ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

News from the Field

Mary Ellen Davis

CSU library devastated by flood

Colorado State University’s (CSU) library suffered devastating losses from the 500-year flood that swept through Fort Collins at the end of July. More than 20 buildings, including the library, were ravaged by the raging flood waters.

“We had 21.5 million pounds of water in the basement with a flow of water that was 5,000 cubic feet per second. We literally had a flash flood,” said library director Camila Alire. More than 425,000 volumes (approximately half of the collection) were damaged including the library’s entire collection of bound journals. Early estimates are that 10 percent of the collection was destroyed and that an additional 10 percent will prove unsalvageable. CSU officials optimistically estimate that 80 percent of the collection will be saved.

During that critical first 72 hours CSU library staff worked with contractors to get the water pumped out of the basement, reduce the humidity, and begin packing out the materials to get them placed in freezers before they began to rot. At press time contractors were frantically trying to contain the severe mold problem so that it did not spread beyond the basement. CSU is planning to open its doors for the fall semester on August 25. Alire said that they are awaiting inspections to ensure that the building is both structurally sound and safe for occupancy but that she hoped to be in the building by August 21 with phones, electricity, and air conditioning running.

A flash flood ravaged Colorado State University’s library.

Alire, who had been in her job just seven days when the flood struck, complimented the library’s staff, “The library disaster recovery team had a well thought-out, sound plan. We were in operation within ten minutes after the flood.” Alire offered this advice to her colleagues: “I wouldn’t wish this on anybody. But, if you don’t already have a disaster recovery plan in place, you must make this a priority and develop one. It made all of the difference for us.”

Those wishing to donate books or resources should contact Joel Rutstein, head of collections at CSU, at (970) 491-3401 or e-mail: jrutstein@manta.library.colostate.edu.

CAUSE and Educom to morph

The governing boards of CAUSE and Educom have announced their intent to dissolve their respective organizations and create a brand new one. CAUSE is the association for managing and using information resources and technology in higher education, with members from 1,400 colleges and universities and more than 80 corporations. Educom, which is also a nonprofit consortium of colleges, universities, and other organizations is dedicated to the transformation of higher education through information technologies. In addition to its 600 institutional members, it has nearly 100 corporate associates.

One of the major inducements for merging was how well the two organizations’ programs complement each other. Educom president Robert Heterick observed that “continuing maturation of the information technologies has greatly diminished the differences between administrative and academic computing, the original reason for two separate organizations, and the rise of networking has amplified the transformational potential of information resources throughout every nook and cranny of the higher education enterprise.”

According to CAUSE president Jane Ryland, “CAUSE has developed great strength in member services and professional development through its management institutes and regional conferences, while Educom is well known in Washington policy circles though its advocacy roles featured in the Networking and Telecommunications Task Force (NTTF) and the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII).”

The two organizations have worked closely for more than a decade, and prior to the announcement both Heterick and Ryland had announced their intention of retiring within the next few years. The dissolution of both organizations remains to be approved by the respective memberships, but if the members approve, the two organizations plan to begin operating under the aegis of a new corporation on or about January 1, 1998.

Dates changed for ACRL's 9th Conference

ACRL has changed the dates of its 9th National Conference in Detroit. The new dates are April 8-11, 1999.

The one-day shift in dates will enable the conference to end Sunday, allowing participants to return to work on Monday morning. The theme of this conference is “Racing Toward Tomorrow.” The conference program is being planned by the ACRL National Conference Executive Committee chaired by Charles Beard, director of university libraries, State University of West Georgia.

Hollins College breaks ground for new library

Late this spring ground was broken for the Wyndham Robertson Library at Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia. Hollins received the largest gift in its history when the Julian Robertson family donated $3 million to name the library in honor of Julian’s sister Wyndham, newly elected chair of the college’s Board of Trustees and a devoted alumna. The ground breaking ceremony featured Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard, another Hollins alum, who read a piece that so moved the audience that Dillard was inspired to announce during the ceremony a significant gift to the library.

Computer simulation of the second floor reading room (to be named in honor of Betsy Richardson Bone, Class of 1949) in the future Wyndham Robertson Library on Hollins College’s campus.

The 56,468 square-foot library was designed by Perry Dean Rogers and Partners and is a $14 million project. The building will feature fully wired study spaces, large reading rooms, computing and multimedia facilities, a rare books room with climate control, and a 24-hour student and faculty commons with a cafelike atmosphere for reading, surfing the Net, or watching CNN.

