To: ARL Directors
From: Duane Webster
Re: August–September 2007 E-News for ARL Directors
These news notes are organized by the strategic directions identified in the ARL Strategic Plan: Scholarly Communication; Public Policies Affecting Research Libraries; and Library Roles in Research, Teaching, and Learning. In addition, there is an initial section for Governance and Membership Activities and complementary sections on Diversity, Professional Workforce, and Leadership Development; Library Statistics and Assessment; and Other Items of Interest to ARL Directors.
E-News for ARL Directors is a collaboration of ARL program staff, compiled and edited by Duane Webster (duane@arl.org) and Kaylyn Groves (kaylyn@arl.org).
You are encouraged to route the E-News to your staff and others in your institution.
1. ARL Membership to Convene October 10–11
2. Celebrating Research Using Rare & Special Collections
3. Partners Sought for Future Regional Institutes on Scholarly Communication
4. PRISM Coalition Formed by AAP to Campaign against Public Access to Federally Funded Research
5. New Study of Faculty Attitudes and Behaviors Regarding Scholarly Communication
6. Lars Meyer Appointed Preservation Visiting Program Officer
7. ARL, ACRL, and SPARC Provide Free Access to Archive of Author Rights Webcast
8. SciVee: A Site for Disseminating Open Access Multimedia Science Presentations
9. University of Wisconsin Libraries Announce Fund for Authors
10. Oxford University Press’s Hybrid Journal Program Yields Returns for Subscribers
11. CIHR Unveils New Policy to Provide Open Access to Published Health Research
12. CARL & SPARC Offer Canadian Authors New Tool to Widen Access to Published Articles
13. BioOne Joins SERU Pilot Program
14. Editorial Board of Springer Journal K-Theory Resigns
15. US Court of Appeals to Rehear Greenberg v. National Geographic Society
16. US Court of Appeals Calls for Review of Case Challenging Copyright Term Extension
17. Economic Study Calculates Value of Fair Use to the US Economy
18. US Congress Passes New Expansive Wiretap Law
19. Federal District Court Rules Provisions in USA PATRIOT Act Are Unconstitutional
20. US Senators Introduce National Security Letter Reform Act
21. NSF Announces Digital Data Preservation and Access Solicitation
22. ARL Files Comments on NARA’s Proposed Digitization Agreement
23. NARA Seeks Public Comment on Draft Plan for Digitizing Archival Materials
24. US Congress Passes Open Government Act
25. US Senate Committee Approves GPO Public Printer Nomination
27. Enhancing Graduate Education: Forum Set for October 12
28. New Study Reports on Data-Management Needs of Biomedical Researchers
29. Networked Science Becomes New Vehicle for E-Science Collaboration
30. Yale University Librarian Enters Blogosphere
31. LIBER Approves Statement on Special Collections
32. Leaders in Graduate Education Convene Global Summit
34. RLLF Fellows Visit Sponsoring Institutions Penn State and Toronto
35. ARL Redesigns Research Library Residency Programs Database
36. ARL to Host Fourth Annual Leadership Institute January 12, 2008
37. ARL Annual Salary Survey 2006–07
38. ARL Introduces Expenditures-Focused Index of University Library Members
39. ARL Offers Workshops on Changes to ARL Statistics Data Collection
40. ARL Statistical Surveys Update
42. IFLA Convenes Annual Conference in Durban, South Africa
The 151st ARL Membership Meeting will take place October 10–11, 2007, at the Washington Marriott Hotel in Washington DC. The Membership Meeting will be followed by an optional forum on Friday, October 12, on “Enhancing Graduate Education: A Fresh Look at Library Engagement”; see item 24 below for details. The Membership Meeting schedule is on the ARL Web site http://www.arl.org/events/currentmm/.
In commemoration of ARL’s 75th anniversary, the Association is publishing a book, Celebrating Research, that illustrates the extraordinary nature and scope of the special collections in ARL member libraries and how these collections are being used. The companion Web site will be launched in early October. Each member library has been mailed one complimentary copy of the book. Prepublication orders will be shipped in October. To order additional copies at $115 apiece ($135 for non-members) plus shipping and handling, send e-mail to pubs@arl.org.
ARL and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) have launched a new program offering consortia the opportunity to partner in offering the Institute on Scholarly Communication. The first regional institute will be hosted by the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI) December 5–7, 2007, in Chicago. ARL and ACRL plan to offer one or two regional institutes in 2008 and are encouraging consortia to submit brief proposals. Interested consortia should contact Julia Blixrud at jblix@arl.org. Partners for 2008 will be selected this October.
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) is sponsoring a new coalition to oppose policies promoting public access to federally funded research and open access. The Partnership for Research Integrity in Science & Medicine (PRISM) coalition has already attracted a substantial amount of critical commentary. The PRISM Web site, directed to the public and to policy makers repeats “simple messages” developed by a PR consultant for AAP. The initiative repeatedly conflates policies regarding access to federally funded research with hypothesized dire consequences ultimately resulting in the loss of any effective system of scholarly publishing. Inaccuracies abound in the initiative’s rhetoric. ARL has released an updated issue brief, “AAP PR Campaign against Open Access and Public Access to Federally Funded Research: Update re the PRISM Coalition” to address some of the messages that have been developed by the AAP. The ARL issue brief is available at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/aapprissuebrief.pdf. Additional materials are available from SPARC; see:
SPARC’s letter to members
http://www.arl.org/sparc/advocacy/07-0907prism.htmlPeter Suber’s Open Access News blog
http://www.earlham.edu/%7Epeters/fos/fosblog.htmlSPARC Open Access Newsletter, no. 113 (Sept. 2, 2007)
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/09-02-07.htm
The PRISM site is located at http://www.prismcoalition.org/.
