ILA/ACRL Newsletter, vol. 10, no. 2, July 2000
Dear
Colleagues,
As
promised, we all had a really good time in Ames for the ILA/ACRL annual meeting on May
12th. Kathy Parsons, who chaired the Spring
Program Committee, along with her able colleagues--Joyce Lindstrom, Kris Stacy-Bates,
Susan Moore, and Joan Loslo--put together an excellent program that featured Sharon Hogan,
Library Director at the University of Illinois--Chicago (and the 2000 ACRL Librarian of
the Year) as our main speaker. Sharon's
remarks were followed by several discussion tables (a new format, which worked pretty
well!) and then in the afternoon the conference attendees were entertained by numerous
well-done presentations.
Fresh
from our victory in Ames, we will now be moving on to our Fall ILA Conference
program--again in L.A. (Lovely Ames), which will continue our digital libraries theme with
Gail McMillan, who is the Director of the Digital Library and Archives, Virginia Tech. Gail's programs are scheduled for the afternoon of
October 19 at the Scheman Building near the ISU campus.
We will also have a panel responding to Gail's remarks; more about that
later. Rachel Crowley ably chairs the Fall
Program Planning Committee with the assistance of Stephen Dew, Susan Vega Garcia, and
Kathy Magarrell.
This summer my successor (how
time flies when you are having fun) Jane
Campagna will be working to replace committee members whose terms are expiring. Please give serious thought to contributing your
impressive skills, talents, and time to our fine organization. You can fill out the form at http://www.iowaacrl.org/organization/volunteer.html
or simply send a note to Jane or me, indicating where you want to serve. We never turn down anyone interesting in
helping!!
Finally, I want to thank the
hardworking members of the executive board, whose labors help keep our ship afloat!
Have a great summer and I hope to see
all of you in Ames again this October for the ILA annual meeting and our excellent
sessions with Gail McMillan.
ILA Fall Conference, October 18-20, 2000, Ames
"Libraries
Enrich Iowa Communities" is the theme of this year's Iowa Library Association
conference. The conference will be held on
October 18-20 at the Scheman Building at Iowa State University in Ames.
The
conference promises to be entertaining as well as educational. The grand opening of exhibits and a mystery dinner
theatre will kick-off the conference on Wednesday evening.
The keynoter will be David
Werner (former Iowan and former member of "The Capitol Steps") providing music and political satire. The Thursday evening banquet speaker will be Dale
Connelly, writer and program host for Minneapolis Public Radio. His topic will be "My Plan for Librarians to
Replace Professional Athletes in the Lives of Our Children." Dr. Peter Jaszi,
professor of law at American University, Washington, D.C., will speak at the Friday
morning general session on "Recent Copyright Developments and Their Impact on
Libraries." "Hollywood Coming to a
Town Near You" is the topic of the Friday lunch speaker, Wendol Jarvis of the Iowa
Film Office.
·
Census
2000 Update (sponsored by the Government Documents Roundtable);
·
Several
sessions on digital libraries, including a presentation by Gail McMillen, Director,
Digital Library and Archives, University Libraries, Virginia Tech (sponsored by ILA/ACRL);
·
Sessions
on the information industry and the use of
electronic journals by scientists by Dr. Carol Tenopir, The School of Information
Sciences, The University of Tennessee and author of Library Journal's "Online
Databases" column (sponsored by Special
Libraries Roundtable);
·
Quality
Cataloging, presented by Arlene Taylor (sponsored by Resources and Technical Services
Forum)
·
Is
There Life After Work? The Coming Age of
Leisure and the Library, by Professor Benjamin Hunnicutt, University of Iowa (sponsored by
the Conference Planning Committee).
Susan
Lerdal, Iowa State University
ILA/ACRL 2000 Spring Conference Report
Sharon Hogan, University Librarian, University of Illinois at Chicago, gave the keynote
speech, entitled "Libraries as Partners in Utilizing Online Instructional
management Systems (IMS): Challenges and Opportunities." EDUCAUSE, whose motto is "Transforming
education through technology," has established the National Learning Infrastructure
Initiative (NLII) which created the Instructional Management System. The IMS focuses on online education, so that it
can be developed by teachers instead of vendors. (For
further information, see http://www.educause.edu/nlii/) The
speech described NLII and IMS, and discussed
many considerations and implications for college and university libraries. Following her speech, the audience went to
discussion tables to share thoughts and ideas about different aspects of our work, as
affected by the points in her speech. Following
are the edited reports, as recorded by the facilitators for each group.
Reports
from Discussion Tables:
The Human Dimension (Facilitator, Lorrie
Knox, ISU)
The
IMS allows instructors to track what students are reading and whether or not students ARE
reading the assignments. Privacy issues, user
friendliness of IMS or varying computer literacy rates of students are concerns.
Two
perceived advantages of IMS courses are convenience for the students and new electronic
options for interaction. Disadvantages of IMS
may include varying quality of computers owned by students, some students are still
computer phobic, “prepackaged courses are inflexible and may include scanning input
errors, and increased dependence on course packs. Unknown
factors include decentralized library resources, archiving and authorship concerns,
excluding the “have-nots” who can’t afford to copy Reserve readings or own
a computer, and including the library in planning the courses.
Public
Services (Facilitator, Diana Shonrock, ISU)
Public
service librarians need to be partners in instructional management systems. We need to take a proactive role, we need to
provide "high touch and high tech" and mediate information services. We have the expertise to teach research skills
and provide remote reference service. Librarians
bring knowledge to the legal issues involved, such as copyright, privacy, filtering, and
licensing. We must market our resources and
services, and keep an eye on staffing and funding to support our services. The IMS future
seems both dangerous and interesting.
Management and Infrastructure (Facilitator, Ed Goedeken, ISU)
The
impact of electronic information on the library's reserve function occupied the group's
attention. Copyright problems relating to
access and archiving of electronic reserves as well as licensing issues were discussed.
The
impact of access to electronic information raised questions about how this would affect
patron's use of the physical building and print materials. The availability of the online
catalog and its links to the Internet through clicking on URLs were discussed.
The
electronic record has affected workflow and staffing decisions for many academic
libraries.
This
all led to discussion about the larger issue of libraries and librarianship in Iowa. The State Library is forming a task force to
investigate the role of libraries in Iowa--regional, academic, and public. The results of this task force will help provide
direction for future State Library initiatives.
Technical
Services (Facilitator, Susan Moore, UNI)
Discussion
centered on the MARC record and its use, and the fact that NLII has established a standard
of its own. Some feel that the Dublin Core doesn't address the issues as well, and that
Dublin Core and XML are simply new containers. There were some CORC participants at the
table to talk about that OCLC project. Cataloging is still essential, though there must be
some better intersection between the "brave new world" and the "old
stuff." Linking to resources will require some discussion between libraries,
publishers, and users.
We
need better communication between faculty, the library, and the computer centers as all of
us try to deal with the increase in the use of e-texts. Copyright issues are problematic
and will continue to be. The coming
electronic resources explosion will affect us in certain areas. Currently, the emphasis is on Web-based courses
(as university administrations drive for competition).
The question remains as to how on-going institutional support and resources
for electronic class packets will be obtained.
Instruction
(Facilitator, Kathleen Kern, ISU)
About
half of the roundtable participants said that their campus had or was actively
implementing an IMS. Campuses were split
between use of these systems for distance/distributed education and use to augment
on-campus course offerings. Overall,
the participants felt the campus administration is not able to think through the research
information components of these packages, and administrators have a different culture and
set of concerns than librarians.
The
instructional librarians were concerned over the limited quality and scope of resources
offered through IMS systems. Instructional Management Systems may provide temporary access
to databases the library does not provide, setting up new user expectations. Administrators may pay for access to the same
information twice, once through library subscriptions and once through the IMS license. Students and faculty may bypass the library
and the librarians.
For
students researching from off-campus, the IMS may provide more seamless access to
resources than the campus library. Libraries
need to work on providing easier remote access to databases and on providing resources
that are linked to courses and course assignments. There
is a challenge for the instructional librarian to communicate with faculty, students, and
administration about their library resources and services. Collaboration is key to both
information literacy instruction and library response to Instruction Management Systems.
Collection
Development (Facilitator, Kris Gerhard, ISU)
We
need to market our services and toot our own horns. Some
faculty realize they can’t do it all themselves, teach information literacy and
copyright and communication and critical thinking skills, as well as their specialized
subject area, but they often don't realize that librarians teach these skills. Librarians add value to information and we need to
market ourselves in those terms, as widely as possible.
And
we must provide remote access to our electronic resources, so they can be fully marketed
and exploited. We need to develop Web pages to support distributed learning, and increase
the librarian’s role in distributed learning.
When
we deal with publishers offering pre-selected electronic journal packages, they usually
offer “take it or leave it” packages. We need to maintain control of collection
development and our materials budgets.
Libraries
are faced with the high costs of electronic format. The wide availability of free trials
contributes to faculty perceptions that “everything is free on the Web.” Some
vendors are using campus newspapers to sell individual subscriptions for materials the
libraries provide through campus licenses.
--Kathy
A. Parsons, ISU, coordinator of the Facilitators and their reports
Reports
on a few of the presentations at the conference:
LAPTOP
COMPUTERS: THE CHANGING NATURE OF SERVICE
Presented
by Ellen Neuhaus, UNI
Neuhaus
described the circulation of laptop computers from a multimedia center that is also in
charge of many other library services. The
program was initiated and funded by the provost for the purpose of supplying faculty with
computers for home or conference use. The
provost also funded insurance coverage to cover the cost of repairing damaged laptops. Check-in procedures were developed to check for
damages and eliminate any research data remaining on the returned machines. It is possible, at some future date, that laptop
computer circulation service might be extended to allow students to access the
library’s online resources. For more
information contact: ellen.neuhaus@uni.edu
CARD
WARS TRILOGY: A DESCRIPTION OF THE ISU THESES PROJECT
Presented
by Kathy Parsons and Jeff Kushkowski, both ISU
The
presentation outlined phases I and II of an ongoing research project to look at trends in
citation data over time. Kathy Parsons
described Phase I for which she gathered citation data on randomly selected ISU theses
written between 1973 and 1988. The data was
recorded on index cards, then abandoned due to the difficulty of analyzing data. Jeff Kushkowski
described Phase II during which the original and additional data were converted to
electronic form. Phase III, an analysis of
the data, will be reported at a future time. For
more information contact: kap@iastate.edu kushkows@iastate.edu
DISTANCE
REFERENCE: NEW SERVICE OR NEW TOOLS?
Presented
by Rebecca Johnson and Sandra Ballasch, both UI
A
demonstration project was launched by the University of Iowa Libraries in fall 1998 to
enhance remote reference service beyond that provided by telephone or e-mail. The project
provided live reference help using conferencing software and, initially, a video camera. The librarians warned the audience about the
numerous technical problems, which hampered the project, but they noted that they learned
many lessons from trying to solve them. Users
were lukewarm about this service and eventually the project was suspended, but new ways of
serving library patrons are under consideration at the University of Iowa.
More
information on this project:
University
of Iowa Eye-On-Iowa Pilot Remote Reference Project http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/ref/remote/summary.html
Information
about other similar projects:
University
of Michigan/Shapiro Undergraduate Library Pilot
http://www.ala.org/acrl/paperhtm/a09.html
U
of California, Irvine: Interactive Reference
Service (IRS)
http://www.ala.org/acrl/paperhtm/a10.html
Presented
by Gerry McKiernan, ISU
NEWS
From Cole Library, Cornell College, Mount Vernon:
From the University of Iowa School of Library and Information Science:
The
University of Iowa School of Library and Information Science is delighted to announce the
appointments of Dr. James Elmborg and Dr.
Christine Pawley to the faculty, with the rank of Assistant Professor, effective August
15, 2000.
Dr. Elmborg comes to The University of Iowa from Furman University and Wofford College,
where he served as Andrew Mellon Librarian for Information Technology. Previously he was Head of Library User Education
at Washington State University. Dr. Elmborg holds a Ph.D. in English from the University
of Kansas and an M.L.S. from Emporia State University.
Dr.
Christine Pawley has taught information management and library and information studies at
the University of Wisconsin-Madison and at the College of St. Catherine. She has recently been a visiting fellow at the
School of Information Systems, Technology and Management at the University of New South
Wales, Sydney, Australia. Dr. Pawley holds
the M.A. and Ph.D. in library and information studies from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. Her B.A. (Hons.) in
Philosophy, Politics and Economics is from Oxford University, UK.
From the SLIS Newsletter, Spring 2000:
"The
School now offers a statewide distance delivery plan, leading to the M.A. degree. Courses
…Up to 28 hours of the 36-hour program can be earned in courses over the ICN.
…For more information, check the Distance Education link on the School's website http://www.uiowa.edu/~libsci/index.shtml
or contact ethel-bloesch@uiowa.edu."
--Ethel
Bloesch, SLIS
From the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls:
Effective,
July 1, 2000 Marilyn Mercado will serve as Interim Dean of
Colleen Valente began as the Head of Cataloging, Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa
on March 1, 2000. She came from Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
Susan Moore has been elected Chair of the Rod Library Faculty Senate for 2000-2001.
Marilyn Mercado recently completed a two-week tour of Nitra and Bratislava, Slovakia as
part of her ongoing work with the UNI sponsored SK-Libris project. Mercado served as an advisor to librarians of the
recently formed Nitra Valley Library Association - Nitra Regional Library, the
Agricultural University Library, and the Constantine the Philosopher University Library. The Nitra Valley Library Association is in the
early stages of establishing a shared union catalog.
While in
--Chris
Neuhaus, UNI
Stan Lyle and Ellen Neuhaus participated in the University of Northern Iowa/Klagenfurt
University Librarian Exchange program this past April. Klagenfurt University is located in
the city of Klagenfurt, Austria, several hours south of Vienna via train and located
several kilometers from the Slovenia border. The
Librarian Exchange program is an extension of a larger exchange program between the
University of Northern Iowa and Klagenfurt University where there has been regular
exchange for several years between the students and faculty members of the two
institutions.
The program provides for an exchange of professional ideas and topics between the two
libraries. In addition, the program provides
a cultural exchange which builds a deeper understanding of the traditions and origins of
the libraries within each country.
Lyle and Neuhaus shared their knowledge, experience, and expertise using a combination of
presentations, seminars, and informal conversations. Lyle gave a presentation entitled
"Facilitating Access to Electronic Journals Obtained through Various Channels"
and led two seminars entitled "Access to Library Services via Web Pages" and
"Production of Web Pages." Neuhaus
gave a presentation entitled "Periodical Help Desk: Great Expectations?"
--Ellen
Neuhaus, UNI
Judy Mitchell has resigned her position, effective early July, to move to Colorado and
find a new position.
Ron Hardy will join the Central College Library staff as Collection Development Librarian
beginning July 2000. Ron holds degrees from the University of Iowa in Russian & East
European Studies and Library & Information Science. He comes to Central from Cornell
College, IA where he was Public Services Librarian.
The Central College Library received a $40,000 grant from the Roy J. Carver Charitable
Trust to implement a joint online library system with the Pella Public Library. The
catalog is available under Web Pac www.central.edu/Library/libhome.htm. The joint project
uses Innovative Interfaces' Millennium product.
Librarians
at Central offered spring workshops to 50 faculty members.
Sessions included "Digital Imaging: Creating & Editing Pictures for
Web pages, PowerPoint and More," "Remembering Copyright in a Digital Age,"
"The Dog Ate My Syllabus: Getting Your Syllabus Online," "New (and
improved) FirstSearch," "Academic Universe: A World of Resources at Your Finger
tips," and "Getting the Whole Story: Full-text Online from Geisler
Library."
Robin Martin is serving as Vice President/President Elect of the Iowa Library Association.
Lois Smith received Central College's Outstanding Faculty Performance Award 2000 for
Community Service in recognition of her contribution to implementing the Central
College/Pella Public Library online library system. At
their spring meeting the College's Board of Trustees granted Robin and Lois tenure.
