The October 1999 Pack Forest conference was the 20th annual joint Oregon/ Washington State ACRL fall conference, and to celebrate we are providing a look back at the history of the Washington State Chapter. The first part of the history covered the early years of the chapter from its establishment in 1980 through the 3rd National ACRL Conference held in Seattle in April 1984. Compiled by Cynthia Fugate from newsletters and archival records it appeared in the March 1992 (no.30) issue of the ACRL Washington Chapter Newsletter and was reprinted in the May 1999 (no.44) issue. Part II was compiled by Cynthia Fugate and Gary Menges and was published in the September 1999 (no.45) Newsletter. Much of Part II was reprinted from the March 1992 (no.30) issue. Part III brings the history to the end of the 20th century and was written by Gary Menges.

Washington State Chapter, ACRL, 1990-2000

Leadership, communication, continuing education, cooperation, and membership were all themes in the 1990's. Perhaps as a sign of the Chapter's growth, in 1993 Chapter Archives were established at the University of Washington to house the Chapter's records.

Leadership

The success of the Chapter in the past decade has largely been due to the commitment of its members who contributed their time as officers, newsletter editors and liaisons, and members of chapter committees.

During the Chapter's 20 years, 53 individuals from 23 different institutions have served in leadership positions. The following served as Chapter Presidents from 1990 to 2000:

1990/91:     Diane Parker, Western Washington University 
1991/92:     Barbara Fulsaas, Spokane Falls Community College 
1992/93:     Timothy Jewell, University of Washington, Tacoma 
1993/94:     Gary Lewis, Central Washington University 
1994/95:     Lori Ricigliano, University of Puget Sound 
1995/96:     Lori Ricigliano, University of Puget Sound 
1996/97:     Carolyn Gaskell, Walla Walla College 
1997/98:     Karen Oberst, Seattle Pacific University 
1998/99:     Marie Zimmermann, Highline Community College 
1999/00:     Dal Symes, Whatcom Community College 

Communication

Communication remained a Chapter priority in the 1990's. The ACRL Washington Newsletter was published twice a year and included not only Chapter news and announcement of conferences but also news of academic libraries and librarians in Washington State. We are indebted to those who served as Newsletter editors during the 1990's:

1990/1991:    Sue Kopp, Washington State University 
199l-1994:     Linda Fredericks, University of Washington and Tricia Hart, University of Washington, Assistant Editor 
1994-1997:     Janet Chrisman, Washington State University 
1997-1999:     Helene Williams, University of Washington 

The ACRL-NW List became operational on March 15, 1995, providing a new forum for communication. Hosted by Washington State University, the ACRL-NW list is a moderated discussion list for academic librarians in the Northwest. A new Chapter Web site will be released soon. With the Spring 2000 issue, the ACRL Washington Newsletter will become an electronic publication.

Continuing Education

Chapter programs reflected many of the themes of particular interest to academic librarians in the 1990's: diversity, accreditation, distance learning, electronic access and Internet skills, the relationship between public services and technical services, libraries and computing services, TQM, multimedia, outsourcing, fund raising and grant writing, and instructional design and assessment. Appropriately, the theme of the 1999 fall Conference at Pack Forest was "Assessing Where We've Been and Where We're Going: Academic Librarianship at the Turn of the Century." Following the Chapter history is a summary of the programs offered during the past 10 years at the fall conferences and spring meetings.

Cooperation

Cooperation with other groups including Oregon ACRL, College Librarians and Media Specialists of Washington State (CLAMS), Washington Library Association (WLA), and an invitation to British Columbia and Idaho academic librarians to join our meetings was another theme of the decade. The joint Oregon/Washington State ACRL fall conferences are perhaps the outstanding example of cooperation with responsibility for the conference and its location rotating between Oregon and Menucha and Washington and Pack Forest. During the decade ACRL and CLAMS developed closer ties as well with the two groups co-sponsoring with the Library and Media Directors Council (LMDC) a series of workshops on instructional design and assessment in 1998-2000. Community college librarians were also active in leadership positions in ACRL in the 1990's.