The University of California (UC) Office of Scholarly Communication has released a new study of UC faculty and their perceptions and behaviors relating to a number of scholarly communication issues. A representative sample of faculty from all UC campuses responded to a variety of questions on such topics as their scholarly publishing practices, the barriers to change erected by promotion and tenure requirements, author copyright retention, and readiness to engage in change. While interest in scholarly communication is strong, knowledge and awareness are more limited on most issues and behavior is slow to change. Perhaps surprisingly, senior faculty and faculty in the arts and humanities were most open to changing their behavior and support for traditional practices. An executive summary and the full report are available at http://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/responses/activities.html.
Lars Meyer, Preservation Librarian, Emory University Libraries, has been appointed to serve as an ARL Visiting Program Officer to assess the state of preservation programs in ARL member libraries. The appointment is in response to one of the recommendations from the Future of Preservation in ARL Libraries Workshop Planning Task Force, which recommended the engagement of a Visiting Program Officer to gather quantitative and qualitative information on preservation activities in member libraries. Meyer will spend about one day per week on this assignment through the spring of 2008. He can be contacted at lmeyer2@emory.edu.
ARL and ACRL, through the Institute on Scholarly Communication, along with SPARC are providing a free, archived version of the one-hour webcast, “Understanding Author Rights,” aimed at librarians working with faculty on author rights. The sponsors are underwriting costs to make the archive (recorded June 18, 2007) freely available to the broader community.
Program presenters, Julia Blixrud, Assistant Director for Public Programs, SPARC, and Trisha Davis, Rights Management Coordinator, Ohio State University Libraries, help librarians better engage disciplinary faculty and researchers on the topic of author rights by learning the basic issues and outreach strategies.
To access this Elluminate recording, you will need a free LearningTimes account available at http://www.learningtimes.net/acrl_arrarchive.html.
The “Author Rights Resources” handout from the webcast is also freely available at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/ARresources.pdf.
The Public Library of Science, National Science Foundation, and San Diego Super Computer Center have launched SciVee, a YouTube-like service that encourages researchers to submit multimedia objects. All submissions must be open access. The service offers a number of videos summarizing or elaborating open access articles. See http://www.scivee.tv/.
The University of Wisconsin Libraries have created a new Office of Scholarly Communication and Publishing and are creating a fund to help authors pay publishing fees for open access journals and to provide seed funds to assist in the creation of new open access publications. These new resources are available for faculty-initiated projects. The libraries are already supporting four open access publications: Illumination: The Undergraduate Journal of Humanities, Journal of Insect Science, South African Voices, and Women in Print. Information about the program is available at http://oscp.library.wisc.edu/response.html#fund.
Oxford University Press announced 2008 price reductions for eight titles in their Oxford Open program, which offers authors the opportunity to pay for open access to their articles. Through this action, the press is demonstrating its commitment both to supporting new publishing models and to responsible pricing practices. The press’s Web site notes, “Overall, the average online-only price increase from 2007 to 2008 across all Oxford Journals titles is 6.9%, whereas the average price increase for Oxford Open titles is 1.7%, with eight out of the 28 Oxford Open titles seeing an absolute reduction in price from 2007 to 2008.” Further information is available on the press’s site at http://www.oxfordjournals.org/oxfordopen/.
In early September, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)—one of three major federal funding bodies in Canada—released a policy to provide open public access to the results of the research it funds. The policy, which encourages Canadian researchers to “make every effort to ensure that their peer-reviewed research articles are freely available as soon as possible after publication,” was welcomed by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (see http://www.carl-abrc.ca/new/pdf/carl_press_release-cihr.pdf). The CIHR announcement is online at http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/34851.html.
CARL and SPARC have partnered to help Canadian authors retain key rights to the journal articles they publish. The new SPARC Canadian Author Addendum enables authors to secure a more balanced agreement by retaining select rights, such as the rights to reproduce, reuse, and publicly present the articles they publish for non-commercial purposes. The addendum will help Canadian researchers to comply with granting council public access policies, such as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Policy on Access to Research Outputs. The Canadian Addendum reflects Canadian copyright law and is an adaptation of the original US version of the SPARC Author Addendum. See http://www.arl.org/sparc/media/07-0815.html.
BioOne has joined the Shared E-Resource Understanding (SERU) initiative as part of an inaugural group of publishers, libraries, and consortia that have agreed to use SERU on a trial basis. Going forward, libraries and consortia in North America wishing to subscribe to BioOne will be given the option to forego a traditional licensing agreement and operate under SERU Recommended Practices. For more information, see http://www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=get-static&name=news-SERU&ct=1.
The editorial board of the Springer journal K-Theory resigned this summer and formed a new journal entitled, Journal of K-Theory. The new journal will be distributed by Cambridge University Press with an annual subscription price of 380GBP. Publication will begin in January 2008. For more information, see http://www.math.columbia.edu/%7Ewoit/wordpress/?p=581.
