ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


C&RL News ■ October 19981653

News f r o m  the F i e l d Mary Ellen Davis

Tw o state system s subscribe to ACS 
Web journals
The California Digital Library (CDL), the Uni­
versity of California’s (UC) electronic litera­
ture collection, and the University o f Wiscon­
sin system are subscribing to the entire 
collection of 26 Web journals published by 
the American Chemical Society (ACS).

They are the first statewide university sys­
tem to subscribe to the entire ACS electronic 
portfolio of original, peer-reviewed research 
journals in all areas of chemistry. Both con­
sortia expect to expand the availability o f ACS 
publications significantly through interlibrary 
loans.

The online versions offer subscribers en­
hanced features and access options not found 
in print editions; the most important of these 
is “Articles ASAP” (As Soon As Publishable), 
which releases journal articles on the Web as 
soon as they are finished, accelerating publi­
cations by two to 11 weeks over print.

Kenneth Frazier, director of libraries at the 
University of Wisconsin-Madison (the state­
wide server for the UW system), said that 
ACS’s “innovative licensing agreements will 
allow us to share information with other li­
braries far more quickly and efficiently than 
with print publications.”

Special Collections reopens at Old 
Dom inion U niversity
After being closed for a number of years, Old 
Dominion University (ODU) Library’s Special 
Collections is once again open to research­
ers. The library includes materials about Vir­
ginia and Norfolk history, as well as the uni­
versity archives. The manuscript collections 
include photos, diaries, correspondence, le­
gal papers, newspaper clippings, campaign 
files, and maps on topics such as the Civil 
War, women’s history, politics, school deseg­
regation, and military history. The papers of 
Lawrence M. Cox, Edythe C. Harrison, Henry
E. Howell Jr., Robert Morton Hughes, James 
W. Singleton, and A.E.S. Stephens number 
among the more significant holdings. ODU 
participates in the Virtual Library of Virginia

(VIVA) and has placed many finding aids on 
the Internet with VIVA support and funding. 
Visit the Web site at: http://www.lib.odu.edu/ 
aboutlib/spccol/.

EBSCO and S p rin g e r Verlag partner 
to  provide jo u rn als online
Springer-Verlag and EBSCO Subscription Ser­
vices have formed a partnership to make the 
full content o f the publisher’s electronic jour­
nals available through EBSCO Online when 
the system is released in late 1998. At this 
time Springer-Verlag will have 400 electronic 
journals available.

EBSCO Online is a Web-based electronic 
journals service that provides access consoli­
dation for end users. Once the system is re­
leased, EBSCO claims that end users will be 
able to access their library’s entire collection 
of electronic journals from one Web site and 
will only need to learn one search engine to

The Special Collections Library at Old Dominion 
University has reopened. This photo o f the 
O cean  V ie w  A m u se m e n t Park in N o rfo lk , 
V irginia, was taken on February 28, 1958, the 
day after a fire swept through the park causing 
an estim ate d  $500,000 in d am a g e . ODU's 
c o lle c t io n s  in c lu d e  th e  p a p e rs o f D u d le y 
Cooper, owner of the amusement park.

http://www.lib.odu.edu/


654 / C&RL News ■ October 1998

find the results they want. The system’s ad­
ministrative features will allow librarians to 
manage a dynamic electronic journal col­
lection and its users, order new electronic 
journals, and track usage.

EBSCO Online is currently under “Beta 
2” testing at a number of large academic 
and research libraries in the United States, 
Europe, Australia, and Asia.

DLS/IS seeks poster sessions/ 
presentations fo r 1999 program
The 1999 Program Planning Committees of the 
ACRL Instruction Section (IS) and the Distance 
Learning Section (DLS) seek proposals for the 
“Ideas in Action” poster session, the integral 
conclusion to the ALA 1999 New Orleans Pro­
gram, “Nothing but Net? Understanding the 
Digital Library User.” The session will explore

student behavior and needs in the digital 
library environment while identifying op­
portunities for librarians.

