ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries Ja n u a ry 1 9 9 5 / 5 News f r o m th e F i e l d M ary Ellen Davis Benefit book auction a success The Special Collection De­ partment at the University of Vermont (UVM) successfully conducted a book auction to benefit UVM and six other Vermont libraries. Proceeds from the sale, which grossed over $60,000, will be added to the libraries’ respective ac­ quisitions budgets. The sale prices of items ranged from $10 to $3,250 for Stedman’s 1796 A ccou n t o f th e Surin am R ebellion. Kevin Graffagnino, director o f Spe­ cial Collections at UVM, stressed that they were not weeding the collection. “Everything sold was already held in duplicate, or more.” This was the third book auction sponsored by UVM and, like its predecessors, the event was run entirely by the seven-member staff of the Special Col­ lections Department. Did you sav e your postcards? Over the last year ACRL members have been sent three postcards about ACRL’s 7th National Conference in Pittsburgh, March 29– April 1, 1995. If you saved yours, you are eligible for a drawing for free conference and preconference registrations (see C&RL News, February 1994). Staple your postcards together and bring them to the ACRL booth at the 1995 Midwinter Meet­ ing in Philadelphia to be included in the draw­ ing. Six winners will be selected; all postcards must be addressed to the same person. Note: If you are not attending the 1995 Midwinter Meet­ ing, staple your postcards together and mail them to ACRL Postcard Drawing, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611 by January 20, 1995, to be included in the drawings. Hint: The three postcards each featured photographs o f Pitts­ burgh and were mailed in December 1993, Sep­ tember 1994, and December 1994. Distance learning classroom opened Southern Illinois University (SIU) opened its first distance learning classroom on the Carbondale campus. Housed in the Morris Library, the class­ room is equipped with an interactive video and audio system. Dean o f library affairs Carolyn Snyder and head of instructional support, Jerry Hostetler, demonstrated the new classroom to Illin ois G ov ernor Ja m es Edgar. Edgar used the oppor­ tunity to announce a $1.4 million state grant to expand the telecommunications net­ work linking educational in­ stitutions and businesses in so u th e rn Illin o is. “This grant— and others like it throughout Illinois— will fund the expansion of our distance learning network to more than 275 sites across the state and will keep Illi­ nois on the cutting edge of using technology to enhance educational oppor­ tunities,” the governor said. The grant to the Southern Illinois Collegiate Common Market (SICCM) is part o f a statewide program the governor has included in his bud­ get the past two fiscal years. The consortium includes John A. Logan College at Carterville, Rend Lake College at Mt. Vernon, Shawnee College at Ullin, Southeastern College at Har­ risburg, and SIU. ALA bids Mickey Mouse adieu At its fall meeting ALA’s Executive Board voted to hold its 1996 Annual Conference in New York City instead o f Orlando, home of Walt Disney World. The new dates for the ALA Annual Con­ ference in New York are July 4-10, 1996. ALA President Arthur Curley indicated that the rea- Feature your collection on the cover of C&RL N ew s C&RL News wants to feature aesthetically pleasing photos of items from library col­ lections on its covers. If you have material in your library's collections that you think would make an attractive C&RL News cover, please send us a photograph and a brief description of the item and the collection. Photos may be either color or black and white and should be 5" x 7" or 8" x 10". Illustrations with a vertical orientation work best. Materials submitted will become the property of C&RL News and cannot be ac­ knowledged. Send to: C&RL News Covers, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 6 0 6 ll. 5 / C&RL News The Voyage W indow at SUNY-Albany. The im age g r a c e s o n e o f fo u r b o o k m a r k s developed by th e u niv ersity ’s F rien d s o f the lib ra rie s grou p. son for the switch was “to ensure that the high­ est number o f members . . . have an opportu­ nity to attend the more than 2,000 meetings and visit the approximately 1,300 exhibitors.” SUNY-Albany bookm arks available In commemoration o f the University at Albany, State University o f New York’s Sesquicenten nial Celebration, the Friends o f the Libraries are offering a set o f full-color bookmarks de­ picting four of the opalescent stained-glass win­ dows mounted in the Hawley building on the downtown campus. The windows were pre­ sumably executed by Chapman Stained Glass Studio, which was founded in Albany in 1898 by Richard Chapman. Represented on the lami­ nated bookmarks are: the Voyage Window, the Knowledge Window, the Francesca Martinez window, and