ILA/ACRL Newsletter, vol. 13, no. 1, March 2003
Contents
President's Piece
It is rather daunting to sit down and write my first communiqué to you all. I am looking
forward to a wonderful year working with such talented people. I think that ILA/ACRL
really has something going for it that is not always reflected in similar organizations in
other states. We really have great participation from all types of academic librarians
throughout the state. I hope to promote that cooperation and will strive to enhance it.
We have some exciting Iowa events planned for our upcoming Spring Conference (see below)
and our program at the ILA Fall Conference. On the national scale, many academic
librarians from the state will be attending the national ACRL conference in April. I'm
sure that we will be coming back energized and enthused from having met with our
colleagues from across the country. Look for reports on events in future newsletters. Iowa
will be well represented at the national conference. Iowa librarians will be part of the
following programs in Charlotte:
I would like to thank everyone who ran for executive board positions and all who
volunteered to serve on committees. We had a great group of candidates! Congratulations to
Ellen Neuhaus, Vice-President/President-Elect, Claudia Frazer, Secretary/Treasurer, and
Steve Ostrem, Member-at-Large. Finally, my thanks to Rachel Crowley for her dedication
during the past year and the high leadership standards that she set. I will be counting on
her and others for guidance and good advice in the coming year.
Spring Conference 2003
The ILA/ACRL Spring Conference takes place Friday, May 2, 2003 at the University of
Dubuque. Mark your calendars for a thought-provoking meeting. The theme of the conference
is "Know Your Rights: The First Amendment and Academic Libraries". The keynote
speech will be given by Ralph Gregory Elliot, a partner in the law firm of Tyler, Cooper
& Alcorn which is based in Hartford, CT. Ralph Elliot, a graduate of Yale Law School
and Adjunct Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, is a speaker for the
Center for First Amendment Rights and has taught, written, and lectured extensively on
First Amendment issues.
Conference fees are $40.00 for ILA/ACRL members, $50.00 for non-members and $20.00 for
students. A pre-conference buffet dinner will take place Thursday evening at the Bricktown
brew pub in Dubuque. A trolley has been reserved to take participants on a tour of the
libraries at Clarke College, Loras College, and the University of Dubuque. The fee for the
pre-conference gala is $20.00. The deadline for registration is April 17, 2003, so don't
delay! Visit the ILA/ACRL website at http://www.iowaacrl.org/
for registration information.
Please plan on joining us for another excellent conference! For further information call
Jane Campagna at (563) 441-4152 or e-mail her at jcampagna@eicc.edu.
Scholarship Available for Spring Conference
The Awards Committee of ILA/ACRL announces the availability of a $100 scholarship to
attend the ILA/ACRL Spring Conference. The scholarship will cover the $40 registration fee
and up to $60 in travel, hotel and meal expenses.
Applicants must be paid members of ILA/ACRL, working full-time in an Iowa academic or
research library, and either:
a) be attending their first ILA/ACRL Spring Conference or
b) have worked in an Iowa library for fewer than three years.
Library science students may also apply for the scholarship.
Application forms are available at http://www.iowaacrl.org/conference/2003/scholarship.html.
The deadline for applying is April 18th.
Information Literacy Forum
Wondering about assessment? General Education requirements? Tutorials? To join the
conversation about information literacy, go to http://www.iowaacrl.org/il/forum.html.
Here you will find opportunities to participate in an online forum with colleagues around
the state. The Ad Hoc Information Literacy Committee has posed some questions and invites
responses from librarians involved in information literacy programs. We encourage you to
take a look at the ideas already posted by others and to post your ideas as well. You may
want to bookmark the URL and check back from time to time to see new ideas or to add your
own thoughts.
A Message from the Membership Committee
I do not know about you but I am really glad that payday is coming! I think I will find
those little bills that I pushed aside because they do not have due dates and make an
effort to pay them in March. Need an example? Remember that renewal notice for your ILA
and ILA/ACRL membership? Lets all of us who have procrastinated, find that notice and send
it in to the ILA Office. Remember to check off the ACRL box (it is free!). If you have
renewed and forgot to check off your ACRL box, call or e-mail Laurie Hews at the ILA
Office, (515) 273-5322, (800) 452-5507, or ialib@mcleodusa.net.
