ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C& RL N e w s ■ J u n e 2 0 0 0 / 493 ACRL PARTNERS IN HIGHER EDUCATION New students, new expectations = new information infrastructures T h e ACRL issu es fo ru m at the AAHE N ational C o n feren ce by llen e F. Ro ckm an To Form A More Perfect U nion … D iversity and Learning’’ w as the them e o f the A m erican A ssociation o f H igher E d u catio n ’s (AAHE) N ational C onference h eld March 3 0 - April 2, 2000, in A naheim , California. Several days o f m eetings w ere organized a ro u n d th e them atic tracks o f “Ensuring Ac cess,’’ “S upporting S tudent S uccess,” “Creat ing Inclusive Curricula an d P edagogies,” an d “B uilding a D iverse Faculty a n d Staff.” T hese m eetings w ere s u p p le m e n te d by additional sessions aligned w ith th e s e q u e n c e tracks of 1) T eaching, Learning, an d T echnology and 2) Service Learning. An issues forum fo r provosts For th e third year, ACRL a n d AAHE jointly s p o n s o re d an “Issues Forum for Provosts.” This year’s them e centered o n “N ew Students, N ew E xpectations = N ew Inform ation Infra stru ctu res,” recognizing that the educational o p p o rtu n ities th at th e n e w tech n o lo g ies af ford are changing the faces o f m any colleges a n d universities. This y ear’s program attracted close to 40 participants from tw o- an d four- year institu tions, b o th public a n d private, as w ell as sev ­ eral A m erican Council o n E ducation (ACE) Fellows. T h e fo ru m w as facilitated by Linda S. D obb, interim pro v o st an d vice p resid en t for A cadem ic Affairs at B o w lin g G re e n State University in O hio, an d atten d ees w ere w el co m e d by ACRL P resident Larry H ardesty; ACRL E xecutive D irector Althea H. Jenkins; a n d discussion leaders M arion T. Reid, d ean o f Library an d Inform ation Services at Cali fo rn ia State U niversity, San M arcos; Julia Gelfand, applied sciences librarian at th e Un i versity o f California, Irvine; an d myself. After introductions, the follow ing issues w ere identified by th e participants as ripe for further discussion: libraries as teaching an d learning centers, effective use o f digital technologies, inform ation literacy initiatives, th e future o f library buildings, reaching n ew stu d en t po p u latio n s, relationships b etw een librarians a n d discipline-based faculty m em bers, th e role o f virtual libraries in m eeting th e ch anging n e e d s o f local a n d off-site stu d e n t p o p u la tio n s , c o m b a tin g rising serial p rices th ro u g h initiatives su ch as SPARC (th e Scholarly Publishing an d Academic Resources C oalition), a n d h elp in g faculty m em bers to A b o u t th e a u t h o r llene F. Rockman is deputy university librarian at the university library at California State University, Hayward; e-mail: irockman @csuhayward.edu mailto:irockman@csuhayward.edu 494 / C&RL N ew s • Ju n e 2000 understand the complexities of copyright, especially in light of electronic and digital publishing. Reid began the discussion by noting that traditionally, academic libraries have sought additional campus support for new buildings. Today technology adds new dimensions to these fiscal needs, requiring libraries to build new capacity for access to electronic re sources and for expanding physical collec tions. She posed the following questions to audience members, which led to a brisk and lively discussion of the issues: • How do we best spend our library ma terials budgets to provide a reasonable bal ance of print and electronic resources? • To what extent do we provide the same information in multiple formats? • How do we ensure keeping ever-chang ing electronic material on a long-term basis? • How do we afford the campus infra structure necessary to deliver electronic in formation to all desktops and labs? • How do we maintain a technology up grade and maintenance program that is capable of delivering current versions of Internet soft ware and of providing students with the labo ratory capabilities they need to produce and deliver their assignments in multimedia for mats? Too much and not enough Gelfand next led the discussion on strategies for meeting the needs of today’s college and university students. She began by providing background information and demographic indicators, which suggest an increase in col lege-age students from more diverse back grounds with wide variation in communica tion and academic readiness skills. One of the challenges of libraries is to meet the needs of these students while helping them to pre pare for a global competitive environment in