Please take a moment to think about what it means to be a "voluntary" organization. FLA and FACRL, ALA, SLA, PLA (pardon my acronyms) are all, more or less, dependent on volunteers to accomplish their mission. It's amazing to me that these professional organizations can identify critical issues and trends, disseminate and communicate, teach, motivate, lead, and inspire based on rewards other than salary!

You are the people who make this happen. Is it because you care so much about libraries? Do you want to make a difference or a special contribution? Do you want to be in charge of something or have an opportunity to be creative? Whatever your reason, we need you. FACRL, the Academic section of FLA, is looking for interested members to serve on the Board. We sincerely wish to be diverse in representing all geographic areas, types of libraries, ages, genders, and ethnic constituencies.

These are some concepts from the FACRL bylaws to give you an idea of what we do.

• provide opportunities for professional growth and communication among academic librarians
• include all types of academic librarians - private and public, community college, university, comprehensive and research
• enhance library service
• foster research, promote development of appropriate standards, disseminate information, and provide a forum for discussion of common problems

If you are interested in helping us with these tasks please contact me, ckisby@mail.ucf.edu.

New Board Members

After the business meeting on April 13, 2005 the new president will be Andrew Pearson. Andrew is the Director of the Roux Library at Florida Southern College in Lakeland. Andrew was a previous Board member who has returned as an officer.

Michelle Apps joins the Board this year as a new member. She is currently the Collection Development Librarian at University/College Library, Broward Community College.

Fall Program

It's a little early but we have to plan ahead for our annual full-day meeting. We anticipate that it will be in Orlando, in October, and the topic we are working on is Web design, usability, and related issues.

See you in Jacksonville.

Cynthia Kisby, FACRL President
Personnel Librarian, University of Central Florida Libraries

Last updated March 22, 2005