ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 547 New s f r o m the F ield Pittsburgh: Attend, present, participate! Keep informed about what’s happening with the seventh ACRL National Conference in Pittsburgh, March 29-April 1, 1995, and at the same time improve your chances to win free conference and precon­ ference registrations. Here’s how it’ll work. ACRL will mail th ree p o stca rd s to you (scenes from Pittsburgh) over the next 18 months: one in November 1993, one in Sep tember 1994, and one in December 1994. Each postcard will carry a different message pertain­ ing to the Seventh ACRL National Conference, and the three postcards matted together present a full picture of the exciting city of Pittsburgh. What do you need to do? Collect all three postcards, staple them together, and bring them to the ACRL booth at the 1994 Midwinter meet­ ing in Cincinnati to be included in the draw­ ings. Six winners will be selected. All postcards must be addressed to the same person. Note: If you are not attending the 1994 Mid­ winter meeting in Cincinnati, you can staple your postcards together and mail them to the ACRL office by January 10, 1995, to be included in the drawings. Virginia’s academic libraries cooperate The libraries of Virginia’s doctoral-granting in­ stitutions are using a statewide fax network to deliver articles in 24 hours and are using UPS to deliver books in 48 hours. Libraries of the College of William and Mary, George Mason University, Old Dominion University, Univer­ sity of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth Uni­ versity, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University are also lending materials such as microforms, audio- and videotapes, and bound journals that previously have been re­ stricted to on-campus use only. This initiative builds on a successful, one-year pilot project in which the libraries of James Madison Univer­ sity, the University of Virginia, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University showed that rapid, consistent delivery was the key to successful library resource sharing. This effort removes the barrier of distance in using information resources and provides the foundation for statewide cooperative ef­ forts to minimize duplica­ tion of book and serial pur­ chases. To further advance ac­ cess to information the six d o cto ral lib ra ries have joined with the rest of the state-supported academic libraries in Virginia— nine from four-year institutions and 23 from community colleges— to form the Vir ginia Academic Library Consortium (VALC). VALC members will enter into cooperative projects that maximize access to information through such means as cooperative collection development and document delivery. Millsaps College endows library directorship Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, has received a $1 million anonymous challenge grant for the establishment of the endowed li­ brarian directorship. The endowment will also provide planning funds to design a new state- of-the-art library once initial funds are com­ mitted for that project. During the 1993–94 aca­ demic year, this grant’s funds will match gifts to a maximum total of $200,000. Subsequent challenges will be made in succeeding years. Jim Parks, director of the library, said, “I am honored to be in the library directorship at the time it is given. The gift is a credit to the hard work of the library staff and the support of the faculty, administration, and Board of Trustees. Like all libraries, ours is in a time of significant … changes and this endowment demonstrates a commitment to seeing that the Millsaps li­ brary meets those challenges and adjusts to the changes.” Logo design needed for library school The Library School Association, the Alumni Or­ ganization of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) at the Uni­ versity of Illinois at Urbana, is sponsoring a contest for the best design logo to be used on the association’s brochures and other publicity needs. The logo should be suitable for reproduction 5 4 8 in one or two colors. Any GSLIS alum or future alum can enter the contest. The de­ sign should be submitted before December 31‚ 1993, to: Sally Duchow, Logo Contest Chair, 201 Castle Lane, St. Joseph, IL 61873. The name o f the w inner will be an n o u n ced in the association’s newsletter in February. For more information about its various activities, contact: Christine H. Guyonneau, president, at (317) 788-3431; fax: (317) 788-3275. Explore the Internet via teleconference Exploring Internet, a national teleconference, will be broadcast on Thursday, December 2, 1993, from noon-2:00 p.m. EST. Speakers in­ clude nationally known experts Rick Gates, writer for E lectron ic Library and creator o f “In­ ternet Hunt,” Jean Amour Polly, manager of network development and user training for NYSERNet, and Richard J. Smith, coauthor of N avigating th e Internet. ACRL President Tom Kirk will address the participants on the topic o f networking. The teleconference will be in­ teractive; viewer questions relating to Internet will be answered during the broadcast. Cost to receive the telecast is $250 and includes down­ link access, informational literature, and full rights to tape the teleconference. If you do not have a satellite dish contact your local univer­ sity, community college, local satellite service provider, or cable company to downlink the conference. To register or for further informa­ tion contact Eileen Dubin, D & F Associates, (815) 758-7499. Class gifts bolster Penn’s renovations The University o f Pennsylvania’s main social sciences and humanities library, the Van Pelt- Dietrich Library Center, will undergo major in­ terior renovations with funds raised in the early stages o f a capital campaign. So far, seven classes have pledged to support key compo­ nents o f the plan, giving more than $3.1 mil­ lion toward the effort. The class of 1937 led the way with $150,000 for a recently completed microcomputer laboratory whose design treat­ ments— Shaker-style furniture with a contem­ porary concern for