which change is commonplace. Partnerships on the campus— between all types of librar ies, and through consortia, virtual communi ties, and literacy programs—are essential for meeting these challenges. I picked up on this theme and framed the next part of the discussion by suggesting that the only thing worse than not enough infor mation, is too much of it. This led to a lively question-and-answer session on the topic of information literacy— why it is important as a higher education stra tegic initiative and core mission of the institu tion; how both the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, and the Western As sociation of Schools and Colleges have recog nized the importance of information literacy in today’s colleges and universities; ideas for direct or indirect inclusion into general educa tion programs and co-curricular activities; suc cessful practices to help faculty members in corporate information literacy principles across the curriculum through curricular offerings and revised class assignments; ways to establish campus partnerships with faculty development offices, information technology professionals, and other campus units; and methods to reach distant education students. Dobb shared current information about in tellectual property issues and copyright legis lation and practice. She directed everyone’s attention to the ALA Web site (http:// www.ala.org/oitp/copyright/homel.html), which contains excellent copyright material, including “Copyright Libraries & the Public,” created by law professor, librarian, and copy right expert Kenneth Crews of Indiana Uni versity-Purdue University. Each attendee received a packet of materi als to provide supplemental readings on each of the discussion topics. Included in the pack ets were the new “Information Literacy Com petency Standards for Higher Education” ap proved by the ACRL Board of Directors on January 18, 2000 (also see pages 000-00); Larry Hardesty’s position paper, “Do We Need Aca demic Libraries?”; a “Survey of Issues and Net work Applications in California Schools of Education and University Libraries,” prepared by Jackie Siminitus of Pacific Bell; “Educating the Cut-and-Past Generation” by Lori Roth (published in the November 1, 1999 issue of Library Jou rn al) “When Libraries Faced the Future” by Ron Feemster (from the February 2000 issue of University Business) , Choice Out standing Academic Titles 1999; and informa tion about SPARC from the Association of Re search Libraries (http://www.arl.org/sparc). Althea Jenkins and Linda Dobb thanked the group for their excellent participation, and di rected them to the ACRL Web site for addi tional information about academic libraries, such as the new “Standards for College Librar ies 2000” (http://www.ala.org/acrl/guides/ college.html). ■ http://www.ala.org/oitp/copyright/homel.html http://www.arl.org/sparc http://www.ala.org/acrl/guides/ C&RL N ew s ■ Ju n e 20 00 / 495 C&RL News ■ June 2000 / 497 The benefits are in full view I S I Journαl Citαtion Reports. ON THE WEB Introducing Journal Citation Reports® on the Web Science Edition & Social Sciences Edition One glance at the new J CR® Web from ISI®, and you know why y o u ’ll never look at journal evaluations the same way again. Hard to say what catches your eye first. Perhaps it's the user-friendly interface, with highlights and hotlinks that make it easier than ever to sort, view, and navigate between journal lists, journal summaries, and cited and citing journal listings. Maybe it's the ability to search for specific journals by title or IS S N , sort by impact factor and other available statistical data, or download results directly into spreadsheet or word processing programs. Chances are, though, that the full screen view o f the J C R Web is what really makes you sit up and take note. Because it's where you'll comparatively review rankings o f journals within a specific subject category, country, or by publisher. So whether you are a student studying citation patterns, a librarian managing a collection, a researcher identifying journals in which to publish, or a publisher interested in the latest bibliometric trends, you can perform quantitative analyses o f science a n d /o r social sciences journals at a glance. And you can do it through convenient, sitewide Web access, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. J C R Web—take a look; you’ll see how journal evaluation just g o t easier. Come visit us at ALA booth #1632 T H O M S O N S C I E N T I F I C Publisher o f Current Contents® and Science Citation Index® www.isinet.com http://www.isinet.com 498 / C&RL News ■ June 2000