From Drake University, Des Moines:
Drake
University's Cowles Library began a renovation project in late May to restore and enhance
the second floor reading room, the old Reference Room. Walls, lighting, flooring, and
seating will be upgraded in a style in keeping with the design motifs of the original
construction completed in 1939. The atrium area adjacent to the reading room will receive
a similar treatment, as well as an expanded conference room and student group study area.
The renovation will also include display space for some Drake archives and library special
collections. Plans call for completion of the project by late summer or early September.
The library's Website, (http://www.lib.drake.edu/index.html)
has additional information on the project, and digital images of the project work.
John
Pollitz, director of St. Ambrose University O'Keefe Library gave a presentation,
"Iowa Link and the role of libraries in the future of learning for Iowans," at
IACON 2000 (Iowa Connections Conference 2000), April 28, in Des Moines, IA.
Pat
Kranovich has been hired as Head of Reference at O'Keefe Library and Mary Heinzman has
been hired as Business Reference Librarian.
During National Library Week, the Library celebrated with live banjo music in the atrium.
The Quad City Banjoliers played selections from the Roaring '20s to the enjoyment of the
crowd. A special display of antique banjoes was also available for public viewing.
During National Poetry Month, a "Poem of the Day" was added to the Library's
Website every day. Faculty, staff and students submitted poems. Those who submitted poetry
received the candy bar of their choice as a reward!
During the summer, Library staff is participating on the University's Vision 2020
committees as part of the long-range planning initiative of St. Ambrose University.
From
Grinnell College, Grinnell:
On
May 24 the Grinnell College Libraries held an in-house disaster action workshop retreat
for the entire library staff. The workshop will focus on the salvaging of wet books
following a disaster. Ivan Hanthorn, Iowa
State Libraries conservator, will be leading the workshop. We are holding this staff
retreat in conjunction with the complete revision of our disaster plan.
From
Simpson College, Indianola:
Liz
Grimsbo began at Simpson College on June 19. She is the first Serials Access Librarian at
Dunn Library. Liz comes to Simpson from the Waterloo Public Library where she was an
Information Librarian for ten years. She has also worked in the libraries at Wayne State
College and Augustana College.
From William Penn University, Oskaloosa:
William
Penn University, The Oskaloosa Public Library and Indian Hills Community College have
partnered together and have received funding to hold a series of workshops for the general
public to teach them about our electronic resources and the Internet. We all received LSTA funds (Federal Library
Services and Technology Act administered by the State Library of Iowa) and funding from
the George Daily Family Trust.
From
The University of Iowa Libraries
The
name for our new library system is InfoHawk, with Aleph software from Ex Libris. The new Web-based catalog will go into production
in early August. A limited test database is
available at http://ocean.lib.uiowa.edu:4545/ALEPH.html,
if you would like to have a look at the present version.
On
May 16th the State Historical Society awarded the Certificate of Recognition
for the 2000 "Kids Count!" Award for Excellence in Service to Youth Researchers
to The University of Iowa Libraries.
Personnel changes:
Nancy L. Baker will be the new UI Librarian, effective August 15. Baker has been director of Libraries at Washington
State University, Pullman, Washington, since 1991. Prior to becoming director at WSU,
Baker was associate director of Libraries for Public Services, University of
Washington-Seattle from 1984 to 1991.
Ruth Ann McTyre, formerly of the Baylor University Music Library, started as Music
Librarian in May. Rebecca Johnson has been named the new Head of Information Research and
Instructional Services. In April Debra Dreusicke became our Director of Development for
the University Libraries.
Professional
Positions open (see http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/lib/jobs.html for more
information):
Digital Initiatives Librarian (deadline 9/15/00)
Electronic Resources Cataloger (deadline 7/14/00)
Preservation Librarian (deadline 9/1/00)
Teaching with Innovative Style and Technology (TWIST) Librarian (deadline 9/8/00)
Team Leader, Information Arcade (deadline 9/08/00)
University Archivist (deadline 6/30/00)
Ann Ford, University of Iowa Libraries
Newsletter Committee:
Ann Ford, (UI), Editor e-ann-ford@uiowa.edu
Suzanne Julich (UI)
Sandra Keist (Grandview College)
Charlene Lehman (UI)
Susan Lerdal (ISU)
Judy Mitchell (AIC)
Jill Osweiler (ISU)
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