C&RL News April 2015 182 N e w s f r o m t h e F i e l dDavid Free Texas A&M celebrates 5 millionth volume When the Texas A&M University Libraries cele- brated their 5 millionth volume February 27, 2015, best-selling author George R. R. Martin played a major role in the festivities. The author praised the libraries’ chosen volume, a first edi- tion of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and pro- vided a gift to acquire the 1937 fantasy clas- sic which Tolkien il- l u s t r a t e d . Martin read from The Hobbit and voiced his approbation that Tolkien would share space with the world’s greatest authors at Cushing Memorial Library and Ar- chives, the repository for special collections and archives at Texas A&M. The Tolkien volume will take its place in the libraries’ internationally recognized Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Col- lection along with Martin’s own writings, the cornerstone of the collection. The award-winning fantasy author known worldwide for his epic cycle, A Song of Ice and Fire, and the HBO Series Game of Thrones forged a relationship with Texas A&M in the 1970s when attending Ag- gieCon science fiction conventions. In the 1990s he began sending his pa- pers, books, and manuscripts to Cushing Library and has continued providing every- thing related to his work, including games, memorabilia, and merchandise. Columbia’s East Asian Library launches online Cornelius Vander Starr exhibition Columbia University Libraries/Information Ser- vices’ C. V. Starr East Asian Library recently launched the online exhibition Cornelius Vander Starr, His Life and Work. The pho- tographs and documents in this exhibition detail the career of C o r n e l i u s Vander Starr (1892–1968), an archetyp- al American success sto- ry. Starting from humble beginnings, he rose to the top of A m e r i c a n b u s i n e s s , f o u n d i n g what would become the AIG (American International Group, Inc.) insurance and financial services corporation. The exhibition reflects C. V. Starr’s career and life as a businessman, journalist, lawyer, publisher, philanthropist, and humanitarian. The Starr Foundation and Columbia Uni- versity Libraries collaborated to create this exhibit of items held by the foundation to honor the exceptional achievements of C. V. Starr. To view the exhibition, visit h t t p s : / / e x h i b i t i o n s . c u l . c o l u m b i a . e d u /exhibits/show/cvstarr. New Assessment in Action Program facilitators ACRL is pleased to announce the selection of two new facilitators for the program “As- sessment in Action: Academic Libraries and Student Success” (AiA), made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Author George R. R. Martin with The Hobbit, Texas A&M Libraries’ 5 millionth volume. April 2015 183 C&RL News 2013 Academic Library Trends and Statistics ACRL announces the publication of 2013 Academic Library Trends and Statistics, the latest in a series of annual publica- tions that describe the collections, staff- ing, expenditures, and service activities of academic libraries in all Carnegie classifications. The three-volume set includes Associate of Arts institutions, Master’s Colleges and Universities/ Baccalaureate Colleges, and Research/Doctoral- granting Institutions. The individual volumes for As- sociates Colleges, Master’s/ Baccalaureate, and Doctor- al-Granting institutions are also available for purchase. The 2013 data show that library expenditures for collection materials averaged $6,305,337 for doctoral degree-granting institutions; $774,701 for comprehensive degree-granting institu- tions; $462,929 for baccalaureate schools; and $144,062 for associate-degree granting institutions. The percentage of the collection mate- rials budget spent on ongoing resources purchases (including subscription expendi- tures) averaged 68.7% of the total materials budget. On average, doctoral degree-granting institutions spent 74.3% of their materials budgets on ongoing purchases in 2013; comprehensive schools spent an average of 75.4%; baccalaureate schools spent an average 70.6%; and associate degree grant- ing institutions spent an average of 54.8%. In addition, library expenditures for salaries and wages accounted for 55.4% of the total expenditures on average. Sala- ries and wages constituted 74.1% of total library expenditures for associate-degree granting institutions, 51.4% for bac- calaureate, 52.3% for com- prehensive schools, and 43.8% for doctoral/research institutions. Of the librar ies sur- veyed, 15.5% expect library space usage to increase significantly with 27.4% of doctoral/research insti- tutions forecasting a sig- nificant increase. Of the libraries surveyed, 37% ex- pect library space usage to increase somewhat. In the past three years, 62.6% of the libraries surveyed reported repurposing space. Space was most often repurposed for group study, student suc- cess areas (writing/tutoring centers), quiet study space, technology learning spaces, and more seating. 2013 Academic Library Trends and Statistics is available for purchase through the ALA Online Store, by telephone order at (866) 746-7252 in the United States or (770) 442-8633 for international customers. Library Services. They are Eric Resnis, who serves in a dual appointment as assessment coordinator in the Center for Teaching, Learning, and University Assessment and as organizational effectiveness specialist in the Libraries at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio; and John Watts, undergraduate learn- ing librarian at University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Strong results from AiA teams are already evident in the recently released report synthe- sizing more than 70 projects from the fi rst year with an accompanying executive summary to share broadly with campus stakeholders and C&RL News April 2015 184 Getting the Word Out: Academic Libraries as Scholarly Publishers ACRL recently announced the release of Getting the Word Out: Academic Libraries as Scholarly Publishers. Research libraries engaged in publishing activities in the past, but in recent years there has been an intense growth in the number of library publishing services sup- porting faculty and students. Unified by a commitment to both access and service, library