ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C &RL N e w s ■ July/August 2001 / 685 N e w s f r o m t h e F i e l d Mary Ellen Davis Texas Inform ation Literacy Tutorial n o w licensed w orldw ide Nearly 60 educational institutions have licensed the nationally acclaim ed TILT (Texas Informa­ tion Literacy Tutorial), a W eb-based informa­ tion literacy program developed within the General Libraries and sponsored by the Uni­ versity o f Texas System Digital Library, since it was made available this year under an O pen Publication License. TILT was developed to teach undergradu­ ates (primarily freshm en) fundam ental and transferable research skills. After a brief intro­ duction, students can enter on e o f three mod­ ules w here they learn to select sources appro­ priate for academic-level research, search pe­ riodical indexes and search engines, and evalu­ ate and cite information. Students select one o f six issues that most interests them: censor­ ship, business, security, law, trends, and glo­ bal communities. Examples are then gener­ ated based on their chosen topic. The tutorial stresses general research con­ cepts without highlighting specific collections. At the end o f each o f the three modules, stu­ dents can test their com prehension and re­ ceive immediate feedback. Each module takes less than 30 minutes to com plete. For more information about TILT, consult http://tilt.lib.utsystem.edu/resources or contact Elizabeth A. Dupuis, head o f the Digital Infor­ mation Literacy Office, General Libraries, Uni­ versity o f Texas at Austin, at (512) 475-9391 or tilt@mail.utexas.edu. Harvard and key publishers join forces for electronic journal archive T h e Harvard U niversity Library an d th ree m ajor p u b lish e rs o f s c h o la rly jo u rn a ls— B la c k w e ll P u b lish in g , Jo h n W iley & Sons, In c., and th e U niversity o f C h icago P ress— h av e a g re ed to w o rk to g e th e r o n a p lan to d ev e lo p an e x p e rim en ta l a rc h iv e fo r e l e c ­ tro n ic jo u rn als. T h e p re s e rv a tio n an d the archiving o f e lec tro n ic jou rn als— w h ich are in c re a sin g ly “b o rn d ig ital” an d fo r w h ich , in m an y c a s e s , n o p ap er c o p ie s e xist— present unique, long-term challenges to li­ brarians, publishers, and, ultimately, to the scholars and researchers w ho will seek access to them over time. The new joint venture is sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which recently made a $145,000 grant to the Harvard Univer­ sity Library specifically for the planning o f an electronic journal archive. T he grant challenges Harvard and its publishing partners to address a fundamental issue in the digital environment: until it is clear that electronic journals will b e accessible far into the future, scholarly com ­ munities are hesitant to fully support the elec­ tronic medium for com munication and publi­ cation. The yearlong planning effort will explore the issues related to electronic journal archiving and develop a plan for a repositoiy at Harvard for electronic journal publications. T he e x ­ pected outcom e is a proposal for an archive for these journals. Major areas to b e studied include: establishing agreements betw een the partners regarding archival rights and respon­ sibilities; formulating a technical implementa­ tion plan; defining m ethod ologies that the archive would adopt to validate its archival processes and assure the scholarly com m u­ nity that the journals for w hich the archive is responsible will b e preserved and useable over time; and creating organizational and business models. U.Va. students test e-books This past semester, students and professors in two University o f Virginia (U.Va.) classes— one in English, the other religious studies— tested the effectiveness o f electronic books in an educa­ tional environment. The students used compact, handheld personal computers to read most of their assigned reading materials as e-books. The U.Va. Library’s Electronic Text Center (Etext), w hich operates a busy public e-book library, worked with Microsoft Corp. and elec­ tronic course material publisher Xanedu to pro­ vide the students the tools they needed to read their materials as interactive e-books using Microsoft Reader software. The project sought to gather feedback from the students and professors on how well the e-books integrated into their curriculum. This http://tilt.lib.utsystem.edu/resources mailto:tilt@mail.utexas.edu 68 6 / C&RL N ew s ■ Ju ly/A u g u st 2001 The University of Missouri at Columbia celebrated the addition of its three-millionth volume, The Navigator, during National Library Week. The Navigator, published in 1817 by Zadok Cramer, is a compilation of travelers' journals and reports that gave "directions for navigating the M onongahela, Alleghany, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers w ith descriptions of villages, settlements, harbors and distances between points." The purchase was made possible by the contributions of fam ily and friends to the Ruth C. Ellis Memorial Fund and monies from the Dr. Elmer Ellis and Ruth C. Ellis Fund. Mrs. Ellis, w ife of the late University of Missouri President Emeritus Elmer Ellis (for whom Ellis Library was named), was an ardent supporter of the libraries and its mission. Pictured, left to right, are: Rachel Brekhus, humanities reference librarian; Martha Alexander, director of University of Missouri Libraries; and Darlene Schroeder, representing the Ellis family. included the students’ reactions to having most of the course materials on one device. They also wanted to understand whether such tech­ nology changes teaching and learning, and, if