To: ARL Directors
From: Duane Webster
Re: July 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.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Governance and Membership Activities
1. ARL Board Takes Action in July
2. ARL Invites Nominations for Executive Director Recruitment
3. ARL Membership Meeting Scheduled for October 10–11
4. ARL Anniversary Project Celebrates Research Using Rare & Special Collections
Scholarly Communication
5. ARL/ACRL Institute on Scholarly Communication Goes Regional
6. Research Libraries Embrace Their Responsibility for Preservation
7. ARL Provides Discussion Guides for Staff Development: A Brown-Bag Lunch Series on Scholarly Communication Issues
8. New Study from Ithaka Examines University Publishing
9. MIT and HP Form DSpace Foundation
10. CLA Announces Open Access to Its Publications
Public Policies
11. US House Supports Improved Public Access to Federally Funded Research
12. National Security Letters Reform Act Is Introduced
13. CCIA Files Copyright Complaint before FTC
14. ARL Publishes White Paper on ILL
15. US Senate Passes Higher Education Act
16. ARL Joins in New CDT CALEA Filing
17. WIPO Broadcast Treaty Fails to Move Ahead
Library Roles in Research, Teaching, and Learning
18. Enhancing Graduate Education: Forum Set for October 12
19. UK Study Considers How Researchers Interact with Research Libraries
20. CNI Update
Diversity, Professional Workforce, and Leadership Development
21. Additional Funds Available for the Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce—Deadline August 31
22. ARL Launches Redesigned Career Resources Web Site
23. Second RLLF Institute Held at Harvard University
24. TRLN Offers New Management Training Program for Librarians
Library Statistics and Assessment
25. ARL Survey Coordinators & SPEC Liaisons Convene, Discuss Changes to ARL Statistics
26. ARL Statistical Surveys Update
27. LibQUAL+® Update
28. Service Quality Evaluation Academy Accepting Nominations—Deadline January 14
Other Items of Interest to ARL Directors
29. Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants
30. ARL Transitions
31. Governance Transitions
32. ARL Staff Transitions
33. Grants
34. Memorials
GOVERNANCE AND MEMBERSHIP ACTIVITIES
1. ARL Board Takes Action in July
The ARL Board of Directors met July 23–24 in Washington DC, where—in addition to holding discussions with Laura Brown, a principal author of the Ithaka report “University Publishing in a Digital Age,” and Kevin Guthrie, President of Ithaka—the Board took the following actions:
A. Establishes Nominating Committee
Brian E. C. Schottlaender (California, San Diego), ARL Past President and Chair of the 2007 Nominating Committee, sought input from the ARL Board on member representatives who might serve on the 2007 Nominating Committee, and on the criteria for the committee to consider in building their slate. The Nominating Committee was established following the July 2007 Board meeting and consists of—in addition to Schottlaender—Joyce Garnett (Western Ontario), Harriette Hemmasi (Brown), Paula Kaufman (Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), and Randy Olsen (Brigham Young).
B. Endorses Statement re Enduring Responsibility for Preservation
The Board endorsed a statement as recommended by the Scholarly Communication Steering Committee that affirms preservation is a fundamental role and responsibility of each research library and emphasizes the importance of simultaneously pursuing local and cooperative strategies to meet this responsibility. See item 6 below.
C. Agrees to Recommend Dues for 2008
The Board agreed to recommend to membership a dues increase of 4% ($864) for 2008, bringing dues to $22,444 (USD). This action conforms to the financial principle adopted by the Board in 2004 of holding increases in the range of inflation. (The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the CPI-W national rate for May was +2.8% and the rate for the DC metro area was 3.2%. The Higher Education Price Index (HEPI) for 2007 is 3.4%.) In addition, there will be a modest increase in the allocation to CARL to support public policy advocacy in Canada (in part to recognize the changing value of the US dollar). A detailed proposal will be mailed to member representatives in advance of the vote on this dues proposal at the October 11 ARL Business Meeting.
D. Adopts Minutes of the May 2007 Board Meeting
The Board adopted the May 2007 Board Meeting minutes, which will be distributed to member representatives in a separate e-mail.
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2. ARL Invites Nominations for Executive Director Recruitment
As Chair of the ARL Executive Director Search Committee, Brian E. C. Schottlaender (California, San Diego) has encouraged the research library community to make nominations and applications for the ARL Executive Director position. The search committee was formed following the announcement of ARL Executive Director Duane Webster’s plans to retire by May 2008. In addition to Schottlaender, the search committee is composed of Shirley Baker (Washington in St. Louis), Carol Pitts Diedrichs (Kentucky), Mark Haslett (Waterloo), Deborah Jakubs (Duke), Wendy Lougee (Minnesota), Jim Mullins (Purdue), and Jim Neal (Columbia). The position ad and description appear on the ARL Web site http://www.arl.org/news/pr/recruit_ARL_director_july07.shtml.
