ARL Libraries – Page 19

Librarians at McGill University Library Adopt Open Access Policy

Librarians at the McGill University Library have adopted an open access policy.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

McGill librarians are granting the McGill University Library a nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright relating to their scholarly articles, in any medium, and to authorize others to do the same, provided that the works are properly attributed to the authors and not sold for a profit.

Specifically, each librarian grants a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported license for each of his or her scholarly articles.

| Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

ARL Statistics 2010-2011

The Association of Research Libraries has released ARL Statistics 2010-2011.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

ARL libraries are a relatively small subset of libraries in North America, but they account for a large portion of academic library resources in terms of assets, budgets, and the number of users they serve. The total library expenditures of all 126 member libraries in 2010-2011 was slightly more than $4.6 billion; of that total, roughly $3.2 billion was spent by the 115 university libraries and more than $1.3 million by the 11 nonuniversity libraries.

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog | Digital Scholarship |

"Issue Brief: Massive Open Online Courses: Legal and Policy Issues for Research Libraries"

ARL has released "Issue Brief: Massive Open Online Courses: Legal and Policy Issues for Research Libraries."

Here's an excerpt:

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) raise significant legal and policy questions for research libraries, which are often asked to support the development of MOOC courses. These questions involve information policy concerns that are central to research libraries, including the proper application of fair use, the transition to open access as the default mode of scholarly publishing, and the provision of equal access to learning materials for students with and without disabilities. Where possible, research libraries should engage in conversations around MOOCs and promote their core values. By doing so, they will also promote the continuing vitality of libraries as partners in the educational mission.

| Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications | Digital Scholarship |

"Issue Brief: 21st-Century Collections: Calibration of Investment and Collaborative Action"

The Association of Research Libraries has released "Issue Brief: 21st-Century Collections: Calibration of Investment and Collaborative Action."

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Carton Rogers, Vice Provost and Director of Libraries at the University of Pennsylvania, chairs the ARL Transforming Research Libraries Steering Committee, which originally requested the issue brief. According to Rogers, this paper provides directors with an excellent overview of emerging and horizon issues and the challenges of building 21st-century collections. "The paper's emphasis on networked resources, teamwork, and cross-institutional collaboration underscores the need for new roles and new competencies for our workforce, which is currently a key focus of the committee's agenda. We encourage discussions of the shared future projected in the report, its implications for library staff, and for the ongoing support of research, teaching, and learning on our campuses."

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 | Digital Scholarship |

MacKenzie Smith Named as University Librarian at UC Davis Library

MacKenzie Smith has been named as the new University Librarian at the University of California, Davis Library.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

MacKenzie Smith, an academic research library leader specializing in information technology and digital knowledge management, has been chosen to lead the University Library at the University of California, Davis.

She will officially assume her new post as university librarian on June 1.

"I am extremely pleased that Ms. Smith will be joining us shortly," said Ralph Hexter, provost and executive vice chancellor at UC Davis."Her expertise and vision will help us transform the library into an academic hub that promotes the innovative use of digital information resources in discovery and learning for the future." The university librarian reports to the provost. . . .

Smith, who now lives in Berkeley, has helped lead technology strategy for libraries at MIT and Harvard University. Most recently research director for MIT Libraries from 2011-2012, she led cutting-edge research projects in digital libraries and archives; Web applications for scholarly communication; and digital data curation in support of e-science.

As associate director for technology at the MIT Libraries from 2002 to 2011, Smith oversaw the libraries' technology operations and strategic planning. She led the development of an open source software platform for digital archives and created a digital library research program on applied technology for libraries and archives.

| Institutional Repository and ETD Bibliography 2011 | Digital Scholarship |

Richard Luce Named Dean of the University of Oklahoma Libraries

Richard Luce, Vice Provost and Director of Libraries for Emory University, has been named Dean of the University of Oklahoma Libraries.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Rick Luce, a librarian upon whose expertise the National Science Foundation has drawn to serve on four Blue Ribbon panels, has been selected to serve as dean of the University of Oklahoma Libraries, pending approval by the OU Board of Regents at its May meeting. Luce currently is vice provost and director of libraries at Emory University and previously was director at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He will fill the position being vacated by longtime OU library dean Sul Lee, who last year announced his plans to retire, effective June 30, after serving as dean for more than 30 years.

