A week ago I was fortunate to attend the 2013 Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) conference in Indianapolis.  This particular national conference only occurs every other year, and therefore it naturally builds up a great deal of anticipation and excitement in those in the profession whose career and research interests align with academic librarianship (like me!).

It was great to run into and spend time with many of my past co-workers and library school friends.  Although my official purpose for attending the ACRL conference this year was to run the UW-Milwaukee School of Information Studies exhibit booth, I was able to find plenty of time to catch up with old colleagues, attend a few sessions, and most importantly, network.

There were some fantastic keynotes, and this year, I planned my travel arrangements so that I could stay for all of them.  As always, there were plenty of teaching and learning sessions, which I personally think is fantastic since reference and information literacy have always been my areas, but I can see why it would be frustrating for those not drawn toward those specialties.  It is interesting that librarians put so much emphasis in this area since studies show time and time again that faculty and students value the “stuff ” that libraries provide access to more than the services that librarians provide.  Perhaps this is part of our problem in trying to market ourselves and our value as a profession.

Brian Matthews, author of the Ubiquitous Librarian blog, who had been a keynote speaker at the Wisconsin Association of Academic Librarians (WAAL) 2009 conference in Green Lake, WI, was also a presenter at this year’s ACRL conference.  This time, his talk was on “The Art of Problem Discovery” based off a longer paper which can be found here:  http://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/19308.  Interestingly, when he spoke for us in Wisconsin, he was leaving Georgia Tech for UC Santa Barbara, and now, in 2013, appears to be at Virginia Tech.  Hmmmm…. maybe he needs to be interviewed for a career advancement blog for up & coming librarians…

MOOCs came up here and there.  Some academic librarians are searching for ways to bring librarians into the fold.  I think it’s an interesting new frontier and argue that the library should play an integral role in the planning of such new initiatives early in the conversation.  Nothing was brought up about flex degrees in the circles I ran in nor the sessions I attended, though not many were still in Wisconsin.

The most valuable session I attended was actually upon special invitation only for exhibit hall vendors.  It was a presentation of the ACRL 2013 Environmental Scan, and was given by some major figures such as the president of ACRL, Steven Bell, and Executive Director, Mary Ellen Davis.  I will be writing at least one, if not several additional blog posts about this important new document, but here is an explanation of the intent and scope of the document:

“The 2013 environmental scan of academic libraries is the product of a two-year effort by ACRL’s Research Planning and Review Committee…  The document is a scan of the
environment and is not intended to be an exhaustive examination of every aspect of librarianship.  It identifies current and emerging factors that impact academic libraries; describes the broader context in which these libraries operate; and outlines related implications for library resources,
services, and personnel.  It is intended to support the planning and positioning of academic libraries for the future.”

As I said above, stay tuned for more on this document.  In the meantime, I thought I’d mention that I approached ACRL President, Steven Bell after the presentation to introduce myself and inquire whether ACRL would be making a formal statement addressing ALA President, Maureen Sullivan’s recent controversial declaration in The Chronicle that Academic Librarians should not have faculty status or be subjected to the tenure process.  I’ll write another blog post about this too, after the WAAL board meeting at next week’s conference.  But it is interesting to me that Steven Bell seemed to me to be arguing that ACRL should not have to make a formal statement in response, but rather that individual librarians should be out in the blogosphere and other public places building up their own cases.  He was basically arguing that many voices will be stronger than one.  I personally found it very disappointing that this very current issue was not formally addressed at all, what with it being so timely that the article was released just before our bi-annual conference.  I’m sure more will develop with this soon, but for now, I find the whole thing frustrating.

I just want to sum things up in this post by reiterating how exciting this conference was and what a good time I had interacting with so many good people with similar interests to my own.  I left feeling intellectually over-stimulated and physically exhausted, but I truly believe that is the sign of a good conference.  Now that I’ve had a week to recover, I am already looking forward to the next one in Portland, Oregon in 2015!  I think it will be really interesting to see how the profession of academic librarianship and higher ed in general will change in those two short years.  How will things have shaken out with the MOOC phenomenon?  How will the Wisconsin flex degree have developed?  What will be the professional status of academic librarians?   What will be the latest trends and issues in academic libraries?  What will library schools be teaching new librarians?  Only time will tell 🙂