News from the Field

David Free

UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries add nine-millionth volume

The nine-millionth volume recently acquired by the University Libraries at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill isn’t a book. It’s a collection of approximately 900 woodcut printing blocks from the Propaganda Fide press, dating from 1625 to 1850. The blocks’ role as printing technology, and in global history, makes them valuable to research in many fields, and also a tribute to books and bookmaking.

The Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (“Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith”) is a college of the Catholic church, now known as the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. To aid in the church’s mission to spread the faith throughout the world, it established its own press in 1622. The press produced materials in various languages, including guides for priests trying to learn a new language and publications that communicated Catholicism’s tenets. The collection contains blocks in many languages, with a heavy concentration in East Asian and Middle Eastern languages, Slavic, Greek, and other global languages.

The blocks were purchased with funding from the John Wesley and Anna Hodgin Hanes Foundation and the Whittaker Library Foundation. The Hanes family’s commitment to Carolina’s libraries began in 1929, when it gave the gift that first established the Rare Book Collection. Through its foundation, it has since given every milestone millionth volume to the library. Officials believe the tradition is unique among research libraries. The Whitaker Library Fund, established in 1960, has helped to extend the University Libraries’ holdings of English and American literature, as well as continental European books and manuscripts.

Companion Document to the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education: Sociology

The ACRL Board of Directors approved a new Companion Document to the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education: Sociology at its January 27, 2022, virtual meeting. Developed by the ACRL Anthropology and Sociology Section’s Instruction and Information Literacy Committee, the companion document defines Sociological Information Literacy as an understanding of how information and scholarship are created, published, disseminated, and used by individuals and organizations. The document describes connections between the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy and the Sociological Literacy Framework (SLF) developed by sociology professors Susan Ferguson and William Carbonaro. Using a conceptual crosswalk, the companion document presents six tables that explain how the essential concepts in the SLF relate to the six ACRL frames. The Companion Document to the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education: Research Competencies in Writing and Literature is freely available in the Standards, Guidelines, and Frameworks section of the ACRL website at https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards.

ASERL publishes “The ASERL Eleven” licensing principles

The Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) recently published “The ASERL Eleven: Recommended Principles and Terms for Electronic Resource Agreements.” This booklet and accompanying Google document summarize 11 key principles and suggested language to assist ASERL libraries and others in securing better terms for content and services they license. Published under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial License, the Google document allows users to easily copy/paste the suggested license language as part of negotiations with service providers. “The ASERL Eleven” is available at www.aserl.org/2022-02_aserl_licensing_principles_v1-0/.

Fellows selected for 2022–2023 ARL Leadership and Career Development Program

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Leadership and Career Development Program (LCDP) Task Force has chosen 25 fellows for the 2022–2023 LCDP cohort, based on recommendations from the LCDP Selection Working Group. LCDP is a yearlong experience that prepares mid-career librarians from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups to take on leadership roles in their careers and in the profession at large. The program addresses the lack of representation of BIPOC professionals in leadership ranks within academic and research institutions and other communities of practice.

Through LCDP, fellows will receive professional development, education, mentorship, and sponsorship while building and expanding a community of BIPOC leaders. Additionally, the LCDP helps research libraries and archives develop a more diverse professional workforce and leadership that can contribute to library success in serving the research, teaching, and learning of increasingly diverse scholarly and learning communities. This is accomplished, in part, by providing LCDP fellows with meaningful exposure to the major strategic issues that are shaping the future of research institutions. Complete details on the program, including a full list of fellows, is available at www.arl.org/category/our-priorities/diversity-equity-inclusion/leadership-and-career-development-program/.

MIT Press, Brown University Library launch On Seeing series

The MIT Press and the Brown University Library have announced the launch of On Seeing, an experiment in multimodal publishing that will shape new conversations about how we see, comprehend, and participate in visual culture. Uniting the press’s global publishing experience and the library’s digital publication expertise, the series will examine understudied questions at the intersection of visual culture and subjects such as race, care, decolonization, privilege, and precarity.

