ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News ■ J a n u a ry 1999 / 5 U niv. o f P itts b u rg h p ro v id e s access t o C hinese jo u rn a ls T h e U niversity o f P ittsburgh (UP) Library Sys­ tem , th ro u g h its East A sian Library, h as e s­ tab lish ed a d e m o n stra tio n G atew ay Service C en ter fo r C h in ese A cadem ic Jo u rn a l P ubli­ cations to d eliver digital c o p ie s o f C hinese lan g u ag e acad em ic journal p u b licatio n s from six C hinese libraries via th e In te rn e t to sc h o l­ ars th ro u g h o u t th e U n ited States. Through this center, patrons an d scholars have free and easy access to full-text Chinese language journal articles stored in Chinese libraries, not oth­ erwise available in the United States. T h e p ro ject is fu n d e d b y a N ational Lead­ e rsh ip G ran t from th e F ederal Institute for M useum a n d Library Services. A p ilo t study w a s fu n d e d b y th e C hiang C hing-kuo F o u n ­ d a tio n for In tern atio n al Scholarly E xchange. R esearch libraries in C hina p artn erin g w ith th e UP in this co n so rtiu m in clu d e P eking, T singhua, F udan, a n d Shanghai Jia o to n g U ni­ v ersities, th e C h in e s e U n iv ersity o f H o n g K ong, a n d th e A cadem ia Sinica o f Taiw an. To req u est a co p y o f C hinese journal ar­ ticles o r to learn a b o u t th e service, visit h ttp :// w w w .lib ra ry .p itt.e d u /g a te w a y /. E lsevier Science acq u ire s JAI Press/ A b le x P ub lish in g Elsevier Science Inc. a n d JAI Press/A blex P u b ­ lishing h a v e e n te r e d in to an a g re e m e n t w h e re b y JAI P re s s/ A blex P u blishing w ill b e a c ­ q u ired by Elsevier Science. T he JA I/A blex b u sin e sse s in clu d e th e JAI journals a n d serials an d th e A blex P u blishing journals a n d b o o k s . B a rb ara B arrett, G lo b a l P u b lis h e r S ocial Sci­ e n c e s at Elsevier S cience said, “T h e co m b in a tio n o f JAI Press p ro d u cts a n d services w ith o u r journals a n d electronic services will create a u n iq u e in teg rated service to th e social scien ces a n d b u sin e ss a n d eco n o m ics co m m u n ities.” Join t h e Frien d s o f ACRL T h e F riends o f ACRL w a s c re a te d to p ro v id e a m e a n s for ACRL to tak e b o ld ste p s ab o v e a n d b e y o n d its trad itio n al m e m b e r pro g ram s a n d services. Rapidly ch an g in g dem o g rap h ic, eco n o m ic, a n d tech n o lo g ical tre n d s a re p re ­ sen tin g acad em ic libraries a n d librarians w ith n e w challenges a n d co m p etitio n th at d em an d im m ed iate solutions. T h e F riends o f ACRL is a re s p o n se to th e s e “n e w c h a lle n g e s” a n d re n d e rs a m e a n s fo r acad em ic librarians to give add itio n al su p p o rt th at will e n h a n c e a n d e n su re th e re le v a n c e o f o u r p rofession. By beco m in g a Friend o f ACRL, yo u r tax deductible d o n atio n (to th e ex ten t allow ed by law ) will h elp su p p le m e n t the fun d in g o f ini­ tiatives th at will strengthen an d assure th e im­ p o rtan ce o f o u r profession in this tim e o f dra­ m atic change. You can h e lp o p e n n e w w orlds to th e academ ic librarian com m unity an d sp e ­ cifically to MLS students, a n d entry-level an d m inority academ ic librarians. You can enrich o u r profession by supporting th e dev elo p m en t o f cutting-edge sem inars a n d w o rkshops. You can p ro m o te excellence w ithin o u r profession b y s u p p o r tin g B est P ractices in a c a d e m ic librarianship a n d libraries. You can su p p o rt o u r global ou treach to international academ ic librarians a n d libraries. T o le a r n m o re a b o u t F rie n d s o f ACRL a n d its fu n d s , p le a s e c h e c k o u t th e W eb Kappa aughW Mary Ellen DavisN e w s f r o m t h e F i e l d http://www.library.pitt.edu/gateway/ 6 / C&RL News ■ January 7999 RBMS preconference to exp lore "Border Crossings" in M o n tre al T he 40th annual ACRL Rare B ooks an d Manu­ scripts Section (RBMS) Preconference will take place in Montreal, Q uébec, Canada from June 21 through m idday Ju n e 24,1999. McGill Uni­ versity an d tlie Canadian Centre for Architec­ ture are co-hosts for the 1999 RBMS Precon­ ference. This year the preconference will begin o n a M onday an d en d o n Thursday, giving participants planning to attend the ALA An­ nual C onference in New O rleans a full day for travel o n Friday, Ju n e 25. The them e of the 1999 preconference is “B order Crossings: Exploring N ew Territories for Special Collections.” In keeping w ith the Montreal location (the first preconference site outside the U nited States in nearly a decade), the preconference will exam ine developm ents in North American special collections in a larger, international context. T he them e encom passes a variety o f m eta­ phorical “bo rd er crossings” for special collec­ tions: changing roles for special collections li­ braries an d their staff in the digital environ­ m ent, problem s an d issues w ith intellectual property in the international and digital co n ­ texts, an d developing n ew constitutencies of users an d public service strategies for special collections materials. Jean-Claude