Category: ARL Libraries

E-Book Collections, SPEC Kit 313

The Association of Research Libraries has published E-Book Collections, SPEC Kit 313. The table of contents and executive summary are freely available.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published E-book Collections, SPEC Kit 313, which examines the current use of e-books in ARL member libraries; their plans for implementing, increasing, or decreasing access to e-books; purchasing, cataloging, and collection management issues; and issues in marketing to and in usage by library clientele. . . .

According to survey responses, most institutions entered the e-book arena as part of a consortium which purchased an e-book package. The earliest forays occurred in the 1990s but the majority of libraries started e-book collections between 1999 and 2004. Purchasing at the collection level allowed libraries to acquire a mass of titles with a common interface, reducing some of the transition pains to the new format. The downside of collections is that libraries find they are often saddled with titles they would not have selected in print; also, each collection might have a different interface, adding to user frustration.

Those libraries reporting success with individually selected e-book titles cope with other problems: lag time between print and electronic publication (with electronic the lagging format), restrictive digital rights management, loss of access by ILL, and limited printing top the list of concerns. However, responses indicate a preference for title-by-title selection as a more efficient use of funds.

This SPEC Kit includes documentation from respondents in the form of collection development policies, e-book collection Web pages, e-book promotional materials, training materials for staff and users, and e-book reader loan policies.

New York Public Library and Kirtas Technologies Make Half-Million Public Domain Books Available

The New York Public Library and Kirtas Technologies are making a half-million public domain books available for sale as digitized or printed copies.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Readers and researchers looking for hard-to-find books now have the opportunity to dip into the collections of one of the world's most comprehensive libraries to purchase digitized copies of public domain titles. Through their Digitize-on-Demand program, Kirtas Technologies has partnered with The New York Public Library to make 500,000 public domain works from the Library's collections available (to anyone in the world).

"New technology has allowed the Library to greatly expand access to its collections," said Paul LeClerc, President of The New York Public Library. "Now, for the first time, library users are able to order copies of specific items from our vast public domain collections that are useful to them. Additionally the program creates a digital legacy for future users of the same item and a revenue stream to support our operations. We are very pleased to participate in a program that is so beneficial to everyone involved."

Using existing information from NYPL's catalog records, Kirtas will make the library's public domain books available for sale through its retail site before they are ever digitized. Customers can search for a desired title on www.kirtasbooks.com and place an order for that book. When the order is placed, only then is it pulled from the shelf, digitized and made available as a high-quality reprint or digital file.

What makes this approach to digitization unique is that NYPL incurs no up-front printing, production or storage costs. It also provides the library with a self-funding, commercial model helping it to sustain its digitization programs in the future. Unlike other free or low-cost digitization programs, the library retains the rights and ownership to their own digitized content.

"SPARC Member Spotlight: Testing the Waters with Open-Access Funds (University of California at Berkeley and the University of Calgary)"

SPARC has released "SPARC Member Spotlight: Testing the Waters with Open-Access Funds (University of California at Berkeley and the University of Calgary)."

Here's an excerpt:

In a move to encourage researchers to make their work open to the public, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Calgary established funds that faculty and graduate students could use cover publication charges for open-access journals. Berkeley and Calgary are two of several funds established in recent years, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, the University of Oregon, and other sites in the U.K.

After a year of implementation in Calgary and Berkeley, librarians at these universities are reviewing their efforts and are pleased to report on the results.

University of Western Ontario Launches Scholarship@Western

The Western Libraries at the University of Western Ontario have launched Scholarship@Western.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement by Adrian K. Ho, Scholarly Communications Librarian:

Scholarship@Western showcases publications and presentations from the university community by department. As this is a new initiative, not all academic departments are listed at present. A segment of Scholarship@Western, named Researcher Gallery, offers virtual space for Western's faculty, graduate students, librarians, and archivists to create their homepages and provide access to their publications, presentations, and other academic materials. In addition, Scholarship@Western can function as an online publishing platform for journals, conference proceedings, research reports, and working papers. An online journal, the Western Undergraduate Research Journal: Health and Natural Sciences, will be published to celebrate Western's academic excellence.

