ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


N o v em b er 1 9 9 2  /  6 2 9

N e w s 
f r o m  th e  

f i e l d

LIBNET c o m e s  to  ISU
In d ian a State U niversity Li­
b raries (ISU) is providing ac­
cess to  m ore th a n  30 ele c ­
tr o n ic  d a ta b a s e s  th r o u g h  
e v e r y  lo c a l a r e a  n e tw o r k  
(LAN) o n  c a m p u s th ro u g h  
LIBNET (L ibrary N etw ork).
T he d atab a ses originate from  
th e library’s one-year-old CD- 
ROM N etw ork a n d  co m p le­
m e n t ISU’s LUIS III o n lin e  
cata lo g  w h ic h  co n tain s th e 
holdings o n  th e  ISU libraries 
a n d  four o th e r academ ic li­
b raries in Indiana. A team  o f LIBNET reso u rce 
librarians has u se d  print, p erso n al contact, a n d  
electronic m eans to p ro m o te th e  n e w  service.

L O E X  w a n t s  BI p a p e r s  . . .
For th e 21st A nnual LOEX N ational Library In ­
struction Conference to b e held May 14-15,1993, 
in Racine, W isconsin, LOEX solicits abstracts o f 
p resen tatio n s for Short Instructive Sessions (45 
m inutes) o r P oster Sessions. T opics sh o u ld  re­
late to  m eth o d s o f teach in g  a n d  learning an d  
th e im pact o f tech n o lo g y  su ch  as th e  online 
catalog, CD-ROM indexes, or n etw o rk  co m m u ­
nications, b u t m ay also d eal w ith aspects th at 
have n o t c h a n g e d  (if y o u  ex p lain  w hy). E spe­
cially so u g h t are subm issions covering co m ­
m unity colleges, instructional design, design o f 
instructional m aterials (print), ad u lt an d  re tu rn ­
ing students, the u sefulness o f CAI vs. w o rk ­
b o o k s vs. credit courses, specific hard-to-use 
d atab a ses or CD-ROM p roducts, collaborative 
learning, active learning, teac h in g  low -achiev­
ing students, a n d  th e  b e st w ays to  teac h  te c h ­
nology. Send a o n e -p a g e  abstract b y  Jan u ary  
22,1993, outlining y o u r session along w ith y o u r 
n am e, address, an d  te le p h o n e  n u m b e r a n d  any 
a u d io v isu a l o r sp e c ia l e q u ip m e n t n e e d s  to  
Abstracts, LOEX C learinghouse, Eastern Michi­
g a n  U niversity Library, Ypsilanti, MI 48197. For 
m ore inform ation call Linda Shirato at (313) 
487-0168 b e tw e e n  12 an d  5 p.m ., EST.

. . .  a n d  STS w a n t s  sc ien ce re s e a rc h
T he F orum  for Science a n d  T echnology Library 
R esearch C o m m ittee o f ACRL’s S cience a n d  
T echnology Section invites abstracts describing 
recen t research  o r w o rk  in pro g ress o f interest 
to  science a n d /o r te ch n o lo g y  librarians. C om ­

m ittee m em bers will select 
in d iv id u als to  p re s e n t re ­
ports o f their research at the 
1993 ALA A nnual C onfer­
en c e  in N ew  O rleans. Re­
s e a r c h  s h o u l d  f o c u s  o n  
timely, relevant, a n d  signifi­
cant aspects o f science a n d / 
or technology librarianship. 
P roposals sh o u ld  b e lim ited 
to  o n e  p a g e  a n d  s h o u ld  
co n tain  a n  abstract o f no t 
m o re  th a n  250 w o rd s, as 
w e ll a s th e  r e s e a r c h e r ’s 
n a m e , in s titu tio n , p h o n e  

n u m b er, an d  e-m ail address. A bstracts sh o u ld  
b e  su b m itte d  b y  Ja n u a ry  1, 1993, to: K athy 
W hitley, Science-E ngineering Library, U niver­
sity o f Arizona, T ucson, AZ 85721; ph o n e: (602) 
621-6375; o r km w hitl@ arizvm s o r k m w h itl 
@ccit.arizo n a.ed u .

C h o ic e  r e v ie w s  o n  CARL
T he C hoice Reviews D atabase is n o w  available 
th ro u g h  CARL Systems, Inc. o f D enver, Colo­
rado. C hoice b o o k  review s are brief, critical re­
view s o f scholarly b o o k s a n d  quality nonfic­
tio n  titles c o m m o n ly  fo u n d  in a c o lleg e or 
u niversity library o r co lleg e b o o k sto re . T he 
database contains more than 26,000 reviews of 
books reviewed since 1987 and is growing by 600 
reviews p er month. Libraries that have accessed 
the Choice database have used it for bibliographic 
instruction and as a reference database, as well as 
an  enhancem ent to their catalog since it provides 
the full text o f the book review.