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3. ARL Membership Meeting Scheduled for October 10–11
The 151st ARL Membership Meeting will take place October 10–11, 2007, at the Washington Marriott Hotel in Washington DC. ARL President Sherrie Schmidt (Arizona State) will open the Membership Meeting on Wednesday, October 10, at 3:30 p.m. and introduce a program celebrating ARL’s 75th Anniversary. Hunter R. Rawlings III, Professor and President Emeritus, Cornell University, will delivery keynote remarks on “Libraries in Higher Education and a Democratic Society.” Following the program is a gala anniversary reception and dinner in the Great Hall of the Jefferson Building, Library of Congress.
The schedule on Thursday, October 11, begins with the ARL Business Meeting, followed by a program session on “Enabling E-Scholarship through National Centers for the Humanities & Social Sciences,” and a luncheon program featuring remarks on “The Responses of One Scientist and His Professional Society to Open Access.” Thursday afternoon begins with a plenary panel on “The Future of University Publishing” and concludes with concurrent discussion sessions led by member representatives. The meeting adjourns at 5:00 p.m. Thursday.
The ARL 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 18 below for details.
A preliminary schedule and the attendance questionnaire are on the ARL Web site http://www.arl.org/events/currentmm/. Member representatives are asked to RSVP via the online attendance questionnaire by September 17.
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4. ARL Anniversary Project Celebrates Research Using Rare & Special Collections
To commemorate ARL’s 75th anniversary, work is well underway on a book and companion Web site titled Celebrating Research that illustrate the extraordinary nature and scope of the special collections in ARL member libraries and how these collections are being used. One hundred and eighteen ARL member libraries participated in the project by providing text and images that profile a single special collection from each library. An Editorial Committee composed of Phil Cronenwett, Special Collections Librarian Emeritus, Dartmouth College; Kevin Osborn, Research & Design Ltd.; and Sam Streit, Director for Special Collections, Brown University, selected a wide variety of collections to be profiled. The book is 300+ pages long with over 400 color illustrations. Also included is an introduction by British rare book expert Nicolas Barker, an appendix that provides a broad description of each institution’s special collection holdings, and an index. The audience for the publication includes scholars, donors and potential donors, institutional administrators, and the educated public.
Each member library will receive one complimentary copy of the book. The pre-publication price for ARL member libraries only is $100 ($90 each for orders of 10 or more copies) plus shipping and handling. Member orders may be sent to the project mailbox at 75@arl.org. After September 15, 2007, the price for the book will be $135 ($115 for ARL member libraries) plus shipping and handling. Celebrating Research will be published in October.
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SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION
5. ARL/ACRL Institute on Scholarly Communication Goes Regional
The Institute on Scholarly Communication is increasing its reach into the library community by launching a regional version of its signature immersive learning event. The Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI) has contracted to provide the fourth offering of popular Institute on Scholarly Communication December 5–7 in Chicago. By licensing the institute to consortia wishing to sponsor regional events, it is possible to broaden participation in the institute while focusing more resources on developing new approaches to supporting library outreach programs.
In addition to serving CARLI members, the Illinois institute will offer 20 seats to applicants from outside the consortium to diversify the group’s experiences. The applicant selection process and institute curriculum and faculty will be the same as those used for previous institutes. Information on applying for the Illinois institute is available online at http://www.carli.illinois.edu/institute07.html. CARLI will be accepting team applications until September 14.
ARL and ACRL plan to expand the regional model of the institute in 2008 by working with other consortia. Interested consortia should contact Julia Blixrud, Assistant Executive Director, External Relations, ARL, at jblix@arl.org.
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6. Research Libraries Embrace Their Responsibility for Preservation
Preservation is a core responsibility for research libraries, as ARL recently affirmed in a new statement, “Research Libraries’ Enduring Responsibility for Preservation.” As their collections expand to incorporate digital materials with enormous collections of works in paper and other media, research libraries face a growing set of challenges. The statement articulates the need for the community to intensify its attention to preservation concerns. As the statement notes, “Each research library has a core of preservation responsibilities, some that can be met only locally but others that increasingly should or can only be met through cooperative strategies.”