Scholarship@Western will feature a niche for the University's master's theses and PhD dissertations. Western Libraries already has some of the past theses and dissertations digitized and will upload them to Scholarship@Western for free public access. Meanwhile, we have been working with the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies to develop a university-wide program that will publish, archive, and preserve future theses and dissertations on Scholarship@Western for widest possible access.

Read more about it at "Online Archive Opens Access to Research."

Related post: "Adrian K. Ho Named Scholarly Communication Librarian at Western Libraries of the University of Western Ontario."

University of California and Internet Archive Joint Mass Digitization Project Ends

The California Digital Library has announced that a joint mass digitization project by the University of California and the Internet Archive has ended.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

In 2005, the UC Libraries entered into a ground-breaking partnership with the Internet Archive to digitize public domain book collections from the University of California Libraries. With the generous support of external partners such as Microsoft, Yahoo, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, our collaboration grew to encompass two major on-site scanning centers at NRLF and SRLF and scores of dedicated staff at the UC Regional Library Facilities and elsewhere throughout UC, producing an impressive corpus of close to 200,000 public domain books that are now available worldwide to students, scholars, and the general public. Today, five years and over 64 million pages later, we announce the conclusion of this phase of our Internet Archive collaboration and celebrate the work we have accomplished together.

UC's book digitization partnership with Internet Archive began in 2005 as a founding member of the Open Content Alliance. In February 2006, the first on-site digitization center comprising ten Scribe scanning machines was installed at NRLF; a second 10-station scanning center was opened at SRLF later that year. In August 2008, UC's on-site Internet Archive digitization center at NRLF was de-commissioned and relocated to an Internet Archive facility in San Francisco, leaving the SRLF scanning center as our only remaining on-site facility. One year later in August 2009, the UC-hosted Internet Archive scanning center housed at SRLF was closed and relocated to a new off-site facility in the Los Angeles area, marking the conclusion of a digitization project that has made available to the world an unparalleled digital corpus of public domain books drawn from the renowned collections of the University of California Libraries. . . .

While this phase of our work with Internet Archive is coming to an end, we look forward to continuing our collaboration for many years to come as opportunity and resources permit.

Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, MIT, and UC Berkeley Commit to Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity

Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of California, Berkeley have committed to a Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Open-access scholarly journals have arisen as an alternative to traditional publications that are founded on subscription and/or licensing fees. Open-access journals make their articles available freely to anyone, while providing the same services common to all scholarly journals, such as management of the peer-review process, filtering, production, and distribution.

According to Thomas C. Leonard, university librarian at UC Berkeley, "Publishers and researchers know that it has never been easier to share the best work they produce with the world. But they also know that their traditional business model is creating new walls around discoveries. Universities can really help take down these walls and the open-access compact is a highly significant tool for the job."

The economic downturn underscores the significance of open-access publications. With library resources strained by budget cuts, subscription and licensing fees for journals have come under increasing scrutiny, and alternative means for providing access to vital intellectual content are identified. Open-access journals provide a natural alternative.

As Dartmouth Provost Barry P. Scherr sees it, "Supporting open-access publishing is an important step in increasing readership of Dartmouth research and, ultimately, the impact of our research on the world."

Since open-access journals do not charge subscription or other access fees, they must cover their operating expenses through other sources, including subventions, in-kind support, or, in a sizable minority of cases, processing fees paid by or on behalf of authors for submission to or publication in the journal. While academic research institutions support traditional journals by paying their subscription fees, no analogous means of support has existed to underwrite the growing roster of fee-based open-access journals.