G uédon, professor o f Com­ parative Literature at the University of Montreal an d author o f Lα P lαnète Cyber (1996) will deliver the opening address. Brian Schottlander (California Digital Library) and H ow ard Besser (UC Berkeley) will discuss aspects o f the con­ vergence of digital technology an d special col­ p a g e a t h tt p :/ /w w w .a la .o r g /a c r l /f r ie n d s . htm l. NISO s tan d ard s an d tech n ical re p o rts a v a ila b le o n lin e T he N ational Inform ation Standards O rganiza­ tion (NISO) has m ade its standards an d tech­ nical reports available online o n the W eb at http://w w w .niso.org. T he online availability o f NISO information is th e result o f an online delivery an d copyright license agreem ent w ith CSSinfo, o f Ann Arbor, Michigan. U nder the agreem ent, CSSinfo will provide th e electronic gatew ay to the NISO W eb site to search, or­ der, an d d o w nload NISO docum ents. lections librarianship. David Walden (Canadian Cultural Property Export Review B oard) and Françoise H ebert (form er executive director of the C anadian Library Association) will d e ­ liberate on aspects of intellectual property, and Cathy H enderson (University o f Texas at Aus­ tin) and Tom H ickerson (Cornell University) will address recent developm ents in the area o f special collections public services. The preconference them e will b e com ple­ m ented w ith an am ple n u m b er of short p a ­ pers, sem inar presentations, tours, w orkshops, and receptions. Three w orkshops, scheduled for Monday, July 21, include a day-long w ork sh o p on digi­ tizing special materials an d tw o half-day w ork­ shops, o n e o n the description o f graphic m a­ terials an d the o ther o n basic techniques for installing exhibits. A fourth w orkshop, on cata­ loging rare serials, will b e offered o n Thurs­ d ay a ftern o o n after th e co nclusion o f th e preconference. Montreal is am ong th e m ost charm ing o f North American cities, w ith its 18th-century stone architecture and the strong French in­ fluence o n every aspect o f its culture. It is lo­ cated only a few hours' drive o r a short flight aw ay from the major urban areas in the north­ eastern U nited States. Registration and other information will soon b e available at the RBMS Web site (h ttp :// w w w .princeton.edu/~ferguson/rbm s.htm l) or contact Bradley W estbrook, Mandeville Spe­ cial Collections Library, UCSD, La Jolla, CA 92093; e-mail: bdw estbrook@ ucsd.edu. LSU a th le tic s raise m o n e y fo r lib ra rie s Louisiana State U niversity’s (LSU) s e c o n d an ­ n u al “S tam pede to th e Stadium ” run, h eld o n th e m orn in g o f th e first 1998 h o m e football gam e, raised $22,000 w ith $11,000 for LSU Libraries and the rem ainder to oth er academ ic projects c o n n ected w ith athletics. A n e w “Ti­ gers Rock N Roar” b enefit concert, a project o f an LSU m arketing class, g en erated an o th er $4,000 for the libraries, a n d tw o co rp o rate projects featuring B ellSouth a n d B urger King a d d e d a n o th e r $5,000 to th e library. T h e $20,000 will b e u se d to p u rch ase co m p u ter w orkstations for th e m ain library. http://www.ala.org/acrl/friends http://www.niso.org http://www.princeton.edu/~ferguson/rbms.html mailto:bdwestbrook@ucsd.edu C&RL News ■ J a n u ary 1999 / 7 John Updike was the featured speaker at a November Celebration o f Literary Biography in Columbia, South Carolina, sponsored by the University o f South Carolina's Thomas Cooper Library, Gale Research, the university provost's office, Columbia publisher Bruccoli- C la rk-L a ym a n , and o th e r u n iv e rs ity departments. Updike was presented w ith the Thomas Cooper Medal fo r Distinction in the Arts and Sciences from th e library's support g ro u p , The Thomas C ooper Society. The celebration also marked th e publication o f the 200th volume o f the D ic tio n a ry o f Lite ra ry Biograrphy, edited in Columbia and published by Gale Research, and introduced the Cooper Library's pro je ct to develop an Am erican Literary Biography Depository. F o u n d e r/e d ito r o f science jo u rn a l breaks w it h p u b lis h e r Biologist Michael Rosenzweig Ls abandoning the thriving scholarly journal he founded 12 years ago because he believes the publisher has made it so expensive that many libraries and colleagues no longer can afford it. H e says price increases o n his journal averaged almost 19% annually and harmed the scientific community, the same group that supplies articles to the journal for free. With the endorsement of SPARC (Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition), the University of Arizona professor is staking a considerable am ount of his ow n m oney on independently launching a new journal focusing on evolution and ecology. Evolutionαiy Ecology Research (EER), the comparatively low-priced alternative to his original project, begins publication this month. Rosenzweig has pledged to base the journals price on the actual production costs, which he projects will be substantially less than the commercial publisher’s prices. EER will be offered to libraries in 1999 for $290, with Internet access available for an additional $15. ■ 8 1 C&RL News ■ January 1999