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NEWS FROM THE FIELD
C&RL News, April 2003
Vol. 64 No. 4
by Stephanie Orphan
Massachusetts Center for the Book celebrates books, reading, and libraries
Simmons College in Boston and Hampshire College in Amherst have joined forces to host the Massachusetts Center for the Book to help promote and celebrate books, reading, and libraries across the commonwealth. The new institutional hosts for the state Center for the Book will work with center affiliates across the state to plan and execute a number of creative programs aimed at promoting books and book arts that hold a special place in Massachusetts literary culture and history. The Center for the Book is a program started by the Library of Congress in 1977 to promote books, reading, libraries, and literacy.
ACRL launches @ your library discussion list
ACRL has created a new electronic discussion list—ACADEMICPR—to assist academic and research librarians in sharing ideas and best practices in marketing and public relations. This new resource has been developed for the Academic and Research Library Campaign, an initiative cosponsored by ACRL and ALA as part of @ your library, The Campaign for America’s Libraries.
The discussion list is open to any academic and research librarian interested in learning more about how to promote his or her library. To subscribe, send an e-mail to: listproc@ala.org. In the body of the message, type: subscribe ACADEMICPR Firstname Lastname.
ILCSO welcomes 12 new members
The Illinois Library Computer Systems Organization (ILCSO) has added 12 new members to its consortium of Illinois libraries, bringing total membership to 56. The additions were approved by the ILCSO Board of Directors in December 2002 following an open application period for prospective members that began in the fall.
The new members are Augustana College, Danville Area Community College, Illinois College, Kendall College, Lewis & Clark Community College, Lincoln Land Community College, the Newberry Library, North Park University, Olivet University, Robert Morris College, University of St. Francis, and Wheaton College. Their holdings will be added to ILCSO’s shared online catalog and resource sharing system.
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ACRL invites you to attend the 2003 ACRL/Harvard Leadership Institute
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Academic libraries exist in a constantly changing environment with many new challenges and many available opportunities. New demands on academic libraries call for fundamental shifts in leadership know-how. In response to these challenges, ACRL is collaborating with the Harvard Institutes for Higher Education to offer its popular ACRL/Harvard Leadership Institute this summer.
• Learn among the leaders and trendsetters in academic library administration. At the ACRL/Harvard program, you will be among your fellow leaders in academic librarianship. The institute is designed for directors of libraries and individuals in positions such as associate university librarian, assistant dean, vice president of information resources, university librarian, and college librarian. Attendance would also be useful for individuals regularly involved in decision-making that affects the entire library operation and that involves other important relationships on campus.
• Increase your capacity to lead and manage. Find out if your organization is well-positioned, meet current and future challenges, and discover if your own leadership is effective. Harvard Institutes for Higher Education faculty will give special attention to issues such as leadership, organizational strategy, transformational learning, and planning.
• Mark your calendars now. The 2003 ACRL/Harvard Leadership Institute will be held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, August 3–8, 2003.
• Don’t miss this exciting educational opportunity! Registration materials and complete details about the institute are available on the Web at http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~ppe/programs/acrl/program.html. Registration spots will fill quickly. Don’t forget to register early to ensure you have a space in this prestigious institute. Questions about this institute can be directed to acrl@ala.org; (800) 545-2433, ext. 2523.
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ISI enhances Current Contents with eFirst
Thomson ISI has added eFirst technology to its ISI Current Contents Connect product. The technology is designed to enhance the product by providing access to the bibliographic information from peer reviewed journal articles in electronic form before the complete journal issue is published. eFirst offers the author and user communities the advantage of a shortened publishing cycle and benefits publishers by helping them to differentiate between their electronic and print products. IS currently has agreements with Blackwell, Karger, Springer, Thieme, Walter de Gruyter, and High Wire.
Univ. of Maryland to offer Master of Information Management degree
The Maryland Higher Education Commission and the Board of Regents have voted final approval of the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies’ new Master of Information Management (MIM) degree. The degree is expected to complement the MLS degree and some courses will be common to both degrees. The first MIM classes are scheduled to begin in fall 2003. The new degree has an initial focus on strategic information management. A second specialty, information architecture and content management, is intended to be developed later as resources permit.
