutkoff

From the Wall Street Journal Online: For Tim Spalding, a computer programmer and bibliophile, listing a few titles in an online profile isn’t enough. He sought a way to catalog his entire book collection—and to check out what was lining other people’s shelves. Spalding launched LibraryThing.com ...

Grants help offset current shortage of school library media specialists, librarians working in underserved communities, and more

Washington, DC: First Lady Laura Bush Announces More Than $20 Million in Librarian Recruitment and Education Grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services ...

Applications/nominations invited for C & R L editor

CHICAGO - Applications and nominations are invited for the position of editor of College & Research Libraries (C&RL), the bimonthly, scholarly research journal of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)

Net Neutrality Loses a Round in the Senate

Supporters of net neutrality were dealt a second blow June 28 when the Senate Commerce Committee rejected by an 11–11 tie vote a bill that mandated equal access to online content for all customers. The defeated Internet Freedom Preservation Act ...

Think Trends, Not Types, by Rachel Singer Gordon

From LJ, NEXTGEN ...

Making "E" Visible, by Leslie Williams

Google schmoogle! Rev up your electronic resources promotion to smoke the competition!

Call for Papers: 4th International Conference on the Book

The conference will address a range of critically important themes relating to the book-including the past, present & future of publishing, libraries, literacy & learning in the information society ... to be held Emerson College, Boston, MA, October 20-22, 2006

First class of Certified Public Library Administrator Program (CPLA) approved

The CPLA announced it has 16 candidates for certification ...

Abstracts of Poster Sessions for ALA Annual available

View the poster session TOC for New Orleans ...

State of the Blogosphere is strong

The blogosphere continues to grow at a quickening pace. Technorati currently tracks 35.3 million weblogs, and the blogosphere we track continues to double about every 6 months...

From the Google Librarian Center: Google, the art of library science - and you!

Submit your story about an interesting way you’ve used a Google service to help library users locate the information, & you might be a part of a digital video movie ... Submissions will be accepted May 22.

Just for fun! Read the winning captions to the "Reference" librarian cartoon...!

Enjoy!

The "State" of Libraries

LJ editorial, by Francine Fialkoff, Editor-in-Chief (May 1, 2006). Three new reports are an almost good start on the library present and future ...

AJL 2006 Convention

The Association of Jewish Libraries will hold its 41st annual convention, June 18-21, at the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge, MA. Librarians, archivists and scholars from numerous disciplines will meet to share their interests in Judaica librarianship and related areas...

Read Posters

Librarians who have designed do-it-yourself Read posters have posted their efforts on a Read Posters Pool on the photo-sharing website Flickr...

America's Best Graduate Schools 2007: Complete Guide to Library and Information Studies Programs

U.S. News & World Report online has released its 2007 rankings of "America's Best Graduate Schools." The guide to library and information studies programs breaks out the ratings by such specialties as archives and preservation, digital librarianship, and services for children and youth....

The State of America's Libraries

The first-ever ALA report details both the positive impact libraries and librarians have on the millions of people who use them and the funding challenges they face...

Copyright at a Crossroads: 6th Annual Symposium on Intellectual Property

The early bird registration deadline approaches for the 2006 University of Maryland University College Center for Intellectual Property Symposium, June 14-16, 2006, in Adelphi, MD...

First Call for Presenters at the 2006 October Conference: Biomedical Libraries at Dartmouth

Seeking academic librarians as presenters for the "Cool Tools and New Technologies" annual conference ...

LII 2006 Annual User Survey from Zoomerang is ready for you to see!

Receiving over 6,000 responses, the statistical report for the 2006 user survey of Librarians' Internet Index, is now available. Questions included attitudes about fundraising and advertising for LII, user behavior, and user demographics. Does not include analyses or cross-tabulations.

Call for Papers: Evidence Based Library and Information Practice

See the Submissions section of the EBLIP website for further information on how to how to submit online. Deadline for Issue #3: June 1st, 2006

Published quarterly by the University of Alberta, this peer-reviewed, open access journal is targeted at all library and information professionals interested in an evidence based model of practice. By facilitating access to librarianship research via original research articles and evidence summaries of relevant research from the library literature...

Top Ten Technologies for Librarians in 2006, by "Tame the Web" blogger Michael Stephens [webinar]

What trends should librarians be watching? What's the next big thing? View the streaming audio, text chat, and slides about top technologies for librarians (playback time: 59 mins.) Sponsored by the Alliance Library System ...

