Dwain Gordon has been named as associate director for library development and services at the Arkansas State Library, Little Rock; he will begin his new duties July 31. Gordon fills the spot Carolyn Ashcraft left to become state librarian in November 2005. Gordon currently is manager of youth collections at the Central Arkansas Library System, Little Rock.
Cal Shepard is appointed to the newly created position of manager of consortial outreach at SOLINET. She joined SOLINET in 1999 as educational services manager and has led the development of the distance education program, which now comprises 50 percent of all classes.
Virginia Stanley has been promoted to director, academic & library marketing, at HarperCollins. She previously was associate director. Stanley coordinates all-library author tours, has worked on the Authors@yourlibrary web site, and is a Friends of Libraries, USA board member. She was named a 2002 LJ Mover & Shaker.
Jeffrey Stanton is appointed director of the Information Science and Technology doctoral program at Syracuse University, NY, taking over from Kevin Crowston, who fulfilled a five-year term and will continue as full-time professor. Most recently, Stanton has been associate professor and director, Syracuse Information Systems Evaluation Project at the School of Information Studies.
ALA Gets Warm (Scorching, Actually) New Orleans Welcome
New Orleans hotels were nearly filled and the French Quarter bustled as the American Library Association (ALA) annual conference, the city's first major conference since Hurricane Katrina last August, came to the Big Easy from June 23-27. Final attendance figures showed 12,127 registrants and 4,837 vendors, for a total of 16,964 attendees. That's roughly ten percent below the ALA's last regional comparison, Orlando in 2004, which drew 19,575 attendees, but certainly respectable numbers given the circumstances. Attendees were warmly welcomed—both by scorching mid-90s temperatures as well by local officials and residents, grateful for ALA's decision to keep its scheduled show in New Orleans. At the opening general session, recently re-elected Mayor C. Ray Nagin joked about seeing the city swell with librarians with the city's famous "go cups." Later, New Orleans Times-Picayune columnist Marigny Dupuy urged residents to "Hug a Librarian." Dupuy opined that New Orleans was "lucky to have this convention of smart, caring people in New Orleans." ALA's return to New Orleans also received much national and local news coverage, with various outlets praising ALA for its decision to stick with New Orleans after the devastating floods caused by the breached levees after Katrina.
Nevertheless, reminders of the devastation and the need for more assistance were not hard to find, from anti-FEMA signs in vacant shop windows to a patchwork of tarpaulined-roofs in the city's residential neighborhoods. In the French Quarter, there was a heavy, somewhat unsettling police and National Guard presence keeping order and enforcing a teen curfew, prompted by the June 17 murders of five teenagers in the Central City neighborhood adjacent to the Garden District. There was also no shortage of grousing about travel, due to a limited number of flights, especially direct ones, in and out of the city, and delays with shuttles. One group of vendors recounted a 30-hour ordeal to get to the conference.
During the show, another reminder of city's plight came as Bill Johnson, director of New Orleans Public Library System made public his resignation, citing personal issues, namely that his wife, who works in employee assistance in Orlando, had been unable to find work in the Crescent City. Still, spirits were not dampened. Attendees were largely understanding and tolerant of glitches when they occurred. As for the city, it may be battered, but has also clearly retained its joie-de-vivre as evidenced in an exhibit at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, which featured a Katrina Deli "limited menu" with such delectable offerings as Oysters Hepatitis-B ienville, Crawfish Evacuee, Furniture Upside Down Cake, and Chicken a la FEMA, "delivered to your table in 6-8 weeks."
At ALA Opening Session, a Moment of Silence, a Mountain of Praise
At the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in New Orleans, a somber outgoing ALA President Michael Gorman began the Opening General Session with a video review of the year in libraries—the salvaging of the Salinas Public Library, the USA PATRIOT Act, and of course the ravages of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Gorman asked the audience to stand in a moment of silence for those lost in the aftermath of the hurricanes. "Libraries brought a sense of normalcy" to those affected, he said, and the national media picked up on the important role libraries played. He acknowledged the more than 900 librarian volunteers who donated service time at the conference. A host of New Orleans notables then thanked librarians for their extensive support. Via videotape, musician Wynton Marsalis praised librarians. New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin hailed libraries as "center points for our citizens in the diaspora" of the hurricane aftermath. He also praised librarians for committing to the conference location, in effect "sending a message to the world right now that New Orleans is okay." Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu—a rival to Nagin in the recent mayoral election—added some levity, asking visitor not to forget "paying your taxes at Harrah's Casino."
Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was the featured speaker; as the first female to hold that office, and the highest any female has held, she received a standing ovation from the mostly-female audience. Albright called libraries fun, the biggest educational bargain on the face of the earth, and a laboratory for freedom. She drew applause for her stand against the Patriot Act. Albright was vocal about the need to support the independent libraries in Cuba in their opposition to government censorship, but also diplomatically praised ALA for its fact-finding visits there and ties with professional Cuban librarians. Citing her history as a refugee from communist Czechoslovakia, Albright was vocal in her attack on the Cuban government, yet also clear on the necessity to end the U.S. embargo on travel and commerce. Her careful presentation was the result of homework. ALA executive director Keith Fiels said that, after ALA learned that Robert Kent of Friends of Cuban Libraries had contacted Albright, ALA made sure the former Secretary of State had access to ALA's positions—a reaction, obviously to Andrei Codrescu's comment on Cuba at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio in January. "What we preach abroad we should also practice at home," Albright said, as she began to talk about her new book, Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs (HarperCollins). While we must not allow terrorists to succeed in dividing up the world along religious lines, Albright said, we also must return to our own ideals, especially in the treatment of prisoners and respect for human rights.
Library Community Brings an Outpouring of Support to New Orleans
The library community brought more to New Orleans than just their much-needed tourism dollars, offering volunteer work, charitable donations, and even refurbished libraries. Among the announcements: the reopening of the Alvar Branch of the New Orleans Public Library (NOPL), an $800,000 effort led by Library Journal and architect firm Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd., with an opening day collection assembled by Baker & Taylor and donated by hundreds of publishers; ALA's Hurricane Relief Fund has reached $370,000; the H.W. Wilson Foundation gave $100,000 to NOPL; Highsmith, along with other vendor partners, renovated NOPL's Children's Resource Center. More than 900 librarians volunteered their time and labor to sort and shelve books, and provide other vital labor to NOPL efforts. On the academic library front, STM publisher Springer donated ebooks valued at $1 million to local university libraries. Tulane University, Xavier University of Louisiana, Loyola University, University of New Orleans, Dillard University, Southern University at New Orleans and the LSU Health Sciences Center will share in a collection of more than 10,000 of Springer's scientific, technical, and medical books in both fully searchable PDF and HTML editions.
NOPL's Alvar Branch was the scene of a stirring ceremony on Sunday, where local officials offered heartfelt praise to the library community. "You all stood firm and came when we needed you most," declared New Orleans City Councilman James Carter. "We appreciate you with our heart and our soul." Just three months ago, the Alvar branch was closed, sitting in 18 inches of standing water with damaged materials, furniture, electrical systems, and shelving. Today, thanks to the generosity and hard work of an array of vendors, it is the first of NOPL's closed branches to reopen—and it's a jewel. Wholesaler Baker & Taylor mobilized donations from some 450 publishers to provide 12,000 new books and other materials, working in overdrive to produce an opening day collection in just three months—at a branch where some materials had not been replaced for 40 years. In addition, 22 computers with flatscreen monitors, from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, were instant magnets for local children. The effort included donations of money and effort from CapitalOne, Citadel Builders, E. Eean McNaughton Architects of New Orleans, and others. NOPL board chair Tania Tetlow said the opening was an example the city must follow. "We have an obligation," she said, "to rebuild the city better. We've done that here. We found out with the storm exactly what libraries mean."
ALPSP Study Shows Journals Continue Rapid Move Online
A major study of the policies and practices of 400 international academic journal publishers, both commercial and non-profits, by the UK-based Association of Learned and Professional Scholarly Publishers (ALPSP), shows that journal titles continue to move to online formats. The study, released this month, follows up on a similar 2003 study. "The market for online journals is still in a process of development," states the executive summary. "Publishers are still grappling with the implications of migrating from a print to an online publishing environment. The survey, Scholarly Publishing Practice: Academic Journal Publishers' Policies and Practices in Online Publishing, was carried out by John Cox of John Cox Associates Ltd and Laura Cox of Frontline Global Marketing Services at the end of 2005.
Roughly 90 percent of journals are now online, compared with 75 percent in 2003, and the number of new journal titles continues to surge, with 174 publishers launching 1,048 new journal titles from 2000 to 2005, while discontinuing just 185 titles. Also, 91 percent of publishers surveyed now offer back access, an increase of five percent since the 2003 study, with access to journal back volumes now an integral part of the online package. About 20 percent of publishers are experimenting with full open access journals and almost all publishers offer bundles and/or consortia deals. Also, publishers are increasingly tolerant of changes in author rights deals, most publishers allow self-archiving on author web sites or institutional repositories, and many are willing to accept a "license to publish" rather than demanding copyright ownership. Larger publishers, according to the survey, seem to be most comfortable with author archiving practices: 90 percent of larger publishers allow posting prior to peer review and publication, while only 30 percent of small publishers do so. Also, 75 percent of larger publishers surveyed allow authors to post published articles to their sites or their institutional repositories, while only 50 percent of small publishers do so. The ALPSP has 340 members in 36 countries, publishing nearly 10,000 journals.
Map Thief Busted at Yale Cops to 97 Thefts
For libraries, call it a mostly happy ending to a deeply disturbing story. A humiliated, remorseful Edward Forbes Smiley III, busted last year by sharp-eyed Yale librarians, not only pleaded guilty last Thursday to the theft of a rare map from Yale, but admitted he had stolen 96 other rare maps from libraries and other institutions around the country and the United Kingdom. Thanks to investigative work by the FBI and local authorities, as well as the cooperation of those libraries victimized by Smiley, nearly all of the maps were recovered. U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor commended investigators "for scouring the globe at a great expense of time, effort and financial resources in order to return these stolen maps to their rightful owners." He said the case should serve as a cautionary tale for libraries: "Hopefully, security procedures in these institutions have been, and will continue to be, improved so that these artifacts can be protected and enjoyed by all for generations to come." Sentencing was scheduled for September 21; Smiley faces a maximum of ten years in prison and a fine of up to $1.6 million.
