october06a.indd N e w s f r o m t h e F i e l d Stephanie Orphan Institutional Repositories Spec Kit available from ARL The Institutional Repositories Spec Kit is now available from the Association of Re­ search Libraries (ARL). The document pres­ ents the results of a 38­question survey of 87 ARL members in early 2006 about their institutional repositories practices and plans. The survey response rate was 71 percent. The 176­page document presents detailed question­by­question results, a list of re­ spondent institutions, representative docu­ ments from institutions, and a bibliography. Front matter and the nine­page executive summary are freely available at www.arl. org/spec/SPEC292web.pdf. The complete Spec Kit can be ordered at www.arl.org/ pubscat/index.html. Mashing up the Library competition encourages innovation Following the success of the fi rst Mashing up the Library 2006, UK library services pro­ vider, Talis, plans to keep the competition going. Mashing up the Library is a global competition intended to openly encourage innovation in the display, use, and reuse of data from and about libraries. U.S. libraries led the pack in 2006, with Ann Arbor District Library’s Go­Go­Google­Gadget taking fi rst place and Alliance Library System (Peoria, Illinois) taking second with Alliance Second Life Library 2.0. Eight of the 18 entries for the first competition were from academic institutions. Those wishing to submit entries for the next round of competition can fi nd information on the Talis Web site at www. talis.com. Evaluation criteria include cool­ ness, ease of use, ease of deployment, util­ ity, portability/relevance to other libraries, and overall. University of Michigan’s MBooks provides access to digitized works The University of Michigan (UM) Library has developed a new system, MBooks, spe­ cifically for the materials digitized through the UM/Google Digitization Partnership. The online catalog now points to MBooks, which is intended to support scholarly re­ search and meet the needs of researchers by providing more information about works in the collection and, where allowed, mak­ ing the text of works available through the catalog. MBooks includes a page­turning function, updated bibliographic information, persistent URLs, the ability to change resolution, and the ability to change format. For uncopyright­ able works, text will be fully viewable. For all material in the system, the user may search within a volume and retrieve the number of times a search term appears per page. More information on MBooks is available at mdp. lib.umich.edu/m/mdp/mdp­faq.htm. DDC makes Vietnamese debut The National Library of Vietnam has pub­ lished a Vietnamese translation of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) and Relative Index, Abridged Edition 14. This is the fi rst complete translation of an edition of the DDC into Vietnamese. In September 2001, at a workshop in Hanoi attended by librar­ ians from across the country and sponsored by the Atlantic Philanthropies and RMIT In­ ternational University Vietnam, Vietnamese librarians chose the DDC as one of their bibliographic standards. OCLC Online Com­ puter Library Center publishes the DDC and a variety of related materials. The system has been translated into more than 30 languages and serves library users in more than 135 countries. Correction C&RL News incorrectly listed Vincent P. Tinerella and Marcia A. Dick as authors of the article, “The China Mission: Aca­ demic librarians embrace the People to People Ambassador Program,” which was published in the September issue (page 505). The correct author of the article is Mar­ tha Kruy, adjunct reference librarian at Fairfield University and College of Mount St. Vincent, e­mail: mjkruymls@yahoo. com. The editors regret the error. C&RL News October 2006 540 http:talis.com http:www.arl.org BioOne completes DOI assign­ ment, launches Forward Linking BioOne recently completed a retro­ spective assignment of Digital Ob­ ject Identifiers (DOI) and deposit of those DOIs with the CrossRef system. The project included implementation of Forward Linking to other articles that reference the articles in the da­ tabase. Forward linking is similar to reference linking, however, rather than pointing to articles referenced or citations to previous work, it provides a link outward to articles that have cited the article that is being read. The enhanced functionality is being provided to publishers and users at no charge; BioOne is absorbing the fees on behalf of participating pub­ lishers for deposit and registration of the DOIs. More information can be found at www.bioone.org. Colorado Alliance releases version 4.0 of Gold Rush Linker I can’t live without . . . Reliable consumer health information is no­ toriously difficult to find on the Web, especially for patients. My first stop for health information for patients (as well as for myself, family, friends, and colleagues) is MedlinePlus by the National Library of Medicine. It is a meta­site and links are selective, heavily vetted, and kept up­to­date. The most popular section is the drug information, in plain English, which includes prescription drugs, over the counter medicines, herbs and supple­ ments. The site also includes a medical dictionary, encyclopedia, easy­to­read materials, interactive slide shows, real­time videos of surgery, links to local providers, and more. Check it out and fi nd quality health information for your patrons, your­ self and your loved ones.