She will join you up.
Lost your form or wish to join the Association? Visit this web address: http://www.iowalibraryassociation.org/join_ila.htm.
There you will find a PDF form that you can use to join your state level professional
organization. While there you may want to consider filling out the volunteer form if you
are interested in serving your organization. Thank you for your time and above all your
membership.
Kathy A. Parsons
Chair, ILA/ACRL Membership Committee
Special Libraries Association Establishes Iowa Chapter
In October 2002 the Special Libraries Association board of directors granted the petition
of 25 Iowa members to establish an Iowa chapter. Susan Lerdal, Drake University Law
Library reference librarian, is serving as the first president of the chapter. Dru
Frykberg, librarian at the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State
University, is newsletter editor and public relations chair. The first annual meeting of
the SLA-Iowa Chapter will be in Cedar Rapids on May 9, 2003 at the History Center. For
more information, contact Sue Lerdal at susan.lerdal@drake.edu.
Community College News
The Community College Roundtable of ILA will meet April 4, 2003, at the State Library. The
program will include an update from Mary Wegner, State Librarian, reports on certification
plans, a discussion on library education and cooperation with the Library Service Areas,
and distance education issues.
The Iowa Community College Online Consortium is submitting an application for a Title III
grant that would among other things provide for a 3rd generation library information
system, specifically, Polaris, as well as e-books and databases.
DMACC
DMACC has implemented Web Access Management (WAM) software that makes it possible for
patrons to access all library resources remotely. WAM, which is a component of the
Innovative Interfaces system, allows authentication using patron names and library barcode
numbers. DMACC has also signed a license agreement for the netLibrary BCR Shared
Collection Set II.
Kirkwood Community College
Kirkwood Community College reports that one of its part-time librarians, Jill Jack, took a
full-time position at the History Center in Cedar Rapids. Nancy Pickering, director of the
Van Horne Public Library, was hired to fill the position.
Scott Community College
Jane Campagna, Associate Dean for Learning Resources, announces that the library received
$20,000 from the River Boat Development Authority in November 2002. She said that the
Scott Community College Library staff is grateful to RDA for the generous gift, which will
greatly enhance the Sciences and Applied Sciences portions of the library collection.
In addition, Jane announces that the Scott Community College Library Committee is
sponsoring Robert L. Frasier to present a program on copyright and intellectual property.
Mr. Frasier is currently an assistant professor, and information technology librarian at
Western Illinois University Library since 2000. He received a B.A. in political science
from Baylor University, a J.D. from Baylor University School of Law, and an M.A. from the
University of Arizona. He is a member of the University Professionals of Illinois task
force on intellectual property and distance education. The program will take place at
Scott Community College on March 20th beginning at 3:10 p.m.
Southeastern Community College
Southeastern Community College, the Keokuk Economic Development Group, and other area
business groups have received a grant from the Small Business Administration for the Great
River Regional Business Information Center which is now housed in the Fred Karre Memorial
Library at SCC's Keokuk Campus. The grant provided two computers with Internet access, a
scanner, printers, a TV/VCR and over 150 books on starting and growing a small business.
SCC's Small Business Development Center will provide counseling for people wanting to
start a business. The ribbon cutting was held February 27, 2003.
News of the Iowa Private Academic Libraries
Virtual reference is coming to Iowa private academic libraries. Six libraries from IPAL
have established a steering committee to explore the possibility of creating a
collaborative virtual reference service. Using the working name "VR-IPAL," the
committee is investigating vendors for virtual reference software, and setting up a
management structure and policy framework.
The group is collaborating in order to share both the cost and the time commitment. All
involved were interested in providing virtual reference, but could not find a way to do it
independently. We also believe that a group of similar campuses can create a service to
meet the needs of our students better than a large, multi-type collaboration.
