ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 753 New s fr o m the F ield M ary Ellen Davis Univ. of California founds digital library The University of California (UC) plans to join the Cali­ fornia State Library, the Cali­ fornia Library Association, and the California Library Services Board to create the California Digital Library. UC P resid en t Richard C. Atkinson said, “Today we announce the creation of UC’s library without walls. Instead of seeking out infor­ mation in place-bound li­ braries, limited by what is only available on the bookshelves, the CDL will allow scholars of all ages and interests to range worldwide in their quest for knowledge, using the Internet, the World Wide Web, and a com puter.” Atkinson said UC envisions a library system that blends the print and electronic holdings of the university’s nine campuses, a collection of more than 29 million volumes. The initial collection in the virtual library will center on science, tech­ nology, and industry as the library creates new ways for the campuses to share their resources statewide. The new library will be headed by Richard E. Lucier, university librarian at UC-San Fran­ cisco and special assistant for library planning and development at UC’s Office of the Presi­ dent. In his new position, Lucier will be found­ ing university librarian and executive director of the California Digital Library. “What we hope to accomplish with the digital library is the appropriate use of technology to better gener­ ate, disseminate, and provide access to the scholarship and research produced by UC’s nine campuses,” said Lucier. Indiana University launches digital library program Indiana University (IU) is launching a new digi­ tal library program designed to create and make available a wide variety of electronic informa­ tion resources to support the teaching and re­ search of faculty and students. The office of Information Technology, the IU Libraries, and the School of Library and Information Science along with the Center for Copyright Manage­ ment at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis are involved in the program. M ichael M cRobbie, vice president for information technology said that IU is “committed to developing a digital library program that is prominent among those at educational institutions in the United States.” He said that the IU Digital Library Program will help promote the development and de­ ployment of technologies for organizing, searching, and retrieving data from multi media libraries. University Dean of Libraries Suzanne Thorin was associate librarian at the Library of Con­ gress when its National Digital Library Program was developed. “A part of our program at IU will focus on developing initiatives that will be useful to teachers and students in the K-12 schools throughout the state,” Thorin said. IU has also joined the Digital Library Fed­ eration, a national project administered by the Council on Library and Information Resources in Washington, D.C. Western Governors Univ. plans for virtual university The Western Governors University (WGU) Board of Trustees and National Advisory Board met October 27 to move forward with WGU’s academic mission and discuss ongoing devel­ opment and fundraising efforts. WGU CEO Jeff Livingston announced that WGU has finalized n e g o tia tio n s with IBM regard in g the SmartCatalog Advisor, which will be used by potential students to research educational op­ tions, assess their academic skills, and enroll in courses. WGU begins a pilot phase of offer­ ing courses from one private and 16 public higher education institutions as well as two corporate providers. Initially, students in the pilot program may choose from the Electron­ ics Manufacturing Technician certificate and the Associate of Arts degree programs. WGU plans to add content and providers as the year progresses. WGU hopes to create a new learning model based on independent verification of learner competency. In one of its capacities, WGU will grant degrees based on demonstrated compe­ tencies. “With the WGU competency certificate, 754 an em ployer can know exactly what skills a potential new hire can bring to the job they seek to fill,” said Bob Albrecht, W G U ’s chief academic officer. Utah G overnor Mike Leavitt described an “academic com mon market” w here students may choose competency degrees over tradi­ tional credit-based degrees on the basis o f cost and time savings. Students can obtain formal recognition for their existing knowledge or com­ petency through low-cost assessments and then enroll in only the courses they need to com ­ plete the degree program. Leavitt acknowledged that this change w ould not happen overnight. “W e have to becom e an aggressive marketing organization and build the demand for com pe­ tency-based credentials,” he said. W G U was formed in 1997 as a result o f the interest o f the governors o f the western United States to share higher education distance learn­ ing resources. W G U is a competency-based, degree-granting virtual university that aims to deliver cost-effective education using the In­ ternet and other telecommunications and net­ working technologies. W G U ’s mission is to ex­ pand educational opportunities for learners. OhioLIN K sponsored W eb sites aid