Stuart Shieber, Harvard's James O. Welch, Jr. and Virginia B. Welch Professor of Computer Science and Director of the University's Office for Scholarly Communication, is the author of the five-member compact. According to Shieber, "Universities and funding agencies ought to provide equitable support for open-access publishing by subsidizing the processing fees that faculty incur when contributing to open-access publications. Right now, these fees are relatively rare. But if the research community supports open-access publishing and it gains in importance as we believe that it will, those fees could aggregate substantially over time. The compact ensures that support is available to eliminate these processing fees as a disincentive to open-access publishing."

The compact supports equity of the business models by committing each university to the timely establishment of durable mechanisms for underwriting reasonable publication fees for open-access journal articles written by its faculty for which other institutions would not be expected to provide funds.

Additional universities are encouraged to visit the compact web site and sign on.

Cornell Provost Kent Fuchs offers his perspective on participating in the compact. "As part of its social commitment as a research university," Fuchs says, "Cornell strives to ensure that scholarly research results are as widely available as possible. The Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity could increase access to scholarly literature while at the same time ensuring that the valuable services that publishers provide are supported."

A full account of the motivation for the compact can be found in the article "Equity for Open-Access Journal Publishing," published in the open-access journal Public Library of Science Biology.

"Supporting OA journals is an investment in a superior system of scholarly communication," states Peter Suber of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) in Washington, DC, and a fellow of Harvard Law School's Berkman Center and Harvard University's Office for Scholarly Communication. "Before this compact, a number of funding agencies and universities were willing to pay OA journal processing fees on behalf of their grantees and faculty. It's significant that five major universities recognize the need to join the effort, extend fee subsidies to a wider range of publishing scholars, enlist other institutions, and start to catch up with their long practice of supporting traditional—or non-OA—journals."

Summing up the compact, MIT Provost L. Rafael Reif observes, "The dissemination of research findings to the public is not merely the right of research universities: it is their obligation. Open-access publishing promises to put more research in more hands and in more places around the world. This is a good enough reason for universities to embrace the guiding principles of this compact."

Read more about it at "Interview: Stuart Shieber."

ALA, ACRL, and ARL Submit Supplemental Filing about Google Book Search Settlement

The American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries, and the Association of Research Libraries have submitted a supplemental filing regarding the Google Book Search Settlement.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

While the library associations' position has not changed since their initial filing, the groups believe that recent activity, such as an amended agreement reached between Google and the University of Michigan, the University of Texas-Austin and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Google's recent public statement regarding privacy, and the library associations' communication with the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) should be brought to the court's attention. In their supplemental filing, the library associations call upon the court to address concerns with pricing review, to direct Google to provide more detail on privacy issues, and to broaden representation on the Books Rights Registry.

Ann Thornton Named as Interim Director of the New York Public Library

Library Journal reports that Ann Thornton, NYPL's Director for Reference and Research Services, has been named as the interim Director of the New York Public Library effective in November.

Congratulations to Ann, who has worked at NYPL since 1996. She began her career as a Systems Librarian at the University of Houston Libraries during the period I served as Assistant Director for Systems there.

Carolyn Walters Named Interim Dean of Indiana University Libraries

Carolyn Walters has been named Interim Dean of the Indiana University Libraries. Previously, she served as Executive Associate Dean of the Libraries.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

In her role as associate dean of the University Libraries, Walters was responsible for public services, technical services, collection development and scholarly communication initiatives, and University Archives. She has led the planning for the proposed Research Commons in the Herman B Wells Library and the proposed renovation of the Business/SPEA Information Commons.

In her 22 years with the IU Bloomington Libraries, Walters has also served as head of the Journalism Library, acting director of Collection Development, head of the Undergraduate Library, head of Information Commons/Undergraduate Library Services and director of public services. In 2002, she became the first librarian to receive the Michael Gordon Faculty Award presented by IU's Division of Student Affairs.

