Iowans contemplate flood recovery; Google Books vs. the BISON catalog

With Historic Floods Receding, Iowa Libraries Brace for Recovery Two years ago, University of Iowa (UI) librarians, including preservation librarian Nancy Kraft and conservator Gary Frost, were in the Gulf Region assisting flood-ravaged libraries in the wake of the Katrina disaster. This week, they found themselves launching into recovery and salvage operations in their home region following historic flooding in the nation’s Midwest. UI librarian Nancy Baker told the LJ Academic Newswire yesterday that flood waters from the Iowa river were receding slowly, and that the weather has been "cooperative." Although collections in UI’s main library were spared, librarians have been unable to evaluate the situation on UI’s badly-flooded west campus, where UI’s art and music libraries are housed. "It is unclear how soon we will be able to enter these libraries to remove collections and assess damage," Baker noted. "These are rich collections with many irreplaceable materials." Baker said staff had virtually no chance to move collections from the art and music libraries before the buildings were ordered evacuated. "These buildings are up to the first floor with water," she observed. "Since the libraries are located on the upper floors, we are hopeful that no water damage has occurred to the collections." However, she added that "given the water and lack of power, we are certain to face mold on some collections." Thanks to the efforts of staff and volunteers, who filled sandbags and moved collections, damage in the UI main library is minimal. "We were overwhelmed by the number of volunteers from the campus and community who came to help," Baker noted. None of the collections that remained in the basement got wet, she said, and that recovery crews were at work pumping out the few inches of water that managed to seep in. "We are concerned about mold outbreaks," Baker said, "but will not know for awhile." Images of the flood-stricken region hearken back to the devastation wrought by flooding in the Gulf region following Katrina—but Iowa offers its own unique challenges. "The Cedar River flood is a municipal disaster; Katrina was a regional, four-state disaster," notes UI’s Frost, who is now among the librarians helping plan and execute recovery efforts for libraries in Iowa. "Nine major systems in Iowa had extreme flooding and this discharge is moving into the Mississippi," he observed. In addition, "collections have remained in buildings as contrasted with complete building loss in the Gulf," he added, which probably means "more intensive collection salvage." Frost also noted that contaminated fresh water from the flooded rivers presents a different challenge than salt water, and that mold issues will be severe. back to top ^

U. of Iowa Preservation Librarian, Nancy Kraft, on the Floods Nancy Kraft is the preservation librarian at the University of Iowa (UI), and a resident of Cedar Rapids, a town hard-hit by the devastating, historic floods. She took time this week to share some observations with friends and colleagues, and with Library Journal Academic Newswire: Here is her report: I live in Cedar Rapids on a hill. We drove our real estate agent crazy insisting that we live on a hill! Cedar Rapids is on the Cedar River, and last week the river came up fast and ugly, going way beyond the 500 year flood plain, more than 12 feet over projected flood levels, exceeding all past records. On the plus side, it is receding very rapidly, allowing us to begin the recovery process. Most of our cultural resources, however, are along the river: the public library, art museum, opera house, African American Museum, and the Czech/Slovak Museum & Library. You get the idea. The first floor of the public library is wiped out. Luckily, they are all replaceable books. The rare material is on the second floor. But, since we can’t get to the library yet, we may be dealing with mold here soon. I've been working primarily with the Czech and African American museums, talking through the recovery process, etc. Today, with the help of some local politicians, we were able to get an exemption and get a recovery team and freezer truck into the Czech Museum area. The mud and guck was so thick we weren't able to do much today except get some of the mud out. Tomorrow we plan to start packing the material out and start "fighting the good fight" to get the African American museum exempted so we can start packing them out, too. [UI conservator] Gary Frost joined me today and will continue to help this week. Travel is difficult and patience-testing. It takes at least double the time to get anywhere. Roads have been washed out, so even if the water goes down, the road isn't there anymore. The University of Iowa is on the Iowa River. It came up slow, giving us a lot of time to prepare, and it, too, exceeded all previous records, although it did not get as high as projected. My director went along with my request to evacuate all special collections material and selected book areas out of the basement up to five feet above floor level. At the time I made the request, we were being denied sandbags. Of course, once we had most materials out, the sandbags arrived after all. At 6 p.m., Thursday we were told we had Friday and Saturday to evacuate. Knowing that dams might break, we assumed had one day and got all our staff relocated, moved out computers and collections from the basement per my request of five feet by Friday at 8 p.m. The help was phenomenal. We were told sometime on Friday that a dam of some sort did break and that we could not come back on Saturday. Actually, we were told to stay home for a week. Our evacuation was remarkable. We had hundreds of volunteers. I've never seen anything like it. We have three elevators and two stairwells to the basement. Our collections are crazy-making: unfinished floors, compact shelves, and narrow aisles. We used carts and elevators, human book-handing chains in the stairwells, box brigades. I told everyone that I hoped my worst fears were just that and that all this evacuation would turn out to be an exercise. Turns out, that’s just what it was. We only got two inches of water in the basement. The Iowa River came up slow, but it's also going down slow. The university’s art and music libraries are on the second floors of flooded buildings, and we’re very concerned that we'll have lots of mold. We think we'll be ok with the collection in the main library. back to top ^

U. of Buffalo Libraries Puts Its Catalog Up Against Google Book Search The Internet Age is all about disruption—and for academic libraries, no technology may prove to be more disruptive than Google Books, suggests Mark J. Ludwig and Margaret R. Wells in the June 15 issue of Library Journal. In "Google Books vs. BISON", they report the results of a provocative experiment to compare the search giant’s rapidly-growing database of book content with the University of Buffalo (UB) OPAC—and the article is already sparking reaction. "We were curious about whether our new BISON (Buffalo Information System ONline) catalog has actually improved service to our users, or whether competitors like Google Books have usurped the former functions of our catalog and local collections," the authors write. The experiment ultimately yielded more questions than answers and an array of opportunities, as well as challenges, for librarians. "Tools like Google Books and other ebook platforms will soon be serious alternatives to idiosyncratic, local search interfaces," the authors write. "Ensuring that the latter are searchable, accessible, and visible is a role only libraries can fulfill." Over the course of several weeks in November and December 2007, UB librarians fed Google Books "a couple of thousand searches," then "match-merged the Google Books hit counts with the original records from the BISON transaction logs." The results were revealing—on average, each "no hit" search in BISON returned 351 results in Google Books. "We invest so much effort getting students to use our resources, the authors write, "it is absolutely excruciating to know we are frequently sending them off with nothing, especially when they don’t ask for help from librarians." When there were results from BISON, the authors add, "In all cases, Google Books' relevancy ranking somehow brought interesting material to the top, while BISON's were rather random, without any obvious organization." Many issues still need to be addressed by librarians. "Our limited study raised more questions than it answered," Ludwig and Wells conclude, recommending similar studies be made of other resources to see "how local users prefer products like Google Books and Google Scholar to the library’s subscription-based e-resources." The article, meanwhile has clearly hit a nerve with commenters, with one suggesting that the comparison of Google Books to a library OPAC is like comparing "a car and a mountain." Perhaps, but with more and more students going to the mountain, the study raises questions worth deeper examination. "The maturing Internet and evolving array of Web 2.0 services has turned our customer base into what many have called a Google Generation. We can debate that moniker," the authors wrote, "but, clearly, no one is calling this the Academic Library Generation." back to top ^

At the U. of Houston, Library Coffee Is "Fair" Game Coffee in libraries is generally considered a good thing, right? According to the Houston Chronicle University of Houston (UH) students "stormed" Chancellor Renu Khator’s office on Monday to insist that the university award a contract to serve coffee in the library to a "fair-trade" coffee purveyor, not a Starbucks (which offers some fair-trade coffees). According to UH student group Students for Fair Trade concessionaire Aramark, which manages food and drink outlets at the university, is planning to install a Starbucks kiosk, paid for with $60,000 in student fees. University administrators, however, say the funds would come from other sources. Nevertheless, the plan is now on hold. Jim McShan, the university’s associate VP for finance and administration, told the Chronicle that other outlets on campus do offer fair-trade coffee, though only one meets the students’ request for exclusivity. "We’ve tried as hard as we can to comply with the spirit," of the student’s demands, he said. back to top ^

