Thank you to everyone who attended the meeting | Council of Chief Librarians

Hello,

Thank you to everyone who attended the CCL Library Deans & Director’s meeting on March 6-7, 2014. We had many insightful speakers ranging from topic of “If Libraries Are So Essential for Student Learning and Student Success, Then Why Doesn’t Anyone Outside Libraries Know It?” to “What is the future of work? What skills are needed by employee? What is the future of education?”. These presentations were supplemented by presentations on the CCL Strategic Plan, ACCJC Update, and Chancellor’s Office reports. Most of the speaker’s PowerPoint presentations are available on the CCL website, http://www.cclccc.org/

We received word from Dean LaBaron Woodyard that the much anticipated California Community College Student Library & Technology Engagement Survey will be administered via the Chancellor’s Office in Spring 2014. This survey is the direct outcome of a CCL pilot survey conducted in 2011, in which, five Colleges volunteered to trial the survey. The final report of the pilot survey is available at http://tinyurl.com/oey7mow .

As a follow-up to the CCL Library Leaders Meeting on March 6-7, 2014, we committed to providing the community a toolkit of resources to assist in building a response to ACCJC regarding the Standard revisions. Information regarding CCL responses and recommendations to ACCJC and the PowerPoint slides from the CCL Library Leaders meeting can be view on our website http://www.cclccc.org/resources.html.

There are three major avenues for feedback to ACCJC

• Institutional: This is the most powerful means of altering the revised Standards. The comment form asks “College affiliation or name of other organization you are representing”. It is critical that we work with our College Academic Senates, Accreditation Liaison Officer, and Vice-president’s to ensure our recommendations are included in the institutional response to ACCJC.

• College: Your College’s Accreditation Liaison Officer and/or Vice-President of Instruction would be the typical conduit for this feedback. ACCJC specifically asks for institutions to give feedback. As stated on the ACCJC website and “We request that you publicize the information in this memo to your institution” and “College affiliation or name of other organization you are representing”.

• Academic Senates: You can leverage the Resolution passed at the Fall 2013 State Academic Senate Plenary as a catalyst for a local Academic Senate Resolution endorsing the language and directing this be included in the institutions (College) feedback to ACCJC. Full-text of the State Academic Senate Resolution is at http://www.asccc.org/fall2013/resolutions. This could be used at the local college level to facilitate Academic Senates to pass resolutions regarding the Standard revisions and provide responses directly to ACCJC.

• Constituent Group: The CCL official response is at http://tinyurl.com/q7qqc6l and will be submitted to ACCJC in late March. Copies will be shared with the Chief Instructional Officer’s Executive Board and other connected groups.

• Individual: Individual librarians are encouraged to submit the feedback form or make comments at any of the public hearings. You can use any of the resources mentioned to craft an individual response or simply use the CCL document as a template.

• The locations of the public hearings are:

Monday, April 28, 2014 Sylmar, California

Wednesday, April 30, 2014 Sacramento, California

It is important to have a presence at these meetings. There will be CCL Board member(s) at each of these meetings. However, it will be powerful to have individuals attend and speak as individuals, or as representatives of a college segment, i.e., department or Senate.

In a nutshell, our proposal strengthens the intent of the commission by adding that information competency is a goal within all courses, degree and certificate programs. Additionally, the library plays a key role in providing instruction on information literacy and research skills. The recommendation sharpens the standard's focus on the library and its instructional role and the vital connection of collaboration among faculty, library faculty, and administrators in curriculum development as it relates to information literacy and critical thinking.

We were dismayed to read that none of our input was incorporated into the draft revision.

Furthermore, the ACCJC draft Standards weaken, to the detriment of student learning, the criteria used in the 2002 Standards in regard to information literacy and access to library materials and services regardless of location or means of delivery by placing the standards now in that section IIC under Standard IIB (Student Services). This eliminates the unique significance of library and learning support services being comprised of both instructional and student service elements. It is critical to retain Library and Learning Support Services as an independent sub-standard.

This is a busy time and I appreciate everyone’s hard work and dedication on making the library community stronger, ensuring our voices are heard, and emphasizing our focus on student success, critical thinking, and literacy.

Best regards,

Tim