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FAST FACTS
C&RL News, November 2005
Vol. 66, No. 10
Library system
Among institutions responding to an EDUCAUSE Core Data Survey, the most popular online library system vendor is Innovative Interfaces, used at 25 percent of libraries. This is followed by Endeavor (20.8 percent), Sirsi (17.1 percent), Epixtech (7.8 percent), and Ex-Libris (6.5 percent). The median year of implementation for such systems is 1998.
Brian L. Hawkins, Julia A. Rudy, and Robert Nicolich, EDUCAUSE core data service fiscal year 2004 summary report, www.educause.edu/apps/coredata/reports/2004/. October 4, 2005
Open Content Alliance
“Yahoo, The Internet Archive and several other organizations announced the formation of the Open Content Alliance (OCA) to make thousands of books, multimedia files and other materials freely searchable and accessible online. The OCA project differs from other digitization projects in that the database of scanned material will be available for anyone to use on any site.”
Gary Price, “A new digital library alliance makes its debut,” Search Engine Watch, searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3553086. October 3, 2005
Costs of higher education
The cost of attending a public four-year institution rose by 22 percent between 2001–02 and 2004–05. Tuition and fees for in-state students at the institutions grew by 33 percent, more than any other sector of higher education, according to a U.S. Education Department report. During 2004–05, undergraduates attending private not-for-profit four-year institutions paid $16,046 on average for tuition and required fees while public in-state undergraduates paid $4,936 in tuition and required fees.
L. G. Knapp, J. E. Kelly-Reid, R. W. Whitmore, J. Cong, B. Levine, M. Berzofsky, and S. G. Broyles (2005), Postsecondary institutions in the United States: Fall 2004 and degrees and other awards conferred: 2003–04 (NCES 2005–182). U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics, nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005182.pdf. October 3, 2005
Publicly interactive OCLC
OCLC has enabled readers to write their own reviews for materials in OpenWorldCat. Simply click on the “Reviews” tab in the record. In other OCLC-related news, Worldcat now contains over 1 billion records in its online database.
Lorcan Dempsey, “The reader and OpenWorldCat,” orweblog.oclc.org/archives/000825.html, October 9, 2005. And: OCLC, “World’s largest library database reaches billionth milestone,” www.oclc.org/news/releases/200517.htm. October 9, 2005
Nanotechnology
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has created a network of institutions in an effort to inform the general public about nanotechnology and its implications for society. Called the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network, “the $20 million, five-year effort represents the largest single award NSF has given to the science-museum community, and will be a cornerstone of the foundation’s multidisciplinary Nanoscale Science and Engineering Education program.” The NISE has institutional working partners across the country.
“New grants are awarded to inform the public and explore the implications of nanotechnology,” October 6, 2005, www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=104505. October 7, 2005
Gary Pattillo is reference librarian at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, e-mail: pattillo@refstaff.lib.unc.edu
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