—Becky McKay, Medical Sciences Library, Texas A&M University . . . MedlinePlus www.medlineplus.gov The Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries mentoring, education, and experiential pro­ has released a new version of its electronic gram for library school students from tradi­ resource management system, Gold Rush. tionally underserved ethnic or racial groups The release is a full rewrite of the OpenURL who have demonstrated interest in research link resolver software that provides greatly or academic library careers. The program is improved reliability and functionality. En­ sponsored through a “Librarians for the 21st hancements include full support of NISO Century” grant. Open URL 1.0 and 0.1 standards, which sup­ port linking between a bibliographic source Amazon.com becomes PromptCat and a target to which a library subscribes. participant Sites can now customize Gold Rush Linker Amazon.com is now an OCLC PromptCat results screens by reorganizing the layout, participant, making it possible for libraries hiding sections, and using their own word­ to receive OCLC MARC records along with ing to name sections. Gold Rush is a Web­ the materials they get from Amazon, includ­ based central digital registry of databases ing books, music, and DVDs. With Prompt­ and electronic journals. More information Cat, new items ordered through participat­ about the system and the Colorado Alliance ing vendors arrive with complete OCLC of Research Libraries can be found at www. MARC records, and the library’s holdings are coalliance.org. automatically set in WorldCat. CIRLA Fellows appointed to Library of Purdue launches online research Congress locator Nine fellows from Georgetown University Purdue University Libraries has launched and the Chesapeake Information and Re­ a new online information system, Purdue search Library Alliance’s (CIRLA) Fellows e­Scholar, which provides faculty and re­ Program have been appointed to full­time searchers with increased access to data, professional positions with the Library of source materials, and publications gener­ Congress. The placements represent the fi ­ ated by their Purdue peers. Two compo­ nal stage of the CIRLA Fellows Program, a nents, e­Pubs and e­Archives are active on October 2006 541 C&RL News http:coalliance.org http:Amazon.com http:Amazon.com http:www.medlineplus.gov http:www.bioone.org the library’s Web site (www.lib.purdue. edu), with a third, e­Data, to launch next year. e­Pubs provides access to disserta­ tions, reports, papers, and other scholarly publications written or organized by mem­ bers of the Purdue community. e­Archives contains collections of primary source ma­ terials, such as papers, photographs, and audiovisual materials created or collected by Purdue affiliates. e­Data will provide access to research data generated and col­ lected at Purdue. IMLS accepting Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian grant applications The Institute of Museum and Library Ser­ vices (IMLS) invites libraries, archives, li­ brary agencies, associations, and consortia to apply for the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian grant program. The program sup­ ports efforts to recruit and educate the next generation of librarians and the faculty who will prepare them for careers in the profes­ sion, as well as grants for research related to library education and staffing needs, cur­ riculum development, and other related topics. The categories for fiscal 2007 have been expanded to highlight opportunities for library disaster recovery. The program was started in 2003 through a special fund­ ing initiative. Guidelines for applications are available on the IMLS Web site, www.imls. gov. The application deadline is December 15, 2006; awards will be announced in mid­ June 2007. ACRL to offer Midwinter workshops on assessment, instruction, and research models ACRL is offering three professional devel­ opment workshops in conjunction with the 2007 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle, Jan­ uary 19, 2007. “Assessment of Academic Library Effec­ tiveness: Using ACRL Standards for Continu­ ous Evaluation” (Friday, January 19, 2007, 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.) will introduce the ACRL “Standards for Libraries in Higher Education” as a framework for assessing all academic libraries. “Creating the One Shot Library Work­ shop Step­by­Step” (Friday, January 19, 2007, 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.) will provide an overview and hands­on practice of a well­ tested process for designing one­shot library workshops. “Managing the Changing Research Models in the Humanities” (Friday, January 19, 2007, 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.) will offer an overview of the current environment in humanities research, focusing on library services and communication initiatives. C&RL News October 2006 542 ACRL will offer its Fall Virtual Institute, “The User at the Center,” on Thursday, November 9, 2006. The institute will focus on how libraries can use technologies and practices to