ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Fast Facts

Ann Viles

→ The Tasini effect

Since the Supreme Court mied against them in the New York Times v. Jonathan Tasini case, publishers have removed close to two decades of freelance articles beginning with those written in the late 1970s from electronic newspaper databases. According to its spokesman, Toby Usnik, the New York Times “has pulled 100,000 articles offline; however, 15,000 of those articles have been restored.” Dick Cooper reports that the publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News “has permanently purged one-third of its 2.5 million online articles.”

Scott Carlson, "Once-Trustworthy Newspaper Databases Have Become Unreliable and Frustrating," the Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 25, 2002. http://chronicle.com/weekly/v48/i20/20a02901.htm, password required. Apr. 2, 2002

→ More than 9,000 public libraries in the United States

Recently released data from the National Center for Education Statistics reports “9,046 public libraries (administrative entities)” in the United States in 1999- The total number of central libraries and branch libraries was 16,220. The total number of reference transactions in public libraries was “295 million, or 1.1 reference transactions per capita.”

A. Chute, E. Kroe, P. Garner, M. Polcari, and C. J. Ramsey, Public Libraries in the United States: Fiscal Year 1999, NCES 2002-308, U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, D.C.: 2002. http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2002308. Apr. 2, 2002

→ New data delivery record set by Bell Labs

Scientists at Bell Labs report sending 2.56 terabits of data per second over a distance of 2,500 miles using optical fiber, nearly doubling the previous transmission record of 1.6 terabits of data per second over 1,250 miles.

"Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs Scientists Set New Fiber Optic Transmission Record," Lucent Technologies, Mar. 22, 2002. http://www.lucent.com/press/0302/020322.bla.html. Apr. 2, 2002

→ Internet activity changes with experience

A longitudinal survey of Internet users first interviewed in March 2000 and interviewed again in March 2001 finds “that over the course of a year people’s use of the Internet gets more serious and functional.” Nineteen percent report “doing work-related research on a typical day,” compared to 14 percent a year earlier. Twenty-one percent report going online only at work compared to 18 percent earlier. Forty-four percent “say that the Internet improves their ability to do their job a lot.”

John B. Horrigan and Lee Rainie, "Getting Serious Online," PEW Internet & American Life Project, Mar. 3,2002. http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=55. Apr. 2, 2002

→ Twenty-five percent pay increase for Australian librarians

According to a ruling last month by the Australian NSW Industrial Relations Commission, library employees will receive pay increases of up to 25 percent. The decision found that “the work of librarians, library technicians and archivists was historically undervalued because of their gender.”

"Women See Pay Equity Victory," News.com.au, Mar. 28, 2002. http://www.news.com.au/common/printpage/ 0,6093,4036973,OO.htmí. Mar. 29, 2002

Ann Viles is coordinator of reference and instruction at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, e-mail: vilesea@conrad.appstate.edu