Case law regarding the digitization of back files of journals, newspapers, and the like remains unsettled as the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit agreed in late August to rehear the case, Greenberg v. National Geographic Society. The upcoming review will be the third time this court has considered the case. On June 13, 2007, the court reversed its 2001 decision in the case, which concerns the creation of a CD-ROM version of all of the issues of National Geographic Magazine. A freelance photographer, Greenberg, sued the National Geographic Society for including his works in the CD-ROM. In the June 2007 ruling, a three-judge panel ruled that digitization of entire journals with no changes—no additions, deletions, or moving of text or images—did not infringe the copyright of the freelance photographer. Based on a request by Greenberg to reconsider the most recent ruling, in late August, the same court called for a review of the case “en banc,” a review by all of the judges in the circuit. ARL with others in the library and archival community previously filed amicus briefs on this case (see http://www.arl.org/pp/ppcopyright/copyresources/intlcourt.shtml). Members of the Library Copyright Alliance will file an amicus brief in the latest review of the decision.
In a court case brought by artists challenging law that extends the term of copyright protection, the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit recently decided that the case, Golan v. Gonzales, raised issues concerning free expression and thus should take into account First Amendment issues. The case concerns law, the Uruguay Round Agreements Act 1994, which removes works from the public domain. In a unanimous ruling, the Court of Appeals sent the case back to the District Court to evaluate section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreement Act under the First Amendment. Some believe that this new review could possibly trigger a US Supreme Court consideration of the case. For more information, contact Prue Adler prue@arl.org.
According to a recently released economic analysis, fair use and related limitations and exceptions of the US Copyright Act accounted for $4.5 trillion in revenues and $2.2 billion in value added for the United States in 2006. The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) commissioned an economic study in accordance with a World Intellectual Property Organization methodology to better understand and detail the economic contributions of these exemptions to the US economy. The report notes that “industries benefiting from fair use have grown dramatically within the past 20 years…and are directly responsible for more than 18% of US economic growth and nearly 11 million American jobs.” In addition, exports such as Internet or online services relating to fair use industries increased by nearly 50% to an estimated $194 billion in 2006. This groundbreaking study is available via http://www.ccianet.org/artmanager/publish/news/
First-EverEconomicStudyCalculatesDollarValueof.shtml.
Prior to the August congressional recess, the US Congress passed the Protect America Act of 2007, which makes far-reaching changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The new legislation was signed into law by President Bush on August 5. Members of Congress have announced that they anticipate proposing changes to the law as it sunsets in six months. According to Michael Sussmann of Perkins Coie, “the Act amends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 such that surveillance directed at a person reasonably believed to be located outside the United States no longer requires a government application to, and order issuing from, the FISA Court. Under the Act, communications can be monitored (i.e., intercepted) in real time or reviewed after receipt and storage, for example, in the case of email. The Act provides procedures for the government to issue directives to providers to provide data or assistance, for the government to seek an order to compel provider compliance from the FISA Court, and for the recipient of a directive to seek relief from the FISA Court from an unlawful or overly burdensome directive. Under the Act, providers receive cost reimbursement and full immunity from civil suits for compliance with any directive.” ARL joined in letters to House and Senate leadership requesting that Congress conduct public hearings on the legislation. More information is available at
In a strongly worded decision, Judge Marrero of the Federal District Court in Manhattan, NY, struck down a provision concerning the use of National Security Letters (NSLs) by law enforcement (the Federal Bureau of Investigation) in the recently reauthorized USA PATRIOT Act. NSLs compel telephone companies and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to provide customer records to the FBI with little court review and no court authorization. In addition, the terms of the provision prohibited telephone companies and ISPs from telling customers or others that the records had been provided to law enforcement. In the ruling, Doe v. Gonzales, Judge Marrero stated that the provision was unconstitutional, and violated the First Amendment and the separation of powers. For more information, see http://www.aclu.org/safefree/nationalsecurityletters/31580prs20070906.html.
A bipartisan group of US Senators introduced the National Security Letter (NSL) Reform Act, which seeks to “correct misuses and Constitutional concerns surrounding the use of NSLs.” Key provisions include:
• Authorizing the use of National Security Letters to obtain certain less-sensitive types of communications records, financial records, and credit report records without judicial review, but with new procedural safeguards to protect against abuse.
• Requiring that the government make an individualized determination that each record sought with an NSL relates to someone with a connection to terrorism or espionage.
• Placing a time limit on the gag order associated with each NSL, which could be extended by a court if the government demonstrates an extension is necessary and the First Amendment is satisfied.
• Requiring that the FBI implement a program to ensure compliance with the NSL statutes and establish a tracking database for NSLs.
• Ensuring meaningful after-the-fact judicial review procedures for NSLs and Section 215 orders and the accompanying gag orders.
