ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

News from the Field

Mary Ellen Davis

netLibrary to provide eBooks to Illinois Digital Academic LibrarynetLibrary will provide eBooks to students, faculty, and staff affiliated with the 155 academic libraries in the state of Illinois through an agreement with the Illinois Digital Academic Library (IDAL). IDAL, established in September 1999, is a project supported by the Illinois Board of Higher Education to assist all of Illinois’ academic libraries in meeting the demand for electronic resources. The agreement calls for nearly 1,500 eBooks to be made available to patrons of participating IDAL libraries. Those libraries also may choose to purchase eBooks directly from netLibrary to create their own digital collections.

“Through our agreement with netLibrary, IDAL will give many Illinois academic libraries their first experience with electronic monographs,” said Tom Dorst, director of the IDAL project. “Students and faculty will now be able to search, review, and check out eBooks any hour of the day or night in the library, in their offices or dorms, and from their home computers.”

Texas A&M receives endowed professorship

Through a significant gift to the university, C. Clifford Wendler has established a professorship at Texas A&M University’s Cushing Memorial Library. Steven Smith, association professor and special collections librarian, will hold the new professorship that bears Wendler’s name. The author of more than 30 articles and two books about English and American literature and art, Smith has received numerous awards.

“Steve Smith’s scholarly interest in art complements Wendler’s career as a Texas Hill Country artist. Together they have created an elegant and intellectually stimulating space [in the Wendler Exhibit Gallery] for the viewing pleasure of students, faculty, staff, and visitors,” noted Library Dean Fred Heath, who announced the new professorship.

Indiana University to build off-site shelving facility

The trustees of Indiana University approved plans for an off-site shelving facility, providing a long-term solution for the overcrowded conditions in the Bloomington campus libraries and paving the way for construction to begin this fall. The proposed Auxiliary Library Facility (ALF) will be a six-aisle, highdensity, Harvard-style model designed to hold 2.68 million bound volumes, manuscripts, films, and other materials. The facility will be located about two miles from the Main Library on the Bloomington Campus.

“The new facility will greatly improve our ability to care for the collections properly and to free up space in our libraries for students and faculty,” said Suzanne Thorin, Ruth Lilly university dean of University Libraries. “Like other academic libraries crunched for space, we determined that an off-site facility is our best solution.”

The facility will also include a state-ofthe-art preservation laboratory, which will provide work areas and equipment for preservation of the circulating collections and the rare books and manuscripts collections.

The trustees also endorsed the first phase of a renovation of the Main Library. Their recommendation, part of a list of capital priorities, will be presented by the university to the state legislature for funding in the 2001-3 biennium.

American Friend Obituary Index available

Earlham College’s Library and its Friends Collection and Archives have made available on the Web the American Friend Obituary Index at http//www.earlham.edu/ -libr/quaker/obituaries/main.htm. (It can also be reached through the library’s homepage.)

The American Friend waspublished between 1894 and I960, when it became Quaker Life. It was an important organ of Gurneyite Quakers, published in Philadelphia, and then the organizational communication piece for Five Years Meeting between 1912 and I960, published in Richmond.

The index was created by Tom Hamm, college archivist, and published on the Friends Collection Web pages by Neal Baker, information technologies librarian. There are approximately 13,000 entries in the index. Information thought necessary for purposes of identification (name, date of death—if given, place of death, and age or year of birth) is included in each entry. For a fee, the library will provide copies of obituaries. Details are available at the Index Web site.

Call for Papers: Popular Culture Association 2001

The Libraries and Popular Culture Area of the Popular Culture Association is soliciting papers dealing with any aspect of popular culture as it pertains to libraries, archives, museums, or research for its annual meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 11-14, 2001. In the past, this has included descriptions of research collections, studies of popular images of libraries or librarians, or reports on developments in technical services for collecting popular culture materials.

Prospective presenters should send a onepage abstract, by September 15, 2000, to: Allen Ellis, W. Frank Steely Library, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, Kentucky 41099-6101, (859) 572-5527; fax: (859) 572-5390; e-mail: ellisa@nku.edu.

At Westchester Library System's (WLS) 9th Annual Book & Author Luncheon, Joseph N. Hankin, president of Westchester Community College and winner of WLS's National Library Week recognition award, with Westchester Community College librarians (I to r) Mary Loomba, Sandy Schepis (back row), Una Shih, Lynne Karen (back row), and Gloria Meisel.

