ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

News from the Field

Stephanie Orphan

OhioLINK delivers video on demand

Ohio’s college and university students can now access three video collections over the Web through OhioLINK’s Digital Media Center (DMC). A collection of foreign language videos, 600 physics experiments, and a selection of video and audio files that complement selected image files in the DMC Art & Architecture Database are available for searching, viewing or listening, and downloading by students and faculty.

The physics videos are licensed from the Education Group’s Video Encyclopedia of Physics Demonstrations and comprise a series of demonstrations using the RealVideo format, which may be streamed or downloaded to an individual workstation. The foreign language videos are contributed by the Viewpoints Project and offer a collection of clips, ranging from 30 seconds to 2 minutes, in which native speakers elaborate on their culture, family, and daily life. The video-on-demand content and services are delivered over the Web to OhioLINK’s 79 member institutions, with several of the collections open to all Ohioans.

RIT's Wallace Library ads CHOICE Reviews to its OPAC

Rochester Institute of Technology’s (RIT) Wallace Library has licensed CHOICE Reviews for inclusion in its OPAC. As a result of this initiative, all Wallace patrons now have seamless point-and-click access to the CHOICE review of any title included in the OPAC that has been reviewed by CHOICE since September 1988.

The OPAC availability of the reviews is the result of a partnership between CHOICE and Syndetic Solutions, Inc., which allows libraries to license the entire CHOICE review database of more than 80,000 reviews. The reviews may be licensed directly through Syndetic Solutions or through participating ILS vendors, which include Brodart, DRA, Endeavor, epixtech, Ex Libris/SFX, Gaylord, GEAC, Innovative Interfaces, Sirsi, TLC/CARL, and VTLS.

Baker & Taylor announces e-content agreements

Baker & Taylor has entered into eBook distribution agreements with Oxford University Press, the world’s largest university press, and Houghton Mifflin Company, publisher of an extensive line of reference, fiction, and nonfiction titles. The eBooks will be made available through Baker & Taylor’s eContent delivery system, ED. ED, which will be available later this year, provides public and academic libraries with a turnkey solution for delivering eBooks and related services to their patrons.

Univ. of Oklahoma's athletics department and university libraries create partnership

In what is believed to be the first partnership of its kind in the United States, the University of Oklahoma’s (OU) athletics department will assist the libraries in establishing a $1 million endowment by making a leadership gift of $250,000 toward the endowment, using royalties derived from sales of athletics merchandise.

To launch the venture, the two entities copresented OU’s second annual Books that Inspire exhibit in April, which featured 52 books recommended by OU faculty, coaches, and staff. The partnership was created to symbolize the shared commitment to excellence of the entire university and underscore OU’s goal of encouraging student athletes to fully participate in the academic life of the institution.

AHHSL offers free electronic recruitment guide

The Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL) has made Recruiting and Selecting Academic Health Sciences Library Directors: A Guide available on its Web site free of charge. The guide provides direction for all facets of the recruitment process, from analyzing the vacancy to appointment of the successful candidate. Current data on sala- ries and the racial and gender composition of the candidate pool are provided, as well as recommendations for posting jobs and examples of position descriptions. The pub- lication of the guide is part of AAHSL’s Fu- ture Leadership Initiative. PDF and HTML versions of the guide are online at http:// www.aahsl.org/recruitguide/index.html.

Centre College returns rare texts to Dickinson College

Two handwritten books filled with lecture notes and commencement addresses from the first three graduation ceremonies of Pennsylvania’s Dickinson College have been returned to Dickinson aftèr the historic vol- umes were discovered at Centre College, lo- cated in Danville, Kentucky. The lectures and addresses were given by Charles Nisbet, Dickinson’s first president.

