ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


C&RL News ■ N ovem ber 2002 / 705

You don't need to know German to participate 
in ARL's German Resources Project

One of the persistent myths about the Associa­
tion of Research Libraries (ARL) German Re­
sources Project is that you must be a Geiman- 
language bibliographer to be interested. In fact 
the project includes a broad range of digital, 
document-delivery, and cataloging activities that 
embrace the full range of the subject spectrum 
and involve staff from all parts o f the library, 
many of whom know no German.

The German Resources Project belongs to a 
group of Global Resources Programs that ARL 
launched in the 1990s. The German Demon­
stration Project began in 1992, and changed to 
its present form in 1998 with financial support 
from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Since 
then it has had four main subcommittees: docu­
ment delivery, bibliographic control, digital li­
braries, and collection development.

The document delivery group has worked 
with colleagues at the University of Göttingen 
to organize document delivery to North Ameri­
can libraries through GBVdirekt, The group is 
currently trying to establish a reciprocal arrange­
ment for document delivery from participating 
North American libraries, and is investigating

from the N evada Historical Society Quartetly  on the 
state’s political history and elections. Develop­
ment of the site was underwritten by a $15,000 
grant from the John Ben Snow Memorial Trust. 
Nevada Votes! is available online at http:// 
nevadavotes.unr.edu.

C o lu m b ia  Univ. Press and A m e rica n  
H isto rica l A sso c, launch co lle ctio n
Columbia University Press and the American His­
torical Association (AHA) have launched 
Gutenberg ‹ e › ,  a collection of award-winning 
digital monographs in specialized fields of research. 
The digital format enables the incorporation of 
innovative source materials while making it pos­
sible for the works to be widely available, offering 
a cost-effective model for peer-reviewed publica­
tion.

Each year, a panel of historians chosen by the 
AHA selects the award winners, whose authors 
then begin a collaborative process with the elec­
tronic publishing staff at Columbia University 
Press to enhance the works for publication. The

the feasibility of “returnables” (physical volumes 
that must be sent both ways across the Atlan­
tic). The bibliographic control group has com­
pleted the translation of the Anglo-American 
Cataloging Rules (AACR2), which are having a 
large impact in Germany as international com­
patibility grows more crucial. The digital library 
group has a clearing house for joint U.S.-Ger- 
man projects. Four joint projects were funded 
through the first round o f the Deutsche 
Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)-National Sci­
ence Foundation (NSF) joint initiative. A sec­
ond DFG-NSF funding cycle is now underway. 
The collection development group has estab­
lished a partners’ forum ‚which matches subject 
specialists in a wide range of subjects from Af­
rica to Volkswirtschaft (economics). It has also 
facilitated some specific collections projects.

More information about the German Re­
sou rces P roject is available at http:// 
grp.lib.msu.edu. Membership continues to be 
free. Queries should be sent to Tom Sea- 
dle (seadle@msu.edu)  or Tom Kilton (t- 
kilton@uiuc.edu), the current chair.—M ichael 
Seadle, Michigan State University, seadle@msu.edu

first four categories of award-winning works are 
Africa, colonial Latin American, and South Asia; 
Europe before 1800; military and foreign rela­
tions; and North America before 1900. The con­
tents of Gutenberg ‹ e ›  are copyrighted materi­
als licensed to libraries, universities, or other insti­
tutions through an annual subscription. The col­
lection will expand each year to include new award- 
winning works of scholarship.

In g e n ta  o ffe rs  a d v a n ced  d e p o sit
Ingenta has introduced an advanced deposit ac­
count functionality on ingenta.com, giving library 
services greater account control and more organi­
zational tools through which to track patron spend­
ing. The new service allows users to purchase 
articles on ingenta.com not subscribed to by an 
institution, using specific funds. Users can also 
access full-text subscriptions for free. Some fea­
tures of the advanced deposit accounts are single 
item cost caps, which allow you to designate the 
maximum amount per single article that your in­
stitution is willing to fund; a number of items cap,

mailto:seadle@msu.edu
mailto:kilton@uiuc.edu
mailto:seadle@msu.edu