Sorry for any duplications.

Greetings to all LLRT members,

As the Chair of the LRRT, I want to first wish you a Happy New Year and best wishes in your endeavors in the coming year.

I look forward to meeting and speaking with you the upcoming ALISE and ALA conferences in Boston next week ( I will be in attendance from 1/14 – 1/19). I would appreciate your input on how we can make LRRT a more visible and member valued part of the library research segment of our profession.  Please feel free to let me know your thoughts on this matter over the next few weeks as we begin planning / developing activities for the LRRT to meet these goals.

The LRRT steering committee meeting will be:

There is an agenda item at the end of the meeting dealing with the selection of the proposals for the annual conference that is limited to the LRRT steering committee, but all LRRT members are welcomed and encouraged to attend the meeting and learn more about how LRRT works and how you can be involved in the life of the LRRT. 

One place that the LRRT should continue to focus on is our RT's growth and maintenance of members. While our membership levels have been growing thanks to efforts from our past leaders, committees, and members, we all need to ensure that continued a continuous and focused effort to grow the membership of the LRRT is a strategic focus of our activities. To that end, please encourage your colleagues, classmates, friends and even complete strangers who have an interest in the research that supports our profession to become members in the LRRT. Student membership is free and membership for all other members is only $15 a year.   

Another place that LRRT needs to focus efforts on is in growing our internal infrastructure to support the number of activities that the LRRT is engaged in currently and will be engaged in the future. One way that the membership can help in this focused effort is by providing feedback and participating in LRRT's activities. The LRRT is in need of subcommittee chairs and subcommittee members to conduct the business of the LRRT. As one of the largest RT in ALA, we have a number of opportunities to have members support and participate in the activities of the LRRT. All of our subcommittees need participating members (students from LIS programs, practitioners, educators, and all areas of the profession with a research interest who are LRRT members are welcome to participate). Several subcommittees need committee members who are willing to serve as chairs to guide the committee in collaboratively efforts with the other subcommittees and the LRRT Steering committee to ensure that our RT stays visible, viable, and active while delivering a value to its membership. If you are interested in being a member or a subcommittee chair, please let me know as soon as possible via email ([log in to unmask]). I would like to try to constitute the subcommittees and their chairs by shortly after the end of the midwinter conference so we are engaged and ready for the coming LRRT activities in 2010.

Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of this information and I look forward to hearing from you. Enjoy the conferences,

Larry