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NEWS FROM THE FIELD
C&RL News, November 2004
Vol. 65, No. 10
by Stephanie Orphan
C&RL News launches reader’s survey
College and Research Libraries News is soliciting feedback through its online reader’s survey through November 30. ACRL values the input of its News readership and anticipates the survey results will help determine areas that are most beneficial to them, as well as identify aspects of the magazine that could be improved or changed to further benefit academic and research librarians. The survey is comprehensive and takes approximately 15 minutes to complete. To participate in the C&RL News reader’s survey, visit www.acrl.org/c&rlnews.
NetLibrary to deliver Penguin publications as e-books
NetLibrary has signed a distribution agreement with Penguin Group (USA) to distribute more than 1,000 frontlist and classic Penguin titles in the e-book format. Penguin Group publishes such imprints and trademarks as Berkley Books, New American Library, Penguin, and Viking, including authors such as Nick Hornby, Stephen King, Amy Tan, and Al Franken. The Penguin Classics series includes ancient and modern classic literature, covering fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry.
CrossRef Google pilot adds 20 publishers
CrossRef, the reference linking service for scholarly publishing, has announced that it has added ten additional publishers to its pilot initiative in collaboration with Google, bringing the total number of publishers participating to 29 and the number of scholarly research articles included to 3.4 million.
CrossRef Search is available to all users, free of charge, on the Web sites of participating publishers, and encompasses current journal issues and back files. The results are delivered from the regular Google index but filter out everything except the participating publisher’s content and links to the content on publisher’s Web sites through DOIs (digital object identifiers) or regular URLs. Publishers participating in the pilot are surveying users on an ongoing basis. The pilot began in January 2004 with nine publishers and will run through the end of this year.
Backstage acquires MARS authority control service
Backstage Library Works, formerly known as MARC Link, has acquired the MARS authority control service from OCLC. The core business services of Backstage include cataloging and retrospective conversion, and the company had previously used the MARS service as a reseller. Both companies are working to ensure a smooth handover. Existing contracts will be honored and the current price structure maintained. Backstage plans to restore manual review, a component of MARS that was previously suspended by OCLC, and will be working to implement requests for software updates and improvements requested by MARS users. The company will also begin accepting new client libraries.
NCES Academic Library Survey available
The National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) biennial collection of statistical data from college and university libraries will open on November 22. Academic library directors received a letter containing a registration certificate in October, including a user ID and password to access the Web-based forms. The interactive forms, available on the NCES Web page (nces.ed.gov), will be available until March 22, 2005. As soon as possible after the end of the data collection period, 2004 data will be available in the NCES Academic Libraries Peer Comparison Tools. The tool is currently available, with 2002 data, at nces.ed.gov/surveys/libraries/academicpeer/ . Upon completion, a summary report of the 2004 data will be posted on the NCES Web site.
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Late Night at Miller Library: A success story
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Who would have thought that the off-handed comment, “we should have an all-nighter at the library” would translate into a major outreach event for the library staff of Miller Library at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan? With that statement, the idea for the event was born, the outreach librarian presented it to the director, and approval was granted.
Timing is everything
Wanting to hold the event around the time of finals, we encouraged input from student workers and found that often the week before finals was just as hectic, if not more so, than finals week, as papers and projects were due. We settled on May 2 as the day for the event, two Sundays before finals. Because of financial and staffing resources, Miller Library is usually open from 8:00 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. on Sundays, so we originally intended for the library to be open all night on May 2 starting at 6:00 p.m. However, one concern for this event was the existence of a 2:00 a.m. freshmen curfew.
Not wanting to discourage this population from attending, we approached Student Development to inquire about the possibility of extending freshmen curfew for the evening. They provided support for the event but encouraged us to think about the faculty response. Would Miller Library be encouraging behavior that might translate into students not attending class the next day? Based on this concern, Miller Library opted instead to call the event Late Night at Miller Library and the hours of operation were from 6:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.
Student Development encouraged their residence life staff to promote the event in the residence halls through the use of e-mail and posters. It was wonderful to gain the support of Student Development.
The importance of partnerships
As the outreach librarian, I wanted to begin to develop partnerships across campus, so I approached the Learning Center about the possibility of providing tutors for the event. The Learning Center provided several tutors who were available throughout the evening.
With writing tutors and tutors from other disciplines available, Miller Library was transformed into a one-stop shop of academic assistance for the evening.
As a staff we agreed that reference assistance would also be a must throughout the evening and several of us took two-hour time blocks, which enabled someone from the library staff to be at the research assistance desk throughout the entire evening.
Making a small budget work
Though there were plenty of academic opportunities, we also wanted to provide other perks that would attract students. Not having a formal café in the library, we transformed the lobby area into one by having Campus Services place several round tables and chairs strategically in the foyer area. This provided a wonderful place for students to congregate and take study breaks.
We also had a limited budget. A local coffee shop donated both flavored and regular coffee. PepsiCo donated several cases of pop and water for the event. The staff each brought a couple of dozen homemade brownies, cookies, or other baked goods. As the evening progressed, library staff drew door prizes. We asked area food establishments and businesses for donations of gift certificates or other prizes they may be willing to part with. These door prizes included free extra value meals from McDonalds, a Cornerstone t-shirt, six-inch Subway sandwich coupons, and more. The students received a raffle ticket upon entering the library and every hour they stayed to study, they could approach the circulation desk for another ticket.