ARL and ALA endorsed the National Security Letter Reform Act. For more information, contact Prue Adler prue@arl.org.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently announced a solicitation, entitled Sustainable Digital Data Preservation and Access Network Partners (DataNet). The goals of this program are to support the development of a small set of full-scale exemplars of new types of digital data preservation and access organizations that: (1) combine expertise in library and archival sciences, computer, computational, and information sciences, cyberinfrastructure, and domain sciences and engineering; (2) develop models for economic and technological sustainability over multiple decades; (3) engage at the frontiers of science and engineering research and education as an information resource, an object of research, and a research entity; and (4) work cooperatively and in coordination to create a functional data network with revolutionary new capabilities for information access, use, and integration without regard to conventional barriers such as data type and format, discipline or subject area, and time and place. An informational meeting for prospective principal investigators will be held 10:00 a.m.–noon, Tuesday, November 6, 2007, in Room 595 NSF Stafford II building, Arlington, Virginia. The informational meeting will be webcast for remote viewing and archived for delayed viewing. Details will be posted on the NSF’s Office of Cyberinfrastructure Web site
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) recently requested public comments on a Proposed Digitization Agreement with the Genealogical Society of America (GSU). In commenting on the agreement, ARL noted a number of positive aspects and also raised concerns about a number of provisions. In particular, ARL notes that no request for information was undertaken to identify other interested parties beyond GSU who may wish to digitize NARA collections, the agreement is open ended and collections to be digitized have not been identified, digitization standards (e.g., preservation quality) are not specified, and there are some copyright and intellectual property concerns with the proposed agreement. With regards to intellectual property and copyright, ARL stated, “as a public policy matter, NARA should state that it does not recognize intellectual property rights in public domain materials based on mere digitization.” A copy of ARL’s letter can be found at http://www.arl.org/pp/access/accessresources/.
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is seeking public comment on its draft “Plan for Digitizing Archival Materials for Public Access, 2007–2016.” This draft plan outlines the agency’s planned strategies to digitize and make more accessible its holdings. The plan is accessible via http://www.archives.gov/comment/digitizing-plan.html. Comments are due November 9, 2007, and may be sent to Vision@nara.gov.
Prior to the August recess, the US Senate passed the Openness Promotes Effectiveness in Our National Government Act (the OPEN Government Act), the first major reform of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in more than a decade. The Open Government Act, according to Sen. Leahy (Chair, Senate Committee on the Judiciary and co-sponsor of the legislation), strengthens FOIA and “will help to reverse the troubling trends of excessive delays and lax FOIA compliance in our government and help to restore the public’s trust in their government.” The legislation requires a House-Senate conference to resolve differences in the two versions of the bill. The Senate-passed legislation is available via http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c110:2:./temp/~c110ziiXxT::.
The US Senate Committee on Rules and Administration approved Robert Tapella to become Public Printer of the Government Printing Office (GPO). With a unanimous vote by members of the committee, the nomination is now awaiting full Senate approval. ARL filed a letter before the Committee on Rules and focused on the “important qualifications that the leadership of GPO must possess in order to continue to successfully implement the strategic vision set forth in 200r, A Strategic Vision for the 21st Century.” ARL’s letter is available at http://www.arl.org/pp/access/fdlp/.
A significant amount of work remains on FY 2008 appropriations bills; consequently, Congress passed a stopgap funding measure—a continuing resolution—to fund government operations in the new fiscal year. The House has passed all 12 appropriations bills and the Senate has passed 4. The FY 2008 Labor, Health, and Human Services, and Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (H.R. 3043) passed the House on July 19 and included language requiring grantees of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to deposit the final, electronic, peer-reviewed manuscripts of NIH-funded research articles in NIH’s online archive within 12 months of publication. A comparable bill in the Senate, S. 1710, includes the same provision and has been approved by the full Committee on Appropriations. This bill will likely be considered by the Senate in mid-October and includes provisions that could trigger a presidential veto. For more information, contact Prue Adler prue@arl.org.
ARL and CNI are co-sponsoring a forum on “Enhancing Graduate Education: A Fresh Look at Library Engagement,” to be held Friday, October 12, 2007, immediately following the ARL Membership Meeting in Washington DC. The program is available on ARL’s Web site at http://www.arl.org/events/fallforum/forum07/.
A new study reports on the data-management and analysis needs of biomedical researchers, and identifies impediments to addressing those needs. Researchers at the University of Washington and affiliated institutions in the Pacific Northwest responded to an online survey of their data-management environments, with a subset of respondents participating in one-on-one, in-depth interviews. The respondents included faculty, PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, and staff scientists from a wide range of disciplines and research interests. The study reveals widespread use of general-purpose applications—such as spreadsheets, text files, and file-sharing programs—for data management; a perceived need for additional support in managing large datasets; and underscores barriers to the access and use of needed tools, especially for smaller labs. Findings suggest there is a nucleus of unmet data-management needs impeding the work of researchers, coupled with opportunities for increased institutional support. Support could take the form of education and training in the use of analytical tools and techniques; improved data description, organization, and metadata management; and enhanced data-management services throughout the data life cycle. The study concludes with a thoughtful discussion of challenges and opportunities that are relevant to research libraries as they plan enhanced data-management services. See Nicholas R. Anderson, E. Sally Lee, J. Scott Brockenbrough, Mark E. Minie, Sherrilynne Fuller, James Brinkley, and Peter Tarczy-Hornoch, “Issues in Biomedical Research Data Management and Analysis: Needs and Barriers,” in Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 14, no. 4 (July/August 2007): 478–88, http://www.jamia.org/cgi/content/abstract/14/4/478.
A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education summarizes a trend away from “Big Science” and “Team Science,” with a dependence on dedicated facilities and scientists in discreet locations, and towards “Networked Science.” This shift in the way e-science is conducted bypasses the high costs, huge bureaucracies, and near-exclusive control of massive research by the largest universities, relying instead on advances in technology to facilitate affordable, decentralized collaboration across space and time. Within these fluid collaboratories of scientists and engineers, Networked Science is advanced by a cyberinfrastructure that provides exceptional access to remote instrumentation, data, resources, and expertise, unconstrained by geography and institutional affiliation.
