New and Noteworthy

Citation

(1999), "New and Noteworthy", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 16 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.1999.23916hab.002

New and Noteworthy

LITAPresents LITA/Library Hi Tech Award to Ann Okerson

Ann S. Okerson, associate university librarian for Collections Development and Management at Yale University, has been named winner of the 1999 LITA/Library Hi Tech Award sponsored by MCB University Press and the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA), a division of the American Library Association.

The award recognizes outstanding achievement in communicating to educate practitioners within the library field in library and information technology. It comprises a $1,000 stipend and a certificate of merit.

According to Charles Husbands, chair of the LITA/Library Hi Tech Award Committee, "As electronic publishing has moved from being a mere phrase to a reality, Ms Okerson has played a key role in helping librarians to understand the nature of that reality and to adopt new ways of thinking as the resources libraries need to become increasingly available in electronic form. Implications for copyright, the various ways that publishers have packaged their offerings, the techniques of effective licensing ­ all these have been areas in which her alert interest and willingness to communicate have significantly benefited, in a timely way, the library and information technology professions".

Okerson's work in this area began while she served as Director of the Office of Scientific and Academic Publishing of the Association of Research Libraries from 1990 to 1995. She has been instrumental in establishing three vigorous Web sites that are among the best sources available to librarians for learning about the topics they treat. These include Liblicense, for information about licensing of digital information, Copyright Resources Online, an extensive annotated list of intellectual property resources, and New Jour, a bibliography of electronic journals and newsletters available on the Internet. New Jour is an outgrowth of the pioneering paper publication, Directory of Electronic Journals, Newsletters, and Academic Discussion Lists, for which Okerson also had editorial responsibility.

Okerson has authored numerous articles and conference presentations on topics dealing with electronic publishing. She is a graduate of Pacific Union College and holds a Master's degree in library science from the University of California, Berkeley.

The award was presented at the LITA president's program at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans.

LITA: c/o Jacqueline Mundell, (312) 280-4267, jmundell@ala.org

American Theological Library AssociationTo Digitize 50 Essential Religious, Theological Journals

The American Theological Library Association (ATLA), publisher of the ATLA Religion Database, has announced its newest initiative: ATLAS (ATLA Serials: Fifty Years of Fifty Journals).

Funded primarily by the Lilly Endowment with a three-year grant totaling $3,987,000, ATLAS is the Association's first major digital full-text journal project. According to an ATLA release, the project is designed to provide colleges, universities, theological schools, and individual scholars with the emerging electronic resources currently available in other disciplines, but currently lacking in the disciplines of theology.

Working with a variety of publishing partners (including Scholars Press and Sheffield Academic Press), scholarly societies (notably the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature), and an independent advisory board of scholars in theology and religion organized by the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion, ATLAS will digitize 50 essential journals in all theological disciplines. In addition, the journals will be linked to the comprehensive index of more than one million records in the ATLA Religion Database and made accessible for classroom teaching and scholarly research through the World Wide Web and on CD/DVD-ROM.

The American Theological Library Association is a professional association of librarians who specialize in theology and religious studies or who have an interest in the bibliography and literature of religion. It was founded in 1946 as a scholarly, ecumenical, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing and supporting theological librarianship and research in religion.

ATLA: c/o James Adair, jadair@shemesh.scholar.emory.edu, http://purl.org/CETR/ATLAS

NISOWelcomes International Publishers to Membership

The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and Kluwer Academic Publishers recently became voting members of NISO, the National Information Standards Organization.

The Institute for Scientific Information produces scholarly bibliographic databases for researchers, information specialists, and administrators in diverse fields: chemistry, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine and healthcare, engineering, social sciences, humanities, and business. The products are available in a variety of formats with emphasis on Web-based delivery. ISI is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and has offices worldwide. Helen Atkins, director, database development, has been named ISI's voting representative to NISO. Richard Newman, senior vice president, business planning, will serve as the alternative representative.

Kluwer Academic Publishers publishes in many academic and professional fields, producing English-language books, journals, loose-leaf publications, and electronic publications. Kluwer is a sector of the Wolters Kluwer publishing group and operates worldwide from offices in Dordrecht, Boston and London. Mike Casey, senior publisher and head of electronic publishing, will serve as Kluwer's NISO representative.

