News from the Field Mary Ellen Davis

Univ. of Pittsburgh provides access Join the Friends of ACRL to Chinese journals The Friends of ACRL was created to provide The University of Pittsburgh (UP) Library Sys­ a means for ACRL to take bold steps above tem, through its East Asian Library, has es­ and beyond its traditional member programs tablished a demonstration Gateway Service and services. Rapidly changing demographic, Center for Chinese Academic Journal Publi­ economic, and technological are pre­ cations to deliver digital copies of Chinese senting academic libraries and librarians with language academic journal publications from new challenges and competition that demand six Chinese libraries via the Internet to schol­ immediate solutions. The Friends of ACRL is ars throughout the United States. a response to these “new challenges” and Through this center, patrons and scholars have renders a means for academic librarians to free and easy access to full-text Chinese language give additional support that will enhance and journal articles stored in Chinese libraries, not oth­ ensure the relevance of our profession. erwise available in the United States. By becoming a Friend of ACRL, your tax The project is funded by a National Lead­ deductible donation (to the extent allowed by ership Grant from the Federal Institute for law) will help supplement the funding of ini­ Museum and Library Services. A pilot study tiatives that will strengthen and assure the im­ was funded by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foun­ portance of our profession in this time of dra­ dation for International Scholarly Exchange. matic change. You can help open new worlds Research libraries in China partnering with to the academic librarian community and spe­ the UP in this consortium include Peking, cifically to MLS students, and entry-level and Tsinghua, Fudan, and Shanghai Jiaotong Uni­ minority academic librarians. You can enrich versities, the Chinese University of Hong our profession by supporting the development Kong, and the Academia Sinica of Taiwan. of cutting-edge seminars and workshops. You To request a copy of Chinese journal ar­ can promote excellence within our profession ticles or to learn about the service, visit http:// by supporting Best Practices in academic www.library.pitt.edu/gateway/. librarianship and libraries. You can support our global outreach to international academic Science acquires JAI Press/ librarians and libraries. Ablex To learn m ore ab o u t Friends of ACRL Elsevier Science Inc. and JAI Press/Ablex Pub­ and its funds, please check out the Web lishing have entered into an agreem ent w hereby JAI Press/ Ablex Publishing will be ac­ quired by Elsevier Science. The JAI/Ablex businesses include the JAI journals and serials and the Ablex Publishing journals and . Barbara Barrett, Global Publisher Social Sci­ ences at Elsevier Science said, “The com bination of JAI Press products and services with our journals and electronic services will create a unique integrated Kappa service to the social sciences and business and economics aughW communities.”

C&RL News ■ January 1999 / 5 RBMS preconference to explore "Border Crossings" in Montreal

The 40th annual ACRL Rare Books and Manu­ lections librarianship. David Walden (Canadian scripts Section (RBMS) Preconference will take Cultural Property Export Review Board) and place in Montreal, Québec, Canada from June Françoise Hebert (former executive director 21 through midday June 24,1999. McGill Uni­ of the Canadian Library Association) will de­ versity and tlie Canadian Centre for Architec­ liberate on aspects of intellectual property, and ture are co-hosts for the 1999 RBMS Precon­ Cathy Henderson (University of Texas at Aus­ ference. This year the preconference will begin tin) and Tom Hickerson (Cornell University) on a Monday and end on Thursday, giving will address recent developments in the area participants planning to attend the ALA An­ of special collections public services. nual Conference in New Orleans a full day for The preconference theme will be comple­ travel on Friday, June 25. mented with an ample number of short pa­ The theme of the 1999 preconference is pers, seminar presentations, tours, workshops, “Border Crossings: Exploring New Territories and receptions. for Special Collections.” In keeping with the Three workshops, scheduled for Monday, Montreal location (the first preconference site July 21, include a day-long workshop on digi­ outside the United States in nearly a decade), tizing special materials and two half-day work­ the preconference will examine developments shops, one on the description of graphic ma­ in North American special collections in a terials and the other on basic techniques for larger, international context. installing exhibits. A fourth workshop, on cata­ The theme encompasses a variety of meta­ loging rare serials, will be offered on Thurs­ phorical “border crossings” for special collec­ day afternoon after the conclusion of the tions: changing roles for special collections li­ preconference. braries and their staff in the digital environ­ Montreal is among the most charming of ment, problems and issues with intellectual North American cities, with its 18th-century property in the international and digital con­ stone architecture and the strong French in­ texts, and developing new constitutencies of fluence on every aspect of its culture. It is lo­ users and public service strategies for special cated only a few hours' drive or a short flight collections materials. away from the major urban areas in the north­ Jean-Claude Guédon, professor of Com­ eastern United States. parative Literature at the University of Montreal Registration and other information will soon and author of Lα Plαnète Cyber (1996) will be available at the RBMS Web site (http:// deliver the opening address. Brian Schottlander www.princeton.edu/~ferguson/rbms.html) or (California Digital Library) and Howard Besser contact Bradley Westbrook, Mandeville Spe­ (UC Berkeley) will discuss aspects of the con­ cial Collections Library, UCSD, La Jolla, CA vergence of digital technology and special col­ 92093; e-mail: [email protected]. page at http://www.ala.org/acrl/friends. LSU athletics raise money for html. libraries Louisiana State University’s (LSU) second an­ NISO standards and technical nual “Stampede to the Stadium” run, held on reports available online the morning of the first 1998 home football The National Information Standards Organiza­ game, raised $22,000 with $11,000 for LSU tion (NISO) has made its standards and tech­ Libraries and the remainder to other academic nical reports available online on the Web at projects connected with athletics. A new “Ti­ http://www.niso.org. The online availability of gers Rock N Roar” benefit concert, a project NISO information is the result of an online of an LSU marketing class, generated another delivery and copyright license agreement with $4,000 for the libraries, and two corporate CSSinfo, of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Under the projects featuring BellSouth and Burger King agreement, CSSinfo will provide the electronic added another $5,000 to the library. The gateway to the NISO Web site to search, or­ $20,000 will be used to purchase computer der, and download NISO documents. workstations for the main library.

6 / C&RL News ■ January 7999 John Updike was the featured speaker at a November Celebration of Literary Biography in Columbia, South Carolina, sponsored by the University of South Carolina's Thomas Cooper Library, Gale Research, the university provost's office, Columbia publisher Bruccoli- Clark-Layman, and other university departments. Updike was presented with the Thomas Cooper Medal for Distinction in the Arts and Sciences from the library's support group, The Thomas Cooper Society. The celebration also marked the publication of the 200th volume of the Dictionary o f Literary Biograrphy, edited in Columbia and published by Gale Research, and introduced the Cooper Library's project to develop an American Literary Biography Depository.

Founder/editor of science journal of Arizona professor is staking a considerable breaks with publisher amount of his own money on independently Biologist Michael Rosenzweig Ls abandoning the launching a new journal focusing on evolution thriving scholarly journal he founded 12 years and ecology. Evolutionαiy Ecology Research (EER), ago because he believes the publisher has made the comparatively low-priced alternative to his it so expensive that many libraries and colleagues original project, begins publication this month. no longer can afford it. He says price increases Rosenzweig has pledged to base the journals price on his journal averaged almost 19% annually and on the actual production costs, which he projects harmed the scientific community, the same group will be substantially less than the commercial that supplies articles to the journal for free. With publisher’s prices. EER will be offered to libraries the endorsement of SPARC (Scholarly Publishing in 1999 for $290, with Internet access available for & Academic Resources Coalition), the University an additional $15. ■

C&RL News ■ January 1999 / 7 8 1 C&RL News ■ January 1999