A Newsletter of the I BRARY Oberlin College Library PERSPECTIVES NUMBER TWENTY FEBRUARY 1999 New Science Library To Open August 2001 The Board of Trustees recently approved design plans for construction of a $55 million science complex that will provide new and renovated facili- ties for biology, chemistry, neuroscience and physics. A 12,580 square foot sci- ence library, to be located on the ground floor of the center building of the new complex, will be a focal point of the project. According to Alison Ricker, Sci- ence Librarian and chair of the library design team, “planning the new science library has been an exciting and thor- oughly engaging process, full of per- plexing puzzles and animated discus- sions on what the library should offer to science scholars and the wider commu- Architectural Rendering of North View of the Chemistry nity in the first quarter of the 21st cen- and Science Library Building tury. Projecting the role of information technology in a library setting for the portant aspect of the project." dresses a preeminent concern for sup- next twenty-five years has been an im- The design for the new library ad- continued on page 7 Many New Databases Online Full Text Expands The Library has recently made are now accessible from any net- Hundreds of popular periodicals and available to the Oberlin College com- worked computer on campus that has core academic journals are now acces- munity a host of new databases along a Web browser; access is also avail- sible in electronic form through new with a new, easy-to-use, standard- able to off-campus users of APKNet. databases recently implemented by the ized search interface in World Wide The interface, which is powerful, Library. Power Pages, a product of Univer- Web format. The search interface flexible, and intuitive, is equally sity Microforms International, provides provides access to both the new data- suited to both novice and advanced on-line access to a substantial number bases and to others that have previ- users. By clicking on the “Check of articles indexed in Periodical Ab- ously been accessible through Availability” link once a citation has stracts, a general interest database cov- FirstSearch and the Library's CD- been identified, a user can determine ering over 1,800 popular magazines and ROM network. These changes are a whether or not Oberlin owns the jour- academic journals in all fields, and in result of the Library’s membership in nal being cited. Several of the data- ABI/Inform, a database for business in- OhioLINK, which is implementing a bases also provide direct electronic formation. Articles are available when restructured reference database envi- links to the full text of selected ar- the “Retrieve Full Text” option appears ronment. ticles, including journals in the on the citation screen. The new Web search interface continued on page 7 has many advantages. Its databases Page 2 Electronic Reserve Service Now Available During the Fall ‘98 semester the tem is particularly useful for large nipulate ERes materials presents an Library tested a full-text electronic classes where limited copies of mate- additional advantage for visually im- reserve system using materials from a rials are available. ERes is also appro- paired users, who can increase on- select group of Oberlin College priate for certain kinds of library ma- screen print size, and print out materi- courses. This new system, called ERes, terials, such as out- als using more will be expanded to a larger number of of-print publica- easily readable courses during the spring ‘99 semes- tions, or materials text. ter, and use is expected to increase in from Special Col- Making future years. lections which may materials avail- The primary advantage of ERes is be too valuable or able on ERes is improved access to reserve materials. fragile to make still a relatively ERes can be accessed 24 hours a day available in print labor-intensive from any computer on campus that form. process for library staff, so the system has World Wide Web capability. Stu- Although thus far ERes has been should be seen at this point as aug- dents can download ERes materials, used primarily for journal articles and menting traditional reserve services, print out copies for themselves, or book chapters, the ERes software has rather than replacing them. simply read them on-screen. These the capability for expanding the re- Faculty interested in making ma- options greatly expand the standard serve “concept” to include direct links terials available through ERes should reserve system which allows most to Web sites, loading of color images, contact Julie Ramos-Weir at 8285, materials to be checked out for only and the use of chat rooms. x260. three hours at a time. The ERes sys- The ability to download and ma- Library Joins Scholarly Approval Plan Publishing Initiative Changes The Oberlin College Library has and research libraries. Statistics show The Library recently decided to become a founding member of the that most libraries have not been able switch its approval plan vendor