News

Karen Williams
image © ACRLKaren Williams, associate university librarian for research and learning at University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, has been named dean of university libraries at University of Arizona, effective August 1, 2013. Williams will succeed Carla Stoffle, who is stepping down as dean after 22 years in the position to join the faculty of the School of Information Resources and Library Sciences, effective July 31. For more information about Karen Williams, see her profile on the University of Arizona website.

image © Mark FischerIn a decision issued Monday, June 24, the US Supreme Court avoided a final ruling in a closely watched case challenging the University of Texas’s consideration of race as part of its admissions policy. Instead, the court held that the Fifth Circuit had not applied the correct level of scrutiny to the policy.

Jaclyn Grahl
image © CCCThe Chicago Collections Consortium (CCC) has announced the appointment of its first executive director, Jaclyn Grahl. The CCC is a newly formed organization that aims to preserve, present, and promote the history and culture of the Chicago region by leveraging the collections, programs, and expertise of its members: libraries, museums, and other institutions with Chicago-focused archival collections. CCC members include three ARL members—Northwestern University, University of Chicago, and University of Illinois at Chicago—as well as the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago History Museum, Chicago Public Library, Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Loyola University Chicago, Newberry Library, and Roosevelt University. A major first initiative of the CCC is to develop a freely accessible, online portal to materials documenting the Chicago metropolitan area.

image © Dominique ArchambaultThe Library Copyright Alliance applauds the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for finalizing the Treaty for the Blind, a treaty that will allow nations to share or make accessible copies for the print disabled in other countries, who, more often than not, have little access to reading materials. The treaty was signed on June 27 in Morocco.

image © Free PressYesterday ARL joined 37 other privacy and civil liberties organizations and companies in a letter (PDF) urging the US Senate to adhere to a basic set of principles to protect Americans’ privacy when drafting its cybersecurity legislation.

Alberta Davis Comer
image © Indiana State UAlberta Davis Comer, dean and associate dean of library services at Indiana State University, has been named dean and director of the J. Willard Marriott Library and university librarian for the University of Utah, effective August 19, 2013. Comer will succeed Joyce Ogburn, who served as dean at Utah from 2007 to 2012 and recently accepted the position of dean of libraries at Appalachian State University. For more details about Comer's appointment, see the June 24 University of Utah news release, “University of Utah Names Dean for Marriott Library.”

EBLIPFifteen articles about a range of assessment activities in academic libraries are featured in the latest issue of Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP vol. 8, no. 2). An editorial by Martha Kyrillidou and Damon Jaggars summarizes the themes of these papers selected from the 2010 Library Assessment Conference proceedings.

Clifford Lynch
image © Cecilia PrestonNext weekend at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Chicago, CNI executive director Clifford Lynch will participate in two panel discussions about libraries and technology. He will take part in the Digital Content Working Group (DCWG) panel “ALA, E-Books & Digital Content: What’s Next?” on Saturday, June 29, 1:00-2:30 p.m., in the McCormick Place Convention Center room S502. He will also participate in “LITA’s Top Technology Trends Panel” on Sunday, June 30, at 1:00 p.m., in convention center room S105a-c.

The video of the webcast “LibValue: Success in Teaching & Research” presented on June 13 is now available on ARL's YouTube channel. This webcast describes research examining faculty members' views on the value of scholarly collections in academic libraries. The presenters are Carol Tenopir, professor in the School of Information Sciences and director of the Center for Information and Communication Studies at the University of Tennessee, and Rachel Fleming-May, assistant professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Tennessee. Webcast slides (PDF) are also availble for download. 

Digital Archives SpecialistARL is working with the Society of American Archivists (SAA) to offer Digital Archives Specialist (DAS) courses targeted for staff in ARL member institutions. ARL and SAA will deliver four DAS courses back-to-back in a single week, traveling across 11 different ARL host libraries over the next 18 months.