Articles

The 2013 ASDAL Conference is meeting at Walla Walla University from Tuesday, June 25, through Sunday June 30. The theme of the conference is “The Bedrock of Seventh-day Adventist Librarianship: What Never Changes, or What Should Never Change.” The majority of librarianship conferences, including ASDAL, the past few years have had one common thread running throughout: “Change.” It is fitting then that we should pause in the ebb and flow of change to examine what are the basics of librarianship—what never changes.

Possible subtopics under this theme are:

  • Now that North American Adventist libraries are fully automated, what should we be doing to preserve the past for the future? Has the need for preservation of resources changed?
  • Has the philosophy of SDA librarianship changed with the changing technology? What is the philosophy of SDA librarianship? Has the mission of individual SDA libraries been lost sight of in the haste to adapt to change?
  • More and more bibliographic instruction is being done online, and answers to research questions also online. How can the advantages of one-on-one patron contact be preserved in an electronic environment? People still want to be treated as people, not as machines. How do we teach basic Boolean search strategies that are even more critical in computer searching?
  • Collection development has relied more and more on access rather than on ownership. Has this helped or hurt our efforts to assist others in finding the information they need? What are the core principles of ownership that need to be carried over into access? Should we let patron requests lead us to purchase books and not just get them through ILL? How much of collection development should be PDA (PatronDriven Acquisition)?
  • What are core principles that ought to be followed in new library construction or old library remodeling that need to be guarded in an electronic learning environment? (We need to hear from those who have done library remodeling projects in the past few years!)
  • If full-text searching is the wave of the present and of the future, should we be relying upon periodical indexes (a la SDA PI), bibliographies for books and periodicals (a la Gary Shearer), and other SDA indexing projects to assist the researcher more easily in their research? Can computers create indexes? If only humans can create indexes, what kind of data should be put on indexes? Volume 32, number 2 8 Winter 2013
  • Related to this is the issue of cataloging SDA materials. How much data should be put on a single record? Should book covers, author portraits, and other audio-visual materials be put on records? Should SDA print books be linked with electronic versions of the same books? How should newly acquired books be displayed to entice students/faculty to read them—electronically online or physically in the library? How do we get our students/faculty to use our valuable resources?

Types of Presentations:

Papers – Research or position paper

Panel Discussion – Two or more presenters with audience participation

Poster Sessions – Graphic presentation of research, ideas, or experience

 Submissions:

Program submissions should consist of a 100-200 word abstract and the following additional information: Title of presentation; type of presentation; Presenter Information (name, job title, institution, address, and phone/fax/email). Proposals for papers or panel discussions should be submitted by March 15, 2013. Poster or Table Talk proposals should be submitted by March 30, 2013. Submissions should be sent to Warren Johns, ASDAL President-elect ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ).