New & Noteworthy

Citation

Johnson, D. (2000), "New & Noteworthy", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 17 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2000.23917cab.002

New & Noteworthy

ingentaPurchases UnCover; Shaw Joins ingenta Board

Under the terms of an agreement announced at the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Convention in San Antonio, Texas, ingenta has purchased 100 percent of UnCover's issued stock, and Ward Shaw, chair of UnCover, will join the board of ingenta. In addition, ingenta announced new online services for the US research community including its new EasyLink service and seamless full-text linking from MEDLINE.

The merger gives one million librarians and researchers using UnCover's free table of contents database each month access to the full text of 750,000 articles from over 2,300 journals within ingenta's access-controlled article delivery system. Articles are available for free to existing subscribers of the e-journal, or on a pay-per-view basis where publishers permit, and users will be able to choose between paper and electronic delivery.

ingenta users will be able to search UnCover's database of over eight million article citations from 18,000 titles, linked to full text in ingentaJournals, the company's electronic publishing platform.

EasyLink allows librarians to create title-level links from their library Web pages to the online journal. ingenta's new MEDLINE offering gives researchers access to MEDLINE with links to full-text articles available for free to existing subscribers or for purchase where publishers permit. The MEDLINE database covers international literature pertaining to all aspects of clinical medicine as well as related biomedical research.

Established in September 1998, ingenta is a provider of Internet services for researchers and publishers. The company was formed through a public/private partnership with the University of Bath to provide electronic distribution for publishers of scholarly content. ingenta has offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Oxford and Bath, UK.

Established in 1988 as a spin-off from the Colorado-based CARL library network, UnCover produces and makes available on the Internet tables of contents from over 18,000 journal titles and allows users to search by keyword, title, issue, or author to identify articles. Its agreements with over 2,000 publishers allow users to order paper copies of articles; fees include royalties to the recognized copyright holders, including authors who are enrolled in the Publication Rights Clearinghouse through the National Writers Union (http://www.nwu.org).

ingenta: c/o Jacqui Darling, Marenghi & Associates, (781) 239-0057; jdarling@marenghi.com

Sagebrush and WinnebagoCreate $75 Million K-12 Provider

Sagebrush Corporation and Winnebago Software Company, two providers of K-12 information solutions, have completed a merger of their privately held firms.

Effective from 14 January, the combined company will operate as Sagebrush Corporation, with headquarters in Burnsville, Minnesota. With about 600 employees and annual revenues exceeding $75 million, Sagebrush Corporation will be the largest firm dedicated to the market for K-12 information solutions ­ a category that includes library automation systems, quality-bound books, cataloging services, Internet solutions, and other educational resources.

According to Jay Stead, president and CEO of the combined firm:

• •

  Sagebrush Corporation will continue to offer all of the products that were sold separately in the library automation market by Winnebago and Sagebrush, and each group of sales reps will continue selling the products it has been selling. The Winnebago Spectrum product and Sagebrush's Athena product will continue to be sold, and prior-generation Winnebago and Sagebrush products will continue to be fully supported.

• •

  The Sagebrush and Winnebago workforces are being kept virtually intact, though "a small number of jobs in each company," the number not specified in the release, have been eliminated due to restructuring.

• •

  The company plans to keep all Sagebrush and Winnebago locations. Sagebrush locations are in Burnsville, Minnesota; Austin, Texas; Topeka, Kansas; and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Winnnebago locations are in Caledonia, Minnesota, and Onalaska (LaCrosse), Wisconsin.

• •

  All contracts with partners and suppliers will continue to be honored.

Winnebago Software founder and CEO Jeb Griffith said he will leave the company following the merger to pursue other professional and personal interests.

Sagebrush Corporation: c/o Eleanor Henderson, Burnsville, Minnesota; (512) 342-2850; ehenderson@sagebrush-corp.com

Winnebago Software: c/o Kathy Van Kirk, Onalaska, Wisconsin; (608) 779-4577; kvankirk@winnebago.com

Association of Research Libraries and SPARCLaunch Campaign to Create Change

A year-long campaign by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Office of Scholarly Communication and SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) intends to help faculty transform the system of scholarly communication. CREATE CHANGE, launched at the ALA Midwinter Convention in San Antonio, focuses on reaching faculty through contact with librarians. It will include a series of brochures, Web resources, advocacy tools, and a speakers' bureau.