Inside Higher Ed.: Faculty Salaries Up 3.4%

The median salary increase for faculty members at four-year colleges & universities was 3.4% for the 2005-06 academic year, according to data being released today by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources ...

ACRL can publish your good ideas!

Advance the profession through publication. A Call for Papers ...

Productivity Means Working Smarter, Not Longer: HBS Working Knowledge, written by Stever Robbins

Workers in the United States put in more hours at work and take fewer vacation days than those in most industrialized countries. But the U.S isn't the most productive country in the world...

Do-It-Yourself Professional Development, Part II

... New ways of developing professionally can take on many guises ... published February 15, 2006, written by Connie Crosby

The Tao of Law Librarianship: Do-It-Yourself Professional Development

This article by Connie Crosby, published January 15, 2006 on LLRX.com, has universal adaptability to your own journey...

A new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project

Online news: For many home broadband users, the Internet is a primary news source ... read more

ALA 2007 Call for Proposals Deadline Approaches

ACRL invites proposal submissions for a half-day or full-day workshop or preconference to be held prior to the 2007 American Library Association Midwinter Meeting or the 2007 ALA Annual Conference. Monday, April 3, 2006, is the deadline to submit proposals...

10th ECDL|European Conference on Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries

Call for Papers-deadline extended. "Towards the European Digital Library" September 17-22, Alicante, Spain

Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians 2006 Conference

"Crossroads to the Future": The 2006 OVGTSL Annual Conference, May 10-12 in Bloomington, Indiana ...

Call For Proposals|Academic Library Association of Ohio (ALAO)|32nd Annual Conference|November 3, 2006

Recipes for Success: Ingredients, Process, & Product (Scroll way down!)

Second Social Forum of Information, Documentation and Libraries 2006, Mexico City, Fall 2006

View the Call to Participate ...

What Users Want: An Academic 'Hybrid' Library Perspective

Reg Carr, Director of University Library Services at the University of Oxford, reflects on the development of a user-centered approach in academic libraries over recent decades and into the era of the hybrid library ...

They Gave Me Half a Million to Preserve Rare Books

Read what Terry Belanger, honorary curator of special collections at the University of Virginia, as a MacArthur Foundation Fellow has to say...

MicroSoft Office Live Meeting Webinar archive

Want to expand your knowledge? Check out some of the most popular past live seminars you've missed ... and listen up!

Ph.D. in Managerial Leadership in the Information Professions

The Simmons College GSLIS is pleased to announce that it is now accepting applications for the inaugural year of the innovative Ph.D. degree... Deadline for applications: March 1, 2006

The "Are You a Librarian?" Test

Test your professional knowledge with this challenging 29-question test, which includes many ALA-related questions. You don’t need to join the sponsoring site (a dating service) to take the test ... from OKCupid

Beyond Algorithms: A Librarian's Guide to Finding Web Sites You Can Trust

Librarian’s Internet Index Director Karen Schneider gives five characteristics of authoritative online resources, with some tips on how to evaluate them ... from the Google Librarian’s Newsletter, January 2006

Protecting Your Search Privacy: A Flowchart To Tracks You Leave Behind

Internet consultant Danny Sullivan discusses the pitfalls of retaining your privacy while googling.... from Search Engine Watch, January 23, 2006

Top 10 tech trends for 2006

Here is Silicone Valley's annual look into the future for technology trends, 2006, according to California's Mercury News ...

Librarians 'suffer most stress' according to BBC NEWS

Fighting fires may sound taxing, chasing criminals demanding, but a new study says that working in library is the most stressful job of all. Read more...

ALA to provide volunteering opportunities at Annual Conference in New Orleans

Conference attendees will be able to volunteer for a full-day community service project on Friday June 23 or Tuesday, June 27. Read more...

Filter Flap Confounds CIPA-Compliant Connecticut Library

A Groton, Connecticut, city council member called January 3 for restrictions on the use of internet workstations at the public library in light of a police investigation ...

Call for Participation in ACRL New England Chapter 2006 Conference

Call for Participation in Poster Session! Proposals DUE January 23rd. Please read more...

LJ Talks to Richard Nash

Independent Brooklyn-based publisher Richard Nash was recently awarded Association of American Publishers (AAP) Miriam Bass Award for Creativity in Independent Publishing. Read the Q & A ...