NISO: c/o Nancy Knight, 4733 Bethesda Avenue, Suite 300, Bethesda, Maryland 20814-5248; Tel: (301) 654-2512; Fax: (301) 654-1721; nknight@ niso.org

BrodartGives $15,000 to AASL's ICONnect Project

Brodart Co. has committed $15,000 over the next three years to sponsor AASL's ICONnect project. According to a Brodart release, the sponsor-ship, which comes from Brodart's Automation and Books Division, will help the ICONnect project meet its goal of helping school library media specialists, teachers, parents and students to learn the skills necessary to navigate on the information superhighway.

ICONnect is a technology initiative of the AASL, a division of American Library Association. The initiative's components include free online courses, covering such subjects as the basics of Internet navigation and the use of search engines; Curriculum Connections, offering curriculum-based strategies for integrating the Internet into the classroom; ICPrize, rewarding collaborative projects that use the Internet; KidsConnect, an online question-answering service for students in grades K-12; and Families Connect, providing families an opportunity to learn about the Internet together.

In addition to its monetary sponsorship, Brodart plans to assist with the promotion of the project and help expand the service to include more libaries.

Brodart Co.: 500 Arch Street, Williamsport, Pennsylvania 17705; Tel: (717) 326-2461; Fax: (800) 233-8467 #6640; http://www.ala.org/ICONN

Auto-GraphicsProvides 3,500 Texas School Libraries with Z39.50 Implementation

Auto-Graphics has upgraded the Texas Library Connection (TLC) to include Z39.50 capabilities. According to a company release, the new Z39.50 technology provides greater access to library resources for the over-3,500 school libraries in the state of Texas.

The company's Impact/ONLINE Web-based service combines the connectivity protocols of the World Wide Web with the Z39.50 interoperability standard. Impact/ONLINE provides a consolidated catalog of holdings by all participating libraries and manages the interlibrary loan process.

Administered by the Instructional Technology Division of the Texas Education Agency (TEA), TLC brings equal library services to every public school student in Texas.

With a $1.3 million authorization from the 73rd Texas State Legislature, TLC was launched in June 1995 with the awarding of a contract to Auto-Graphics to develop the library network using the Impact/ONLINE product family. Since the 1995 launch, TLC has used Impact/ONLINE to merge nearly 30 million items into over three million unique records that today comprise the TLC database. When duplicate titles result from merging library catalogs, one unique record is created and the location of all titles in the network is attached. Database records include books, audiotapes, videotapes, computer software, filmstrips, and other audiovisual materials.

Auto-Graphics: 3201 Tempe Avenue, Pomona, California 91768-3200; Tel: (909) 595-7204, (800) 776-6939; Fax: (909) 585-3506.

Center for Research LibrariesProposes Science Research Materials Project

An advisory committee for the Center for Research Libraries' (CRL) proposed Science Research Materials Project (SRMP) met in Chicago on April 14 at CRL's Annual Meeting and Symposium to discuss future actions to cite increasing challenges in accessing the full range of the world's scientific literature. The proposed project will look at the possibility of having a centralized collection of important scientific journals from outside North America at CRL.

Among the many topics discussed, the SRMP Advisory Committee talked about the value of the rarely used scientific material, the need to access and preserve it, who its potential users are, and the opportunities for collaboration. "The proposed Science Research Materials Project at CRL will provide another information world: the burgeoning world of science in developing nations where environmental studies and biodiversity, as examples, explore beyond western hegemony and certainty; where the 'publish or perish' stranglehold on knowledge production is less rigorous and directed", said Milton Wolf, CRL's senior vice president.

The SRMP Advisory Committee also made special note, according to a CRL release, of the role technology can play in fostering identification and access worldwide. Near-term efforts made by this committee will focus on identifying areas with critical needs and special opportunities. Patricia Yocum of the University of Michigan chairs the SRMP Advisory Committee. Other committee members include Ross Atkinson, Cornell University; Linda Musser, Penn State University; Lucy Rowland, University of Georgia; Susan Starr, University of California at San Diego; David Stern, Yale University; Gary Wiggins, Indiana University; and Kathleen Zar, University of Chicago. Bonita Perry of the Smithsonian Institute and Milton Wolf joined the Advisory Committee ex officio.

The Center for Research Libraries is an international, not-for-profit consortium of colleges, universities, and libraries that has made scholarly research resources available to users everywhere for 50 years.

Center for Research Libraries: c/o Kanika Sago, 6050 South Kenwood Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637-2804; sago@crimail.uchicago.edu