CRD 2015: A recap

In 2015, the CRD maintained a strong presence in the academic library community and provided numerous professional development and networking opportunities for PA librarians. In case you missed out, here is a brief summary of the CRD’s involvement in 2015:

PaLRaP – The CRD’s open access journal, Pennsylvania Libraries Research and Practice (PaLRaP) had two issues published, one in spring and one in fall. All issues of the journal can be viewed on the Archives page of palrap.org.

Connect & Communicate – The CRD’s free webinar series, Connect & Communicate, hosted six virtual sessions covering a variety of topics including library security, the ACRL framework for information literacy, interactive technology tools, and using elevator speeches and PA Forward for academic libraries.

LSTA funds – The CRD used LSTA funds to support several programs including regional meetings, PaLA chapter workshops, and PA Forward initiatives. For more information, visit the LSTA page.

CRD Spring Workshop – The annual CRD Spring Workshop entitled, “The Times They Are A-Changin’…Again: Exploring the New Roles of Libraries in Higher Education,” was held on May 29, 2015 at Milllersville University. Speakers included Melissa Bowles-Terry (University of Nevada Las Vegas), Nancy Kranich and Megan Lotts (Rutgers University), and a panel of PA librarians. Approximately 70 people attended. See the blog recap for a full summary or view the Past Events page to view the original workshop flyer.

PALS Sponsorship – The CRD sponsored two early-career librarians, Melissa Correll (Lycoming) and Elizabeth Kavanaugh (Misericordia) to attend the PA Academy of Leadership Studies (PALS) workshop held annually in June. Melissa and Elizabeth were also welcomed as members-at-large to the 2016 CRD Board.

PaLA Annual Conference and CRD luncheon – At the PaLA Annual Conference, the CRD hosted its annual luncheon with Maria Accardi (Indiana University Southeast) as the featured keynote speaker. Maria spoke about library instruction burnout, which is the focus of her own personal blog, librarianburnout.com. For a summary of her presentation, visit our blog recap or see Accardi’s own blog post at bit.ly/1X3sZj8. In addition, the CRD sponsored ten regular conference sessions.

CRD blog contributors – In 2015, the CRD formed a new blog team of PA academic librarians with a variety of backgrounds and interests (view the full list of contributors on the About page). Our bloggers play a large role in keeping the PaLA community up-to-date on current trends in technology, instruction, management, and outreach in academic libraries. The CRD will be looking for several new bloggers in 2016, so if you’re interested in contributing, stay tuned at crdpala.org for announcements!

Division membership – As of 2016, there are 238 registered members of the CRD, thirty-eight of which are new personal regular members.

For more information on all of the CRD’s initiatives, visit the Get Involved page and subscribe to crdpala.org for all of the latest news and commentary from the PA academic library community. We look forward to meeting new members and providing even more opportunities for involvement in 2016!