The statement reflects a recent series of recommendations generated by ARL’s Taskforce on the Future of Preservation in ARL Libraries. The taskforce’s report was based on a recent meeting of preservation librarians and leaders of libraries, library organizations, and funders hosted by ARL at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The statement is available on the ARL Web site at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/preservation_responsibility_24july07.pdf and a summary of the taskforce’s report and recommendations is available at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/arlbr251preserv.pdf.
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7. ARL Provides Discussion Guides for Staff Development: A Brown-Bag Lunch Series on Scholarly Communication Issues
ARL’s Office of Scholarly Communication has created a set of six brown-bag lunch discussion guides to facilitate informal conversations among library staff on key scholarly communication issues. Such discussions allow staff to deepen their knowledge of key topics, learn from one another, and track changing perspectives.
Guides are available on six topics: starting discussions of scholarly communication, talking with faculty, access to publicly funded research, author rights, scholarly society roles, and peer review. Each guide offers pre-work and discussion questions for a meeting, along with resources that provide further background for the discussion leader of an hour-long session. The guides can serve as a starting point for a single discussion or for a series of six conversations.
Electronic copies of the guides are freely available at http://www.arl.org/sc/brownbag/.
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8. New Study from Ithaka Examines University Publishing
A new report from Ithaka, “University Publishing in a Digital Age,” provides a current perspective on the state of publishing on campuses and from university presses. Initially conceived as a study of university press publishing, the research project grew to include a broader range of university publishing activities.
The authors observe that, “As information transforms the landscape of scholarly publishing, it is critical that universities deploy the full range of their resources—faculty research and teaching activity, library collections, information technology capacity, and publishing expertise—in ways that best serve both local interests and the broader public interest.”
Research libraries will find much to consider in this assessment of capabilities, opportunities, engagement, and leadership. Based on interviews with librarians, press directors, and university administrators, the report argues, “that a renewed commitment to publishing in its broadest sense can enable universities to more fully realize the potential global impact of their academic programs, enhance the reputations of their specific institutions, maintain a strong voice in determining what constitutes important scholarship and which scholars deserve recognition, and in some cases reduce costs. There seems to us to be a pressing and urgent need to revitalize the university’s publishing role and capabilities in this digital age.” The report is available at [http://www.ithaka.org/strategic-services/Ithaka University Publishing Report.pdf](http://www.ithaka.org/strategic-services/Ithaka University Publishing Report.pdf).
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9. MIT and HP Form DSpace Foundation
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Libraries and Hewlett-Packard (HP) have provided $500,000 to launch the DSpace Foundation and to promote development and use of DSpace. The staffing, coordination, and software development resources this will provide are expected to catalyze enhancements to the open source DSpace software widely used to operate institutional repositories. For more information, see http://www.dspace.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=201.
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10. CLA Announces Open Access to Its Publications
The Canadian Library Association (CLA) has taken leadership in creating open access publications to serve researchers and practitioners active in library research. The Executive Council has approved policies making most CLA publications open access, encouraging authors to place copies of their works in open archives, and adopting use of Creative Commons licenses for CLA publishing. The Executive Council was acting on recommendations from the Open Access Task Force in its report at [http://www.cla.ca/about/committees/Open Access Report.pdf](http://www.cla.ca/about/committees/Open Access Report.pdf).
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PUBLIC POLICIES
11. US House Supports Improved Public Access to Federally Funded Research
With strong bipartisan support, on July 19, the US House of Representatives passed the FY 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (H.R. 3043), which 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. The NIH policy, first implemented as a voluntary policy in May 2005, provides NIH greater accountability of their research portfolio, ensures a robust online archive of NIH funded research, and enhances public access to NIH federally funded research. Because the deposit rate of articles by NIH grantees was less than 5%, the new House-approved language signals the need for a change in policy. A comparable bill in the Senate, S. 1710, includes the same provision. It is expected that the full Senate will consider S. 1710 following the August recess. ARL with ALA, ACRL, AALL, GWLA, MLA, SLA, and SPARC sent letters to the House and Senate in support of the NIH policy. The letter is available via http://www.arl.org/pp/access/accessfunded/nihaccess.shtml.
