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1. ARL Board of Directors Meets on July 23-24
1. ARL Board of Directors Meets on July 23-24 The ARL Board of Directors met on July 23-24 in Washington, DC. Actions taken by the Board include: + Approved minutes of May 2001 Board meeting. (To be distributed to members in a separate email.) + Reviewed schedule for October Membership Meeting and identified the follow-up event as a Forum on Collections and Access Issues. (See news items 3 and 4 below.) + Extended an invitation to a LIBER representative to attend the ARL Meeting in May 2002. + Reviewed member responses to the ARL Program Survey. (See news item 2 below.) + Recommended a 5% increase in dues (provides increase in operating expenses, 3.5% salary pool, and $32,750 increase in budget for technology). The 2002 dues recommendation will be described in greater detail in the 2002 Dues Proposal to be prepared shortly. The proposal will be sent to the membership prior to September 15 and will be discussed and voted on by membership at the Business Meeting on October 18, 2001. + Discussed the Reserve Fund and established a Board subcommittee to address the adequacy of $1 million target, investment philosophy, and criteria for using earned income. + Supported the Scholars Portal Working Group recommendation to begin a "collaborative exploration" with a vendor that would lead to a pilot project to test the vision of a scholars portal articulated by the Working Group. The Board also asked ARL staff to continue to monitor other vendor developments and library applications of search engines and resource integration software tools and to develop a set of "best practices" of the functionality and service options being tested. + Approved a motion to bring the issue of the role that accreditation plays in achieving quality library education and a proposal for an independent accrediting body to the membership for general discussion at the October meeting. + Approved an updated membership document, "Principles and Procedures for Membership in ARL." The document will be sent to the membership prior to September 15 and will be discussed and voted on at the Business meeting on October 18. + Discussed the PLoS initiative and decided that a public statement by ARL would not be appropriate at this time. Approved a motion to send to membership the OSC analysis comparing the PLoS proposal to the Tempe Principles and to suggest members use the analysis to discuss issues of scholarly communication with faculty on their campuses. (See news item 4, below.) + Met with Laura Campbell and Winston Tabb of the Library of Congress, who discussed the progress of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. + Approved dates for the 2003 Board and Membership Meetings. The Board will meet February 6-7, May 13 and 16, July 28-29, and October 14 and 17. Membership Meetings in 2003 will be May 14-16 in Lexington, Kentucky and October 15-17 in Washington, D.C. 2. ARL Membership to Convene October 17-18; Discussion Topics Invited The 139th Membership Meeting of ARL will convene October 17-18 at the Jurys Hotel in Washington, D.C. By popular demand, the meeting will be a repeat of last fall's program design that centered on a series of ARL committee sponsored and member led discussions. All member representatives are invited to identify ideas for timely discussion topics. We recognize that some ideas are better suited for community wide discussion and other topics may be more usefully discussed in a smaller group setting. We particularly welcome suggestions or volunteers for facilitators to initiate the small group discussions. Provide your ideas to ARL President Shirley Baker or to ARL Executive Director Duane Webster. Schedule: ARL committee meetings will be held on Wednesday, October
17 followed by a reception that evening. Just prior to the reception there
will be an informal Welcome to ARL orientation for directors new to ARL
and other first time Membership Meeting attendees; all member leaders,
no matter how many meetings you have attended, are encouraged to attend
this one hour briefing to meet new colleagues. The Membership Meeting program
discussions, the Federal Relations lunch program, and the
3. ARL Forum on Collections & Access Set for October 19-20 ARL will convene a Forum to explore new approaches to collection management and machine assisted access strategies that could increase the visibility of research library collections. On October 19-20, 2001, in Washington, DC, immediately following the ARL Membership Meeting, ARL will convene "Collections & Access for the 21st Century Scholar: A Forum to Explore the Roles of the Research Library. " The Forum is planned as a series of exploratory discussions on: + changing information seeking behavior of the academic community; + new approaches to collection management; and + the potential of the OAI Metadata Harvesting Protocol, portals, and resource integration tools. Who should attend? Library Directors are encouraged to attend accompanied
by one or two other leaders from their library who are most involved in
supporting the transformation of the institution. For
Registration for the Forum is separate from the ARL Membership Meeting. Information on the program, schedule, the registration fee and process will be forthcoming. Tentatively, the Forum will begin by 10 am on Friday, October 19 and conclude Saturday, October 20 by 3 pm. Save the dates! 4. Ninety One Members Respond to ARL Program Survey In May, the ARL Board of Directors sponsored a survey seeking member-leaders assessment of ARL programs. Ninety-one members responded providing a wealth of perspectives that will be used in shaping the evolving program agenda of ARL. The ARL Board of Directors at their July meeting reviewed the feedback and observed that there is broad membership endorsement of the importance of the issues being addressed by ARL. Members also acknowledged the relative success of ARL programs in influencing these issues. The Board observed that the survey scores and comments capture some
very interesting and diverse views (especially when viewed by type of institution
responding, e.g. state, private, Canadian, non university). The Board
also concluded that the overall results did not signal a mandate to drop
any program or make a major reallocation of dues within programs.
Members endorsed the investment pattern adopted by the ARL Boards over
the last decade and signaled a willingness to support this
The Board directed staff to prepare a summary of the feedback and make the tabulation of results available to the membership. The Board is also asking the ARL standing committees to consider the results as they plan their agendas for the next three years. The Board endorsed the notion of using this survey methodology every three years to inventory member perspectives. 5. AAU Provosts Conduct Survey on Future of Research Libraries At their upcoming meeting in September, the AAU Provosts will be discussing
"The Future of the Library in Research Universities." This particular
session is organized by Eugene H. Levy, the Provost at Rice
For members responding to the AAU questionnaire and otherwise preparing
their provost for this discussion, you may want to consult two recent publications
issued by ARL in the OLMS SPEC series: SPEC 242 : Library Storage Facilities,
Management, Services, and SPEC 244 (also numbered in
6. Next Steps with the Public Library of Science On July 27, directors of ARL libraries were sent a report on the outcomes
of the ARL Board's discussion of the Public Library of Science. As
noted in that report, the Board decided not to issue a public statement
about the PloS at this time, but did make several recommendations.
The Board encouraged the Scholarly Communication Committee to continue
to monitor developments regarding the PloS. They also recommended
that members continue to use the PLoS to discuss issues in scholarly communication
with faculty, guiding those sympathetic to the PLoS to those publishers
that are supporting freely available centralized archives, such as PubMed
Central. In addition, the Board
7. Preservation Conference Planned by ARL and the University of Michigan ARL and the University of Michigan Library will co-sponsor a conference on preservation in Ann Arbor tentatively set for March 7-8, 2002. The conference is intended to bring together ARL directors and preservation officers to explore new models for preservation programs in the 21st century. The conference program planning committee includes: Joe Branin (Ohio State), Dale Canelas (University of Florida), Bill Gosling (Michigan), Nancy Gwinn (Smithsonian), Liz Lane (New York State Library), Carla Montori (Preservation Officer at Michigan), and MaryCase (ARL). More details will be available in the fall. 8. U.K. Competition Commission Approves Reed Elsevier/Harcourt Deal The British Department of Trade and Industry announced on July 5 the UK Competition Commission's decision to allow the Reed Elsevier purchase of Harcourt General to proceed. The deal calls for the purchase by Reed Elsevier of Harcourt for $5.6 billion and the assumption of $1.2 billion in debt. In addition, Reed Elsevier will then sell to Thomson the Harcourt divisions involved in higher education publishing and distance education for $2.06 billion. The U.S. Department of Justice had previously cleared the transaction requiring Thomson to divest some lines of textbooks as well as computer based testing businesses. While the Competition Commission did approve the deal, it raised concerns
regarding the STM publishing market and invited the Director General of
Fair Trading to consider whether a wider review of that market is necessary.
