ILLINOIS ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES

Welcome!

Thank you for visiting the the Illinois Association of College and Research Libraries website.

- The 2008-2009 IACRL Officers and Committee Chairs are listed on the Committees link. Feel free to contact the officers with any concerns or suggestions.

- If you aren’t already on the IACRL listserv, please subscribe now to keep up with all the latest news and exchange ideas with your colleagues. To subscribe, click on the "Mailing Lists" link.

Upcoming Conferences

A Message from the President:

I would like to extend my greetings and best wishes to the IACRL membership as we begin this new academic year! Past presidents of our organization have been known to focus attention on a central theme or project over the course of their term. During 2008-2009, I have chosen to highlight the importance of library professional development at the individual, institutional and collective levels. There are many facets of effective professional development within academic librarianship including the creation and presentation of current, beneficial educational content, general resource availability and personal initiative.

To content creators, writers and speakers, I encourage you to develop workshops, presentations and curricula that inform and challenge your audiences. Go the extra mile as you help people with different learning styles to get the most from your sessions. Be willing to try new approaches and apply new technologies, while refusing to allow them to overwhelm the message you're working so hard to communicate. Beyond sharing mere information and the latest trends, take the time to reflect on the content you present and be willing to share your insight, experience and wisdom.

In an extremely difficult and challenging budgetary environment, I encourage administrators and supervisors at all levels to re-commit themselves toward enhancing professional development within their institutions. Besides the much appreciated work of "holding the line" and fighting for library dollars, look for and champion pathways that help employees improve their education, grow in their profession, gain new skills and develop leadership capabilities. Make the people in your organization aware of new and existing opportunities and actively encourage their pursuit. You may feel that you've accomplished this in the past, but new people (and "old" people with new situations) are continually changing the institutional dynamic. Your attitude, personal encouragement and the 'opportunities for success' that you create can knock down barriers and make a real difference for the people around you.

To each individual, I encourage you to assess (and re-assess) how you pursue your own professional development. Take time to consider and evaluate your skill set. Note the professional aspects that could be updated or enhanced. Prioritize the areas that need special attention. Look for concrete, targeted ways to address and "shore up" these specific areas. Be proactive in seeking out campus workshops, webinars, regional library system offerings and other opportunities that may be close by and inexpensive. Whenever you feel yourself automatically gravitating toward a topical session at a general conference, step back and carefully consider what other sessions are available. Challenge yourself to try something new, expand your comfort zone and explore a subject where you may have more to learn. Don't worry — the "safe" sessions that fit neatly into your conference routine are always easy to find.

Over the coming year, I encourage you to visit the IACRL website (http://iacrl.net), where we will begin listing library professional development opportunities at the state, regional and national levels. You are invited to submit conference dates, grant and funding resources, service opportunities and other ideas! It is my hope that the establishment of this new resource will provide an ongoing service for the membership and help us all to work toward the development of our profession, our institutions and ourselves. Have a great and productive year!

Best Regards, Hunt Dunlap IACRL President, 2008-09

The IACRL Web site is produced and maintained by the IACRL Publications Committee. This page was last updated on November 24, 2008