As she considers Networked Science, author Diana Rhoten, Director of the Knowledge Institutions and Innovation Program at the Social Science Research Council, suggests that “as scientists increasingly work without disciplinary or organizational boundaries…they will need to learn new strategies for identifying problems, allocating time, and directing their research.” One can project that research libraries will increasingly engage with their home institutions to work through challenges associated with e-research and cyberinfrastructure, curation of data, intellectual property rights, and new roles for librarians to support this increasingly interdisciplinary and inter-institutional research. The September 7, 2007, article, “The Dawn of Networked Science,” is online at http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i02/02b01201.htm (login required).
In August, Yale University Librarian Alice Prochaska began an official blog, which highlights exciting developments at the Yale University Library and will include contributions from other Yale librarians. Prochaska will also use the blog to share information regarding her involvement in the broader research library community, which includes serving as chair of the ARL Special Collections Working Group. See http://www.library.yale.edu/mtblog/ulibrarian/.
Members of the Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche (LIBER) unanimously adopted a statement of principles for the management of special collections at the LIBER Annual General Assembly in Warsaw, Poland, on Friday, July 6, 2007. The statement, “European Research Libraries and Their Commitment to Special Collections,” was prepared after consultation with colleagues in European research libraries by a small virtual task force, led by Graham Jefcoate, Director, Nijmegen University Library. The 2003 ARL statement on “Research Libraries and the Commitment to Special Collections” served as a model for the LIBER statement. The LIBER statement is accessible at http://www.libereurope.eu/node/166.
On August 30–September 1, 2007, the Council of Graduate Schools co-hosted the first Global Summit on Graduate Education in Banff, Alberta, bringing together strategic education leaders from North America, Europe, Australia, and the Pacific Rim. The conference was convened to initiate a sustained dialogue on issues and opportunities created by the globalization of graduate education. Leaders reached consensus on a set of guiding principals to inform and strengthen international collaboration and global strategies for improving graduate education. The principles address career competencies, international and inter-institutional cooperation, and promotion of best practices across a broad range of options. The set of principles and other information about the summit is available on the Council of Graduate Schools Web site http://www.cgsnet.org/Default.aspx?tabid=289.
Proposals are now being accepted for project briefings to be delivered at the 2007 CNI Fall Task Force Meeting in Washington DC, on December 10–11. Project briefings are one-hour breakout sessions that focus on specific institutional projects related to networked information or feature discussion of a hot topic. Proposals may be submitted via a Web form available at http://www.cni.org/tfms/2007b.fall/proposal.html, or via an e-mail message to Joan Lippincott at joan@cni.org. The deadline for proposal submission is Tuesday, October 9. See http://www.cni.org/tfms/2007b.fall for more information about the Fall Task Force Meeting.
A podcast of Clifford Lynch’s closing keynote address at the 2007 Seminars on Academic Computing in Snowmass Village, Colorado, “The Institutional Challenges of Cyberinfrastructure and E-Research,” is now available at http://connect.educause.edu/blog/gbayne/podcasttheinstitutio/44963.
An article by Clifford Lynch on the changing shape of the scholarly article appears in the August 2007 issue of CTWatch Quarterly. The issue is devoted to scholarly communications and cyberinfrastructure, and is guest edited by Lee Dirks and Tony Hey of Microsoft. Included are articles by a number of distinguished authors, including Paul Ginsparg, Timo Hannay, Herbert Van de Sompel and Carl Lagoze, and Peter Suber. The issue is online at http://www.ctwatch.org/quarterly/.
Eight ARL Research Library Leadership Fellows visited Penn State University August 12–15. They and their cohort Fellows from Penn State had the opportunity to meet with the Provost, Vice President for Research, Vice President for Development, and the Chief Information Officer. The Fellows also spent time with their counterparts in the Penn State University Libraries. Eleven Fellows visited the University of Toronto in mid-September and spent a similar three days, along with their cohort Fellows, meeting with university administrators, library staff, and directors from neighboring ARL libraries. For further information, contact Julia Blixrud jblix@arl.org.
The ARL Diversity Initiatives have redesigned its Research Library Residency Programs Database, a free, Web-based registry for descriptions of residency programs and internships in academic and research libraries and in library and information science educational programs. ARL supports residency programs and their vital role in the recruitment and training of new professionals by collecting and providing access to information on a broad range of career opportunities for future and new professionals. ARL is particularly interested in attracting new and transitioning professionals to careers in research libraries.
ARL member institutions are encouraged to post their residency listings in the database, which is located on the Web at http://residencies.arl.org/. For more information about ARL Diversity Initiatives, contact Jerome Offord Jr. jerome@arl.org.
ARL will host its Fourth Annual Leadership Institute January 12, 2008, in conjunction with the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia. The institute focuses on introducing research libraries, and their macro-level issues, to ARL Diversity Scholars, who are MLS graduate students. The Leadership Institute is co-sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and two signature events will be held for ARL member institutions:
ARL Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce Career Luncheon for HR Directors, Saturday, January 12, 2008, 12:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m.
