C&RL News October 2018 474 N e w s f r o m t h e F i e l dDavid Free UCLA Library to host digital archive of ancient Arabic and Syriac manuscripts The UCLA Library and Early Manuscripts Electronic Library have partnered with St. Catherine’s Monastery to digitize and publish online on an open access basis some 1,100 rare and unique Syriac and Arabic manu- scripts dat- ing from the fourth to the 17th centuries. A UNESCO World Heri- tage site locat- ed in a region of the Sinai Peninsula sa- cred to Chris- tianity, Islam and Judaism, St. Catherine’s M o n a s t e r y houses a col- lection of an- cient and me- dieval manuscripts second only to that of the Vatican Library. Some 400,000 images will be created, including of works from Syriac literate culture, which flourished be- tween the third and eighth centuries, and Christian Arabic literature, which appeared in the eighth century as Christian communi- ties adapted to the spread of Islam. Built in the sixth century, St. Catherine’s Monastery holds the oldest continually op- erating library in the world. Its manuscripts cover subjects ranging from history and philosophy to medicine and spirituality. However, access to this remote region has always been difficult, and the Sinai’s unsettled political climate has made this project even more essential. This exten- sive collection of manuscripts becoming accessible to scholars around the world is thanks to the support of a $980,000 grant from the Arcadia Fund. ACRL OpenCon scholarship recipients The ACRL Research and the Scholarly En- vironment Committee (ReSEC) recently an- nounced the selection of Debbie Feisst and Willa Liburd Tavernier as sponsored scholar- ship recipients to attend OpenCon 2018 to be held November 2-4, 2018, in Toronto, Canada. Feisst is pub- lic services li- brarian at the University of Alberta Librar- ies in Edmon- ton, Canada, and Tavernier is the open s c h o l a r s h i p resident librar- ian at Indiana U n i v e r s i t y - Bloomington. “ W e a r e delighted to award Debbie and Willa these scholarships as their work aligns with the mis- sion and purpose of OpenCon,” remarked ReSEC Chair Yasmeen Shorish, data services co- ordinator/associate professor at James Madison University in Virginia. “The selection subcom- mittee (composed of previous OpenCon ACRL scholarship recipients Michelle Reed, Cynthia Orozco, and Tatiana Bryant) was excited by Debbie’s work developing an OER to teach Indigenous perspectives to elementary social studies teachers in Alberta. Likewise, they are inspired by Willa’s work developing assessment tools to evaluate the inclusiveness of repositories and publishing programs in order to increase representation and engage underrepresented groups in academic publishing at IU and be- yond. We are so very fortunate that they will be joining ReSEC as committee members in July 2019.” OpenCon 2018 is a platform for the next generation of scholars and researchers to learn The fathers of St. Catherine’s Monastery have been careful stew- ards of the oldest continually operating library in the world for centuries. Courtesy UCLA Library. October 2018 475 C&RL News Academic Libraries and the Academy ACRL announces the publication of the two-volume Academic Libraries and the Academy: Strategies and Approaches to Demonstrate Your Value, Impact, and Return on Investment, edited by Marwin Britto and Kirsten Kinsley. Forty-two case studies are divided into two comprehensive volumes—from beginning assessment work through assessment activities that are more dif- ficult to measure and generally more time- and resource-intensive—to provide practicable ideas and effective strategies for all levels of experience, assessment skills, stages of implementation, and access to resources. With increased ex- pectations of account- ability and transparency for budget expenditures, institutions scrambling to do more with less, and the emergence of new budgeting models that view units as either cost centers or profit centers, academic libraries are under new pressures and scrutiny. It’s become incredibly important for academic libraries to clearly articulate to their institutional administrators their contributions to institutional outcomes, short-term and long- term value, and in essence, their return-on- investment. Academic Libraries and the Academy is a thorough collection of effective practices, les- sons learned, approaches, and strategies of how librarians, library professionals, and others in academic libraries around the world are success- fully providing evidence of their contributions to student academic success and effectively demonstrating their library’s value and impact to institutional administrators and stakeholders. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to demonstrating a library’s value, so Academic Libraries and the Academy captures a range of successful approaches and strategies used in different types of academic libraries around the world. Each case study opens with a one- page summary present- ing 14 descriptors of the chapter’s content that will allow you to quickly ascertain if the case study is of immediate interest based on your individual needs, interests, and goals. This book is designed to provide guidance and support to those of you—librarians, library professionals, and others involved in library assess- ment—who struggle to find the best approach and strategy at the right time in your assessment journey, and help you successfully articulate your academic library’s impact. Academic Libraries and the Academy: Strategies and Approaches to Demonstrate Your Value, Impact, and Return on Investment is available for purchase in print and as ebook through the ALA Online Store, individually and as a set; in print through Amazon.com; and by telephone order at (866) 746-7252 in the United States or (770) 442-8633 for international customers. about open access, open education, and open data; develop critical skills; and catalyze action toward a more open system for sharing informa- tion. In addition to attending OpenCon, Feisst and Tavernier will be appointed for two-year terms on ReSEC to contribute to ACRL’s scholarly communication initiative by building on what they learn through OpenCon. C&RL News October 2018 476 Mellon Fellowships for Dissertation Research in Original Sources applications The Council on Library Resources (CLIR) is cur- rently accepting applications for the 2019–20 Mellon Fellowships for Dissertation Research in Original Sources. The deadline for submis- sion of application materials is December 4, 2018. The program will offer about 15 competitive- ly awarded fellowships in 2019. Each provides a stipend of $2,000 per month for 9 to 12 months. Each fellow will receive an additional $1,000 upon participating in a symposium on research in original sources and submitting an acceptable report to CLIR on the research experience. Fel- lowship stipends will support research begin- ning between June 1 and September 1, 2019, and ending within 12 months of commencing. Fellowships will not be renewed or extended. For further