Category Archives: Resources

General, Resources, Services

Involved in cataloging or tech services? Share your ideas!

 

ALCTS Exchange

 

The ALCTS Exchange is extending its call for virtual poster presentations until March 17, 2017

The ALCTS Exchange virtual poster session offers the opportunity to share and promote work, research, and ideas across the ALCTS Exchange’s topical themes: new roles and workflows, creative problem solving, creating connections with user communities, and building skills to prepare for the future. We are especially interested in highlighting work that addresses the intersections of collections and technical services and diversity and inclusion.

The ALCTS Exchange will include two poster presentation opportunities:

  • A poster lightning round session on May 11, wherein each presenter will have five minutes to speak, followed by a Q&A discussion forum.
  • A virtual poster collection and discussion forum available to Exchange registrants. File formats are not limited to static documents and presenters are encouraged submit videos and other types of media files. If you would like to submit a recorded video for the virtual poster collection, the ALCTS office will be available to assist with your recording.

Continue reading Involved in cataloging or tech services? Share your ideas! →

Communication, Resources

Why is federal government data disappearing?

Censored section of Green Illusions by Ozzie Zehner

Your library probably uses federal data to help your patrons with their research and information needs. You definitely have access to an enormous amount of information, generally presumed to be reliable and valid, produced by an enormous range of federal agencies – all paid for with tax dollars and belonging to all of us.

Libraries of all types have relied on being able to provide this information to our communities – health information from the CDC, planning visits to our national parks, NASA ideas on space travel, photos from your state in the National Archives, knowing what shots to get before traveling from the Dept of Health and Human Services, information on worker’s rights from the Dept of Labor, studies done on pesticides and industrial waste in the water and soil in your neighborhood from the EPA, plans for bridge safety from the Dept of Transportation, George Carlin’s FBI file, raising chickens in your back yard from the Dept of Agriculture, and so much more.

But some of this information is disappearing, and for libraries – committed as a profession to providing and sharing information freely – this is a serious problem. In addition to the ethical challenges of hiding and censoring information, this reduces the material we can share with our communities – always a problem for us!! Continue reading Why is federal government data disappearing? →

Academic, Resources

Working with license agreements? Share your ideas!

Questionmark copyright
CMLE members – we are passing on a survey for you to complete. Being part of a profession has many rewards, and also some responsibilities; and that includes sharing your ideas with your professional colleagues! So if you have info to share – here is your chance!

Dear Colleagues:

For a session at the upcoming Electronic Resources & Libraries Conference in April, we are asking for your assistance to provide direction for our discussion about how license agreements are managed and retained in libraries. Please take a few minutes to complete a brief survey (no more than 10 minutes) to share your views and experiences with license agreements.

Please click on the link below to access the survey.  We need a response by March 6.

https://stedwards.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_29utjTCpVkXrcWN

For more information about the ER&L conference, visit the conference website: http://www.electroniclibrarian.org/

Thank you for your time.

Susan & Betsy

Susan Davis                                                     Betsy Appleton

Interim Head of Acquisitions                       Electronic Resources Librarian

University at Buffalo (SUNY)                       St. Edward’s University

134 Lockwood Library                                   Munday Library

Buffalo, NY 14260-2210                                Austin, TX  78704

716-645-2784                                                  512-233-1679

716-645-5955 fax                                          eappleto@stedwards.edu

unlsdb@buffalo.edu

Communication, Resources

MANGO/NMRT Professional Development Grant

Apply Now for the 2017 MANGO/NMRT Professional Development Grant

Deadline: Tuesday, March 7, 2016 at 5 pm (EST)

We are excited to announce that members of ALA’s New Members Round Table (NMRT) can apply to receive a $1000 grant, which will assist with expenses to attend the ALA Annual Conference, June 22 – June 27, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. This award is generously sponsored by MANGO Languages.

You must be a current member of NMRT in order to apply. To join NMRT, visit the ALA website and follow the “Join ALA” link to add NMRT to your ALA membership, it is well worth the low cost!  Successful applicants will show their attendance at ALA will impact their home institution, NMRT or another ALA organization, and their personal professional development.

Click Here to go to the application.

Questions? Please contact Katy Holder, Chair of the NMRT Professional Development Grant Committee, at holderk4@winthrop.edu.

Academic, Resources

Western Sydney University and ProQuest team up for free digital textbooks

Digital textbooks can encourage learning

Textbooks have long been a source of financial strain on college students, and can sometimes interfere with the accessibility of higher education as a whole.

To try and help with this issue, Western Sydney University and ProQuest teamed up to provide free digital textbooks to incoming university students through the University’s library. This article from No Shelf Required includes statements from both the University and ProQuest regarding the collaboration. Some of the goals for collaboration include making the cost of college more affordable, and textbooks more accessible, particularly to students with disabilities. The digital textbooks come from 60 academic publishers and can be accessed by students via Ebook Central which is ProQuest’s ebook platform. Continue reading Western Sydney University and ProQuest team up for free digital textbooks →