ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

News from the Field

Stephanie Orphan

Massachusetts Center for the Book celebrates books, reading, and libraries

Simmons College in Boston and Hampshire College in Amherst have joined forces to host the Massachusetts Center for the Book to help promote and celebrate books, reading, and libraries across the commonwealth. The new institutional hosts for the state Center for the Book will work with center affiliates across the state to plan and execute a number of creative programs aimed at promoting books and book arts that hold a special place in Massachusetts literary culture and history. The Center for the Book is a program started by the Library of Congress in 1977 to promote books, reading, libraries, and literacy.

ACRL launches @ your library discussion list

ACRL has created a new electronic discussion list—ACADEMICPR—to assist academic and research librarians in sharing ideas and best practices in marketing and public relations. This new resource has been developed for the Academic and Research Library Campaign, an initiative cosponsored by ACRL and ALA as part of @ your library, The Campaign for America’s Libraries.

The discussion list is open to any academic and research librarian interested in learning more about how to promote his or her library. To subscribe, send an e-mail to: listproc@ala.org. In the body of the message, type: subscribe ACADEMICPR Firstname Lastname.

ILCSO welcomes 12 new members

The Illinois Library Computer Systems Organization (ILCSO) has added 12 new members to its consortium of Illinois libraries, bringing total membership to 56. The additions were approved by the ILCSO Board of Directors in December 2002 following an open application period for prospective members that began in the fall.

The new members are Augustana College, Danville Area Community College, Illinois College, Kendall College, Lewis & Clark Community College, Lincoln Land Community College, the Newberry Library, North Park University, Olivet University, Robert Morris College, University of St. Francis, and Wheaton College. Their holdings will be added to ILCSO’s shared online catalog and resource sharing system.

ISI enhances Current Contents with eFirst

Thomson ISI has added eFirst technology to its ISI Current Contents Connect product. The technology is designed to enhance the product by providing access to the bibliographic information from peer reviewed journal articles in electronic form before the complete journal issue is published. eFirst offers the author and user communities the advantage of a shortened publishing cycle and benefits publishers by helping them to differentiate between their electronic and print products. IS currently has agreements with Blackwell, Karger, Springer, Thieme, Walter de Gruyter, and High Wire.

Univ. of Maryland to offer Master of Information Management degree

The Maryland Higher Education Commission and the Board of Regents have voted final approval of the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies’ new Master of Information Management (MIM) degree. The degree is expected to complement the MLS degree and some courses will be common to both degrees. The first MIM classes are scheduled to begin in fall 2003. The new degree has an initial focus on strategic information management. A second specialty, information architecture and content management, is intended to be developed later as resources permit.

ALA signs agreement to mitigate RoweCom library losses

ALA has signed an agreement with EBSCO that commits the association to continuing subscriptions to libraries affected by the financial collapse of RoweCom. CHOICE, C&RL News, C&RL, Booklist,Book Links, American Libraries, and RBM are among the ALA and affiliated publications covered by the new agreement. EBSCO Industries, Inc. finalized agreements in early March to acquire the U.S. operations of RoweCom, which filed for bankruptcy January 27 and announced it would not fulfill orders for which it already had been paid. Publishers that agree to participate with EBSCO agree to fulfill subscriptions to their publications for which a RoweCom customer paid RoweCom, but for which the publisher did not receive payment. In exchange for agreeing to send issues, publishers are to receive the equivalent of the RoweCom customer’s claim on the bankrupt RoweCom estate to the extent of the value of the subscriptions they have agreed to fulfill.

Subscribers of CHOICE and other ACRL journals with questions or concerns are encouraged to contact CHOICE/ACRL Customer Service, (860) 347-6933, ext. 133, e-mail: customerservice® ala-choice.org.

Maine Libraries choose Endeavor's Encompass

The University of Maine and the State of Maine Library have partnered to select Endeavor Information Systems’ Encompass for Resource Access system, which provides access to e- resources and expanded search capabilities. Encompass will be implemented as a single federated search system administered by the University of Maine-Orono to access shared resources for the university system’s eight campus libraries and their four branches, plus the Maine State Library.

Historically Black Colleges formalize alliance

Library directors and deans from the 103 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) have established a new consortium, the HBCU Library Alliance. At a two- day meeting in fall 2002, they evaluated the unique needs and assets of the HBCU libraries, examined cooperative approaches to enriching their respective information services, and considered programs to achieve their goals. Delegates affirmed the value of consortium by establishing the HBCU Libraiy Alliance. They drafted a mission statement and identified program priorities, including preservation and access to cultural collections, developing human resources for the future, and producing a statistical analysis of HBCU library programs.

ACRL and TLT Group offer second installment in information literacy seminar series

ACRL and TLT Group will be offering their second information literacy online seminar, April 28 through May 16. The seminar, which will focus on professional development and collaboration, will be led by Dane Ward, coordinator of instructional services, Illinois State University and Craig Gibson, associate university librarian for public services, George Mason University. The first seminar in the series, Best Practices in Information Literacy in Undergraduate Education, was held in March; the third is scheduled for July 2003.

The ACRL/TLT online seminars have both synchronous and asynchronous components. Reduced registration rates are offered for ACRL members, staff of TLT Group subscriber institutions, and ALA members. There is also a discount for registering more than one person from the same institution. Information about the seminars can be found at http://www. tltgroup.org/events/onlineworkshops/ calendar.htm and on the ACRL Web site.

Canadian National Site Licensing Project chooses Science Direct

The Canadian National Site Licensing Project (CNSLP) has acquired a license agreement to provide online access to scientific, technical, and medical full-text articles and content from the publisher Elsevier through its Science Direct platform. The purpose of the CNSLP is to increase the capacity for research and innovation in Canada. This agreement expands the number of member institutions with Science Direct access from 11 to 61. An estimated

650,0 students, researchers, and academic scientists in the Canadian consortium will now have unlimited online access to the full-text, peer reviewed articles. ■