ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News ■ October 2003 / 583 N e w s f r o m t h e F i e l d Stephanie Orphan GPO and NARA support perm anent online access The Government Printing Office (GPO) and the National Archives and Records Admin­ istration (NARA) signed an agreement on August 12 that will ensure that the docu­ ments available today on GPO A ccess (www.gpoaccess.gov) will remain available permanently. Librarians have long been con­ cerned about the need to ensure perma­ nent public access to and preservation of electronic government information. The GPO-NARA agreement covers the content on GPO Access, including the online versions of the C ongressional R ecord, the F ed eral Register, the C ode o f F ed eral Regulations, and other elec­ tronic publications distributed by the superin­ tendent of documents. GPO Access provides free online public access to more than 250,000 fed­ eral government files. According to the agreement, NARA will as­ sume legal custody of the records as part of the official Archives of the United States, and GPO will retain physical custody and be responsible for permanent public access and preservation of the records. USF Libraries help Addis Ababa U niversity Library The University of South Florida (USF) Li­ braries have facilitated the establishment of an o n lin e , o p e n -s o u r c e ca ta lo g fo r Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa University. The cata­ log, the first of a multiphase project that will establish an Ethiopian National Re­ search database, accommodates browsing, searching, and uploading capabilities for researchers wishing to contribute digital materials. Dynix celebrates 20th an niversary August 2003 marked the 20th year of op­ eration for Dynix, a provider of automation technologies, solutions, and services for li­ braries. Over the past 20 years, the com­ pany developed the Horizon Information Management System and other advances in library technology, such as Windows- and W eb-based catalogs, single interface to multiple databases, electronic ordering/re­ ceiving interface, user interface with self- service checkout, and telephone messag­ ing systems for libraries with automatic renewals. As part of its anniversary celebration, Dynix announced that 426 new library sites selected Horizon Information Management System between January and July 2003. Of­ ficial celebrations of the 20th anniversary will be a major theme at this year’s joint conference of Customers of Dynix Inc. and the Horizon Users’ Group in November. Serials Solutions to freeze pricing schedule Serials Solutions, Inc. is freezing its 2003 price schedu le and offering additional breaks to keep services accessible for all libraries. Through January 1, 2005, the company’s price schedule will not increase for its A-to-Z title list reports, full MARC records for e-journals, and Article Linker, its full-featured OpenURL link resolver. In addition to the price schedule freeze, Seri­ als Solutions is offering community and jun­ ior colleges an additional 25 percent dis­ count on all services and eliminating a $150 fee that was charged for hosted reports. http://www.gpoaccess.gov 5 8 4 /C&RL News ■ O ctober 2003 Colum bia estab lish es digital program Columbia University’s Libraries and Infor­ mation Services has established a new digi­ tal program division to advance digital tech­ nology tools and resources at the libraries. The division consists of seven staff mem­ bers, bringing together programmers and sp e cia lists alread y w orking on digital projects elsewhere in the libraries’ organi­ zation and creating three additional posi­ tions. In the near term, the program will focus on developing new tools to improve access to and enhance the use of published elec­ tronic resources required for university teach­ ing and scholarship, creating innovative schol­ arly tools and new digital presentations from libraries and institutions where appropriate; and implementing a plan for the long-term archiving and preservation of Columbia’s digi­ tal content. A key goal of the program is to acquire or develop a manageable, scalable, and robust software systems platform to deliver digital library resources to the uni­ versity and scholarly community. Call fo r papers: Popular Culture A ssociation 2004 The Libraries, Archives, and Popular Cul­ ture Research Area of the Popular Culture A ssociation is soliciting papers for the association’s joint meeting with the Ameri­ can Culture Association, to be held April 7 - 10, 2004. Papers dealing with any aspect of popular culture as it pertains to libraries, li­ brarians, archives, museums, or research will be considered. In the past this has included descriptions of research collections, studies of popular images of libraries or librarians, or reports on development in technical ser­ vices for collecting popular culture materi­ als. Prospective presenters should send a one-page abstract with full contact informa­ tion by November 15, preferably by e-mail, to: Allen Ellis, professor of library services, W. Frank Steely Library, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY 41099-6101; e-mail: ellisa@nku.edu; phone: (859) 572- 5527; fax: (859) 572-5390. Sw ets Blackw ell to change name Subscription agent Swets Blackwell has an­ nounced that it plans to change its com­ pany name to Swets Information Services in December 2003. As part of the agreement with Blackwell concerning the purchase of shares from the Swets Blackwell joint ven­ ture, the Blackwell trade name will no longer be used for subscription activities. The Blackwell name will continue to be used for the chain of Blackwell bookstores. Join WESS in Paris in March 2004 Jo in members of the Western European Studies Section (WESS), the Association d es B ib lio th é c a ir e s F r a n ç a is , th e Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and European and American colleagues at the WESS European Conference, “Migrations in Society, Culture, and the Library,” in Paris, France, March 22-26, 2004. Conference programs will address op­ portunities a n d ten sio n s that m igra­ tions— demographic, technological, cul­ tural, intellectual, and literary— bring to Western Europe and libraries support­ ing Western European studies. Keynote speakers include: Roger Chartier, École des Hautes Études, Paris, and the Uni­ versity o f Pennsylvania; Jean -C lau d e G u é d o n , U n iv e r s ité d e M o n tr é a l, Canada; Friedrich Heckmann, University o f Bamberg and director o f the Euro­ pean Forum for Migration Studies; Hans- J ü r g e n L ü s e b r in k , U n iv e r s ity o f Saarbrücken; and David Seaman, direc­ tor of the Digital Library Federation in Washington, D.C. The conference also in­ cludes a program at the French book fair, Salon du Livre. Complete details about the conference, including registration information and forms, are online at http://www.library.jhu.edu/rsd/ other/wess2004/wess2004.html. Space is limited to 200 participants, so submit your registration as soon as possible. Confer­ ence registration includes all conference programs, events at the B ib lioth èq u e Nationale de France, entry to the Salon du Livre, and receptions. Questions? Contact acrl@ala.org. mailto:ellisa@nku.edu http://www.library.jhu.edu/rsd/ mailto:acrl@ala.org C&RL News ■ O ctober 2003 / 585 LexisNexis to create digital U.S. Congressional Serial Set LexisNexis U.S. has begun a project to digi­ tize the U.S. C ongressional Serial Set, which, upon com pletion, will allow users to access content from 1 7 8 9 -1 9 6 9 . The Serial Set is a historical resource that con­ tains an ongoing collection o f U.S. gov­ ernment publications compiled under the d ire ctiv e o f C o n g re ss. Item s in clu d e 32 5.000 docum ents drawn from nearly 13.000 volum es, 52,0 0 0 maps, and the American State Papers. The set traces vir­ tually all aspects of American history, in­ cluding trade and com merce, military his­ tory, geography, scientific exploration, and anthropology. C ongressional Inform ation Services, which later became part of LexisNexis, re­ leased the U.S. Congressional Serial Set, along with a companion index, on micro­ fiche in the 1970s. The new digitization project will create opportunities for full-text searching and online retrieval o f images, including statistical tables, illustrations, pho­ tographs, lithographs, and maps. The Serial Set will be released through monthly up­ dates within a two-year period beginning in December 2003- IAA to push fo r revised an alysis of publisher m ergers The Information Access Alliance (IAA), a group of seven library organizations that includes ALA and ACRL, will continue to push for revised analysis o f pu blisher mergers despite the recent announcement that the Departm ent o f Ju stice has ap­ proved the sale of BertelsmannSpringer to Cinven and Candover. Cinven and Candover previously acquired Kluwer Aca­ demic Publishers (KAP) in January 2003. IAA urged the Department of Justice to block the acquisition and subsequent merger of KAP and BertelsmannSpringer because of its con­ cerns that the transaction will result in reduced access to critical research information due to heightened journal costs. Analysis by the alliance suggests that mergers have played a significant role in journal price increases over the past two decades. IAA will con­ tinue to support research and analysis of past mergers and their effects on consum­ ers and small publishers. Correction In the September 2003 issue of C&RL N ews the photo caption on page 541 in­ correctly identified Scott Bard of Thomp­ son ISI as Marc Truitt of the University of Notre Dame. The editors regret the error. Gale introduces virtual reference database Gale has announced a new program that integrates e-reference books with a database interface. Gale Virtual Reference LibrarySM, scheduled for release this month, will offer libraries the opportunity to select from an initial collection of more than 50 reference sources, such as encyclopedias, almanacs, and series, and to create a customized, com­ pletely integrated online information service. W ilsonW eb datab ases now link to JSTOR WilsonWeb’s WilsonLink service now in­ cludes access to JSTOR, an archive of more than 320 scholarly journals in 26 disciplines. Customers who subscribe