ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

News from the Field

Mary Ellen Davis

Statewide reciprocal borrowing and document delivery comes to Florida

An agreement endorsed by presidents of Florida’s 28 community colleges and 10 public state universities enables students in any one of Florida’s 38 publicly funded institutions of higher education to freely borrow materials from the libraries of any other colleges or universities. Developed as part of Florida’s Distance Learning Library Initiative (DLLI), the reciprocal borrowing agreement went into effect in December 1998. The DLLI, midway through its second year of operation, has provided several statewide initiatives to broaden and strengthen library services in support of higher education, including coordination of the statewide acquisition of electronic resources such as Britannica Online and 60 OCLC FirstSearch databases, coordination of a statewide courier service, and support of a reference and referral center for distance learners.

In late January J. Richard Madaus, director of the College Center for Library Automation (CCLA), announced that LINCC (Library Information Network for Community Colleges) Document Delivery Workstations had been delivered to the 61 campus libraries of Florida’s 28 community colleges. The workstation allows library staff to send and receive documents to each other and to libraries around the world. “With this modern communications technology, our students, staff, and faculty may now draw on the resources of all the community colleges and hundreds of similarly equipped libraries around the world to quickly get the articles and reports they need,” said Madaus. Developed by the CCLA, the LINCC workstation is comprised of a PC, monitor, printer, and scanner. The software includes Research libraries Group’s document transmission product, Ariel, Netscape, and a fax program. The LINCC workstation project complements the document delivery component of the DLLI (http:// dlis.dos.state.fl.us/dlli), which includes a statewide ground courier service.

Florida International University Library dedicated

After three years of construction, the Steven and Dorothea Green Library at Florida International University Miami, Florida, has been dedicated and is in full use by the University community. Named for the current U.S. Ambassador to Singapore and his wife, the $40 million, 227,957 net square foot building seats more than 2,0000 library users, has a capacity of over 1 million volumes and an ATM electronic infrastructure that delivers 25 MB of bandwidth to all workstations, making possible transmission of full-motion video. Among other electronic features are a 3,000 square-foot Geographic Information System (GIS) Center. The building includes 127 research carrels, 12 study group rooms, and four special rooms for the physically challenged. Eight stories tall, footings have been provided for an additional six levels. Architects were M. C. Harry and Associates, Miami; the builder, Turner Construction.

Florida International University's new Steven and Dorothea Green Library was completed at a cost of $40 million and offers more than 2,000 seats, a capacity for over 1 million volumes, and an ATM electronic infrastructure that delivers 25 MB of bandwith to all workstations making possible transmission of full-motion video.

CARL Corp. purchased by founder. Ward Shaw

CARL Corporation, a Denver-based library automation company, and the UnCover Company have been purchased from The Dialog Corporation by CARL’s Chairman and CEO, Ward Shaw. CARL Corp. and UnCover were purchased by Knight Ridder Information, Inc. (now The Dialog Corporation) in 1995. When Knight Ridder was acquired by MAID PLC in November 1997, the corporation announced its intent to divest CARL and UnCover. Shaw emphasized the benefits to CARL’s library system customers. “We have always partnered with visionary libraries. CARL’s independence will reenergize these partnerships.” CARL is developing several Web-based public access products aimed toward full patron selfservice and will roll out the Information Management and Delivery System—the graphical client/ server integrated library system in 1999. More information about CARL may be found at http:// www.carl.org.

Oberlin Group Libraries join SPARC

Fifteen members of the Oberlin Group library consortium have joined the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) in its effort to expand competition and drive down prices in scientific journal publishing. Oberlin Group libraries that are now full members of SPARC include Bowdoin College, Bucknell University, Claremont Colleges, Oberlin College, and Wesleyan University. Consortial members include Albion College, Colorado College, Denison University, Eckerd College, Franklin and Marshall College, Macalester College, Trinity College, St. Lawrence University, Simmons College, and Williams College.

“The most serious threat faced by academic libraries is continuing high increases in journal subscriptions, particularly for scientific journals,” said Ray English, director of libraries at Oberlin College, who facilitated participation by the new college library members. “SPARC represents the first real initiative that has come out of the library community to try to address this issue. It deserves our strong and enthusiastic support.”

The Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL), an organization that represents all Australian university libraries, has also joined SPARC.

OCLC and WLN complete merger

OCLC and WLN completed negotiations and have merged, effective January 1,1999. Both WLN and OCLC are nonprofit corporations. WLN has served 550 libraries in the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S. and Canada from its Lacey, Washington, office. OCLC, based in Dublin, Ohio, serves over 33,000 libraries in 65 countries and territories. “Since the announcement of the Letter of Intent on October 21, 1998, I have been immensely impressed by the energy, the focus, and the commitment of staffs from both companies to put this merger together. The fact that we were able to do it in leas than ten weeks is a tremendous tribute to the good will and professional commitment of all involved,” said Paul McCarthy, WLN president and CEO. Details about their merger may be found at http://www.oclc.org/wln/.

