ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries ALA w o n 't go to Cincinnati in 1 995 ALA will not hold its 1995 Midwinter Meeting in Cincin­ n a ti b e c a u s e o f a re c e n t amendm ent to the city’s Hu­ m an Rights O rdinance bar­ ring the City Council from enforcing laws that give le­ gal protection to lesbian, gay, or bisexual citizens. The ac­ tion to move the Mdwinter Meeting was taken on Tues­ day, N ovem ber 30, by the ALA Executive Board. “The board action con­ tinues ALA’s long tradition of support for equal rights and intellectual freedom,” said ALA Presi­ dent Hardy R. Franklin. “We feel the passage of Issue 3 in Cincinnati violates basic human rights issues.” Paul Graller, ALA conference services direc­ tor, said that ALA may be liable for an esti­ mated $200,000 in hotel contracts with the Cin­ cinnati cancellation. But, Franklin said, “You can’t put a price tag on hum an rights. The issue is not special rights for a few but equal rights for all.” The cities of Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., are currently under consid­ eration as alternate sites. Cal Poly inaugurates "The Loan A rra n g e r" Many libraries are adding document delivery services. California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo has done so with a bit of whimsy. D ubbed “The Loan Arranger” (see the accompanying logo), the new document deliv­ ery service will get “any article, from any jour­ nal, from nearly any place in th e w orld, d e liv e re d to your office for free” ac­ cording to the univer- sity’s recent newslet- ter. In addition to its subscriptions to near­ ly 2,300 periodicals, the library is offering access to UnCover, Ex­ p a n d e d A c a d e m ic I n ­ dex, M agazine Index, and MUSTANG Server (access to N e w s f r o m th e f i e l d electronic journals). David B. Walch, dean o f library services at Cal Poly, said that the “service has been par­ ticularly well received by both faculty and students. Since Cal Poly is on the quarter system, quick turn­ around time for Interlibrary Loan and Document Deliv­ ery is of particular impor­ tance. Both students and faculty have b een unani­ mous in their praise of the system. It has taken a bit of the dow n side out of the problems experienced in having to cut and retrench periodicals.” Librarian positions endow ed The Carl and Lily Pforzheimer foundation has given $2 million to endow the directorship of the Schlesinger Library. Radcliffe President Linda S. Wilson said, “This endow m ent will help to assure the Library’s continuing strength and vitality so that it will be able to respond to the expanded mission that will be dem anded o f it in the next 50 years.” Patricia M. King, director of the Schlesinger Library since July 1973, w as n a m e d th e first Carl a n d Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director. The position of university librarian at the University of California, Berkeley, was recently endow ed by Kenneth and Dorothy Hill of San Diego. The endowm ent will support an array o f activities including scholarly programs and seminars, special buying and research trips, processing and research assistance, and the preparation of guides to UCB holdings. H andheld computer links to lib rary v ia cellular communication The University of South Alabama Library linked its online public access catalog (OPAC) to a handheld computer using cellular com m unications. This is the university’s first in a series o f tests know n as the “The Library Without a Roof’ project. Project director Dale Fos­ ter said, “Much has been made of the ‘vir­ tual library’ or the ‘library without walls . . . . Our project takes this concept one step further. . . Researchers are no longer bound by January 1 9 9 4 / 5 the physical walls of a library building. Indeed they do not even need an office or a telephone.” The project used an EO 440 handheld com­ puter supplied by AT&T and equipped with a cellular phone/m odem . The EO has no key­ board; the user writes on the screen using a magnetic pen and the EO translates the hand­ writing into m achine-readable text. Notable Technologies, Inc., provided the communica­ tions software, Mobile Access-Personal, for the project. This is the first software package that allows users of the EO to communicate directly with remote mainframe computers. Using this combination of hardware and software, project participants w ere able to call SOUTHcat, the library's catalog, and search for books. The project will continue to explore practical ap­ plications of this technology in an educational and library environment. N e w OPAC a t Univ. of N e w Orleans This fall the University of New Orleans’ (UNO) Earl K. Long Library brought up its online cata­ log called “Lafitte.” Lafitte is part of Louisiana’s au to m atio n p ro ject for academ ic libraries, dubbed LOUIS: The Louisiana Online Univer­ sity Information System. The goal of LOUIS is to p r e s e n t th e o n lin e c a ta lo g s o f all o f Louisiana’s colleges and universities through a single NOTIS-based network and eventually to place search terminals in public and school li­ braries throughout the state. Libraries at Loui­ siana State University, Nicholls State Univer­ sity, and Louisiana Tech University are already up. UNO’s catalog was nam ed after the cam­ pu s’ mascot “Lafitte the Instigator” represented by a gator in a pirate costume. A logo of Lafitte Clarification Some hyphens w ere missing from the e-mail addresses in Jeff Coon’s article, “Internet re­ sources for religious studies” (D ecem ber 1993). The correct addresses are: AIBI-L@ acad v m l.u o ttaw a.ca; OBJ-REL@emuvml. cc.em ory.edu; and to subscribe to the Reli­ g io u s S tu d ie s P u b