Happy New Year!

As we begin a new year, I’d like to thank the members of the 2011 Board for facilitating my job as Chair, especially Linda Neyer for stepping up when needed. It was a very busy and productive year.

On March 1, we launched this Blog/Website, It’s Academic <crdpala.org>, to which Board members have been posting regularly on topics of interest to academic librarians and our readership is growing.

For 2010-2011, CRD received a $22,000 Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant in support of professional development opportunities for academic librarians in PA from the State Library, which supported the following:

1. CRD sessions at the 2010 PaLA Conference.

2. The CRD Annual Spring Workshop, “Higher Ed Assessment: How do libraries measure up?” held on Tuesday, May 17, 2011 featured Megan Oakleaf, author of the recent ACRL publication: The Value of Academic Libraries: A Comprehensive Research Review and Report.

3. Programs and workshops offered by 7 PaLA units as well as the ARCL-Delaware Valley Chapter’s fall program; the PA Information Literacy Learning Community’s first-ever face to face meeting; the Tri-State College Library Cooperative’s annual program; “Copyright, Education, and You,” a program at Muhlenberg College by Duke University Attorney and Librarian Kevin Smith; and a program featuring John D. Shank speaking about the capability of digital learning materials at Kutztown University.

CRD sponsored two academic librarians to attend the 2011 PaLA Academy of Leadership Studies–Stephanie Riley, Reference Librarian and Assistant Professor at the Gabriele Library, Immaculata College and Tara Wink, Temporary Special Collections Librarian at the F.H. Green Library, West Chester University.  In collaboration with CRD, several of the academic librarians who attended PALS  developed a survey to ascertain how CRD can increase its value. We are looking for input from both members and non-members of PaLA so I encourage you to please take the time to complete the survey when it is distributed later this month.

Stay tuned for another exciting year in 2012!