Audrey J. Taylor, a librarian at the University of Houston for some 30 years, passed away on November 28 after a brief illness. Taylor was well-known for her tireless service to the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA), serving as a member of the Executive Board from 2002 to 2003. In an announcement, Akilah Nosakhere, manager, reference and research division at Auburn Avenue Research Library of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library described Taylor as many knew her: as a "friend, mentor and tireless fighter." In lieu of flowers, the University of Houston Libraries is accepting contributions to name a study room in Taylor's honor. Contributions may be sent to Carolyn Meanley, Library Development Office, 114 University Libraries, Houston, TX 77204-2000; contact: 713-743-9781 or CMeanley@uh.edu.
Robert Clarke has been appointed university librarian and member of the academic administrative team at the Bata Library, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, effective January 1. He has spent 18 years at McGill University, Montreal, most recently as head librarian, information services.
Susan Vita has been appointed chief of the music division at the Library of Congress (LC). From December 1996 she was chief of special materials cataloging until she became acting chief of the music division in June 2005. The LC music division holds more than 500 named special collections in music, theater, and dance, with close to 20 million items.
Google, Microsoft Join LC Working Group on Bibliographic Control
The Library of Congress has announced that it has convened a Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control "to examine the future of bibliographic description in the 21st century." The formation of the group follows a provocative report commissioned by the Library of Congress (LC) that raised questions about the utility of longstanding professional practices, including the creation of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). LC's professional union was particularly critical of that report, warning that a reliance on search engines could lead to inferior results. The working group aims to advise LC on its role in steering the library community to analyze "how bibliographic control and other descriptive practices" can help librarians manage and users access library materials.
Besides representatives from several library organizations, the LC working group includes representatives from tech behemoths Microsoft and Google. The group will be chaired by José-Marie Griffiths of the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "I agreed to chair this group because these issues are facing all libraries," Griffiths said. "It is an important opportunity for different sectors of the information profession to examine a common problem and recommend solutions that will benefit librarians and users." LC professional union spokesman Saul Schniderman told LJ Academic Newswire, "I hope that the working group considers balancing the management of digital and nondigital resources and search techniques rather than transitioning from one to the other."
The convener is Deanna Marcum, LC's associate librarian for library services, who hosted the first meeting in early November. The group will hold three regional meetings during 2007, and each will focus on one of three broad categories: Uses and Users, Structures and Standards, and Economics and Organization. The meetings will be preceded by distribution of a background paper. Further details will be available at the project web site which debuts December 11. A report will be drafted by September 1, 2007; public comments will be taken into account in the final report, which will be issued by November 1, 2007.
Other members include Richard Amelung for the American Association of Law Libraries; Diane Dates Casey, Janet Swan Hill, and Sally G. Smith for the American Library Association; Brian E.C. Schottlaender, Olivia M.A. Madison, and Judith Nadler representing the Association of Research Libraries; Gary Price for the Special Libraries Association; Robert Wolven for the Program for Cooperative Cataloging; Daniel Clancy for the Google Company; Jay Girotto for the Microsoft Corporation; Clifford A. Lynch of the Coalition for Networked Information; and Lorcan Dempsey of OCLC.
Book Wars: Microsoft Book Program Progresses; Yahoo Resists Google's Subpoena
Microsoft yesterday went live with a beta version of its Windows Live Book Search, a planned competitor to Google Book Search. It will scan and make a searchable online index, and offer full-text access to books. The service will kick off with books scanned from the collections of the University of California, the University of Toronto, and the British Library, said a Microsoft spokesperson. Unlike Google, however, Microsoft is taking the path of least resistance, offering only books in the public domain or otherwise copyright-cleared. Microsoft officials have said they are talking with publishers about ways to scan and offer copyrighted books sometime in 2007.
