ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

News from the Field

Mary Ellen Davis

Gordon appointed ALA executive

William R. Gordon, director of the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System in Hyattsville, Maryland, will become ALA’s next executive director on March 1, 1998.

“We are delighted to announce Bill Gordon’s appointment as executive director of ALA,” said ALA President Barbara J. Ford. “He brings strong credentials, a solid track record, and a wealth of library experience to the position.”

Gordon, who has been with the Prince George’s County system since 1977, has also served as director of the Arrowhead (Minne- sota) Library System, the Pocatello (Idaho) Public Library and the Southeastern Idaho Public Library Agency, and as assistant di- rector of the Renton (Washington) Public Li- brary. He holds an MLS from the University of Denver and a B A. in sociology from Baker University in Baldwin, Kansas.

Gordon is attending ALA’s January 1998 Midwinter Meeting in New Orleans as ALA executive director-designate.

Presenters sought for ACRL’s 9th National Conference

ACRL seeks presenters for its 9th National Conference to be held April 8-11, 1999 in Detroit.

The conference theme, “Racing Toward Tomorrow,” acknowledges that academic libraries are on the fast track toward change. To keep pace with this change and to stay on course, ACRL seeks the best ideas of our profession and of related professions on how to create and channel change. Presenters are sought for research papers, panel sessions, poster sessions, and round table discussions.

A complete description of the conference theme, dead- lines, and a program proposal form are included as an insert to this issue, and the entire call for participation is available on the Web at: http:// www.ala.org/acrl.html, select “National Conference.”

Proposals should be sent with the completed program proposal form to the appropriate committee chairs who are listed in the Call for Participation. The deadline for paper and panel proposals is June 15, 1998.

Questions? Check out the Web page at http://www.ala.org/acrl.html, or contact Maiy Ellen Davis at (800) 545-2433 ext. 2511 or medavis@ala.org.

Texas Digital Library Alliance formed

Five Texas members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) have established the Texas Digital Library Alliance (TDLAlliance), sponsored by ARL and the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

The TDLAlliance will provide a forum for digital library leadership initiatives in Texas aimed at enhancing coordinated, effective, and user-friendly digital information services for Texas citizens.

The group hopes to encourage representatives of digital library programs supporting K-12, higher education, public libraries, and lifelong learning communities to address common issues in a collaborative fashion.

Students at the University of Louisville gained access to a new library service—a cafe in the Ekstrom Library Lobby. Librarians worked with Chartwell Food Services to create the cafe, which offers specialty coffees, biscotti, scones, juice, etc. The cafe is quite popular and the cafe tables are often filled with faculty, staff, and students engaged in conversation.

This poster is one of many materials available from the National Women’s History Month Project. Request a catalog from nwhp@aol.com.

Technology-based academic programs in Texas were mandated by the 75th Texas State Legislature, which established the TexShare Library Resource Sharing Program within the Texas State Library. TexShare services has grown from the 53 libraries in the Texas Council of State University Librarians to more than l60 libraries, including community colleges and health science centers.

New materials ready for Women’s History Month

“Living the Legacy of Women’s Rights” is the theme for National Women’s History Month this March, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the women’s rights movement, A one-hour program kit to celebrate the anniversary include a 30-minute video, “Equality: A History of the Women’s Movement in America,” a 15-minute speech, and a full-color National Women’s History Month poster. A hand-out copymaster, discussion ideas, balloons, bookmarks, stickers, a sample proclamation, and resource list complete the kit, which is available for $50 plus $7 postage and handling. The National Women’s History Project, (NWHP) has many wonderful materials such as the Alice Walker poster shown. This poster is part of a 12-poster set “Women of Hope: African Americans Who Made a Difference” that is available for $45 (item #6211). Request a kit or a full catalog from the National Women’s History Project, 7738 Bell Road, Dept. P, Windsor, CA 95492-8518; phone (707) 838-6000; or e-mail: nwhp@aol.com.

ACRL developing National Information Literacy Institute

ACRL is developing a National Information Literacy Institute (NILI). The development of such an institute recognizes the critical importance of information literacy in the curriculum at every level of education.

The Institute is dedicated to training and educating instruction librarians; to programming for library administrators on topics of information literacy; and to the development of forums to bring together various higher education organizations to discuss information literacy as part of the educational enterprise.

