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NEWS FROM THE FIELD
C&RL News, April 2002
Vol. 63 No. 4
by Stephanie Orphan
ACRL announces participants for best practices conference
Participants in ACRL’s upcoming invitational conference on best practices in information literacy programming were selected by the Best Practices Project Team at the Midwinter meeting.
Austin Community College, California State University–Fullerton, Elmhurst College, James Madison University, Minneapolis Community and Technical College, Ohio State University, University at Albany–SUNY, Wartburg College, Weber State University, and Zayed University will each send a team of three to five people, representing academic administrators, classroom faculty, information technologists and librarians involved in their information literacy programs, to the conference to be held in Atlanta prior to ALA’s Annual Conference.
The institutions were chosen both for the overall quality of their application of the characteristics of best practice to describe their programs and to represent the diversity of higher education. For two years the project has been drafting a set of characteristics based on broad input from the field by classroom faculty, information technologists, and librarians. Using the draft characteristics, 29 institutions wrote descriptions of their programs as part of an application to attend the invitational conference.
The ACRL Best Practices Project is an activity of the Institute for Information Literacy and is intended to develop a set of characteristics of best practice in information literacy programming that institutions can use to assess the management and operation of an information literacy program.
For more information about the Best Practices Project see: http://www.ala.org/acrl/nili/bestprac.html or contact Tom Kirk at kirkto@earlham.edu or (765) 983-1360.
Columbia Univ. contracts with National Library of China
Columbia University’s C.V. Starr East Asian Library has contracted with the National Library of China to convert the manual cataloging records and Latin transliteration of 104 titles in the Columbia collections that are in the Chinese minority languages of Mongul, Manchu, XiXia NuZhen, and Miao. Through the cataloging and conversion process, the titles will have full access by title, author, and subject. Prior to the agreement, the titles were accessible only through a supplied Chinese title or in the original language. Because the records are entered into both RLIN and CLIO, the materials are accessible to users at Columbia and scholars worldwide.
Scholarly Communications Alliance established
The International Scholarly Communications Alliance (ISCA) has been established by eight of the world’s principal research library organizations. The ISCA plans to collaborate with scholars and publishers to establish equitable access to scholarly and research publications.
An initiative of research library associations in Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, Hong Kong SAR, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, which represent more than 600 libraries, the ISCA will engage in activities that focus the scholarly publishing process on the primary goals of the academic research community: advancing the discovery of new knowledge and facilitating its dissemination. The alliance will concentrate on ways to ensure open and affordable access to scholarship across national boundaries.
Members will collaborate to develop, expand, and leverage initiatives to transform the scholarly communications process through programs such as SPARC and SPARC Europe, which facilitate competition in scientific communication, and the establishment of institutional and discipline-based archives that allow public access to content and employ the Open Archives Metadata Harvesting Protocol.
Fleet donates historic building to RISD library
The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) will receive a donation of space from FleetBoston Financial to house the school’s new library. The donation of a portion of Fleet’s facility includes the building’s historic banking hall, second floor, and part of the basement. It will enlarge the capacity of RISD’s library from 12,000 square feet to nearly 60,000 square feet.
The new library will provide for greater knowledge of the arts, design, and art eduction for the region and, through its location in downtown Providence, widen RISD’s commitment to the Rhode Island public. The RISD Library opened in 1878 with its holdings in a single bookcase. Created as a specialized library of art and design publications and visual resources, the collection provides strong historical and contemporary perspectives and materials in landscape architecture, ceramics, textiles, sculpture, drawing, painting, Colonial furniture, and jewelry.
Charles A. Schwartz named new PIL editor by ACRL board
The ACRL Board of Directors has named Charles A. (Tony) Schwartz to be editor of ACRL’s distinguished monographic series, Publications in Librarianship (PIL). Founded in 1953, the series focuses on research and theoretical discussion of issues in academic librarianship. The series has produced 54 titles since its inception.
Schwartz, who recently accepted the position of associate director for collection management at the Green Library at Florida International University, brings considerable publishing experience to the editorship. He has edited Restructuring Academic Libraries (number 49 in the PIL series), published numerous articles in ACRL’s refereed scholarly journal College and Research Libraries, and served on the PIL editorial board. He will serve one year as an editor-designate apprentice with the current editor, John Budd, and begin his five-year term in July 2003.