Call for Poster Session Presentations-IFLA/WLIC Seoul, Korea, 2006

Call for Poster Presentations (deadline: February 15, 2006) for the World Library and Information Congress: 72nd IFLA General Conference and Council titled "Libraries: Dynamic Engines for the Knowledge and Information Society" to be held 20-24 August 2006, in Seoul, Korea ...

LJ Academic Newswire is now FREE! From Library Journal

You'll still need to subscribe but now at the very reasonable price of FREE! Sign up to receive email alerts and newsletters; LJXpress (weekly); LJ ACADEMIC NEWSWIRE (weekly); and/or LJ REVIEW ALERT (twice--monthly) ...

ACURIL 2006 @ Biblioteca Nacional Aruba

The Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries Conference 2006 will be in Aruba. Will you join us? The theme of the Conference is 'Information and Human Rights' and we will discuss the social, cultural and ethical aspects of the Information Society and their implications for the libraries in the Caribbean ...

LJ Reference Supplement 2006

In this tenth LJ Reference Supplement, we continue to see a vibrant industy in the midst of change. Print lives on, e-reference is thriving, Google is king, and librarians and publishers are beginning to embrace the chaos...

Online Library Assistant Training Program for Library Assistants in Academic and Research Libraries at Rutgers University

This online, on-the-job training program is designed for people who work in academic and research libraries as support staff, library assistants and associates, and technicians. The program is also appropriate for individuals who serve in specialized support functions in such libraries, including public relations, web development, and human resources ...

From Boston.com:

Margaret Osmond, 98; librarian who lived flamboyantly
November 29, 2005

"In her dramatic capes and turbans, with her theatrical voice and

her beauty, Margaret Osmond was a glamorous presence in Plymouth for

years, 31 of them as librarian in the Plymouth Public Library."

NetLibrary reaches 100,000-title milestone

NetLibrary, a division of OCLC, has achieved a ground-breaking milestone in the eContent industry. NetLibrary is the first eContent platform to offer academic, public, special and school library users access to more than 100,000 full-text eBook and eAudiobook titles ... Dublin, Ohio, USA, 21 November 2005

Latest Internet statistics for online newspapers, brands and advertisers from Nielsen//NetRatings

Online newspapers enjoy double-digit year-over-year growth, reaching one out of four Internet users ... view the PDF report dated November 15, 2005 ...

2006 LITA National Forum: Call for Proposals

Due date for proposals: December 15, 2005

The 2006 National Forum Committee seeks proposals for high quality
concurrent sessions and/or poster sessions for the 9th annual LITA National
Forum to be held at the Downtown Sheraton in Nashville, Tennessee October
26-29, 2006.

Call for Proposals: Art of the Picture Book Conference

The Art of the Picture Book conference will be held May 12 & 13, 2006 at Ashland University, Ashland, Ohio. This conference will bring together educators, librarians, artists, publishers, editors, aspiring writers or illustrators, publishers and anyone interested in picture books.

We invite you to present your ideas, experiences, and views concerning "The Art of the Picture Book." Proposals are being requested for 50 minute sessions that address the use of picture books in a variety of instances--in classrooms, in libraries, to enhance visual literacy, as artistic expression, or as a commercial venture.

Proposal submission deadline is Friday, December 30, 2005. All applicants will be notified by March 1, 2006.

Deconstructing the Interview Process at a Small Academic Library, by Kathryn Johns-Masten

From LIScareer.com's The Librarian & Information Professional's Career Development Center

ACRL announces enhanced access to College & Research Libraries

ACRL is pleased to announce that its scholarly research journal College & Research Libraries is available free of charge in PDF format on the ACRL website six months after publication. Retrospective issues now are available back through volume 58 (1997)...

ACRL's Recruiting to the Profession Video

Faces of a Profession, the ACRL/ARL recruitment video, highlights the role of academic librarians and the satisfactions to be realized in the profession. It includes interviews with academic librarians who discuss what they do and why they made their career choices. The video is available in a variety of formats. Total playing time is seven minutes.

Call for Papers for the Special Libraries Association 2006 Conference

SLA is accepting papers for presentation at its Annual Conference "Where Tradition and Transformation Converge," June 11-14, 2006, in Baltimore, MD and for publication on its Web site...