EBSCO releases EBSCO Online

Featuring more than 1,200 electronic journals from a broad range of publishers, powerful searching capabilities, and a range of administrate/management features, EBSCO Online was released in January. EBSCO Online is a Web-based service that provides a single site for end users to search and access their library’s collection of electronic journals. A key feature of the system is the ability to search across journal content regardless of publisher. EBSCO Online includes the full content of Project MUSE, more than 45 electronic journals from Johns Hopkins University Press. Walter de Gruyter & Co. is also making its journals available through EBSCO Online.

Learn about the licensing landscape

Overwhelmed by licensing contracts? Learn how to interpret and manage licensing contracts! Plan to attend ACRL’s preconference “Understanding the Licensing Landscape” at ALA’s Annual Conference in New Orleans, Friday June 25, 1999, from 1:30-4:30 p.m.

The conference will give you the tools you need to promote compliance at your institution, explore future licensing trends, and gain negotiation skills. Topics and presenters include:

• Taming the license Beast: Tracking and Compliance.Find out how to manage and administer licenses as you hear suggestions for responsible tracking procedures and techniques. Explore ways and means of educating staff and users about license terms, and work through scenarios.

Presenters:Kimberly Parker, Electronic Publishing αnd Collections librarian, Yale University Library, and Ellen Duranœau, assistant acquisitions librarian for Digital Resources, MIT Libraries

• The Future of the Licensing Landscape.Is the current licensing model sustainable as libraries attempt to manage an ever-increasing number of licenses and contracts? Are libraries, vendors, and publishers exploring alternatives? The negotiation and management of licenses threatens to overwhelm most staff. Explore potential models for the future of license negotiation and management.

Presenter:Barbara McFadden Allen, director, Center for Library Initiatives, Committee on Institutional Cooperation • Sense and Licensability: A Practical Guide to License Negotiation. Learn about core issues in license negotiation, explore current “hot” issues, and share your own negotiation strategies and techniques.

Presenters:Ivy Anderson, coordinator for Digital Acquisitions, Harvard University office for lnformation Systems, and Hannah Stevens, executive director, Boston Library Consortium

Registration materials are available in the January 1999 edition of American Libraries or register online at: http://www.internetpros. com/registration.cfm. Registration fees are $75 for ACRL members, $115 for ALA members, and $160 for nonmembers. Questions? Contact Margot Sutton at msutton@ala.org or (800) 545-2433 ext. 2522.

UCI Libraries uses bookplates to honor employees

The University of California, Irvine Libraries has put a new twist on the traditional years of service recognitions given library employees. Library employees reaching milestones at five-year increments are invited to select a book already purchased for the UCI collections, into which is placed a bookplate honoring the employee for the appropriate number of years worked in the UCI Libraries. A list of employees honored each month is announced in the library employee newsletter and maintained on the staff Web site.

Penn State launches mass deacidification process

The Penn State University Libraries have recently begun a mass deacidification project to chemically treat acidic books that are most likely to be used by patrons. Books to be deacidified are first sent to Wert Bookbinding where they are commercially bound or rebound. Wert then transports the books to Preservation Technologies, L.P. in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, where the mass deacidification is done. Sue Kellerman, head of the Preservation Department at Penn State says that the libraries are leading the way in book treatment by having the books rebound and then deacidified. “Rebinding and then deacidifying is a whole book treatment that makes the book better than new,” she says, adding that few other schools are currently taking advantage of the mass deacidification process. The Preservation Department plans to send about 100 books per month for mass deacidification.

ACRL/WESS receives $1,000 annual award

ACRL’s Western European Specialists Section (WESS) has been given a $1,000 annual grant by Jean-Denis Touzot, president of the Paris-based book distributor and publisher Jean Touzot, to support the section’s program at the ALA Annual Conference. Given “in recognition of the excellent work done by the organization to promote and enhance Western European studies,” the grant was awarded “to allow WESS to create a more interesting forum for professional discussion at the Annual Conference.” Touzot made the announcement of the grant himself at the WESS membership meeting at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. While introducing Touzot, WESS Chair Stephen Lehmann said, “This business meeting should be renamed the pleasure meeting in light of the forthcoming announcement," and expressed the section’s gratitude to Touzot for so generously formalizing his longtime support of WESS and its activities.

USC and Natural History Museum forge partnership

The special collections department of the University of Southern California Libraries has joined in partnership with the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History’s Seaver Center for Western History Research. The agreement augments USC’s holding of primary research materials, while the Museum of Natural History will restore greater availability of the Seaver Center’s holdings to scholars.

Under the terms of the agreement, USC will fund a full-time curator for the Seaver Center— filling a post that has been vacant since 1994, when budget cuts drastically reduced staffing at the museum. While the center retains all rights to its holdings, the agreement specifies that USC may consider the collection a branch of its special collections department.

Jerry Dean Campbell, dean of USC Libraries and the university’s chief infomiation officer said, “My plan is to increase significantly our holdings of primary materials, so that USC is positioned as a major research center for the study of multinational communities and large-scale urban development.” ■