may07a.indd N e w s f r o m t h e F i e l d Stephanie Orphan Ransom Center celebrates 50 years with Collecting the Imagination The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas­Austin has published a lavishly illustrated history, Col­ lecting the Imagination: The First Fifty Years of the Ransom Center, edited by Megan Bar­ nard, assistant to the director at the Ransom Center. The book is divided into four parts and describes the evolution of the Ransom Center under a succession of directors, li­ brarians, and curators over the past 50 years, and the rise of its reputation. The work also tells the story of the center’s collections, not only how they came from disparate corners of the world to reside in Texas, but also the philosophy behind their acquisition and the center’s commitment to share its holdings with the public. In its 50­year history, the Ransom Center has evolved into a world­ renowned cultural institution, known for its collections of literary manuscripts, rare books, photographs, and art and its holdings in the performing arts and fi lm. Published by University of Texas Press, Collecting the Imagination: The First Fifty Years of the Ran­ som Center is available at bookstores. A Web site documenting the center’s first 50 years is also available at www.hrc.utexas.edu/50/. Illinois launches book and manuscripts studies program The University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GS­ LIS) and Illinois’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library have announced the creation of the Midwest Book & Manuscript Studies (MBMS) program. The program draws on leaders from the field to offer high­quality, intensive courses on the history of manu­ scripts and books and the unique skills and approaches to librarianship that such col­ lections require. Courses include the history of the book, special collections librarian­ ship, archival studies, and printing history. Unique to the MBMS program is a certifi cate in special collections librarianship granted from GSLIS. The certificate is earned after completion of 12 credit hours of course work. Also housed under the MBMS pro­ gram is the Soybean Press, a fine press im­ print dedicated to the promotion and teach­ ing of letterpress printing; a series of Book Arts Workshops; and the Books in Culture/ Culture in Books lecture series. Informa­ tion on the MBMS program can be found at mbms.lis.uiuc.edu. PALINET and SAGE team up to off er e-journals package PALINET and SAGE Publications have part­ nered to create the SAGE Premier eJournals Package for PALINET members. Through this consortial agreement, PALINET mem­ bers will gain electronic access to approxi­ mately 452 journals published by SAGE for a single purchase price. In addition, members signing up by May 31, 2007, will receive a 2007 access fee based on 2006 subscription rates. Package features in­ clude: perpetual access to journal content published by SAGE during the term of the agreement, archiving (SAGE participates in Portico, LOCKKS, CLOCKSS, and the Dutch National Library archiving initiatives), back file access to 1999 while subscription is maintained, SAGE Journal Email Alerts for tables of contents notifications and an­ nouncements, and more. All SAGE jour­ nal content is peer­reviewed. PALINET is a member­owned and governed regional li­ brary network serving more than 600 mem­ bers throughout the Mid­Atlantic region and beyond. Thomson announces redesigned Web of Knowledge Thomson Scientific has announced that its ISI Web of Knowledge platform will intro­ duce an entirely new approach to fi nding, analyzing, and sharing information this sum­ mer. The extensively redesigned ISI Web of Knowledge is designed to be easy for nov­ ices to navigate, while continuing to provide powerful capabilities for seasoned users. The new platform is the outcome of extensive usability testing and is designed to antici­ pate users’ needs. ISI Web of Knowledge, an integrated, versatile research platform, deliv­ ers easy access to high­quality, diversifi ed 286C&RL News May 2007 http:mbms.lis.uiuc.edu www.hrc.utexas.edu/50 scholarly information in the sciences, social OCLC to pilot WorldCat local sciences, and arts and humanities, as well as OCLC is piloting a new service that will allow search and analysis tools that enhance this libraries to combine the cooperative power content. More information is available at of OCLC member libraries worldwide with ISIWebofKnowledge.com. the ability to customize WorldCat.org as a solution for local discovery and delivery Jaffe Center for Book Arts opens at services. The WorldCat Local pilot, through FAU Libraries a locally branded interface, provides librar­ Florida Atlantic University (FAU) Libraries’ ies the ability to search the entire WorldCat Arthur and Mata Jaffe Center for Book Arts, a database and present results beginning with 4,800­square­foot center housing prominent items most accessible to the patron. These collections of books handmade by artists, might include collections from the home li­ was dedicated on March 27 and is now open brary, collections shared in a consortium, to the public by appointment. The center is and open access collections. WorldCat Local largely the legacy of Mata Jaffe who, before will offer the same feature set as WorldCat. she died in 2001, earmarked a substantial org, such as a single