Walters was a fellow in the Academic Leadership Program of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (2006) and was selected to participate in the Frye Leadership Institute (2005), sponsored by the Council on Library and Information Resources, EDUCAUSE and Emory University. She was a member of the inaugural group of IU's LEaD Program, a year-long leadership development program. In her positions at IU, Walters has distinguished herself in areas including undergraduate services, space planning, and scholarly communications.

The dean of University Libraries provides administrative leadership for a system of libraries on IU 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.

ARL Webcast: Reaching Out to Leaders of Scholarly Societies at Research Institutions

The Association of Research Libraries has released its archived "Reaching Out to Leaders of Scholarly Societies at Research Institutions" webcast. Access is free, but registration is required.

Here's an excerpt from the press release :

On August 6, 2009, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) hosted a Web conference on “Reaching Out to Leaders of Scholarly Societies at Research Institutions,” August 6, 2009, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. (EDT) as part of an ongoing initiative to enhance library outreach.

Complementing the recently released guide on outreach to scholarly society leaders, the 60-minute webcast will introduce the goals and key talking points for campus outreach to leaders, editors, and members of academic scholarly societies. It will support development of faculty outreach programs at ARL member libraries by offering strategy and tactics for increasing engagement with association leaders at the institution.

Successful campus outreach should encourage and support society leaders to engage in positive change that advances the scholarly communication system, promotes new research modes, and offers a path forward in a time of paradigm shift.

University of Michigan to Offer Print-on-Demand Editions of Thousands of Public Domain Books via BookSurge

The University of Michigan will offer print-on-demand editions of thousands of public domain books via BookSurge for between $10 to about $45.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The agreement gives the public a unique opportunity to buy reprints of a wide range of titles in the U-M Library for as little as a few dollars. As individual copies are sold on Amazon.com, BookSurge will print and bind the books in soft-cover form.

"This agreement means that titles that have been generally unavailable for a century or more will be able to go back into print, one copy at a time," said Paul N. Courant, U-M librarian and dean of libraries.

"The agreement enables us to increase access to public domain books and other publications that have been digitized," Courant said. "We are very excited to be offering this service as a new way to increase access to the rich collections of the university library."

Maria Bonn, director of the U-M Library's scholarly publishing office, said the reprint program includes both books digitized by the U-M and those digitized through the U-M's partnership with Google. The initial offering on Amazon will include more than 400,000 titles in more than 200 languages ranging from Acoli to Zulu.

All of the books being offered on Amazon through BookSurge are titles that remain available in their original form at the U-M Library. The U-M has been offering a limited number of titles for reprint on demand with BookSurge and other distribution partners for the past five years. A reprint "best seller" might sell 100 copies, Bonn said.

The U-M will set the list price of each book. The agreement calls for a sharing of revenue between BookSurge and the university.

"Campus Outreach to Scholarly Society Leaders, Editors, and Members: Promoting Positive Change and a Continuing Role for Scholarly Societies"

The Association of Research Libraries has released "Campus Outreach to Scholarly Society Leaders, Editors, and Members: Promoting Positive Change and a Continuing Role for Scholarly Societies."

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The guide seeks to increase library staff’s conscious connections with leaders of scholarly societies residing on their campus in order to:

  • Build positive relationships between librarians and faculty members
  • Create opportunities for education and dialog with key opinion leaders and decision-makers within disciplinary communities
  • Identify opportunities for libraries to partner/collaborate with scholarly societies
  • Enhance library leadership’s decision-making capability by building a better understanding of their faculty members’ and researchers’ ongoing needs for services from scholarly societies

Successful campus outreach should encourage and support society leaders to engage in positive change that advances the scholarly communication system, promotes new research modes, and offers a path forward in a time of paradigm shift.

