ARL News

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.

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.

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.

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.

image © François ProulxToday, dozens of civil liberties organizations and Internet companies—including the Electronic Privacy Information Center, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, ThoughtWorks, and Americans for Limited Government—have joined the coalition demanding that Congress initiate a full-scale investigation into the National Security Agency (NSA)’s surveillance programs. The coalition includes ARL, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, and many other organizations and companies concerned with privacy and civil liberties. 

image © MacroMiracleARL invites participation in the MINES for Libraries survey in 2013–2014. Measuring the Impact of Networked Electronic Services (MINES for Libraries, or MINES) is an online, transaction-based survey that collects data on user demographics and the purpose of use of e-resources. The MINES project utilizes a point-of-use survey technique and integrates usage data about such electronic resources as digital collections, open access journals, pre-print and post-print servers, and institutional repositories to provide an inclusive picture of the library’s supported networked e-resources. MINES has been administered at more than 50 North American libraries since 2003, surveying more than 100,000 networked services users.

Davita Vance-Cooks, photo courtesy GPOOn June 11, ARL joined the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), American Library Association (ALA), Medical Library Association (MLA), and Special Libraries Association (SLA) in a letter (PDF) to the US Senate Committee on Rules & Administration supporting President Obama's nomination of Acting Public Printer Davita Vance-Cooks for Public Printer of the United States. The Public Printer oversees the US Government Printing Office (GPO). If confirmed, Vance-Cooks would be the first woman and first African American to head the GPO.

image © Jordon CooperARL and the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) will sponsor a workshop on using evidence for assessment and evaluation as part of the Seventh International Evidence Based Library and Information Practice Conference (EBLIP 7) in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. This preconference session will be held on Monday, July 15, 2013, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.