ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

Fast Facts

Ann Viles is coordinator of reference and instruction at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, e-mail: vilesea@conrad.appstate.edu

→ Inaugural e-book awards

Pulitzer Prize winner David Maraniss was awarded ihe first nonfiction e-book prize for When Pride Still Mattered, and E. M. Schorb’s Paradise Square took the first fiction award at the Frankfurt Book Fair on October 20. The two American authors shared $100,000 in prize money.

“The International eBook Award Foundation Announces Winners for Inaugural Frankfurt eBook Awards," International eBook Award Foundation. http://www.frankfurt-ebook award org/pi.10-20-2000 htm. Nov. 1, 2000

→ Dwindling print subscriptions

Since making the “migration to an electronic journal collection as quickly as possible a key component of its strategic plan” in 1998, the Drexel University Library has reduced its print-only subscriptions to 800. In 2001. the library expects to subscribe to "about 300 print-only journals and over 6,000 electronic journals."

Carol Hansen Montgomery, “Measuring the impact of an Electronic Journal Collection on Library Costs: A Framework and Preliminary Observations," D-Lib Magazine 6, no 10 (October 2000). http://www.dlib.org/dlib/ october00/montgomery/l 0montgomery.html Nov 1, 2000

→ National recording registry

Congress has approved the creation of a National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress. The Registry, similar to the National Film Preservation Board, will digitize and preserve significant sound recordings that are at least 25 years old and no longer available commercially.

Pamela McClintock, "Legislators Approve New Tune Registry," Daily Variety, Nov 2, 2000: 8. LEXIS NEXI5 Academic Universe. Nov. 2, 2000

→ Web growth slowing

OCLC's annual review estimates that the number of unique sites on the Web has increased by 50 percent since 1999 to about 7 million, but the rate of growth has slowed from an 80 percent increase between 1998 and 1999. About 2.9 million (41%) are public Web sites, 1.5 million (21%) are sites with restricted access such as password authentication, and 2,7 million (38%) are provisional sites such as server default pages or sites “under construction.”

“OCLC Researchers Measure the World Wide Web," OCLC Online Computer Library Center, http://www.oclc.org/ oclc/press/20001016a.htm Nov. 1, 2000

→ Users dubious about online information

According to a recent survey by the UCLA Center for Communication Policy, only about 54.7 percent of Internet users consider most or all online information to be reliable and accurate; 37.7 percent think about half of the information is reliable; and 7.5 percent believe that none or only a small portion of it is accurate. As important or extremely important sources of information, more Internet users indicated books (73.1%) and newspapers (69.3%) than indicated Internet information (67.3%).

UCLA Center for Communication Policy, The UCLA Internet Report: "Surveying the Digital Future." October 25, 2000. http://www.ccp ucla.edu/newsite/pages/internet-report.asp. Nov 1, 2000