ARL Publishes Author Addenda, SPEC Kit 310

The Association of Research Libraries has published Author Addenda, SPEC Kit 310. The table of contents and executive summary are freely available.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

This survey was distributed to the 123 ARL member libraries in February 2009. Respondents were asked to provide information on the use of author addenda at their institutions, which rights authors were encouraged to retain, and the methods by which libraries were conducting promotion and outreach efforts on the topic of author rights and addenda. Seventy libraries (57%) responded to the survey. Of those respondents, 35 (50%) indicated that authors at their institutions were using author addenda, and 33 libraries (47%) indicated that they “did not know.” Only two libraries indicated that authors at their institutions were not using author addenda.

The majority of respondents (77%) did not formally collect information on the use of author addenda on their campuses at the time of this survey. Evidence was gathered mostly in an informal way, either when an author contacted the library with a question related to copyright or an author addendum, or through anecdotal stories of success or failure in using an addendum. Fifty-two percent (36) of the responding libraries reported that an author addendum had been endorsed by administrators or a governing body at their institution or by their consortia, while 62% (43) responded that there had been no endorsements. There had been more endorsements at the consortial level than at the institutional level. Eight libraries (12%) reported that an institutional endorsement was under consideration at the time of the survey. A larger number of libraries (46 or 68%) reported that their institution or consortium had worked to promote the use of an author addendum by providing links to an author addendum and copyright information on library Web sites or making faculty presentations on author rights (particularly pertaining to the NIH Public Access Policy).

This SPEC Kit includes documentation from respondents in the form of sample addenda, brochures, handouts, and author rights Web sites and slides from presentations to faculty and library staff.

Stanford University Libraries Have Laid Off 32 Employees, Will Close Physics Library

The Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources have laid off 32 employees, eliminated 26 vacant positions, and plan to close the Physics Library in 2010.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

University Libraries announced Wednesday that it has laid off 32 employees. It also offered nine other staff members the option of being laid off and receiving severance benefits instead of staying in revamped positions at reduced pay or reduced hours.

The unit also announced plans to permanently close the Physics Library in the summer of 2010 and transfer its holdings to other locations. . . .

"This has been a challenging process and layoffs have been undertaken only after careful assessment of all budget options," said University Librarian Michael Keller.

"We greatly regret the need to lay off staff who have been dedicated to the library and its mission. However, the elimination of these positions will enable us to balance our budget. I am confident that we can weather the crisis, and we begin immediately the important task of revamping and rebuilding our organization."

All told, more than 60 library positions have been affected by layoffs, reassignments and other cost-cutting measures to meet the 2010 budget reduction mandated by the university.

University Libraries has also eliminated 26 vacant positions.

In addition to trimming its workforce, University Libraries has cut expenses by reducing the purchase of books, journals and online subscriptions; closing Green Library at 1 a.m.; eliminating patron outreach programs, including the semi-annual magazine Imprint; and eliminating most staff travel.

In Stanford Provost John Etchemendy's "2009-2010 Stanford University Budget Plan" presentation on 05/28/09 to the Faculty Senate, it was stated that the Libraries face a 13.5% general funds budget reduction.

In "University Budget Announced," Etchemendy is reported as saying that the Stanford Auxiliary Libraries project must proceed, noting that:

"If we don’t build that soon, Mike’s going to have to start burning books," Etchemendy said, referring to University Librarian Michael Keller.

Read more about the Stanford University budget situation at "Cuts to Hiring Will Affect Growth, Composition of Faculty"; "Provost Announces Salary Freeze, Additional Cuts for FY 10"; "Provost Outlines Next Year's Budget"; "Recession Leads to Strategic Shift"; and "University Suspends $1.3 Billion in Capital Projects."

“One Year (Almost) with the Open Access Authors Fund”

Andrew Waller has self-archived his "One Year (Almost) with the Open Access Authors Fund" presentation in E-LIS.

Here's the abstract:

This presentation described the origin of and policies and procedures relating to the Open Access Authors Fund at the University of Calgary. The activities of the Fund in its first year were presented and discussed. Other Open Access activities at the University of Calgary were also briefly discussed.

