ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

News from the Field

Mary Ellen Davis

ACRL, Choice contribute to ALA Goal 2000

The ACRL Board of Directors enthusiastically endorsed “ALA Goal 2000: A Five-Year Plan to Position the Associa- tion for the Information Age.” With its endorsement the Board pledged $100,000 to the Fund for America’s Libraries—$50,000 from its fund balance and $50,000 from the fund balance of its publica- tion Choice.

Key recommendations of the ALA Goal 2000 initiative call for expanding and enhancing the ALA Washington Office to increase its ability to follow and influence national issues and legislation; establishing an Office of Information Technology to support the library field’s needs for information; establishing a five-year thematic cycle for major ALA initiatives; and establishing a foundation called the Fund for America’s Libraries to assist with the financial impact of these initiatives.

“We are very excited about the direction ALA Goal 2000 is charting for the library community,” said ACRL President Susan Martin. “In endorsing ALA Goal 2000 and pledging financial support, the ACRL Board is particularly interested in helping two recommendations become a reality: the establishment of the Office of Information Technology and the expansion of the Washington Office to include staff with expertise in higher education and academic libraries. Academic librarians need to be more active at the national level in influencing decisions about information and technology issues as well as issues of higher education.”

ACRL Vice-President/President-Elect Patricia Senn Breivik said: “I strongly support ALA Goal 2000 for two reasons: first, because it represents the best thinking of ACRL membership as reflected in planning of recent years. But even more importantly, because it is time for all librarians to speak with one voice in order to safeguard individual Americans’ rights of access and their empowerment to use information they need.”

And the drawing winners are . . .

ACRL held two drawings at its booth at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia. The first drawing was for free con- ference and preconference registrations for ACRL’s 7th National Conference in Pittsburgh, March 29–April 1, 1995. Members were mailed three postcards throughout the year and were asked to staple them together and bring them to the booth in Philadelphia. The drawing was held on February 6 and the six winners are: Patricia T. Viele, Marcellus, New York; Patricia M. Murphy, St. Clausville, Ohio; Carol Burrough Hammond, Phoenix, Arizona; Cheryl A. Bower, Takoma Park, Maryland; Fred J. Gitner, New York, New York; and Theresa K. Trost, Lubbock, Texas.

The second drawing was for a free airline ticket to anywhere in the continental United States. People who registered for ACRL’s upcoming conference through the official travel agency, Travel Tech, before Midwinter were eligible. The winner is Sandra River of Lubbock, Texas. ACRL wants to thank everyone who participated.

ACRL Board approves Marta Lange/ CQ Award

At its Midwinter meeting, the ACRL Board of Directors approved a new annual award recognizing achievement in law and political science librarianship to be given by the Law and Political Science Section (LPSS). The award will be given in honor of former LPSS chair Marta Lange, who died tragically in a car accident in 1992.

Congressional Quarterly, a major publisher with a subject focus encompassing law and political science in both paper and electronic formats, is the sponsor of the award.

The Marta Lange/CQ Award is to be given to an academic or law librarian who, through research, other creative activity, or service to the profession, makes distinguished contributions to bibliography and information service in law or political science. The award will consist of a plaque and $1,000 cash. The ALA Awards Committee will review the award for approval at the 1995 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago.

Celebrate Women's History Month

“Women’s History: Promises to Keep” is the theme selected by the National Women’s History Project for National Women’s History Month, March 1995. The theme honors two women in each of eight fields selected to exemplify women’s groundbreaking accomplishments which increased the many options now open to women. Nellie Bly, Katharine Graham, Carol Moseley Braun, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Willa Cather, and Toni Morrison are among the women represented on the commemorative poster. A booklet of their biographies is also available.

1995 also marks the 75th anniversary of women winning the right to vote and the National Women’s History Project has developed “Women Win the Vote,” a 16-page gazette filled with history and analysis of the women’s suffrage movement, 75 biographies of leading suffragettes, a timeline, and a resource list. The commemorative poster (see photo) is also available. Each poster costs $6 (plus $3.50 s/h) and the “Promises to Keep” biographies booklet costs $2.50 (plus $3.50 s/h). To order these items or request a catalog call (707) 838-6000 or write the National Women’s History Project at 7738 Bell Rd., Dept. P, Windsor, CA 95492.

This poster is part of the National Women’s History Project’s commemoration of the 75th anniversary of women winning the vote.

OhioLINK marks fifth year

The Ohio Library and Information Network (OhioLINK) reports that after five years it is one of the largest state catalog and circulation networks in the country. OhioLINK has a user population of 500,000 students, faculty, and staff at 41 universities and colleges; a central union catalog of more than five million titles; and 26 research databases online and mostly linked to the union catalog holdings. OhioLINK has a fully operational online borrowing service which allows users to request items online from anywhere in the system while searching the central catalog. Regardless of location, items are delivered to the user within 48 hours. Online loan requests tripled in 1994. OhioLINK began in 1989 as a concept on paper. By 1991 it secured state funding, purchased computer equipment, and selected vendors to supply the network communications, core operating system (INNOPAC), and several databases. The system went online in 1992 with a central union catalog of six university libraries and grew to 30 fully activated members in 1994. Users made more than two million searches of the central catalog and research databases in 1994.