According to a joint release, this initiative is being undertaken in response to the growing commercialization of scholarly research, a trend that has resulted in soaring journal prices and diminished access to research. This trend has paralleled the growing domination of commercial publishers in scholarly communication.

"Faculty play a critical leadership role in the effort to reclaim scholarship for the purpose of advancing knowledge," said Mary M. Case, Director, ARL Office of Scholarly Communication. "By becoming aware of how their work, intended to be shared with colleagues around the globe, is no longer affordable to many institutions, faculty can take significant steps toward changing the system."

"Scholarly communications is at a turning point," said Rick Johnson, SPARC Enterprise Director. "Communications and publishing technologies today offer scholars a historic opportunity to take back what is theirs, to build a system that responds to their needs rather than largely commercial interests."

A campaign brochure, CREATE CHANGE, is now available. Intended for distribution to faculty and researchers throughout academe, the brochure outlines key issues in scholarly communication; encourages faculty to take an active role; and offers specific steps to be taken to help create a new system of communication that is more responsive to the needs of scholars.

Printed copies of the brochure are available from the ARL Publications Distribution Center (pubs@arl.org or 301-362-8196) for 25 cents a copy (first 50 copies are free to ARL or SPARC members). The text may be downloaded off the ARL Web site.

ARL and SPARC: 21 Du Pont Circle, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20036; (202) 296-2296, fax (202) 872-0884, marycase@arl.org, rick@arl.org, http://www.arl.org/create/

The NationComplete Digital Archive Now Available

The Nation, America's oldest weekly journal of politics and culture, has announced plans to publish "The Digital Archive: 1865-Present," a fully searchable electronic version of the magazine's complete back file.

The collection includes every article, editorial, poem, and cultural review published since Volume I Number 1 on July 6, 1865. Original illustrations and advertisements are also included.

The archive is scheduled to be available in spring of 2000 and will be accessible, on a subscription basis, via the World Wide Web. Users will be able to view high-resolution images of the more than 200,000 original magazine pages. In addition, the full text of the entire collection will be searchable by word or phrase. A Web-enabled database application combined with Adobe's Acrobat Reader software will allow browsing by index, categories as well as advanced full-text searching restricted by date range, author, or subject.

Says The Nation's publisher and editorial director Victor Navasky, "By making available in a searchable electronic form materials which in many cases were ignored by the mainstream press at the time of their original publication, we hope to provide a unique window on the events and trends that have shaped the world in which we live."

The Nation: (212) 209-5400, http://www.thenation.com

Barrington Area LibraryBecomes First epixtech Customer

epixtech, inc., formerly Ameritech Library Services, has announced its first contract under its new name, with Barrington Area Library, Barrington, Illinois. Barrington purchased the Horizon system, the Resource Sharing System (RSS), WebPAC, and TeleCirc II.

According to a press release from epixtech, over 97 percent of Barrington's library district residents hold library cards. Horizon uses point-and-click navigation, pull-down menus, and online help screens. RSS and WebPAC will allow patrons to search the library catalog and place and track interlibrary loans from any personal computer. TeleCirc II will allow patrons to retrieve and update their circulation information with a touch-tone telephone.

Implementation will begin next summer, according to Barbara Sugden, executive director of Barrington Area Library.

The Barrington Public Library District encompasses a 72-square-mile area, making it the largest library district in Illinois. It serves residents of Barrington, North Barrington, South Barrington, Barrington Hills, Lake Barrington, Deer Park, Tower Lakes, a small section of Hoffman Estates, and some unincorporated areas.

epixtech http://www.epixtech.com was formerly Ameritech Library Services, a subsidiary of Ameritech, and became a private corporation in December 1999. It is headquartered in Provo, Utah, with offices in Evanston, Illinois; Waterloo, Ontario; and throughout Europe and the Pacific Rim. A new service by epixtech, Application Service Provider (ASP), uses secured connections over the Internet to deliver its automation software to libraries. The new service bundles Horizon software and system administration services. ASP is run from an Internet Data Center. The automation software is accessed through a Web browser. Library staff may profile and modify parameters based on the library's requirements.

Barrington Area Library: 505 N. Northwest Highway, Barrington, IL 60010-3399; (847) 382-1300; fax: (847) 382-1261, http://www.bal.alibrary.com

netLibraryLaunches Nationwide Public Library Program

In an effort to introduce electronic books to a nationwide audience, netLibrary will purchase and provide 150,000 e-books to the top 100 public libraries in the USA in the coming months. Participating public libraries will receive free collections of up to 1,500 e-books from leading publishers. The books will be accessible 24 hours a day.

Libraries will have access to their e-books for six months, after which they may choose to purchase all or a portion of the titles. In addition, they may choose other e-books from the general netLibrary e-book collection, which now stands at nearly 11,000 titles, according to a recent release.

This introductory program is netLibrary's first initiative focusing exclusively on public libraries. Since its founding in 1998, netLibrary has concentrated its institutional sales efforts on multi-member library consortia and academic libraries.

To receive an e-book collection, a public library must agree to purchase and integrate MARC for the 1,500 titles into its online patron access catalog, participate in a training session, and display point-of-use materials in its library locations. netLibrary promises close contact between account management staff and public librarians to ensure smooth integration of the e-book collection and to track usage patterns.

Also at ALA, netLibrary announced new e-book sales and distribution agreements with five leading libraries and library service organizations:

1. 1.

   Bibliographic Center for Research (BCR) ­ a nonprofit, multi-state library cooperative that serves more than 1,550 member libraries throughout Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming;

2. 2.

   MINITEX Library Information Network ­ a publicly supported network of all types of libraries in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, established in 1969 and located at the University of Minnesota;

3. 3.

   Wisconsin Library Services ­ a not-for-profit organization of 550 public, school, academic, and special libraries in Wisconsin;

4. 4.

   Nylink ­ a not-for-profit organization providing services to more than 7,000 libraries throughout New York State and beyond; and

5. 5.

   Cleveland Public Library ­ an urban library system, with 28 branches.

netLibrary: c/o David Melançon, 3080 Center Green Drive, Boulder, Colorado 80301; (303) 415-2548; fax (303) 415-0468; david@netLibrary.com

OCLCBoard to Study Strategic Directions and Governance

The OCLC Board of Trustees has retained the consulting firm of Arthur D. Little to conduct a study of OCLC's strategic directions and governance structure. The board has also appointed a special advisory council to help guide and direct the study.

"In the twenty-first century, OCLC's vision is to be the leading global library cooperative," said William Crowe, chair of the OCLC Board of Trustees, and Spencer librarian, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas. "We want to help libraries serve people by providing economical access to knowledge through innovation and collaboration. The study will help us determine how OCLC can best organize its governance to achieve this global vision."

OCLC's present governance structure was adopted in 1977. According to Crowe, "At that time, the question was how to extend membership in OCLC to libraries outside the state of Ohio. Today, the question is how to extend membership in OCLC on a global basis."

According to Crowe, the advisory council will help guide and direct Arthur D. Little in its study of strategic directions and governance. In the course of the study, which began in January, the consultants will hold meetings and interviews with the OCLC Board of Trustees, OCLC Users Council, Strategies Directions and Governance Advisory Council, OCLC-affiliated US regional networks, international distributors, OCLC participating libraries, and libraries that do not currently use OCLC services. The consultant will examine environmental factors likely to have an impact on OCLC in the future, including the economic environment for libraries; the rapid development of the World Wide Web, telecommunications and computers; and initiatives by commercial entities to provide information services directly to end-users. The consultant will identify possible roles for OCLC in the evolving global library and information infrastructure and recommend a governance structure appropriate to OCLC's public purpose. The Advisory Council will review and revise the consultant's recommendations and present them to the OCLC Board of Trustees for action at its November 2000 meeting. Any changes in the OCLC articles of incorporation and code of regulations that the board recommends as a result of the study will require ratification by the OCLC Users Council.

The Strategic Directions and Governance Advisory Council consists of leaders from the library and information community. Nancy Eaton, dean of university libraries, Pennsylvania State University, and member, OCLC Board of Trustees, is chair of the advisory council. Eaton has served on the OCLC Board of Trustees since 1987, and was board chair from 1993 to 1996.