NCLIS Launches New Web site

The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) today announced the availability of a newly redesigned Commission Web site at http://www.nclis.gov ...

Purdue Creates Nation's First Information Literacy Endowed Chair

Purdue University says it is creating the first endowed chair in information literacy in the nation. The university will use a $2.5 million gift it received from Wayne Booker, former vice chairman of the Ford Motor Co. Purdue says students need to understand how to conduct research and how to evaluate the search results...

Preserving public domain books from the official Google Blog

The world's libraries are a tremendous source of knowledge, much of which has never been available online. One of our goals for Google Print is to change that, and today we've taken an exciting step toward meeting it: making available a number of public domain books that were never subject to copyright or whose copyright has expired.

ACRL Events & Conferences 2006 & 2007

Whether it's Library Leadership, Information Literacy, or a Virtual Conference, visit this site for Call for Participation, ACRL offerings at ALA, and more...

ALA Annual Conference 2006 FAQ available

The 2006 Annual Conference will be held in New Orleans, LA, from June 22-28, 2006. The exhibits will be held June 24-27, 2006 in the Morial Convention Center ...

IMLS Calls for Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Grant Applications

The Institute of Museum and Library Service (IMLS) invites America’s libraries, archives, library agencies, associations and consortia, to apply for the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian (formerly called Librarians for the 21st Century) grant program. IMLS will award over $21 million under this program to help recruit and educate librarians and strengthen graduate schools of library and information science in FY 2006. The application deadline is December 15, 2005.

Microsoft Joins Open Content Alliance

The newly created Open Content Alliance (OCA) developed by Yahoo and others now has Microsoft as a partner. Microsoft officials said MSN Book Search will cover the cost of digitizing the equivalent of 150,000 public domain books over the next year ...

Journal Publishers Propose NIH Journal Linking Plan

Six months after the NIH implemented its weakened public access policy for the research it funds, the signatories of the DC Principles, a group of 57 medical and scientific nonprofit publishers, have offered a counter-proposal. The plan would have the NIH offer online access to articles by linking directly to journal web sites indexed by the NIH's Medline abstracting service ... read the letter delivered to NIH director Elias Zerhouni ...

Free Webcast: LJ's URLearning Series: eBooks Take the Ivory Tower

Don't miss out on this special event, register today to ensure access and hear the latest on Academic eBooks from the experts who know ... Library Journal's Webcast on Academic eBooks on November 15, 2005 at 2 PM EST...

Ching-chih Chen joins OCLC

Dr. Ching-chih Chen, Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Simmons College, Boston, has joined OCLC as Consultant to the President for global digital initiatives among libraries, museums and archival institutions...

The Future of Human Resources in Canadian Libraries

The 8Rs Research Team has conducted in-depth research on libraries as workplaces for the past three years, resulting in the publication of this major report ...

WebJunction's Focus on Disaster Planning and Recovery for Libraries, written by Joseph Anderson

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina WebJunction has assembled a collection of resources to help your library prepare for and respond to disasters...

Love Your Library with holiday shopping at Barnes & Noble December 2nd & 3rd!

Find out about a new promotion to support iCONN and local libraries in Connecticut...

Using Wikis to Create Online Communities, by Meredith Farkas, from WebJunction

Wikis open up new possibilities for collaboration between you and your patrons. Blogger and WJ guest editor Meredith Farkas tells why wikis should matter to you and your library...

OCLC Top 1000

OCLC Research has updated its list of the top 1000 titles owned by member libraries—the intellectual works that have been judged to be worth owning by the "purchase vote" of libraries around the globe ...

The Future of Libraries : Beginning the Great Transformation, by Thomas Frey, Executive Director of the DaVinci Institute

... We have transitioned from a time where information was scarce and precious to today where information is vast and readily available, and in many cases, free ...

Keeping Up and Staying Sane: Online Current Awareness

Taught by Rita Vine, Canada's best-known Internet search trainer. She is the co-founder of Workingfaster.com, which helps professionals break through the clutter of the Internet and access information that matters ...

LJ Talks to Terry Belanger [Founder of the Rare Book School (RBS) & winner of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award for his work] | October 11, 2005

Read the Q & A ...

Web enjoys year of biggest growth

The web has grown more in 2005 than it did at the height of the dotcom boom, says a study ... from the BBC NEWS ... from Monday, 10 October 2005 ...

