Accreditation blues

I don't know how many of you have been involved with helping your departments or colleges deal with accreditation site visits but I have now been involved in two for my college. The first time I was greener than Kermit and really no clue about was expected or needed from the library. Thankfully, I had a wonderful person heading up acquisitions and she led me through the process. The document that we created back in 2002 needed updating but when I was again contacted about participating in the 2007 site visit I used much of that previous report.

I was thrilled when my college contacted me to participate in their "Showcase" for their accreditors but was less thrilled when I realized the time frame was less than two weeks. What did I need to know so that the accreditors would believe that the library was responsive and more than meeting the needs of the students? I researched very thorougly the various institutes and centers located within the college. I spent hours analyzing circulation and interlibrary loan statistics. I even created the documentation they used in the display posters at the "Showcase." The accreditors asked me two questions the entire evening and I am not sure precisely what I contributed to their overall understanding and my interview the next day lasted less time than it took me to walk to the college, five minutes.

Through this whole process I realized that it had been too long since I had really taken such a close look at my college. I mourned adjunct faculty who had moved on and realized that there were so many more new faculty that I had not yet met. The "Showcase" was impressive and I think that my college is in a much stronger place than it was five years ago. The best part of the experience was seeing so many of the faculty I have worked over the years and to be greeted with smiles and hugs. Yesterday morning I was passing by the Reference Desk when my colleagues called me over and pointed at a beautiful vase of flowers. The flowers were from my college and have been decorating my office since then. It is said that adversity builds strong bonds and I am happy first of all that the accreditors have left and secondly that I had an opportunity to refresh my relationship with my faculty.