G e t  h e lp  w r i t in g  t h a t  RFP
RMG C onsultants, Inc. o f C hicago is n o w  offer­
ing to  license its RFPs to  libraries. R equest f o r  
Proposalfo r  A u tom ated Systems a n d  Services (RFP) 
m ay b e o f special interest to  libraries looking 
for an  a u to m atio n  system. T he RMG Licensed 
RFP is available in m ach in e-read ab le a n d  p a ­
p e r form  a n d  the service includes te le p h o n e  
consulting tim e to  a n sw e r q u estio n s o r resolve 
problem s. T h e cost of th e service varies d e ­
p e n d in g  o n  th e  size o f th e library a n d  ranges 
fro m  $1,500 to  $2,500. T h e  RFP re p re se n ts 
RMG’s 12 years o f a u to m atio n  ex p e rie n c e  an d  
defines th e library’s req u irem en ts for system s 
a n d  related  services. For details contact Bar­
bara K opystecki o f RMG at (312) 321-0432.

ccit.arizona.edu


630 /  C&RL News

Libraries a n d  lib ra ria n s  n e e d e d  fo r 
in te rn a tio n a l e x c h a n g e s
ALA's Joint Committee on International Ex­
changes is building a database of U.S. and in­
ternational libraries and librarians interested in 
international study visits or exchanges. Requests 
for information and inclusion on the database 
for and from all countries of the world are w el­
comed, although in 1992-1994 special atten­
tion will be given to visits and exchanges with 
East/Central Europe and the countries of the 
former Soviet Union. Librarians considering a 
study visit abroad are invited to request an in­
put form to be included in the database. Al­
ready the Moscow Library Association, the Na­
tional Library of Romania, the Library and 
Technical University o f Budapest, the Univer­
sity Library at the Lajos Kosuth University in 
Debrecen (Hungary), the National Library of 
Prague, and the National University Library of 
Macedonia have offered to host American li­
brarians. Committee members are prepared to 
act as go-betweens and to assist those inter­
ested in finding sources of financial support.

The committee has received letters from 
Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, 
and the Commonwealth of Independent States 
such as this from Lyubov, a reference librarian

in a science library, “Neither w e nor our chil­
dren will live to see the society w e are trying to 
built today. So I dream to see America—coun­
try of the future, as I imagine it.”

For more information contact Opritsa Popa, 
chair, ALA IRC/IRRT Joint Committee on Inter­
national Exchanges, University of California, 
Davis, Shields Library, Davis, CA 95616.

Reference help a v a ila b le  on the Internet
Need help answering a difficult reference ques­
tion? “Stumper L” may be able to help. Stu­
dents at Rosary College’s Graduate School of 
Library and Information Science are operating 
a listserv on the Internet. Librarians can send 
in questions they n eed  help finding answers 
to and the graduate students send the q u es­
tions on to the over 500 librarians in 5 coun­
tries that subscribe. The subscribers then re­
spo n d  directly to the questioners using the 
Internet.

Questions sent to “Stumper L” have included 
“What state driver educational manuals allow 
advertising?” “How can one make a native Ameri­
can dream catcher?” and “What is the origin of 
the phrase ‘run-of-the-mill’?” To subscribe to 
the service send the message "Sub Stumper L 
(your nam e)” to Mail-serv@crf.cuis.edu. ■

Making the most of your serials budget
During the past four years of increased se­

rials prices coupled with decreased institutional 
budgets and statewide funding, the University 
o f M assachusetts M edical C enter Library 
(UMMCL) has been able to increase subscrip­
tions from about 2,100 to 2,500 titles. Two 
approaches made this 20% increase possible.

First, the policy of using only one sub­
scription agent was evaluated and abandoned. 
Surveys show ed that: 1) some publishers gave 
10-55% discounts w ith no a d d ed  service 
charges; 2) some domestic subscription agents 
added 3.5-4.9% service charges for all titles;
3) some domestic book dealers supplied do­
mestic continuations at 12-15% discounts; and
4) som e foreign subscription agents dis­
counted foreign titles 3.5-5.0%. Because of 
these findings, subscriptions were redirected 
as follows: foreign serials to a foreign agent; 
discounted domestic titles to the publishers; 
non-discounted domestic titles to publishers 
w hose total annual subscription costs ex­

ceeded $10,000; domestic continuations to a 
book dealer; and remaining titles to a do­
mestic agent.

Second, the n eed  for subscriptions by 
som e of the Medical Center’s revenue-gener­
ating components w as brought to the atten­
tion of administrative units. Potential cuts in 
subscriptions were equated with potential cuts 
in abilities to provide quality patient care and 
perform important basic research. As a result, 
supplemental funds w ere appropriated in or­
der to maintain and add titles.

Thus, during a period w hen many aca­
demic libraries had to reduce subscription 
levels, the UMMCL was able to keep pace with 
the ever-increasing volume of scientific peri­
odical literature. Testifying to the value of this 
information, the library now  supplies over 
2,000 interlibrary loan articles per m onth to 
its region o f the country.—D onald Morton, 
University o f  Massachusetts Medical Center Li­
brary ■

mailto:Mail-serv@crf.cuis.edu