ASERL Wins IMLS Grant with UK as Partner

ASERL has been awarded a $328K IMLS National Leadership Grants to support ongoing development of ASERL's Collaborative Federal Depositories Project. Here the description from the award announcement:

The Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL), in partnership with the University of Kentucky and the University of South Carolina, will create collaborative centers of excellence among federally designated regional depository libraries to improve access to federal government publications and create a model for improving depository library services and operations. Working within the current legal mandate and policies of the Federal Depository Library Program, ASERL and its partners will test a plan to create a comprehensive collection of tangible, legacy federal documents in two subject areas, with cataloging and provision of expert subject-based reference support services. The University of Kentucky will focus on Works Progress Administration documents; the University of South Carolina will address Department of Education documents. The project will document and test the feasibility of a model that could lead to the creation of subject-based centers of excellence among all depository libraries and seeks to provide workable solutions to address the increasing cost of managing, preserving, and providing access to large collections of federal government publications. This project will provide a model for the future development of shared current and digital federal depository collections and related services, and aims to influence the development of policies and workflows of shared legacy print archives of nongovernment material.

Details about the CFDP Project can be found via the ASERL website, www.aserl.org (click on the link in the listing on the left. Sandee McAninch will be spending about 15% of her time on this project as will other staff in the CTS division.

Kaleidoscope Features Student Research Using UK Archives

The latest issue of Kaleidoscope (UK’s Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship) includes a student paper titled “Alben W. Barkley: Harry S. Truman’s Unexpected Political Asset” by John Ghaelian. It’s a great example of how the archives contributes to undergraduate research and education. The Kaleidoscope has a website at http://www.uky.edu/Kaleidoscope/ but the most recent volume does not appear to be online.

ARL Research Library Issues Focuses on Liaison Librarians

No. 265, August 2009, of Research Libraries Issues from ARL is devoted to role of liaison librarians. This issue is very timely with our faculty series on the role of librarians in the 21st century. http://www.arl.org/resources/pubs/rli/archive/rli265.shtml

CRL Focus on Global Resources Newsletter

The fall 2009 issue of the CRL Global Resources newsletter focuses on “Preserving Electronic News.” See the full issue at http://www.crl.edu/focus

New Report with Advice for Libraries on Journals and Digitization

With journals -- including back issues -- widely available in digital form, many college and university libraries are weighing whether they need to devote extensive shelf space to print copies. A new report -- “What to Withdraw: Print Collections Management in the Wake of Digitization” -- offers advice on the issue, analyzing the qualities of various journals that may make many of them appropriate to remove from shelves without endangering access. The report is from Ithaka, a research organization that focuses on technology and scholarly communication.