so, how. For the project, each student received a Pocket PC, donated by Microsoft Re­ search, which came preloaded with the Microsoft Reader software and other Microsoft programs that gave the small computer more powerful mobile uses. The Etext Center staff loaded each Pocket PC with the required e-books for the se­ mester and trained the students and pro­ fessors to use the device and its software. The Etext Center and Microsoft are evaluating how effective the e-books were and will use their findings for fu­ ture planning. While results have not been fully analyzed, Etext Center direc­ tor, David Seaman, said that some ad­ vantages of the e-books were readily ap­ parent. For example, using the original writ­ ings as e-books allowed the students in­ stant, direct access to the primary sources, so they could form their own opinions about the work. Another e-book advantage is that one easy- to-carry, handheld device contained most of the course material, giving students the freedom and conve­ nience of accessing their readings whenever and wherever they please. For more information about the e- book classroom project, contact Sea­ man at (804) 924-3230, or dms8f@ virginia.edu. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu. UM Libraries to distribute titles via video-on-demand The University of Maryland (UMD), College Park, and Films for the Hu­ manities & Sciences, Inc. (FFH&S), signed an agreement enabling the campus libraries to distribute approxi­ mately 1,000 selected titles from the FFH&S collection of educational vid­ eos over the university’s state-of-the- art digital video-on-demand delivery system. Allan C. Rough, manager of the university’s Nonprint Media Services Department, said that students and faculty will soon be able to access a wide va­ riety of video programming, much of it in the performing arts area, from almost any location on campus. Rough explained that the goal is Charles Lowry, dean of Libraries at the University of Maryland, and Betsy Sherer, president and CEO of FFH&S, sign the agreem ent enabling the campus libraries to distribute approximately 1,000 selected titles from the FFH&S collection of educational videos over the university's state-of-the-art digital video-on- demand delivery system. http://etext.lib.viiginia.edu C&RL News ■ July/August 2001 / 687 ACRL at ALA National Library Legislative Day On April 30, 2001, more than 60 academic librarians met in Washington, D.C., to share lunch, acquire information about legislative issues, and pick up advocacy strategies. The ACRL Legislative Luncheon was held during the ALA National Library Legislative Day, an event that raises awareness about the impor­ tance of federal funding for libraries. This is the third year that ACRL has sponsored a luncheon at National Library Legislative Day. The luncheon program consisted of knowledgeable speakers who addressed spe­ cific legislative issues of importance to aca­ demic libraries. Charles Beard, director o f li­ braries at die State University of West Geor­ gia, moderated the discussion and updated the attendees on the Children’s Internet Pro­ tection Act (CIPA). Although CIPA primarily affects school and public libraries, Beard explained that it also has the potential to af­ fect academic libraries. Another important legislative issue dis­ cussed at the luncheon was the Uniform Com­ puter Transactions Act (UCITA). Rodney Petersen, director of policy and planning at the Office of Information Technology at the University o f Maryland, spoke to the attend­ ees about his experiences fighting UCITA in Maryland. Although National Library Legis­ lative focuses on federal issues and UCITA is an act being introduced at the state level, to allow users to instantly access a program directly from the libraries’ online catalog. He added: “Digital video-on-demand sys­ tems have been a reality for a number of years, but copyright and intellectual prop­ erty constraints have made most academic institutions reluctant to purchase expensive video server technologies. Universities were faced with a classic dilemma: if we purchase a server, will we be able to find video pro­ gramming we can legally put on the system? This agreement answers that question with a resounding ‘yes’!” The UMD Libraries expect to launch a pi­ lot project in the fall, enabling users to access a limited number of titles in the collection, according to Jeff Bridgers, head of Digital Li­ braries. Petersen told the audience that this lun­ cheon was a good opportunity for academic librarians to learn about this act and share their e x p erien ces with UCITA. Carol Ashworth, the UCITA grassroots coordina­ tor with the ALA Washington Office, was also on hand to answer librarians’ ques­ tions. The final luncheon speaker, ACRL Ex­ ecutive Director Althea H. Jenkins, encour­ aged attendees to talk to their representa­ tives about supporting the reauthorization o f the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), the only federal program exclu­ sively for libraries. She reminded the au­ dience that the LSTA leadership grants fund innovative programs in academic librar­ ies throughout the country. Several of the attendees commented on the importance of having this type of event to encourage academic librarians to take a bigger role in advocating on behalf of their libraries. ACRL will build on the success o f this and previous Legislative Luncheons by en­ couraging even more academic librarians to attend this event and all of the activities at next year’s ALA National Library Legisla­ tive Day.— S han n on Cary, ACRL director o f R e s e a r c h a n d S p e c i a l In itia t iv e s , scary@ ala.org mailto:scary@ata.org