ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

Fast Facts

Database bargain for students

Bell & Howell is bypassing libraries to offer students direct access to articles in one-third of its ProQuest titles for $19 95 a semester.

(Barbara Quint, "Bell & Howell Information and Learning's ProQuest Academic Edition Brings Articles Directly to Students for a Low Fixed Fee," Information Today NewsBreaks. http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/ nb000228-2.htm. May 28, 2000)

Reference and circulation stats drop in ARL libraries

“Starting in 1998 reference and circulation service transactions dropped back to the 1991 levels of activity.”

("Trends in ARL Libraries: Introduction to ARL Statistics, 1998-99," ARL Statistics and Measurements Program. http://www.arl.org/stats/arlstat/99intro.html. June 1, 2000)

Bibliographies not included

Scholarly publishers, such as Oxford University Press, are producing “smaller, cheaper, more accessible book[s]” by eliminating bibliographies and publishing only the address of bibliography Web sites.

(Doreen Carvajal, "The Book's in Print, but its Bibliography Lives in Cyberspace," New York Times, May 29, 2000, nati, ed.: A1)

Interactive library statistics

The Geospatial and Statistical Data Center of the University of Virginia Library Statistics site includes university library data collected by James Gerould at Minnesota and Princeton from 1907-08 through 1961-62 and Association of Research Libraries Statistics data from 1961-62 through 1998-99. The interactive site allows users to manipulate queries and display data as numbers or graphs.

("Association of Research Libraries Statistics." http://fisher.lib.Virginia.EDU/newarl/. June 1, 2000)

Gateway to peer-reviewed course modules

MERLOT (http://www.merlot.org), a nonprofit organization incorporated in February, provides links to more than 2,000 digital learning modules. “Four discipline groups have already been formed and beguntheir [peer] review process: Biology, Physics, Teacher Education and Business.” The addition of six more disciplines is expected by June 2001.

("MERLOT: A National Teaching and Learning Network for Faculty." http://www.merlot.org/help/Overview.po. June 1, 2000)

Librarians' salaries 1999-2000

The median salary for directors of library services in all types of higher education institutions is $61,218.

("Median Salaries of College Administrators by Type of Institution, 1999-2000," Chronicle of Higher Education, February 25, 2000: A47)

1,000+ staff

Harvard University Library has 1,040 full-time-equivalent professional and support staff. The next largest staff in a university research librar)' in the United States and Canada is Yale’s staff of 562.

("Holdings of University Research Libraries in U.S. and Canada, 1998-99," Chronicle of Higher Education, May 19, 2000: A23)

Thanks to Mike Hanson, reference librarian at Western Wisconsin Technical College, for his contributions and suggestions.

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