ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News ■ M arch 2 0 0 3 / 147 N e w s f r o m t h e F i e l d S te p h a n ie O rp h an ALA/ACRL en co u rag e p articipatio n on R ow eC om credito r co m m ittee ALA and ACRL have undertaken steps to ensure that library interests are well-represented in the RoweCom bankruptcy proceedings. ALA filed to join a creditor’s committee established by the Eastern Division of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, where subscription agency RoweCom has filed for Chapter 11 status. In its application, ALA seeks to represent the interests of smaller librar­ ies nationwide affected by the RoweCom failure. ACRL has taken the lead in encouraging aca­ demic and research libraries, a number of whom are among the 40 libraries with the largest expo­ sure, to join the committee. D Space Fed eratio n co llabo ration announced The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Libraries have announced initial development of the DSpace Federation with six major research uni­ versities: Columbia University, Cornell University, Ohio State University, and the Universities of Roch­ ester, Toronto, and Washington. DSpace, a digital repository for intellectual output, was launched worldwide in November 2002. The federation project will explore the adaptability of DSpace to institutions beyond MIT, develop documentation for future federators, and investigate new types of services that can be built on federated collections held in DSpace repositories at different institutions. MIT believes that by developing a federation of institutions that employ the same software and protocols, the sustainability and poten­ tial for continued development of the sys­ tem are enhanced. Eb ra ry lau nches n ew d atab ase co llectio n s Ebrary has announced the availability of unique database collections that combine more than 20,000 books and other docu­ ments from more than 150 leading aca­ demic, trade, and general subject areas, as well as publishers collections, featuring highly specialized content from individual academic and professional publishers. Ebrary’s database collections enable si­ multaneous, multi-user access and integrate with existing ILS systems and digital resources, with full MARC records provided. The company also announced that is offering a new selection of hundreds of individual eBooks. Separate from its database collections, eBooks may be purchased by libraries who then own individual titles and provide check-out options allowing only a cer­ tain number of students or patrons to access a title at a given time. NYPL Picture Co llectio n goes d ig ital The New York Public Library has begun a major initiative to make thousands of digital images from its Picture Collection available online. The more than one million images housed at the Mid- Manhattan Library are currently at the disposal of some 140,000 visitors each year. Through the new initiative, 30,000 digital images will be online by the end of 2003 in some of the most popular subject areas. Organized into more than two dozen subjects, including African Americans, American history, costumes, fashion drawings, New York City, drag­ ons, and animals, the digitized images date from the 1700s through the first quarter of the 20th century. The images are drawn from the Picture Collection’s vast holdings of images clipped from books, newspapers, and magazines, as well as origi­ nal photographs, prints and postcards. The Pic­ ture Collection is accessible online at http:// picturecollection.nypl.org. 148 / C&RL News ■ M arch 2003 In n ovative o ffers digital co llectio n s so lu tio n s Innovative Interfaces is offering a suite of prod­ ucts designed to better organize libraries’ elec­ tronic collections. Digital collections products include Electronic Resource Management, XML Server, Millennium Access Plus (MAP), and Metasource. Electronic Resource Man­ agement, currently in alpha testing at the Uni­ versity of Washington and scheduled for gen­ eral release in 2003, replaces the need for libraries to build separate databases and con­ trols subscription and licensing information for licensed resources, such as e-journals and full- text databases. XML server, also scheduled for release this year, outputs catalog data in XML format. MAP is an integrated portal solution that manages access to information resources, while MetaSource includes tools for digital ob­ ject storage, crawling external collections, and full support for metadata schemes. All o f the products can be integrated with the Millennium system, with Electronic Re­ source Management and MAP available as stand-alone products. Sm ithsonian opens natural history library The Smithsonian Institutions Libraries has opened a state-of-the-art natural history and rare book library, the Jo sep h F. Cullman III Library o f Natural History. It houses, for the first time in one place, the Smithsonian Li­ braries’ entire collection o f approximately 10,000 rare and valuable natural history books and manuscripts. Located in the Smithsonian’s National Museum o f Natural History, the Cullman Library offers easy access to natural his­ tory scientists, museum curators, researchers, stu­ dents, and visitors. The library is named for New York City businessman Joseph F. Cullman III, whose $2 million gift established an endow­ ment to support the programs and operations o f the facilities. Among the manuscripts in the collection are Darwin’s On the Origin o f Species, works by or­ nithologists John James Audubon, Daniel G. Eliott, and John Gould; and Konrad Gesner’s 17th-century l con es A n im αliu m , an early zoo­ logical encyclopedia with many woodcuts of recognizable and imaginary animals. The Cullman Library complements the Dibner Li­ brary of the History of Science and Technol­ ogy, located in the National Museum of Ameri­ can History. P ro Q u est e n te rs in to lin k in g p a rtn e rsh ip s ProQuest’s Information and Learning unit an­ nounced that it has entered into several linking partnerships and enhanced its OpenURL capa­ bilities to allow users to move seamlessly be­ tw een ProQuest databases and their other online resources, such as e-journal subscriptions, library catalogs, aggregator databases, and docu­ ment delivery services. ProQuest’s OpenURL architecture supports linking from ProQuest to other resources and vice versa. UTA L ib ra rie s fe a tu re Tejan o V o ice s The University o f Texas-Arlington (UTA) Li- It's coming! New ACRL Web site to launch in April ACRL is pleased to announce that it will be launching its redesigned Web site this April. In addition to providing an updated look for ACRL, the site features a new navigation structure and intuitive interface to simplify access to the array of association information available online. The reorganization of the site was based on extensive usability testing with ACRL members. The redesign is being completed in tangent with an ALA-wide move to a Web content management system. Features of the system include advanced searching options and an im­ proved general search feature, improved navi­ gability, and one-stop pages detailing ALA’s work in major areas of interest. The ACRL site will remain accessible through www.ala.org/acrl and www.acrl.org, however, lower-level URLs will change. The goal of the new site is to provide sensible paths to ACRL Web pages, however, an FAQ and site map will be available to help you locate information on the new site and update your bookmarks. If you have any questions or concerns about the new Web site, please contact Stephanie Or­ phan, sorphan@ala.org. http://www.ala.org/acrlandwww.acrl.org mailto:sorphan@ala.oig C&RL N ew s ■ M arch 2003 / 149 C&RL N ew s seeks "Fast Facts" ed itor C ollege & R esearch L ib raries News is looking for an editor for its “Fast Facts” column. This monthly column features brief facts of inter­ est to the library and information science com­ munity. Examples include statistics, quotes, and “sound bites” that highlight trends and issues relevant to the library world. For samples of past columns, see the last page o f each issue o f C&RL N ew s (in this issue, page 230), or visit the magazine’s home page on the ACRL Web site: http://www. ala.org/ acrl/ c& rlnew 3.htm l. T h e new braries have created a W eb site that allow s access to digitized oral history interviews with Mexican American public figures in Texas. The interviews, conducted by UTA political sci­ ence professor Jo se Angel Gutierrez, empha­ size the personal stories and struggles of Tejano leaders, many o f whom are the first individuals o f Mexican descent in their communities elected or appointed to government office. The Web site provides background information on the Tejano Voices Project and features a page de­ voted to each interviewee, with photos of the interviewee, a biographical note, an interview summary, full text o f the interview, and an audio file of the entire interview. Seventy-seven interviews are currently available through the site at http://libraries.uta.edu/tejanovoices. An additional 81 interviews are held by UTA’s Special Collections but have not yet been cata­ logued and digitized. In g en ta p ro v id e s o n lin e so lu tio n s fo r W o rld B an k, O x fo rd U n iv. P re ss Ingenta has been selected to create the World B a n k ’s e-library, an electronic collection o f World Bank publications, documents, and pa­ pers. The e-library will be one of the most com­ prehensive online collections o f works in the area o f international social and econom ic de­ velopment available today, including more than 1,000 World Bank published titles in electronic format. The e-library content will be acce s­ sible on the World Bank site as well as through IngentaSelect.com. The company has also been appointed to build a specialist monograph Web site on b e ­ half o f Oxford University Press. The site will be online and cross-searchable in late 2003- editor’s term would begin with the September 2003 issue, with the first column due in early August. If you would like to apply, send an e-mail or letter outlining your interest and experience and a sample column (four to five items) by April 15 to: Stephanie Orphan, editor-in-chief, C&RL N ews, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611, e-mail: sorphan@ala.org. Selected applicants will be invited to phone interview with members o f the C&RL N eivs editorial board. R ich a rd C le m e n t n am e d e d ito r o f R B M ACRL is pleased to announce the appointment of Richard Clement as the new editor for RBM: A Jo u r n a l o f R are B ooks, M anuscripts, a n d Cul­ tu ra l H eritag e (RBM). Clement is special col­ lections librarian and head o f the Department o f Special Collections at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas. He will carry on the editorial focus of the journal in addressing important current issues in special collections librarianship and preserving our cul­ tural heritage and will assist the current co­ editors in producing the spring issue of RBM. Clement’s term officially begins at the end of the 2003 ALA Annual Conference, and his first issue will be in fall 2003. T u rk ish a r c h iv e a v a ila b le th ro u g h T e x a s Tech Texas Tech University’s Southwest Collection/ Special Collections Library has made available online the Archive o f Turkish Oral Narrative (ATON). The archive consists o f more than 6 million translated words from a range o f texts, all o f which are available through the ATON Correction In the February 2003 issue o f C&RL News an incorrect URL was printed for the expanded version of the Scholarly Communication ar­ ticle, “Removing barriers to research: An in­ troduction to open access for librarians.” The correct URL is: http://www.ala.org/acrl/ suber0203.html. The editors regret the error. http://www http://libraries.uta.edu/tejanovoices mailto:sorphan@ala.org http://www.ala.org/acrl/ 150 / C&RL News ■ M arch 2003 Web site. The Web site launched in October 2002 and in the first three w eeks o f January was accessed by more patrons than the total number of visitors to the archives premises in its 40-year existence. To visit the ATON online, go to http://aton.tte.edu. UNC C h a rlo tte jo in s A S E R L 's Kudzu Project The University of North Carolina (UNC)-Char- lotte is the latest ASERL library to join the Kudzu shared catalog system developed by the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL). Launched in January 2001 as a means o f connecting library catalogs at 12 ASERL in­ stitutions, Kudzu now conn ects more than 300,000 faculty and student users from 17 in­ stitutions. The addition o f UNC-Charlotte brings the total number of volumes searchable via the Kudzu interface to more than 30 mil­ lion. The Kudzu system uses OCLC’s SiteSearch software as its search engine. Once materials are identified, a cooperatively developed set of ILL policies and procedures ensures expedited delivery of materials to the borrowing library. IEE E o ffe rs in fo rm a tio n te c h n o lo g y library The IEEE Inform ation Technology Library (IteL) is a new online collection offering the full text o f more than 900 IEEE conference proceedings and periodicals in computing, com­ munications, signal processing, and circuits and systems dating back to 1993- The collection provides access to many of the world’s leading information technology publications, the top five telecommunications journals, and 22 of the 50 top-rated journals in electrical and electronic engineering. Also included are top-cited jour­ nals in software engineering, hardware, com­ puter theory and methods, artificial intelligence, and information. ■ Share your library's effective practices through ACRL clearinghouse ACRL’s Effective Practices Committee has developed a Web-based clearinghouse to facilitate the sharing o f effective practices in academic libraries and to recognize them as such. It is still a work in progress, but the scope o f the clearinghouse will span all areas of library programs, services, fa­ cilities, technology, and initiatives. Academic librarians looking for ideas to improve specific practices in their own li­ braries or just shopping for good ideas will eventually be able to browse by category and search by keyword. If your library has an effective practice that you’d like to share with the greater academic and research li­ brary community, make a submission to the Effective Practices Clearinghouse. So, what makes a practice an effective practice? • Effective practices are aligned with the library's and parent organization’s mission. • Effective practices have outcomes that are measurable. • Effective practices are sustainable and cost-effective and have a long-term impact on the library and its constituents, • Effective practices have some degree of transferability and contain components that are potentially useful within other con­ texts either within the institution or at other institutions • Effective practices can b e articulated in terms o f responding to the needs of aca­ demic libraries and their constituencies. Academic librarians are encouraged to submit their effective practices directly through the form on the Web site. Each practice will be reviewed by the commit­ tee to determine if it meets the criteria listed above. Once accepted, ACRL will post the practice on the Web site and send the sub­ mitting library a letter acknowledging its contribution to the ACRL Effective Practices Clearinghouse. Please take a minute to look at the ACRL Effective Practices Web site and consider shar­ ing your library’s effective practices with your colleagues. The Effective Practices Web site can be found at http://www.ala.org/acrl/ep. If you have questions, contact Gordon J. Aamot, Chair, Effective Practices Committee, at e-mail: aamot@u.washington.edu. http://aton.tte.edu http://www.ala.org/acrl/ep mailto:aamot@u.washington.edu C&RL News ■ M arch 2003 I 151 152 / C&RL News ■ M arch 2003 154 / C&RL News ■ M arch 2003