a Greco/Roman woman with san­ dals and laurel wreath. Each set o f four book­ marks (8" x 2") is packaged in a plastic enve­ lo p e and av a ila b le fo r $ 5 .9 5 (in clu d in g shipping/handling and tax). To order send checks payable to the University at Albany to: Dorothy Christiansen, Head, Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University at Albany, SUNY, Albany, NY 12222. For further information call Christiansen at (518) 442-3542. ALA offers library ad v o cacy training ALA is working to build a nationwide network o f library advocates by offering “Library Advo­ cacy Now!” workshops at state association and other library conferences. The training program developed with the World Book/ALA Goal Award, is intended for trustees, friends of li braries, and library staff. The focus is on help­ ing everyone who cares about libraries to be­ come effective advocates using contacts with the media, legislators, and other forums to build the case for library support at the local, state, and national levels. Libraiy advocacy training will be offered on Sunday, February 5, as part of the President’s Program during the ALA Mid­ winter Meeting in Philadelphia. Those interested in scheduling a Library Advocacy Now! train­ ing session in their state or community should contact Gerald Hodges, director of ALA Mem­ bership, at (800) 545-2433 ext. 4285; e-mail: gerald.hodges@ala.org. Virginia creating virtual library The Virginia General Assembly allocated $5.2 million to libraries at public colleges and uni­ versities in Virginia for the purpose o f devel­ mailto:gerald.hodges@ala.org Ja n u a ry 1 9 9 5 / 7 oping a statewide “virtual library.” Key goals o the Virginia Virtual Library project are to in crease overall access to information through out the Commonwealth by enhancing resourc sharing, reducing unnecessary duplication o holdings, and increasing service to students an faculty. To increase the amount o f informatio available to library users throughout the state the Virginia virtual library will purchase $ million in electronic library materials, whic will be loaded on networked computers at si resource centers. Other elements o f the virtua library are software to permit shared onlin catalogs, patron-initiated interlibrary loan, an increased efficiency o f document and boo delivery between libraries. Regional electroni resource centers at the six doctoral universitie will be set up to cooperatively purchase, develop and store a variety of databases as well as pro vide training for all the academic libraries. The six institutions are: College o f Willia and Mary, George Mason University, Old Do minion University, University of Virginia, Vir ginia Commonwealth University, and Virgini Polytechnic Institute and State University. Th project will be directed by a steering commit tee made up of the members of the library di rectors of the six doctoral institutions and th members of a subcommittee on networking tha is part of the Library Advisory Committee o the State Council of Higher Education for Vir ginia. Katherine A. Perry, director o f Georg Mason University’s Center for Digital Library an Information Resources, is the project coordina tor. EBSS seeks editor ACRL’s Education and Behavioral Sciences Section (EBSS) is seek­ ing an editor for its newsletter and electronic listserv. The two- year appointment will begin July 1995. Applicants should have working knowledge o f desktop publishing and know how to use Internet communications. Prefer­ ence will be given to applicants whose institutions can host the EBSS listserv. The new sletter editor must be a member of EBSS and be able to attend ALA An­ nual and Midwinter Meetings. The newsletter editor serves on three key committees (EBSS Ex­ Inside th e ecutive Board, EBSS Publications, C en ter at t f and ACRL Newsletter Editors) which generally ­ have been scheduled at conferences as early as ­ Friday evening and as late as Tuesday morning. Anyone interested should submit an application f letter, resume, and writing samples to: Joan B. Fiscella, EBSS Publications Chair, University of Illinois at Chicago Library, P.O. Box 8198, M/C 234, Chicago, IL 60680; e-mail: u46028@uicvm.uic.edu; fax: (312) 413-0424. Applications must be re­ ceived by February 28, 1995. N ew Grainger Library a t Univ. of III. The Grainger Engineering Library Information Center on the campus of the University o f Illi­ nois at Urbana-Champaign was dedicated with an electronic ribbon-cutting ceremony last fall. Dignitaries using friendly touch-screen technol­ ogy snipped a computer-created image of a rib­ bon electronically. The Grainger Library is the largest engineering library in the U.S., capable of accommodating 1,200 patrons at one time. Grainger offers a computer and multimedia laboratory, a digital imaging lab, an informa tion-retrieval research lab, instructional-services labs, high-tech classrooms, and