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12. National Security Letters Reform Act Is Introduced
Reps. Nadler (D-NY) and Flake (R-AZ) introduced H.R. 3189, the National Security Letters Reform Act of 2007, on July 26. The legislation seeks to restore some privacy protections to the public while providing needed tools to law enforcement during national security investigations. In 2001, Congress significantly expanded the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) authority to obtain personal and business records without judicial review through National Security Letters (NSLs). The National Security Letters Reform Act of 2007 seeks to establish “reasonable procedural protections for the use of NSLs” and addresses some of the improper use of NSLs by the FBI. Provisions in the bill would:
- “Restore the standard that the records sought are related to a suspected terrorist or spy;
- Give an NSL recipient the right to challenge the letter and its nondisclosure requirement;
- Place a time limit on the NSL gag order and allow for a court approved extension;
- Give notice to the target of an NSL if the government seeks to use the records obtained from the NSL in a subsequent proceeding; and
- Give the target an opportunity to receive legal counsel and challenge the use of those records.”
Following intense pressure from the White House to update the Government’s authority to conduct warrantless intelligence surveillance, Congress approved other legislation that greatly expands the Government’s ability to eavesdrop on international phone calls and e-mail messages. According to the Center for Democracy and Technology, the legislation “includes virtually none of the checks and balances that civil liberties advocates had called for to ensure that warrantless surveillance did not result in unchecked snooping on innocent Americans in the United States.” The legislation will sunset in six months unless it is renewed. For more information, contact Prue Adler prue@arl.org.
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13. CCIA Files Copyright Complaint before FTC
The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) filed a complaint before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on August 1 concerning misrepresentation of consumer rights regarding the legitimate use of copyrighted works. The complaint calls for investigation by the FTC and the immediate end to deceptive practices by certain publishers and motion picture distributors. The complaint notes that these “corporations have engaged and continue to engage in, a nationwide pattern of unfair and deceptive trade practices by misrepresenting consumer rights under copyright law, and in some cases threatening criminal and civil penalties against consumers who choose to exercise statutorily or Constitutionally guaranteed rights. These false representations violate the letter and spirit of the FTC Act’s prohibition against unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce.” The CCIA demands an end to these deceptive practices and asks that the FTC order the offenders to cease misrepresenting copyright law, correct prior misrepresentations, and develop a plan for preventing future misrepresentations of consumer rights. The Library Copyright Alliance has written in support of the CCIA call for an FTC investigation; see http://www.arl.org/pp/. For more information, see http://defendfairuse.org/.
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14. ARL Publishes White Paper on ILL
ARL has released a white paper on interlibrary loan (ILL) in which the author, Anne K. Beaubien, Director, Cooperative Access Services, University of Michigan Library, analyzes trends in ILL activity in US academic and research libraries over the past two decades. ILL activity has increased over this period, primarily due to growing requests for returnable items (e.g., books, audiovisual items, microfilms) as opposed to non-returnables (e.g., copies of journal articles, conference papers). The author finds that ILL transactions have increased due to several factors, including a growth in Web-based discovery tools as well as efforts by libraries to simplify the ILL process and improve delivery options, thus decreasing the turn-around time for requests. Additionally, many research and academic libraries have been hard-pressed to maintain adequate collections budgets in the face of skyrocketing prices, so they must rely more on ILL for little-used materials. The paper also provides a description of current ILL practices for borrowing requests, most of which are placed via the OCLC WorldCat Resource Sharing system.
The white paper is freely available on the ARL Web site at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/ARL_white_paper_ILL_june07.pdf.
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15. US Senate Passes Higher Education Act
On July 24, the US Senate unanimously passed S. 1642, the Higher Education Amendments of 2007. The bill reauthorizes the Higher Education Act (HEA) and also provided another opportunity for debate about peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing and academic institutions. Following much controversy over an amendment relating to P2P file sharing, Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) offered an amendment that calls for “institutions to inform students that unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material, including unauthorized peer-to-peer file sharing, may subject students to civil and criminal liabilities; provide a summary of the penalties for violation of Federal copyright laws; provide a description of an institution’s policies with respect to unauthorized P2P file sharing, including disciplinary actions that are taken against students who engage in unauthorized distribution of copyrighted materials using the institution’s information technology systems; and a description of actions that the institution takes to prevent and detect unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material on the institution’s information technology system.” This debate is far from over and will resurface when the House of Representatives revisits HEA reauthorization. For more information, contact Prue Adler prue@arl.org.