Members of the Advisory Council are Larry Alford, senior associate university librarian, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and president-elect, OCLC Users Council; Min-min Chang, director, Library of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Christine Deschamps, president, International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, and member, OCLC Board of Trustees; Brian Follett, vice-chancellor, University of Warwick, UK; Maurice Glicksman, professor, Division of Engineering, Brown University, and member, OCLC Board of Trustees; Martin Gomez, director, Brooklyn Public Library, New York; Deanna Marcum, president, Council on Library and Information Resources; Kate Nevins, executive director, SOLINET, and chair, Regional OCLC Network Directors Advisory Committee; Sara Ann Parker, state librarian, Missouri State Library; Winston Tabb, associate librarian, Library of Congress; and Jonathan Zittrain, executive director, Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and lecturer, Harvard Law School.

Serving as ex officio members of the Advisory Council are Cees Datema, chair, Pica Foundation, and the following members of OCLC senior management: Jay Jordan, president and CEO; Jim Houfek, vice-president and general counsel; George Needham, vice-president, Member Services; and Phyllis Spies, vice-president, Worldwide Library Services.

Arthur D. Little was also the consulting firm that helped develop OCLC's present governance structure, which was adopted in 1977. That structure consists of general members, Users Council and Board of Trustees. General members are those libraries that contribute all their current Roman-alphabet cataloging to WorldCat, the OCLC Online Union Catalog. There are nearly 9,000 general members of OCLC. An additional 27,000 libraries use various OCLC services such as interlibrary loan, FirstSearch, and SiteSearch but do not contribute all their current Roman-alphabet cataloging to WorldCat and are classified as participants rather than members.

General members elect 60 delegates to the OCLC Users Council. Currently, the apportionment of delegates among networks and service centers is based on cataloging and interlibrary loan activity. The Users Council meets three times a year; its principal responsibilities are to elect six members of the OCLC Board of Trustees and to ratify changes in the articles of incorporation and code of regulations of OCLC.

The 15-member board has fiduciary and policy-setting responsibility for the corporation. Six trustees are elected by the Users Council, eight are elected by the board itself, and the president and chief executive officer of OCLC serves as a trustee by virtue of the office. Three of the eight trustees elected by the board must be members of the library profession.

OCLCBegins Web-ILL Project with Big 12 Plus

The Big 12 Plus Libraries and OCLC have agreed to begin a pilot project designed to test the utility of a library user-initiated, Web-based interlibrary loan (ILL) service in a large, multi-library consortium environment. The service will allow library users to search and view bibliographic records and request library materials directly via an easy-to-use Web interface. The system will integrate local online public access catalog information, local policies, and standards-based communications to eliminate the need for multiple ILL systems. The Web-based interface will also allow library users to search across other electronic resources that the Big 12 Plus will make available to its member libraries.

The Big 12 Plus comprise 23 research libraries at institutions located in ten states in the central and southwest USA. The consortium has operated an ILL program for its members since 1995 and is developing other programs related to resource sharing, scholarly communications, and continuing education. In the first stage of the pilot, eight Big 12 Plus libraries will participate. The pilot will use a modified version of resource-sharing software OCLC developed for the libraries of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) member universities and the Minnesota Library Information Network (MnLINK). The Big 12 Plus system will run on an "application server" located in Dublin, Ohio; the CIC and MnLINK systems use a distributed software/server model, operating from computers based in those organizations' networks.

The Big 12 Plus Libraries Consortium (http://www.big12pjlus.org/) comprises the following institutions: Baylor University, Brigham Young University, Colorado State University, Iowa State University, Kansas State University, Linda Hall Library, New Mexico State University, Oklahoma State University, Rice University, Southern Illinois University, Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University, University of Arkansas, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Houston, University of Kansas, University of Missouri at Columbia, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of New Mexico, University of Oklahoma, University of Texas at Austin, University of Utah, and Utah State University.

OCLC: 6565 Frantz Rd, Dublin, Ohio 43017-3395; (614) 764-6000; fax (614) 764-6096; http://www.oclc.org