From the Editor's Notepad

After some delay, the current issue of Inkshed is finally making its debut, a debut marked by a slightly updated look.  Opening the newsletter is an article by Doug Brent focusing on the information literacy project at the University of Calgary. In the article, Doug issues a timely call to writing centres to play an active role in information literacy projects and similar initiatives. In fact, the need for writing centres and programs to play a key role in first year experience courses, retention efforts, and other initiatives was a recurring theme of this summer’s Writing Program Administrators workshop and conference, which I review later in the newsletter.

Also in this newsletter you’ll find a book review by Jim Bell,  a poem by Jamie MacKinnon,  information on upcoming conferences including the Inkshed Conference Call for Papers, and an article by Susan Logie explaining the approach taken by Carleton University Writing Consultants in working with their clients. I invited Susan to contribute this article because I think that we in other institutions can learn from CUWC’s approach as we face pressures to support life-long learning, aka post-degree continuous learning, and, in the process, generate revenues for our institutions.  CUWC’s approach shows that we can sell our services without selling out.

In closing, I must remind you that Barbara and I are only interim editors of the Inkshed newsletter -- with one more promised issue. If the publication is to continue, we need to plan for its long-term survival and to consider the role we look to the newsletter to play vis a vis the online newsletter. Barbara will be taking the lead role in editing the next issue, and she invites you to start drafting articles for the winter issue of the newsletter, due out in March.  She especially invites summaries of ethnographic and other research in progress on writing and reading.

Jo-Anne Andre

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