Meanwhile, officials at Yahoo, Inc. have said that they too will resist complying with subpoenas—filed as part of litigation over Google's library scan plan—seeking information about its book-scanning ventures. Yahoo, like retailer Amazon.com, characterized Google's request as an attempt to use the lawsuit to uncover its competitors' trade secrets. What the plan may represent, however, is the lengths to which the deep-pocketed Google can drag out such litigation, more than likely forcing some kind of settlement before trial.
U. of Buffalo's LIS Program Seeks Full Accreditation, New Home on Campus
It's been a busy time, but "energizing," says Judith Robinson, chair of the Department of Library and Information Studies (DLIS) at the University at Buffalo (UB). In addition to seeking to remove its "conditional" accreditation status, the program will also soon decide on a new home within UB following Provost Satish Tripathi's abrupt, controversial decision to dissolve the School of Informatics over the summer.
Robinson told the LJ Academic Newswire that the DLIS has submitted a 23-page "Plan for Removal of Conditional Accreditation Status" to the American Library Association's (ALA) Committee on Accreditation (COA), a big step in the process of gaining full accreditation. Robinson said much more work needs to be done, with weekly faculty meetings continuing into the New Year and a retreat scheduled for February to hammer out more details. In addition, an advisory committee has been established and is filling up, creating a deeper pool of expertise to help chart the program's future. "We have a laser beam of focus," Robinson said regarding the school's plans. She also will meet with COA members at the ALA Midwinter Meeting to discuss the school's plan, with a subsequent "self study" and a COA external review scheduled for fall 2008 and spring 2009, respectively. That future will include the significant decision of where the Library School will reside—a choice that has been narrowed to either in the Graduate School of Education (GSE) or the College of Arts and Sciences.
Meanwhile, the former dean of the School of Informatics, in a blunt assessment, told the UB Faculty Senate Executive Committee (FSEC) last week that the school was in "constant danger of collapsing from its many problems." According to the UB Reporter Lucinda Finley, interim dean of the school and vice provost for faculty affairs, told the FSEC that the Informatics Program "had very low admissions standards," was "almost exclusively adjunct-taught," and lacked a "coherent core curriculum and any opportunities for specialization." An article in the UB student newspaper, the Spectrum, disputed Finley's assessment, however, and voiced lingering anger over the manner in which the school was dissolved. The issue, noted former UB Provost David Triggle, was not so much the decision to dissolve the school, but "rather the arbitrary and non-transparent way in which this decision was reached."
Diane Christian, chair of the UB Academic Planning Committee, acknowledged to the UB Reporter that there was lingering dissatisfaction, but said that the DLIS and the Communications faculty "have separate senses of their work and in general are happy to be separate." Robinson did not totally disagree. DLIS faculty, she said, were "very positive" about the School of Informatics, but conceded that the library program's strategic planning had been "swallowed up" by the Informatics program.
A Blog-Based Catalog? Mellon-Funded Project Would Use LC Records
WordPress is a popular format for blogs—an open-source content management system. It is also the backbone for WP-OPAC, a pushing-the-envelope project from Casey Bisson, information architect at Plymouth State University (PSU), NH, which will use Library of Congress (LC) catalog records and redistribute them free under a Creative Commons Share-Alike license or GNU. Bisson was presented with a $50,000 Mellon award for Technology Collaboration for the project at the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) meeting in Washington, DC, on December 4. PSU will use the money for the LC records. The WP-OPAC will allow users to tag and comment on records, which will be more readily searchable by search engines.
The still-emerging project represents a challenge to business as usual for catalogers. OCLC has been the source for catalog records for libraries, and its license restrictions do not permit reuse or distribution. However, LC catalog records have been shared via Z39.50 for several years without incident. "Libraries' online presence is broken. We are more than study halls in the digital age. For too long, libraries have been coming up with unique solutions for common problems," Bisson said. "Users are looking for an online presence that serves them in the way they expect."
