Dear Colleague,

On behalf of the planning committee, we want to thank all who attended the Thirteenth Annual VALE Users'/NJ-ACRL/NJLA-CUS Conference on Thursday, January 5 and to ask you to please complete a brief online evaluation survey. The survey form is available at: 

http://www.valenj.org/conference/2012/evaluation

At the end of September 2011, a call went out seeking submissions from the NJ academic community for entries to the 2012 VALE Cover Design Competition. Paul Glassman of Felician College and Cynthia Coulter of HCCC, from the 2012 VALE User's Conference Planning Subcommittee, oversaw the cover design competition.

We were very impressed and pleased with the submissions we received. We would like to thank the students who participated and thank the faculty for their willingness to take on this responsibility.

Each of the five alpha libraries has contributed 10,000 MARC records for a database to be used to test discovery software.  The College of New Jersey has already used the database to test VUFind (Villanova University), and Drew University will shortly be using it to test XC (University of Rochester).

A call for volunteers was put out for VALE members to serve on the Editorial Board putting together the next Report (covering the fiscal years 2009 – 2011).  Paul Glassman has graciously volunteered to be the chair of the Board. 

The Board is beginning the process of putting the Report together.  They are looking for photographs and good quotes to consider for inclusion in the Report. 

Please help them by sending such items to Paul Glassman -- glassmanp at felician.edu.