Fenway Library Consortium celebrates 25 years

The Fenway Library Consortium (FLC) held a gala celebration at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in May to celebrate 25 years of successful cooperation. The event was dedicated to the many staff members who make the consortium work. Dean James Matarazzo, Simmons College GSLIS, gave a brief address on the importance of good people working together and the spirit of cooperation exemplified by FLC. Member institutions include: Brookline Public Library, Emerson College,

Emmanuel College, Hebrew College, Lesley College, the Massachusetts College of Art, the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, the Museum of Fine Arts, the New England Conservatory of Music, Simmons College, Suffolk University, the University of Massachusetts at Boston, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and Wheelock College.

ACRL seeks your effective practices

Does your library have a best practice to share with the academic library community? Submit a proposal to the ACRL Effective Practices Web site. The purpose of this site is to create a list of effective practices in academic librarianship so that they are easily accessible to both academic librarians and the entire higher education community.

ACRL plans to recognize outstanding practices at academic libraries in areas such as programs, services, facilities, technology, and initiatives. Proposal submissions should include a detailed description of the practice including data, statistics, and financial information. Proposals should be no longer than five pages and could include sections such as an overview of the practice, history, collaborations and partnerships, long-term impact, timelines, physical space, financial and/ or student impact.

Proposal forms are located on the Web at www.ala.org/acrl/epform.html. Proposals will be reviewed by a committee that includes representatives of each type of academic library. Submissions are accepted quarterly. The next deadline is September 1. Future deadlines include December 1, March 1, and June 1.

Questions? Contact ACRL Program Officer Margot Sutton at msutton@ala.org.

Checkpoint installs system at University of Pennsylvania

Checkpoint Systems, Inc. installed its Intelligent Library System™ (ILS) at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Library. Based on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, the ILS gives libraries patron selfcheck-out and check-in, inventory control, circulation management, and loss prevention, all integrated into a single system.

Checkpoint’s ILS functions as a security alert, triggering an alarm when books are removed from the library without permission. The system is also supposed to reduce materials handling time; some installations have reported a 75% reduction in handling time.

NCES plans changes in data collection

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has confirmed plans to collect data from academic libraries but has announced the following changes: 1) a Web-based data collection with forms available between October 16, 2000, and February 15, 2001; 2) the reporting window will be closed on February 15, 2000; 3) if, the response is at least 80%, NCES will release an edited but unimputed file of library data on the NCES Web site in June 2001 and summary tables (E.D.Tabs) in October 2001; and 4) The NCES Web site will have software that enables peer group comparison using 1998 data (2000 data will be available for peer comparison as soon as the final file is posted in June 2001). A printonly copy of the 2000 library form and instructions was planned to be posted by the end of June 2000 on the NCES Web site at http:// nces.ed.gov/surveys/libraries/academic.html.

Information literacy programs: tell us characteristics of good ones

ACRL is seeking comments on its draft statement on characteristics of best practices in information literacy programs as developed by the Best Practices Project Team of ACRL’s Institute for Information Literacy (IIL).

Beginning August 15, a Delphi process will be undertaken to gain feedback on this statement from the higher education community. Through the Delphi process, anyone interested in information literacy can comment on the existing statement of characteristics or suggest additional ideas. To participate, go to http://www.earlham.edu/discus. This stage of the Delphi process will continue until October 1.

After the Delphi process closes on October 1, a new statement will be developed and available for comment in November and early December. A final statement should be approved by the ACRL Board at the ALA Midwinter 2001. Procedures for submission of nominations of information literacy programs that exemplify the characteristics of best practice will also be announced.

It is anticipated that the selected institutions will participate in an invitational conference in 2002. Questions can be directed to Tom Kirk, Earlham College, who is chairing the Project Team at kirkto@earlham.edu. Background on the project is available at http://www.ala.org/acrl/nili/bestprac.html.

Celebrate the freedom to read

“Fish in the River of Knowledge: Celebrate Your Freedom to Read” is the theme of Banned Books Week, September 23-30, 2000. Observed since 1981, the annual event reminds people to not take this basic democratic freedom for granted.

The event is sponsored by ALA, the American Booksellers Association, the American Booksellers Foundation of Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Association of College Stores.

A Banned Books: 2000 Resource Guide (available from ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom for $25) can help you plan your celebration. The guide contains: a list of books that have been challenged or banned; camera-ready artwork; display ideas; sample news releases to help launch a successful publicity campaign; information on First Amendment court cases; quotes on the First Amendment; and tips for dealing with concerns about library resources. To order, contact OIF at oif@ala.org; (800) 545-2433 ext. 4223; or Banned Books Week, ALA, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 606ll. ■