In addition to serving as University Libraries dean, Luce will hold appointments as a professor, as the Peggy V. Helmerich Chair and as associate vice president for research, OU Norman campus.

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog | Digital Scholarship |

Harvard Library Releases over 12 Million Bibliographic Records under CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication

The Harvard Library has released over 12 million bibliographic records under the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication license.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The Harvard Library announced it is making more than 12 million catalog records from Harvard’s 73 libraries publicly available.

The records contain bibliographic information about books, videos, audio recordings, images, manuscripts, maps, and more. The Harvard Library is making these records available in accordance with its Open Metadata Policy and under a Creative Commons 0 (CC0) public domain license. In addition, the Harvard Library announced its open distribution of metadata from its Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) scholarly article repository under a similar CC0 license.

"The Harvard Library is committed to collaboration and open access. We hope this contribution is one of many steps toward sharing the vital cultural knowledge held by libraries with all," said Mary Lee Kennedy, Senior Associate Provost for the Harvard Library.

| Open Access Bibliography: Liberating Scholarly Literature with E-Prints and Open Access Journals: Those wishing to learn more about the open access movement would be well served by turning to Bailey's Open Access Bibliography. . . .This title is a major contribution to the study of the open access movement in general, as well as its emergence in the early twenty-first century. — Mary Aycock, Library Resources and Technical Services 52, no. 3 (2008): 212-213. | Digital Scholarship |

Harvard: "Faculty Advisory Council Memorandum on Journal Pricing: Major Periodical Subscriptions Cannot Be Sustained"

Harvard University's Faculty Advisory Council on the Library has issued "Faculty Advisory Council Memorandum on Journal Pricing: Major Periodical Subscriptions Cannot Be Sustained"

Here's an excerpt:

Since the Library now must change its subscriptions and since faculty and graduate students are chief users, please consider the following options open to faculty and students (F) and the Library (L), state other options you think viable, and communicate your views:

1. Make sure that all of your own papers are accessible by submitting them to DASH in accordance with the faculty-initiated open-access policies (F).

2. Consider submitting articles to open-access journals, or to ones that have reasonable, sustainable subscription costs; move prestige to open access (F).

3. If on the editorial board of a journal involved, determine if it can be published as open access material, or independently from publishers that practice pricing described above. If not, consider resigning (F).

4. Contact professional organizations to raise these issues (F).

5. Encourage professional associations to take control of scholarly literature in their field or shift the management of their e-journals to library-friendly organizations (F).

6. Encourage colleagues to consider and to discuss these or other options (F).

7. Sign contracts that unbundle subscriptions and concentrate on higher-use journals (L).

8. Move journals to a sustainable pay per use system, (L).

9. Insist on subscription contracts in which the terms can be made public (L).

| Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography: "This work gives an outstanding overview of scholarship relating to the growing Open Access movement." — George Machovec, The Charleston Advisor 12, no. 2 (2010): 3. | Digital Scholarship |

LYRASIS to License E-resources for ARL Libraries

Under a new agreement, LYRASIS will license e-resources for participating ARL libraries.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

On November 18, 2011, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and LYRASIS signed an agreement designating LYRASIS as an agent to negotiate licenses for online content on behalf of interested ARL member libraries. This is the culmination of an effort that began in 2010 to identify a strategy for ARL to influence the marketplace regarding licensing rights, technical specifications, and business terms to meet the needs of research libraries.

