Thanks to everyone who was able to attend the first meeting of the International Perspectives on Academic and Research Libraries Discussion Group at ALA Annual! We had 16 DG members join us for a discussion of international issues on their campuses, and to hear from Margaret Law about her work as AUL for International Programs at the University of Alberta.
In addition to hearing Margaret describe how she launched the international initiative at Alberta, and its major components focusing on sharing collections and expertise among partner programs, we gained valuable insight into the challenges involved in inserting the library into the often decentralized efforts around internationalization on a large campus.
Other DG members introduced local issues and ideas that we might want to pursue further on this list or at future meetings, including the international agenda at community colleges, the international dimension of library staffing (i.e., challenges and opportunities that come with supporting a diverse library staff - both full-time staff and student staff - in terms of national origin), connections between this group and others in ALA that are looking at specific issues such as library support for international students and international resource sharing, the provision of research support services to support international partnerships in research, and the challenges inherent in providing library resources and services across international branch campuses and/or in support of degree programs that span domestic and international campuses.
I invite anyone else who was at the meeting to add important points that I've missed, and everyone else to continue to contribute to the discussion.
See you in Seattle!