It is unknown how the volumes, which date back to the 1780s, made their way to Centre College. The books were handwritten by John Young while attending Dickinson in the 1780s. Interestingly, both Young’s son and grandson went on to become presidents of Centre College. The vol- umes were discovered by Bob Glass, head of Technical Services and Special Collections at Centre. Centre College’s vice president and dean of academic af- fairs, John C. Ward, presented the vol- umes as a gift to Dickison in a ceremony in April.

UNC Greensboro joins ASERL

The Walter Clinton Jackson Library of the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Greensboro recently became the new- est member of the Association of South- eastern Research Libraries (ASERL), the largest research library consortia in the

United States. ASERL was founded in 1956 and was a founding member of the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET), establishing SOLINET’s licensing program.

ASERL-sponsored projects include competency guidelines for research librarians, document delivery among select members, and a virtual electronic library system that links the catalogs of the 16 ASERL libraries. Members of ASERL are contributing to the development of AmericanSouth.org, a portal of digitized resources describing the history and culture of the American South after the Civil War.

ACRL launches Information Literacy Web site with expert locator

ACRL has created a new Information Literacy Web site, with an expert locator among its many features. The site is a gateway to resources on information literacy as well as a gathering place for some of the most important initiatives in this area. In addition to learning about the basics of information literacy and finding the latest news on the information literacy front, visitors to the site can read about programs implemented at other institutions in the “Examples in IL” section, where practicing librarians and teachers are asked to share their work.

The expert locator, designed to ease the burden of planning a panel, funding a workshop, or looking for a consultant, is one of the site’s most valuable resources. The locator includes names of librarians and teaching faculty who have special expertise in the area of information literacy and have made them selves available to share this with others. Listings are available by name, state, and area of expertise. Current topic areas are Learning Outcomes, Assessment, and Competency Stan- dards; Community Partnerships; and Faculty/Librarian Collaborations. Other areas will be added as the lo- cator grows.

ACRL members Lisa Hinchliffe and Arlie Sims at the American Association of Higher Education National Conference, at which they presented a poster session on the Information Literacy Infusion.

The Expert Locator is interactive, with one click connecting visitors to a page on which they can sign up as an expert, while another lets them nominate someone else.

The goal of the Information Literacy Web site is to provide one-stop shop- ping for anyone wanting information lit- eracy resources, including new librarians, those who are already in the field, and teaching faculty and administrators. The site is available http://www.ala.oig/acrl/ infolit.

University of Tennessee grad students support the library

For ten consecutive years, the University of Tennessee (UT) Graduate Student Association (GSA) has sponsored the “Love Your Libraries” Fun Run, a race to benefit the UT Libraries. This year’s run raised more than $7,000 from registration fees, corporate sponsorships, and a matching gift from the UT Athletics Department, the largest amount ever raised by the GSA Fun Run. The proceeds were presented to the libraries this spring and will be used to purchase electronic journals.

Fretwell-Downing and ARL collaborate on Scholars Portal Project

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has launched the Scholars Portal Project, a collaboration between seven ARL member libraries and Fretwell-Downing. The goal of the Scholars Portal Project is to provide software tools for an academic community to have a single point of access on the Web for finding high-quality information resources.

The initial phase of the project involves deploying Fretwell-Downing’s ZPORTAL to deliver cross-domain searching of licensed and openly available content in a range of subject fields and from multiple institutions. Initial project participants and Fretwell-Downing will collaborate to develop additional

Oberlin College Libraries received the 2002 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award in a ceremony held on the Oberlin campus on May 1. Approximately 150 people were in attendance, including (from left to right) Clayton Koppes, dean of the College of Arts and Science; Nancy S. Dye, president of Oberlin College; Ray English, director of libraries; Mary Reichel, president of ACRL; Scott Smith, representative from Blackwell's Book Services and an Oberlin College graduate; and Ann Sherif, chair of the General Faculty Library Committee. functionality that they identify as critical and will evaluate the new capabilities in teaching and library production environments.