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16. ARL Joins in New CDT CALEA Filing
ARL joined commercial and other not-for-profit organizations in a Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) filing before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding a rulemaking to establish technical requirements and standards of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). The FCC is considering what action to take on a petition by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to declare CALEA standards for broadband Internet access surveillance deficient. CALEA allows industry to set the technical standards for how wiretaps will be done. If the DOJ or other agencies do not believe that the standards meet the law, they can petition the FCC to change them. In this case, the DOJ is asking that the FCC require access providers to build a capability to examine every packet sent by a user during a session regardless of who provides the application. So, for example, an access provider (e.g., a public Wi-Fi access provider) would be required to report when a user downloads a video from YouTube or accesses a Web site or sends e-mail to someone, rather than requiring law enforcement to go to the application provider and properly serve a warrant there.
In addition, DOJ is calling for access providers to store the intercepted information at their own expense for later retrieval by the DOJ. Finally, in an issue of great importance to the privacy community and wireless carriers, the DOJ wants to undo prior court decisions and FCC rules to require wireless carriers to report the location of a mobile device whether a call is in progress or not—in other words, to use the system to provide detailed tracking of the user’s movements. Because libraries are exempt from CALEA, these technical standard issues do not directly affect them but, in the event that libraries are covered in the future, these are the capabilities that would burden libraries if they provide broadband Internet access directly. The filing is available via http://www.arl.org/pp/telecom/calea/.
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17. WIPO Broadcast Treaty Fails to Move Ahead
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) indefinitely postponed a diplomatic conference on a global treaty for the protection of broadcasters after WIPO members were unable to resolve a number of contentious and outstanding issues. Members of the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) saw no compelling reason for a broadcast treaty, especially in the absence of any evidence of harm to broadcasters. Members of LCA joined with others in the public and private sectors in opposition to the proposed treaty. Specific concerns of the impact of such a treaty on libraries include:
- classroom instruction by a nonprofit education institution, including some limited performance or display for distance education;
- educational and research uses permitted by the Copyright Act; and
- public discourse involving news, public affairs programs, and public domain materials.
The LCA statement is available via http://www.librarycopyrightalliance.org/lcanew.htm.
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LIBRARY ROLES IN RESEARCH, TEACHING, AND LEARNING
18. Enhancing Graduate Education: Forum Set for October 12
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 morning will open with a keynote address delivered by Suzanne Ortega, Vice Provost and Dean, the Graduate School, University of Washington, and a member of the Advisory Committee that authored the Council of Graduate Schools 2007 report, Graduate Education: The Backbone of American Competitiveness and Innovation. Ortega will provide an overview of the state of graduate education and highlight recommendations from the Council of Graduate Schools report.
A panel will then summarize common findings across a trio of library field studies focused on graduate student academic and research behaviors. The panel will also suggest opportunities for moving forward with efficacious library services and resources. The afternoon will consist of concurrent breakout sessions for more deeply engaging the findings of the field studies to imagine implications for enhancing library space, services, and resources for graduate students.
The forum is designed for an audience representative of many of the communities within university and research institutions, especially those engaged in graduate programs. The intended audience includes library deans/directors, senior library leadership, subject liaisons, coordinators for library instruction programs, campus staff involved in enhancement of teaching and learning, deans of graduate programs, and others involved in graduate education.
Later this month, program and registration information will be available on ARL’s Web site at http://www.arl.org/events/fallforum/forum07/.
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19. UK Study Considers How Researchers Interact with Research Libraries
An April 2007 report from the Research Information Network (RIN) and the Consortium of Research Libraries (CURL), “Researchers’ Use of Academic Libraries and Their Services,” consolidates discovery from a large survey of UK researchers and academic librarians in order to inform the future development of research libraries and services. The researchers hail from the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities, all areas where e-research, interdisciplinary work, inter-institutional collaboration, and resulting outputs in digital form are on the rise.
The report notes that “RIN and CURL have sought to establish a solid base of evidence on how libraries have been developing their services and strategies, and how researchers have been making use of those services…[as well as] how they envisage library services developing in the future.” A significant part of the study focuses on the roles librarians play in support of the research process, the related expectations of researchers, and areas of divergence between the two groups. Future work should focus on improving funding for research materials, enhancing communication among critical players, revealing information resources via metadata, and developing policies and strategies to better leverage research libraries in the research cycle. The report is available at http://www.curl.ac.uk/about/documents/ResearcherUseofLibrariesReport-2007.pdf.
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20. CNI Update
CNI Executive Director Clifford Lynch delivered the closing keynote address, “The Institutional Challenges of Cyberinfrastructure and E-Research,” during the Seminars on Academic Computing 2007 Conference, held August 3–8 in Snowmass Village, Colorado.
On July 9, Lynch participated in the third and final public meeting of the Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control; the task force is scheduled to meet in late August in closed session to work on its report. More information about the group, including meeting summaries, is available at http://www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future/.
