Meeting Outcome(s):

I hesitate to refer to this blog posting as the minutes from our last meeting. That sounds entirely too formal—and, frankly, not particularly accurate either. I’d rather refer to what follows as, “The Meeting Outcome(s).” They’ll serve more as a brief synopsis of what was discussed and, more importantly, an outline from which we can evolve and grow our conversation.

Now with that out of the way, I’m very happy to report that CJARL convened last week for the first meeting of the Fall semester. Even though we get together right before Halloween almost every year, there was something special about this meeting because it was the first one to occur in a “post-CJRLC” world. In other words, it serves to signify our intent to continue our tradition, leverage our core principles, and grow our ranks.

Our agenda was, er, ambitious, as always. But we’re a discussion group, after all. One of our greatest assets is our ability to foster open and honest discussion, right?

The item on the agenda that was afforded the greatest amount of time and focus pertained to the future of CJARL. Two important items came from that portion of the conversation. First, the meetings should begin incorporating regular opportunities for resource sharing. Bring your toolbox and share what you’re learned and the resources you’ve developed to assist your students and patrons. Also, if you’re preparing a presentation or an article for publication or even if you just want to explore the boundaries of a research question, put it on the table for some good old fashioned peer review. In short, let’s leverage our collective experience. Secondly, the group should begin encouraging attendance from among the ranks of Librarians at 4-year institutions. Over the years, numbers of regular attendees from 4-yerars schools has decreased. It’s vital to keep them engaged in the conversation.

I’ve agreed to continue to serve as Chair until such time that some brave soul chooses to take my place. This will be my third year as Chair, so if anyone has any interest in taking on the duties of Chair, please don’t be shy.

Our next meeting will be in December. The exact date has not yet been set, but it will most likely be on a Friday from 10am-12pm.

Until then....