Since his arrest, Smiley cooperated with authorities, identifying 97 maps that he stole from a number of universities and libraries in the U.S. and abroad between January 1998 and June 2005. In addition to Yale's Beinecke Library, he stole from the Boston Public Library, the British Library in London, the Houghton Library at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Newberry Library in Chicago, the New York Public Library, and Yale's Sterling Map Library. The good news is that 86 of the stolen maps have been physically recovered by law enforcement, and six more maps are in the custody of individuals who have not returned the maps. Five maps, however, are unaccounted for. Government officials estimate the total value of the 97 maps stolen to be in excess of $3 million. State's Attorney Michael Dearington again praised the Yale staff for their role in nabbing Smiley. "I want to credit the Yale University Police Department and the Beinecke Library staff," Dearington said at a press conference. "Without their initial investigation, this guilty plea and the recovery of dozens of rare maps may never have occurred."
Stop The Auction! King Papers, in Landmark Deal, Will Go to Morehouse College
Once again, a plan to auction a valuable collection of civil rights leader Martin Luther King's personal papers was scrapped—this time because the city of Atlanta worked to secure $32 million to finance a nonprofit coalition that will buy the papers and keep the collection in Atlanta, King's hometown, and a city where the King family still has deep roots. According to a report in the New York Times, the papers eventually will go to Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta and King's alma mater. The deal comes after former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young publicly chastised the city, saying it could not let King's archives be won away from Atlanta. According to the Times, Mayor Shirley Franklin quickly put together a deal with the backing of major businesses, including Coca Cola and WalMart, actually spending $2 million over the high end appraisal for the collection. "I didn't want to risk losing the papers over a million dollars," Franklin told the Times. There was no timetable as to when the deal would be officially completed or when the collection would begin to arrive at Morehouse College.
Best Sellers in Fine Arts, September 2005–present, as compiled by YBP Library Services
Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream
Prideaux, Sue
Yale University Press
2005. ISBN 0300110243. $35.00
Imagining America: Icons of 20th-Century American Art
Carlin, John
Yale University Press
2005. ISBN 0300109970. $49.95
Messiaen
Hill, Peter
Yale University Press
2005. ISBN 0300109075. $45.00
Virtuoso Conductors: The Central European Tradition from Wagner to Karajan
Holden, Raymond
Yale University Press
2005. ISBN 0300093268. $35.00
Frederic Church
Howat, John K.
Yale University Press
2005. ISBN 0300109881. $50.00
Mozart: The Early Years, 1756-1781
Sadie, Stanley
W.W. Norton
2006. ISBN 0393061124. $35.00
African American Music: An Introduction
Ed. by Mellonee V. Burnim
Routledge
2006. ISBN 0415941377. $100.00
Still Looking: Essays on American Art
Updike, John
Alfred A. Knopf
2005. ISBN 1400044189. $40.00
Mozart
Rushton, Julian
Oxford University Press
2006. ISBN 0195182642. $30.00
Measuring Heaven: Pythagoras and His Influence on Thought and Art in Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Joost-Gaugier, Christiane L.
Cornell University Press
2006. ISBN 0801443962. $45.00
Titian & Tragic Painting: Aristotle's Poetics and the Rise of the Modern Artist
Puttfarken, Thomas
Yale University Press
2005. 0300110006. $50.00
Revenge of Thomas Eakins
Kirkpatrick, Sidney D.
Yale University Press
2006. ISBN 0300108559. $39.95
Bach In Berlin: Nation And Culture In Mendelssohn's Revival of the St. Matthew Passion
Applegate, Celia
Cornell University Press
2005. ISBN 080144389X. $35.00
String Quartets of Joseph Haydn
Grave, Floyd K.
Oxford University Press
2006. ISBN 0195173570. $65.00
Trombone
Herbert, Trevor
Yale University Press
2006. ISBN 0300100957. $38.00
Producer as Composer: Shaping the Sounds of Popular Music
Moorefield, Virgil
MIT Press
2005. ISBN 0262134578. $21.95
Oxford Companion to the Photograph
Ed. by Robin Lenman
Oxford University Press
2005. ISBN 0198662718. $65.00
Arts of Asia: Materials, Techniques, Styles
McArthur, Meher
Thames & Hudson
2005. ISBN 0500238235. $50.00
Domenichino Affair: Novelty, Imitation, and Theft in Seventeenth-Century Rome
Cropper, Elizabeth
Yale University Press
2005. ISBN 0300109148. $50.00
Lost Painting
Harr, Jonathan
Random House
2005. ISBN 0375508015. $24.95
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