nov08a.indd David Free N e w s f r o m t h e F i e l d FAU and SEFLIN send books abroad Florida Atlantic University (FAU) Librar­ ies have redirected thousands of English­ language books that are not needed by its library users to Armenia and Iraq, enabling librarians in those nations to augment their collections and offer a larger variety of titles to readers. The effort, which now includes a network of Southeast Florida libraries as partners, and an Iraqi university as a recipient, began after William Miller, dean of University Libraries at FAU, visited Armenia fol­ lowing the September 2001 terrorist attacks. “Before 1991, books to Soviet Bloc countries were provided free of charge cen­ trally from Moscow, and, of course, they were all in Russian,” said Miller. “After the fall of the Soviet Union, the book shipments stopped, and the countries had no money to purchase books. By 2001, the libraries had basically acquired no books for a decade and also had little or nothing in English.” Miller and his staff at the S. E. Wimberly Library on the FAU Boca Raton campus be­ gan the project by setting aside appropriate books among duplicates from their gifts pro­ gram. The first books shipped were mainly science and technology books that were donated by an area publisher of scientifi c research manuals or books that had been superseded. After the project got underway, Miller and Tom Sloan, executive director of the Southeast Florida Library Information Network (SEFLIN), who has also visited Armenia as a consultant for the State Depart­ ment on numerous occasions, collaborated on how to provide ongoing assistance to Armenian libraries. SEFLIN, which includes FAU Libraries among its membership of more than 300 libraries, assumed responsibility for the William Miller, dean of University Li­ braries at Florida Atlantic University, and Tom Sloan, director of Southeast Florida Information Network, review books at the S. E. Wimberly Library. project, now know as the SEFLIN Gift Li­ brary Materials Program, in January 2006. About 3,500 of the books shipped by SEFLIN have been academic titles, while another 3,200 have been books designated for grade schools and pub­ lic libraries. More than 100 titles on the study of the English language have been donated to language institutes. In addition to FAU, Lynn University, Palm Beach Community College, Lighthouse Pointe Library, and members of the S.E. Florida Independent School Libraries Consortium have donated books, microfi lm, videotapes, and other li­ brary materials. For more information on the proj­ ect, contact Tom Sloan at sloan@fau.edu or William Miller at miller@fau.edu. EBSCO becomes SUSHI compliant EBSCO has released a SUSHI server, mak­ ing it the first full­text database vendor to support the Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI). SUSHI facili­ tates automated retrieval of usage data from EBSCOhost databases in compliance with the COUNTER Code of Practice. The SUSHI standard allows librarians to bypass time­consuming manual data aggregation of usage statistics. COUNTER assists librarians, publishers, intermediaries, and industry organizations by facilitating the recording and exchange of online us­ age statistics. SUSHI builds on the work of COUNTER by allowing completely automated request and delivery of COUNTER compliant usage reports. EBSCO is in strict compliance with release two of the COUNTER code of practice. SUSHI was developed to address the prob­ lem of retrieving and loading usage reports into ERMs and Usage Consolidation modules and became a NISO standard (Z39.93) in C&RL News November 2008 590 mailto:miller@fau.edu mailto:sloan@fau.edu ACRL invites applications for Immersion ’09 Program The ACRL Institute for Information Literacy is pleased to announce the invitation to apply for its Immersion ’09 Program. 2009 will bring a new structure to the Immer­ sion Program. The teacher and program tracks will continue to be offered together in summer 2009, and, for the first time, the intentional teacher and assessment tracks will be of­ fered simultaneously in late fall 2009. This new schedule blends Immersion programs with similar formats and lengths to offer a more cohesive experience. It also allows teacher and program graduates to continue their Immersion experience by ap­ plying for assessment or intentional teacher programs to be held in the fall. Applications are now being accepted for Immersion ’09 teacher and program tracks, to be held at the Eckerd College Conference Center and Lodge in Eckerd, Florida, July 26–31, 2009.Visit www.acrl.org/ala /mgrps/divs/acrl/events/index.cfm (click “Immersion ’09”) for complete details about the program tracks, learning outcomes, and application instructions. Acceptance to Immersion ’09 is competitive to ensure an environment that fosters group in­ teraction and active participation.The application deadline is Monday, December 8, 2008. Questions concerning the program or application process should be directed to Margot Conahan at (312) 280­2522, or e­mail mconahan@ala.org. 2007. Visit www.niso.org/workrooms/sushi for additional information on SUSHI and www.projectcounter.org/ to learn more about COUNTER. Comment on RBMS guidelines The ACRL Rare Books and Manuscripts Section Security Committee has completed work on a final draft of the revised “Guide­ lines Regarding Security and Theft in Spe­ cial Collections.” This document combines earlier guidelines relating to theft preven­ tion and response to library thefts. The draft text is available on the committee’s Web site at www.rbms.info/committees/security /securitydraftfi nal.pdf. A hearing on the revised guidelines will be held from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Friday, Janu­ ary 23, 2009, at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver. Location details will be available in the meeting program. Advance comments may also be sent to the committee chair, Richard Oram, at roram@mail.utexas.edu. Digitizing Massachusetts law The State Library of Massachusetts and the Joseph P. Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts­Boston (UMB) have an­ nounced a partnership to scan and elec­ tronically preserve 250,000 pages of Mas­ sachusetts session laws from 1620 to the present. UMB will sponsor the digitization of the State Library’s collection of Massachu­ setts Acts and Resolves, with the scanning of the documents to be performed at the Northeast Regional Scanning Center, housed at the Boston Public Library. The partner­ ship, and its planned project, will provide students, legislators, historians, genealogists, policy researchers, and interested citizens with greater access to the vast wealth con­ tained in these volumes. Work on the proj­ ect, sponsored by the Sloan Foundation, the Boston Library Consortium, and the Internet Archive, is expected to begin in fall 2008. Wayne State joins ArticleReach The Wayne State University (WSU) Library System recently joined libraries from across the globe to bring patrons a new service called ArticleReach, which enables fast, user­initiated electronic delivery of journal articles between institutions. Users who cannot locate needed articles online from WSU Libraries resources can request digital delivery from one of the print copies lo­ cated in other member libraries’ collections. Members of the ArticleReach consortium in­ clude Michigan State University, University­ Colorado Boulder, University of Oregon, Washington State University, Washington University­St. Louis, Georgetown Univer­ November 2008 591 C&RL News mailto:roram@mail.utexas.edu www.rbms.info/committees/security http:www.projectcounter.org www.niso.org/workrooms/sushi mailto:mconahan@ala.org www.acrl.org/ala sity, University of Glasgow (Scotland), the University of Liverpool (England), the Uni­ versity of Queensland (Australia), and the Australian National University. New gateway to protein structures A new window onto the world of protein structure is now open with the launch of the PSI­Nature Structural Genomics Knowledge­ base (PSI­SGKB), a free resource from the Protein Structure Initiative (PSI) and Nature Publishing Group (NPG). Hosted by Rutgers University, PSI­SGKB serves as a continu­ ally updated gateway to research data and other resources from PSI. First established in spring 2008, PSI­SGKB is now relaunched in collaboration with NPG, with NPG contrib­ uting editorial content to help researchers stay informed about developments in struc­ tural biology and structural genomics. PSI was launched in 2000 by the National Institute of Health to determine protein struc­ tures on a large scale. Over the course of the initiative, PSI­supported research centers have produced more than 3,200 structures, published around 1,000 scientific papers, and developed many techniques now employed in labs around the world. PSI­SGKB is freely available online at kb.psi­structuralgenomics.org/. Instruction Section seeks submissions The ACRL Instruction Section (IS) is seek­ ing submissions of high­quality, published or unpublished, instruction­related research to serve as the foundation for its 2009 ALA Annual Conference program, “Illuminating New Instruction Research: Applying Re­ search to Practice.” The goals of this panel program are to spotlight recent instruc­ tion­related research and to show how re­ search can be actively used to develop or improve instructional practices. A total of three submissions will be selected for use in the program. Submit your own research for consideration, or nominate published or unpublished research by another author. At the program, panelists will summarize selected research submissions and then ap­ ply these research pieces to an instructional scenario. In addition, research summaries will be posted to the IS Web site in advance of the program, so that potential attendees can familiarize themselves with the research. New ACRL publications Two new titles, Informed Learning and Gaming in Academic Libraries: Col­ lections, Marketing, and Information Literacy, are now available from ACRL Publications. Authored by noted Australian learn­ ing theorist Christine S. Bruce, Informed Learning provides a unique perspective on helping students become successful learn­ ers in fluid and fast­moving information environments. In answering the question “What should we teach and how, so that our students will use information successfully, creatively and responsibly in their journey as lifelong learners?” Bruce has created a powerful and extensive examination of how information literacy and disciplinary learning can coexist.The work is essential reading across higher education for those interested in learning theory and the teach­ ing of information use. Gaming in Academic Libraries, edited by Amy Harris of the University of North Carolina­Greensboro and Scott E. Rice of Appalachian State University, is a lively vol­ ume containing 16 examples of the use of gaming in libraries. Covering a wide range of game play, from classic video games to Geocaching with board games and fantasy sports, the collected essays describe issues related to games as a collection format, the cataloging and circulation of games, the use of games to market the library and the use of games to help students achieve informa­ tion literacy. Cases include projects at large research libraries, as well as at smaller liberal arts colleges, and describe libraries that are addressing gaming with either a great deal of funding or on a shoestring. Informed Learning and Gaming in Academic Libraries: Collections, Marketing, and Information Literacy are available for purchase through the ALA Online Store (www. alastore.ala.org) and by telephone order at (866) 746­7252 in the United States or (770) 442­8633 for international customers. C&RL News November 2008 592 http:alastore.ala.org http:kb.psi-structuralgenomics.org Visit the IS Web site at www.ala.org/ ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/about/sections/is /newsacrl/progcall09.cfm for more infor­ mation, including selection criteria. Please nominate or submit research as a Word document e­mail attachment to Wendy Hol­ liday at wendy.holliday@usu.edu by midnight December 15, 2008. John Carter Brown Library research fellowships The John Carter Brown Library at Brown Uni­ versity will award approximately 30 short­ and long­term graduate research fellowships for the period June 1, 2009–June 30, 2010. Short­term fellowships are available for two­ to­four months, with a monthly stipend of $2,000. Long­term fellowships, underwritten by the National Endowment for the Humani­ ties, InterAmericas, Donald R. Saunders, and R. David Parsons, last fi ve­to­ten months with a monthly stipend of $4,000. Applicants for short­term fellowships must pass their preliminary or general examinations and be at the dissertation writing stage, and long­ term fellowship applicants must complete their Ph.D. before January 2009. Research proposals must be suited to the holdings of the library, focusing on the his­ tory of the Western hemisphere during the colonial period. All fellows must relocate and be in continuous residence at the library for the entire fellowship term. For additional information and application forms, visit www.jcbl.org. SwetsWise Community opens In September, Swets announced the launch of SwetsWise Community, a collaboration service allowing customers to share best practices. Presented as a wiki, SwetsWise Community provides a collaborative envi­ ronment where users can exchange their views and knowledge of various SwetsWise services. The editing functions available in the wiki software allow users to update, ex­ pand, and refine the information within the help pages and enables less­experienced or new SwetsWise customers to easily familiar­ ize themselves with the extended function­ ality. SwetsWise Community is now online at community.swetswise.com, and custom­ ers can log into the system with their exist­ ing SwetsWise ID. E&RL 2009 The Electronic Resources and Libraries (E&RL) Conference is moving to the west coast in 2009. The conference provides a fo­ rum for information professionals to explore ideas, trends, and technologies related to electronic resources and digital services. In 2009, conference organizers plan to increase interaction among attendees with roundta­ ble discussions and lightning rounds of fi ve­ minute presentations. E&RL 2009 will be held February 10–12, 2009, at the Covel Commons on the northwest campus of the University of California­Los Angeles in Westwood. Pre­ conferences are scheduled for February 9, 2009. Early registration is now open and runs through December 14, 2008, with regular registration continuing until January 19, 2009. A variety of scholarships, grants, and awards are available during the early registration period. Visit www. electroniclibrarian.org for more information. EBSS Guidelines for Curriculum Materials Centers The ACRL Education and Behavioral Sci­ ences Section (EBSS) Curriculum Materials Center Committee is currently revising the “Guidelines for Curriculum Materials Cen­ ters.” The committee hopes to submit the revised draft for approval at the 2009 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver, and is solicit­ ing comments. The draft of the revised “Guidelines for Curriculum Materials Centers” can be found on the EBSS Web site at www.ala.org/ala /mgrps/divs/acrl/about/sections/ebss /ebsscommittees/curriculummaterials /Guidelines_for_Curri.pdf. Feedback and comments may be sent to the committee chair, Cindy Judd, at cindy.judd@eku.edu. C&RL News RSS Cover art, article links, and other valuable information from C&RL News is now avail­ able by subscribing to our new RSS feed. Point your Web browser to http:// feeds.feedburner.com/candrlnews, and add our feed to your favorite reader, such as Bloglines or Google Reader. November 2008 593 C&RL News mailto:cindy.judd@eku.edu www.ala.org/ala http:electroniclibrarian.org http:community.swetswise.com http:www.jcbl.org mailto:wendy.holliday@usu.edu http:www.ala.org