ILA/ACRL Newsletter, vol. 11, no. 1, March 2001
Attention!!! --- Register now for Iowa ACRL conference May
18, St Ambrose University, Davenport
(see registration form at
http://www.iowaacrl.org/
)
As the old saying
goes, “tempus fugit.” Sometimes it flies really fast. It seems like just yesterday that Ed
Goedeken was the able leader of our organization and I was following along
taking notes. And now I am the leader. Ed has done a fantastic job as president of
ILA/ACRL. He deserves much appreciation
for the job that he did last year.
Thank you, Ed! I am very
grateful that you are still around to help us this year. We certainly need your expertise.
As you may know,
several members of the ILA/ACRL community participated in the Library Services
Task Force last year. The Task Force
was commissioned to “make recommendations to the Iowa Commission of Libraries
on positioning libraries to effectively and efficiently meet the future needs
of Iowa” (Footnotes.
January/February, 2001, p.1).
The recommendations were made in early January, adapted by the
Commission and submitted to the Iowa State Legislature. This was a dynamic way for all types of
libraries to have input to the legislative process and it will be very
interesting to see the results. If you
have questions or would like further information, Robin Martin (Central
College) and Rebecca Spriester (Iowa Valley Community College District) would
be good resources.
The Spring Conference
is well underway. It will be held May
18 2001 at St. Ambrose University in Davenport. The committee is providing a conference that will be well worth
your time and money. Staying in sync
with the year 2001, the theme of the conference is “2001 A Library Odyssey: The
Future Is Now.” Dr. Richard Varn, Chief
Information Officer for the State of Iowa, is the keynote speaker. I am sure that he will be as thought
provoking as he was at the ILA Conference in Dubuque. You also will have the opportunity to hear papers from colleagues
around the state and to do valuable networking with other academic
librarians. You can find out more about
the conference at http://www.iowaacrl.org/conference/2001/index.html. I look forward to seeing you there. The
Spring Conference Committee is comprised of Jennifer Davis, Chair, St. Ambrose University; Mary Heinzman, St. Ambrose University; Joyce
Lindstrom, Iowa State University; Susan Moore, University of Northern
Iowa; Linda Nelson, Scott Community
College; Kathy Parsons, Iowa State University; and Kris Stacy-Bates, Iowa State
University.
The ILA/ACRL Fall
Program Committee for the ILA Conference in Davenport has also been at work
planning a program for us that speaks of information literacy issues. Stephen Dew, University of Iowa, is the
chair of this committee. If he calls on
you for help, please seriously consider it.
And this is a natural
segue to a recurrent theme of many professional organizations. Just as ILA/ACRL needs the time and
expertise of people like Ed Goedeken, Jennifer Davis, and Stephen Dew, we need
the expertise of all of our members and potential members. Each one of you has talents that are very valuable
to all of us in ILA/ACRL. For those of
you who share your talents willingly and ably, thank you. For those of you who are considering
becoming involved, I strongly encourage you to “take the plunge.” You may need to sacrifice some time, but I have
experienced myself that the rewards are worth it, both personally and
professionally.
See you at St.
Ambrose on May 18th!
--Jane
Campagna, Scott Community College, President ILA/ACRL
ACRL 10th
National Conference, March 15-18, 2001 - Report
Reports on
"Crossing the Divide", the ACRL Conference in Denver on March 15-18,
2001. Attendance set a record with 3300
attendees. The conference was well
planned, with excellent speakers and programs.
See http://www.ala.org/acrl/conferenceupdate.html
for a wrap-up message. Planning has started for the next ACRL conference April
10-13, 2003, in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Keynote and featured
speakers:
Michael Hawley of the
MIT Media Laboratory (http://www.media.mit.edu/) described new and fun uses of technology and described
some of his projects with computers in underdeveloped countries. Fun facts: the Furbie has a $7 microchip
which is 4 times more powerful than what Apollo took into space, and 70% of the
Lego Mindstorm sets, new in 2000, were sold to adults.
Patricia Limerick,
University of Colorado, on the contributions of the American West to
America. Prof. Limerick gave an amusing
speech addressing what people think the west is and how it is important to our
understanding of ourselves.
Clifford Lynch,
Coalition of Networked Information, mentioned some current topics and invited
questions and comments, resulting in a wide-ranging discussion on fair-use, new
technologies for libraries, authentication, library profession, next wave of
technology, crackdowns on access from corporate, governmental, judicial and
legislative bodies, and the future of "brick and mortar" libraries.
Claire Gaudiani,
President of Connecticut College, led the way to one of the first
"merged" environments of information technology and the library. She talked about her three most important
values in higher education - curiosity, generosity and integrity.
--Lisa Martincik and Ann Ford, University of Iowa
One of the dominant
themes of the 10th ACRL National Conference in Denver, CO, was information
literacy. Literally dozens of presentations covered the efforts of academic
librarians to initiate information literacy programs. Below is a sampling from the programs.
A common theme in
these programs was the need for assessment. Instruction librarians at James
Madison University <http://library.jmu.edu/instruction/>
described "An Online Competency Test for Information Literacy."