A recent interview with CNI Associate Executive Director Joan Lippincott conducted by Richard Wallis is now available as part of the Talking with Talis series. In the discussion, Joan talks about how the “Net Generation” of university students is creating challenges and opportunities for libraries and librarians. The interview is available for download at http://blogs.talis.com/panlibus/archives/2007/07/joan_lippincott.php.
The issue of CTWatch Quarterly due out in August looks at cyberinfrastructure and scholarly communication; the guest editor is Tony Hey, Microsoft Vice President for Technical Computing, who delivered a keynote address at the Fall 2005 CNI Task Force Meeting, and the issue includes articles by Cliff Lynch, Paul Evan Peters Award winner Paul Ginsparg, and others. Look for it at http://www.ctwatch.org/.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Cyberinfrastructure has issued a solicitation for proposals for the Community-based Data Interoperability Networks (INTEROP) program, an important step in the agenda of scientific data stewardship and reuse. Full proposal target date is August 23, 2007. More information is available at http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=502112&org=OCI&from=home.
Planning continues for the Fall 2007 CNI Task Force Meeting, to be held in Washington DC on December 10–11, during which the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will present its 2007 Awards for Technology Collaboration; more information on the awards is available at http://matc.mellon.org/. CNI will co-sponsor the 3rd International Digital Curation Conference, “Curating Our Digital Scientific Heritage: A Global Collaborative Challenge,” which takes place December 12–13, 2007, in Washington DC, following the CNI Task Force Meeting. Submissions of papers, posters, and demonstrations for that conference will be accepted until August 15, 2007. See http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/dcc-2007/ for more information.
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DIVERSITY, PROFESSIONAL WORKFORCE, AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
21. Additional Funds Available for the Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce—Deadline August 31
ARL’s Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce is pleased to announce the availability of new funds to recruit students from underrepresented groups with educational backgrounds in all subjects to MLS programs. In January 2007, ARL announced the availability of funds from an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant to support graduate study in library and information science for students from underrepresented groups with educational backgrounds in natural and applied sciences or information technology. The additional funds will augment the funds awarded by IMLS and increase the size of the 2007–09 class of the Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce. Applications are due August 31, 2007. For more information and to download an application, see http://www.arl.org/news/pr/irdwjuly07.shtml.
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22. ARL Launches Redesigned Career Resources Web Site
The ARL Diversity Initiatives have redesigned the Career Resources Web site, which provides job hunters with an easy-to-use resource for finding positions in ARL libraries. This service assists ARL member institutions with attracting a qualified, talented, and diverse applicant pool. The new interface is easier to use for both the recruiter and the job seeker. The Career Resources Online Service is located on the Web at http://careers.arl.org/.
For more information about ARL Diversity Initiatives, please contact Jerome Offord Jr., Director of Diversity Initiatives, jerome@arl.org.
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23. Second RLLF Institute Held at Harvard University
Harvard University hosted the second institute for the 2007 Research Library Leadership Fellows (RLLF) July 21–26 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During the institute, the Fellows had the opportunity to explore Harvard’s organization and institutional culture; visit several of Harvard’s libraries; discuss current issues surrounding collections, digitization, preservation, and physical facilities; and meet with library staff, Director of Harvard University Library Robert Darnton, and Harvard faculty. As one of the sponsoring directors for this year’s programs, Nancy Cline, Roy E. Larsen Librarian of Harvard College, served as organizer for the institute. Joining the Fellows at Harvard were other sponsor directors Wendy Lougee (Minnesota), Tom Leonard (California, Berkeley), and Susan Nutter (North Carolina State). Site visits to two other sponsoring institutions will be held in the coming weeks. Nancy Eaton (Penn State) will host a group of Fellows in August and Carole Moore (Toronto) will host another group in September. The RLLF Program 2007–08 schedule and the Harvard Institute agenda can be found at http://www.arl.org/leadership/rllf/rllfschedule/. For more information about the RLLF Program, contact Julia Blixrud jblix@arl.org.
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24. TRLN Offers New Management Training Program for Librarians
The Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN) is sponsoring a new management development program, the TRLN Management Academy, to be held in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, October 22–26, 2007. This program intends to prepare current and potential mid-level managers in academic libraries to operate with entrepreneurial and business acumen in the management of financial and human resources. The program was designed with input from library directors to support talent management and succession planning efforts by addressing gaps in the preparation of librarians for management roles in the current environment. A task force from the TRLN Libraries (Duke University, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), working with DeEtta M. Jones, organizational development consultant, has designed a unique program in which academic faculty from these universities will present sessions customized for a library environment on the topics of: organizational culture and change, strategy and alignment, resource planning, management roles and responsibilities, and strategic communication.