ARL Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce Networking Reception, Saturday, January 12, 2008, 6:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m.
For more information, contact Jerome Offord Jr. jerome@arl.org.
The printed ARL Salary Survey 2006–07 has been mailed to ARL member libraries and subscribers. Subsequently, however, we learned of errors in the beginning salaries reported in Tables 35, 36, 42, and 43. The entire report will be reissued with corrected tables and all members and subscribers will receive a new copy of this publication. We recommend that you discard the publication with incorrect data that you received in September. In the meantime, a revised version of the publication, with the corrected tables, is available at http://www.arl.org/
stats/annualsurveys/salary/sal0607.shtml. We apologize for this error and we would like to assure you that this will not happen in the future.
Highlights from the published data show that ARL librarians’ salaries outperformed inflation. The combined median salary in 2006–07 for US and Canadian ARL universities was $59,648, an increase of 4.5% over last year. The Consumer Price Index in the US increased by 4.1% last year and in Canada by 2.4%. The ARL Annual Salary Survey 2006–07 analyzes salary data from a number of different perspectives, including race, ethnicity, and gender. Gender-based salary differentials continue. The overall salary for women in the 113 ARL university libraries is 95.69% of that paid to men; this figure compares to 95.47% in 2004–05. While the data shows a marked closure of the gender gap in ARL libraries over the long term—in 1980–81, women in ARL libraries were paid roughly 87% that of men—it also raises the possibility that the closure has peaked, and that a 5% or 6% gap between men’s and women’s salaries may persist. Order print copies of the ARL Annual Salary Survey by sending e-mail to pubs@arl.org: $70 ARL members ($140 non-members).
Beginning with the ARL Statistics 2005–06 data, ARL introduced an Expenditures-Focused Index of the Association’s university library members for describing the amount of resources invested in these institutions.
The Expenditures-Focused Index is a summary measure of relative size among the university members of the Association. This index does not attempt to measure a library’s services, quality of collections, or success in meeting the needs of users.
The new index is composed of four variables that are part of the historical data elements in which university ARL libraries most resemble one another: (a) total library expenditures, (b) salaries and wages of professional staff, (c) total library materials expenditures, and (d) total professional and support staff.
The Expenditures-Focused Index for 2005–06 is freely available on the ARL Web site http://www.arl.org/stats/index/; it is also featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education, 2007–8 Almanac, vol. 54, no. 1, page 34, http://chronicle.com/weekly/almanac/2007/nation/
0103401.htm (login required).
ARL will release a revised version of the new index in the coming days due to an error in double-counting law and medical data in one member library. For more information, contact Martha Kyrillidou martha@arl.org.
The ARL Statistics and Measurement Program is planning workshops and a webcast to assist survey coordinators with the changes to the 2006–07 ARL Statistics and ARL Supplementary Statistics data collection, especially the revised instructions for counting serials.
Four workshops have been scheduled to date:
October 19, 2007, Albany, New York
October 22, 2007, Chicago, Illinois
November 2, 2007, Washington, DC
November 29, 2007, Los Angeles, California
An ARL Statistics Data Collection Webcast is tentatively being planned for December 4, 2007—save the date! In addition to addressing some of the data-collection issues, the webcast will provide information about the revised data-entry interface.
For more information, see http://www.arl.org/stats/statsevents/workshops07.shtml.
The status of the annual statistical surveys is as follows:
ARL Annual Salary Survey 2007–08: The mailing for the ARL Annual Salary Survey was sent out on September 4, 2007, and is available on the Web at http://www.arl.org/stats/annualsurveys/salary/salform07.shtml. The questionnaire should be completed and returned to ARL by September 30, 2007. Please submit salary figures as of July 1, 2007. ARL is using a new online system for data upload. Please let us know about your experience and assessment of the new process by sending e-mail to stats-ra@arl.org.
ARL Statistics, ARL Academic Health Sciences Statistics, ARL Academic Law Statistics, 2005–06: Corrected data files are available on the Web at http://www.arl.org/stats/annualsurveys/arlstats/arlstats06.shtml. In particular, data for Washington University in St Louis and Tennessee needed to be updated. We will issue an errata sheet to accompany the print copies of the ARL Academic Health Sciences Statistics 2005–06 and ARL Academic Law Statistics 2005–06 as they have already been produced. We are in the process of revising the printed publication for the ARL Statistics 2005–06 with corrected figures. Revised publication tables are available on the Web at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/06tables.xls. A revised version of the Expenditures-Focused Index will be posted to the Web site in the coming days.
ARL Preservation Statistics, 2005–06: Data collection is complete; data checks are completed and publication is in production.
For information regarding the annual data-collection activities, contact Martha Kyrillidou, martha@arl.org.
LibQUAL+® awarded in-kind grants to four libraries to facilitate their participation in the 2008 survey. The selection of grantees was based on financial need, contribution to the growth of LibQUAL+®, and potential for surfacing best practices in the area of library service improvements. The 2008 grantees are:
Arkansas State University Mountain Home, Norma Wood Library (Mountain Home, Arkansas)
College of the Bahamas Library System (Nassau, Bahamas)
University of Dallas, William A. Blakely Library (Irving, Texas)
Meharry Medical College Information Center Library (Nashville, Tennessee)
Information about applying for a 2009 LibQUAL+® in-kind grant will be available in January 2008. The deadline for submitting applications is June 15, 2008.