lic a tio n s J o u r n a l- CONTENTS send the m essage “Subscribe Review-L YourName” to listserv@uottawa or listserv @ acad v m l.u o ttaw a.ca. Also, The Electric M ystic’s G uide to the In te rn e t is authored by Michael Strangelove but his name is not part of the title. The U n iversity o f N ew O rleans’ lo g o for its n e w OPAC “Lafitte.” at a search terminal will be used on all hand­ outs and instruction sheets associated with the catalog. Presenters on n etw o rkin g sought fo r 1 9 9 4 ALA Annual Conference Have you been successful with teaching net­ w ork skills or integrating netw orked informa­ tion into your services? Abstracts for posters on the general topic of networking are now being solicited to be presented during ACRL’s ‘con­ ference within a conference’ at the 1994 ALA Annual Conference in Miami. Poster sessions might deal with topics such as the innovative use of netw orked information in bibliographic instruction or in professional developm ent, gender issues relating to netw orked communi­ cation, etc. Poster sessions will be ongoing during the all-day conference on Monday, June 27. The 150-w ord abstract should describe the research study, program, instructional m ethod­ ology, or practical problem-solving effort. Ab­ stracts should also include title, author(s), and institution(s). The subfhission deadline is March 1, 1994, to: John Culshaw, Central Reference Librarian, University of Colorado at Boulder, Campus Box 184, Boulder, CO 80309-0184; fax: (3 0 3 ) 49 2 -1 8 8 1 ; e -m a il: c u ls h a w @ s p o t. colorado.edu. Note: Please submit an abstract only if you plan to attend the conference in Miami. Visit the Huntington a t M id w in te r Visitors to Midwinter are cordially invited to visit the Huntington Library, a 20-minute cab ride from the Los Angeles Convention Center. In addition to its remarkable botanical gardens and art collections, the library is displaying two major exhibits that are interesting both for con­ tent and for a practical demonstration o f library exhibition principles. 6 / C&RL News cc.emory.edu mailto:listserv@acadvml.uottawa.ca colorado.edu “This Faire Paper, This Goodly Booke” explores the impact of the Gutenberg revolution and contains a num ber o f “m onum ents” ranging from such handw ritten books and docum ents as the M agna Carta and the Ellesmere co p y o f C haucer’s Canterbury Tales. The other exhibit, called “The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham L in c o ln a n d th e P ro m is e o f America,” is a rich essay on the life and political philosophy of Abraham Lincoln and includes an 1824 school­ boy rhyme decorating a page of long division, the Gettysburg Ad­ dress written in Lincoln’s own hand, and the handwritten note that sent Lincoln’s bodyguard on a mission to Virginia on the night of his fateful visit to Ford’s Theater. A private tour for ACRL members has been arranged for M onday afternoon, February 7, with bus transportation and a box lunch pro­ vided. To reserve a place, send a check for The H u n tin gton Library’s ex h ib it called “T his Faire Paper, T his G oodly B ook e” is o n d isp la y n o w alo n g w ith an ex h ib it o n Abraham L incoln. yr rabi Ln tognitnu H eh T,i icil Mno D t:id re cotoh P $6.00 to Laura Stalker, Associate Director, The H untington Library, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 91108. Those w ho cannot make the bus tour or w ho w ant to m ake other ar­ rangem ents should call Marilyn Bressler, as­ sistant to the director, at (818) 405-2175. ■ C o lle g e lib r a r y m entor p ro gra m The first year of the ACRL/College Librar­ ies Section Library Director Mentor program ended with 13 first-year college library direc­ tors attending a three-day seminar at Loyola University, New Orleans, prior to the ALA Annual C onference in Ju n e 1993- Mignon Adams, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, and Evan Farber, Earlham College, led the seminar. Mary Lee Sweat, library di­ rector at Loyola University, and her staff hand­ led local arrangements. W. David Penniman, Council on Library Resources (CLR) president, addressed the group and discussed, along with Julia Blixrud, CLR program officer, issues fac­ ing college libraries and higher education. This program, funded for two years by the Council on Library Resources, is intended to enhance the leadership capabilities of newly appointed college library directors by match­ ing them with experienced college library di­ rectors. During the first year, 14 first-year col­ lege library directors w ere m atch ed w ith experienced college library directors. This fall, as the program enters its second year, 15 first- y ear co lleg e library d irecto rs have b e e n m atched with experienced library directors. The program funds site visits to the first-year and experienced directors’ respective cam­ puses and related expenses. In addition, it partially funds the seminar, with the trans­ portation costs the responsibility of the par­ ticipating first-year directors. To date, the response o f the participants has b een overwhelmingly positive. Accounts o f day-long, nonstop discussions betw een m entee and m entor w ere com m on in the first-year reports. While the benefits to the m entees may be obvious, often the mentors have commented on the benefits to them. One sum m ed up his experience with the follow­ ing words, “Eve felt that I was doing som e­ thing o f real value to the profession through the program .” For additional information about the pro­ gram contact Larry Hardesty, Director o f Li­ brary Services, Eckerd College, P.O. Box 12560, St. Petersburg, FL 33733-2560.—Larry Hardesty, Eckerd College ■ Ja n u a ry 1994 / 7 8 / C&RL News