The poster session is envisioned as a forum 
for presenting innovative ways of providing in­
struction and services to “distance” students or 
faculty. The students may be taking classes in 
off-campus settings or using electronic library 
resources at home, in residence halls, computer 
labs, or even late at night in the library itself.

The poster session should be of interest to 
instruction librarians, distance education librar­
ians, librarians responsible for providing remote 
access to physical collections, and teaching fac­
ulty in higher education. Topic areas that may 
be of high interest to the ACRL community in­
clude: innovative tutorials or services, electronic, 
Web-based, or other distance learning reference 
services; evaluative techniques; faculty and elec­

tronic resources; information 

s access: interlibrary loan, re­
serves, document delivery ser­
vices.

“Ideas in Action” will con­
tion

sist of informal presentations 
en known)

that can take the form of  Rock
poster sessions or demon­port Beach

nova Univ. strated papers. Presenters 
n should be prepared to repeat 

the presentation several times.
rloo Each presentation should 
r Falls last about ten minutes, includ­

uque ing time for questions. To sub­
mit a proposal, send a 250- 

as
word abstract with your name, 

sville
address, phone number, and ake State Res.
e-mail address by December on

iesburg 31,1998 to: Anne Marie Casey, 
as City Off-Campus Library Services, 
ky Central Michigan University, 
egas 8110 Gate-house Road, Ste. 
er Library 500W, Falls Church, VA 

22042-12 10; (703) 849-8218, 
ondack C. C. ext. 115; fax: (703) 849-8254; 

e-m ail:anne. marie, casey® 
alo, NY

cmich.edu.mbus
Photographs or other vi­

sual materials to support your 
e proposal may be included. 
ville (Please indicate if your presen­
s tation will require access to 

electricity.) Proposals will be 
accepted by mail, e-mail, or 

ison fax. Proposals will be re-

ACRL Chapter Conference
19 9 8 -19 9 9

Chapter Date Loca
(wh

Arkansas October 2, 1998 Little
California Sept. 11-12,1998 New
Delaware October 14, 1998 Villa
Georgia October 7-9, 1998 Maco
Indiana April 7-9,1999
Iowa October 14-16, 1998 Wate

May 7,1999 Ceda
October 13-15,1999 Dub

Kansas October 16,1998
April 8,1999 Kans

Kentucky October 23 Loui
April 21-23,1999 Kenl

Mississippi October 28-30, 1998 Jacks
October 20-22,1999 Hatt

Missouri October 7-9,1998 Kans
Montana June 13-16,1999 Big S
Nevada October 3, 1998 Las V
New Jersey October 15, 1998 Kilm

December 11, 1998
East. New York October 26,1998 Adir
West. New York/
Ontario April 22, 1999 Buff

Ohio November 13.1998 Colu
Oklahoma November 3, 1998
South Carolina October 21-22, 1998
South Dakota Sept. 30-0ct. 2, 1998 Pierr
Tennessee October 23, 1998 Mary
Texas April 19-24. 1999 Dalla
Washington/
Oregon October 22-23,1998

Wisconsin April 14 or 15,1999 Mad



C&RL News ■ October 1998 / 655

Academ ic com m unity sets agenda 
to reclaim scholarly publishing

Universities have it within their power to 
work with each other and scholarly societ­
ies to transform scholarly communication into 
“a system of electronically mediated publi­
cations that will provide enhanced access to 
scholarly information and relief from the es­
calating prices o f commercial publishers.” So 
concluded the participants— university presi­
dents, provosts, faculty, librarians, counsels, 
and representatives o f scholarly societies and 
university presses— in a special Roundtable 
on Managing Intellectual Property in Higher 
Education. The findings of this group were 
reported in the essay “To Publish and Per­
ish,” featured in the March 1998 issue of 
Policy Perspectives, the publication o f the Pew 
Higher Education Roundtable.

