Group items tagged

"While speaking at a seminar on 'Future Libraries and Librarians' at AMA, Janice Lachance, chief executive officer, SLA, said, "Our research reveals that certain sections have issues against the term 'librarian' and it conveys an outdated image of these professionals. The term is not in line with the value, the librarian brings to a user in an organisation." "

he RIN guide, Ensuring a bright future for research libraries: a guide for vice-chancellors and senior institutional managers which aims to inform this audience on how to ensure library and information services keep pace with the evolving needs of researchers.The guidance was written by the working group set up to consider the findings and conclusions from the RIN and RLUK report on Researchers' use of academic libraries and their services (April 2007).

Copied from the summary: "Digital technologies and online information resources have brought fundamental changes in how research is done, and also in what researchers expect from library and information services. The services that librarians and information professionals provide have also changed fundamentally over the past decade, and they now offer much more in providing leadership that brings improvements in research performance and effectiveness. New resources, services and technologies continue to create new opportunities, new challenges and new expectations. Librarians and information services need the resources and the continuing top-level support within their institutions to ensure that they can fulfil their potential and meet these challenges. " This article looks excellent and will merit a blog entry.

"And Now for Something Completely Different: Our Future from Outside the Box an ALCTS Symposium at ALA Midwinter 2010 Friday, January 15, 2010 from 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Boston, Mass. Event Code: ALC2 Several cutting-edge thinkers will prepare short opinion pieces on future trends/issues/developments that are likely to impact research, instruction, and scholarly communication. These essays will serve as the foundation for panel discussions between some of these thinkers, selected respondents, and attendees on emerging roles for libraries and librarians, particularly collections and technical services librarians. This symposium will build upon the themes developed in the ALCTS Symposium, "Living Digital.""

"As many librarians responsible for collections know all too well, licensing agreements often are complex, lengthy documents filled with arcane and unfamiliar terms such as indemnity, severability and force majeure. In an effort to assist librarians (and information providers as well) to understand the issues raised by these licensing agreements, we have prepared an Analysis of Licensing Agreements for Digital Information. The pages that follow include a collection of common terms usually found in licensing agreements, along with a discussion of the pros and cons of specific language in such agreements. We have tried to present language that we believe to be fair and workable for libraries and information providers as well. We have also included examples of provisions that we believe are unduly burdensome or otherwise do not adequately reflect the needs of libraries in providing digital information to their users."

"The ARL has hired two consultants, October Ivins of Ivins eContent Solutions and Judy Luther of Informed Strategies, to study at-risk, peer-reviewed journals with no electronic incarnation or good e-subscription model. The team is assessing 4,000 such journals "to see if there isn't an opportunity for the libraries to help" them survive, Ms. Luther explained. She and Ms. Ivins described the study at a working session of the ARL's Scholarly Communication Steering Committee, chaired by James G. Neal, university librarian at Columbia University, and again at a briefing for the wider meeting."

Audio. "Panelists Helen Tartar, Editorial Director at Fordham University Press; Sanford Thatcher, Director of Penn State University Press and past President of the Association of American University Presses; and Ree DeDonato, Director of Humanities and History and Acting Director of Union Theological Seminary's Burke Library of Columbia University Libraries/Information Services discuss the economics and process of scholarly publishing and the future of the monograph. Columbia's Deputy University Librarian and Associate Vice President for Digital Programs and Technology Services Patricia Renfro introduces the panel, which is followed by a question-and-answer session."

Video: "...discuss the economics and process of scholarly publishing and the future of the monograph. Columbia's Deputy University Librarian and Associate Vice President for Digital Programs and Technology Services Patricia Renfro introduces the panel, which is followed by a question-and-answer session." (quoted from webpage.)

Historical perspective on research library--access vs ownership.

This is just the conclusion chapter of the book, "The Academic Library in the American University" bu Stephen Atkins and Charles Lowry. The recommend librarians become better advocates of the library in order to increase the stature of the library on campus.

This article describes the planning of new university libraries, and how librarians at Santa Clara, Georgia Tech, Marquette and other decided on the new designs of their libraries.

