News

ARL today joined major sponsors Public Library of Science (PLOS), Wellcome Trust, and Google to launch the Accelerating Science Award Program (ASAP), which recognizes the use of scientific research, published through open access, that has led to innovations in any field that benefits society.

image © Thomas HawkARL has selected the sponsor cohort for the fifth iteration of the Research Library Leadership Fellows (RLLF) Program, an 18-month executive leadership fellowship designed and sponsored by ARL member libraries that helps develop future senior-level leaders in large research libraries. The program exposes library staff who have the desire and potential for leadership in ARL libraries to important issues, peer institutions, and professional networks that will enhance their preparedness to take on senior-level roles.

York, UK, © Mark Davis ARL is sponsoring a LibQUAL+ Exchange of Experience workshop on Monday, July 22, 2013, in conjunction with the 10th Northumbria International Conference on Performance Measurement in Libraries and Information Services, to be held in York, UK. The half-day event will feature opportunities for LibQUAL+ participants and other interested parties to share experiences and discuss strategic uses of assessment results. The program will also include an update on the first UK implementation of the ClimateQUAL survey.

GSU Library
image © Jason PuckettThe Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) filed a “friend of the court” brief (PDF) late yesterday in support of Georgia State University (GSU) in the appeal of Cambridge U. Press et al. v. Mark P. Becker et al. In its brief, LCA argues that GSU’s e-reserves policy is consistent with widespread and well-established best practices for fair use at academic and research libraries, and that these uses have no negative effects on scholarship. LCA was represented by Jonathan Band and attorneys from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The case is on appeal with the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

image © Xavier de JuaréguiberryDear Friend of the Library,

On April 15, the Boston Marathon and the Commonwealth’s celebration of Patriots’ Day were suddenly and sadly overtaken by tragic events. In the days that followed, the people of Boston and beyond have responded with enormous courage, support, and resilience. These individuals make us proud to have “Boston” in our name and are an inspiration as our community begins to recover and heal.

Senator Patrick Leahy
image © World BankOn Thursday, April 25, the US Senate Judiciary Committee took another crucial step toward fixing outdated privacy laws by endorsing a bill proposed by Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) that includes vital reforms to give appropriate privacy protection to e-mail and cloud storage. The committee passed a similar bill in November 2012, but the legislative session ended before the measure could reach the full Senate. The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) applauds Chairman Leahy and all members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for their strong, bipartisan support for reasonable privacy protections online.

Columbia University, Low Memorial LibraryARL Executive Director Elliott Shore has embarked on a "listening tour" of ARL member libraries. This is the fifth in a series of informal reports from his visits.

During the week of April 8 my listening tour of ARL libraries took me to Penn State University, Rochester, and Cornell, where I met with Barbara Dewey, Mary Ann Mavrinac (a former ARL RLLF fellow), and Anne Kenney and their respective staffs. The following week I had a “New York Minute” on April 16 and visited Columbia, NYU, and NYPL with a side-trip to NYPL’s processing center in Queens. I met with Jim Neal, Carol Mandel, and Ann Thornton and their AULs in their buildings all between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. that day. And this week I am spending time with Lorraine Haricombe at Kansas and Connie Dowell at Vanderbilt, with an appearance at the ASERL meeting in Memphis sandwiched in between.

image © Jim BumgardnerARL and the Society of American Archivists (SAA) have been awarded a $487,652 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program in support of the new ARL/SAA Mosaic Scholarship Program—a diversity recruitment program that seeks to attract students to the archives and special collections profession and provide support for them during graduate school. The program will provide a full suite of financial benefits and career development and placement support to 15 students from traditionally underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups entering academic studies in archival science, special collections librarianship, or similar graduate programs.

image © Tom LohdanToday the Association of American Universities (AAU), Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), and Association of Research Libraries (ARL) released a two-page statement by David E. Shulenburger calling on the research university community to provide input to the US Government for increasing access to the results of federally funded research.

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) has announced the appointment of four new members to its Board of Directors: Robert Darnton, the Carl H. Pforzheimer university professor and university librarian at Harvard and former DPLA Steering Committee member; Jamie Hollier, president of Anneal and partner in Commerce Kitchen; Amy Ryan, president of the Boston Public Library and former DPLA Steering Committee member; and Siva Vaidhyanathan, the Robertson professor in media studies and chair of the Department of Media Studies, University of Virginia.