ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 710 / C&RL News ■ July/August 2001 C o l l e g e & R e s e a r c h L i b r a r i e s new s The librarian’s role in portal development Providing unique perspectives and skills by Mickey Zemon From learning portals created for specific courses to cam pus portals that provide all the com puting services a university w i n eed via its Web site, portals prom ise to re­ sh a p e h o w in fo rm atio n is e x c h a n g e d in higher education. A portal allow s its users to custom ize in­ formation sources b y selecting and view in g only those they find useful. For many, the portal is the epicenter o f the Web exp eri­ ence, a “hom e b a se ,” a p lace to return to w h e n yo u ge t lost, a p lace to k e e p your in­ formation, a p lace from w h ich to com m uni­ cate with others, “a security blanket or a safety net, and a trusty guide to all things W e b .’”1 As educators w h o organize and evaluate inform ation resources, academ ic librarians bring unique perspectives and skills to the develop m ent o f portals in their co lleges and universities. To cam pus portal planning and implem entation, they bring their expertise with content, their k n o w le d ge o f copyright, their commitment to custom er service, and their experien ce in creating custom ized Web- based information delivery systems. Content Academ ic librarians provide credible content that has b e en selected for a specific learning community. Their libraries’ h om epages and ll collections have w hat e very W eb site wants: brand and content.2 Libraries have the brand nam e o f the academ ic institution they serve and content that has b e en custom ized to meet the needs o f their users. T o students w h o m ay h ave difficulty determ ining w hat is valu­ able and w hat is useless on the W eb, the library offers a safe harbor in a flo od o f in­ formation. Increasingly the content o f libraries is in digital form and is co m p o sed o f databases and digital libraries. C lick o n any library ho m epage and yo u w ill find an array o f d a­ tabases selected to support the academ ic pro­ grams offered b y the institution. These data­ bases are m ade available both on and o ff cam pus through licenses arranged through the library. Some users think these full-text articles and indexes are free b ecause they are avail­ a b le th r o u g h the W eb . H o w e v e r , th e se sources are published, p aid for from library budgets through licensing agreements, and reflect a m ore academ ic and scholarly focus than the sources that are available for free on the Web. Many academ ic libraries, w orkin g w ith their parent institutions and other agencies, are converting special collections into digital fo r m . T h e D i g i t a l L ib r a r y I n it ia t iv e A b o u t t h e a u t h o r Mickey Zemon is library director at Emerson College, e-mail: mickey_zemon@emerson.edu mailto:mickey_zemon@emerson.edu C&RL News ■ July/A ugust 2001 / 711 (w w w .dli2.nsf.gov), a m ulti-agency federal program with funding from the National Sci­ en c e Foundation and the National Endow ­ m ent for the Humanities, has b e e n a m ajor impetus to creating scholarly digital libraries. Under Phase 1, six projects w ere funded at m ajor universities that created storehouses o f inform ation available through th e Internet and, currently under Phase 2, the next gen ­ eration o f digital libraries is being developed. T he Institute o f Museum and Library Services (www.im ls.gov) has recently awarded digiti­ zation grants to 12 libraries for projects that will add special materials to their Web sites. Several digital initiatives have b e e n un­ dertaken o n regional and state levels, as well. For instance, Nelinet and its m em ber librar­ ies have begu n to create the New England Digital Library Initiative, an inventory o f e x ­ isting digital library programs and collections that will b eco m e a definitive catalog and c o l­ lection o f important materials about New En­ gland. Copyright Librarians’ know ledge o f current copyright policy is b ein g called upon now m ore than ever in setting up electro n ic reserves and onlin e information for learning portals cre­ ated using Blackboard and other W eb-based In stitu tio n s o ffe rin g lib ra ry portals Institutions offering library portals in­ clude the following; • North Carolina State University (http:// my.lib.ncsu.edu) • Virginia Com m onwealth University ( http;//www. library, vcu.edu/mylibrary/ cil99.htm ) • University o f W ashington Libraries ( h ttp :/ / w w w .lib.w ash in g ton .ed u / re source/help/MyGateway.html) • California Polytechnic State Univer­ sity Library (http://www.lib.calpoly.edu/ mylib/cgi-bin/index. cgi) • Cornell University Library (http:// m y lib r a r y .c o r n e ll.e d u / d e v e lo p m e n t / mylibrary) • University o f California Los A ngeles (h ttp :// my. u cla. edu) course managem ent systems. Faculty and stu­ dents may assume that if educational mate­ rial is on the W eb, n o copyright restrictions apply. However, this is true only if the cop y­ right for the w ork has expired, its author has allow ed the w ork to go into the public d o­ main, or the w ork was authored by the fed ­ eral government. Since there is a mix o f works in the public dom ain and under copyright o n the In tern et— and som e w ork s un d er copyright are posted without authorization— it is not always clear w hich are in the public domain. Librarians provide guidance in determ in­ ing w hich W eb-based m aterials are under copyright and s e e k perm ission for u se o f th ese w orks with the Copyright Clearance Center and other agencies. Librarians inform faculty about the fair use guidelines and li­ brary-related provisions o f the 1976 Copy­ right Act and the 1997 CONFU (C onference