Institutions may now select Chinese (traditional) as their LibQUAL+® survey language. Seven Hong Kong–based libraries, participating through the Joint University Librarians Advisory Committee (JULAC), have registered for LibQUAL+®, and many of them will be running dual-language surveys in both British English and Chinese.
LibQUAL+® has scheduled a workshop on October 24–25, 2007, in Ottawa, Canada, for members of the LibQUAL+® Canada consortium. Attendees will learn about quantitative and qualitative data analysis, their individual and group survey results, how the University of Western Ontario and the University of Alberta have analyzed the results of their surveys, techniques to evaluate and improve library services, and will participate in general discussion and Share Fair activities. LibQUAL+® Canada was the largest countrywide implementation of this assessment protocol to date; Sam Kalb from Queen’s University coordinated the effort on behalf of CARL and ARL.
On August 13, “LibQUAL+® in South Africa” engaged more than 40 librarians from the 24 South African institutions that have implemented LibQUAL+®. Sherrie Schmidt, University Librarian at Arizona State University and ARL President, opened the meeting. Presentations were also made by Vicki Coleman, Associate University Librarian at Arizona State University, and by Jim Self, Director of Management Information Services at University of Virginia Library. Their presentations are available in the Publications section of the LibQUAL+® Web site http://www.libqual.org/Publications/ (search Publication Type: Presentations). The event was held in conjunction with the Northumbria International Conference on Performance Measurement in Libraries and Information Services, which also featured research papers by assessment librarians in ARL libraries and ARL staff.
For more information about LibQUAL+®, contact libqual@arl.org.
The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) held its 73rd General Conference and Council on August 19–23 in Durban, South Africa. The theme of the conference was “Libraries for the Future: Progress, Development, and Partnerships.” Over 3,100 delegates from 116 countries attended, with a strong US delegation of over 300. There were a number of important developments:
Claudia Lux (Zentral- und Landesbibliothek, Berlin, Germany), became IFLA President for 2007–09 and Ellen Tise (University of Stellenbosch, South Africa) won election as President-Elect for 2009–11.
Several American librarians were elected to important governing roles: Barbara Ford (Illinois) was elected as an at-large member to the governing board for a second and final two-year term; Nancy Gwinn (Smithsonian) was elected chair of the IFLA Professional Committee and, in her role on the governing board, was also elected to the IFLA Executive Committee; Steve Witt (Illinois) was elected to the Professional Committee; and Lynn Sipe (Southern California) was elected to the Professional Committee. These elections continued a pattern of strong American leadership within the IFLA governing structure.
It was announced that Peter Lor was retiring as IFLA Secretary General and the recruitment effort to secure a new Secretary General was begun. For the position statement see http://www.ifla.org/V/press/Vacancy-SG-IFLA.htm.
IFLA announced the receipt of a USD $1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Libraries initiative. The funding will support IFLA’s work to strengthen awareness of the important role libraries play in developing the information society.
Plans for the 2008 IFLA General Conference and Council in Québec, Canada, August 10–14 were announced. The program theme is “Libraries without Borders: Navigating towards Global Understanding.” Registration material is available at http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla74/index.htm.
Philip N. Cronenwett, Kevin Osborn, Samuel A. Streit, eds. • 2007 • ISBN 978-1-59407-769-2 • 312 pp. • 402 illus. • index
In commemoration of ARL’s 75th anniversary, the Association has published this compendium that profiles selected rare and special collections in major research libraries of North America, illustrating the extraordinary nature and scope of these collections and their various uses. To order the book or view the content, including image previews, see http://www.celebratingresearch.org/.
Jin Ma • July 2007 • ISBN 1-59407-791-6 • 174 pp.
This SPEC survey investigated how metadata is implemented in ARL member libraries: which staff are creating metadata and for what kinds of digital objects, what schemas and tools they use to create and manage metadata, what skills metadata staff need and how they acquire them, and the organizational changes and challenges that metadata has brought to libraries. The table of contents and executive summary from this SPEC Kit are available online at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/spec298web.pdf.
Francine DeFranco, et al., eds. • 2007 • ISBN 1-59407-768-1 • 464 pp.
The first Library Assessment Conference offered in North America brought together more than 200 participants and featured 20 posters presentations and three plenary sessions. The proceedings contains more than 40 papers on the following conference topics: Service Quality Assessment; Qualitative Approaches; Building Assessment in Our Libraries; LibQUAL+® Follow-Up; Moving Assessment Forward; Information Literacy; Evaluation and Assessment Methods; Strategic Planning; Library as Place; Balanced Scorecard; Assessing Organizational Climate; Organizational Culture/Learning; Digital Library; and Value and Impact. A detailed overview of the proceedings content is available at http://www.libraryassessment.org/archive/.
California, Santa Barbara: Brenda L. Johnson has been appointed University Librarian, effective January 1, 2008. She is currently Associate University Librarian at University of Michigan.
Greg Tananbaum joined the SPARC Consulting Group as a Consultant, effective September 18, 2007. He was previously president of the Berkeley Electronic Press.
BioOne: Lauren Kane, Manager of Publisher and Library Relations, will be promoted to Director of Publisher Relations, effective October 2, 2007.
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH): This summer, new directors were appointed for three NEH divisions: Preservation and Access, Education Programs, and Public Programs:
Suzanne M. Lodato is the new Director of the Division of Preservation and Access in September; she was previously Associate Program Officer in the Scholarly Communications Program at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
William Craig Rice is the new Director of the Division of Education Programs; he was previously President of Shimer College, and a professor of English, education, and humanities for the college.
Thomas C. Phelps is the new Director of the Division of Public Programs; he served as the division’s Acting Director since November 2006 and has been a program officer at the NEH since 1980.
The Library of Congress announced eight new grants as part of its Preserving Creative America initiative of the National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Program (NDIIPP). One ARL member library was selected to receive a grant:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Award Amount: $590,000
Project Title: Preserving Virtual Worlds
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) awarded 2007 National Leadership Grants to the following ARL member libraries:
Brown University Library
Award Amount: $29,609; Matching Amount: $88,995
Grant Category: Planning Grants
Project Title: Gorham Company Collaborative Planning ProjectUniversity of California, Los Angeles
Award Amount: $249,326; Matching Amount: $136,004
Grant Category: Building Digital Resources
Project Title: Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative: Second GenerationUniversity of California, Los Angeles
Award Amount: $29,675; Matching Amount: $28,025
Grant Category: Planning Grants
Project Title: Planning the Next Generation Sheet Music ConsortiumUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Award Amount: $225,747; Matching Amount: $203,282
Grant Category: Research and Demonstration
Project Title: Demonstration of Portal Mechanisms for Enhanced resource Integration in the Academic Information EnvironmentNew York Public Library
Award Amount: $30,000; Matching Amount: $60,979
Grant Category: Planning Grants
Project Title: Engaging Students, Parents, and Educators in the Creation of an Online Homework Help ResourcePurdue University
Award Amount: $421,068; Matching Amount: $249,847
Grant Category: Research and Demonstration
Project Title: Investigating Data Curation Profiles Across Multiple Research DisciplinesRice University
Award Amount: $979,578; Matching Amount: $980,613
Grant Category: Building Digital Resources
Project Title: Our Americas Archive Partnership (OAAP)Texas A&M University
Award Amount: $403,737; Matching Amount: $420,949
Grant Category: Building Digital Resources
Project Title: The Texas ETD Repository: Promoting our Scholarship and Preserving our LegacyUniversity of Utah
Award Amount: $353,237; Matching Amount: $353,651
Grant Category: Building Digital Resources
Project Title: Western Soundscape Archive
Winston Tabb, Dean of University Libraries and Sheridan Director at Johns Hopkins University, received the 2007 American Library Association (ALA) Joseph W. Lippincott Award for his significant and enduring contributions to the library profession both nationally and internationally. The award was presented on June 26, 2007, at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington DC.
Frederick Henry Burkhardt, 95, died in Bennington, Vermont, on September 23, 2007. As President of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) from 1957 to 1974, Burkhardt recruited over 80 colleges, universities, and research libraries to become ACLS Associates that subscribe annual support; established the ACLS endowment, now valued at more than $90 million; and greatly expanded international programming. While ACLS President, Burkhardt served in several library organizations. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the New York Public Library from 1970 to 1971, and Chairman of that board in 1974. He was Vice Chairman of the National Advisory Commission on Libraries from 1966 to 1968. President Nixon appointed him Chairman of the US National Commission on Libraries and Information Science in 1971; he was reappointed to that post by President Ford and served until 1978. Upon his retirement from ACLS in 1974, Burkhardt conceived of two extensive editorial projects to which he dedicated his energy: a 19-volume edition of The Works of William James, completed in 1987, and a 32-volume edition of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, 15 volumes of which have been completed to date. Burkhardt was ACLS President Emeritus at the time of his death.
Ralph Edward McCoy, 91, of Blacksburg, Virginia, died on September 4, 2007. From 1955 until his retirement in 1976, he was Dean of Libraries and Professor of Journalism at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC). In 1967, under his leadership, SIUC joined ARL. From 1973 to 1975, McCoy served as an ARL representative to the Library Relations Committee of the National Microfilm Association. Following his retirement in 1976, he served as interim director of libraries at the University of Georgia for one year and at Rutgers University for one year. He also served as Interim Executive Director of ARL for two years (1980–81). McCoy is well known as a scholar of freedom of the press and for his three-volume bibliography on freedom of the press published by Southern Illinois University Press. His extensive personal library on press freedom in the English-speaking world is now in the Special Collections at the Morris Library, SIUC.
Robert Louis Oakley, 61, of Germantown, Maryland, died on September 29, 2007. He was the Library Director as well as a Professor at Georgetown University Law Center. During his tenure, which began in 1982, the Georgetown Law Library was transformed from a collection housed on two floors of an academic building to the fourth largest law library in the country. Before joining the Law Center, Oakley served as Associate Law Librarian at Cornell Law School and Director of the Law Library and Associate Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law. He was an expert on copyright law and wrote and lectured on the subject. He was a member of the Section 108 Study Group, a select committee of copyright experts convened by the Library of Congress and charged with updating the Copyright Act for the digital world. Oakley served two three-year terms on the Executive Board of the American Association of Law Libraries, and served as its President in 2000–01.
DEW 10/03/07
Duane Webster
Executive Director
Association of Research Libraries
21 Dupont Circle
Washington DC 20036
v: (202) 296-2296
fax: (202) 872-0884
cell: (202) 251-4431
e-mail: duane@arl.org