search box, relevan­ contribution for the expansion of the library and the Arthur and Mata Jaffe Collection: Books as Visit the Folger Shakespeare Library Aesthetic Objects. The collection, during the ALA Annual Conference which started as 2,800 books and has grown to nearly 8,000 items, 2007 is a jubilee year for the Folger Shakespeare Li­ consists primarily of visual books brary, which is celebrating 75 years as Shakespeare’s created more for their artistic merit home in America with performances, readings, lec­ than for their informational con­ tures, exhibitions, and a radio documentary. tent. The festivities include the free exhibit “Shake­ The Jaffe Center, a hybrid of li­ speare in American Life,” brary and art gallery, is furnished which runs through August with bamboo fl oors, European­ 18, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mon­ styled furniture, glass walls, and day through Saturday in display cases. It will offer exhibi­ the Folger Great Hall. The tions, lectures, workshops, fi lms, exhibit looks at the ways performances, and classes in let­ in which Shakespeare has terpress printing, bookbinding, been and continues to be handmade paper making, and box an essential ingredient making. The Jaffe Center is part of in American culture and the five­story, 20,000­square­foot li­ includes items from the brary expansion that began in May colonial era to the pres­ 2005; it occupies the third fl oor of ent day. the new Paul C. Wimbish Wing of If you’re interested in the S.E. Wimberly Library. In addi­ getting a more in­depth tion to support from the Jaffes and look at some of the Folg­ funds from the state’s matching gift er’s 256,000 books; 60,000 program, the Wimbish wing was manuscripts; 250,000 play­ funded with generous support from bills; 200 oil paintings; Virginia and Peter MacEachron and 50,000 drawings, water­ their son, John MacEachron, of the colors, prints, and pho­ Wimbish family; numerous bene­ tographs; and other materials, including musical factors of the Levine­Weinberger instruments, costumes, and films., consider a visit to Jewish Life Center and Hillel of the library’s reading rooms. The reading rooms are Broward­Palm Beach; and the FAU open to registered readers Monday through Friday Student Government Association. from 8:45 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., and on Saturday from 9 For more information, visit www. a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. jaffecollection.org. Max Beerbohm. William Shakespeare, His Method of Work. Print, 1904. Fol­ ger Shakespeare Library, folger.edu May 2007 287 C&RL News http:folger.edu http:jaffecollection.org http:WorldCat.org http:ISIWebofKnowledge.com cy ranking of search results, result sets that bring multiple versions of I can’t live without . . . a work together under one record, faceted browse capability, citation formatting options, cover art, and My take on the “one Web resource that you additional evaluative content. The can’t live without?” would be my Bloglines News WorldCat Local service interoper­ Reader. Why? Because it gives me access to a ates with locally maintained services huge variety of websites of my choosing; lets me like circulation, resource sharing, know when something new is posted in one, and resolution to full text to create and I can access my account from virtually any­ a seamless experience for the end where.—Memo Cordova, Boise State University user. The WorldCat Local pilot will test new functionality that allows us­ . . . Bloglines News Reader ers to place requests, gain online ac­ cess, or request an interlibrary loan www.bloglines.com within WorldCat.org. The University of Washington Libraries were the first to pilot WorldCat Local with OCLC, be­ ginning in April. ACRL podcasts and movie put ACRL National Conference in the spotlight Highlights from ACRL’s 13th National Con­ ference, held in Baltimore March 29­April 1, are available online through the ACRL Pod­ cast series and the ACRL National Conference Video. Whether you were one of the more than 3,000 academic librarians who attended the conference, or if you were unable to at­ tend this time around, you’ll enjoy the ACRL podcast with director John Waters, who gra­ ciously sat with ACRL President Pamela Snel­ son and others following his keynote address to answer more questions for the viewers at home. Also not to be missed is the ACRL Na­ tional Conference video, filmed and edited by American Libraries editors George Eber­ hart and Daniel Kraus. PALINET, sponsor of the Cyber Zed Shed, has also released pod­ casts recorded with each of the presenters in that arena. All items are available through the ACRL podcast blog at blogs.ala.org /acrlpodcast.php. Stanford releases Copyright Renewal Database In April, Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources released the Copyright Renewal Database. The data­ base makes searchable the copyright renew­ al records received by the U.S. Copyright Office between 1950 and 1993 for books published in the United States between 1923 and 1963. The database includes only U.S. Class A (book) renewals. The period 1923 to 1963 is of special interest for U.S. copy­ rights, as, between those dates, a renewal registration was required to prevent the expiration of copyright. (The copyright for works published after January 1, 1964, were automatically