On July 5 the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) issued an invitation to comment
stating that it is conducting "an informal consultation to assess whether
there are grounds for opening an
9. ARL Meets at Brown to Examine Special Collections "Building on Strength: Developing an ARL Agenda for Special Collections,"
a working symposium on the future of special collections in research libraries,
was held at Brown University June 27-29, 2001. It
This event was a unique opportunity for over 100 research library directors,
heads of special collections, and invited scholars and guests to discuss
timely issues concerning the potential of special collections. Presentations
were made by David Stam (Librarian Emeritus, Syracuse), William Crowe (Kansas),
Sarah Thomas (Cornell), Shirley Baker (Washington in St. Louis), and Robert
Byrd (Duke). Merrily Taylor (Brown) and Joe Hewitt (UNC-CH), co-organizers
of the symposium and current and past chairs of the ARL Research Collections
Committee, respectively, also delivered comments and encouraged participant
discussion. Break-out sessions then focused discussion on issues to form
the basis of a proposed ARL action agenda for special collections. The
draft agenda, along with the presentations from the symposium, is available
on the ARL website <http://www.arl.org/special/index.html>.
Comments on the proposed agenda from participants as well as those not
attending the symposium are invited; see the agenda on the website noted
above. The next step to develop the action agenda is a discussion at the
10. 100+ Libraries Plan to Participate in LibQUAL+ Over 100 institutions are registered to participate in the spring 2002
survey implementation. The registration deadline was August 1 for
individual institutions; institutions participating through group
The LibQUAL+ research team presented initial results of the spring 2001 survey to project participants at the ALA annual conference in San Francisco in June. Various aspects of the spring 2001 findings will be published in the October issue of the ARL Bimonthly Report; the fall issue of Portal; and in the doctoral dissertation, "A Mixed-Methods Approach to the Identification and Measurement of Academic Library Service Quality Constructs: LibQUAL+," by Colleen Cook. Ms. Cook is Executive Associate Dean of the Texas A&M University Libraries and one of the LibQUAL+ researchers. The LibQUAL+ team is also exploring the potential of adapting the survey
instrument to the digital library environment and, to help support this
avenue of research, is seeking funding from the National Science
For more information about LibQUAL+, contact Consuella Askew Waller <consuella@arl.org>. 11. New Measures Learning Outcomes Project Begins The ARL Statistics and Measurement Program is defining a course of action for library engagement in student learning outcomes. The goal of this new measures project is to identify measures that demonstrate the library's contribution to student learning outcomes. A working group of member institutions has been established and held an organizing conference call to begin to address a set of background tasks. Subsequent meetings will be held in September and October. A first task for the group will be a formal definition of the level and elements of learning outcomes on which the ARL project will focus. The ARL initiative will build on existing efforts, such as the ACRL work with information literacy, but expand on the broader concept that needs to be addressed within the context of higher education learning outcomes assessment efforts. For more information, contact Julia Blixrud <jblix@arl.org>. 12. E-Metrics Phase II Project Report Will Be Issued in August The E-Metrics study team from the Information Use Management and Policy
Institute, Florida State University, completed the field testing of library
and vendor data. A preliminary report was given to project participants
in San Francisco on June 15. The data are being compared across field-testing
libraries as well as against ARL supplemental statistics to ensure reliability
and validity of the standardized
Findings will be presented publicly at the 4th Northumbria International
Conference, August 12-16, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania <http://www.arl.org/stats/north/>
at a keynote by Sherrie Schmidt and
For more information about ARL E-Metrics, contact Martha Kyrillidou <martha@arl.org>. 13. ARL Statistics and Measurement Program Update The ARL Survey Coordinators and SPEC Liaison meeting was held on June
15 featuring presentations in relation to various New Measures efforts.
A workshop welcoming New Survey Coordinators was held on June 16.