The TRLN Management Academy includes faculty from the Department of Management, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, College of Management, North Carolina State University; faculty from the Learning and Organizational Development Program, Duke University; the Vice Provost for Diversity and African American Affairs, North Carolina State University; and DeEtta Jones, who serves as the academy’s facilitator. Library administrators/practitioners will serve as panelists to provide a current context for application of the program of study. Tuition for non-TRLN libraries is $1,500 per person for the five-day intensive seminar and two online learning modules (Influencing Skills and Business Writing Skills). For more information and the application form, see http://www.trln.org/committee/academy/.
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LIBRARY STATISTICS AND ASSESSMENT
25. ARL Survey Coordinators & SPEC Liaisons Convene, Discuss Changes to ARL Statistics
During the ALA Annual Conference in Washington DC this June, the ARL survey coordinators and SPEC liaisons convened and learned about important issues related to changes to the annual ARL Statistics.
Colleen Cook (Texas A&M), Chair of the Statistics and Assessment Committee, walked attendees through ARL’s recently adopted action agenda for new ways to measure collections, which includes:
- the launch, beginning with 2005–06 data, of a new Expenditures-Focused Index (total library expenditures, salaries and wages for professional staff, expenditures for total library materials, and number of professional staff and support staff) and its use for any public reports, reserving the Membership Criteria Index for non-public uses;
- the development of a Services-Based Index that combines three factors (collections, services, and collaborative relationships);
- revision of definitions for collection-related data categories (with emphasis on the change of the counting of serials from number of serial subscriptions to number of unique/de-duped titles) and experimentation with a variety of new measures, including usage data, strength of collections, and service quality measures; and
- collection of qualitative data to develop a profile of ARL member libraries.
Cook’s PowerPoint presentation is online at http://www.libqual.org/documents/admin/ARLBusinessMeeting_CC1.ppt.
Anne Kenney (Cornell) presented a case study of how Cornell University acted upon the findings of the ARL Task Force on New Ways of Measuring Collections. Kenney’s PowerPoint presentation is online at http://www.libqual.org/documents/admin/AnneKenney2007.ppt.
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26. ARL Statistical Surveys Update
The status of the annual statistical surveys is as follows:
- ARL Annual Salary Survey 2006–07: All data collected. Prepublication tables are available at http://www.arl.org/stats/annualsurveys/salary/sal0607.shtml. The final publication is currently being printed.
- ARL Statistics, ARL Academic Health Sciences Statistics, ARL Academic Law Statistics, 2005–06: All data closed. The Academic Health Sciences and Academic Law publications are currently being printed. The ARL Statistics publication is currently in production. Final data tables are available on the publications’ respective Web sites (which can be found via http://www.arl.org/stats/annualsurveys/arlstats/).
- ARL Preservation Statistics, 2005–06: Data collection is complete; data checks are underway.
For information regarding the annual data-collection activities, contact Martha Kyrillidou, martha@arl.org.
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27. LibQUAL+® Update
The LibQUAL+®-sponsored events at this June’s ALA Annual Conference were well attended and offered participants diverse learning and information-sharing opportunities. Highlights included:
- LibQUAL+® Forum: A. “Parsu” Parasuraman hosted a morning program on in-person and online library service quality.
- LibQUAL+® Share Fair: This event featured 14 brief presentations/poster sessions by current and past LibQUAL+® survey participants, who offered examples of survey marketing and quantitative/qualitative analysis of survey results.
- LibQUAL+® Results: Best Practices: Jim Self (University of Virginia), Brian Mathews (Georgia Tech), and Dawn Thistle (Assumption College) discussed their libraries’ use and interpretation of LibQUAL+® survey results. Their PowerPoint presentations are available at http://www.libqual.org/Publications/.
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28. Service Quality Evaluation Academy Accepting Nominations—Deadline January 14
The 2008 Service Quality Evaluation Academy is now accepting participant nominations, with a deadline of January 14, 2008. The academy is an intensive five-day program that focuses on both qualitative and quantitative methods for collecting and analyzing library service quality data. The program emphasizes basic concepts and skills in measurement and data analysis that are applicable to service quality evaluations. Time is also spent on relevant software skills, including the use of ATLAS.ti to analyze the content of interviews or responses to open-ended surveys and the use of SPSS for quantitative data analysis. For more information, see http://www.arl.org/stats/statsevents/sqacademy/.
