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NEWS FROM THE FIELD
C&RL News, June 2005
Vol. 66, No. 6
by Stephanie Orphan
CIC libraries collaborate to archive print journals
The Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) libraries have piloted a project to collaboratively purchase and archive one print copy of paper journals from publishers Springer and John Wiley and Sons, beginning with titles published in January 2005. The project includes 1,467 journal titles, which will be housed in state-of-the-art, long-term shelving facilities on two CIC campuses. During year one of the two-year pilot, data from each of the libraries related to cancellations of print copies, space savings, and the level of interlibrary loan activity for the archived copies will be gathered. Founded in 1958, CIC is the academic consortium of 12 research universities, including the 11 members of the Big Ten Athletic Conference and the University of Chicago.
ProQuest to digitize Chicago Defender
ProQuest Information and Learning has announced an expanded agreement with publisher Real Times Inc. to digitize historical content from the Chicago Defender, an influential national African American newspaper, as part of ProQuest scholarly databases. Founded in 1905, the Defender became the most influential black newspaper before World War I, with more than half of its circulation outside of its home base in Chicago. When the database is complete later this year, historical news content from the Chicago Defender will be available online from 1909 through 1975 both in ProQuest’s forthcoming Black Studies Center and in ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
Univ. of Iowa installs 50th eGranary Digital Library, first in Central America
The University of Iowa’s WiderNet Project has completed the 50th installation of its eGranary Digital Library, in Port-au Prince, Haiti, making it the first such installation in Central America. eGranary provides Internet resources offline to institutions in developing countries lacking adequate Internet access. Through a process of securing permission from authors and publishers, copying Web sites, and delivering them to Intranet Web servers inside partner institutions in developing counties, the eGranary delivers millions of documents that can be instantly accessed over local area networks. Some of the many authors and publishers who have granted permission to distribute their works via the eGranary include the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Columbia University, Cornell University, MIT Press, UNESCO, World Bank, the Virtual Hospital, and WHO.
Purdue pilots national information and technology literacy test for ETS
Educational Testing Service (ETS), creator of the SAT, has developed a new test that will help set the national benchmark on how efficiently 21st-century college students are able to use information and communication technology. The test is being administered at several colleges, including Purdue University; nationally, 8,000 students will take the computerized, simulation-based Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Literacy Assessment. Purdue University Libraries, part of the ETS’s National Higher Education ICT Development Committee, participated in an earlier field trial as well as this large-scale assessment, which is designed to create a robust assessment tool that can serve as a reliable measure of individual student achievement.
Columbia Univ. senate endorses open access, scholarly communication
At its April 1 meeting, the Columbia University Senate endorsed unanimously a resolution on open access, introduced by the senate’s committee on libraries and academic computing. James Neal, vice president for information services and university librarian at Columbia, applauded “this bold support by the Columbia community for open access to scholarly work and this endorsement of the university’s advocacy for reducing economic, legal, and technological barriers.” The senate resolved to record its support for the principle of open access to the fruits of scholarly research and to urge the university to advance new models for scholarly publishing that will promote open access and to monitor and resist efforts to impose digital rights management regimes and technologies that obstruct or limit open access, and urge the scholars of Columbia University to play a part in these open-access endeavors in their various capacities.
EBSCO acquires Bibliography of Native North Americans
EBSCO Publishing has expanded its collection of resources aimed at supporting multicultural and historical studies through the acquisition of the Bibliography of Native North Americans (BNNA). BNNA is a bibliographic database covering all aspects of native North American culture, history, and life, over a wide range of topics, including archaeology, multicultural relations, gaming, governance, legend, and literacy. The database contains more than 80,000 citations for books, essays, journal articles, and government documents of the United States and Canada with dates of coverage ranging from the 16th century to the present. Originally compiled by the Human Relations Area Files at Yale University, BNNA will be accessible through EBSCOhost beginning July 1 and will not be available through its current vendors after that time.
ALA demographics survey gathers vital member data
For many years, ALA has asked its members to provide information about three aspects of their work lives—type of library or other organization, principal area of work, and level of responsibility. It was determined that additional member information was needed to more effectively provide services and advocate for ALA members. The ALA Committee on Diversity and the ALA Membership Committee approved the work of a task force that developed a member demographics questionnaire. By undertaking this member survey, ALA takes a big step toward knowing itself and being able to describe itself to others. The key to success in the effort is, of course, member response. ALA members are encouraged to take a few minutes to answer the six questions asked in the survey. Individual responses remain confidential; ALA will only report total responses. The survey is available at www.ala.org/memberdemog and takes less than 60 seconds to complete.
Wiley InterScience launches digitization project
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. has announced the launch of a new program to digitize back issues of all its journal holdings, dating back to the 1800s, on its online publishing platform, Wiley InterScience. The company’s digitization of legacy content is an ongoing project designed to provide seamless and efficient content discovery. The project will continue through 2005 and 2006 and is scheduled for completion in 2007, in conjunction with Wiley’s 200th anniversary. The completed backfile will span two centuries of scientific research and comprise more than 7.5 million pages. All Wiley Backfile Collections are integrated with current Web-based content and offer the same retrieval and printing capabilities.
ACRL’s 12th National Conference attendees
took time out to enjoy themselves at the Saturday
night All-Conference Reception at the Minneapolis
Institutes of Arts. Conference goers were
entertained by a jazz band, an African music
ensemble, and a folk duo and had a
chance to catch up with old friends
and network with new ones.
