Professional Development Advisory Committee

Friday, May 21, 2010

ARC Professional Development Committee Annual Report 2010

The ARC Professional Development Committee welcomed two new members this year: Holly Howes (Clark University) and Laura O'Neil (College of the Holy Cross). Returning members were: Linda Oldach (MWCC), Lynne Riley (WPI), Janice Wilbur (Assumption), Margaret Cardello (CMRLS) and Debbie Bockus (WPI and Chair of Committee).

The committee met twice at WPI and had many email discussions concerning this year's activities. The first meeting, held in October 2009, was a review of the organizational membership, officers, charges, meetings and communication rules set by ARC. Laura volunteered to be the Vice-Chair of the committee, therefore, she will become the Chair for the upcoming year.

This year's charge from the Executive Board was to organize the annual conference, with a focus on emerging technologies, and investigate potential technologies for providing remote, web-based access to ARC programs. While the first charge was completed, the second was not. The committee plans on continuing that portion of the charge for the new academic year.

Planning for the conference included an email to all ARC SIGs for their input on possible topics. The only SIG that responded was the Archives/Special Collections SIG. The committee was contacted by Mott Linn on their behalf to discuss the assistance of the Professional Development Committee in planning a workshop on disaster planning. It was determined that the Archives SIG would plan and organize the workshop as it was a specialized topic.

A survey was sent out to all ARC list members for input on topics of interest for the annual conference. The results of that survey are as follows:

1 2 3

Blogs: developing and utilizing 17 18 21

Mobile technology: texting,
searching, e-readers, etc. 24 22 10

Outreach and support for
distance students 15 16 25


Shortly after the results of the survey were available, Pingsheng Chen from Worcester Public Library contacted the committee to see if there was an interest in co-presenting with them on a national web conference: "The Handheld Librarian Online Conference II". Ping attended the committee's January meeting to discuss the possibility of co-sponsoring this conference. The topic was an excellent match for our survey results, as was the timing in February. The three keynote speakers were Joan K. Lippincott (Coalition for Networked Information) who spoke on "Mobilizing Libraries for Today's Student's", Joe Murphy (Yale University) who spoke on "This is Now: The Mobile Library" and Tom Peters (TAP Information Services) who spoke on "Morphing with Mobile". The committee sent a proposal to the ARC Executive Board, which was approved. ARC paid the $100 registration fee and supplied drinks. WPL provided the space and equipment. Attendees had the option of pre-ordering a box lunch at a cost of $10.00. The conference was held at WPL on February 17 & 18. Approximately 25 people attended and felt it was a very enjoyable, informative program. Feedback from attendees included:

  • opportunity to learn what other libraries are doing in relation to mobile technologies
  • information on future trends
  • good brainstorming sessions
  • appreciated the chance to be part of a national webinar
  • local event meant reduced travel expenses so that this was an affordable, professional experience.

Respectfully submitted,

Debbie Bockus

Chair, ARC Professional Development Committee

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