The steering committee will report findings and recommendations to the IPAL membership at
the Spring 2003 meeting. It is chaired by Marcia Keyser of Drake University. Other members
are Kevin Engel (Grinnell College), Francis Acland, (Graceland University), Karen Lehman
(Wartburg College), Pam Rees (Grand View College), Jim Kennedy (Buena Vista University),
and Bruce Gilbert (Drake University).
Drake University
Cowles Library will be participating in LibQUAL+™, a national online survey designed
to assess library services. The LibQUAL+™ survey is part of a research and
development project sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries and funded by a
FIPSE grant. Over 300 academic libraries are participating this year. The project's goal
is to define and measure library service quality across institutions and to create useful
quality-assessment tools for libraries.
The LibQUAL+™ instrument measures library users' perceptions of their library's
service quality and identifies gaps between minimal, desired, and perceived levels of
service. Plans call for the LibQUAL+™ survey to be administered in March and April of
2003. Members of the Drake community will be asked to answer questions regarding their
perceptions of Cowles Library's services. The survey will be conducted online and will be
completely anonymous. Diane Collett, of the Cowles staff, is the coordinator for this
project.
The Martin Bucksbaum Distinguished Lectureship will host Michael Beschloss on April 15,
2003. Mr. Beschloss is an award-winning historian of the American Presidency and the
author of eight books. He is also a regular commentator on PBS's "NewsHour with Jim
Lehrer". His visit to campus will include some classroom time in the morning, an
afternoon informal conversation at Cowles Library, and the evening lecture at the Knapp
Center.
The university community will participate in an "All Drake Reads" which will
focus on p.38-67 of Mr. Beschloss' most recent book, The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman
and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941-1945. Copies of this book are available
at the Cowles and Law Libraries, and a copy of the selected reading is available on the
library e-reserves page. "All Drake Reads" is an activity being promoted by the
Drake University Libraries to encourage reading, and the Bucksbaum Lecture.
St. Ambrose University
John Pollitz, director of O'Keefe Library, will be part of a panel presentation at the
national ACRL Conference in Charlotte, NC, April 10-13. John, along with Jean Donham
(Cornell College), Jill Gremmels (Wartburg College), and Susan Vega García (Iowa State
University), will present a panel discussion of the information literacy initiative in
Iowa.
Mary Heinzman, Head of Reference at O'Keefe Library, will present a poster session at the
national ACRL Conference. Her poster session will focus on cooperative marketing
strategies for academic libraries.
O'Keefe Library, as part of the Quad Cities QuadLINC consortium, is currently negotiating
with Sirsi to become the new automation vendor for the shared online catalog. John Pollitz
and Jennifer Davis have served on the steering committee for this venture.
O'Keefe Library is currently hosting a photography exhibit titled "Daring To
Be", as part of the Women's History Month celebration. The exhibit is a study of
women leaders in the Yucatan of Mexico. The exhibit is supported by Humanities Iowa and
the Iowa Arts Council. It is the work of Dr. George Ann Huck and Dr. Jann Freed of Central
College. Dr. Freed will also present a lecture at the Library on Tuesday, March 18th about
the study.
The library recently established a circulating collection of entertainment DVDs for
students, faculty and staff to check out. Response has been tremendous, with the entire
collection checked out within the first eight hours. The checkout period is for three days
with a limit of 2 titles per checkout. Additional titles will be added on a regular basis.
O'Keefe Library recently purchased a CCTV color and black & white magnifier for use in
the library by those with limited vision. The magnifier will enlarge text and objects up
to 70x.
News of the Iowa Public Academic Libraries
Iowa State University
The ISU Library is introducing a digital reference service. During specified hours,
members of the ISU community will have the opportunity to engage in virtual (synchronous)
"chat" sessions with ISU reference librarians using the "Ask a
Librarian" service. Outside of these scheduled hours, users may select the e-mail
version. Beta testing has begun and will continue until Monday, March 24, after which the
service will be fully operational.
After much planning and hard work on the part of a library-wide team, the ISU Library's
customized implementation of the ARL Scholars Portal went live on Thursday, February 27,
2003. ISU's version of the portal has been named Find It. The Find It
link will appear in the e-Library header graphics, immediately following the library
catalog link.