Best Sellers in Geology, October 2007–present, as compiled by YBP Library Services
(13-digit ISBNs in brackets)

1. Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future
   Ward, Peter Douglas
   Smithsonian Books
   2007. ISBN 006113791x [9780061137914]. $26.95
   
   
2. Natural History of Time
   Trans. by John Venerella
   Richet, Pascal
   University of Chicago Press
   2007. ISBN 0226712877 [9780226712871]. $29.00
   
   
3. New Theory of the Earth
   Anderson, Don L.
   Cambridge University Press
   2007. ISBN 0521849594 [9780521849593]. $70.00
   
   
4. Jurassic West: The Dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation and Their World
   Foster, John
   Indiana University Press
   2007. ISBN 0253348706 [9780253348708]. $49.95
   
   
5. Global Environments Through the Quaternary: Exploring Environmental Change
   Anderson, David E.
   Oxford University Press
   2007. ISBN 0198742266 [9780198742265]. $60.00
   
   
6. Karst Hydrogeology and Geomorphology
   Ford, Derek
   John Wiley
   2007. ISBN 0470849967 [9780470849965]. $185.00
   
   
7. Patagonian Mesozoic Reptiles
   Gasparini, Zulma
   Indiana University Press
   2007. ISBN 0253348579 [9780253348579]. $49.95
   
   
8. Patterns of the Earth
   Edmaier, Bernhard
   Phaidon
   2007. ISBN 0714846791 [9780714846798]. $19.95
   
   
9. Atlantic Coast Beaches: A Guide to Ripples, Dunes, and Other Natural Features of the Seashore
   Neal, William J.
   Mountain Press
   2007. ISBN 0878425349 [9780878425341]. $20.00
   
   
10. Geomorphology of the Great Barrier Reef: Development, Diversity, and Change
    Hopley, David
    Cambridge University Press
    2007. ISBN 0521853028 [9780521853026]. $160.00
    
    
11. Geological and Soil Evidence: Forensic Applications
    Pye, Kenneth
    CRC Press
    2007. ISBN 0849331463 [9780849331466]. $99.95
    
    
12. Tectonic Faults: Agents of Change on a Dynamic Earth
    Handy, Mark R.
    MIT Press
    2007. ISBN 0262083620 [9780262083621]. $45.00
    
    
13. From Satan's Crown to the Holy Grail: Emeralds in Myth, Magic, and History
    Morgan, Diane
    Praeger
    2007. ISBN 0275991237 [9780275991234]. $39.95
    
    
14. Geomorphology of Upland Peat: Erosion, Form and Landscape Change
    Evans, Martin
    Blackwell
    2007. ISBN 1405115076 [9781405115070]. $89.95
    
    
15. Crack in the Earth: A Journey Up Israel's Rift Valley
    Watzman, Haim
    Farrar, Straus & Giroux
    2007. ISBN 0374130582 [9780374130589]. $23.00
    
    
16. Model-Based Geostatistics
    Diggle, Peter J.
    Springer
    2007. ISBN 0387329072 [9780387329079]. $79.95
    
    
17. Trace Fossils: Concepts, Problems, Prospects
    Miller, William
    Elsevier
    2007. ISBN 0444529497 [9780444529497]. $195.00
    
    
18. River Science at the U.S. Geological Survey
    National Academies Press
    2007. ISBN 0309103576 [9780309103572]. $45.75
    
    
19. Quantitative Geochemistry
    Zou, Haibo
    Imperial College Press
    2007. ISBN 1860946461 [9781860946462]. $68.00
    
    
20. Encyclopedia of Earthquakes and Volcanoes
    Gates, Alexander E.
    Facts on File
    2007. ISBN 0816063028 [9780816063024]. $75.00
    
    

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