Dear ARLIS/NA Members, Colleagues, and Friends,

Greetings from Rhode Island where I am enjoying autumn (my favorite season here) with its colorful leaves and cooler temperatures while anticipating the end of Daylight Saving Time this weekend. It’s my privilege to write to you in this first week of November to share some useful information and updates. There is simply no way to keep this short so I’ll just get started!

During the in-person site visit this past September to Chicago, the 50th Anniversary Conference Planning Advisory Committee met at the Hyatt Regency along the Chicago River to preview the conference hotel and block all the spaces where the program elements and on-site events will take place. Our rooms are centrally located and in close proximity to each other … and the many elevators are prompt and speedy! We toured and confirmed off-site events that include the Anniversary Welcome Party at the Chicago Cultural Center and the Convocation Reception at the Museum of Contemporary Art (contracts pending for both). The program itself is taking shape from over 60 submissions —a very healthy amount in line with other years; proposal authors will hear from the program co-chairs this month. The Sponsor, Exhibitor, and Advertiser Prospectus was released one week ago and planning continues for workshops, the Society Circle event, and tours. Find the latest information at the conference website, https://www.arlisna.org/events/2022-50th-annual-conference. 

Sidebar: I want to thank those who completed the brief survey in September that helped us understand the optimistic and still-cautious attitudes about conference attendance this coming year. I call attention to the response to the last question, Have you been fully vaccinated? —Yes by over 99%!

Autumn also means it’s time to renew your membership! You should have received an email with instructions on how to do so via the new ARLIS website.* Please be mindful of the demographic information being collected that was established by the Anti-Racism Task Force, explained further in a recent message to ARLIS-L and linked to a Demographics Fact Sheet. 

While renewing, please consider a donation to the $50K for 50 Years fund to support an internship or fellowship for early-career librarians of color. While this anniversary-related fund is the society’s priority for raising funds this year, there are several other funds worthy of your support at https://www.arlisna.org/products/donations.

Still focused on membership, I want to call attention to the new Vendor Liaison position on the Development Committee. Former president Kim Collins serves in this vital role to support and facilitate the interests, questions, and concerns of our vendor members.

Even more news to expand and support our members: the Membership Committee has assembled a Paraprofessional/Support Staff Category Task Force. Look for more updates as the work of that group progresses.

Lastly, some items worthy of your attention:

• The joint virtual fall conference of the Art Library Students and New ARLIS/NA Professional (ARLISNAP) and Visual Resources Association's Emerging Professionals And Students Group (VREPS) is on Saturday, November 13. Please register here. 

• The Distinguished Service Award has an open call for nominations. Procedures for submissions and detailed information are outlined on the ARLIS/NA website under the Distinguished Service Award page.

• The Task Force on Art Libraries' Response to COVID-19 still has an open survey at https://forms.gle/wTDcfReMzBp5n1ocA, designed to provide a comprehensive set of member and institutional data over the past nearly two years and looking ahead toward the close of 2021 as we more fully emerge and reopen from the pandemic. If you haven’t filled out the survey, please do so; if you already did, please consider updating your submission now that more time has passed.

• The ARLIS/NA Commons has entered a "soft launch" phase during which groups of early adopters will be invited to begin using the features of the ARLIS/NA Commons and to help the society transition some of its legacy content into a new environment. Among these early adopters will be committees, SIGs, and other groups who have expressed an interest in using the tools of the ARLIS/NA Commons to facilitate collaboration and communication. Members of the ARLIS/NA Implementation Task Force and Executive Board liaisons will begin reaching out to constituent groups soon.

I want to point to an important development for the future of the society: the formation of a Strategic Planning Committee that will take what has gone before and help guide ARLIS/NA toward an updated mission and set of priorities and goals. The group is brand new so I can’t say much more than this, but please stay posted for more information from co-chair and current Past President Amy Trendler.

My best regards,

Mark

* I know you’ve heard and seen that ARLIS/NA has a new website —here’s a reminder of some critical information for its enhanced member profile and event capacity:

• Website profile - complete/verify, add photo

• You will need to create a new login for the site. Follow the instructions on the site to create your new username and password.

• Update your member profile. We invite you to upload a headshot, share information about your background and demographics, and update your Division, Section, and Special Interest Group affiliations.

• Website content reminder

• If you need to submit website content, alert the staff of an error or a typo, add an event to the calendar, or have other modification requests, submit an IT Request Form. Staff manages all website content and functionality. The staff reviews the requests weekly and will address based on priority and available resources.

• General website update

• The site navigation was updated. As you navigate the new site, please note that content may have shifted to different menu items. Use this opportunity to update any bookmarks you have saved.

• Update any URLs distributed in awards notices or other calls that may refer to the prior website. Doing so helps avoid directing visitors to broken or outdated links.