ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

News from the Field

Stephanie Orphan

Susan Martin is new ACRL visiting program officer

ACRL is pleased to announce that it has con- tracted with Susan K. Martin to be the division’s part-time program officer for scholarly communica- tions. In her new role, Martin will work on the creation of tools to assist librarians in all types of academic libraries as they deal with the changing structures of scholarly communication. She will serve as an advocate for academic libraries, and will work with other library and scholarly organizations to address the issues raised by these changes and their im- pacts on libraries. Within ACRL, she will pro- vide staff support for the Scholarly Communi- cations Committee and the Scholarly Communications Discussion Group.

“Sue brings an incredible skill set and knowledge base to this position with her knowledge of scholarly communications issues, her depth of experience working in academic librarianship and higher education, and her experience in ACRL,” said Mary Ellen Davis, ACRL executive director. “We look to her leadership to broaden ACRL’s scholarly communications program and are delighted to have her join the ACRL team.”

In addition to her experience as a director of two research libraries (Georgetown and Johns Hopkins), Martin was executive director of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, and earlier held positions in the libraries at the University of California-Berkeley and Harvard University. In 1995 she was president of ACRL, a year which culminated in the adoption of a five-year strategic plan.

Martin retired from Georgetown University last year, after 11 years as the university librarian, and is president of SKM Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in library management, development, and technologies. She received a bachelor of arts in romance languages from Tufts University, a master’s in library and information science from Simmons, and a Ph.D. in library and information science from the University of Calìfomia-Berkeley.

Susan K. Martin

Indiana Univ. opens new facility

Indiana University-Bloomington (IUB) unveiled the Ruth Lilly Auxiliary Library Facility, its new shelving facility and book preservation laboratory, with a dedication and naming ceremony in October. The facility features the state-of-the-art E. Lingle Craig Preservation Laboratory, which provides space and equipment to conserve and protect library collections. The laboratory includes items never before available to IUB book preservationists, including a leaf caster and an automatic box- making machine, the first of its kind in use by an academic research library.

The facility will also be used to hold less- used books from IU’s main library and many of its 18 other libraries that are full or beyond capacity; the number of overflow volumes is estimated at 2.7 million. Materials requested by researchers will be delivered daily, with information such as articles and tables of contents transmitted by fax and e-mail. Ruth Lilly is the daughter of Joshiah K. Lilly, whose collection of rare books and manuscripts helped to form the Lilly Library, named in his honor. E. Lingle Craig was a librarian at IUB for 35 years whose bequest to the IU Libraries made the preservation laboratory possible.

JSTOR releases language and literature collection

JSTOR has released its sixth journal collection, Language and Literature, a compendium of 47 titles spanning the literary cultures of many nations, including China, Germany, Africa, and the United States. The collection adds 1.4 million new pages to JSTOR’s electronic archive of important scholarly journals. Developed in conjunction with the Modem Language Association through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Language and Literature Collection covers such areas as linguistics, comparative literature, and literary history. In addition to English, the collection features articles in Arabic, Russian, Italian, and other languages.

Library community endorses Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act

ALA, the Association of Research Libraries, the American Association of Law Libraries, and the Medical Library Association have endorsed the Digital Media Consumers’ Rights Act of 2002 (DMCRA), introduced by congressmen Rick Boucher and John Doolittle. The DMCRA resolves key concerns regarding hardware and software that permit significant noninfringing uses and allows researchers to engage in the scientific research of technological protection measures.

Univ. of Nevada unveils Nevada Votes!

Through a joint project with public radio station KUNR, the University of Nevada-Reno Libraries has developed the Nevada Votes! Web site, a comprehensive information source for Nevada candidate and election information. Nevada Votes! features candidate biographies, personal statements and photos, voting records of incumbent candidates, campaign finance reports, PAC contributions, voting district maps, election law, and links to pertinent newspaper articles. Current ballot initiatives and referendums are also reproduced. The site also includes “Stories from Nevada History,” written by state archivist Guy Rocha, and articles from the Nevada Historical Society Quartetly on the state’s political history and elections. Development of the site was underwritten by a $15,000 grant from the John Ben Snow Memorial Trust. Nevada Votes! is available online at http:// nevadavotes.unr.edu.

Mark your calendar! ACRL to offer two workshops in Philadelphia

ACRL will offer two workshops in Philadelphia prior to the ALA Midwinter Meeting on Friday, January 24, 2003:

Creating a Continuous Assessment Environment in Academic Libraries

During this full-day session, work through the “Standards for College Libraries” (2000 edition) using the instrument “Standards and Assessment for Academic Libraries: A Workbook.” Learn about the new concepts of the standards, discover how the individual sections of the standards are part of overall institution and library planning, and find out how to incorporate performance indicators and outcomes assessment measures to assess the impact of librarians and libraries on student learning.

