Friday, March 18, 2005
This week's edition of From the Desk Of is a concise one. There will be plenty of news in the weeks ahead as we prepare for the upcoming Executive Board meeting (April 8-9, held here in Chicago), and of course for the annual meeting in San Antonio July 16-20.
I will bring you news of the board meeting shortly after its conclusion, but major items on the agenda include development of a final Strategic Directions document to bring to membership in July, a planning discussion on the Education Summit (September 23-24), and recommendations from Executive Board subcommittees on issues relating to the migration of AALL materials from print to electronic format, the development of an AALLNET Editor, and the development of policies guiding the establishment of scholarships and grants.
Keep an eye out next week for Pam Reisinger's From the Desk Of communiqu. It will be filled with key information to help you make the most of your experience deep in the heart of Texas.
US Library Associations Set Up Library Disaster Relief Fund to Rebuild Libraries Destroyed by the Tsunami
As part of the international effort to help rebuild the libraries damaged or destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami in Asia and parts of Africa at the end of 2004, the US Library Associations Library Disaster Relief Fund has been created which will be able to accept tax-deductible donations.
The Library Disaster Relief Fund is a joint 501(c)(3) organization of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), the American Library Association (ALA), Association of Library and Information Science Educators (ALISE), Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Medical Library Association (MLA), and Special Libraries Association (SLA).
The Chinese American Library Association is the first contributor to the fund, donating $3,900 that has been collected by its members.
Particularly hard hit in the region were libraries in Sri Lanka and Indonesia. In Sri Lanka 177 school libraries, 53 public libraries and 68 libraries attached to religious institutions were damaged or destroyed. The National Library of Indonesia reports similar destruction in Aceh province, including the loss of 23 of the 72 staff at the Aceh Provincial Library.
The "Library Disaster Relief Fund" will be working with the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) to assist in the rebuilding process.
Checks should be made out to "Library Disaster Relief Fund" and sent to the Medical Library Association, c/o Carla J. Funk, 65 E. Wacker Pl., Ste. 1900, Chicago, IL 60601-7298.
Updates on the damage to libraries and the rebuilding efforts can be found at http://www.sla.org/content/resources/tsunamirelief.cfm and http://www.ala.org/ala/iro/iroactivities/tsunamirelief.htm
BIALL Conference, Harrogate, June 2005
The 36th Annual Study Conference and Exhibition of the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) will take place in Harrogate, Yorkshire from Friday June 10th through Sunday June 12th, 2005.
The theme of the conference is Gateways, Gatekeepers and Gatecrashers. The theme seeks to examine our combined roles as access to information facilitators and assessors of information quality alongside the challenges presented by our working relationships with other professionals. Full details will be available on the BIALL web site.
Also, BIALL has set up the Will Steiner Memorial Lecture in memory of the Librarian of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and the first editor of the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals.
The 2005 Will Steiner Memorial Lecture is titled European Civil Code Movement and the Common Frame of Reference of the EU and will take place on May 12 in London, 6:00 - 7:30 pm, followed by a reception. It will be given by Professor Hugh Beale, a Law Commissioner. Reservations are required. See the BIALL web site for details and a reservation form.
Of Note
First Monday is among the first of online peer-reviewed journals. As such, it routinely presents articles of keen interest to librarians and other information professionals. This month's edition carries an article of particular interest:
Economics of scientific and biomedical journals: Where do scholars stand in the debate of online journal pricing and site license ownership between libraries and publishers?
by Haekyung Jeon-Slaughter, Andrew C. Herkovic, and Michael A. Keller
Abstract:
The emergence of e-journals brought a great change in scholarly communication and in the behavior of scholars. However, the importance of scholars' behavior in the pricing of scientific journals has been largely ignored in the recent debate between libraries and publishers over site license practices and pricing schemes. Stanford's survey results indicate that sharply increasing costs are the main reason for individual subscription cancellation, driving users to rely on library or other institutional subscriptions. Libraries continue to be a vital information provider in the electronic era and their bargaining power in the market and the importance of roles in scholarly communication will be increased by branding and a strong relationship with users. Publishers' strategy for thriving in the electronic era is not to lose personal subscribers. Cooperation among the three sectors - scholars, libraries, and publishers - promises optimal results for each sector more than ever.
Also of note is Joan Lippincott's new book Net Generation Students & Libraries, as excerpted in EDUCAUSE review. Joan is a leading intellect in the library community and this publication is an excellent contribution to our literature. She says in her introduction, There is an apparent disconnect between the culture of library organizations and that of Net Gen students. The introduction describes those disconnects and offers advice on what academic libraries can do to bridge the divide.
Sincerely,
Susan E. Fox, CAE
Executive Director