ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


C&RL News ■ October 2001 1897

N e w s  f r o m  t h e  F i e l d Maureen Gleason

Reed E lse v ie r se lls B o w ke r to  
C a m b rid g e  S c ie n tific  A b stra cts
Information Today, Inc. (ITI) has entered into 
a joint agreem ent with Cambridge Scientific 
Abstracts (CSA) to buy R. R. Bowker from 
Reed Elsevier. Cambridge is purchasing the 
major portion of Bowker, and ITI is acquir­
ing the publishing rights to about ten refer­
ence books.

Cambridge is acquiring the entire Books in 
Print family of products; Ulrich’s Periodical 
Directory, M agazines f o r  Libraries-, a num ber 
of abstracts and indexes, including British 
H um anities Index and Library a n d  Inform a­
tion Science Abstracts-, a num ber of journals 
and newsletters, such as Business Information 
Review and Journal o f Information Science, and 
miscellaneous other products.

In addition, Cambridge retains the con­
tract for Bowker, LLC (newly formed) to have 
the exclusive right to operate the U.S. office 
of the ISBN (International Standard Book 
Number) agency.

Jo in t C o n fe re n ce  on D ig ita l Lib ra rie s 
ca lls f o r  pap ers
The Joint Conference on Digital Libraries 
(JCDL) will be held July 14-18, 2002, in Port­

land, Oregon. It is sponsored by the Associa­
tion for Computing Machinery and its Special 
Interest Groups on Information Retrieval and 
on Hypertext, Hypermedia, and the Web; the 
Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engi­
neers; IEEE Computer Society; and the Tech­
nical Committee on Digital Libraries.

By digital libraries JCDL means new  forms 
of information institutions; operational infor­
mation systems with all m anner of digital con­
tent; new  means of selecting, collecting, or­
ganizing, and distributing digital content; and 
theoretical models of information media, in­
cluding document genres and electronic pub­
lishing. Both full (approximately 5,000 words) 
and short (up to two pages) papers are sought, 
as are panel and poster proposals.

Additional information and details on re­
quirements for submission may be found on 
th e co n fe re n ce  Web site at h ttp ://w w w . 
jcdl2002.org.

R LG -O C LC jo in t  re p o sito ry  report 
released
The second RLG-OCLC report intended to ad­
vance long-term retention of digital research 
materials is now  available for review and com­
ment. “Attributes of a Trusted Digital Reposi-

Save the date! Digital reference workshop
Consider the opportunities and challenges, 
and consider w hat niche may be available 
for academ ic librarians in the digital refer­
ence environm ent during the ACRE w ork­
sh o p  “Digital Reference: Trends, T ech­
n iq u e s , a n d  C h a n g e s .” T his h a lf-d a y  
w orkshop will be held prior to the ALA 
Midwinter Meeting in New Orleans, Friday, 
January 18, 2002.

Get up-to-date with the latest digital ref­
eren ce d evelopm ents, including assess­
ments, softw are, training, research, and 
standards. Gain a basic concept of state- 
of-the-art digital reference, digital reference 
projects, software packages, and likely is­

sues in creating a digital reference initia­
tive in your local settings. The format of 
this w orkshop will be that of an executive 
briefing for decision makers. Speakers in­
clude R. David Lankes, Virtual Reference 
Desk; Steve Coffman, LSSI; and Jo sep h  
Janes, University of W ashington.

Registration materials for this session, 
as well as the ACRL w orkshop “Experi­
ence the Power of Collaboration: Five Steps 
to Creating Relationships with Faculty,” will 
be included in the October issue of A m eri­
c a n  Libraries a n d  will be available online 
in the fall. Questions? Contact (800) 545- 
2433, ext. 2519, or e-mail: acrl@ala.org.

jcdl2002.org
mailto:acrl@ala.org


898 / C&RL News ■ October 2001

tory: Meeting the Needs of Research Resources” 
may be found at http://www.rlg.org/longterm/ 
attributes01.pdf.

Intended primarily for research institutions 
and specifically for libraries and archives, the 
report highlights some key strategic issues as it 
focuses on practical assistance to administra­
tors and implementers of digital archiving ser­
vices.

Comments to robin.dale@notes.rlg.org by 
October 12, 2001, are encouraged.

Sw e ts B la ckw ell to  a cq u ire  M artinus 
N ijh o ff In te rn a tio n a l
Swets Blackwell has acquired Martinus Nijhoff 
International, the Dutch subscription agent and 
book dealer.

All a c tiv itie s c u rre n tly  h a n d le d  from  
Nijhoff s head office in Zoetermeer, the Neth­
erlands, will continue until the April 2002 in­
tegration of their subscription data into Swets

Blackwell’s system. Swets Blackwell 
services Dutch libraries and informa­
tion centers from their office in Lisse, 
the Netherlands. Business currently ser­
viced from Nijhoff s local offices in the 
United States, Brazil, Thailand, Bulgaria, 
and Russia will be gradually integrated 
into the Swets Blackwell system over 
the next eight months.

W aseda U n iv e rsity L ib ra ry  
a dds record s to  W o rld Cat
W a se d a  U niversity Library a d d e d

277,481 new  records to WorldCat (the OCLC 
Online Union Catalog), the second in a two- 
phase OCLC batchload project to enrich the 
w orld’s largest bibliographic database with 
apanese language records from one of the 

most prestigious research universities in Japan.

N ational L ib ra ry  o f N ew  Ze a la n d  
cho o se s EN C om pass
The National Library of New Zealand (NLNZ) 
is the first library outside the United States to 
select the ENCompass digital library naviga­
tion, organization, and linking tool. Implemen­
tation of ENCompass will begin immediately 
at NLNZ, th e  e ig h th  lib r a ry  to  s e le c t 
ENCompass, commercially released in March 
2001.

