ISSUE NO. 71 JANUARY 1999
Undergraduate Librarians Discussion Group
Annual Meeting, Washington D.C.
June 29, 1998
About twenty-five people met for the Undergraduate Librarians Discussion Group at the annual conference in Washington, D. C. Librarians shared news from their libraries, heard from librarians at the University of Maryland about the decision to the close the Undergraduate Library there, and a librarian from the University of Toronto about the reorganization of the Undergraduate Library there, and discussed plans to sponsor two programs at the ACRL Conference in Detroit, April, 1999.

Charles Lowry, Diane Harvey, Desider Vikor, and Sue Baughman, from the University of Maryland, reported on factors that led to the change in programming there, including an emphasis on improving services to undergraduates in the McKeldin Library. The Hornbake Library will be renovated and will become the special collections library.

Rea Devakos, from the University of Toronto, explained how a 10% decrease in the undergraduate student body and a 10% increase in graduate students, along with major budget cuts led to changes in the Undergraduate Library (Samuel Library). Reserve Reading is moving to the Robarts Library, which was built to be the graduate library, and study space is expanding in the Gerstein and Robarts libraries.

News from Librarians had several repeating themes: renovation, (Indiana, Virginia, Columbia, UCalSanDiego, UCLA, Southern Illinois, Emory, North Carolina) twenty-four hour service (Southern Illinois, Purdue, Washington) changing roles for Undergraduate Libraries (Indiana, UCalSanDiego) Library instruction developments (Washington, Michigan, North Carolina) changing library systems (Purdue, UCLA) Among the librarians attending their first UGL DG meeting was Amy VanScoy, recently appointed Undergraduate Services Librarian at North Carolina State University.

Two Panel Discussion Programs were proposed for the ACRL Conference, one ("the Cutting Edge") emphasizing state-of-art services in undergraduate libraries, the other, ("Mission and Development of Undergraduate Libraries") the history of undergraduate libraries. The "Cutting Edge" program was accepted by ACRL.

--David Taylor, January, 1999