Malcolm X exhibit opens at Schomburg Center
“Malcolm X: A Search for Truth,” an exhibition in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the birth of Malcolm X/El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, opened at the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture on May 19. The exhibition is based in part on the collection of personal and professional papers and memorabilia of Malcolm X that was rescued from auction in 2002 and placed on deposit at the Schomburg Center by the Shabazz family. Also included are items from the Henry Hampton collection at Washington University in St. Louis and the Charles H. Wright Museum in Detroit. The exhibition, complemented by an epilogue focusing on courtroom evidence from the New York Municipal Archives and courtroom images by Tracy Sugarman, provides the first opportunity for the public to view significant aspects of the collection.
Serials Solutions offers article linker from Google Scholar
Serials Solutions has released Google Scholar as an OpenURL-enabled source for its hosted link resolver, Article Linker. Article Linker worked closely with the Google Scholar team to enable more than 100 libraries to link from Google Scholar to full-text content within their collection. Libraries can activate linking from Google Scholar through a few clicks in Serials Solutions’ Client Center. A customized XML file, designed and developed by Google and Serials Solutions, enables Google to highlight links if the full-text is known to be in the library’s collection. The creation and on-going maintenance of the XML files is handled by Serials Solutions.
Indiana Univ. develops open-access model for Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Librarians at Indiana University (IU) have created a sponsoring organization that will enable other libraries to contribute to the long-term survival of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy International Association (SEPIA)—the membership organization sponsored by the IU Libraries and operated by the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET)—will collect library contributions in the form of membership dues. The dues will support free and open access to the encyclopedia, regarded as one of the most widely used online philosophy reference works. The goal is to create a permanent endowment that will generate income to cover the annual costs of administering and supporting volunteer efforts. More than 1,000 professional philosophers already donate their time and labor to write, referee, and maintain the encyclopedia collaboratively, and the peer-reviewed reference is free to anyone with an Internet connection. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy was created in 1995 at Stanford University.
ACRL releases revision to classic guide to academic libraries
ACRL is proud to announce the publication of The changing academic library: Operations, cultures, environments Publications in Librarianship no. 56 by John M. Budd. The new release, a revision of Budd’s The academic library: Its context, its purpose, and its operation (1998), has been completely updated and revised to reflect the dynamic states of higher education and academic libraries. It presents a critical examination of major issues confronting colleges and universities and the unique challenges that their libraries face. Current practice is reviewed, but it is examined in the broader context of educational needs, scholarly communication, politics and economics, technology, and the nature of complex organizations. The book may be used as a text in library and information science courses, as well as an introduction to library science for new professionals and academic administrators. Ordering information can be found on the ACRL Web site at www.acrl.org/publications. ACRL members receive a 10 percent discount.
New women’s study project from Alexander Street Press and Center for Women’s History
Alexander Street Press and the Center for Women’s History at the State University of New York-Binghampton have collaborated to create a new women’s studies project that explores the milestone 1977 National Women’s Conference in Houston. The document “How did the National Women’s Conference in Houston in 1977 shape a feminist agenda for the future?” has been added to the “Women and Social Movements” resource on the Web, in preparation for the 30th anniversary of the women’s conference. Three First Ladies participated in the historic event, 50 states held conventions to shape the agenda for the national conference, and more than 100,000 American women participated in various state- and national-level conferences at the time.
Who’s Who expands online
More than 70,000 digitized historical biographies have been added to the online database, Marquis Who’s Who on the Web. The addition marks the launch of a new online product from Marquis, Who’s Who in American History. Researchers can search by name, occupation, historical era, and birth and death information, or by using keyword searches to identify important figures associated with historical events, such as military battles, inventions, explorations, civil rights movements, and more. Also available are collections of names under such categories as Firsts and Other Notables, U.S. Government and Law, and Historical Events. Who’s Who on the Web now encompasses more than five centuries of inventors, explorers, colonists, abolitionists, and other important figures.
IUPUI to develop online course for museum, library professionals
The museum studies and library science studies programs at Indiana University-Purdue University (IUPUI) have entered into an agreement with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to develop an online instructor-mediated course in outcomes-based evaluation for library and museum professionals and students in the fields. IUPUI was one of 14 institutions that responded to the IMLS request for proposals to pilot and evaluate a course to train museum and library personnel to master and apply outcomes-based projects. Focus groups, workshops, and other activities will provide feedback on the online course over a three-year pilot period. After the pilot period the course will be distributed to and operated nationally by library and museum staff people.
Former ACRL President Mary Reichel (left) and
volunteer Nancy McClements (right) from
the University of Wisconsin-Madison draw
prize winners at ACRL’s 12th National
Conference in Minneapolis. First-time attendees
were invited to play a game of “Note the Notables” bingo.
Those who answered all the questions correctly were
entered in a drawing to win a gift certificate
from Amazon.com ($25, $50, and $75 certificates
were given).
CAS offers references via handhelds
Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) demonstrated the delivery of chemical information, including structures, through live interaction using Blackberry and other handheld devices at the CAS European conference in April. More than 20 handheld devices were simultaneously used by conference participants to receive literature references and molecular structure and related data for specific substances in real time. The demonstration illustrated the ability to retrieve and analyze information from CAS’s principal databases, CAplus and CAS Registry. The company will be making this new mobile route to scientific databases, called CAS Mobile, available through its STN and SciFinder services in the near future.
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