NILTs overriding principle will be to deliver a curriculum that will marry theory and practice. The Institute’s curriculum will initially offer an intensive training program targeted at equipping new librarians or other information professionals new to teaching with knowledge of current practice and the theory behind information literacy. The Institute’s curriculum will be the by-product of collaboration among practicing instruction librarians, library school faculty, library directors, and appropriate faculty drawn from other disciplines such as computer science, psychology, and education.

An Invitational Planning Day that brings together higher education administrators, library directors, information science school faculty, and public school and academic librarians, and state agency librarians will be held at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting in New Orleans. This planning meeting will provide the NILI advisory group with valuable information from those who will be working with future graduates of a NILI so that programs can be designed to best meet existing needs.

ACRL plans to offer the first NILI in the summer of 1999. Keep up with the latest on NILI by checking out its Web page: http:// www. ala. org/acrl/ nili. html.

Institute planning is being spearheaded by Cerise Oberman, dean of Library & Information Services at the Plattsburgh State University of New York. Members of the planning group include: Louis Albert, senior vice president, American Association for Higher Education; Lori Arp, head of central reference, University of Colorado at Boulder; Esther Grassian, electronic services coordinator, UCLA; Thomas Kirk, college librarian, Earlham College; Loanne Snavely, head, Arts Library, Penn State University; Mitch Stepanovich, architecture librarian, University of Texas at Arlington; Julie Todaro, head, LRC, Austin Community College; Betsy Wilson, associate director of libraries for Public Services, University of Washington.

Univ. of Southern Maine renames library for donors

A ceremony renaming the University of Southern Maine’s Portland Campus Library the “Albert Brenner Glickman Family Library” was held in October. The ceremony recognized the gift of more than $1 million by Albert B. and Judith L. Glickman of Cape Elizabeth, Maine for renovation of library space and expansion of holdings. The donation will help complete the top three floors of the seven-story building, providing an estimated 26,500 additional square feet of floor space. The remainder of the gift will be used to acquire books and periodicals. Glickman, a Portland native, is the founder and sole proprietor of Albert B. Glickman and Associates, a real estate development firm. He is a trustee of the University of Maine System and the UCLA Foundation.

Cornell establishes digital institute

A new Cornell Institute for Digital Collections (CIDC), funded by $2 million in private grants, will make images of cultural and scientific collections accessible via the Web. The new institute will also develop tools to help educators use these images and will conduct research on how to best manage the new technology.

“These are spectacular collections that can be used anywhere, while the originals are preserved for future generations,” said Thomas Hickerson, director of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections of Cornell University Library, who will also direct the new institute.

Maine Governor Angus King sat at a library computer and changed the name of the University of Southern Maine’s library to the “Albert Brenner Glickman Family Library.”

The institute will work as a partnership involving faculty, technologists, librarians, archivists, and curators from across the campus.

One of the primary goals of the CIDC will be to make its materials available for classroom use, both at the K-12 and college levels. According to Hickerson, “Education is our mission, and that can include the general public as well as classroom instruction. “The Ezra Cornell papers, one of the prototype digital collections already available, were used by a 4th-grade class at Cayuga Heights for a project on New York state history.

Nobel Prize winner Tom Cech and the University of Colorado Science Library staff celebrate 90 years of Chemical Abstracts at UC-Boulder. Chemical Abstracts Service recently recognized the Science Library as a CAS Signature Library—one of a select few research libraries in the world to subscribe to Chemical Abstracts since its inception in 1907. Pictured (from I to r) are Mady Kassanoff, David Fägerstrom, Pam Wilson, Tom Cech, Gregory Robl, Barb Greenman, and Daria O. Carle.

Some of the collections may already be viewed on the Web at http://rmc-www. library.cornell.edu/Division-Info/rmc-coll/ rmc-digital.html. Licensing agreements may limit the availability of some resources to certain academic users.

The CIDC will also study intellectual property issues that arise out of digital imaging and Internet distribution of copyrighted materials and proprietary collections.

“We want to set up a way that educational use can be maintained while benefiting from commercial use,” Hickerson explained. “These [university and museum] collections are essentially the cultural heritage of not just North America but of the world. I don’t want to see people selling exclusive rights to these collections to commercial vendors, but at the same time, I think the institutions have a right to receive some reimbursement for the effort we’ve put into preservation.” ■