New & Noteworthy

Citation

(2000), "New & Noteworthy", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 17 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2000.23917aab.002

New & Noteworthy

National Educational Association of Disabled StudentsPublishes Canadian Post-Secondary Access Report

The National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS) has just published: "Working towards a Coordinated National Approach to Services, Accommodations and Policies for Post-Secondary Students with Disabilities: Ensuring Access to Higher Education and Training" by Emer Killean and David Hubka.

For the past two years, NEADS has been engaged in a study of services, accommodations, and policies for students with disabilities at post-secondary institutions across Canada. The project involved an in-depth survey of students and service providers that focused on rating the availability and quality of 199 identified features of support for students with disabilities. The 349 students and 70 service providers who responded to the survey provided comments on the most and least successful features of services, accommodations, and policies that help to ensure accessibility at the post-secondary level.

The report details the findings of the survey, making recommendations for a national "best practices" approach to disability services, and contains a complete 160-page transcription of all open-ended responses.

Both the Executive Summary and the Conclusions/Recommendations sections of the study, plus ordering information, can be viewed online by going to http://www.indie.ca/neads.

National Educational Association of Disabled Students: c/o Jennison Asuncion, j_asunc@alcor.concordia.ca, http://www.indie.ca/neads

SPARCAwards Grants to Three Scientific Projects

Columbia University Press' Columbia Earthscape, the California Digital Library's eScholarship, and MIT's CogNet are the winners of SPARC's (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) Scientific Communities Initiative grant competition.

The Scientific Communities Initiative's goal is to stimulate and accelerate the creation of new nonprofit information communities for users in key fields of science, technology, or medicine. The awardees were chosen on the basis of an independent peer review; compatibility with SPARC values; feasibility of the business model and plan; and likelihood of becoming financially self-sustaining. The three selected projects will receive a total of $519,000 in start-up development funding.

Columbia Earthscape will include reports of research projects and conference proceedings as well as curricular materials for teaching about the earth. It will link to data sets and computer models and an online magazine, Earth Affairs, designed to educate undergraduate students, the general public, and policy-makers about current issues in earth interactions, domestic and international environmental policy, and other related topics.

eScholarship will support scholar-led innovations in scholarly communication by providing an infrastructure for experimentation. The first part includes an electronic print (e-print) database system; the second part includes a set of support services and community building activities for its use. Planned objectives include development and deployment of the eScholarship Archive; creation of new and linkage of existing digital journals; implementation and support services for community-led innovations; and integration of digital publishing and digital access.

MIT CogNet: The Internet Gateway to the Cognitive and Brain Sciences, will be managed within the MIT Press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the direction of Teresa Ehling, Manager of the Digital Projects Lab, The MIT Press. CogNet will be further developed in collaboration with the MIT Libraries and the CogNet Academic Council, with representatives from Dartmouth, Cornell, MIT, Columbia, UC San Diego, and the Salk Institute.

Contact information for the three projects is as follows:

1. 1.

   Columbia Earthscape/Kate Wittenberg: 212 666 1000 x7110 or kw49@columbia.edu;

2. 2.

   eScholarship/John Ober, California Digital Library: 510 987 0425 or john.ober@ucop.edu; and

3. 3.

   MIT CogNet/Teresa Ehling, MIT: 617 253 1672 or ehling@mitpress.mit.edu

SPARC: c/o Alison Buckholtz, Assistant Director, Communications, 21 Dupont Circle, Ste. 800, Washington, DC 20036; (202) 296-2296 #115, fax (202) 872-0884, alison@arl.org, http://www.arl.org/sparc

ARLAnnounces New SPEC Kits

Recently released from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Office of Leadership and Management Services (OLMS) are the results of three survey studies of ARL member libraries.

The individual titles are:

1. 1.

   SPEC Kit 246: Web Page Development and Management ­ The rapid growth in library Web-based collections and services parallels the success of the World Wide Web as a global information retrieval system. This SPEC Kit contains a 1996 and a 1998 survey and characterizes Web development, use, and activities in ARL libraries during this period of great change. Numerous Web development guidelines and policies are included to show why 83 percent of the 1998 respondents reported that their library collections and services were much better since the establishment of their Web sites. Yaping Peter Liu. June 1999. 93pp.

2. 2.

