ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

News from the Field

Guam earthquake topples 90,000 books

An earthquake with a mag- nitude of 8.2 on the Richter scale rocked Guam on Au- gust 9, 1993- At the Univer- sity of Guam’s Robert F.

Kennedy Memorial Library about 90,000 books and pe- riodicals—90% of the collec- tion—vibrated off the shelves and hit the floors. Stress frac- tures were observed in sev- eral locations and damage to air handling ducts, electrical lighting fixtures, and flooring was sustained. The library was in the process of occupying its $9 million renovation and addition when the earth- quake hit. This is the second major disaster the library has faced in less than a year. In August 1992 Supertyphoon Omar hit Guam and the heavy rains caused the library’s roof to flood, clogged drain pipes, and sent water cascading down the emergency stairwells, flooding both floors of the building. Staff had been planning a grand opening festivity for October.

C&RL NewsNetdebuts

C&RL NewsNet,an abridged electronic edition of C&RL News accessible on the Internet through the Gopher server at the University of Illinois at Chicago, made its debut September 10, 1993- C&RL NewsNet contains all of the items in the printed C&RL News’s “News from the Field” column and all of the classified advertising, i.e., the job postings. The information in C&RL NewsNet will precede publication of the printed copy by 2-3 weeks. For example, the November “News from the Field” and classified advertising will be uploaded to the Internet around October 15- The printed edition of the November issue of C&RL News will be mailed on November 5. C&RL NewsNet will carry current information only; uploading the new information will replace the information in the previous issue.

To reach C&RL NewsNet you can locate the University of Illinois at Chicago in the menu of all servers maintained on gopher at the University of Minnesota. Alternatively, you can connect your favorite gopher client directly to host “gopher.uic.edu 70”. Select “The Library” from the menu and then select “C&RL NewsNet” from the next menu.

You will be presented with a menu of choices: Welcome to C&RL NewsNet, News from the Field; Job Postings by Job Title; and General Editorial, Subscrip- tion, and Advertising Infor- mation. Each news item and each job listing will be posted separately so you can easily scan to find the information you need. Cur- rently the information is posted as plain text files; within the next few months we will be making the information available as a searchable database.

Note: UIC’s Gopher is registered at the University of Minnesota and is accessible from any gopher client. If you have technical questions or trouble reaching C&RL NewsNet check with your computing support staff or computer center. If you have suggestions or comments about C&RL NewsNet content or format send them to the editor Mary Ellen Davis at Internet: U38398@uicvm.uic.edu or bitnet: U38398@ uicvm.bitnet.

NYU and The New-York Historical Society team up

The New-York Historical Society and New York University have joined in an innovative partnership, through which Dean of NYU Libraries Carlton C. Rochell will oversee management of the Society’s library services to the public and develop joint programming for both institutions such as a centralized computer catalog system, book acquisitions and educational and public outreach programs. Among the enhancements planned to the Society’s Library during the one-year agreement are: increasing library access from three days per week to five; loading the Society’s database in to the NYU online system, establishing an affiliates program for scholars, mounting exhibits of the Society’s collections at NYU, and having NYU oversee all current acquisitions, processing and cataloguing for the Historical Society; the resources of both institutions will be used for book preservation. This is not the first formal relationship between the two institutions; from 1841 to 1857, the Society was in residence in NYU’s original Main Building on Washington Square.

Do the standards meet your needs?

ACRL’s University Libraries Section (ULS) is considering whether to revise the Standards for University Libraries, approved by the ACRL Board of Directors and the ALA Standards Committee in 1989- These standards are not prescriptive or quantitative, but focus on setting goals and objectives and measuring the degree to which library performance meets these goals and objectives. As such, the standards may be durable even in the face of fairly dramatic changes occurring in university libraries. ULS would like your comments on the standards and is especially interested in hearing how individuals have used the standards. Comments on how developments since 1989 and those on the horizon might affect the stability of these standards are also requested. {Note: The Standards are printed in the September 1989 issue of C&RL News, pages 679-691.) Send your comments to: ULS member-at-large Beverlee French by December 31, 1993, at Library Administration, Shields Library, University of California, Davis, CA 95616; e-mail: bafrench@ucdavis.edu; tel: (916) 752-2110; fax: (916) 752-6899.

EBSS listserv address change

The Education and Behavioral Sciences Section of ACRL has changed the location of its electronic discussion forum. EBSS-ALA is now available to EBSS members courtesy of the University of Maine. To subscribe, e-mail a request that includes your electronic address and full name to Deborah Rollins at rollins@maine.bitnet or rollins@maine.maine.edu. ■