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Hugeuenot resistance to the Gregorian calendar reform in France
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Ed. note: This is a report on research conducted by the 2000 recipient of the Martinus Nijhoff International West European Specialist Study Grant, Jeffry Larson. ACRL will be accepting applications for the 2002 grant through May 1. For more information about the Martinus Nijhoff grant, visit http://www.ala.org/acrl/nijhoff.html.
Almost all that has been written on the revision of the Julian calendar in the 16th century deals with the astronomical reasons for it or with the concomitant problems in dating events and documents. The calendar reform had seldom been studied in depth as an event in itself. In 2000, I received a Martinus Nijhoff International West European Specialist Study Grant to study the dissemination of the Gregorian calendar reform in France during the Wars of Religion.
Outside the papal states, the channels for disseminating the new calendar were from the Vatican via the papal nuncios to national sovereigns, who in turn, after ratifying it and having it printed, sent it on to the bishops in their countries. Thus, the chain was from ecclesiastical to secular then back to ecclesiastical authorities. In France, because of delays in printing and perhaps due to muted opposition in Parlement by Gallicans—partisans of national ecclesiastical autonomy—the reform was implemented only in December 1582, two months after Italy and Spain.
Coincidentally, with the granting of the Nijhoff award, there appeared a lengthy article by Jérôme Delatour in the Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes based on collaborative archival research, largely in the Archives Nationales and the Bibliothèque Nationale, focusing just on this topic (my thanks to Bill Monroe of Brown University for the tip). Since such a large amount of the task had already been accomplished by others, I resolved to look for relevant materials where the team of researchers from the l’École des Chartes had not, namely among the unpublished letters of Henri III and Huguenot pamphlets in Parisian collections, and in diplomatic correspondence in the Secret Archives of the Vatican.
Henri III’s letters are still in the process of being published; fair copies of them have been brought together in the Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France for the editorial project (in 2000, after a gap of 16 years, the letters for 1580 to 1582 were published, but not extending into 1583). Scanning these documents, I discovered that calendar reform was not dealt with at the level of correspondence between sovereigns, which focused mostly on dynastic politics, foreign relations, and ecclesiastical appointments. The calendar was discussed, though not extensively, in the correspondence of the papal nuncio to France, whose letters have been published, with a few passages summarized. (I later checked the summaries against the originals in the Vatican Archives, but found nothing missing of import.)
Delatour had also analyzed the erudite Huguenot and Catholic treatises about the 1582 reform (which had led up to a bull in 1603 reaffirming the reform). So I looked for polemics at a more grass-roots level. Although the Bibliothèque de la Société de l’Histoire du Protestantisme Français was said by two research guides to have extensive pamphlet holdings, I found no such collections there. I shall extend my search to the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, repository of much ephemeral material, and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
Conflict over the calendar was isolated in time and space and was reported not from Paris to the Vatican, but in the opposite direction. Delatour writes that a lawyer of Avignon (“un avocat d’Avignon”) informed the Vatican of a priest being chased out of his parish in Courthezon, a town in southern Orange, for having published the new calendar. It was this incident that the Vatican asked its nuncio to bring to the attention of the French court. The correspondence from Avignon to the papal secretary revealed that the informant was in fact the Cardinal d’Armagnac (misread as “avocat”?), colegate of Avignon and bishop of the diocese.
As representative of the Pope in Avignon, the Cardinal had implemented the new calendar at the same time in Italy and Spain. However, as the Cardinal clearly explains in his letter to the Vatican, the archdiocese was not coterminous with the papal state, but overlapped to include the parish of Courthezon in the principality of Orange, a hotbed of Protestant resistance. Evidently, the locals did not accept being ten days ahead of their compatriots and fellow market-goers in Orange, even if it was only for a few weeks and only in one parish. This clarification I plan to publish with appropriate documentation.
To identify the chronology of effective Huguenot acceptance of the Gregorian calendar, I now plan to look for ten-day gaps in congregational registers (baptisms, marriages, funerals), which are primarily in the Archives Nationales.