Nashville research papers on the Web

The papers of the speakers featured at ACRL’s 8th National Conference in Nashville and the contributed research papers are now available on ACRL’s homepage on the Web. Visit ACRL’s main page at http://www.ala.org/acrl.html and select National Conference papers or go direct to: http://www.ala.org/acrl/papérs.html. Papers posted include those by featured speakers Michael Keller, Sheila Creth, Kate Nevins, Eli Noam, Alan Guskin, and the late Paul Evan Peters as well as those who provided contributed papers. Papers may be searched by author, title, or theme track and are available in three formats: ASCII, html, and a WordPerfect 5.1 file (zipped).

Applications/nominations sought for ARL diversity program

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is seeking applications/nominations for its new Leadership and Career Development Program (LCDP). Funded by a grant from the Department of Education, LCDP is designed to prepare racial minority librarians for top leadership positions in academic and research libraries. The LCDP will encourage racial minority librarians to make use of the cultural experience and knowledge gained outside the organization in order to inform and enhance their careers, leadership development, and upward professional mobility. The program will consist of two one-week institutes, special projects, and a one-day forum. Applicants must meet the following requirements: be a member of a racial minority group, have a minimum of three to five years library experience, have an interest in academic and research libraries and demonstrated leadership skills, and have written support from the library director describing the institution’s commitment to the applicant’s participation in the program. Deadline for applications: September 30, 1997. For more information contact DeEtta Jones, ARL Program Officer for Diversity, at (202) 296-2296; e-mail: deetta@cni.org.

Parents and students donate to Johns Hopkins University

Two generations of Johns Hopkins University supporters demonstrated appreciation for Eisenhower Library. The class of 1997 voted to honor the library with its class gift and the parents of this class donated to the library’s Honor With Books program. To date, the class of 1997 has raised nearly $7,000, which will be matched by the Friends of the Libraries. The seniors are directing their funds toward improvements in the Hutzler Undergraduate Reading Room, fondly referred to as the Hut. The Hut offers an informal library setting for undergraduate study and interaction 24 hours a day. The funds will be used for workstations and wiring upgrades to bring Internet access to the Hut, and for new furniture. Parents of the class of 1997 contributed more than $11,000 to the library through the Honor With Books program. For each $25 contribution made, the library buys a book and places a commemorative bookplate bearing the name of the supporter’s child in it. As a result, the library will gain 440 commemorated books for its collections.

TexShare expands to 184 academic libraries

Library resource sharing in Texas has expanded. Recent legislation adopted by Texas’s 75th Legislature has dramatically expanded the state’s successful TexShare program and transferred its administration to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

TexShare is a cooperative program for library service to students, faculty, and staff of Texas state-supported institutions of higher education. TexShare also provides statewide licensing of databases, access to university library collections, assistance in document delivery, and additional electronic resources. Through TexShare, the collections and services of each individual academic library in the state are made available to the students and faculty of all institutions, sharing the rich resources of the entire state with the academic community. In addition, the combined buying power of Texas libraries results in significant cost reductions for electronic information subscriptions.

Created in 1994 and previously administered by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, TexShare currently serves 52 publicly funded four-year colleges and universities (as well as medical schools) with a combined enrollment of approximately 400,000 students. The new law, HB2721, expands the program to include Texas’s 75 two-year colleges and 57 private institutions of higher education, bringing the total number of institutions to 184, with an enrollment of 921,000 students. This expansion provides services to 3.5 times as many institutions and more than doubles the number of students, faculty, and staff currently served by the program.

TexShare emphasizes electronic information resources as well as traditional collections of books and journals. The largest portion of the TexShare annual budget of approximately $1 million will be dedicated to licensing commercial databases such as Periodical Abstracts and ABI Inform, which provide access to the full text of more than 1,100 journals, in addition to citations to many more journals and periodicals.

“Our agency faces a formidable challenge,” commented Robert S. Martin, director and librarian of the State Library and Archives Commission. “But we look forward to a successful transition and growth of TexShare, and welcome the continued support and active participation of the entire academic community.”

Michigan expands access to periodicals

Under the “Access Michigan” project two new services are now available to Michigan library users. First, a statewide periodicals database offering the full text of more than 1,000 magazines, periodicals, newspapers, and indexes, and administered by the Michigan Library Consortium (MLC), is being funded for the first year with LSCA funds. Library of Michigan staff are hopeful that state and federal funding will support the project beyond the first year. Second, SPAN (for Serials, Periodicals, and Newspapers) is a new Michigan Web database listing more than 201,000 magazines, journals, and newspapers and the hundreds of local library locations statewide where they can be found. “SPAN will make it much easier for patrons to find and borrow periodicals,” said state librarian George Needham. “For the first time library users in any connected library will be able to see the titles of periodicals available at other Michigan libraries.” Beginning this month, library users will also be able to access SPAN from their home computers.