ergonomics— will be used in the larger renovations being planned. Among the class gifts pledged are: $500,000 for circu­ lation by the class of 1943, $700,000 for refer­ ence by the class o f 1968, and $350,000 pledged by the class o f 1964 for an Electronic Lookup Center that will provide network access to in­ formation bases, the online catalog, RLIN, and the Internet. With the substantial amount se­ cured in pledges, a feasibility study has been commissioned. ALA sticks with Miami 1994 ALA announced that it is sticking with Miami, Florida, as the site o f its 1994 Annual Confer­ ence despite the recent rash o f violent acts against tourists in that area. ALA gave cost, lack of availability o f facilities in other cities, tim­ ing, and reputation as reasons for not switch­ ing the site. Plans for the 1994 conference are already well underway and the current value of the cancellation clauses in contracts ALA has signed is almost $500,000. Problems experi­ enced by the American Booksellers Associa­ tion during its recent conference in Miami have been addressed by ALA and conference orga­ nizers are confident that Miami will provide an excellent location for the conference. Standardizing form and genre terms A Working Group on Form and Genre Vocabu­ laries has been formed to reconcile terminol­ ogy used to provide access to library materials through genre, form, and physical characteris­ tics, (i.e., USMARC fields 655— Index Term— Genre/Form; and 755— Added Entry— Physical Characteristics). The group is examining the following vocabularies: Art a n d A rchitectu re Thesaurus; G en re Terms; G u idelin es o n Su b­ j e c t A c c ess to I n d i v id u a l W orks o f F ic tio n , D ram a, Etc.-, L ibrary o f Congress Su bject H e a d ­ ings, M ed ica l Subject Headings-, M oving Im a g e M aterials, and Terms f o r G rap h ic M aterials I. With representatives from LC, special collec­ tions, and NLM the group will meet annually until existing conflicts are resolved. The group is funded by the Council on Library Resources and the Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT). The group would like to hear from anyone plan­ ning a new list of form and genre terms in­ tended for use in MARC fields 655 and 755. For more information contact Laura Stalker, Asso­ ciate Director for Technical Services, Hunting­ ton Library, 1151 Oxford Rd,, San Marino, CA 91108 . Utah universities share collections Utah State University, Brigham Young Univer­ sity, and the University of Utah each purchased NOTIS Systems’ PACLink and PACLoan to make their collections accessible to one another and to any other Z39.50-compatible library in the state o f Utah. Driving their decision to choose 549 PACLink and PACLoan was a desire to experi­ ment in statewide cooperation and resource sharing to give any library in Utah access to information databases without having to indi­ vidually purchase them. The universities are part o f an 11-library consortium called the Utah College Library Council comprised of all higher education institutions in the state that have li­ braries. These three universities are the largest in the consortium and each has the NOTIS li­ brary management system. The other eight sites have the Dynix system. Dynix and NOTIS are working together to guarantee interoperability of both systems. ■ Barcoding: Tedious project o r com m unity p a rty ? Broome Community College (BCC) Learn­ ing Resources staff turned a tedious barcoding project into a community party. During the holiday break, 95 retired and current BCC fac­ ulty, staff, and students participated in a barcoding party resulting in the barcoding of 65,584 titles in preparation for participation in the SUNY Library Automation Project. Barcode volunteers were recruited from the college community to help “bring the LRC into the 21st century.” Articles were written for the staff newsletter and the student newspaper. The c o lle g e p re si­ dent invited all college employ­ e e s to partici­ pate. The direc­ tor o f Learning Resources dem­ o n s tra te d the benefits of auto­ mation to stu­ dent and faculty g ro u p s. Phi T h e ta K app a, the student gov ernment association, and the Retired BCC Fac­ ulty/Staff Association recruited volunteers. Volunteers were paired with trained LRC staff to reduce training time and increase ac­ curacy. Two trained staff members served as “floaters,” welcoming volunteers, and filling in where needed. Efforts were made to make all participants feel necessary to the project’s success. The barcoding schedule was limited to two two-hour blocks per day, 10:00 a.m. to noon and 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., with 15-minute breaks. These shorter time periods reduced errors due to fatigue. During “tea time,” volunteers drank coffee donated by the college food service, ate donuts donated by area merchants, and socialized. The collection was divided into sections. This enabled teams to work without inter­ ruption from other teams, while able to see and communicate with each other, occasion­ ally engaging in mini-contests. A progress chart, updated daily, kept teams enthused about their progress. The student government and the faculty/ student associa­ tio n s c o n t r ib ­ uted “BCC just ch a n g e d its stripes!” t-shirts designed by the P u b l i c a t i o n s Center. These t- shirts and certifi­ cates o f appre­ c ia tio n w ere given to all bar- coding partici­ pants. In addi­ Larry Jenkins and Wanda Johnston display BCC’s barcoding project progress chart and t-shirts. tion, o n ce the project was com­ pleted, partici pating staff and volunteers celebrated with pizza and cake. Can barcoding be changed from a tedious task to a community party? Broome Commu­ nity College proved it can. Volunteer com­ ments included: “I’m doing this for my children.” “I thought I would only help out one morn­ ing, but this is so much fun I’ll be back to­ morrow.” “I’m sorry the project is done.”— W an da K. Jo h n ston , d ir ecto r o f lea rn in g resources, B r o o m e C om m u n ity College, B in g h am ton , New York ■