The UC Merced Library motto, "Not what other research libraries are . . . what they will be," sums up an ambitious, if not outright audacious goal: to create the template for the research library of the Twenty-First Century. As envisioned by Founding University Librarian Bruce Miller and the staff of the Library, being a Twenty-First Century research library does not mean jumping on the latest technology bandwagon or simply branding UC Merced Library as "the virtual library." Instead, the vision requires going back to the basic principles of librarianship-connecting readers with books, information seekers with information-and then making these connections in the most efficient and cost-effective way, whether this means using the technology of online information, purchasing a printed book, or borrowing a printed book from among the 34 million volumes owned by the combined libraries of the ten University of California campuses which comprise, in the aggregate, the largest research library in the Western Hemisphere and, by some measures, the entire world.

Standards for stats evaluating eresource usage. "The use of online information resources is growing rapidly. It is widely agreed by producers and purchasers of information that the use of these resources should be measured in a more consistent way. Librarians want to understand better how the information they buy from a variety of sources is being used; publishers want to know how the information products they disseminate are being accessed. An essential requirement to meet these objectives is an agreed international set of standards and protocols governing the recording and exchange of online usage data. The COUNTER Codes of Practice provide these standards and protocols and are published in full on this website."

Stephen R. Lawrence

The abstract for this article reads, "This exploratory study asked eleven Association of Research Libraries (ARL) librarians to identify the resources needed for the transition of an all-paper library to the all-digital library. Although the results cannot be generalized, the study identifies functions and resources associated with the provision of paper and electronic materials that can be used for further investigation of library resource allocations." Connaway, L., Lawrence, S.

"The digitization of millions of books under programs such as Google Book Search and Microsoft Live Search Books is dramatically expanding our ability to search and find information. The aim of these large-scale projects-to make content accessible-is interwoven with the question of how one keeps that content, whether digital or print, fit for use over time. This report by Oya Y. Rieger examines large-scale digital initiatives (LSDIs) to identify issues that will influence the availability and usability, over time, of the digital books these projects create. Ms. Rieger is interim assistant university librarian for digital library and information technologies at the Cornell University Library." The paper describes four large-scale projects-Google Book Search, Microsoft Live Search Books, Open Content Alliance, and the Million Book Project-and their digitization strategies. It then discusses a range of issues affecting the stewardship of the digital collections they create: selection, quality in content creation, technical infrastructure, and organizational infrastructure. The paper also attempts to foresee the likely impacts of large-scale digitization on book collections.

U Mich president's talk on the benefits of participating in Google Books

A pro-Google-Book Search speech, given by the head librarian at the University of Michigan.

2006 article on Google Books from library perspective. Asks "How will the librarians at participating Google Book Search libraries use their copies of the digitized books, commonly referred to as the library digital copy, the copy that Google gave to them in return for their participation in the Book Search project?"

How should we be rethinking the research library in a swiftly changing information landscape?\n\nIn February 2008, CLIR convened 25 leading librarians, publishers, faculty members, and information technology specialists to consider this question. Participants discussed the challenges and opportunities that libraries are likely to face in the next five to ten years, and how changes in scholarly communication will affect the future library. Essays by eight of the participants-Paul Courant, Andrew Dillon, Rick Luce, Stephen Nichols, Daphnée Rentfrow, Abby Smith, Kate Wittenberg, and Lee Zia-were circulated to participants in advance and provided background for the conversation. This report contains these background essays as well as a summary of the meeting.

Some of the findings that have proved to be of greatest interest have focused on these topics: * Attitudes towards the possibility of a transition away from print format, both for scholarly journals and monographs * Perceptions of libraries and their value, including specific library functions, and how these perceptions are changing * Preferences in research practices, including disciplinary differences and changes over time * Attitudes towards archiving of both print and electronic resources * Preferences that lead authors to choose among scholarly journals in which to publish their articles, as well as attitudes towards digital repositories

Follow the link on this page to the "in depth white paper" which is entitled, "Ithaka's 2006 Studies of Key Stakeholders in the Digital Transformation in Higher Education" dated August 18, 2008. The Table of Contents lists: INTRODUCTION; RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE LIBRARY AND THE FACULTY; DEPENDENCE ON ELECTRONIC RESOURCES; THE TRANSITION AWAY FROM PRINT FOR SCHOLARLY JOURNALS; FACULTY PUBLISHING PREFERENCES; E-BOOKS; DIGITAL REPOSITORIES; PRESERVATION OF SCHOLARLY JOURNALS; RECOMMENDATIONS; CONCLUSION. I have tagged this article, but it has some great research and will merit a blog entry.