Over the course of the three-year project, the number of participating libraries is expected to expand; the capabilities provided by the portal will be refined, developed, and evaluated; and priorities will be set for future development. The participating libraries are funding the project, with Fretwell-Downing contributing to some of the costs of the developmental work for enhancements.

ebrary offers new pricing model

ebrary has added an “all you can eat” pricing option for its ebrarian for Libraries service. The option includes an annual license fee plus a fixed charge based on FTE and allows patrons unlimited print and copy transactions. Under the initial pricing model, which librarians may still choose, patrons set up accounts with ebrary and pay for their own print and copy transactions. There is no extra charge during the subscription year as ebrary expands its collection, ebrarian currently offers libraries more than 6,000 full-text titles for simultaneous, multi-user access by patrons.

Swets Blackwell and Serials Solutions collaborate to ease e- journal management

Swets Blackwell and Serials solutions are collaborating to simplify the management of electronic journals in an effort to provide libraries with comprehensive coverage of their e-journal collections. The two companies will coordinate and transfer holding data on behalf of libraries that subscribe to both the SwetsnetNavigator and Serials Solutions services. For libraries that choose to participate, e-journals licensed through SwetsnetNavigator will be incorporated into the comprehensive electronic serials reports provided by Serials Solutions. Direct, journal-level linking will also be provided for all SwetsnetNavigator content.

Canadian Poetry Database launched

The Electronic Text Centre at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) Libraries in Fredericton has digitized the poetry of 185 Canadian poets and made their works available through the Canadian Poetry Database. The database was produced through an agreement with Chadwyck-Healey, a division of

ProQuest Information and Learning, making the Electronic Text Centre the first in Canada and second in the world to collaborate with the publisher on a major scholarly project.

The project involved the digitization of more than 100,000 pages of pre-19th-, 19th-, and 20th-century poetry into a comprehensive, full-text, searchable database. The database includes a biographical profile and photograph of each poet as well as an extensive bibliography. Users can search the poetry in the database by subject, author, title, first line, and keywords.

The Canadian Poetry Database is the largest publishing initiative every undertaken by UNB’s Electronic Text Centre. In addition to staff of the centre, credit is given to the document delivery staff at UNB, who found originals of material for digitization, and libraries across Canada and the United States, for their cooperation. ■

ACRL/Harvard Leadership Institute

Academic libraries exist in a constantly changing environment with many new challenges and many available opportunities. New demands on academic libraries call for fundamental shifts in leadership know-how. In response to these challenges, ACRL is collaborating with the Harvard Institutes for Higher Education to offer its popular ACRL/ Harvard Leadership Institute.

At the ACRL/Harvard Institute, you will be among your fellow leaders in academic librarianship. The institute is designed for directors of libraries and individuals in positions such as associate university librarian, assistant dean, vice president of information resources, university librarian, and college librarian. The institute would also be useful for individuals regularly involved in decision-making that affects the entire library operation and that involves other important relationships on campus.

Comments from past participants include: “For the first time I have understood what I can find and see in myself to be a leader, and I know that I have excellent tools with which to do this. I will learn to build on my strengths.”

“I expected excellence and that is exactly what I found. The quality of the program, the faculty, and the participants made for an outstanding experience. Thank you for setting the tone and providing the space and time for open discussion and debate, laughter and learning.”

“I think the mix and diversity of participants was integral to the success of the program. I enjoyed the chance to meet librarians from all types of academic institutions, and all parts of the country.”

The 2002 ACRL/Harvard Leadership Institute will be held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, August 4-9, 2002. Registration materials and complete details about the institute are available on the Web at http:// www.gse.harvard.edu/~ppe/programs/acrl/ program.html.

Register early as spots will fill quickly. ACRL/Harvard Leadership Institute alumni benefits include a subscription to an ongoing electronic list and annual alumni reunions at the ALA Midwinter Meeting.

Questions about this institute can be directed to acrl@ala.org; (800) 545-2433, ext. 2522.