The workbook provides practical information throughout with checklists, forms, examples, and library assessment tools and techniques. Speakers: Bob Fernekes, information services librarian, Georgia Southern

University; Bill Nelson, professor and library director, Augusta State University

Behaviors that Burden the Workplace

Learn how to identify and change behaviors that can undermine the success of your library (and your personal career goals), as measured by the financial and organizational support the library receives within your institution or greater community. Written exercises and small discussion will help you see the actions of yourself and your colleagues, your library’s strategic plan, and the culture of your library with fresh eyes. These behaviors and policies can feel like the right things to the library staff but drive customers crazy and are not necessary for accurate, efficient, and effective service. Speaker: Pat Wagner, Pattern Research

ALA Midwinter registration is now open. Watch www. ala. org/events/midwinter2003/ registration.html. Questions? Contact (800) 545-2433, ext. 2523; acrl@ala.org.

Columbia Univ. Press and American Historical Assoc, launch collection

Columbia University Press and the American Historical Association (AHA) have launched Gutenberg ‹e›, a collection of award-winning digital monographs in specialized fields of research. The digital format enables the incorporation of innovative source materials while making it possible for the works to be widely available, offering a cost-effective model for peer-reviewed publication.

Each year, a panel of historians chosen by the AHA selects the award winners, whose authors then begin a collaborative process with the electronic publishing staff at Columbia University Press to enhance the works for publication. The

Ingenta offers advanced deposit

Ingenta has introduced an advanced deposit account functionality on ingenta.com, giving library services greater account control and more organizational tools through which to track patron spending. The new service allows users to purchase articles on ingenta.com not subscribed to by an institution, using specific funds. Users can also access full-text subscriptions for free. Some features of the advanced deposit accounts are single item cost caps, which allow you to designate the maximum amount per single article that your institution is willing to fund; a number of items cap, which limits the number of articles purchased by a patron at any one time; and time period spending limits.

ABI/INFORM subscribers receive expanded access to backfiles

Subscribers to Proquest Company's ABI/INFORM databases now receive access to the ABI/INFORM Archive, a file containing historical backfile content for 25 business periodicals, with more titles to be loaded later this year. The archive provides cover- to-cover, full-page images from leading business journals dating back to the beginning of die 20th century, complete with illustrations and advertisements. The backfile content has been integrated into die current subscription so that searching across all years is seamless.

McCracken and Yellowstone sign agreement

The McCracken Research Library of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center and the Yellowstone National Park Research Library and Archives have entered into a cooperative agreement. Each library has agreed to make its collections more easily available to one another’s staff and promote the interlibrary loan of materials between die two. The agreement is expected to encourage scholarship in the Greater Yellowstone area and provides a foundation for future cooperative projects. ■

Volunteers needed at Charlotte conference

Help others, support your profession, and have fun in die bargain! A wide variety of tasks and time slots are available for volunteers at ACRL’s National Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, April 10-13, 2003.

Interested? Contact the Charlotte Volunteer Committee cochairs Janis Bandelin, janis.bandelin@furman.edu, or Kate Hickey, hickey@elon.edu, for further details.

Charlotte keynote speakers

Three very different keynote speakers will provoke, entertain, and inspire attendees at the ACRL National Conference in Charlotte N.C., April 10-13, 2003- Different from each other, they will all sound changes on the conference theme, “Learning to Make a Difference.”

Paul Duguid,coauthor of The Social Life of Information (Harvard Business School Press, 2000), became interested in information when he worked at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Corporation with “extraordinary” scientists. Yet, when the computer scientists talked about information, they thought about “bits on a wire”; the social scientists meant people talking. Information is of course what libraries deal with.

Thursday's opening keynote speaker will share his ideas on the library’s role as a community, and the necessary interrelationship between librarians and their users and between other users. The Social Life of Infomiation Home Page, online at http://www.slofl.com/, contains several chapters of the book, information on the authors, and links to reviews.

The former head of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Bill Ferris, knows the South. Not only is he a native Mississippian, he’s the coeditor of the Encyclopedia of the South, and newly affiliated widi the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina.

He’ll share his views with attendees at Saturday’s lunch. Also a student of Southern music, he’s promised to bring his guitar with him to demonstrate the South’s role in blues, country music, and rock and roll. Leam more about the Center for the Study of the American South at http://www.unc.edu/depts/csas/.

Belle Wheelangrew up in a time and in a family in which knowledge is power. Her parents reminded her—and she has never forgotten—that odier African Americans lost their lives because diey could read. Her reverence for reading carried over to her ten years as a college president, when she presided over a moment of silence when the card catalog was closed.

Formerly the president of Northern Virginia Community College, die second-largest community college in the country, Wheelan is now the Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth of Virginia. On Sunday, she’ll share her look at the past with her view of challenges for die future. To learn more about Belle Wheelan, view her online biography at http.//www.education. state.va.us/SecofEdlnfo/WheelanBio.cfm.