ALA signs agreement to mitigate RoweCom library losses
ALA has signed an agreement with EBSCO that commits the association to continuing subscriptions to libraries affected by the financial collapse of RoweCom. CHOICE, C&RL News, C&RL, Booklist, Book Links, American Libraries, and RBM are among the ALA and affiliated publications covered by the new agreement. EBSCO Industries, Inc. finalized agreements in early March to acquire the U.S. operations of RoweCom, which filed for bankruptcy January 27 and announced it would not fulfill orders for which it already had been paid. Publishers that agree to participate with EBSCO agree to fulfill subscriptions to their publications for which a RoweCom customer paid RoweCom, but for which the publisher did not receive payment. In exchange for agreeing to send issues, publishers are to receive the equivalent of the RoweCom customer’s claim on the bankrupt RoweCom estate to the extent of the value of the subscriptions they have agreed to fulfill.
Subscribers of CHOICE and other ACRL journals with questions or concerns are encouraged to contact CHOICE/ACRL Customer Service,
(860) 347-6933, ext. 133, e-mail: customerservice@ala-choice.org.
Maine Libraries choose Endeavor’s Encompass
The University of Maine and the State of Maine Library have partnered to select Endeavor Information Systems’ Encompass for Resource Access system, which provides access to e-resources and expanded search capabilities. Encompass will be implemented as a single federated search system administered by the University of Maine-Orono to access shared resources for the university system’s eight campus libraries and their four branches, plus the Maine State Library.
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Instruction Section to offer preconference in Toronto
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Discover how to target outreach and instruction to specific user groups, avoiding the "one-size-fits-all" approach to instructional planning during the Instruction Section preconference, "Planning Instructional Opportunities for Targeted Populations."
The full-day program will be held prior to the ALA Annual Conference in Toronto, Canada, Friday, June 20, from 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Explore the characteristics of specific populations and consider strategies for assessing the particular needs of a group in order to appropriately customize your instruction. Improve your teaching practices and find out how you can enhance student learning.
Speakers include Miriam Conteh-Morgan, Ohio State University Libraries; Melissa Koenig, DePaul University; Helen Georgas, University of Illinois-Chicago; Nancy J. Burich, University of Kansas; and Lisa Given, University of Alberta.
Registration materials are online at https://cs.ala.org/annual/2003/. Questions? Contact msutton@ala.org.
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Historically Black Colleges formalize alliance
Library directors and deans from 100 of the 103 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) have established a new consortium, the HBCU Library Alliance. At a two-day meeting in fall 2002, they evaluated the unique needs and assets of the HBCU libraries, examined cooperative approaches to enriching their respective information services, and considered programs to achieve their goals. Delegates affirmed the value of consortium by establishing the HBCU Library Alliance. They drafted a mission statement and identified program priorities, including preservation and access to cultural collections, developing human resources for the future, and producing a statistical analysis of HBCU library programs.
ACRL and TLT Group offer second installment in information literacy seminar series
ACRL and TLT Group will be offering their second information literacy online seminar, April 28 through May 16. The seminar, which will focus on professional development and collaboration, will be led by Dane Ward, coordinator of instructional services, Illinois State University and Craig Gibson, associate university librarian for public services, George Mason University. The first seminar in the series, Best Practices in Information Literacy in Undergraduate Education, was held in March; the third is scheduled for July 2003.
The ACRL/TLT online seminars have both synchronous and asynchronous components. Reduced registration rates are offered for ACRL members, staff of TLT Group subscriber institutions, and ALA members. There is also a discount for registering more than one person from the same institution. Information about the seminars can be found at http://www.tltgroup.org/events/onlineworkshops/calendar.htm and on the ACRL Web site.
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Addendum to ACRL members running for ALA Council
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A list of ACRL members running for ALA Council appeared in the March 2003 issue of C&RL News. The following candidates were omitted from that list.:
• Carol Kem, Department of Collection Management, University of Florida, and
• Larry Romans, head of government information services, Vanderbilt University
The editors regret the omission.
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Canadian National Site Licensing Project chooses Science Direct
The Canadian National Site Licensing Project (CNSLP) has acquired a license agreement to provide online access to scientific, technical, and medical full-text articles and content from the publisher Elsevier through its Science Direct platform. The purpose of the CNSLP is to increase the capacity for research and innovation in Canada. This agreement expands the number of member institutions with Science Direct access from 11 to 61. An estimated 650,000 students, researchers, and academic scientists in the Canadian consortium will now have unlimited online access to the full-text, peer reviewed articles.
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