Kathy Parsons has agreed to serve as the ISU Library's official representative to the
Central Iowa Library Service Area Alliance (CILSAA).
Transfer of a collection of approximately 4,000 videos from ISU's Instructional Technology
Center to the Library has been completed.
Professional Staff Changes
The ISU Library has completed its search for an Information Technology Officer. Fred
Gulden is the new IT Officer, effective March 1, 2003.
The ISU Library will begin interviewing candidates for the position of Head of
Preservation in early March. Although the active link has been removed from the ISU jobs
web site, the vacancy announcement can still be read at http://www.lib.iastate.edu/libinfo/reptempl/empl_023565.html.
University of Iowa
The UI Libraries began offering virtual reference to the UI community and the general
public in February. It uses LSSI's Virtual Reference Toolkit, locally branded as
"Live Reference". The hours of operation for this pilot project are 9 a.m. to 5
p.m., Monday-Friday, with plans to extend the service hours this summer by cooperating
with the University of Newcastle in Australia. University of Newcastle librarians will
answer questions after 5 p.m., while University of Iowa librarians will handle requests
from Australian users between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. For more information on Live Reference, or
to try it out, visit http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/liveref.html.
Main Library Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery now offers electronic delivery for some
interlibrary loans. Articles are made available in PDF format on a library server; the URL
for the server and a PIN number to access files is sent to patrons by e-mail. Files can be
read online, printed or downloaded. At this point over 160 UI faculty, students and staff
have taken advantage of this service.
The UI Libraries will host the annual North American Aleph Users Group (NAAUG) conference
the end of May and early June. Three hundred librarians and computer professionals will
join together to learn more about the library management software in use at Iowa,
Minnesota, Harvard, MIT, and many other campuses around the country. Formal and informal
discussions with colleagues and vendors will address some of the common concerns and some
of the unique solutions that are in place.
The Hardin Library for the Health Sciences has received a grant of more than $47,000
co-funded by the National Library of Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention to design the "Iowa Access for Public Health Information" website.
This site will help the state's local public health agencies prepare for public health
emergencies and find needed information quickly by gathering local and state public health
information together in one easy to use resource. Hardin Library director Jean Sayre said
the site will be designed and implemented in collaboration with the UI College of Public
Health, the Iowa Department of Public Health and the Iowa Association of Public Health
Agencies and will be unveiled in August 2003.
The Hardin Meta Directory of Internet Health Sources (Hardin MD) reached a milestone when
it registered 1.1 million visits for January 2003, a 450% increase from July 2002 when the
website received 244,372 visits. Visit Hardin MD at http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/hardin/md/.
More UI Libraries news is available at http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/news/.
Professional Staff Changes
Additions
Brett Cloyd, State, Foreign, & International Documents Librarian, effective 01/02/03
University of Northern Iowa
Rod Library staff are currently interviewing candidates for the position of Information
Technology Specialist (Desktop Environment), a Professional & Scientific position.
Natela Kuznetsova, deputy library director at Herzen State Pedagogical University in St.
Petersburg, Russia, visited Rod Library and UNI in February within the framework of an
ongoing exchange between the two institutions. She gave three interesting presentations on
libraries in Russia, and in particular on Herzen Library. A student from St. Petersburg,
currently on exchange at UNI, served as a very competent translator.
Four librarians from UNI will attend a conference, entitled "Evolution of University
Libraries: Past, Present, and Future," in December in St. Petersburg, Russia. Cynthia
Coulter, Lucille Lettow, Stan Lyle, and Gerry Peterson will give presentations on topics
ranging from children's literature collections, to digitizing archival materials, to
licensing electronic resources, to virtual reference services.
Newsletter Committee
Steve Ostrem (Chair), University of Iowa, 2004
Barbara Allen, University of Northern Iowa, 2004
Karen Dole, North Iowa Area Community College, 2004
Mary Heinzman, St. Ambrose University, 2004
Steve Johns, Iowa State University, 2004
Marcia Keyser, Drake University, 2004
Linda Nelson, Scott Community College, 2003
Arron Wings, Kirkwood Community College, 2003