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OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST TO ARL DIRECTORS
29. Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) invite applications to the Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants program. By awarding relatively low-dollar grants during the planning stages, the program seeks to identify and encourage digital projects that are particularly innovative and have the potential to make a positive impact on the humanities. By sharing sponsorship of this grant opportunity with IMLS, the NEH hopes to spark more collaborations among scholars, librarians, museum officials, and computer scientists. The deadlines for submission of proposals are October 16, 2007, and April 2, 2008. The guidelines are available at http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/digitalhumanitiesstartup.html.
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30. ARL Transitions
Rice: Tyler Walters was appointed Vice Provost and University Librarian, effective October 15, 2007. He is currently Associate Director for Technology and Resource Services at the Georgia Tech Library and Information Center.
Vanderbilt: Paul Gherman announced his intention to retire from his position as University Librarian in June 2008.
Washington State: Jay Starratt was appointed Dean of Libraries, effective December 1, 2007. He is currently Associate Vice Chancellor for Information Technology and Dean of Library and Information Services at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
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31. Governance Transitions
Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) has elected a new Board of Directors: Louis Pitschmann, President (Dean of University Libraries, University of Alabama); Lance Query, Past President (Dean of Libraries and Academic Information Resources, Tulane University); Bonnie MacEwan, President-Elect (Dean of Libraries, Auburn University); Sylverna Ford, Secretary-Treasurer (Dean of Libraries, University of Memphis); Rosann Bazirjian (University Librarian, University of North Carolina at Greensboro); Deborah Jakubs (Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs, Duke University); and Julia Rholes (Dean of Libraries, University of Mississippi).
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32. ARL Staff Transitions
Crystal Blue resigned her position of Information Technology Services Coordinator, effective July 31, 2007.
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33. Grants
New York University (NYU) Libraries, NYU Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and Long Island University (LIU) Palmer School of Library and Information Science were awarded an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant for the NYU-LIU Dual Degree Program for Librarians. The award amount is $700,133, with a matching amount of $260,142.
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34. Memorials
Peter Lyman, 1940–2007
Peter Lyman, 66, died of brain cancer July 2, 2007, at his home in Berkeley, California. He was born in San Francisco in 1940. Lyman earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Stanford University in 1962, a master’s degree in political science from the University of California (UC), Berkeley in 1963 and a doctorate in political science from Stanford in 1972. He was one of the founders of James Madison College, a residential college at Michigan State University with a public policy focus, and was a faculty member from 1967 to 1987, when he moved to the University of Southern California (USC). At USC, he founded and served as Executive Director of the Center for Scholarly Technology, which established the university as a leader in library information systems. Lyman also served as Associate Dean for Library Technology before being appointed University Librarian in 1991, and he is credited with leading USC’s libraries into a new technological era. At UC Berkeley, he served as University Librarian from 1994 to 1998. He also became a professor in the School of Information Management & Systems (now the School of Information) in 1994 and served several years as Associate Dean of the School of Information. In 2005, Lyman became the Director of the Digital Youth Project, a study of how children use digital media in their everyday lives. He became a Professor Emeritus at the UC Berkeley School of Information in 2006. Lyman is perhaps best known for his research with fellow UC Berkeley School of Information professor Hal Varian, which they published in the 2004 study “How Much Information?” on the enormous amount of information produced digitally in one year.
Virginia Phillips Whitney 1914–2007
Virginia Phillips Whitney, 92, died peacefully June 9, 2007, at her home in Blue Hill, Maine, after an extended period of declining health. She was born December 1, 1914, in Medford, Massachusetts. Whitney earned a BS in political science from Middlebury College and an MLS from Rutgers University. She spent most of her professional career at Rutgers, becoming Director of the Center for Urban Studies Library in 1962, Director of the Mabel Smith Douglass Library in 1967, and University Librarian in 1971. At that time, she was the first female administrator of a university-wide library system in the country. Whitney served ARL in a variety of roles, including as Chair of the Access to Resources Committee in 1974–76, as a member of the ARL/CRL Joint Committee for a National Periodicals Lending Library, and most notably as the first female president of ARL in 1976. She served on advisory councils for Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and taught at the Rutgers Graduate School of Library Science. In 1976 she received an honorary doctorate from Middlebury College, in recognition of her achievements. After she retired from Rutgers University, Whitney spent a year as Interim Librarian for Dartmouth College.
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DEW 08/15/07
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
