Library News, Reviews, and Views
The Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) released a study which found that in 2011 alone, the economic benefit from Texas public libraries totaled $2.407 billion. Collectively the libraries cost less than $0.545 billion, for a return on investment of $4.42 for each dollar spent.
Academic libraries may target their services to special communities within the institution, such as international students or first-year students, but first generation students are often overlooked. Some colleges and universities, and perhaps community colleges in particular, are magnets for first generation college students. At other institutions, perhaps the more elite ones, a student who is [...]
Dr. Martin Eve, a lecturer in English Literature at the University of Lincoln, recently proposed an open access archive for the humanities and social sciences on the PLOS model. LJ caught up with him to hear about his plans.
California State Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) introduced an amendment to the state constitution which would make it easier for local governments to raise funds for public libraries. The amendment would reduce the percentage of votes needed to pass such a measure from the two-thirds supermajority currently needed to 55 percent, though still more than a simple majority.
The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project’s Reading Habits in Different Communities report can help libraries in different kinds of communities better target their services.
We hear the word advocacy used a lot these days. And I have heard definitions of advocacy that are all over the board. Some people define advocacy as speaking up about the importance of a topic (such as libraries) to their friends, neighbors, and even strangers they may encounter. Others talk about advocacy as being a targeted public awareness effort. For purposes of this column, I will be referring to advocacy as a political process in which we speak to our elected officials about the importance of an issue and request specific action on their behalf such as increasing funding for the issue.
While the verdict in the Authors Guild v. HathiTrust case has been widely hailed for its impact on how libraries can handle digitization for search, the findings on access for the print-disabled may lead to even more profound changes in practice. On an Association of Research Libraries (ARL) webcast, Daniel F. Goldstein, counsel of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), said the decision could revolutionize university services to their blind and print disabled students.
The American Library Association (ALA) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) today teamed up with 17 other associations, retailers, and charities to launch a new coalition called the Owners’ Rights Initiative (ORI). ORI is an “informal alliance of stakeholders” that will defend the first sale doctrine, which allows libraries to lend books and other materials, as well as individual owners to resell them.
From September 19-23, over 800 librarians, library staff, library supporters, and community participants converged on Kansas City for the 2012 Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC). The theme was Gathering at the Waters: Celebrating Stories, Embracing Communities. The conference was sponsored by the five associations of ethnic librarians.
When a small college has to cut subscriptions because they’re too expensive, it’s not usually news. But when Jenica Rogers, library director at SUNY Potsdam, blogged about cancelling subscriptions to the American Chemical Society (ACS)’s journals because they alone would have used up 10 percent of the library’s acquisitions budget, it struck a chord with many.
INFOdocket by Gary Price