An updated month by month timeline for the June 2001-May 2002 data
(a) ARL is currently collecting data for the following surveys: + ARL Annual Salary Survey 2001-2002. The mailing of this
survey to the directors of ARL libraries took place in July. Survey
documents and instructions are also mounted on the web at:
+ ARL Academic Law Library Statistics 1999-2000 (received 73). + ARL Medical Library Statistics 1999-2000 (received 60). + ARL Preservation Statistics 1999-2000 (received 104). (b) In production and to be issued shortly: + ARL Statistics 1999-2000. Status: complete; final tables are available at: ftp://www.arl.org/stat/statspub-xls. The ARL Membership Criteria Index was published by the Chronicle of Higher Education on June 22, 2001. + ARL Supplementary Statistics 1999-2000 (received 116). Complete and in preparation. (c) In production are the following survey datafiles/publications from data collected in prior years: + ARL Academic Law and Medical Library Statistics 1998-99 + ARL Preservation Statistics 1998-99 (d) The following datasets and publications have been made publicly available in the last two months: + Two volumes of the "Developing Indicators: Ratios from the ARL
Statistics" have been printed and distributed to member libraries
pdf versions are available at: <http://www.arl.org/stats/arlstat/index.html#indicato>.
This publication is discontinued; the information available there can easily
be created from the ARL Statistics Interactive edition and efforts will
be
If you need data and files that are not yet publicly available, contact Martha Kyrillidou <martha@arl.org>. 14. "The Role of Assessment in Advancing Diversity " Web-delivered Workshop Planned The ARL Office of Leadership and Management Services [OLMS] announced
in July open registration for the ARL/OLMS Online Lyceum web-delivered
workshop, "The Role of Assessment in Advancing Diversity for Libraries."
Participants in this course will have the opportunity to design and/or
evaluate their library's diversity program, identify a strategy for program
implementation and/or enhancement, and examine different methods to assess
the program. This course will incorporate elements of synchronous
(real-time) and asynchronous communication among and between participants,
facilitators, and learning resources. This course is for anyone involved
with or interested in diversity as a programmatic focus
15. Three Leadership Workshops Scheduled A. LIBRARY MANAGEMENT SKILLS INSTITUTE I: THE MANAGER -October 10-12, 2001, San Antonio, TX Library Management Skills Institute I is the most requested OLMS program.
It uses theoretical and conceptual frameworks to develop practical interpersonal
and managerial skills. Participants will
B. PROJECT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE: GETTING THINGS DONE OR
GETTING THE
One of the most common challenges in organizations is making sure that planning translates into timely and effective outcomes. This two-day workshop focuses on moving from problem identification and definition through action planning and evaluation. An integrated problem-solving model is presented, and there is intensive practice with tools such as Gantt Charts, the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT), and the Critical Path Method (CPM). Competencies gained or enhanced by this institute include: balancing tasks and relationships, ability to plan and carry out complex activities, and skills for managing the human element in project management . Cost to ARL members is $350. C. CREATING A CULTURE OF ASSESSMENT WORKSHOP - November
12-13, 2001,
Libraries are increasingly being called upon to show the impact of their
services on the purpose and intended outcomes of the parent institution
or community. Customer or user-centered decision making and programming
requires relevant data and information as well as an organizational bias
toward continuous assessment. This workshop will investigate the main forces
influencing current library goals and work environments and how these forces
beg for the adoption of a new paradigm of thinking, new
You may register online at <http://db.arl.org/training/regform.html> or download a registration form and mail it to the ARL Office of Leadership and Management Services. For further information, please contact the OLMS training office at <training@arl.org> or call (202) 296-8656 ext. 141. SPARC and LIBER, the principal association of the major research libraries of Europe, launched SPARC Europe in early July. Delegates at LIBER's annual meeting in London voted unanimously for LIBER to serve as the umbrella organization for SPARC Europe, which will facilitate competition in the European scientific journals marketplace and introduce advocacy initiatives tailored to the European research and library communities. Several national organizations and institutions in Europe are joining with LIBER to sponsor the startup of SPARC Europe. These organizations include: the Consortium of University Research Libraries (CURL) in the UK; the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) in the UK; the Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) of the UK and Ireland; and UKB, the Netherlands cooperative of research libraries, in collaboration with IWI, the SURF Foundation program for innovation in scientific information supply. Support of additional national and pan-European organizations is being sought by SPARC Europe. SPARC Europe will collaborate with the international SPARC organization based in Washington, DC, but will develop Europe-focused initiatives under the direction of a European managing board and a Europe-based program officer. A European membership base, including a number of current SPARC members, will support this work. Membership in SPARC Europe is open to national and academic libraries, library organizations, and research institutions in the region. SPARC Europe membership inquiries may be directed to: Chris Bailey, Glasgow University Library, Hillhead Street, Glasgow G12 8QE Scotland UK. Tel: +44 141 330 5637. Fax: +44 141 330 3213. E-mail: <C.A.Bailey@lib.gla.ac.uk>. To regularly receive information on SPARC Europe via e-mail, sign up at: <db.arl.org/sparc/contacts>. 