This activity has involved task forces, the Reshaping Scholarly Communication Steering Committee, and the ARL Board. The initial task force drafted a white paper outlining the potential areas of action that ARL could take and content that could be considered, and a second task force developed an RFP that went to prospective agents. The Board approved the recommendations, RFP, and agent decision. The license offerings identified for this initiative will not be exclusive to ARL members, but may include libraries with which they have established licensing relationships.

| Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 | Digital Scholarship |

Association of Research Libraries Endorses the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities

The Association of Research Libraries has endorsed the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

On November 1, 2011, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) joined over 300 organizations and institutions to endorse the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities.

In a letter to Dr. Peter Gruss, President of the Max Planck Society, Winston Tabb, ARL President and Sheridan Dean of University Libraries and Museums at the Johns Hopkins University, wrote, "The Association of Research Libraries has been a longtime and consistent supporter of Open Access and has worked hard to advance its principles internationally. During the October 2011 meeting of the Board of Directors a decision was taken to become a signatory to the Berlin Declaration. I am pleased to extend our endorsement of the Declaration and join the growing number of signatories from North America."

| Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

Digital Preservation, SPEC Kit 325

The Association of Research Libraries has released Digital Preservation, SPEC Kit 325. The table of contents and executive summary are freely available.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The survey asked ARL libraries about their digital content, their strategies for preserving that content, and the staff, time, and funding they currently devote to digital preservation. It also asked each responding library to compare its digital preservation activities of three years ago to current activities and project three years into the future. In addition, to better understand the roles of research libraries in the emergent field of digital curation, the survey sought to identify issues that are and are not being addressed through current practices and policies.

This survey revealed, as the digital preservation field is maturing, that most ARL libraries are rising to the challenge of establishing policies, workflows, and infrastructures to systematically preserve their rapidly expanding bodies of digital content. The survey also revealed that most ARL libraries are actively engaging in in-house digital preservation rather than outsourcing it to external parties, thus maintaining their control and ownership over the digital content that they curate.

| Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography 2010 | Digital Scholarship |

"ARL Library Investment Index 2009-2010"

The Association of Research Libraries has released the "ARL Library Investment Index 2009-2010" as an xls file.

Here's an excerpt:

ARL makes publicly available the ARL Library Investment Index (previously named the ARL Expenditures-Focused Index). Beginning with data for 2005-06, this Index replaces the public availability of the ARL Membership Criteria Index. This new Index is highly correlated with the ARL Membership Criteria Index and less affected by changes in the collections variables. The ARL Library Investment Index calculates principal component scores and the analysis is based on all university member libraries' data (as compared with the ARL Membership Criteria Index, which is based on the 34 founding members of the Association). It is a summary measure of relative size among the university members of the association and has also been calculated retrospectively beginning with data from 2002-03. The Index scores are rounded to two decimal places, which may give the appearance of identical scores (and thus ranks) for some institutions; in fact, when the complete principal component score is calculated, it is extended to higher precision decimal places. Each institution has a unique result and place in the rank order.

| New: Institutional Repository and ETD Bibliography 2011 | Digital Scholarship |

ARL Executive Director Charles B. Lowry Announces His Retirement

Association of Research Libraries Executive Director Charles B. Lowry has announced his retirement.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Charles B. Lowry has announced that he will retire from his position as Executive Director of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) at the end of December 2012. By announcing his retirement plans now, Lowry provides the ARL Board of Directors with time for a search and a seamless transition of leadership.

Lowry was appointed Executive Director in 2008 for a three-year term, which was extended for an additional two years at the request of the ARL Board. He has led ARL through significant expansion in membership and renewal of its strategic plan. During his tenure, ARL's capacities and offerings have been strengthened and expanded. Guided by Lowry's leadership, the Association:

gained three new members—University of Calgary, University of Ottawa, and the US National Archives and Records Administration;

renewed its strategic plan twice;

led the reshaping of the Library Copyright Alliance;

navigated the difficult economic downturn that began in 2008;

expanded ARL's Public Policies capacity, a vital strategic direction; and

conducted successful searches to replace three highly accomplished senior staff essential to the Association's mission.

| New: Google Books Bibliography, Version 7 | Digital Scholarship |

University at Buffalo Names H. Austin Booth as Vice Provost for University Libraries

The University at Buffalo has named H. Austin Booth as Vice Provost for University Libraries.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

H. Austin Booth has been named vice provost for university libraries at the University at Buffalo, Harvey G. Stenger, UB interim provost, announced today. Her appointment is effective immediately.