information on eligibility, require- ments, and deadlines, please visit www.clir.org /fellowships/mellon/applicant-resources/. ProQuest News discoverable in Ex Libris Primo To address the teaching, learning, and research needs of the academic community, ProQuest is making more of its digital news content dis- coverable via Ex Libris Primo, the discovery service that delivers access across the breadth of libraries’ print, electronic, and digital collec- tions. ProQuest Historical Newspapers, Recent Newspapers, and Newsstream collections—cov- ering nearly 3,000 titles from the early 1700s to today—are now discoverable through Primo. Researchers can quickly find the news they need in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian & Observer, The Washington Post, Choice releases “Marketing Academic Library Resources and Services” white paper Choice recently announced the publication of the second in a series of white papers designed to provide actionable intelligence around topics of importance to the academic library commu- nity. This second paper, “Marketing Academic Library Resources and Ser- vices” offers a look into how the evolving academic library positions itself and its services to the library community. Researched and produced by Choice and written by Sa- bine Dantus of Lynn University and Jennifer Park of Mount Saint Mary College, the white paper provides an overview of current academic library marketing activities. The work presents an empirical look at how well libraries are promoting services and resources, what tactics they use, which tactics are successful and which are not, and where li- braries are finding the staffing and/or funding to do so—with a special focus on digital resources. Commenting on the publication of the white paper, Choice Editorial Director Bill Mick- ey noted, “Marketing is still considered a new tactic for many academic libraries. The learning curve for developing an organized marketing strategy, as this report shows, remains very high. Choice is excited to add this report to a growing body of resources, including the ACRL’s ongoing development of the ‘Libraries Transform’ toolkit, to help inform best practices for an important activity that directly contributes to and informs the academic library’s value to the institution.” Funding for the research was provided by a generous contribution from the Taylor & Francis group. “Marketing Academic Library Resources and Services” has been published under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and is available at www. choice360.org/librarianship/whitepaper. http://www.clir.org/fellowships/mellon/applicant-resources/ http://www.clir.org/fellowships/mellon/applicant-resources/ http://www.choice360.org/librarianship/whitepaper http://www.choice360.org/librarianship/whitepaper October 2018 477 C&RL News EBSS communication studies resource moves to LibGuides The Electronic Resources in Communication Studies Committee of the ACRL Education and Behavioral Sciences Section recently migrated its Library Resources for Communication Stud- ies subject pages to the ACRL LibGuide plat- form. This site is a springboard that librarians, students, and researchers can use to find infor- mation in the area of communication studies. It is not exhaustive; rather, it includes the core or primary resources within each category present- ed. The guide is available at acrl.libguides.com / e b s s / l r c s . v / d i g l i b / a s i a n / h t m l / n k s i p /nksip-home.html. The Globe and Mail, The Times of India, and thousands more titles. EBSCO releases OnArchitecture video library EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) recently released OnArchitecture, an online library of original architecture-related videos intended to support architectural and design education. OnArchitecture features video interviews with influential contemporary architects throughout the world. The interviews are supplemented by video portraits of their key projects, both buildings and installations. Original videos in the collection cover design processes and the role of architects and architecture in contem- porary society. OnArchitecture also contains information about the buildings and installations that are showcased, such as technical specifications, proj- ect briefs, and corporate profiles. Up-to-date bi- ographies of the architects and designers whose works are featured are also covered. Video con- tent in OnArchitecture is updated on a yearly ba- sis. For more information about EBSCO’s art and architecture resources, visit: www.ebsco.com /academic-libraries/subjects/art-architecture. Library of Congress launches North Korean Serials Database Home to one of the most prominent North Ko- rean collections in the Western Hemisphere, the Asian Division at the Library of Congress has rolled out the North Korean Serials Database, an online indexing tool that offers researchers enhanced ac- cess to periodicals and articles published as far back as the 1940s. The database contains 34,000 indexed records for articles in 18 journals from North Korea and covers publications from as ear- ly as 1948, the year North Korea was established, up to the present day. Access to the indexes of these historical and cultural materials offers insight into the policy, economic, political, social, historic, military, legal, financial, and governmental is- sues that affect contemporary foreign policy and strategies related to North Korea. The database is available at http://memory.loc.gov /diglib/asian/html/nksip/nksip-home.html. Tech Bits . . . Brought to you by the ACRL ULS Technology in University Libraries Committee Like many others, I often work on committees and workgroups with geo- graphically dispersed colleagues. From a productivity standpoint, our library system requires a collaborative com- munication system that facilitates group meetings with video conferencing. For years our organization has used a few different systems with varying success but recently began testing Microsoft Teams. Teams is an easy-to-use col- laborative space and meeting applica- tion available through a Microsoft Office 365 subscription, or you can sign up for free to preview it. Group members join meetings through a direct invita- tion from meeting owners or through a meeting URL. Within meetings, users can chat, share files and screens, and make video calls. Teams is available for both Windows and Macs as well as on Android and iOS devices. —Samuel Dyal Arizona State University . . . Microsoft Teams https://products.office.com/en-us/ microsoft-teams/group-chat-software http://acrl.libguides.com/ebss/lrcs http://acrl.libguides.com/ebss/lrcs http://acrl.libguides.com/ebss/lrcs http://www.ebsco.com/academic-libraries/subjects/art-architecture http://www.ebsco.com/academic-libraries/subjects/art-architecture http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/asian/html/nksip/nksip-home.html http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/asian/html/nksip/nksip-home.html https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software