renewed by the 1976 Copy­ right Act, and works published before 1923 have fallen into the public domain.) Stan­ ford has created a searchable database to make the renewal records more accessible. It has converted the published renewal an­ nouncements to machine­readable form and combined them with renewals for later years made available on the Copyright Offi ce’s Web site. Search the database at collections. stanford.edu/copyrightrenewals/. SUNY-Albany fund supports researchers in feminist social justice The State University of New York (SUNY)­ Albany Libraries has announced a new fund to support researchers in the M.S. Grenander Special Collections and Archives. The fund, “The Patricia Stocking Brown Fund for Femi­ nist Social Justice Research in Libraries,” was initiated by women’s studies professor Bon­ nie B. Spanier, biology professor Stephen C. Brown, and others in recognition of Patri­ cia Stocking Brown’s lifelong commitment to researching and teaching about women and social justices. Brown, professor of biol­ ogy at Siena College, 1969­2004, died from breast cancer in 2004. Applications for the award may come from graduate or under­ graduate students who wish to use the mate­ rial for a project. Awards may be given twice 288C&RL News May 2007 http:blogs.ala.org http:WorldCat.org http:www.bloglines.com per year; the first award(s) will be given in fall 2007. Readex to offer fully searchable Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Report Readex, a leading publisher of online his­ torical collections, has announced that it will launch a Web­based edition of the For­ eign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Report in fall 2007. The Daily Report, issued by the U.S. FBIS has been the fun­ damental record of political and historical open source intelligence for the U.S. gov­ ernment for nearly 75 years. The FBIS Daily Report: Series 1: Middle East, Africa and South Asia, 1974­1996—the first series in this new online edition—includes a wealth of transcripts of broadcasts and news from the Arabian Peninsula; Central, East, North, Southern, and West Africa; and the Indian subcontinent—all translated into the Eng­ lish language. Many of these materials are first­hand reports of events as they occurred. Series 1 contains more than 400,000 pages from foreign press materials, news transmis­ sions, and radio broadcasts. Students and scholars are afforded local perspectives on such events as the Camp David Accords, the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini, Somalia’s inva­ sion of Ethiopia, Indira Gandhi’s assassina­ tion, Angolan independence, the Iran­Iraq War, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the Gulf War, Israel’s peace agreement with Jordan, Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, So­ viet intervention in Afghanistan, and more. Full-text Springer journals available through WilsonWeb One hundred and twenty Springer jour­ nals are now being delivered through WilsonWeb. The new additions join approx­ imately 2,100 journals in full text on Wilson­ Web art, science, business, education, hu­ manities, law, and social sciences databases, as well as on Wilson’s OmniFile multidisci­ pline databases. Each Springer issue will ap­ pear 365 days after its publication in print, beginning with year 2005 issues. Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media, which publishes more than 1,700 journals each year. The full list of Springer journals to be included in WilsonWeb is available at www.hwwilson.com. ACRL Rare Books and Manuscripts Section Task Force to review “Guidelines on the Selection and Transfer of Materials from General Collections to Special Collections” (2005-2007) The first edition (1987) of the “Guidelines for Transferring General Collection Materi­ als to Special Collections” was prepared by an ad hoc committee of the ACRL Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS), chaired by Samuel A. Streit and published in C&RL News (September 1987). An up­ dated version was approved by the ACRL Standards Committee in 1994 and given further minor revisions in 1999. A new task force was convened in 2005 to review and update the guidelines. The 2007 draft revision is now available on the ACRL Web site at www.ala.org/ala/acrl /acrlstandards/selectransfer.htm. The taks force is seeking input on this revision. Members of the task force responsible for the 2007 revised guidelines are: Char­ lotte B. Brown (chair), University of Cali­ fornia­Los Angeles; Emily Epstein, University of Colorado­Denver and Health Sciences Center; Janet Gertz, Columbia University; Ron Lieberman, The Family Album; Daryl Morrison, University of California­Davis; Phyllis Payne, Boston University; Andrea Rolich, University of Wisconsin­Madison; Bruce Tabb, University of Oregon; and Jen­ nifer Hain Teper, University of Illinois at Urbana­Champaign. The task force is grateful for any com­ ments or feedback you would like to offer. Please address your remarks to Charlotte B. Brown, task force chair, at univ­ archives@library.ucla.edu. Please include “RBMS Transfer Guidelines Draft” in the subject of the e­mail. A hearing on the 2007 draft revision will be held Friday, June 22, 4:30–6:00 p.m. at the 2007 ALA Annual Conference in Wash­ ington, D.C. May 2007 289 C&RL News mailto:archives@library.ucla.edu www.ala.org/ala/acrl http:www.hwwilson.com