PSU is committed to supporting Bisson's project, and will be offering it as a free download from its site, likely in the form of sample records plus WordPress with WP-OPAC included. The internal data structure works with iCal for calendar information and Flickr for photos, and can be used with historical records. It allows libraries to go beyond LC subject headings, Bisson said. Other winners include: Open University (Moodle), RPI (bedework), University of British Columbia Vancouver (Open Knowledge Project), Virginia Tech (Sakai), Yale (CAS single signon), University of Washington (pine and IMAP), Internet Archive (Wayback Machine), and Humboldt State University (Moodle).
Swedish Researchers Tally Citations, Say Indiana Tops LIS Schools in Productivity
Who needs U.S. News and World Report's long-overdue new rankings? In a finding that surely will come to a brochure near you very soon, Olle Persson and Fredrik Aström of Umea University in Sweden have found that Indiana University at Bloomington's School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) leads the world in "faculty and program citations." The Swedish sociologists examined articles from 27 international library and information science journals from 1990 to 2005. Among the most individually cited authors: the school's dean (and former LJ columnist) Blaise Cronin, who ranked among the top ten in study intervals spanning 1996 to 2004. Indiana public relations officials also noted that a similar study released last September by University of Missouri-Columbia researchers also found that "IU SLIS faculty were the most productive in the U.S."
Best Sellers in Politics and Law, March 2006–present, as compiled by YBP Library Services
Is Democracy Possible Here? Principles for a New Political Debate
Dworkin, R.M.
Princeton University Press
2006. ISBN 0691126534. $19.95
James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill Of Rights
Labunski, Richard
Oxford University Press
2006. ISBN 0195181050. $28.00
Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad
Levitt, Matthew
Yale University Press
2006. ISBN 0300110537. $26.00
House: The History of the House of Representatives
Remini, Robert
Smithsonian Books
2006. ISBN 0060884347. $34.95
ACLU: The American Civil Liberties Union & the Making of Modern Liberalism, 1930-1960
Kutulas, Judy
University of North Carolina Press
2006. ISBN 0807830364. $35.00
How "American" Is Globalization?
Marling, William H.
Johns Hopkins University Press
2006. ISBN 0801883539. $24.95
Understanding Affirmative Action: Politics, Discrimination, and the Search for Justice
Kellough, J. Edward
Georgetown University Press
2006. ISBN 1589010892. $19.95
Does American Democracy Still Work?
Wolfe, Alan
Yale University Press
2006. ISBN 0300108591. $22.00
Executing the Constitution: Putting the President Back into the Constitution
Ed. by Christopher S. Kelley
State University of New York Press
2006. ISBN 0791467279. $75.00
Deliberative Choices: Debating Public Policy in Congress
Mucciaroni, Gary
University of Chicago Press
2006. ISBN 0226544060. $50.00
How Voters Decide: Information Processing During Election Campaigns
Lau, Richard R.
Cambridge University Press
2006. ISBN 0521848598. $75.00
New Engagement? Political Participation, Civic Life, and the Changing American Citizen
Zukin, Cliff, et al.
Oxford University Press
2006. ISBN 0195183169. $74.00
Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back On Track
Mann, Thomas E.
Oxford University Press
2006. ISBN 0195174461. $26.00
Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power
Margulies, Joseph
Simon & Schuster
2006. ISBN 0743286855. $25.00
Human Rights in the Arab World: Independent Voices
Ed. by Anthony Chase
University of Pennsylvania Press
2006. ISBN 0812239350. $65.00
Origins of the Dred Scott Case: Jacksonian Jurisprudence and the Supreme Court, 1837-1857
Allen, Austin
University of Georgia Press
2006. ISBN 0820326534. $59.95
Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America
Cornell, Saul
Oxford University Press
2006. ISBN 0195147863. $30.00
How Free Can Religion Be?
Bezanson, Randall P.
University of Illinois Press
2006. ISBN 0252031121. $29.95
Truth Commissions and Procedural Fairness
Freeman, Mark
Cambridge University Press
2006. ISBN 0521850673. $75.00
Common Ground: Committee Politics in the U.S. House of Representatives
Baughman, John
Stanford University Press
2006. ISBN 0804754160. $50.00
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