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Letter of Invitation
We are pleased to invite you and a small team from your institution to
apply to participate in one of three regional workshops on The Transformation
of the College Library. Institutions that are accepted as participants
will receive a travel stipend of up to $1,100. The workshops will focus
on the dramatic changes now occurring in college libraries and are intended
to help small and mid-sized colleges and universities deal successfully
with those changes. The programs will focus on information literacy as
a fundamental element of liberal education and as a powerful instrument
for the transformation of the library and its place in the academic life
of the campus. With this focus, the workshops will address such critical
issues as the role of the library in teaching and learning through collaboration
between librarians and faculty members; the changing use and conception
of the physical space of the library; the challenges of using technology
in improving students' learning; implementing institutional change; and
assessing the institution-wide impact of changes in library services.
Institutions are especially likely to find the workshops beneficial if
they are actively working to strengthen their informational literacy programs,
encouraging faculty members and librarians to work together, and fostering
collaboration between information technology and library staffs. Institutions
considering the construction or renovation of a library building will
also find the workshop useful. A preliminary draft of the full workshop
agenda is attached.
Workshop locations and dates in 2007 are:
Savannah, GA, February 1-3, 2007
Portland, OR, March 1-3, 2007
Cleveland, OH, April 12-14, 2007
The workshops are being organized by the Council of Independent Colleges
and the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education with the
generous financial support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The workshops
are cosponsored by the Association of College and Research Libraries and
the Council on Library and Information Resources. The Appalachian College
Association and the United Negro College Fund have both endorsed the program.
All independent colleges and universities are eligible to apply. Preference
will be given to institutions that have not already attended one of these
workshops in earlier years and that are members of CIC, NITLE, the Appalachian
College Association, and/or the UNCF. The workshops continue CIC’s
highly successful previous workshops, which could not accommodate all
who applied.
Co-directors of the workshop are Scott Bennett, Yale University Librarian
Emeritus; Rita Gulstad, Interim Vice President and Dean of the University
at Central Methodist University; and Thomas Kirk, Library Director and
Coordinator of Information Services at Earlham College.
You may apply to one, two, or all three of the workshops, expressing a
preference among them; we will try to honor your preference in assigning
your institution to one of the workshops, should you be a successful applicant.
Designed for institutional teams, our hope is that each workshop will
assist teams in developing plans for information literacy programs that
they can implement upon returning to their home campus. Each workshop
can accommodate teams from 25 colleges and universities. Each workshop
will begin at approximately 1:00 p.m. on the first day, a Thursday, and
end by noon on the third day, a Saturday. A team attending the workshop
should consist of three persons including the library director, the academic
vice president or provost, and one other person well positioned to influence
faculty thinking about information literacy. We believe having a faculty
person participate in the workshop is likely to pay especially high dividends
for any campus-based activities that follow the workshop, but the particular
circumstances of an individual campus might make it best for the third
team member to be the individual with responsibility for first-year programs,
for a teaching and/or learning center, for faculty professional development
programs, or for information technology.
Applications will be evaluated on the basis of the evidence they present
of the ability of your institutional team to effect change upon returning
home; your institution’s present engagement with information literacy;
your readiness to take appropriate next steps with your information literacy
program; and the likelihood that the experience of your institution will
be valuable to others attending the workshop.
We hope you will apply to participate in the workshops. Each institution
that is accepted to attend a workshop will receive a substantial subsidy
from CIC and NITLE—several meals provided to all conference participants
and up to $1,100 to offset travel and lodging expenses. There is no registration
or tuition fee. Please complete the application
form and return it by July 28, 2006 to Leslie Rogers, CIC
Conference Coordinator, lrogers@cic.nche.edu.
Participants will be notified of acceptance by September 22, 2006.
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