ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

News from the Field

Mary Ellen Davis

Supreme Court to review CDA challenge

The U.S. Supreme Court announced on December 6 that it will hear the government’s appeal of a landmark legal challenge to the Communications Decency Act passed last February by Congress. The case, which will have a great effect on the freedom of speech in cyberspace, is expected to be heard in late March or early April. A special panel of three federal judges in Philadelphia ruled the act unconstitutional in June in a suit filed by the Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition, which represents 27 organizations, concerned about the future of the Internet; ALA is the lead plaintiff.

Search under way for ALA executive director

ALA’s Executive Director Search Committee selected Camila Alire to chair the search for a new executive director to replace Elizabeth Martinez, who will leave ALA in August 1997. Alire was chosen by the group as chairperson during its November 2-3 initial meeting in Chicago. She is dean of Auraria Library, University of Colorado at Denver, and a member of the C&RL News Editorial Board. ACRL President William Miller is also serving on the committee as a division representative. The committee also reviewed recruitment firms and will select a firm to aid in filling the post.

The timeline calls for selecting semi-finalists by early March and holding interviews late that month.

Finalists will be interviewed in early May and the new executive director will be named in June.

Lincoln Univ. opens new library

The Lincoln University of Missouri (LU) opens its new three-story library this month. The new facility has 80,0 square feet, nearly 250 reader stations, 13 group study rooms, 12 private study rooms, and a 24-hour study area. The building also houses the Ethnic Studies Center, two bibliographic instruction classrooms equipped with electronic devices, and a Teleconference Center. Designed by Booker Associates, in association with Leo A. Daly Kennedy Associates, the building features an open mall without interior walls. LU is an 1890 landgrant institution founded in 1866 through the cooperative efforts of the enlisted men and officers of the 62nd and 65th Colored Infantries, and was designed to meet the educational needs of freed African Americans.

Libraries sought to participate in Archaeological Site Reports Database

Portland State University (PSU) Library has created a database of its holdings of archaeological site reports and invites other libraries to join it to establish a multi-institutional bibliographic database of archaeological site reports that will be Internet-accessible.

PSU created an “Archaeological Site Reports” bibliographic database of the reports held by its library. Although faculty and students found the database useful, PSU found it quite labor intensive to prepare as site reports are often not identifiable through the online catalog by title words or subject headings, requiring an examination of the contents of the reports. The database was recently updated, although only a print copy alphabetized by title is available at the Social Science Reference Desk.

Lincoln University’s new three-story library features an open mall without interior walls.

To enhance the value of the database, PSU plans to provide electronic access that will permit users to search all fields of the database as well as search from remote locations. The database will be mounted on the PORTALS (Portland Area Library System) Web site (www.portals.pdx.edu) for which PSU is the host institution. Each institution’s name and call number would be attached to its records. Faye Powell, social sciences librarian at PSU, said, “We feel a multi-institutional, Internet-accessible database would be of enormous value to scholars, students, and other interested persons. We are therefore soliciting the participating of other libraries that would like to be included in this project.” For more information, please contact Faye Powell, Portland State University, P.O. Box 1151, Portland, OR 97207; phone: (503) 725-4519; e-mail: powell@lib.pdx.edu.

More discussion topics for Midwinter

These topics have been announced since the list of meetings was published in the News last month:

ACRL Science and Technology Section’s Database Discussion Group.Sunday, Feb. 16, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Topic: “Sharing the Load: The Pros and Cons of Consortial Database Use”

ACRL Instruction Section Discussion Forum.Sunday, Feb. 16, 4:30–5:30 p.m. Topic: “Learning Styles and Diverse Populations”

Library Issues is now on the Web

Mountainside Pub. has placed Library Lssues, Briefings for Faculty and Academic Administrators, edited by Richard M. Dougherty, on the Web at http://www.netpubsintl.com/LI.html.

Subscribers will be able to consult and read both current and recent issues. The Web version will also publish updated versions of previously printed articles. For information about subscribing online contact Mountainside Publishing at 72263.1222@compuserve.com.

ECLSS develops data collection form

ACRL’s Extended Campus Library Services Section (ECLSS) has developed a standardized form for collecting data about services provided to distant students. The form was developed after members of ECLSS’s Statistics Committee collected and analyzed statistics forms already in use. The data collection form, known as the Uniform Statistics Data Collection (USDC) form, has been piloted by ECLSS members. The resulting document collects data in three parts: Materials Transactions (aspects related to students’ requests and how they are filled); Information Transactions (requests information about the number of reference/referral questions handled and the number of instructional sessions taught); and Information Collected by Branch Libraries.

The data are to be collected over a one-year period and completed forms will be due to ECLSS in October 1997. The committee hopes the results will aid both current providers and those just planning off campus library services. The form is available at the ECLSS Web site: http://ecuvax.cis. ecu.edu/~lbshouse. home.htm or from the chair of the committee: Gloria Lebowitz, Extended Campus Library Services, University of Northern Colorado Library, Greeley, CO 80639; phone: (970) 351-1525; fax: (970) 351-1108.

At the Northwest Ohio Regional Book Depository materials are sorted by size and placed in book trays which are given bar codes indicating where the tray is being shelved. Staff members are shown using a modified forklift nicknamed “Eleanor” to shelve and retrieve stored library materials. The new $3.1 million facility, which serves Bowling Green State University, the Medical College of Ohio, and the University of Toledo, has the equivalent of 24 miles of shelving.