17. Library Media Relations Handbook Available Have you ever wondered how to work with the media to bring recognition to the important services and projects in which your library is engaged? "Media Map: Charting a Media Relations Strategy" is a new guide from SPARC and ARL for libraries and library organizations that want to create a successful media relations plan. Authored by SPARC's Alison Buckholtz, Media Map will help an organization navigate its role as public policy influencer, communicate effectively with the media, deliver a targeted message, sell a particular story, become a valued media source, and respond during a crisis. We believe it will be of use to directors of libraries and library organizations; public information officers and public affairs/communication officers; and others interested in what it takes for a worthy story to see the light of day. Media Map is available as a PDF file on the ARL website <http://www.arl.org/mediamap.pdf>. 18. Coalition for Networked Information Update CNI Executive Director Clifford Lynch's talk, "Personalization and Recommender
Systems in the Larger Context: New Directions and Research Questions,"
delivered at the Second DELOS Network of Excellence Workshop on Personalization
and Recommender Systems in Digital Libraries held in Dublin, Ireland in
June of this year is now available online in pdfformat at:
19. Mellon Foundation Supports Experiments in Metadata Harvesting The Mellon Foundation has awarded seven libraries or other repositories grants totaling approximately $1.5M to explore the requirements for developing scholarly-oriented portal services. These services are based on the use of a variety of Internet technologies, including the new Metadata Harvesting Protocol - the Open Archives protocol - to make the contents of library catalogs and other elements of the "deep" Web more easily accessible. Two projects will design portal services based on metadata from broad, multi-institutional, and multi-disciplinary domains (The Research Libraries Group and the University of Michigan). Three projects will focus primarily on the special problems encountered in harvesting metadata from archives and special collections (the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Emory University, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars). The last two projects will create portal services based on harvested metadata referring to materials on specific topics, but across a range of formats. The University of Virginia will focus on American Studies. A SOLINET project will focus on the history of the American South. The SOLINET project will involve Auburn, Emory, LSU, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, The Kentucky Virtual Library, UNC-Chapel Hill, Tennessee at Knoxville, and Vanderbilt. More information about the Open Archives Metadata Harvesting Protocol and about this initiative of the Mellon Foundation will appear in the forthcoming ARL Bimonthly Report 217, to be issued late summer. 20. American Librarians Invited to Caucus at IFLA Conference As announced earlier, the 67th IFLA Conference will take place in Boston,
Massachusetts, from August 18-25, 2001. American delegates are invited
to attended a caucus for the U.S. delegation scheduled for
American delegates are also invited by the Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington, and the Governor of Massachusetts, Jane Swift, to a Reception on the occasion of the 2001 IFLA Conference. This reception is scheduled on Wednesday, August 22, 2001 at 7:30 -9:30 p.m. in the Massachusetts State House on Beacon Street. A printed invitation will be included in the registration package available on arrival in Boston. The National Organizing Committee for this conference published the second issue of the pre-conference "IFLA Express 2001." The IFLA Express serves as a newsletter for the conference and is produced by the NOC in collaboration with the IFLA Secretariat and the various IFLA Divisions and Sections. The IFLA Express will be published daily during the conference. It provides the most current information on changes in the program or logistics for the conference. The newsletter is available at: <http://www.congrex.nl/ifla/express2/>. The National Organizing Committee also announced registration rates of $150 for a single day attendance at the conference. Pre-registration already exceeds 3000 and the conference is expected to be the largest ever held by IFLA. 21. ARL Publications Issued in June and July + ARL Bimonthly Report 216 (June 2001). This special issue features the text of the Romanes Lecture for 2000 that was delivered by William G. Bowen before the University of Oxford on October 17, 2000. The lecture considers the implications for the university of two powerful, intersecting powers--the revolution in information technology and the increase in reliance on the market to solve problems of all kinds--and clarifies why "digitization" and "commercialization" are propelling the university into a new world. + The Future Network: Transforming Learning and Scholarship.