   SPEC Kit 247: Management of Library Security ­ Assuring the safety of people, library materials, physical facilities, and equipment remains a challenge in the large, unsupervised spaces of ARL libraries. Half of the survey respondents to this study voiced dissatisfaction with current security programs, although several identified effective practices and equipment. The checklist and sample documentation in this kit can assist library managers trying to improve security in their own buildings. George Soete, with the assistance of Glen Zimmerman. July 1999. 101 pp.

3. 3.

   SPEC Kit 249: Cataloging of Resources Digitized for Preservation ­ User demand for Web access, rapid changes in information technology, and the high costs of MARC cataloging are transforming the methods used to catalog digitized resources. Although MARC and AACR2 standards are generally followed, this kit displays the diversity of current practice among institutions, determined by local constraints, costs, and the ease of creation and maintenance. The selected institutional samples and reading resources are meant to guide catalogers and other librarians in an environment full of continuing technological developments, lacking clear standards. Jutta Reed-Scott. September 1999. 96 pp.

Designed to examine current research library practices and policies and serve as resource guides for libraries as they face ever-changing management problems, each SPEC Kit contains a summary analysis and suggestions, survey questions with tallies, pertinent documentation from participating libraries, and a reading list or references for further information.

Association of Research Libraries: c/o Bradley Houseton, Communications & Marketing Coordinator, 21 Dupont Circle # 800, Washington, DC 20036; (202) 296-2296, fax (202) 872-0884, pubs@arl.org, http://www.arl.org/pubscat/index.html

SOLINETAwarded Two Grants

SOLINET, a nonprofit membership organization founded in 1973 and now serving more than 815 libraries in ten Southeastern states and the Caribbean, has been awarded two grants recently. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has awarded SOLINET $152,034 to support the design, implementation, and evaluation of a continuing education institute to develop and enhance leadership among staff of statewide and multi-type library consortia.

The institute will teach librarians critical skills needed to provide leadership, guidance, planning, financial assistance, resource sharing, technical expertise, problem solving, and consulting to their constituent libraries and organizations. The institute will also serve as a model for other organizations, states, and regions.

The Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board (GHRAB) has awarded an $8,800 grant to SOLINET to facilitate a coordinated, collaborative planning effort to address the preservation and access needs of valuable Georgia library and archival resources, especially those that are not readily accessible due to condition, uniqueness, and/or location. The planning effort will focus on historical and cultural records in a variety of formats, including archives, manuscripts, books, audiotapes, videotapes, computer files, film, microreproductions, sound recordings, maps, photographs, scrapbooks, newspapers, and architectural records.

Organizations participating at this time are Georgia Association of Historians, Georgia Association of Museums and Galleries, Georgia Department of Archives and History, Georgia Department of Natural Resources-Historic Preservation Division, Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education, Georgia Genealogical Society, Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board, Georgia Humanities Council, Georgia Library Association, Georgia Library Media Association, Georgia Records Association, Society of Georgia Archivists, Office of the Secretary of State, SOLINET, Southeastern Regional Conservation Association, and University System of Georgia.

SOLINET: 1438 W. Peachtree St, NW, Ste. 200, Atlanta, GA 30309-2955; (404) 892-0943 or (800) 999-8558, fax (404) 892-7879, http://www.solinet.net.

OCLCExecutive Director Dillon to Step Down

Martin Dillon, executive director of the OCLC Institute since its founding in 1997, has announced that he will step down from his duties by June 30, 2000. After a replacement is found, he will continue to serve the Institute as a faculty member and consultant but will no longer be involved in day-to-day management.

In a statement from Dillon, he noted that over 2,000 people have participated in 80 seminars and programs at OCLC as well in 14 OCLC-affiliated network regions, Russia, Latvia, Iceland, the UK, Trinidad and Tobago, and other countries.

According to Jay Jordan, OCLC president and CEO, there will be an international search for Dillon's replacement.

Dillon is a graduate of Canisius College and holds a doctoral degree in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo. From 1969 to 1985, he served on the faculty of the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina, where he attained the rank of full professor. From 1985 to 1986, he was visiting distinguished scholar in the OCLC Office of Research and became director of the office in 1986. He was named director of OCLC's Library Resources Management Division in 1993.

OCLC: 6565 Frantz Rd, Dublin, OH 43017-3395; (614) 764-6000, fax (614) 764-6096, http://www.oclc.org