ASA Collaborates with Sociology Librarians

Students’ information skills and literacy are focus of collaboration

by Carla B. Howery, Former ASA Deputy Executive Officer

In June 2006, the American Library Association (ALA) held its convention, as planned, in New Orleans. More than 20,000 librarians attended the sessions in the newly redone convention center, taking in the slow pace of repair and reconstruction in the city as a whole. With an organization the size of ALA, the program is divided among other affiliated organizations and sections. The Association of College Research Libraries (ACRL) is one such collaborating organization that serves the needs of librarians in higher education. Within that association, there is a section of Anthropology and Sociology librarians (ANSS).

The ANSS librarians, many of whom have significant training in sociology and anthropology as well as library degrees, were working intensively on an information literacy project. Their goal was to identify skills that students majoring in these fields should have as part of their professional preparation. They asked Edward L. Kain, Southwestern University, and Carla B. Howery, then-Director of ASA’s Academic and Professional Affairs Program, to attend their workshops and business meetings in New Orleans and to critique their work thus far.

Guidelines

Kain and Howery provided feedback and shared the working document with many other sociologists including members of the ASA Department Resources Group (DRG), the network of consultants on teaching and curriculum. In August 2006, ANSS Instruction and Information Literacy Committee Chair Triveni Kuchi (Rutgers University) made a presentation to the ASA Council and shared the information literacy guidelines. The Council approved the guidelines, which are on the ASA website for departments to consider. Departments may be especially interested in how these guidelines relate to their own program reviews or assessment measures (see November 2006 Footnotes, "ASA Collaborates with Sociology Librarians").

This information literacy project was so fruitful that it stimulated a number of ideas for future collaborations. On June 22, about 40 members of ANSS came to the ASA Executive Office for a tour, a meeting, and a reception, while in Washington, DC, for the 2007 ALA national meeting. William Davis, Executive Director of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), and Sally T. Hillsman, ASA Executive Officer, attended the meeting along with other ASA staff. The conversations were wide-ranging, and included the implications of electronic publications, various indexing systems for social science journals, how to help students access digital library materials, libraries’ role as dataset repositories, and how decisions are made about library acquisitions and collections. The latter topic is particularly important because program reviews of departments often include an “audit” of library holdings and their adequacy for student and faculty research.

Future Relations

One outcome of this meeting was the establishment of a liaisonship between ANSS, the ASA, and the AAA. These liaisons will enhance the regular communication between the associations including possible future projects, meetings, and newsletter stories. The ANSS will also include information on its website about relevant activities of ASA and AAA.