ARL Board Passes Resolution against Nondisclosure or Confidentiality Clauses in Publisher/Vendor Agreements

The Association of Research Libraries Board of Directors has passed a resolution asking members to not sign publisher/vendor agreements that include nondisclosure or confidentiality clauses.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Board of Directors voted in support of a resolution introduced by its Scholarly Communication Steering Committee to strongly encourage ARL member libraries to refrain from signing agreements with publishers or vendors, either individually or through consortia, that include nondisclosure or confidentiality clauses. In addition, the Board encourages ARL members to share upon request from other libraries information contained in these agreements (save for trade secrets or proprietary technical details) for licensing content, licensing software or other tools, and for digitization contracts with third-party vendors. . . .

The resolution was prepared in response to the concerns of membership that, as the amount of licensed content has increased, especially through packages of publications, nondisclosure or confidentiality clauses have had a negative impact on effective negotiations. The Scholarly Communication Steering Committee took the position that an open market will result in better licensing terms. In their discussions, the committee also noted the value of encouraging research projects and other efforts to gather information about the current market and licensing terms, such as an initiative being undertaken by Ted Bergstrom, University of California, Santa Barbara, Paul Courant, University of Michigan, and Preston McAfee, Cal Tech, to acquire information on bundled site-license contracts.

Google and University of Michigan Sign Expanded Digitization Agreement

Google and the University of Michigan have signed an expanded digitization agreement that incorporates the terms of the Google Book Search Settlement Agreement.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Specifically, the agreement:

Expands the scope of Google and University of Michigan's partnership:
The University of Michigan continues its tradition of leadership in library digitization by being the first library to expand its partnership with Google under the terms of Google's settlement agreement with a broad class of authors and publishers. The principles underlying the new agreement are to ensure access to our collection, to provide a solid foundation for future research and study, and to provide the greatest public good for patrons of libraries around the US.

Broadens public access to University of Michigan's collections:
Once the settlement is approved by the court, readers and students throughout the US will enjoy the benefits of University of Michigan's collections, including free previews, the ability to buy access to University of Michigan's books online, and institutional subscriptions.

Supports shared services with other libraries:
The agreement empowers University of Michigan to broaden public access to its collection by using digital files of books that Google scans to strengthen and support initiatives like HathiTrust.

Provides greater digital access to University of Michigan's collections for students and faculty:
University of Michigan will get a digital copy of every book held in their collection, whether it's scanned from Michigan or at another library.

Broadens access to public domain books from University of Michigan's collection:
The University of Michigan will be able to share digital copies of public domain works Google has digitized from its collection with fellow academic institutions, libraries, and other organizations for non-commercial purposes. These provisions enable Michigan to share its digital library collection with students, scholars, and other library users around the world.

Subsidizes University of Michigan's Institutional Subscription:
If approved by the court, Google's agreement with authors and publishers allows it to make millions of digitized books available to colleges and universities via a subscription. Under our new agreement, Google will subsidize the cost of Michigan's subscription based on the number of books scanned from Michigan. In practice, this means that Google will subsidize the entire cost of Michigan's institutional subscription–so that Michigan's students and staff will be able to access and read almost every book Google has digitized from 29 libraries around the world, for free.

Expands access for students, faculty, and patrons with disabilities:
Google will make public domain works digitized from Michigan's print library collection accessible to users with print disabilities in the same ways as in-copyright books covered under the settlement agreement.

Safeguards the public's access to knowledge:
Michigan's agreement includes collective terms Google has committed to that can be enjoyed by any of Google's other partner libraries. Michigan is the first university to sign on to these terms, which give libraries new ways to help safeguard the public's access to these books.

Establishes a mechanism to review prices:
Our agreement gives Michigan and other participating libraries the power to review the pricing of Institutional Subscriptions to make sure that they are priced for "broad penetration," as required by the settlement agreement. That means that the reviewer will evaluate whether subscriptions are affordable enough to allow universities, libraries, and other institutions across the country to take advantage of them.

