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C&RL News July/August 2013 338

N e w s  f r o m  t h e  F i e l dDavid Free

Sample from the Northwest Historical Postcards Collection.

University of Idaho Library releases 
digital collection of historical 
Northwest postcards
The University of Idaho Library’s Digital Ini-
tiatives department has released a new col-
lection of more than 800 digitized postcards 
featuring images of the late 19th and early 

to mid-20th century Northwestern United 
States. The Northwest Historical Postcards 
Collection displays unique and engaging im-
ages of people and places in Washington, 
Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, British 
Columbia, and Alberta. 

The collection includes rare depictions of 
turn-of-the-century buildings, thriving min-
ing towns that later became ghost towns, 
and Mount St. Helens before the eruption. 
Browse the Northwest Historical Postcards 
Collection at www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital 
/postcards/index.html.

Vonnegut Library recipient of Banned 
Books Week grant
The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library, located 
in Indianapolis, is the first library in Indiana 
ever to be awarded a grant from the Free-
dom to Read Foundation’s Judith F. Krug 
Memorial Fund grant in support of Banned 
Books Week, which will take place Septem-

ber 22–28, 2013. Only seven organizations 
nationwide were awarded this funding. The 
library is the first institution devoted to an 
individual to receive the grant.

“The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library 
encourages free expression and preserves 
the legacy left by Vonnegut and writers like 

him who aren’t afraid to fully 
explore the human condition,” 
said Executive Director Julia 
Whitehead. “We’re grateful to 
the Freedom to Read Founda-
tion and to libraries everywhere 
for what they do.”

For this year’s Banned Books 
Week events, the Vonnegut 
Library will host an invitational 
juried art show and sale; hold a 
local writer captive in a “prison” 
of books; stage a First Amend-
ment Film Festival; and present 
a talk on “Corrupting Our Kids: 
The Attack on YA Literature.” 

Visit vonnegutlibrary.org for more informa-
tion on the library and the upcoming Banned 
Books Week events.

2013 ACRL Environmental Scan
Every two years, the ACRL Research Plan-
ning and Review Committee produces an 
environmental scan of higher education, 
including developments with the potential 
for continuing on impact academic librar-
ies. The 2013 environmental scan provides 
a broad review of the current higher edu-
cation landscape, with special focus on the 
state of academic and research libraries. The 
document builds on earlier ACRL reports, 
including the “Top Ten Trends in Academic 
Libraries” published in the June 2012 issue 
of C&RL News. The 2013 environmental scan 
is freely available on the ACRL Web site 
at www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files 
/ c o n t e n t / p u b l i c a t i o n s / w h i t e p a p e r s 
/EnvironmentalScan13.pdf.



July/August 2013 339 C&RL News

Mark Cummings named CHOICE editor and publisher

Mark Cummings has been named editor and 
publisher of CHOICE Magazine, the premier 
source for reviews of academic books, elec-
tronic media, and Internet resources in higher 
education. CHOICE, a publication of ACRL, is 
headquartered in Middletown, Connecticut. 
Cummings served as CHOICE editor and 
publisher designate beginning June 17, 2013, 
and assumed the position full time effective 
July 7, 2013, upon the retire-
ment of Irving E. Rockwood, 
who served CHOICE in this 
position for 17 years.

“I am delighted to have 
Mark join the ACRL/CHOICE 
team,” said ACRL Executive 
Director Mary Ellen K. Davis. 
“His distinguished career 
in educational and library 
publishing will serve ACRL/
CHOICE well as we continue 
to meet the needs of the 
higher education commu-
nity in a rapidly changing 
environment.”

Cummings has worked 
in academic and educational 
publishing for almost 30 years, beginning 
his career in the reference and professional 
books division at Macmillan and continuing 
at Scribner’s and Oxford University Press. In 
the early 1990s, he joined Grolier Publishing 
Company as editor-in-chief of the Encyclo-
pedia Americana and went on to become 
vice-president and publisher of Grolier’s 
reference division. 