With WLA Academic and Research Libraries Interest Group (AARL), the Chapter co-sponsored several preconference workshops at the WLA annual conference. During the first half of the decade, the Chapter developed annual lists of legislative concerns of its members for the Washington State Legislature. Priorities included such concerns as intellectual freedom, funding for interlibrary loan and library materials budgets, and librarian salaries.

For several years an ACRL member served as a member of the WLA Legislative Planning Committee. The Chapter Bylaws were amended to designate that "the vice-president/president-elect elected every third year will serve a three year term as the chapter respresentative" to the WLA committee. However, the minutes of the October 27, 1997 ACRL Board meeting state that "WLA has restructured their Legislative Committee and will no longer be asking for an official representative from ACRL."

Cooperation, including affliate or reciprocal memberships, between ACRL and WLA was discussed throughout the decade. In 1990 ACRL invited AARL to write a column for the ACRL Newsletter and the WLA Board invited ACRL members to register for the 1991 WLA conference at the same price as WLA members. In October 1993, the Chapter Board appointed a task force to consider ACRL's relationship with WLA. The task force recommended that ACRL remain an independent organization and that WLA consider establishing a lower-cost affiliate membership to encourage the participation of academic librarians in WLA. The proposal was discussed by the WLA Executive Board but apparently no action was taken.

A national ACRL Chapter Relations Task Force appointed in 1996 made many recommendations, but the one eliciting the most discussion among independent chapters, including Washington State, was a recommendation "that existing chapters incorporate or become a part of an incorporated state association by the year 2000." This shifted the discussion of cooperation with WLA to whether or not the Chapter should incorporate independently or with CLAMS, affiliate with WLA, or disband, with the assumption that WLA would then request chapter status. Affiliation with WLA apparently would require incorporation. If the Chapter disbanded, chapter status for a WLA academic interest group could be requested by 25 WLA members who are also members of ACRL National. After discussion at Board and Chapter meetings and on the ACRL-NW listserv, the Board voted at its March 20, 2000 meeting to recommend to the membership that the Chapter incorporate.

Membership

The Chapter Bylaws state that "all members of the Association of College and Research Libraries of the American Library Association residing in Washington State are automatically Chapter members. Any person interested in academic and research libraries and librarianship may became a member by paying Chapter dues." In 1999 there were 194 ACRL national members in Washington, but many were not dues-paying members of the Chapter. Encouraging more national members to pay chapter dues was a subject of ongoing discussion during the decade. Most recently the option of paying for multi-year memberships has been offered.

Chapter dues are $5.00 for national ACRL members and $10.00 for non-ACRL national members and have remained unchanged since the Chapter was established in 1980. In addition, the Chapter receives an allocation (currently $.75) for each national ACRL member in the state. The Pack Forest conferences are largely self-supporting. The $90 registration fee for the conference, three meals, a party, and a night's (shared) lodging remains a bargain for a professional conference. Even with these modest dues and conference registration fees, the Chapter's finances have been healthy, with the balance in the treasury doubling during the decade.

The Year Ahead

The Chapter's 20th anniversary is in May 2000. The Spring 2000 issue of the Newsletter will be the first in electronic format. This spring the first Chapter Web page will be released and the membership will vote on incorporation. The last in the series of CLAMS/ACRL/LMDC co-sponsored workshops, "Librarian as Educator," will take place on May 11-12 at Bellevue Community College. At the latter meeting, CLAMS will discuss its future. The fall Conference will be at Menucha, October 26-27, 2000. Planning has already begun for the fall 2001 Conference at Pack Forest. Charles Lord, UW Tacoma, will serve as President in 2000-2001.