Defined by bold positions, rigorous research, and cultural relevance, books will be written in an accessible style to serve a wide audience. The series will be launched alongside a community engagement program tailored to each specific volume and supported by a postdoctoral researcher position at Brown University Library. Resources might include an online hub for knowledge-sharing, a downloadable community conversation toolkit, an author interview or podcast, or free-to-the-public events such as book readings and structured conversations in libraries, bookstores, or public arts institutions. With inclusivity and access as driving motivations, On Seeing will be published in print editions and in interactive, open access digital editions.

New from ACRL—The Community College Library Series

ACRL announces the publication of the first two books in its new The Community College Library series, Assessment and Instruction and Reference, edited by Janet Pinkley and Kaela Casey. These books demonstrate the innovative and replicable ways community college librarians are meeting the information and research needs of their college population both in person and remotely, all while providing a safe, inclusive space for students to explore and learn.

Community colleges are a cornerstone of higher education and serve the unique needs of the communities in which they reside. In 2019, community colleges accounted for 41 percent of all undergraduate students in the United States. Community college librarians are engaged in meaningful work designing and delivering library programs and services that meet the needs of their diverse populations and support student learning. The Community College Library series is meant to lift the voices of community college librarians and highlight their creativity, tenacity, and commitment to students.

The Community College Library: Assessment explores the research, comprehensive plans, and new approaches to assessment being created by community college librarians around the United States. Chapters include sample activities and materials and cover topics including assessing student learning while shifting from Standards to Framework, investigating and communicating library instruction’s relationship to student retention, and building librarian assessment confidence through communities of research practice.

The Community College Library: Reference and Instruction collects research, programs, and new approaches to reference and instruction implemented by community college librarians around the United States. Chapters include sample activities and materials and cover topics including using race-centered and trauma-informed practices in the reference interview, incorporating online workshops into an existing information literacy program, and using student-driven pedagogy to navigate the early stages of research.

The first two volumes of The Community College Library series is available for purchase in print and as ebooks through the ALA Online Store, in print through Amazon.com, and by telephone order at (866) 746-7252 in the United States or (770) 442-8633 for international customers.

EBSCO launches FSTA with Full Text

EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) has released FSTA with Full Text. This new resource provides access to full text for the leading food and nutrition science database. FSTA with Full Text includes food-focused scientific content across a host of related fields including biotechnology, food safety, omics technologies, pet foods, sport science and sustainability. FSTA with Full Text is produced in collaboration with the expert team at IFIS, the producers of FSTA, and offers an extensive collection of full-text journals from a wide variety of sources, including more than 200 active full-text journals, with more than 300 active full-text journals to be available by December 2022. FSTA with Full Text is accessible via EBSCOhost including all standard query, result, and linking features. To learn more about FSTA with Full Text, visit www.ebsco.com/products/research-databases/fsta-full-text.

ProQuest Black Studies launches

ProQuest, part of Clarivate, has announced the launch of ProQuest Black Studies, a browsable collection of curated sources on the history and lives of Black Americans, for use in classrooms and research. This new resource covers several centuries of history, from the colonial era to recent times. At launch, it includes 10 major historical Black newspapers, 120 archival collections and 120 full-text journals, video, and faculty essays all centered on Black studies. The new resource supports research projects in African American history, U.S. history, political science, and sociology courses. Graduate students can use the collection for articles, research seminar papers, theses, and dissertations. Topic pages and a comprehensive timeline allow faculty and students to pinpoint a person or event and then quickly retrieve newspaper articles, primary sources, and journal articles on the subject.

Open access collections added to FirstSearch

Additional open access collections are now searchable in FirstSearch using the Open Access Content database. Released in June 2021, the Open Access Content database helps researchers easily find and access resources from familiar open content providers. Searches of the Open Access Content database retrieve only open access items, saving time for searchers who wish to focus their research on resources from open access sources, and helping libraries offer more high-quality content without impacting budgets. “Access” links in FirstSearch records connect users to full-text open content. The Open Access Content database is included in all active FirstSearch accounts at no additional charge. More information, including a list of providers, is available at www.oclc.org/en/news/announcements/2022/firstsearch-open-access-content-database-update.html.