H e rita ge  H ealth In d e x launched
The Heritage Health Index, w hich will for the 
first time measure the condition of the nation’s

J

Information Literacy Immersion Program seeks applicants
The ACRL Institute for In fo rm atio n  Lit­
eracy Im m ersion Program  seeks applicants 
for its tw o  2002 su m m er p rogram s to  b e  
h e ld  at the U niversity o f C olorado, C olo­
ra d o  Springs. D ates for th e first p rogram  
are July 26-31, 2002; th e se c o n d  p ro g ram  
will be h e ld  A ugust 2-7, 2002.

The programs will be four-and-one-half 
days of intensive training and education for 
instruction librarians. Participation for each 
program is limited to 90 to ensure an envi­
ronment that fosters group interaction and 
active participation. The program’s two tracks 
offer librarians a chance to enhance their own 
teaching skills or to develop an information 
literacy program  for their institution.

Comments from the 2001 Immersion pro­
gram  include:

“All in stru ctio n  librarians sh o u ld  at­
te n d  th e  Im m ersio n  P ro g ram .”

“It w as fab u lo u s. I ’ve b e e n  a lib rarian  
for 22 y e a rs—th is was th e b e st staff d e ­
v e lo p m e n t e x p e rie n c e  I’ve e v e r h a d .”

“This is, by far, th e  m o st lea rn in g  I 
have d o n e  since g rad  school. I have b e e n  
c h a lle n g e d  b e y o n d  m y e x p e c ta tio n s .”

Complete details and application infor­
m ation for the 2002 program s are available 
on  the Web at http://w w w .ala.org/acrl/nili/ 
immersìon02. html.

Questions? Contact (800) 545-2433, ext. 
2519; acrl@ala.org.

http://www.rlg.org/longterm/
mailto:robin.dale@notes.rlg.org
http://www.ala.org/acrl/nili/
mailto:acrl@ala.org


C&RLNews U October 2001 /  899

Tropical storm  A llison

W hen Tropical Storm Allison circled over 
Houston, Texas, on June 5-9, it dropped as 
m uch as three feet of rain in parts of the city, 
causing catastrophic flood­
ing in many areas. Damage 
estimates for the region ex­
ceed $5 billion.

One part of the city that 
was hardest hit was Texas 
Medical Center. The Hous­
ton Academy of Medicine- 
Texas Medical C enter Li­
brary that serves the aca­
demic institutions affiliated 
with the medical center ex­
perienced severe flooding. 
The Street Level o f the Jesse 
H. Jones Library Building 
was filled with water and 
raw  sewage.

The Street Level of the 
building housed the com­
puter lab and classroom and 
the John P. McGovern Historical Collections 
and Research Center, am ong other facilities.

Approximately two-thirds of the public- 
access computers were destroyed. About one- 
fourth of the McGovern Center’s manuscripts, 
hospital newsletters, and personal papers 
w ere damaged. The records from the Medi­
cal Aits Hospital were completely destroyed. 
Historical videos and audiotapes have been 
sent to a professional company for restora-

David Page, jo urney electrician, 
rolled up his pants and put on his 
beach shoes to  h e lp  rem ove 
water-dam aged books from  the 
U n iv e rs ity  o f H o u sto n  Law 
Center's library.

collections, is being launched by Heritage 
Preservation, Inc. in partnership with the In­
stitute of Museum and Library Services, and 
with major funding from the Getty Grant Pro­
gram.

The index will m easure the condition of 
collections in the nation’s museum s, librar­
ies, archives, and historical societies every four 
years. It is endorsed by prom inent conserva­
tion professionals and national organizations 
w ho will participate in its developm ent and 
implementation.

T he p u rp o se  o f th e in d ex  is to assist 
long-range planning, fundraising, a n d  e d u ­
cation in th e field o f p rese rv atio n  and c o n ­
servation.

tion and transfer to new  media. More than 
800 boxes of documents, journals, reference 
books, and historical books w ere sent to be 

freeze-dried. Despite the 
dam age, the library re­
o p e n e d  w ith  lim ite d  
hours o n  June 14, with 
regular hours resum ing 
on July 16.

Another area hit hard 
by the storm was the main 
campus of the University 
of Houston. However, the 
University Libraries were 
extremely fortunate in that 
none suffered any water 
dam age, although high 
humidity will require vigi­
lance against m old and 
mildew damage.

Unfortunately, the in­
dependent O ’Q uinn Law 
Library was not as lucky.

It suffered heavy dam age to the facility and 
its collections. The entire lower level, which 
housed the governm ent docum ents and in­
ternational collections, was totally flooded, 
while collections o n  the up p er level w ere 
dam aged by the extremely high humidity. 
— Barbara E. Kemp, University o f  Houston, 
bkemp@ub.edu (some inform ation provided 
by Deborah H alsted o f  the HAM-TMC Li­
brary)

P itt's Schoo l o f In fo rm a tio n  Sciences 
w in s  a ffirm a tiv e  a ctio n  a w ard
The 2001 C hancellor’s Affirmative Action 
Award honoring the “outstanding University 
of Pittsburgh program  area or individual that 
has m ade a significant contribution in affir­
mative action” has been  aw arded to the Affir­
mative Action Committee of the School of In­
form ation Sciences (SIS).

SIS w as cited for its recruitm ent efforts; 
the role of professor em eritus E. J. Josey as 
SIS Minority Council advisor; reinstatem ent 
of the Minority Resource Office; ongoing sup­
port of ALA’s Spectrum Scholars; and estab­
lishment of the SIS/University Library System 
minority fellows program. ■

mailto:bkemp@ub.edu