ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

News from the Field

Stephanie Orphan

OCLC pricing to remain unchanged in 2004

At its Board of Trustees meeting in April, OCLC adopted a proposal to keep prices at their current levels for fiscal year 2004, which began July 1, 2003. There will be no price increases in OCLC cataloging and metadata services, cooperative discover services, and digital and preservation services. In services for which OCLC provides access to third-party content, such as FirstSearch, it will pass through to libraries only royalty increases charged by the content owners. The decision to hold prices is a response to the pressures that the depressed economy is placing on library budgets.

UNC-Chapel Hill graduates first class of IS undergrads

The University of North Carolina (UNC)-Chapel Hill recognized the first graduates of its undergraduate program in information science at its spring commencement ceremony. The bachelor’s degree in information science, which was first offered in fall 2002, integrates the study of the creation and management of information content, the characteristics and needs of the people who create and use information, and the technologies used to support the creation and manipulation of information. The three members of this first graduating class completed double majors—two combining information science with a business degree and one with computer science. UNC-Chapel Hill is one of only a handful of schools nationwide offering such a program.

CTW Library Consortium chooses Voyager

The CTW Library Consortium, made up of Connecticut College, Trinity College, and Wesleyan University, has chosen Endeavor’s Voyager integrated library management system and Universal Borrowing intra-consortia lending system. The selection will give the consortium more options in the catalog’s interface, increased flexibility in technical services workflows, and an open architecture for campus integration and future developments. Voyager also allows the libraries to run reports individually or as a consortium.

College of New Rochelle Library named Project of the Year

The recently renovated Mother Irene Gill Library at the College of New Rochelle’s main campus has been named Project of the Year by the Metro New York/New Jersey chapter of the Construction Management Association of America in the “under $10M” category. The new library includes more than 200 new data ports to access online databases and the Internet, dozens of computer workstations throughout the facility, a computerized Instruction Room to enhance research ability, an extensive collection of more than 200,000 volumes, comfortable seating, private study rooms, and a new refreshment lounge.

Yale symposium designed to recruit librarians

Yale University Library and Yale’s Office of Graduate Career Services sponsored a symposium this spring to inform graduate students in the humanities about the professional opportunities in university and research library systems.The event, “How to Do Things with Books: Academic Careers in University Librar- ies,” was created to raise the awareness of the graduate students in the humanities to other rewarding professional venues beyond teach- ing. Symposium speakers were all professional librarians and library administers who hold Ph.D.s in the humanities.

EBSCO's A-to-Z service now available

EBSCO has released its new A-to-Z service, de- signed to help librarians keep track of the titles in their electronic resources and to make it easier for patrons to find titles. A-to-Z collects into one gateway listing the titles to which a library’s pa- trons have full-text access, whether they are in- cluded in publisher packages, are stand-alone e- journals or are found in many different databases. A library doesn’t have to be a current EBSCO customer to use A-to-Z service, however the ser- vice is built to integrate with other EBSCO e- resource products.

Harvard takes reference on the road

Harvard College Library has introduced “Rov- ing Librarian, Research Assistance for the Undergraduate Student on the Run,” a pilot program that brought library service to students at Harvard’s Loker Common for five weeks in spring 2003. Using a wireless laptop, reference librarians take HOLLIS (Harvard OnLine Library Information Service), the Harvard Libraries portal, research guides, and finding aids out of the library and into nonacademic spaces where students spend their time. The Lamont, Hilles, and Cabot under- graduate libraries are involved in the project. The library plans to continue the program in the fall, with a goal of branching out to of- fer services in more locations, such as dorms and houses.

The Roving Librarian project was the topic of a conference program at the 2003 ALA Annual Conference, “Where the Boys (and Girls) Are: Reference on the Road,” sponsored by the Reference and User Services Association Hot Topics in Frontline Reference Discussion Group.

Jeff Kosokoff, head of reference services at Harvard's Lamont Library, assists a student on the run with research at Loker Commons.

ALA TechSource offers combined subscriptions

ALA TechSource has enhanced the value for its online subscribers by allowing access to both “Search the Archives” and “Library Technology Reports Online” for one subscription price. Previously, access to each product was sold separately. “Search the Archives” includes the 1999 through most recent issues of “Library Technology Reports” and the complete archives for “Smart Libraries Newsletter” (formerly Library Systems Newsletter) from July 1981 to December 2002. Both publications are now searchable by keyword, author, title, date, or issue. Issues are presented in PDF for- and can be viewed with Adobe Acrobat Reader. More information about subscriptions is available at www.techsource.ala.org.

Ingenta adds three U.S. association publishers

Ingenta, Inc., provider of online publishing services to academic and professional publishers, has reported three new signings, bringing the total number of its publisher accounts to more than 240. The signings include the American Sociological Association, American Pharmacists Association, and National Association of Social Workers. In addition to providing an online journal service via Ingenta.com and IngentaSelect.com, Ingenta has built more than 60 publisher-branded Web sites for its clients and hundreds of journal Web sites ranging from branded homepages to stand-alone Web sites.

British library opens collections for electronic delivery

The British Library has announced a new secure Electronic Delivery service allowing customers to order copies of more than a billion items held in its collection, regardless of original format. Electronic Delivery is based on Adobe Reader 6.0 software and Relais International scanning and delivery technology. Beginning in fall 2003, Electronic Delivery will be fully available, allowing the library to provide virtually all of the materials listed in its catalogs directly to the researchers’ PCs. Items can be made available within two hours if needed.

The library launched a fully copyright compliant secure electronic delivery service for digital documents in December 2002 and since then has obtained extensive agreements for secure electronic delivery with many of the world’s leading scientific publishers. It also owns the rights to a vast majority of the items listed in its catalogs, allowing it to offer extensive coverage and fast turn-around times.

Gale aligns reports to ICOLC and COUNTER guidelines

Reference publisher Gale has aligned its electronic product usage reports to the guidelines and requirements outlined by the International Coalition of Library Consortiums (ICOLC) and Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources (COUNTER). ICOLC and COUNTER are international organizations recognized for their efforts in developing standards for the measurement and reporting of usage statistics. Beginning July 2003, full-text record access will be displayed separately from abstract and citation record access on all Gale usage reports. As new ICOLC and COUNTER requirements for usage reporting are published, Gale plans to respond with usage reporting updates that keep its statistics aligned with market needs. ■