ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries Ja n u a ry 1 9 9 7 / 5 New s f r o m the F ield M a ry Ellen D avis Suprem e Court to re v ie w CDA challenge The U.S. Supreme Court an­ nounced on December 6 that it will hear the government’s appeal of a landmark legal challenge to the Communi­ cations Decency Act passed last February by Congress. The case, which will have a great effect on the freedom o f speech in cyberspace, is expected to be heard in late March or early April. A spe­ cial panel o f three federal judges in Philadelphia ruled the act unconsti­ tutional in June in a suit filed by the Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition, which rep­ resents 27 organizations, concerned about the future o f the Internet; ALA is the lead plain­ tiff. Search under w a y for ALA executive director ALA’s Executive Director Search Committee se­ lected Camila Alire to chair the search for a new executive director to replace Elizabeth Martinez, who will leave ALA in August 1997. Alire was chosen by the group as chairperson during its November 2 -3 initial meeting in Chi­ cago. She is dean of Auraria Library, University of Colorado at Denver, and a member of the C&RL News Editorial Board. ACRL President Wil­ liam Miller is also serving on the committee as a division representative. The committee also reviewed recruitment firms and will select a firm to aid in filling the post. The timeline calls for selecting semi-finalists by early March and holding interviews late that month. Finalists will be interviewed in early May and the new executive director will be named in June. Lincoln Univ. opens n ew lib rary The Lincoln University of Missouri (LU) opens its new three-story library this month. The new facility has 80,000 square feet, nearly 250 reader stations, 13 group study rooms, 12 private study rooms, and a 24-hour L incoln U niversity’s n ew th re e -sto ry lib rary featu res an o p en m all w ithou t in te rio r walls.study area. The building also houses the Ethnic Studies Center, two bibliographic instruc­ tion classrooms equipped with electronic devices, and a Teleconference Center. De­ signed by Booker Associates, in association with Leo A. Daly Kennedy Associates, the building featu res an open mall without interior walls. LU is an 1890 land grant institution founded in 1866 through the coopera­ tive efforts o f the enlisted men and officers of the 62nd and 65th Colored Infantries, and was designed to meet the educational needs o f freed African Americans. Lib raries sought to participate in A rchaeo lo g ical Site Reports D a tab a se Portland State University (PSU) Library has cre­ ated a database of its holdings of archaeologi­ cal site reports and invites other libraries to join it to establish a multi-institutional biblio­ graphic database of archaeological site reports that will be Internet-accessible. PSU created an “Archaeological Site Reports” bibliographic database of the reports held by its library. Although faculty and students found the database useful, PSU found it quite labor intensive to prepare as site reports are often not identifiable through the online catalog by title words or subject headings, requiring an examination of the contents of the reports. The database was recently updated, although only Ja n u a r y 1 9 9 7 / 7 a print copy alphabetized by title is available at the Social Science Reference Desk. To enhance the value o f the database, PSU plans to provide electronic access that will per­ mit users to search all fields of the database as well as search from remote locations. The da­ tabase will be mounted on the PORTALS (Port­ la n d A rea L ib rary Sy ste m ) W eb s ite (www.portals.pdx.edu) for which PSU is the host institution. Each institution’s name and call number would be attached to its records. Faye Powell, social sciences librarian at PSU, said, “We feel a multi-institutional, Internet-accessible database would be of enormous value to schol­ ars, students, and other interested persons. We are therefore soliciting the participating of other libraries that would like to be included in this project.” For more information, please contact Faye Powell, Portland State University, P.O. Box 1151, Portland, OR 97207; phone: (503) 725- 4519; e-mail: powell@lib.pdx.edu. M ore discussion topics for M idw inter These topics have been announced since the list of meetings was published in the News last month: ACRL S cien ce an d T ech n ology S ection ’s Database D iscussion Group. Sunday, Feb. 16, 11:30 a.m .-12:30 p.m. Topic: “Sharing th e L oad: The P ros a n d Cons o f C onsortial D a ta b a s e Use” ACRL I n s tr u c tio n S ectio n D iscu ssio n F oru m . Sunday, Feb. 16, 4:30– 5:30 p.m. Topic: “L earn in g Styles a n d D iverse P op u la tio n s” L ib r a r y Is s u e s is n o w on the W eb Mountainside Pub. has placed L ibrary Lssues, B riefin g s f o r F acu lty a n d A ca d e m ic A d m in is trators, edited by Richard M. Dougherty, on the Web at http://www.netpubsintl.com/LI.html. Subscribers will be able to consult and read both current and recent issues. The W eb ver­ sion will also publish updated versions o f pre­ viously printed articles. For information about subscribing online contact Mountainside Pub­ lishing at 72263.1222@compuserve.com. ECLSS d evelo p s d a ta collection form ACRL’s Extended Campus Library Services Sec­ tion (ECLSS) has developed a standardized form for collecting data about services provided to distant students. The form was developed after members of ECLSS’s Statistics Committee col­ lected and analyzed statistics forms already in use. The data collection form, known as the Uniform Statistics Data Collection (USDC) form, has been piloted by ECLSS members. The result­ ing document collects data in three parts: Mate­ rials Transactions (aspects related to students’ requests and how they are filled); Information Transactions (requests information about the number of reference/referral questions handled and the number of instructional sessions taught); and Information Collected by Branch Libraries. The data are to be collected over a one- year period and completed forms will be due to ECLSS in O ctober 1997. The committee hopes the results will aid both current provid­ ers and those just planning off campus library services. The form is available at the ECLSS Web site: h ttp :/ / ecu v a x .cis. ecu .ed u / ~ lb sh o u se. home.htm or from the chair o f the committee: Gloria Lebowitz, Extended Campus Library Ser­ vices, University of Northern Colorado Library, Greeley, CO 80639; phone: (970) 351-1525; fax: (970) 351-1108. At the Northwest Ohio Regional Book Depository materials are sorted by size and placed in book trays which are given bar codes indicating where the tray is being shelved. Staff members are shown using a modified forklift nicknamed “Eleanor” to shelve and retrieve stored library materials. The new $3.1 million facility, which serves Bowling Green State University, the Medical College of Ohio, and the University of Toledo, has the equiva­ lent of 24 miles of shelving. http://www.portals.pdx.edu mailto:powell@lib.pdx.edu http://www.netpubsintl.com/LI.html mailto:1222@compuserve.com http://ecuvax.cis