Over the course of his ten years in that 
position, Cummings built an online busi-
ness that reached millions of students in the 
United States and overseas. Since 2000 he 

has concentrated on educational technology, 
first at Scholastic and then at Weekly Reader, 
where, as vice president for business devel-
opment, focusing on creating new reference 
and literacy products for the school and 
library market. Cummings holds a BA from 
Michigan State University along with MA and 
MPhil degrees from Yale University in East 
Asia–related fields.

The CHOICE editor and 
publisher provides ongoing 
strategic direction for the 
editorial, marketing, advertis-
ing, and production of a suite 
of print and digital products. 
The position directs the 
development and imple-
mentation of a long-term 
business strategy to maintain 
CHOICE’s competitive posi-
tion in the higher education 
marketplace and ensure 
ongoing fiscal sustainability.

ACRL wishes to thank the 
search committee and staff 
panel who assisted with the 
search: Trevor A. Dawes, ACRL 

vice-president/president-elect; Kim Leeder, 
chair, ACRL Publications Coordinating Com-
mittee;  Keith Stetson, chair, CHOICE Editorial 
Board; Don Chatham, AED, ALA Publishing; 
Mary Mackay, director, ALA Marketing; Cynthia 
Vivian, director, ALA Human Resources; Fran 
Graf, CHOICE editorial director; Lisa Gross, 
CHOICE production manager; Tom Radko, 
CHOICE operations manager; Rita Balasco, 
CHOICE customer service; Evelyn Elam, 
CHOICE library technical assistant; Pam Ma-
rino, CHOICE advertising sales; and Mary Jane 
Petrowski, ACRL associate director.

Mark Cummings



C&RL News July/August 2013 340

ProQuest debuts rebuilt Dialog
ProQuest announced a rebuilt version of the 
Dialog information service in early June. Now 
called ProQuest Dialog, the service reinvents a 
classic resource making its content —about a 
billion documents—accessible for the first time 
to searchers of all skill levels. 

Dialog was the first commercial online infor-
mation service, launched decades in advance of 
the Internet under the visionary leadership of 
Roger K. Summit. Dialog became a foundation 
for information professionals and researchers 
around the world who relied on the broad 
content collection and command line searching. 

ProQuest Dialog provides a search mode for 
researchers at every skill level—from novice to 
expert information professional —with sophisti-
cated tools that refine results and output to sup-
port a variety of workflows. Since initial deploy-
ment of a core scientific collection for DataStar 
customers in 2012, ProQuest Dialog has been 
under intensive development with a dedicated 
technology team. In-depth customer feedback 
has been used in solidifying functionality and 

adding Dialog-specific content and features. 
ProQuest Dialog will be “migration ready” in 
July. Account management and support teams 
will actively work with customers to transition 
to the new service by the end of the year, when 
the legacy system will be retired. To learn more 
about ProQuest Dialog visit www.dialog.com/
proquestdialog/.

Picturing Appalachia at Western 
Carolina
The Western Carolina University (WCU) Hunt-
er Library, in partnership with the Great Smoky 
Mountains National Park, has released Pictur-
ing Appalachia, a digital collection of more 
than 1,000 early 20th-century photographs that 
provides a glimpse into the life, culture, and 
natural landscape of the Southern Appalachian 
mountains in and around Western North Caro-
lina. The collection includes images by popular 
Great Smoky Mountains National Park photog-
rapher James E. Thompson, whose work is 
housed at park headquarters in Sugarlands, 
Tennessee.  

Handbook of Academic Writing for Librarians

ACRL announces the publication of Hand-
book of Academic Writing for Librarians, 
by Christopher V. Hollister of 
the University at Buffalo.

The Handbook of Academ-
ic Writing for Librarians is 
the most complete reference 
source available for librarians 
who need or desire to publish 
in the professional literature. 
The handbook addresses issues 
and requirements of schol-
arly writing and publishing in a 
start-to-finish manner. Standard 
formats of scholarly writing 
are addressed: research papers, 
articles, and books. Sections and chapters 
include topics such as developing schol-
arly writing projects in library science, the 
improvement of academic writing, under-
standing and managing the peer review 
process (including submission, revision, 

and how to handle rejection and accep-
tance), assessing appropriateness of pub-

lishing outlets, and copyright.
This primary reference tool 

for the library and information 
science (LIS) community sup-
ports those who either desire 
or are required to publish in 
the professional literature. LIS 
students at the master’s and 
doctoral levels can also ben-
efit from this comprehensive 
volume.