"What about the books, you say? In addition to an array of flat screens, Fresno State librarian Peter McDonald said the library includes the largest single floor public-access compact shelving unit in the world (according to Space Saver), capable of holding over 1.3 million volumes on one floor. The library currently has about 915,000 there, so there's room to grow. Periodicals are housed on the library's second floor."

Contents: Acknowledgment 1 Phoenix Public Library , librarianship , form follows function FUNCTION Mission People and Places 13 Beijing University , Shanghai , Carnegie library The British Library 21 British Library , British Museum , Euston Road Constructing the New Shanghai Library 32 Shanghai Library , think tank , Yu Li The San Antonio Public Library 41 San Antonio , Ricardo Legorreta , Milton Babbitt The Construction of the New Peking University Library 53 Tsinghua University , Project 211 , Beijing more » FORM Arranging Services in Space 75 IUPUI , cognitive space , HKUST The Johnson Center Library at George Mason University 83 George Mason University , self-checkout , food court Integrating Mass Communications 105 Kapiolani Library , Diamond Head , Library's Library Services at California State University Monterey 122 California State University , Fort Ord , Monterey Bay A Library for the 21st Century 138 Computer clusters , Thomas Moser , Indianapolis TABLE OF CONTENTS 149 Phoenix Public Library , architect , Marzynski Partner in Education 168 Dartmouth College , Information Age , library science The Walsh Library Seton Hall University 176 Seton Hall University , South Orange , Walsh Library SIGNIFICANCE Symbols and Emblems 189 retrocon , Bibliotheque Nationale , Le Figaro The Bibliotheque Francois Mitterrand of the Bibliotheque 197 Bibliotheque nationale , Tolbiac , Dominique Perrault A National Library 231 Dominique Perrault , Francois Mitterrand , Nationale de France Rational Space 253 IUPUI , Carnegie libraries , CSUMB

Despite calls for electronic, virtual, digital libraries without walls, the walled variety are still being built, some of them massive. This book explores the reasons for this contradiction by examining several notable new library facilities around the world to see how modern expectations for libraries are being translated into concrete and steel. More and more libraries are looking at change not as a dreaded hazard but as an opportunity that can itself be seized to strengthen the library in the areas of mission, technologies, facilities, funding, and organizational structure. Thirteen libraries are discussed-by a librarian or administrator who worked on the project. Each author writes about the design and building concerns that were particularly relevant to that library: philosophy, political issues, or any other concerns that affected planning, building, and services in the new facility. Introductory and concluding chapters identify underlying values and themes, tying everything together. The unique combinations of issues, constraints, and opportunities show how libraries are planning to fit into the approaching era of virtual information delivery.

" Off the Shelf: E-book Aggregators. Polanka, Sue (author). FEATURE. First published May 15, 2008 (Booklist). Like many librarians, you're beginning to purchase e-books from a variety of publishers, and you're confused by all the different licensing agreements, platforms, and pricing models. A solution to this madness? Use an e-book aggregator. Aggregators partner with multiple publishers to supply content (e-books, audio books, other media) and provide a platform for libraries and end users to search, order, access, and download the content on the Web. We'll focus here on three of the larger academic aggregators-EBL, ebrary, and MyiLibrary. Ebooks Corporation's EBL (Ebook Library) partners with 250 academic and trade publishers, offering more than 85,000 titles. Ebrary partners with 285 publishers to offer more than 120,000 e-books and content databases. The newest platform, Ingram Digital Group's MyiLibrary, partners with 250 publishers and offers more than 110,000 titles. "