Booth has served as interim associate vice president for university libraries since June 1, 2010. . . .

As vice provost for university libraries, Booth is responsible for nine libraries that serve UB's 12 schools and colleges, manages an annual budget of $20 million and oversees a staff of 150.

UB's library system is the largest and most comprehensive in the State University of New York and includes more than 4 million print volumes, access to more than 50,000 electronic journals and the largest collection of James Joyce manuscripts, notebooks and letters in the world. . . .

Prior to her appointment as interim associate vice president, Booth served as director of collections and co-director of the Arts and Sciences Libraries.

Booth, who holds the rank of full librarian, joined UB in 1997 and received the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Librarianship in 2005.

Her research focuses on digital culture, and on higher education and information technology. She earned a master's degree in library and information science from the University of California-Berkeley and holds a master's degree in English language and literature and a graduate certificate in women's studies from the University of Michigan, where she was named University Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor and held a Mellon Fellowship. She received bachelor's degrees in English and economics from Cornell University.

| New: Google Books Bibliography, Version 7 | Digital Scholarship |

Columbia University Libraries Adopt Open Access Policy

The Columbia University Libraries have adopted an open access policy.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Columbia University Libraries is joining a growing movement among universities and research institutions to make scholarly research free and available to the public online. The Libraries is among the first departments at the university to adopt an open access resolution, which calls for faculty and other researchers to post their journal articles in online repositories such as Columbia's Academic Commons. In January, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory became the first program at Columbia to adopt an open access resolution.

The resolution for the Libraries, which goes into effect on June 1, 2011, will require librarians and other professional staff members to deposit their published scholarly works into Academic Commons or another repository that makes the work publicly available. By posting articles in an open-access repository, authors are able to make their works freely accessible to anyone in the world with an Internet connection and discoverable via Google Scholar and other search tools, thus promoting a wider dissemination of research and information.

"The Libraries at Columbia have championed open access to research,” James G. Neal, Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian, said. "It is appropriate that its professional staff should model this policy and place their works in repositories for wide access and use."

The resolution covers only scholarly journal articles and is not retroactive. There is an opt-out feature built into the resolution, with respect to publishing an article in a journal that insists on exclusivity. The resolution will also cover Health Sciences Library professional staff.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography |

ARL Academic Health Sciences Library Statistics 2008-2009

The Association of Research Libraries has released ARL Academic Health Sciences Library Statistics 2008–2009.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published the ARL Academic Health Sciences Library Statistics 2008–2009, which presents data that describe collections, expenditures, personnel, and services in 62 medical libraries at ARL member institutions in the US and Canada.

In 2008–2009, the reporting health sciences libraries held a median of 230,011 volumes, spent a total of $235,821,026, and employed 2,131 FTE staff. Expenditures for materials and staff accounted for the bulk of total expenditures, at approximately 50% and 41% respectively. Respondents reported spending a total of $83,986,222 for electronic materials, or an average of approximately 76% of their total materials budgets; this includes a total of $78,539,253 for electronic serials.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography 2010 |

ARL Academic Law Library Statistics 2008-2009

The Association of Research Libraries has released ARL Academic Law Library Statistics 2008–2009.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published the ARL Academic Law Library Statistics 2008–2009, which presents data that describe collections, expenditures, personnel, and services in 72 law libraries at ARL member institutions in the US and Canada.

