News from the Field

David Free

GPO names Indiana University-Bloomington library as 2020 Library of the Year

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has named Indiana University-Bloomington’s Herman B Wells Library as the 2020 Federal Depository Library of the Year. The library was selected for its efforts to promote the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and for its success showcasing government resources during the coronavirus pandemic. Herman B Wells Library became a member of FDLP in 1881. During the coronavirus pandemic, the library hosted virtual events that highlighted government resources anyone could access remotely. Through its Preservation Lab, the library takes exceptional care and preservation of its depository collection. The library’s government information team closely followed FDLP’s guidance on preserving depository materials during the pandemic.

The library also promoted FDLP through social media, blog posts, exhibits, and presentations at its local public library. The staff worked closely with public libraries in 11 counties to spread the mission and resources of FDLP to a wide audience. The library conducts workshops that encourage all subject librarians to use federal materials and this year launched Government Info Alerts, a service that provides library members with suggested federal publications tailored to members’ interests.

New ACRL Framework for Impactful Scholarship and Metrics

The ACRL Board of Directors approved a new Framework for Impactful Scholarship and Metrics at its November 2020 virtual meeting. The new document was developed by the ACRL Impactful Scholarship and Metrics Task Force as a framework for the measurement and evaluation of academic librarian scholarship. The framework is designed to address gaps between current scholarly evaluation practices and impactful scholarly activities within academic librarianship, including ways to measure and evaluate the impact of a wide range of research outputs.

Consisting of two primary impact categories, “Scholarly Impact” and “Practitioner Impact,” the framework is intended as a tool to understand and contextualize the range and diversity of scholarly activities, which may be considered impactful within academic librarianship. The framework is best employed as an entryway for discussion at individual institutions within the context of existing guidelines and expectations set forth for academic librarians by those respective institutions. The new Framework for Impactful Scholarship and Metrics is freely available in the Standards, Guidelines, and Frameworks section of the ACRL website at www.ala.org/acrl/standards.

SIU’s Morris Library honors Carus family with new endowment

Morris Library at Southern Illinois University (SIU)-Carbondale will honor a benevolent family by establishing the new Alwin C. Carus Endowment. The library’s leadership recently worked with the SIU Foundation to transfer $1 million from the Carus Mineral Trust to create the endowment. It will support archival work and a future endowed chair, the Alwin C. Carus Archivist and Professor of Philosophy, all fully funded by the revenue from the trust. The endowment will support an archivist for the Open Court Publishing Company records and its related collections, as well as other collections in philosophy.

Internet Archive launches Open Library Explorer, acquires Michelson Cinema Research Library

The nonprofit digital library Internet Archive has launched the Open Library Explorer, an experimental new interface for browsing the more than 4 million books at the Internet Archive’s book’s portal, Open Library. Still in beta, Open Library Explorer recreates virtually the experience of exploring the stacks of a physical library. By harnessing the Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress classification systems, it enables readers to discover new books serendipitously by browsing bookshelves organized by a century of librarians.

Learn more at https://openlibrary.org/explore.

The Internet Archive also recently announced the acquisition of the historic Michelson Cinema Research Library from the library’s founder, Lillian Michelson. Michelson has donated the Cinema Research Library that bears her name to the Internet Archive, a digital library with global reach, so that this irreplaceable physical collection will be preserved intact and digitized as much as possible, providing free public access to these research materials. When packed, Michelson’s rich collection of 5,000 books, 30,000 photographs, and more than 1 million clippings, scrapbooks, and ephemera fill more than two 18-wheel tractor trailers.

OverDrive expands magazine catalog

OverDrive is now offering more popular digital magazines than ever before. As a result of the company’s acquisition of RBdigital, more than 3,000 in-demand magazines supplied by ZINIO are now available through the OverDrive platform in the Libby app. All magazines are available in unlimited simultaneous use for public, academic, and corporate libraries. With this new catalog addition, patrons can borrow and read digital magazines alongside ebooks and audiobooks in the award-winning Libby app. The app now includes a new article view, which makes reading digital magazines more interactive and enjoyable. In addition to the magazine package, OverDrive now offers a new “All Access” simultaneous use subscription package for comics and graphic novels supplied by ZINIO. Libraries can browse and subscribe to either simultaneous use package in OverDrive’s Marketplace. For a list of magazine titles, FAQs, and other resources, visit https://resources.overdrive.com/library/apps-features/magazines/.

ProQuest One Business launches

ProQuest recently announced the launch of ProQuest One Business, a new solution designed to support the unique teaching and learning needs of business faculty and students. Developed in collaboration with faculty, students, and business librarians, ProQuest One Business delivers a mix of practical and theoretical content in an interface that helps students build the research skills they’ll need for success in their courses and careers. The tool is a business-focused user experience that guides students to content for their most common assignments—including SWOT analyses, case studies, and industry reports.

ProQuest One Business gives faculty and students access to a wealth of multi-format sources in one place, including company, industry, and country reports from providers such as the Economist Intelligence Unit and Fitch Solutions, and in-depth analyst reports from J.P. Morgan; scholarly journal and ebook coverage from hundreds of renowned publishers, including Emerald and Springer; full text of the three major global business news sources: The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and the Financial Times; and a robust collection of video—including interviews with business leaders, case studies, and trainings.

Learn more about ProQuest One Business at https://about.proquest.com/products-services/ProQuest-One-Business.html.