Entering students at JMU face a battery of competency-based general education
requirements they must complete by the end of their first year in order to
register for classes the following year. The instruction librarians have
developed an Information-Seeking Skills Test, based upon a Web-based
instruction program in information literacy. The online test is administered in
a secure testing lab on a walk-in basis. Remedial instruction is provided to
those students who fail the exam. The JMU librarians shared highlights from the
first round of testing (1999-2000 academic year).
An issue much on the
minds of library collection managers is the continuing crisis in academic
publishing, and cooperative alternatives to high-priced commercial publishers.
The session "Creating Change: Scholarly Communications in Transition"
brought together a panel of speakers to address the future of scholarly
publishing. Henry Hagedorn, Professor of Entomology at the University of
Arizona, described his decision to quit the editorial board of a commercial
journal and start his own "renegade" electronic journal, the Journal
of Insect Science <http://www.insectscience.org/>.
Ken Frazier, Director
of Libraries, University of Wisconsin, Madison, considered "The
Librarians' Dilemma: Contemplating the Costs of the 'Big Deal'" http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march01/frazier/03frazier.html>.
He urged collection managers not to give in to the convenience of
"bundled" subscriptions with big publishers that obligate the library
to subscribe to all of a company's journals.
Kristen Gerhard of
Iowa State University spoke about the Iowa Regent Universities and their
response to the crisis in academic publishing <http://www.lib.iastate.edu/library/scholcomm/homepage.html>.
Rick Johnson,
enterprise coordinator for SPARC <http://www.arl.org/sparc/>,
spoke of the need to "re-intermediate" the academic librarian in the
information flow from author to user.
Heather Joseph of
BioOne <http://www.BioOne.org/>, a
nonprofit electronic journal publisher in the biological sciences, described
their efforts in assisting scholarly societies which lack the means of
publishing electronically on their own.
Lynne Bradley of the
ALA Washington office <http://www.ala.org/washoff/>
provided a legislative update to apprise ACRL members of recent government
actions likely to affect libraries. She believes Congress will revisit the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) this session, with the aim of
addressing distance education, which was not seriously considered in the
current law. She described ALA's continuing efforts to educate members on the
significance of UCITA, the uniform commercial code addressing information
technology that is being considered on a state-by-state basis in local
legislatures. Government information policy in the Bush administration is still
somewhat unknown; the appointment of a new Public Printer should signal the
administration's intentions regarding the Government Printing Office and the
future of the Federal Depository Library Program.
"Digital
Reference: The Future of Academic Reference?" brought together a panel of
speakers to consider the future of reference in the Internet world. David
Lankes of the Information Institute of Syracuse <http://iis.syr.edu/> started things off with
an assessment of the current state of affairs in digital reference. He cited
the need to begin moving from a digital reference model reliant upon lists of
links (the portal model) to real-time, human-intermediated services. This new
model would emphasize the expertise of individuals, whether librarians, faculty
members, or commercial "AskA" experts. He proposed a standardized
electronic format for the interchange of reference questions, the Question
Interchange Format (QuIP), as a means of transporting reference requests across
Internet services. Linda White of
Library of Congress described an existing digital reference service of
international scope, the Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS) <http://www.loc.gov/rr/digiref/>.
With sixty-seven member libraries located in Europe, North America, Asia and
Australia, the CDRS aspires to be a 24/7 operation--with a reference desk
always open somewhere on the planet. White reiterated Lankes's call for a
standard interchange format, as CDRS seeks to develop "Request
Manager" software to automatically route queries to libraries with particular
expertise. The Library of Congress and OCLC are collaborating on CDRS to
advance the cause of digital reference.
-- Steve Ostrem , University of Iowa
All academic
libraries in the Quad City area (St. Ambrose, Kaplan, Marycrest, Muscatine C C,
Clinton C C, and Scott C C) have joined other area libraries in establishing
the Quad-City Cooperative E-Library. The E-Library is a subscription to
netLibrary for a 1,149 electronic book collection.
Quest College, Davenport,
IA, has undergone a name change to Kaplan College. Kaplan, Inc., purchased the Quest Educational Corp. in July of
2000. The change from Quest College to Kaplan College became official in
January 2001.
Kaplan College
received approval from NCA to offer Bachelor of Science Degrees in Applied
Management Concentration and Information Technology Management Concentration.
The library was reviewed by the accrediting
--Marlene
Metzgar, Kaplan College
The St. Ambrose
University Educational Policy Committee has approved a one-hour credit
Information Literacy class as part of the new General Education Requirements
for all undergraduates. Librarians are developing the curriculum for this
course, which will be offered beginning Fall 2001.
The St. Ambrose
University O'Keefe Library's collection of books and materials on Ireland, the
Irish peoples and the Irish in America has been significantly enhanced by the
generous gift of Dr. Lawrence J. McCaffrey, class of '49. Dr. McCaffrey is a
noted historian and co-founder of The American Conference for Irish Studies.
Information on the collection can be found at: http://library.sau.edu/irish/indexA.htm.
John Pollitz was
elected to the Board of Directors of IREN this spring for a three-year term.