October 17, 2005

ACRL announces the debut of its new weblog, ACRLog

CHICAGO - The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) is pleased to announce the debut of its new weblog, ACRLog.

The ACRLog aims to discuss the issues of the day in the field of academic and research librarianship. It will strive to get you thinking about what you do, why you do it, and how it fits into this enterprise we call higher education. The team of bloggers will stimulate thinking about the professional issues that impact you, your library, your user community, and academic librarianship. The blog also will offer conference reports and news items.

ACRLog bloggers are no strangers to voicing their opinions, tackling controversial issues, and writing about the value academic and research librarians bring to their communities. In short, they are people passionate about the profession. The team approach ensures coverage of the issues from a diversified set of perspectives.

The new blog can be found at http://www.acrlblog.org. Unlike many blogs, ACRLog invites contributions from those interested in academic and research librarianship. Guest commentaries, contributed conference reports, perspectives from ACRL chapters, and opinions about the latest trends and issues can all be shared within this blogspace.

ACRLog was created as a response to an article by Scott McLemee, "Silence in the Stacks," published last June in Inside HigherEd. McLemee wondered why there was no single blog geared to the interests of academic librarians that explored what he called "the issues of the day." The ACRL Board decided to fill the void, and ACRLog was born.

ACRL is a division of the American Library Association (ALA), representing more than 13,000 academic and research librarians and interested individuals. ACRL is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products and services to meet the unique needs of academic and research librarians. Its initiatives enable the higher education community to understand the role that academic libraries play in the teaching, learning and research environments.

This Just In! ALA to hold 2006 Annual Conference in New Orleans

The following statement has been issued by ALA President Michael Gorman: I am pleased to announce that we are planning to hold our 2006 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans...

Successful Reference Interview Strategies : An Electronic Learning Opportunity

Live Webcast offered: Successful Reference Interview Strategies: At the Desk, Chat Reference, or on the Phone
When: November 17, 2005, 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. EST ... Click to learn how to register ...

ALA | Your Research Coach

A Project to promote research by college librarians sponsored by the Research for College Librarianship Committee
College Libraries Section of ACRL ...

Adventures in Pop Culture, by Sophie Brookover

All my life, I have been an information sponge. Tell me an obscure fact once, and it's sealed in my brain for all time ... from Library Journal

I Propose a Standards Solution, by Priscilla Caplan

... While others are looking at the problem and trying to come up with a solution, I want to start with a solution and see if it fits: I propose a library standards organization ... from Library Journal

LJ - Librarian of the Year Nomination Guidelines & Deadline

The LJ editors are seeking nominations for the 17th annual Library Journal Librarian of the Year Award to honor a professional librarian for outstanding achievement and accomplishments reflecting the loftiest service goals of the library profession. These include ...

LJ Talks To the Feel-good Librarian

“There are a lot of library blogs out there. I hope mine isn’t like any of them,” the Feel-good Librarian wrote in February 2005 in an introductory post to her new blog. “At the library, a piece of that world walks up to my desk every day. That’s what this blog is about.” Blogging anonymously from a library somewhere in middle America ...

Rare Book Preservationist Wins MacArthur Prize

Terry Belanger, founder of the Rare Book School (RBS) now housed at the University of Virginia, has been named a 2005 MacArthur Fellow, one of 25 winners of the so-called "genius" award that provides $500,000 in unrestricted grants over five years. Belanger, 64, also holds the title of university professor and honorary curator of special collections at UVA...

Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005, from Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox

Jakob Nielson, a software engineer and consultant who authors the Web usability e-column Alertbox, asked his readers to nominate the usability problems they found most irritating. The top ten were ...

ALA Midwinter Meeting, San Antonio TX, January 2006

Early-bird registration will open on September 1, 2005, and registration materials will be available online ...

ALA | Hurricane Katrina Report: Affected Libraries | August 31, 2005

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina’s August 29 landfall on the Gulf Coast, the fate of many of the region’s libraries is still uncertain. American Libraries will post news of any library-related damage on an ongoing basis as we learn of it. Watch this site for updates...

Best-selling Authors Auctioning Character Naming Rights

A handful of best-selling authors are giving fans a unique opportunity to name a character in an upcoming work. Stephen King, Amy Tan, Lemony Snicket, Nora Roberts ... from LJ, August 24, 2005 ...

Welcome to the Next Generation of the CONNector!