publishing programs have grown from an early focus on backlist digitization to encompass publication of student works, textbooks, re- search data, as well as books and journals. This growing engagement with publishing is a natural extension of the academic library’s commit- ment to support the creation of and access to scholarship. Despite intense interest in this emerging discipline, few publications have highlighted the diversity of library publishing programs, services, and philosophies. Getting the Word Out examines the growing trend in library publishing through 11 chapters authored by some of the most talented thinkers in the field. Chapters touch on such topics as the economics of publishing and the challenges of collabora- tion, and surveying the service landscape for publishing in support of a variety of formats and methods. Edited by library publishing experts Ma- ria Bonn, of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Graduate School of Library and Information Science, and Mike Furlough, HathiTrust Digital Library, Getting the Word Out deep- ens current discussions in the fi eld, and provides both decision makers and current practitioners with an intro- duction to the current state of the fi eld and an investiga- tion of its future prospects. Getting the Word Out is available for purchase in print, as an e-book, and as a print/e-book bundle through the ALA Online Store; in print and for Kindle through Amazon.com; and by telephone order at (866) 746-7252 in the United States or (770) 442-8633 for international customers. a searchable online collection of individual team project descriptions. A second year of AiA is well underway with an additional 70 institutional teams and a third year will start this spring, creating a signifi cant impact on the profession’s capacity to demonstrate, ar- ticulate, and promote the value of academic and research libraries. Duquesne digitizes 150 years of Pittsburgh Catholic newspapers More than 150 years’ worth of America’s oldest Catholic newspaper, the Pittsburgh Catholic, are now available online as part of a digitization project recently completed by Duquesne University’s Gumberg Library. The digitization project began in 2008 after mi- crofi lm reels of the newspaper showed signs of deterioration. The digitization project has helped safeguard the region’s Catholic his- tory while providing greater access to a rich local resource. Gumberg Library funds, a Library Services and Technology Act grant, and a capstone gift from The Ann and Frank Cahouet Foun- dation supported the digitization project. Issues published between 1844 and 2001 are now available at http://digital.library.duq. April 2015 185 C&RL News Tech Bits . . . Brought to you by the ACRL ULS Technol- ogy in University Libraries Committee Diigo, which stands for “Digest of Internet Infor- mation, Groups and Other stuff,” brands itself as a multi-tool for personal information management. First appearing in 2005 as an online bookmarking site, Diigo soon branched out into web annotation, including highlighting and sticky notes. Manually enter or use Diigo’s browser extension to save links, pages, notes, and pictures. With a free ac- count, bookmarks and notes are unlimited. Three additional plans provide increased functionality and an education account (free for teachers and students) enables Diigo to be used in collaborative class assignments. Twenty percent of Diigo’s user base are students and teachers who use the tool to highlight, add notes, and share websites. Librarians working on a project could benefit from Diigo’s annotation, cloud storage, and sharing capabilities. — Jaki King Clark College . . . Diigo www.diigo.com edu. Issues from 2001 to present day are available through the Pittsburgh Catholic’s online archives at www. pittsburghcatholic.org. EBSCO expands e-book offerings EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) recently enhanced its col- lection of e-book titles by releasing 27 new EBSCO eBooks Subject Sets. These sets provide libraries with con- venient ways to begin or expand their eBook collections with current, repu- table content from leading publishers. EBSCO eBook Subject Sets are pre- packaged sets of titles chosen to meet libraries’ needs for new content on popular, in-demand topics. EBSCO’s Collection Development Team of li- brarians uses tailored knowledge to create these Subject Sets for libraries. The 27 new Subject Sets now available include Accounting and Finance, American Contemporary Issues, Careers, Computer Science, Earth Sciences , Geographic Informa- tion System, Natural and Alternative Medicine, Psychology , World History, and more. EBSCO eBooks offers more than 700,000 e-books and audiobooks. ProQuest joins BIBCO, ECIP cataloging partnership programs ProQuest has become a partner in the Library of Congress’ Electronic Cataloging in Pub- lication (ECIP) Cataloging Partnership and BIBCO Programs. The company is the first publisher to partner in the ECIP program and joins academic libraries in cataloging pre- publication galleys of U.S. imprints received at the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress selects candidates for these pro- grams that have demonstrated expertise in and commitment to cooperative cataloging. ECIP and BIBCO partners create high- quality catalog records for digital products and monographs in advance of publication as a service to American libraries. ProQuest’s role will be to prepare pre-publication meta- data that conforms to the highest standards of the Library of Congress for at least one major publisher and may add additional publishers in the future. ACRL IS releases Collaborative Learning Technologies The ACRL Instruction Section Instructional Technologies Committee has published their latest Tips and Trends, “Collaborative Learn- ing Technologies,” written by Melissa Mal- lon and Suzanne Bernsten. Tips and Trends introduce and discuss new, emerging, or even familiar technologies which can be applied to the library instruction setting. Learn more about how to use collaborative technologies to facilitate discussion, brain- storming, document editing, and remote presentations. “Collaborative Learning Tech- nologies” is freely available at http://bit.ly /tipsandtrendsw15.