ACRL Programs, 1990-1999

1990/91 

"Diversity: Why We Should Care, What We Can Do," was the theme of the October conference in Menucha. Anne Beaubien, National ACRL President-Elect, opened the meeting and was followed by presentations by Vivian Sykes, Multicultural Librarian, UC, Santa Cruz and Jan Kido, Faculty, General Education and Public Services, Hawaii Community College. The spring meeting was a joint meeting with WLA/AARL on the
librarian and academic planning with Alice Jacobson and Barbara Swanson from the Portland Community College as speakers.

199l/92 

Barbara Fulsaas, Spokane Community College, served as President in 1991/92. Seventy-four librarians participated in the fall conference at Pack Forest with presentations on accreditation, distance learning, and electronic access issues. Keynote speaker was Robert Bowlin of the Northwest Accrediting Association who gave an overview of the accrediting process and current trends. ACRL, AARL, and CLAMS sponsored a preconference at the joint WLA/OLA conference on April 8, 1992 called "Merging Lines - Technical Services, Public Services and the Online Catalog." Consultant Anne Lipow was the featured speaker.

1992/93 

The fall conference, "Who's Minding the Store," was held at Menucha and focused on the relationship between libraries and computing services. Cynthia Gozzi, Director of Technical Services, Stanford University, was the keynote speaker. There was no spring program meeting but members were encouraged to participate in Technofair held in Tacoma in May.

1993/94 

Total Quality Management was the theme of the fall conference at Pack Forest. Although a report on the meeting was not published in the newsletter, President Gary Lewis, Central Washington University, wrote in his President's Message in the June 1994 Newsletter," At the very least, one could say that some participants had strong feelings on the subject." The spring meeting was held with WLA in Yakima with ACRL National President Tom Kirk as keynoter. The "Ultimate Scavenger Hunt" focused on Internet skills and was supported in part by a $450 continuing education grant from the Washington State Library to the ACRL Chapter.

1994/95 

In 1994, the Oregon Chapter developed an ambitious fall conference at Menucha called "The Global Electronic Village: Urban Sprawl or Planned Community," featuring eight speakers. There was no spring Washington State Chapter workshop.

1995/96 

The theme of the fall conference at Pack Forest was "Thriving in a Dynamic Environment--Moving Beyond Survival." ACRL Executive Director Althea Jenkins was the keynote speaker. The spring program, an all-day workshop at the WLA Annual Conference in Bellevue, was entitled, "How to Teach the Internet: A Workshop for Trainers." Instructors were Anne Lipow and John Ober, authors of "Crossing the Internet Threshold."

1996/97 

The 1996 fall conference, "Multimedia in Academia and Libraries: The New Challenges" was in Menucha. It explored "the use of multimedia in higher education and the role that librarians play." The spring meeting, another preconference at WLA, was "Outsourcing: Solution, Sell-Out, or Something In-Between."

1997/98 

1997 found the Oregon and Washington Chapters back at Pack Forest for a joint conference called "Tightening Our Belts While Broadening Our Appeal." The conference highlighted "strategies for building support in an era of constrained resources." Topics addressed were fundraising and grant-writing resources, working with development officers, consortia, and
building support on campus.

ACRL co-sponsored a series of workshops on instructional design and assessment with CLAMS and LMDC beginning in 1998. The series was called "The Librarian as Educator." The first workshop was held in Spokane, April 30-May 1, 1998. A second one was held November 5-6, 1998 at Centralia College.

1998/99 

The Menchua conference was entitled "Librarians for the New Millennium." A third workshop in the "Librarian as Educator" series, was entitled "Effective Teaching+Effective Learning, and was held May 20-21 at Central Washington University.

1999/2000 

The theme of the 20th annual fall conference held at Pack Forest, October 28-29, 1999 was "Assessing Where We've Been and Where We're Going: Academic Librarianship at the Turn of the Century." Speakers on the first day were Larry Hardesty, ACRL President, and Michael Eisenberg, Director, School of Library and Information Science, University of Washington, with Betsy Wilson, ACRL President-Elect as Moderator. Michael Herbison, Director, University of Nebraska at Kearny, and Bonnie Allen, University of Oregon spoke on "Assessment and Accreditation: A Conversaation Across the Table" on the second day.

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