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Home  News from the Field
NEWS FROM THE FIELD
C&RL News, April 2000
Vol. 61 No. 4
by Mary Ellen Davis
Innovative and netLibrary establish alliance
Innovative Interfaces and netLibrary announced an alliance to integrate the use of eBooks with Innovative’s automated library systems (INNOPAC and Millennium). Under the agreement, Innovative will develop additional features to enable its software to automatically notify interested libraries of the availability of specific netLibrary eBooks, and to enable libraries to purchase eBooks electronically. Full MARC records for netLibrary eBooks may also be loaded into the library catalog with access to the eBook. Preview access (such as the ability to view the table of contents, the first few chapters, etc.) may also be provided.
Regents College teams with Johns Hopkins to create virtual library
Regents College and the Sheridan Libraries at Johns Hopkins University have joined forces to create the Regents College Virtual Library (RCVL).
At the heart of the new library services available to Regents students are electronic reference materials, reference librarian services via e-mail or toll-free phone, online bibliographic databases, Web-based general and discipline-specific reading rooms. Special services, such as home delivery of print-based materials and personalized research services, are available on a per-use fee basis.
Because Regent students so value the flexibility of their degree programs, making library services available at any time, from virtually any place, “is one of the most important and exciting benefits that we have been able to offer our students,” said C. Wayne Williams, president of Regents College.
“RCVL will operate as an auxiliary enterprise, providing Johns Hopkins with valuable experience in delivering electronic collections and services to students participating in the innovative, distance-learning degree programs at Regents College,” said James G. Neal, dean of university libraries and Sheridan director at Johns Hopkins University. “This collaboration will serve as a model for quality academic support service through technology while preserving personal touch and professional oversight.”
Regents College (http://www.regents.edu) is a degree-granting institution designed for adults who choose to complete their college degrees in a self-paced, portable manner. A private institution, Regents has pioneered in distance learning, since its founding in 1971.
University at Albany campaign tops $3 million goal
Thanks to the generosity of more than 3,000 donors and to a $500,000 challenge grant from the Kresge Foundation, the University at Albany, SUNY, has raised $3.8 million in private funds to help equip its libraries as state-of-the-art interchanges on the information superhighway.
Launched in April 1998, the campaign for the libraries sought to raise $3 million by the end of 1999 and thereby earn a $500,000 Kresge challenge grant. At the end of 1999, donors had given $3,302,291, which with the Kresge grant raised the final total to $3,802,291.
The library project was the result of a private-public partnership. New York State provided $26.6 million to construct and equip a new library housing science collections, special collections and archives, and the university’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. The campaign sought $3.5 million in private support to fully update and coordinate the new building with the University at Albany’s other two libraries.
Expand your knowledge base with ACRL preconferences
Keep up with the rapid changes in academic librarianship by attending an ACRL preconference at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago on July 7. Choose from workshops on licensing, advocacy, instruction, technology, and rare books. Details may be found at http://www.ala.org/acrl/confhp.html.
Navy Department Library celebrates 200th birthday
The Navy Department Library took the occasion of its 200th anniversary in March 2000 to review its history. Established just three weeks before the Library of Congress, the library traces its roots to a March 31, 1800, letter from President John Adams to Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert directing him to establish a library that would contain “. . . the best writing . . . on the theory and practice of naval architecture, navigation, gunnery . . .”
From unique signal books, including Thomas Truxtun’s personal copy of Instructions, Signals and Explanations . . . (1797), to scrapbooks, like the 1936 “FDR Trip Aboard the USS Indianapolis, the library’s holdings provide an eclectic array of historical material documenting the country’s naval heritage. Located in the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., the library is open to the public (http://navylibrary.nhc.navy.mil).
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RBMS attends antiquarian book fair
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Rare Book and Manuscript Section (RBMS) members in Southern California staffed a booth at the 33rd California International Antiquarian Book Fair, February 11–13. Over the space of three days, collectors and librarians came to the Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel to admire, and often to purchase, the rare books, manuscripts, maps, prints, and other valuable and unusual materials displayed by 182 members of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA).
Ready to greet visitors to the 33rd California
International Antiquarian Book Fair are (l to r):
Michael Thompson, ABAA; Hugh Tolford, bookfair organizer;
Bill Brown, ACRL Board; and Eric Holzenberg, chair, RBMS.
Thanks to the generosity of ABAA and its Southern California chapter, RBMS members were given the opportunity to meet many of the bibliophiles who were in attendance and to introduce them to RBMS, ACRL, and the world of special collections librarianship and scholarship in the history of the book.
ABAA’s gift of space at its fairs is part of an ongoing partnership between RBMS and ABAA. The two groups are committed to exploring other joint ventures with the goal of heightening public awareness and disseminating information about the antiquarian book world and book collecting. RBMS plans to sponsor more booths at ABAA’s national book fairs, and booth organizers will be recruiting members to represent the section in these venues.
RBMS received an ACRL Initiative Fund Award to support expenses relating to the booth.—Laura Stalker, Huntington Library, e-mail: lstalker@huntington.org
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