a usability lab. It has 800 computer hookups, six network serv­ ers, and 60 online computers. Within the 92,000 square feet of assignable space are 100 user terminals, of which 30 accommodate advanced scientific computing and 20 accommodate full- text document imaging and multimedia appli­ cations. Patrons may access 450 remote and local online databases. Seven user-friendly in­ teractive information kiosk terminals, placed new G rain g er E ng in eerin g L ib rary In fo rm ation e U niversity o f Illinois, U rbana-C ham paign. e d n , 2 h x l e d k c s , ­ m ­ ­ a e ­ ­ e t f ­ e d ­ h mailto:u46028@uicvm.uic.edu 8 /C&RL News around the library, operate by way o f touch­ screen technology. The five-floor building was designed by Evans Woollen, a nationally recognized architect based in Indianapolis. The Grainger Foundation of Skokie, Illinois, donated $18.7 million to erect the library. The gift honors W. W. Grainger, a U. of I. College of Engineering Class of 1919 alum­ nus and founder of W. W. Grainger Inc. ACRL collects information literacy d ata This fall ACRL was approached by two of the regional accrediting agencies— Middle States As­ sociation and Western Association of Schools and Colleges— to enter a cooperative research project for the purpose of collecting data on existing information literacy programs in higher education institutions across the U.S. The ACRL Executive Committee approved a proposal at its fall meeting to implement the project. At the request of the accrediting agencies the mail­ ings went to their campus contacts (usually pro­ vosts and deans) with instructions that the in­ struments were to be distributed on campuses to the units best suited to respond. In some cases the campus will identify the library as the appropriate unit to respond to the survey. As his study develops, further reports will be pub­ ished in C&RL News and the ACRL Forum. TS discussions a t Midwinter he ACRL Science and Technology Section nvites you to attend the following lively dis­ ussion groups at the ALA Midwinter Meet­ ng in Philadelphia. STS General Discussion roup meeting, Sunday, February 5, 8:30-11:00 .m. Topic: “Integrating Internet Resources into ci-Tech Libraries.” STS Science Databases Dis­ ussion Group, Saturday, February 4, 2:00-4:00 .m. Topic: “Electronic Pre-print Databases and he World Wide Web.” etting the 1 9 9 2 library d ata he data on 54 variables in academic libraries n the United States reported to the National enter for Education Statistics (NCES) and dis­ ussed by Mary Jo Lynch in the November 1994 C&RL News a re now available to the public. To btain a copy o f A c a d e m ic L ibraries: 1 9 9 2 NCES95-031) for $3.75 from the Government rinting Office (stock # (S/W) 065-000-00717- ) call (202) 512-1800. t l S T i c i G a S c p t G T i C c o ( P 7 Overdue notices: Cutting costs and saving time Many libraries in these tough economic times have had to reduce staff, services, and acquisitions. Given moderate downsizing, ex­ amination of some long-held procedures may free resources that can be used to sustain other, more desirable services. Evaluation of procedures may also result in unexpected benefits, such as those from an evaluation of postage costs and overdue notices at the Uni­ versity of Oklahoma. The existing overdue notice schedule in­ cluded three overdue notices and a bill. The notices were spaced at 7, 21, and 45 days past due. Billing occurred at 90 days. An ex­ amination o f other libraries’ procedures re­ vealed many libraries billed earlier in the cycle, and past research suggested a shorter billing interval would reduce overdues. Further con­ siderations included an analysis of the num­ ber of items turned in after each overdue notice was sent. The following changes were made: a) the second notice was reformatted and labeled “FINAL NOTICE” and the wording of the no­ tice clearly pointed out the impending finan cial penalties; b) the third notice was elimi nated; c) the libraries eliminated the bill an relied on the University Bursar to notify pa trons of billing costs; and d) mailing interval were shortened. The second and final notic was mailed at 15 days and billing was for warded to the University Bursar at 30 days. Results The change reduced the number of notice mailed by approximately 20%. This amounte to a savings of about $800 in postage for th first seven months. The most important resul o f the change, though, was the freeing of bill ing staff from notice-related duties. As a re sult, ten hours of staff time/week were real lo ca te d to interlibrary loan op eration s Shortening of the notice and billing cycle als improved book return rates among library pa trons, as the total number of items outstand ing at 30 days fell by two-thirds.— Steve H or a n d P at Weaver-Meyers, University o f O kla h o m a Libraries, N orm an ­ ­ d ­ s e ­ s d e t ­ ­ ­ . o ­ ­ n ­ Ja n u a ry 1 9 9 5 / 9