Library News, Reviews, and Views
The Free Library of Philadelphia plans to merge with The Rosenbach Museum & Library, which houses a rare book, fine art, and archival materials collection built around the personal library of noted dealers Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach and his brother Philip. The institutions signed a letter of intent following board approval by each of the organizations on April 16, nearly a year after the Rosenbach first approached the Free Library with the idea.
Library book sales (and their descendants, such as Better World Books) are a great institution, but they’re not the only thing libraries can do—or help their patrons do—with obsolete titles besides the dumpster. Here are five creative reuses from real libraries.
Every April, the Toronto Public Library (TPL) runs its Keep Toronto Reading program, a month-long celebration which includes a big community read of a single title. But this is the first year patrons will be able to enter, and interact with, the world of the chosen book.
Credo and Libraries Thriving will release the full results of What Students Know about Information Literacy, a survey of primarily undergraduates, on April 11 at the Association of College and Research Libraries conference in Indianapolis. Among the key takeaways from the study for academic libraries is yet more confirmation that most students begin their research process on the open web, though library resources aren’t totally out of the running.
Ithaka’s strategic consulting and research service today released the results of the fifth of its periodic surveys of college and university faculty. For the first time, the survey was developed with the help of an advisory committee (which included librarians) and conducted online. Some 5,261 faculty members responded.
On April 3, North Carolina State University will officially dedicate the James B. Hunt Jr. Library. Named for North Carolina’s governor from 1977 to 1985 and 1993 to 2001, the library will also house the Institute for Emerging Issues, a public policy think tank established by Hunt.
More than 50 academic libraries, in collaboration with the Educopia Institute, founded the Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) this January. The project initially emerged from conversations between Purdue University, the University of North Texas, and Virginia Tech. LJ caught up with the co-authors of the LPC’s founding documents—Julie G. Speer, Associate Dean for Research and Informatics, University Libraries Virginia Tech, and Charles Watkinson, Director and Head of Purdue Libraries’ Scholarly Publishing Services and the Purdue University Press—to find out how the LPC is progressing.
The Free Library of Philadelphia will launch what it calls the first virtual library at a U.S. train station on April 2. Throughout National Library Month (April), commuters will be able to download books, music, and podcasts by scanning QR codes placed on 76 advertising boards on Philly’s Suburban Station platforms.
Damon E. Jaggars, Associate University Librarian for Collections & Services at the Columbia University Libraries, recently stepped down as editor of the Journal of Library Administration (JLA), along with the rest of the editorial board, because of disagreement with the publisher’s licensing terms. LJ caught up with him to hear his reasoning and plans for the future.
Editor-in-chief Damon Jaggars and the whole editorial board of the Journal of Library Administration resigned en masse on March 22 over the journal’s licensing terms.
INFOdocket by Gary Price