Much remains to be done, but I have unearthed a clarified account of the only recorded overt Huguenot resistance to the Gregorian calendar reform. I am very grateful to Martinus Nijhoff International and to my WESS colleagues for the opportunity to initiate this research.—Jeffry Larson, Yale University Library, jeffry.larson@yale.edu |
Pauling research notebooks released online
Oregon State University (OSU) Special Collections has made available digitized versions of 46 research notebooks of two-time Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling. The Pauling Papers span from 1922 to 1994 and cover a range of the scientific fields in which Pauling was involved. The notebooks contain more than 7,500 pages and include many of Pauling’s laboratory calculations and experimental data, scientific conclusions, ideas for further research, and autobiographical musings. The digitization, which was carried out by the OSU Special Collections staff, is available online at http://osulibrary.orst.edu/specialcollections/rnb/index.html.
ACRL publication focuses on libraries’ impact on students
 Making the Grade: Academic Libraries and Student Success, edited by Maurie Caitlin Kelly and Andrea Kross, looks at the positive role that libraries play in student retention. The book presents useful analyses that consider the many factors that can impact student success, such as technological capability, diversity, and information literacy.
The importance of libraries’ partnerships with other members of the higher education community in working toward a common goal of student success is examined as well. The book includes practical examples of programs, policies, and projects designed to increase the success and retention of students.
Making the Grade (ISBN: 0-8389-8177-1) sells for $18 ($16 for members). To order, contact ALA, P.O. Box 932501, Atlanta, GA, 31193-2501; phone: (866) 746-7252 (866-Shop ALA); fax: (770) 442-9742. An order form is also available online at http://www.ala.org/acrl/pubsform.html.
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Legislative advocacy workshop in Atlanta, June 14, 2002
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Legislative and public policy issues have a great impact on the environment in which academic librarians and libraries operate. To assist academic librarians in their efforts to affect legislation and public policies, the Government Relations Committee of ACRL wishes to invite members to the Atlanta Fulton Public Library Headquarters on June 14, 2002, from 12:00 to 4:30 p.m. for a workshop on legislative advocacy.
The preconference is designed to offer practical views on effectively managing library legislative issues. Outstanding, long-term library advocates will share their experiences and sage advice on the art of persuasion.
You will learn about current legislative issues affecting your library; the skills needed to become a strong academic library advocate; and how to craft and deliver an effective message that can benefit your library and profession.
Speakers for this workshop are:
• Charles Beard, Director of University Libraries, State University of West Georgia “Why Advocate?”
• Christie Vernon, member of ALA Committee on Legislation “The Inside Game”
• Jill Fatzer, Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Dean Emeritus of Library Services, University of New Orleans “Yes, Virginia, you can advocate for libraries without losing your job”
• James Neal, Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian, Columbia University “Success, Partial Success, and Failures on the Advocacy Trail”
• Mary Margaret Oliver, former Georgia state legislator “My Experience as a State Legislator”
• Lynne Bradley, Director of the ALA Office of Government Relations “An Update on the Key Issues”
The registration fee, which includes lunch and refreshments, is $50. Register online at https://cs.ala.org/annual/2002. Please note that the code for this preconference is ACRL-AC4. Questions? Contact Shannon Cary at (800) 545-2433, ext. 2510: e-mail: scary@ala.org. |
Barnes & Noble partners with Bowker
Barnes & Noble, Inc. has entered a strategic partnership with R. R. Bowker, designating Books in Print as a source of all bibliographic data for North American publishers for Barnes & Noble stores and Barnes & Noble.com. Through meetings with publishers, the two companies will review the way in which bibliographic information is communicated and re-engineer the procees to simplify the flow of data through Bowker into Barnes & Noble’s bibliographic archives. They will also work with publishers to communicate the data in a manner consistent with ONIX, the standard developed by the Association of American Publishers.
Millersville Univ. sends books to Africa
Pennsylvania’s Millersville University (MU), along with other state system universities, has embarked on an initial one-year initiative to send university-level books to libraries in developing countries in East Africa. Recent wars, calamity, and continued poverty there have created a need for new university libraries and holdings. Volumes focusing on science and any other university-level discipline will be sent, as well as journals covering time periods of not less than one year. The program was originally funded through a grant from the International Organization for Chemical Sciences in Development, initiated by MU professor of biology James Cosentino. The project has received additional funding from the Fund for the Advancement of the State System of Higher Education.
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