Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship	Summer 1999

Conference Reports

Initiative Fund Report: Partnering with the American Society for Engineering Education, Engineering Libraries Division

Barton Lessin
Assistant Dean and Director
Science and Engineering Library
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI
b.lessin@wayne.edu

As a representative of the ACRL Science and Technology Section (STS), Barton Lessin attended the Executive Committee meeting of the American Society for Engineering Education, Engineering Libraries Division (ASEE ELD) at the ASEE Annual Conference held in Charlotte North Carolina in June, 1999. The purpose was to explore possible areas of partnering between STS and ELD. On June 28 at the 1999 ALA Annual Conference the STS Council met to consider the list of potential areas for cooperation generated during the ASEE ELD Executive Committee session.

Following an explanation of the intent of each of the items on the ELD list offered to the group by Mel DeSart, the ASEE liaison to the STS meeting, the members of the STS Council proceeded to identify a small number of projects that best fit the needs of the STS membership. Fortunately, in doing this it was quickly clear that there is a good deal of interest in concepts considered by both groups to be high priority.

The STS Council identified six items from the list for possible collaboration. In most cases we were able also to name a part of the STS organization that could serve as the lead for this collaboration. The list that follows uses the same numbering system that was used during the ELD meeting on June 22, 1999.

#1 Recruitment. This will be referred to the STS Comparative Statistics committee to begin and to the Membership and Continuing Education Committee if pursued jointly. The focus of this collaboration will be on the successful recruitment of science and engineering librarians.

#2 Center for Research Libraries project. This will be referred to the STS Subject and Bibliographic Access Committee if pursued jointly. The focus of this project will be to identify and suggest appropriate titles to CRL to add to their project.

#4 Comparative statistics. This will be referred to the STS Comparative Statistics Committee if pursued jointly. Both the ELD and the STS send surveys to libraries. The intention of this project will be to coordinate those efforts and to get a larger number of institutions to contribute data.

#12 Newsletter communication liaison. This will be referred to the STS Publications Committee if pursued jointly.

#16 Virtual committee members. This may happen naturally if other projects are pursued jointly by STS and ELD.

#19 Information literacy. This potential area for collaboration represents the only item on the list where there is no existing segment of the STS organization that is a match for the expected focus of this project. We understand that this situation is also the case for the ELD. The project focus will be developing outcomes-based standards for people in the sciences and engineering that are compatible with other ACRL standards.

The above list has been sent back to ASEE ELD for further discussions intended to lead us to a mutually agreed upon list for action.

The STS Council remains strongly interested in collaboration with the ASEE ELD. The Council looks forward to future correspondence from the ELD Executive Committee with the hope that we will find project areas that serve the interests of both the ASEE ELD and the ACRL memberships.

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