to WilsonWeb and who are JSTOR participants will be able to link directly to the full-text articles in the JST O R archive via W ilsonW eb ’s open-URL linking technology. WilsonWeb enables libraries to integrate their open- URL compliant resources, without the ex­ pense o f installing or maintaining their own link server. If the full text o f a cited article isn’t available on the WilsonWeb da­ tabase searched, users may click on the WilsonLink icon for an automatic search of all open-URL compliant databases to which the library subscribes, regardless of the ven­ dor. Institute of International Bankers donating copies of study to libraries The Institute of International Bankers, an association of over 200 banking organiza­ tions operating in the United States and headquartered in other countries, is donat­ ing copies of its 71-page study E con om ic B en efits to th e U nited S tates fr o m th e A c­ tivities o f In tern ation al B an ks: F in a n c ia l Ser­ v ices in a G lob a l E con om y to interested li­ braries. The institute asks that libraries submit $3.00 per copy to cover the costs of 586 / C&RL News ■ O ctober 2003 shipping and handling. For complete infor­ mation, contact the Institute of International Bankers, 299 Park Avenue, 17th Floor, New York, NY 10171; phone: (212) 421-1611; fax: (212) 421-1119; Web: www.iib.org. OhioLINK updates catalog, introduces pick-up featu re OhioLINK, a consortium of 83 Ohio college and university libraries, plus the State Library o f Ohio, has renamed and redesigned its library catalog and enhanced it with a new pick-up feature. “Pick up @ any library,” is a new option in the catalog that lets users pick up requested materials in any participating OhioLINK libraiy. In the past, users could only pick up requested items at one of their own campus library locations, limiting the service’s usefulness to students in distance learning classes, weekend programs, and other nontraditional learning options. The new pick-up option supports OhioLink’s goal of providing the most efficient and effective means o f delivering information to users, regardless o f format. The catalog has also b een redesigned to offer a search box on the first screen, allowing users to instantly conduct a key­ word, author, title, or su b je ct heading search. A redesigned OhioLINK Web site has also made its debut, offering a new Quick and Simple Search option that allows users to search for articles and books across sev­ eral broad databases simultaneously. ACRL sponsoring LearningTimes Library Online Conference: Members receive $50 registration discount The 2003 LearningTimes Library Online Conference: Innovations by Information Professionals (LTLOC) will take place com­ pletely online over five days in October (20-24). LTLOC is the first online forum to address in depth the practical issues in today’s libraries, historical societies, ar­ chives, and museums. ACRL is a “Platinum Level Sponsor” of LTLOC, which entitles ACRL members to a $50 registration discount. “We are very pleased to partner with the LearningTimes team on this unique event,” said Tyrone H. Cannon, president o f the ACRL. “Sponsoring LTLOC 2003 is another step in our mission to enhance the effectiveness of academic and research librarians to advance learning, teaching, and research in higher education. “The online conference will address the role of the library in the academic enter­ prise and the impact of information tech­ nology on library services. These crucial activities are a key part of the foundation for the partnerships and connections we must establish to ensure the success of learn ing com m unities and know ledge building.” Keynote speakers include: • S teven M. C oh en , the creator Library Stuff, a library weblog dedicated o to resources for keeping current and pro­ fessional development, is also the Internet Spotlight columnist for P u b lic L ib ra ries M agazine. • D r. Siva V a id h y a n a th a n , a cu l­ tural historian and media scholar, is the author of C opyrights a n d C opyw rongs: The R ise o f In te lle c tu a l P rop erty a n d H o w it T hreaten s C reativity and The A n arch ist in th e L ibrary : H ow P eer-to-P eer N etw orks a r e T ran sform in g P olitics, C ulture, a n d In fo r­ m ation . • Mark W eitzman, director of the Task Force Against Hate and Terrorism at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, coordinates the SWC’s research and activities on extrem­ ism, intergroup relations, the Internet, and hate crimes. A complete list of presenters and sched­ ule of events is available on the LTLOC Web site at www.libraryconference.com. For more information, registration, or sponsor­ ship opportunities please visit the conference Web site at www.libraryconference.com, write to library@learningtimes.net or call John Walber at (215) 884-7321. To register as an ACRL member and re­ ceive the $50 discount, visit the ACRL Web site (www.acrl.org) and click on the “Li­ fbr ary Online Conference” logo in the Spot­ light section. http://www.iib.org http://www.libraryconference.com http://www.libraryconference.com mailto:library@learningtimes.net http://www.acrl.org