Proceedings of the 132nd Membership Meeting, Eugene, Oregon, May
13-15, 1998. The meeting examined the intersection of technology and
scholarship, particularly in light of efforts to expand the capacity
and functionality of networks serving the United States and Canada.
The proceedings include presentations on Advanced Network Development Strategies,
Distributed Learning and New Learning Communities, Research
+ Center for Research Libraries: Bernard F. Reilly, Jr. was appointed President of the Center for Research Libraries, effective September 10. Since 1997 he served as Director of Research and Access at the Chicago Historical Society. He was previously Head Curator in the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. + Cincinnati: Victoria A. Montavon was named Dean and University Librarian effective October 1. She is currently University Librarian at Wright State University. + Columbia: James G. Neal was named Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian, effective September 1. He is currently Dean of University Libraries at Johns Hopkins University. + Georgetown: Artemis G. Kirk was named University Librarian, effective August 27. She was previously Director of University Libraries for the University of Rhode Island since 1998. + National Agricultural Library: Pamela André retired June
1 as NAL Director. NAL is rotating the Acting Director position; Eleanor
G. Frierson, NAL's Deputy Director, served initially in this role.
+ New Mexico: Robert Migneault, Dean of Library Services, will step down from that position July 1, 2002. + South Carolina: George Terry has asked to step down from his
position as Dean of Libraries effective August 15. Following that time,
George will be returning as a full-time member of the library faculty.
John
+ Southern Illinois: David H. Carlson was named Dean of Library Affairs effective September 1, 2001. He has served as Director of Libraries, Bridgewater State College, Bridgewater, Massachusetts since 1994. + Camille Hazeur was named Program Officer for Training and Diversity, effective July 16. She will serve as adjunct faculty member with the OLMS and manage the Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce and the Leadership and Career Development Program. Camille may be reached at <camille@arl.org>. + Marianna Wackerman joined ARL in June as OLMS Program Assistant, handling registration and OLMS customer service. She may be reached at <marianna@arl.org>. + Mark Young joined ARL full-time in February, holding the position of Research Assistant for the Statistics and Measurement Program. He may be reached at <mark@arl.org>. + Association of College and Research Libraries: Mary Ellen Davis was named Executive Director of ACRL, effective August 1. + Institute of Museum and Library Services:
Robert S. Martin was confirmed by the Senate to serve as Director of the
IMLS. Robert Martin was previously professor and Interim Director
of the School of
+ National Endowment for the Humanities: The White House nominated art historian Bruce Cole of Indiana University to serve as the next chairman of the NEH. Mr. Cole is Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts and Professor of Comparative Literature in the Hope School of Fine Arts at Indiana. He was appointed to the National Council on the Humanities by George Bush, Sr. in 1991 and served on the council until 1999. + Special Libraries Association: Roberta I. Shaffer was named as Executive Director of the SLA effective September 4. She is presently Dean and Professor of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Texas at Austin. + Bernard Dumouchel, Director General, Canadian Institute for Scientific and Technological Information, was named winner of the CARL/ABRC Award for Distinguished Service to Research Librarianship. + Ernie Ingles, Associate Vice President of Learning Systems and Chief Librarian at the University of Alberta, has been named a Specially Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and was awarded the Canadian Library Association's Outstanding Service to LibrarianshipAward. + North Carolina State University Libraries received the Special Achievement in GIS Award, presented by ESRI, for its accomplishments in geographic information system technology. August 6, 2001
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