If they determine that prices are too high, University of Michigan and other participating libraries who sign these collective terms can challenge the prices through arbitration, and Google will be required to work with the Registry to adjust the pricing accordingly.

Ensures access to millions of books for generations to come:
Google has committed to make the books it has scanned publicly available for free search, consumer purchase, institutional subscriptions, and other services established by the settlement agreement. Our agreement ensures that libraries and their patrons can continue to use digital copies of the millions of books Google has scanned well into the future, even if Google goes away.

Also see the press release.

The University of Tennessee Launches Its Institutional Repository, Trace

The University of Tennessee has launched its institutional repository using Digital Commons.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

"Trace, the Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange, will promote the visibility and permanence of the UT community's research, scholarship and creative activity," said Barbara Dewey, dean of the UT Libraries.

"Trace will provide global access to UT's scholarly and creative output. The collective excellence of our faculty and students will be highlighted with every click on the website," Dewey said.

Trace content may include technical reports, grant proposals, digital media, campus publications, conference proceedings, extension service publications, and internal archives, as well as scholarly work published in peer-reviewed journals and books when copyright permits. Works deposited receive the same stewardship as other resources in the university's growing digital library. The UT Office of Research, the Science Alliance, and the Office of the Provost are cooperating with UT Libraries to sponsor the repository. The Berkeley Electronic Press Digital Commons platform will host the service for the first three years.

“Leading Change in the System of Scholarly Communication: A Case Study of Engaging Liaison Librarians for Outreach to Faculty”

College & Research Libraries has made a preprint of "Leading Change in the System of Scholarly Communication: A Case Study of Engaging Liaison Librarians for Outreach to Faculty" available.

Here's an excerpt:

This narrative, single-case study examines how liaison librarians at the University of Minnesota (UMN) came to include advocating for reform of the scholarly communication system among their core responsibilities. While other libraries may hire a coordinator or rely on a committee to undertake outreach programs, UMN has defined baseline expertise in scholarly communication for all librarians who serve as liaisons to disciplinary faculty members. By “mainstreaming” scholarly communication duties, UMN is declaring these issues central to the profession.1 This intrinsic study uses evidence gathered from open-ended interviews with three participants, supplemented by documentation. It explores the context of these changes, systems thinking, and new mental models.

Safeguarding Collections at the Dawn of the 21st Century: Describing Roles & Measuring Contemporary Preservation Activities in ARL Libraries

The Association of Research Libraries has released Safeguarding Collections at the Dawn of the 21st Century: Describing Roles & Measuring Contemporary Preservation Activities in ARL Libraries.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The report is organized into three thematic sections:

  1. Reshaping the preservation functions in research libraries—Libraries must reconceptualize preservation as a core function that extends beyond activities within a preservation department. As preservation is advanced through a range of investments and partnerships, libraries are in the midst of reshaping priorities and reallocating resources to align with new services and conceptions of collections.

  2. The networked digital environment—ARL members need to expand their activities and deepen their practices related to preserving digital content though Web archiving, deployment of digital repositories, and efforts to preserve e-journals and other born digital content (whether purchased, licensed, or digitized by the library).

  3. Library collaborative strategies—Community-level activities are crucial, both to address the challenges presented by digital formats, but also to make traditional preservation activities more effective.

ARL Developing Alternative to Library Investment Index

The Association of Research Libraries is gathering profile descriptions of its member libraries in order to “to identify similarities and differences among libraries and to identify elements that will be measured for the purposes of an alternative to the expenditure-focused Library Investment Index.” The Library Investment Index is used to create a well-known ranking table of U.S. and Canadian research libraries (see page 90 of the ARL Statistics 2006–2007 as an example.)

Read more about it at "ARL Library Profiles Being Collected."