In 2008–2009, the reporting law libraries held a median of 355,922 volumes, spent a total of $213,618,759, and employed 2,057 FTE staff. Expenditures for materials and staff accounted for the bulk of total expenditures, at approximately 47% and 46% respectively. Respondents reported spending a total of $21,860,327 for electronic materials, or an average of approximately 27% of their total materials budgets; this includes a total of $18,940,834 for electronic serials.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography |

ARL Statistics 2008-2009

The Association of Research Libraries has released ARL Statistics 2008–2009.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published the ARL Statistics 2008–2009, the latest in a series of annual publications that describe the collections, staffing, expenditures, and service activities of ARL's member libraries. Of the 124 members in 2008–2009, 114 were university libraries (17 in Canada and 107 in the US); the remaining 10 were public, governmental, and nonprofit research libraries (two in Canada, eight in the US).

ARL libraries are a relatively small subset of libraries in North America, but they account for a large portion of academic library resources in terms of assets, budgets, and the number of users they serve. The total library expenditures of all 124 member libraries in 2008–2009 was slightly more than $4 billion; of that total, roughly $3.1 billion was spent by the 114 university libraries and slightly more than $940 million the 10 nonuniversity libraries.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 |

Association of Research Libraries Sends Letter to FTC about Google Books Privacy Issues

The Association of Research Libraries has sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission regarding Google Books privacy issues.

Here's an excerpt:

This consent order presents a unique opportunity to shape best practices in reader privacy for a major online service provider. The marketplaces for e-books and for book search are both in formative stages, and the standards adopted by Google can be highly influential for other market participants. We urge the Commission to confirm that reader privacy deserves the same respect in the online world that it has long demanded in the physical world by insisting on strong protections for reader privacy in the comprehensive privacy program.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Google Books Bibliography |

University of Virginia Library Launches Libra Institutional Repository

The University of Virginia Library has launched its Libra institutional repository.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Save your work in perpetuity with a new tool called Libra. A joint project between ITC and the University Library System, and requested by the Faculty Senate, Libra allows any employee of the University who produces scholarly works to store their papers, and in the near future, theses and datasets, in a secure location. Libra was developed specifically as a repository for peer-reviewed, scholarly articles, although other works such as books may also be deposited, as long as sufficient rights have been retained by the authors.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography |

Denise Stephens Named as UC Santa Barbara’s University Librarian

Denise Stephens has been named as the University of California, Santa Barbara's University Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Denise is currently the Strategic and Organizational Research Librarian at the University of Kansas, where she previously had oversight of library and information technology activities as Vice Provost for Information Services and Chief Information Officer from 2005 to 2010. Her experience includes lead roles in library research, library administration and planning, information management and policy, and program assessment at the University of Virginia, the University of Kansas, and Syracuse University. She was the acting University Librarian at Syracuse before returning to the University of Kansas to assume the Vice Provost role. She holds a master's degree in library science from the University of Oklahoma and is an alumna of the Association of Research Libraries Leadership and Career Development Program. Her research interests include organizational and change leadership, an area in which she has produced several publications and presentations. Denise has served on numerous library and information technology advisory committees and boards, including the Depository Library Council of the U.S. Public Printer, BioOne, the Simmons College Ph.D. program in Managerial Leadership, the Great Plains Network, Educause, and the Kansas Research and Education Network. Her background makes her extremely well suited to lead our libraries into the future.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications |

Cornell University Library Will Not Sign E-Resources Licenses with Nondisclosure Clauses

The Cornell University Library has adopted a policy of not signing e-resources licenses with nondisclosure clauses.

Here's an excerpt from the policy:

To promote openness and fairness among libraries licensing scholarly resources, Cornell University Library will not enter into vendor contracts that require nondisclosure of pricing information or other information that does not constitute a trade secret. All new and renewed licenses submitted with nondisclosure clauses will not be signed but henceforth will be referred to the Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Resources and Special Collections for further negotiation. . . .

