ARL News

ARL has published the final version of Research Library Issues (RLI) no. 279, which is devoted to legal concerns and evolving professional practices around digitizing special collections and archival materials. A pre-publication version of this issue was released in June. The final version of issue 279 uses the streamlined layout that debuted yesterday with issue 278.

Washington, DC—The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published issue 278 of Research Library Issues(RLI), which unveils a new streamlined look for this publication. This issue of RLI features strategies for managing time from Shirley K. Baker, recently retired from Washington University in St. Louis. Her insights stem from years of experience and address the critical balance of multiple priorities in a library director’s life.

ARL has published issue 9 of Synergy: News from ARL Diversity Programs. The newsletter provides an opportunity for former ARL diversity program participants to share information about key issues and emerging trends in the workplace.

Washington, DC—On August 1, 2012, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) joined other members of the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA)—the American Library Association (ALA) and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)—and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to file a friend-of-the-court brief (PDF) in Authors Guild v. Google, Inc., a lawsuit in which authors allege that Google violated copyright by scanning books to create Google Book Search (GBS), a search tool similar to its Internet search engine. The LCA/EFF brief defends GBS as permissible under the doctrine of fair use, a flexible right that allows copying without payment or permission where the public benefit strongly outweighs the harm to individual rightsholders.

Washington, DC—The Association of Research Libraries’ (ARL) Committee on Diversity and Leadership has selected 14 masters of library and information science (MLIS) students to participate in the 2012–2014 Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce (IRDW) as ARL Diversity Scholars.

Washington, DC--The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published Collaborative Teaching and Learning Tools, SPEC Kit 328, which gathers information about what collaborative teaching and learning tools are currently being offered to users in ARL member libraries. It covers questions on which kinds of tools are offered, how many, and why; where they are located; who may use them; the sources of funding; who provides training and support; and what techniques are used to promote and evaluate the tools. For the purpose of this survey, “collaborative teaching and learning tools” are limited to the equipment, devices, or systems being offered to research library users in a self-service environment including, but not limited to, the following: interactive whiteboards (IWBs, e.g., SMART Board), touchscreen tablet computers (e.g., iPads), classroom/audience response system (e.g., clickers), interactive learning centers (e.g., TouchTables), and Wii gaming systems.

On July 6, 2012, members of the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA), together with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), filed a "friend of the court" brief in Authors Guild v. HathiTrust, urging a federal court to find that the fair use doctrine permitted the creation of a valuable digital library. The brief argues four main points: that the HathiTrust Digital Library (HDL) is serving the public interest, that its tremendous public benefit tilts the analysis firmly in favor of fair use, that a legislative "fix" is both unnecessary and unworkable, and that the plaintiffs helped foster public reliance on the HathiTrust project, which the public should not be deprived of now.

ARL is now soliciting nominations for the 2012 Library Assessment Career Achievement Award, which will be presented at the Library Assessment Conference in Charlottesville, Virginia, this October. The criteria are simple:

On November 18, 2011, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and LYRASIS signed an agreement designating LYRASIS as an agent to negotiate licenses for online content on behalf of interested ARL member libraries. This is the culmination of an effort that began in 2010 to identify a strategy for ARL to influence the marketplace regarding licensing rights, technical specifications, and business terms to meet the needs of research libraries.

An injunction filed by Elsevier to block release of information included in a licensing contract between the publisher and Washington State University (WSU) was denied by a court in the state of Washington last week. A public-records request for contract terms had been submitted to the university by researchers gathering data on the terms of large-publisher bundled contracts.