Handbook of Academic 
Writing for Librarians is avail-
able for purchase in print, as 

an e-book, and as a print/e-book bundle 
through the ALA Online Store; in print and 
for Kindle through Amazon.com; and by 
telephone order at (866) 746-7252 in the 
United States or (770) 442-8633 for inter-
national customers. 



July/August 2013 341 C&RL News

Tech Bits . . .
Brought to you by the ACRL ULS Technol-
ogy in University Libraries Committee  

TinEye is a free reverse image search that lets 
users search the Web for a specific image, either by 
uploading an image file or by searching an image’s 
URL. Originally intended to track unauthorized 
uses of copyrighted images, TinEye is a great tool 
for reinforcing concepts of visual literacy. Students 
can use TinEye to discover the original location of 
an image, so they can cite images accurately. You 
can use the Web site itself or download a browser 
plugin, currently available for Chrome, Firefox, 
Safari, Internet Explorer, and Opera. There are 
also several fun features of the Web site, such as 
an option to search Creative Commons images by 
color. Although still in beta, TinEye is a useful tool 
to many in the visual arts disciplines.

—Kristin Henrich
University of Idaho

. . . TinEye 
www.tineye.com

Thompson and his brother, 
Robin (whose work also is in 
the new collection), ran the 
Thompson Brothers Commercial 
Photography business in Knox-
ville, making images for park 
supporters and various other 
regional tourism and business 
interests. WCU staff also selected 
groups of pictures from Hunter 
Library’s own special collections, 
including work by George Masa, 
who photographed and docu-
mented the Mount Mitchell Motor 
Road, giving tourists a glimpse of 
America’s highest peak east of the 
Mississippi. Masa is well known 
for working with Horace Kephart, 
an authority on the cultural and 
natural history of the region, to 
build support for establishment 
of Great Smoky Mountains Na-
tional Park. The collection also 
comprises the work of other, 
lesser-known photographers, 
including A. L. Ensley, a Jackson 
County farmer who photographed families in 
formal portraits at his home studio. The col-
lection is available at www.wcu.edu/library 
/DigitalCollections/PicturingAppalachia/.

Steiner named C&RL social media editor
Sarah Steiner of Georgia State University (GSU) 
has been appointed to the post of social media 
editor for College & Research Libraries (C&RL), 
a new position created by the C&RL editorial 
board and the ACRL Publications Coordinating 
Committee to take advantage of new opportu-
nities to disseminate scholarly work published 
in the journal now that it has moved into an 
open-access publishing model. Steiner will 
serve a three-year term as social media editor 
beginning July 1, 2013.

Steiner, author of the recently-published 
Strategic Planning for Social Media in Librar-
ies (2012), is the Honors, Nursing, and Virtual 
Services librarian at GSU. From 2011 to 2013, 
she served on the editorial board of the Georgia 
Library Quarterly, where she provided leader-

ship for that journal’s transition to an online, 
open-access format. A member of the ACRL 
Chapters Council, Steiner has also helped to 
design and implement social media strategies for 
her library, her university, and for the Georgia 
Library Association.

New ACRL liaison appointments
The ACRL Liaisons Coordinating Committee 
(LCC) announces the following new liaison 
appointments:

• National Women’s Studies Association 
(NWSA): Jennifer Gilley, head librarian, Penn 
State University-New Kensington (Term: 
2013–15)

• Association for the Study of African 
American Life (ASALH): Glenda Alvin, as-
sistant director for collection management 
and acquisitions, Tennessee State University 
(Term: 2013–15)

Complete information on ACRL liaisons is 
available on the LCC Web site at www.ala.
org/acrl/issues/councilofliaisons.