It has become apparent to the library community that the anticompetitive conduct engaged in by some publishing firms is in part a result of the inclusion of nondisclosure agreements in contracts.¹ As Robert Darnton recently noted, by "keeping the terms secret, … one library cannot negotiate for cheaper rates by citing an advantage obtained by another library."² For this reason, the International Coalition of Library Consortia's "Statement of Current Perspective and Preferred Practices for the Selection and Purchase of Electronic Information" states that "Non-disclosure language should not be required for any licensing agreement, particularly language that would preclude library consortia from sharing pricing and other significant terms and conditions with other consortia."³ The more that libraries are able to communicate with one another about vendor offers, the better they are able to weigh the costs and benefits of any individual offer. An open market will result in better licensing terms.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 |

Susan Gibbons Named University Librarian at Yale

Yale University has named Susan Gibbons, Vice Provost and the Andrew H. & Janet Dayton Neilly Dean of the River Campus Libraries at the University of Rochester, as its University Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Gibbons joined the University of Rochester in 2000 as the digital initiatives librarian of the River Campus Libraries, and over the years assumed greater and more diversified responsibilities at the University. She was appointed to her present position in 2008.

She is well known in the library world, most significantly for the library user studies at Rochester she has undertaken since 2004. In collaboration with an anthropologist, Gibbons determined how faculty and students do their academic work, find information, and make use of the physical and technological resources offered by the libraries. The results have led to service, collections and physical space changes in the River Campus Libraries designed to better meet user needs. . . .

Gibbons received a B.A. in history from the University of Delaware in 1992, and in 1995, and master's degrees in both history and library science from Indiana University-Bloomington. More recently, she returned to school while working full-time to earn both a M.B.A. in 2002 from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and an Ed.D. in higher education administration from the University of Rochester in 2009.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications |

Publishing Support for Small Print-Based Publishers: Options for ARL Libraries

The Association of Research Libraries has released Publishing Support for Small Print-Based Publishers: Options for ARL Libraries.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

This report is the summary of a project funded by ARL to investigate how research libraries might provide support to print-only publishers in order to ensure long-term digital access to their content. The final report was prepared for ARL by project consultants, October Ivins and Judy Luther.

The project was conducted from 2009 to 2010, and the report to ARL includes identification of the extent and character of journal titles for which support would be necessary, reviews of the capabilities and interest of research library publishing services to support the publishers, and recommendations for actions ARL and member libraries might undertake to address the needs of the editors and publishers of these small print-only titles. Appendices provide talking points for campus outreach, an annotated bibliography, and an overview of the landscape for publishing options.

For more information on the project, please visit http://www.arl.org/sc/models/lib-publishing/pub-support/index.shtml.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications |

Larry Alford Named as Chief Librarian of University of Toronto Libraries

Larry Alford has been named as the Chief Librarian of the University of Toronto Libraries.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Larry Alford, vice-provost for libraries, university librarian and dean of university libraries at Temple University in Philadelphia had been named to succeed Chief Librarian Carol Moore. He will take up his post no later than Aug. 1; the appointment ends June 30, 2018.

Alford has a long and distinguished library career. Prior to joining Temple in 2005, he spent 30 years with his alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While at North Carolina, he served in a variety of positions, including deputy university librarian and interim university librarian.

At Temple, he was responsible for a library system that includes the five libraries of the Paley library system, the Ginsburg Health Sciences Library, and the Podiatric Medicine Library and also for the Temple University Press which publishes approximately 60 scholarly monographs per year. During his tenure there, he has led a transformation of the Temple library system.

His engagement in numerous library operations, including the development of print and electronic collections, library services, and the renovation and building of libraries, has resulted in a superb vision for research libraries in the 21st Century. Alford has a lengthy and successful record of leadership in co-operative activities among libraries, first in North Carolina and then nationally and globally, culminating in his chairing for the last four years the board of trustees of OCLC (Online Computer Library Center), a global library cooperative that serves 72,000 libraries. . . .

He earned both his bachelor’s degree and his MLS at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the School of Information and Library Science in May 2005.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview |