Category: ARL Libraries

ARL Academic Law Library Statistics 2007-2008

The Association of Research Libraries has released ARL Academic Law Library Statistics 2007-2008 (print version also available).

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published the ARL Academic Law Library Statistics 2007-2008, which presents data that describe collections, expenditures, personnel, and services in 75 law libraries at ARL member institutions throughout North America.

In 2007-2008, the reporting law libraries held a median of 345,935 volumes, spent a total of $215,630,657 and employed 2,129 FTE staff. Expenditures for materials and staff accounted for the bulk of total expenditures, at 47% and 45% respectively. Respondents reported spending a total of $20,345,053 for electronic materials (this was 22% of their total materials budgets); this includes a total of $17,200,532 for electronic serials.

See also ARL Law Statistics Tables 2007-08 (XLS file).

ARL Academic Health Sciences Library Statistics 2007-2008

The Association of Research Libraries has released ARL Academic Health Sciences Library Statistics 2007-2008 (print version also available).

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published the ARL Academic Health Sciences Library Statistics 2007-2008, which presents data that describe collections, expenditures, personnel, and services in 64 medical libraries at ARL member institutions throughout North America.

In 2007-2008, the reporting health sciences libraries held a median of 240,955 volumes, spent a total of $240,019,298 and employed 2,304 FTE staff. Expenditures for materials and staff accounted for the bulk of total expenditures, at 49% and 42% respectively. Respondents reported spending a total of $81,986,136 for electronic materials, or an average of 76% of their total materials budgets; this includes a total of $76,921,558 for electronic serials.

See also ARL Health Sciences Statistics Tables 2007-08 (XLS file).

ARL Statistics 2007-2008

The Association of Research Libraries has released ARL Statistics 2007-2008 (print version also available).

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published the ARL Statistics 2007-2008, the latest in a series of annual publications that describe the collections, staffing, expenditures, and service activities of ARL's 123 member libraries. Of these member libraries, 113 are university libraries (14 in Canada, 99 in the US); the remaining 10 are public, governmental, and private research libraries (2 in Canada, 8 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 123 member libraries in 2007-2008 was more than $4.1. billion; of that total, over $3.1 billion was spent by the 113 university libraries and $1 billion was spent by the 10 nonuniversity libraries.

See also ARL Statistics Tables 2007-08 (XLS file).

Cornell University's eCommons Repository Policies

Cornell University's eCommons Policies, which were developed during the last six months by Terry Ehling, Peter Hirtle, Eileen Keating, George Kozak, Oya Rieger, John Saylor, Kizer Walker, and Simeon Warner, are now available.

The following policies are currently in place

  • Content Collection Policy
  • Deposit Policy
  • Access Policy
  • Withdrawal Policy
  • Alteration Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Preservation Support Policy

Harold B. Lee Library and Instructional Psychology and Technology Department at BYU Adopt Open Access Policies

David Wiley, Associate Professor of Instructional Psychology and Technology at Brigham Young University, reports in the Iterating toward Openness blog that faculty in the Harold B. Lee Library and the Instructional Psychology and Technology Department at BYU adopted open access policies in November.

Here's the Instructional Psychology and Technology Department policy from the post, which was based on the library policy:

The faculty of the Instructional Psychology and Technology Department adopts the following policy:

Each Instructional Psychology and Technology Department faculty member grants to Brigham Young University permission to make scholarly articles to which he or she has made substantial intellectual contributions publicly available as part of the Harold B. Lee Library's ScholarsArchive system, or its successor, and to exercise any associated copyright in those articles. This includes the right to deposit, use, reproduce, perform, publicly display, distribute, and publish the scholarly articles in the university's institutional repository or any other method or medium of delivery, whether now known or hereafter developed. Accordingly, the permission granted to the University by each faculty member is a nonexclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide license to exercise the above-mentioned rights under copyright relating to each of his or her scholarly articles, in any medium, and to authorize others to do the same, provided that the articles are not sold for profit and are properly attributed to both the author(s) and the journal of first publication, if applicable.

This license is not meant to interfere in any way with the rights of the IP&T faculty author as the copyright holder of the work. The policy will apply to all scholarly articles authored or co-authored while the person is a member of the IP&T Faculty except for any articles completed before the adoption of this policy which have existing licensing commitments or copyright assignments which are inconsistent with the intent of this policy.

The term "scholarly articles" includes articles prepared for presentation or publication, whether in electronic or print media. Other scholarly works in connection with the faculty member's academic or professional activities may be included at the discretion of the faculty member.

The IP&T Department Chair or the Chair's designate shall waive application of the policy to a particular article upon written request by a Faculty member explaining the need. The IP&T Chair, in consultation with the faculty, will be responsible for interpreting this policy, resolving disputes concerning its interpretation and application, and recommending changes to the faculty. This policy will be formally reviewed two years after implementation, by September 30, 2011.

As of the date of publication, each faculty member will make available an electronic copy of his or her final version of the article at no charge to a designated representative of the University Librarian's Office in appropriate formats (such as PDF) specified by the University Librarian's Office.

NSF Awards $20 Million to DataONE (Observation Network for Earth) Project

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $20 million grant to the DataONE (Observation Network for Earth) Project, which reports to both the Office of the Vice President of Research and the University Libraries at the University of New Mexico. William Michener, professor and director of e-science initiatives at University Libraries, is directing the project.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Researchers at UNM have partnered with dozens of other universities and agencies to create DataONE, a global data access and preservation network for earth and environmental scientists that will support breakthroughs in environmental research.

DataONE is designed to provide universal access to data about life on Earth and the environment that sustains it. The underlying technologies will provide open, persistent, robust, and secure access to well-described and easily discovered Earth observational data.

Expected users include scientists, educators, librarians, resource managers, and the public. By providing easy and open access to a broad range of science data, as well as tools for managing, analyzing, and visualizing data, DataONE will be transformative in the speed with which researchers will be able to assemble and analyze data sets and in the types of problems they will be able to address. . . .

DataONE is one of two $20 million awards made this year as part of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) DataNet program. The collaboration of universities and government agencies coalesced to address the mounting need for organizing and serving up vast amounts of highly diverse and inter-related but often-incompatible scientific data. Resulting studies will range from research that illuminates fundamental environmental processes to identifying environmental problems and potential solutions. . . .

The DataONE team will study how a vast digital data network can provide secure and permanent access into the future, and also encourage scientists to share their information. The team will help determine data citation standards, as well as create the tools for organizing, managing, and publishing data.

The resulting computing and processing "cyberinfrastructure" will be made permanently available for use by the broader national and international science communities. DataONE is led by the University of New Mexico, and includes additional partner organizations across the United States as well as from Europe, Africa, South America, Asia, and Australia.

This grant is important nationally, and locally especially for our research community. University Libraries Dean Martha Bedard said, "The University Libraries are key partners in UNM research initiatives, and are excited and committed to supporting the emerging area of data curation, which this grant seeks to support in sophisticated ways."

DataONE will build a set of geographically distributed Coordinating Nodes that play an important role in facilitating all of the activities of the global network, as well as a network of Member Nodes that host relevant data and tools. The initial three Coordinating Nodes will be at the University of New Mexico, UC Santa Barbara (housed at the Davidson Library), and at the University of Tennessee/Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Member Nodes will be located in association with universities, libraries, research networks, and agencies worldwide.

Brenda Johnson Named as Dean of Indiana University Libraries

Brenda Johnson has been named as the Ruth Lilly Dean of the Indiana University Libraries. Johnson is currently the University Librarian at the University of California, Santa Barbara, a position that she has held since January 1, 2008.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

"I am delighted to have been selected to serve as the next Ruth Lilly Dean of University Libraries at IU," Johnson said. "I believe a library is the greatest metaphor for a university. It provides essential resources for academic research, is a repository for scholarly achievement, a source of intellectual inspiration, a stage for public discourse, a center of cultural life, an incubator for new ideas, and is, in and of itself, a 'community'."

"I'm delighted to see the IU Libraries already stand very strong in embodying those values and concepts," Johnson continued. "I look forward to leading a library that is already recognized as one of the top libraries in the country as we engage with faculty, students and staff to achieve even-greater excellence and to create innovative and emergent services for a changing academic environment."

Major initiatives coordinated by Johnson at the University of California, Santa Barbara, include planning for a $62 million library addition and renovation, the UCSB Reads program (a program that engages the campus and community in conversations about a key topic while reading the same book), increased emphasis on outreach to students and faculty, and a rejuvenation of fundraising efforts for the UCSB libraries.

Prior to assuming the role of University Librarian at UCSB, Johnson served as interim co-university librarian of the University of Michigan Libraries. She served the University of Michigan Libraries in various roles for more than 20 years. From 1997-2007, she served as associate university librarian for public services. . . .

"Brenda Johnson's background and experience with the Big Ten and the Committee on Institutional Cooperation have prepared her well for the IU Libraries deanship," said [Debora] Shaw [professor in the School of Library and Information Science]. "We on the search committee were especially impressed with her breadth of understanding and her sense of how to help the libraries continue to build on their strengths and partnerships."

"I am delighted that Brenda Johnson will be joining IU as Dean of Libraries," said [Bobby] Schnabel [dean of the School of Informatics and Computing and interim vice president for research]. "Her vision for the future directions of libraries, enthusiastic personality, and vast experience and proven leadership abilities at both the University of Michigan and at UC, Santa Barbara, make her an outstanding choice." . . .

The dean of University Libraries provides administrative leadership for a system of libraries on eight campuses. On the Bloomington campus, the dean provides strategic planning and policy direction in the areas of collection development, public and technical services, facilities planning and personnel policies.

Proceedings of the 155th ARL Membership Meeting

ARL has released the Proceedings of the 155th ARL Membership Meeting. Presentations are in digital audio, PowerPoint, and/or PDF formats.

Here's a selection:

  • "A Scientist’s View of Open Access," Bernard Schutz (PowerPoint, audio available)
  • "A River Runs Through It," Sayeed Choudhury (PowerPoint, audio available)
  • "Leading from the Middle: Open Access at KU," Lorraine J. Haricombe (PowerPoint, audio available)
  • "The Changing Role of Special Collections in Scholarly Communications," Donald J. Waters (PDF)
  • "Library Options for Publishing Support," October Ivins and Judy Luther (PowerPoint, audio available)

ARL Releases E-Science Survey Preliminary Results and Resources

The Association of Research Libraries has released preliminary results and resources from an e-science survey of its members.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) E-Science Working Group surveyed ARL member libraries in the fall of 2009 to gather data on the state of engagement with e-science issues. An overview of initial survey findings was presented by E-Science Working Group Chair Wendy Lougee, University Librarian, McKnight Presidential Professor, University of Minnesota Libraries, at the October ARL Membership Meeting. Lougee's briefing explored contrasting approaches among research institutions, particularly in regard to data management. The briefing also summarized survey findings on topics such as library services, organizational structures, staffing patterns and staff development, and involvement in research grants, along with perspectives on pressure points for service development. To better explicate the findings, Lougee reviewed specific cases of activities at six research institutions. . . .

A full report of the survey findings is being prepared and will be published in 2010 by ARL through its Occasional Papers series.

Harvard Provost Issues Report of the Task Force on University Libraries

Harvard Provost Steven E. Hyman has issued the Report of the Task Force on University Libraries.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

In March 2009 I appointed a University-wide Task Force to examine our library system and make recommendations that would put it on a footing that could sustain and ideally enhance its excellence long into the future. Today, I am pleased to share with you the Task Force’s findings and recommendations. A link to the report’s text can be found below.

The report of the Task Force on University Libraries is a very thoughtful document about an extraordinary system. But it is also a stark rendering of a structure in need of reform. Our collections are superlative, and our knowledgeable library staff are central to the success of the University’s mission. The way the system operates, however, is placing terrible strain on the libraries and the people who work within them.

Over time, a lack of coordination has led to a fragmented collection of collections that is not optimally positioned to respond to the 21st century information needs of faculty and students. The libraries’ organizational chart is truly labyrinthine in its complexity, and in practice this complexity impedes effective collective decision-making.

Widely varying information technology systems present barriers to communication among libraries and stymie collaboration with institutions beyond our campus gates. Our funding mechanisms have created incentives to collect or subscribe in ways that diminish the vitality of the overall collection.

Libraries the world over are undergoing a challenging transition into the digital age, and Harvard’s libraries are no exception. The Task Force report points us toward a future in which our libraries must be able to work together far more effectively than is the case today as well as to collaborate with other great libraries to maximize access to the materials needed by our scholars.

Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums

The Cornell University Library has published Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums by Peter B. Hirtle, Emily Hudson, and Andrew T. Kenyon. A PDF copy of the book can be freely downloaded and the print version can be purchased from CreateSpace.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

How can cultural heritage institutions legally use the Internet to improve public access to the rich collections they hold?

"Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums," a new book by published today by Cornell University Library, can help professionals at these institutions answer that question.

Based on a well-received Australian manual written by Emily Hudson and Andrew T. Kenyon of the University of Melbourne, the book has been developed by Cornell University Library's senior policy advisor Peter B. Hirtle, along with Hudson and Kenyon, to conform to American law and practice.

The development of new digital technologies has led to fundamental changes in the ways that cultural institutions fulfill their public missions of access, preservation, research, and education. Many institutions are developing publicly accessible Web sites that allow users to visit online exhibitions, search collection databases, access images of collection items, and in some cases create their own digital content. Digitization, however, also raises the possibility of copyright infringement. It is imperative that staff in libraries, archives, and museums understand fundamental copyright principles and how institutional procedures can be affected by the law.

"Copyright and Cultural Institutions" was written to assist understanding and compliance with copyright law. It addresses the basics of copyright law and the exclusive rights of the copyright owner, the major exemptions used by cultural heritage institutions, and stresses the importance of "risk assessment" when conducting any digitization project. Case studies on digitizing oral histories and student work are also included.

Hirtle is the former director of the Cornell Institute for Digital Collections, and the book evolved from his recognition of the need for such a guide when he led museum and library digitization projects. After reading Hudson and Kenyon's Australian guidelines, he realized that an American edition would be invaluable to anyone contemplating a digital edition.

Anne R. Kenney, the Carl A. Kroch University Librarian at Cornell University, noted: "The Library has a long tradition of making available to other professionals the products of its research and expertise. I am delighted that this new volume can join the ranks with award-winning library publications on digitization and preservation."

As an experiment in open-access publishing, the Library has made the work available in two formats. Print copies of the work are available from CreateSpace, an Amazon subsidiary. In addition, the entire text is available as a free download through eCommons, Cornell University's institutional repository, and from SSRN.com, which already distributes the Australian guidelines.

Duke, NC State, and UNC Data Sharing Cloud Computing Project Launched

Duke University, North Carolina State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have launched a two-year project to share digital data.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

An initiative that will determine how Triangle area universities access, manage, and share ever-growing stores of digital data launched this fall with funding from the Triangle Universities Center for Advanced Studies, Inc. (TUCASI).

The two-year TUCASI data-Infrastructure Project (TIP) will deploy a federated data cyberinfrastructure—or data cloud—that will manage and store digital data for Duke University, NC State University, UNC Chapel Hill, and the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) and allow the campuses to more seamlessly share data with each other, with national research projects, and private sector partners in Research Triangle Park and beyond.

RENCI and the Data Intensive Cyber Environments (DICE) Center at UNC Chapel Hill manage the $2.7 million TIP. The provosts, heads of libraries and chief information officers at the three campuses signed off on the project just before the start of the fall semester.

"The TIP focuses on federation, sharing and reuse of information across departments and campuses without having to worry about where the data is physically stored or what kind of computer hardware or software is used to access it," said Richard Marciano, TIP project director, and also professor at UNC's School of Information and Library Science (SILS), executive director of the DICE Center, and a chief scientist at RENCI. "Creating infrastructure to support future Triangle collaboratives will be very powerful."

The TIP includes three components—classroom capture, storage, and future data and policy, which will be implemented in three phases. In phase one, each campus and RENCI will upgrade their storage capabilities and a platform-independent system for capturing and sharing classroom lectures and activities will be developed. . . .

In phase two, the TIP team will develop policies and practices for short- and long-term data storage and access. Once developed, the policies and practices will guide the research team as it creates a flexible, sustainable digital archive, which will connect to national repositories and national data research efforts. Phase three will establish policies for adding new collections to the TIP data cloud and for securely sharing research data, a process that often requires various restrictions. "Implementation of a robust technical and policy infrastructure for data archiving and sharing will be key to maintaining the Triangle universities' position as leaders in data-intensive, collaborative research," said Kristin Antelman, lead researcher for the future data and policy working group and associate director for the Digital Library at NC State.

The tasks of the TIP research team will include designing a model for capturing, storing and accessing course content, determining best practices for search and retrieval, and developing mechanisms for sharing archived content among the TIP partners, across the Triangle area and with national research initiatives. Campus approved social media tools, such as YouTube and iTunesU, will be integrated into the system.

Boston University Launches Digital Common Institutional Repository

Boston University has launched its Digital Common institutional repository. In February, the BU University Council approved a Scholarship, Libraries, and Open Access Archiving Initiative.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Boston University now has a Digital Common—a place where research and other academic materials can be stored, shared, and discovered.

The Digital Common is an example of an institutional repository, and it is yours to use. The launch comes just in time to help celebrate Open Access Week. It already contains about a thousand scholarly works, and library staff are currently working with others, such as the Philosophy Department and the School of Public Health, to add more

.

University of Michigan to Distribute Over 500,000 Digitized Books Using HP BookPrep POD Service

The University of Michigan Library will distribute over 500,000 rare and hard-to-find digitized books using HP BookPrep POD service.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

HP BookPrep — a cloud computing service that enables on-demand printing of books — brings new life to the traditional publishing model, making it possible to bring any book ever published back into print through an economical and sustainable service model.

As part of a growing movement to preserve and digitize historic content, major libraries are partnering with technology leaders to scan previously hard-to-find works using high-resolution photography. HP's process transforms these scans prior to printing by cleaning up some of the wear and tear that often is present in the originals.

HP BookPrep significantly drives down the cost of republishing books by eliminating the manual cleanup work that would otherwise be required. Based on imaging and printing technology from HP Labs, the company's central research arm, HP BookPrep automates the creation of high-quality, print-ready books from these raw book scans by sharpening text and images, improving alignment and coloration, and generating and adding covers.

People can now purchase high-quality print versions of public-domain, out-of-print books from the University of Michigan Library through HP BookPrep channels, including traditional and online retailers such as Amazon.com.

"People around the world still value reading books in print," said Andrew Bolwell, director, New Business Initiatives, HP. "HP BookPrep technology allows publishers to extend the life cycle of their books, removes the cost and waste burdens of maintaining inventory, and uses a full spectrum of technologies to deliver convenient access to consumers."

For publishers and content owners, HP BookPrep offers an opportunity to offer their full catalog of titles online, irrespective of demand. Because HP BookPrep is a web service that processes books as they are ordered, there is little upfront investment or risk as books are printed only after they are purchased, no matter the volume, eliminating the need for high carrying costs.

Consistently ranked as one of the top 10 academic research libraries in North America, the University of Michigan Library is a true repository for the human record. The print collection contains more than 7 million volumes, covering thousands of years of civilization. HP is collaborating with the university to eliminate barriers and increase access to content as part of an ongoing effort to make the concept of "out of print" a thing of the past.

"Our partnership with HP is a testament to the University of Michigan Library's commitment to increase public access to our library's collections and our continued innovative use of digitization," said Paul N. Courant, librarian and dean of libraries, University of Michigan. "We are excited that HP BookPrep can offer print distribution of the public domain works in our collection and help to provide broad access to works that have previously been hard to find outside the walls of our library."

The collaboration also builds upon HP's existing relationship with Applewood Books, a publisher of historical, Americana books. The company, which has been using HP BookPrep for the last year to republish hundreds of titles, also will distribute HP BookPrep's best-selling titles from the University of Michigan Library.

Podcast: Open Access—Harvard's Success Story with Robert Darnton

JISC has released a podcast: Open Access—Harvard's Success Story with Robert Darnton.

Here's the announcement:

In October 2008 Harvard University in the US adopted an open access policy for all its research papers to be made available in their university repository, in an opt out basis. 12 months on, since the policy was adopted, JISC's Rebecca O'Brien speaks with Professor Robert Darnton, Director of Harvard University Library and trustee of New York Public Library and the Oxford University Press (USA), about the cultural change that is taking place at Harvard and the background to why professors at the university decided to share their knowledge in this way.

NIH Awards $12.2 Million Grant for VIVOweb, Social Networking Software for Scientists

The National Institutes of Health have awarded the University of Florida a $12.2 million grant to develop VIVOweb. The Cornell University Library and Indiana University are grant partners.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

By fostering alliances, it is hoped that biomedical research and discovery will move faster. The project will rest on VIVO, a technology developed at Cornell since 2003. It built a comprehensive network of scientists that identified existing projects and initiated new cooperation.

"Before VIVO, the Cornell librarians heard a lot of frustration from faculty members who couldn't find collaborators from different disciplines across campus,” Medha Devare, Cornell librarian for bioinformatics and life sciences. "The idea of VIVO was to transcend administrative divisions and create a single point of access for scholarly interaction. Now that VIVO is expanding across institutions, the biomedical community will be able to benefit from that bird's eye perspective of their research."

Money for the new grant, awarded through NIH's National Center for Research Resources, originated from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding. This has already opened eight positions at Cornell and more jobs at the other partners.

Cornell will spearhead the development of the multi-institutional functionality of the VIVO technology; the University of Florida will focus on developing technology for keeping each site's data current; and Indiana University Bloomington will develop social networking tools to enable researchers to find others with similar interests. Four other institutions — Scripps Research Institute, Juniper, Fla.; Ponce School of Medicine, Ponce, P.R.; Washington University of St. Louis; and the Weill Cornell Medical College, New York City—will serve as implementation sites.

Jon Corson-Rikert, head of Information Technology Services at Cornell's Mann Library, initially developed VIVO in 2003. As researchers and administrators embraced the newly created network, a team of programmers, designers and librarians expanded the project to all other disciplines at Cornell.

Other universities began to explore the open-source, free software. VIVO has been adopted for local networks at other universities and institutions in the United States, Australia and China. This new project will follow VIVO's original model and build a multi-institutional platform for the biomedical community.

The Cornell effort to develop VIVOweb will be led by Dean Krafft, the Library's chief technology strategist, Corson-Rikert and Devare. VIVOweb's open Semantic Web/Linked Data approach will empower researchers to extend their research communities—not just via prior knowledge or serendipity, but through recommendation or suggestion networks based on common traits described in the VIVOweb researcher profiles.

MIT Open Access Articles Collection Launched in DSpace@MIT

MIT has launched a new collection of authors' final submitted manuscripts in DSpace@MIT, the MIT Open Access Articles Collection.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The launch of the "MIT Open Access Articles" collection coincides with International Open Access Week to reflect the spirit of an MIT faculty policy established in March 2009.

The policy affirms the faculty's commitment "to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible."

The collection consists of the authors' final submitted manuscripts. Published versions may also appear where the publisher's policy allows for such posting. Both versions are identified for readers.

MIT authors are encouraged to send their papers to oapolicysubmissions@mit.edu or use a web form for inclusion in the collection.

The MIT Libraries are administering the policy under the guidance of the Faculty Committee on the Library System, and are maintaining a list of publishers who are fully cooperating with the policy.

University of Calgary Libraries and Cultural Resources Join ARL

The University of Calgary Libraries and Cultural Resources have joined the Association of Research Libraries.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

"It’s a great accomplishment for our young university to have built a great library in 43 years," said Tom Hickerson, vice-provost (libraries and cultural resources) and university librarian. . . .

The ARL membership was the result of an 18-month campaign spearheaded by Hickerson. He believed that the U of C was a worthy candidate because of its ranking by the Libraries Investment Index of University Research Libraries. The index is an aggregate measure of a university’s investment in its library, including materials expenditures and professional and support staff.

"Based on available statistical comparisons, the University of Calgary would rank among the top 50 university research libraries in North America and sixth in Canada," said Hickerson.

Columbia University Libraries and Cornell University Library Awarded Grant for 2CUL Partnership

The Columbia University Libraries and the Cornell University Library have received a grant to fund their 2CUL partnership project.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded $385,000 to the libraries at Columbia University in New York City and Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., to support the development of an innovative partnership dubbed "2CUL." This new relationship has the potential to become the most expansive collaboration to date between major research libraries.

Starting this fall, Cornell and Columbia will plan significant partnerships in collaborative collection development, acquisitions and processing. The two universities will form a separate service entity to facilitate the collaboration. Ithaka, a not-for-profit organization that assists research libraries and the academic community to leverage advancing information technologies, will provide project management and assist in the planning. Initial work will focus on several global collecting areas, as well as collaborative funding and support of technical infrastructure in various areas.

2CUL — pronounced "too cool" — stands for the acronyms of both Columbia University Library and Cornell University Library. The partnership is not a merger, and the two libraries remain separate institutions.

"2CUL represents a new, radical form of collaboration that pairs two leading research libraries in a voluntary, equal partnership," said James G. Neal, Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian at Columbia University. "Columbia University Libraries and Cornell University Library are committed to developing an enduring and transformative partnership that will enable us to achieve greater efficiencies and effectiveness and to address new challenges through combined forces."

"2CUL will ameliorate the impact of budget cuts while building our librarie' ability to innovate," said Anne R. Kenney, Carl A. Kroch University Librarian at Cornell University. "This partnership is predicated on Cornell and Columbia’s shared commitment to reinvigorate our libraries in response to and in anticipation of changes in digital access, interdisciplinary research and scholarly communication. It also allows us to provide the best possible experience for our users."

Over the next two years, 2CUL will explore ways to improve the quality of collections and services offered to campus constituencies, redirect resources to emerging needs, and make each institution more competitive in securing government and foundation support. The relationship could also provide a new blueprint for broad, non-exclusive partnerships between other academic libraries and other parts of the academy.

Yale University Library Gets Two Grants to Digitize Middle Eastern Materials

The Yale University Library has been awarded two grants totaling $890,000 to digitize Middle Eastern materials.

Here's an excerpt from "Yale Digitizes Documents":

The Yale University Library has received a $650,000 four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education to digitize Syrian and Palestinian government records, and a $240,000 joint grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Joint Information Systems Committee to digitize Middle Eastern scholarly materials, according to a press release Thursday. The library will use advanced technology to translate the digitized text into searchable text, which will be available online.

Librarians and Archivists at York University Libraries Adopt Open Access Policy

Librarians and archivists at the York University Libraries have adopted an open access policy. (Thanks to Confessions of a Science Librarian.)

Here's an excerpt from the policy:

Academic librarians and archivists at York University commit to making the best possible effort to publish in venues providing unrestricted public access to their works. They will endeavour to secure the right to self-archive their published materials, and will deposit these works in YorkSpace.

The York University academic librarian and archivist complement grant York University Libraries the non-exclusive right to make their scholarly publications accessible through self-archiving in the YorkSpace institutional repository subject to copyright restrictions. . . .

This policy applies to all scholarly and professional work produced as a member of York University academic staff produced as of the date of the adoption of this policy. Retrospective deposit is encouraged. Co-authored works should be included with the permission of the other author(s). Examples of works include:

  • Scholarly and professional articles
  • Substantive presentations, including slides and text
  • Books/book chapters
  • Reports
  • Substantive pedagogical materials such as online tutorials

Works should be deposited in YorkSpace as soon as is possible, recognizing that some publishers may impose an embargo period. This policy is effective as of 01/10/2009 and will be assessed a year after implementation.

Harvard College Library and the National Library of China to Digitize 51,500-Volume Chinese Rare Book Collection

The Harvard College Library and the National Library of China will collaborate to digitize and make freely available the 51,500-volume Chinese rare book collection of Harvard-Yenching Library.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Among the largest cooperative projects of its kind ever undertaken between China and US libraries, the project will digitize Harvard-Yenching Library's entire 51,500-volume Chinese rare book collection. One of the libraries which make up the Harvard College Library system, Harvard-Yenching is the largest university library for East Asian research in the Western world. When completed, the project will have a transformative affect on scholarship involving rare Chinese texts, Harvard-Yenching Librarian James Cheng predicted. . . .

The six-year project will be done in two three-year phases. The first phase, beginning in January 2010, will digitize books from the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, which date from about 960 AD to 1644. The second phase, starting in January 2013, will digitize books from the Qing Dynasty, which date from 1644 until 1795. The collection includes materials which cover an extensive range of subjects, including history, philosophy, drama, belles letters and classics.

All of the rare books will have to be examined carefully to identify those that are fragile, damaged, or are sewn in a way that hides text along the binding margin. To determine which volumes may need conservation treatment, project manager Sharon Li-Shiuan Yang, head of access services at Harvard-Yenching Library, and her team will receive training in basic condition assessment from the Weissman Preservation Center, which treats Harvard's rare library materials. Items needing repair will be sent to the Weissman for treatment by conservators before being digitized.

The digitization work will be performed by HCL Imaging Services group in its state-of-the-art lab in Widener Library, where staff members have been working to design new equipment and workflows in preparation for the huge project, said Imaging Services head Bill Comstock.

The scale of the project will present HCL and the National Library of China with many organizational and technical challenges," Comstock said. "We look forward to partnering with NLC staff, led by Dr. Zhi-geng Wang, the Director of the NLC's Department for Digital Resources and Services, to build innovative new tools and procedures that will make our work on this and other projects more robust and efficient."

Dean of University Libraries Candidates Interview at Indiana University

Candidates for the Ruth Lilly Dean of University Libraries position at Indiana University are interviewing this week. The candidates are Brenda Johnson (Dean of University Libraries at the University of California, Santa Barbara) and Diane Parr Walker (Deputy University Librarian at the University of Virginia).

Read more about it at "Library Dean Candidates Visit Today."

Yale: "Digitization Project Derailed"

In "Digitization Project Derailed," Carol Hsin discusses the status of digitization efforts at the Yale University Library. (Thanks to ResourceShelf.)

Here's an excerpt:

Four months after Microsoft abruptly terminated its multi-million dollar book digitization deal with the University, Yale officials said they will have to wait for donations or grants to come in before they start another major book scanning project.