ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 880 / C&RL News ■ October 2000 Fa A n n V i I e s st Facts Electronic theses and dissertations fo r sale Contentville.com now has an agreement to sell both electronic and printed ver- sions o f dissertations from Bell & H ow ell’s archive o f more than 1 million titles. “Bell & Howell acquired UMI, the firm that had been responsible for microfilming and storing the vast majority o f U.S. dissertations, about 14 years ago.” (J. Linn A lle n , "O n -Iin e D isse rta tion Sales N o A cad e m ic M a tte r t o S urprised A u th o rs ," Chicago Tribüne, A ug u st 23, 2000. N e w spaper Source. EBSCO Pub lish in g. Sep tem be r 2, 2000) A verage f a c u lt y s a la r ie s in lib r a r y S cie n ce According to the College and University Personnel Association, average salaries for library science faculty on 9- or 10-month contracts last year were $43,401 in private institutions and $54,121 in public institutions. Average salaries for fac­ ulty in Computer and information sciences were $58,260 and $66,240. ("Average Faculty Salaries in Selected Fields a t 4-Year Institutions, 1999-2000," The Chronicle o f Higher Education AImanac 2000-2001. http://chronicle.com/free/alm anac/2000/alm anac.htm, password required. Septem ber 1, 2000) D ig ital dictio nary p ro fits exceed $1 m illio n Profits from Houghton Mifflin’s licensing o f its digital dictionary may exceed $1 million this year, “more than 10 percent o f the earnings from the company’s trade and reference division.” (D avid D. K irk p a tric k , "D ic tio n a ry Publishers G oing D ig ita l: A L ow M a rg in Business Sees P ro fits on th e W e b ," New York Times, A u g u st 21, 2000, n a tl. ed.: C 1.) ASIS becomes ASIST Following a ballot vote o f the membership on April 28, the American Society for Information Science is changing its name to the American Society for Informa­ tion Science and Technology. (Eugene G a rfie ld , "Pre sid e nt's Page, Bulletin o f The American Society fo r Inform ation Science, 26, no. 1 June/ July 2000. h ttp ://w w w .asis .o rg /B u lle tin /J u n e -0 0 /p re s id e n t_ s _ p a g e .h tm l. S ep tem be r 1, 2000) The la w o f Surfing Xerox PARC has patented “m ethodology for dynamically reconfiguring a Web site for every user, based on the kinds o f pages the user views.” Bernardo Huberman, research fellow at Xerox PARC, theorizes that the “law o f surfing [describes] patterns o f Web surfing based on the type o f site involved [and] can be used to predict a person’s online behavior, much like the laws o f physics.” (R ob ert E. Calem, "Special R e po rt: Research Labs B ring N e w Life t o In te rn e t," ZDNet Interactive Week Online, A u g . 28,2000. h ttp ://w w w .z d n e t.e o m /in tw e e k /s to rie s /n e w s /0 .4 1 6 4,2 6 1 9 8 63 .00 .htm l. Sep tem be r 2, 2000) M a th jo u rn a l prices “ ® 4 * Subscription prices for mathematics journals rose an average o f 9 percent from 1998 to 1999. ("J o u rn a l Price Survey: 250 Selected J o urna ls," A m e rica n M a th e m a tic a l Society, h ttp ://w w w .a m s .o rg /m e m b e r- sh ip /jo u rn a l-su rve y.h tm l. A u g u s t 26,2000) British coin celebrates public libraries An article in the Herald (G lasgow ) about Britain’s newly minted library coin, Claims that “Scots still use libraries more than anyone eise in the UK.” Scotland s 800 libraries handle about 50 million loan transactions per year, and “more [Scots] g o to libraries than football matches on Saturdays.” (A n n e John ston e, " A ir o f Change as L ibraries' P ro file Rises: 50p Coin Is Struck t o C o m m e m o ra te 150 Years o f Public L e n d in g ," Herald (G lasgow), A u g u s t 30, 2000. LEXIS NEXIS Acad e m ic Universe. Sept. 2, 2000) Thanks to Mike Hans on, reference librarian at Western Wisconsin Technical College, fo r bis contributions and suggestions. Ann Viles is coordinator o f reference a nd instruction a t Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, e-mail: vilesea@conrad.appstate.edu http://chronicle.com/free/almanac/2000/almanac.htm http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/June-00/president_s_page.html http://www.zdnet.eom/intweek/stories/news/0.4164,2619863.00.html http://www.ams.org/member- mailto:vilesea@conrad.appstate.edu