Staff changes: Barb Kuttler was hired as a reference
librarian this fall. She has a B.A. in Music from Marycrest College, and an
M.A. in Library and Information Science from the University of Iowa. Prior to
coming to St. Ambrose University, Barb has worked at Black Hawk College, Quad
City public libraries, and the Department of the Navy Library in Yokosuka,
Japan.
--John Pollitz, St. Ambrose University
Community College
News
Lisa Stock became
Director of Learning Resources at the DMACC, Ankeny campus library, in
September 2000. Previously, Lisa was a Public Services Librarian at Drake for
twelve years. She graduated from
University of Iowa School of Library and Information Science and her
undergraduate degree is from Iowa State University.
Tom Hannifan, MCC
Library Director, will retire at the end of June 2001. He has planned a number of things including
“travel, Habitat for Humanity, a local homeless shelter (not as a guest ),
becoming certified as a field investigator for the State Archaeologist,
continuing work with a group that is restoring an 1848 grist mill as an
educational and tourist attraction, playing my trombone, and running for the Board
of Directors for ILA. I threaten my
wife that I will learn to play the bagpipes.
She is beginning to take it seriously.”
Ellen Van Waart
joined the IWCC, Council Bluffs campus library, as Director of Learning Resources,
in December 2000. She previously worked
at the Nebraska Library Commission for nine years as Continuing Education
Coordinator.
Scott Community
College
There have been
several changes in staff at the Scott Community Library. Linda Dykstra left SCC last fall to join her
husband in Casper, Wyoming. Linda Nelson was promoted to full time Library
Assistant last October. Carol Brade was hired in January to complete SCC's
library staff.
Iowa Community
Colleges Internet Consortium
The following seven
community colleges have joined forces to provide distance education through the
Iowa Community Colleges Internet Consortium (ICCIC):
The librarians from
these community colleges have met several times during the past 18 months to develop
a website for library services for ICCIC students and faculty. Those library services are available at www.iowacconline.org/Libraries/ICCOClibhome.htm Ann Coulter from Southwestern Community
College is the webmaster.
Hawkeye
Community College
HCC and Upper Iowa
University have created a partnership in which Upper Iowa's Waterloo Center is
now located on HCC's campus. The HCC
library provides services for the Waterloo Center's staff, faculty and
students.
Kirkwood Community
College
The KCC Library will be installing a new library computer system this summer.
Endeavor
Information Systems was chosen.
KCC's newest
part-time librarian is Jill Jack. Other part-time librarians are Annie Locher
and Nancy Sweet.
--Janet Dellinger, Hawkeye Community College:
News of the Iowa
Private Academic Libraries
The 2001 Iowa Private
Academic Librarians (IPAL) Annual Meeting will be in Des Moines on the Grand
View College Campus, Friday May 4 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The presenter
will be Dr. James Elmborg from the University of Iowa School of Library and
Information Science Department. He has previous experience at liberal arts
institutions and one of his areas of expertise is information literacy. The
title of his talk is "Information Literacy and the Liberal Arts: Revision
or Revolution."
During the discussion
sessions there will be an opportunity to hear about and discuss innovative ways
of teaching critical thinking skills and helping students develop behaviors
needed to become information literate. During the afternoon session the members
will be addressing issues concerning consortia projects.
Sharman Smith, Iowa
State Librarian, Dr. John Hartung, President of Iowa Association of
Independent Colleges and Universities (IAICU), and Dennis
Linderbaum, President
of the Iowa College Foundation, will be special guests at the Noon
luncheon.
--Sandra
Keist, Grandview College Staff
changes and professional openings: Retirements: Dick
Kolbet, Special Collections, and Marjorie Wilhite, Serials Acquisitions. Resignations: Melanie
Wilson, Nov 00 and Neville Prendergast, April 2001, both from Hardin Library
for the Health Sciences New professional staff:
David McCartney, University Archivist, started January 2001 and Nancy Kraft will
start April 16 as Preservation Librarian. Professional openings
(watch http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/lib/jobs.html): Head, Hardin Library
for Health Sciences Departmental
Information Specialist, Information Systems and Technology Instruction
Librarian, TWIST program Special Collections
Librarian Systems librarian
(interviews underway) University of
Northern Iowa, Rod Library, Staff changes and
professional openings (see http://www.library.uni.edu/) Dean of Library
Services Web Manager and
Instructional Design Librarian Iowa State University
Library ISU has a new look
for their library web page, and a new name.
Have a look "e-brary@Iowa State University" at http://www.lib.iastate.edu/ Staff changes: (see http://www.lib.iastate.edu/libinfo/reptempl/empl_pro.html for vacancies - None right now) Back to the
ILA/ACRL home
page.
News of the Iowa Public Academic Libraries
University of Iowa Libraries
Newsletter Committee:
Ann Ford, Chair, University of Iowa
Jan Dellinger, Hawkeye Community College
Sandra Keist, Grandview College
Marlene Metzgar, Kaplan College
Steve Ostrem, University of Iowa
Colleen Valente, University of Northern Iowa