o n Fair U se) Guidelines, w hich place time, copying/distribution, and portion limitations o n the use o f educational multimedia works not in the public domain. C ustom er service As libraries make m ore digital resources avail­ able on the W eb, research is increasingly con d u cted outside o f the physical library. H owever, rem ote users w ant interactive as­ sistance from a qualified hum an bein g and not just a help button to click on. Librarians have developed a nu m ber o f ways to extend person-to-person referen ce service in a digi­ tal environm ent that are applicable in sup­ porting portal use on campus. Digital reference services (DRS) offer qual­ ity service at any time to users outside the library. DRS refer to “all Internet-based, hu­ man-m ediated information services, includ­ ing those based in library settings and other types o f organizations.”3 Such services range from e-m ail referen ce— w hich libraries have offered for years— to online reference chat— w hich m any librarians are now im plem ent­ ing using custom er services applications like H um anC lick ( w w w .h u m a n click .co m ) that enable Web site visitors to get immediate real time on-dem and help. Com prehensive Digital Reference Service (CDRS), a free service offered by librarians from around the world, will help users find inform ation on the Internet b y directing their http://www.dli2.nsf.gov http://www.imls.gov http://www.library.vcu.edu/mylibrary/ http://www.lib.washington.edu/re- http://www.lib.calpoly.edu/ http://www.humanclick.com 712 / C&RL News ■ July/August 2001 [Portals] shared several common objectives: to shorten the number of clicks users need to make to get to the information they want; to increase the "stickiness" of their library's Web site . . and to make the library portal the user's main gateway to information. questions to the library best able to answer them. E d Note: CRDS is described in detail on the Web broadcast “Digital R eference,” avail­ able at http://www.ala.org./acrl/denver.html. The Virtual Reference Desk (VRD) is dedi­ cated to the advancement o f digital reference and the successful creation and operation of human-mediated, Internet-based information systems. Sponsored by the National Library of Education and the ERIC Clearinghouse on In­ formation and Technology, VRD includes a number o f Internet-based question and answer services that connect users with individuals w ho possess specialized knowledge. These AskA services (www.vrd.org/locator/ subject.html) use the Internet to place people in contact with those w ho can answer specific inquiries— for instance, Ask-a-Scientist or Ask- a-Linguist. Customized information delivery MyLibrary is a library portal that allows users to create a personal W eb space where they can customize the information contained on their library’s homepage. Users can customize categories, such as library links, bibliographic databases, and electronic databases based on the subject area o f their choice. Instead o f look­ ing through an array o f online sources, they have one place to access all the resources they need. The profile created for a MyLibrary user allows the library to keep him or her informed o f new resources or services, as well. Library portals have been used as a teaching tool for classes and as research tools for faculty and graduate or upper-level students. Using the MyYahoo model, several librar­ ians developed these portals at almost the same time. In doing so, they shared several com ­ mon objectives: to shorten the number o f clicks users need to make to get to the information they want; to increase the “stickiness” o f their library’s Web site (in other words to get users to com e back again and again); and to make the library portal the user’s main gateway to information. Unlike commercial portals, the library models focus on scholarly materials, including electronic journals and authoritative ready reference material. Users have the op­ tion o f adding Web sites or other resources to the preconfigured links offered on their pro­ filed account. Most o f the libraries that have developed portals are sharing their open source code with other libraries. For instance, librarians are w elcom e to download and use the MyLibrary code developed at North Carolina State Uni­ versity (see sidebar for institutions offering li­ brary portals). Over the past decade, academic librarians have been evaluators, selectors, and organiz­ ers o f information on the Web. Our experi­ ence and expertise make us valuable players in a team approach to planning and imple­ menting portals on our campuses. Notes 1. Michael Looney and Peter Lyman, “Por­ tals in Higher Education,” EDUCAUSEReview 35 Øuly/August 2000): 30. 2. Jo h n Lubans, “Opening the Gates: D e­ v elo p in g O ur Inform ation C om m u n ities,” ACRlVNew England Chapter Fall Conference, November 17, 2000. 3. Abby Kasowitz, Blythe Bennett and R. David Lankes, “Quality Standards for Digital Reference Consortia,” R eferen ce a n d User Ser­ vices Q uarterly 39 (Summer 2000): 355. ■ Call for covers C&RL News wants to feature aesthetically pleasing photos o f items from library col­ lections on its covers. If you have mate­ rial in your library’s collections that you think would m ake an attractive C&RL News cover, please send us photographs or color photocopies and a brief description o f the items and the collection. Photos may be either color or black-and-white and should b e 5" x 1" or 8" x 10". Illustrations with a vertical orientation w ork best. Send to: C&RL N ews Covers, 50 E. Huron St., Chi­ cago, IL 60 6 l l . http://www.ala.org./acrl/denver.html http://www.vrd.org/locator/ C&RL N e w s ■ Ju ly / A u g u s t 2001 / 713 T H E B E S T I S Y E T T O . 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