instruction The O h io Library and Information N etw ork (OhioLINK) is sponsoring instructional W eb sites G raphic courtesy o f Kent State University whose goals are to stimulate innovative ways for higher education faculty to improve instruc­ tion through the use o f a variety o f local and w orldw ide resources and to enhance students’ learning experiences beyond the classroom. Fac­ ulty and library staff from OhioLINK-participat ing institutions have collected syllabi, tutorials, assignments, links to Internet resources and other teaching tools, along with OhioLINK re­ sources, such as relevant databases, to create discipline-specific W eb sites. The nine sites cur­ rently operational cover disciplines ranging from philosophy to engineering; each was created with grants o f up to $5,000 from OhioLINK. Visit the site at http://iws.ohiolink.edu. Cornell, A rizona State, and others aid flooded Colorado State Cornell University’s Mann Library responded to Colorado State University (CSU) Dean o f Li­ braries Camila Alire’s call for help after CSU’s library was ravaged by a “500-year flood,” which washed away nearly one-fourth o f the library’s holdings ( News‚ 9/97). Although the library hopes to salvage much o f the material, it must ACRL offers a d v o c a c y /le g isla tiv e train in g w orkshop in D.C. H ow does your library message influence deci­ sion makers? What exactly is your library message? And, do activities o f the U.S. Congress affect your library? These questions and more will be answered for academic librarians w ho participate in the “Advocacy training for academic librarians: From ivory towers to halls o f pow er” precon­ ference that begins Wednesday evening, June 24, and continues through Thursday, June 25, 1998. Taking advantage o f the location o f ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., the workshop will train academic librarians in ad­ vocacy skills and acquaint them with the U.S. Congress. Participants will learn how advocates think, how they formulate their messages, and how they use limited time effectively. Then partici­ pants w ill become advocates themselves and take their messages to Capitol Hill, where they will talk with congressional staff about academic library issues. Library advocates will experience firsthand the federal governing process itself: the tourist highlight o f Washington, D.C. The preconference is being designed by the ACRL Advocacy/Legislative Training Task Force, which includes: Patricia A. Wand, chair, Lynne Bradley, Carolyn Gray, Lee Hisle, and Patricia Walker. Questions? Contact Pat Wand at patwand@american.edu. Registration fees and other details will be published in forthcoming issues o f C&RL News and on ACRL’s homepage at http://www.ala.org/acrl.litml. http://iws.ohiolink.edu mailto:patwand@american.edu http://www.ala.org/acrl.litml 755 provide service to its library users now. “As a land-grant university, we have a strong collection in priority CSU teaching and research areas,” explained Sarah Tho­ mas, the Carl A. Kroch University li­ brarian at Cornell. CSU’s Morgan Library already had a long history of collabora­ tion though interli­ brary loans with the Mann library. While there may be a few books passing back and forth, the emphasis will be on supplying ar­ ticles from academic journals and other peri­ odicals. When a CSU library patron requests an article, the Morgan Library staff will look up the periodical in Cornell’s online library cata­ log via the Internet, obtain the call number, and transmit the request directly to Mann Library. A Cornell student employee will get the periodi­ cal from the Mann Library stacks, bring it to a special scanning station, and a scanned image of the article will be transmitted over the Internet to CSU where it will be printed out and deliv­ ered to the patron. Arizona State University and four members of the Colorado Alliance of Re­ search Libraries are also sharing their collec­ tions with CSU. JAI Press acquires Research Strategies JAI Press, Inc. has acquired R esearch Strategies b eg in n in g with volum e 16 (1 9 9 8 ) from Mountainside Publishing, Inc. Natalie Pelster, educational and outreach programs librarian at Northwestern University, will become editor; the journal will continue to address issues faced by bibliographic instruction librarians and oth­ ers engaged in teaching/instructional aspects of library information. Rutgers installs SIRSI The State University of New Jersey will install Sirsi’s UNICORN system in its libraries. Accord­ ing to Marianne Gaunt, Rutgers university li­ brarian, “UNICORN will offer users a gateway to information resources held at Rutgers and e ls e w h e re .” Rutgers has a sophisticated campuswide network, which includes more than 10,000 computers on three major cam­ puses. Gaunt said that the addition of an inte­ grated library automation system to Rutgers’ technological infrastructure will make online ac­ cess even easier for patrons and staff. EBSCO Publishing exp an d s datab ases EBSCO Publishing added access to the National Information Center for Educational Media (NICEM) to EBSCOhost. NICEM compiles in­ formation about audiovisual media; its 315,000 bibliographic records describing nearly 400,000 items produced since 1984 can now be ac­ cessed by