University of Michigan reinvents library education

The School of Information and Library Studies (SILS) at the University of Michigan has embarked on the Kellogg Coalition on Reinventing Information Science, Technology, and Library Education (CRISTAL-ED), a five-year project to reinvent such education to meet the changing needs of information professionals. Determined to radically alter its instructional program, SILS plans to facilitate the development of an international, multidisciplinary consortium of schools to define new areas of professional specializations and serve society’s needs for information access and use. To gender a wide range of opinions and exchange ideas, SILS began a moderated listserv (CRISTAL-ED) that will initially focus on the vision of the new information and library studies education, and then target planning, prototyping, and implementing new core curricula. To subscribe to the listserv, send the message “subscribe cristal-ed” to majordomo@ sils.umich.edu. Information about the list is also available on the CRISTAL-ED home page: http:/ /sils.umich.edu/publications/cristaled/ KelloggHomePage.html. The project has the assistance of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

Getty pilot project explores use of digital images

The Getty Art History Information Program (AHIP) and MUSE Educational Media have selected six museums and seven universities to participate in a pilot project to test the distribution of art images and information. Participating institutions will resolve issues of intellectual property rights, network security, and information standards, defining the terms and conditions for the educational use of museum images and information on campus networks. This Museum Educational Site Licensing Project runs from January 1, 1995, through June 30, 1997, and makes digitized images and descriptive texts representing at least 3,000 works of art ( a minimum of 500 from each participating museum) available on the campus networks of participating universities without site license or royalty fees during the 1995–96 academic year. Information on and images of 3,000 more works will be added during 1996–97. Participating universities are: American University; Columbia University; Cornell University; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; University of Maryland at College Park; University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint; and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

French cave paintings online

Images from the recent Combe d’Arc (Arde'che) prehistoric cave painting discovery are already on the Internet at the World Wide Web address: http://www.culture.fr/gvpda.htm. This link on the French Ministry of Culture’s homepage leads to text and four images. As Jack Kessler reports in his newsletter FYIFrance, there are two remarkable things about this resource. First, it is a significant event in art history, and second, “thanks to networking’s wonders it has been only a month since the cave paintings were found and suddenly everyone in the online world can read about and even see them. . . . The caves were found in Decem- ber, the French Minister of Culture announced the discovery January 17, the images and text appeared online on January 24. The homepage was assembled by Michel Bottin, and it was announced by Bruno Mannoni, both of the Min- istry.” For more information about library and networking events in France contact Jack Kessler at kessler@well.sf.ca.us.

Art on Film moves to Columbia

The Program for Art on Film, the international clearinghouse for information about moving image media on the visual arts, has moved to Columbia University. Founded in 1984 as a joint venture between the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the program’s princi- pal activity is the adminis- tration of the Art on Screen Database, a unique com- puter index to more than 23,000 productions on fine arts, architecture, photog- raphy, and related sub- jects. The program will be administered by the Uni- versity Libraries and will work closely with the School of the Arts, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and other Columbia entities while continuing to serve its international constituency of media profession- als, museums, and other cultural institutions. The Program for Art on Film’s new address is 2875 Broadway, 2nd fl., New York, NY 10025; phone: (212) 854-9570; fax: (212) 854-9577.

Univ. of Alberta outsources cataloging

The University of Alberta (UA) Library has formed a partnership with Information Systems Management Corporation (ISM) to have its materials fully processed and shipped as shelf- ready products to the university. ISM expects to process more than 30,000 items a year for UA, which expects to realize savings almost equal to a 15% reduction (about $2.6 million) in its staffing budget. The library claims this partnership will help avoid across-the-board budget cutting and layoffs and will enable it to reassign staff to help maintain high-quality client services. Ernie Ingles, UA chief librarian and director of libraries, said, “By contracting for ISM’s new MARCADVANTAGE service, we are able to predict costs over the next five years, and focus all other available resources on the teaching and resource needs of our clients.”

ACRL publishes Library Services for Non-affiliated Patrons

Library Services for Non-affiliated Patrons,the latest in ACRL’s CLIP (College Library Informa- tion Packet) Note series, provides sample poli- cies and procedures documents collected na- tionwide from academic institutions dealing with service to the non-affiliated library user. A review of the literature indicates that as many as 50% of all reference questions at large aca- demic libraries come from non-affiliated patrons. Having policies in place to deal with these users will make it easier to offer con- sistent quality service. Ac- cording to the CLIP Note survey results, the non-affiliated patron is generally welcome in academic li- braries although some limitations on service do exist and priority is given to the library’s primary cli- entele. This CLIP Note is a practical collection of ex- amples to assist policy makers in their selection of appropriate options for their institution.

Library Services for Non-affiliated Patrons(ISBN 0-8389-7781-2) was compiled by Eugene S. Mitchell under the auspices of the ACRL College Libraries Sections’ CLIP Notes Committee. It sells for $32.95 ($27.95 to ACRL members) and is available from ALA Order Fulfillment, 520 N. Dearborn, Chicago, IL 6O6IO. For faster service, orders may be phoned in to (800) 545-2433 or faxed to (312) 836-9958.

ACRL in Nashville: Save these dates

It’s not too early to mark the dates for ACRL’s 8th National Conference to be held in Nashville, Tennessee. Mark your calendars now for April 11-14, 1997, and plan to attend ACRL’s next conference. The 1997 conference increases the frequency of ACRL conferences from every three years to every two years.