To market the Late Night at Miller Library, the campus newspaper covered the event, we tacked up posters around campus, and we hung a large poster in the campus dining room.
The verdict: Success!
On May 2, Miller Library was soon hopping with students busily working on group projects, presentations, and papers. Survey comments included, “I really thought this was cool” and “It was fun and I got lots of homework done.”
Approximately 300 students came through the doors of Miller Library that evening and early morning. The library has seating for around 200 people, so at times the library was bursting at the seams. The food ran out but energy didn’t when the doors closed at 2:00 a.m.
When planning the event, it was evident that developing partnerships across campus contributed to its success. Because this was the first time that Miller Library had hosted a late-night event, we did not know quite what to expect. It was a smashing success, and we were encouraged by its popularity.—Rachel Van Den Broek, instructional services/outreach librarian, Cornerstone University, rachel_vandenbroek@cornerstone.edu
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Syracuse Univ. opens political cartoon exhibit
Syracuse University (SU) Library has opened an exhibition of the political editorial cartoon artwork of some of the country’s most influential humorists and cartoonists from the mid-19th century through the 1960s. Original artists such as Thomas Nast, Carey Orr, Boris Drucker, and Ted Key are represented. The pieces chosen for the exhibition are from the library’s collection of editorial, general humour, and political artwork created by more than 150 artists. In the 1960s, a group of SU library curators solicited contemporary manuscript collections from the cartoonists as part of a larger project to create a repository to support research in the areas of architecture, industrial design, journalism, literature, music, philosophy, religion, photography, social and political history, transportation, and the visual and performing arts. The exhibit is open to the public and will run through January 25.
Thomson Gale offers MLA access in two formats
Subscribers to the Modern Language Association (MLA) International Bibliography through Thomson Gale who also have a subscription to Literature Resource Center can now access the bibliography in two formats. For one subscription price, libraries can provide researchers with access to MLA as a discrete database on InfoTrac or as an integrated resource within Literature Resource Center. With both formats, users can access the Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature and the Gale Literary Index for additional reference.
LISU publishes scholarly journal pricing report
LISU, based at department of information science at Loughborough University, has published a report covering scholarly journals pricing over the last decade. The report was originally commissioned by Oxford Journals, a division of Oxford University Press (OUP), in an effort to better understand the “serials crisis.” LISU analyzed data from 12 named scholarly publishers, including OUP, taken over a five-year period, plus a base year for comparison. Among the findings are average price increases by publisher ranging from 27% to 94% over the 2000–04 period. The full report is available online in PDF at www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/dis/lisu/pages/publications/oup.html.
ICOLC updates statement on practices for the selection of electronic information
The International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC), an informal organization of more than 200 library consortia around the world, has made available a second update to its 1998 Statement of Current Perspective and Preferred Practices for the Selection and Purchase of Electronic Information. “Update No. 2, Pricing and Economics” focuses on crucial financial topics, while updating and reaffirming the broad goals of library consortia as expressed in the previous statements. The update is initially endorsed by more than 50 consortia in 12 countries. The original statement and updates are available at www.library.yale.edu/consortia.
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Update on Characteristics of Programs of Information Literacy that Illustrate Best Practices
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In June 2003 the ACRL Board approved the “Characteristics of Programs of Information Literacy that Illustrate Best Practices: A Guideline” document. This document is intended to assist librarians, faculty, administrators, and others in developing, assessing, and improving their information literacy program to meet the needs of their community of users. The guidelines provide broad categories that should be considered in the development of an information literacy program, as well as a framework for assessing excellence in information literacy programs.
Since its approval, the Best Practices Project Team has added annotations to the guidelines. These annotations define terms used throughout the document and help to place the document in context with other recognized standards and guidelines. They provide helpful information about how characteristics were chosen and, in some cases, examples of institutions that exemplify specific characteristics. The Characteristics of Programs of Information Literacy that Illustrate Best Practices: A Guideline, with annotations, can be found at http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/characteristics.htm.
The Best Practices Project Team met at the ALA Annual Conference in Orlando to discuss additional initiatives to promote the Best Practices Initiative. Key components of the project are to provide examples of best practices that can be used as models for others and to disseminate the characteristics of best practices to the wider audience of faculty and other key stakeholders. A new Web site designed to provide examples of best practices will be developed.
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Univ. of Pittsburgh launches historic images Web site
The University of Pittsburgh’s Digital Research Library has unveiled the historic Pittsburgh Image Collections Web site, featuring photographs of Pittsburgh’s diverse workforce, steel industries, civic renaissance, and legendary jazz musicians. The project is a collaboration between the university’s Archives Service Center, the Library & Archives at the Heinz History Center, and the Carnegie Museum of Art. The Web site is a single gateway to dozens of important visual image collections in the city of Pittsburgh and provides a comprehensive look at how Pittsburghers lived and worked in the 19th and 20th centuries. The project is available at images.library.pitt.edu/pghphotos.
EBSCO A-to-Z now offering MARC updates
EBSCO A-to-Z with MARC Updates is now being offered as an add-on to EBSCO’s standard A-to-Z service, a locator tool for a library’s e-resources. A-to-Z with MARC provides a customizable file in MARC 21 format representing the library’s e-resource holdings, title URLs, and online coverage information. It supplies bibliographic records from CONSER and monthly updates to facilitate online catalog maintenance. A holdings change report is also included.
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