users of EBSCO host. EBSCO Publishing also signed an agreement with Yankee Magazine, the award-winning maga­ zine of New England. It will be available on EBSCO¾osí and several of EBSCO’s databases. Diversity Newsroom av ailab le on W eb The Diversity Newsroom provides reporters and other members of the media information about ACRL cares: Share your ideas with a focus group Because ACRL values its members and wants to provide good programs and ser­ vices, it is conducting focus groups. The one at the ALA Midwinter Meeting will dis­ cuss professional development issues and the one at the Annual Conference will fo­ cus on ACRL services. To volunteer for a focus group, send your name, title, institu­ tion, phone, fax, and e-mail to Tanga Mor­ ris (8 0 0 ) 545-2433, ext. 2514; e-mail: tmorris@ala.org. mailto:tmorris@ala.org 756 higher education’s role in influencing diversity in higher education, the community, and the workplace. In a media audit conducted in 1994, print and broadcast journalists expressed exaspera­ tion that diversity spokespeople were not giv­ ing them information packaged appropriately for their needs, including usable quotes. The Diversity Newsroom ( http://www.inform . umd.edu/diversitynews) is designed to address this concern. The Web site is arranged into five areas: campus access, including hiring practices, student admissions, retention, affirmative ac­ tion and related policies; curricula, covering the impact of diversity curricula and student suc­ cess stories; trends in campus life, learning, campus climate and leadership; the university and the public, exploring public views about higher education, the diverse workplace, and world; and research, offering statistics, analy­ sis, and other information. Enter the “ Define ACRL ” contest The ACRL Board wants a good, pithy slogan that will, in no more than a catchy soundbite, describe the mission of ACRL. Nike has “Just do it.” Now the Board wants you to do it for ACRL. The Board’s initial brainstorming session generated ideas such as: “Academic libraries: where infor­ mation becomes knowledge.” “Helping people transfer information to knowledge.” “Building great minds together.” The Board knows you can be more creative. Enter your ideas early and often. The deadline for submissions is February 15, 1998. The winner will receive a complimen­ tary registration to ACRL’s 9th National Con­ ference, April 8–1 1 , 1999, in Detroit, as well as three nights lodging in a conference ho­ tel. Groups may enter but must designate a single winner. Entries will be judged by the ACRL Board of Directors. Send your entries to ACRL Slogans, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611 or e-mail to acrl@ala.org. Questions? Contact any ACRL Board member. Their names and addresses are listed in the masthead of each issue of C&RL News and on the ACRL homepage at http ://www.a la. org/acrl/acrlbord. html. The Diversity Newsroom is part of Diversity Web, an electronic hub linking the diversity work of about 300 institution of higher learning. Funded by the Ford Foundation, Diversity Web is a project of the Association of American Colleges and Universities and the University of Maryland, Col­ lege Park, in cooperation with Diversity Con­ nections at Wesleyan University. A ppalachian Colleges gain access to JSTOR Selected member institutions of the Appalachian College Association (ACA) will provide their campuses with access to the JSTOR (Journal STORage) database, which contains searchable, scanned images of back issues of a minimum of 100 scholarly publications from a variety of humanities, social sciences, and mathematics disciplines. This access is made possible by a $1.8 mil­ lion grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Founda­ tion. ACA is comprised of 33, four-year liberal arts colleges and universities in Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Alice Lloyd, Berea, Bethany, Carson-Newman, Emory & Henry, King, Lee, Milligan, Montreat, West Virginia Wesleyan, and Wheeling Jesuit will participate in the first phase of the project. Maryville, Lincoln Memorial, and the Univer­ sity of the South already had access to the JSTOR collection but will participate in training ses­ sions and general meetings related to JSTOR. Join the ALA members listserv Share your opinions about ALA’s business. An electronic discussion list has been cre­ ated to encourage member participation in ALA governance. Member-Forum will make information about ALA issues and projects more immediately available; provide mem­ bers with an opportunity to ask questions and receive answers from officers, staff, and councilors; serve as a site for member dis­ cussion of concerns; and provide a way for members to speak directly to those repre­ senting them on Council. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to listproc@ala.org. Leave the subject blank. In the body o f the mes­ sage, type: subscribe member-forum ‹you r first and last name>. Do not use angle brack­ ets when entering your name. Drop down two lines and enter your membership num­ ber. Questions may be directed to Internet Coordinator Rob Carlson at 312-280-2431, or rcarlson@ala.org. ■ http://www.inform mailto:acrl@ala.org http://www.a mailto:listproc@ala.org mailto:rcarlson@ala.org 757 758