from Scholarly Publishing and Academic to increase their budgets at rates com- Blackwell North America to Yankee Resources Coalition (SPARC), a parable to their increasing materials Book Peddler. This change follows a newly formed alliance of libraries that costs, and as a result they are steadily decision by OhioLINK to award its is working to create increased compe- losing ground in the number of jour- new statewide approval plan to Yan- tition in scholarly journal publishing. nals and monographs they acquire.” kee. An initiative of the Association of In English’s view, “SPARC repre- In addition to the benefits that Research Libraries, SPARC partners sents the most positive initiative that approval plans provide (see Perspec- with non-commercial publishers, par- has yet come out of the library com- tives, February 1996), this new ar- ticularly scholarly associations, to es- munity to try to address this issue.” rangement will have a number of ad- tablish new high-quality journals that One of the first titles that will be vantages, including the possibility for are economical alternatives to expen- created as a result of SPARC is Or- collaborative collection development sive commercial titles. It’s hoped that ganic Chemistry Letters, a new jour- with other OhioLINK institutions, in- the competition created by the new nal of the American Chemical Soci- creased discounts on books, and faster titles will slow rates of journal cost ety. A print subscription will cost and more reliable delivery and ser- increases. Academic journal subscrip- about $2,300 a year, compared to vice. The change should be largely tion prices have for many years gone $8,000 for a subscription to Tetrahe- transparent to faculty who review up at annual rates in excess of 10 dron Letters, a comparable title that is books received on approval. percent, with titles in scientific and published by Elsevier Science. technical fields experiencing the high- Libraries that join SPARC pay an Library Perspectives, a newslet- est increases. annual membership fee, and they also ter for users and Friends of the According to Ray English, commit to subscribing to a number of Oberlin College Library, is is- Oberlin’s Director of Libraries, “the SPARC journals in order to insure the sued two times a year. Printed continuing increase in scholarly jour- viability of the new publications. from an endowed fund established nal prices represents an enormous by Benjamin A. and Emiko Custer. threat to the quality of all academic Editors: Ray English and Jessica Library Perspectives Page 3 Alumni Librarian Conference Scheduled Five Colleges for November Receive The first ever conference of Topics that will be explored at the Oberlin alumni librarians will be held conference include an opening ses- Information on campus on November 13-14, 1999. sion on how an Oberlin education Literacy Grant A committee headed by Molly shaped the careers of participants, a Raphael ‘67, Director of the District panel discussion on the importance of The Five Colleges of Ohio con- of Columbia Public Library, has been libraries to society, a presentation on sortium (Denison University, Kenyon developing the overall plan for the the Oberlin College Library today, College, Oberlin College, Ohio event. According to Raphael, “Oberlin and a panel discussion on the library Weslyan University, and The College has an exceptionally large number of of the future that emphasizes the im- of Wooster) has received a $50,000 alumni who work in libraries. I’ve portance of preserving humanistic AT&T Teaching and Technology been very impressed by the strong values while exploiting the power of Grant to develop a series of interac- expressions of interest in the confer- technology. tive, World Wide Web-based mod- ence that we’ve received so far.” The conference will be held on ules to improve the information lit- The primary purposes of the con- the same weekend as the Friends of eracy skills of students at the member ference are to foster networking among the Library dinner, and the speaker for colleges. The AT&T grant is being librarians who have attended Oberlin, that occasion will address a topic that awarded through the Foundation for to provide a forum for the exchange of complements the themes of the con- Independent Higher Education. ideas about selected issues and con- ference. The modules will be designed to cerns in librarianship, and to share Alumni who are interested in re- help students better understand the experiences of Oberlin alumni librar- ceiving further information about the library and electronic information en- ians in their chosen profession. conference should contact Sandy vironment; master basic tools for ac- The conference is intended for all Kolek, to ensure that they receive cessing information, such as electronic Oberlin alumni who work (or have mailings (e-mail: catalogs and databases; develop basic worked) in libraries as well as current [email protected]; phone: research strategies; and learn how to Oberlin students who may be consid- 440-775-8285, Ext.