ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

News from the Field

Stephanie Orphan

Share your effective practices through ACRL's clearinghouse

ACRL’s Effective Practices Committee is accepting submissions for its Web-based clearinghouse for effective practices in academic libraries. The committee is looking for examples of procedures or tools that have been developed to streamline workflow, solve problems, or improve service; the clearinghouse documents practices from all areas of academic libraries. Criteria for submissions and an online submission form can be found on the Effective Practices Web site at www.acrl.org/effectivepractices. Librarians looking for ideas to improve specific practices in their own libraries or just shopping for good ideas can select “Browse” to view practices that have been accepted by the committee and posted to the Web site.

Reference Universesupports OpenURL protocol

Paratext LLC’s Reference Universe, an aggregated access point for subject encyclopedias and other reference works, now supports the OpenURL protocol. The Web-based database, which is updated weekly, contains more than 3 million citations from more than 2,500 titles from 260 reference publishers. Support of OpenURL will enable database users to link directly from a citation to the library’s holdings.

UC Irvine dedicates library

The University of California-Irvine has renamed its main library the Jack Langson Library, in recognition of a leadership gift from local entrepreneur Jack Langson. A dedication ceremony was held in October. The library offers research services and collections supporting the arts, humanities, social sciences, social ecology, business, and management. Prominent collections include the Critical Theory Archives and the East Asian Collection. A compact shelving and collections arrangement project was completed in August, increasing the Langson Library’s capacity by nearly 500,000 volumes.

Marcel Dekker launches e-book sites

Publisher Marcel Dekker has partnered with OverDrive, Inc., a vendor and distributor of e-books, to launch two e-book sites. One is an institutional site that allows libraries to purchase titles for perpetual access; the other is designed for individual users. Dekker, which specializes in scientific, technical, and medial information, offers more than 500 e-books and is adding new titles every week. In response to the institutional need to maintain future access to titles purchased today, the institutional site allows librarians to purchase the titles instead of just licensing them. Access also includes multiple and concurrent viewing.

UCLA selects Endeavor

The UCLA Libraiy has awarded the contract for its new online information system to Endeavor Information Systems, following a competitive bid process. Faculty input was a significant element of the evaluation process that led to the selection of Endeavor’s Voyager product. Responses to a survey and in focus groups helped to identify key points of functionality from the user’s perspective, which were incorporated into the fall 2002 Request for Proposal. Three vendors, including Endeavor, submitted proposals, which were evaluated by students, faculty and staff. UCLA’s selection of Voyager has contributed to Endeavor being ranked as the most-chosen integrated library system among members of the Association of Research Libraries (28%).