Noting that the rising cost of scholarly 
publications is not a “library problem,” but a 
symptom of the deeper conflict between the 
sociology and economics o f academic pub­
lishing, the essay contrasts the expectation 
o f an open exchange o f information within 
the academy to the pricing and copyright 
practices o f some commercial publishers that 
control many o f the major scholarly publish­
ing venues. In an effort to regain some con­
trol over the research and scholarship gen­
erated by the academic community, the 
Roundtable participants proposed a set of 
five strategies to address the problem, in­

cluding the disentangling of quantity and 
quality in faculty work, the leveraging of li­
brary resources through consortial purchas­
ing, educating faculty and administrators on 
the economics o f scholarly publishing, in­
vesting in electronic forms o f publishing, and 
decoupling peer reviewed evaluation from 
publication.

The Roundtable was hosted by the Johns 
Hopkins University and sponsored by the 
Association o f American Universities (AAU), 
the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), 
and the Pew Higher Education Roundtable. 
Funding was provided by the Gladys Krieble 
Delmas Foundation, the W. K. Kellogg Foun­
dation, and The Pew Charitable Trusts.

ARL in conjunction with the AAU and 
other organizations is pursuing a number of 
the recommendations in the report and has 
developed a Web site to track progress. To 
encourage broad discussion of the issues 
raised, ARL is also seeking the participation 
o f the academic library community in devel­
oping a clearinghouse o f responses to and 
experiences in the use of the report in dis­
cussions on campus and in the broader com­
munity. To obtain a copy o f the report, share 
com m ents, relate exp erien ces, or track 
progress, see http://www.arl.org/scomm/ 
pew/.— Mary Case, Association o f  Research 
Libraries, e-mail: marycase@arl.org.

viewed by a panel o f IS 
and DLS members.

Novem ber 1 
deadline fo r ACRL 
poster sessions
November 1, 1998, is the 
deadline for submitting a 
proposal for a poster ses­
sion at ACRL’s 9th National 
Conference, April 8 -1 1 , 
1999, in Detroit. Submis­
sion details may be found 
on the W eb at: http:// 
w w w . a l a . o r g / a c r l /  
call4prt.html.

http://www.arl.org/scomm/
mailto:marycase@arl.org
http://www.ala.org/acrl/


656 / C&RL News ■  October 1998

A Cultural Awakening: 
The Harlem Renaissance revisited

Due to the lack o f diver­
sity at the University of 
V erm on t (U V ) and its 
community, I wanted to 
broaden experiences by 
bringing a sampling o f 
the African American ex­
perience via the Harlem 
R e n a is s a n c e  to th e s e  
communities.

I wrote, received, and 
administered a grant in 
the spring o f 1998 to de­
v e lo p  a t h r e e - c r e d i t  
course, “The Harlem Re­
naissance Revisited.” The M a rily n  Nelson
course, offered through th e  University o f
the Division o f Continu­ Howe Library's (

s ig n a tu r e  p a ining Education, was aug­
"P o rtra it o f th e

mented by a number of M ilto n  Derr. N
university-wide events: Instructional Inc

January 15-March 15, t h e  p r o v o s t 
19 9 8 , “T h e  L egacy  o f a d m in is te re d , 

ta u g h t "The Ha
Arthur S c h o m b u rg ,” a 

Revisited."
traveling d isplay, was 
hung in the Bailey/ H o w e L ib rary ’s H. 
Lawrence McCrorey Gallery o f Multicultural 
Art at UV. Schomburg’s collections o f the 
black experience in books, manuscripts, and 
art form the core o f the New York Public 
Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in 
Black Culture. Professor Mary Jane Dickerson 
opened our “Spring Calendar o f Events” with 
a discussion of Ann Douglas’s Terrible Hon­
esty: Mongrel New York in the 1920s.

February offered a compelling lecture and 
slide presentation, “The Face and Heart of 
the Black Renaissance,” by Edmund Barry 
Gaither, director o f the Museum o f the Na­
tional Center o f Afro-American Artists in 
Boston, and “Aspects o f the Harlem Renais­
sance,” a faculty panel and open discussion 
led by UV’s Professor Donald Grinde with 
professors from Dartmouth, Middlebury, and 
Bennington colleges. UV alumnus William
O. Boyd, who as a boy w orked for Langston 
Hughes, w as ou r sp e cial guest. Bailey/ 
H ow e’s February Film Festival included

“F ro m  T h e s e  R o o t s ,” 
“T w o  D o lla r s  a n d  a 
Dream,” “Black Artist of 
the USA," and “Harlem 
R e n a is s a n c e  and  B e ­
yond.”