put the user at the center of the information enterprise on campus. While the Internet has served as a catalyst to get students and faculty using information differently, the real quantum change is occurring now in the ways in which students, faculty, and staff on campuses worldwide are interacting with one another. Technologies and practices have changed the way in which these interactions take place and may even be changing the content of the conversations themselves. Maximize your ability to meet your mis­ sion on your campus by discovering new Register by October 26, 2006, for the ACRL Fall Virtual Institute tools and ways of thinking about users and their behaviors. Like face­to­face conferences, the Fall Virtual Institute will run on a real time schedule. The institute will feature syn­ chronous Webcasts that begin and end at a certain time, as well as asynchronous activities. Programs include featured speaker, Jeffrey Trzeciak, University Li­ brarian at McMaster University (Canada), as well as concurrent sessions focusing on topics varying from vlogging to user perceptions. Complete program details and regis­ tration materials are online at www.ala. org/acrl/events. October 26, 2006, is the advance registration deadline; group dis­ counts are available. Questions? Contact msutton@ala.org, (312) 280­2522. www.imls www.lib.purdue It all started simply enough. I visited the Library of Congress Web site to look up the correct 5xx field for a contents note. I found the answer quickly but, ten min­ utes later, I was still at the site. I had been sucked in by the great variation in Notes fields, drawn to the seductive allure of such diverse fi elds as the 583 and 586. Like a moth to the flame, I couldn’t help myself. Once I knew these fields existed, I had to find a way to use them! Thus begins this ode to the 586, the Awards Note. These days, when it is so easy to become overwhelmed with information, fi nding the core or best books on any given topic is a challenge.Thus, the 586 makes terrifi c sense. This field can be used to identify award­winning titles, from Caldecott Medal Variations on a Theme by MARC, Opus 586 winning books to Academy Award winning fi lms. It takes the form: 586 $a Caldecott Medal, 1979 586 $a Academy Award for Best Pic­ ture, 1987 Why maintain separate lists when you can encode this information in the MARC record itself? No more looking up lists then turning to the online catalog to locate titles; the catalog can fulfill both functions. So let’s give the 586 a try.At the very least, we can provide useful information for our users. It also wouldn’t hurt to publicize some of the awards that we librarians bestow upon worthy publications. It may start with the Oscars, Caldecotts, and Pulitzers but the Oberlys, Ansaris, and Seuss’ await. Excel­ sior!—Linda Musser, Pennsylvania State University, lrm4@psulias.psu.edu Registration is now open; December 8, 2006, is the advance registration deadline. Complete details about these ACRL profes­ sional development preconferences are avail­ able online at www.ala.org/acrl/events (click “ACRL @ Midwinter”). Villanova University announces digital library Villanova University’s Falvey Memorial Li­ brary has launched a digital library, which serves as a repository for digitized items from its special collections, other donated items, and items from partnering institu­ tions. The repository, which was developed by library staff, uses a native XML database, eXist, to store and organize digital objects encoded in the METS format. The Web site allows users to search and view all of the items stored in the repository by using XML technologies such as XQuery and XSLT. Noteworthy items made available through the digital library include the complete col­ lection of Cuala Press Broadsides, a signed and edited copy of Memoranda During War by Walt Whitman, and personal letters and books from the Joseph McGarrity Col­ lection related to Irish and Irish­American history. The Villanova Digital Library can be accessed at digital.library.villanova.edu. Ex Libris’ MetaLib now integrated with Cambridge Journals Online Ex Libris and Cambridge University Press (CUP) have announced the integration of the MetaLib information portal and meta­ search tool and Cambridge Journals Online, CUP’s database of articles of more than 200 academic journals. MetaLib can now search the CUP XML gateway and retrieve Cam­ bridge Journals Online results. CUP and Ex Libris collaboratively developed the XML gateway, which uses the Search/Retrieve via URL (SRU) protocol. The gateway allows MetaLib users to include Cambridge Jour­ nals Online along with other databases in a single search, retrieving records from all of the databases. Information on MetaLib is available at www.exlibrisgroup.com. PALINET, Amigos, and SOLINET offer ScholarlyStats to combined membership PALINET, Amigos, and SOLINET, three of the largest library consortia in the United States, have signed an agreement with MPS Tech­ nologies to offer Scholarly Stats to their com­ bined membership. The agreement allows subscribing members to receive maximum discounts on ScholarlyStats, which provides consolidated usage statistics. October 2006 543 C&RL News http:www.exlibrisgroup.com http:digital.library.villanova.edu www.ala.org/acrl/events