"Library cooperation in the 21st century," the cover story in the latest issue of OCLC's NextSpace magazine, focuses on AMICAL and a few other groups as examples of cooperation that bridge libraries on new levels -- across vast geographic distances and variations in culture and professional practice, among other things. AMICAL's RESPOND project is highlighted, with comments from consortium director Jeff Gima and librarian Elisabetta Morani (John Cabot University) on the impact this project has had on AMICAL members.

AMICAL members: in this tough budget year, take advantage of the professional development possibilities available to you through the consortium, thanks to grant support and special rates and opportunities negotiated on your behalf. Our Professional Development & Training page has been revised with new instructions about how to take advantage of free and reduced-rate Lyrasis and Nylink online classes, as well as information about how to participate in NITLE events. And don't forget that funds remain available for 2009 in our Small Grant Award program for training, staff exchanges and conference participation -- the deadline for the last round of applications is being extended and will be communicated to you shortly.

AMICAL and the American College of Thessaloniki will be hosting a 3 1/2 day CONSER-SCCTP serials cataloging workshop in September. Steve Shadle (SCCTP trainer and Serials Access Librarian, University of Washington Libraries) will be training catalogers from AMICAL libraries in: Advanced Serials Cataloging Electronic Serials Cataloging Online Integrating Resources Cataloging The organization of this workshop was made possible in part through the cooperation of Karen Bohrer and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

The Sixth Annual American International Consortium of Academic Libraries Conference will take place from Thursday to Sunday, May 21-24, 2009 at American University of Armenia in Yerevan, Armenia. This year's conference will focus on "The Learner's Perspective -- Adapting Information Services for Today's Students," with presentations, discussions and the usual rich opportunities - formal and informal - for exchanging ideas on library, technology and curricular collaboration among AMICAL's uniquely international and American-modeled institutions. Keynote speakers will include: Nancy Fried Foster (Lead Anthropologist, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester) speaking on ethnographic methods and findings on undergrad research behavior. James Simon (Chief Technologist, Principal Engineer, and Director, North American Systems Practice, Sun Microsystems) speaking on user-centered design of web-based information systems. Librarians, technologists, faculty, and academic leaders from AMICAL member institutions are welcomed and encouraged to attend. Others interested in attending should contact the conference organizers. For the conference program, registration and other information, please see the conference website.

AMICAL's sixth annual meeting and conference will take place at the American University of Armenia, in the capital city of Yerevan. The conference program will offer speakers, workshops, discussions and other forms of professional exchange around the theme of "Today's Students." The main days of the conference will be Thursday-Saturday 21-23 May 2009; an optional half-day post-conference workshop is tentatively planned for 24 May. For the first time ever, reflecting the growing alignment of AMICAL and AAICU (Association of American International Colleges and Universities) membership, AMICAL's conference is being organized in conjunction with the annual AAICU meeting (22-24 May).

Ani Minasyan, Circulation/Reference Librarian at the American University of Armenia, is among the six winners of the 2009 Jay Jordan IFLA/OCLC Early Career Development Fellowship. Read the news release here.

Learning from Each Other: Assessment and Collaborative Learning AMICAL members: come join us at the AMICAL 2008 Conference from 25-28 May at the American University in Bulgaria! How can we work together, across our own campuses and across AMICAL, to make assessment of libraries and IT services meaningful for the improvement of student learning? How can we use collaborative technologies both to enable assessment and to enrich the learning experience for our students? Librarians, technologists, faculty, institutional research coordinators, and chief academic officers will be joining the discussions. For more information, see the conference web site.

On October 5-6, 2007, a small group of provosts and presidents from AMICAL institutions will join several of their US-based counterparts from similar institutions to brainstorm together about how to maximize AMICAL members' collaboration, drawing upon the experience of some US institutions that have similarly taken part in consortia. The meeting has been organized by Susan Perry and Celeste Schenck and will take place at the American University of Paris. The goals of the meeting are:to learn more about each other's institutions and needs to brainstorm together about the ways in which collaboration might strengthen our institutions—library and IT services, curricular resources, faculty and student exchanges, development offices, admissions offices, accreditation issues, etc. to think collectively about how AMICAL can sustain its operations and growth, through financial or other contributions to identify collaborative projects of value to provosts, and to secure their commitment to pursuing them as a consortium The meeting is being made possible through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

AMICAL's fourth annual meeting will be hosted by the Mohammed VI Library at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco, May 27-30, 2007. The focus of the conference will be “Integrating library and IT services for better learning.” For more information, see the AMICAL 4 conference website.