In March, “Tw o Cre­
ative Women in the Har­
lem Renaissance Ethos: 
The 1920s Anne Spencer 
and the 1990s D olores 
S a n d o v a l,” w as in tro ­
duced with a brief biog­
raphy on Spencer. The 
1920s iconoclast was a 
w r ite r  a n d  lib r a r ia n  , seen here w ith  

 V erm ont's Bailey/ w hose Lynchburg, Vir­
McCrorey Gallery) ginia, ho m e b e ca m e a 

t in g ,  t h e  1975 haven for many o f the 
 Black M a n ," by 

1920s black intelligentsia. elson n e tte d  an 
entive g ra n t from  Sadly, two legendary li­
a n d  o rg a n iz e d , brarians, Augusta Baker 
d e v e lo p e d , and a n d  J e a n  B la c k w e ll 
rlem Renaissance 

Hutson, died in February 
as their contributions to 

the Schomburg hung in the Bailey/Howe Li­
brary.

O ur clo sin g  sp e aker, Linda P erkins, 
Hunter College, lectured from her newly pub­
lished essay, “The African American Female 
Elite: The Early History o f African American 
W omen in the Seven Sister Colleges, 1 8 8 0 - 
1960.” The finale in April featured “Music o f 
th e  H a rlem  R e n a i s s a n c e ,” b y  Larry 
McCrorey’s “Just Jazz.” The mixtures of sights, 
sounds, and colors at each event recalled 
the am bience o f a Harlem Renaissance soi­
ree.

T he reawakening was deem ed a success 
and best summed up by a staff member who 
said, “I was unaware o f the Harlem Renais­
s a n c e , e x c e p t fo r th e  m u sic o f  D u k e 
Ellington. During this cultural awakening I 
becam e aware of Black American history, 
art, and literature.” My objective exactly!—  
Marilyn Nelson, library assistant professor, 
Bailey/Howe Library, University o f Vermont, 
e-mail: mxnelson@zoo.uvm.eduM



C&RL News ■ October 1998 / 657

A C R L  
C olleagues 1 9 9 8

A CRL thanks the corporate 
com m unity for financially support­
ing its activities and programs 
throughout the year. Working 
together, the academ ic library and 
corporate com m unity can achieve 
goals of m utual interest. Librarians 
benefit from the expert analysis and 
problem -solving corporate leaders 
can bring to issues and topics being 
addressed.

Corporate contributions added 
$39,890 to the ACRL 1997-98 
budget. It was because of these 
contributions that the ACRL 
m em bership enjoyed a w ider range 
of program s and activities. ACRL 
could not be the m ajor player in the 
library and higher education arena 
that it is w ithout the cooperation 
received from sponsorships.

ACRL's Colleagues program 
recognizes corporate supporters in 
two distinct initiatives: corporate 
giving w ith a range of $500-$999; 
and enhanced sponsorship with 
three levels: Sum ma Cum  Laude 
(donations of $6,000 or more), 
M agna Cum  Laude ($3,000-$5,999), 
and Cum  Laude ($1,000—$2,999).

Summa Cum Laude
(o ver $6,000)

EBSCO 
Innovative Interfaces 

Cum Laude
($1,000-52,999)

ABAA
Brodart
Center for the Book
Elsevier Science Inc.
Haworth Press

Corporate Giving
($500-$999)

19th Century Shop
Bruce M cKittrick Rare Books
Cambridge Scientific Abstracts
Chemical Abstracts
Faxon
Heritage Book Shop
Information Access
Institute for Scientific 

Information
Joshua Heller Rare Books
K. G. Saur
Reese Company
Scott Winslow Associates
Swann Galleries Inc.
University Products
Wahington Rare Book Group
Yankee Book Peddler



658 / C&RL News ■ October 1998